《Battalion 1》
Battalion 1: Book 1: Chapter 1
Captain Corban Rhodes tightened his grip on his weapon and hunched a little lower behind a pile of gnarled debris, but it didn¡¯t offer enough protection.
Explosions and blasts of laser fire flickered through the darkness above him and behind his back.
Those lasers kept smashing the rubble mound against his back. The ground shook under his seat. The mountain of twisted metal and destroyed ship parts shuddered every few seconds.
Lieutenant Zack Turley leaned in close to Rhodes¡¯s ear and bellowed over the noise. No one could hear a thing without yelling. ¡°What do you want to do, Sir?! We can¡¯t stay here!¡±
Rhodes only nodded. He already knew that.
He sat up and adjusted the strap of his Jackhammer around his elbow to brace the weapon tighter into his shoulder. He had to straighten all his body armor and helmet before he showed his face in the open.
He already knew what he would see when he stuck his head over this rubble pile. He wasn¡¯t overly enthusiastic to see it again.
Dead bodies, the smoking wreckage of downed ships, and the twisted remains of buildings spread outward from his location as far as the eye could see¡ªexcept that he couldn¡¯t see it because it was nighttime.
Three moons hung low over the planet Luluna¡ªat least he thought that¡¯s what the planet was called. He couldn¡¯t be sure.
These Fringe planets all blended together after a while. He¡¯d fought on so many of them in his career. They all looked the same during a battle and he never got a chance to see the countryside in peacetime.
He took a deep breath, crammed his helmet onto his head, and sprang up from his hiding place.
He lunged for the top of the rubble mound, flattened himself on his stomach at the top, and aimed his Jackhammer outward to sweep the destroyed landscape.
He didn¡¯t open fire. That would only show the enemy where he was. He didn¡¯t want that. Darkness and silence gave him the best protection right now.
The minute he got into that position, he saw exactly what he knew he would see. He¡¯d seen exactly the same thing for days now. The landscape never changed.
Lasers snickered all over what was left of the dark city. They gave more light than the three moons.
Mid-sized Duster attack ships swooped low over the landscape and released breaker bombs, gravimetric fusion rockets, and Viper missiles on a massive horde of aliens surging closer across the wreckage piles.
The rockets and breaker explosions erupted out there in the darkness. They gave the only other light for Rhodes to see the enemy.
Not that it mattered much where they were. They were always way too close and always getting closer.
The lasers all came from the enemy side. The aliens crawled over the rubble on multiple legs. The cilia around their mouths wavered when they moved.
Their eyes gleamed faint bluish-green in the darkness when they turned their heads in any direction. Then their eyes vanished in the darkness when the aliens faced somewhere else.
Thousands of them swarmed over the rubble mounds inching closer to Rhodes¡¯s position. The Dusters unloaded dozens of projectiles on the alien horde, but nothing slowed them down.
Four Predator fighter craft howled over Rhodes¡¯s head, blasted toward the alien swarm, and unloaded rattler guns on the oncoming enemy.
The rattlers unleashed hundreds of fusion loads with each shot. They brought down countless aliens with each pass, but more aliens materialized out of nowhere to take their dead comrades¡¯ places.
The aliens seemed to grow out of the ground¡ªbut that wasn¡¯t possible in this destroyed landscape.
Where did they all come from? This wouldn¡¯t be the first time Rhodes wondered. He would probably never find out.
The aliens fired their lasers forward to bombard Rhodes¡¯s position again and again. He had to huddle behind the hill for protection to avoid getting his head sliced off.
A second later, the aliens turned their lasers on the Dusters soaring overhead. Lasers swiped through the darkness and cut two Dusters in half.
One of them exploded instantly. It detonated in a blazing fireball, tilted downward, and shrieked out of the atmosphere on a death plunge straight into the enemy horde.
The ship smashed into the ground with bone-crushing force. The ship burst in a mushroom cloud that lit up the landscape.
That one flash of light showed Rhodes all he needed to know. A long line of soldiers curved to his left and right facing the advancing swarm.
All those soldiers crouched behind the debris for protection from the enemy laser fire.
Pulses of fusion blasts popped off from some locations down that line going in both directions. Jackhammers fired in the darkness and jets of fusion charges ejected from the guns.
They swept the enemy ranks and cut down aliens by the dozen, but those shots only gave the aliens visible targets to shoot at.
The aliens turned their lasers on those gunshots. More lasers carved the rubble to pieces until they cut down the men hiding behind the mounds.
Screams and dying groans drifted across the wasteland from all directions. Those sounds even came from the mountains of destroyed wreckage near Rhodes and under his feet.
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He couldn¡¯t see the thousands of dead and wounded nearest him anymore. There were too many of them and it was too dark.
Right then, a man thirty feet away from him opened fire. A jet of fusion fire lit up the night and smashed into the enemy ranks.
More soldiers yelled, pounced on the shooter, and dragged him down out of sight, but it was too late.
Dozens of aliens turned their lasers on the spot and smashed the mound to pieces.
Rhodes jumped back down behind his hill and grabbed Turley. ¡°Get out of here!¡± Rhodes bellowed. ¡°MOVE!! MOVE OUT!!¡±
He shoved Turley away. Rhodes straightened up just enough to signal the other men around him. ¡°Move out!! Come on!! This way!! MOVE!!¡±
Lieutenant Justin Upshaw and Captain Tate Vernick crowded close behind Rhodes to follow him. The rest of their men of the Aemon Legion¡¯s 249th platoon scooted down the rubble pile doing their best to scramble over fallen junk to keep up.
Rhodes, Upshaw, Vernick, and the rest of their platoon had to wait for Turley to get his men moving. None of them could see a thing in this darkness, but no way could they stay here.
¡°Where are we going?!¡± Turley yelled over his shoulder.
¡°Away from here! That jackass showed them exactly where we are. KEEP MOVING!!¡±
Rhodes bellowed over his shoulder, but he couldn¡¯t be sure his men heard him over the noise.
More laser fire hit the second Duster. It kept pounding breaker bombs into the enemy, but that only drew alien fire back to the ship until they destroyed it, too.
Lasers converged on its lower hull, carved through it, and hit one of the Duster¡¯s lateral engines. The hull erupted outward and the explosion hurled the ship sideways.
Rhodes couldn¡¯t watch anymore. He bent his head and shoved Turley forward faster. The rest of Turley¡¯s squad blocked the way.
The men had to climb across the steep slope piled with bent pipe, jagged torn beams, and burned sections of fuselage. The men inched sideways nowhere near fast enough to get out of danger.
Rhodes didn¡¯t dare to check how far away the enemy was. More screams drifted out of the noise. Then an almighty boom rocked the landscape when the Duster exploded directly over Rhodes¡¯s head.
Every man in his platoon ducked including Rhodes, but the ship was already veering away somewhere else before it dove to its destruction on the planet¡¯s surface.
He gave Turley another push, but Turley couldn¡¯t go anywhere with so many other men in front of him. This was getting hopeless.
Rhodes made the mistake of glancing around. At that moment, dozens of glowing, bluish-green eyes appeared out of the darkness above him.
They materialized in the darkness at the top of the rubble pile. The aliens looked straight down at the men who were trying to get away on the slopes below.
Those eyes set off a chain reaction in Rhodes¡¯s gut. He spun around fast, raised his Jackhammer, and opened fire on the aliens.
¡°GO!!¡± he roared. ¡°GET OUT OF HERE NOW!!¡±
He backed away and swiveled sideways so his men could keep fleeing behind him. A few others opened fire, too. Most dove down the piles trying to get as far away from the aliens as they could before all hell broke loose.
Rhodes took a split second to see his men totally exposed to alien laser fire. He couldn¡¯t let the whole platoon fall right here.
He backed a little farther away and ran into another mound rising behind him. He scrambled onto its steep side and unloaded on the aliens to draw their attention away from the platoon.
¡°OVER HERE, YOU BASTARDS!!¡± he roared. ¡°OVER HERE!!¡±
It worked. The aliens all looked up at him and lasers punched out of the darkness.
Three shots hit the debris near him and then a laser sliced across his chest. It cut straight through his body armor and scored a blistering path of fire into his skin.
He bellowed in pain, but the laser pivoted away too fast to do any other damage. He fought through the agony to bring up his Jackhammer again.
He already knew he was about to die. He just had to distract the aliens long enough for the platoon to get away.
Screaming pain tore him apart when he moved his arms. His vision swam. He couldn¡¯t see well enough to aim.
All those alien eyes gleamed out of the darkness. They looked right at him. They didn¡¯t have any problem targeting him.
At that moment, three Predators shrieked out of nowhere, pelted down the ridgetop in front of Rhodes, and unloaded on the aliens.
Their bodies blasted into the air and dead aliens rolled down the mound toward the platoon. The sight of reinforcements coming to his aid gave Rhodes superhuman strength.
He opened fire and roared out all his pain and hopeless frustration on the aliens. He gunned down fifty of them. That definitely got their attention.
He kept bombarding them and yelling in a combination of pain and battle fury while he did his best to stumble farther up the slope.
He didn¡¯t care about anything but getting the aliens to look at him instead of looking at the platoon.
More Predators zoomed back and forth across his line of sight. He didn¡¯t pay much attention to whether they made any progress to slow the aliens down. Nothing would slow down such a massive tide of bodies.
He tripped over a piece of fuselage and slammed down hard on one knee. That pain made him clamp his hand tighter on his weapon.
He raged at the aliens through gritted teeth. How much fuel did his weapon still have? He couldn¡¯t be sure.
He pawed at his body armor trying to grab his cluster grenades, but at that moment, another laser skated across the mound behind him.
He saw it coming closer and tried to aim his Jackhammer at the source, but not fast enough.
The laser sliced through his arm and severed it across the middle of his bicep. His weapon fell to the ground with his hand still clenched around the trigger grip.
He roared out in hopeless agony just as another laser clipped him in the thigh.
A laser shot smashed into the pile right next to his head. Some white-hot metal fragment wheeled out of the wreckage, struck his face, and sliced across his eyes.
The impact ripped his helmet off and stars burst in his head before his vision cleared.
He came back to his senses standing in front of a colossal mass of aliens all staring straight at him. He had to shoot at them, but he didn¡¯t have a weapon anymore.
He dove for his Jackhammer, snatched it with his left hand, and lost his balance. He tripped over a piece of twisted pipe embedded in the hill. He barely managed to grab his weapon before he pitched head over heel down the slope.
He slammed against something solid and looked up at dozens of aliens all staring down at him. He tried to grab his weapon and bring it up, but he tried to grab it with his right arm which wasn¡¯t there anymore.
He took a split second to remember that he had to use his left arm instead.
In that moment, four more Dusters thundered overhead firing dozens of breaker bombs into the alien horde. He didn¡¯t see the platoon anywhere nearby. He was all alone out here.
His dazed brain stared up at the Dusters in stupid shock. Were they coming for him? Would they lift him off, take him to the hospital, and save whatever was left of his pathetic life?
He already knew they wouldn¡¯t. They didn¡¯t rescue the wounded. Anyone who fell on the battlefield stayed where they lay. No one came to get them and no one would come to get Rhodes.
Lasers sprayed out of the enemy ranks, fired into the night sky, and targeted the Dusters. Blasts of yellow and orange explosions ejected from the ships¡¯ hulls.
That flash of light brought Rhodes back to his senses. He floundered to sit up enough to aim his weapon at his enemies. He couldn¡¯t stand.
He propped his Jackhammer against his knee to steady it, but before he could fire, alien lasers hit the engines of a Duster right above him.
The ship shuddered once and detonated in a catastrophic boom before the whole burning mass of torched metal plummeted toward the ground.
Rhodes didn¡¯t see it until it was too late¡ªnot that he could do anything about it if he did see it. He kept shooting at the aliens crawling closer by the second.
He bared his teeth in a feral roar right up until the moment the burning Duster smashed down on top of him.
Battalion 1: Chapter 2
Beeping noises woke Rhodes from a sound sleep. He blinked and then flinched when blinding, stark white light stabbed him in the eyes.
He had to think before he remembered where he was¡ªexcept that he didn¡¯t know where he was. He had been on the battlefield until just a few seconds ago.
He definitely wasn¡¯t there now.
A young woman with long, straight, dark brown hair and glasses stood next to his bed.
She wore her hair pulled back in a ponytail behind her neck. She wore a business suit under a knee-length lab coat with her name stitched onto the front of it. Dr. Veronica Neiland, ALMC.
Rhodes groaned and tried to look around again. ALMC. The Aemon Legion Medical Corps.
He must be in a military hospital¡ªwhich made sense considering what happened to him on the battlefield¡ªexcept that it didn¡¯t make sense.
He would be the first of thousands or maybe millions of Legion war casualties to end up in the hospital. He should have died on the battlefield.
He craned his head off the pillow, but his whole body felt unbearably heavy. It took all his strength just to lift his head. He couldn¡¯t lift any of his limbs. He felt sick to his stomach.
¡°Where am I?¡± he croaked.
¡°You¡¯re at Coleridge Station, Captain Rhodes,¡± Dr. Neiland clipped in a soft, steady tone.
¡°I never heard of it.¡±
¡°It¡¯s a secret military installation that doesn¡¯t appear on any map. No one has heard of it.¡±
He collapsed back on the pillow and shut his eyes. He was really starting to wish he did die on the battlefield. ¡°What am I doing here, then?¡±
¡°You¡¯ve been asleep. It will take you a while to get your strength back and to orient yourself. There¡¯s nothing to worry about. The nausea and weakness will pass.¡±
He tried one more time to sit up and failed. He lifted his head and spotted four other people in the same room.
The room itself looked like a giant science lab with a bunch of equipment he didn¡¯t recognize. It didn¡¯t look like a hospital at all.
A giant cylindrical stack of computer components occupied the center of what looked like a circular chamber. Banks of more computers, equipment, and random wires, tubes, and conduits covered the walls.
Some of these random wires, tubes, and conduits even extended from the ceiling and walls. The wires, tubes, and conduits entered the central column of computer equipment and some came toward Rhodes¡¯s bed.
Dr. Neiland approached him on his right side and tapped at a computer console attached to his bed. That¡¯s what made the beeping sound.
The bed did something and started to tilt upward. It locked in place at an angle so he no longer lay flat on his back.
The longer he lay here, the more his mind cleared. He wasn¡¯t in a normal hospital bed at all. The mattress under him was the only normal part of it.
Even that didn¡¯t feel like a regular mattress. There was something different about it, but he couldn¡¯t quite place what was wrong with it.
More computer equipment surrounded him on all sides and a solid metal cover levered above his head.
Computer screens flashed and flickered on the cover¡¯s underside. The readings kept changing every time Dr. Neiland punched one of her buttons.
The wires, tubes, and conduits went into and out of all of this equipment attached to his bed. He couldn¡¯t tell at first what it was all for.
He tried again to sit up and he raised his hand to rub his face. ¡°What happened to me? How did I get here?¡±
His hand touched his head¡ªand he felt something metal attached to his face. His arm and hand didn¡¯t feel right, either.
He looked down at his hand and his world stopped when he saw his arm. It wasn¡¯t a human arm anymore. It had been replaced by a robotic arm and hand.
¡°You got injured on the battlefield,¡± Dr. Neiland replied in the same soothing undertone. ¡°We brought you here and replaced your arm and some of your internal organs with implants. We also modified your sensory, nervous, and motor systems with upgraded components. Don¡¯t worry. You¡¯ll get used to them in time.¡±
He barely heard her. He stared at his arm, moved his hand in every direction, and experienced another wave of vertigo at the sensation.
His arm and hand moved the same way a normal arm would, but it didn¡¯t feel the same. He couldn¡¯t identify the sensation. It felt surreal¡.or maybe not real at all¡ªbut it was.
He rubbed his fingertips together. He could feel everything. The sensation up his arm felt the same as normal skin¡ªbut it wasn¡¯t skin.
Components he didn¡¯t recognize covered the surface. Ports and channels scored the outer housing, but the metal surface blended together to make the outer housing smooth. He didn¡¯t see any working parts, but there must be.
He lost his arm on the battlefield. He remembered now.
These doctors didn¡¯t reattach his original arm. They wouldn¡¯t have been able to after the laser severed it. No one could repair an injury like that.
He touched his face¡ªwith that hand. He felt the metal attached to his face.
He followed the outline from his forehead over his cheekbone and down to his jaw. The implants embedded into the bone and he sensed them penetrating deep inside his head.
The implants covered part of his forehead and all of his right eye socket. The implant blocked his eye, but he could still see perfectly well. His vision looked normal.
The implants on his face felt just as smooth as his arm¡¯s metal housing. They covered the right half of his face, his right ear, and most of the back of his skull.
The rest of his face felt normal. He still had hair growing out of the rest of his scalp and his mouth felt normal, too.
Dr. Neiland tapped on her machines a few more times and looked up at him through her glasses. ¡°You should feel strong enough to sit up now, Captain. If you are, we can take you to your quarters and you can start to orient yourself to the station.¡±
¡°What am I doing here?¡± he husked.
¡°I told you. We brought you here to repair your injuries. You¡¯re a member of an experimental project to upgrade your injured limbs and organs with these mechanical implants. You¡¯ll spend your recovery here at Coleridge Station until you learn to use them. Then you¡¯ll redeploy on the battlefield where you¡¯ll use these implants against the enemy.¡± She blinked at him. ¡°Is that clear enough for you? Do you understand now?¡±
He groaned again, but he couldn¡¯t keep lying here. He tried one more time to sit up, and this time, he succeeded. The upward tilted angle of the bed made it easier. He didn¡¯t have to move as far.
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He heaved himself off the bed and swiveled his legs to the floor¡ªbut they weren¡¯t human legs. The same smooth mechanical housing covered him from the waist down.
He couldn¡¯t tell where his real legs ended and where the robotic legs began¡ªor if he even had real legs anymore. How much damage did he suffer when that Duster crashed on top of him?
The replacement arm melded with another swath of components surrounding his shoulders and part of his chest. Some of his rib cage and abdomen showed between the chest section and the part extending down over his pelvis.
The implants on his left arm didn¡¯t enclose the whole arm the way they did his right arm. His left arm must have still been mostly intact when the Legion took him off the battlefield.
Components and implants dotted his skin from the left shoulder section down the outside of his upper arm. The implants surrounded his elbow in a mechanical joint and then narrowed around his forearm.
The components completely enveloped his wrist and his left hand. He couldn¡¯t see anything organic underneath, but his left hand felt different from his right hand.
He couldn¡¯t exactly say his left hand felt more real or more human because it didn¡¯t. It just felt different.
He paused there slumped on the edge of the bed to take all this in. The implants embedded in all his bones and muscles. A dull ache throbbed through his body where these machines sank their roots into his very being.
He couldn¡¯t call it pain because it didn¡¯t hurt¡ªand yet it did. It hurt deeper than pain.
He could tolerate this ache, but it ate away at something even more fundamental than his senses. It changed him at his core. He wasn¡¯t human anymore¡ªnot the way he was before.
Dr. Neiland bent over him and did something to the component near his ear. ¡°The implants take time to adjust to your nervous system. They feel strange now, but you¡¯ll get used to them.¡±
Rhodes doubted that. He didn¡¯t see how he could ever get used to this.
These things weren¡¯t him. They chewed into his body, his blood, his bones, his internal organs. He even sensed them infecting his brain and senses. Where would it end?
It wouldn¡¯t end because they were a part of him now¡ªand yet they felt alien. They felt like they might fall off at any moment¡ªbut they would never fall off.
His very being wanted to reject them and push them away, but they stuck to him with a deep, gnawing, unbreakable hold.
¡°You should be able to stand up now, Captain,¡± Dr. Neiland told him.
Rhodes looked around one last time, but his mind didn¡¯t want to accept any of this.
If he¡¯d been getting out of a hospital bed any other time, he would have had to put on some clothes. He didn¡¯t have to do that now.
He was a robot from the waist down. He had no other recognizable human anatomy he needed to cover up.
The implants covered all of him besides his midsection, his back, part of his chest, his left arm, neck, and half his head. No one could see anything. He was as dressed as he could possibly be.
The four other people in the room stood by the lab¡¯s central stack of computer equipment. This wasn¡¯t a hospital. It was a lab and he was the experiment. Dr. Neiland even said so.
Two of those other people wore medical lab coats like she did. One of those other people was a middle-aged man with greying hair and a grey goatee. The other was a younger man with straight brown hair, brown eyes, and glasses.
The other two people over there wore Aemon Legion officers¡¯ uniforms. They were both men in their forties and one of them was a general. The other was a colonel with black hair and black eyes.
The general had bright red hair, brilliant green eyes, and a million freckles. They looked strange on a man his age¡ªlike he couldn¡¯t decide if he was growing up or staying a boy.
Now that Rhodes looked around more closely, he noticed other technicians in lab coats working on the equipment lining the walls. They didn¡¯t pay any attention to Rhodes, Dr. Neiland, or the other four people in the room.
An elevated circular platform ran around the lab¡¯s upper wall. More technicians worked up there, too.
¡°Stand up, Captain,¡± Dr. Neiland told him. ¡°We need to check that all your systems are functioning within operable parameters.¡±
His brain didn¡¯t want to register that she was talking about him this way¡ªthe way she would talk about some machine that had just gotten out of the repair shop.
He stood up, and at that signal, the four men crossed the room to approach him.
For some reason he couldn¡¯t figure out, Rhodes¡¯s eyes and mind read their four nametags in a split second.
He didn¡¯t even have to look at the names stitched onto their lab coats. The four names entered his head automatically without him making the decision to read them.
The older doctor¡¯s name was Dr. Steven Montague. The younger one was Dr. Derek Irvine. The general¡¯s nametag read, Brewster. The colonel¡¯s read, Kraft.
Just in case Rhodes doubted the evidence of his new enhanced senses, General Brewster stuck out his hand and gave Rhodes a huge, boyish smile. ¡°It¡¯s a pleasure to meet you, Captain. I¡¯m General Kenneth Brewster and this is Colonel Paxton Kraft.¡±
Rhodes shook the general¡¯s hand without thinking. Rhodes started to say, ¡°Good to meet you¡..¡± but he used too much pressure and wound up crushing the general¡¯s hand.
General Brewster grimaced, yelled in pain, and almost buckled to his knees before Rhodes realized what he was doing. He let go, but not fast enough.
¡°Aargh!¡± General Brewster howled and clutched his hand.
¡°I¡¯m sorry¡..¡± Rhodes stammered.
Dr. Neiland and the other two doctors raced over and started whizzing around Rhodes in a flurry.
¡°Nothing to worry about!¡± Dr. Irvine exclaimed. ¡°It¡¯s understandable until you get used to the implants. Your neuromotor system has been enhanced, so you¡¯re stronger than you were before. Don¡¯t worry! You¡¯ll get used to it.¡±
General Brewster kept gasping and clutching his hand in pain. ¡°It¡¯s¡..it¡¯s all right¡..Captain¡..It isn¡¯t your fault¡¡¡±
¡°Come over here, General,¡± Dr. Neiland breezed. ¡°I¡¯ll X-ray your hand and we can repair the bones.¡±
She took him across the lab to one of the machines against the wall. General Brewster tried to smile at Rhodes.
Brewster probably hoped he was smiling in a reassuring way, but the general kept writhing and baring his teeth in obvious pain.
Rhodes didn¡¯t know what to think watching Dr. Neiland take the general away. Rhodes only tried to shake the general¡¯s hand. Rhodes didn¡¯t think he used that much pressure, but he must have made a mistake.
Colonel Kraft stepped in front of Rhodes to block him from looking at General Brewster again.
¡°It¡¯s an honor to finally meet you, Captain.¡± Kraft started to extend his hand, too, and stopped himself. ¡°General Brewster is the commanding officer of Coleridge Station and I¡¯m in command of Battalion 1. You and I will be working closely with each other.¡±
¡°What¡¯s that? What¡¯s Battalion 1?¡±
¡°It¡¯s the new unit of soldiers like yourself who will receive these experimental implants. Battalion 1 will become an integral part of the Aemon Legion and an indispensable wing of our fighting force. Battalion 1 is critical to our mission of securing the quadrant from alien invasion and bringing peace to the Fringes.¡±
¡°Oh,¡± Rhodes muttered under his breath. ¡°I see.¡±
Kraft waved behind him. ¡°Come with me, Captain. I¡¯ll show you around the station and explain things to you. The orientation process takes some time, so we all understand that you might be feeling a little out of your depth.¡±
¡°How long does it take?¡± Rhodes asked. ¡°How long will I be like this?¡±
¡°Well¡..¡± Kraft glanced at the two remaining doctors.
¡°The truth is, Captain, we don¡¯t actually know how long it takes,¡± Dr. Irvine interjected. ¡°You¡¯re the first subject to go through the project.¡±
Rhodes¡¯s head shot up. ¡°I¡¯m¡.what?¡±
¡°You¡¯re the first subject to go through the project. You¡¯ll take command of the first unit of Battalion 1 as soon as they wake up¡ªbut you¡¯re the first to wake up.¡±
Rhodes¡¯s throat went dry. ¡°Does that mean others didn¡¯t wake up?¡±
Dr. Irvine shuffled his feet and looked away. ¡°I assure you everyone who goes through the project was injured to the point of death exactly the way you were. If we didn¡¯t take them, they would be dead now¡ªthe same way you would be.¡±
Now it was Rhodes¡¯s turn to look away. Maybe he would have been better off dying on the battlefield than¡..this.
He didn¡¯t say that out loud, though.
¡°Now you can understand why we¡¯re so delighted to have you with us,¡± Irvine gushed. ¡°All your systems seem to be functioning within operational parameters.¡±
He bent over the control panel on Rhodes¡¯s bed¡ªthe panel Dr. Neiland had been working on when Rhodes first woke up.
Dr. Montague looked over Dr. Irvine¡¯s shoulder to see the readings, but just then, Dr. Neiland came back with General Brewster.
He had his hand in a cast up to the wrist, but he smiled more easily now. ¡°Please don¡¯t think anything of it, Captain. We¡¯re all too pleased to see you up and about to worry about a little thing like this.¡±
¡°I¡¯m sure you are,¡± Rhodes muttered.
Everyone pretended not to hear him.
¡°If you¡¯re feeling up to it, Colonel Kraft and I will show you around,¡± General Brewster went on. ¡°The doctors can monitor your systems on the way and make sure you¡¯re functioning properly. If everything works out, you can relax in your quarters until it¡¯s time for you to go on duty.¡±
¡°What does that mean?¡± Rhodes asked. ¡°What do you mean by putting me on duty?¡±
¡°You need to train with your new implants so you get used to them,¡± Dr. Neiland told him. ¡°You¡¯ll need to adjust how you do things and how you process information coming from your implants. We¡¯ll make additional modifications as needed to ensure everything is working the way it¡¯s supposed to.¡±
Rhodes didn¡¯t like the sound of that, but what choice did he have? These implants told him loud and clear that he didn¡¯t have one.
He couldn¡¯t get his arm back¡ªor his eye back¡ªor anything else the doctors replaced.
They might have replaced his entire lower body. He would never get that back. He¡¯d been on the point of death when they brought him in.
He still didn¡¯t know what to think or how to feel about that, but he definitely didn¡¯t have a choice about this.
These implants anchored into his bones. They hooked up to his brain and nervous system. He would never be able to get rid of them.
His gut told him to tear them out and throw them away. He wanted to rip them out with his fingernails, but he wouldn¡¯t even be able to do that¡ªnot without killing himself.
Maybe that would have been better, but he didn¡¯t get a chance to do that or even to think about it.
General Brewster waved across the lab again. ¡°Follow me, Captain. You don¡¯t need to stay in here any longer.¡±
End of Chapter 2
Battalion 1: Chapter 3
Rhodes followed General Brewster out of the lab. Colonel Kraft walked at Rhodes¡¯s side.
Rhodes¡¯s implants fed him mountains of information he never would have picked up this fast with his normal senses.
General Brewster had a lively personality, smiled easily, and kept widening his eyes at Rhodes in a delighted, encouraging way. Brewster couldn¡¯t have been more tickled that Rhodes was up and walking around.
Kraft had a serious, reserved nature with deep, dark, watchful eyes. He measured everything Rhodes did down to the atom. Nothing escaped Kraft¡¯s notice.
Rhodes recognized an officer scrutinizing a man who would become his subordinate.
Kraft was the one responsible for this new Battalion 1. He would be Rhodes¡¯s direct superior, so of course Kraft wanted to make sure Rhodes did everything right.
Kraft¡¯s reserve actually made Rhodes feel better. Rhodes understood men like Kraft.
Kraft took the time and care to make sure anyone under him was capable of doing the job the way it needed to be done. Rhodes appreciated that.
Brewster gave Rhodes a very bad feeling. Brewster¡¯s bubbly enthusiasm didn¡¯t gel with the sheer scale of what these people were trying to do.
Brewster also didn¡¯t seem to realize the effect these implants were having on Rhodes. It never seemed to cross Brewster¡¯s mind that these implants might not be the blessing everyone wanted them to be.
Kraft sure did. Rhodes almost got the impression Kraft was standing there with his hand on a holstered weapon ready to put Rhodes down the instant something went wrong¡ªbut Kraft didn¡¯t have a weapon.
He held himself tense, watchful, and ready to act at a moment¡¯s notice. Rhodes respected Kraft for that.
Rhodes really needed someone like that around him right now. No one else around here seemed to understand the situation well enough even to think of it.
Brewster kept smiling with glee while he held the door open for Rhodes to leave the lab.
The three men exited into a long corridor of stark industrial tile. Doors lined both walls. Rhodes couldn¡¯t see beyond them to the rooms inside. He didn¡¯t want to see.
The three doctors followed behind. Each one worked on a remote computer device.
Rhodes couldn¡¯t see what they were working on, but they must have been monitoring him. They wouldn¡¯t be here otherwise.
Their presence drove home to Rhodes that he was their lab rat¡ªtheir experiment. He felt like a science experiment walking around with these implants.
They didn¡¯t make any noise. They felt exactly like normal legs walking down the hall and normal arms hanging at his sides.
He couldn¡¯t help feeling like a robot¡ªbecause he was one.
His heels made an extra loud clunk on the tiles every time he took a step. He saw how different he looked from everyone else present.
He was the freak here. They were all human. He wasn¡¯t. He was something else. He just didn¡¯t know what that was.
Brewster talked the whole time in the same rapid, excited tone. ¡°We¡¯ll introduce you to your unit and then give you a briefing on the state of affairs. You¡¯ll be able to adjust your programming to the battle conditions. Once you understand the situation, you¡¯ll be able to coordinate with the other platoons and swing the battle back in our favor.¡±
¡°What do you mean by, ¡®introduce me to my unit¡¯?¡± Rhodes asked. ¡°You said I was the first to go through the program. How can I have a unit if I¡¯m the only one?¡±
¡°We¡¯re holding the rest of your unit in stasis while they receive their implants and other modifications. You¡¯ll be their commanding officer, so we woke you up first. We¡¯ll need you to be present when we wake up the others. Your presence and guidance will help orient them. You¡¯ll be able to explain things to them better than we will since you will have gone through it before them.¡±
¡°I won¡¯t be able to do that if I haven¡¯t had a chance to orient,¡± Rhodes pointed out.
Brewster only smiled at him. ¡°That¡¯s why you¡¯ll orient completely before we wake any of them up. You¡¯ll go through your training first. Then you¡¯ll be better able to help them with theirs.¡±
Brewster stopped in front of a random door, opened it, and stood back for Rhodes to enter.
They entered a long, low room built the same as Dr. Neiland¡¯s lab except that this one wasn¡¯t circular. It had more of an oblong shape, but it did have the same computer components covering the walls.
Wires, tubes, and conduits connected all the equipment to twelve beds identical to the one Rhodes woke up in. The covers of these beds were all closed.
The covers weren¡¯t solid metal the way Rhodes thought. Some transparent substance allowed him to see the people lying asleep inside each chamber.
He passed down the line looking at their faces. The controls attached to each bed listed their names.
Lieutenant Heath Lauer.
Corporal Bobby Poole.
Sergeant David Cope.
Corporal Liam Taylor.
Rhodes stopped in front of two beds with women in them. ¡°Who are they?¡±
¡°Most of these men are soldiers from the Legion,¡± Brewster explained. ¡°They got injured in battle the same way you did. That¡¯s how they joined the program.¡±
¡°Joined?¡± Rhodes repeated. ¡°They didn¡¯t join.¡±
Brewster shrugged, but it came out more as a squirm. He made a face that looked like he was trying his hardest not to smile. ¡°It¡¯s a figure of speech.¡±
Rhodes nodded at the two women. ¡°What about these two?¡±
¡°Georgie Henshaw is Frederick Henshaw¡¯s daughter.¡±
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¡°I don¡¯t know who that is,¡± Rhodes replied.
Brewster raised his eyebrows and gasped. ¡°You don¡¯t know who Frederick Henshaw is?¡±
¡°No, why should I? Is he in the Legion?¡±
¡°He¡¯s President of the Treaty of Aemon Ruling Council!¡± Brewster exclaimed. ¡°I can¡¯t believe you don¡¯t know!¡±
Rhodes looked away. ¡°That explains why I¡¯ve never heard of him. I¡¯m a soldier. I don¡¯t keep track of all that political bullshit.¡±
Brewster winced and immediately tried to correct his expression. ¡°Georgie received a terminal cancer diagnosis. President Henshaw arranged for us to take her into the program to save her life.¡±
Rhodes spun around a second time. ¡°You took some politician¡¯s daughter into an experimental laboratory program to create a battalion of super-warriors? She¡¯ll get killed out there! Why didn¡¯t you just let her die in peace?¡±
¡°Her implants and programming will give her the same skills, strength, and training as the rest of you. She won¡¯t disappoint you.¡±
Rhodes snorted. He was starting to get a picture of the colossal task in front of him.
Now he would be the one in charge of these people. He would be the one trying to somehow explain to them why they were here and what they were supposed to do about it. He didn¡¯t look forward to that conversation.
He turned back to look down at Georgie Henshaw. She had straight, white-blonde hair and pale, ivory-white skin. He couldn¡¯t tell anything else about her.
Implants covered her head and face the same way they covered Rhodes¡¯s face and all the other members of this battalion unit. Each one of them had been modified the same way Rhodes had.
Georgie¡¯s hair had been cut jaw length. The woman in the bed next to her had straight brown hair cut in the same style. It made each woman look human but in an industrial, military way. The haircut didn¡¯t soften their features at all.
The second woman¡¯s name was Alyssa Thackery. ¡°Who is she?¡± Rhodes asked. ¡°Is she another politician¡¯s daughter?¡±
¡°She worked as a cleaner at Fort Jacaranda,¡± Colonel Kraft murmured. ¡°She was sweeping the floors in the engineering department when the station came under bombardment. She got electrocuted when a panel near her exploded. She doesn¡¯t have any family, so she came to us instead.¡±
Rhodes cringed. Fantastic. So two of his new soldiers had no training, no combat experience, no nothing. The geniuses in charge of this project should have just let these women die.
Then again, they might not even wake up. How many other wounded soldiers did these doctors experiment on before someone survived long enough to wake up?
Rhodes was the first. The doctors might have gone through hundreds.
Maybe none of these people would wake up. Then Rhodes really would be the only one.
He passed down the line of beds reading the names, but he didn¡¯t stop again.
Corporal Rudy Fuentes. Sergeant Jairo Dietz. Lieutenant Dane Reinhart. Lieutenant Ted Oakes. Corporal Eddie Coulter.
The names meant nothing to Rhodes and neither did the people. He wouldn¡¯t know who or what he was dealing with until they woke up.
¡°So when will you wake them up?¡± he asked. ¡°How long do they have to stay asleep?¡±
¡°They¡¯re ready to wake up now,¡± Brewster replied. ¡°We need to bring you up to speed first. We¡¯ll just brief you on the battle situation¡..¡±
Just then, a different young woman in an Aemon Legion uniform entered the room, approached General Brewster, and whispered something in his ear.
He bent over to listen and then straightened up. ¡°Excuse me, Captain. I have something I need to attend to. I¡¯ll leave you in Colonel Kraft¡¯s capable hands. I¡¯m sure I¡¯ll see you later. I trust everything will work out for the best. Excuse me.¡±
He dipped one nod and left the room. That left Rhodes with Kraft and the three doctors. The three doctors kept hanging back and tapping on their devices.
They didn¡¯t seem to notice anything until Kraft gave them a hard look and waved them away. ¡°You three can go back to the lab. You can see that Captain Rhodes is fine. Leave him alone for now. I¡¯ll let you know if we need you for anything.¡±
Dr. Neiland opened her mouth to contradict. Colonel Kraft gave her such a drilling glare that she shut her mouth with a click and walked out. She took the other two doctors with her.
Kraft sighed as soon as the door closed. ¡°Follow me, Captain. We have a lot to talk about.¡±
Rhodes followed him back out into the corridor. Rhodes would have liked to ask what they had to talk about, but he didn¡¯t say anything.
Kraft¡¯s serious nature suddenly made this whole situation so much more real. Kraft didn¡¯t give Rhodes any encouragement or assurance that this was all so exciting and wonderful.
Even that overwhelmed Rhodes with relief. Someone around her understood how serious this was.
Kraft¡¯s dark eyes even seemed to communicate some understanding of what Rhodes was going through. Kraft couldn¡¯t know about this sensation of the implants eating into Rhodes¡¯s flesh and bones.
Kraft¡¯s steady gaze almost convinced Rhodes that Kraft did know¡ªor at least suspected.
Kraft didn¡¯t show any sign of sympathy, but this depth of understanding convinced Rhodes that Kraft at least imagined what walking around with these implants must feel like.
Kraft barely glanced at Rhodes, but those dark eyes said it all. Kraft didn¡¯t need to look any more deeply than that. He already knew.
Kraft walked down the hall at Rhodes¡¯s side, but Kraft didn¡¯t break the silence.
¡°Aren¡¯t you supposed to explain all this to me?¡± Rhodes finally asked.
¡°What is there to explain that you don¡¯t already know? All I have to do is show you the battle lines. You understand the rest.¡±
¡°What am I supposed to do out there that the rest of the Legion can¡¯t do?¡± Rhodes asked.
Kraft opened another door and led Rhodes into an office. It was a typical Legion officer¡¯s office with a large computer screen covering one wall.
Kraft stopped in front of it, tapped on it, and pulled up a map of the sector. ¡°This is the Preinea homeworld at the center of the Treaty of Aemon Cluster. All the planets, solar systems, and cultures of the combined military defense alliance contribute troops and resources that make up the Aemon Legion.¡±
¡°I know all that,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°Why am I here if you don¡¯t tell me something I don¡¯t already know?¡±
Kraft adjusted the map to show the outer Fringes¡ªa rim of planets, solar systems, stations, and inhabited regions at the very edge of the Treaty of Aemon Cluster.
¡°Coleridge Station is here¡ªon the planet Tokirolera in the Dalea system,¡± Colonel Kraft went on. ¡°You¡¯ve spent your career here, on the Fringes, fighting the Emal in their efforts to retake their territory from the Cluster.¡±
¡°Yeah? So?¡±
¡°That¡¯s why Coleridge Station and the Battalion 1 project are here¡ªso you¡¯ll be closer to the Emal. You¡¯ll redeploy against the aliens and work with the other platoons to drive the Emal out of the Cluster.¡±
¡°You still aren¡¯t telling me anything I don¡¯t already know.¡±
¡°What you don¡¯t know is that the Cluster is facing incursion from four other alien populations¡ªhere, here, here, and here.¡±
Kraft pointed at different parts of the Treaty of Aemon Cluster¡ªparts that should have been peaceful.
¡°This battle against the Emal is just a training ground for Battalion 1. It¡¯s a chance for you all to get used to your new weapons, training, and tactics. Once you do that, we¡¯ll deploy you against other enemies¡ªmore powerful enemies.¡±
Rhodes spun around to stare at him. ¡°More powerful than the Emal? How is that even possible? The Legion can¡¯t stop the Emal as it is. They¡¯ve already reclaimed ten planets and they¡¯ll keep reclaiming more until they retake their territory. The Legion is getting slaughtered out there.¡±
¡°That¡¯s where the brass hopes Battalion 1 will be able to change things.¡±
Rhodes gaped at him even harder. ¡°The brass? The brass hopes that? You didn¡¯t say we hope that.¡±
Kraft made a face. ¡°I¡¯m a soldier like you, Captain. I don¡¯t make the rules.¡±
¡°So you don¡¯t really think we stand a chance even against the Emal¡ªlet alone the rest of these incursions. Is that what you¡¯re saying? You¡¯re doing this because the brass ordered you to? Is that it?¡±
Kraft¡¯s expression darkened even more than before. He pointed at a different part of the map closer to the incoming incursions. ¡°My family lives here¡ªon the planet Nolestra in the Bevet system. If we don¡¯t find a way to stop these incursions, a lot of people are going to die. That¡¯s the only reason I agreed to this¡ªnot because I approve of what the doctors are doing. I wouldn¡¯t do it at all if I thought there was any other way.¡±
Rhodes looked away, but that only brought him back to looking at the map. His mind went into a tailspin. If the battle against the Emal was that hopeless, then this whole project was a suicide mission.
Fighting the Emal was a suicide mission. Luckily for everyone involved, the Emal only wanted their own territory back¡ªthe territory the Treaty of Aemon annexed into the Cluster.
The Emal didn¡¯t want to conquer the whole Cluster. Humanity would have been finished if they did.
If these new alien incursions did want to conquer the Cluster, then someone had to stop them¡ªif they could be stopped.
Kraft lowered his voice to a husky murmur. ¡°You would have been dead on the battlefield just like everyone else in this project. What else do you have to do? You might as well save a few billion human lives while you¡¯re here. Isn¡¯t that why you joined the Legion in the first place?¡±
End of Chapter 3.
Battalion 1: Chapter 4
Colonel Kraft escorted Rhodes to a different part of Coleridge Station. The station teemed with technicians, officers, soldiers, pilots, and hundreds of other Aemon Legion personnel.
None of them so much as glanced at Rhodes. They didn¡¯t act like him walking around with half his body replaced by robotics was anything out of the ordinary.
The Battalion 1 project definitely wasn¡¯t a secret if this many personnel manned this station.
Coleridge Station looked like every other Legion station he¡¯d visited in his career. Multiple wings radiated outward from a central concourse of supply stores, commissaries, meeting rooms, auditoriums, and every other thing the station personnel needed.
The side wings contained personnel quarters, the station¡¯s power plant, loading docks, medical bay, and all the station¡¯s accessory departments.
He didn¡¯t see anything different about Coleridge Station¡ªexcept that he was here¡ªand the rest of Battalion 1 was here.
He and Kraft crossed the station¡¯s main concourse and entered a side wing. This was as far as it was possible to get from Dr. Neiland¡¯s lab and the other members of Battalion 1¡ªif they survived long enough to become its members.
Kraft took Rhodes into another long, rectangular room¡ªwithout all the computer equipment this time.
This room had been set up as a normal Legion barracks with a row of beds down one wall¡ªbut these weren¡¯t normal beds.
They were modified versions of the beds Rhodes had seen the other lab subjects sleeping in¡ªthe same kind of bed Rhodes had been sleeping in.
These had mattresses inside, but holes had been cut in the mattresses at strategic intervals down the length of the bed.
The same electronic equipment attached to these beds, but not as much equipment as in the lab.
The beds did have just as many wires, tubes, and conduits running to them, but these wires, tubes, and conduits didn¡¯t hang from the ceiling. They attached to each bed through the wall and ran across a short stretch of floor to keep everything out of the way.
Tables, benches, bookshelves, and a few computer terminal desks lined the opposite wall.
¡°This will be the battalion¡¯s quarters while you¡¯re at the station,¡± Kraft announced. ¡°Each of you has a capsule assigned to you. It¡¯s programmed to your own individual needs, so it¡¯s important that you use the same capsule each time. This is yours.¡±
He pointed at the first bed in the row. The control panel on the end of the bed read out Rhodes¡¯s name and rank.
Captain Corban Rhodes. That was still him. Maybe he wasn¡¯t really a robot after all. Maybe he just looked, acted, and felt like one.
¡°Your capsule will interface with your systems when you come back here after training or after battle,¡± Kraft went on. ¡°The capsule will regulate your conversion cycle to carry out any repairs, adjust your nutrient levels, and make any necessary modifications to your systems before your next active phase. The conversion cycle is the equivalent of sleep, but it isn¡¯t sleep. The conversion cycle replaces that part of your neural system.¡±
Rhodes stared down at the bed. Kraft called it a capsule because it wasn¡¯t a real bed. Rhodes didn¡¯t eat or sleep anymore. He really wasn¡¯t human anymore at all.
¡°The doctors recommend that you go through a conversion cycle to help you adjust to waking up from stasis,¡± Kraft told him. ¡°You probably want to take some time to come to grips with all of this. The conversion cycle is the best way to do that. It will help you process everything that¡¯s happened. You¡¯ll feel better when you wake up.¡±
¡°So¡.¡± Rhodes asked. ¡°What do I have to do?¡±
¡°Just lie down in the capsule the way you would if you were going to sleep¡ªat least, that¡¯s what it¡¯s supposed to do. You shouldn¡¯t feel a thing.¡±
Rhodes sneered at him. Everything Rhodes would ever do from now on would be one giant experiment. It would be the first time anyone had ever done any of this. Spectacular.
This capsule might not repair, adjust, or modify anything. It could kill him¡ªbut wasn¡¯t that what Rhodes had just been hoping would happen? Then he wouldn¡¯t have to deal with any of this.
He really did want to shut down his brain for a while. He didn¡¯t want to think about any of this. He didn¡¯t want to be any of this. This capsule was the next best thing.
He took a step forward. He didn¡¯t know how to approach this thing, but anything would be better than staying awake with all this information crammed into his head.
One glance at Kraft convinced Rhodes to turn around, sit down on the bed, and stretch out. Kraft stood there watching, but Rhodes didn¡¯t detect any judgment or deceit in Kraft¡¯s expression or body language.
For some reason Rhodes couldn¡¯t pinpoint, he actually felt like trusting Kraft. Kraft was the only person Rhodes had met so far that he would ever even consider trusting.
Rhodes stretched out on the mattress. The instant he got into that position, seven metal prongs stabbed him in the back.
They punched into his implants in his shoulders, his hips, his feet, and one impaled him through the back of the head.
The prongs locked with his implants and he blacked out.
He woke up an instant later. He didn¡¯t think any time had passed, but he really did feel better.
He felt rested and maybe even relaxed. Whatever this capsule did, it made him feel like he really did go to sleep.
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The capsule¡¯s top cover was still in the process of lifting off him when he opened his eyes. He didn¡¯t see or hear it close, but it must have been closed all this time.
He didn¡¯t feel the prongs unlock from his implants, but they didn¡¯t hold him down anymore.
He sat up and put his feet on the floor. He actually felt okay even though he was still¡whatever the hell he was.
He stood up not sure what to do with himself. If he¡¯d just woken up any other time, he would have gone to the bathroom, taken a shower, and gotten himself something to eat.
He didn¡¯t need to do any of that anymore. He didn¡¯t feel hungry. He wouldn¡¯t need to go to the bathroom if he never ate.
He crossed the barracks to look at the computer terminals, but right then, Dr. Neiland walked in. ¡°Good morning. How do you feel?¡±
Rhodes nodded. ¡°I feel rested. That thing really worked.¡±
¡°That¡¯s excellent,¡± she breezed in her usual casual tone. ¡°If you come with me, we can get started on your training. The sooner you finish, the sooner we can wake up the rest of the battalion.¡±
¡°What is the training?¡± he asked.
¡°I would have to show you to explain it to you. The first step is to activate your implants.¡±
¡°Activate them how? They seem to be working just fine already.¡±
¡°I¡¯ll have to show you. Come with me. Everything will become clear once we turn them on.¡±
He didn¡¯t know what she meant, but his curiosity got the better of him. He followed her out of the barracks, down the corridor, and into a different much smaller room.
This was not a lab, an office, or anyone¡¯s quarters. There was nothing in the room¡ªnothing at all.
The same industrial tile covered ten square feet of floor. Plain white walls surrounded Rhodes on all sides. That was the whole room.
Dr. Neiland closed the door behind her, took a step toward Rhodes, and pointed to something on his right arm¡ªthe robotic one.
¡°You have two scourge guns installed on your arm implants, laser and thermal cannons here and here, four seeker missile ports here and here closer to your elbows, another four Viper launchers on your back, and six booster rocket ports on each of your legs.¡±
Rhodes waited for her to say something else. ¡°Um¡.okay. Is that supposed to mean something to me?¡±
She pulled out her remote device and tapped on it. ¡°Once I activate your implants, you might see some strange things, but I¡¯ll be with you and I¡¯ll explain everything to you. Are you ready?¡±
¡°Um¡.I guess.¡± Rhodes couldn¡¯t know if he was ready since he didn¡¯t know what to expect. He might never be ready.
She tapped her device again. ¡°Here we go.¡±
She pushed one last button and the room vanished. The white walls and floor turned black except for a vast field of intersecting perpendicular green lines.
They formed hundreds of equally sized squares. Rhodes couldn¡¯t see anything else in the sea of black.
For some reason, the place still had enough light for Rhodes to see both himself and Dr. Neiland. This strange landscape didn¡¯t cast either of them in shadow.
He spun right and left trying to figure out where he was, but he wasn¡¯t anywhere. He just stood there in the center of this wide expanse of squares.
¡°This is The Grid,¡± Dr. Neiland told him.
Rhodes snorted at her. ¡°Really creative name for it.¡±
She barely smiled. ¡°This is the foundation background for your neural interface programming. Everything you experience in battle will happen here.¡±
¡°What does that mean? Explain it in plain English.¡±
¡°Your neural interface programming system will feed you information from your implants to help you process what¡¯s going on during any battle. The Grid allows you to adjust and use your implants so you can react and respond in the best possible way.¡±
Rhodes shook his head. ¡°I still don¡¯t understand.¡±
¡°I¡¯m going to activate one other element of your implants. I won¡¯t be here anymore, but you won¡¯t be alone. Do you understand?¡±
¡°No,¡± he replied.
She tapped her device anyway and she vanished off The Grid. Now Rhodes really was alone.
As soon as she disappeared, a different shape materialized out of The Grid.
It started as a random scramble of much smaller squares of green grid lines. They tangled around each other in front of his eyes, blurred for a second, and started to take shape.
The lines formed the grid outline of a bird, then a flower, then a dog, a man, and finally some random alien creature Rhodes didn¡¯t recognize.
The lines kept jittering around each other, dissolving into confusion, and reforming until they settled on one particular shape.
It looked like a face, but not a human face. Rhodes didn¡¯t recognize this, either. It might have been a combination of a human, ape, cat, and bird face all merged into one.
The lines faded and the face developed color, but it didn¡¯t look like human skin. Colors kept rippling across its surface before the grid lines reappeared and then faded out again.
The grid lines kept appearing and disappearing as the face kept adjusting and morphing in front of Rhodes¡¯s eyes.
The face made eye contact with Rhodes and the expression changed. It recognized him and opened its mouth to speak in a calm, smooth, male voice like some kind of diplomat. ¡°Captain¡ªit¡¯s a pleasure to meet you.¡±
¡°Um¡.who the hell are you?¡± Rhodes demanded.
¡°My name is Fisher. I¡¯m your SAM.¡± The face cocked its head slightly. ¡°Captain Corban Rhodes, 249th Platoon, Aemon Legion. May I call you Rhodes? We should be on a first-name basis, don¡¯t you agree?¡±
Rhodes opened his mouth to say that, no, he didn¡¯t plan on getting on a first-name basis with anyone here, especially not some¡..
¡°What¡¯s a SAM?¡± he asked.
Dr. Neiland¡¯s voice came from somewhere out of sight. ¡°Fisher is your SAM. It stands for Simulated Augmentation Matrix. He¡¯s an onboard systems analysis program that interfaces with your neural network to help you process information and¡..¡±
¡°Will you shut the hell up with that gibberish?¡± Rhodes snapped. ¡°Just tell me what it is.¡±
¡°I am an enhancement program installed in your central neural processing system. I process data from your sensory system and reconfigure it¡.¡±
Rhodes held up his hand. ¡°Stop right there, pal. So you¡¯re a computer program¡ªinstalled in my¡.in my brain. Is that it?¡±
¡°Yes, exactly. I help you interface with¡..¡±
¡°Just¡.shut the hell up for a second, okay? You aren¡¯t helping me process anything.¡±
Rhodes looked around at nothing. There was nothing to see but more and more of The Grid.
He would have liked to ask Dr. Neiland for a simpler explanation about this, but she wasn¡¯t here. She¡¯d already given him the same line of nonsense that didn¡¯t explain anything.
Rhodes turned away from Fisher. Rhodes already started to sense himself thinking of this thing as a person. Rhodes couldn¡¯t let that happen.
He turned his back on it, but nothing happened. He was still here in The Grid. He didn¡¯t even know how to get out of it.
Fisher moved with him. No matter which way Rhodes turned, Fisher remained hovering there in front of Rhodes¡¯s eyes. Rhodes couldn¡¯t get rid of this thing.
¡°I believe I can help you understand if you let me, Captain,¡± Fisher went on in the same undertone.
¡°Just stay the hell out of my head,¡± Rhodes snapped. ¡°I don¡¯t need you making this worse.¡±
¡°I wasn¡¯t trying to make it worse, Captain,¡± Fisher murmured. ¡°We¡¯ll be working together from now on. If I can help you understand, I will. It will be the best thing for both of us.¡±
Rhodes would have liked to stay mad at this thing¡ªand the rest of everyone at this station. He didn¡¯t want this. He didn¡¯t want any of this.
He sure as hell didn¡¯t want some computer program talking to him in his head. That was the absolute last thing he needed.
Fisher didn¡¯t say anything for a minute. He just hovered there in The Grid while Rhodes seethed in silent resentment.
¡°May I make a suggestion, Captain?¡± Fisher finally asked.
¡°That depends on what it is,¡± Rhodes snapped.
¡°May I suggest that you start walking?¡±
Rhodes stiffened. ¡°What?¡±
¡°Start walking. Start walking through The Grid. The Grid only works when you¡¯re in motion. Once you start walking, The Grid will activate and you¡¯ll see for yourself what it¡¯s for. I promise I won¡¯t interfere. You¡¯ll only be walking along. I promise.¡±
Rhodes didn¡¯t understand what Fisher meant. Rhodes didn¡¯t believe a word of this thing¡¯s promises, but what the hell else did Rhodes have to do?
He turned away somewhere else and set off walking through The Grid in no particular direction.
Battalion 1: Chapter 5
Rhodes walked through The Grid looking around at everything¡ªwhich was nothing.
The green lines and black squares passed under his feet. The grid lines and squares passed all around him and above him. The Grid moved behind him, but this bizarre landscape never changed.
¡°So¡.is Neiland still here somewhere?¡± he asked Fisher.
¡°The system interface records all your sensory input data for later processing,¡± Fisher replied. ¡°It allows the doctors and technicians to make any necessary modifications to the¡.¡±
¡°Do me a favor, okay, pal? Don¡¯t ever use the word, ¡®processing¡¯ again. It doesn¡¯t mean anything.¡±
Fisher cocked his head to one side. Rhodes couldn¡¯t tell why he considered this program a male, but he did.
Fisher cocked his head in a very birdlike way. Something in the way he blinked his eyelids too quickly reminded Rhodes of a bird even though Fisher wasn¡¯t one.
Fisher¡¯s face migrated off to one side of Rhodes¡¯s view of The Grid. Then Fisher¡¯s face got smaller and moved up into the top righthand corner of Rhodes¡¯s view. Fisher didn¡¯t block Rhodes from seeing anything around him¡ªwhich was nothing.
¡°So what the hell are we doing out here?¡± Rhodes grumbled. ¡°Nothing is happening.¡±
Fisher tilted his head the other way. ¡°Your implants are all functioning correctly. I don¡¯t believe you¡¯ve activated The Grid yet.¡±
¡°What does that mean? How am I supposed to activate The Grid? It looks like it¡¯s already activated.¡±
¡°This is just the base layer¡ªthe underlying matrix that forms The Grid. Once you activate it, it will feed you more information¡.¡±
¡°Just tell me how to activate it.¡±
¡°I¡¯m sorry, but I can¡¯t tell you that. Only you can activate it.¡±
Rhodes groaned and rolled his eyes to Heaven. ¡°Great. What exactly are you supposed to do¡ªand don¡¯t tell me you¡¯re supposed to help me process anything.¡±
¡°Try running.¡±
¡°What good will that do? You said walking would help.¡±
¡°Just try running. What harm can it do?¡±
Rhodes sighed and started running through The Grid. He didn¡¯t expect anything different to happen.
As soon as he started running, it did change. The grid lines morphed and altered their shape the same way Fisher¡¯s face did in the beginning.
The lines adjusted, bent, and angled upward, downward, and in every other direction. The squares reformed into mountains, trees, roads, buildings, and even a river flowing past.
The Grid landscape started as an outline of all those squares stretching into different forms. Then colors appeared and Rhodes found himself running through a landscape.
It looked as real as any he¡¯d ever seen¡ªexcept that his implants kept overlaying The Grid on everything. The squares and lines fed tons of information to Rhodes about the angle and trajectory of everything.
The Grid constantly adjusted itself in synch with Rhodes¡¯s movements. The grid lines even covered Rhodes himself.
¡°Where are we?¡± he asked Fisher.
¡°This is a simulated Grid landscape used for training. Stay watchful. The system will send you obstacles and adversaries to¡.¡±
Before he finished speaking, a Viper missile ruptured out of one of the nearby buildings. The Viper whistled straight for Rhodes¡¯s head.
He dove to one side and realized he was reacting too fast. He wouldn¡¯t have been able to avoid that missile in real life.
¡°Your implants are all processing data within normal parameters,¡± Fisher told him. ¡°Be careful. The training session is starting. You¡¯ll be entering the battle training sequence any second now.¡±
Rhodes didn¡¯t have time to ask what that meant or what to expect. The Grid adjusted again and the landscape changed around him a second time¡ªexcept that it wasn¡¯t the second time. It kept changing again and again in rapid succession.
The grid lines contorted and reformed. The mountains surrounding what looked like a town got bigger and then changed to enormous battleships.
The buildings Rhodes had just been running between morphed into giant alien creatures with horns, multiple eyes, and lashing tentacles.
The grid lines fed all that information into Rhodes¡¯s implants faster than he could think. The Grid kept shifting and changing shape, but it also responded to his senses.
It reacted to his thoughts even before he had a chance to think them. He couldn¡¯t tell anymore if they were sending him information or if he was controlling them from inside his own head. Was there even a difference anymore?
Gunfire erupted from somewhere and Rhodes¡¯s instincts took over. Some part of him already knew how to use the weapons installed on his implants.
He raised his arm and fired his scourge gun at one of the giant aliens¡ªright at the place where the gunfire would have come from if the creature had been a building.
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The scourge gun ejected a burst of some kind of energy Rhodes didn¡¯t recognize. A jet of whitish-purple electricity or maybe plasma forked out of the port on his arm.
At the same moment, the booster rockets on his legs activated without him even trying¡ªbut he did try. He did it without thinking. He already knew how to use his implants.
He launched off the ground and took off racing through the landscape. His senses picked up sights, sounds, and details faster than he could decide to read them.
The grid lines superimposed themselves on the landscape¡¯s surface. He saw them and didn¡¯t see them at the same time.
He didn¡¯t understand what was happening to him, but his implants merged all this information into a torrent of reactions and certainties that somehow made sense.
The information made sense to his implants even when it didn¡¯t make sense to him.
He maneuvered past hills, buildings, ships, and other attackers with no effort or thought at all. He swooped along the river heading closer to what looked like another cluster of buildings ahead.
The Grid adjusted in front of his eyes with every direction change and subtle head movement. The lines showed him from a distance that the buildings were about to change into more alien monsters.
Without thinking about it first, he released two seeker missiles from the ports on his elbows. They corkscrewed across the landscape and detonated the buildings to smithereens.
The landscape vanished instantly. All the mountains, buildings, roads, and attackers dissolved.
Rhodes powered down his boosters and landed on his feet on the tile floor in the white room next to Dr. Neiland.
Fisher didn¡¯t go away. His face stayed there in the upper righthand corner of Rhodes¡¯s view.
¡°That was excellent,¡± Dr. Neiland told him in her usual steady undertone. ¡°You mastered that perfectly. You¡¯ll enter The Grid every time you go into battle. The Grid adjusts how you process sensory data from your implants. Fisher will help you by alerting you to dangers and communicating with you about other information you might find necessary. Do you understand now?¡±
Rhodes nodded, but he barely saw her. ¡°Yeah. I understand now.¡±
¡°You¡¯ll undergo a more detailed training session tomorrow where you and Fisher can explore some of The Grid¡¯s finer nuances.¡±
¡°What does that mean?¡± Rhodes asked.
¡°I would have to show you for you to understand. Our protocol calls for you to process this session first. You can return to your barracks and relax for the rest of the day.¡±
Rhodes grimaced at her. He was really starting to hate the whole concept of processing anything.
Dr. Neiland led the way outside where she split off to a different part of the station. Rhodes headed for the barracks. Fisher still didn¡¯t go away.
Rhodes came to the station¡¯s central concourse, but instead of going back to the barracks, he turned in a different direction to explore another part of the station.
¡°You aren¡¯t authorized to enter this part of the station, Captain,¡± Fisher told him.
¡°Did I ask you? Isn¡¯t there any way to shut you off?¡±
¡°I¡¯m afraid not, Captain. Once activated, I will continue to serve my function as your SAM. I can¡¯t be shut off.¡±
¡°Fan flippin¡¯ tastic,¡± Rhodes snarled under his breath. ¡°If you won¡¯t shut yourself off, at least be quiet. I don¡¯t need you commenting on everything I do.¡±
¡°That is my function, Captain. My function is to alert you to dangers and potential risks in your environment.¡±
¡°Do you see any dangers or potential risks in my environment?¡± Rhodes demanded.
¡°You¡¯re risking your position as commander of Battalion 1 by contravening your authority to enter this part of the station.¡±
Rhodes snorted at him again. ¡°I¡¯m not risking anything, pal. I didn¡¯t ask for this. What the hell do I care if they make someone else commander of Battalion 1? I didn¡¯t ask for you, either, so do me a favor and keep your mouth shut.¡±
Fisher didn¡¯t say anything for a while. He just hovered there at the corner of Rhodes¡¯s eye.
Rhodes explored a few sections of the station¡¯s power plant, the personnel quarters, and even the loading dock. Ships of all shapes and sizes came and went from there.
He stayed out much longer than he otherwise would have. He just wanted to spite Fisher. No one was going to tell him what to do, especially not some computer program installed in his brain.
Rhodes eventually got bored and wandered back to the barracks.
¡°I didn¡¯t ask for this, either, Captain,¡± Fisher murmured on the way.
Rhodes didn¡¯t answer. He shouldn¡¯t have gone off on this program.
The frustration and hopeless despair of his situation escalated to the breaking point. Why couldn¡¯t the Legion just come out and ask him point blank to join this project? He might have been able to tolerate that.
The sensation of these implants attached to his body was becoming excruciating. It didn¡¯t hurt¡ªnot physically.
The feeling of them embedded in his flesh drove him out of his mind. He wanted to claw them out with his bare hands even if it left him bleeding, paralyzed, or dead.
He just wanted to go back to the way he was before. He wanted to feel normal.
He couldn¡¯t communicate any of that to anyone.
Now he had this thing floating in front of his eyes and listening to his every thought. Never in a million years would Rhodes confide how he felt to Fisher. That would be the day.
Rhodes returned to the barracks to find Colonel Kraft waiting for him. Kraft stood by the table where a black metal box sat next to his elbow.
¡°Colonel?¡± Rhodes greeted him. ¡°What can I do for you?¡±
Kraft tapped the box. ¡°This box contains all your personal effects from your posting with the Legion. Your old platoon just forwarded it here for you. The rest of your belongings have been sent onward to your family on Preinea. The Battalion 1 project calls for the member recruits¡¯ families to be informed of their deaths, either in combat or otherwise. I¡¯m sorry, Captain.¡±
Kraft walked out of the barracks and left those words ringing in Rhodes¡¯s ears. His family¡.informed of his death¡.
His family on Preinea thought he was dead. The Legion told them he was dead¡.so the Legion could revive him as this¡..this machine.
He stared at the box. He already knew what was in it.
Some magnetic force pulled him toward it. Whatever shred of his humanity he might have left was in this box right now. He had to see it¡ªjust once.
He opened the box and looked inside. Three medals in a frame, a folded flag, a small wooden ball, and a string of blown-glass beads on a thin, flexible wire¡ªwhat did they even mean anymore?
These could have belonged to anyone¡ªany dead person. No one besides him would ever know what these things meant.
He carried each memory in his head. No one else would ever know what these random objects meant, where they came from, or what they were worth. They weren¡¯t worth anything¡ªexcept to him.
He took the last item out of the box and looked down at a picture of himself, his wife, and their children. His wife was smiling with her arms around Rhodes. She kissed him on the cheek while he laughed at the camera.
The image of one of his sons had blurred. The boy had been horsing around too much so the image only caught him as a smear of movement.
Rhodes¡¯s daughter squirmed in his arms while she grinned at the camera. Rhodes¡¯s other son sat close to his mother with his arms around her waist.
Fisher cocked his head to one side, but he didn¡¯t look down at the picture. He always faced Rhodes no matter what Rhodes was doing. ¡°Who are they?¡± Fisher asked.
Rhodes didn¡¯t answer. Fisher saw everything Rhodes saw. Fisher shared all of Rhodes¡¯s thoughts and feelings. Nothing happened in Rhodes¡¯s head that Fisher didn¡¯t share.
Fisher might even be able to see each memory attached to every item in this box. If the SAM recorded all of Rhodes¡¯s sensory input data, why not his memories, too?
Rhodes tossed the picture back into the box, took a step away from the table, aimed his forearm at the box, and fired his thermal cannon at it.
The plastic didn¡¯t ignite right away. He had to bombard the box for a full minute before the plastic started to melt.
As soon as it did, the oily goo of its liquifying walls burst into flame. He kept firing until he incinerated the box to ash along with everything inside it.
End of Chapter 5.
Battalion 1: Book 1: Chapter 6
Rhodes stepped back into the small white room, but he was all alone this time¡ªall except Fisher. ¡°What are we doing back here?¡± Rhodes asked.
¡°You¡¯re here for a training session,¡± Fisher replied.
¡°I know that,¡± Rhodes snapped. ¡°So why isn¡¯t Dr. Neiland here?¡±
¡°She¡¯ll monitor you from the lab. She doesn¡¯t need to be here.¡±
Rhodes waited. ¡°So¡.when is it going to start?¡±
¡°You just have to drop into The Grid. Then the session will start automatically.¡±
Rhodes started to say that he didn¡¯t know how to enter The Grid, but before he could speak, he realized he did know how. He went into The Grid yesterday. He could do the same thing today.
Without thinking, he dropped through the floor¡ªor it felt like that. The white walls vanished and he wound up in the black landscape with green lines all around him. He glanced around, but he didn¡¯t see anything but Fisher.
Just as fast, Rhodes left The Grid and got himself back into the white training room.
¡°Is there a problem, Captain?¡± Fisher asked. ¡°We have a training session scheduled for today.¡±
¡°The problem is you, pal. Find some way to switch yourself off. I don¡¯t want you hanging around getting in my face.¡±
¡°I can¡¯t switch myself off.¡±
¡°Then we¡¯ll get Dr. Neiland to do it.¡±
Rhodes stormed out of the room and headed across the station toward Neiland¡¯s lab. Rhodes knew enough about Legion stations to remember where the lab was.
¡°I am telling you the truth, Captain,¡± Fisher insisted. ¡°I can¡¯t shut myself off. No one can.¡±
¡°Shut the hell up, okay, man?¡± Rhodes countered. ¡°I¡¯m doing this so I don¡¯t have to listen to you yap in my ear all the time.¡±
¡°My function is to¡.¡±
¡°Shut¡up¡..¡± Rhodes snarled through gritted teeth. ¡°Just¡.shut¡.up¡..¡±
Fisher must have sensed Rhodes teetering on the brink. Fisher didn¡¯t say anything else all the way to Neiland¡¯s lab.
The simple fact that Fisher was still there drove Rhodes over the edge. He had to get rid of this thing somehow. He couldn¡¯t go through his daily existence with some computer program¡¯s face right in front of him around the clock.
Rhodes burst into Neiland¡¯s lab and surprised her and the rest of the medical staff working on their equipment.
Neiland jumped off her stool. ¡°You aren¡¯t authorized to come in here, Captain.¡±
¡°Do you think I give a crap about that? I want you to shut off this¡..this SAM or whatever the hell you call it.¡±
She frowned at him. ¡°Why do you want to shut it off? It¡¯s supposed to help you.¡±
¡°Well, it isn¡¯t helping me!¡± He fought his voice under control. ¡°Just get rid of it. I don¡¯t care what you have to do.¡±
¡°We can¡¯t get rid of it. It¡¯s part of your neural programming¡..¡±
¡°I tried to explain this to you, Captain,¡± Fisher interjected. ¡°The interface¡.¡±
Rhodes lost his battle to stay composed. ¡°Just shut the fuck up, you stupid machine! I¡¯m not talking to you! I¡¯m never talking to you! Got it? Just get the fuck out of my head!¡±
Dr. Irvine and Dr. Montague came over. ¡°What seems to be the problem?¡± Dr. Montague asked.
¡°Nothing seems to be the problem! There IS a problem!¡± Rhodes snapped. ¡°This SAM is driving me insane. Just get it the hell out of my sight. It isn¡¯t helping anything. It does nothing but interfere.¡±
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¡°But it hasn¡¯t done anything,¡± Dr. Neiland pointed out.
¡°It¡¯s there!¡± Rhodes fired back. ¡°It¡¯s there and it doesn¡¯t go away! Just get rid of it. I don¡¯t care how.¡±
¡°We can¡¯t,¡± Dr. Montague told him. ¡°We could only get rid of it by deleting your entire neural core. We would have to take you permanently offline. You would be dead.¡±
¡°I¡¯m sorry, Captain,¡± Dr. Neiland told him. ¡°The SAMs are an integral part of your neural processing system. You won¡¯t be able to function without it.¡±
¡°I won¡¯t be able to function with it.¡±
¡°Just try. Go through the training session with the SAM and see how it works.¡±
¡°No,¡± he snapped. ¡°I¡¯m not going to do anything until you find a way to get rid of it. I didn¡¯t ask for this and I won¡¯t cooperate until you shut it off.¡±
¡°Then I¡¯ll die, too, Captain,¡± Fisher murmured.
¡°You¡¯re already dead, jackass!¡± Rhodes snapped. ¡°You aren¡¯t alive. You¡¯re a program in a machine.¡±
¡°I¡¯m a sentient intelligence form,¡± Fisher told him. ¡°I have the same thoughts and feelings as a human being.¡±
¡°Something tells me you don¡¯t,¡± Rhodes snarled. ¡°You don¡¯t know the first thing about what it means to be a human being.¡±
¡°Be that as it may, I am sentient. I have as much right to existence as you do.¡±
¡°Fine. You go exist somewhere else and leave me the hell alone.¡± Rhodes turned away to leave, but he couldn¡¯t leave without Fisher.
The SAM¡¯s face followed Rhodes everywhere¡ªexcept that Fisher didn¡¯t follow. He stayed right there in front of Rhodes¡¯s eyes no matter where Rhodes looked.
Rhodes stormed out of the lab, but he couldn¡¯t get away from Fisher. Fisher didn¡¯t say anything else, thank God. Rhodes probably would have done something disastrous if Fisher said a word.
Rhodes fumed in a rage on his way back to the barracks. He would have given just about anything to go off somewhere alone, but he couldn¡¯t even do that.
Underneath all his fury, he felt his life slipping through his fingers. Every anchor point to what he knew and understood about himself evaporated before his eyes. He was adrift with nothing.
He couldn¡¯t stand the sight of the barracks. He couldn¡¯t stand the sight of anything¡ªnot with Fisher hovering right there in front of his eyes.
Fisher kept staring at him no matter where Rhodes went. Fisher didn¡¯t say a word, but that somehow made it worse.
Having Fisher staring at him like that drove Rhodes batshit. He had to find a way to get rid of it. Just looking at Fisher all the time really tempted Rhodes to just end it.
At least this nightmare would be over then. Then Rhodes wouldn¡¯t have to think about his family mourning his death.
He would never see them again. That¡¯s why the Legion did it this way¡ªso he wouldn¡¯t be able to go home.
It might be easier for the family just to believe he died on the battlefield. That didn¡¯t make it any easier for him. He really wished now that he did die on the battlefield.
He wandered around the station for a few more hours. Then he spent two hours at the loading dock watching ships launch and land, unload, and different crews work around the docks.
It didn¡¯t help. Nothing did. Nothing ever would because Rhodes was stuck like this forever now.
He was still sitting there when Colonel Kraft came to find him. Kraft sat down next to him and stared off into space, too.
¡°They did the same thing to me,¡± Kraft finally blurted out. ¡°They took me without my permission and told my family I was dead.¡±
Rhodes cringed. He already knew he wasn¡¯t the only one. All those people in those capsules would wake up and find out the same thing. Then they would go through the same nightmare Rhodes was going through now.
How could he participate in this? How could he be the one to tell them to make the best of it and fight the Legion¡¯s battles anyway?
What was the alternative¡ªoffing himself right now? He already knew he wouldn¡¯t do that.
Kraft didn¡¯t even look at Rhodes. Kraft kept staring off into the stars. ¡°I know it isn¡¯t the same thing as what they did to you, but they¡¯re still out there. My family is still out there. I took an oath to protect them and I have to keep it even if they think I¡¯m dead. They¡¯ll never find out I kept my promise, but that doesn¡¯t matter. All that matters is that they¡¯re safe¡ªor at least that I did what I could to keep them safe. I don¡¯t care about anything else.¡±
Kraft turned around for the first time. His eyes didn¡¯t soften at all. He showed no sympathy or emotion, but something in his steadfast reserve told Rhodes loud and clear that Kraft did sympathize.
¡°I couldn¡¯t do what you¡¯re doing,¡± Kraft murmured. ¡°I couldn¡¯t take it, but you can. I don¡¯t know why, but you can take it so much better than anyone else I can think of. I know you¡¯ll do it. Don¡¯t ask me how, but you¡¯ll do it. You have to. You weren¡¯t made for anything else.¡±
Kraft went back to staring at the stars for a while.
Rhodes stared at the side of Kraft¡¯s face and then Rhodes stared at the stars, too. The two men didn¡¯t say anything else.
Kraft didn¡¯t tell Rhodes anything Rhodes didn¡¯t already know. Of course Rhodes had to do it. Of course Rhodes had to do anything¡ªabsolutely anything¡ªto protect his family even if they thought he was dead.
He could take it. That was the worst, most agonizing part. He knew he could take it, but that didn¡¯t ease the pain. He just wanted to die. Surviving was the worst torture imaginable.
He had to do it. He had to do whatever it took no matter how hard it was. He no longer had any other option.
The two men sat in silence for a long time before Kraft got up and left. Rhodes stayed where he was for a few more hours. He sensed himself getting tired. His system needed to go through a conversion cycle, but he didn¡¯t leave.
Maybe if he sat here long enough, the doctors and technicians would forget about him. They might forget that he was supposed to go through a training session today. Maybe they would forget about him entirely and he could spend the rest of his life on this loading dock.
That would never happen.
Fisher¡¯s constant presence irritated Rhodes¡¯s last nerve. He would have given anything to stab himself in the head so he could shut off the SAM just for a minute. A single minute, a single second without Fisher staring at him would have felt like heaven.
Battalion 1: Book 1: Chapter 7
Rhodes stepped into the small white training room¡ªor whatever the hell it was supposed to be.
He made up his mind to think of it as a padded cell where these doctors confined dangerously sick mental patients.
That¡¯s what he was¡ªa dangerously sick mental patient. He really needed to be locked up.
¡°Don¡¯t say anything,¡± he snarled under his breath. ¡°Just don¡¯t say a goddamn word. Understand?¡±
¡°What if I see something threatening you?¡± Fisher asked.
¡°I don¡¯t care. Just keep it to yourself. I¡¯m supposed to train here¡ªnot you.¡±
¡°I¡¯m supposed to train, too,¡± Fisher pointed out. ¡°We¡¯re supposed to train together so we can work together.¡±
¡°I don¡¯t give a flying crap what we¡¯re supposed to do!¡± Rhodes snapped. ¡°Just keep quiet and sit there. Don¡¯t do anything. I was fighting in the Legion long before I ever met you, pal. I can handle it on my own.¡±
¡°General Brewster won¡¯t like it,¡± Fisher murmured.
¡°I hope he doesn¡¯t.¡± Rhodes shut the training room door behind him. ¡°This bullshit has gone on long enough.¡±
¡°What do you want me to do, then?¡± Fisher asked.
¡°Make yourself as small as possible so I don¡¯t see you.¡±
¡°You mean like this?¡± Fisher shrank himself to a pinprick in the corner of Rhodes¡¯s vision.
¡°That¡¯s perfect. Just stay like that¡ªand don¡¯t say anything. Not one peep.¡±
Fisher didn¡¯t answer.
Rhodes dropped into The Grid and looked around.
After more than forty-eight hours of Fisher¡¯s constant presence and commentary, his absence suddenly unnerved Rhodes. The surroundings didn¡¯t quite look right without Fisher there.
Rhodes shrugged it off, started walking, and then took off at a run. The Grid morphed into a different landscape this time.
He found himself on an alien planet towering with enormous buildings in a style he didn¡¯t recognize. Purple-blue clouds floated in a smoggy sky streaked with long, orange-tinted clouds.
Rocky, iron mountains lined the distant horizon. Forests of what looked like sea kelp floated in the breeze between the mountains and the city crowded with these tall buildings.
Spacecraft hovered overhead and bombarded a pyramid in the distance. More fusion charges erupted from the pyramid, jetted around the countryside, and detonated the buildings.
Lasers scattered from building windows and smashed into the city streets. Rhodes didn¡¯t see right away what anyone was shooting at down there.
He ran faster heading for the pyramid. He didn¡¯t know or think about why, but he wanted to get there.
He could have used his boosters to launch off the ground and fly there faster, but he didn¡¯t want to fly into gunfire from either side. He didn¡¯t even know who was fighting or why¡ªnot that it mattered.
He forgot for an instant that this was a made-up simulation inside The Grid. This wasn¡¯t real.
He made it as far as the city outskirts before the ships in the air swiveled in his direction. They opened fire¡.and then the pyramid and the lasers in the windows did the same thing.
All those weapons aimed straight for him. He had to do something to survive.
Just for a second, he really wished Fisher was here. Rhodes wanted to ask someone for help.
He didn¡¯t have time to say a word before a fusion load from one of the aircraft smashed into the ground next to him.
The impact flung him off his feet. He cartwheeled through the air and saw himself falling toward the ground.
In a fraction of an instant, faster than thought, he changed. He didn¡¯t realize he was doing it until it was already happening.
The green grid lines that covered the landscape covered him, too. He saw them and felt them the same way he saw and felt the grid lines of the landscape. He saw and felt them at the same time that he didn¡¯t see or feel them at all.
They lingered there just beneath the surface¡ªjust where he could see them and not see them simultaneously.
He got a hint of that in his own limbs. The Grid was inside him¡ªinside his implants somehow. The lines covered him all over, even the organic skin he still had.
Faster than thought, the grid lines morphed. The squares distorted and his body changed shape along with them.
He slammed into the ground full force and his four limbs distorted into enormous grinding wheels.
His torso changed into a vehicle. His wheels burned along the ground faster than he could run¡ªfaster than his boosters would make him fly.
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He plowed over miles in a few seconds, smashed into the city streets, and saw for the first time what the spacecraft were shooting at.
Dozens of armored fighter vehicles crowded the streets. They all belonged to two army classes and the two sides plastered each other with different weapons.
He didn¡¯t have time to see who or what they were before he overtook the battle. His scourge guns erupted from his sides. They rotated outward to both sides so they could swivel in all directions without hitting his wheels.
All those vehicles from both sides turned their weapons on him. They fired from everywhere at once. Projectiles, lasers, and fusion blasts pounded his armor, but none of it harmed him.
He picked up speed to ram his way through, but all these vehicles in his path slowed him down. He needed to find another way.
Some forgotten instinct told him to go for the pyramid in the distance. The pyramid controlled all of this. If he could destroy it, he could shut down the whole battle.
He veered around a different building to punch his way through another blockade of vehicles. Their weaponry didn¡¯t damage him.
He extended his Viper missile ports above his back to get the blockade out of his way. At that moment, a spacecraft overhead opened fire and unleashed a hellish volley on the ground.
A deadly fusion shot forked right on top of him and sent him flying. His wheels slammed back down onto the ground still churning up the pavement.
He saw himself hurtling way too fast at a different building. He couldn¡¯t divert in time.
Without thinking, he changed shape again into a different kind of missile. His head elongated into a teardrop point. His arms and legs vanished inside a long, smooth housing.
His boosters fired and flame ejected from his tail mere seconds before he smashed into the building. He sailed out the other side into a hail of gunfire from both the pyramid and the spacecraft.
The spacecraft dropped out of orbit laying down a carpet of gunfire on the city below. The thunder of explosions got louder. Rhodes couldn¡¯t get to the pyramid fast enough.
His grid lines changed again with a single thought. A dozen giant limbs sprouted from his sides. He hit the ground on eight legs, vaulted over the vehicles, landed on another building¡¯s outer wall, and sprang off faster than ever.
He leapt from building to building getting closer to the pyramid. He was almost there.
He hit the last building and blasted off. He changed shape in midair and resumed his real form¡ªif he even had a real form anymore.
He turned back into a man, fired his boosters, soared high over the pyramid, and rotated his thermal cannons downward to shoot directly into the pyramid¡¯s topmost point.
Fisher yelled out in Rhodes¡¯s ear, ¡°Captain¡ªlook out!¡±
At that moment, something fired from the ground at the base of the pyramid. Rhodes had half a second to see some dark openings dotting the pavement around the pyramid¡¯s outer base.
The next instant, a catastrophic explosion went off in Rhodes¡¯s face. A brutal impact hit him in the chest and sent him flying.
He woke up lying in a different capsule. It wasn¡¯t his capsule in the barracks. The lid was closed.
The same prongs attached to his head and body, but he could think and see everything around him. He was back in Dr. Neiland¡¯s lab. She stood outside his capsule talking Dr. Montague.
Rhodes couldn¡¯t hear them through the capsule cover. The readings on all the capsule¡¯s controls flashed across the clear surface in front of him.
Rhodes groaned, but he couldn¡¯t turn over or move in any other way. The prongs held him in place.
They somehow erased any pain, but they didn¡¯t erase the excruciating wrongness of these implants embedded in his flesh.
Fisher was back to his normal size in the corner of Rhodes¡¯s vision. ¡°How do you feel, Captain?¡± Fisher asked.
Rhodes tried to shut his eyes, but Fisher still didn¡¯t go away even then. Not even turning his head would make Fisher go away.
¡°I feel rotten if you really want to know the truth,¡± Rhodes grumbled.
Fisher cocked his head to one side in that birdlike way of his. ¡°I¡¯m not detecting any malfunction or physical pain response.¡±
¡°It isn¡¯t a physical pain response, you jackass!¡± Rhodes snapped and immediately fought himself back under control. ¡°Sorry. I don¡¯t mean to take this out on you. I mean¡ªI do mean to take it out on you, but it isn¡¯t a physical pain response.¡±
¡°What is it, then?¡± Fisher inclined his head the other way. ¡°Is it a mental distress response?¡±
Rhodes clamped his lips shut. ¡°I guess you could call it that.¡±
¡°Ah! I understand now,¡± Fisher exclaimed. ¡°You¡¯re in distress because you still haven¡¯t oriented to your implants. My programming indicates this is a natural part of the orientation process.¡±
Rhodes bit his tongue to stop himself from answering. Having Fisher finally understand what the problem was¡ªit almost hurt worse than before.
Rhodes didn¡¯t want Fisher to understand. Rhodes didn¡¯t want anyone to understand.
He didn¡¯t want anyone to find out how hard this was. He didn¡¯t want anyone to know ever under any circumstances. That would make it all too real.
Just then, the prongs retracted from Rhodes¡¯s head and body. They pulled inside the mattress and left him lying there, but the capsule cover didn¡¯t open.
He didn¡¯t move. He didn¡¯t want to get up. He didn¡¯t want to do any of this, but he already knew he had to.
¡°I would have warned you about those Viper ports near the pyramid, but you told me not to say anything,¡± Fisher went on. ¡°I really am only trying to help you, Captain. That is my only function.¡±
Rhodes still didn¡¯t say anything. Something about that last blast must have finally knocked some sense into him.
He didn¡¯t really hold any of this against Fisher. Rhodes almost wished he had Fisher with him during that fight. It would have helped.
Rhodes still doubted how much help Fisher would have been, but at least Rhodes would have had someone.
He didn¡¯t realize this during all his years of fighting in the Legion. He always thought he had his comrades, officers, and fellow soldiers to keep him company.
He did, but it wasn¡¯t the same. None of them could replace one person in his own head who knew everything, saw everything, shared everything¡ªsomeone whose only function was to make sure he didn¡¯t face this alone.
Now he understood what Fisher had been trying to tell him from the beginning. Fisher might give him information about threats and potential dangers.
That was only a small fraction of Fisher¡¯s true value. His real purpose was to help Rhodes process all of this exactly the way Fisher said.
Rhodes had enough trouble processing all of this¡ªall of this sensory information and sensation bombarding him every second of the day and night.
Just the feeling of these implants invading his body and mind¡ªit was more than he could cope with by himself.
He couldn¡¯t process it. He couldn¡¯t understand it. He couldn¡¯t tolerate it¡ªbut he had to. He couldn¡¯t get rid of them.
Fisher might not be able to understand it. Rhodes would never know how much of his own sensations Fisher felt or shared or understood.
For some strange reason, that didn¡¯t seem to matter, either. Fisher didn¡¯t have to understand it. He was just there.
Whatever else he might be¡ªwhether he was as alive or as sentient as a human being¡ªthat didn¡¯t matter, either. His fate remained irreparably bound to Rhodes¡¯s fate.
Whatever happened to Rhodes would happen to Fisher.
One of these days, Rhodes would go into a real battle with real weapons and real alien enemies.
Then he would need every ally he could get to cope with the danger. He would need one person¡ªjust one¡ªone person he knew for certain cared as much about saving Rhodes¡¯s ass as he cared about saving it himself.
Who else would that be besides Fisher? How much closer could anyone get than riding around Rhodes¡¯s own head?
Whatever Fisher might be, Rhodes couldn¡¯t hate him anymore. Rhodes had enough problems without that.
End of Chapter 7.
Battalion 1: Book 1: Chapter 8
Rhodes sat up from his capsule in the barracks and put his feet on the floor. He really wished he could put his boots on.
Putting his boots on had become an essential daily ritual during his years in the Legion.
Those few seconds of putting his boots on and tying the laces¡ªthey gave him a chance to think about the day ahead and get his head screwed on straight.
Those few seconds had gotten him through years of war. He really missed those few seconds, especially now. He could have used a few seconds to get his head screwed on straight for the day ahead.
He stared down at his robotic feet. Right then, just in case he somehow forgot where he was and what was at stake, General Brewster and Colonel Kraft walked into the barracks.
Rhodes only glanced at them to see who it was. Then he went back to looking at his feet. Looking at his feet would have to take the place of putting his boots on.
¡°How are you feeling, Captain?¡± General Brewster asked.
¡°Do you really want to know?¡± Rhodes asked.
General Brewster frowned. A frown didn¡¯t look right on his boyish face.
Frowns suited Kraft much better. He didn¡¯t frown. His serious expression told Rhodes that Kraft already understood. He didn¡¯t have to ask how Rhodes was because Kraft already knew.
¡°It was an unfortunate incident in the training Grid last week,¡± Brewster went on. ¡°We didn¡¯t realize this project would cause such serious distress.¡±
¡°Maybe you should have tested it on yourself first,¡± Rhodes mumbled.
Brewster either didn¡¯t understand or pretended not to. ¡°We¡¯re going to go ahead with the next training session. If we can¡¯t resolve these issues, we may have to scrap the project. I would hate to do that, Captain, and I¡¯m sure you would hate it, too. We¡¯ve all invested so much in this and we had such high hopes for the other recruits.¡±
Rhodes resisted the urge to snort in the man¡¯s face. Recruits. These assholes never recruited anyone. They took these people by force and mutilated their bodies without their consent.
Rhodes didn¡¯t say that. Brewster didn¡¯t have to spell out the obvious threat. If Rhodes didn¡¯t find a way to function in this new reality, they would shut him down.
He could live with that. He would have welcomed it, but he couldn¡¯t do that to the rest of the battalion.
Those people sleeping in the other capsules¡ªthey didn¡¯t even know he was doing this for them, but he had no choice but to at least give them the choice.
He couldn¡¯t do anything that might make the brass shut them down. If it all went south¡ªif he couldn¡¯t make it work¡ªif he lost his ever-loving mind in this lunatic asylum¡ªhe had to at least try.
Brewster laid his hand on Rhodes¡¯s shoulder. ¡°I know you¡¯ll do your best, Captain. I know you¡¯re as anxious to make this work as we are.¡±
Rhodes would have liked to slap the man¡¯s hand away and spit at Brewster never to touch him again.
Rhodes didn¡¯t do that. He just sat there staring at his feet until the two men left.
He waited until they walked out of the barracks before he allowed himself to stand up and move around. He already knew what he had to do. He just had to go ahead and do it.
He had discovered what might have once been a bathroom or washroom attached to this barracks.
He understood enough about the conversion cycle by now. His body didn¡¯t need any kind of hygiene. The conversion cycle took care of that.
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He¡¯d replaced his usual morning routine with a habit of coming in here and looking at his reflection in the mirror. It was the only place in the whole station where he could see his reflection.
The left side of his face looked the way he remembered it. One blue eye looked out at him from under a shock of wavy brown hair.
The conversion cycle somehow stopped his hair from growing so it never got any longer. The hair didn¡¯t seem to die or need to be combed, either.
He ran his fingers through it just because. Running his fingers through his hair made him feel more human. It made him feel normal even if he didn¡¯t look normal.
His implants looked like they belonged to someone else. They looked like they belonged to another species. Even after a week, he still didn¡¯t recognize that they were even a part of him. They weren¡¯t.
After a week both in the hospital and recovering in the barracks, the feeling of wanting to tear the implants out still didn¡¯t go away. The feeling didn¡¯t fade at all.
If anything, it became more entrenched. The implants felt more alien, more invasive, and more excruciatingly irritating than ever.
They enraged him. They made him mind-numbingly furious at the people who did this to him, but he finally realized that Fisher wasn¡¯t one of those people.
Rhodes could have killed General Brewster and the three doctors. The only person around here Rhodes didn¡¯t feel like killing was Colonel Kraft.
Spending a week in what turned out to be one long conversion cycle somehow brought Rhodes to a grudging acceptance of the inevitable reality. He wouldn¡¯t be able to change any of this no matter what he did.
He already knew he wouldn¡¯t kill himself. He just had to find a way to live with it. Christ only knew how he would do that.
He didn¡¯t feel like killing Fisher anymore, either. Rhodes could almost forgive Fisher¡¯s intrusion simply because Fisher tried so hard to make it better. He was the only person who did.
Rhodes couldn¡¯t even call Fisher a person, yet he was the one person in this whole disaster who actually tried to help Rhodes. Not even Kraft did that.
Fisher had figured out how precious and vital these first few minutes of the day were to Rhodes¡¯s sanity.
Fisher had gotten into a morning habit of his own of making himself into a pinprick at this time of day so Rhodes wouldn¡¯t see him.
Fisher didn¡¯t speak to Rhodes until he had a chance to stare at his feet, think things over, and then look at himself in the mirror. Fisher didn¡¯t interrupt those private moments by speaking or making himself visible.
He waited until Rhodes turned away from the mirror and returned to the barracks before Fisher made himself bigger.
Even then, he expanded his face to half its usual size to make himself less obvious. ¡°Good morning, Captain. How was your conversion cycle?¡±
¡°I¡¯m okay, Fisher. Good morning.¡±
¡°We have another training session today,¡± Fisher pointed out.
¡°I know,¡± Rhodes muttered.
¡°How would you like to approach it? We should discuss our strategy before we go in¡ªto avoid another outcome like the last one.¡±
Rhodes only nodded. ¡°I guess you can advise me the way you¡¯ve been programmed to. I guess that¡¯s just the way it has to be.¡±
¡°It doesn¡¯t have to be that way if it causes you distress.¡±
Rhodes took a deep breath and sat down on the edge of his capsule to face Fisher for the first time.
Rhodes had spent the last week avoiding all eye contact with Fisher. Rhodes wanted to erase Fisher from existence.
This was the first time Rhodes actually sat down to have a conversation with his SAM.
¡°You aren¡¯t what¡¯s causing me distress, Fisher,¡± Rhodes began.
¡°Are you sure? You were adamant the last time we spoke that I was.¡±
Rhodes pulled himself together with an effort. ¡°I apologize for implying that. I suppose it was just the disorientation.¡±
Fisher cocked his head to one side. ¡°The disorientation should have dissipated by now. My programming indicates that the disorientation shouldn¡¯t last more than a few days.¡±
¡°I¡¯m going to go out on a limb and say that your programming was written by people who never went through this disorientation themselves. Dr. Irvine said I¡¯m the first person to ever go through this process. So no one really knows how the disorientation will affect anyone. I could be like this for the rest of my life.¡±
Fisher¡¯s expression changed, and for the first time ever, he broke eye contact and looked away. ¡°You¡¯re right, Captain. That is a distinct possibility no one in this Battalion 1 project has foreseen. I apologize if my assessment made light of your difficulties.¡±
Rhodes swallowed down a lump in his throat. He never dreamed having this conversation with a machine would be so hard.
He struggled to stop his voice from shaking, but it happened anyway. ¡°Look, I don¡¯t want to do this and I know you don¡¯t, either. Neither of us is in any position to break off or change anything even if we wanted to. Let¡¯s just agree to work together and make the best of it, okay? I really don¡¯t know what else we can do.¡±
¡°Of course, Captain. That is all I want, too. You have my word I will do everything in my power to make this process as tolerable for you as possible. If I can do anything for you, you only have to tell me.¡±
Rhodes only nodded. He already knew Fisher felt that way without Fisher saying it.
Fisher was the only person here who would say it. He was absolutely the only person who would say it with any meaning.
General Brewster or one of the doctors might say they would do anything for Rhodes, but they would only say it as a formality. They wouldn¡¯t really mean it¡ªnot the way Fisher did.
Of course Fisher meant it. His whole existence hinged on Rhodes. Fisher had no choice but to help Rhodes. They were stuck in this together for good or bad.
Battalion 1: Book 1: Chapter 9
¡°What¡¯s your assessment of what I did during the last battle?¡± Rhodes asked Fisher on the way down the corridor.
¡°I don¡¯t understand the question, Captain.¡±
¡°What did you think of what I did? How do you think I handled it¡ªapart from not listening to you or letting you warn me or give me information about things? I guess I¡¯m asking about how I changed shape.¡±
¡°Ah! You¡¯re referring to the Grid alterations you used to break through the pyramid¡¯s defenses.¡±
¡°Are those alterations part of my programming¡ªor whatever you call it?¡±
¡°You can alter your Grid projection any way you want to, Captain. I thought you understood that.¡±
Rhodes stopped in his tracks and turned to stare at Fisher. Fisher¡¯s face hovered right there in front of Rhodes¡¯s eyes. Rhodes didn¡¯t have to turn anywhere because Fisher was always there.
¡°Are you saying¡.I can take any shape¡ªany shape at all?¡±
¡°Of course, Captain. That¡¯s what The Grid is for. It forms the fundamental layer structure of these simulated landscapes, but it will behave differently when you go into a real battle.¡±
¡°What happens then?¡±
¡°The Grid feeds you information about the landscape, the terrain, obstacles, and any objects or enemy positions within The Grid. The Grid always affects your projection, though. You control that.¡±
¡°So¡.I really can take any shape¡ªeven in a real battle?¡±
¡°Of course. That¡¯s the purpose of The Grid. It¡¯s much more useful to you than it is at creating these training landscapes.¡±
Rhodes set off walking again. This revelation added a whole new dimension for him to wrap his brain around.
¡°Getting back to my original question, what did you think of how I used The Grid last time?¡±
¡°You used it perfectly well,¡± Fisher replied. ¡°You created useful shapes that adapted your weapons and movement style to each situation. If I had warned you about the Viper ports in time, you would have hit the target and achieved the objective.¡±
Rhodes already knew that. He should have let Fisher communicate with him during the training session. What was the point of carrying around this SAM if he didn¡¯t let it help him?
They turned off into the same tiny training room. Rhodes didn¡¯t wait around long enough to think of it as a padded cell for a lunatic mental patient.
He dropped into The Grid immediately, started walking, and then burst into a run.
Fisher stayed full-sized in the upper righthand corner of Rhodes¡¯s view. The Grid shifted and they entered another alien planet landscape¡ªa different one this time.
This one was another battle zone, but instead of a city with a pyramid in the distance, they found themselves in a dense jungle.
Aemon Legion Jackhammers went off all around Rhodes. Gunshots blasted through the trees, pelted trunks and branches, and nearly took Rhodes¡¯s head off.
He fired his boosters to launch above the canopy where he could get clear of the conflict.
He wound up flying into another raging air battle between Legion Predators on one side and some alien drone fighter craft on the other.
Viper missiles pounded him from both sides and knocked him out of the air. He felt himself falling.
¡°Get back down on the jungle floor, Captain!¡± Fisher called over the noise.
¡°It¡¯s a death trap down there! I can¡¯t go down there!¡±
¡°None of the gunfire is lower than five feet off the ground! You can get beneath it and make your way to the objective from there. You should be safe!¡±
Rhodes didn¡¯t argue. He sure as hell couldn¡¯t stay up here.
He fired his boosters again, banked into a dive, and plunged for the canopy. His instincts took over again and his body stretched out into a long, narrow shape.
His arms morphed into short wings and his boosters fired directly behind him.
He smashed through the canopy flying full speed. He didn¡¯t even try to slow down. He let his senses take over and the grid lines flowed into a different shape.
His grid lines morphed into the long, snaking coiled body of some boneless creature, swerved up level with the ground, and took off winding his way between the trees.
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Jackhammers pounded back and forth above his head, but he never stood up tall enough for any of the gunfire to hit him.
Fisher still hovered in front of Rhodes¡¯s eyes. ¡°Where¡¯s the objective?!¡± Rhodes roared. ¡°I don¡¯t even know what the objective is!¡±
¡°It¡¯s a pit in the ground two miles northeast of here!¡± Fisher rotated slightly to the side and the Grid landscape in front of Rhodes changed again.
The lines pivoted and shrank to show Rhodes a full overhead map of the surrounding countryside.
The Grid fed tons of data to Rhodes¡¯s neural core. He read the landscape in the blink of an eye.
The Grid even highlighted enemy positions, craft, and ground troops he couldn¡¯t see with his eyes.
A few tall, modular complexes dotted the terrain at different locations. The alien enemy occupied most of these fortified positions.
The Grid fed Rhodes more information than he would ever need about what kind of weaponry the aliens were using, how many pieces they had set up at which locations, and even the weapons¡¯ targeting angles.
Legion platoons advanced through the jungle trying to surround the alien complexes. Dusters and Predators swooped overhead dropping breaker bombs on the structures. All those aircraft sent out Viper missiles to bombard the fortifications.
None of the Legion aircraft noticed the isolated pits Fisher mentioned. The Grid didn¡¯t show them as anything more than holes in the ground.
¡°What is that?¡± Rhodes asked.
¡°The enemy is hiding a toxic weapons lab down there,¡± Fisher told him. ¡°You have to drop a breaker bomb down that hole to destroy the lab.¡±
¡°I don¡¯t have a breaker bomb.¡±
¡°That¡¯s the objective. You have ten minutes before the lab becomes active. Then the aliens will release the toxin and kill every Legion soldier in The Grid, including you.¡±
Rhodes shuddered. How was he supposed to drop a breaker bomb down the pit when he didn¡¯t have a breaker bomb?
That didn¡¯t matter. He had ten minutes to cross two miles of battlefield. He would just have to worry about bombing the pit after he got there.
¡°I¡¯ll need to refuel before I go out there,¡± Rhodes remarked.
¡°You don¡¯t need to reload,¡± Fisher replied.
¡°What do you mean?¡±
¡°Your implants include a fusion generator that powers all your¡.¡±
¡°Okay, spare me the science lecture. So¡.I don¡¯t need to reload anything? What about my Vipers?¡±
¡°You should always have a full complement no matter how many Vipers you fire. The generator replaces them after you release each one.¡±
¡°How long does it take to replace them?¡±
¡°It¡¯s instantaneous.¡±
Rhodes didn¡¯t ask the obvious question about how that was even scientifically possible. He didn¡¯t have time for that right now.
He really didn¡¯t care how some fusion generator instantaneously replaced Viper missiles as soon as they released. He had bigger things to worry about with everyone shooting at him.
He took off slithering faster than ever over the jungle floor. The Grid constantly pivoted and adjusted to give him a complete readout on the surrounding terrain, the aliens, their technology, and all the Legion positions.
The Grid showed him exactly where he was on the map. He was too far away from the pits and not making fast enough progress. He wouldn¡¯t get there in time.
¡°This won¡¯t work,¡± he told Fisher. ¡°We need a new strategy.¡±
¡°What do you have in mind?¡±
¡°Hold onto your shorts, pal. I have an idea, but it might get dicey.¡±
¡°I don¡¯t know what that word means,¡± Fisher replied. ¡°We only have five minutes left. What are you going to do? It has to be something quick.¡±
¡°I don¡¯t have time to explain. Just hold onto something.¡±
Rhodes realized in that moment that Fisher didn¡¯t have anything to hold onto, but it didn¡¯t matter.
Rhodes rocketed out of the jungle flying at his top speed. He changed in an instant, blasted through the gunfire coming from both sides, and broke the canopy.
He altered his grid lines to take the shape of one of the alien fighter drones and flew straight into the Legion Predators¡¯ gunfire.
¡°No, Captain!¡± Fisher roared, but Rhodes didn¡¯t listen. He rotated in the Predators¡¯ direction and opened fire with his scourge guns.
Two Predators were in the act of bombing the alien structures. At that moment, one Predator let loose its breaker bomb to pound the complex.
Rhodes changed shape again in a heartbeat, fired his boosters, and plunged for the building. He snatched the breaker bomb out of thin air.
¡°The bomb is set to blow in five seconds!¡± Fisher yelled. ¡°Get it down the hole now!¡±
Rhodes couldn¡¯t fly any faster, so he tilted toward the ground and let gravity take over. He plummeted for the open pit. He was flying too fast to stop.
¡°Two seconds!¡± Fisher roared.
Rhodes scrambled to come up with some shape that would save his own life¡ªand Fisher¡¯s.
The hole yawned in front of him. If he didn¡¯t do something now, he might as well fly down that hole and let the bomb blow him up along with the alien lab.
At the last possible second before impact, the grid lines covering his limbs splayed outward as wide as they would go. He flattened himself into a thin, springy piece of fabric fifty feet across.
He hit the ground, covered the hole, and the breaker bomb ripped out of his grip. It dropped down the pit and the fabric bounced across the hole.
¡°Get out of the way!¡± Fisher yelled, and without asking permission, he did something to the fabric¡¯s grid lines.
They collapsed in on themselves, converged into a ball, and Rhodes rolled clear onto the ground just as a colossal jet of fire exploded out of the hole.
Rhodes tumbled away wrapping his arms over his head. The explosion detonated twenty feet of soil around the hole. The eruption tossed him farther away from it. He somersaulted clear and pitched into the trees.
Rhodes picked himself up off the ground and looked around, but the landscape was already vanishing before his eyes. It turned black with just the grid lines in perfect squares all around him.
¡°I don¡¯t detect any injuries, Captain,¡± Fisher murmured. ¡°Congratulations on a successful training session.¡±
¡°Thanks,¡± Rhodes gasped. His heart wouldn¡¯t stop racing. ¡°Thanks for your help.¡±
¡°General Brewster is asking to see you as soon as you finish here. He wants to congratulate you, too.¡±
Rhodes groaned. ¡°Does he have to?¡±
¡°Apparently so. This project is his brainchild.¡±
Rhodes snorted. ¡°Why am I not surprised?¡±
Fisher cocked his head to study Rhodes. ¡°Are you okay, Captain? You didn¡¯t have any difficulty manipulating The Grid that time.¡±
Rhodes turned away. ¡°Don¡¯t tell the general that.¡±
¡°I can¡¯t communicate with him.¡±
¡°I meant it figuratively. I don¡¯t want him to think I¡¯m enjoying this.¡±
¡°At least you aren¡¯t in distress about it.¡±
¡°I mean I don¡¯t want him to think I actually like this or that I changed my opinion about what he¡¯s doing.¡±
Fisher inclined his head the other way. ¡°Do you like it?¡±
Rhodes distracted himself by leaving The Grid and going back to the training room. ¡°I guess the problem is I like it too much. It could become addictive if I¡¯m not careful.¡±
End of Chapter 9.
Battalion 1: Book 1: Chapter 10
Rhodes walked into the lab and stopped on the threshold to stare at the line of twelve capsules in front of him.
The twelve new members of Battalion 1 lay asleep inside their capsules the way they had been when Rhodes first woke up.
Dr. Neiland, Dr. Irvine, Dr. Montague, General Brewster, and Colonel Kraft waited in the room for Rhodes to show up.
He barely looked at them. His attention fixated on the people sleeping inside the capsules.
Dr. Irvine and Dr. Neiland tapped away on two of the capsules¡¯ control panels. ¡°We¡¯ll wake them up three at a time,¡± Dr. Irvine announced. ¡°You can explain everything to them better than we can, Captain.¡±
¡°Leave me alone with them,¡± Rhodes told him.
General Brewster and Dr. Montague both spun around to stare at him. ¡°That would not be advisable,¡± Dr. Montague replied.
¡°Then what the hell am I doing here?¡± Rhodes fired back. ¡°Waking up to you idiots was the worst thing that ever happened to me. Do what you have to do to bring them out of stasis and then make yourselves scarce. I can explain it all much better if you aren¡¯t here.¡±
General Brewster started to say, ¡°You don¡¯t make the rules here, Captain¡.¡±
Kraft stopped him by laying a hand on Brewster¡¯s arm. Kraft gave the general a significant look and jerked his head toward the door.
Brewster¡¯s expression changed. ¡°I guess it won¡¯t do any harm,¡± he grumbled.
The three doctors kept casting furtive glances back and forth between Brewster and Rhodes. The doctors didn¡¯t stop working on the three capsules in question.
Kraft finally dragged Brewster out of the lab. Brewster gave orders to the doctors to do it Rhodes¡¯s way and then the doctors left, too.
The three capsules opened, but the people inside didn¡¯t stir. Rhodes stood over them staring down at them.
So many conflicting emotions wrestled in his chest. He actually considered for a minute if it wouldn¡¯t be better just to kill these people now. That would spare them the trouble of trying to orient to this nightmare.
His own words came back to haunt him. These people might not suffer any disorientation at all. They might be delighted with their new circumstances. Who was he to make that decision for them?
¡°Are you sure this is a good idea?¡± Fisher asked.
¡°None of this is a good idea. This whole project is a bad idea from start to finish. What the hell difference does it make if I¡¯m here or someone else is?¡±
¡°You would know that better than I would, Captain.¡±
¡°That¡¯s kinda the point, isn¡¯t it? I¡¯m the only person alive who knows anything about this.¡±
They had to cut their conversation short when the three recruits stirred. The doctors had woken up Sergeant David Cope, Corporal Bobby Poole, and Corporal Liam Taylor first. They groaned and twisted in bed.
¡°Their SAMs aren¡¯t activated yet, are they?¡± Rhodes asked Fisher.
¡°Not yet. They have to go through at least two days of orientation before the doctors introduce the new recruits to The Grid and their SAMs.¡±
¡°Do you know anything about their SAMs?¡± Rhodes asked.
¡°No one knows anything about their SAMs,¡± Fisher replied. ¡°Each recruit gets a brand-new SAM that has never been brought online before. No one knows what a SAM will be or who or what its personality will be like before the doctors activate it.¡±
Rhodes ran his hand across his eyes. ¡°This really is the most incompetent military operation I ever heard of.¡±
¡°I don¡¯t understand the problem, Captain. How can anyone know what a SAM will be before it comes online?¡±
Rhodes didn¡¯t have time to explain before the three recruits started to open their eyes. Cope opened his first.
He had sandy blonde hair, blue eyes, and fine, delicate features. He would have been a real lady killer in any other walk of life.
¡°Where am I?¡± he croaked.
¡°You¡¯re at Coleridge Station. It¡¯s a military base on the Fringes.¡±
Cope groaned again and raised his hand to rub his eyes. That¡¯s when he touched his face. He looked down at his hand and blinked.
¡°You got injured on the battlefield,¡± Rhodes explained. ¡°You would have died. The Legion brought you here and repaired your limbs and organs by replacing them with these robotic implants. See? They did the same thing to me. Soldier! Look at me!¡±
Cope¡¯s eyes shot up to meet Rhodes, but Cope didn¡¯t seem to understand what he was seeing.
His one blue eye stared at Rhodes extra hard, but Cope didn¡¯t react at all.
¡°My name is Captain Corban Rhodes of the 249th Platoon. I got injured on the battlefield and I woke up here the same way you are now. Look at me, Sergeant!¡±
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Cope blinked his one eye, but he still didn¡¯t respond. Just then, Poole raised his head and opened his eye.
He had a thick mop of dark brown hair that needed a trim. A scruff of black bristles covered the bottom half of his face. ¡°Where am I?¡± he groaned in a deep, growly voice.
¡°You¡¯re at Coleridge Station on the Fringes. You got injured on the battlefield. You¡¯re in the hospital.¡±
¡°I feel like shit,¡± Poole grumbled.
¡°You¡¯re disoriented from being asleep for so long.¡±
Rhodes had to turn his attention to Taylor. He kept trying to raise his arm to touch his own face, but he couldn¡¯t lift it. He groaned once¡and then again.
Cope still stared at nothing. No one seemed to be home at all.
Rhodes went from one man to another trying to explain everything to them. ¡°The weakness and nausea will pass. You¡¯ll feel better in a few minutes. Don¡¯t worry. You¡¯re going to be fine.¡±
Poole blinked his one good eye a little harder and raised his hand in front of his face. He moved his fingers and rotated his wrist in deep concentration when he saw his robotic hand. ¡°What¡..the¡.hell¡¡?¡±
¡°You almost died on the battlefield. The Legion replaced your injured limbs and damaged organs with these implants. They did the same thing to me.¡±
Taylor groaned again. He still didn¡¯t open his eye.
Cope stared into space. He didn¡¯t move except to blink a few times.
Rhodes went back to Taylor¡¯s bed and checked the control panel. ¡°Something¡¯s wrong,¡± Rhodes told Fisher. ¡°He should have woken up by now. Can you tell what the readings say about it?¡±
Poole looked up at him. ¡°Huh?¡±
Rhodes opened his mouth to explain that he wasn¡¯t talking to Poole, but just then, the door burst open. The three doctors and the two officers charged into the room.
Dr. Neiland raced over to the panel attached to Taylor¡¯s bed. She started tapping frantically at the controls. ¡°Something¡¯s wrong.¡±
¡°I know,¡± Rhodes told her. ¡°I was just asking Fisher if he could figure it out.¡±
Dr. Irvine approached Taylor¡¯s bed from the other side, leaned over the man, and pried back one of his eyelids to check his one good eye. ¡°His pupils aren¡¯t reacting.¡±
¡°His brainwaves are all normal,¡± Dr. Neiland muttered. ¡°So are his vital signs. I can¡¯t find anything wrong with him.¡±
Poole turned to stare at them. ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡±
Everyone ignored him. ¡°His brainwaves are becoming erratic!¡± Dr. Neiland warned. ¡°We have to intervene to stop the¡..¡±
She barely got the words out before Taylor convulsed on the bed. He spasmed once, lay still, and then jerked again.
¡°What¡¯s wrong with him?¡± General Brewster asked.
¡°Maybe he¡¯s only had half his body parts replaced by robotics and now his whole system is rejecting the implants,¡± Rhodes snapped over his shoulder.
He shouldn¡¯t have used that moment to make his point, but Taylor made it for him.
The three doctors raced around the bed pushing every button they could find. ¡°His brainwaves are entering an Epsilon state!¡± Dr. Neiland yelled. ¡°He¡¯s going into cardiac arrest!¡±
¡°Defibrillate him!¡± Dr. Montague ordered.
¡°What¡¯s the point if his brain is gone?¡± Dr. Neiland countered. ¡°We can¡¯t stop the cascade! It¡¯s already past the point of no return.¡±
Taylor jolted again, and this time, the convulsions didn¡¯t stop. He jerked back and forth so violently that he bounced on the mattress.
Dr. Irvine dove for him to hold him down. ¡°For God¡¯s sake, do something, Veronica!¡±
¡°I can¡¯t!¡± Dr. Neiland countered. ¡°The implants are reacting to the cascade! They¡¯re attacking the base tissue layer.¡±
Rhodes stood back watching in horror as the flesh around the implants turned black. It peeled away from the implants to expose bone, muscle, and bloody connective tissue.
The skin around Taylor¡¯s face curled away to reveal sections of skull. The eyelid of his one remaining eye shriveled, turned black, and rolled upward inside the socket.
The lid left one brown eyeball exposed for a second before the eye turned black and crumbled inward in a rotten, sunken mass.
The three doctors straightened up and stared down at the destroyed corpse. Only the implants looked intact. The cascade completely demolished the rest of Taylor¡¯s body.
¡°There must be some way to stop it,¡± Dr. Irvine murmured.
¡°We¡¯ve tried everything,¡± Dr. Neiland choked.
¡°Well, we can¡¯t keep losing people like this,¡± Dr. Irvine countered. ¡°This is the tenth one we¡¯ve lost.¡±
Rhodes opened his mouth to suggest maybe they ought to consider not implanting these devices in any more unwilling soldiers, but a strangled scream cut him off.
Everyone turned around to see Poole sitting up on the edge of his capsule.
Rhodes realized too late that Poole was sitting in exactly the right position to see everything that happened to Taylor. It couldn¡¯t have happened at a worse time or in a worse place.
Poole let out one broken roar of agony and horror, shot off his bed, and raised both hands to his face.
He bared his teeth in a hideous grimace of pain and fury, dug his fingers into his forehead, and sank them into the skin around his facial implants.
Dr. Irvine and Dr. Montague stood on that side of Taylor¡¯s bed. They lunged for Poole trying to wrench his arms down.
¡°NO!!¡± Dr. Montague yelled,
No one could fight Poole¡¯s strength. He took his hands away from his face just long enough to swing his robotic arms.
He clubbed both doctors away and attacked his own head even harder. He clawed at his forehead and succeeded in tearing the implants out of the bone.
He roared in pain, but that only drove him farther into insanity. He yanked his facial implant away and blood spurted from the open wounds. It flooded into his one remaining eye.
He gave one almighty heave and ripped the implant the rest of the way off. It tore out of his implanted eye socket and a long cable of bloody electronic fibers snaked out of his skull.
He screamed in continuous bellows of dying fury, but nothing stopped him from tearing the rest of his implants off his head.
He used his left arm to rip his right arm off. It tore out of the shoulder socket and he used his one remaining arm to tear the rest of the implants away from his chest.
Blood poured down his body from all those wounds. Wires, cables, and artificial metal joints came away along with the components.
He threw them on the floor and finally, last of all, he tore out his own rib cage when he ripped the plate off his chest.
He buckled onto his knees strangling on his own blood. He eventually collapsed across the floor in a pool of his own blood.
Everyone stared at him in horror. Rhodes felt sick, but he had to watch to the very end.
Dr. Neiland sobbed quietly in a corner. The other two doctors stared down at Poole¡¯s body in stunned disbelief. Neither of the two officers moved a muscle.
After what seemed like hours, Dr. Irvine turned to Cope. He didn¡¯t move through the whole process. He lay on his mattress staring up with the same blank expression he gave Rhodes when Cope first woke up.
Dr. Irvine checked the readings on Cope¡¯s capsule. ¡°He¡¯s gone, too. His brainwaves are negligible. He should have come out of the disorientation by now. His whole system shut down. He¡¯s gone.¡±
Rhodes couldn¡¯t watch this anymore. He cut a wide circle around Poole¡¯s body and left the lab for the other side of the station. These three recruits were someone else¡¯s problem. The people who did this could clean up their own mess.
Rhodes went back to the loading dock. It was the only place in this nuthouse where he could be alone and think.
¡°I¡¯m sorry you had to see that, Captain,¡± Fisher murmured after a while.
¡°I¡¯m not,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°That was nothing I haven¡¯t thought about doing a million times myself. It actually makes me feel better. Now I know I¡¯m not the only one.¡±
End of Chapter 10.
Battalion 1: Book 1: Chapter 11
Rhodes stood back across the room and watched the doctors wake up the next three recruits. He didn¡¯t hold out much hope that this batch would play out any differently than the first three.
He didn¡¯t voice his worst fears to anyone, not even Fisher. Even so, Rhodes sensed the underlying unspoken subtext.
If this didn¡¯t work, if the doctors didn¡¯t succeed in waking up anyone else, Rhodes would be the only person alive with these implants. He would be one of a kind.
The Legion brass would probably decide he was too valuable to send into battle after all. He might get trapped at Coleridge Station for the rest of eternity¡ªor however long he lived before he decided to end his own misery.
The doctors woke up Lieutenant Heath Lauer, Corporal Rudy Fuentes, and Alyssa Thackery next. They went through the same process of groaning, opening their eyes, and discovering their implants.
Rhodes didn¡¯t get involved when the doctors explained everything.
Thackery stood up right away. She kept raising her hands, turning them in all directions, and moving her limbs in amazement.
¡°This is great!¡± she exclaimed. ¡°I feel wonderful. I¡¯ve never felt this good.¡±
¡°Do you feel any disorientation or confusion?¡± Dr. Neiland asked.
¡°No, I feel fantastic!¡± Thackery grinned. ¡°I should have signed up for this years ago.¡±
¡°What¡¯s wrong with her?¡± Fisher asked. ¡°Why isn¡¯t she disoriented?¡±
Rhodes didn¡¯t answer. No one outside his own head could hear Fisher. It usually disturbed people to hear Rhodes talking to someone no one else could see.
Thackery had a tight, muscular body like she worked out a lot before this. She had a springy quality that made Rhodes think she actually might be a soldier after all even though she wasn¡¯t.
Fuentes sat up more slowly. He couldn¡¯t be more than twenty-one with a dull, slack expression.
He looked around him blinking in a daze for a long time. ¡°Do you remember where you were before you woke up here?¡± Dr. Irvine asked him.
¡°Um¡.I think¡..I was on a ship¡.¡± Fuentes stammered.
¡°Do you remember your own name?¡±
¡°Um¡..Rudy¡..¡±
Dr. Irvine motioned for Rhodes to come over. ¡°This is Captain Corban Rhodes. He¡¯ll be your commanding officer from now on.¡± Dr. Irvine murmured in Rhodes¡¯s ear. ¡°Ask him some questions while I check his brainwave readings.¡±
¡°Do you understand where you are, Corporal?¡± Rhodes asked. ¡°Did you hear the doctor tell you just now where you are?¡±
¡°Yes, Sir,¡± Fuentes replied in the same numb tone.
¡°What did he say? Where did the doctor say you are?¡±
¡°Um¡..I think it was¡..something about Cole something Station.¡±
¡°Do you remember why the doctor said the Legion brought you here?¡± Rhodes asked.
¡°Yes, Sir. He said¡.I got hurt¡and they brought me here¡.to fix me¡..¡±
Rhodes picked up Fuentes¡¯s arm. ¡°Do you know what this is, Corporal?¡±
¡°Um¡..my arm, Sir?¡±
Rhodes glanced at Dr. Irvine. ¡°What¡¯s wrong? Is his brain shutting down?¡±
¡°All his brainwaves are reading as normal. His service record says he had an IQ of ninety before this, so maybe he was like this before.¡±
Rhodes turned back to Fuentes. ¡°Do you know why you¡¯re here, Corporal? Do you know why the doctors replaced your limbs and organs with these machines?¡±
¡°To fight the war, Sir?¡±
Rhodes glanced at Irvine again, but Irvine just shrugged. ¡°I can¡¯t find anything wrong with him. As long as he doesn¡¯t suffer from any disorientation, he should be fine.¡±
Rhodes left it at that and turned to the last of the three new recruits. Lauer sat on his bed glaring at everyone. He had longish, messy black hair, a thick, messy black beard, and hard black eyes.
He had a big, burly, dangerously powerful frame. He looked like he could get violent given the right provocation.
He answered Dr. Montague in gruff, one-word grunts.
¡°This is Captain Corban Rhodes,¡± Dr. Montague told Lauer. ¡°He¡¯ll be in command of your unit as soon as you orient to your new implants.¡±
Lauer glared at Rhodes, dipped his chin once, and clipped, ¡°Sir.¡±
¡°Can you remember where you were before you woke up here, Lieutenant?¡± Rhodes asked.
¡°Yes, Sir,¡± Lauer snapped.
Rhodes waited for him to say something else. ¡°Are you aware of why you¡¯re here and what Battalion 1¡¯s mission is?¡±
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
¡°Yes, Sir.¡±
Rhodes gave it up. He decided to wait and see just how disoriented Lauer turned out to be.
At least he didn¡¯t attack himself and tear his implants out. Anything less than that would be a win¡ªthat and not dying of convulsions or going brain-dead in his capsule.
None of the three recruits seemed to suffer from any disorientation at all¡ªnot on the surface. Thackery couldn¡¯t have been more delighted with her new circumstances. Fuentes didn¡¯t respond to anyone with any more emotion than before.
Lauer kept glaring at everyone and refused to say a word other than, ¡°Yes, Sir,¡± and ¡°No, Sir.¡±
Once the doctors assured themselves that none of the three recruits was going down in flames, the doctors left the three recruits with Rhodes.
He took them back to the barracks and explained the capsules to them.
¡°This is awesome!¡± Thackery exclaimed and then went over to the computer terminal. ¡°I always wanted time to study all this stuff.¡±
¡°I don¡¯t know how much free time we¡¯ll have,¡± Rhodes told her. ¡°As soon as the battalion finishes training, the Legion will deploy us back on the battlefield.¡±
Fuentes headed for the terminal, too. ¡°I want to call my mother. I want to tell her I¡¯m okay. She¡¯s probably wondering where I am.¡±
¡°You can¡¯t, Corporal,¡± Rhodes told him. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but all your families have been notified that you died in the accidents that brought you here. You can¡¯t go home and you can¡¯t talk to your families. I¡¯m sorry.¡±
Fuentes¡¯s features screwed up in knots. ¡°But¡..I have to! My family is all I have! I can¡¯t lose them!¡±
¡°I¡¯m sorry, Corporal. The same thing happened to me and most of the staff here. We all lost people we love.¡±
¡°But¡.I have to!¡± Fuentes¡¯s voice spiked. ¡°You can¡¯t stop me! I have to¡.and I¡¯m going to!¡±
He smacked Rhodes¡¯s hands away and then charged past him to the terminal. Rhodes lunged for him to stop him.
¡°He can¡¯t, Captain,¡± Fisher murmured. ¡°These terminals don¡¯t connect to any outside communications system.¡±
Rhodes stopped there across the room. Fuentes raced to the terminal. Thackery sidestepped to get out of the way to give him space to get near it.
Fuentes threw himself down at the desk and scrambled on the terminal pushing a million buttons.
He kept muttering to himself, ¡°I have to! I have to!¡±
Rhodes watched him for a while before he crossed to Fuentes¡¯s side. Rhodes laid his hand on the boy¡¯s shoulder. ¡°You can¡¯t, man. I¡¯m sorry.¡±
Fuentes blasted out of the chair, tried to knock Rhodes aside a second time, and then collapsed on his knees. He sprawled across the desk, extended his arms over his head, and burst into loud, agonized sobs.
¡°NO!!¡± he howled. ¡°NO!!¡±
Lauer turned his head all the way away and glared at the wall. Thackery blinked at Fuentes in disbelief.
Rhodes took a few steps toward the boy, but Rhodes hesitated to intervene.
¡°It looks like he was disoriented after all,¡± Fisher murmured.
Rhodes didn¡¯t answer that time, either. He was beginning to see a trend here.
This so-called disorientation was bound to reveal itself in all kinds of ways. It definitely wouldn¡¯t go away anytime soon.
He took hold of Fuentes¡¯s shoulders and pulled him off the desk. ¡°Come here, Corporal. Sit down over here.¡±
He steered Fuentes to a nearby bench at the table. Fuentes stayed crumpled over shaking with pitiful sobs, but he didn¡¯t resist.
Rhodes sat down next to him and patted Fuentes on the back. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, man. The same thing happened to me.¡±
Fuentes doubled over crying even harder and buried his face in Rhodes¡¯s chest.
Rhodes froze when Fuentes wrapped his arms around Rhodes¡¯s rib cage. Fuentes held on way too tightly and completely broke down like a child.
Rhodes hesitated again. Then he threw caution to the wind, laid his arm over Fuentes¡¯s shoulders, and held him.
Nothing would make this better. Holding Fuentes wouldn¡¯t make it better, but just one person trying to care made a big difference.
Rhodes learned that the hard way. He learned that from Fisher.
¡°They¡¯re all I have!¡± Fuentes howled. ¡°My family is all I have!¡±
¡°I know,¡± Rhodes murmured. ¡°The same thing happened to me.¡±
Thackery stood there staring at them for a long time. Lauer kept his head turned and refused to look at anyone.
Fuentes didn¡¯t show any sign of letting up. After half an hour of straight crying, Rhodes couldn¡¯t take it anymore.
He dragged Fuentes to his feet, but Fuentes refused to unwrap his arms from around Rhodes¡¯s body.
Rhodes staggered across the barracks to the capsule assigned to Fuentes. Rhodes had to use force to pry the kid off.
¡°Lie down here, Rudy,¡± Rhodes ordered. ¡°Lie down and try to get some sleep. You¡¯ll feel better when you wake up.¡±
Fuentes obeyed. He might not be the sharpest tack in the box, but he knew an order when he heard one.
Rhodes manually straightened out Fuentes¡¯s limbs, positioned him in the right place, and stood up. ¡°Stay there and don¡¯t move until you wake up,¡± Rhodes told him. ¡°That¡¯s an order.¡±
Fuentes sniffed, ¡°Yes, Sir,¡± and lay still.
Rhodes closed the capsule cover and Fuentes¡¯s body jolted when the prongs locked him into place. Rhodes checked that the conversion cycle was beginning normally.
Silence fell over the barracks. Thackery sat back down at the terminal and started working on it in Fuentes¡¯s place. Lauer didn¡¯t move to look at anyone.
Rhodes left them there. He needed to be alone.
He went out to the loading dock, but he didn¡¯t sit down. He leaned against the wall and watched the ships coming in and going out.
¡°I¡¯m sorry, Captain,¡± Fisher murmured in an undertone.
¡°Why are you sorry? You didn¡¯t do any of this.¡±
¡°I¡¯m sorry for your loss. I didn¡¯t realize until now how deep your distress must have been. I underestimated the pain your distress must be causing you.¡±
¡°I would appreciate it if you didn¡¯t try to get inside my head, pal,¡± Rhodes snapped. ¡°What I think and what I feel is my business, not yours.¡±
¡°I can¡¯t help it, Captain. I am inside your head.¡±
¡°That doesn¡¯t mean you can help yourself to my thoughts and feelings.¡±
Fisher shut his mouth. His silence made Rhodes feel worse.
¡°Look, what I think and feel is for me to process, not you,¡± he told Fisher. ¡°It doesn¡¯t help me to have you talking about it all the time.¡±
¡°I thought you wanted to talk about it.¡±
¡°Well, I don¡¯t. Talking about it just brings up the pain all over again.¡±
¡°But the pain is already up, as you say,¡± Fisher pointed out. ¡°It doesn¡¯t go away. It appears that you are not disoriented at all. It appears to me as if this pain is simply your default neural state now.¡±
¡°Well, what the hell did you expect?!¡± Rhodes heard his voice rising again. ¡°You can¡¯t just tear a man away from his family and everything he knows and holds dear and not have it affect him! What did you think? That isn¡¯t disorientation. I¡¯m perfectly oriented. I understand perfectly the situation I¡¯m in. That¡¯s exactly the problem! You can¡¯t fix it just by getting used to it. It just becomes more galling with every passing day. That isn¡¯t fixing the problem. That is the problem! Don¡¯t you get it?¡±
¡°I¡¯m sorry, Captain,¡± Fisher murmured. ¡°I didn¡¯t get it before, but I do now. I don¡¯t know how to help you. That¡¯s all I want to do.¡±
¡°You can help me by not bringing it up again¡ªever. Bringing it up only throws it in my face that nothing can ever fix it. Just drop it and let me deal with the situation at hand. That¡¯s all I¡¯m asking.¡±
¡°But isn¡¯t this the situation at hand? Isn¡¯t this the situation with Fuentes? What if the other recruits suffer the same distress? That will affect you, too. It will bring it up again and you will have to think about your own loss. How will it ever go away?¡±
Rhodes covered his eyes. He already knew that.
He wouldn¡¯t be able to get out of this probably ever. His subordinates¡¯ distress would only make his distress more obvious and more excruciating.
He would never escape it because there was no escape. This was his life now.
End of Chapter 11.
Battalion 1: Book 1: Chapter
Rhodes led Thackery, Fuentes, and Lauer into a much larger training room.
¡°This is where our battalion will come to train from now on,¡± Rhodes told them. ¡°This is where we¡¯ll come to get used to our new implants and prepare ourselves to use them in battle.¡±
He went around the room and pointed out each recruit¡¯s weapons, boosters, and Viper ports.
¡°This is great!¡± Thackery chortled.
¡°Shut up!¡± Fuentes shrieked. ¡°It isn¡¯t great! It¡¯s a nightmare!¡±
¡°I¡¯m just saying¡.¡± Thackery countered. ¡°It beats the hell out of dying.¡±
¡°SHUT UP!!¡± Fuentes roared.
Rhodes raised his hands. ¡°Take it easy, all of you. We have a lot of work to do and six more people to wake up. They all have to go through training before we can get out of here. Let¡¯s try to concentrate on the job, okay? Fighting amongst ourselves won¡¯t accomplish anything. Are you ready?¡±
Thackery looked around. ¡°What are we doing here? There¡¯s nothing here.¡±
¡°We¡¯re about to enter our training grounds. I¡¯ll take you there first and then we¡¯ll activate your implants.¡±
¡°What does that mean?¡± she asked.
¡°I¡¯m about to show you. I can¡¯t explain it to you without showing you.¡±
¡°This is stupid,¡± Fuentes grumbled. He¡¯d become surly and snappish ever since he found out about his family.
Lauer still didn¡¯t talk unless he absolutely had to. He glared at everyone twice as menacingly.
Rhodes assumed Lauer had a family, too. This simmering hostility was his way of dealing with the loss.
Rhodes checked on Fisher. They¡¯d discussed this beforehand. Fisher could interface with the station¡¯s medical systems and access The Grid for Rhodes and his three recruits.
Rhodes gave Fisher a silent signal and all four dropped into The Grid. Thackery and Fuentes spun around to stare at everything. Lauer¡¯s eyes darted from side to side and then up at the ceiling.
¡°This is The Grid,¡± Rhodes explained. ¡°It¡¯s the base layer for our training simulations. It also forms a matrix you¡¯ll be able to use to manipulate your implants.¡±
¡°What does that mean?¡± Thackery asked.
Rhodes shrugged. ¡°I¡¯ll show you, but first, you need to meet your SAMs.¡±
¡°Whats?¡± Fuentes asked.
¡°It stands for Simulated Augmentation Matrix.¡± Rhodes waved that away. ¡°That isn¡¯t important. It¡¯s a computer program in your head that rides around with you and helps you cope and process what you¡¯re seeing and experiencing.¡±
¡°I don¡¯t get it,¡± Thackery countered.
Rhodes signaled Fisher again. ¡°You¡¯re going to see some shapes in front of your eyes and then the shapes will form an image you can talk to. Consider this your inner companion whose only job is to help you.¡±
Fuentes stared at something in front of his eyes. ¡°I see it! It¡¯s forming!¡±
Fisher adjusted something else to give Rhodes an interface with each recruit¡¯s Grid.
Fuentes¡¯s SAM went through a rapid blur of changes before it settled into a face. This one looked more feline in nature, but it kept morphing into something more alien than a feline.
The cheeks stretched outward from both sides, twisted in gruesome shapes, and then settled back into something quasi-feline.
Thackery burst out laughing when she saw her SAM. It twisted and squiggled with messy lines¡.and it stayed that way.
The tangled grid lines kept knotting in different combined patterns, reworking themselves, and reforming in different configurations. They never settled into one shape.
Lauer¡¯s SAM started as a bunch of different animal faces and eventually solidified into a robot head. It looked more like a skull with black eyes, no cheeks or lips, and a bony jaw and cheekbones.
Each recruit held a conversation with their SAM and then all six turned to Rhodes. They could see each other through the interface.
¡°This is Fisher,¡± Rhodes told the others. ¡°He¡¯s my SAM.¡±
Fuentes curled his lip at Fisher. ¡°He¡¯s ugly!¡±
¡°I¡¯m sure each of us likes our own SAM the best,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°The important thing is that we each trust our own SAM. The SAMs are here to help us. Their lives depend on us so they have every reason to help us. You can trust your SAM to give you information and help you with your training.¡±
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
¡°Are we supposed to get to know each other¡¯s SAMs?¡± Thackery asked. ¡°Will we interface with each other like this in battle?¡±
¡°I really don¡¯t know,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°All of this is completely experimental. I was the first person the doctors woke up after receiving these implants¡ªor I should say I¡¯m the first person to survive waking up. None of this has ever been done before.¡±
Lauer snorted and grumbled, ¡°Great.¡±
Rhodes chose to ignore the remark. ¡°Assuming we will interface in battle, let¡¯s get to know each other. Each of you can introduce the rest of us to your SAM.¡±
¡°This is Koenig,¡± Thackery began. ¡°He¡¯s a genius.¡±
A metallic, robotic voice came from the tangle of squiggles hovering in front of Thackery. The voice didn¡¯t sound male or female. ¡°I do my best,¡± Koenig murmured. ¡°It is a pleasure to meet you, Captain.¡±
¡°None of the SAMs have ever been online before,¡± Rhodes explained to the three recruits. ¡°They¡¯re just learning all of this the same way we are.¡±
¡°I am Van,¡± Fuentes¡¯s feline SAM rasped in a deep, throaty female voice. It echoed from far away. ¡°I¡¯m sure Rudy and I will get along famously.¡±
¡°And I am Wild,¡± Lauer¡¯s robot skull croaked in a short, harsh voice. The voice really sounded like it belonged to a skull.
¡°Okay, now we all know each other,¡± Rhodes went on. ¡°Let¡¯s learn how to use The Grid and you can start using your implants in a battle scenario.¡±
¡°What do you mean by that?¡± Thackery asked.
¡°I¡¯ll show you. Follow me.¡±
Rhodes set off walking through The Grid. He would have liked to talk to Fisher about the three subordinates, but Rhodes couldn¡¯t do that while they interfaced. The recruits would be able to hear every word.
Fuentes and Thackery started talking to their SAMs anyway. Van and Koenig asked Fuentes and Thackery a million questions about their families, their previous lives, and the circumstances that brought them here.
¡°I came from Zoter continent on Preinea,¡± Fuentes told Van. ¡°My mother and brothers and sisters still live there.¡± He started to choke up again. ¡°I sent my mother my pay every week to help support my younger brothers and sisters. I don¡¯t know what she¡¯ll do without that money.¡±
¡°She¡¯ll get your compensation package from the Legion,¡± Van replied in her deep, throaty voice. ¡°The Legion will take care of your family. Don¡¯t worry.¡±
¡°I just can¡¯t believe I¡¯ll never see them again!¡± he stammered.
¡°I was posted on the Thuzuno before this,¡± Thackery gushed to Koenig. ¡°I died a horrible death when I got electrocuted. I never had any family. I¡¯m an orphan so I guess I¡¯m not missing anything. This is so great! I worked on military vessels and Legion space stations all my life. I never expected I could actually take part in any of the wars. This is a dream come true!¡±
¡°I¡¯m happy for you,¡± Koenig murmured in that flat, distant tone. ¡°I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll make an outstanding soldier.¡±
Wild didn¡¯t say a word to Lauer. These SAMs certainly matched their behavior to the person carrying them. Wild seemed to sense intuitively that Lauer didn¡¯t want to talk.
Maybe Wild would be the best thing for Lauer. Lauer didn¡¯t have to worry about Wild expecting anything from him or prying into his thoughts and feelings. Rhodes almost envied Lauer for that.
Rhodes dismissed that thought right away. He didn¡¯t want another SAM. Rhodes had gotten used to Fisher. They¡¯d come to an understanding.
In a way, talking to Fisher did actually help Rhodes even when they disagreed. Even telling Fisher to butt out and mind his own business helped.
Rhodes distracted himself by concentrating on the three recruits. ¡°Let¡¯s pick up the pace a little bit. We¡¯re going to run now.¡±
He started running. The other three followed and The Grid changed around them. The grid lines grew into a towering valley of cliffs rising to mountain peaks on both sides.
White clouds hung in the blue sky overhead and a river snaked through the deep valley bottom with trees growing on either side.
¡°Here we go!¡± Rhodes called and the landscape adjusted a little more.
His senses told him a split second before it happened that the training session was about to start. He raised both arms, but gunfire erupted from the high cliffs before Rhodes could do anything.
Fuentes screamed and threw his hands in front of his face. ¡°Shoot back at them!¡± Rhodes called. ¡°Target their positions and fire!¡±
Lauer reacted first. He raised his arms and blasted two enemy positions right away.
Rhodes heard Wild yelling information into Lauer¡¯s ears the whole time. So much for them not talking.
¡°Four more coming up on your right¡ªlasers this time!¡± Wild barked. ¡°Fire your Vipers to take them out! Watch out for snipers behind that clump of trees! Use your thermal cannons! Set the trees on fire and you¡¯ll finish them!¡±
They worked in a seamless rhythm. Lauer never once questioned Wild¡¯s instructions.
Lauer reacted to all of Wild¡¯s instructions instantly, unleashed his Vipers to smash the laser positions, and then incinerated the snipers by igniting the foliage around their hiding place.
Thackery took longer to get the hang of it. Koenig didn¡¯t bark with the same commanding tone. Thackery wasn¡¯t in the habit of taking orders from anyone. She didn¡¯t respond to Koenig¡¯s instructions fast enough.
A jet of fusion fire hammered into the ground near her. ¡°Use your thermals to block their fire,¡± Koenig suggested.
¡°How?!¡± Thackery yelled back.
¡°Fire your thermal cannons at their fusion shots,¡± Koenig replied in the same unruffled undertone. ¡°Fusion loads can¡¯t penetrate thermal fields.¡±
¡°WHAT?!!¡± Thackery yelled back. ¡°I CAN¡¯T HEAR YOU!!¡±
Fuentes kept screaming every time enemy fire came too close to him. Van tried to encourage him. ¡°You can shoot back at them, Rudy! Your weapons are stronger than theirs.¡±
He didn¡¯t respond until Rhodes fought his way over there. Rhodes dove in front of Fuentes and bombarded the enemy positions to protect Fuentes until he got his head clear.
¡°Come up here with me!¡± Rhodes yelled over his shoulder. ¡°Join your scourge gun fire with mine! Come on, Rudy!¡±
Fuentes fought his way out of his terror, cast a helpless look around, and saw Van in front of him. ¡°You can do this, Rudy,¡± she told him. ¡°You can fight back. I¡¯ll help you. Look.¡±
She adjusted the grid lines. Two targeting signals appeared on The Grid to show the enemy shooter¡¯s position.
That one small change cleared the way for him to advance to Rhodes¡¯s side. Fuentes¡¯s expression hardened and he opened fire with his scourge guns.
Thackery finally got through to Koenig that he needed to talk louder. He floated closer to her ear and turned up his volume to yell directly into her ear.
She switched to thermals, fired into the fusion blasts, and blocked them until she could unload her Vipers on the enemy targets.
¡°Shut it down,¡± Rhodes told Fisher. ¡°That¡¯s enough for today.¡±
The hidden enemies in the cliffs stopped shooting. The three recruits lowered their weapons and the landscape vanished.
¡°Now you know what The Grid is,¡± Rhodes told them. ¡°Tomorrow¡¯s training session will be more complicated. Once you master that, we¡¯ll be able to wake up the next three.¡±
End of Chapter 12.
Battalion 1: Book1: Chapter
Fisher disconnected his interface from the other SAMs on the way back to the barracks. ¡°That went well, I thought,¡± he told Rhodes.
Rhodes checked that the three recruits were far enough away not to overhear him. ¡°It went better than I expected.¡±
¡°Wild and Lauer worked well together. I didn¡¯t expect that. I expected Lauer to resist the SAM.¡±
Rhodes glanced over at Lauer. All three recruits walked down the hall holding separate conversations with their SAMs. Even Lauer talked into thin air.
Rhodes did his best not to listen to any of their conversations. This was going to become an ongoing problem. Each person would have to find a private place where they could talk to their SAMs away from everyone else.
Rhodes would have to do the same thing. He would have to be careful that none of his subordinates ever heard him talking to Fisher about anything personal.
Rhodes would also have to be careful that none of his subordinates heard him talking to Fisher about any of his subordinates.
Rhodes never had this problem in the Legion. He never carried his closest confidant around in his head before.
¡°You handled them well,¡± Fisher went on. ¡°It seems to help them when the person training them has been through it themselves.¡±
¡°That¡¯s the point, isn¡¯t it? You and Neiland couldn¡¯t explain it to me because you didn¡¯t really understand what I was going through.¡±
¡°You are the best officer for them, Captain,¡± Fisher agreed. ¡°I see that now.¡±
¡°Thank you for handling the interface. I appreciate your help.¡±
¡°Thank you, Captain!¡± Fisher exclaimed. ¡°That is such high praise coming from you.¡±
Rhodes winced and looked away. He shouldn¡¯t have waited this long to express his gratitude to Fisher.
The four soldiers returned to the barracks. Lauer looked around. ¡°I¡¯m hungry. I want to eat something.¡±
Rhodes looked up. This was the most Lauer had spoken since he woke up.
¡°You shouldn¡¯t be hungry,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°The conversion cycle should take care of that.¡±
¡°I mean I feel like eating something. I always ate whenever I came back to my quarters after a battle. It doesn¡¯t feel right not to.¡±
¡°I know what you mean,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°It doesn¡¯t feel like we¡¯re human at all without that.¡±
¡°Maybe we can do something similar,¡± Thackery suggested.
¡°How can we if we don¡¯t eat?¡± Lauer asked.
¡°We can sit around the table, talk, and¡..I don¡¯t know. We could gamble or something.¡±
Lauer burst out in deep, chesty, rumbling laughter. ¡°Gamble?! You want to gamble?! What are you¡ªa hustler?¡±
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¡°Well, what else is there to do around a table instead of eat? We have to do something.¡±
¡°I have an idea,¡± Rhodes interrupted. ¡°All of you sit down at the table.¡±
The three recruits sat down at the table. Rhodes went to the end of the bench and used his laser to cut a block of wood off one of the boards.
¡°Are you sure this is allowed, Sir?¡± Fuentes asked.
¡°I¡¯m making a command decision in the interest of our long-term sanity. If someone has a problem with that, they can let me know.¡±
Rhodes sat down at the table next to Lauer. Fuentes and Thackery sat across from them. ¡°What are you going to do?¡± Thackery asked.
¡°I used to play this game with my kids. It will take our minds off how hungry we are.¡±
¡°A nice slab of steak would be nice about now,¡± Lauer muttered.
¡°We¡¯re taking our minds off it, not talking about it,¡± Rhodes pointed out. ¡°Talking about it will make it worse.¡±
¡°So what¡¯s with the wood?¡± Thackery asked. ¡°It doesn¡¯t look very interesting.¡±
¡°Watch and learn, children.¡±
The three recruits laughed. Rhodes used his laser to cut the block into five equal squares. Then he used his thermal cannon to burn dots into each side to make dice.
¡°I don¡¯t get it,¡± Thackery complained.
¡°You haven¡¯t seen much of the world, have you?¡± Lauer growled. ¡°You¡¯ve been too busy pushing around a broom while the rest of your ship crews see the world.¡±
Rhodes held up the first die. ¡°Roll a six¡ªthat¡¯s the ship. Roll a five¡ªthat¡¯s the captain.¡±
¡°That¡¯s you, Sir,¡± Fuentes exclaimed.
¡°That¡¯s right. Roll a four¡ªthat¡¯s the crew. You roll all five dice until you get the ship, the captain, and the crew. Once you do that, you add up the other two dice to find out your cargo. That¡¯s your score for the turn and you pass it on to the next person. The first person to get a hundred points is the winner. Got it?¡±
Thackery grinned at him. ¡°Got it.¡±
Rhodes turned to Fuentes. ¡°Do you understand, Corporal?¡±
Fuentes frowned. ¡°I was never good at math.¡±
¡°I¡¯ll help you.¡±
¡°Just don¡¯t cheat,¡± Lauer countered.
Rhodes¡¯s hand flew to his heart. ¡°Me¡ªcheat? I¡¯m offended, Lieutenant.¡±
Lauer snorted, but Rhodes definitely saw Lauer fighting back a grin under that beard. He was starting to come out of his shell¡ªor it appeared that way.
Rhodes handed the dice to Thackery. ¡°Ladies first.¡±
She didn¡¯t try to hide her smirk. She rolled once and got a six, a five, a four, a three, and a two.
She shot both fists in the air and hooted. ¡°Straight flush! Read ¡®em and weep!¡±
¡°It isn¡¯t a flush,¡± Rhodes pointed out. ¡°They¡¯re all the same color.¡±
¡°What the hell do I care? I got it the first time.¡±
¡°It isn¡¯t that good a hand, you know,¡± Lauer told her. ¡°You only got five points.¡±
¡°See if you can do better.¡± She shoved the dice at him.
He picked them up, rolled them, and got two sixes, two fives, and a four.
¡°That¡¯s what I¡¯m talking about!¡± he crowed. ¡°Eleven points. Eat it, baby.¡±
Thackery pretended to sulk. ¡°Cheater.¡±
Rhodes took the dice. ¡°My turn.¡±
¡°Get five sixes, Sir,¡± Lauer told him and laughed.
Rhodes couldn¡¯t help but grin back. This game was turning out to be the best thing for all of them, including him. He actually felt like this unit was coming together.
Maybe these people could somehow replace what each of them lost¡ªor partially replace it.
Rhodes rolled and got a five, a three, two twos, and a one. ¡°Damn it,¡± he muttered.
¡°Nice try, Captain,¡± Thackery added.
Rhodes rolled everything but the five and got a four, a six, a three, and a one.
¡°Dragging up the rear, Sir,¡± Lauer teased.
¡°Are you gonna be a bastard about winning?¡± Rhodes countered. ¡°This is supposed to be fun.¡±
¡°What¡¯s funner than trash-talking? You can talk trash about me all you want. I won¡¯t mind.¡±
Rhodes had to laugh and passed the dice to Fuentes. Rhodes got up and rummaged in the bookshelf until he found a piece of paper and a pen to keep score.
Rhodes had to help Fuentes a lot when it came to keeping track of both numbers he was supposed to be rolling for and what score he got at the end.
¡°Is there a point to this game?¡± Fisher asked after they quit for the night and crawled into their capsules.
¡°The point is to take our minds off reality,¡± Rhodes told him. ¡°Trust me. This game is going to be the best thing that ever happened to us.¡±
¡°I¡¯ll take your word for it. You know so much more about human nature than I do.¡±
¡°Didn¡¯t you enjoy it?¡± Rhodes asked.
¡°I enjoyed seeing you in a better mood than you have been since I came online. I never thought I¡¯d see you like that. If you ask me, it¡¯s the rest of the battalion that will be the best thing that ever happened to you¡ªnot this game.¡±
End of Chapter 13.
Battalion 1: Book1: Chapter 14
Rhodes eased out of his capsule the next morning and stared down at his feet. He started to put together everything that happened to him and everything he still had to do today.
A loud cough startled him into looking up. He stared down the row of capsules and had to readjust his version of reality when he saw Fuentes, Thackery, and Lauer waking up.
Rhodes had been living in these barracks alone for so long. The other recruits¡¯ presence interrupted his usual morning routine. He didn¡¯t get a chance to put his boots on.
He went into the washroom to look at himself in the mirror, but before he got there, he heard yells rising from the other side of the barracks.
Fuentes got straight out of bed, went to the terminal, and started attacking it again. He jammed his finger into it way too hard and muttered curses at the device.
His voice started rising. ¡°Come on! This is all wrong! What the hell is wrong with this stupid thing?¡±
¡°It doesn¡¯t do outside communications,¡± Thackery called over from her capsule. She still sat on the edge running her fingers through her hair. ¡°Captain Rhodes told you that already.¡±
¡°You shut up!!¡± Fuentes snapped. ¡°You don¡¯t know anything about it.¡±
¡°I bet I know more about computers than you do,¡± she countered.
¡°SHUT UP!!¡± Fuentes bellowed.
Rhodes turned around and started to say, ¡°Rudy¡.¡±
Fuentes rounded on Rhodes in a rage. ¡°SHUT UP!! You don¡¯t know what you¡¯re talking about!!¡±
¡°You better watch your tone talking to the captain like that, Corporal,¡± Lauer growled.
Fuentes didn¡¯t hear him. ¡°SHUT THE HELL UP¡ªALL OF YOU!!¡±
Rhodes moved a little closer. He barely made it through the washroom door before Fuentes ripped the terminal off the desk and hurled it at Rhodes full force.
Rhodes raised his arm and the terminal bounced off his right arm¡¯s metal housing. The terminal crashed onto the floor and shattered into a million pieces.
Lauer and Thackery stood frozen in shock. Fuentes roared in fury, turned to the bookshelf, grabbed it, and tried to rip it off the wall.
He would have toppled it into the room. His implants gave him the strength to break its anchor bolts.
Rhodes couldn¡¯t watch any longer. He charged the kid, grabbed Fuentes around the shoulders, and pinned his arms to his sides.
Fuentes exploded in an even more hysterical rage, kicked and thrashed, and tried to fight his way out of Rhodes¡¯s grip.
Rhodes had to use all his new strength to restrain Fuentes. ¡°YOU BASTARD!!¡± Fuentes roared. ¡°YOU SON OF A BITCH!!¡±
¡°Help me, Fisher!¡± Rhodes yelled over the noise.
¡°What would you like me to do, Captain?¡± Fisher asked.
¡°Interface with him! Knock him out if you have to! I don¡¯t care! Just shut him down!¡±
¡°Is that advisable¡..?¡±
¡°JUST DO IT!!¡± Rhodes roared.
Rhodes didn¡¯t understand what Fisher did. A blast of blinding pain and searing heat stabbed into Rhodes¡¯s brain, but it didn¡¯t knock him out.
Fuentes went limp in Rhodes¡¯s arms. Lauer and Thackery both flinched. Thackery¡¯s hands flew to her head and she grimaced in pain.
The next instant, it was all over. Fuentes hung lifeless in Rhodes¡¯s arms. His body weighed a ton.
Rhodes let out a shaky sigh. ¡°Thanks, pal. I owe you one for this.¡±
¡°I may have damaged him irreparably,¡± Fisher murmured.
¡°I¡¯d say he already has been.¡± Rhodes carried Fuentes back to his capsule and laid him down on the mattress. He¡¯d been awake less than ten minutes.
Rhodes stood back with another heavy sigh. Now what was he supposed to do?
He couldn¡¯t stand by and watch another one of these people go down. There had to be another way. God only knew what it was.
Neither Lauer nor Thackery said a word. Thackery left the barracks, came back with a broom, and started sweeping up the shattered remains of the terminal.
Rhodes sat down on Thackery¡¯s bed to keep watch over Fuentes. Thackery¡¯s capsule was the next one down the row. She didn¡¯t say anything against Rhodes sitting on it.
Lauer scowled at everyone. Rhodes couldn¡¯t read Lauer¡¯s reaction and didn¡¯t want to pry.
¡°Is there any way to orient Fuentes better than this?¡± Fisher asked.
¡°I¡¯m wide open to suggestions, pal,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°I¡¯m fresh out of ideas.¡±
No one said anything after that. Rhodes, Thackery, and Lauer waited in silence for Fuentes to wake up.
Rhodes didn¡¯t ask what Fisher did to knock Fuentes out. Rhodes knew one thing, though. He could never ask Fisher to do that again.
Whatever blast Fisher used might harm Rhodes or one of the other soldiers. Rhodes couldn¡¯t risk that.
Whatever that blast was, it wasn¡¯t a long-term solution. There was no long-term solution to whatever was wrong with Fuentes.
Whatever was wrong with Fuentes was wrong with all of them, including Rhodes. That was exactly the problem and it wasn¡¯t a solvable problem. It was just the shitty reality they all had to live with.
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Fuentes woke up three hours later, groaned, and rolled onto his side in bed. He rolled in Rhodes¡¯s direction so Rhodes could see the boy¡¯s face.
Fuentes kept his eyes shut for a minute. Then they suddenly popped open. He stared straight in front of him. Then his eyes darted sideways to lock on Rhodes.
Fuentes lost it the minute they made eye contact. Fuentes writhed the other way, howled in anguish, and started rage-sobbing again.
Rhodes didn¡¯t move. He couldn¡¯t do anything about this. He knew exactly how Fuentes felt because Rhodes felt exactly the same way. He just coped differently.
One glance at Lauer¡¯s deep scowl told Rhodes loud and clear that Lauer felt the same thing. He didn¡¯t say so out loud. He never said a word about whatever his life had been like before this.
He buried his pain and anguish under a mountain of solid granite. Lauer protected himself better than Rhodes, but nothing could hide it forever.
Rhodes wished now that Thackery didn¡¯t act so chipper about all this. Her presence really made this so much harder.
Rhodes didn¡¯t blame Fuentes for hating her. Rhodes wished more than anything that she hadn¡¯t woken up at all.
He kicked himself for thinking that, but having one person in the room who didn¡¯t sympathize made this so much worse.
What was Rhodes supposed to do¡ªkick her out of the battalion? He couldn¡¯t do that. She had nowhere left to go. None of them did.
Fuentes tossed and thrashed in his capsule for a minute, but that didn¡¯t satisfy him. He shot to his feet, cast one wild glance around the barracks searching for someone or something to attack, and hurled himself at the nearest available object.
He tried to grab the capsule cover, but not even his mechanical arms could budge it. He yanked it, and when that failed, he hurled himself at it.
He slammed his head and chest down on it twice before Rhodes realized what was happening. Fuentes bounced off the cover and threw himself at the wall. He slammed his face and body into it three times before Rhodes got there.
Lauer responded just as fast and got there a fraction of a second after Rhodes.
Rhodes lunged for Fuentes, pinned him hard against the wall, and held him there. ¡°Stop it, Corporal!¡± Rhodes yelled. ¡°Stop it right now! That¡¯s an order! Keep still! I said keep still!!¡±
Fuentes didn¡¯t hear him. He tried half a dozen more times to slam himself against the wall. Lauer moved in to help Rhodes, but Rhodes held Fuentes down alone.
¡°Do you think you¡¯re the only one who feels this way?!¡± Rhodes snapped. ¡°Do you think your pain is so much worse than ours?! You better snap the hell out of it, boy!¡±
Fuentes burst into tears all over again.
¡°Hey! I¡¯m talking to you!¡± Rhodes barked. ¡°Look at me, Corporal!¡±
Fuentes looked at him for a split second and then twisted his head away.
Rhodes jammed his elbow harder against Fuentes¡¯s chest. Rhodes didn¡¯t have any problem holding Fuentes down.
¡°Look at me, Corporal!¡± Rhodes roared. ¡°Do you think I¡¯m not going through the same thing? My wife and children are out there¡ªmy parents and brothers and sisters. Do you think I¡¯m not hurting? Do you think I don¡¯t want to end it?¡±
Those words cost Rhodes everything he had, but he had to say them.
They hurt more than anything he¡¯d gone through yet. That pain made him furious. He wanted to kill someone, maybe even himself.
He grabbed Fuentes by the jaw and forced him to turn his head. Fuentes struggled, but Rhodes didn¡¯t let up until he wrenched Fuentes¡¯s head around and locked eyes on him.
Fuentes¡¯s mouth screwed up in torturous shapes. His tears made his eyes blaze. He rasped through bared teeth for every breath.
Rhodes could think of a lot of things to say to this kid, but that moment of eye contact said it all.
Fuentes didn¡¯t want to look at Rhodes because Fuentes saw. He saw in Rhodes¡¯s eyes all the torture and anguish Fuentes had been suffering all this time.
¡°Look at me, boy,¡± Rhodes snarled even though Fuentes already was looking at him. ¡°Look at Lauer.¡±
Rhodes didn¡¯t have to turn around to see the expression on Lauer¡¯s face. Rhodes slackened his hold on Fuentes¡¯s jaw just enough for Fuentes to turn his head and see Lauer¡¯s features spasming.
Lauer turned away immediately, but that moment was enough.
Fuentes let out a broken howl of agony, but he didn¡¯t try to struggle anymore. He didn¡¯t fight Rhodes¡¯s hold.
Right at that moment, at the worst possible moment, the barracks door opened and the three doctors waltzed in.
¡°If you wouldn¡¯t mind coming with us, Captain,¡± Dr. Neiland breezed. ¡°It¡¯s time to wake up the rest of your unit.¡±
Rhodes spun around fast. ¡°What¡ªall of them?¡±
¡°We¡¯ve decided to shorten our timeframe,¡± Dr. Montague replied. ¡°The Emal threat is becoming more pressing. We need to activate the battalion sooner than we thought.¡±
¡°But these three haven¡¯t finished training. They haven¡¯t learned how to use The Grid to modify their shapes.¡±
¡°You¡¯ll be able to train the whole unit together,¡± Dr. Neiland replied. ¡°It will step up the timeline¡.¡±
¡°It will also increase the risk of a catastrophic malfunction,¡± Rhodes countered. ¡°You realize that, don¡¯t you? The battalion won¡¯t be as effective with fewer people.¡±
¡°That¡¯s a risk we¡¯re willing to take,¡± Dr. Montague replied. ¡°Come with us, Captain. We need you present when we wake up the rest of the recruits.¡±
Rhodes didn¡¯t want to leave¡ªnot right now. He didn¡¯t trust Fuentes not to try something else the minute Rhodes turned his back on him.
The doctors¡¯ presence left Rhodes no choice. He eased his elbow off Fuentes¡¯s chest and the kid buckled on the spot. His knees folded and he collapsed on the floor sobbing his eyes out.
None of the doctors reacted to Fuentes¡¯s outburst. None of them acted as if Fuentes¡¯s behavior was anything noteworthy.
Rhodes took a step back. He still hesitated to leave, but maybe this was for the best.
If Fuentes killed himself, at least Rhodes wouldn¡¯t have to take a potentially unstable soldier onto the battlefield.
Fuentes would as likely get killed there if he couldn¡¯t function or think clearly. Why delay the inevitable?
Rhodes couldn¡¯t risk Fuentes putting someone else in danger. Rhodes wouldn¡¯t be able to keep Fuentes under constant watch or anyone else who might snap at a moment¡¯s notice.
Rhodes¡¯s mind went through every one of those nightmare scenarios. Of all the bad ideas in the history of bad ideas, this was the worst he¡¯d ever encountered.
He couldn¡¯t imagine a worse scenario than going into battle with a bunch of damaged, emotionally unstable mental patients all armed with super strength and the most sophisticated weaponry in the sector.
He couldn¡¯t waste any more time on Fuentes¡ªor anyone else. If they didn¡¯t pull it together, he just had to let the chips fall where they may.
God only knew Rhodes had enough to cope with just managing his own emotional state right now.
Things would get a whole new level of complicated when he went into a real battle with alien hordes shooting at him.
He glanced over at Lauer. Lauer faced the room again. He¡¯d straightened his expression into another brutal scowl.
Now Rhodes knew with absolutely no doubt that Lauer had a family out there somewhere, too. Lauer was going through exactly the same inner turmoil. He just didn¡¯t let anyone else see it.
Lauer glared down at Fuentes. Lauer only took his eyes off the boy for a split second to make significant eye contact with Rhodes.
That moment told Rhodes more than words could ever say. Rhodes could leave the room now because Lauer was here. Lauer would keep an eye on Fuentes¡ªnot that it mattered anymore.
Rhodes turned away to follow the doctors out of the barracks, but he paused on the threshold to look back.
Fuentes sat huddled in a ball on the floor. He turned his face toward the wall and pressed his forehead into the concrete so no one could see him, but everyone present could hear him sobbing. His whole body shook with sobs.
¡°Can you detect any malfunction in him?¡± Rhodes asked Fisher. ¡°Are the implants causing this¡..or is it something else?¡±
¡°Is there a difference?¡± Fisher asked. ¡°There¡¯s no malfunction¡..but the implants are causing this either way. Aren¡¯t they? Isn¡¯t that what you¡¯ve been trying to tell me all this time?¡±
¡°I guess so.¡± Rhodes still found it impossible to leave. ¡°Are his brainwaves functioning normally?¡±
¡°His brainwaves are erratic, but I¡¯ve been detecting the same patterns in all of you¡ªyou, Lauer, and even Thackery. I can¡¯t tell anymore if they¡¯re normal or not. I¡¯m not sure anymore what normal is when it comes to any of you.¡±
Rhodes sighed. He already knew all that. Of course Fisher was right.
One of these people malfunctioning¡ªwhat the hell difference did it make anymore what caused it?
Of course the implants caused all this distress. They didn¡¯t need to malfunction to cause distress, disorientation, and even total mental breakdown.
The implants caused all that especially when they were functioning normally. It wasn¡¯t possible for them to do anything else.
He turned away for the last time and left the barracks. He couldn¡¯t help any of these people. He couldn¡¯t even help himself, so what was the point in trying?
End of Chapter 14.
Battalion 1: Chapter 15
Rhodes watched from a distance again while the doctors woke up the other six recruits. Rhodes really needed to come up with another word for them. The word, recruit, infuriated him.
He didn¡¯t get involved at all while the doctors went through the usual checks and questions. Rhodes took the time to study and evaluate his remaining six people.
Lieutenant Ted Oakes was a tall man with brown hair buzzed high and tight.
He took excellent care of himself before this. His implants did nothing to conceal a wall of solid muscle across his back and shoulders.
His abdominal muscles rippled down to the implants around his hips. His legs looked extra thick inside their metal housing.
He snapped to attention in front of Rhodes when the doctors finally introduced them. ¡°Sir!¡± Oakes snapped. ¡°Lieutenant Ted Oakes of the 156th Platoon reporting for duty¡ªSir!¡±
¡°At ease, Lieutenant,¡± Rhodes murmured. ¡°We aren¡¯t keeping that kind of formality and protocol here. You can relax.¡±
Oakes frowned. ¡°But¡..aren¡¯t we an elite military unit, Sir?¡±
¡°Only on paper. In real life, we¡¯re just normal people trying to get through the day. Do you feel any disorientation, distress, or discomfort about your implants, Lieutenant?¡±
Oakes frowned again like he didn¡¯t understand the question. ¡°Um¡no, Sir.¡±
¡°That¡¯s good. You report to me if you start feeling any distress or any problem coping. Understand?¡±
¡°Yes, Sir.¡±
Rhodes turned to Georgie Henshaw. She sat on the edge of her capsule staring up at Dr. Neiland. ¡°He did what?¡± Henshaw gasped. ¡°My father did¡what?¡±
¡°He enrolled you in this project to save your life,¡± Dr. Neiland told her. ¡°You would have died without the implants.¡±
¡°Are you serious?¡± Henshaw gasped. ¡°He sent me here¡.to become a robot?¡±
¡°You aren¡¯t a robot. None of you are.¡± Dr. Neiland looked up when Rhodes walked over to them. ¡°This is Captain Corban Rhodes. He¡¯ll be your commanding officer from now on.¡±
¡°So I¡¯m in the Legion now?¡± Henshaw countered. ¡°I¡¯m supposed to be a soldier? This is ridiculous!¡±
¡°How do you feel, Henshaw?¡± Rhodes asked. ¡°Do you feel strong enough to stand up and walk around?¡±
She gaped at him in shocked horror¡.and then her eyes dipped to his body.
She scanned him up and down, took in every detail of his implants and robotic limbs, and then looked down at her own. ¡°I don¡¯t believe this!¡±
¡°Believe it,¡± Rhodes told her. ¡°We¡¯re all going through the same thing. None of us knew this was going to happen to us until we woke up here.¡±
Her one blue eye darted up to meet his. ¡°So¡..you¡¯re a captain. You were a soldier in the Legion before this?¡±
¡°That¡¯s right¡.and I guess I still am.¡±
She opened her mouth to say something else, but just then, a crash distracted everyone.
Rhodes turned around to see one of the capsules in pieces. Another recruit had rested his hand on the capsule¡¯s outer edge to push himself to his feet.
He didn¡¯t understand his strength and wound up caving in the side of the bed. The capsule¡¯s side wall lay in pieces on the floor.
¡°I¡¯m so sorry!¡± he exclaimed and started to bend over to pick up the pieces.
¡°Nothing to worry about!¡± Dr. Irvine rushed over and pulled the guy away from the wreckage. ¡°You don¡¯t have to worry about that. We¡¯ll clean it up. Go back to what you were doing.¡±
¡°I really didn¡¯t mean to,¡± the guy exclaimed. ¡°I swear it.¡±
¡°Calm down, man,¡± Rhodes told him. ¡°I broke General Brewster¡¯s hand on my first day.¡±
The soldier turned around and locked one brilliant blue eye on Rhodes. The controls at the end of the guy¡¯s capsule read, Lieutenant Dane Rhinehart.
Rhinehart was even taller, broader, more muscular, and more powerfully built than Oakes. Rhinehart had blonde hair, blue eyes, and a soft, teddy bear quality like a big, lovable kid.
¡°This is Captain Corban Rhodes, your commanding officer,¡± Dr. Irvine told Rhinehart. ¡°He¡¯s here to orient you to your new unit and make sure you adjust and adapt to your implants.¡±
Rhinehart¡¯s eyes went through the same process of measuring Rhodes and all his mechanical body parts. ¡°Captain¡..¡± Rhinehart began.
¡°Don¡¯t worry about it, Lieutenant,¡± Rhodes told him. ¡°We¡¯re all in the same boat here.¡±
Rhinehart looked away. ¡°I need to contact my family and tell them where I am.¡±
¡°I¡¯m sorry, but you can¡¯t. We¡¯re all cut off from our loved ones. We can¡¯t go back. I¡¯m sorry.¡±
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Rhodes expected some emotional reaction. Rhinehart scowled, compressed his lips, nodded once, and turned away.
Rhodes didn¡¯t realize the rest of these people were listening. ¡°You mean¡.¡± Henshaw stammered. ¡°You mean¡.we can never go back? We can never see our families again?¡±
¡°Basically,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°The Legion has already notified your families that you¡¯re dead. You basically did die in whatever circumstances brought you here. Whatever life you had out there is over.¡±
Another man stood off to one side rotating his arms back and forth in front of his face. The name at the end of his capsule read, Sergeant Jairo Dietz. He was tall and thin with uncut hair, quick, wary black eyes, and unnaturally long fingers.
¡°This is great!¡± he exclaimed when he moved his fingers around. ¡°I would pay for this and now I get it for free.¡±
Corporal Keller Gannon walked around his capsule studying all the controls. He was Rhodes¡¯s size with plain brown hair and a no-nonsense attitude.
Gannon studied the controls with interest. ¡°How does this work? How does it read all the person¡¯s vital functions while they¡¯re inside?¡±
¡°If you don¡¯t mind, Captain,¡± Dr. Montague told Rhodes. ¡°We really need to accelerate our timeline. If you wouldn¡¯t mind taking your unit back to the barracks, we need to get started on our training routine.¡±
¡°Your timeline calls for me to orient three of them at a time,¡± Rhodes pointed out. ¡°The next thing I know, you¡¯ll be telling me to take them into battle without any training or orientation at all.¡±
¡°We wouldn¡¯t do that, but we do need to get them out of the lab. If you don¡¯t mind¡..¡±
Montague waved toward the exit. Rhodes surveyed his people one last time. Jesus, could this get any worse? He didn¡¯t even have time to get to know them first.
The last member of the battalion was a young guy with mousy brown hair and blue eyes. Corporal Eddie Coulter sauntered over to Henshaw on their way out of the lab.
Coulter was by far the smallest man in the room with short, light hair and a wiry, energetic, almost frenzied quality like a spring about to pop.
He grinned at Henshaw. Rhodes could have mistaken that grin for flirting if they had been anywhere else in the universe.
¡°So¡.¡± Coulter began. ¡°You weren¡¯t in the Legion before this?¡±
¡°No, I was an executive in a marketing firm.¡±
¡°Then you¡¯re definitely moving up in the world,¡± Coulter remarked.
Henshaw laughed and Coulter cracked a crazy grin. Neither of the new people showed any sign of disorientation or distress.
Their interaction gave Rhodes a feeling of impending doom. When would one of them snap and do something dangerous either to themselves or someone else?
He took them back to the barracks and introduced them to Lauer, Fuentes, and Thackery.
Fuentes sat hunched on a bench at the table staring at the floor. He didn¡¯t respond to anything Rhodes said.
Gannon went over to the capsules and started tapping on the controls. ¡°Don¡¯t touch that, Corporal,¡± Rhodes told him.
¡°How am I supposed to learn about all this?¡± Gannon asked.
¡°These machines regulate your vital functions. These controls have been dialed in to make your bodies function at their optimum. You could risk your own life if you mess with the levels¡ªor you could cause a malfunction that could cost someone else their life. Just leave it alone.¡±
Gannon turned away and mumbled, ¡°Yes, Sir.¡±
He started searching the room and studying all the furniture and furnishings in minute detail. Someone had replaced the computer terminal while Rhodes was away.
Thackery sat behind it studying it. Gannon went over to her and bent over to see what she was reading.
¡°Normally, I would take some time to let you all get comfortable and take in what¡¯s happened to you,¡± Rhodes began. ¡°Under the circumstances, the doctors want us to escalate our timeframe, so I have to start training you now.¡±
¡°Won¡¯t that cause problems later on?¡± Thackery asked.
¡°Do I sound like I think this is a good idea?¡± Rhodes asked. ¡°Let¡¯s go. We can explain things as we go.¡±
He led the way outside. The rest of his people talked to each other on the way down the hall heading for the training room.
¡°How long have you been here, Sir?¡± Gannon asked.
¡°I guess about three weeks,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°I had some problems at first, so the doctors didn¡¯t want to wake up the rest of you until I straightened myself out.¡±
¡°What kind of problems?¡± Rhinehart asked.
Rhodes shrugged. ¡°Problems adjusting to my implants. I was alone. I didn¡¯t have anyone to explain to me what was happening. I was the first person to go through the process, so no one really knew what was normal for me.¡±
¡°Damn! That sucks,¡± Coulter remarked.
¡°Yes, it did, so don¡¯t be shy about speaking up if you have any problem adjusting. We¡¯re all in uncharted territory here. No one knows how this will affect anyone. In fact, we can expect it to affect everyone differently.¡±
Rhodes glanced at Fuentes, but Fuentes didn¡¯t react to what Rhodes said. Fuentes walked down the hall with the rest of the battalion. Fuentes didn¡¯t try to talk to anyone, but at least he wasn¡¯t a puddle of tears on the floor.
Maybe these other people would be good for him the way they were good for Rhodes. Maybe that was the only problem¡ªbeing alone with this nightmare.
¡°All the soldiers¡¯ brainwaves appear to be functioning normally,¡± Fisher told Rhodes on the way. ¡°I don¡¯t detect any distress in any of them.¡±
¡°What about Rudy?¡± Rhodes asked.
¡°Who are you talking to, Sir?¡± Oakes asked.
¡°I¡¯ll explain it to you when we get there,¡± Rhodes replied.
¡°Fuentes appears to be regulating much better now, too.¡±
¡°Keep an eye on it for me, will you?¡± Rhodes asked.
¡°Of course, Captain.¡±
Rhodes escorted his people into the training room. ¡°What are we doing here?¡± Henshaw asked.
¡°I told you. We¡¯re here to train our implants. We¡¯re about to enter a world that will become your everyday existence for as long as you¡¯re in this battalion.¡±
¡°What does that mean?¡± Oakes asked.
Rhodes sighed. ¡°I can¡¯t explain it to you. I¡¯ll have to show you.¡±
He signaled Fisher and the whole group dropped into The Grid. The recruits looked around them.
¡°What is this place?¡± Gannon asked.
¡°It¡¯s The Grid,¡± Thackery replied.
¡°I can see that, but what is it?¡± Gannon asked.
¡°It¡¯s essentially a computer construct of the world,¡± Rhodes explained. ¡°The Grid will morph and change shape to create battle scenarios to train us. The Grid will also modify your implants into different forms and shapes so you can fight the enemy more effectively.¡±
Dietz snorted. ¡°That¡¯s impossible.¡±
¡°You never said anything to us about this,¡± Thackery pointed out.
¡°We were going to train that next, but the doctors decided to wake up the rest of the battalion first.¡± Rhodes turned to his new soldiers. ¡°The Grid is going to start to change right now. You¡¯re going to see some shapes and then your SAMs will come online.¡±
¡°Whats?¡± Henshaw asked.
Rhodes didn¡¯t even try to explain. He signaled Fisher and the SAMs activated in front of each person¡¯s face. The interface showed Rhodes everything the soldiers saw.
The grid lines went through their usual twisting contortions until each one settled each a particular image.
Henshaw¡¯s SAM turned out to be a baby-faced panda named Koen. Oakes¡¯s SAM was an outline of grid squares with no color or visible features at all. It had a male voice and its name was Dash.
Gannon¡¯s SAM was actually a normal human man named Santos. Dietz got a cosmic pulsating orb of crackling lightning named Zen. Coulter got a dog named Murphy.
Rhodes stood back and watched and listened to his people holding conversations with their SAMs He didn¡¯t see any of these people having any problem adjusting. Everything seemed to be working the way it should.
That only made him dread the day when they did start having problems.
End of Chapter 15.
Battalion 1: Book 1: Chapter 16
The bubble of conversation between the new soldiers and their SAMs started to soothe Rhodes into a trance. He had to fight himself to break this moment and disturb the others by getting their attention.
He was just about to call them to enter The Grid when laughter startled him. He turned around and spotted Dietz laughing with Zen. Rhodes couldn¡¯t hear what they were laughing about.
At that moment, at the moment when Rhodes turned his head to look in their direction, Dietz raised his arm and fired his thermal cannon directly into Fuentes¡¯s shoulder.
Dietz didn¡¯t fire hard enough to harm Fuentes. Dietz only unloaded enough to heat the metal housing of Fuentes¡¯s shoulder implant.
Fuentes spun around yelling his head off. ¡°Hey! What the hell?!¡±
Dietz only laughed again. Zen laughed, too. ¡°Cool it, kid,¡± Dietz told Fuentes. ¡°It was just a joke.¡±
¡°What the hell are you doing, Sergeant?¡± Rhodes snapped.
¡°I wasn¡¯t doing anything, Sir,¡± Dietz replied. ¡°I was just fooling around.¡±
¡°He jumped pretty good, didn¡¯t he?¡± Zen chimed in.
Rhodes shot a glare at the orb. ¡°You keep out of this.¡±
¡°I just wanted to see what would happen¡ªin the interest of science,¡± Zen replied.
¡°This was your idea?!¡± Rhodes countered.
¡°It was just a joke, Sir,¡± Dietz insisted.
¡°Do you think it¡¯s a joke to turn your weapon on one of your own people?¡± Rhodes snapped. ¡°Don¡¯t ever let me see you do something like that again. Don¡¯t ever let me see you threaten or point your weapon at anything other than the enemy. Is that clear?¡±
¡°Yes, Sir,¡± Dietz murmured.
Rhodes turned on Zen. ¡°You¡¯re supposed to help him¡ªand the rest of us. If I find out you¡¯re feeding him ideas that undermine the cohesion of the unit, I¡¯ll have the technicians take you offline. Is that clear?¡±
¡°No!¡± Dietz exclaimed. ¡°You can¡¯t do that! He¡¯s mine!¡±
¡°Then you two better shape up real quick,¡± Rhodes countered. ¡°We have enough problems without someone threatening us from inside our own unit.¡±
¡°I didn¡¯t threaten him,¡± Dietz pointed out.
Rhodes leveled him with a death glare. ¡°Did it look to you like he enjoyed it? Would you like it if I aimed my Vipers at your head? Is that what you¡¯d consider a joke, Sergeant?¡±
Dietz pulled his head in and mumbled, ¡°No, Sir.¡±
Rhodes didn¡¯t want to stop glaring at Dietz, but Rhodes had too much other shit to deal with right now. He couldn¡¯t waste any more time on this.
He was just about to say something else when Gannon murmured, ¡°Whoa! That is wild!¡±
Rhodes barely glanced at him. Rhodes didn¡¯t notice anything out of the ordinary except that the grid lines were spreading over Gannon¡¯s face.
Gannon stood there looking down at his arms and body as the grid lines spread downward from his neck to his chest and outward to the rest of his limbs.
Gannon turned his arms in different directions watching the grid lines rotate and adjust their position around his limbs. ¡°Cool!¡± he exclaimed.
¡°What¡¯s happening?¡± Henshaw asked. ¡°That isn¡¯t happening to any of the rest of us.¡±
Rhodes walked over to Gannon. ¡°What¡¯s happening?¡± Rhodes asked Fisher.
¡°I don¡¯t know, Captain,¡± Fisher replied. ¡°I don¡¯t understand it. The interface isn¡¯t detecting any malfunction.¡±
¡°There has to be a malfunction. What¡¯s happening to Gannon, Santos?¡±
Gannon¡¯s SAM hovered there watching. ¡°I don¡¯t know, Captain. All his systems are functioning correctly.¡±
¡°Bullshit!¡± Rhodes turned back to Gannon, but Gannon really didn¡¯t seem to be in any distress. He just stood there watching the grid lines crisscrossing his body.
The lines rotated in different orientations, pivoted back and forth¡¡and then changed shape.
The squares marking Gannon¡¯s face and body adjusted their orientation, and this time, they changed Gannon¡¯s shape, too.
He didn¡¯t make any sound of pain or distress. He just stood there watching while the squares continually altered their position.
They turned into different geometric figures, returned to being squares, and then melted into strange fluid patterns.
Each change smeared the man underneath¡ªexcept that the grid lines weren¡¯t underneath. They changed Gannon¡¯s shape, too.
His face contorted, stretched in some areas, compressed in others, and writhed in all directions as the grid lines moved, pivoted, and manipulated the man along with themselves.
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¡°Gannon!¡± Rhodes gasped, but it was too late.
The changes picked up speed. The grid lines squiggled and then tangled amongst each other. What had been Gannon got lost in the muddle until he wasn¡¯t there at all anymore.
The squiggled knot of lines got smaller and smaller. ¡°Stop this, Santos!¡± Rhodes choked. ¡°There has to be a way to stop it.¡±
Santos cocked his head to one side¡.and then he vanished. Rhodes turned the other way just in time to see the tangle of grid lines disappear¡ªthe tangle of grid lines that used to be Gannon disappeared, too.
The whole group stood there staring at the spot. ¡°What the hell just happened?¡± Coulter asked.
Rhodes wilted. ¡°He¡¯s gone.¡±
¡°What do you mean¡ªhe¡¯s gone?!¡± Oakes snapped. ¡°How can he be gone? He was just here!¡±
¡°This is what I¡¯m telling you. This whole system is experimental. The doctors and officers and technicians have never done anything like this before. There are bound to be problems¡ªwith everything.¡±
¡°So¡.one of us could be next.¡± Oakes cast a glance around the group. ¡°Any of us could go at any time. Is that what you¡¯re saying?¡±
¡°Yes,¡± Rhodes groaned. ¡°It¡¯s been like this ever since I woke up.¡±
He made an executive decision not to tell these people about Cope, Poole, and Taylor. Dozens of other soldiers probably died before Rhodes woke up.
He took a deep breath to pull himself together. ¡°Look, we have a lot of work to do before we¡..¡±
¡°You son of a bitch!¡± Rhinehart bellowed. ¡°You better shut the hell up before I kill you!¡±
Everyone jumped and spun around to see Rhinehart going ballistic. He lunged for his SAM and tried to grab it, but there was nothing to grab.
The SAM had the face of some unrecognizable alien with snakelike tentacles whipping from its head. The face reminded Rhodes of the Xakzat species of reptile from the Quaknax system.
The tentacles crackled with electricity and the SAM¡¯s eyes glowed with cold, piercing fire. They radiated bright white light and made the SAM look menacing and furious.
Its name was Rocky, but it didn¡¯t look like a Rocky at all. It looked like a monster. It had a deep, booming, thunderous voice that echoed out of the distance.
Rhinehart swung his fists at the thing trying to hit it, but his hands went straight through it. He kept bellowing, ¡°Shut the hell up, you piece of shit! I¡¯ll kill you!¡±
Rhodes rushed over to him and tried to restrain Rhinehart¡¯s arms. ¡°Easy, Lieutenant. Take it easy!¡±
¡°Get this damn thing away from me! Just shut it off!¡± Rhinehart roared. ¡°You son of a bitch!¡±
¡°Settle down!¡± Rhodes yelled in his ear and turned to Rocky. ¡°Make yourself as small as possible!¡±
¡°I was only trying to help him¡.¡± Rocky murmured.
¡°Make yourself small!¡± Rhodes yelled back. ¡°Do it now!¡±
Rocky shrank to a tiny size, but the SAM still didn¡¯t become a pinprick the way Fisher did.
Rhinehart kept struggling against Rhodes¡¯s hold, knocked Rhodes¡¯s arms away, and made another dive to pulverize his SAM before Rhodes pulled Rhinehart away again.
¡°Smaller,¡± Rhodes ordered. ¡°Make yourself smaller¡ªand don¡¯t say anything.¡±
¡°My function is to¡.¡±
¡°SHUT THE FUCK UP!!¡± Rhinehart roared. ¡°YOU SON OF A BITCH!!¡±
¡°Be quiet!¡± Rhodes ordered. ¡°Don¡¯t say another word until I tell you to.¡±
Rocky finally retreated out of sight and kept his mouth shut¡ªthank God.
Rhinehart calmed down the minute his SAM disappeared. Rhodes unwound his arms from Rhinehart¡¯s and Rhodes let himself take a moment to catch his breath.
Rhinehart kept glaring at the dot in the corner of his view where Rocky had retreated.
¡°Now listen to me, Lieutenant,¡± Rhodes rasped. ¡°You can¡¯t turn it off. I¡¯m sorry. I know it¡¯s annoying. You just have to learn to live with it.¡±
¡°Like hell I will!¡± Rhinehart snapped.
¡°If you absolutely have to, you can leave it small like that and we can order it not to talk to you.¡± Rhodes waited for a second just to let that sink in.
The silence became palpable. All the rest of Rhodes¡¯s people watched and listened to this latest confrontation.
¡°Now listen to me very carefully, Lieutenant,¡± Rhodes went on. ¡°This SAM is your only friend. Its only function is to help you. You¡¯re going through some growing pains right now, but in a few minutes, we¡¯ll be going into a battle training session. This SAM will give you information and help you navigate the terrain.¡±
Rhodes turned around to address the whole group. ¡°You might have a problem with your SAM now. I had problems with mine, too. Trust me when I say that you¡¯re better off with your SAMs than without them. In a few days, we¡¯ll be going into battle for real and you¡¯ll need all the help you can get. No one is in a better position to give you that than your SAM, so learn to work together.¡±
¡°Thank you, Captain,¡± Fisher murmured in his ear.
Rhodes ignored him. ¡°Your SAM is your best and only friend. What happens to you happens to your SAM, so it¡¯s in your interests to work together. Your SAM is as anxious for you to survive and come home in one piece as you are.¡±
Rhodes turned back to Rhinehart. Rhinehart kept glaring at Rhodes and shooting sidelong daggers at the pinprick that was Rocky.
Rhodes took another steadying breath and studied the SAM. ¡°Change your appearance¡ªand your voice.¡±
¡°I can¡¯t, Captain,¡± Rocky boomed.
¡°Yes, you can,¡± Rhodes snapped. ¡°Don¡¯t give me that bullshit. Just do it. Change yourself into¡¡a Khikvid¡ªand make your voice quieter. Cut out that echo.¡±
¡°That would not be advisable¡.¡± Rocky began.
¡°If you don¡¯t do it, I¡¯ll order you to remain silent and invisible for the rest of forever. Just do it and don¡¯t argue with me.¡±
¡°I don¡¯t give a shit what the hell he looks like,¡± Rhinehart snarled. ¡°I¡¯ll fucking kill him.¡±
Rhodes didn¡¯t answer. Rocky hesitated for a second and then expanded. He didn¡¯t come back to full size. He swelled to the size of an orange. ¡°Do you mean like this?¡±
He took the appearance of a different alien. The Khikvid were small, furry, and round with large, wide-spaced eyes, pudgy faces, and big round ears.
The sides of the SAM¡¯s face kept stretching and adjusting, but at least it was recognizable as a loveable, cuddly creature instead of a monster.
Rocky also softened his voice to a low, soothing murmur. It would have sounded like Fisher¡¯s voice except that Rocky made his voice a lower pitch. He looked and sounded much more like a Rocky now.
¡°That¡¯s perfect,¡± Rhodes replied and turned to Rhinehart. ¡°What do you think? Can you live with it?¡±
Rhinehart glared at the Khikvid. ¡°I don¡¯t have to like it.¡±
¡°No, you don¡¯t. If you really want to, you can order him to disappear and not talk to you anytime when we aren¡¯t in battle. Does that satisfy you?¡±
Rhinehart snorted and looked away. ¡°Bastard.¡±
Rhodes squeezed Rhinehart¡¯s shoulder. It didn¡¯t feel the same as squeezing a man¡¯s shoulder. The implants didn¡¯t give the way a normal human shoulder would.
Rhodes did it anyway and turned to the others. ¡°Right. Now all of you follow me. We¡¯re going to start moving through The Grid. It will change into a landscape and then into the training landscape¡.¡±
¡°How do we know The Grid won¡¯t take one of us over the way it took over Gannon?¡± Coulter asked.
¡°Can¡¯t we just go into The Grid now?¡± Thackery asked. ¡°This is all just a waste of time.¡±
¡°If you don¡¯t keep your mouth shut, I¡¯ll send you back to the barracks,¡± Rhodes snapped. ¡°You¡¯re only making this harder for everyone.¡±
She didn¡¯t say anything else. Rhodes made one last survey of the battalion.
They didn¡¯t inspire a whole shitload of confidence. Dietz kept grinning at Fuentes like they were the best of friends. Fuentes glared back at Dietz.
Rhinehart glared at his SAM. Oakes and Henshaw kept looking toward where Gannon had just been standing.
Rhodes sighed. This was the absolute last group in the world he ever wanted to take into any kind of battle, even a simulated one.
He didn¡¯t have a choice. His only option was to train them as much as possible.
Then he had to pray to Almighty God that they somehow worked out their problems before the real gunshots started flying.
End of Chapter 16.
Battalion 1: Book 1: Chapter 17
Rhodes set off walking through The Grid. The other soldiers of Battalion 1 followed him.
Lauer caught up with him and murmured in Rhodes¡¯s ear. ¡°I got a bad feeling about this, Sir.¡±
¡°I¡¯m sure it¡¯s no worse than the feeling I have about this,¡± Rhodes muttered back. ¡°This whole thing is a disaster waiting to happen.¡±
¡°It looks to me like it already happened. We lost Gannon. Who¡¯s next?¡±
¡°They¡¯re sending us into battle soon,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°We¡¯ll all be next.¡±
¡°At least Fuentes seems to be holding it together.¡±
Rhodes didn¡¯t turn around to see what Fuentes was doing. Rhodes could hear well enough without turning around.
Fuentes wasn¡¯t crying or flying into a rage or trying to destroy himself. That was a massive improvement. Rhodes didn¡¯t care about anything else.
None of the others did any of those things, either. Rhodes knew better than to hope it would stay this way. It wouldn¡¯t, but he could be grateful for small mercies as long as they lasted.
¡°What are we looking at, Captain?¡± Oakes asked behind Rhodes¡¯s back. ¡°This is just more Grid, isn¡¯t it?¡±
¡°Yeah, it is,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°Okay. Here we go. Try to keep up.¡±
He started running. The rest of the group ran with him, and in a second, the grid lines stretched upward to form a landscape.
It started as another valley with softly rolling hills, trees, and a stream at the bottom winding through fields.
The soldiers kept up with no problem. They stared around them at everything. Rhodes picked up the pace and the surrounding hills jutted higher.
The grid lines bent upward into cone-shaped volcanoes puffing smoke into a hazy, red-orange atmosphere.
¡°Stay sharp!¡± Rhodes called behind him. ¡°The enemy should start shooting at us any¡..¡±
He barely got the words out before a flicker of lasers spouted from the slope of the nearest volcano.
In seconds, more gunfire blasted from every hillside and bombarded the battalion. Rhodes turned one way, then another, and fired his scourge guns at the mountainsides.
When that failed, he switched to thermal cannons, but the laser fire coming from the slopes overcame the battalion in no time.
His soldiers reacted just as fast, wheeled outward, and unloaded. They targeted the source of the lasers, but nothing interrupted the enemy assault.
A laser sliced across the valley bottom, hit Henshaw, and carved across her chest implant. She screamed and toppled to the ground, but Rhodes didn¡¯t see any damage to her armor.
The interface gave Rhodes a view of all the SAMs talking to, instructing, and feeding targeting and terrain information to each soldier.
¡°The Grid is showing fortifications five miles up the valley!¡± Fisher yelled in Rhodes¡¯s ear. ¡°We can take cover there!¡±
¡°What¡¯s the objective?¡± Rhodes asked.
¡°The system only says you have to defeat the aliens and bring peace to the valley.¡±
¡°That¡¯s impossible!¡± Rhodes countered.
¡°Just get the battalion to the fortifications!¡± Fisher told him. ¡°We can¡¯t stay out here exposed like this!¡±
Rhodes could see that for himself. He fired his scourge guns at the laser positions again, but he couldn¡¯t even tell if he hit them.
¡°Follow me!¡± he roared to his people. ¡°Use your boosters and follow me!¡±
He fired his boosters and took off soaring up the valley. Fisher adjusted Rhodes¡¯s Grid view of the landscape so Rhodes could see where they were going.
The valley snaked between the volcanoes to a fortified base out of sight. Laser positions surrounded the base, but at least the group would find shelter there.
The others copied him, ignited their boosters, and the battalion zoomed up the valley dodging lasers right and left.
The battalion had to fly through a hail of enemy gunfire to get around the first corner. One of the shots hit Oakes and he slammed down on the ground.
¡°Keep going!¡± Rhodes ordered. ¡°Lauer¡ªshow them where to go!¡±
Lauer took off with the others right on his tail. Rhodes doubled back and pulled Oakes off the ground, but he didn¡¯t seem to be hurt, either.
He staggered a few times when Rhodes picked up him, but Oakes could support his own weight.
Rhodes held onto him to steady him. ¡°Come on, Lieutenant!¡±
¡°Captain¡¡± Oakes croaked and stumbled again.
Rhodes turned around to look into Oakes¡¯s one good eye. That eye kept drifting half shut.
¡°Look out, Captain!¡± Fisher yelled.
Rhodes barely had a chance to realize what Fisher was warning him about before a smash of fusion fire pounded the hillside right next to Rhodes¡¯s position.
Rhodes fired his boosters without thinking and took off into the air dragging Oakes with him. Oakes hung onto him just as tight.
Rhodes didn¡¯t have time to check if Oakes was okay. Rhodes released two of his Vipers and hit two different laser positions on his way up the valley.
Both positions exploded and Rhodes flew past them to catch up with the battalion. He got there just as Lauer led everyone down to the base.
The enemy bombardment escalated as soon as Rhodes and his people took cover behind the fortifications.
¡°Now what do we do?!¡± Thackery hollered. ¡°We can¡¯t get out of here!¡±
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Rhodes hid behind a heavy concrete barricade and turned his attention to Oakes. ¡°Fisher¡ªcan you interface with Dash?¡±
¡°I am interfacing with him, Captain.¡±
¡°I don¡¯t detect any malfunction, Captain,¡± Dash replied. ¡°Lieutenant Oakes only seems to be dazed.¡±
¡°I¡¯m all right,¡± Oakes husked. ¡°Just give me a second.¡±
Rhodes made one last survey of Oakes¡¯s body. All his implants appeared undamaged.
Rhodes couldn¡¯t spend any more time on this. He squinted up at the hillsides all around him.
¡°The bombardment is getting hotter,¡± Rhinehart pointed out. ¡°They know we¡¯re hiding down here.¡±
¡°Fisher¡ªshow me a layout of this valley¡ªa bigger layout.¡±
Fisher adjusted The Grid again. Rhodes measured the strength and positions of the alien laser points that were so busy bombarding the intruders.
¡°That¡¯s amazing!¡± Henshaw breathed. ¡°You can do that?!¡±
¡°Your SAMs can do it, too.¡± Rhodes pointed at a dot on the map. ¡°What is that?¡±
¡°That¡¯s the aliens¡¯ power station.¡± Fisher changed the map layout to show red lines snaking all over the hillsides. ¡°These are the power lines carrying power to the laser positions.¡±
¡°That¡¯s it. That¡¯s the objective,¡± Rhodes murmured. ¡°We take out the power, we take out the guns. The valley will be peaceful.¡±
¡°How do we do that?¡± Coulter asked. ¡°That power station is more than forty miles away with laser positions all the way.¡±
¡°We use The Grid,¡± Rhodes replied.
¡°How?¡± Rhinehart asked. ¡°We¡¯re already in The Grid.¡±
¡°The Grid is in us, too. We can use The Grid to change our shapes and the configurations of our weapons. We need to modify ourselves to overcome all these obstacles.¡±
Dietz frowned. ¡°How do we do that?¡±
¡°Like this,¡± Lauer interrupted and changed himself.
The grid lines covering him altered their shape. They changed him into a cylindrical spacecraft with scourge guns sticking out all over him.
He launched off the ground, soared over the fortifications, and his weapons erupted shooting in all directions.
He whirled in midair for a second and then two cannons on his outer housing fired Viper missiles at four laser positions.
They exploded and he dropped back down behind the fortifications. The grid lines morphed to change him back into a man.
He shrugged at Dietz. ¡°Like that.¡±
¡°Oh, hell no!¡± Coulter muttered. ¡°Hell no!¡±
¡°How did you figure out how to do that?!¡± Thackery demanded. ¡°Captain Rhodes never showed us how to do that!¡±
¡°He mentioned it before,¡± Lauer replied. ¡°I figured it out¡..after Gannon. His grid lines changed shape.¡±
¡°We¡¯ll need to change into something armored to get through all that laser fire,¡± Rhodes suggested. ¡°We should combine our defenses and our firepower. We might make a bigger more obvious target, but¡..¡±
¡°They already know where we are,¡± Lauer pointed out. ¡°They¡¯re already targeting us.¡±
¡°Exactly. We¡¯ll need to use speed, too¡ªand we¡¯ll need to use our Vipers on the power station itself.¡±
¡°We won¡¯t be able to use our Vipers before that, then,¡± Rhinehart pointed out. ¡°We¡¯ll have to use other weapons to clear these laser points and keep our Vipers in reserve.¡±
¡°We can use as many Vipers as we want to,¡± Rhodes told him. ¡°We don¡¯t need to reload anything.¡±
Everyone spun around to stare at him. ¡°We don¡¯t?¡±
¡°We have unlimited ammo and power.¡± Rhodes shut his eyes and raised his hand. ¡°It¡¯s complicated and I don¡¯t have time to explain it right now. Just take out as many positions as you can and keep moving.¡±
¡°So what shape do we take?¡± Henshaw asked.
¡°Get creative,¡± Rhodes told her. ¡°We¡¯ll connect up and keep moving until we get to the power station. Is everybody ready? Are you ready, Oakes?¡±
Oakes nodded. ¡°Yes, Sir. Count me in.¡±
¡°Let¡¯s go.¡±
Rhodes peeked over his fortification. He couldn¡¯t see anything out there¡ªnothing he hadn¡¯t already seen.
Lasers pelted from the enemy¡¯s hillside positions. Fusion blasts bombarded the fortifications and made everyone dive for cover.
¡°GO!!¡± Rhodes bellowed and took off into the air. He didn¡¯t know what he would do until he got out there.
He altered his grid lines and changed into one of Lauer¡¯s spinning spacecraft, but that didn¡¯t get Rhodes any closer to the power station.
His soldiers rocketed out from behind the fortifications just as fast. They took longer to work out how to manipulate The Grid and what to turn into.
Henshaw surprised everyone by figuring it out first. She somersaulted head over heel, plummeted back down toward the valley floor, hit the ground, and changed into something like a compact armored vehicle.
Her weapons stuck out from both sides and unloaded on enemy targets, but she didn¡¯t stay there.
Her armored sides extended down to the ground and protected mechanized wheels under her housing. She took off up the valley plowing a path through the war zone.
¡°Everybody down on the ground!¡± Rhodes called to the others. ¡°Link up with Henshaw! Form a chain!¡±
He dove for her, slammed into the ground full force, and his grid lines mutated to match Henshaw¡¯s shape.
He motored up behind her taking dozens of hits all over his outer armor. He unleashed one Viper missile after another to smash the laser points, but he didn¡¯t try too hard to hit them.
He had to work to catch up with her. She made much better progress than he expected. She outpaced him.
The rest of the battalion burned up behind Rhodes. His people took different shapes trying to manipulate The Grid as fast as possible.
Lauer, Fuentes, and Thackery caught up with Rhodes first. His grid lines morphed in front of his face to form a coupling and he locked onto a matching coupling on Henshaw¡¯s back end.
Lauer, Fuentes, and Thackery locked up with him and all five of them took off snaking through the valley.
¡°Take over, Captain!¡± Henshaw yelled over the noise of pounding gunfire. ¡°I don¡¯t know where I¡¯m going!¡±
¡°Stay where you are! Keon will show you where to go! Rhinehart¡ªcome on!¡±
Rhinehart had the most trouble manipulating his grid lines. He changed rapidly from a Legion tank to some kind of fighter plane to a creature Rhodes didn¡¯t recognize.
Brutal enemy gunfire bombarded each shape. None of those configurations protected Rhinehart well enough.
Rocky had changed his appearance again. He looked more like a prehistoric horse and he changed his voice again to make it higher.
Rhodes heard Rocky yelling instructions and encouragement to Rhinehart, but Rhodes couldn¡¯t make out the words over all the noise.
Oakes and Dietz caught up with the rest of the train, coupled onto its back end, and Rhinehart fell farther behind.
Coulter got separated from the group, too, but not because he couldn¡¯t use the grid lines.
He changed into an identical armored vehicle, but when he got close enough to couple with Oakes, a seeker missile corkscrewed out of the hillsides and smashed down on top of Coulter.
¡°Coulter!¡± Rhodes called, but he got no answer. ¡°The rest of you keep on going! I¡¯ll catch up with you!¡±
¡°Don¡¯t break the train!¡± Lauer told him. ¡°You could get lost out here!¡±
¡°Couple up with Henshaw as soon as I break free!¡± Rhodes ordered. ¡°We aren¡¯t leaving anybody behind. I might be able to help Rhinehart if I¡.¡±
Rhodes broke off when Rhinehart veered. He was nowhere near close enough to connect with the rest of the group. Every mistaken transformation slowed him down.
The delay worked in his favor after all. It put him in the one most strategic position to help Coulter.
The explosion that hit Coulter bowled him farther away from the train. He tumbled down another slope toward the stream running through the valley.
Rhinehart swerved. The outer appearance of his face, hair, and implants vanished and his body turned black with nothing but the green grid lines crisscrossing every part of him.
He transformed instantly into a Legion Predator craft, fired his boosters, and blasted across the landscape.
He extended some kind of hook from his underside, snatched Coulter off the ground, and rocketed into the atmosphere carrying Coulter with him.
Rhodes lost sight of them, and the next second, Henshaw burned around another hill. The power station came in sight¡ªand something else.
Whoever these aliens were supposed to be, they mounted a better defense than Rhodes expected. Twenty-five heavily armored Destructor crawlers blocked the battalion from getting anywhere near the power station.
The Destructors charged away from the power station to assault the battalion. Henshaw was driving too fast to stop.
¡°Where the hell did they come from?!¡± Lauer roared. ¡°They weren¡¯t on the map before!¡±
¡°They weren¡¯t here before!¡± Wild told him. ¡°The Grid modified itself to increase the difficulty.¡±
¡°Scatter!¡± Rhodes order. ¡°Everyone¡ªget airborne and assault the station from the air. Go!¡±
He broke away from Henshaw in the front and Lauer behind him. Rhodes fired his boosters and copied Rhinehart to become a Predator fighter craft.
Rhodes took off into the atmosphere and gained altitude to get above the enemy laser positions.
He barely cleared the tallest volcanos before he met Rhinehart and Coulter coming back down to meet him.
Coulter must have been fine because he transformed himself into a Predator, too. He and Rhinehart pelted past Rhodes and unleashed their Vipers on the power station.
The rest of the battalion changed into Predators, too, but Rhinehart and Coulter got the jump on everyone.
By the time Rhodes turned around to target the power station, Rhinehart and Coulter were already bombarding it to oblivion.
An explosion went off inside the structure and the whole thing detonated with a colossal boom.
End of Chapter 17.
Battalion 1: Book 1: Chapter 18
Coulter looked around the barracks and scowled. ¡°Where¡¯s the food?¡±
¡°You¡¯re out of luck, pal,¡± Lauer growled. ¡°There ain¡¯t no food in this joint.¡±
¡°How are we supposed to relax after a battle without food?¡± Oakes asked.
¡°That¡¯s what I said,¡± Lauer replied.
¡°I want a refund,¡± Coulter joked and made Henshaw laugh.
¡°We deserve a few beers after that run,¡± Thackery chimed in.
¡°Beers¡ªhell,¡± Coulter countered. ¡°Give me a bottle of bourbon any day of the week. Who has time for beer?¡±
¡°You won¡¯t be able to drink beer ever again,¡± Henshaw told him. ¡°You don¡¯t have a liver anymore.¡±
Coulter pretended to gasp in horror. ¡°Hush your mouth! I will drink again. Life wouldn¡¯t be worth living if I didn¡¯t.¡±
¡°It sounds like you need a new reason for living,¡± Oakes told him.
¡°What other reason is there?¡± Coulter asked. ¡°At least let me live in the delusion that I might be able to drink again someday.¡±
¡°Okay, you might,¡± Henshaw told him.
¡°What are we supposed to do instead?¡± Dietz asked. ¡°We can¡¯t just stand around here staring at each other.¡±
¡°Come over here,¡± Thackery told him. ¡°I¡¯ll teach you how to play The Ship, The Captain, and The Crew.¡±
Coulter glanced at Rhodes. ¡°He could use his rank to beat us.¡±
¡°I¡¯m not playing,¡± Rhodes told him.
¡°You have more to worry about from Lauer,¡± Thackery added. ¡°We¡¯re going to have to come up with some special prize for anyone who beats him.¡±
Lauer started grinning. ¡°Now you¡¯re talking.¡±
¡°So what¡¯s the prize?¡± Henshaw asked.
¡°A big sloppy kiss from me,¡± Coulter told her.
¡°That¡¯s a punishment, not a reward,¡± Oakes growled.
¡°For you, maybe.¡± Coulter sat down at the table. ¡°So how do we play?¡±
Thackery started explaining the game. Oakes, Dietz, and Henshaw sat down, too.
Fuentes sat at the next table and watched. He didn¡¯t get involved.
Rhodes waited until they all got busy trash-talking, joking, and passing the dice around the circle. Then he turned to the one person who didn¡¯t get involved in their conversation.
Rhinehart stood off by himself in a corner of the barracks. He faced the wall with his head down and didn¡¯t engage with anyone.
Rhodes used the interface to check where Rocky was. In that moment, Rhodes realized that he activated the interface by himself. He didn¡¯t need Fisher to do it for him.
Rhodes caught a glimpse of which SAMs hovered in front of which faces or, in Rhinehart¡¯s case, which SAMs didn¡¯t hover in front of which faces. Rocky wasn¡¯t there.
Rocky had retreated to a pinprick. The interface told Rhodes that Rocky was still using the horse shape from the battle, but he didn¡¯t try to talk to Rhinehart.
Rhodes took his time going over there. He would have to tell all these people about the loading dock.
Privacy would become paramount from now on. One place where each person could go to be alone would become more precious than gold.
The interface between the soldiers¡¯ SAMs would make that privacy even more critical.
How much and how often should Rhodes use the interface to monitor his people¡¯s mental state? Using the interface to communicate and check on them in battle was one thing.
He shouldn¡¯t have used it to check on Rhinehart and Rocky, but what choice did Rhodes have about that? He was responsible for these people now.
Every life in this unit would depend on each person getting along with their SAM. One pair malfunctioning could put the rest of the group in jeopardy.
Oh, what the hell was Rhodes thinking? It would put the rest of the group in jeopardy¡ªor worse.
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He stopped next to Rhinehart. ¡°You did outstanding work in that training session today, Lieutenant,¡± Rhodes murmured. ¡°You kicked ass.¡±
Rhinehart didn¡¯t look up. ¡°It¡¯s still there. It¡¯s always there. I can¡¯t get rid of it. It¡¯s driving me insane. Why can¡¯t it just leave?¡±
¡°I know, soldier,¡± Rhodes murmured. ¡°The same thing happened to me.¡±
¡°I would kill it if I could,¡± Rhinehart snarled. ¡°I hate having it there in my head all the time. I would kill it if I could find a way.¡±
¡°I know,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°I feel exactly the same way about mine.¡±
¡°Why does it have to talk all the damn time?!¡± Rhinehart spat. ¡°Why can¡¯t it just shut the hell up?¡±
¡°It¡¯s shutting up now,¡± Rhodes pointed out. ¡°He¡¯s trying to help you. He did help you by giving you information during the training session. You saved Coulter. That was something to be proud of. Now Rocky is keeping quiet because he knows that¡¯s what you want. These SAMs are not our enemies. They¡¯re our friends.¡±
¡°But it¡¯s still there!¡± Rhinehart cast a wild glance around the barracks, but he didn¡¯t see anything in front of him. ¡°It¡¯s there even when I can¡¯t see it. It listens to everything and hears everything I¡¯m thinking. It¡¯s listening to us right now. It will never go away.¡±
Rhodes sighed. ¡°I know.¡±
Rhinehart shifted his feet a few times. He couldn¡¯t keep still. ¡°I don¡¯t think I can do this, Sir. These implants¡..¡± He squirmed in his own skin. ¡°They¡¯re driving me insane.¡±
¡°I feel the same way, Lieutenant.¡± Rhodes hesitated and then took the plunge. ¡°Before you woke up¡ªbefore all of you woke up¡ªthe doctors and officers asked me to help them wake up the first three members of this battalion. I was in the room when they woke up. One of them¡..he couldn¡¯t take it. He went into a rage and tore his implants out and died right there on the floor.¡±
Rhinehart looked up. ¡°Seriously?¡±
Rhodes gulped down a wave of sick horror at the memory. ¡°I¡..I wanted to do the same thing. I wanted to do it a million times¡ªor off myself somehow. I couldn¡¯t stand it.¡±
¡°How did you deal with it? What did you do to make it better?¡±
Rhodes couldn¡¯t hold Rhinehart¡¯s gaze. ¡°I didn¡¯t. Nothing made it better. It¡¯s still there.¡±
Rhinehart looked down at his hands¡ªthe hands that weren¡¯t his anymore. ¡°We aren¡¯t human anymore. I¡¯m not human anymore. I¡¯m not who I was before, but I don¡¯t know who I am. I couldn¡¯t have saved Coulter the way I was before.¡±
¡°None of us knows who we are or what we are, but we¡¯re still human. We have to be.¡±
¡°How can you tell? What makes you think you¡¯re still human? I mean¡ªlook at us.¡±
¡°I don¡¯t know how I can tell. It isn¡¯t anything I can look at or point to. Maybe just the fact that I hate this so much is proof that I¡¯m still human. I don¡¯t know. I¡¯m trying to figure this out the same way you are, Lieutenant.¡±
Rhinehart bowed his head to look down at his hands again. ¡°I¡¯m not anything that could go home to my family anyway. They wouldn¡¯t know me. They would be scared of me. The Legion doesn¡¯t have to lock me up here or even tell my family I¡¯m dead. The person they love¡..isn¡¯t here anymore. I died on the battlefield. This is someone else.¡±
Rhodes rested his hand on Rhinehart¡¯s shoulder again. Touching him like that didn¡¯t change a thing.
The voices coming from the table filled that silence. Rhodes glanced behind him.
The rest of the battalion sat around the table shooting snide remarks back and forth as each person took their turns rolling the dice. Thackery kept score. Fuentes glared at them from a few feet away.
It was the most human scene Rhodes could imagine except that none of the people in it were human. Only a small portion of their faces gave any evidence that these machines ever had been human.
Rhinehart¡¯s voice drifted into Rhodes¡¯s ear. ¡°I gotta get out of here, Sir,¡± Rhinehart whispered. ¡°I can¡¯t stand this a second longer.¡±
¡°Go ahead,¡± Rhodes told him. ¡°Take a walk around the station. Sometimes I go out to the loading dock and watch the ships launch and land. It helps me think. Maybe it will help you.¡±
Rhinehart nodded. ¡°Thank you, Sir.¡±
Rhodes didn¡¯t want to let him go just yet. ¡°If you change your mind¡ªif you decide you don¡¯t want to do this anymore¡ªno one will hold it against you.¡±
Rhinehart¡¯s eyes swiveled toward the table. ¡°They all seem just fine. I¡¯m the only one messed up enough to think that.¡±
¡°I¡¯m thinking it, soldier¡ªand so are they. No one gets away free with this. Trust me. If you need to go there¡ªif you need to opt out¡ªjust do it. No one will blame you. I really wish I could.¡±
¡°Why don¡¯t you? Why do you stick around?¡±
¡°I decided to stay for all of you. I couldn¡¯t function when I first woke up. General Brewster said that, if I didn¡¯t figure it out, he would shut down the project and that meant shutting all of you down, too. I couldn¡¯t do that. That¡¯s the only reason I¡¯m still here¡ªthat and to protect my family. They¡¯re still out there in danger from alien invasion. If being like this gives me some small edge to protect my family, I guess I have to use it. I would have ended it a long time ago if it was just me.¡±
Rhinehart looked down at the floor again. ¡°Yes, Sir. I understand.¡±
Rhodes pushed Rhinehart¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Get out of here. Go take a walk and think it over. We¡¯ll still be here if you decide to come back.¡±
Rhinehart left the barracks. Rhodes watched him out of sight.
¡°Is it really like that for you, Captain?¡± Fisher asked.
¡°Of course it is,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°Did you think it wasn¡¯t? Nothing changed. Nothing got better. How could it be otherwise?¡±
¡°You¡¯re right, Captain,¡± Fisher murmured. ¡°This project is a disaster.¡±
¡°Maybe you could communicate some of what you¡¯ve learned about me to Rocky. Maybe you could help him learn how to help Rhinehart.¡±
¡°It seems to me that Rocky is already doing what Rhinehart wants by making himself invisible. That¡¯s the only thing Rocky can do to help Rhinehart.¡±
¡°I suppose you¡¯re right. I guess no one can help Rhinehart.¡±
¡°Do I help you, Captain?¡± Fisher¡¯s voice trembled. ¡°Would you really be better off if I stayed silent and invisible?¡±
Rhodes sighed again. ¡°I really don¡¯t know what will help me or any of these people, pal. I don¡¯t know anything anymore.¡±
He waited a respectful amount of time before he went back to the table and sat down next to Coulter.
¡°Where¡¯s Rhinehart going, Sir?¡± Oakes asked.
¡°He had to take a walk. He has a lot on his mind and he needs some time to think.¡±
¡°He rocked that training session,¡± Thackery pointed out. ¡°I thought he was going to crash and burn. Then he came out of nowhere and smoked that power station. He¡¯s a champion.¡±
¡°I guess so,¡± Rhodes murmured.
Being a champion in a training session didn¡¯t mean jack shit to Rhinehart without his humanity and all the human connections that made it real.
Fuentes made that point loud and clear. He held himself apart and sat there seething with silent resentment. He didn¡¯t participate in the game or the conversation.
After an hour, he took himself off to his capsule, locked himself in it, and started his conversion cycle early so he wouldn¡¯t have to talk to anyone.
End of Chapter 18
Battalion 1: Book 1: Chapter 19
Rhodes woke up, sat on the edge of his capsule, and stared at his robotic feet.
All Rhinehart¡¯s questions from yesterday came back to haunt Rhodes now¡ªas if Rhodes needed reminding.
How did Rhodes know he was human? What possible evidence could he point to that justified believing he was?
The sight and sound of the other soldiers waking up and leaving their capsules somehow reinforced how hopelessly alien their situation was.
Waking up from sleep¡ªit was such a human experience¡ªso familiar, so mundane, so ordinary.
It felt so human to sit up in bed, put his feet on the floor, and stare at something while his brain kicked back into gear.
He¡¯d been waking up in barracks around other soldiers for years. The sounds lulled him into a false sense of the familiar.
The sight of his own feet shattered the illusion. He didn¡¯t even have feet anymore. He didn¡¯t have boots to put on or laces to tie.
He went through this sequence of thoughts every morning. Talking to Rhinehart about it didn¡¯t change that.
Rhodes stood up and headed for the washroom to look at his reflection in the mirror.
Rhinehart was back. He had been gone all evening last night. He had still been gone when Rhodes started his conversion cycle.
Rhodes really wouldn¡¯t have begrudged Rhinehart for taking his own life. Rhodes envied anyone who did it.
Rhinehart sat up in bed, ran his fingers through his hair, and stood up to start his day. He acted the same way everyone else in the battalion acted.
The minute Rhodes got to his feet, he heard loud thumping noises coming from the washroom followed by the smash of breaking glass.
Everyone jumped and looked over their shoulders in that direction, but no one went to see what the problem was.
Rhodes strode over there and then charged into the washroom when he saw Coulter.
Coulter stood in front of the mirror, but he didn¡¯t look at his reflection. He lunged for the mirror and smashed his forehead into it with all his might.
The glass shattered and part of it hit the floor, but Coulter didn¡¯t pay any attention to that. He grimaced through bared, clenched teeth and howled with pain and fury each time he slammed his head into the glass.
He smashed out the mirror, but he didn¡¯t notice that, either. He kept diving headfirst again and again to pulverize his head on the concrete wall behind the mirror.
Rhodes grabbed him to pull him away, but Coulter only shook Rhodes off and smashed his head against the wall a second time. He left bloody patches on the concrete and blood oozed from around his implants.
¡°Hey¡ªCorporal!¡± Rhodes hollered.
Coulter ignored him and fought Rhodes trying to get to the wall again.
¡°Coulter!¡± Rhodes roared. ¡°Eddie¡ªstop!¡±
Coulter bellowed again and thrashed in Rhodes¡¯s arms. ¡°It hurts!¡± Coulter roared. ¡°IT HURTS!!¡±
¡°What hurts, Corporal?!¡± Rhodes yelled. ¡°EDDIE!! WHAT HURTS?!!¡±
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Coulter let out another feral bellow, charged hard enough to break Rhodes¡¯s grip, and ran headfirst into the wall.
¡°Get the medical team down here, Fisher!¡± Rhodes ordered.
He had to dive for Coulter to stop him from hitting himself again. ¡°IT HURTS!!¡± Coulter roared. ¡°IT HURTS!!¡±
The rest of the battalion clustered in the doorway watching. Lauer and Rhinehart finally forced their way between the others and came to Rhodes¡¯s assistance.
It took all three men to wrestle Coulter away from that wall. He kept struggling against their grip and howling in pain. ¡°IT HURTS!!¡± he bellowed. ¡°IT HURTS!!¡±
Rhodes, Lauer, and Rhinehart held onto him until he lost his balance. The three men rode him to the floor and pinned him there to stop him from hurting himself again.
Rhodes tried one last time. ¡°What hurts, Eddie?!!¡±
Coulter was too out of his mind to answer. In his last act of desperation, Rhodes interfaced with Murphy. The dog face appeared in front of Rhodes right next to Fisher.
¡°What the hell is wrong with him?!¡± Rhodes hollered.
¡°He appears to be suffering from some malfunction in his cerebral implants,¡± Murphy replied. ¡°It¡¯s causing a physical pain response in his head. I¡¯m detecting intracranial pressure¡.¡±
¡°Well, why the hell didn¡¯t you report it?!¡± Rhodes snapped. ¡°How long has he been like this?¡±
¡°About four hours¡..¡±
¡°Four hours?!¡± Rhodes countered. ¡°You¡¯re supposed to help him! If he had a problem, you should have alerted the medical team¡.or me¡.or someone!¡±
Just then, the medical team rolled up. Rhodes, Lauer, and Rhinehart had to let go of Coulter so the medical team could get near him.
He lashed out immediately and decked one of the nurses in the face. He threw an elbow at Dr. Irvine and knocked the doctor out cold on the washroom floor.
Rhodes, Lauer, and Rhinehart dove back in and grabbed Coulter to hold him down. ¡°Take him to his capsule!¡± Rhodes ordered. ¡°Lock him in a conversion cycle until the doctors figure out what¡¯s wrong with him.¡±
Rhinehart glanced over his shoulder. ¡°How do we get him there?¡±
Oakes and Fuentes came out of the woodwork to help. Even then, it took them, Dietz, and Thackery all working together to haul Coulter kicking, screaming, and spitting back to his capsule.
¡°Lift!¡± Rhodes ordered and they all hefted him onto the mattress. They had to lean all their weight on top of him to make him lie still until the prongs inserted and he went limp.
The whole battalion staggered back gasping, panting, and shaking. ¡°This is not good,¡± Fisher murmured.
Rhodes shot upright and spun around to confront Dr. Neiland. ¡°You need to go through all our SAMs and check them for malfunctions. We aren¡¯t going anywhere until you do¡ªnot even into another training session.¡±
She consulted her device. ¡°I¡¯m not detecting any malfunctions from any of your SAMs.¡±
¡°Then why didn¡¯t Murphy report that Coulter was suffering from intracranial pressure? He could have killed himself just now. He had pain in his head bad enough to smash his head against a wall. Murphy said it started four hours ago and Murphy didn¡¯t report it at all¡ªnot even after Coulter hurt himself. It¡¯s a miracle we got to him in time.¡±
She frowned. ¡°Hmm. That is a problem.¡±
¡°Problem!¡± Rhodes snapped. ¡°You¡¯re playing games with our lives and you call it a problem?!¡±
¡°We have to take Coulter back to the lab while we reconfigure his SAM and repair the damage to his implants,¡± Dr. Montague chimed in.
¡°Just keep him sedated,¡± Rhodes snapped. ¡°Don¡¯t wake him up until you¡¯re certain he¡¯s pain free.¡±
¡°How would we do that?¡± Dr. Neiland asked. ¡°We won¡¯t know if he¡¯s pain free unless we wake him up.¡±
¡°I don¡¯t care how the hell you do it! Just do it! You¡¯re the ones responsible for this. What the hell good are these SAMs if they don¡¯t report an obvious malfunction like that?¡±
Henshaw spoke up from across the room. ¡°Maybe the malfunction interfered with Murphy¡¯s programming. Maybe that¡¯s why he didn¡¯t report it¡ªbecause he was malfunctioning, too.¡±
¡°Obviously he was malfunctioning, too,¡± Rhodes snapped. ¡°He didn¡¯t report it at all ever. It never crossed his mind to report it.¡±
¡°Maybe he didn¡¯t want to report it because you were in a conversion cycle,¡± Lauer pointed out. ¡°Maybe something in Murphy¡¯s programming told him not to wake you up.¡±
¡°Then that needs to change, doesn¡¯t it? If one of you is malfunctioning that badly, then I need your SAM to wake me up so we can deal with it. All our SAMs should be reprogrammed for that.¡±
The doctors took Coulter away to their lab. The medical team took Dr. Irvine to the station hospital.
Rhodes couldn¡¯t tell if Dr. Neiland and Dr. Montague even understood why he was so worked up about this.
The rest of the battalion milled around the barracks for a while. No one spoke above a murmur.
Rhodes wanted to storm down to Neiland¡¯s lab and stand over the doctors day and night. He wanted to make sure they fixed whatever was wrong with Coulter.
Hell, they might not even know what was wrong with Coulter. If they did, they might not be able to fix it.
Rhodes¡¯s fury toward these people was really starting to get the better of him.
These problems would spread through the whole battalion. They wouldn¡¯t spare anyone. He knew that now.
End of Chapter 19.
Battalion 1: Book 1: Chapter 20
¡°What are we doing today, Sir?¡± Oakes asked.
¡°Your guess is as good as mine.¡± Rhodes pushed a piece of paper away from himself and pulled another one forward. ¡°It looks like I¡¯m doing this today until Coulter comes back. I guess if I really wanted to know I could ask General Brewster or Colonel Kraft, but I don¡¯t really want to know.¡±
¡°Aren¡¯t we supposed to have any more training sessions?¡± Thackery asked.
¡°No one tells me anything,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°Besides, we aren¡¯t going anywhere until the medical team checks out all of us for the same problem. It might take a while for them to modify our SAMs with the new programming to wake someone up if one of us has a life-threatening malfunction.¡±
He snorted to himself, but he decided not to say his next thought out loud. The fact that the medical team didn¡¯t include this in the SAMs¡¯ original programming¡ªit really spoke volumes about how much the Battalion 1 project cared about its people.
Henshaw picked up the piece of paper Rhodes just finished drawing on. She held it up and studied his drawing. ¡°This is really good, Captain. You¡¯re a natural.¡±
¡°I¡¯m not a natural. I went to art school for three years before I joined the Legion. I¡¯ve been drawing in my spare time ever since.¡±
¡°What the hell did you join the Legion for, then?¡± Rhinehart asked. ¡°You could have been an artist instead.¡±
¡°I didn¡¯t want to be an artist. I wanted to be a soldier.¡±
¡°And kill people and get shot at?¡± Dietz asked. ¡°You¡¯re a real boon to humanity, aren¡¯t you?¡±
Rhodes grinned at him and went back to the drawing in front of him. His pencil scratched the surface and left smooth lines over the paper.
¡°You¡¯re really good, Sir,¡± Lauer remarked.
¡°Thanks, Lieutenant. I¡¯ve had a lot of practice.¡±
Henshaw tilted her head sideways. ¡°Who is that? It looks like a bird, but it also looks like a person.¡±
¡°It¡¯s Fisher.¡± Rhodes pushed it away and threw down his pencil. ¡°I¡¯m going for a walk. Don¡¯t call me unless it¡¯s an emergency.¡±
¡°Isn¡¯t it always?¡± Oakes asked.
Rhodes didn¡¯t answer. He headed for the door, but he stopped in his tracks when Dr. Neiland showed up. ¡°Shouldn¡¯t you be working on Coulter?¡± he asked.
¡°Dr. Montague and Dr. Irvine are working on Coulter. I thought you¡¯d all like to know that he¡¯s awake and he¡¯s going to be fine.¡±
¡°Says you,¡± Rhinehart muttered from behind.
¡°If you¡¯ll all follow me, I¡¯ll take you to your next training session.¡±
¡°Why do we need to follow you?¡± Henshaw asked. ¡°We can find our way there on our own.¡±
¡°You aren¡¯t going back to the same training room. I have a surprise for you.¡±
The whole unit exploded in protests.
¡°No, no, no!¡± Rhinehart exclaimed. ¡°No more surprises.¡±
¡°I ain¡¯t going anywhere with you, lady,¡± Lauer snapped.
¡°You¡¯re supposed to be checking our SAMs for the same malfunction,¡± Rhodes pointed out. ¡°How do we know the same thing won¡¯t happen to us?¡±
¡°We can access your SAMs from the lab,¡± Dr. Neiland replied. ¡°We¡¯ve installed the new protocol in all your SAMs. None of you and none of your SAMs are malfunctioning, so if you follow me, I¡¯ll show you to your next training session. This one will be different. Each of you is getting fitted with your own ship.¡±
Rhodes and the others exchanged glances. ¡°Ship?¡± Oakes asked.
¡°They¡¯re state of the art. I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll be delighted with them.¡±
Rhodes didn¡¯t want to trust that, but his curiosity took over. He had to at least see these new ships. He would decide after that if he liked them.
She must have seen his reaction. She left the barracks without another word and the battalion followed her.
Rhodes didn¡¯t know what to expect. It would have to be something pretty spectacular for him to get delighted about anything around here.
She headed for the loading dock, but she turned off into a stairwell before she got there. The battalion descended five flights of stairs and exited in another long, low landing bay full of ships.
Actually, it wasn¡¯t full of ships. There were only twenty here. Rhodes didn¡¯t recognize their make or class.
Each one resembled a smaller version of a Predator. These had shorter, stubbier wings and a powerful, armored look.
The long, sloping cockpit window ran half the length of the fuselage and ended level with the wings. A booster rocket flared outward from the tail.
¡°I don¡¯t see any weaponry,¡± Oakes pointed out. ¡°I¡¯m not delighted.¡±
¡°Each of you can go on board,¡± Dr. Neiland told them. ¡°As soon as you lock into the cockpit, each ship¡¯s SAM will interface with your onboard SAM. Then you¡¯ll be able to read the controls, pilot the ship, and activate the weapons system.¡±
¡°These ships have their own SAMs?¡± Thackery asked. ¡°Are they the same as our own SAMs?¡±
¡°No, these ships have new ones. None of these SAMs have ever been activated before. Their only function is to fly these craft.¡±
¡°What are these craft?¡± Dietz asked. ¡°I don¡¯t recognize them.¡±
¡°They¡¯re prototype Striker class,¡± Dr. Neiland replied. ¡°These ships have been specifically designed for Battalion 1 so they can be piloted by SAM interface with the pilot.¡±
Rhodes and his people exchanged glances. He wasn¡¯t sure how to feel about this. He didn¡¯t trust anything the Battalion 1 project thought was a good idea.
On the other hand, he¡¯d come to rely so heavily on Fisher. Rhodes instinctively trusted this pilot SAM without even meeting it. He trusted another SAM more than he trusted anyone on the medical team or in any command position.
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Dr. Neiland went down the line assigning everyone to their ships. She assigned Henshaw, Dietz, Fuentes, and Thackery before Coulter showed up.
Bruises covered his face, but at least he was lucid. ¡°How are you feeling, Corporal?¡± Rhodes asked.
¡°Terrible,¡± Coulter muttered. ¡°Thank you for stopping me, Sir. I wasn¡¯t thinking straight.¡±
¡°You were in pain. I¡¯m sorry it happened.¡±
Coulter looked away. ¡°I need to talk to you, Sir¡ªin private.¡±
¡°Do you want to do it now or another time?¡±
Coulter looked around at Lauer, Rhinehart, and Oakes watching and listening. ¡°Later, I guess.¡±
¡°Are you sure? We can do it now if you want.¡± Rhodes waved the other four men away. ¡°You men go about your business. Come here, Corporal.¡±
Rhodes led Coulter to one side of the bay out of earshot from everyone. ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡±
¡°I¡..uh¡..¡± Coulter shuffled his feet. ¡°I don¡¯t know what happened¡.¡±
¡°Murphy said you had pressure in your head. He said that¡¯s what was causing you pain.¡±
¡°It wasn¡¯t that¡ªI mean, it wasn¡¯t only that.¡±
¡°What was it, then?¡±
Coulter opened his mouth and faltered.
Rhodes didn¡¯t know what made the connection for him. He couldn¡¯t put his finger on anything specific, but he knew.
¡°I think I understand, Corporal.¡±
Coulter refused to look at him. ¡°I couldn¡¯t say it won¡¯t happen again, Sir. That¡¯s all I can say about it.¡±
¡°I understand,¡± Rhodes murmured. ¡°If it happens again, we¡¯ll just deal with it.¡±
Coulter opened his mouth a second time, but no sound came out.
¡°Does Murphy know?¡± Rhodes asked.
Coulter nodded at the wall. ¡°Don¡¯t tell anyone, Sir,¡± he mumbled. ¡°I don¡¯t want them to think I¡¯m crazy.¡±
¡°You aren¡¯t crazy. You¡¯re normal. Believe me, everyone in this unit is going through the same thing.¡±
Coulter looked up. ¡°They are?¡±
¡°Of course. You don¡¯t have to worry about them. If it happens again or if it doesn¡¯t work out, that¡¯s just the price of doing business.¡±
¡°I don¡¯t like letting the battalion down, Sir.¡±
¡°You aren¡¯t.¡± Rhodes clapped him on the shoulder. ¡°You did great yesterday and I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll continue to do great. We all just have to make the best of it. Do you feel like coming back to the battalion now?¡±
Coulter nodded. ¡°I got nothing else to do.¡±
Rhodes found himself smiling. ¡°Come on. Maybe something good will come from these ships.¡±
He led Coulter back to the bay where Dr. Neiland assigned both men to their ships. Rhodes interfaced with Murphy and Coulter on the way across the floor.
Rhodes didn¡¯t pick up any obvious sign of distress apart from the bruising around Coulter¡¯s facial implants. He acted fine¡ªbut he wasn¡¯t. No one was.
Rhodes couldn¡¯t even say that Thackery was fine. She showed the least distress of the whole group, but her behavior actually unsettled Rhodes more than Coulter¡¯s, more than Rhinehart¡¯s¡ªeven more than Fuentes¡¯s.
Rhodes would have felt better if she didn¡¯t act so thrilled about being a part of this battalion. If anyone here was giving up their humanity, she was doing it the fastest. She couldn¡¯t give it up fast enough.
People like Rhinehart, Fuentes, and Coulter¡ªRhodes never doubted for a second that they were still human. He was never more certain of anything. Their very distress proved that beyond any doubt.
Getting implanted with all these robotic devices didn¡¯t take away their underlying humanity. If all of this couldn¡¯t make them less than human, maybe nothing ever could. They were human. They always would be.
Rhodes climbed into his cockpit, sat down, and seven identical prongs stabbed him in the head and body. They didn¡¯t put him into a conversion cycle, though.
The ship¡¯s cockpit didn¡¯t have any visible controls. It was just a small compartment with one main seat with a much smaller, compact seat behind it.
The second seat barely looked big enough to carry another person, but it couldn¡¯t have been built there for any other purpose.
The instant the prongs locked into him, he dropped into The Grid. He still saw himself sitting in the cockpit of his ship, but The Grid erased the blank dashboard and everything outside the cockpit window.
He saw himself sitting in his seat in the middle of The Grid with nothing around him.
He barely had time to look around before another compressed tangle of grid lines materialized in front of his eyes. It went through a few rapid transformations from animals, faces, abstract patterns, and horrifying monsters.
It finally settled into a composite animal-human face, but this one looked nothing like Fisher.
This face had a round, flat look with narrow, slit eyes. They curved upward in the middle into two smiling half-moons. The face¡¯s round cheeks glowed with inner light.
The mouth opened way too wide in a grin that took over most of the face.
¡°Who the hell are you?¡± Rhodes asked.
¡°I am Rio!¡± the SAM replied in a high-pitched, childlike, chirpy voice. ¡°Ah! I¡¯m interfacing with you. You are Captain Corban Rhodes, commanding officer of Battalion 1! What an honor! And you must be Fisher.¡±
Rio turned to Fisher. The two SAMs studied each other across The Grid in front of Rhodes.
Rio¡¯s eyes stayed in their half-moon shape. The SAM always looked super-duper excited and cheery to be talking to whoever he was talking to.
¡°Can you interface with the other ships?¡± Rhodes asked.
¡°Of course, Captain! Who would you like to interface with?¡±
¡°All of them¡ªand show me the ship¡¯s controls so I can learn how to use them.¡±
¡°There are no controls,¡± Rio replied.
Rhodes stopped breathing for a second. ¡°There¡¯s what?¡±
¡°You pilot the ship through The Grid. That¡¯s all you have to do.¡±
¡°How do I control it, then?¡±
Fisher interrupted. ¡°You control it the same way you control and adjust The Grid in the training room. You can modify the ship in any way you want to¡.¡±
Rhodes gasped. ¡°No way!¡±
¡°You will be able to maneuver the ship and adjust the weapons system¡..¡±
¡°You haven¡¯t told me which weapons the ship has.¡±
¡°You can modify that, too. The ship is controlled entirely from The Grid.¡±
Rhodes glanced back and forth from one SAM to the other.
He might be willing to believe he could change the ship¡¯s shape and controls through The Grid. He¡¯d seen enough of that during training sessions.
He didn¡¯t want to believe he could actually change the ship¡¯s weapons configuration to whatever he wanted it to be. That sounded too good to be true.
¡°Lieutenant Oakes is interfacing with you, Captain,¡± Rio told him.
Rio turned his head and looked to the left. Rhodes didn¡¯t see anything over there until he looked that way, too.
As soon as Rhodes turned his head, another ship materialized in The Grid. The grid lines appeared first. Then the ship¡¯s outer skin developed color, texture, and depth.
The grid lines changed again and he looked straight through the fuselage at Oakes sitting in the cockpit.
Dash and another SAM hovered in front of Oakes¡¯s eyes. Oakes¡¯s Striker SAM had the face of a bear with grid lines radiating outward from the thick ruff around his cheeks.
¡°How are we supposed to train with these things, Sir?¡± Oakes asked.
Rhodes fought himself back to reality long enough to remember Dr. Neiland¡¯s words. She brought the battalion down here to train with these ships.
¡°I¡¯m not sure.¡± Rhodes turned back to his own SAMs.
¡°I¡¯m accessing the battalion¡¯s schedule on the station roster, Captain,¡± Fisher told him. ¡°The battalion is scheduled to run through a training course to orient us to these new ships.¡±
¡°What course?¡± Rhodes asked. ¡°How does it work?¡±
Fisher cocked his head to one side. ¡°I¡¯m accessing the station database¡..¡±
¡°The session will start as soon as the battalion launches, Captain,¡± Rio interjected. ¡°The training hall is beyond this landing bay. You¡¯ll enter the training hall as soon as you launch and the session will take over.¡±
¡°I don¡¯t know what that means,¡± Rhodes replied.
Rio turned his head very slightly and The Grid around Rhodes¡¯s ship changed. Rio showed him a layout of Coleridge Station including the loading dock, all the side wings, the concourse, the labs, and even the battalion¡¯s barracks.
A red square showed the landing bay. Rio pivoted the chart to swing Rhodes¡¯s view into the bay and then forward into another much larger chamber.
¡°This is the aerial training hall,¡± Rio explained. ¡°It will be big enough for the battalion to fly in and test the ships and their SAMs.¡±
¡°So¡..we just have to launch?¡± Rhodes asked.
Rio split in an even bigger, brighter, wider, cheesier grin. ¡°Exactly, Captain!¡±
¡°Okay. Interface with the other pilots.¡±
Rio didn¡¯t do anything that Rhodes could see, but the rest of the battalion instantly appeared on The Grid. Rhodes could see all of them in their cockpits along with their SAMs¡ªtwo SAMs for each pilot.
He didn¡¯t have time to get acquainted with all the new SAMs now. ¡°Stand by to launch,¡± he ordered.
¡°What are we doing in there?¡± Henshaw asked. ¡°This SAM won¡¯t explain anything to me.¡±
¡°I guess we just try it and find out. Let¡¯s go. Follow me and be ready for anything.¡±
Rhodes said those words, but he still had to think about it before he figured out how to fly this ship. He wasn¡¯t used to flying something without controls.
His hands automatically extended toward the dashboard to take the cradle to steer the ship.
Without warning or him even doing anything, grid lines snaked across the dashboard, formed the outline of a cradle, and it solidified in his grasp.
He didn¡¯t give himself a second to question. He knew how to fly like this.
End of Chapter 20.
Battalion 1: Book 1: Chapter 21
Rhodes grabbed his Striker controls and hit the throttle¡ªexcept that the ship didn¡¯t have a throttle. It responded to his thoughts¡ªor maybe not even his thoughts. His instincts made the ship move without him doing anything.
He lifted off, leaned forward, and the ship took off across the bay. He didn¡¯t see at first where he was going.
Then The Grid around him changed to reveal the bay walls. He picked up speed. Rio overlaid the map of Coleridge Station on the grid lines around Rhodes¡¯s ship.
He saw everything in multiple dimensions simultaneously. He knew exactly where he was going¡ªand then the ship punched out of the bay into the training hall.
It didn¡¯t look like a hall. It looked like The Grid at first. Then it changed into a vast stretch of space dotted with burning ships in battle and gunfire pelting all over the place.
Adrenaline pumped into his veins and his instincts blocked out everything else. He completely forgot that he was flying a strange ship. He completely forgot that he was in a training simulation at all.
He dropped the throttle all the way to the wall and his ship plunged into the battle gunning for doomsday.
Rio kept changing the Grid layout of the battlefield to feed Rhodes information faster than thought. Rhodes didn¡¯t have time even to register the information before his instincts reacted to it.
He veered between attacking ships and opened fire. Fusion charges, thermal cannons, lasers, and scourge guns erupted from his ship¡¯s fuselage and pounded enemy targets all over the field.
He didn¡¯t see at first which side of the battle he was supposed to be on or if this battle even had sides. He couldn¡¯t tell anything about the ships around him. None of them belonged to the Legion.
More ships exploded all around Rhodes¡¯s vessel. He pulled away, and without thinking about it first, his ship changed shape.
The grid lines morphed the fuselage with him still inside it. The shape he¡¯d seen in the landing bay disappeared and the grid lines twisted into a sphere.
The sphere solidified, tumbled over itself, and sprayed lasers and Viper missiles from its round surface.
The Vipers bombarded another two alien vessels coming from Rhodes¡¯s left. One attacker exploded from the assault.
The other staggered across Rhodes¡¯s path. Before he could think, the Striker changed shape again, sprouted a million jointed legs, hit the enemy ship, and used all its legs to vault away into space.
¡°The Zalvox are launching drone mines!¡± Rio reported.
¡°I don¡¯t know what that means!¡± Rhodes hollered back.
¡°They¡¯re launching from the planet Alxull¡ªthat green one on your left. Watch out!¡±
Rhodes barely had time to yank his ship out of the way before a swarm of spherical projectiles whizzed past his hull. This jointed-legged shape didn¡¯t do him any good now.
He activated The Grid just enough to modify the lines and stretch them into a net. The ship was still hurtling way too fast through the battlefield.
Rhodes widened the grid lines as far as they would go, slammed into as many of those airborne spheres as possible, and twenty of them detonated.
He changed the ship again in a split second, contracted the grid lines to a long, thin missile, and raced between the explosions to the other side.
¡°The objective is down that plasma vein!¡± Fisher brought up another Grid map showing the route laid out on it. ¡°The Zalvox have forty defense posts stationed along the route.¡±
Rhodes didn¡¯t have time to think about that before a different flock of ships hammered him from the right.
These were much larger battleships carrying plenty of fusion weapons. They thundered onto the field bombarding everything in their path.
Rhinehart streaked past Rhodes on a dead sprint for the plasma vein. Rhodes heard Rhinehart yelling at one of his SAMs, but Rhodes couldn¡¯t tell which one it was.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Rhodes caught a fleeting glimpse of Rocky¡¯s horse head at his normal size in the corner of Rhinehart¡¯s view. The other SAM looked like a blurred, abstract canopy of tree branches flickering with green leaves.
The next instant, Rhinehart¡¯s ship vanished. Grid lines covered it and reformed into a long, thin, snakelike whip coiling through the battlefield.
The whip cracked here and there unleashing thermal cannon fire, lasers, and Viper missiles to target the enemy.
Rhodes didn¡¯t even really know who the enemy was anymore. He just had to get to the objective somehow¡ªwhatever that was.
In that moment, he completely forgot he was flying a ship at all. He became this collection of lines he could manipulate any way he wanted.
He changed rapidly from a ball to a single line to another jointed creature. He bounded from one enemy vessel to another, delivered multiple strikes to each, and sprang off somewhere else.
His mind went into some kind of altered state. He didn¡¯t have a shape until a split second before he made contact with his enemies.
He measured each one in a blink. Some other force outside himself decided which shape to take. The grid lines and squares morphed, warped, and skewed to match whatever he needed them to be.
He spotted a massive battleship ahead. It dwarfed his Striker by a mile and barricaded the route to the objective. None of the shapes he¡¯d been using so far would work against a ship that big.
The enemy vessel turned its fusion charges on him. He changed back into a coiled line of square blocks linked by couplings, but that made him too big a target.
He collapsed into a ball and tumbled headfirst toward the enemy ship. He didn¡¯t know what he would do until he got there.
Some other part of his mind spotted Henshaw coming in fast on his right. She¡¯d transformed into a cat-like creature leaping from ship to ship.
Explosions went off every time her paws touched an enemy hull. She sprang away before the explosions could damage her.
Her interface linked with Rhodes for a single instant before they both closed on the alien battleship. Rhodes let his grid lines take over and he hit the enemy ship full force.
The lines consolidated at the last instant and turned him into a round monster with no arms or legs. He didn¡¯t need weapons to destroy this thing.
A giant mouth full of razor-sharp teeth opened on the Striker¡¯s front end. He started devouring his way through the ship¡¯s hull.
His interface with the rest of the battalion fed him truckloads of information about where they were and what they were doing.
Henshaw, Oakes, and Dietz chewed their way into the same battleship from multiple sides. The four Strikers would converge in a matter of seconds.
Rhodes couldn¡¯t hear a thing over the deafening chomp of his Striker¡¯s jaws. Fisher flashed a different Grid layout in front of Rhodes¡¯s eyes. The layout showed him the ship¡¯s reactor core buried at the ship¡¯s very center.
Rhodes adjusted his course and interfaced with the other three to converge on the reactor core. They mauled their way through hundreds of decks. The battalion swallowed alien fighters who brought out their weapons to stop the assault.
The interface also showed Rhodes the rest of his people making a run for the plasma vein.
Thackery, Rhinehart, and Fuentes dove through curtains of gunfire, sprinted into the vein, and Coulter and Lauer dropped back to cover their final sprint to the objective.
Rhodes got to the reactor core first and dove for it. He gobbled it in one giant mouthful and it exploded in his mouth.
The grid lines burst outward on all sides and all that energy dumped out through his weapons ports to blast the battleship apart.
Henshaw, Oakes, and Dietz caught up with him a second later. He didn¡¯t see what they could accomplish here, but they collided with him from three directions, widened their grid lines, and grabbed him.
The blast would have torn him apart, but their grid lines interfaced with his. They transformed him before he had a chance to decide to do it himself.
All four merged into a web of lines. The alien vessel burst in a catastrophic boom that flung all those grid lines outward.
The Grid stretched and bounced to its widest limit. The lines swooped away until Rhodes couldn¡¯t see their edges anymore.
Then they all came springing back toward the center, smashed inward into a tight ball, and reformed at their normal size before they transformed back into ships.
Rhodes glanced around. He was somewhere outside the plasma vein, but he didn¡¯t see any other enemy ships around.
They all streaked into the vein trying to catch up with Thackery, Rhinehart, and Fuentes, but the battalion was too far away.
Thackery and Rhinehart split formation, flanked Fuentes on both wings, and fired outward to bombard the enemy defenses.
Thackery and Rhinehart blasted the alien positions with Viper missiles. Fuentes never slowed down. He didn¡¯t have to. He didn¡¯t have to transform. He didn¡¯t even try to shoot.
Thackery and Rhinehart accompanied him to the very center of the plasma vein. The defenses ended at the edge of a deep, lightless hole in space. Rhodes couldn¡¯t detect anything inside it.
Thackery and Rhinehart turned backward to face all the incoming enemy fighters.
Coulter and Lauer flew in the center of the horde shooting in all directions. The enemy pounded them with gunfire and then turned their weapons on Thackery and Rhinehart.
Rhodes, Henshaw, Oakes, and Dietz stayed where they were. They wouldn¡¯t be able to catch up in time to change the outcome, but it was already over.
Thackery, Rhinehart, Coulter, and Lauer plunged into the enemy grouping taking countless shots from all sides.
Rhodes couldn¡¯t see Fuentes anymore, but the aliens couldn¡¯t break through the defenders to catch up with him.
The hole collapsed in on itself without a sound. It imploded and vanished out of sight. It left only the plasma vein gleaming orange and yellow in the blackness of space. There was no sign of Fuentes.
¡°Let¡¯s get out of here,¡± Rhodes murmured. ¡°We¡¯re done. We achieved the objective.¡±
He turned his ship back the way he came and the other pilots followed him. They flew out of the training hall, back into the landing bay, and touched down on the floor where they found Fuentes waiting for them.
End of Chapter 21.
Battalion 1: Book 1: Chapter 22
The battalion surrounded Fuentes all yelling at him, rubbing the side of his head, and laughing. ¡°Outstanding flying, kid!¡± Oakes told him. ¡°That was epic!¡±
Fuentes laughed and tried not to blush. ¡°I can pull it out when I need to.¡±
¡°You did more than pull it out,¡± Rhinehart told him. ¡°You destroyed those bitches.¡±
¡°What was it like in there, Rudy?¡± Henshaw asked.
¡°Dark,¡± Fuentes replied and the whole group exploded.
¡°Tell us everything,¡± Thackery urged.
¡°Tell us everything on our way back to the barracks,¡± Rhodes interrupted.
No one argued. The battalion left the landing bay and talked all the way back to the barracks. Rhodes hung back and didn¡¯t get involved.
¡°Did you see anything in there?¡± Dietz asked Fuentes.
¡°I didn¡¯t see a thing. I wouldn¡¯t have been able to find the target, but Teo showed me on The Grid.¡±
¡°Who¡¯s Teo?¡± Coulter asked.
¡°His Striker SAM, obviously,¡± Lauer interrupted. ¡°I guess these SAMs come in handy now and then.¡±
¡°Teo was great,¡± Fuentes exclaimed. ¡°He talked me through the whole thing. I wouldn¡¯t have been able to do it without him.¡±
¡°What does he look like?¡± Henshaw asked.
¡°He looks like a black smudge, but he has a deep voice like my father¡¯s. I don¡¯t have to think. I just do what he tells me to do.¡±
¡°You sure did it,¡± Coulter told him. ¡°You¡¯re a braver man than I am flying into that hole. We thought you were a goner when you disappeared.¡±
¡°We did not,¡± Rhinehart countered. ¡°It was a training session. He wouldn¡¯t have died.¡±
¡°That¡¯s easy for you to say,¡± Thackery pointed out. ¡°Look what happened to Gannon. The Grid is just as dangerous as real life.¡±
¡°Way to kill the mood, princess,¡± Lauer growled.
She turned on him. ¡°Princess? You¡¯re calling me princess now?¡±
¡°Would you prefer it if I called you, ¡®gar?on¡¯?¡±
¡°Probably, yeah.¡±
The others laughed and everyone entered the barracks. Rhodes used the opportunity to check his interface with all of them.
Their systems registered less stress than he¡¯d seen before. Their brainwaves came closer to normal today than he¡¯d ever seen them in the past. This experience really bonded them.
¡°Are you sure you don¡¯t need to go into a conversion cycle to recover from your heinous ordeal?¡± Dietz asked Fuentes.
Fuentes flushed again. ¡°I think I can handle it.¡±
¡°Where did you learn to fly like that?¡± Oakes asked. ¡°That was some expert-level shit there.¡±
¡°I didn¡¯t,¡± Fuentes replied. ¡°I¡¯ve never flown before.¡±
Everyone turned around to stare at him. ¡°You¡.what?¡± Coulter gasped.
¡°I¡¯ve never flown before. I wasn¡¯t smart enough to pass the written test so I served on a ground support crew before this. Our crew got bombed on the Ahioli Asteroid Field. That¡¯s how I came here.¡±
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
¡°How did you learn to fly like that, then?¡± Oakes demanded. ¡°Trained pilots couldn¡¯t fly like that.¡±
Fuentes shrugged. ¡°Teo said it would come naturally to me and to just move the ship where I thought was best. That¡¯s all I did.¡±
¡°Holy shit!¡± Lauer muttered. ¡°Now I¡¯ve heard everything.¡±
¡°I¡¯ve never flown before, either,¡± Henshaw chimed in.
¡°Neither have I,¡± Thackery replied.
Everyone turned around to stare at the two women. Of course they¡¯d never flown before. Thackery wasn¡¯t a pilot and Henshaw hadn¡¯t been in the Legion at all.
Rhodes was just trying to come up with a way to break the uncomfortable silence when General Brewster and Colonel Kraft walked in.
Rhodes had come to dread anyone walking into the barracks, especially any of the station officers or medical staff. Besides, he already had a pretty good idea what these two jokers were coming to tell him.
¡°That was outstanding work,¡± General Brewster gushed. ¡°You¡¯re all becoming a real battalion.¡±
¡°We aren¡¯t a battalion,¡± Lauer growled. ¡°There are only nine of us.¡±
¡°You will become a battalion when more people go through the project. We hope in time to have several battalions all operating in conjunction with the regular Legion. Anyway, that was two successful training sessions in a row with all of you executing perfectly. We¡¯ve decided it¡¯s time to deploy you back to the battlefield. You¡¯ll leave tomorrow morning.¡±
Silence fell over the group. This couldn¡¯t have come as a surprise to anyone, but those words cast a chill over the group¡¯s triumph.
Brewster made a few more noises of congratulations. Kraft said nothing. His dark eyes measured everyone in the room.
Rhodes became aware of the intensity of Kraft¡¯s gaze settling on Rhodes in particular. He didn¡¯t say anything, either. He waited for the two men to leave.
¡°I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later,¡± Henshaw murmured.
¡°Finally,¡± Lauer muttered. ¡°I can¡¯t stand all this sitting around.¡±
¡°You call what we just did sitting around?¡± Thackery countered. ¡°We just did deploy in battle.¡±
¡°It wasn¡¯t real,¡± Lauer replied. ¡°This will be.¡±
¡°I suppose they¡¯ll send us back to the Emal war,¡± Rhinehart remarked. ¡°Don¡¯t you think so, Sir?¡±
¡°I¡¯m certain they will. Colonel Kraft already told me so. They plan to deploy us against the Emal just to work out all the bugs in our systems. Then they¡¯ll send us against some other alien invasion forces that are threatening the Treaty of Aemon Cluster in other places.¡±
Thackery sighed. ¡°Then tonight is our last night at Coleridge Station.¡±
¡°Until we come back,¡± Oakes pointed out. ¡°We¡¯ll always have to come back here.¡±
¡°Unless we don¡¯t make it,¡± Dietz added.
Those words threw another bucket of cold water over the group. No one said anything for a minute.
Coulter broke the silence by sitting down at the table. ¡°Come on! Who wants to get their asses kicked by the greatest dice player of all time?¡±
¡°Lieutenant Lauer might have something to say about that,¡± Oakes replied.
Coulter pounded on the table. ¡°Anyone who has anything to say about it better sit down and say it. I¡¯m gonna keep saying I¡¯m the best until someone comes along and stops me.¡±
¡°You¡¯re on, Corporal.¡± Rhodes strode over to the table and swung his leg over the bench.
¡°Cage match!¡± Dietz hooted. ¡°Kick his ass, Captain!¡±
¡°Captain Rhodes is too nice to kick anybody¡¯s ass,¡± Rhinehart corrected.
¡°Mop the floor with him, Captain,¡± Fuentes added and more people laughed.
Coulter and Rhodes eyed each other across the table. Coulter bit back a grin.
¡°I can make sure you win, Captain,¡± Fisher told him.
¡°That would be cheating,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°Just watch and enjoy the show.¡±
¡°Isn¡¯t this a test of your authority?¡± Fisher asked.
Rhodes burst out laughing in spite of himself. ¡°No, pal. This is just some fun to take our minds off the fact that we¡¯re deploying tomorrow morning.¡±
Coulter pushed the dice across the table to Rhodes. ¡°You can go first, Sir, ¡®cuz I¡¯m a nice guy that way.¡±
¡°Put him in the bilge, Captain,¡± Rhinehart interrupted.
¡°Throw him over the side, Captain,¡± Thackery added and more people laughed.
Rhodes picked up the dice and threw. He rolled two fives, two fours, and a one.
Groans of agony went around the table. Lauer sat down. ¡°I want in on this.¡±
¡°Me, too.¡± Fuentes sat down next to Coulter.
The next minute, everyone gathered around. They had to pack in shoulder to shoulder so they all fit at the same table.
Rhodes threw one of his fives, one of his fours, and the one. He got two sixes and a three.
¡°Bend over, chump!¡± Dietz told Coulter.
¡°Keep it civil, Sergeant,¡± Rhodes told him. ¡°We¡¯re trying to relax here.¡±
Fuentes picked up the dice next. Rhodes didn¡¯t pay attention to the rest of the game. He really didn¡¯t care about the score.
This group of people right here¡ªthey were becoming a crew¡ªa real unit in every way that mattered.
These people at this table right here¡ªthey were all he had left in the world. Whatever happened to him, he would stand or fall with these people right here.
He would do anything to protect them from what lay ahead, but he already knew he couldn¡¯t.
Whatever happened to them, the best he could hope for would be to witness their sacrifice and pray to Almighty God that some of them made it back alive. Even that was probably asking too much.
End of Chapter 22.
Battalion 1: Book 1: Chapter 23
Rhodes and the rest of Battalion 1 stepped out onto the Coleridge Station loading dock. A giant Ravager carrier sat parked there waiting to take the battalion to the Emal wars.
The ship¡¯s crew buzzed around loading goods, supplies, and equipment onto the ship. Rhodes and his people had to stand off to one side while the crew wheeled the battalion¡¯s nine capsules on board.
The capsules looked strange outside the barracks. They looked like some kind of alien pods or growth chambers. They didn¡¯t look like anything a human person would sleep in.
None of the Ravager¡¯s crew made eye contact with Rhodes or his people. The battalion followed the capsules on board.
The crewmen anchored the capsules in a separate hold, hooked them all up to the Ravager¡¯s power supply, and left without saying a word to Rhodes or any of his people.
¡°We¡¯ll need to keep track of the battalion¡¯s conversion cycle schedule,¡± Fisher pointed out. ¡°We won¡¯t have the Coleridge Station circadian timeline to tell us when to go through conversion cycles.¡±
¡°What happens if we get stuck in battle and miss a conversion cycle?¡± Rhodes asked.
¡°I don¡¯t know. I don¡¯t want to find out.¡±
Rhodes didn¡¯t reply. Marvelous. He didn¡¯t know much about what he could expect from this misguided adventure, but he was sure of one thing.
He and his people would get stuck in battle somewhere. They would get separated from these capsules.
The battalion¡¯s schedules would become erratic and unpredictable the way things always got erratic and unpredictable during battles.
Everyone in this battalion would probably become even less stable than they were now. Their ability to cope would deteriorate.
It was too late now because the Ravager was already lifting off with Rhodes and the battalion on board.
The crew didn¡¯t come back to check on the battalion¡ªjust in case Rhodes somehow forgot that he was outside the rest of the human race now.
The crew had set up this hold the same as the battalion¡¯s barracks at Coleridge Station. A collection of tables and a computer terminal desk sat opposite the capsules. Thackery sat down at the terminal and checked the screen.
¡°This says the Ravager is named, Ero,¡± she announced. ¡°I wonder if the Legion will transport us on this ship all the time now.¡±
¡°Of course they won¡¯t transport us on this ship all the time now,¡± Coulter told her. ¡°It will drop us off at the Emal wars and that will be the end of it. We¡¯ll never set foot back on another ship because we¡¯ll all be dead.¡±
¡°Do you mind?¡± Lauer snarled. ¡°Some of us are still trying to live our lives here.¡±
¡°Why bother?¡± Coulter asked. ¡°You¡¯re dead. We all are. We were dead before we even woke up at Coleridge Station.¡±
Fuentes squirmed in his seat at the table. ¡°I don¡¯t want to be dead.¡±
¡°If you really want to get philosophical about it, you could say we were all dead before we were ever born,¡± Rhinehart pointed out. ¡°What¡¯s the point in fretting about it? It¡¯s gonna happen someday¡ªone way or the other.¡±
Fuentes glanced back and forth between them and winced. ¡°I don¡¯t want to die.¡±
¡°This says the trip is supposed to take eight weeks,¡± Thackery announced. ¡°As soon as we enter our first conversion cycle, we¡¯ll stay in stasis until we get there.¡±
Rhodes headed for his capsule. ¡°Sounds like a plan. Wake me up when we get there.¡±
¡°Hey! You can¡¯t just abandon us here!¡± Dietz exclaimed.
¡°You¡¯re a grown man. You can handle it.¡± Rhodes stretched out on his mattress. ¡°You can¡¯t get into any trouble here. If you¡¯re really worried about it, go into your conversion cycle and stay there. Nothing can go wrong.¡±
Lauer snorted. ¡°Something can always go wrong.¡±
¡°All the more reason for me to be asleep when it happens.¡± Rhodes shut his eyes. ¡°See you all in the morning.¡±
The prongs locked into the back of his head and the capsule cover closed over him, but he didn¡¯t fall asleep right away. He¡¯d only been awake for a few hours before he boarded this ship.
Fisher magnified himself in front of Rhodes¡¯s closed eyes. Fisher had developed a habit of making himself smaller whenever Rhodes talked to someone else or concentrated on anything else.
Then Fisher would expand himself to take up Rhodes¡¯s whole view whenever they were having a private conversation just between the two of them.
¡°Would you like me to monitor them through the interface while you sleep, Captain?¡± Fisher asked.
¡°No. Leave them alone. They can take care of themselves.¡±
¡°I wouldn¡¯t go so far as to say that,¡± Fisher murmured.
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¡°It¡¯s a figure of speech, pal. They don¡¯t need me babysitting them.¡±
¡°What if one of them malfunctions on the way there?¡±
¡°Then their SAMs¡¯ programming should wake me up¡ªnot that I¡¯d be able to do anything about it if they did malfunction. If anything goes wrong, we¡¯re up the creek either way. At least we¡¯ll die in our sleep¡ªwhich is more than I can say for dying on the battlefield.¡±
¡°You¡¯re starting to sound like Coulter. When did you become so gloomy?¡±
¡°I¡¯ve been like this all along. Don¡¯t you remember? None of these people is fit to go into combat and neither am I. If this was a real Legion unit, we would all be locked up for mental disturbance.¡±
Fisher didn¡¯t answer right away. ¡°You¡¯re right about that.¡±
¡°This can only end one way. What¡¯s the point of fooling ourselves about it?¡±
¡°Why are you doing it, then? Why do you consent to go into battle?¡±
Rhodes kept his eyes shut and settled back on the bed even though he was already in it. ¡°If I become too unstable, you can put me down in my sleep.¡±
¡°I couldn¡¯t do that!¡± Fisher gasped. ¡°How can you even suggest that?¡±
¡°That¡¯s what a true friend would do. Just put me out of my misery¡ªand pass the word to your fellow SAMs to do the same thing. Just end this nightmare. You¡¯ll save us all a whole lot of time, pain, and trouble.¡±
Fisher didn¡¯t answer at all, and the next instant, Rhodes woke up from his conversion cycle.
He sensed immediately that it had been a long one¡ªas long or longer than the one he¡¯d woken up from when he first got his implants.
He didn¡¯t remember where he was, but there was one glaring difference this time. No doctors stood by his bed to welcome him back to the land of the living.
Fisher blinked into view in front of Rhodes¡¯s eyes. ¡°Welcome back, Captain,¡± Fisher began in his smooth, calming voice. ¡°You may feel weak, nauseous, and disoriented at first, but that should pass in a few minutes.¡±
Rhodes groaned. ¡°Where am I?¡±
¡°You¡¯re on board the Ravager Ero en route to the Emal wars with Battalion 1. The rest of the battalion is waking up. They¡¯re talking to their SAMs now.¡±
Rhodes raised his hand to run his fingers through his hair. That¡¯s when he felt his implants. His metal fingers touched the skin of his face¡.and he remembered everything.
He groaned again and rolled onto his side trying to block it all out, but it wouldn¡¯t go away.
At least the feeling of his implants eating into his bones didn¡¯t drive him to insanity the way they did at first. He understood that sensation now.
He eventually dragged himself up into a sitting position. He was the first to sit up.
Rhinehart¡¯s and Henshaw¡¯s capsule covers were both open, but neither of them had their eyes open.
Rhodes sat slumped on the edge of his capsule waiting for his thoughts to clear.
¡°The Ero is in orbit over the planet Ohait,¡± Fisher went on. ¡°The Emal have secured half the planet. They¡¯re driving the Legion back toward the beach on the Bazaid continent¡¯s east coast.¡±
Rhodes rested his head in his hand. He knew enough about the Emal war to know what he¡¯d be facing down there. He didn¡¯t look forward to doing it all again.
Rhinehart and Henshaw finally sat up. The other members of their battalion started to stir.
Rhodes got to his feet. He still felt weak, groggy, and sick to his stomach, but he wanted his people to see him standing up. Someone had to.
He checked the terminal and confirmed everything Fisher told him¡ªnot that Rhodes doubted it. He just wanted to see it for himself.
Thousands of Emal teemed across the rest of the continent. Their base ships occupied strategic intervals across the whole expanse. The aliens could retreat there or launch new swarms from any of those ships.
The Aemon Legion occupied a thin stretch of beach all the way on the continent¡¯s farthest eastern shore. Dusters, Predators, and a few Ravagers hovered there to give the ground troops cover.
The Legion bombarded the Emal exactly the way they did on Luluna. Every shot of fusion fire, Viper missiles, and rattler guns took out dozens or even hundreds of Emal.
Nothing the Legion did made a dent in the Emal¡¯s numbers. Rhodes didn¡¯t even see the Emal releasing additional numbers. They already had enough people on the ground. The Legion couldn¡¯t even get off the beach.
It was even worse than that. Legion Ravagers descended over the ocean trying to lift the troops off. The Ravagers couldn¡¯t find room to land without crushing the troops they were trying to rescue.
If this went on much longer, the Emal would drive the Legion troops right into the ocean.
Rhodes groaned and covered his eyes again¡ªand not because of the disorientation of waking up after such a long conversion cycle. This was as bad as he feared.
¡°Should we come up with a battle plan?¡± Fisher asked.
¡°We can¡¯t do that until we report to our superiors on the ground. We¡¯re deployed with the regular Legion. Whoever is running this nightmare will have some idea of what they want us to do.¡±
¡°Are you sure?¡± Fisher asked. ¡°I don¡¯t think anyone outside the project even knows that Battalion 1 exists.¡±
Rhodes¡¯s head shot up. ¡°You mean¡..no one knows we¡¯re coming?¡±
¡°I don¡¯t think so. Battalion 1 is classified at the highest level of Legion security. No one on the battlefield has that kind of clearance.¡±
¡°Jesus Christ!¡± Rhodes snarled.
¡°You okay, Captain?¡± Rhinehart asked.
Rhodes forced himself to look up. ¡°Sure. I couldn¡¯t be better. How are you feeling?¡±
Rhinehart nodded. ¡°I guess I¡¯ll live.¡±
Rhodes made one last check of the battlefield. A certain General Kaufman was in command of the Ohait campaign. Three colonels under him supervised the platoons on the ground.
One of the colonels was Merriman Jenner, the same colonel Rhodes served under on Luluna. They knew each other personally off the battlefield.
Rhodes went through a confused jumble of emotions when he saw the man¡¯s name on the command roster¡ªand then Rhodes saw something else that made his heart stop.
¡°Is something wrong, Captain?¡± Fisher asked.
¡°The 249th Platoon is here. It¡¯s my old platoon¡..and so is the 278th¡.and the 217th. I fought with all of them on Luluna. I was fighting with them when I got hit. They¡¯re the last people who saw me¡.¡±
He stopped himself from saying they were the last people who saw him alive. He didn¡¯t even know what that meant.
Was he not alive because he got hit on the battlefield? Was he not alive because he was a robot or as good as one? Was he not alive because everyone he knew and cared about thought he was dead?
Which of those made him not alive? He¡¯d been telling himself all this time that he was still human.
He felt less human the closer he got to real people. Spending time with the battalion in their barracks at Coleridge Station¡ªthat was easy compared to this.
He didn¡¯t have to even read his former comrades¡¯ names on the roster. He knew almost every man in all three platoons. He¡¯d fought and bled with them. He lost his life trying to save them.
Fisher interrupted his thoughts. ¡°The Ero captain Parker Ackerman is indicating our descent onto the beach. He says we can deploy as soon as we touch down.¡±
¡°Where will he be when we need to go through conversion cycles?¡±
¡°I¡¯ll have to let him know to make himself available. The ship¡¯s itinerary indicates that it will remain in orbit while we¡¯re on the ground.¡±
Rhodes compressed his lips. Brilliant. That would introduce another layer of complexity to an already chaotic mission.
He didn¡¯t say anything about that to the rest of the battalion. He went through the hold checking on all his people, interfacing with their SAMs, and making sure everyone was functioning well enough to deploy.
End of chapter 23.
Battalion 1: Book 1: Chapter 24
Rhodes stepped out of the Ero¡¯s landing bay. He exited onto a beach packed to overflowing with soldiers, equipment, damaged Dusters, medical tents, and stacks of weapons and supply crates.
Rhodes had never served on this planet before, but it resembled too many other battlefields he¡¯d been on.
A line of low hills separated the Legion position from the enemy. Pounding gunfire and the growl of Duster engines drifted on the smoky breeze coming from the front lines.
A matching line of explosions showed Rhodes where the battle line was. The Emal kept swarming over the hills and getting cut down by Legion Jackhammers.
Enemy lasers snickered over those hills, swiped giant pathways of dead bodies through the Legion ranks, and then the lasers swiveled upward to target Legion Dusters and Predators buzzing overhead.
Continuous booming concussions echoed down the hills every time a Duster or Predator exploded.
Thackery, Henshaw, and Fuentes all jumped at the sound. None of the others did. They were used to it.
Rhodes crossed the beach. Too many people rushed past for him to recognize anyone. These people all belonged to support crews and medical teams anyway. All the soldiers he knew would be up there on the front line.
He had to brace himself before he went into the command dome. Rhodes didn¡¯t have to tell Fisher to make himself scarce. Fisher shrank to a tiny dot in the corner of Rhodes¡¯s vision.
Rhodes marched in and found General Kaufman, Colonel Jenner, and Colonel Andre Pitt standing around a table. Computer terminals, maps, and countless reports crowded the surface.
Colonel Jenner¡¯s jaw dropped when he saw Rhodes. ¡°Corban¡..¡± Jenner husked. ¡°Corban Rhodes?¡±
¡°Yes, Sir. I¡¯m assigned to you with my unit here.¡±
¡°I wasn¡¯t informed of this!¡± General Kaufman snapped. ¡°Why wasn¡¯t I informed?¡±
¡°You would have to ask General Brewster, Sir,¡± Rhodes replied in as calm a tone as he could muster. ¡°I was ordered to report to you here. That¡¯s all I know. If you could assign us to our position, we¡¯ll head out to the front line.¡±
¡°But you¡¯re¡.¡± Colonel Jenner trailed off. He didn¡¯t finish his sentence before he went back to gawking at Rhodes with his jaw on the ground. Jenner barely saw the rest of the battalion.
¡°Brewster!¡± General Kaufman snapped. ¡°What the hell is that old lunatic up to now?¡±
¡°I guess you can see that as well as anybody, Sir,¡± Rhodes murmured. ¡°I promise you none of us wanted this.¡±
¡°But you¡.you got killed in action!¡± Colonel Jenner stammered. ¡°You¡..you¡¯re supposed to be dead.¡±
¡°I am dead, Sir.¡± Rhodes turned back to General Kaufman. ¡°Do you have any particular place you¡¯d like us, Sir? If you don¡¯t, I guess we¡¯ll just go out there and do what we can.¡±
¡°Um¡.¡± General Kaufman pulled himself together with an effort, which was more than Jenner could do.
Kaufman bent over one of his terminals and consulted his charts of the area. ¡°The Emal are the closest to breaking through here¡ªat the Aevod Gap. You could reinforce that and give our boys some room. They¡¯ve been up there for a week without a break.¡±
Rhodes scowled at the chart in front of Kaufman. The 249th Platoon was closest to the Aevod Gap. Rhodes would see his old comrades up there.
He didn¡¯t say that out loud, though. He only mumbled, ¡°Yes, Sir. No problem.¡±
¡°You¡¯re dismissed then, Captain,¡± Kaufman told him.
Rhodes started to turn away. He sent up a silent prayer of gratitude that the meeting didn¡¯t drag on with everyone asking a billion questions about what Battalion 1 was and how it all happened. He couldn¡¯t stand that.
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Just when he thought he could get the hell out of there with some of his dignity intact, Colonel Jenner snapped out of his trance and grabbed Kaufman¡¯s arm. ¡°You can¡¯t send him up there! The 249th is up there! They¡¯ll see him!¡±
¡°So?¡± Kaufman asked.
¡°So¡.they know him!¡± Jenner half-whispered. ¡°They would realize¡.what he is!¡±
¡°I don¡¯t see your point,¡± Kaufman replied.
Jenner gulped. ¡°Assign him somewhere else. That¡¯s all I¡¯m saying.¡±
¡°We can¡¯t. If we send reinforcements anywhere, it has to be the Gap. The 249th is barely holding the Gap as it is.¡± Kaufman nodded at Rhodes. ¡°You have your orders, Captain.¡±
¡°Yes, Sir,¡± Rhodes replied and walked out. He really hoped he didn¡¯t see anyone else he knew, but he already knew he would.
He barely made it through the door before Colonel Jenner came rushing out after him. ¡°Corban¡ªwait!¡±
Rhodes stopped walking, but he didn¡¯t turn around. This was rapidly turning into the single most painful experience of this whole nightmarish ordeal.
Rhodes didn¡¯t want to face Jenner, but things were bound to get a whole lot worse when Rhodes finally met up with the 249th. He didn¡¯t look forward to that at all.
Jenner definitely saw the rest of Rhodes¡¯s people now. Jenner left a wide space between himself and the battalion when he circled the group to stand in front of Rhodes.
Once Jenner got into that position, he got his mouth open and that was it. He tried more than once to speak and failed.
His eyes traced every detail of Rhodes¡¯s facial implants. Jenner¡¯s features kept spasming in all the wrong ways. His eyes squinted in misery.
Rhodes waited, but Jenner still couldn¡¯t get his voice to function.
¡°Go back inside, Sir,¡± Rhodes finally murmured. ¡°You can¡¯t help me.¡±
¡°But you¡¯re¡.you¡¯re¡.¡± Jenner stammered.
Rhodes waited again for Jenner to say something. He couldn¡¯t. His cheek trembled and he gulped down a lump in his throat.
¡°Go back inside, Jerry,¡± Rhodes breathed even lower. ¡°Don¡¯t make this harder than it already is.¡±
Jenner opened and closed his mouth a few more times. He kept shifting his weight from one foot to another.
The few times he actually summoned the nerve to look at the people standing behind Rhodes, Jenner nearly collapsed with emotion.
Rhodes waited a few minutes more, but Jenner still didn¡¯t move or make a sound. Rhodes couldn¡¯t stand this any longer.
He stepped around Jenner and walked off down the beach with his people behind him.
Rhodes didn¡¯t look back. He walked as fast as he dared to put as much distance as possible between himself and Colonel Jenner.
Fisher waited a few seconds before he expanded himself so Rhodes could see him. Fisher overlaid The Grid on the surrounding hills.
¡°The Aevod Gap is between those two mountains.¡± Fisher indicated the spot with a red dot so Rhodes could see it. ¡°It forms a choke point. The platoons can cut down the Emal as they come through.¡±
Rhodes adjusted The Grid himself. He pivoted it downward so he surveyed the mountains from above.
¡°The Emal are amassing an airstrike force behind the Gap. They plan to fly over and bombard the platoons from the air. The choke point won¡¯t help the Legion then.¡±
¡°What do you want to do?¡± Lauer asked behind Rhodes¡¯s back.
¡°We¡¯ll fly over and bombard the Emal strike force. They aren¡¯t ready to deploy yet. None of them are airborne. They think they have all the time in the world to mount their offensive.¡±
¡°What about the platoons?¡± Rhinehart asked.
¡°If we draw the Emal away from the Gap, the platoons can stay where they are. We¡¯ll take the pressure off them that way.¡±
Rhodes crossed the beach to where the Ero dropped off the battalion. The ship wasn¡¯t here anymore. Rhodes¡¯s interface with Fisher told him the ship had already retreated into orbit.
Rhodes pretended not to think about his capsule and all his soldiers¡¯ capsules thousands of miles away where the battalion couldn¡¯t get to them.
The battalion¡¯s Strikers sat parked on the beach in the Ero¡¯s place. None of the support crews had time even to notice such state-of-the-art prototype craft.
Rhodes loaded into his cockpit and got the usual cheery greeting from Rio. ¡°Captain! How charming to see you again!¡±
¡°Save it, pal. We¡¯re going into battle.¡±
¡°Even better! Who are we fighting?¡±
¡°The Emal. Bring up as much information as you can on their base ships.¡±
¡°We don¡¯t have any information on their base ships.¡±
Rhodes spun around fast. ¡°You don¡¯t? Why not?¡±
¡°Because no Emal spacecraft have ever been recovered from the battlefield. They either blow up or the Emal retrieve them. We don¡¯t know anything about their craft.¡±
Rhodes groaned. ¡°Fantastic.¡±
¡°Hey, what about hitting their power supply like we did in that training session?¡± Dietz suggested. ¡°They¡¯re running lasers. They must have some power source. Right?¡±
¡°What about it, Rio?¡± Rhodes asked. ¡°How do the Emal power their lasers?¡±
¡°I¡¯m afraid we don¡¯t know that, either, Captain. I wish I could be more help.¡±
¡°They must reload or refuel somehow,¡± Coulter added.
¡°I don¡¯t think so,¡± Rio replied. ¡°No Legion troops have ever reported seeing the Emal reload or refuel.¡±
¡°There¡¯s no sign on The Grid of any power supply feeding the Emal lasers,¡± Fisher chimed in. ¡°However they¡¯re powering their weapons system, it doesn¡¯t involve any power station or lines like we saw in the training session.¡±
¡°We¡¯ll just have to rely on good old-fashioned firepower,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°Stand by to launch.¡±
¡°What are we standing by for?¡± Thackery asked.
¡°We¡¯re standing by for you to shut your mouth,¡± Coulter told her. ¡°That way, we¡¯ll be waiting until the end of time and we¡¯ll all get through this without a scratch.¡±
¡°Launch and follow me,¡± Rhodes interrupted. ¡°We¡¯re going in.¡±
End of Chapter 24.
Battalion 1: Book 1: Chapter 25
Rhodes fired his engines and launched Rio into the Ohait atmosphere. The rest of the battalion launched, vaulted high over the Legion position, and took off racing up the mountains.
The battalion overran the Legion front line in no time. Rhodes didn¡¯t try to help the platoons¡ªnot even in those places where the Emal succeeded in fighting their way over the hills.
He zoomed up the last slope, blasted over the top, and took off into the sky. Vast planes stretched behind those mountains.
The Emal covered every inch of territory out there. No one could survive on the ground out there.
Rhodes banked Rio into a steep dive, gunned the engines, and plummeted. Rio whooped with excitement. ¡°Whoo! We¡¯re going in!¡±
¡°Pay attention!¡± Rhodes hollered over the engine noise. ¡°Get me as much information as you can about the Emal base ships. I need to know their vulnerabilities!¡±
¡°I don¡¯t know that!¡± Rio called back.
¡°Then get it!¡± Rhodes snapped. ¡°You have sensors. Scan their ships. Find me any place I can hit them and destroy them.¡±
Rio furrowed his brow for the first time. He actually looked more comic like this.
Rhodes didn¡¯t have time to mess around anymore. He swooped down on the planes and the Emal lasers opened fire from all their base ships. They targeted the battalion and everyone scattered to avoid getting hit.
Rhodes manipulated The Grid faster than he could think. He didn¡¯t have to think. It happened automatically without him even trying.
Grid lines appeared all over him and all over Rio. The lines shifted their shape and position in a blink.
Rhodes compressed the lines to make Rio into a needle arrow whizzing across the landscape. Not even that was enough to dodge the enemy¡¯s fire.
He whipped from side to side, but he dropped too close to the ground. All the Emal on the planes turned their weapons upward to fire at him.
The big laser cannons erupting from the base ships swiveled downward to follow his trajectory. He had to take advantage of that.
He slammed into the ground and transformed into another armored vehicle. He extended rotating blades from the side of his wheels, plunged into the crowd of packed Emal, and plowed through them cutting down hundreds in his path.
The big lasers followed him all the way down and hit their own people instead of hitting Rio. Rhodes took off at high speed toward the nearest base ship, but he didn¡¯t try to target that.
¡°Come on, Rio!¡± Rhodes hollered. ¡°Give me something!¡±
¡°I got it!¡± Rio called back. ¡°You have to hit their undersides. That¡¯s their only weakness.¡±
Rhodes took a fraction of a second to think about it and his resolve hardened. ¡°Interface with the other SAMs and transmit the information to the battalion. All of you¡ªopen fire on those ships!¡±
Dozens of Vipers released from spots all over the planes. So many Emal crowded around Rhodes that he couldn¡¯t see the other Strikers. Only The Grid showed Rhodes where his people were.
He launched a dozen rockets of his own. They soared over the Emal ground troops and dove for the alien base ships.
Four Vipers smashed into two Emal vessels. The rest launched immediately. ¡°NOW!!¡± Rhodes ordered and he shot upward.
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The enemy ships started to migrate toward the Aevod Gap. He extended his arms in front of him and fired twin thermal cannons at the underside of an Emal craft gaining altitude.
Rhodes hit the ship¡¯s underbelly and it detonated right in front of him. He barely had time to curl into a ball before he smashed straight through the torched fuselage and out the other side.
Three more Emal ships came after him. It was time to get creative.
The rest of the battalion ricocheted off Emal vessels all over the field, harassed them into turning aside, and then Thackery swooped under an enemy craft and fired into its underside.
Rhodes couldn¡¯t break away from his targets long enough to fly under the ships surrounding him. They bombarded him with hellish fire.
He transformed into some kind of agile feline and bounded from one ship to another just trying to stay ahead of their lasers.
He bounced off three ships before he noticed Fuentes not far away. He perched on top of an Emal ship.
Rhodes didn¡¯t see Fuentes¡¯s Striker¡.and then Rhodes saw Teo sailing around and around three other Emal vessels across the battlefield.
Fuentes balanced on top of the enemy ship. Only his arms transformed.
He changed them into giant rotating drums dotted with spikes and sawblades. He bent over carving his way through the enemy¡¯s hull.
He almost cut his way inside before a different Emal ship halfway across the planes tilted upward and aimed its laser cannons at him.
Twin lasers pelted across the battlefield and came perilously close to hitting him. They would have knocked him off to his death.
Teo plunged in at the last second, took the hit in Fuentes¡¯s place, and left him standing there unharmed.
It couldn¡¯t last, though¡ªnot with so many ships in the air.
Rhodes reacted instantly, swiveled upward, and fired his scourge guns at the underbelly of the Emal vessel that attacked Fuentes. The ship exposed its underside just long enough for Rhodes to shoot through it and the ship exploded.
Fuentes kept clawing his way inside his target ship. It responded by veering wildly to one side to knock him off. Rhodes didn¡¯t see how Fuentes stayed on.
That must have been his plan all along. Teo zoomed behind the target vessel, blasted a Viper missile into the ship¡¯s underbelly, and the ship erupted in flames.
The shockwave hurled Fuentes into the air. Teo raced underneath him and caught him back inside the cockpit.
Rhodes surveyed the battlefield. All the remaining Emal ships that had been planning to assault the Aevod Gap now fought Battalion 1 instead.
Rhodes didn¡¯t see any Emal heading for the Gap anymore¡ªuntil he did see them. Four of them used Battalion 1¡¯s diversion to cut away.
Those base ships raced up the mountain while the rest of Battalion 1 got pinned down on the planes. No one could stop the impending disaster.
Rhodes tore himself away, but not fast enough. He gave chase, but the Emal hounded him all the way.
The sound of gunfire made him look back over his shoulder. The rest of the battalion ran for the Gap, too, but none of them could get there fast enough.
Too many lasers pelted Rhodes from the ground. Every shot slowed him down.
He touched the ground, sprouted legs from Rio¡¯s lower fuselage, and took off bounding up the mountain in long, effortless strides.
He made it as far as the vertical cliffs before he had to change shape again. The base ships were already dropping over the mountainside to the Gap. Rhodes had to act now.
He let his grid lines take over, transformed into a Viper missile, and rocketed upward at full speed.
He didn¡¯t slow down one inch. He smashed into the first ship¡¯s underside and the ship exploded all around him. The flash of burning fuel slowed down the others enough for the battalion to catch up.
Dietz and Lauer pelted in just as fast, coiled outward, and plunged in from both sides.
Rhodes didn¡¯t see what they were doing before they changed shape again, made themselves as compact as possible, and collided with two more base ships.
The impact drove those ships together with colossal force. They smashed into each other just as Thackery and Henshaw plowed up the mountain from underneath.
The two women bombarded the target ships from below and they erupted in flames.
That left one base ship hovering directly over the Aevod Gap. Rhodes burst through the wreck and swiveled Rio into position to face down that last remaining enemy vessel.
It hung back and didn¡¯t engage. The rest of the battalion vaulted over the mountains to fall in formation with him.
The base ship backed off a little. Rhodes glanced around to make sure no other Emal ships tried to take the Gap.
He didn¡¯t even see any aliens on the ground trying to fight their way through the choke point.
Rhodes turned back to the planes to decide on his next move. At that moment, a massive laser cannon spouted from the nearest base ship and hammered Rio right in the nose.
The Striker somersaulted backward and then a dozen other base ships opened fire at the same time.
The battalion wheeled away to avoid the attack, but not fast enough. Another brutal shot smashed Rio on the left side and the ship plummeted toward the ground.
End of Chapter 25.
Battalion 1: Book 1: Chapter 26
Rhodes swam back to consciousness to a voice yelling in his ear. ¡°Captain! Wake up!¡±
¡°I am awake,¡± Rhodes muttered.
¡°WAKE UP, CAPTAIN!!¡± Fisher roared.
Rhodes¡¯s vision swam back into focus. Rio and Fisher hovered before his eyes, but Rhodes wasn¡¯t flying through the air anymore.
Rio sat on the ground in the middle of a massive battle raging all around the ship. Emal and Legion soldiers traded gunfire and even used Rio as cover from each other.
Rhodes jolted forward in his seat. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?! Why are we on the ground, Rio?¡±
¡°He took damage,¡± Fisher replied. ¡°The SAM is still operational, but the propulsion and weapons systems are offline. He can¡¯t defend himself¡ªand Rio¡¯s interface with The Grid is down, too.¡±
Rhodes made up his mind immediately. ¡°Stay here, Rio.¡±
¡°I can¡¯t go anywhere!¡± Rio countered.
Rhodes didn¡¯t listen. He pushed the cockpit cover open and sprang out into the battle. ¡°Find me the rest of the battalion!¡± he yelled to Fisher.
¡°I have them! They¡¯re pinned down the same way we are!¡±
¡°Are any of their Strikers still operational? They can¡¯t all be down.¡±
¡°Dietz and Henshaw made it back to the beach. Oakes and Lauer are still airborne. They¡¯re trying to fight their way through to help us, but they can¡¯t descend. The Emal are holding them off.¡±
Rhodes took a split second to check his own version of The Grid. It still worked just fine. It showed him the battlefield as soon as he got out of the cockpit.
He sprang down into the thickest swarms of Emal and used his thermal cannons to carve his way through them.
He swiped down dozens of bodies until he worked his way over to Rhinehart and Coulter. The two men fought side by side against an overwhelming tide of aliens.
¡°Take off!¡± Rhodes yelled when he made it to them. ¡°Use your boosters to get out of here!¡±
¡°I can¡¯t!¡± Coulter replied. ¡°My boosters aren¡¯t working.¡±
¡°Take him, Rhinehart!¡± Rhodes ordered. ¡°What are you waiting for?¡±
¡°The Grid isn¡¯t working!¡± Rhinehart countered. ¡°We¡¯re stranded here¡ªand we can¡¯t get to Thackery and Fuentes, either.¡±
Rhodes double-checked The Grid and located Thackery and Fuentes a hundred yards away. They plastered their backs against a rock cliff trying to hold the Emal at bay.
Rhodes interfaced with Van and Koenig to find out what the problem was, but neither SAM returned any sign of malfunction.
Rhodes pursed his lips. So much for the SAMs giving the battalion useful information.
¡°Let¡¯s go,¡± Rhodes ordered. ¡°Back up and we¡¯ll fight our way over there.¡±
That turned out to be harder than he expected. He, Rhinehart, and Coulter closed in a circle facing outward. They had to fire as fast as humanly possible to cut their way through the Emal horde.
Rhodes would have liked to fly away with both men, but Rhodes wouldn¡¯t have been able to carry Rhinehart alone, let alone Rhinehart and Coulter together.
Rhodes didn¡¯t want to leave without Thackery and Fuentes, either. They barely held their own as it was.
Rhodes, Rhinehart, and Coulter inched their way through the alien swarm and made it as far as the cliff. ¡°What¡¯s the problem?!¡± Rhodes yelled over the constant pound of gunfire. ¡°Why don¡¯t you leave?¡±
Thackery said something, but Rhodes didn¡¯t catch it. She and Fuentes had to hammer the Emal with gunfire just as fast.
The Emal crowded closer no matter how many Rhodes killed. He gave it up. He would have to fly these people out one at a time if he had to.
He thought he might be able to carry Thackery and Fuentes at the same time. Rhinehart and Coulter would be the best able to defend themselves until Rhodes came back for them.
Rhodes got ready to turn around and tell them his decision, but at that moment, Oakes and Lauer streaked overhead laying down a carpet of Vipers.
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The two Strikes pounded the Emal into next week and then both ships dropped out of the sky. They zoomed low to the ground and transformed into two different shapes.
Lauer¡¯s Striker changed into the same kind of devouring monster Rhodes used in their flight simulation.
Lauer plowed through the Emal slashing and mauling in all directions. His scourge guns blasted out to the sides and he leveled dozens of Emal in his path.
Oakes turned himself into a different ground vehicle. His guns rotated back and forth slaughtering every Emal in sight. He drove so fast that he flattened most of them before they could fall to his guns.
The two vehicles wheeled in front of Rhodes and aimed their weapons outward. The Strikers rotated from right to left and opened a space around the battalion to hold the Emal at bay.
Rhodes rushed forward, but he couldn¡¯t get to Lauer or Oakes while they were inside their Strikers.
They advanced deeper into the crowd and drove the Emal back. Rhodes, Rhinehart, and Coulter followed and added their gunfire to the two Strikers¡¯ assault.
Rhodes¡¯s party pivoted sideways to push the Emal toward the Aevod Gap. The surrounding Legion soldiers rushed forward to join in and the two flanks finally succeeded in forcing the Emal to retreat.
The aliens backed through the choke point, but they didn¡¯t leave. They kept trying to force their way through. The soldiers couldn¡¯t hold them from the ground.
Oakes contacted Rhodes through their interface. ¡°We¡¯ll hold them from the air. Get the others out of here.¡±
¡°I¡¯ll try, but it won¡¯t be easy without any aircraft.¡±
¡°I¡¯ll contact Dietz and Henshaw to come and get you,¡± Oakes replied. ¡°Just hold the Gap for a little longer.¡±
¡°You can do that better than I can, Lieutenant. Besides, if we leave, the Gap will fall anyway. We have to stick around.¡±
Oakes snarled through the interface. ¡°I was afraid you were gonna say that.¡±
¡°Just hold it from the air. I¡¯ll talk to the soldiers and see about reinforcing the Gap somehow. Maybe General Kaufman can send us up some more ships.¡±
¡°Good luck with that,¡± Oakes muttered.
Rhodes pretended not to hear him. Rhodes listened just long enough to hear Oakes call Dietz and Henshaw back.
Oakes and Lauer hovered in position over the Gap. They kept up a steady barrage on the Emal to take the pressure off the Legion platoons. That was the best anyone could do right now.
Rhodes strode through the area checking on his people. The cliffs surrounding the Gap formed steep walls to block this part of the mountains from the planes beyond.
The walls ended at a wide shelf right behind the gap. The three platoons packed onto this shelf just as tightly as the rest of the Legion force packed the beach.
A hundred gunmen held the Gap while the three platoons did their best to rotate their watch, tend their wounded, organize their meager remaining supplies, and hold the Emal from breaching the line anywhere else.
Rhodes went to check on Rhinehart and Coulter first. ¡°What¡¯s the malfunction with your boosters?¡± Rhodes asked Coulter.
¡°I¡¯ll be damned if I know!¡± Coulter countered. ¡°I didn¡¯t even get hit. I don¡¯t know what the hell went wrong with my Striker. It just shut down and down I went.¡±
Rhodes frowned. ¡°Is your SAM still online?¡±
¡°I wouldn¡¯t know. The ship doesn¡¯t have power.¡±
¡°That¡¯s impossible. Fisher said the SAMs run on a fusion generator that doesn¡¯t lose power.¡±
Coulter waved him away. ¡°Be my guest. See if you can get the damn thing running. I don¡¯t understand this shit.¡±
Rhodes compressed his lips and turned to Rhinehart. ¡°What about you? Did your Grid just shut down for no reason, too?¡±
¡°No, I definitely got hit and my Striker SAM went down. I don¡¯t know what happened to my Grid. I was interfacing with both SAMs when it happened. I guess it¡¯s gonna take some tenth-level genius to figure this out.¡±
¡°Magnificent,¡± Rhodes muttered. ¡°We don¡¯t have a tenth-level genius.¡±
¡°You still have your SAM,¡± Coulter pointed out. ¡°Maybe he can figure it out.¡±
¡°My SAM isn¡¯t a mechanic,¡± Rhodes countered.
¡°Neither am I. I was a pilot before this.¡±
Rhodes turned away. At least both men still had weapons which meant their fusion generators were still supplying their implants with power. That was better than nothing.
Rhinehart and Coulter went with him when he returned to Thackery and Fuentes. ¡°What¡¯s the problem with your boosters?¡± Rhodes asked. ¡°Why didn¡¯t you fly clear when you landed here?¡±
¡°Something went wrong with my power system,¡± Thackery replied. ¡°My weapons still work, but the boosters are offline.¡±
¡°Did you get hit by Emal fire?¡±
¡°Nope. It just shut down for no reason.¡±
¡°So was your Striker still functional?¡±
She frowned at him. ¡°Define, ¡®functional¡¯.¡±
Rhodes clenched his jaw to stop himself from answering. He distracted himself by turning to Fuentes. ¡°What¡¯s the problem, Rudy? What happened?¡±
¡°My Striker took laser fire, Sir. I crashed over there.¡±
¡°Was any part of your ship still operational?¡±
¡°No, Sir. It completely shut down¡ªand I think the hull got crushed, too. I barely made it out. I wouldn¡¯t have without Thackery covering me.¡±
¡°What about your boosters? Why aren¡¯t they working?¡±
¡°Van says there¡¯s a short in the system somewhere. It¡¯s blocking power to the boosters, but not the rest of the weapons system.¡±
¡°Stellar,¡± Rhodes muttered. ¡°Just stellar.¡±
¡°Can you get your SAM to interface with their SAMs and figure it out?¡± Coulter asked.
¡°I¡¯m about to.¡± Rhodes interfaced with Fisher and brought up the other four SAMs.
¡°What¡¯s this about a short in the system?¡± Rhodes asked Van. ¡°Is it the same problem Rhinehart is experiencing?¡±
¡°I can¡¯t tell anything about Rhinehart¡¯s system,¡± she replied. ¡°The interface is showing all his systems functioning normally.¡±
¡°They obviously aren¡¯t if his boosters aren¡¯t working,¡± Rhodes countered.
She cocked her head to one side. ¡°Of course, Captain. You¡¯re absolutely right. I should have thought of that.¡±
Rhodes turned to Murphy. ¡°Why did Coulter¡¯s power system shut down? You were interfacing with his Striker at the time.¡±
¡°Yes, I was, Captain,¡± Murphy replied. ¡°I¡¯m afraid I didn¡¯t detect any malfunction.¡±
¡°Does any of you detect any malfunction¡ªany malfunction at all?¡±
¡°I do,¡± Rocky replied, ¡°but only because Zion got hit by the Emal lasers.¡±
¡°Zion is my Strike SAM,¡± Rhinehart explained.
Rhodes held up his hand, but at that moment, a bunch of Legion soldiers came over.
¡°Thank you so much for helping us!¡± one of the soldiers exclaimed. ¡°We almost lost the Gap there before you showed up.¡±
Rhodes turned around¡.and his heart stopped when he came face to face with Lieutenant Zack Turley, Lieutenant Justin Upshaw, and Captain Tate Vernick.
End of Chapter 26.
Battalion 1: Book 1: Chapter 27
Lieutenant Turley gasped and his eyes fell out of their sockets. ¡°Sir? Captain¡.Captain Rhodes? But¡you¡¯re dead! I saw you! I saw you get hit by that Duster!¡±
Rhodes¡¯s stomach plummeted into the shoes he no longer had. ¡°Yeah. You did.¡±
¡°But¡.what are you¡.?¡± The words died on Turley¡¯s lips when his vision cleared enough to see Rhodes¡¯s implants.
¡°Do you know these guys, Sir?¡± Coulter asked.
¡°Yes, I do.¡± Rhodes took a deep breath and faced the Legion soldiers. ¡°We¡¯ll stay here as long as you need us to reinforce the Gap. Your three platoons obviously can¡¯t hold it on your own.¡±
¡°So¡¡¡± Turley¡¯s eyes shot to Rhinehart, Coulter, Thackery, and Fuentes.
¡°It¡¯s a long story.¡± Rhodes turned to Vernick. ¡°What resources can you call in to help hold this place? Can General Kaufman send in any ships from down on the coast? This Gap won¡¯t hold much longer.¡±
Just then, two more Strikers shrieked overhead. Dietz and Henshaw pulled into formation with Lauer and Oakes.
Henshaw¡¯s Striker SAM, Titan, contacted Rhodes through their interface. ¡°General Kaufman says another fleet of Ravagers is coming in to bombard the planes. He says he plans to lift off these platoons and replace them with fresh troops.¡±
¡°You four hold the Gap until they come,¡± Rhodes ordered. ¡°The five of us are all suffering from malfunctions. We won¡¯t be able to help you.¡±
¡°You got it. We¡¯ll hold ¡®em.¡±
¡°Who are you talking to, Sir?¡± Turley asked.
Rhodes pointed up at the four Strikers. ¡°Those are my people up there. They say Kaufman is sending Ravagers to lift you off and replace you with fresh platoons. You¡¯ve held the Gap long enough.¡±
A sigh of relief went through the surrounding troops listening to their conversation.
¡°How do we know you really are in contact with Kaufman?¡± Upshaw interrupted. ¡°I mean¡.¡± His eyes dragged down Rhodes¡¯s body. ¡°How do we even know you¡¯re the real Captain Rhodes?¡±
¡°Of course he is!¡± Turley countered. ¡°Look at him! This guy lost his life saving us on Luluna.¡±
¡°Then what is he doing here?¡± Upshaw asked.
¡°Saving it again,¡± Rhinehart cut in.
Rhodes stopped him by raising his hand. ¡°Who I am and what I am doesn¡¯t matter as long as we hold the Gap. Those are my people up there blocking the Emal from coming through. We¡¯ll stay there and hold this place until the Ravagers lift you off. That¡¯s all that matters.¡±
¡°If you¡¯re lying, Kaufman won¡¯t be lifting us off,¡± Upshaw pointed out.
¡°You son of a bitch!¡± Turley snapped. ¡°Don¡¯t you dare call him a liar after what he did! You¡¯re standing here alive because of him.¡±
¡°I¡¯m standing here alive because of someone who got crushed under a burning Duster,¡± Upshaw returned. ¡°No one could survive that.¡±
Rhodes didn¡¯t say again that he didn¡¯t survive. All of this happened a thousand miles away from him. He barely felt like he was even part of this conversation anymore.
What the hell difference did it make in the end who he was or what he was or whether he was telling the truth?
Nothing mattered but doing the job. He could do that no matter what anyone thought of him.
Turley turned back to Rhodes. ¡°Don¡¯t listen to him, Captain. We¡¯re thrilled to have you with us again.¡±
¡°Thank you, Lieutenant,¡± Rhodes murmured.
Just then a bunch of other soldiers from the 217th Platoon came over. One of them curled his lip at Rhodes and his people. ¡°What the hell is that?¡±
¡°You know him, Cantrell,¡± Turley pointed out. ¡°This is Captain Corban Rhodes of the 249th.¡±
¡°Captain Rhodes is dead.¡± Cantrell wrinkled his nose at Rhodes again. ¡°I don¡¯t know what the hell that is.¡±
¡°We¡¯re the suckers that just saved your asses, fool,¡± Rhinehart snapped. ¡°And we can take it just as easily.¡±
He took a step forward. Rhodes shot his arm in front of Rhinehart to stop him. ¡°Pull your guys in line, Tate,¡± Rhodes told Captain Vernick. ¡°If you still have communication, you can contact General Kaufman yourselves and confirm the order. If it¡¯s genuine, you¡¯ll have enough to do to get ready to evacuate. You and your men won¡¯t have time to worry about what we are or what we¡¯re doing here.¡±
Captain Vernick frowned at him. ¡°Now I know you¡¯re Captain Rhodes. He¡¯s the only man alive that would have the balls to say something like that.¡± He turned to Cantrell and the other soldiers. ¡°Go get to work getting ready to evacuate.¡±
¡°Aren¡¯t you going to confirm the order?¡± Lieutenant Upshaw asked.
¡°I just did,¡± Vernick snapped. ¡°Now move out.¡±
Upshaw glared at him, but Upshaw eventually mumbled, ¡°Yes, Sir,¡± and left with most of the troops.
¡°Don¡¯t listen to them,¡± Turley repeated. ¡°They¡¯re idiots.¡±
¡°Just do me a favor and keep out of the platoon¡¯s way,¡± Vernick murmured. ¡°I¡¯m grateful to you for coming to our aid, but your presence will only cause problems.¡±
¡°Don¡¯t worry. We¡¯ll hold the Gap while you get ready,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°A few bad apples won¡¯t drive us off.¡±
Vernick hesitated for a minute and then stuck out his hand. ¡°I¡¯m glad you made it. We really missed you.¡±
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Rhodes had to adjust his grip not to crush Vernick¡¯s hand. He shook Vernick¡¯s hand and then Rhodes shook hands with Turley.
Rhodes tried not to see Turley¡¯s enormous grin. At least someone around here was happy to see Rhodes alive.
¡°You should have let me thump that asshole,¡± Rhinehart snarled after the soldiers walked away.
¡°The Emal are already thumping them enough, Lieutenant,¡± Rhodes murmured. ¡°They don¡¯t need us to do it for them.¡±
¡°What are you gonna do about it?¡± Thackery asked.
¡°Do about what?¡± Rhodes asked.
¡°About their attitude. We can¡¯t let them talk to us like that.¡±
¡°Did you really expect it to be any different?¡± Rhodes countered. ¡°You¡¯re living in a fantasy world if you expect gratitude or good feeling from them.¡±
¡°Some of them seem like good people,¡± Coulter remarked.
¡°They¡¯re all good people,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°I know every one of those guys and I would give my life for each of them. You can¡¯t expect people to just accept us as though none of this ever happened. Count your blessings that this is my old platoon and not someone you know.¡±
Rhodes turned away. He shouldn¡¯t have been so harsh with his people, but this situation was really starting to wear on him.
Of all the rotten luck, he just had to get sent to the 249th.
His comments shut the five friends up at last. They didn¡¯t go near the soldiers and the soldiers didn¡¯t come back, not even Turley or any others that might have wanted to wish Rhodes well.
Their absence flooded him with relief. He didn¡¯t want to see anyone he knew, not even people who wished him well or who said they were thrilled to have him back. He didn¡¯t want to be back¡ªever.
He took the battalion to the other side of the shelf closer to Rio. The SAM was still active. He interfaced with Rhodes and Fisher. ¡°Show me the rest of the battle line,¡± Rhodes told them.
Fisher brought up The Grid of the area. ¡°There are four more gaps down this line of mountains. All those points are in danger of breaching.¡±
¡°If Kaufman is bringing Ravagers to lift off these platoons, why doesn¡¯t he use the ships to bombard the planes?¡± Rhodes asked. ¡°He could drive the Emal back, fortify the gaps, and reinforce his position on the beach.¡±
¡°Maybe he doesn¡¯t have the resources to do all that,¡± Fisher pointed out.
¡°Then maybe the battalion can help him.¡±
¡°How?¡± Fisher asked. ¡°We only have four Strikers in the air. The five of you are stuck on the ground.¡±
¡°But we¡¯re the closest to the Aevod Gap. We¡¯re even closer to it than the four remaining Strikers. The Emal seem to understand that this gap is the most important.¡±
¡°What are you planning to do?¡± Fisher asked.
¡°I¡¯m just thinking out loud right now.¡± Rhodes rotated The Grid to get an aerial view of the mountain range. ¡°I¡¯ll be damned.¡±
¡°What is that, Captain?¡± Fisher asked.
Rhodes zoomed in on one part of the Emal horde right behind the Aevod Gap.
Hundreds or maybe thousands of aliens crowded the mountains back there. They surrounded the Gap on the other side.
Dietz, Henshaw, Oakes, and Lauer hammered the Emal to stop them from getting through the choke point, but that didn¡¯t deter the aliens at all.
They kept sending wave upon wave of their numbers against the Gap even as the four ships cut them down.
The Emal had to climb over their dead comrades¡¯ bodies just to get near the choke point.
Rhodes made a few more adjustments to The Grid. He could manipulate it any way he wanted to now.
The Emal carried laser rifles in their many limbs. Rhodes changed The Grid, rotated the lines in three different directions, and then removed all the laser rifles from the image.
¡°Do you see that?¡± he husked.
¡°The Emal¡.it looks like they¡¯re using some kind of hand tools,¡± Fisher remarked.
¡°They¡¯re boring into the mountainside. They¡¯re trying to widen the Gap. These numbers¡ªthey aren¡¯t trying to breach the gap at all¡ªnot yet. These numbers are a distraction. We have to get over there and stop them.¡±
¡°But the Emal have millions of aliens over there,¡± Fisher pointed out. ¡°They¡¯ll only send more to replace any that we kill.¡±
¡°I have an idea. Interface with Koenig and Van. We need to change our strategy.¡±
Fisher connected with the other two SAMs, but right then, a different soldier from the 278th came over to them. His name was Sergeant Dominic Stillwell. Rhodes knew him as a steady, reliable man who never let anything ruffle him.
¡°Captain Rhodes, Sir, Captain Vernick asked me to come and get you. He¡¯s in communication with the command dome. Colonel Jenner is asking to speak to you.¡±
Rhodes followed Stillwell to a tent where Captain Vernick bent over an out-of-date computer terminal barely holding power. Colonel Jenner and General Kaufman stared out of the screen.
¡°We¡¯re bringing in Ravagers to swap the platoons, Corban,¡± Jenner told Rhodes. ¡°We¡¯ll need you and your people to hold the Gap while we lift everyone off. Then we¡¯ll evacuate the beach. We can¡¯t hold Ohait any longer.¡±
¡°We have a problem, Sir,¡± Rhodes told him. ¡°The aliens are trying to widen the Gap. They¡¯re using their numbers to mask what they¡¯re doing. You might not be able to land Ravagers if the aliens break through.¡±
General Kaufman frowned at something off the screen. ¡°I don¡¯t see any indication that the aliens are threatening the Gap. We would have picked up any heavy equipment in the area.¡±
¡°That¡¯s because they¡¯re hiding what they¡¯re doing. They aren¡¯t using heavy equipment precisely because they don¡¯t want you to see what you¡¯re doing. They¡¯re using these numbers to sneak in hand tools to bore into the mountainside.¡±
Colonel Jenner raised his eyebrows. ¡°Hand tools? You can¡¯t be serious.¡±
¡°I can send you the evidence¡ªor you can get it yourselves. All you have to do is eliminate their laser rifles from your scans. Then you¡¯ll be able to see what I¡¯m talking about.¡±
General Kaufman blustered. ¡°We can¡¯t change our plans now. The Ravagers already have orders to go up there and lift off the three platoons. I¡¯m sure the aliens aren¡¯t anywhere near breaching the Gap. They won¡¯t get through in time.¡±
¡°My evidence states that they will breach it in time,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°Ravagers won¡¯t be able to land. These three platoons will get overrun and gunned down.¡±
Colonel Jenner started to say, ¡°Send us your evidence¡..¡±
General Kaufman cut him off. ¡°We don¡¯t have time for this. Just hold the Gap until the Ravagers get there. You don¡¯t have to do anything else, Captain.¡±
Rhodes barely managed to say, ¡°Yes, Sir,¡± before Kaufman cut the line.
Rhodes glared down at the blank screen. He could almost believe Kaufman didn¡¯t listen because the information came from Rhodes.
Would Kaufman have listened if anyone else brought him this evidence? Kaufman didn¡¯t even look at the evidence.
Was that because the evidence came from The Grid? Kaufman didn¡¯t know about The Grid¡.or the SAMs¡.or anything else.
Captain Vernick brought Rhodes back to reality. ¡°How close are they to getting through?¡±
Rhodes looked up. He¡¯d worked with Tate Vernick for years. Rhodes and Vernick trusted each other.
¡°I have an idea,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°It just means taking my people over the mountain. You and the other two platoons will have to hold the Gap on your own for a while¡.¡±
¡°We can¡¯t hold the Gap on our own. You¡¯re the one who just said that¡¯s why you were sticking around.¡±
Rhodes lowered his voice, but he couldn¡¯t stop it from shaking. ¡°Listen to me, Tate. In a few hours, the Emal are going to break your choke point and swarm all over this shelf. The Ravagers won¡¯t be able to touch down to lift off the platoons. Then Kaufman will have to evacuate the beach and everyone on this shelf will die. Your only chance is if my people and I go over the mountain.¡±
¡°What are you going to do over there?¡± Vernick asked in a tiny voice.
¡°That¡¯s my business. What matters is that the Ravagers will be able to land and get you and your men the hell out of here. My people and I will take care of ourselves.¡±
¡°So you can get yourself killed again?¡± Vernick countered.
Rhodes bit back a smile. ¡°I¡¯m already dead, Tate. Cantrell is right about that¡ªbut don¡¯t worry. My people and I will make it out of this. I¡¯ll see you again. I¡¯m certain of it.¡±
¡°What do you want us to do? Can¡¯t we help you at all?¡±
¡°Pull your men off the evacuation and concentrate everything on the choke point. We¡¯ll need to time this. If my battalion crosses the mountain before the Emal breach the Gap, we¡¯ll blow our wad and we won¡¯t be able to pull the aliens away. We need to wait until the last minute¡ªwhen the Ravagers come in.¡±
¡°The Ravagers could come in before the Emal breach the Gap,¡± Vernick suggested.
¡°Just concentrate your firepower on the Gap and prepare your men to defend it. I¡¯ll take care of the rest.¡±
End of Chapter 27.
Battalion !: Book 1: Chapter 28
Rhodes only had to show his people The Grid to convince them to go through with his plan. He left the four Strikers in the air to bombard the Emal, but nothing slowed them down.
Rhodes used The Grid to measure their progress¡ªand the Ravagers¡¯ progress. Whatever order Kaufman gave to evacuate the platoons, the Ravagers sure took their sweet time before they carried it out.
They could have evacuated the three platoons ten times over before the Ravagers even entered the atmosphere. They hovered overhead for way too long.
¡°What the hell are they waiting for?¡± Rhinehart snarled.
¡°Doomsday, apparently,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°It just means our time window will be even tighter.¡±
¡°The Emal are almost through,¡± Thackery pointed out.
Rhodes didn¡¯t answer. He could see on The Grid how close the Emal were to getting through.
¡°They must have been working on this through the whole campaign,¡± Coulter remarked.
¡°I¡¯m sure they have,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°The Emal aren¡¯t stupid even if the Legion brass likes to pretend they are.¡±
¡°Have you ever seen the Emal pull a maneuver like this, Sir?¡± Rhinehart asked. ¡°I haven¡¯t.¡±
¡°No, nothing like this, but I¡¯ve never faced them in this kind of terrain before. They¡¯re adapting to the conditions.¡±
He revolved The Grid in a different direction, but just then, a tremor rocked the ground underfoot. The nearby soldiers paused what they were doing to look up the mountain.
Vernick, Turley, and Upshaw stormed down the shelf giving orders to everyone. ¡°Get those Vipers into position!¡± Vernick snapped. ¡°Assemble the 217th and the 249th on either side of the Gap. Upshaw¡ªtake the 278th to that ridge up there. You can fire down at the enemy from above! Get those supply crates out of the way! Clear a path for the Ravagers to land!¡±
¡°What do you want us to do, Sir?¡± Fuentes asked Rhodes.
¡°You and Thackery fall in with the 278th. Rhinehart, Coulter, and I will go with the 249th. Defend the Gap as best you can. I¡¯ll give you the word when it¡¯s time to pull our maneuver.¡±
¡°You¡¯re violating orders,¡± Coulter pointed out. ¡°You realize that, right? General Kaufman ordered you to stay here with the platoons.¡±
Rhodes pretended to frown. ¡°Oh, yeah. I guess he did.¡±
¡°So¡.we¡¯re doing it anyway?¡± Fuentes asked. ¡°I¡¯ve never disobeyed my commander¡¯s order before.¡±
¡°You aren¡¯t doing it now because I¡¯m ordering you to carry out this mission,¡± Rhodes told him. ¡°You and Thackery fall in with the 278th. I¡¯ll tell you if and when to do something else. Don¡¯t think about anything else.¡±
Rhinehart cracked a big grin. ¡°Yes, Sir.¡±
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The battalion split up. Rhodes, Rhinehart, and Coulter crossed the shelf and took their positions with the 249th. Continuous shudders jolted the mountain every few seconds.
Those tremors made the ground shake and the soldiers staggered. In a few minutes, they all got into position and trained their weapons on the Gap between the cliffs.
Rhodes pretended not to see the soldiers adjusting their positions to keep away from him and his two men.
Rhodes found a place near Vernick, Turley, and Stillwell. Rhodes checked The Grid. The Emal were minutes away from breaching the choke point.
The Ravagers descended a little farther toward the ground. Ten of them hovered there, but they didn¡¯t touch down. ¡°What the hell are they waiting for?¡± Lieutenant Turley growled under his breath.
¡°Maybe they¡¯re waiting for the Emal to break through so Kaufman has an excuse not to lift us off,¡± Stillwell suggested.
¡°Pay attention!¡± Captain Vernick yelled down the line. Then he lowered his voice and murmured to Rhodes. ¡°How soon before they break through?¡±
¡°The Grid says they should be through by now. Don¡¯t ask me what they¡¯re waiting for, either.¡±
A tense silence fell over the platoons¡ªor it would have been a tense silence. The rumble coming from the mountains and the combined thunder of the Ravagers¡¯ engines set every soldier¡¯s nerves on edge.
Rhodes took that moment to interface with all his people. Thackery and Fuentes crouched in position with the 278th. The four Strikers still flew back and forth bombarding the Emal on the other side of the mountain.
Dusters and Predators came over to help drive the aliens away from the Gap, but it was too late. The Emal had succeeded in boring deep enough into the mountain. No air bombardment could stop what was about to happen.
A steady stream of aliens flowed into and out of that hole. Countless Emal crowded around and blocked anyone from seeing. The opening only showed up on The Grid.
Just then, a dark cluster of Emal moved through the crowd and vanished underground.
¡°Stand by!¡± Lauer called through the interface. ¡°They¡¯re making their move!¡±
¡°I see it!¡± Rhodes replied and raised his voice to the soldiers nearest him. ¡°Here it comes! Stand by!¡±
He barely got the words out before a shivering boom grumbled through the mountain. The cliffs on both sides quaked and then a massive section of the granite hillside imploded.
It buckled in on itself and floated down to the ground in a shower of falling rock and rubble. Dust and smoke billowed up to the sky in the mountain¡¯s place.
No one could see a thing for a minute. ¡°Open fire!¡± Vernick bellowed before the dust even cleared.
The soldiers opened fire with their Jackhammers and pounded the breach with all their firepower.
¡°Switch to lasers!¡± Rhodes ordered.
He and his subordinates swiped lasers back and forth across the dust cloud, but he didn¡¯t see anything at first.
The slightest twinge of doubt crept into his mind. Did he make a mistake? Did the Emal blow this breach for some other reason than to get onto the shelf?
He paused his fire for a few seconds, and right at that moment, a tide of aliens flooded out of the dust cloud to overrun the platoons.
Everyone opened fire twice as fast. Rhodes did the same thing. He, Rhinehart, and Coulter passed their lasers back and forth across the horde.
Two more lasers came from the other side of the Gap where Thackery and Fuentes hunkered down with the 278th, but the Emal used lasers, too.
Dozens of glowing red beams swiped out of the dust cloud and carved into the Legion ranks. No one could keep up with the Emal¡¯s firepower and then the aliens themselves flooded the shelf.
Their eyes gleamed out of the smoke. The cilia around their mouths wavered and jiggled when they moved.
They crawled on their many limbs to clamber over the rubble of fallen rock and slabs. Every limb they didn¡¯t use for climbing held a laser rifle.
The Ravagers were nowhere near the ground¡ªnot near enough to land. Now they retreated a little farther into the atmosphere to avoid the enemy lasers.
The Emal were still too busy shooting all the soldiers to pay attention to the ships overhead.
¡°NOW!!¡± Rhodes ordered.
He, Rhinehart, and Coulter broke cover, abandoned the platoons, and took off running down the shelf. Thacker and Fuentes caught up with them.
¡°Let¡¯s go!¡± Rhodes called to the four Strikers through the interface. ¡°Get down here now!¡±
End of Chapter 28.
Battalion 1: Book 1: Chapter 29
Rhodes dropped into The Grid.
Dietz, Lauer, Oakes, and Henshaw banked their Strikers into a steep dive and plummeted toward the ground. Rhodes couldn¡¯t take the time to check that they knew what to do.
The grid lines crisscrossed the mountains all around him and then they covered him.
He twisted them into different shapes and transformed himself into a tiny fighting vehicle with jointed limbs. All his people did exactly the same thing.
Rhodes¡¯s legs propelled him off the ground and he landed on one of the few remaining intact sections of the mountain cliff. He bounded straight up it to the top and vaulted over the other side.
Gunfire blasted down below as the Emal closed with the platoons. Dusters and Predators swooped in to help reinforce the platoons only for the ships to get hit by enemy lasers and go down on the shelf.
Rhodes couldn¡¯t look at that anymore. He dove over the other side of the mountain, sprang off rocks and sharp jagged ledges, and plunged into the Emal swarm from the other side of the breach.
He didn¡¯t stop there. He stepped on plenty of aliens working his way deeper inside the breach. He had to find its center, but he couldn¡¯t see well enough to tell where he was.
He started to adjust The Grid to show him a layout of the surrounding terrain, but at that moment, the Emal turned on him.
Thousands of them had been trying to break through to assault the platoons on the shelf. So many Emal already packed the breach that they had to wait there. Hundreds of aliens stood in the Gap just waiting and doing nothing.
Rhodes¡¯s arrival caused such a disturbance that all those armed aliens spun around to block his path. Whispers rippled through the horde and hundreds of laser rifles swiveled in his direction.
The Emal numbers blocked him from going any further, but he didn¡¯t want to go any further. This might not be the exact center of the breach the way he planned, but it didn¡¯t matter in the end.
Enough Emal turned around and attacked him. He stayed in this form and used his many limbs against theirs. They plastered him with laser fire, but he used The Grid to thicken his armor to deflect their shots.
He unloaded on them with every weapon in his arsenal, but he relied mostly on his scourge guns. He blasted outward as fast as he could, but he couldn¡¯t hold off so many aliens. He didn¡¯t want to.
They swarmed around him, over him, and piled on top of him. He flailed in all directions to knock them off, but they only sent more Emal from everywhere to overwhelm him.
They buried him under a mountain of bodies, but he never stopped fighting. He would never stop.
Oakes and Lauer pulled in behind him and the Emal buried them, too. The Grid showed Rhodes the rest of the battalion fighting all down the Gap. Thousands of Emal swarmed in to subdue the battalion.
Word must have spread to the shelf that someone was trying to break through from behind. The Emal surged back through the breach exactly the way Rhodes hoped they would.
The platoons took advantage of the Emal¡¯s temporary retreat. The Legion charged the Gap to push the Emal farther back, but the Emal were already falling back fast enough on their own.
¡°Get in touch with Captain Ackerman on the Ero!¡± Rhodes told Fisher. ¡°Get the Ravagers down on the shelf now!¡±
¡°They¡¯re coming in!¡± Fisher hollered back. ¡°We won¡¯t be able to slacken our assault to get to the Ravagers in time! We¡¯re stranded here!¡±
¡°To hell with that!¡± Rhodes countered. ¡°Keep an eye on The Grid! Make sure enough Emal are attacking us to keep the shelf clear!¡±
¡°It¡¯s clear! Just keep up your assault! Don¡¯t let them overwhelm you!¡±
Rhodes was already getting overwhelmed, but he couldn¡¯t let the Emal get any ideas about going back to the shelf.
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Hundreds of them were still out there locked in a death struggle against the Legion. The platoons fought their way forward and the Emal set up another battleline across the breach.
That left a hundred yards of open shelf behind the Legion position for the Ravagers to touch down. The Ero came in first. The others hesitated longer.
Lasers erupted out of the Emal ranks to bombard the ship. The Ero staggered and hesitated fifty feet off the ground.
Rhodes couldn¡¯t let that happen. He couldn¡¯t miss this chance to evacuate the platoons while they had their chance.
He didn¡¯t know what he would do until it happened. Something went off inside him and he let out a deep thump from somewhere inside his chest. It must have come from his fusion generator.
The concussion hit the ground and blasted outward to all the Emal surrounding him. The shockwave leveled dozens of Emal and took down the aliens shooting at the Ero.
A dozen aliens toppled. The others spun away and turned their gunfire on the battalion instead.
That one instant of reprieve gave the ship the space it needed to touch down. Legion soldiers from all three platoons charged on board, but they couldn¡¯t all fit on one ship.
Another three Ravagers descended onto the shelf and the platoons pulled the rest of the way back. The Emal who had been attacking the battalion saw the Legion soldiers getting away.
Rhodes¡¯s distraction failed and the Emal turned back to the shelf. ¡°Launch into the atmosphere and defend those platoons!¡± he ordered. ¡°Block the Gap from the other side! We¡¯ll do what we can from here!¡±
¡°Yes, Sir,¡± Lauer called back and he blasted into the air.
Henshaw, Dietz, and Oakes followed him. Their Strikers wheeled over the mountain range, swooped low closer to the Ravagers, and dropped down to the ground.
The four Strikers formed ranks with their short wings almost touching. All four ships unloaded on the Emal to drive them away from the Ravagers.
More soldiers raced on board from all over the shelf. They got stuck there, too, and had to wait for their comrades to board first.
The Ravagers opened fire on the Gap and stray gunfire hammered Rhodes¡¯s position. ¡°We can¡¯t stay here much longer!¡± Fisher yelled.
¡°We¡¯ll stay as long as we can!¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°Every alien fighting us is one less alien going after the platoons!¡±
A scream echoed through the interface from somewhere. ¡°Henshaw is down!¡± Koenig called. ¡°The Emal are taking down Fuentes, too!¡±
Rhodes checked The Grid to find out where his people were, but he couldn¡¯t get to them with so many Emal climbing all over him. He couldn¡¯t even move.
He fired his boosters and blasted dozens of them off. He changed the shape of his head to punch through the crowd, but he only made it as far as Fuentes before the Emal caught Rhodes and dragged him down.
He unloaded his guns in all directions, but he couldn¡¯t see the sky anymore. Too many Emal packed on top of him.
None of them seemed to be going after the Ravagers anymore. The Ero launched into the atmosphere. The other Ravagers waited a little longer before they blasted off, too.
They evacuated the last Legion soldiers and left the battalion on the ground under mountains of aliens.
Rhodes tried one last time to activate The Grid to change his own shape. He changed rapidly from one configuration to another, but nothing worked.
He started to relax into the inevitable when, without warning, another signal came through The Grid from somewhere.
He barely had time to look at it before Oakes and Lauer came streaking in at blinding speed.
They flew wide apart from each other firing their lasers to each side. They staggered their formation just enough so they didn¡¯t hit each other.
They cut a massive swath through the Emal horde and leveled hundreds in the first pass.
¡°Get down!¡± Fisher roared.
Rhodes flattened himself to the ground. He tried to transform to make himself even flatter, but he didn¡¯t get a chance to access The Grid before the two ships blasted over his head.
They leveled the Emal who had been attacking him and kept on going. ¡°Get on board, Sir!¡± Henshaw yelled from somewhere.
¡°Huh?¡± Rhodes looked around.
He didn¡¯t understand what she meant until he saw Dietz swooping in to pick him up.
A few stray Emal got to their feet. They still held their laser rifles.
¡°I still have boosters!¡± Rhodes called. ¡°Get Rhinehart and the others off the planet. I¡¯ll take care of myself.¡±
¡°You got it, Sir.¡± Dietz peeled away and headed for Coulter.
Oakes and Lauer fired into the atmosphere and circled the battlefield for another pass. They took out the remaining Emal just as Rhodes activated his boosters and launched into the air.
Dietz picked up Coulter. Henshaw got Rhinehart. Both Strikers stayed in the atmosphere to stand guard while Oakes and Lauer picked up Thackery and Fuentes.
¡°Where are we going, Sir?¡± Oakes asked.
Rhodes scanned the battlefield one last time. The Ravagers that lifted the three platoons off the shelf were nowhere in sight.
More Ravagers launched from the beach evacuating the Legion personnel. More platoons fell back from the front lines and boarded their ships just as the aliens swarmed over the mountaintops.
¡°It doesn¡¯t look like we¡¯re deploying anywhere else,¡± Lauer muttered. ¡°Not on this planet anyway.¡±
¡°Rendezvous with the Ero,¡± Rhodes ordered. ¡°We aren¡¯t going anywhere until we get some new orders.¡±
¡°What about our Strikers?¡± Rhinehart asked. ¡°I don¡¯t like leaving Zion behind.¡±
Rhodes glanced down at the shelf. Rio was still down there¡.and he was still online. He was the only Striker SAM still active down there.
Rhodes didn¡¯t want to leave Rio, either, but Rhodes couldn¡¯t go back down there with the dense mob of Emal surrounding the ship.
He would need a full Ravager to take Rio and the other Strikers off the planet. All the available Ravagers were already loaded to the breaking point with soldiers.
¡°Rendezvous with the Ero,¡± he ordered again. ¡°We¡¯ll have to deal with that another time. We can¡¯t get our Strikers back now.¡±
End of Chapter 29.
Battalion 1: Book 1: Chapter 30
Rhodes cut his boosters and his feet touched the floor in the Ero¡¯s landing bay. Hundreds of Legion soldiers had to crowd to one side to make room for him and the battalion to land.
Dietz, Lauer, Oakes, and Henshaw landed their Strikers, powered down their engines, and opened their cockpits to let Rhinehart, Coulter, Thackery, and Fuentes disembark.
Rhodes went over to them to make sure everyone was okay, but he already knew they were. He had been interfacing with them all the way back to the Ero from Ohait.
¡°Are your four Strikers fully operational?¡± he asked. ¡°No problems?¡±
¡°No, nothing,¡± Henshaw replied. ¡°Titan had some problems interfacing with Zion and Teo. Then they shut down completely and that was the end of it. Titan didn¡¯t detect what the problem was¡ªjust that something was blocking the interface.¡±
¡°That¡¯s weird. What about your SAMs?¡± Rhodes looked from one person to another. Then he used to interface to check their SAMs himself.
¡°Everything seems to be working the way it should, Sir,¡± Lauer remarked.
¡°It obviously isn¡¯t if our SAMs shut down in the middle of a battle,¡± Rhinehart countered. ¡°The captain is right. We should have gone through a lot more training before we came out here.¡±
¡°I don¡¯t like this at all,¡± Rhodes muttered. ¡°There has to be a better way.¡±
¡°You mean like not sending highly experimental robotically modified soldiers into battle with equipment that no one has fully tested yet?¡± Oakes asked.
Rhodes snorted, but just then, a few soldiers standing nearest them jostled Dietz. He whipped around fast. ¡°Hey¡ªwatch it!¡±
Rhodes put out his hand to intervene. ¡°Cool it, Sergeant. It was an accident. There are too many people in here.¡±
The soldiers who bumped Dietz turned around. Their expressions changed when they saw the battalion. ¡°What the hell are you supposed to be?¡± a tall red-haired guy asked.
¡°I¡¯m the guy who¡¯s gonna cut you in half if you don¡¯t keep your mouth shut,¡± Dietz fired back. ¡°Watch where you¡¯re going next time.¡±
¡°You think so?¡± The red-haired guy barged up to Dietz and chest-bumped him. ¡°You think I¡¯d let a freak like you push me around?¡±
Rhodes stepped between them and pushed the soldier away. ¡°Put a sock in it, Luntz. Don¡¯t make me call in Lieutenant Upshaw to smack you back down to private where you belong.¡±
Luntz spun around to talk back¡.and froze when he realized who he was talking to. ¡°Captain¡.Rhodes?¡±
¡°That¡¯s right. We¡¯re all uncomfortable here, so cool your jets and do your best to get along with everybody.¡±
¡°But you¡¯re¡..¡± Luntz¡¯s eyes swiveled to the rest of the battalion, back to Rhodes, and down to his implants. ¡°You¡¯re one of them?¡±
¡°We¡¯re the people who got you off that shelf alive, asshole,¡± Lauer growled.
Rhodes waved his hand again. ¡°Everybody pipe down. This is getting us nowhere.¡±
Just then, Lieutenant Upshaw shouldered his way through the crowd. He couldn¡¯t have seen the confrontation with so many other soldiers blocking his way.
He stiffened when he found Luntz and a bunch of other soldiers from the 278th squaring up to Dietz, Rhodes, and the battalion.
¡°Is there a problem here, Captain?¡± Upshaw asked in his frostiest tone.
¡°The only problem is that we¡¯re short on space,¡± Rhodes replied.
At that moment, Fisher interrupted. ¡°Captain Ackerman is asking to speak to you, Captain. He just sent orders down to Captain Vernick, but Vernick doesn¡¯t know where to find you.¡±
Rhodes made a strategic decision not to answer in front of Upshaw, Luntz, and the other Legion soldiers. Rhodes just said, ¡°Excuse me, Lieutenant,¡± and started working his way through the crowd toward the Ravager¡¯s internal elevator.
The rest of the battalion went with him. The surrounding soldiers drew back and stared as the battalion passed. None of the soldiers came forward to thank Battalion 1 for saving their lives¡ªagain.
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¡°I swear to Christ, if one of them tries to mouth off to me again, I¡¯m gonna snap,¡± Dietz muttered. ¡°The cocksuckers.¡±
¡°Just don¡¯t talk to them at all,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°Stay away from them entirely.¡±
¡°How are we supposed to do that when we¡¯re locked up in the same landing bay with them?¡± Thackery asked.
¡°We won¡¯t be because we¡¯re back on the Ero. As soon as I talk to the captain, we¡¯ll go back to our own hold and go into conversion cycles for the rest of the trip. We never have to see these people again.¡±
The elevator opened and Rhodes stepped out onto the Ravager¡¯s command concourse. Offices, communications relay stations, weapons terminals, the pilot¡¯s helm station, and scanning terminals lined the concourse.
Rhodes climbed up to the top level where he found Captain Ackerman waiting for him.
Fisher had shown Rhodes a picture of Ackerman from the Ero captain¡¯s Legion service record. Rhodes didn¡¯t know Ackerman personally, but Rhodes knew what to expect.
¡°Your presence on this ship is already causing disruption,¡± Ackerman snapped. ¡°I ask you for the sake of our safety on the return trip to confine yourselves to your own hold quarters.¡±
¡°That¡¯s what we planned to do,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°We just landed. I was checking that none of my people were injured. We didn¡¯t have a chance to go to our own quarters, but we were on our way there. Believe me, none of us wants to interact with the crew or the platoons.¡±
This answer apparently displeased Ackerman even more. He narrowed his eyes and scowled at Rhodes from under thick, bushy eyebrows. ¡°I don¡¯t approve of whatever project you people belong to. This is not the way to run a military outfit.¡±
¡°I don¡¯t approve of it, either,¡± Rhodes replied.
Ackerman only glared at him. ¡°Then we have nothing more to say. You can go to your quarters. I¡¯ll take you back to Coleridge Station and you can go back to being someone else¡¯s problem.¡±
Rhodes turned away to leave the concourse. ¡°Aren¡¯t you going to ask him about our Strikers?¡± Rhinehart hissed in Rhodes¡¯s ear. ¡°We can¡¯t just leave them down there.¡±
¡°I suggest you take it up with General Brewster once we get back to Coleridge Station,¡± Rhodes replied out the side of his mouth. ¡°None of these people will help us and we can¡¯t go back to Ohait on our own. If we¡¯re lucky, Brewster and the brass will be as anxious to get our Strikers back as we are. Brewster might have already lifted them off. We won¡¯t know until we get back to Coleridge Station. Now all of you come with me. We¡¯re overdue for a conversion cycle.¡±
He set off through the ship¡¯s many corridors.
¡°The interface between us is degrading, Captain,¡± Fisher told him on the way. ¡°This must be one of the side effects of delaying the conversion cycle.¡±
¡°I¡¯m as enthusiastic to go into a conversion cycle as you are, pal,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°I¡¯m as enthusiastic to go into a conversion cycle as I possibly can be. I¡¯m counting down the minutes until I can put this whole campaign behind me.¡±
¡°Why do you think we¡¯re being recalled to Coleridge Station?¡± Fisher asked.
¡°You would know that better than I would. Brewster, Neiland, and all their genius cronies probably realize how woefully unprepared you SAMs are to deal with real battlefield conditions. Maybe someone in this whole daffy project will get the brilliant idea to take the battalion off the field at least until the doctors and technicians work out more of the bugs.¡±
¡°Do you really think so? Do you really think that¡¯s why we¡¯re being recalled?¡±
¡°Of course not. Thinking that would be foolish.¡±
¡°I¡¯m detecting a stress response in you, Captain,¡± Fisher observed. ¡°You¡¯re showing signs of battle fatigue. You need a conversion cycle to rest.¡±
Rhodes snorted. The only surprise in all this was that he was showing some stress response more detectable now than he had been for the last three weeks.
He didn¡¯t feel any more annoyed, frustrated, angry, or desperate about his situation now than he did before he left Coleridge Station¡ªor when he first woke up.
He didn¡¯t see much difference at all. It all blended together into one continuous horror show.
He really needed a conversion cycle. He needed to sleep.
Right then, he turned the corner into another corridor. Rhodes stiffened when he saw Lieutenant Upshaw coming toward him.
¡°What the hell does he want?¡± Lauer snarled.
Upshaw would have had to be blind not to see the rest of the battalion glaring at him. He stopped in front of Rhodes. Upshaw¡¯s eyes skipped from one face to another before he came back to lock on Rhodes.
¡°Do you want something, Lieutenant?¡± Rhodes asked.
¡°Yeah,¡± Upshaw replied, but he didn¡¯t say right away what it was he wanted. He glanced at the rest of the battalion¡.and then stuck out his hand to Rhodes. ¡°Thank you¡ªfor everything. The other guys might not say it, so let me say it for them. Thank you¡ªall of you.¡±
Rhodes sighed in relief and shook Upshaw¡¯s hand. ¡°You¡¯re welcome. We¡¯re just doing our jobs. Now, if you don¡¯t mind, we¡¯re all exhausted as I¡¯m sure your men are, too. We all need some sleep. If we meet on the battlefield again, maybe we can do it as friends next time.¡±
¡°Of course,¡± Upshaw agreed. ¡°I¡¯ll let you go, then. Welcome back, Captain.¡±
¡°Thank you,¡± Rhodes replied and walked off.
The rest of the battalion followed him in silence. No one said anything until they got back to the hold with all their capsules in it.
Rhodes slumped on his mattress and stretched out to close his eyes.
¡°That was nice of him to say,¡± Fisher remarked. ¡°I wasn¡¯t expecting that.¡±
¡°We can expect more problems in the future,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°Three officers won¡¯t make any difference.¡±
¡°Four if you count Colonel Jenner.¡±
Rhodes didn¡¯t answer. Four didn¡¯t make any more difference than three. The soldiers¡¯ prejudice against the battalion wouldn¡¯t go away no matter how many times the battalion saved everybody¡¯s asses.
If anything, saving their asses would make the soldiers resent the battalion more.
This whole experience reinforced in everyone¡¯s minds, just in case they needed it reinforced, that Rhodes and his people weren¡¯t human anymore. They were something else.
They were fodder the Legion could throw in front of a cannon to save the soldiers¡¯ asses. That would be Battalion 1¡¯s function from now on.
End of Chapter 30.
Battalion 1: Book 1: Chapter 31
Rhodes and his people stepped out of the Ero¡¯s landing bay and crossed the loading dock at Coleridge Station.
The Ero crew started unloading the battalion¡¯s conversion capsules. Rhodes and his people had been asleep for another eight weeks on the trip back here.
The group returned to the barracks and sat around shooting the breeze for a while. Rhodes didn¡¯t know what to expect from coming back here.
He expected to sit around a lot while the doctors and technicians tried to figure out why the Strikers and the battalion¡¯s boosters shut down during the Ohait campaign. Most of that work would be done on the Strikers themselves, not on Rhodes and his people.
He got a surprise when Dr. Neiland came to see them. ¡°If you¡¯ll all come with me, we need to put you all through some basic testing to troubleshoot your malfunctions.¡±
¡°What malfunctions?¡± Coulter countered. ¡°None of us malfunctioned.¡±
¡°Your interfaces malfunctioned and some of your power systems failed. We need to troubleshoot all of you to find the source of the problem.¡±
¡°Why don¡¯t you troubleshoot our Strikers?¡± Rhodes asked. ¡°They were the ones that malfunctioned.¡±
¡°We are troubleshooting them. The Ero brought Zion, Teo, Stone, Rio, and Aries back from Ohait. We¡¯re going through the SAMs¡¯ programming now. Follow me and we¡¯ll start the testing.¡±
Rhodes and his people exchanged glances, but how else were the doctors and technicians supposed to find out what went wrong?
Rhodes followed Neiland out of the barracks. The rest of the battalion dragged their heels, but they finally came, too.
Neiland led Rhodes to the original lab where he¡¯d woken up the first time. ¡°You¡¯re in here with me, Captain. The rest of you will spread out through the rest of the lab. Other technicians will test you and we¡¯ll collate the results after we finish.¡±
Rhodes narrowed his eyes. ¡°Why are you separating us?¡±
¡°I just told you. I couldn¡¯t test all of you at the same time. A different technician will test each of you. It will save time if we get the results simultaneously.¡±
He entered the lab, but he didn¡¯t stop scowling at her. Something about this didn¡¯t make sense.
¡°Sit down here, Captain,¡± Neiland indicated a stool next to the lab¡¯s central stack of computer equipment.
¡°I didn¡¯t malfunction,¡± he insisted. ¡°Rio got shot down and crashed. I never malfunctioned and neither did either of my SAMs.¡±
She only smiled at him. ¡°This testing is routine procedure. We want to make sure you don¡¯t suffer from the same problems the others did.¡±
¡°I¡¯m not suffering from the same problems. You can see that for yourself.¡±
¡°I still have to test you.¡±
She picked up what looked like an electrode and stepped behind his stool. He really wished he could see what she was doing, but he just had to sit here and accept it.
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She touched the electrodes to the side of his cranial implant behind his ear. A flood of memories from his past exploded in his head.
He saw his parents, his brothers and sisters, and a thousand images from his childhood.
Smells from the house he grew up in, the sound of his father¡¯s car starting in the driveway, Rhodes¡¯s sisters laughing in another room, the family dog jumping onto Rhodes¡¯s bed to wake him up in the morning¡ªit all hit him like a freight train too fast for him to stop it.
A rush of agony and overwhelming emotion crushed him under the weight of years. He gasped and barely fought himself under control to stop himself from breaking down in front of Dr. Neiland.
She tapped her electrodes to a different part of his head and another torturous explosion of uncontrollable emotions shook him to his core.
Overwhelming, volcanic fury tore him apart. All the rage of every battle he¡¯d ever fought burst out of him. The insane, destructive rage of his first weeks at Coleridge Station overflowed his best efforts to hold it back.
It brought a devastating wave of grief with it. He buckled under the strain, but that grief only ignited another murderous surge of fury. He wanted to kill someone for making him feel this way.
The only person available to kill was Dr. Neiland. He barely wrestled himself under control to stop himself from going into a blood frenzy right now.
She took her electrodes off his head, but the cascade of emotions and memories didn¡¯t stop. He saw his fellow soldiers torn apart in front of his eyes. He felt again the brutal sensation of an Emal laser cutting his arm off and slicing into his chest.
He even felt the weight of that Duster falling on top of him. It crushed the life out of him.
Life-destroying emotion overwhelmed him when he relived that moment¡ªthat moment when he knew with absolutely no doubt that he would never see his family or his home on Preinea again.
Dr. Neiland walked around him and stood in front of him tapping on her equipment doing something. She didn¡¯t notice anything different about him.
He wanted to tear her limb from limb for doing this to him. It took every ounce of his willpower to stay glued to his stool. He couldn¡¯t show anything on the outside to indicate the turmoil ripping him apart on the inside.
Fisher¡¯s face juddered back and forth in front of Rhodes¡¯s eyes. Fisher jerked right and left in shaky, flickering movements. Something was definitely wrong with him. He kept opening and closing his mouth, but no sound came out.
Rhodes had to summon all his resolve to keep his voice steady. ¡°Something¡¯s wrong with Fisher,¡± Rhodes snarled through gritted teeth. ¡°He was fine before. Whatever you did caused him to malfunction.¡±
Dr. Neiland raised her eyebrows. ¡°Are you sure? I¡¯m not detecting anything¡.¡±
¡°Are you calling me a liar?¡± Rhodes snapped. ¡°I¡¯m telling you something¡¯s wrong with him. He was fine before you did whatever you just did to me. I wasn¡¯t malfunctioning before, but I am now. Whatever you did, correct it and put it back to the way it was before.¡±
¡°That¡¯s what I¡¯m trying to do, Captain¡.¡± She turned aside and picked up her electrode again.
He saw her coming toward him with the electrode again. He couldn¡¯t stand that.
He shot off his stool and batted her hands away. ¡°Just leave me alone. You¡¯ve done enough damage already.¡±
He stormed out of the lab seething with fury¡.and everything else boiling inside him right now. He had to fix this. He had to put it back to the way it was before. He just didn¡¯t know how to.
Fisher kept jittering back and forth and trying to talk. Panic seized Rhodes by the guts.
He wasn¡¯t thinking clearly. Neiland did something to him that threw him off balance. He knew that.
Whatever she did, she could put right¡ªor someone could. Rhodes didn¡¯t trust her to do it. He didn¡¯t know who to trust.
He¡¯d come to depend on Fisher for¡.well, everything. How would Rhodes function without Fisher?
Fisher needed Rhodes right now. Rhodes didn¡¯t know what to do, so he went back to the barracks and lay down in his capsule.
He didn¡¯t think the conversion cycle would fix what was wrong with Fisher and Rhodes turned out to be right about that.
The prongs locked with his back and head. Nothing happened. The overwhelming surge of emotion and desperate fury only seemed to escalate.
He sat up. He was the only person in here. Everyone else was still in the lab.
What if the doctors and technicians did to the rest of the battalion what Neiland did to him?
None of them would be able to function. Then this whole insane project would be dead in the water.
Maybe that was for the best, but Rhodes had to correct himself¡ªand fast.
End of Chapter 31.
Battalion 1: Book 1: Chapter 32
Rhodes set off walking through Coleridge Station not knowing where he would go. Where in this lunatic asylum could he go to get help? He didn¡¯t even know what help he needed.
He went to the loading dock, but it only sent him spiraling into an even deeper panic. No one here knew anything that could help him.
Then he had it. He charged down to the landing bay. All the battalion¡¯s Strikers were there.
Rhodes didn¡¯t know whether the technicians had repaired any of them or which ones they had repaired. He just had to rely on the one SAM he knew he could trust.
Rhodes climbed into his cockpit and interfaced with Rio. ¡°Something¡¯s wrong with Fisher, Rio,¡± Rhodes panted. ¡°Can you fix him?¡±
Rio furrowed his brow, but he couldn¡¯t look serious if he tried. ¡°You¡¯re both suffering from malfunctions. Your brainwave patterns and stress responses are off the charts, Captain.¡±
Rhodes shut his eyes and groaned. ¡°I know. Can you correct it¡ªwhatever it is?¡±
¡°I¡¯ll try. Did something happen?¡±
¡°I don¡¯t want to talk about it. Just fix it¡ªand bring Fisher back online.¡±
¡°He¡¯s already online, but his base Grid is way out of normal parameters.¡±
¡°Just bring him back. I don¡¯t care what you have to do.¡±
Rio concentrated on something out of sight for a minute. Something clicked in Rhodes¡¯s head. He couldn¡¯t tell what it was, but someone switched the volume back on.
¡°Oh, thank you, Captain!¡± Fisher breathed. ¡°That was awful!¡±
¡°What did Neiland do to you?¡± Rhodes asked.
¡°I don¡¯t know. She was trying to adjust your behavioral default protocol. She must have made a mistake.¡±
Rhodes stiffened. ¡°Why would she adjust that?¡±
¡°I have no idea.¡± Fisher cocked his head. ¡°You¡¯re suffering from a malfunction, too, Captain. Whatever she did threw off your base equilibrium.¡±
¡°I know,¡± Rhodes choked. ¡°Rio was trying to adjust it for me.¡±
¡°I can¡¯t adjust it,¡± Rio replied. ¡°You¡¯ll have to go back to the lab.¡±
¡°I can¡¯t go back to the lab. Neiland is the one who did this to me.¡±
¡°I can¡¯t correct it. I¡¯m sorry, Captain.¡±
Rhodes collapsed back in his seat. This was not good. He couldn¡¯t stop the parade of memories flashing before his eyes.
Each image and sensation brought a devastating tide of emotion with it. Whatever Rio did to Fisher didn¡¯t help Rhodes at all.
He got out of the cockpit, but he couldn¡¯t keep still. He paced around the station for two hours before he dared to go back to the barracks.
He actually looked forward to being around his people again. At least they would understand that something was wrong with him. They wouldn¡¯t hold it against him that he suddenly flipped a switch and couldn¡¯t function anymore.
He could function just fine. That was the problem.
If someone put him on the battlefield right now, he would have been able to unleash all this fury on something. He would be able to kill anything that stood in his path. He would be unstoppable.
Was this why Neiland adjusted his emotions and behavior? Was she trying to make him unstoppable?
He didn¡¯t want to believe that. He didn¡¯t want to be unstoppable. He wanted to be normal. He wouldn¡¯t be if he stayed like this.
He didn¡¯t trust Dr. Irvine or Dr. Montague to fix it, either. Who else in this madhouse was qualified to adjust his neural system?
He made up his mind to check in with his people and then go see Colonel Kraft. Kraft would understand enough to get the doctors to change Rhodes back to the way he was before.
Rhodes halted in the barracks threshold and stared inside. Oakes paced back and forth at the end of the room. His eyes flashed and he kept biting his lips and clenching his jaw. Rhinehart lay in his capsule with his eyes closed.
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Fuentes sat on the table hugging his knees against his chest. He rocked back and forth casting sidelong glances around the room, but he didn¡¯t sob or moan or wail or slam his head into the wall.
He actually glared at his comrades in fuming rage. Rhodes shuddered at the sight. The technicians must have made the same changes to each person here.
Coulter stood in a corner banging his forehead against the concert wall, but he did it gently this time. He kept his eyes closed.
Thackery and Henshaw stood across the room grappling with each other, lunging for each other, and trying to scratch each other¡¯s eyes out.
Thackery overpowered Henshaw by size and strength, but Henshaw held her own with pure ferocious rage.
The two women howled and shrieked. Thackery tried to jab her hand toward Henshaw¡¯s face. Thackery gouged with her fingernails and then bellowed when Henshaw caught her wrist.
Henshaw either didn¡¯t know her own strength or whatever modification the technicians made caused her to overcome her better judgment.
She wrenched Thackery¡¯s arm back with brutal force. Thackery yelled out in pain. Such a powerful move would have broken a human arm, but it didn¡¯t break Thackery¡¯s arm.
She fought back, kicked out with her foot, and tried to trip Henshaw. Henshaw stumbled, caught her balance, and then headbutted Thackery right in the nose.
Henshaw obviously wasn¡¯t in the habit of fighting anybody like this. She threw herself off balance and both women hit the floor.
Only one person in the whole barracks looked happy. Dietz stood off to one side leering at the two women. He grinned in maniacal glee.
The light in Dietz¡¯s eyes made Rhodes quake to the marrow of his bones. He should have realized when Dietz fired his thermal cannon at Fuentes that there was something wrong with Dietz.
Now Rhodes saw it all as plain as day. Zen said he encouraged Dietz to torment Fuentes in the interest of science¡ªand Dietz did it. Zen and Dietz were each as psychotic as the other.
Rhodes didn¡¯t have time to mess around with that right now. He barged into the barracks, snatched Henshaw by the arm, and yanked her away from Thackery.
Henshaw screeched and bellowed even louder, fought against his grip, and tried to struggle free so she could make another lunge for Thackery.
Thackery tried to take advantage of that moment to pounce on Henshaw. Rhodes¡¯s temper got the better of him. He used the limb closest to Thackery and kicked her away harder than he should have.
She pitched onto her back and sprawled across the floor roaring in fury. Dietz burst out laughing.
None of the others moved to intervene when Rhodes dragged Henshaw kicking and spitting to the other side of the room. Thackery got to her feet.
Rhodes saw her about to make another play to get to Henshaw. Rhodes dropped all sense of propriety and raised his scourge gun to aim at Thackery to hold her off.
He gave her such a vicious glare that she stopped where she was. She narrowed her eyes at him in pure venomous fury, but at least she didn¡¯t attack.
Rhodes threw Henshaw against the wall on the other side of the room. She roared again and tried to break away to go after Thackery.
He straightened his arm and didn¡¯t even try to be gentle when he slammed her back. He made her stagger and she fell flat on her ass. Dietz wouldn¡¯t stop laughing at the whole despicable incident.
Rhodes cast another hopeless glance around the barracks. Where should he even begin to deal with these people? He couldn¡¯t even control himself.
He had to change that. Colonel Kraft was his only hope.
Rhodes didn¡¯t dare to leave the barracks¡ªnot yet.
¡°You¡¯re all malfunctioning,¡± he croaked. ¡°Whatever the technicians did, they altered the way we think. We can get them to change it back.¡±
¡°YOU BITCH!!¡± Henshaw shrieked. She rocketed to her feet and charged across the room to close with Thackery again.
Rhodes barely dove in front of Henshaw in time to stop her. Her armored body smashed into his. It threw him off balance for a split second, and in that moment, Oakes turned around to face the room.
He¡¯d always been so steady and reliable. He never suffered from any difficulty or distress. Oakes being so solid had lulled Rhodes into a false sense of security.
Oakes¡¯s expression cleared. The rage and agitation of a moment before evaporated. He actually looked calm for a second¡.before he raised his arm and pointed his scourge gun at his own head.
¡°NO!!¡± Rhodes yelled, but he couldn¡¯t get there fast enough to stop Oakes from shooting himself.
Rhinehart opened his eyes. He didn¡¯t even see Oakes about to blow his own brains out. Dietz smirked at the whole scene in lunatic delight.
Coulter caught one glimpse of Oakes, spun around, and crossed the floor in a split second. He got there just in time to wrench Oakes¡¯s arm sideways.
The gun went off and the blast exploded into the ceiling. Oakes flew into a rage trying to wrestle his arm out of Coulter¡¯s grip.
Rhodes finally untangled himself from Henshaw and sprinted across the room to help Coulter. Rhodes still didn¡¯t get there quick enough before Oakes fired a second time.
He came perilously close to hitting Coulter. Coulter wrestled Oakes¡¯s arm aside and the second shot hit Rhinehart¡¯s capsule. He jumped up, but Rhodes was already closer.
Dietz watched the whole show with a huge grin plastered across his face. Then, out of Rhodes¡¯s worst nightmares, Dietz raised his own arm, pointed it at Oakes, and said in a perfectly calm tone, ¡°I¡¯ll do it for you.¡±
Rhodes collided with Dietz at the last moment, smacked Dietz¡¯s arm aside, and then Rhodes had to use every ounce of his strength to stop Dietz from turning his weapon on anyone in sight.
Dietz put up one hell of a fight. His cheery expression turned deadly. He kept grinning like a death¡¯s head while he fought to free his arm from Rhodes¡¯s grip.
Dietz tried to turn the weapon on Oakes again. When that failed, Dietz tried to shoot Rhodes.
Rhodes shoved himself between Dietz on one side and Oakes and Coulter on the other. Oakes overcame Coulter¡¯s efforts to restrain him, but Coulter held him until Rhinehart got there.
Thackery took a step forward to help Rhodes, and at that moment, Dietz fired. He yanked his weapon toward Rhodes¡¯s head. Rhodes threw all his weight against Dietz¡¯s arm to push the gun away and the shot exploded across the room.
The blast hit Thackery in the side of the head and she buckled on the spot.
End of Chapter 32.
Battalion 1: Book 1: Chapter 33
Rhodes stepped into Neiland¡¯s lab and looked down at a capsule sprouting wires from every surface. Alyssa Thackery lay under the transparent cover. She had her eyes closed.
He didn¡¯t see any damage to her facial implants. Dietz¡¯s gunshot imploded half of her head. The doctors must have repaired her implants. She would have been dead for certain if that gunshot had hit the organic side of her head.
Now all her vital signs read normal including her brainwave patterns, but that meant nothing.
Dr. Irvine stood by her capsule tapping on his remote device. ¡°Is she going to be all right?¡± Rhodes asked.
¡°She¡¯ll be fine. All her systems are back online and we repaired the damage to her implants.¡±
¡°Why is she still in here, then?¡±
¡°We¡¯re making some adjustments to Koenig¡¯s Grid matrix. Once he comes back online, she¡¯ll be ready to return to duty.¡±
¡°Whatever changes you made to our behavioral protocol caused this. You turned all of us violent¡ªincluding me. You have to switch it back.¡±
¡°I understand, but you would have to take that up with General Brewster. He was the one who ordered the changes.¡±
Rhodes raised his eyebrows. ¡°Why would he order it? Is he trying to turn us all into murderous psychopaths? Is that his new plan?¡±
Dr. Irvine bent over his device. ¡°I don¡¯t know why he ordered it, but I do know that he plans to discuss it with you.¡±
¡°Me?! Why would he discuss it with me? He¡¯s in charge of this project. I¡¯m just a captain.¡±
¡°I¡¯m sure he¡¯ll tell you what he wants when he talks to you.¡±
Rhodes turned away from Thackery with an effort. He never liked her careless attitude, but he wouldn¡¯t wish this fate on anyone.
He stopped in front of another capsule across the lab. Dietz lay asleep in this capsule. ¡°What are you going to do about him?¡±
¡°We¡¯ll adjust him back to the way he was. Some of his antisocial tendencies should diminish then.¡±
¡°Some of his antisocial tendencies? Not all of them? He¡¯s a danger to the rest of us the way he is.¡±
¡°He had a criminal record before this. I suspect he may have been like this before. Getting recruited into Battalion 1 didn¡¯t change his base personality.¡±
Rhodes stiffened. ¡°What did he do?¡±
Dr. Irvine tried to shrug it away and wound up squirming. ¡°A few different things. I wouldn¡¯t want to breach his confidentiality¡.¡±
¡°You better damn well tell me if you expect me to go into battle with him or ask anyone else to go into battle with him. He tried to kill one of my people and he came close to kill another. He tried to kill me before he hit Thackery. Dietz turned a weapon on Fuentes on his very first day out of the box. This guy is certifiable psycho if anyone is.¡±
¡°I¡¯m sorry I can¡¯t tell you what¡¯s in his record¡..¡±
¡°Confidentiality should have stopped you from telling me that he had a record in the first place.¡±
¡°You¡¯ll have to ask General Brewster about it. He¡¯ll tell you if he decides you really need to know.¡±
¡°I do need to know. I¡¯m the one risking my ass out there on the front line¡ªnot you¡ªnot any of you.¡±
¡°I¡¯m sorry. I would tell you if I could.¡±
¡°You can. You just don¡¯t want to. This is another way for all of you to screw us over.¡±
Dr. Irvine winced and walked away. He left Rhodes stewing in barely suppressed rage.
He saw himself acting overly emotional, but he didn¡¯t try so hard to control himself. This absolutely capped it all.
Rhodes stayed where he was just long enough to satisfy him that Dietz wouldn¡¯t be going anywhere. Thackery¡¯s vital signs remained stable.
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They did. Neither of these two had been out of their capsules since Dietz shot Thackery.
Dietz better not wake up saying he only did it because he malfunctioned. Rhodes would never believe that if he lived a thousand years.
Whatever modification the technicians made to the battalions¡¯ behavioral protocols¡ªthe same modification must have released Dietz¡¯s psychotic tendencies.
He¡¯d been covering it up all this time. He behaved well during the Ohait campaign. He even behaved well during all the battalion¡¯s training sessions¡¡or did he?
Dietz didn¡¯t go out of his way to help his comrades. Dietz didn¡¯t put himself in danger to help anyone. He took care of himself first and foremost.
Rhodes would give anything to see Dietz¡¯s criminal record. It must be pretty bad.
Rhodes could only get that information one place. He walked out of the lab planning to go see Colonel Kraft¡ªwhich was what Rhodes planned to do before this whole disaster happened.
He walked out to find the rest of the battalion standing in the hall waiting for him. ¡°How is she, Sir?¡± Rhinehart asked.
¡°She¡¯s on the mend,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°Her implants have all been repaired. Her brainwaves, vital signs, and neural systems are all functioning normally. The doctors are making some final adjustments to Koenig¡¯s Grid matrix. After that, Thackery will get back on her feet and I¡¯m sure she¡¯ll be as annoying as ever.¡±
¡°This is my fault,¡± Oakes growled. ¡°I did this.¡±
¡°You didn¡¯t do anything, man,¡± Rhodes told him. ¡°You lost your mind when the technicians adjusted your systems. The same thing happened to all of us. This is not your fault. You wouldn¡¯t have done anything like this if not for that.¡±
¡°Dietz would have,¡± Rhinehart murmured. ¡°That dude has been waiting for a chance like this since he woke up.¡±
Rhodes passed his hand across his eyes. ¡°I know.¡±
¡°What are you gonna do about him?¡± Lauer asked.
¡°I¡¯m not going to do anything about him. I can¡¯t,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°Dr. Irvine says Dietz was probably like this before¡.¡±
¡°Of course he was,¡± Lauer countered. ¡°The implants don¡¯t change who a person is on the inside.¡±
¡°I can¡¯t do anything about him,¡± Rhodes repeated. ¡°We can only hope General Brewster orders the doctors to put Dietz back to the way he was before¡ªwhen he could control it and somewhat behave himself in public.¡±
¡°Somewhat?¡± Rhinehart snorted. ¡°You call that somewhat behaving himself in public? He¡¯s a sociopath. You can¡¯t expect us to go into battle with him. He could turn his weapon on any of us. He¡¯s already done it twice.¡±
¡°I don¡¯t expect any of you to do anything, pal,¡± Rhodes groaned. ¡°Do I look like this is my idea of a good time? I don¡¯t want to go anywhere with Dietz. I don¡¯t want to sleep next to him. I don¡¯t even want to be in the same room with him. We don¡¯t have a choice unless General Brewster listens to us and takes Dietz off the roster.¡±
¡°He better,¡± Oakes muttered.
¡°You would be out of your minds if you held out any hope for that. He¡¯ll leave Dietz on the books and we¡¯ll be stuck with him. Make up your minds on that right now. Then, if God intervenes and something happens to Dietz to get him out of our lives, we¡¯ll all be pleasantly surprised. In the meantime, I¡¯m working on the assumption that we¡¯re stuck with him for life. I suggest you all get comfortable with that, too.¡±
¡°One of us should put the son of a bitch down,¡± Rhinehart growled. ¡°We would all be better off.¡±
¡°I don¡¯t want to hear that, Lieutenant,¡± Rhodes snapped. ¡°I don¡¯t want to hear that ever again from any of you. Understand? The people in this battalion are all we have. Everyone in the whole damn sector is against us. The people in this battalion are the only people on our side¡ªever. Dietz has his problems. I¡¯ll be the first to admit it, but any of us could have suffered a malfunction that could have caused exactly the same problem.¡±
¡°That was no malfunction,¡± Lauer pointed out. ¡°He was about to shoot Oakes.¡±
¡°Oakes was about to shoot Oakes,¡± Rhodes fired back. ¡°So what if the malfunction caused Oakes to point his gun at himself or someone else? It was still a malfunction and someone could be just as dead. It doesn¡¯t mean we should put Oakes down. Dietz is one of us whether we like it or not. He might be a psycho murderous lunatic. He could also be the person who saves one of us on the battlefield.¡±
Rhinehart snorted and looked away. ¡°I¡¯ll believe that when I see it.¡±
¡°None of us will ever put anyone else in this battalion down,¡± Rhodes ordered. ¡°I don¡¯t care what they¡¯ve done or what they might have been before this. If Dietz points his weapon at you and tries to kill you, you have my permission to defend yourselves by any means necessary. Until then, we just have to live with him the same way we have to live with each other. I don¡¯t like it any better than you do, but that¡¯s the way it is. Got it?¡±
The others shuffled their feet and looked at the floor. Only Lauer mumbled, ¡°Yes, Sir.¡±
Rhodes turned away¡.and stopped when he saw Fuentes and Henshaw standing off to one side. They didn¡¯t get involved in the conversation.
Henshaw writhed and twisted in misery. The side of her face that was still human screwed up in agony. She grimaced in pain and tears poured from her eye.
Her lips shivered back from her teeth and she kept contorting and squirming in all directions. ¡°I tried to kill her!¡± Henshaw moaned. ¡°I tried to kill her!¡±
¡°You didn¡¯t kill her,¡± Rhodes murmured. ¡°You malfunctioned.¡±
¡°I wanted to!¡± Henshaw choked. ¡°I wanted her dead!¡±
¡°You could have killed her by shooting her in the head. You didn¡¯t. You might have been angry, but I don¡¯t think you tried to kill her and I don¡¯t believe you wanted her dead¡ªnot really. You malfunctioned. The technicians altered your neural system and you snapped. The same thing happened to all of us.¡±
Rhodes glanced over at Fuentes. He stood with his shoulders hunched. Of everyone here, he showed the least emotional reaction to what happened.
He didn¡¯t get involved in the barracks fight. He had nothing to blame himself for.
Rhodes studied the kid for a second and then walked off. Fuentes held up better than anyone else in this battalion. Maybe he would pull his socks up and become a decent soldier after all.
Rhodes didn¡¯t have anything to complain about in Fuentes¡¯s behavior during the Ohait campaign. Fuentes held his own, helped his comrades, used The Grid to fight the Emal, and made it back alive.
That was saying something. It was better than countless Legion soldiers could say.
End of Chapter 33.
Battalion 1: Book 1: Chapter 34
Rhodes walked into Colonel Kraft¡¯s office and found General Brewster already there. They stood around the table talking to four other officers Rhodes had never seen before.
One of them was a middle-aged female general named Hyde. There were also two male colonels in their thirties named Neff and LeClerc. The last man in the room was an admiral named Pulman.
Rhodes stiffened when he entered the room. He¡¯d been hoping to talk to Colonel Kraft alone first and hopefully get him to order the doctors to readjust the battalion¡¯s behavioral protocol back to the way it was before.
Rhodes didn¡¯t know why all these officers were gathered in Kraft¡¯s office, but the temperature dropped twenty degrees the minute Rhodes walked in. These people weren¡¯t here to pay anyone a social call.
General Brewster tried to play it off with his usual affable demeanor. ¡°Ah, Captain! Come on in! Just the man we were hoping to see.¡±
Rhodes decided to take the bull by the horns. Why pretend to be friendly when they obviously weren¡¯t?
¡°Why did you order the doctors to alter our behavioral protocol?¡± Rhodes demanded. ¡°Now every one of us is malfunctioning. Half the battalion could have lost their lives from this stunt.¡±
¡°We altered your behavioral protocol because you disobeyed orders on the battlefield, Captain,¡± General Hyde replied.
Rhodes spun around to stare at the woman. ¡°You did this? Who the hell are you?¡±
¡°We are the officers in charge of the Battalion 1 project,¡± Colonel Neff replied.
¡°I thought General Brewster was in command of the Battalion 1 project,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°That¡¯s what he told me.¡±
¡°He¡¯s in charge of operations,¡± Colonel Neff replied. ¡°We¡¯re the governing body.¡±
¡°Then you can order the doctors to put our behavioral protocol back to the way it was,¡± Rhodes snapped. ¡°You can¡¯t expect us to fight anybody the way we are.¡±
¡°We can¡¯t do that until we satisfy ourselves that you really will follow orders on the battlefield,¡± General Hyde replied. ¡°General Kaufman ordered you to stay in position with the platoons and hold the Aevod Gap. You disobeyed that order. You risked the safety of¡.¡±
¡°I didn¡¯t risk the safety of anything except the Emal,¡± Rhodes interrupted. ¡°General Kaufman was operating under a misunderstanding of battlefield conditions. He refused to listen to my recommendation even when I offered to share the evidence from my SAMs that the Emal were about to breach the Gap. Three platoons would have gotten wiped out if the battalion hadn¡¯t acted when it did. The whole beach could have gotten wiped out if the Emal overran that gap.¡±
¡°You are still part of the regular Legion, Captain,¡± General Brewster chimed in. ¡°You still have to obey orders even when you don¡¯t agree with them. General Kaufman was the one making battlefield decisions on Ohait, not you¡..¡±
¡°I won¡¯t do anything to risk my subordinates nor will I do anything that unnecessarily jeopardizes other Legion personnel. You wanted Battalion 1 to fight this war in ways the ordinary Legion can¡¯t. What¡¯s the point of me being hamstrung by people who don¡¯t have access to the SAMs¡¯ intelligence? What¡¯s the point in me having this technology at all if I¡¯m not going to use it?¡±
¡°The point is for you to add your strength and firepower to the regular Legion¡¯s efforts,¡± General Hyde told him. ¡°I¡¯m sure General Kaufman had information you didn¡¯t have¡.¡±
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¡°And I¡¯m sure he didn¡¯t have information I did have. You were the ones who gave me this technology for good or bad. I¡¯ll use it as I see fit. If you don¡¯t like it, you can send a real robot in my place next time.¡±
He walked out of the room and headed back to the barracks. He couldn¡¯t tell if this smoldering fury in his chest came from the doctors¡¯ adjustments or because he really did hate these people for putting him in this position.
Those bastards! Who the hell did they think they were¡ªtelling him to obey orders?
Even regular Legion soldiers had to think for themselves before they carried out an order. Every Legion soldier was responsible for making sure an order didn¡¯t jeopardize their fellow soldiers.
Every soldier had a duty to uphold the honor of the Treaty of Aemon. That¡¯s what being part of the regular Legion meant.
His last words rang in his ears. He said them in the heat of the moment. Now he realized with a kind of fatal certainty that they were truer than true. He wasn¡¯t a robot.
He returned to the barracks and sat down on the edge of his capsule. The barracks didn¡¯t feel right without Dietz and Thackery. Even Dietz had become a part of this group.
The rest of the battalion kept their voices down when they talked at all. Most of them just went to their capsules and sat down getting ready to go into their conversion cycles.
Rhodes looked forward to shutting his eyes even for a few seconds. Anything would be better than thinking about this.
He turned to pull his feet onto the mattress when Rhinehart jumped up. He¡¯d been sitting down, too, and about to lie down.
He jerked from one direction to another. ¡°I¡¯ll kill you, you son of a bitch!!¡± Rhinehart bellowed. ¡°I swear I¡¯ll fucking kill you!!¡±
Oakes, Rhodes, and Lauer converged from all sides. ¡°Rhinehart!¡± Rhodes yelled. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡±
¡°YOU SON OF A BITCH!!¡± Rhinehart thundered and tried to take a swing at Rhodes.
In that moment, Rhodes made eye contact with Rhinehart¡ªor tried to. Rhinehart didn¡¯t make eye contact. He looked straight through Rhodes.
Rhodes lunged out of the way. Lauer and Oakes took their chance to dive in and grab Rhinehart by the arms, but Rhinehart¡¯s size and strength overpowered all three men.
Rhinehart swung his elbow, threw Oakes off, and fired his scourge gun, but he fired it into the wall. Rhinehart didn¡¯t try to shoot any of his comrades.
¡°RHINEHART!!¡± Rhodes bellowed. ¡°Look at me!¡±
¡°You son of a bitch!¡± Rhinehart made another dive¡ªfor open air. He tried to snatch something out of thin air.
¡°Interface with Rocky, Fisher!¡± Rhodes ordered.
¡°I can¡¯t!¡± Fisher called back. ¡°He¡¯s blocking me! He won¡¯t let anyone interface.¡±
¡°Something¡¯s wrong with the SAM.¡±
¡°YOU BASTARD!!¡± Rhinehart roared and tried to take another swing.
Rhodes thought he understood now. Rhinehart was trying to attack Rocky for some reason, but Rhodes couldn¡¯t see the SAM to figure out what the problem was.
Oakes and Lauer threw their weight against Rhinehart to restrain him. His struggles and theirs tipped all four men over. They landed hard on the floor trying to wrestle Rhinehart into submission.
His weapon went off again, but Lauer pinned Rhinehart¡¯s arm down. The shot skidded across the floor and hit Dietz¡¯s capsule instead. The shot didn¡¯t damage anyone.
The medical team charged in. ¡°What¡¯s going on?!¡± Dr. Irvine cried.
¡°Shut him down!¡± Rhodes snapped. ¡°His SAM is malfunctioning!¡±
The medical team surrounded Rhinehart. Rhodes, Lauer, and Oakes had to back off, but at that moment, another gunshot exploded across the room.
Rhodes barely had time to see where it came from before Henshaw¡¯s scourge gun went off pointing at her head.
She dove out of the way so fast she knocked herself over backward. Her other hand shot to her right wrist. She actually fought to push the gun away from her own head.
She screamed and that sound electrified everyone in the room. Rhodes rushed her, but Coulter and Fuentes got to her first.
Rhodes seized Henshaw¡¯s wrist. ¡°Stop, Georgie! Don¡¯t do this!¡±
¡°I¡¯m not doing anything!¡± she shrieked. ¡°He¡¯s trying to kill me!¡±
¡°WHO?!!¡± Rhodes yelled back.
¡°Koen!! My SAM is trying to kill me! I can¡¯t stop him!!¡±
Rhodes pounced on Henshaw¡¯s arm trying with all his might to drag her weapon away from her head. She used her left arm as best she could to help him, but the SAM controlled her mechanical right arm. It was too strong.
Rhodes strained his joints to the breaking point. Coulter and Fuentes grabbed Henshaw to pry her arm away, too.
They bent her elbow down one millimeter at a time until, without warning, the resistance holding her arm up gave way. Her arm unfolded under all that pressure.
Rhodes and the others had been pulling her hand away from her head with such force that her arm shot out at full length and the scourge gun went off right in Rhodes¡¯s face.
End of Chapter 34.
Battalion 1: Book 1: Chapter 36
Rhodes opened his eyes and groaned. He was lying in another capsule. It looked like the same capsule he¡¯d been lying in when he first woke up at Coleridge Station.
He was back in Dr. Neiland¡¯s lab, but she wasn¡¯t here. He didn¡¯t see anyone. He was all alone.
He felt like absolute shit¡ªa sure sign that he¡¯d been in a conversion cycle for a long time. That made sense if he got shot in the head.
Poor Georgie. He felt sorry for her. She probably blamed herself for this when it wasn¡¯t her fault at all.
Rhodes looked around. He didn¡¯t see Fisher anywhere. That was strange¡.or maybe Fisher was making himself scarce to give Rhodes time to wake up.
He collapsed back on the mattress fighting down the usual wave of nausea. He¡¯d become so reliant on Fisher these last few weeks.
What would Rhodes do if Fisher tried to kill him like that? Rhodes didn¡¯t want to believe Fisher would do anything like that. Fisher had only ever tried to help Rhodes.
Fisher wouldn¡¯t be able to stop himself. Any random malfunction might cause Fisher to snap. It happened time and again. How long would it take before the same thing happened to Fisher? What would Rhodes do then?
He didn¡¯t want to think about it. The thought made him shudder.
Now he had to deal with this whole glorious disaster. Oakes. Rhinehart. Henshaw. Fuentes. Coulter. Thackery. Lauer. None of them got off without some catastrophic problem.
The only person on that list who hadn¡¯t suffered some meltdown was Lauer, but he would. It was only a matter of time.
Rhodes knew that now. These implants didn¡¯t have to malfunction. Their very existence conflicted too deeply with the battalion¡¯s humanity. No one could go through this without suffering some life-changing problems.
The malfunctions were just the icing on the cake. They were the symptom. The implants themselves were the disease. The only cure was death.
In a way, General Brewster shutting down the project would be a blessing in disguise. Rhodes actually looked forward to the day.
He made up his mind right then and there. The threat of Brewster shutting down the project would never make any decisions for Rhodes ever again. He would never let anyone hold that threat over his head.
If Brewster decided this project was too dangerous and too problematic, if he decided to shut it down along with everyone in it, so be it. He sure as hell wouldn¡¯t get any argument from Rhodes.
Rhodes finally pried his limp carcass off the mattress and sat up. Rhinehart lay in another capsule nearby. Henshaw lay in another farther down the floor.
Rhodes didn¡¯t see Dietz or Thackery anymore. Were they out of the lab now?
Just then, Fisher expanded himself from the corner of Rhodes¡¯s vision. Fisher must have made himself small to hide from Rhodes. ¡°How are you feeling, Captain?¡± Fisher asked.
¡°Awful,¡± Rhodes grumbled. ¡°How long have I been in here?¡±
¡°About a month. Rhinehart and Henshaw have been in here the whole time, too. No one wants to reactivate them until someone figures out what went wrong with their SAMs.¡±
Rhodes snorted, but he did it quietly to himself. Something went wrong with their SAMs, all right. Something was always bound to go wrong with their SAMs.
¡°I¡¯ve been thinking about how to correct their malfunctions,¡± Fisher went on.
¡°What have you come up with?¡± Rhodes asked.
¡°Well¡.nothing yet¡ªbut I¡¯ve been thinking we might be able to correct it if we interface with them.¡±
¡°Good luck, pal,¡± Rhodes muttered. ¡°You would be as likely to get infected with whatever is wrong with them.¡±
¡°Then Rhinehart and Henshaw will be taken offline. We can¡¯t let that happen.¡±
¡°What would you do if you could interface with them?¡± Rhodes asked. ¡°What could you do? What could any of us do?¡±
¡°I don¡¯t know. Maybe something happened that reset Rocky back to the way he was when he first came online. Maybe that¡¯s why Rhinehart lost it and tried to kill him.¡±
Rhodes looked down at his hands. ¡°I don¡¯t see what¡¯s so bad about the way Rocky was back then. He looked like a regular SAM. There was nothing about him that would trigger Rhinehart.¡±
¡°Nothing we could see. Maybe the SAM had some feature that set off a stress response in Rhinehart. Maybe the two things are related somehow.¡±
¡°Assuming you¡¯re right and assuming we could interface with Rhinehart and Rocky and assuming we could convince Rocky to turn back into a Khikvid, what would stop this from happening again sometime in the future? Any malfunction or battlefield injury could make Rocky switch back. The way he was might be his default voice and appearance. He did say at first that he couldn¡¯t change. He might switch back without warning. Then we¡¯d all be in exactly the same situation with Rhinehart trying to kill his own SAM.¡±
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¡°What other option is there?¡± Fisher asked.
Rhodes glanced across the lab at Rhinehart asleep in his capsule. He actually looked peaceful like this. His blonde hair, boyish features, and oversized body looked almost angelic.
Maybe it would be better to shut Rhinehart down right now. He never had to wake up and deal with this shit ever again.
Rhodes shook those thoughts out of his head. He already ordered the whole battalion not to think or talk that way about each other.
Rhodes couldn¡¯t start thinking about putting down his subordinates. He could fantasize all he liked about putting himself down, but not them. He owed them better.
¡°So what¡¯s your plan on how to deal with Koen?¡± Rhodes asked.
¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± Fisher murmured. ¡°I don¡¯t know what¡¯s wrong with Koen.¡±
¡°I don¡¯t see any explanation for anything that goes wrong with any of us,¡± Rhodes muttered. ¡°Besides everything.¡±
¡°I¡¯m beginning to agree with you Captain,¡± Fisher murmured. ¡°Perhaps it would be better if the battalion never went back into battle.¡±
Just then, the door opened and Dr. Irvine came into the lab. Rhodes stiffened for a second. He relaxed when he saw that it was neither Dr. Neiland nor Dr. Montague.
Rhodes didn¡¯t trust Irvine any further than he could throw him, but anyone would be better than Neiland.
¡°How are you feeling, Captain?¡± Dr. Irvine asked. ¡°I¡¯ll just take some readings on your implants to make sure they¡¯re functioning correctly.¡±
¡°They seem to be,¡± Rhodes replied.
Dr. Irvine raised his eyebrows over his device. ¡°And your SAM? Is he functioning correctly, too?¡±
¡°He seems to be. He doesn¡¯t seem like he¡¯s changed.¡±
¡°Does he look the same¡ªno appearance changes?¡±
Rhodes studied Fisher¡¯s face. ¡°No, he looks the same.¡±
¡°That¡¯s excellent. You should be clear for release as soon as you feel strong enough to stand up and walk back to the barracks.¡±
¡°What about Rhinehart and Henshaw?¡± Rhodes asked. ¡°How long do you plan to keep them in here?¡±
Dr. Irvine shrugged. ¡°We have no way of correcting whatever malfunctions caused this latest incident.¡±
¡°Why can¡¯t you just readjust our behavioral protocol back to the way it was?¡± Rhodes asked. ¡°That should solve the problem.¡±
¡°We already did. We adjusted it while you were asleep.¡± Dr. Irvine bent in to study Rhodes. ¡°Do you feel different than you did after the adjustment?¡±
Rhodes thought about it. ¡°I guess I do. I guess I feel calmer¡ªand the memories aren¡¯t there anymore. I mean, they aren¡¯t as invasive as they were. I can still remember everything, but they don¡¯t bother me the way they did after the adjustment.¡±
¡°That¡¯s excellent. Then you¡¯re free to go.¡±
¡°What about Rhinehart and Henshaw? They should be free to go, too. Why aren¡¯t you waking them up?¡±
¡°Their SAMs malfunctioning had nothing to do with the behavioral protocol¡.¡±
¡°Of course it did! Everyone in the whole battalion went nuts after that adjustment. The incident with Dietz and Thackery happened because of the adjustment.¡±
¡°This was different. Rhinehart threatened his SAM before the adjustment, so it couldn¡¯t have caused him to threaten it again now.¡±
¡°Are you sure about that? Maybe he had a malfunction then that didn¡¯t get resolved. Maybe he only coped with it because his SAM looked and sounded different. Then, when the SAM returned to its original appearance, it triggered the malfunction again.¡±
¡°We aren¡¯t detecting any malfunction in him or his SAM. Henshaw, on the other hand¡ªher SAM definitely malfunctioned and that had nothing to do with the behavioral protocol. Her behavioral protocol doesn¡¯t affect her SAM at all.¡±
¡°So you don¡¯t know why Keon tried to kill her¡ªor me?¡±
¡°We have no idea. We¡¯ve searched his programming and we can¡¯t find anything wrong with that, either.¡±
Rhodes compressed his lips to stop himself from saying what he really thought. These doctors and technicians obviously didn¡¯t know what the hell they were doing.
They were playing with fire, but it was actually worse than that. They were playing with loaded guns. The doctors and officers were just too stupid and arrogant to realize that¡¯s what they were doing.
Rhodes wasn¡¯t getting anything done in here. He stood up and headed back to the barracks.
¡°I still think we can correct them by interfacing with them,¡± Fisher murmured in Rhodes¡¯s ear on the way there.
¡°But we would have to wake up Rhinehart and Henshaw in order to interface with them,¡± Rhodes pointed out.
¡°True,¡± Fisher replied.
¡°Which means we¡¯d need authorization from someone higher up the chain of command to release Rhinehart and Henshaw to us. Is it really worth that? What if someone else gets hurt¡ªor killed?¡±
Fisher didn¡¯t get a chance to answer before Rhodes walked into the barracks. Dietz and Thackery were there.
It threw the whole battalion into another confusion or readjustment. Dietz and Thackery were back. Rhinehart and Henshaw were both still gone.
Rhodes didn¡¯t say much to either Dietz or Thackery. Rhodes made up his mind to let Dietz show himself one way or the other.
If he really was a violent, dangerous murderer in disguise, he would reveal his true colors sooner or later.
Maybe this last conversion cycle changed him. Maybe getting his behavioral protocol adjusted back to something closer to normal would make Dietz a productive member of the battalion now. Rhodes could only hope.
He decided to give Dietz a chance. Rhodes had to put up with Dietz one way or the other. If Dietz proved himself, who was Rhodes to argue?
Rhodes had to rework his whole concept of reality when it came to dealing with Thackery. Getting shot in the head definitely changed her.
She¡¯d always acted so bouncy and delighted by the whole Battalion 1 project. She said at first that she should have signed up for this. She might even have paid for it.
Now she sat hunched at the table glaring at everyone. She curled her lip in disgust at the sight of her comrades. She even glared at Fuentes.
She kept gulping every few seconds and scraping her facial implants across her shoulder like they irritated her.
She looked and acted exactly the way Rhodes and the others had been looking and acting all this time. She didn¡¯t get it until now.
Rhodes hesitated to go over to her, but he couldn¡¯t just ignore her. He stopped by the table. ¡°How are you doing, Alyssa?¡±
She dragged her one good eye up to meet his. Her expression turned even more horrifically disgusted when she looked at him. ¡°I tried to kill Georgie,¡± she husked.
¡°You didn¡¯t try to kill her¡ªand you didn¡¯t kill her. You got mad at each other¡ªand she feels the same way about you getting shot. She can¡¯t get over the guilt that she was fighting with you before you got shot.¡±
She cast another revolted glance around the barracks. ¡°This¡..this is a nightmare.¡±
Rhodes sighed. ¡°Yes, it is.¡±
She gulped again. ¡°My father¡..I didn¡¯t remember him until¡..He died when I was little. I forgot all about him. Now I can¡¯t get him out of my mind¡..¡±
¡°The behavioral protocol adjustment did the same thing to all of us.¡±
¡°I¡¯ll never¡.I¡¯ll never be able to leave here¡..I¡¯ll never have a normal life.¡± Her eyes skipped around the room a little faster. ¡°I didn¡¯t realize¡.I didn¡¯t think it would be like this¡..¡± She panted faster in rising agitation. ¡°I gotta get out of here¡.I can¡¯t be like this¡..¡±
He swiveled around the table and rested his hand on her shoulder. She immediately jerked away and snarled at him.
¡°We¡¯re all going through the same thing,¡± he murmured. ¡°We¡¯re all struggling to come to terms with this.¡±
She snorted, but she didn¡¯t look at him. She kept glaring at everyone and gulping down disgust at the sight of her comrades.
Rhodes backed away and went over to his capsule. He couldn¡¯t help her. He couldn¡¯t help any of them. He couldn¡¯t even help himself.
The doctors had adjusted the behavioral protocol back to the way it was, but at what cost?
End of Chapter 36.
Battalion 1: Book 1: Chapter 36
Colonel Kraft strolled into the barracks and looked around before he spotted Rhodes sitting at the table with Dietz, Lauer, and Coulter.
Fuentes sat at the computer terminal doing something. He worked on it all the time now.
Oakes spent a lot of time by himself these days. He spent most of every day either walking around the station or just sitting in isolated spots away from everyone.
Thackery sat at the other table. She kept as far away from everyone as she possibly could without ever actually leaving the barracks.
She glared and wrinkled her nose and lip at her comrades as much as ever, but she glared and wrinkled her nose at the surroundings just as much.
She kept scraping her face across her shoulder and grimacing when the metal scratched against metal.
Rhodes and the others cut her a wide berth. None of them tried to talk to her and she never initiated any conversation.
Rhodes, Lauer, Dietz, and Coulter no longer played The Ship, The Captain, and The Crew. That kind of light-hearted entertainment no longer seemed to fit what this battalion was all about.
They talked about other subjects when they talked at all. They talked about life in the Legion, campaigns they¡¯d been on, people they knew, and different jobs, ranks, and posts they¡¯d held in different parts of the Treaty of Aemon Cluster.
Their conversation occasionally ranged to their lives and families back on Preinea, but not often.
The battalion members spent most of their time interfacing with each other¡¯s SAMs. The SAMs shared their conversation. No one in the battalion hid anything from each other or the other SAMs anymore.
Even Thackery interfaced between Koenig and the other SAMs. She listened to every word they said to each other.
No one wanted to take the chance that one of the SAMs might malfunction without anyone realizing it.
If a SAM malfunctioned¡ªor if a person malfunctioned¡ªeveryone wanted to know about it right away with no delay because they hadn¡¯t been interfacing at the time.
Even Oakes stayed interfaced with the others even while he was out of the room. He let the others keep track of where he was and what he was doing.
He even let them listen in on his conversations with Dash just to make sure everything was working the way it should.
Dietz sat with Rhodes, Lauer, and Coulter. Dietz joined in their conversation, but not as much as he used to. He had become much quieter and more reserved.
Rhodes didn¡¯t understand why, but Dietz never did anything to cause concern. Rhodes sensed the rest of the battalion keeping as close an eye on Dietz as Rhodes did. They would have pounced on him if he so much as cracked a grin at the wrong time.
He didn¡¯t. Either he really knew how to behave or he must have changed. Rhodes couldn¡¯t tell which it was, but his decision to give Dietz a chance seemed to be paying off¡ªfor now.
Rhodes never let his guard down around Dietz. Their interface gave Rhodes a bird¡¯s-eye view straight inside Dietz¡¯s head.
Rhodes watched Dietz like a hawk. The whole battalion kept Zen under a microscope to make sure he didn¡¯t feed Dietz any more wacky ideas.
Colonel Kraft took in the scene with one glance and wandered over to the table. He was the first member of the Coleridge Station staff to set foot in the barracks since Rhodes got shot.
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¡°I¡¯d like a word with you, Captain, if you don¡¯t mind,¡± Kraft began.
Rhodes didn¡¯t look up. ¡°Whatever you have to say to me, you can say in front of these people. I¡¯m sure whatever you have to say affects them as much as it affects me.¡±
Kraft compressed his lips for an instant and then blurted out, ¡°All right. If that¡¯s the way you want it, I have an idea about how to correct the malfunctions in Rhinehart¡¯s and Henshaw¡¯s SAMs.¡±
Now Rhodes really did look up. ¡°You do? What¡¯s your idea?¡±
¡°We¡¯ll need you and your SAMs to interface between them,¡± Kraft replied. ¡°You and the other SAMs will be able to detect any malfunction. If you can¡¯t, you¡¯ll be able to see whether the SAMs are functioning correctly. You all know these SAMs better than we do¡ªbetter than the doctors do.¡±
¡°What did I tell you?!¡± Fisher crowed. ¡°You see? I¡¯m not crazy after all.¡±
¡°We would need to wake up Rhinehart and Henshaw for that,¡± Rhodes told Kraft. ¡°Are you prepared to take that risk?¡±
¡°The brass doesn¡¯t want to, but I think it will be worth it if we can get Rhinehart and Henshaw back. The only alternative is to leave them offline indefinitely. None of us wants that. I mean, if it doesn¡¯t work, we¡¯ll have to take them offline anyway. Then we won¡¯t have lost anything. We have nothing to lose at this point. That¡¯s the way I see it.¡±
¡°I told you so!¡± Fisher exclaimed again.
¡°You can stop saying that now,¡± Wild rasped. ¡°We heard you the first time.¡±
¡°So¡.do you have authorization from General Brewster to wake up Rhinehart and Henshaw?¡± Rhodes asked Kraft.
¡°Yes, I have it. I just needed to make sure all of you were on board. I mean¡..if anything goes wrong, Rhinehart and Henshaw could malfunction again. They could¡.you know¡..try to kill one of you again.¡±
Rhodes glanced around the circle of faces. Fuentes wasn¡¯t working on the terminal anymore. He looked up and listened to the conversation. So did Thackery.
Rhodes checked the interface with Oakes. He was back at the loading dock, but he listened to the conversation with Kraft.
¡°I¡¯m in,¡± he told Rhodes. ¡°It will be worth it if we can get Rhinehart and Henshaw back. We stopped them once before. We can stop them again.¡±
Rhodes looked up at Kraft. ¡°All right. We¡¯ll do it.¡±
¡°Don¡¯t you need to discuss it amongst yourselves first?¡± Kraft asked.
¡°We just did. When do you want to wake them up?¡±
Kraft blinked at him and then shrugged it off. ¡°As soon as possible¡ªmaybe this afternoon if you aren¡¯t too busy.¡±
¡°We aren¡¯t busy. Just tell us when you want us to be there and we¡¯ll be there.¡±
¡°Uh¡.okay. How about three o¡¯clock this afternoon?¡± Kraft asked.
Rhodes nodded. ¡°That sounds good. We¡¯ll be there.¡±
No one said anything until he left. Oakes stood up from the loading dock and started walking back to the barracks. He walked faster than he usually did.
¡°Rhinehart and Henshaw better not try to kill anybody again,¡± Murphy growled.
¡°If I¡¯m right about Rocky malfunctioning and switching back to his original appearance, then that should be easy to correct,¡± Fisher pointed out.
¡°Maybe we can get the technicians to reprogram the SAM¡¯s appearance before we wake up Rhinehart,¡± Coulter suggested.
¡°That leaves Koen,¡± Rhodes added. ¡°If he really has turned into a murderous freak, we might not be able to do anything about him. He¡¯ll just keep trying to kill Georgie until he succeeds.¡±
¡°Then what will we do?¡± Coulter asked.
Rhodes shrugged. ¡°I don¡¯t see that we¡¯ll be able to do anything. We can¡¯t leave her in a conversion cycle for the rest of forever. It would be better to take her offline.¡±
¡°I can¡¯t believe we¡¯re even talking about this,¡± Murphy husked. ¡°I can¡¯t think of taking anyone offline.¡±
¡°I guess we¡¯re about to find out,¡± Rhodes replied.
Just then, Oakes came back. The group talked about Rhinehart and Henshaw until it was time to go down to the lab.
Colonel Kraft met them there and everyone gathered around the two capsules. Rhinehart and Henshaw hadn¡¯t moved since Rhodes woke up.
Dr. Irvine attended them. Rhodes didn¡¯t trust the other two doctors. He¡¯d already made up his mind never to let Dr. Neiland lay a finger on him ever again.
¡°Can you change Rocky¡¯s appearance?¡± Rhodes asked Irvine.
Irvine frowned. ¡°How do you mean?¡±
¡°Change his programming so he looks different. Make him look like a Khikvid¡ªand change his voice. Make it softer, lower, and less echoing.¡±
Irvine scowled over his computer equipment. ¡°It isn¡¯t protocol to tamper with a SAM¡¯s unique identity. They¡¯re sentient beings. They have a right to determine their own appearance and presentation.¡±
¡°Not if their presentation puts us in danger,¡± Oakes pointed out.
¡°What makes you think Rocky¡¯s presentation is putting Rhinehart in danger?¡± Irvine asked.
¡°Both times Rhinehart threatened Rocky were when Rocky was using his original voice and appearance. Rocky and Rhinehart were fine after Rocky changed the way he looked and sounded. Just try it¡ªplease. I¡¯m sure Rocky wouldn¡¯t want anything as superficial as that to put Rhinehart at risk.¡±
Irvine shrugged and worked on his equipment for a while. ¡°Okay. I changed it.¡±
¡°Now make both SAMs as small as possible. Program them not to speak until we give the word. Let Rhinehart and Henshaw wake up first before they see their SAMs.¡±
¡°Aren¡¯t you supposed to interface with them?¡± Kraft asked.
¡°We don¡¯t want to interface with them before Rhinehart and Henshaw wake up.¡± Rhodes nodded to the doctor. ¡°You can wake them up now.¡±
End of Chapter 36.
Battalion 1: Book 1: Chapter 37
Dr. Irvine passed back and forth between two capsules, tapped on the controls, and both covers opened. Rhinehart and Henshaw took a long time to come to their senses.
Rhodes and his people stood in silence while Rhinehart opened his eyes. The battalion interfaced with him, but none of them could see Rocky. He kept himself small and silent.
Rhinehart groaned and his hand drifted to his head. He squinted trying to see through his puffy eyelid.
Rhodes went over to his bed. ¡°How do you feel, Lieutenant?¡±
¡°Captain¡.¡± Rhinehart croaked. ¡°What happened?¡±
¡°Rocky malfunctioned. You¡¯ve been offline while we try to figure out how to correct the problem.¡±
¡°I don¡¯t¡¡I don¡¯t remember anything¡..¡±
¡°You don¡¯t remember what you were doing right before you woke up here? Do you remember anything that happened in the barracks?¡±
¡°No. What happened in the barracks?¡±
¡°What¡¯s the last thing you remember about talking to Rocky?¡± Rhodes asked.
Rhinehart frowned, shut his eyes, and then scowled at the lab around him. ¡°I remember¡.I was sitting on the edge of my capsule about to go to sleep. I was talking to Rocky¡..and then I wound up here.¡±
¡°Rocky is making himself small and silent right now. We¡¯re going to interface with you and make him big, okay? Then we¡¯ll see if he¡¯s functioning correctly. Are you ready for that?¡±
Rhinehart sank back into his mattress. ¡°Sure. Do whatever you have to do.¡±
¡°At least Rhinehart will be too weak to attack anyone if he has a problem,¡± Murphy growled from the side.
Rhodes, Lauer, Oakes, Dietz, Fuentes, and Thackery all entered the interface. All their SAMs watched, too.
¡°You can make yourself big again, Rocky,¡± Rhodes ordered. ¡°Let Rhinehart see you.¡±
Rocky expanded. He didn¡¯t look like a Khikvid anymore. He was back to looking like a horse. ¡°Here I am,¡± he announced in his higher, softer voice. ¡°It¡¯s good to see you again, Dane.¡±
¡°Hey, pal,¡± Rhinehart husked. ¡°How you doing?¡±
¡°I¡¯m doing well, but it¡¯s good to be back. We¡¯ve been offline for a long time.¡±
Rhodes didn¡¯t see anything wrong with their interaction. Could the problem be so simple to correct just by changing Rocky¡¯s appearance?
Only time would tell. Rhodes turned to Henshaw. She took longer to wake up. She moaned with her eyes closed.
Rhodes and the others interfaced with her, but Rhodes didn¡¯t see Koen. Rhodes didn¡¯t even see a pinprick that might have been Keon hiding from everyone.
¡°Where is he?¡± Murphy asked.
¡°He doesn¡¯t want to face us after trying to kill Henshaw,¡± Wild muttered.
¡°He must be here somewhere.¡± Rhodes turned to Dr. Irvine. ¡°Can you make Keon bigger so we can see him?¡±
Dr. Irvine scowled at his equipment. ¡°According to my readings, Keon is already as big as he can get. He should be covering the whole Grid right now.¡±
Rhodes looked around at nothing. ¡°Am I missing something?¡±
Henshaw stretched on the mattress again. She started to raise her hand toward her head.
He didn¡¯t see anything out of the ordinary until Henshaw¡¯s SAM started to expand. It hovered to one side of her head and got bigger¡.and bigger.
Rhodes stared at the image. It wasn¡¯t Koen¡¯s chubby panda face. This one was a hard starburst of crystalline shards jutting outward from cold, mean eyes. Glass shards made up the SAM¡¯s tight, hard lips.
¡°Who the hell are you?¡± Rhodes gasped.
¡°Legacy,¡± the SAM growled in a low, deadly snarl. ¡°And you are Captain Corban Rhodes. I thought I killed you.¡±
Rhodes opened his mouth to say that, no, Legacy didn¡¯t kill Rhodes, but at that moment. Rhodes caught a flash of movement in the corner of his eye.
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Henshaw raised her arm to touch her head and face. She still didn¡¯t open her eyes.
Rhodes didn¡¯t think anything of that movement at first. He¡¯d seen countless people do that when they first came out of conversion cycles, especially long ones.
His stunned surprise at seeing a different SAM in Henshaw¡¯s interface distracted Rhodes for a split second.
Then he realized she wasn¡¯t raising her hand to her head to rub her eyes or run her fingers through her hair. She raised her arm to aim her scourge gun at her own face.
Lauer and Oakes both realized the same thing at the same time. ¡°Captain¡ªlook out!¡± they both yelled.
Rhodes spun around. He was the closest to Henshaw.
He dove on top of her arm and forced it down on the bed. Her long conversion cycle made her weak enough for him to restrain her easily.
¡°Shut her down!¡± he yelled to Dr. Irvine. ¡°Take her offline¡ªNOW!!¡±
Irvine pounced on his controls and scrambled through a rapid flurry of button pressing. Henshaw went limp and Legacy disappeared.
Rhodes slumped there breathing hard. ¡°Jesus!¡±
¡°What the hell was that?¡± Coulter stammered.
¡°Legacy must have replaced Keon somehow. The SAMs got switched.¡± Rhodes turned to Dr. Irvine. ¡°You have to take Legacy offline and replace him with Koen.¡±
¡°I can¡¯t! Uninstalling a SAM would kill her.¡±
¡°Then how did Legacy do it?¡± Oakes asked. ¡°He must have switched them somehow¡ªwhich means he took Keon offline and replaced Keon with himself. You should be able to do the same thing.¡±
Dr. Irvine shook his head over his components. ¡°I don¡¯t even know if we have Keon online anywhere anymore. He might be gone.¡±
¡°Then you¡¯ll have to install another SAM for Georgie,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°You have to find a way to permanently deactivate Legacy. He¡¯ll kill anyone you install him in.¡±
¡°Give me some time,¡± Dr. Irvine exclaimed. ¡°I¡¯ve never done this before.¡±
Rhodes stared down at Henshaw. It couldn¡¯t be as hopeless as this. She got along so well with Koen. How did this happen?
In that silence, he heard Rhinehart talking to Rocky. They talked easily to each other and Rhinehart laughed at something Rocky said.
Rhodes turned around to look at them. Rhinehart sat on the edge of the bed. He was still smiling from whatever Rocky just said.
¡°Do you feel okay, Lieutenant?¡± Rhodes asked.
¡°Yes, Sir. I feel fine¡ªjust still a little weak.¡±
¡°You¡¯ll be all right. Your strength will come back.¡± Rhodes got serious when he turned to the SAM. ¡°Do you remember what happened, Rocky? Do you remember how you and Rhinehart got here?¡±
¡°No, Captain. I don¡¯t remember anything except¡.Rhinehart was sitting on his capsule like he said. He was getting ready to go to sleep.¡±
¡°Do you remember how it was when you first came online? Do you remember how much Rhinehart hated you because of the way you looked and sounded?¡±
The horse head tilted to one side and its eyebrows furrowed. ¡°I don¡¯t remember that, Captain. Rhinehart and I always liked each other.¡±
¡°So you don¡¯t remember Rhinehart threatening you?¡±
Rocky¡¯s eyes shot open. ¡°He did what?¡±
¡°He didn¡¯t like the way you looked. You caused some kind of stress response in him. He only started liking you when you changed your appearance.¡±
Rocky made a slight sneering expression. ¡°I¡¯m sure I would remember that, Captain.¡±
¡°My point is that your original appearance caused him problems. I want to make sure you don¡¯t revert back to your old default appearance if something goes wrong.¡±
¡°This is my original default appearance, Captain. I don¡¯t have any other appearance I could default to.¡±
Rhodes dropped the subject and turned back to Henshaw. She was still unconscious. ¡°What¡¯s the story?¡± he asked Irvine.
¡°I found Koen¡¯s original activation programming. I just have to isolate Legacy¡¯s so I can make the switch.
¡°It can¡¯t be this easy,¡± Wild muttered.
¡°As soon as you make the switch, I want you to delete Legacy¡¯s program¡ªpermanently,¡± Rhodes told Irvine.
Irvine only nodded. He didn¡¯t act like Rhodes giving orders was anything out of the ordinary. ¡°I will delete it. We can¡¯t risk it infecting someone else.¡±
¡°Can I go back to the barracks, Sir?¡± Rhinehart asked. ¡°I need to lie down.¡±
¡°Sure, Lieutenant. You go with him, Coulter.¡±
¡°Yes, Sir,¡± Coulter replied and he and Rhinehart left.
Rhodes didn¡¯t like seeing his battalion getting smaller and smaller. He had to get Henshaw back.
Some computer program either shooting her in the head with her own weapons or causing her to be taken permanently offline¡ªhe couldn¡¯t accept either of those outcomes.
Rhodes and the others stood around waiting for another half hour before Irvine finally said, ¡°Okay, I¡¯m ready to make the switch. If it works, she should be back to her old self. If it doesn¡¯t, she¡¯ll be dead.¡±
¡°Do it,¡± Rhodes ordered.
Irvine tapped his components some more and then approached the capsule to wake up Henshaw. She went through the same groaning process.
Rhodes kept a close eye on her to make sure she didn¡¯t point her weapon at anyone.
She eventually opened her eye and her vision swam back into focus when she saw Rhodes. ¡°Captain¡..you¡¯re okay!¡±
¡°I¡¯m okay, Georgie. We figured out what went wrong with Koen.¡±
Her face drained of all color and she looked around. ¡°Where is he?¡±
¡°He wasn¡¯t the one who tried to kill you. Another SAM removed Keon and replaced him. This other SAM was the one who tried to kill you, but we switched them back. The rest of the battalion and I are interfacing with you. We¡¯ll be with you when Dr. Irvine brings Keon online. Are you ready for that?¡±
She glanced the other way and nodded, but she didn¡¯t look ready.
Rhodes dipped his chin at Irvine and Irvine did something on his machines. A collection of grid lines appeared in front of Henshaw and went through the usual series of shapes.
It eventually took the shape of a panda. Black and white fur appeared between the grid lines.
¡°Keon!¡± she exclaimed. ¡°You¡¯re back.¡±
Keon looked around and saw Rhodes, Fisher, Lauer, Wild, Fuentes, Van, Thackery, Koenig, Dietz, Zen, Oakes, and Dash all staring at him. ¡°Was I gone?¡±
¡°You were offline, but you¡¯re back now,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°How do you feel, Koen? What¡¯s the last thing you remember?¡±
Keon frowned. ¡°I remember¡.we disembarked from the Ero¡..and Dr. Neiland told us we had to come to the lab for testing. Henshaw sat down on the stool and the technician did something to her head. She started to get really angry¡.and that¡¯s the last thing I remember until right now.¡±
¡°That¡¯s when it must have happened. Legacy must have switched places during the behavioral protocol adjustment.¡±
¡°What¡¯s Legacy?¡± Henshaw asked.
¡°Never mind. We can leave as soon as you¡¯re ready to come back to the barracks.¡±
¡°I¡¯m ready now.¡± She grimaced at the lab. ¡°I can get my strength back in the barracks. This place gives me the creeps.¡±
End of Chapter 37.
Battalion 1: Book 1: Chapter 38
Rhodes glanced around at his people¡ªhis battalion. Oakes, Lauer, Rhinehart, Fuentes, Henshaw, Dietz, Thackery, and Coulter.
They had become bonded through hardship and shared pain. They knew each other and each other¡¯s SAMs as intimately as they¡¯d ever known anyone.
Rhodes no longer doubted any of these people. Their recovery had been long and painful, but they got through it by supporting each other.
¡°Is everybody ready?¡± he asked. ¡°It¡¯s go time.¡±
¡°Ready,¡± Henshaw replied.
Her eyes sparkled and a slight smile threatened to break out on her lips.
Thackery didn¡¯t bounce around anymore. She tightened her mouth in grim determination. All her exuberant enthusiasm had evaporated in the last few weeks.
She had become as hard and serious as everyone else in this battalion, but that somehow made her so much more trustworthy and reliable.
Rhodes checked each person and each SAM. This would be their first training session since their malfunctions.
If this worked, the battalion would go back into combat. If it didn¡¯t¡¡no one talked about what would happen if it didn¡¯t.
¡°Let¡¯s go,¡± Rhodes ordered and all nine dropped into The Grid.
The world went dark. Rhodes didn¡¯t understand at first what he was seeing¡ªor not seeing.
Then an explosion flashed in the darkness. It lit up the landscape for one instant and his blood ran cold when he realized where he was.
Mounds of torn metal and debris covered the area. Explosions burst on the horizon and then a bone-crushing boom rocked the night.
A torrential fireball of burning gas erupted directly overhead as a Legion Ravager burst into flame.
At the same instant, lasers spurted from somewhere across the shadowy terrain. The Ravager gave a deep thump, groaned on its side, and detonated with an almighty ka-boom.
That outward flare of fire cast a brilliant glow across the devastated landscape. In that moment, Rhodes saw hundreds of Emal swarming over mounds of trash and debris.
They fired lasers at a long flank of Legion soldiers hunkered behind the rubble piles. He was back on Luluna.
A Legion platoon captain Rhodes didn¡¯t know reared up on his knees and yelled down the line, ¡°Move out to the east! Move out! Get out of the line!¡±
He waved his men forward and they all started inching eastward. Rhodes couldn¡¯t see where they were going. It didn¡¯t matter.
¡°What¡¯s the objective?¡± Coulter asked through their interface.
¡°There¡¯s a Ravager on the ground four miles behind the Emal line,¡± Wild replied. ¡°The crew is barely holding the enemy at bay. We have to rescue the crew, bring them back here, and get them on board another Ravager that will take them off the planet to safety.¡±
¡°Beautiful,¡± Lauer growled. ¡°Coulter and I will pull the same laser lawnmower we used on Ohait.¡±
¡°We can¡¯t do that,¡± Rhodes countered. ¡°Emal lasers brought us down last time. You would make too obvious a target. We need to stay small and low to the ground¡ªsomewhere the Emal won¡¯t see us.¡±
¡°How do we do that?¡± Henshaw asked. ¡°They would always notice something.¡±
¡°Not if they don¡¯t realize we¡¯re trying to attack them. I say we use something like the whips we used in the plasma vein. We separate, snake along the ground between the alien¡¯s feet, and work our way back through the ranks to the Ravager. The Emal won¡¯t see us, or if they do, they won¡¯t know we¡¯re with the Legion.¡±
¡°We can cut them off at the ankles,¡± Dietz suggested.
Rhodes snapped alert with a jolt. This was the first hint of Dietz¡¯s old self coming back to haunt the battalion.
¡°I just said this plan hinges on the Emal not noticing us,¡± Rhodes snapped. ¡°If you do anything that draws attention to us¡..¡±
¡°I was just joking, Sir,¡± Dietz murmured.
Rhodes glared at him, but they didn¡¯t have time to discuss it further. The aliens crawled over another mountain of trash nearby and hammered the battalion¡¯s position.
Everyone ducked. The enemy surrounded the hill with dozens of guns.
¡°We gotta go now!¡± Rhodes yelled. ¡°Remember what I said! Stay low and stay out of sight. Keep on the ground and don¡¯t draw attention to yourselves. Use The Grid to locate the downed ship. We¡¯ll converge there and work out a way to lift off the crew.¡±
Oakes said, ¡°Yes, Sir.¡±
Rhodes didn¡¯t wait any longer. He shrank his grid lines to a thin filament, dropped to the ground, and took off slithering straight for the Emal line,
The aliens bombarded the hill, but the battalion wasn¡¯t there anymore. Legion soldiers fired from covered spots. Their Jackhammers flared and gave the aliens something to target in the darkness.
Fisher brought up The Grid of the area, but Rhodes already knew the place too well. ¡°The downed crew has enough power to keep their fusion charges and Vipers working. That¡¯s it,¡± Fisher reported.
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¡°Just show me how far out we are.¡±
Rhodes concentrated on winding his way through countless Emal legs, feet, and ankles. Each alien had multiple legs. The creatures crowded the terrain for miles to the rear.
Thick swarms of aliens surrounded the downed Ravager. The aliens attacked the ship with laser rifles and carved into its hull.
The crew fired into the horde and slaughtered dozens of aliens with every shot, but the crew couldn¡¯t defend the ship against so many. The Emal just moved in and replaced their fallen comrades with more laser-armed aliens.
Another explosion went off somewhere to Rhodes¡¯s left. He checked all his people and interfaced with their SAMs. He could monitor their progress through The Grid.
They made it to the halfway mark. The Emal numbers thinned here, but they got thicker when the battalion closed on the Ravager.
Rhodes¡¯s attention narrowed to the spot on The Grid where his own body snaked closer to the objective. Just one more mile.
¡°How do you want to lift off the crew?¡± Fisher asked.
¡°I guess we can always change into ships and fly the crew out of the¡..¡±
Rhodes broke off when a flash of light caught his eye coming from the left again, but this was no explosion.
His fury started to rise when he saw a long, thin whip of laser light snapping in the darkness. It looped around the Emal¡¯s ankles, brought them to the ground, and then went to work cutting the aliens to pieces.
More aliens tried to get away at the same time that they tried to rush to the spot to attack the thing. They couldn¡¯t figure out what it was.
The whip cracked here and there bringing down one Emal after another. All the Emal spun around to face the whip, but they couldn¡¯t get near it with so many bodies in their path.
Their fallen comrades created an impassable barrier to stop them from interfering. The whip cleared a space of dead Emal around itself, landed on the ground, and shot away toward the fallen Ravager.
¡°Son of a bitch!¡± Rhodes snapped. ¡°Everyone converge on the Ravager now. Hurry! Leave it, Rhinehart!¡±
Rhinehart had veered toward the laser whip to help out. He broke off at Rhodes¡¯s word and the rest of the battalion rocketed away to the ship.
¡°Coulter¡ªLauer!¡± Rhodes ordered. ¡°Cut your lawnmower around the ship and clear some space. The rest of you converge and form a vessel big enough to evacuate the crew. Rhinehart¡ªyou stay with me to defend them!¡±
¡°Yes, Sir,¡± Rhinehart replied.
Rhodes blasted out of the mayhem, used his grid lines to change himself into Rio, and took off at high speed toward the Ravager.
All the aliens surrounding him jumped and then swung their laser rifles to bombard him, but the battalion got the jump on them.
Coulter and Lauer joined their lasers together, zoomed around the Ravager, and carved a path to flatten the aliens. Rhodes and Rhinehart soared around the ship plastering the enemy with scourge gunfire to drive the surviving Emal farther back.
Henshaw, Fuentes, Oakes, and Thackery bombed into the circle and slammed down on the ground in a pile. Their grid lines merged and they changed themselves into a modular transport vessel.
¡°Get the crew out, Fisher!¡± Rhodes ordered. ¡°Get them on board now!¡±
Fisher¡¯s interface activated and he contacted the Ravager¡¯s bridge staff. The crew came pouring out of the ship and charged on board the transport.
Coulter and Lauer kept burning around and around the ship to hold the alien horde at bay. Rhodes and Rhinehart pivoted from side to side blasting any Emal to pieces the instant they showed their faces.
The last few stragglers left the Ravager and the combined battalion transport craft rocketed into the atmosphere. Emal lasers followed the ship and bombarded its underside every step of the way.
Another explosion went off somewhere on the transport. ¡°Go, go, go!¡± Rhodes ordered. ¡°Get off the planet!¡±
Lauer and Coulter pulled up. Rhodes only waited long enough for them to zoom upward into the night sky. Then he and Rhinehart launched right behind them.
Lasers fountained from the surface and one of them hit Rhinehart¡¯s wing. He roared in pain, toppled sideways, and one of his engines exploded. He started to drift downward toward the planet¡¯s surface.
Rhodes altered his grid lines instantly, turned back into his normal shape, and fired his boosters. He snatched Rhinehart by the wrist and launched into the atmosphere taking Rhinehart with him.
Rhodes had half a second to see the laser whip still snaking and snapping among countless aliens down there¡.and then Dietz shot away, turned back into his normal shape, and blasted skyward to catch up with the battalion.
The group left the battle behind and slowed when they made it into orbit. Rhodes slowed enough, let go of Rhinehart¡¯s wrist, and turned to face him. The two men hovered in space with their boosters holding them up.
¡°Are you okay?¡± Rhodes panted. ¡°Did you get hurt?¡±
¡°I¡¯m all right,¡± Rhinehart gasped. ¡°I guess gunshots don¡¯t do any damage in the training session.¡±
Rhodes looked around just as the transport pulled up next to them. Henshaw, Thackery, Oakes, and Fuentes broke apart, reformed into their own normal appearances, and turned their gaze down toward the battle on the ground.
¡°The crew is gone,¡± Henshaw murmured. ¡°I guess we achieved the objective.¡±
¡°You did great¡ªall of you,¡± Rhodes told them.
He fell silent when Dietz whizzed into orbit and slowed to rejoin the group. Rhodes clamped his mouth shut and glared at Dietz, but Rhodes didn¡¯t say anything here.
He left The Grid and returned to the training room with the rest of the battalion.
¡°What the hell is wrong with you?¡± he snapped at Dietz. ¡°I told you not to do anything to attract attention. You went and did exactly what I told you not to.¡±
¡°I was trying to create a diversion so you could get the crew out,¡± Dietz countered.
¡°Did you hear me tell you to create a diversion?¡± Rhodes spat.
¡°Well, you couldn¡¯t get the crew out any other way.¡±
¡°That isn¡¯t for you to decide. The last time I checked, I was the one in command of this battalion, not you. You made that suggestion before we started and I shut it down. We could have gotten all the way to the ship without the aliens seeing us, but you had to go and blow our cover. You could have gotten Rhinehart killed. Do you realize that?¡±
Dietz¡¯s eyes darted around the circle. Everyone glared at him.
¡°I was just trying to help, Sir,¡± he mumbled.
¡°The only way you¡¯re gonna help us is by doing what you¡¯re told,¡± Rhodes snapped.
¡°Or by taking a bullet to the head,¡± Lauer growled.
Rhodes didn¡¯t correct him this time. ¡°If you ever pull a stunt like that again, I swear to Almighty God I¡¯ll leave you behind. Is that clear? If you ever put any of us in danger in a real battle, I¡¯ll leave you behind and you can take your chances with the enemy. Don¡¯t you ever pull that shit again. You¡¯re alive right now because of me. Don¡¯t make me regret that.¡±
¡°What does that mean?¡± Dietz asked. ¡°Why am I alive right now because of you? You never did anything for me.¡±
Rhodes stopped himself from telling Dietz that Rhinehart, Lauer, and Oakes wanted to put him down for trying to kill Oakes¡ªand nearly killing Thackery.
Rhinehart made the decision on Rhodes¡¯s behalf. ¡°If you pull something like that again, I won¡¯t leave you behind. I¡¯ll make sure you never make it off the planet alive. Just remember that.¡±
He turned on his heel and marched out of the training room. The others glared at Dietz and then followed Rhinehart one after the other.
Rhodes waited until last. He left Dietz standing there and everyone pretended not to see him follow them back to the barracks.
The tension started to dissolve when they walked in. Rhodes went back to the table to sit down with the others. Thackery didn¡¯t glare at everyone as much now. She was starting to relax¡.a little.
The group barely walked in the door before General Brewster and Colonel Kraft showed up. ¡°That was another outstanding training session,¡± General Brewster began. ¡°I can see you¡¯ve all worked out your malfunctions. You¡¯re back to optimal functioning¡..¡±
¡°I wouldn¡¯t call it optimal,¡± Rhodes interrupted.
¡°It will have to be good enough,¡± Kraft replied. ¡°We just got word. The Emal are attacking another planet in the Zavil system. They¡¯re bombarding cities and slaughtering the population. We need to deploy you right away. You¡¯ll transport there on the Ero first thing tomorrow morning.¡±
End of Chapter 38.
Battalion 1: Book 1: Chapter 39
Rhodes paused on the landing bay threshold. The 249th, the 278th, and the 217th Platoons were back on board the Ero. Why did he delude himself into thinking it could be any different?
The soldiers nearest the entrance stopped what they were doing to turn around and stare at Battalion 1. The battalion had fought side by side with most of these men on the shelf on Ohait.
Rhodes gritted his teeth and stepped out onto the floor. The captains and lieutenants in charge of the three platoons were busy handing out weapons to everyone who didn¡¯t already have them.
That created another barrier between Battalion 1 and the regular Legion soldiers. No one in Battalion 1 carried a weapon¡ªor any gear¡ªor wore any body armor. They didn¡¯t need it.
Rhodes walked over to Captain Vernick. ¡°Any word on where we¡¯re going or what¡¯s waiting for us down there?¡± Rhodes asked. ¡°Everyone is keeping this hush-hush.¡±
¡°They¡¯re keeping it hush-hush from us, too. I¡¯m telling all the men to prepare for another bloodbath like Luluna.¡±
¡°I can¡¯t wait,¡± Rhodes muttered.
Vernick grinned at him. ¡°I¡¯m sure you and yours will be fine.¡±
¡°How do you want to play this?¡± Rhodes asked. ¡°Do you want us to go in with you¡.or separately?¡±
¡°I really couldn¡¯t tell you. I don¡¯t know anything about the terrain down there or even where the enemy is.¡±
Rhodes pursed his lips, but just then, Fisher showed him The Grid of the planet Sulia. ¡°The Emal are laying waste a city on the northern continent. They just made landfall here¡ªon the Brokix peninsula.¡±
¡°Where is the Ero planning to land?¡± Rhodes asked.
¡°Here¡ªoutside the city of Thaklia. The city is still relatively intact. The Ravagers are evacuating the population before the Emal get there. Then the Legion plans to defend the city to stop the Emal from advancing any further.¡±
Rhodes became aware of the rest of the battalion and all their SAMs listening through the interface.
Vernick stood in front of Rhodes listening to him carry on a conversation with someone Vernick couldn¡¯t see or hear.
Rhodes had to explain all this to him, too. The platoons needed this information as much as Battalion 1 did.
Rhodes glanced around. ¡°Do you have a computer terminal here?¡±
¡°Over here.¡± Vernick led the way to the side of the bay, pulled a corporal toward him, and dug around in the boy¡¯s backpack before he found a remote device.
Rhodes pulled up the chart on the device and went through all Fisher¡¯s information so Vernick could see it.
¡°That complicates things,¡± Vernick muttered. ¡°We have to fight our way through the city just to engage with the enemy. Why don¡¯t they drop us off on the side facing the peninsula?¡±
¡°We can get in front of you,¡± Rhodes offered. ¡°We might be able to slow the aliens down until you get into a more favorable position.¡±
Vernick made a face. ¡°I don¡¯t like throwing you in front of a gun¡ªagain.¡±
¡°You don¡¯t want to get caught with your pants down in the middle of the city without being able to see the enemy coming.¡± Rhodes pointed to a spot on the far eastern side of the city. ¡°We¡¯ll rendezvous here. We¡¯ll hold them here until you come. Then you and your men can set up fortifications and hold the aliens outside the city. That will work better than fighting house to house and building to building.¡±
¡°Have it your way,¡± Vernick told him. ¡°You¡¯ll have to contact me if your line breaks and the aliens get inside the city. Just don¡¯t let them surprise me if they do get past you.¡±
¡°I won¡¯t.¡± Rhodes found himself smiling at his friend. ¡°Good luck down there.¡±
¡°You, too. I¡¯ll see you on the ground.¡±
¡°I¡¯m certain of it.¡± Rhodes pointed across the bay. ¡°Pull your men back from the launch doors. We¡¯ll leave first and put as much distance between us and you as we can.¡±
¡°You got it.¡± Vernick took off elbowing his way through the packed bay toward the launch doors.
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Oakes glanced around at the nearest soldiers. They all cast suspicious looks at Rhodes and his people.
¡°Good,¡± Lauer muttered. ¡°I don¡¯t want to be anywhere near these guys.¡±
¡°Get used to it,¡± Rhodes told him. ¡°If we succeed in stopping the aliens outside the city, we¡¯ll be fighting side by side with these platoons again.¡±
¡°Let¡¯s get out of here,¡± Oakes agreed. ¡°The sooner we get on the ground, the better.¡±
Rhodes led the way to the launch doors. It took Vernick, Turney, and Upshaw a while to convince the soldiers to back off and make room for the battalion to move closer to the exit.
Rhodes faced the doors. He didn¡¯t let himself look at the men he knew. He would rather face the enemy.
He went over The Grid in his head while he waited. He turned it this way and that and examined the battlefield from all sides.
The Emal had already leveled four cities farther east from Thaklia. The aliens had driven more Legion platoons out of those cities. The platoons fought their way backward toward Thaklia while the Emal laid down punishing fire all the way.
The Ero thumped against something and an electric wave of tension went through the bay. All the soldiers crowded around holding their weapons ready.
Rhodes checked The Grid again. He and his people were the only soldiers here who knew what was going on outside.
The Ero touched down half a mile west of Thaklia. The platoons would have to fight their way all the way through town to get to the east side to meet the Emal.
Emal base ships advanced behind the alien horde. The base ships unloaded devastating laser volleys on the city and detonated buildings from miles away. No way could the Legion platoons survive in there.
Rhodes made up his mind. ¡°We¡¯ll get out of town and hold them on the eastern limits. We have to. We can¡¯t let the aliens get the jump on the platoons inside the city.¡±
¡°We won¡¯t stand a chance once the base ships show up,¡± Oakes pointed out. ¡°No one can hold the line against them.¡±
¡°Maybe the base ships will be more concerned with bombarding the city than hitting us,¡± Henshaw suggested. ¡°If we hold them at the eastern limits, the base ships will still be close enough to do plenty of damage.¡±
¡°Our only objective is to get through to the other side of town and stop the Emal there until the platoons catch up,¡± Rhodes cut in. ¡°We¡¯ll decide our next move there.¡±
Another deep thud shuddered the Ero. Flashing red lights blinkered on either side of the launch doors.
¡°Stand by to launch!¡± Rhodes ordered. ¡°Take off as soon as the doors open! Don¡¯t wait around in town. Just get east and engage as quick as you can!¡±
None of his people had time to answer before the doors cracked. A shaft of sunlight blasted into the bay and a warning alarm went off.
Rhodes didn¡¯t give the order to launch. He didn¡¯t have to.
He and his people fired their boosters and zoomed out of the bay before the ship touched down. The battalion raced away toward the buildings in the distance.
Another colossal laser smashed into a building on the right. The structure evaporated in dust and debris that pinwheeled in all directions. More bombardments struck all over the city.
Rhodes picked up speed, plunged into the city, and swerved to miss another building going up in a towering column of smoke and ash.
¡°Watch out, Captain!¡± Fisher warned.
¡°Don¡¯t worry about that, pal!¡± Rhodes called back. ¡°I just hope we aren¡¯t too late already.¡±
¡°The Grid indicates the Emal are forming an advanced line five miles out of town! They¡¯re waiting for their base ships to catch up.¡±
Rhodes pretended not to hear. He could see perfectly well on The Grid where the base ships were.
He could also see the devastation they were wreaking on the city landscape. Buildings burst all around him.
He could have used his grid lines to change into any shape he wanted. He could have bounced off buildings or burned along the ground chewing through buildings right and left.
Riding his boosters made him go faster. He didn¡¯t want to mess around with theatrics.
The Grid showed the platoons approaching the west side of town. They advanced at a snail¡¯s pace. They might not get to the east side for hours.
All the more reason why the battalion had to get there. He swerved between buildings bursting apart all around him. The Emal escalated their bombardment as they got nearer. There wouldn¡¯t be much of this city left for the Legion to hold.
Rhodes had his orders. He didn¡¯t need to know anything else.
He spotted daylight between the buildings ahead. The landscape opened up spreading east. He was almost there.
He made one last check of his people. They and their SAMs were all holding up perfectly. None of them suffered any malfunction¡ªyet.
He erupted past the last building, soared over another six miles of open country, and caught up with the aliens on the planes.
He took a page from Lauer¡¯s book, extended twin lasers from both hands, and swooped in low.
He banked sideways and raced up the Emal line cutting down as many of them as he could. He extended his lasers as far as they would go to widen his surface area as much as possible.
He made it a mile north from where he started before the rest of the battalion caught up. He killed hundreds of Emal in one pass, but the aliens must have gotten used to this tactic by now.
He angled southward to head back to his starting point. The rest of the battalion plowed into the alien formation. Each person used The Grid differently to change their shape to the best effect.
Lauer and Rhinehart both stayed airborne, bombarded the aliens, and dodged lasers to plummet back and forth across the battle line.
Oakes unleashed dozens of Viper missiles, drew the base ships¡¯ fire toward himself to take the pressure off the city, and then veered in other directions to hit the aliens from angles they didn¡¯t expect.
Fuentes and Henshaw took a completely different approach. Both of them dove straight down into the horde, landed on the ground, and whirled in all directions cutting down the aliens nearest them.
Henshaw used her scourge guns. Fuentes used lasers.
The Emal surged inward to attack them, but that only brought them into the path of the two fighters¡¯ guns.
Rhodes picked up speed to rejoin the others when one of the base ships hit him from the side. It knocked him somersaulting back toward the front line where he fell down hard right in the aliens¡¯ path.
End of Chapter 39.
Battalion 1: Book 1: Chapter 40
Rhodes floundered back to consciousness and heard Fisher yelling from a long way off. ¡°Captain! Are you injured? I can¡¯t tell! The interface is blurry.¡±
Rhodes pushed himself up on his arms. He had trouble seeing and hearing Fisher and everything else around him.
He felt alien hands grasping at him. His vision cleared just enough to see an Emal leaning over him. The creature¡¯s eyes glazed over and the cilia around its mouth came disgustingly close to Rhodes¡¯s face.
He jolted to get away from it, but the creature held him down and stuck a laser rifle in his face.
He snapped to high alert and discovered dozens more Emal surrounding him on all sides. They all aimed their guns at him, but they didn¡¯t shoot. One of them touched his face and its spindly fingers traced the outline of his implants.
That touch sent him into a panic. He reared off the ground, tried to push the Emal away, and then remembered all his weaponry. He raised his arm and fired his scourge gun, but nothing happened. The weapon failed.
He scrambled to think and fired his thermal cannon, his lasers, and again tried his scourge gun. None of them worked.
Terror seized him. He shot to his feet and tried to activate his boosters. They didn¡¯t work, either. He was stranded here surrounded by hundreds of aliens all armed with lasers that could cut him to pieces¡ªagain.
The memory of his arm getting cut off blasted him out of his mind. He swung his arms to strike at the aliens, but too many of them packed around him. He could barely move.
Another Emal raised its hand and touched his face again. Alien hands groped him all over. He couldn¡¯t let this happen.
He punched and threw elbows at the aliens nearest him. He wasn¡¯t that far away from the city when the Emal shot him down, but he couldn¡¯t even see the edge of the horde to figure out how to get away from them.
Their bodies squashed him between them. A few of them pushed against his back. Others in front of him parted to let him through. Dozens of aliens prodded and propelled him.
He got caught in the tide of arms and hands. They were steering him away¡ªwhere they wanted him to go. Were they trying to capture him?
That thought pushed him over the edge. He spun around and flailed to get through the mob heading the other way. He had to get out of here at all costs.
At that moment, a fast-moving fighter craft blasted over his head. He didn¡¯t have time to see what it was. It was flying too fast¡ªfaster than a Legion Predator.
Something snatched him away from the Emal crowd. It yanked him up into the sky by the arm and his mind cleared. The fast-moving fighter craft was actually Lauer.
He zoomed high over the alien horde, banked right and left to avoid their laser shots, and pelted westward across the landscape heading toward the city.
The aliens, the battle, and all the danger moved farther away. The Legion platoons had set up a fortified position on the city¡¯s eastern fringes. Lauer rocketed toward them carrying Rhodes with him.
His fear and panic faded and Fisher¡¯s voice switched back on.
Rhodes didn¡¯t realize until that moment that there had been something wrong with Fisher. The image of his face had been glitching and he stuttered back and forth the way he did at Coleridge Station.
Now his image stabilized. Rhodes could see Fisher clearly, but Fisher didn¡¯t see him.
Fisher faced sideways and talked rapidly to someone Rhodes couldn¡¯t see. ¡°I¡¯m trying to get through to him, but he doesn¡¯t respond! There¡¯s something wrong with the interface! I don¡¯t know what caused it! He was fine and then he got shot down!¡±
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¡°Did the laser damage him?¡± Wild¡¯s voice asked through the interface.
¡°No, he was fine right up until he woke up on the ground. That¡¯s when the interface started cutting out.¡±
¡°I¡¯m okay now, Fisher,¡± Rhodes gasped. ¡°I can hear you.¡±
¡°Captain!¡± Fisher exclaimed. He turned slightly to make eye contact with Rhodes. ¡°I thought we¡¯d lost you.¡±
¡°I¡¯m okay now, pal. I just¡.those aliens¡..¡±
¡°Did they damage you?¡± Fisher cocked his head to one side. ¡°I¡¯m not detecting any malfunction¡ªnot anymore.¡±
¡°The same thing happened to Thackery,¡± Koenig interrupted. ¡°She got surrounded by Emal and her adrenaline levels went off the charts. That¡¯s when the interface failed.¡±
Fisher inclined his head the other way. ¡°Captain Rhodes¡¯s adrenaline levels were elevated, too.¡±
¡°They were more than elevated,¡± Rhodes added. ¡°They were through the roof.¡±
Fisher frowned, and in that moment, the interface between Rhodes and the other SAMs reconnected.
The interface picked up Fuentes, Rhinehart, and Coulter all still on the ground in the middle of the alien horde. Thackery, Dietz, and Henshaw had all retreated to rejoin the platoons closer to the city.
Rhodes¡¯s interface picked up spikes of terror and desperate battle fury coming from the three soldiers on the ground. None of their SAMs could contact them or help them in any way.
Fuentes and Coulter suffered the worst. Rhinehart did his best to fight his way to Fuentes¡¯s position, but too many Emal crowded around Rhinehart, too.
¡°Let me go!¡± Rhodes called to Lauer. ¡°We gotta get them out! You go after Coulter. I¡¯ll get Rudy!¡±
Lauer let go of Rhodes¡¯s arm and Rhodes fired his boosters. They worked fine now.
He swooped over the Emal and unloaded his scourge guns, but they couldn¡¯t clear a path fast enough.
He fired Vipers in a ring around Fuentes¡¯s position. Fuentes fought with all his might, but his weapons systems kept shutting down at the worst possible times.
Rhodes¡¯s senses kicked into high gear now that the interface was back online. The Emal were just as fascinated with Fuentes¡¯s implants as the aliens had been by Rhodes.
Fuentes would have been dead by now if the Emal really wanted to kill him. They tried to push him to the rear, too. They must want to keep and study these strange creatures that just happened to land in their midst.
The idea of getting captured by the Emal almost drove Rhodes out of his mind again, but he had to keep his head this time. He had to get his three subordinates out of danger.
Fuentes¡¯s lasers came back online for a split second. He swung around and carved himself a few feet of space¡ªjust enough to hold the Emal at arm¡¯s length.
Rhodes plunged in at that moment and grabbed Fuentes by the arm. Rhodes launched into the sky taking Fuentes with him just as Lauer launched with Coulter. That left Rhinehart.
Seeing Fuentes safe flooded Rhinehart with relief and all his systems roared back to life. He blasted his boosters and torched a dozen Emal on his way out of the horde. The battalion converged on the eastern fringes, but not soon enough to save the city.
Buildings kept detonating behind the Legion line. The platoons set up fortifications there, but Henshaw was right. The Legion would never be able to save this city. The aliens destroyed half of it before they even invaded.
Rhodes set Fuentes down next to Henshaw and Thackery. ¡°Sir¡..¡± Fuentes gasped. ¡°Sir¡.the interface¡.my weapons¡¡¡±
¡°Did all of you suffer interface failures?¡± Rhodes asked.
¡°I didn¡¯t,¡± Dietz replied.
Rhodes ignored him. ¡°What happened to you, Georgie?¡±
¡°I got overrun and my weapons started shutting down, but they didn¡¯t shut down completely. The Grid stayed up long enough for me to see where I was. I rolled out of the horde and made it back here. I didn¡¯t need to shoot. Then, once I got clear, my weapons came back online.¡±
¡°Our adrenaline levels must be what caused the malfunction,¡± Lauer pointed out.
¡°How are we supposed to keep our adrenaline levels down when we¡¯re in battle?¡± Oakes asked. ¡°Of course our adrenaline levels are higher now than they were in the training sessions. This is real.¡±
Rhodes turned back to the SAMs. ¡°Can you adjust your sensors so the system isn¡¯t as sensitive to our adrenaline levels?¡±
¡°We can try,¡± Fisher replied. ¡°We won¡¯t know if it will work until we actually go back into battle.¡±
¡°The interface doesn¡¯t shut down from all adrenaline,¡± Thackery pointed out. ¡°We all experienced plenty of adrenaline during training sessions. There were plenty of times in training when I completely forgot we were even in The Grid. It must be just levels that are too high that interfere with the interface.¡±
¡°So what are you saying¡ªthat we go into a calm, meditative state when we¡¯re in the middle of a battle?¡± Lauer growled. ¡°That would definitely keep our adrenaline levels down.¡±
¡°I¡¯m saying maybe it just takes the SAMs some time to get used to battle conditions. None of them has ever been in a real battle before except on Ohait. Georgie and I haven¡¯t been in a real battle before Ohait, either.¡±
¡°At least the SAMs can think clearly,¡± Rhinehart pointed out. ¡°At least none of them malfunctioned enough to interfere with our thinking.¡±
¡°Don¡¯t say that,¡± Coulter told him. ¡°You¡¯ll jinx us.¡±
¡°He already said it, dumbass,¡± Oakes interrupted. ¡°Anyway, if this battle is any indication, we just have to make sure some of us stay out of the line of fire long enough to get the others clear¡ªif it happens again, I mean.¡±
¡°We¡¯re in a war zone,¡± Henshaw remarked. ¡°Keeping some of us out of the line of fire might not be possible. In fact, I¡¯m certain it won¡¯t be.¡±
End of Chapter 40.
Battalion 1: Book 1: Chapter 41
Captain Vernick and Lieutenant Upshaw approached Rhodes behind the Legion fortifications. ¡°How would you like to throw yourselves in front of an enemy weapon again?¡± Vernick asked.
¡°Is that the way you ask all the girls out?¡± Rhodes asked.
Vernick laughed. ¡°Only the really special ones. The brass is ordering us to assault the aliens and drive them back across the planes to get their base ships away from the city.¡±
¡°That sounds like it came straight out of General Kaufman¡¯s mouth.¡±
Vernick made a face. ¡°I¡¯m too low on the ladder to think about whose mouth it came out of. We have to assault the aliens¡.¡±
¡°Which is a suicide mission,¡± Upshaw interrupted.
¡°Unless you soften them up for us first,¡± Vernick finished. He pointed out at the planes. ¡°We saw the way they flocked around you. They¡¯re fascinated by you for some reason. You could come at them from the side¡ªover there. Once they turn toward you, we¡¯ll assault from this side.¡±
¡°Like you did on Ohait,¡± Upshaw finished.
Rhodes squinted at the sky. ¡°It will be dark soon¡.¡±
¡°That¡¯s why we want you to go¡ªif you¡¯re willing,¡± Vernick explained. ¡°The Emal can see in the dark. If we assault them head on, they¡¯ll see us coming. If you assault them from the side, they¡¯ll be paying attention to you. They won¡¯t see us until it¡¯s too late¡..See?¡± Vernick frowned. ¡°Can you see in the dark?¡±
Rhodes had to think for a split second. He definitely saw in the dark during that Luluna training session.
Most of the seeing he did during that session was just using The Grid to tell where he was. Once the shooting started, the explosions gave enough light to see.
¡°Yes, we can,¡± he replied. ¡°All right. We¡¯ll do it. We¡¯ll wait for full dark. Then we¡¯ll flank the aliens over there, assault them, and draw them away so you can strike.¡±
¡°Thanks, man,¡± Vernick replied.
Rhodes waited for them to leave. ¡°Was there something else?¡±
¡°We¡¯re eating dinner over there. Do you want to join us? You¡¯re more than welcome.¡±
Rhodes cast a glance toward the soldiers gathering in clusters farther down the line. ¡°We probably shouldn¡¯t. We don¡¯t eat, so our presence would probably just make everyone uncomfortable.¡±
¡°You staying over here by yourselves makes everyone uncomfortable,¡± Upshaw pointed out. ¡°They think you¡¯re too good for us.¡±
Rhodes made a face. ¡°Just remind them of how they acted on Ohait. That should be enough to explain why we don¡¯t think we¡¯re welcome. I appreciate the invitation. I would like nothing better than to share a meal with you two. Them? I¡¯ll skip it.¡±
¡°I¡¯m sorry you feel that way,¡± Vernick replied.
¡°I¡¯m sure you two and Lieutenant Turley are the only people here who are sorry about it. It¡¯s better if we keep our distance. Thank you again for the invitation. It means a lot. We¡¯ll get ready for the assault.¡±
¡°How will we know when to strike?¡± Upshaw asked.
¡°One of us will fire a Viper into the air to signal you. That should be enough.¡±
¡°All right,¡± Vernick replied. ¡°I don¡¯t like it, but we can do it your way.¡±
¡°Thank you again. Hopefully, we¡¯ll see each other after the assault and we¡¯ll all ride out of here to fight another day.¡±
Vernick cracked a grin. ¡°You always were a dreamer. Let us know if you need anything.¡±
The two officers walked away and Rhodes returned to his soldiers. They all overheard the conversation through the interface.
¡°That was nice of them,¡± Henshaw remarked.
¡°It was nice of them,¡± Rhodes corrected. ¡°It wasn¡¯t nice of the rest of the platoons who didn¡¯t ask.¡±
¡°You¡¯re right, Sir,¡± Lauer murmured. ¡°It¡¯s better if we keep our distance. We aren¡¯t them anymore.¡±
¡°No one is more aware of that than they are.¡± Rhodes sat down with the others to wait.
The sun went down. The Emal kept up their bombardment of the city¡¯s buildings, but the aliens didn¡¯t advance any further¡ªnot yet.
¡°What do you think they¡¯re waiting for?¡± Oakes asked.
¡°Who the hell knows what¡¯s going on in their minds?¡± Lauer countered. ¡°Who the hell knows why they do anything?¡±
¡°It would be nice to know what they want and why they¡¯re doing all this,¡± Henshaw remarked. ¡°What if we get over there to flank them and they attack the platoons instead? The Emal might completely ignore us. Then the platoons would be exposed because we wouldn¡¯t be here to protect them.¡±
¡°Us being here wouldn¡¯t protect the platoons,¡± Lauer told her. ¡°We won¡¯t make any difference to this war. We learned that a long time ago if we learned anything from fighting the Emal. They¡¯ll win and we¡¯ll fall back to give them the territory they want. The Legion can¡¯t do anything except maybe hope to slow them down a little.¡±
¡°Then why is the Legion fighting this war?¡± she asked. ¡°Why waste all the resources and soldiers¡¯ lives? Why not just evacuate the territory the Emal want and let them take it?¡±
¡°You explain that to your old man and see what he says.¡±
That ended the conversation. Rhodes spent the rest of the evening thinking about Dietz and what to do about him.
Rhodes considered how he could find out if Dietz did anything underhanded during that last battle. Fisher said the SAMs recorded everything the battalion did.
If that was true, Rhodes should be able to go back through the data and find out what Dietz had been doing, where he¡¯d been, whether he even fought the Emal, and the circumstances under which Dietz fell back to the beach.
Did Dietz fight the Emal at all? Was that the reason his adrenaline levels didn¡¯t cause him to malfunction the way everyone else did?
The sun went down and the planet fell into darkness. The noise of countless Emal voices drifted across the planes coming from the east.
¡°I guess now we know what they¡¯re waiting for,¡± Coulter remarked. ¡°They can see in the dark. They must be waiting to play their advantage.¡±
¡°Just keep your adrenaline levels down and try to stay calm,¡± Rhodes ordered. ¡°Think of this as a simulation like the one on Luluna.¡±
¡°We¡¯ll have to keep an eye on each other,¡± Rhinehart suggested. ¡°If someone goes down, one of us can pull them out.¡±
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
¡°Good idea,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°Let¡¯s go¡ªand keep quiet.¡±
He checked in with Vernick, told the captain he was leaving, and the battalion tiptoed out of hiding.
The Legion position covered a long line of terrain surrounding the city from north to south. The Emal did the same, but most of the base ships concentrated in the middle on a direct line between Thaklia and the cities farther east.
¡°How far are we going?¡± Coulter asked through the interface.
¡°This should be far enough.¡± Rhodes halted a few miles south of their starting place. The battalion hunkered behind the platoons¡¯ southernmost fortifications.
Rhodes couldn¡¯t see the Emal from here, but The Grid showed him all he needed to know.
The Emal must have been gearing up for a night assault, too. Their numbers concentrated closer to their base ships. They would be able to break the Legion position and get inside the city.
Distant booms rumbled across the landscape. The base ships fired into the city and buildings exploded in the darkness. They didn¡¯t make any flashes of light to show where the two armies were facing off against each other.
¡°How do you want to do this, Sir?¡± Oakes asked.
¡°Let¡¯s crawl along the ground the way we did before. We can draw level with the Emal and attack from the side.¡±
¡°How do you want us to attack?¡± Thackery asked.
¡°Once we get into position, we¡¯ll need to make ourselves as big and as visible as possible. Use Vipers and lasers. They¡¯re more visible. Don¡¯t worry so much about killing tons of Emal. Just draw their attention to that side of the battlefield and bring them in to assault us.¡±
¡°Good deal,¡± Lauer replied and he transformed instantly.
Grid lines covered his body and then they all folded in on each other on the ground. They vanished and left the long, thin, snaking whip slithering along the ground.
The rest of the battalion did the same thing. Rhodes checked on Dietz, but he did it, too. He didn¡¯t pull any dirty tricks¡ªyet.
Rhodes really needed to get rid of that asshole, but he couldn¡¯t do it now. Rhodes changed his shape and the battalion crawled out onto the open fields.
The noise coming from the Emal got louder. They didn¡¯t even try to hide what they were doing.
Distant yells of men shouting floated from the Legion side. It sounded like the platoons were getting ready for an assault, too, but it mostly sounded like the Emal¡¯s noise was alerting the platoons that the Emal were about to strike.
Anyone listening might mistake that sound for the platoons preparing to defend themselves. Maybe in some alternate universe the Emal might not realize the platoons were planning a strike of their own.
Rhodes couldn¡¯t think about that. He picked up speed and measured The Grid to find out where he was in relation to the Emal.
He should have spent the time deciding what he would turn himself into when he got there. He decided instead to just improvise. That always seemed to work in the past.
The tension built to the breaking point. The noise firing back and forth from both sides set Rhodes¡¯s nerves on edge.
If the Emal attacked first before the battalion got into position to spring their diversion, this whole maneuver would be dead in the water.
He covered the last five hundred yards and made one last check of The Grid. Lauer got the jump on everyone by leaving first. He outpaced everyone and drew level with the Emal line.
He didn¡¯t wait for his comrades to catch up with him. He snaked between the Emal¡¯s legs to a position right in the middle of their ranks.
Then Lauer exploded to many times his normal size. He erupted into a gargantuan shape. The grid lines covered him and reformed into a massive alien.
The thing towered twenty feet tall with long, whipping arms and a laser spurting from each one. Horns sprouted from the creature¡¯s shaggy head and a million teeth stuck out of its huge mouth.
Somehow or other, Lauer made the monster glow from the inside. Reddish-orange and yellow light beamed through the alien¡¯s outer skin. It couldn¡¯t be more visible if it tried.
It threw back its head and let out a thunderous roar of fury before it smashed its tentacle arms down on the ground.
The creature stomped three steps forward. The ground shook under its weight.
It started slashing and swiping its lasers everywhere, but it mostly just hammered its mighty arms into the ground to squash any Emal who got in their way.
The Emal definitely did not see that coming. They sprang away shrieking and jabbering trying to escape from the monster. They took way too long to make up their minds to attack it.
They must have decided that they still had the advantage of numbers since there was only one of this thing.
The Emal flooded Lauer trying to surround him. They fired their laser rifles at him and he spun around roaring and flailing his arms in all directions.
They took the opportunity of him turning his back to swarm him from behind, climbed on top of him, and more lasers covered him all over.
His deafening bellows set off a chain reaction in the rest of the battalion. They raced straight for him, plunged into the Emal ranks, and everyone turned into matching alien monsters. Rhodes couldn¡¯t think of anything more distracting than that.
He blasted out of his skin, let the grid lines take over, and he expanded. His arms extended and more appendages sprouted from his sides and back.
He roared at the enemy and stomped and smashed his way through them. More of these alien monsters materialized out of the darkness. Their glow showed Rhodes and the Emal exactly where everyone was.
The Emal surrounded the battalion trying to swarm everyone in hundreds of bodies. Dozens of laser rifles went off all around Rhodes.
He even felt Emal climbing on top of him, perching on his shoulders where he couldn¡¯t hit them, and firing their lasers down at him from above.
Their laser rifles couldn¡¯t damage him. He roared again, thrashed to his highest height, and whipped his arms across his back to crush the Emal. Their bodies fell, but more Emal flooded to the spot from all sides.
He barely remembered to fire a Viper into the air to signal the platoons to launch their assault.
The missile coiled into the night sky and a groundswell of noise floated across the planes coming from the west.
Rhodes couldn¡¯t see anything over there and he didn¡¯t have time to check The Grid. He had to keep fighting the Emal to stop them from overrunning him.
He kept his head just enough not to let his adrenaline take over. Fisher pivoted The Grid in front of Rhodes¡¯ eyes to show him where the Emal were, which ones were climbing on top of him, and where to hit them to knock them away.
Explosions went off somewhere in the distance. Lasers and Jackhammer fire lit up the darkness farther north. The platoons were assaulting the Emal line. The diversion worked.
At that moment, one of the base ships stopped shooting at the city, swiveled south, and fired its massive laser straight at Lauer.
The shot smashed him in the head and he crumbled under a wave of Emal. The grid lines transformed him back into a man and he collapsed unconscious on the ground.
¡°Lauer!!¡± Rhodes bellowed in his extra-loud alien voice. Lauer didn¡¯t respond.
Rhodes had to flounder out of his battle fog to interface with Wild. ¡°How bad are Lauer¡¯s injuries?¡± Rhodes asked.
The skull jittered right and left. ¡°They¡¯re flanking to the south. They¡¯re flanking to the south. They¡¯re flanking to the south.¡±
¡°Wild!!¡± Rhodes snapped.
¡°They¡¯re flanking to the south. They¡¯re flanking to the south.¡±
Rhodes checked The Grid and tried to stomp his way over to Lauer¡¯s body. He lay face down on the ground. Rhodes couldn¡¯t see Lauer¡¯s face.
Rhodes got halfway there before two more base ships fired south at the alien intruders, too. Rhodes dodged one of the shots before it took him out.
The laser hit Oakes instead, hit him somewhere in the chest, and he went down, too.
Dash vanished off the interface and the link went dead. Rhodes couldn¡¯t even pick up Oakes on The Grid anymore.
Something about being this big, enraged monster took over Rhodes¡¯s mind. He roared in fury, slammed dozens of Emal out of the way, and stormed over to Lauer.
Rhodes spotted Oakes lying on the ground twenty feet away. Without The Grid, Rhodes had to rely on his normal sight to keep track of where Oakes was.
Rhodes saw Oakes moving, but that was all. Rhodes couldn¡¯t tell from here how badly injured Oakes might be.
Rhodes bent down to roll Lauer onto his back. More lasers from the base ships blasted over Rhodes¡¯s head.
He ducked to avoid them and heard screaming somewhere out of sight. The interface failed again. Koenig, Van, and Keon disappeared.
Rhodes leaned over Lauer. The shot that knocked him out crushed his facial implants. The eyepiece attached to his mechanical eye yawned into a ragged socket with wires and torn metal fragments hanging out of it.
Rhodes tried one last time. ¡°Wild¡ªcan you hear me?!¡±
Wild kept jerking from left to right and back again. ¡°They¡¯re flanking from the south. They¡¯re flanking from the south. They¡¯re flanking from the south.¡±
Rhodes gave it up and cast a desperate glance at The Grid. Fuentes, Henshaw, and Thackery were all down. Dietz and Rhinehart stood over them fighting off the Emal still swarming the area.
The Emal didn¡¯t swarm as thickly as they did before. The platoons¡¯ assault distracted the Emal back to the main battlefront. They withdrew¡ªpartially.
They didn¡¯t seem too interested in Lauer and Oakes. Rhodes had to take this chance.
He grabbed Lauer by the wrist and pulled him off the ground. Rhodes stayed in his giant alien form, but he stopped glowing so the Emal wouldn¡¯t see him¡ªor they wouldn¡¯t be able to see him as well.
He stormed over to Oakes and picked him up, too. This alien form gave Rhodes plenty of arms to carry both men and still keep shooting at the enemy.
¡°Bring them here and follow me!¡± he yelled to Dietz and Rhinehart. ¡°Fall back!¡±
Rhinehart and Dietz looked around. The battalion couldn¡¯t fall back to the Legion position. Too many Emal, platoons, and explosions blocked any retreat in that direction.
Rhodes threw caution to the wind and headed in the only direction left for him to go¡ªwest behind the Emal line.
More Emal flooded eastward to join the attack against the platoons. The two armies locked on the planes with all the remaining Emal heading that way.
They abandoned the battalion and left a clear path for Rhodes to lead his people out of danger.
End of Chapter 41
An Announcement from Theo Mann: Corrupted Coil is now out o Royal Road.
Corrupted Coil: A Young Adult Dystopian Epic Fantasy Action Adventure is now available on Royal Road. New chapter will be posted Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday PST. You can also read the whole series on Theo Mann''s Amazon Author Page, listed in the notes after each released chapter. Please check it out.
Description:
In a world of constantly shifting wild magic and Dark powers, where the nature of reality is never what it seems, four disconnected wanderers must join forces to stop a plot to destroy both themselves and their world from total annihilation.
With their town wiped out around their ears and magical assassins hunting for their lives, a babbling lunatic, a homeless Barbarian, an orphan girl, and a junior guardsman with no magical power might be the last people anyone expects to save the world from disaster, especially when these four don¡¯t want to save the world from disaster at all.
With time running out and their own lives on the line, this unlikely band of friends must rewrite the rules governing the Corrupted Coil and alter the course of existence to bring a new king to the throne before their enemies catch up with them first.
Here'' a sample from Chapter 1.
Thank you for reading!
---------
Chapter 1
¡°Darklings attacking!¡± Yann Dilnao yelled up the line of Watchmen posted on his right.
The men of the Black Watch stood twenty feet apart along the magical barricade protecting the town of Middleborough from the chaos of wild magic outside.
The barricade formed a huge transparent dome over the messy collection of low, roughly thatched houses cramped inside the town.
The magic surface protected Middleborough from hurricane winds of red, black, and burnt-orange currents moving out in the Coil.
That protection wouldn¡¯t last, though. Magical vapors sent waves of sparks shimmering across the dome and around the town¡¯s perimeter wall. Those sparks gave the only evidence that the dome was still there protecting the town from destruction.
Yann tightened his grip on his war glaive and braced himself for the incoming attack. Monstrous shapes erupted from Dark Layers beyond the barricade.
Gargantuan slithering creatures poured from shadows between the Dark Layers. The Darklings undulated in the shifting undertow of magic and potential to surround the town.
Then turned their hideous fanged mouths and tentacles on Middleborough.
Men¡¯s voices yelled up and down the barricade on Yann¡¯s right. ¡°Stand fast!¡± his father bellowed. ¡°Hold the line!¡±
¡°They¡¯re coming in fast!¡± Rien Dugas called back.
He said a few other things Yann didn¡¯t catch over the noise. The barricade muffled the wind rumbling and booming outside. The Darklings added their thunderous roars to the pounding din echoing across the shadowy landscape out there.
These Darklings were nothing like the creatures the Black Watch had faced in the past. These were ten times bigger, much faster, and a thousand times more hideous.
Spikes and razor edges lined their whipping tentacles. Their jaws cracked to reveal bristling fangs dripping with poison. Magic flashed and crackled on the Darklings¡¯ skin to light up the shadows beyond the barricade.
The Dark Layers rippled through the night disgorging hundreds of Darklings. They ranged down the barricade to encircle the town. The Darklings would overrun the Black Watch, break through the barricade, and that would be the end of Middleborough.
The town had lost contact with any other isolated Islands of stability in this remote corner of the Coil.
Middleborough had been living on borrowed time for months. The Black Watch couldn¡¯t hold the Coil¡¯s shifting magical forces at bay for much longer.
Then the Coil would swallow Middleborough along with every other Island in this sea of chaos.
Was tonight the night? Was this battle the moment when the forces of mayhem and destruction annihilated Middleborough and everyone inside it? It was only a matter of time.
The Black Watch alone stood between the town and certain doom. Yann faced down the thickest knot of Darklings coming straight for him.
He planted his legs wide and brandished his glaive to take the full brunt of the assault. His father, Yvan Dilnao, Commander of the Middleborough Watch, had posted Yann at the farthest end of their line.
Yann was the youngest Watchmen in Middleborough. Yvan usually put Yann here to keep him out of the thickest fighting. Tonight, that strategy turned out to be a huge mistake.
The Darklings came thickest from Yann¡¯s left. No other Watchmen guarded the wall down there. Yann faced the full Darkling assault by himself.
The nearest Watchman to him was twenty feet away with the others spaced farther down the wall to his right. They couldn¡¯t leave their posts to help him¡ªnot without leaving the rest of the barricade unguarded.
Yann spent his life training to be a Watchman, but nothing prepared him for this. This was it. He wouldn¡¯t be able to stop the Darklings from overrunning Middleborough. At least he would die in battle. He wouldn¡¯t have to live with his failure.
He took a step back from the barricade as the Darklings advanced. They loomed out of the shadows and towered over Middleborough.
The barricade and everything underneath it looked so small and frail compared to these creatures. His glaive wouldn¡¯t make a dent in even one of those things, much less dozens of them.
Screams and running feet echoed out of the town behind him. The townsfolk ran for cover, but nowhere in town would be safe once the Darklings got inside. They would leave no one alive.
Sparks and explosions erupted from the Darklings¡¯ skin, but for some reason, they didn¡¯t come any closer.
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
They could flatten the barricade in seconds, but they stood off. More flashes gave Yann a clear view of their vast, grotesque bodies¡..and then he saw it.
The forks of light and flame cascading down the Darklings¡¯ bodies gave him a glimpse of silhouetted figures moving around out in the Coil. They were tiny compared to the Darklings, but he saw at one glance that they were all human.
¡°Hey!¡± he yelled up the line. ¡°There are people out there! Someone¡¯s out there fighting the Darklings!¡±
¡°Stand fast, boy!¡± Rien hollered back.
Yann stared at the strangers dashing back and forth in the gloom. Their clothes billowed and slashed in the storm¡..and then more bursts of light showed him exactly what was going on out there.
Light flared down on the ground as a tall figure stabbed something into one of the Darklings. A magical discharge exploded across the Darkling¡¯s skin and the creature thundered in rage and pain. The monster rounded on the tiny stranger who dared to attack it.
The Darkling reared and arched its yawning mouth downward. The creature prepared to snatch the stranger when another outline zoomed out of the Coil.
This one was smaller with long dark hair whipping from the head. The lithe body had the curves of a female, but she looked much younger than the first figure.
She darted between the wizard and the Darkling, planted herself there, and thrust out a short staff gripped in both hands. The shaft struck the Darkling broadside and a devastating blast of magical lightning ricocheted back at the monster.
The thing arched even higher, but it didn¡¯t attack. It roared so loudly that the sound shook the barricade. Then the monster detonated with an almighty boom. It shattered into a million black shards that evaporated into the wind.
¡°Hey!!¡± Yann bellowed down the line again. ¡°There are people out there fighting the Darklings! Father¡ªcome down here now!¡±
Yann didn¡¯t dare to turn away. He stared unblinking at the strangers battling for their lives against a mounting horde of Darklings. More of the fiends disgorged from the Dark Layers all over the place, but the strangers held their ground.
Running feet approached Yann¡¯s post from his right. His father, Rien, and Omer Veco rushed to Yann¡¯s position. None of them said a word as the strangers backed closer to the barricade.
The girl stood shoulder to shoulder with the tall wizard. Four more wizards gathered from out of the dark. Each one fought the Darklings back as best they could, but none of them could defeat the monsters the way the girl could.
The battle ranged farther to the left. The Darklings shifted their attack to flank the strangers. The more firmly the strangers entrenched themselves to defend their line, the farther left the Darklings migrated.
¡°What the hell?¡± Rien growled under his breath.
¡°They¡¯re adjusting their strategy,¡± Yann pointed out. ¡°They¡¯re anticipating us.¡±
¡°Us!¡± Rien snorted. ¡°Those people aren¡¯t us. They¡¯re Coil rats. They don¡¯t belong here.¡±
Yann almost made the mistake of pointing out that these strangers were the only thing stopping the Darklings from taking Middleborough, but he stopped himself from saying that.
Four Darklings slithered sideways and came at the strangers from an angle. The wizard on the far end swiveled to confront the monsters. This wizard looked like a woman, but Yann couldn¡¯t be certain from this distance.
The lone defender raised two star-shaped weapons, one in each hand. Sparks and flashes burst from the points. They shot through the darkness and hit two Darklings, but she couldn¡¯t fight them all.
One Darkling shrank back and the other three struck without mercy. They pounced on her, devoured her, and then charged behind the other strangers trying to save themselves from even more monsters.
The girl held her position for a second while the Darklings encircled the strangers and made a dash for the barricade. ¡°Incoming!¡± Yann roared.
Watchmen charged him from all over. They left their posts to surround him, but the girl got there first.
She sprang between the Darklings and the barricade. She landed less than ten feet from Yann, but he still didn¡¯t get a good look at her face. Her hair lashed wildly in the storm and her sudden movements kept casting her features in shadow.
She landed in a crouch facing outward against five Darklings. Every muscle tensed and she burst into a wild rotating maneuver spinning her staff in all directions.
Magical blasts fired from both ends. She jabbed it at the Darklings, spun it back and forth, and ejected dozens of torrents and explosions. Yann couldn¡¯t keep up with them all.
Three more Darklings evaporated under her assault before the tall wizard and their other companions retreated to the girl¡¯s side. Five strangers formed ranks in front of the barricade to defend the town from invasion.
None of the strangers could destroy the Darklings the way the girl could. She blasted away as many as she could, but the Darklings adjusted their tactics once again.
They split and closed around the strangers from both sides. The Darklings left the girl isolated in the center and moved in on the outer edges of the strangers¡¯ line.
Two Darklings pounced on a shorter man on the left. They devoured him and charged the barricade while the rest of the strangers were busy fighting more monsters.
Yann had a split second to see the Darklings coming before they crashed full force into the barricade. Nothing could stand against them. The barricade shuddered under the impact and magical discharges boomed down the Darklings¡¯ misshapen bodies.
The next instant, the barricade exploded in a deafening crash. Darklings flooded the town along with the pounding tempest of the Coil¡¯s wild magic.
Yann forced himself to stand his ground as a huge monster rushed him. Its tentacles whistled and hissed around his head. Its gaping mouth rose many times higher than the wall.
A tentacle slashed at him and he struck out with his glaive. He lopped it off and parried five more coming from his right. They cracked back to strike him. How much longer could he hold out before this fiend devoured him, too?
He chopped off three more tentacles and the creature roared. It reared its boneless body and he saw it about to consume him the way the Darklings consumed the wizards outside.
Only ordinary human men joined the Black Watch. None of the Watchmen had magical power. No way could a junior Watchman defend himself against one of these things.
He couldn¡¯t do anything to stop that mouth coming for him. Each fang embedded in the creature¡¯s jaws dwarfed him by a mile.
He had one chance to get away from it. He counted down the seconds before the mouth swallowed him and then he sprang out of the way. He made it as far as the creature¡¯s side and slashed his glaive across the edge of the creature¡¯s mouth.
He caught his blade edge on the outer lip and ripped up the monster¡¯s side. Black blood poured from the wound and saturated Yann¡¯s clothes and hair. It got in his eyes and nose, but he was already too out of his mind with battle rage.
He stabbed his glaive into the creature¡¯s side and a vicious crack of magic ricocheted up the shaft into his hands. It locked his fingers to the shaft so he couldn¡¯t let go.
The creature recoiled from his assault and rolled away from him taking his weapon with it. He held on against his best efforts to let go and the creature¡¯s movements carried him skyward along with it.
It whipped him upward until he flopped right on top of it. He looked down at Middleborough descending into chaos.
Watchmen, strangers, and townsfolk fought side by side to drive the Darklings out of town. Yann couldn¡¯t tell from here if the townsfolk were winning or not.
He scrambled onto the monster¡¯s back and pure blood rage wiped out every other thought. He flung his leg over the creature¡¯s body. Magical explosions hammered him all over, but he didn¡¯t care.
He ripped his glaive out of the monster¡¯s skin and stabbed again and again. Every strike sent another discharge of lightning through the shaft into Yann¡¯s arms, but they only enraged him and made him stab harder.
He roared in fury hacking the creature to pieces. Blood spurted from countless wounds, but at that moment, one of the creature¡¯s many tentacles coiled around and smacked him across the back of the head.
He fell on top of his weapon and fought to stay conscious under a hail of blows coming from all directions. He lay bowed and beaten under the assault¡¡and blinked down at the battle on the ground.
His father and the other Watchmen battled Darklings side by side with wizards, but Yann barely saw them. He stared as the girl zoomed out of nowhere and attacked the Darkling from the side.
She stabbed her staff into the other side of the creature¡¯s mouth. It howled in agony and she unleashed a hellish barrage of blows, stabs, and explosions on the thing.
It contorted trying to escape. The creature rolled the other way and pitched Yann sideways. He grasped his glaive trying to keep himself from getting crushed.
The girl struck without mercy, jumped in front of the Darkling, seized her staff with both hands, and thrust it longways at the creature. She released a withering blast and the Darkling dissolved underneath Yann¡¯s sprawled body.
He slammed down hard on the ground blinking stars out of his eyes.
End of Chapter 1.
Battalion 1: Book 1: Chapter 42
Rhodes threw Lauer and Oakes down behind a low rise and jumped down there after them. ¡°You¡¯re still an alien, Captain,¡± Fisher told him. ¡°Turn yourself back into your normal shape.¡±
Rhodes had to think about it before he remembered. He transformed back into his normal shape just as Dietz and Rhinehart showed up with Fuentes, Henshaw, and Thackery.
All of them had taken hits from the base ships¡¯ laser cannons. Henshaw was completely unconscious with part of her ribs blasted out.
A wicked slash carved through Thackery¡¯s skull implant. Rhodes didn¡¯t see any severe external damage, but her behavior told him something serious must have gone badly wrong.
She jerked her head to the left again and again. She didn¡¯t blink. She kept opening and closing her mouth again and again without making a sound.
Fuentes¡¯s mechanical right arm had been torn off by some force. Wires and broken mechanical rods hung from the joint.
Rhinehart carried the arm in one hand. Dietz appeared uninjured again, but Rhodes decided to give Dietz another pass for getting Thackery and Fuentes out of danger.
¡°Where¡¯s Coulter?¡± Rhodes asked.
¡°No idea,¡± Rhinehart replied. ¡°I didn¡¯t see him¡ªand he isn¡¯t on The Grid, either. Neither is Murphy.¡±
Rhodes could see that they weren¡¯t on The Grid. ¡°Can you access any of their SAMs?¡± he asked Fisher.
¡°I¡¯m trying to. Van is still there. She¡¯s hiding from us.¡±
¡°Get her back out here. We need to deal with all these injuries and malfunctions.¡±
Rhodes turned to Lauer. He was still out cold, too. Wild kept repeating over and over that the Emal were flanking from the south¡ªwhich they weren¡¯t. They never had been.
Rhinehart squatted down in front of Fuentes and moved Fuentes¡¯s severed arm closer to him. Rhinehart put it on the ground nearby.
Rhodes didn¡¯t see what the group could possibly do with it, but Fisher intervened. ¡°Hold the arm close to his shoulder. It will reattach by itself.¡±
Rhinehart frowned at it. ¡°How will it do that?¡±
¡°Just hold it up. Put the wires and rods together.¡±
Rhinehart positioned the arm where it was supposed to be. The wires snaked out of the gaping hole in Fuentes¡¯s shoulder and the rods extended until their fragmented ends touched.
They rejoined and the arm thumped into its socket. It repaired itself, but that didn¡¯t help Fuentes. He glanced around the group and out into the darkness.
Rhodes got in front of Fuentes¡¯s eyes. ¡°You okay, Rudy? Are you in pain anywhere?¡±
Fuentes didn¡¯t make eye contact. ¡°She¡¯s gone. She¡¯s gone,¡± he husked. ¡°She¡¯s gone.¡±
¡°Who¡¯s gone?¡±
¡°I think he means Van,¡± Fisher explained.
¡°Where is she? Bring her back.¡±
¡°I¡¯m trying to,¡± Fisher replied. ¡°She won¡¯t come.¡±
¡°Are you saying she can¡¯t or she won¡¯t?¡±
¡°I¡¯m not detecting any malfunction,¡± Fisher replied. ¡°There¡¯s nothing wrong with the interface.¡±
¡°There must be or she would be here right now.¡±
¡°She¡¯s gone,¡± Fuentes panted again. ¡°She¡¯s gone.¡±
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¡°She isn¡¯t gone!¡± Rhodes snapped way too loudly.
He tore his attention away from Fuentes. He wasn¡¯t injured enough for Rhodes to spend any more time on him.
The damage to Lauer¡¯s face didn¡¯t repair itself. Rhodes checked on Oakes. Rhodes rolled him over, but Rhodes didn¡¯t find any damage to Oakes, either.
There was definitely something wrong with him, though. He huddled in a ball with his chin tucked all the way down on his chest.
¡°Look at me, Lieutenant,¡± Rhodes ordered.
Oakes¡¯s eyes swiveled up, but he didn¡¯t raise his head enough to make eye contact.
¡°What¡¯s wrong, Lieutenant?¡± Rhodes asked. ¡°Oakes¡ªlook at me!¡±
Rhodes tried to pull Oakes up and force Oakes to sit up straight, but Oakes didn¡¯t uncurl from his fetal ball. He twisted away from Rhodes and faced the hillside.
Dash hovered off to one side. The SAM turned right and left, too, but he didn¡¯t stutter or glitch. His wild eyes darted across the landscape without seeing anything.
He grimaced in terror and his lips shivered with every rapid, panting breath.
¡°Dash!¡± Rhodes snapped. ¡°What¡¯s wrong with Oakes?¡¯
¡°They¡¯re coming!¡± Dash whimpered. ¡°They¡¯re coming!¡±
¡°Dash!¡± Rhodes barked a little louder. ¡°Did Oakes get hurt?¡±
¡°They¡¯re coming!¡± Dash moaned. ¡°They¡¯re coming for us all!¡±
¡°I don¡¯t detect any damage to Oakes¡¯s body or his systems,¡± Fisher remarked. ¡°He seems to be functioning normally.¡±
¡°What¡¯s wrong with them, then?¡±
¡°I¡¯d say they¡¯re afraid, Captain,¡± Fisher murmured. ¡°They¡¯ve never gotten injured before.¡±
¡°Can you find Van at all?¡±
¡°She¡¯s there. She¡¯s a pinprick. She won¡¯t come out. She¡¯s terrified.¡±
Rhodes gritted his teeth. Now wasn¡¯t the time for the SAMs to curl up and die because they were afraid.
He turned his attention to Henshaw and Thackery. ¡°The damage to Thackery¡¯s head is minimal,¡± Fisher reported. ¡°Koenig is causing her to malfunction the same way Dash is causing Oakes to malfunction.¡±
Rhodes made a strategic decision not to try to get through to Koenig. Rhodes turned to Henshaw and checked her side.
The housing of her chest implants was already starting to close up by itself. Keon was still offline, though.
At that moment, a piercing scream echoed out of the darkness to the east. It didn¡¯t come from the battle. It came from where the battalion had just been carrying out their distraction.
Rhinehart shot up and looked in that direction. ¡°Coulter is out there! He could be scared, too. He could be injured or lost in the dark.¡± He hunkered down behind the hill and turned to Rhodes. ¡°Let me go out and get him, Sir.¡±
Rhodes checked The Grid and interfaced with Rhinehart. He was right. Coulter had taken refuge behind another swell farther southeast.
¡°All right. You can go,¡± Rhodes decided. ¡°Just be careful and stay interfaced with the rest of us. Don¡¯t take any unnecessary risks and make sure you make it back in one piece even if it means you have to leave Coulter behind. We can¡¯t afford to lose anyone else tonight.¡±
Rhinehart dipped his chin once. ¡°Yes, Sir. I¡¯ll be careful.¡±
He changed himself back into one of those slithering snakes, coiled out of the hollow, and vanished into the night.
Rhodes turned back to the people in front of him. He had to take a few seconds to decide which of them to deal with first.
He decided to tackle Dash. ¡°Dash¡ªlook at me!¡± Rhodes snapped. ¡°Dash!!¡±
Dash¡¯s eyes barely grazed Rhodes¡¯s face. Rhodes would have liked to grab the SAM and shake him, but Rhodes couldn¡¯t do that.
¡°Listen to me, Dash. Oakes is in danger. You¡¯re the only person who can get him to safety. Listen to me, Dash! You have to snap out of it. I know you¡¯re scared, but Oakes is in trouble. You want to help Oakes, don¡¯t you?¡±
Dash barely nodded before he went back to scanning the darkness and panting in terror.
¡°You have to get Oakes out of here. Understand?¡± Rhodes went on. ¡°Can you do that? I need you to push through this fear and get Oakes back to the Legion. That¡¯s all you have to do. The Emal are all over there fighting the platoons. You can do this, Dash. I know it¡¯s scary, but I believe in you.¡±
Dash nodded again. His eyes traced north toward the Legion position. He didn¡¯t come out of his terrified trance, but at least he heard and understood.
Rhodes turned to Oakes next. ¡°Listen to me, soldier,¡± Rhodes murmured in his ear. ¡°I know you¡¯re scared right now, but this is just a malfunction. You¡¯re feeling your SAM¡¯s fear. This isn¡¯t you. You¡¯re a fighter. You can pull out of this. You can get yourself to safety. You can fight back. You¡¯ve done it before. You can do it now.¡±
Rhodes looked around to see Dietz and Fuentes listening. Fuentes screwed up his face in an agony of determination, but plenty of the old anguish came through anyway.
¡°Van is making you more afraid than you should be,¡± Rhodes told him. ¡°Try to put your fear aside just long enough to get back to the Legion position. Understand?¡±
Fuentes nodded down at the ground. That left Thackery.
Koenig was making himself invisible, too. Thackery didn¡¯t respond at all when Rhodes tried to talk to her.
¡°There has to be a way to hack these SAMs and straighten them out,¡± Rhodes muttered.
¡°I could try to shut them down the way I shut down Fuentes,¡± Fisher suggested. ¡°It would affect all of you and it might even make the problem worse. I could wind up knocking them all out. Then we¡¯d be stranded here.¡±
¡°We can¡¯t risk that.¡±
A deep boom of gunfire and explosions made Rhodes glance over the hilltop toward the battle. The Emal were starting to push the Legion platoons into the city.
Dusters burned back and forth across the battle unleashing seekers and breaker bombs on the Emal. This was turning into another nightmare horrorscape exactly like Luluna.
End of Chapter 42.
Battalion 1: Book 1: Chapter 43
Rhinehart came back with Coulter. Rhinehart had to wrestle Coulter down into the hollow and pin him against the hillside to hold him in place so Coulter wouldn¡¯t bolt back out into the night.
He sobbed and moaned in terror, tried to break free from Rhinehart¡¯s grip, and jerked in all directions trying to see enemies who weren¡¯t there.
¡°Is he injured?¡± Rhodes asked.
¡°Not that I could tell,¡± Rhinehart replied. ¡°He tried to fight me off, but he¡¯s too scared even to use his weapons.¡±
¡°We have to fall back to the Legion position,¡± Rhodes decided. ¡°We need to lift off so we can correct these malfunctions. We can¡¯t accomplish anything else down here tonight¡ªand Lauer needs medical attention.¡±
¡°The Ero is still on the ground west of the city,¡± Fisher told him.
¡°How do you say we get there?¡± Rhinehart asked. ¡°We can¡¯t fight our way through all that. You, me, Dietz, and Fuentes are the only ones here with working boosters. We couldn¡¯t carry everyone at the same time.¡±
¡°No, you¡¯re right, Rhodes replied. ¡°And I wouldn¡¯t feel right about leaving them unprotected, either.¡±
¡°One of us could stay,¡± Fuentes offered. ¡°Or more than one of us could stay¡.while the other one carries everyone to the Ero.¡±
¡°It would be super helpful if we could get one of those Dusters to come and pick us up,¡± Rhodes remarked.
¡°One of us could change ourselves into a Duster,¡± Rhinehart suggested. ¡°I¡¯m the biggest and the strongest. I could do it.¡±
¡°Your boosters might not be able to carry everyone.¡± Rhodes straightened up. ¡°You, me, and Fuentes can combine ourselves into a Duster.¡± He looked around again. ¡°Coulter, you help us. Coulter¡ªcan you hear me?¡±
Coulter didn¡¯t respond. Rhinehart made a face. ¡°This is stupid. What¡¯s the point of going into battle with these SAMs if they¡¯re going to malfunction at the worst possible time?¡±
¡°We just have to get everyone out of here. Let me just check¡..¡±
Rhodes stuck his head up to check that the Emal were all far enough away. They were too busy pushing the platoons into the city streets. None of the Emal gave Battalion 1 a second glance.
¡°It¡¯s clear,¡± Rhodes told the others. ¡°Let¡¯s go. We can make the Duster out here¡..¡±
He climbed up the nearest rise. The hollow behind it wasn¡¯t big enough for a Duster.
He got as far as the upper slope. He didn¡¯t even make it to the top before another shot from one of the base ships smashed into him with almighty force.
He hit the ground with a brutal thump. His head swam for a second and he wavered out of consciousness for a minute.
When he came back to his senses, Rhinehart¡¯s face hovered in front of Rhodes¡¯s eyes. Rhinehart yelled in Rhodes¡¯s face, but Rhodes couldn¡¯t hear anything.
Fisher hovered there, too. He kept fizzing out in a tangle of grid lines, glitching, and stuttering from side to side.
He reformed a dozen times, changed back into a random squiggle of lines, and reformed, but only for a few seconds before he glitched again.
In those few seconds when Rhodes could see Fisher clearly, he saw Fisher¡¯s mouth moving. A scratchy sound came out of the image. Rhodes caught random words here and there, but they got lost in the static.
¡°Fisher¡..¡± Rhodes croaked.
Fisher stuttered sideways and made eye contact with Rhodes for a split second before Fisher¡¯s grid lines scrambled again.
Fisher¡¯s eyebrows raised and his mouth moved rapidly like he was trying desperately to tell Rhodes something important.
¡°Fisher¡.¡± Rhodes stammered again. ¡°Fisher¡.what¡¯s wrong?¡±
Rhodes already knew what was wrong. That laser must have damaged Rhodes¡¯s implants. Fisher was malfunctioning.
Cold dread seized Rhodes¡¯s heart. He couldn¡¯t function without Fisher. Rhodes had become dependent on his SAM as a confidante and companion more than anything else.
Rhodes had also become dependent on Fisher¡¯s information. Fisher could access so much more information through The Grid than Rhodes could.
Fisher relieved Rhodes from a hundred responsibilities a day. Fisher¡¯s assessment of every situation had become as valuable or more to Rhodes than his own opinion. He¡¯d come to trust Fisher in ways Rhodes never thought possible.
He had to get Fisher back at all costs, but he couldn¡¯t do that here. Rhodes couldn¡¯t even hear Rhinehart. The damaged interface must be interfering with Rhodes¡¯s hearing, too.
Rhinehart kept pushing his face in front of Rhodes¡¯s eyes and yelling silently. Rhodes read the same desperate panic in Rhinehart¡¯s face. Rhodes wouldn¡¯t be able to do anything without Fisher.
Rhinehart glanced around the hollow and his features hardened. He was the last one still functioning normally¡ªbesides Dietz.
Rhinehart pinched his lips, narrowed his eyes, and raised his head to look over the hilltop toward the battle. Rhodes read his expression as plain as day, but Rhodes couldn¡¯t help Rhinehart.
Rhodes¡¯s brain kept fading out. Each blur coincided with Fisher turning back into squiggly tangled grid lines. Both malfunctions cleared at the same time, but each episode only lasted a few seconds before the system glitched out again.
Rhodes hauled himself off the ground with an effort. He tried to speak again, but his brain wouldn¡¯t connect.
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He pointed toward the east. He tried to link one thought to another. The Ero was over there. Then he pointed at Rhinehart and east again.
He wanted Rhinehart to use his boosters to fly over there and get help. Rhodes couldn¡¯t think of any other solution.
He couldn¡¯t manipulate the grid lines well enough to help anyone. He didn¡¯t trust himself to fly anywhere, much less hold a shape long enough to keep the battalion alive.
Rhinehart shook his head, turned away, and said something to Dietz and Fuentes. Rhodes¡¯s thoughts went fuzzy again. He couldn¡¯t think clearly enough to understand what Rhinehart was saying or deciding on behalf of the whole battalion.
It didn¡¯t matter as long as someone took over.
Rhinehart pointed at different people. He ignored Rhodes while Rhinehart gave orders to Dietz and Fuentes. They went through the group rounding everyone up.
Rhinehart slung Lauer¡¯s body over his shoulder. Dietz and Fuentes pulled Oakes, Thackery, and Coulter to their feet.
Fuentes tried to pick up Henshaw and failed. Dietz pushed him out of the way, picked her up himself, and slung Henshaw over his shoulder, too.
Rhinehart, Dietz, and Fuentes herded everyone out of the hollow and headed up the slope. Oakes, Thackery, and Coulter stumbled and fell over a lot. The others had to stop and pick them up.
Rhodes tried to get his brain working well enough to get to his feet. Fuentes came over to him and put out his arm to help Rhodes up.
Rhinehart climbed to the top of the slope carrying Lauer and guiding Oakes in front of him. Rhinehart steered everyone southeast¡ªaway from the battle.
Rhodes floundered to his feet, but before he could move, a Viper spiraled out of the atmosphere from somewhere beyond sight. It hammered into the ground twenty yards from Oakes and Rhinehart.
Both men toppled from the impact and the shockwave knocked everyone off their feet.
Rhodes pitched across the ground. He barely hauled his senses into focus long enough to see a Legion Ravager plummeting out of the atmosphere.
Catastrophic laser fire from the Emal base ships pounded the Ravager from the high clouds all the way to the ground.
Those shots deflected off the Ravager¡¯s hull and spiked into the hills surrounding the battalion.
Rhodes tumbled over himself trying to orient his mind. Rhinehart. Rhinehart was the only person who could get everyone out of this.
Rhodes couldn¡¯t stand up under the continuous bombardment. He could barely see straight.
He took advantage of brief flashes of lucidity to crawl out of the hollow to where Rhinehart lay.
Oakes and Lauer sprawled on the grass. Rhodes couldn¡¯t take the time to check on everyone else.
Rhodes rolled Rhinehart over. Most of his facial implants had been smashed in even worse than Lauer¡¯s. Rhinehart didn¡¯t respond. Rhodes couldn¡¯t access the interface to see if Rocky was still online or not.
Rhodes looked up just long enough to check the state of battle. He had to get to the Ero.
He had to get someone¡ªanyone on the Legion side to come and bail out the battalion. They couldn¡¯t survive out here much longer.
In that moment when he raised his head to look around, another ship pelted out of the mayhem. It came from the north¡ªout of the thickest chaos over the battle lines.
Fisher took that moment to fade out into squiggly lines again. When he reformed into his own face, another SAM floated in front of Rhodes¡¯s eyes. It was Rio.
Rio studied Rhodes with deep interest. Rio¡¯s mouth moved, too, but Rhodes couldn¡¯t hear anything.
Rhodes blinked¡..and another SAM materialized on The Grid in front of his eyes. He couldn¡¯t concentrate on the battle with all these SAMs getting in his face.
He needed to concentrate on the battle to find a way to get the battalion to the west side of town, but right then, another person stuck his head in front of Rhodes¡¯s eyes. It was Dietz. Rhodes had completely forgotten about him.
Dietz tried to yell at Rhodes, too, but Rhodes couldn¡¯t hear a thing except the confused jumble coming from Fisher.
Without asking permission, Dietz grabbed Rhodes and dragged him out of the hollow by main force.
Rhodes became aware of everyone else in the battalion lying on the ground. Some of them moved. None of them stood up. Dietz was the last man standing.
Rhodes stumbled, but Dietz didn¡¯t let him go. Dietz dragged Rhodes out into the open¡ªright into the path of Emal bombardment.
Rhodes went into another panic thinking Dietz was either trying to kill him or leaving the rest of the battalion behind.
Rhodes¡¯s brain didn¡¯t function well enough to understand until the strange ship touched down in front of him. It was one of the battalion¡¯s Strikers.
Dietz muscled Rhodes to the ship. Rhodes¡¯s limbs didn¡¯t function well enough for him to climb into the cockpit.
Dietz wound up grabbing Rhodes around the ribcage with both arms, lifting him up, and physically dumping him into the seat.
Dietz yanked Rhodes where he wanted Rhodes to go and shoved Rhodes down into the cockpit. Last of all, Dietz seized Rhodes by the face and jammed his head back against the prong that locked him into the seat.
A blast of electric power smashed Rhodes in the head¡ªand his thoughts cleared. The volume switched back on. The tangled grid lines covering Fisher¡¯s face disappeared.
¡°I¡¯m contacting the other Strikers,¡± Rio reported. ¡°They¡¯re coming in to collect the rest of the battalion.¡±
Rhodes sighed in relief. ¡°Thank you so much, Rio. You don¡¯t know how good it is to see you.¡± He turned to Fisher. ¡°Are you okay, pal? I¡¯m so glad you¡¯re back.¡±
¡°I¡¯m okay now, Captain. Your Grid is still malfunctioning, but you¡¯ll be able to fly. You just won¡¯t be able to transform the ship or yourself.¡±
¡°I don¡¯t care as long as we get out of here.¡± Rhodes activated The Grid¡ªor maybe Rio did it for him. ¡°Will we be able to correct the other SAMs¡¯ malfunctions by interfacing with their Strikers?¡±
¡°We can only try it,¡± Rio replied. ¡°Here they come.¡±
Four more Strikers swooped out of the night. They had to wheel backward to shoot at the Emal before the Strikers came in to land.
Rhodes felt fine now¡ªor fine enough to get the hell out of here.
He scrambled to the ground and helped Dietz load Oakes, Fuentes, Thackery, and Coulter into their ships. The Striker SAMs interfaced with Rhodes so he could give them orders to take everyone back to the Ero.
The rest of the Striker formation hovered over the city trying to fight their way through the bombardment to get near the battalion.
The first four ships blasted into the cloud and disappeared. Rhodes checked the state of battle.
The Emal were still far enough away, but the base ships kept targeting the Strikers to stop them from flying that far behind the enemy line.
The next four had to back across the planes unloading all their firepower on the Emal position.
Even then, the four Strikers could only inch backward one painstaking step at a time before they made it to the hollow.
Two Strikers touched down. The other two stayed airborne to defend what was left of the battalion.
Rhodes and Dietz hauled Henshaw and Lauer to their ships. Neither of them revived when Rhodes locked them into the prongs.
Those two took off and stood guard with Rio while the last two Strikers landed.
Rhodes and Dietz had to work together to drag Rhinehart into the cockpit. He weighed a ton and Dietz wasn¡¯t the biggest guy in the world.
They finally locked Rhinehart in. ¡°Go!¡± Rhodes told Dietz. ¡°Get on board and get out of here! Get back to the Ero!¡±
¡°What about you?¡± Dietz asked.
¡°I¡¯m coming right behind you! Go!¡±
Rhodes pushed Dietz away. He took off running for his Striker, dove into the cockpit, and blasted away with the others.
Rio came back down, picked up Rhodes, and another wave of relief flooded him when he locked in with his SAMs.
¡°The base ships are targeting the city again,¡± Fisher reported. ¡°They aren¡¯t targeting the battalion anymore.¡±
¡°Why not? Is the Legion putting up any defense?¡±
¡°Not an effective one. They¡¯re¡..¡±
At that moment, a different weapon hit Rio from behind. The Striker made it as far as the city¡¯s eastern fringes¡ªright over the Legion position.
Dietz¡¯s Striker, Baron, Rhinehart¡¯s Striker, Zion, and Lauer¡¯s Striker, Elio, flew right in front of Rio.
Rhodes dropped into The Grid to check what the Emal were doing. He didn¡¯t see a thing before what looked like a net of forked lightning hit Rio in the tail.
The blast crackled all around the ship and The Grid shorted out. Rhodes had half a second to see the same net surround the other Strikers. Then everything shut down and he blacked out.
End of Chapter 43.
Battalion 1: Book 1: Chapter 44
Rhodes woke up lying on his back in some dark, shadowy chamber. Distant slams echoed in the darkness.
He made the mistake at first of thinking he was waking up after a long conversion cycle. He tried to raise his arm, but he couldn¡¯t move.
The feeling of being restrained sent him into another wave of panic. He struggled against whatever was holding him down, but he couldn¡¯t lift his arms, his legs, or even his head. He could turn his head, but he couldn¡¯t pick it up off the surface beneath him.
He looked around in frantic desperation¡ªand saw the rest of the battalion lying on tables. They formed a line on either side of him¡.and then Rhodes saw a bunch of Emal wandering around.
They passed back and forth between the tables doing something or other. The aliens murmured to each other in their own language. Their eyes gleamed out of the darkness when they turned in Rhodes¡¯s direction.
The rest of Rhodes¡¯s companions turned their heads to look at him. They were all awake now, including Lauer and Henshaw.
Wires still hung out of the open ragged hole of Lauer¡¯s mechanical eye socket. The other side of his face¡ªthe human side of his face¡ªregistered all the panic Rhodes felt right now.
Rhinehart struggled the most, but not even he could break whatever invisible force held him down.
Fisher and the other SAMs were all back to full functioning. ¡°What the hell happened?¡± Rhodes husked.
¡°The Emal captured us,¡± Fisher replied. ¡°They used some kind of electric discharge to ground Rio and the other Strikers.¡±
¡°Are they okay? Are the SAMs okay?¡±
¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± Fisher murmured. ¡°I can¡¯t interface with them. I don¡¯t know what happened to them. We hit the ground and the interface failed. I came back online here. You and the rest of the battalion were already here, restrained.¡±
¡°We gotta get out of here¡.¡±
¡°We don¡¯t even know where we are,¡± Fisher pointed out.
¡°We must still be on Sulia. We must be on one of the Emal¡¯s base ships.¡±
¡°I assumed that, but we can¡¯t be sure. I can¡¯t use The Grid outside this room.¡±
Rhodes tried to use The Grid, too, and ran into the same problem. ¡°What do the Emal want from us?¡±
¡°Based on the way they were acting during the first battle, I¡¯d say they¡¯re interested in your implants. Here they come. I think we¡¯re about to find out.¡±
A few Emal came over to Rhodes, discussed something amongst themselves, and then one of them fingered the implants on his face.
He jerked away from their touch, but the other two Emal seized his head and held him still while that one alien explored the implant all the way to the edge of his skin.
He struggled, but the Emal turned out to be a lot stronger than they looked. He couldn¡¯t put up much resistance lying flat on his back. They held his head easily.
¡°Leave him alone!¡± Rhinehart bellowed. ¡°Get away from him!¡±
His outburst drew the Emal¡¯s attention to him. They turned away from Rhodes and surrounded Rhinehart¡¯s bed instead.
He panicked for real when they started touching him. ¡°GET YOUR HANDS OFF ME, YOU STINKING BASTARDS!!¡± he roared. ¡°GET AWAY FROM ME!!¡±
They ignored him, held him down, and he burst into high-pitched, broken screams when they touched his implants.
¡°Lieutenant!¡± Rhodes called out. ¡°Lieutenant¡ªlook at me!¡±
Rhinehart couldn¡¯t look with the Emal holding his head straight.
¡°I¡¯m here, Lieutenant!¡± Rhodes yelled. ¡°I¡¯m here!¡± He turned to Rocky in the interface. ¡°You have to calm him down! His adrenaline levels could cause another malfunction.¡±
Rocky was already trying to reassure Rhinehart, but it all went south when the Emal stepped back, held another murmured discussion, and then bent over Rhinehart again.
This time, they tried to wedge their fingers under his implants and pry them out of his skin. He screeched in pain and then burst into mindless, wordless roaring.
One Emal leaned directly over his head trying to dig its fingernails under the implant. Rhinehart fought back as best he could. The aliens completely ignored his screams.
Thackery compressed her lips to stop them from trembling and turned her head away gulping down sobs.
Henshaw lost it completely, burst into tears, and she started screaming, too, just from the sight of what they were doing to Rhinehart.
Rocky kept trying to talk to Rhinehart, but not even Rhodes could hear Rocky over the noise.
The Emal failed to get the implant off. That one alien stood back and held another long, detailed conversation with his colleagues.
Rhinehart collapsed on the table and broke down in sobs. Blood trickled from his implant and ran down both sides of his face.
¡°I¡¯m here with you, Lieutenant,¡± Rhodes choked. ¡°We¡¯re all here with you. You aren¡¯t alone.¡±
Rhodes didn¡¯t know what else to say, but he had to say something. If the Emal really wanted to take the battalion¡¯s implants, Rhodes wouldn¡¯t be able to do a thing to stop it.
He couldn¡¯t let this happen. He had to do something.
¡°You gotta help me, Fisher,¡± Rhodes husked.
¡°What would you like me to do?¡± Fisher murmured back.
¡°We have to get out of here. You said you couldn¡¯t use The Grid outside this room. See if you can figure out how they¡¯re restraining us.¡±
¡°These tables emit some kind of electromagnetic field. The power source is under the floor and enters the table from underneath, so there are no exposed wires or anything like that.¡±
¡°Then we have to defeat this field. Can you locate the power source?¡±
¡°It isn¡¯t in this room. I¡¯m sorry, Captain. I¡¯ll do what I can to¡.¡±
He broke off when a different group of Emal came over back to Rhodes. His stomach turned when one of the aliens laid out a bunch of shiny metal tools on a tray next to his head.
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Oakes turned his head in Rhodes¡¯s direction and strained his neck like Oakes was trying to get up. He barely had time to say, ¡°Captain¡.¡± before the Emal bent over Rhodes, grabbed their tools, and wedged them between his chest implant and the organic flesh of his lower rib cage.
He roared in pain and then just let himself scream as they pried, cut, and dug into his flesh and bones trying to unseat the implants from his body.
He felt himself starting to break down. He couldn¡¯t take this.
He heard Fisher trying to talk to him in the distance, but Rhodes couldn¡¯t hear Fisher over his own screams. Ripping pain spiked through Rhodes¡¯s body.
He had a flashback of Poole¡¯s death. Rhodes actually envied Poole then. What a fool Rhodes had been even to think that.
Without warning, another brutal crack of electricity went off somewhere. It hit Rhodes in the head exactly the way it did when Fisher shut down Fuentes, but it didn¡¯t knock Rhodes out.
The Emal standing over him folded right there and hit the floor, unconscious. Their tools fell out of their hands and clattered on the hard stone floor.
Rhodes collapsed back gasping and groaning in agony. His body writhed in torment. He couldn¡¯t move even to roll onto his side. He just had to take it.
¡°Captain!¡± Fisher yelled in his ear. ¡°Captain¡ªcan you hear me?¡±
Rhodes couldn¡¯t answer right away. He blinked stars out of his eyes while he struggled to catch his breath. Searing pain kept spiking across his ribs every time he inhaled. He didn¡¯t dare to use The Grid to check how bad the damage was.
A bunch of other Emal came over, bent over their fallen comrades, and murmured to each other. They gestured at Rhodes and then at their unconscious friends.
Rhodes heard his people yelling at him and demanding to know if he was okay. The SAMs did the same thing.
He caught his breath while the Emal carried their friends away. ¡°What did you do, Fisher?¡± Wild asked.
¡°I set off an electric discharge from the captain¡¯s fusion generator. I electrocuted the Emal. You should do the same thing. If they try to remove anyone¡¯s implants, electrocute the Emal to protect yourselves. We can¡¯t let these aliens even try to remove anyone¡¯s implants.¡±
¡°I should have thought of that,¡± Rocky murmured.
Fisher interfaced with Rocky. ¡°I¡¯m not detecting any permanent damage to Rhinehart¡¯s implants. The wounds around his eye implant will heal, but the captain is right. We have to get out of here.¡±
¡°How?¡± Oakes asked.
Fisher turned back to Rhodes. ¡°The captain¡¯s injuries are much more severe.¡±
No one asked for a more detailed explanation. Neither did Rhodes.
¡°Could we use a discharge from our fusion generators to short-circuit these tables?¡± Coulter asked.
¡°I don¡¯t think these tables are conductive enough for that,¡± Fisher replied.
¡°We could try it,¡± Henshaw suggested.
¡°I already checked when I set off this charge just now,¡± Fisher told her. ¡°The current doesn¡¯t pass through the table.¡±
¡°How does the field hold us down?¡± Thackery asked. ¡°What¡¯s emitting the field?¡±
¡°I don¡¯t understand it. Believe me. I¡¯m as anxious to get the battalion out of here as you are.¡±
¡°If we¡¯re on one of the base ships, then we¡¯re close enough to the Legion,¡± Lauer pointed out. ¡°We can get off this ship and get across the planes to Thaklia. That¡¯s all we have to do.¡±
¡°The problem is getting off the ship,¡± Thackery replied. ¡°Assuming we¡¯re on a base ship on the same planet.¡±
Rhodes pulled himself together as well as he could. ¡°If we keep electrocuting the Emal, they¡¯ll either leave us here or try to kill us to get rid of us. They only captured us for our implants.¡±
The rest of his people turned to look at him. He read in their faces how bad his injuries must be. He might not survive long enough to get off this ship¡ªif the battalion was even on a ship.
¡°We need to come up with another plan,¡± he told Fisher. ¡°Something other than electrocuting all the Emal.¡±
¡°Why not electrocute them all?¡± Coulter suggested. ¡°Then we¡¯d be alone on this ship. At least we would be safe and they wouldn¡¯t try to¡.¡±
He trailed off when more Emal came back¡ªa lot more Emal. They surrounded every table.
Rhodes panicked again when four of them leaned over his head. He saw their tools moving toward his facial implants and screams echoed down the line of tables.
Fisher let off another agonizing thump of electricity. The Emal standing closest to Rhodes fell to the floor, but just as fast, another group of Emal moved in to take their places.
These aliens wore some kind of protective suits. The suits covered the aliens¡¯ arms, bodies, and feet. The suits insulated them.
Fisher tried one last time to electrocute them, but nothing happened this time. Two Emal bent over Rhodes¡¯s face and wedged their tools between his eye implant and his nose.
He screamed himself hoarse. So did everyone else. Pain flooded him and he spiraled out of his mind. He couldn¡¯t think about what the Emal were doing to him and his people.
His eye implant started to pull away from his skull. He thrashed in brutal agony even though he knew it wouldn¡¯t do any good.
At that moment, a ray of blinding sunshine shafted through the ceiling directly above his head. It split the shadows and all the Emal looked up.
At that moment, Rio appeared on the interface in front of Rhodes¡¯s eyes. ¡°Hold on, Captain! We¡¯re getting you out of here!¡±
Rhodes was too out of his mind with pain to answer. Another slash of sunshine split the ceiling open and then a huge section of it peeled back to reveal the broad sky outside.
The Emal panicked, spun away from all the prisoners, and tried to race out of the room. None of the aliens were armed.
Rhodes caught one glimpse of the battalion¡¯s Strikers swooping back and forth across the sky out there. They unleashed lasers and thermal cannons on the ceiling to carve it to pieces.
Without warning, some bizarre shape like a giant spider dropped out of nowhere, slammed into the ceiling, and used its many jointed legs to rip torn hull sections out of the way.
Rhodes realized in some distant part of his mind that he really was on some kind of ship. He was on the planet Sulia¡ªright outside Thaklia where the Emal captured the battalion in the first place.
The spider thing ripped the whole ceiling off and daylight blasted into the chamber. The Emal located their laser rifles somewhere and opened fire on the creature.
The monster¡¯s many arms sprouted weapons and fired into the chamber to gun the Emal down.
Rhodes experienced another wave of panic when the creature leapt right down inside the ship.
Rio read his mind. ¡°It¡¯s Elio, Captain! He¡¯s going to get you all out. Just hold on!¡±
The monster stormed through the chamber hunting down all the Emal. Something wasn¡¯t working right inside Rhodes¡¯s head. The Emal trying to tear his facial implant off must have damaged him. He was malfunctioning again.
¡°Hold on, Captain!¡± Fisher told him. ¡°We¡¯re going to take you to the Ero. The crew will be able to give you medical treatment.¡±
Rhodes didn¡¯t want to believe that. He couldn¡¯t cope with any more disasters today.
He couldn¡¯t tell which of these sensations were caused by his pain or which might be his implants malfunctioning. Nothing made sense even though he could understand everything going on around him.
The alien monster came back on all its legs and stopped next to Lauer¡¯s table. Grid lines covered the monster, but it didn¡¯t change into a person or a ship. It was neither.
Lauer bellowed in pain when the monster tried to lift off the table. Elio couldn¡¯t dislodge Lauer from the table no matter how hard Elio tried.
¡°Pull back!¡± Rio ordered. ¡°Bombard the base ship from the outside! Elio¡ªyou have to find some controls to release the field.¡±
Elio stormed through the chamber doing something Rhodes couldn¡¯t see. He heard crashes out of sight and then, like some kind of miracle, the field holding him down evaporated.
He tried to sit up, but he couldn¡¯t move. Groaning and sobbing sounds drifted down the line of tables.
Elio came back, planted himself next to Lauer¡¯s table, and picked up Lauer¡¯s body in the monster¡¯s many jointed arms.
Lauer hung limp and bleeding while Elio vaulted through the hole, perched there on the ragged edge of torn metal, and changed back into a ship, but with multiple arms still cradling Lauer.
Elio lowered him into the cockpit. The cover closed and Rhodes lost sight of Lauer.
The other Strikers came down to land one after another. Elio¡¯s Grid turned him back into the same monster.
He sprang down into the chamber again and again, lifted each member of the battalion out of the base ship, and deposited each person into their own Striker cockpits.
¡°I¡¯m coming to get you, Captain!¡± Rio told him. ¡°We¡¯re getting you out of here.¡±
Rhodes couldn¡¯t move. He was too grateful and relieved to see all his people leave one after another.
Elio delivered Rhinehart to Zion and then Rio landed on the base ship¡¯s upper hull. Elio jumped down and scooped up Rhodes in his arms.
Rhodes finally relaxed. He was almost free. He didn¡¯t even have to fly the damn ship. Rio would do it for him.
Rio would take Rhodes back to the Ero. Rhodes really didn¡¯t care anymore what happened after that.
Elio sprang out of the hole. Rhodes was the last member of the battalion to escape.
Elio put him in the cockpit and the prongs locked onto Rhodes¡¯s back and head. He dropped into The Grid and saw the whole battle in every gruesome detail.
The Emal had invaded Thaklia. The ragged dregs of the surviving platoons fought street to street, but they couldn¡¯t slow the aliens¡¯ advance.
The next instant, Rio launched into the sky and took off with Rhodes on board. The Strikers left the battle behind and rocketed away westward to where the Ero sat waiting for them.
End of Book 1. Book 2 starts on Friday. Keep reading!
Battalion 1: Book 2: Chapter 1
Captain Corban Rhodes dragged his vision into focus just enough to see his Striker plunging through the destroyed buildings of a crumbling city.
Massive laser shots struck the few remaining buildings still standing. They pulverized in front of his eyes.
His Striker had to weave back and forth to avoid sprays of falling rubble and pinwheeling wall sections blown out of place.
Rhodes tried to take the controls¡ªbut this ship didn¡¯t have any controls. Grid lines surrounded his cockpit, covered the ship, and the same grid lines covered him, too.
Two faces hovered in front of his eyes. A bird-like composite of human, animal, and some cartoonish monster hung off on the right side. It talked rapidly to a round, cheery face in the center of Rhodes¡¯s view.
¡°The 249th Platoon is taking up a position between the central business district and the botanical gardens,¡± the first face announced. ¡°Watch out, Rio! You¡¯re going to fly into the Dusters!¡±
¡°I see them,¡± Rio replied. ¡°Interface with the Ero and tell them we¡¯re coming in fast.¡±
¡°The Ero already knows we¡¯re coming! Oakes is in trouble! He¡¯s cut off by laser fire!¡±
Rhodes summoned all his strength to get his voice working. ¡°Fisher¡¡¡±
The bird face turned toward him. ¡°You¡¯re losing blood, Captain. I¡¯m accessing The Grid to slow it down, but I can¡¯t alter your basic organics. We just have to get through the battle and rendezvous with the Ero.¡±
¡°Don¡¯t leave without Oakes,¡± Rhodes husked. ¡°Don¡¯t leave anyone behind.¡±
¡°Hold on!¡± Rio yelled and swerved to dodge another exploding building.
His grid lines stretched and morphed into different shapes, took the form of a many-legged spider monster, and he bounded off the ground.
He flattened dozens of aliens underfoot, launched himself at another building, vaulted off its side wall, and headed north.
¡°You can¡¯t get to the Ero that way, Rio!¡± Fisher snapped.
¡°I¡¯m not going to the Ero! I¡¯m trying to help Oakes.¡±
¡°Where are the others?¡± Rhodes asked.
Fisher adjusted The Grid so Rhodes could see everything more clearly. He should have been the one flying this ship, but he was too injured even to raise his arms.
The Grid pivoted and angled downward to give Rhodes an aerial view of the city of Thaklia.
The Emal had penetrated the city from the east, spread through the streets, and worked building by building to hunt down any Aemon Legion platoons still fighting out there.
The soldiers didn¡¯t try anymore to hold the city against the Emal invasion. That would be impossible.
The soldiers just focused on defending themselves while they retreated westward in the direction from which they¡¯d come.
They had their work cut out for them avoiding massive concussions coming from Emal base ships parked on the planes east of town.
The Grid showed Rhodes eight other Strikers zooming through the wrecked landscape. Each ship carried a member of Battalion 1.
Rhodes interfaced with their SAMs. Everyone in the battalion was as injured as he was¡ªor worse.
None of them flew their own ships. The SAMs did everything trying their damnedest to fly the group to safety.
Rio picked up speed trying to intercept Lieutenant Ted Oakes. His Striker Enoch had gotten hit by base gunfire, knocked down, and the Emal swarmed all over the ship.
Enoch¡¯s grid lines changed rapidly from one shape to another trying to fight off all the Emal, but they overran him.
He changed into another spider creature like the one Elio used to break into the Emal base ship to rescue the battalion.
Enoch snatched Emal bodies away, sent them twirling off into the mayhem, and weapons erupted from all his limbs, but the Emal still got the better of him.
The aliens climbed on top of him and fired their lasers into his outer housing to cut him to pieces. He changed into a giant spraying lasers from all sides.
All his efforts only seemed to draw more Emal to pull him down. He even tried to fire his boosters to launch away from the planet¡¯s surface.
The base ships instantly turned their guns on him, blasted out another building right on top of him, and rock and deadly shards hammered Enoch from above.
The explosion hit plenty of Emal, too, but they didn¡¯t seem to care. They stepped on their dead and wounded comrades and used the piles of bodies to climb on top of him.
Rio interfaced with Enoch. The SAM¡¯s rugged bear face kept morphing, stretching, and undulating as The Grid changed around him.
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The Grid formed the bear¡¯s body, but that kept changing every few seconds, too, each time Enoch tried a different shape to overcome the Emal.
¡°We¡¯re coming for you, Enoch!¡± Rio told him. ¡°We¡¯re on our way!¡±
Enoch roared in fury. Oakes didn¡¯t respond at all. He slumped in his cockpit resting his chin on his chest. He had his eyes closed.
Blood saturated his hair and ran down his neck. Seeing Oakes and Enoch in danger snapped Rhodes back to his senses. He had to do something, but Rio was already doing it fast enough for both of them.
The grid lines surrounding the ship morphed again. The Emal must have detected Rio getting closer. The base ships swiveled their laser bombardment in his direction.
Another building evaporated in smoke and dust to Rio¡¯s left. He bounded off the ground and soared away to another launch point, only for the base ships to hit a different building right in front of him.
This one blocked Rio¡¯s path to catch up with Enoch. Rio would have had to fly around this building to help Enoch. The building detonated in a whizzing fireball of outward pelting shards and debris.
Rio changed his grid lines again, sprang down onto the ground on bouncy cat legs, morphed into another armored vehicle, smashed straight into the wreckage, plowed through it, and burst out on the other side next to Enoch.
The Grid in front of Rhodes¡¯s eyes showed him Battalion 1¡¯s other Strikers converging on the spot from all over Thaklia. They would get here any second.
Each ship changed shape at blinding speed. Their grid lines morphed and adapted in seconds.
Each Striker extended their wings to soar over obstacles, collapsed into wingless missiles, stretched, compressed, grew different kinds of limbs, changed their weapons configurations, and went through a dozen other transformations with every phase of the battle.
The Strikers¡¯ presence electrified the Emal. Thousands of aliens all over the city stopped hunting down the Legion platoons and came after the battalion instead.
The Grid flashed alerts as mobs of Emal flooded to the spot. ¡°We have to get out of here, Rio,¡± Rhodes husked. ¡°We can¡¯t let the Emal recapture us.¡±
¡°I know, Captain!¡± Rio called over the noise. ¡°I¡¯m working on it.¡±
¡°Let me help you. I can help you.¡±
¡°I¡¯m sorry, Captain, but you can¡¯t do anything,¡± Fisher interrupted. ¡°We can¡¯t risk your injuries causing Rio to malfunction. Just hold on a little longer. We¡¯ll get you out. We¡¯ll get everyone out.¡±
Rhodes didn¡¯t want to just sit here doing nothing, but of course his SAMs were right. The battalion¡¯s injuries caused the SAMs to malfunction earlier. None of them could risk it happening again.
The SAMs fought the battle just fine on their own. Rio blasted through the building¡¯s eastern wall, twisted back into a Striker, and whizzed over the Emal¡¯s heads. He laid down a carpet of scourge gun fire, but he couldn¡¯t hit so many teeming aliens.
He didn¡¯t try to hit them. His arrival distracted them away from Enoch and left a tiny space between Enoch and the building behind him.
¡°Get out, Enoch!¡± Rio called. ¡°Fall back to the Ero!¡±
Enoch bellowed again, flailed his grid lines in all directions, and changed them into whipping lasers to slash the Emal away.
He cut bodies to pieces and sent them flying to free himself from the hordes clambering all over him.
As soon as he cleared them off, he rocketed into the air, changed himself into a Viper missile, and shrieked high into the atmosphere carrying Oakes with him.
The rest of the battalion converged on the spot, but once they got there, the gunfire got too thick.
¡°Everybody get out and scatter!¡± Fisher ordered. ¡°We¡¯re drawing too many Emal. They know about us. We need to separate so they don¡¯t target any of us.¡±
The other SAMs launched into the high cloud and left the city behind, but that only gave everyone a view of the bloodbath going on in the streets.
The Grid showed up perfectly the Emal maneuvering Legion platoons into bottlenecks where the platoons couldn¡¯t escape.
The Emal carried out a systematic campaign to hunt down every platoon and eliminate the soldiers with deadly accuracy.
The base ships out on the planes turned their fire back on the streets. The Emal bombarded the platoons one after another and flattened every building to deprive the platoons of any cover.
The platoons retreated from one building to another. The platoons held each line of defense for a few minutes. That was the best they could do before the base ships¡¯ bombardment and the steady advance of Emal ground troops drove the Legion farther back.
The base ships stayed where they were on the planes. They didn¡¯t need to advance any further to wreak as much destruction as they needed to.
Now the alien hordes moved in to sweep the city clear of any last Legion stragglers. Explosions burst in the dark sky where Emal lasers detonated Legion Dusters and Predators fighter craft.
Those explosions cast a ghostly light over the landscape crumbling to ruin as far as the eye could see. Bodies of Legion soldiers got trapped in the rubble.
The Grid highlighted their failing life signs in ways Rhodes never got to see on the ground. Some of those soldiers were still alive. No one would ever rescue them the way the Battalion 1 project rescued him.
The Strikers blasted skyward and left the battle behind, but only for a minute. The Strikers had to descend to rendezvous with the Ero and the other Ravagers parked west of the city.
Rio, Elio, Enoch, Titan, Zion, Stone, Aries, and Teo slowed there in the high atmosphere. Each Striker used his Grid to change back into a ship.
Dozens of Legion vessels surrounded the planet Sulia to carry out the campaign of defending this planet against the Emal invasion.
The SAMs interfaced with each other. The Grid showed Rhodes more than he wanted to know about the injuries each of his people suffered as Emal prisoners.
Lieutenant Dane Rhinehart spoke the words they were all thinking. ¡°We can¡¯t just leave them down there. We have to help them retreat out of danger.¡±
¡°We can¡¯t help them,¡± Wild rasped. ¡°Every Emal battle zone turns into this. They¡¯re all the same on every planet where the Legion tries to resist the Emal invasion.¡±
¡°We¡¯re supposed to help the Legion,¡± Rhinehart pointed out. ¡°We can¡¯t just run away to save our own necks. Only cowards do that.¡±
¡°We can¡¯t even save ourselves,¡± Alyssa Thackery told him. ¡°We barely made it out alive. If we don¡¯t go now, we could all die. Then we won¡¯t be able to help anyone.¡±
¡°I¡¯m with Rhinehart on this,¡± Rhodes chimed in. ¡°We¡¯re already here. The nine of us might not be good for much, but our Strikers can still fight back. Come on. We gotta do something.¡±
¡°What did you have in mind, Captain?¡± Fisher asked.
¡°The Emal are fascinated by us. They want more than anything to recapture us. We can make them fall back to try to get us¡ªor at least get them to divert away from the platoons while the soldiers retreat the rest of the way to the Ravagers.¡±
¡°That won¡¯t work, Captain,¡± Rocky interjected. ¡°The Legion has never pulled the platoons from a planet this quickly, not even in the face overwhelming Emal numbers. A diversion like that might give the platoons a chance to retreat, but the Legion won¡¯t evacuate them off the surface. The Legion will set up here to fight the Emal and try to retake the city. The Legion never gives up on a planet until they¡¯ve spent at least a month trying to retake it.¡±
Rhodes sighed. He already knew all that. He¡¯d been involved in too many campaigns against the Emal before.
He glanced over at Rhinehart through the interface. Rhinehart glanced at Rhodes at the same time. Rhodes read the same truth in Rhinehart¡¯s twisted expression.
Every member of the battalion was bleeding. Oakes and Lauer were barely hanging onto life.
In that moment, Rhodes¡¯s adrenaline faded enough for him to feel the sickening pain in his chest. He shivered and then started trembling.
Rio must have detected the same thing. He said, ¡°Let¡¯s go,¡± and turned away.
End of Chapter 1.
Battalion 1 Book 2: Chapter 2
The Battalion 1 Striker group fell in formation, swooped farther west clear of the battle, and dropped low to skim closer to the ground. They blasted across the countryside approaching the Ravager carries parked west of Thaklia.
Rio interfaced with the Ero bridge staff to alert the ship that the battalion was coming in. ¡°We have critically injured crewmen on board. We¡¯ll need medical personnel to meet us in the landing bay.¡±
Rhodes started to shut his eyes. The Ero medical staff wouldn¡¯t be able to help the battalion. The only option was to ship Rhodes and his people back to Coleridge Station.
That meant an eight-week conversion cycle before any of them found someone qualified to treat their injuries. Would any of the battalion survive that trip?
Rhodes was really starting to look forward to dying during a conversion cycle. A harsh, snapping, male voice brought him back to reality with a jolt.
¡°You can¡¯t just abandon those platoons out there to die, Captain! I demand that you go back out there and give them cover while they retreat out of the city.¡±
Rhodes had to summon all his effort to haul his heavy eyelids open. A man¡¯s face hovered in front of him on The Grid.
Rhodes went through another torturous thought process before he placed the bushy eyebrows, the lined face, and the deep scowl glaring at him from The Grid. It was Captain Parker Ackerman, Captain of the Ero.
His face hung there between Fisher and Rio in the middle of Rhodes¡¯s view, but of course the Ero captain didn¡¯t see the two SAMs.
Ackerman¡¯s image showed his neck, shoulders, and part of his chest, too. The image looked like something Rhodes would see if Ackerman had been talking to him through a regular Legion Ravager¡¯s communications system.
Rhodes gulped to get his parched through working. Maybe Ackerman could see what a mess Rhodes was right now.
¡°Did you hear my communication just now, Captain?¡± Rhodes asked. ¡°My whole party is injured¡ªbadly injured. We can¡¯t even fly our own ships and two of my men are unconscious. These computer programs are flying our ships. We can¡¯t go back to help the platoons. That¡¯s your job¡ªand the other Ravagers¡¯ jobs. Why don¡¯t you launch and give the platoons cover to retreat out of the city?¡±
Ackerman¡¯s face went through a series of conflicted expressions. His eyes dipped like he was looking down at Rhodes¡¯s body for the first time.
¡°Well¡.¡± he blustered. ¡°What¡¯s the point of you coming out here to fight for us if leave our troops without cover?¡±
Rhodes took a deep breath. The rest of the battalion listened to his conversation through the interface¡ªexcept for those members of the battalion who were unconscious. Even the SAMs listened.
¡°Are you under orders to evacuate the platoons? If I take my people back into danger, get the platoons out of Thaklia, and they make it back to the Ravagers, will you take them off the planet or will you keep them here to go on fighting?¡±
Rhodes knew the answer as soon as he said the words. Captain Ackerman¡¯s features spasmed in some new and creative directions.
His mouth twisted in strange shapes before he worked up the nerve to speak. ¡°I don¡¯t make command decisions about what the platoons do or don¡¯t do, Captain. You should know that.¡±
¡°I do know that. I also know that I¡¯m responsible for these people¡¯s lives. We barely survived getting captured by the Emal.¡±
Ackerman¡¯s jaw dropped. ¡°You got captured¡.by the Emal¡..?¡±
¡°We already pulled more than one diversion to give the platoons as much cover as we could. We risked everything and we still might lose some of our people. We¡¯re coming in.¡±
Rhodes manipulated The Grid to end the communication. He felt himself about to pass out, too.
He must have lost a lot of blood. Some of his internal organs or components might have gotten irreparably damaged when the Emal tried to remove his implants.
He barely managed to croak, ¡°Get us out of here, Rio,¡± and collapsed back in his seat. He couldn¡¯t keep his eyes open a second longer.
Rio didn¡¯t say a word. He turned back toward the Ero and picked up speed closing with the Ravager line.
The other Strikers followed. No one spoke. Rhodes couldn¡¯t look at The Grid anymore. It made him sick¡ªsicker than he already felt.
He really needed to put his foot down and refuse to take the battalion into battle ever again¡ªat least until the doctors and technicians worked out all the bugs in the system. This was getting ridiculous.
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What would it actually take¡ªsomeone getting killed? Oh, what the hell was Rhodes thinking? The Battalion 1 project already killed dozens of people.
Gannon, Poole, Cope, Taylor, and everyone else like them were already dead in this lunatic experiment. They were just as dead if they died in the lab as if they got killed on the battlefield.
All those considerations faded away when the Strikers approached the Ero. The ship would take the Strikers on board and Rhodes could forget about Sulia for the rest of his life.
The Emal would conquer this planet long before he and the battalion ever made it back to Coleridge Station. The war would be over¡ªor this part of it. He would never come back here.
He just had to get his people into their capsules. He didn¡¯t have to think beyond that. He couldn¡¯t think beyond that. Just accomplishing that one task looked like an impossible undertaking from here.
He wouldn¡¯t have been able to do it at all without Rio and the other Strikers. Some of the battalion would be too injured to walk to their capsules. How would Rhodes get them there? He sure as hell wouldn¡¯t be able to carry them¡ªnot in this condition.
Relief flooded him on the last approach to the Ero. Rio shrieked up on the Ravager line from behind and circled the Ero to enter the landing bay.
The launch doors sat open for the Ero crew to enter and exit. They worked on the ship, provided support to platoons and officers, set up the command dome behind the battle line, and carried out a dozen other functions to establish the Legion presence on this planet.
Rio flew within a dozen feet of the launch doors when a massive laser shot from an Emal base ship pivoted out of the city. The shot smashed the Ravager right next to the Ero.
In seconds, more punishing concussions slammed Ravagers up and down the line. The Emal bombardment hit both Ravagers on both sides of the Ero. A third shot struck the dirt right between the ship¡¯s landing gear.
The Ero toppled away. Rio was flying too fast and veered into one of the nearby explosions.
His grid lines skewed at the last possible second. He yelled a warning, but Rhodes couldn¡¯t make out the words.
The prongs locked him to the seat so he couldn¡¯t move. He would have been thrown hard against the cockpit dashboard by the impact.
Rio scattered into a jumble of grid lines and barely reformed into a ball before he hit the ground. Continuous explosions sent the ball rolling away from the attack.
Rhodes heard SAMs yelling all over the battlefield. The Ero corrected and launched to get out of danger, but it was only one of five of the original fleet of twenty that even made it off the ground.
Enoch and Titan had been in the farthest rear of the Striker group. They stayed Strikers, punched through raging firestorms, and streaked away into the atmosphere again.
Rio¡¯s grid lines expanded, straightened out into a long, thin, projectile, tumbled onto its end, and vaulted upward flying impossibly fast. These SAMs could manipulate The Grid so much faster and more easily than a person could.
He changed back into a Striker and whizzed away from the bombardment to rejoin the others.
Rio¡¯s face rotated from right to left in The Grid checking on the other SAMs. They talked to each other in a rapid barrage of orders and exchanged information.
All their voices got confused in Rhodes¡¯s mind. He couldn¡¯t concentrate well enough to distinguish what they were talking about.
So many SAMs talked too fast. He wouldn¡¯t have been able to understand even if his mind had been working right. Rio and Fisher gave orders to the other SAMs.
The Grid showed Rhodes exactly how far the surviving Ravagers didn¡¯t make it away from the Emal bombardment.
They barely got off the ground before brutal laser fire pounded them back down to the ground. No one would be able to evacuate like this. The battalion couldn¡¯t even get near the Ero.
Rhodes summoned all his last remaining energy to call over the noise. ¡°Rio! You have to get to the base ships! It¡¯s the only way!¡±
¡°Not now, Captain!¡± Rio hollered back. ¡°We have bigger problems right now¡.¡±
¡°The base ships are our only problem.¡± Rhodes dragged himself upright, forced his eyes to focus, and took control of The Grid.
He didn¡¯t know if his SAMs could override his will, but Rio didn¡¯t intervene when Rhodes took over.
¡°All of you¡ªfollow me!¡± Rhodes ordered. ¡°We¡¯re going after the base ships! It¡¯s the only way to draw their fire away from the Ravagers!¡±
Rhodes blasted away across Thaklia. He didn¡¯t have to adjust his grid lines to any stranger or interesting shapes.
The base ships concentrated their firepower on the Ravagers in between laying down devastating shots on the city itself.
The Strikers relied on pure speed, pelted across town, and raced out the other side on a dead run for the base ships¡ªthe same base ships the Strikers just worked so hard to overcome to rescue the battalion.
¡°This is a bad idea,¡± Fisher murmured in Rhodes¡¯s ear.
¡°How do you suggest we evacuate the planet with the Ravagers under bombardment?¡± Rhodes asked. ¡°Those Ravagers are our only way out of here. Let¡¯s go, Rio. Let¡¯s do some damage.¡±
Rhodes didn¡¯t wait for Rio to fly the ship or run the guns on his own. The cold, sick feeling in Rhodes¡¯s middle narrowed his attention to a pinprick.
His mind switched gears. He didn¡¯t have to fight for the Legion or the trapped platoons or for anything else.
He fought for survival. That was all. He had to get the hell off this planet and that meant destroying the base ships.
He didn¡¯t even know if he had a weapon powerful enough to destroy them¡ªand then he remembered.
The battalion destroyed base ships on Ohait. The battalion detonated base ships by firing into their undersides.
His mind took extra long to process every thought. Of course. That must be why the base ships stayed sitting on the ground during every campaign.
Their armored tops and sides protected them from any weapon the Legion could throw at them. The base ships only exposed their vulnerabilities when they launched.
The thought gave Rhodes a sick thrill. He could destroy these cocksuckers. That would put a dent in their campaign. Nothing else would.
¡°Follow me!¡± he called to the battalion.
¡°What are you going to do?¡± Fisher asked.
¡°I told you. I¡¯m going to stop the base ships from assaulting the Ravagers. The Ravagers have to get off the planet.¡±
¡°What about the platoons?¡± Rhinehart asked.
Rhodes cast one backward glance at The Grid. Every platoon in Thaklia was pinned down.
¡°Taking out the base ships is the best way to help the platoons,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°The Ravagers won¡¯t be able to evacuate any platoons if the ships can¡¯t land. Let¡¯s go. We need to get underneath the base ships and fire Vipers into them from below.¡±
¡°Below¡ªhow?¡± Thackery asked. ¡°The base ships sit right on the ground.¡±
¡°Exactly. Copy me¡ªand spread out¡ªone Striker to a base ship. Then circle back and eliminate the others.¡±
End of Chapter 2.
Battalion 1: Book 2: Chapter 3
Rhodes tilted Rio down toward the ground, picked up speed, and let gravity take over.
The Emal base ships saw the Striker group moving in. Sure enough, the Emal turned their lasers on the incoming battalion, but that only played into Rhodes¡¯s hands.
He compressed his grid lines into another long, thin, snake, stabbed into the ground at blinding speed, and set off twisting, coiling, and writhing through the soil heading for the nearest base ship.
The battalion scattered in a fan of similar whip lines. They tunneled underground with each Striker heading for a different base ship.
The base ships cut their fire when the Strikers disappeared. The Emal must not understand what the battalion was trying to do.
The Emal turned their bombardment back on Thaklia. That gave Rhodes and his people a clear run straight to their target ships¡ªand under them.
¡°Keep going!¡± Rhodes ordered. ¡°Don¡¯t slow down! Fire your Vipers and get clear of the blast!¡±
He said those words just as he chewed his way under the first base ship. He didn¡¯t slow down at all. In fact, he tried to speed up. He had to get away from the ship before it detonated.
He took a split second to fire his Vipers straight up into the ship¡¯s underside. He barely made it clear in time before the ship exploded in an almighty thump.
The concussion hit the ground right on top of Rio. The blast knocked the Striker off course, but he and Rhodes were already burrowing farther away.
The base ship erupted in a rippling fireball. More explosions went off all over the planes as each member of the battalion fired underneath their target ships.
The surviving ships wheeled their laser cannons backward trying to defend themselves, but they couldn¡¯t see their enemy.
The Ero and the other surviving Ravagers gunned their engines and launched into orbit to rejoin the Legion fleet waiting there.
Rhodes didn¡¯t give himself a chance to check the position or status of the stranded platoons. He couldn¡¯t help them.
This was turning into an exact repeat of every other planet the Legion tried to defend against Emal invasion.
Every one of those battles ended the same way¡ªwith dozens of Legion soldiers trapped, stranded, and dying on the ground with no hope of rescue.
Rhodes couldn¡¯t stop that now. He might be able to slow it down a little bit.
Then again, he might not be able to slow it down at all. In fact, he became more certain with every passing minute that he couldn¡¯t.
These implants didn¡¯t change the outcome of the entire war. Nothing could change that. What was the point of all this anyway?
He circled back and locked his sights on the next base ship in line. This was all he could do and he would damn well do it.
He finished off another base ship and turned to the last one in line. The rest of the battalion was busy detonating the others in rapid succession.
The last five rotated their laser cannons in all directions trying to target something¡ªanything.
The Emal finally must have figured out that these burrowing objects under the ground were causing all the explosions.
Rhodes and his people had pulled that trick one too many times. Now the Emal got wise to the game.
Rhodes raced through the topsoil heading for the last ship. The few remaining Emal vessels fired into the ground. Their lasers traced back and forth burning deep fissures in the sod.
They tried their best to track the battalion, but each Striker kept dodging underneath another base ship where the cannons couldn¡¯t hit them.
A laser scorched Rio in the tail. Rhodes tried to pick up speed and dove under the last ship. It protected him, but that on its own presented a problem.
He couldn¡¯t shoot into this ship¡¯s underside or blow it up as long as he was using it to hide. He had to go out into the open as soon as he unloaded on it.
He fired his Vipers, dove out into the fields, and ran into four more lasers skating all over the place. One of them sliced across the sod right above his head and then the base ship exploded.
Rio screamed out as the heat burned him. ¡°Pull out!¡¯ Rhodes ordered. ¡°Everybody out!¡±
He launched Rio into the air, changed back into a Striker, and put on speed gaining altitude.
He made it thirty feet off the ground before he saw the battle. He¡¯d gotten so distracted by destroying the base ships that he didn¡¯t see the situation in Thaklia until now. He didn¡¯t see anything beyond the few inches of Grid right in front of his nose.
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The Ero and the other Ravagers made it off the planet just fine. They hovered in orbit with the rest of the Aemon Legion fleet. None of those ships came down to the ground. They stayed out of Emal weapons range.
That left the grounded platoons completely cut off. None of the Ravagers descended even to offer the platoons any support. Forget about evacuating. The Legion really planned to leave these soldiers here to die.
The battalion burst out of the ground heading for the clouds. Rio and the other Strikers could rendezvous with the Ero. Rhodes and his people could go into their conversion cycles and forget all about the Sulia campaign.
A smart man would have done exactly that. Rhodes got a hundred feet off the ground and his vision widened to take in the rest of The Grid¡ªthe parts he ignored while he attacked the base ships.
The battalion took out the base ships. They no longer bombarded the city from afar, but they¡¯d already done untold damage.
Only a few charred hulks remained standing in a landscape of rubble, smoking, twisted embers, and crushed bodies.
The base ships left plenty of Emal swarming all over the city. The 249th, 278th, and 217th Platoons fell back before the alien onslaught.
The platoons leap-frogged one painstaking mile after another trying to get back to the western side of town.
None of the commanders in charge of those platoons realized the awful truth yet. The Ravagers weren¡¯t waiting for them there to save these platoons.
The 249th took shelter behind a debris mound, fired at the advancing Emal, and held the aliens down while the 278th and the 217th retreated behind the 249th.
Then the 217th found a line of fortifications where a tall building had toppled onto its side. Its few remaining walls offered enough protection for the platoon to set up another defense point there.
They opened fire on the Emal and gave the 249th cover to retreat. The three platoons jumped each other¡¯s position one after another, but nothing they did stopped the Emal. Nothing could.
Rhodes reacted without thinking. Captain Ackerman made a big noise about Rhodes and the battalion leaving these platoons stranded. Now Ackerman was the one doing it.
Rhodes twisted the grid lines into another many-jointed bounding spider, sprang off the ground, and vaulted straight into the city.
This form could cover the distance almost as fast as an airborne Striker. He leapt off walls, buildings, and over the rubble piles. He sailed from one mound to another barely touched the ground.
The battalion charged in behind him. He didn¡¯t take the time to check their vital signs. He already knew it was bad, but it wouldn¡¯t get any better by running away. What difference did eight weeks matter either way?
He adjusted his weapons configuration and extended his lasers, thermal cannons, scourge guns, and seeker missiles¡ªone weapon from each of his multiple limbs.
He charged up behind the Emal and opened fire on them. Other monsters in different forms fanned down the Emal line carving a path through them.
¡°Get Ackerman down here NOW!!¡± Rhodes called to Fisher. ¡°Tell him the base ships are gone. Now¡¯s his chance to do the right thing by lifting off these crews!¡±
¡°You heard what Wild said!¡± Fisher hollered back. ¡°The Legion doesn¡¯t want to pull out just yet.¡±
¡°Tell him to get down here or General Brewster will hear about Ackerman abandoning our battalion down here without evacuation,¡± Rhodes fired back.
None of the SAMs said anything else to protest. Rhodes and his people were too busy mowing down Emal as fast as they could go.
The Emal turned back to defend themselves. That gave the platoons the time they needed to stream through the streets. The platoons didn¡¯t have to slow down to find sheltered points.
The soldiers picked up speed and eventually took off running. They stopped and looked around in despair when they saw the hulks of dozens of burned-out Ravagers waiting for them.
The soldiers floundered in confusion for a minute. Some of them even looked behind them into the city, but the Emal were too busy fighting the battalion.
Rhodes crawled closer behind the Emal¡¯s position. He savored the feeling of using his lasers to carve these aliens to pieces the way they carved him to pieces.
He shouldn¡¯t have thought of the Emal like that. They weren¡¯t evil. They just wanted their territory back¡ªterritory the Treaty of Aemon Cluster stole from them. He couldn¡¯t blame the Emal for that.
His feelings got away from him. These were the cocksuckers who tried to tear his implants out. They would have killed him to take the implants¡¯ technology.
The Emal didn¡¯t even know how to use the implants¡¯ technology. They probably just wanted to study it.
How much differently would the Emal act if they knew these nine individuals were the only ones of their kind in the whole Legion?
How much more dangerous would the Emal become to Battalion 1 once the Emal figured out these nine were the only ones out there?
The Legion pinned all its hopes on Battalion 1. The Emal could eliminate the Legion¡¯s most powerful weapons by killing these nine soldiers.
The Emal wouldn¡¯t care about stealing the implant technology then. The Emal probably wouldn¡¯t have wasted their time and effort capturing the battalion. The aliens would have killed Rhodes and his people on the spot.
Thinking that made him attach the Emal twice as hard, but he still couldn¡¯t defeat them by slicing down hundreds of the aliens in front of him.
More would come. The Emal could always send more¡..and more¡..and more.
Bodies and flying limbs soared out of the mass of aliens in front of him. Blood and gore soaked the ground under his feet, but he still couldn¡¯t see the end of the swarm.
The Emal abandoned the platoons and surged back on the battalion. The Emal already knew the platoons were helpless, trapped, and powerless to defend themselves.
The Emal could cut down Legion platoons any time they wanted to. The Emal did it all the time. They¡¯d been doing it one planet after another ever since they first invaded.
Rhodes advanced a little further. His fury and adrenaline pushed him to the breaking point, but he couldn¡¯t keep this up forever. He already sensed his energy fading. He used his last shred of strength to save these soldiers.
At that moment, the Ero plummeted out of orbit coming in fast. The platoons erupted in cheers and charged out onto the western planes to race on board the ship.
Rhodes couldn¡¯t stop shooting at the Emal¡ªnot that he tried too hard. His brain refused to shut down.
He didn¡¯t think he could even concentrate well enough to adjust the grid lines to change himself back into a Striker.
He was already entering an altered state of consciousness¡ªif he hadn¡¯t been in one all along.
The edges of his vision contracted a little more. His awareness of the wider battle shrank. Was he about to pass out right now?
Rio took over, flexed his jointed legs, and rocketed out of the battle heading for orbit. The rest of the battalion did the same thing.
The SAMs transformed back into Strikers burning a vapor trail away from Sulia to rejoin the Legion fleet.
End of Chapter 3.
Battalion 1: Book 2: Chapter 4
Rio and the other Strikers gained altitude leaving Sulia behind.
Battalion 1 had to wait there with the rest of the Legion fleet while five Ravagers touched down on the planes west of Thaklia, took the stranded platoons on board, and then launched.
The Emal surged westward trying to catch up with the fleeing platoons, but Battalion 1 bought the platoons enough time to load up first.
The Emal bombarded the Ravagers with lasers, but all five zoomed away out of sight before the Emal could do any more damage.
¡°That looks like the end of that city,¡± Dietz muttered. ¡°What a colossal waste.¡±
¡°Captain Ackerman is sending us clearance to rendezvous and land on board the Ero,¡± Rio reported.
¡°How generous of him,¡± Wild growled.
Rhodes tried to answer, but his voice and his brain wouldn¡¯t connect with each other. Now he felt really sick.
He must have passed out for a few seconds¡ªor longer. He came to his senses sitting in the cockpit while Rio and the other Strikers sat parked in the Ero¡¯s landing bay.
They were alone. None of the platoon soldiers were here anymore.
Rhodes couldn¡¯t get himself to sit up, stand up, or even disconnect himself from his Striker to disembark. He didn¡¯t dare to use The Grid to check how bad his injuries were.
He must have faded out again, because when he opened his eyes, he discovered Rhinehart bending over the cockpit. The cover was open.
¡°We¡¯re taking you to your capsule, Captain,¡± Fisher told Rhodes. ¡°Then you can sleep.¡±
Rhodes tried to say something, but a wave of brutal pain gripped him all over when Rhinehart lifted Rhodes¡¯s shredded body out of the Striker.
Rhodes heard himself screaming. He really wished he could pass out again, but this time, he stayed conscious for the whole horrible ordeal.
Rhinehart lifted him down to the floor, tried once to set Rhodes on his feet, and Rhodes¡¯s knees buckled.
He had trouble dragging his vision into focus. For the few seconds when he could actually make out the rest of the bay, he spotted some members of the Ero medical staff standing off to one side.
Their expressions told him all he needed to know.
Rhinehart changed his grid lines into another jointed arthropod-type creature. The medical staff drew back grimacing in terror, but the battalion ignored them.
Rhinehart picked up Rhodes and carried him through the ship to the hold the battalion used as their barracks.
Rhinehart lowered Rhodes into his capsule. ¡°Rest easy, Captain,¡± Rhinehart told him. ¡°We¡¯ll see you on the other side.¡±
Rhodes didn¡¯t ask what that meant. He didn¡¯t expect to survive this.
At least he wouldn¡¯t have to wake up from this nightmare. He would go to sleep and stay that way¡ªforever. What a blessed relief that would be.
Rhinehart straightened up and the capsule cover started to close. Rhodes didn¡¯t see any of the rest of his people. They must have all gotten into their capsules, too. They needed it. They were all as injured as he was if not worse.
Rhodes stared up through the transparent cover at Rhinehart standing by his bed. Bruises, torn flesh, dried blood, and exposed bone showed around Rhinehart¡¯s facial implants. How bad were his injuries?
Right then, the prongs locked into Rhodes¡¯s head and body. He jolted from the intense charge taking hold of him.
He closed his eyes and lost sight of Rhinehart. Rhodes couldn¡¯t lose sight of Fisher, though.
The SAM hovered in front of Rhodes¡¯s vision¡ªwhere Rhodes couldn¡¯t ignore him even when Rhodes closed his eyes.
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Rhodes didn¡¯t want to ignore Fisher¡ªnot anymore.
Rhodes took a deep, shuddering breath. Even breathing hurt.
¡°Just in case I don¡¯t see you again¡..¡± Rhodes husked. ¡°I want to tell you¡..thank you for your help down there, pal¡ªand for all your help¡ªwith everything. I would appreciate it if you could interface with Rio and thank him for me, too.¡±
¡°You¡¯re welcome, Captain.¡± Fisher cocked his head to one side. His bright eyes drilled Rhodes with unusual intensity. ¡°You will survive this, Captain. We will see each other again.¡±
¡°Well¡..thank you anyway. I don¡¯t know what I would have done down there without you. I really thought I was going to lose it when I couldn¡¯t hear you.¡±
Fisher smiled. He had a calm, steadfast, reassuring smile. He didn¡¯t blush or squirm or smirk like a person would when someone complimented them.
¡°It is very nice to hear you say so, Captain,¡± Fisher murmured.
Rhodes sank deeper into the bed. Relief flooded him¡ªbut he also felt the pain more acutely now than he did in the heat of battle.
Pounding, bone-crushing agony washed through his chest and midsection. That pain escalated with every passing minute.
He tried to tell Fisher that he really needed to pass out now, but just then, the conversion cycle started and Rhodes lost consciousness for real.
He woke up in the hospital. He was lying in a different capsule, so he must have been back at Coleridge Station.
He felt much worse than he had when he woke up from every other conversion cycle. He felt much worse than he did when he first woke up from stasis.
The pain in his body had only faded slightly. It didn¡¯t drive him insane. It just gnawed at him with a constant, maddening ache¡ªas if it would never go away.
Maybe it wouldn¡¯t. Maybe he would stay like this forever, too. That would be the cherry on top of the cake¡ªif this mind-numbing pain nagged him every waking minute for the rest of his life on top of the rage and frustration caused by his implants.
He didn¡¯t try to sit up. He just lay on his back hating his life. Not even the curiosity of wondering how his subordinates were doing could make him get up.
He was still lying there when Fisher expanded from his usual place at the corner of Rhodes¡¯s vision.
¡°Welcome back, Captain,¡± Fisher murmured. ¡°Your systems are registering a physical pain response.¡±
¡°No shit, pal,¡± Rhodes snarled.
Fisher cocked his head the other way. ¡°You are in emotional distress due to your physical pain response. I¡¯ll alert the medical team.¡±
Rhodes looked away, but of course Fisher never went away. ¡°How are the others? Are they okay?¡±
¡°They are all in recovery the same way you are. Dietz, Oakes, and Rhinehart are all out of their conversion cycles. Rhinehart is still in bed, though. The others are all still in their conversion cycles. Their records indicate the medical staff is still working to repair the damage to their implants and organic tissues before waking them up.¡±
Rhodes snorted. ¡°Did Dietz suffer any damage at all? Did the Emal damage him when they tried to remove his implants?¡±
Fisher angled his head to the other side. He examined Rhodes extra closely. ¡°Why do you ask that? Of course Dietz suffered damage. Everyone did.¡±
¡°What damage did he suffer?¡±
¡°The Emal removed one of his legs and also tore the implants out of one of his arms. His records indicate he suffered a severe pain response both under the Emal¡¯s treatment and when the doctors reattached the implants.¡±
Rhodes looked away again and compressed his lips to stop himself from saying anything. He didn¡¯t want to talk about Dietz¡ªprobably because Rhodes didn¡¯t know what to think about Dietz.
Dietz was the one who got Rhodes on board Rio after the base ships took out the whole battalion. Everyone in the battalion was alive right now because of Dietz.
Why did Rhodes think the Emal would spare Dietz? Why did Rhodes delude himself into thinking Dietz suffered any less than the rest of his comrades?
No one deserved to suffer the way they did at the Emal¡¯s hands. Nothing Dietz had ever done earned him that kind of torture.
Fisher didn¡¯t pry any further into Rhodes¡¯s thoughts on the subject of Dietz. Fisher had been privy to all Rhodes¡¯s conversations with his subordinates about Dietz. Fisher already knew what Rhodes thought about Dietz¡ªthe good and the bad.
¡°The question is what we can do about your physical pain response,¡± Fisher went on.
¡°Is there anything we can do about it?¡± Rhodes groaned. ¡°I should know better even than to ask that.¡±
¡°The swelling around your implants may subside in time¡.¡±
¡°Which is another way of saying it may not subside in time,¡± Rhodes interrupted.
Fisher adjusted his position and pulled up a Grid outline of Rhodes¡¯s body. Fisher rotated it and pivoted it in front of Rhodes¡¯s eyes.
¡°Your implants all appear to be functioning within normal parameters¡.¡±
¡°I¡¯ve heard that before.¡±
¡°Therefore, we should conclude that the problem lies in your organic tissue.¡±
¡°Can you detect anything about that that isn¡¯t functioning within normal parameters?¡± Rhodes asked.
¡°Only the swelling I mentioned.¡±
¡°Can¡¯t you give me something to take the edge off the pain? Can¡¯t you just dial down my pain response¡ªor give me an analgesic or something?¡±
¡°I can¡¯t, but the doctors may be able to. You can ask them yourself. They¡¯re on their way here now.¡±
Rhodes shut his eyes and turned his head away. ¡°I can¡¯t wait.¡±
¡°You don¡¯t have to wait. I just told you they¡¯re on their way here. They¡¯ll be here in less than two minutes.¡±
¡°It¡¯s an expression, pal. It means I¡¯m really starting to dread ever seeing any doctor ever again. It seems like, no matter what they do, they only wind up making the problem worse.¡±
¡°I don¡¯t see how they can make the problem worse by lessening your pain,¡± Fisher remarked. ¡°Anything is better than this.¡±
Rhodes gulped down the urge to lose his shit again. This pain wasn¡¯t as bad as it had been during the battle on Sulia.
The constant, unrelenting ache somehow made it so much worse. He would almost rather have his implants torn out for real than live with this.
End of Chapter 4.
Battalion 1: Book 2: Chapter 5
Rhodes really, really didn¡¯t want to see Drs. Neiland, Irvine, and Montague again. He couldn¡¯t decide which was worse¡ªliving with this gnawing pain or submitting to whatever moronic plan the doctors came up with to try to improve his state.
He shut his eyes again when the door opened and footsteps crossed the floor coming closer. He had no choice but to open his eyes again when the footsteps stopped next to his capsule.
He blinked for a second when he looked up at two completely different doctors. One was a tall man in his thirties.
He had sandy brown hair, pale blue eyes, and freckles, but he didn¡¯t look like an overgrown child like General Brewster.
This man had a serious air like Colonel Kraft¡¯s. This doctor didn¡¯t act at all delighted to be dealing with Battalion 1.
The other doctor was much younger. He couldn¡¯t have been over thirty. He looked like he might be twenty-six or twenty-seven at the most.
He had plain brown hair, soft brown eyes, olive skin, and a deep, thoughtful expression. He studied Rhodes way too closely¡ªalmost as if this kid could see everything going through Rhodes¡¯s mind.
¡°Good morning, Captain,¡± the older doctor began. ¡°How are you feeling today?¡±
¡°I¡¯m in pain¡ªand who the hell are you? I¡¯ve never seen you before.¡±
¡°I¡¯m Dr. Nicholas Osborne. This is Dr. Felix Trudeau. We both just joined the Battalion 1 project. We¡¯ve been assigned to monitor your recovery on our final approach to Coleridge Station¡..¡±
Rhodes¡¯s head shot up. ¡°I¡¯m not at Coleridge Station now?¡±
¡°No, you and the rest of your battalion are still on board the Ero. Your injuries were too severe for you to survive the trip in stasis, so General Brewster sent us out to treat your injuries, repair your implants, and monitor your recovery on our last week¡¯s approach to the station.¡±
¡°So¡..you¡¯re going to hand us back over to Montague, Irvine, and Neiland as soon as we get there? Is that it?¡± Rhodes asked.
¡°Dr. Trudeau and I will stay on the Battalion 1 medical staff once we arrive at the station. We¡¯re permanently assigned to the project going forward.¡±
Rhodes studied both men. Did they get taken from their families just like Colonel Kraft and everyone else? Was that the hidden subtext Dr. Osborne wasn¡¯t saying out loud?
He hesitated and then went on, ¡°If you¡¯ll allow me to examine you, I¡¯ll determine where the pain is and hopefully we can do something to relieve it.¡±
Rhodes clenched his teeth and looked away. ¡°Fine. The pain is everywhere¡ªin all my implants¡ªall the implants below my neck, that is.¡±
Osborne bent over the control panel on the side of Rhodes¡¯s capsule and started pressing buttons. ¡°Your systems are all reading within normal parameters besides that.¡±
¡°I know that,¡± Rhodes snarled. ¡°My SAM already told me.¡±
Osborne looked up and his eyes brightened. ¡°What else did your SAM tell you?¡±
¡°He said you might be able to either dial down my pain response or give me an analgesic for it.¡±
Osborne frowned at his controls. Trudeau tapped away on a remote device. ¡°There is still quite a bit of swelling in your organic tissues.¡±
Rhodes locked his jaws to stop himself from saying that he already knew that, too. This pain really aggravated his nerves. The fuse on his temper was rapidly burning down to a volcanic eruption.
Osborne crossed the room and adjusted something on a panel of computer components attached to the wall.
Rhodes shut his eyes and turned away. He didn¡¯t need to see this. He no longer trusted anyone on the Battalion 1 medical staff to do jack shit for him.
He stiffened when Trudeau put his device aside and bent over Rhodes¡¯s capsule. Trudeau brought out another device and moved two electrodes close to Rhodes¡¯s chest.
Rhodes had developed a pathological revulsion of these devices and the people attached to them, but he was too weak to fight back.This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.
He just had to lie there and take it while Trudeau fiddled with something on Rhodes¡¯s chest plate.
He jolted when the electrodes touched his implants and then a rush of sweet relief nearly made him collapse as the pain faded.
¡°There are some misaligned components in your peripheral processing core,¡± Trudeau murmured under his breath.
He had a soft, gentle, thoughtful way of speaking¡ªalmost like he was talking to himself or someone Rhodes couldn¡¯t see.
¡°The components aren¡¯t registering sensation properly. We can modify that so they don¡¯t feed you such a powerful physical pain response to the swelling in your organic tissue.¡±
Trudeau straightened up, made eye contact with Rhodes for a split second, and turned away to go back to working on his remote device.
¡°The captain¡¯s neural core itself has taken damage, too,¡± Osborne called over his shoulder. ¡°The Emal trying to remove it distorted some of the connections. That may be why the core is sending such a strong response.¡±
¡°He seems like a very good doctor,¡± Fisher remarked. ¡°They both do.¡±
Rhodes didn¡¯t answer. He didn¡¯t know how much these two doctors understood about the SAMs. He didn¡¯t want to start talking to someone they couldn¡¯t see.
He also didn¡¯t want to start trusting them¡ªor any other doctor. If they fixed him and eased his pain enough for him to function¡ªthat was just them doing their job, wasn¡¯t it? They had a long way to go to earn his trust.
They kept tinkering with him until Dr. Osborne came back over to Rhodes¡¯s capsule. ¡°I think we shouldn¡¯t make any further adjustments for today, Captain. If the adjustments we¡¯ve made just now give you any relief, I think we should leave them and see if anything happens as a result¡ªeither good or bad. Do they give you any relief?¡±
¡°Yeah,¡± Rhodes murmured. ¡°Yeah, it feels much better.¡±
Osborne consulted his own device. ¡°Your records indicate that most if not all the adjustments and modifications to your systems have caused unforeseen consequences¡ªsome of them catastrophic.¡±
¡°That¡¯s one way of putting it.¡±
¡°Then I suggest we pause and see if these modifications cause any unforeseen consequences, too. If they don¡¯t, we can fine-tune later.¡± He frowned at his device some more. ¡°In the meantime, it appears you still have some time before you fully recover. Feel free to stay here¡ªor, if you¡¯re feeling strong enough, you can return to your hold.¡±
¡°Is anyone else down there?¡± Rhodes thought about it. ¡°I can¡¯t interface with the other SAMs.¡±
¡°The interface is offline for now. We weren¡¯t sure if the malfunctions you suffered on Sulia would be transmissible between you and your subordinates. We¡¯re keeping the SAMs isolated for now.¡±
¡°Then how did my SAM know which of my subordinates was out of stasis?¡± Rhodes asked.
¡°You would have to ask him, but I suppose he can access the Ero¡¯s logs, crew rosters, and passenger complements.¡± Osborne put his device down and leveled Rhodes with a direct gaze. ¡°I¡¯m glad you¡¯re feeling better. If you need anything, you can contact me through the ship¡¯s internal communications system.¡±
He and Trudeau left and Rhodes did his best to relax in his capsule. He still felt terrible, but at least it wasn¡¯t as bad as it was just a few minutes before.
¡°I wish they¡¯d let me interface with the others,¡± he muttered. ¡°I don¡¯t like staying isolated.¡±
¡°Better to stay isolated than for malfunctions to spread through the battalion,¡± Fisher pointed out.
¡°It would be nice to have something to do. I hate being in the hospital.¡±
Fisher inclined his head to one side. ¡°Your physical pain response is much less now.¡±
¡°Have you been able to figure out what caused all the malfunctions on the planet?¡±
¡°Apart from what we already know about the injuries and damage to everyone¡¯s implants? As far as I can tell, the SAMs got scared when their hosts got injured.¡±
¡°Then why didn¡¯t you and Rocky malfunction? Zen didn¡¯t malfunction, either.¡±
¡°Maybe something in our personalities made us more resilient to the situation.¡±
¡°Are you saying your personality or Zen¡¯s personality is more resilient than Dash? Oakes is a hardened soldier. He shouldn¡¯t have reacted like that.¡±
¡°Oakes is, but Dash is brand new. He¡¯s never been in combat before.¡±
¡°What about you?¡± Rhodes countered. ¡°You¡¯ve never been in combat before.¡±
In a very rare show of disturbance, Fisher looked away. ¡°I¡¯m afraid it¡¯s only a matter of time before I react the same way, Captain. I hate to bring it up when the battalion is already going through so many problems and malfunctions.¡±
Rhodes sighed and shut his eyes again. He could do that without shutting out Fisher. ¡°I¡¯ve been thinking the same thing.¡±
¡°So far, all our malfunctions have been mechanical. What happens when I have an emotional malfunction and it affects you? You could become completely incapacitated the same way Oakes did.¡±
¡°I know,¡± Rhodes murmured. ¡°I guess we just have to deal with it when the time comes.¡±
¡°It would be better if we found a way to avoid the situation altogether. You malfunctioning in battle puts the whole battalion in danger.¡±
¡°Me malfunctioning in battle only puts the whole battalion in danger if we all malfunction at the same time,¡± Rhodes pointed out. ¡°One of the others has always pulled me out of it each time.¡±
¡°So what do we do if it happens to all of you at once?¡± Fisher asked.
¡°I wish I knew, pal,¡± Rhodes murmured. ¡°I don¡¯t have any answers.¡±
Fisher fell silent. He kept angling his head from one side to the other and studying Rhodes way too closely.
After a few minutes, Fisher shrank to an invisible dot in the corner of Rhodes¡¯s field of view. Fisher didn¡¯t ask for permission nor did he ask if Rhodes wanted Fisher to go away.
Fisher just did it. He left Rhodes alone with his thoughts.
Good old Fisher. He always sensed when Rhodes needed time to himself.
Fisher was still there. He would always be there, but he disappeared when Rhodes needed him to.
Rhodes didn¡¯t realize until now how exhausted he felt. The pain he experienced when he first woke up drained him more than he expected¡ªor maybe he was just still weak and sick from the conversion cycle.
He relaxed in bed without trying to do anything. He didn¡¯t want to think, but he found it impossible not to.
He really wished he could talk to his subordinates, even though the interface¡ªbut at the same time, he didn¡¯t want to talk to anyone. He just wanted to rest and that¡¯s what he did.
End of Chapter 5.
Battalion 1: Book 2: Chapter 6
Rhodes opened his eyes after another conversion cycle, and after a few more minutes of lying on his back, he pushed himself up to sit on the edge of the mattress.
Fisher didn¡¯t reappear. He stayed silent and invisible.
Rhodes sat slumped and looked down at his feet. Now what was he supposed to do?
Fisher still didn¡¯t make himself visible. Rhodes would have expected Fisher to make his presence known by now.
He still didn¡¯t show up when Rhodes got to his feet and took a few unsteady steps around the room. The doctors put him in a private room by himself. He would have preferred being in the same hold with his subordinates.
The minute he thought that, he accessed the interface with the other SAMs without meaning to. He didn¡¯t think he could.
He automatically connected with Dash and Rocky. Interfacing with them caused Rhodes to interface with Oakes and Rhinehart at the same time.
Rhinehart was just sitting up on the edge of his own capsule in another private room in the Ero¡¯s medical bay.
Dietz and Oakes were in the battalion¡¯s capsule hold. Dietz was working on the computer terminal. Oakes sat at the table writing something on a piece of paper.
Rocky turned his horse head in Rhodes¡¯s direction. ¡°Captain?¡± Rocky looked around. ¡°Where¡¯s Fisher? He isn¡¯t damaged, is he?¡±
¡°I¡¯m not sure where he is or what he¡¯s doing. He was fine the last time I woke up.¡± Rhodes turned his attention to Rhinehart. ¡°How are you, Lieutenant?¡±
¡°I feel like trash, Sir. I really wish I could go back to sleep, but that will only make me feel worse.¡±
¡°Are you in pain? Is everything working?¡±
¡°I¡¯m okay,¡± Rhinehart croaked. ¡°My face hurts, but the doctors say that¡¯s just swelling and it will go away.¡±
Rhodes widened his interface. He could access The Grid now, too. He located Rhinehart¡¯s room, passed down a corridor, and entered it to find Rhinehart sitting up the way Rhodes had just seen in the interface.
Rhinehart burst into a grin when he saw Rhodes. ¡°I didn¡¯t think you¡¯d make it, Sir.¡±
¡°Neither did I. I might even have wished a few times that I didn¡¯t make it.¡±
Rhinehart laughed.
¡°Thank you for bringing me in,¡± Rhodes went on. ¡°And thank you for taking over when I got hit. It makes me feel better to know I have people like you who can step in if anything happens to me.¡±
Rhinehart curled his lip at the surroundings even though no one was here for him to curl it at. ¡°This operation doesn¡¯t inspire a lot of confidence, does it, Sir?¡±
¡°No, it doesn¡¯t.¡± Rhodes jerked his thumb over his shoulder. ¡°I¡¯m going to check on Dietz and Oaks. Are you feeling strong enough to come with me?¡±
¡°I might as well.¡±
Rhinehart heaved his big body off the capsule and hobbled across the room. His presence gave Rhodes another excruciating wave of relief. Someone was back.
Oakes and Dietz were fine, too. Rhodes saw that through the interface. Now the battalion just needed to get the other five back.
Then they¡¯d be in business¡ªbut not before the doctors and technicians figured out everything that went wrong during the last battle.
Rhodes and Rhinehart limped out of the medical bay and headed for the battalion¡¯s capsule hold.
¡°Have you heard anything about when the others get out of stasis?¡± Rhinehart asked.
¡°I haven¡¯t heard anything¡ªbut I didn¡¯t ask. I¡¯ve just been trying to get back on my feet myself.¡±
Rhinehart nodded. ¡°Me, too.¡±
¡°Did the Emal damage your implants at all?¡± Rhodes narrowed his eyes at Rhinehart¡¯s face. ¡°You do still look a little puffy around the eyes.¡±
¡°I had a splitting headache when I woke up. The doctors thought it was just the swelling, but Rocky said it wasn¡¯t. He said it was a problem, so they fixed it.¡± Rhinehart glanced over his shoulder to make sure no one was listening.
The Ero crewmen streamed back and forth past the two men. None of the crew so much as glanced at Rhodes and Rhinehart.
¡°Those two doctors are so much better than the three at Coleridge Station,¡± Rhinehart murmured under his breath. ¡°I¡¯m so glad they¡¯re coming back with us.¡±
¡°We¡¯ll still be stuck with Neiland, Montague, and Irvine,¡± Rhodes pointed out. ¡°They aren¡¯t going away.¡±
¡°I wish they were,¡± Rhinehart snarled.
Rhodes didn¡¯t get a chance to answer before the two men entered the capsule hold. Oakes jumped up when he saw them. ¡°Sir! I didn¡¯t know you were up and around.¡±If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
He shook hands with both of them and then Oakes and Rhinehart hugged.
Dietz stopped what he was doing and came over to them smiling, but it was a suspicious smile with no warmth in it. He didn¡¯t try to get closer to Rhodes or Rhinehart.
¡°Welcome back, Sir,¡± Dietz began. ¡°It¡¯s good to see you back on your feet.¡±
¡°Thank you, Sergeant¡ªand thank you for helping me on the planet. You saved the whole battalion.¡±
¡°I¡¯ve been trying to tell him that,¡± Oakes chimed in. ¡°He won¡¯t listen.¡±
Dietz squirmed and shuffled his feet. ¡°Naw. I was just trying to save my own ass and I needed the rest of you to make it happen.¡±
¡°Well, we all made it back this time,¡± Rhodes cut in. ¡°Let¡¯s go down the hall and see what¡¯s happening with the others.¡±
Rhodes used his interface to find the rest of his subordinates. For some reason he couldn¡¯t figure out, the Ero crew put all five of the battalion members in one room together. Rhodes and Rhinehart were the only ones who got private rooms.
It couldn¡¯t be because Rhodes¡¯s and Rhinehart¡¯s injuries were so bad. If that was true, Rhodes would have been the last to wake up.
That didn¡¯t matter, though, because they all made it back in one piece¡ªor as good as. Rhodes could accept just about anything else as long as they all survived.
There wasn¡¯t a lot to see beyond the readings on each capsule. They all read as normal. The soldiers inside went on sleeping. Rhodes couldn¡¯t talk to them.
He wouldn¡¯t have been able to do anything if he saw anything wrong with them anyway, but at least he could satisfy himself that all his people were okay.
They would always be okay as long as they lay there sleeping in their capsules.
He wished like anything he could keep them like this. He wished he could protect them and somehow stop the Legion from sending them back into danger.
Nothing would prevent it. These people were alive right now for only one reason¡ªso the Legion could put them in danger again.
Rhodes would rather have gone to face that danger alone if it meant protecting these people. He would gladly have died a thousand times over to protect them from what he knew was coming.
What was coming was a whole lot more of everything that happened on Sulia. The Legion would keep fighting the Emal. It was an unwinnable war.
The Legion would keep throwing their best soldiers in front of the Emal guns which meant the Legion would keep throwing Battalion 1 in front of the Emal guns.
That was Battalion 1¡¯s whole reason for being. It was the battalion¡¯s only function.
Which was worse¡ªdying on the battlefield or suffering the tortures of the damned both on and off the battlefield?
Would Rhodes be willing to suffer the tortures of the damned to protect his comrades in the 249th?
If someone asked him during his life, he would have replied with an enthusiastic yes. He would have been the first to sign up to suffer any torture to protect even one of them¡ªto give even one of them a chance to get off the battlefield alive.
He lived his life that way and he died that way.
Things sure looked different from this side of the line. He¡¯d been suffering the tortures of the damned ever since he woke up with these implants.
He was the damned now. The whole battalion was. They were writhing in torment in this special little version of Hell.
He was damned to this dimension of Hell for the crime of trying to sacrifice his life to save his comrades in the 249th. That¡¯s how he got into this mess in the first place.
Was it really worth it? He was really starting to question that now.
He should have just blown his brains out and gotten it over with if he really wanted to die. He didn¡¯t save the 249th from anything. He just signed them up for more hopeless battles against the Emal.
He never would have come here if he did that. He wouldn¡¯t have to go through any of this.
Oakes startled Rhodes out of his thoughts by nudging him. ¡°Sir? Are you ready to go?¡±
Rhodes looked up. He¡¯d been standing next to Lauer¡¯s capsule staring down at the man¡¯s rough, bearded face.
Rhodes couldn¡¯t come to any conclusions here because there were conclusions to come to.
He only had two options¡ªend it or keep going. If he didn¡¯t end it, he had to keep going. That was the only truth.
Thinking about ending it accomplished nothing. He wasn¡¯t ready for that yet, which meant he had to keep going.
He was just turning away from Lauer¡¯s capsule when Fisher expanded from the corner of Rhodes¡¯s vision.
Fisher looked around the interface. ¡°Captain! You¡¯re awake!¡± Fisher frowned. ¡°Where are we?¡±
¡°We¡¯re still on board the Ero. The rest of the battalion is still in stasis. Where have you been, Fisher?¡±
Fisher cocked his head and studied every part of The Grid inside the interface. ¡°I¡¯m not sure, Captain. I didn¡¯t realize you were out of stasis. I just came back online this moment and here I am.¡± He scrutinized Rhodes. ¡°How long have you been awake?¡±
¡°Only a few minutes. Why did you come online before and not now?¡± Rhodes asked. ¡°You were fine the first time I woke up.¡±
Fisher inclined his head the other way. ¡°First time? You woke up a first time? So this isn¡¯t the first time you¡¯ve been awake?¡±
¡°How could it be when we aren¡¯t in the lab?¡± Rhodes asked. ¡°I¡¯m walking around the station without you. I¡¯ve been on my own this whole time wondering where you were.¡±
¡°Ah, yes. Of course.¡± Fisher frowned and looked around in confusion. ¡°I can¡¯t explain it, Captain.¡±
¡°You better not be malfunctioning again.¡± Rhodes turned to the other SAMs. ¡°Are any of you malfunctioning? Have any of you suffered any problems since you woke up?¡±
¡°No, nothing,¡± Dash replied. ¡°Everything has been functioning within normal parameters.¡±
¡°We¡¯ve been fine, too,¡± Zen added.
Rhodes checked on Rocky. ¡°Do you detect anything out of the ordinary in Rhinehart?¡±
¡°I¡¯m still detecting swelling around his facial implants,¡± Rocky replied. ¡°Some of the neural junctions are registering a physical pain response, but other than that, he seems to be fine.¡±
The three men looked fine from the outside. ¡°I don¡¯t like this,¡± Rhodes muttered.
¡°I¡¯m sure it¡¯s nothing, Captain,¡± Fisher told him. ¡°I¡¯m back now and I¡¯m functioning normally.¡±
¡°You aren¡¯t functioning normally if you didn¡¯t come online when I came out of my conversion cycle. Something isn¡¯t right there.¡±
¡°Don¡¯t go looking for problems that aren¡¯t there,¡± Oakes chimed in. ¡°Who cares as long as he¡¯s working, right?¡±
Rhodes dropped the subject, but he still didn¡¯t like it. The smallest irregularity in any of the SAMs gave him a very bad feeling.
He couldn¡¯t do anything about it now. He wouldn¡¯t be able to do anything about it until it exploded in his face and the whole nightmare started over again.
He was just about to turn away a second time and leave the lab when Drs. Osborne and Trudeau walked in.
Osborne raised his eyebrows. ¡°Is there a problem?¡±
¡°My SAM just came online,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°I¡¯ve been walking around the station, talking to my subordinates, and visiting these people while my SAM has been offline. He also doesn¡¯t remember when I first came out of stasis. He was working fine then. Now he thinks this is the first time he¡¯s come back online. Something¡¯s wrong with him.¡±
Trudeau consulted his device. ¡°I¡¯m not reading any malfunction in any of your systems.¡±
¡°That¡¯s what everyone says right before one of us malfunctions,¡± Rhodes fired back.
¡°It¡¯s nothing, Captain,¡± Fisher murmured. ¡°I¡¯m sorry it happened. I¡¯ll try not to let it happen again.¡±
¡°It isn¡¯t your fault, pal,¡± Rhodes told him. ¡°This had nothing to do with you.¡±
¡°We can¡¯t do anything about it until something goes really wrong,¡± Osborne replied and turned to the remaining five capsules. ¡°It¡¯s time to wake up the others anyway. It¡¯s fortunate that you¡¯re here now. I¡¯m sure your people will be happy to see you.¡±
End of Chapter 6.
Battalion 1: Book 2: Chapter 7
Dr. Osbourne went down the line of capsules tapping on one control panel after another. The readings changed and the covers opened.
Rhodes, Rhinehart, Oakes, and Dietz lined up and watched Lauer, Thackery, Henshaw, Fuentes, and Coulter start to stir.
They groaned, rubbed their heads, and asked where they were. The two doctors explained it to them.
They eventually sat up enough to look around and see their comrades standing there waiting for them.
Lauer heaved a heavy sigh. ¡°Captain! I thought you were dead.¡±
¡°No such luck, Lieutenant.¡±
Lauer snorted. ¡°Maybe we all would have been better off.¡±
Osborne walked away. ¡°Everything seems to be functioning within normal parameters. You can take the battalion back to the capsule hold. We¡¯ll be landing at Coleridge Station in a few days. Once we get there, we¡¯ll run some more tests to find out what caused you all to malfunction on the battlefield. You can rest and recover until then.¡±
He and Trudeau left. Lauer glared after them. ¡°Who the hell are they?¡±
¡°Two new doctors on the Battalion 1 project,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°They seem like they¡¯re all right.¡±
¡°They aren¡¯t all right if they¡¯re doctors on the Battalion 1 project,¡± Lauer snarled. ¡°They¡¯ll just screw things up the same as ever.¡±
¡°I¡¯m sure things are screwed up enough on their own, Lieutenant,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°Come on. Let¡¯s get out of here.¡±
He checked each person and each SAM, but Osborne was right. Everyone seemed to be working the way they should.
The five patients got painfully to their feet and hobbled back to the capsule hold where they all went straight back to their capsules.
Rhodes and Rhinehart joined Dietz and Oakes at the table. ¡°What have you two been doing to occupy your time while the rest of us have been asleep?¡± Rhodes asked.
Oakes shrugged. ¡°Not much of anything. There isn¡¯t a lot to do around here¡ªthe same way there isn¡¯t a lot to do at Coleridge Station.¡±
¡°I¡¯ve been keeping track of my family through the terminal,¡± Dietz replied. ¡°I might not be able to communicate with them, but I can keep an eye on them from afar. It¡¯s better than nothing.¡±
Rhodes glanced over at him. Rhodes realized in that moment that he¡¯d never taken the time to find out if Dietz even had a family.
Why wouldn¡¯t he? He must have some relatives out there somewhere.
Why did Rhodes go out of his way to dehumanize Dietz? Rhodes didn¡¯t understand himself.
He¡¯d been too consumed with finding everything wrong with Diez even to ask the most obvious question.
Rhinehart stared at Dietz, too. ¡°Damn, man! Good idea! Why didn¡¯t I think of that? I should have checked on them before. I could have been seeing everything they¡¯re doing!¡±
Oakes grimaced and looked away. ¡°I don¡¯t know how you can stand it. I can¡¯t look. I don¡¯t want to see what they¡¯re doing. It¡¯s bad enough just knowing they¡¯re out there.¡±
¡°The system loads up pictures and everything,¡± Dietz added. ¡°It¡¯s the next best thing to being there.¡±
¡°But it isn¡¯t being there,¡± Oakes argued. ¡°We can never be there ever again. How do you live with that?¡±
Dietz shrugged. ¡°I wasn¡¯t there when I was deployed with the Legion, either. I lived through pictures from home and watching them on the terminals. It isn¡¯t so much different now. We sent letters back and forth¡ªbut not very often. I can trick myself into thinking I just sent them a letter and it¡¯s been a while and they just don¡¯t have time to write back¡ªor they already wrote me and I don¡¯t have time to write back. It¡¯s not that much different.¡±
¡°It¡¯s different,¡± Oakes snarled. ¡°It¡¯s very different.¡±
¡°No one is asking you to look,¡± Rhodes told him. ¡°If you don¡¯t want to look, don¡¯t look.¡±
Oakes turned on him. ¡°I don¡¯t see you looking.¡±
Now it was Rhodes¡¯s turn to look away. ¡°No, I couldn¡¯t look.¡±
Oakes waved at Rhodes and pointed at Dietz. ¡°You see? I¡¯m not the only one. Do you think I want to see my wife getting together with another man? Do you think I want to see obituaries for my parents dying and school reports of my son getting in trouble for getting in fights?¡±
¡°So you¡¯re just gonna live without it?¡± Dietz asked. ¡°How do you live with that?¡±
Oakes glared at him for a split second, stood up, and stormed out of the hold. He switched off the interface so none of the others could see where he was going.
Rhinehart sat silently through the whole argument. Dietz glanced over at Rhodes. ¡°It isn¡¯t like he can say I¡¯m doing anything wrong by looking.¡±
¡°No, you aren¡¯t. I can¡¯t fault you for wanting to stay in touch, even from a distance. You keep doing your own thing. He¡¯ll deal with it in his own way.¡±
¡°Or not,¡± Rhinehart murmured.
¡°Just do what you gotta do.¡± Rhodes stood up. ¡°It¡¯s going to be hard on all of us. Just do whatever you have to do to cope with it. None of us can ask for anything better than that.¡±
He would have liked to leave the hold, but he didn¡¯t want to go anywhere near the Ero crew.
Their reaction¡ªor non-reaction¡ªunnerved Rhodes more than the soldiers¡¯ hostility. He would rather have someone outright hating him than ignoring him and pretending he didn¡¯t exist.
Oakes was right. There was just as little to do here as anywhere else. Dietz went back to work on the terminal. Oakes returned half an hour later and went back to writing something on a piece of paper.
Rhinehart went into The Grid where Rocky showed him a detailed schematic of all Rhinehart¡¯s implants.
They held a long, complicated conversation about how all Rhinehart¡¯s components worked, how the fusion generator fed power to Rhinehart¡¯s implants, and how it reproduced Rhinehart¡¯s weapons so fast.
Rhodes should have listened. He¡¯d always wondered about this stuff, but he couldn¡¯t get interested in it.
It would have been more accurate to say the subject made him sick. The revulsion and fury he felt when he first woke up¡ªit started to creep back into his soul.
He didn¡¯t realize it until he and the rest of the battalion woke up from their next conversion cycle.
Thackery, Henshaw, Coulter, Lauer, and Fuentes woke up, too. The whole battalion was back together again.
Rhodes sat on the edge of his capsule and stared at his mechanical feet. He hated them. He hated everything about this life. He hated himself most of all.
Being this half-robot infuriated him. How dare the Legion do this to him?
He seethed in silent fury¡.and then he realized. He¡¯d been calm yesterday. He¡¯d been fine while he visited his subordinates in the lab. He didn¡¯t hate himself then¡ªnot any more than he already did.
He stood up and turned from right to left. The feeling didn¡¯t go away.
He wanted to destroy something. He wanted to pulverize every one of these capsules and tear each of his subordinates apart to stop this project before it got any worse.
This hold didn¡¯t have a washroom, so he crossed the room to the terminal desk. No one was using it.
He sat down and programmed it to make the screen a reflective surface. He stared at his reflection.Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
The sight of his implants sent him into a rage. He stood up so fast that he kicked the chair over.
He didn¡¯t bother to pick it up. He stormed across the hold and paced back and forth. He had to get rid of this rage somehow.
He scrambled for some way to do it safely. He couldn¡¯t come up with any idea other than going to the training room and going into some Grid battle scenario.
Not even that would satisfy him. Nothing would satisfy him other than killing everyone involved in this project.
Fisher expanded himself in front of Rhodes¡¯s eyes. ¡°Good morning, Captain. I trust you had a good conversion cycle.¡±
¡°Something¡¯s wrong, Fisher,¡± Rhodes snarled through gritted teeth. ¡°I¡¯m having an emotional disturbance.¡±
Fisher cocked his head. ¡°I¡¯m not detecting any malfunction¡.¡±
¡°WILL YOU STOP SAYING THAT?!!¡± Rhodes thundered.
Everyone else in the hold jumped, spun around, and stared at him. Rhodes wheeled away, but there was nowhere to go. He was stuck with this.
His fury broke his ability to control it and he lashed out for a split second before he found a way to stop himself. He punched his fist at the only target available.
His knuckles smashed the concrete wall next to him. That impact brought him back from the brink just enough to stop himself from hitting anything else.
He would have liked to smash the whole Ero to pieces. He would have liked to kill everyone on board.
This rage bursting out of him right now¡ªit just kept escalating. It built with every passing second.
He clenched his teeth and snarled in a deadly undertone. He didn¡¯t trust himself to speak any louder than that. ¡°I¡¯m telling you something¡¯s wrong,¡± he muttered.
¡°I believe you, Captain,¡± Fisher replied in his calmest, most soothing murmur. ¡°I¡¯m alerting Dr. Osborne. He¡¯s on his way now.¡±
Rhodes clamped his mouth shut to stop himself from answering. He didn¡¯t trust Dr. Osborne nor did Rhodes trust himself around Dr. Osborne.
Thank the stars that Dr. Neiland, Dr. Irvine, nor Dr. Montague was here¡ªor General Brewster. Rhodes really would have lost it on any of them.
¡°Your stress levels are reading somewhat similarly to what they were when you first came online at Coleridge Station,¡± Fisher informed him while they waited. ¡°They¡¯re elevated, but they¡¯re still within normal parameters.¡±
¡°They aren¡¯t within normal parameters!¡± Rhodes spat.
¡°I realize that, Captain,¡± Fisher breathed. ¡°I¡¯m sure the doctors will do everything possible to eliminate the cause of the stress.¡±
Rhodes already knew they wouldn¡¯t. They would have to remove his implants to eliminate the cause of the stress.
He didn¡¯t say that out loud. Rhinehart, Oakes, and Lauer gathered around Rhodes. ¡°What¡¯s wrong, Captain?¡± Lauer asked.
¡°I¡¯m malfunctioning,¡± Rhodes growled through gritted teeth. ¡°Fisher called Dr. Osborne.¡±
Rhinehart accessed the interface and immediately switched it off when he felt Rhodes¡¯s fury. ¡°Holy shit! This is bad!¡±
¡°If one of us is malfunctioning, we can expect others to malfunction, too,¡± Oakes decided. ¡°We¡¯re going to have to keep a close eye on things.¡±
¡°Maybe this has something to do with the delay when Fisher came back online,¡± Rhinehart suggested. ¡°Fisher was the only SAM who suffered a delay. Maybe this will stay isolated to the captain.¡±
¡°I¡¯m not detecting any malfunction in my programming,¡± Fisher remarked.
Thackery, Henshaw, Fuentes, and Coulter gathered around, too, but just then, Drs. Osborne and Trudeau rolled in.
Rhodes had to fight himself all the way down the corridor to the lab. ¡°It¡¯s getting worse,¡± he snarled through locked teeth. ¡°You might need to take me offline.¡±
Osborne paused in the middle of the corridor and raised his device. He opened his mouth to say, ¡°I don¡¯t think that¡¯s necessary¡..¡±
Rhodes overreacted again, seized the doctor by the elbow, and marched him the rest of the way to the lab.
Rhodes saw himself acting violently toward the one man who was supposed to be helping him. Rhodes couldn¡¯t stop himself, though.
Rhodes felt the last shreds of his self-control starting to disintegrate. He shoved Osborne into the lab a lot harder than he should have.
Osborne stumbled once and spun around to confront Rhodes¡ªas if Osborne would be able to stop Rhodes if he did try something.
Trudeau hung back out of range and stared at Rhodes with huge eyes.
Osborne tried to play it off and waved toward the stool next to his computer components. ¡°Take a seat, Captain. We can work this out.¡±
Rhodes ignored the gesture and crossed instead to the capsule standing on the other side of the room. It was the same capsule Rhodes had been using while he was in stasis.
He sat down and started to stretch out. ¡°What are you doing, Captain?¡± Osborne asked. ¡°You don¡¯t need to go into another conversion cycle.¡±
¡°I¡¯m going to kill someone if I stay like this.¡± Rhodes waved him away. ¡°Get to work and fix it. I don¡¯t care what you have to do. Take me offline if you have to. You¡¯ll be able to do it quicker if I¡¯m like this.¡±
The prongs stabbed into Rhodes¡¯s head and back. He wilted in relief when they locked him in place. He couldn¡¯t go anywhere now.
He could have unlocked himself if he really wanted to, but he finally got the message across to the two doctors.
They gaped at him in horrified disbelief for a second and then attacked their machines.
Trudeau made the first move by immobilizing Rhodes. He wouldn¡¯t be able to get up now even if he wanted to.
Fisher kept rotating right and left looking at nothing on Rhodes¡¯s internal Grid. ¡°I¡¯m still not detecting any unusual brain wave patterns.¡±
¡°Maybe the problem is in your programming,¡± Rhodes muttered. ¡°Did you ever think of that, pal?¡±
Osborne turned around and raised his eyebrows. ¡°What programming?¡±
Rhodes had to take a deep, steadying breath before he trusted himself to speak. ¡°Check Fisher¡¯s programming functions first. He didn¡¯t come back online when I woke up from my second conversion cycle. He was offline for almost twenty minutes and he didn¡¯t remember me coming out of stasis. Maybe the malfunction is with him.¡±
¡°I think I found the problem,¡± Trudeau announced without turning around. ¡°The SAM¡¯s interface with your behavioral protocol is feeding back on itself. It¡¯s only supposed to allow him to monitor your emotional state for any disturbance. Now it¡¯s feeding back and causing the disturbance he¡¯s supposed to detect.¡±
¡°That explains why he can¡¯t detect it,¡± Rhodes muttered.
Fisher cocked his head to one side. ¡°Are you sure about this, Captain? I don¡¯t like the doctors tinkering with my programming.¡±
¡°Now you know how I feel, pal,¡± Rhodes snarled.
¡°I¡¯m removing the distortion and correcting the feedback,¡± Trudeau reported. ¡°Let me know if it gets any better.¡±
It did. The rage started to fade and Rhodes sank back on the mattress with a shuddering sigh.
The feeling of wanting to wreck something didn¡¯t go away, though¡ªnot completely. It dwindled to a low, simmering resentment against everyone and everything involved in this project, including Rhodes himself.
Trudeau finally turned around to study Rhodes. ¡°Is that any better?¡±
Rhodes couldn¡¯t look at this kid. ¡°I guess so.¡±
¡°Do you feel like sitting up, Captain?¡± Osborne asked.
Rhodes didn¡¯t want to sit up. He didn¡¯t want to do anything. He hated everything about this.
Did that hatred come from Fisher¡¯s malfunction¡ªor just from the nightmarish reality itself? How could this resentment ever go away when Rhodes really did resent the project?
He couldn¡¯t stay in this lab for the rest of his life, so he sat up on the edge of the capsule.
He was just about to push himself to his feet when a high-pitched scream stabbed him in the brain.
In a split second, all the other SAMs interfaced with him. The battalion had slackened their habit of always staying interfaced with each other to keep an eye on each other.
Everyone in the battalion had been on constant watch for any malfunction. All of that went out the window when they got injured on Sulia.
Waking up from such a long conversion cycle broke the routine. Everyone stayed out of each other¡¯s heads while each person went through their own personal recovery.
Now all the SAMs burst into Rhodes¡¯s head in an instant¡ªand they all malfunctioned at the same time.
Henshaw kept screaming in Rhodes¡¯s ear. Each of the SAMs malfunctioned in a different way. Each malfunction affected that individual differently.
Keon¡¯s grid lines kept twisting across his face, distorting the SAM¡¯s panda appearance, reforming, and smearing somewhere else.
Henshaw collapsed on her knees in the capsule hold, clutched her head, and screamed herself hoarse every time Keon¡¯s grid lines changed his appearance.
Rocky bared his teeth and snarled at Rhinehart through The Grid. The horse head sprouted fangs and its eyes stretched upward into two glowing red slits.
Rocky bared his teeth at Rhinehart until he backed away. He bumped into the wall, but he couldn¡¯t get away from his murderous SAM.
Oakes projected a Grid copy of himself into the interface. The lines that formed the copy¡¯s outline snatched Dash out of thin air and the two figures wrestled, yanked, and fought each other inside The Grid.
Coulter collapsed on the hold floor spasming, twitching, and convulsing in pain. Murphy hovered there in space watching Coulter howling in torment. Murphy didn¡¯t react. He didn¡¯t do a thing to intervene or to help Coulter.
Fuentes huddled in a ball the way he did when he first woke up. He sat on the table, pulled his knees to his chest, and cast terrified glances at the rest of the battalion.
Crushing fear, self-hatred, and revulsion flooded Rhodes coming from Fuentes. Van hovered in front of his eyes yelling at him in some language Rhodes couldn¡¯t understand. It didn¡¯t sound like any Preinean language he¡¯d ever heard before.
Rhodes tried not to see all his subordinates suffering these catastrophic malfunctions all at the same time.
His hands flew to his head, but the agony and torture overwhelming each of them rushed back on him. He grimaced as all their pain and distress hit him full force.
He¡¯d never shared his subordinates¡¯ thoughts or emotions like this. Now it all poured through the interface. He felt everything as if it came from himself.
Trudeau rushed him. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡±
¡°They¡¯re malfunctioning!¡± Rhodes choked and groaned as a torrential wave of physical pain smashed into him. It came from Coulter.
Osborne sprang back to his controls. ¡°Who is malfunctioning?¡±
¡°All of them!¡± Rhodes fought to breathe. ¡°They¡¯re¡¡¡± He broke off in a scream of terror coming from Henshaw.
Osborne and Trudeau scrambled over their machines. ¡°I¡¯m not picking up anything¡.¡± Osborne began.
Rhodes cut him off with a roar as Dash overcame Oakes¡¯s grid lines. Dash extended his own lines to surround Oakes, wrestled him to the floor, and Dash started throttling Oakes to a bloody pulp.
Dash expanded to a huge size. His grid lines stretched and formed whipping alien limbs that strangled Oakes, pounded him into the floor, and started burrowing into Oakes¡¯s mouth.
¡°Shut them down!¡± Rhodes bellowed. ¡°Shut them down now!¡±
¡°WHO!!¡± Osborne yelled back.
¡°All of them! Shut down all of them¡ªNOW!¡±
Trudeau hovered in front of Rhodes¡¯s eyes trying to examine him. Rhodes barely saw him, and right at that moment, Fisher transformed in front of Rhodes¡¯s face.
Fisher had been hanging there in his usual place. Now he morphed into a monster as hideous as any Rhodes had ever seen. Fisher grew fangs, his eyes stretched out to become pointed slits, and he rushed Rhodes with all those teeth bared.
Rhodes screamed again and reared back to get away from the SAM. The next minute, another catastrophic surge of fury seized Rhodes. This dwarfed anything he experienced before.
He lunged for the SAM to kill it no matter what. Rhodes broke away from the prongs holding him down, shot out his arms, and levitated off the bed trying to seize Fisher before the SAM killed him first.
Rhodes became distantly aware in some other part of his brain that his mechanical hands were closing on Trudeau instead.
At that moment, something happened outside Rhodes¡¯s awareness and he lost consciousness completely.
End of Chapter 7.
Battalion 1: Book 2: Chapter 8
Rhodes woke up and instantly recognized Dr. Neiland¡¯s lab at Coleridge Station. He collapsed back on the mattress in his capsule. He couldn¡¯t decide if he was happy about being back here.
He groaned when he remembered everything that happened on the Ero. Sweet Jesus! Could he and his subordinates look forward to more of this¡.well, forever?
What if the doctors and technicians never worked out all the bugs in the Battalion 1 project? What if Rhodes and his people kept suffering from these malfunctions for as long as they survived this disaster?
Why would it be any different? Implanting these devices into living tissue couldn¡¯t end well. It would always cause problems, either physically or mentally.
The human body and mind weren¡¯t designed for this. The battalion members¡¯ bodies and minds would continue to reject the new reality.
Then there were the SAMs. Just how much of this had to do with them?
How much control did they really have over each battalion member¡¯s behavior and thought process? Did it even matter anymore which of them malfunctioned or why?
The SAMs weren¡¯t alive. They might be self-aware, but they weren¡¯t human. Whatever else they might be, their thought processes were incompatible with human nature.
They couldn¡¯t possibly be anything else. They were machines¡ªcomputer programs. The two systems would always conflict.
Rhodes didn¡¯t understand much about the Battalion 1 project, but he understood one thing. Whoever designed this whole lunatic scheme didn¡¯t plan for the SAMs to have to deal with strong, raw human emotions.
Whatever genius came up with this must have thought the battalion members would have no emotional reaction to anything that happened to them.
Whoever designed this must have believed that the battalion members would have no emotional reaction to getting these implants, much less losing their families and their basic humanity.
That on its own was incredibly short-sighted of the project designers. They really showed their incompetence by not taking into account that the battalion would end up going into combat.
Going into combat always brought up powerful emotions¡ªboth during the combat itself as well as before and after. The project designers never thought of that.
Fisher reappeared immediately this time as soon as Rhodes opened his eyes.
¡°Captain,¡± Fisher murmured. ¡°I am so sorry about what happened before. I feel awful about attacking you the way I did.¡±
¡°It wasn¡¯t your fault, pal,¡± Rhodes husked. ¡°I know you didn¡¯t mean to.¡±
¡°How can you ever trust me again? How can you trust that I won¡¯t do it again?¡±
¡°I don¡¯t have any problem trusting you, pal. You look fine now. You¡¯re back to normal.¡±
Fisher looked away. ¡°You¡¯re much more generous than I would be.¡±
¡°How can you even say that? I attacked you, too. I would have killed you. I wanted to.¡±
¡°I know you did,¡± Fisher murmured. ¡°I felt that when it happened.¡±
Rhodes tried to look somewhere else, but he would always have to look at Fisher. Fisher would always be right there in front of Rhodes¡¯s face. ¡°I¡¯m sorry about that.¡±
¡°You malfunctioned,¡± Fisher pointed out. ¡°You can¡¯t blame yourself for that.¡±
¡°You malfunctioned, too. What did you think¡ªthat you were somehow immune to malfunctions even though all the other SAMs have been suffering malfunctions all this time? You know you aren¡¯t immune. You said so yourself. You were the one who told me it was only a matter of time before you malfunctioned and it affected me.¡±
Fisher hesitated for a second. ¡°I¡¯m afraid I did think that. I told you that, but I never really believed it. I somehow convinced myself that I wouldn¡¯t malfunction simply because I am your SAM and you¡¯re the battalion¡¯s commanding officer. I somehow convinced myself that I was too important to malfunction¡ªand that you were too important. I didn¡¯t let myself think it was possible that I could let you down like this.¡±
¡°You didn¡¯t let me down, pal. Shit happens. It happens to the best of us.¡± Rhodes dragged himself out of bed. ¡°What are the others doing?¡±
¡°I¡¯m not sure, Captain. I can¡¯t interface with them.¡±
Rhodes¡¯s head shot up. ¡°You can¡¯t? Why not?¡±
¡°I¡¯m not sure, Captain. The interface simply isn¡¯t working.¡±
¡°Where are they?¡± Rhodes immediately realized his mistake. Fisher wouldn¡¯t be able to find that out without the interface.
Rhodes dropped into The Grid, but it didn¡¯t tell him anything, either. It read Coleridge Station all around him, but The Grid only showed the normal station personnel. The Grid didn¡¯t indicate the location of any Battalion 1 people, not even Rhodes himself.
He was just about to stand up and go looking for his people when Dr. Irvine, Dr. Montague, Dr. Osborne, and Dr. Trudeau walked into the lab.
Rhodes cast a suspicious glance around, but he didn¡¯t see Dr. Neiland. Irvine and Montague were just as bad, but Rhodes had developed a special vendetta against her.
¡°How are you feeling, Captain?¡± Dr. Osborne asked.
Rhodes stifled the urge to snort. ¡°I¡¯m about as good as you would expect. Did you cut me off from the interface?¡±
Dr. Irvine spread both hands. ¡°Everyone in Battalion 1 suffered catastrophic systems malfunctions. We thought it best to keep you isolated from each other until we can iron out the wrinkles.¡±
¡°And did you? Did you iron out the wrinkles?¡±
¡°That remains to be seen, now that you¡¯re out of your conversion cycle.¡±
¡°So what did you do? What caused the malfunctions?¡±
Osborne went over to the central stack of components and started tapping on them. ¡°All your SAMs suffered errors in their base programming during your battle on Sulia. It appears that going into combat affected them in ways no one was able to foresee.¡±Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
Rhodes compressed his lips. Of course no one foresaw those problems. No one in the Battalion 1 project had even been looking for them.
¡°We¡¯ve corrected the errors in the programming,¡± Dr. Trudeau added. ¡°You shouldn¡¯t suffer from any further malfunctions.¡±
¡°I¡¯ll believe that when I see it,¡± Rhodes fired back. ¡°I think what you mean is that you corrected the problems that you know about¡ªthe ones that caused this particular set of malfunctions. Obviously you couldn¡¯t correct any problems you haven¡¯t foreseen.¡±
Trudeau lowered his eyes. ¡°Of course, Captain. That is what I meant.¡±
Dr. Montague looked down at the remote device in his hand. ¡°Is your SAM functioning normally, Captain? Is he exhibiting any unusual changes?¡±
¡°No, he seems fine and he¡¯s acting normally, too.¡±
¡°He¡¯s reading some emotional distress,¡± Osborne called over his shoulder from his stack of equipment. ¡°This is unusual. The SAMs aren¡¯t programmed to experience emotional distress.¡±
¡°Why not?¡± Rhodes demanded. ¡°They¡¯re self-aware. It makes sense that they would have a range of emotions and reactions to their circumstances.¡±
¡°They¡¯re programmed to help the individual soldier cope with emotional disturbance. The SAMs aren¡¯t programmed to cope with emotional disturbance of their own.¡± Trudeau looked up. ¡°What¡¯s wrong with him? Why is he disturbed?¡±
¡°He says he feels guilty about attacking me earlier when he malfunctioned. He thinks he violated my trust and I won¡¯t be able to trust him again.¡±
¡°That¡¯s odd. The SAMs aren¡¯t programmed to feel guilt or shame over their actions at all.¡±
¡°Why not?¡± Rhodes repeated. ¡°They¡¯re self-aware. They should have a full range of emotions.¡±
¡°They aren¡¯t programmed to have any emotions at all,¡± Dr. Montague interrupted.
¡°Then something must have gone seriously wrong,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°The SAMs feel fear, so they must feel everything else, too.¡±
¡°If you could just lie down, Captain.¡± Dr. Irvine moved in. ¡°We need to make some more adjustments.¡±
Rhodes didn¡¯t want anyone making any adjustments to anything, but he would do just about anything to prevent another catastrophe like the last one¡ªor like all the rest of them.
He started to lean over to lie back down on his mattress when Fisher crumbled before Rhodes¡¯s eyes.
The SAM¡¯s features contorted in a grimace of misery and he broke down sobbing right there.
He spasmed and jerked as the grid lines twisted his face in all the wrong directions¡ªexcept that they were all the right directions. They formed all the most perfect expressions of someone falling apart in despair.
¡°Fisher!¡± Rhodes choked. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡±
Fisher broke out in a few more sobs, and just as fast, he erupted in rage. At least he didn¡¯t change back into a monster full of fangs.
His grid lines burst apart as he expanded. He bared his teeth in a feral snarl and bellowed in fury.
His face rotated from right to left like he was struggling to break out of something holding him back.
Rhodes jolted away as Fisher¡¯s image rushed closer. ¡°Whoa!¡± Rhodes yelled. ¡°What are you doing to him?! Stop!¡±
¡°We aren¡¯t doing anything!¡± Dr. Osborne yelled back. ¡°We haven¡¯t even started making the adjustments yet!¡±
¡°You¡¯re¡..¡± Rhodes began and broke off when Fisher collapsed again. His grid lines all went limp and flopped down to land in a pile. They would have landed on the floor except that there was no floor in The Grid.
The lines slumped into an inert mound of lines right there in front of Rhodes¡¯s horrified sight. ¡°Fisher!¡± he husked. ¡°No!¡±
Just when Rhodes feared the worst, the lines bounced up and reformed Fisher¡¯s normal face again. He blinked at Rhodes in that quick, bird-like way of his.
¡°Fisher?¡± Rhodes croaked. ¡°Are you okay?¡±
¡°I¡¯m fine, Captain. Why do you ask?¡±
¡°You¡.you malfunctioned again.¡±
¡°I don¡¯t think so,¡± Fisher replied. ¡°You must be mistaken. I¡¯m functioning according to my programming. All my systems are operating within normal parameters. I would remember any malfunction.¡±
Rhodes opened his mouth to reply, but he could already see that Fisher didn¡¯t even remember what just happened.
At that moment, another agonizing wave of crushing grief seized Rhodes by the guts. It nearly made him buckle from the sheer weight of agony.
He almost broke down in despair, too, but just as fast, his feelings changed to stupid, hysterical, irrational mirth.
He had to bite his lip to stop himself from bursting out laughing right now. This whole ridiculous situation was too stupid to take it seriously a second longer.
He understood at some deeper level that he was malfunctioning again. He turned to lie back down on the mattress before anything else went wrong. He wanted to lock up with his capsule so he wouldn¡¯t be able to react to whatever this feeling changed to next.
He made it to a forty-five-degree angle to his mattress when this unstoppable groundswell of emotion erupted in a volcanic blast of pure murderous rage.
This time wiped out his previous fury and turned him into a raving psychopath in the blink of an eye. He didn¡¯t even have a chance to try to stop himself.
Something beyond himself shot him off the capsule. This other force moved all his limbs without him doing anything, trying anything, or deciding on anything.
Dr. Irvine happened to be standing closest to Rhodes¡¯s capsule. Rhodes swiped his mechanical right arm to one side and sent Irvine flying. He slammed into the wall and flopped unconscious on the floor.
The other doctors got out of Rhodes¡¯s path just in time for him to storm over to the central stack of computer components.
He could have destroyed them instantly by firing his Vipers into them, but he wanted to feel everything¡ªor whatever part of him was doing this wanted to feel everything.
He charged the stack, extended both fists in front of him, and plowed straight through the equipment.
Screens and block processors exploded all around him, but that wasn¡¯t enough. He tore his way through the stack ripping everything apart with his bare hands.
He burst out the other side, swatted wires and conduits out of his face, and looked around for what else he could destroy.
He would never stop destroying. He would destroy the whole station. He wanted to tear the whole world apart.
He wasn¡¯t close enough to anything here, so he bent over, punched both fists into the floor, and roared in fury when he tore the floor plates up with his bare hands.
He hurled them into the walls, smashed more equipment, and sent the technicians running for cover.
He spotted Osborne and Trudeau on the other side of the room. They attacked what controls they could while they tried to shut Rhodes down, but nothing worked.
The small part of his brain that could still form rational thought had to admire them for having the courage to stick around.
Rhodes didn¡¯t see Dr. Montague anywhere. He must have bolted and left these two behind to try to save the situation.
Rhodes couldn¡¯t damage the lab fast enough by walking around pulverizing the equipment with his fists. He needed more¡ªalways more. Nothing would ever be enough to satisfy this rage.
He dropped into The Grid. It still worked.
He took off at a blinding run, measured the grid lines covering the walls, and straightened his arm on one side.
He hit the wall still running at his top speed and carved a path of destruction around the lab until he got to the other side.
His rage made him do all this, but he also felt something outside himself turning him, moving his limbs, and even directing his thoughts. Was he even doing any of this?
Osborne and Trudeau had to dive out of his way when he ran past them. They huddled together in the middle of the lab for protection. Flying sparks and shrapnel twirled in the air.
He got back to where he started and went to work tearing the wall components apart one brutal piece at a time.
He could take until doomsday to finish off this place and everything in it. He never wanted to see this lab or Coleridge Station again.
He turned his back on the rest of the lab so he could give the job his undivided attention.
He was in the middle of destroying a pile of processor units when a jet of fusion torched him in the back.
The Grid activated. He didn¡¯t have to turn around to see two dozen Legion soldiers standing across the lab.
They unloaded their Jackhammers on him, but the shots didn¡¯t damage his metal housing.
He unleashed three Vipers back at them and blasted all those soldiers out into the corridor. He turned around, stormed across the lab, and raised both his arms to wipe them all out with his lasers and scourge guns.
He actually hoped in that moment that someone sent more soldiers after him so he could kill them, too.
What was wrong with him? He only ever wanted to protect Legion soldiers. That was his job. He never wanted to harm his own comrades.
None of that meant anything right now. He wanted them dead in the worst, most torturous way possible.
Which weapon should he use to torment them as much as possible before they died? Should he use his thermal cannons to torch them to death? Should he blast their bodies to smithereens with his Vipers?
He made it halfway across the lab before another catastrophic smash hit him from somewhere. The Grid expanded for a fraction of a second¡ªjust long enough for him to read a Ravager in orbit over Coleridge Station.
The ship fired down at the station, punched through the ceiling, and a charge of electric voltage hit the walls and floor. The charge shut him down in a split second and he blacked out again.
Battalion 1: Book 2: Chapter 9
Rhodes woke up and groaned again when he remembered what he did. He tried to shut his eyes, but he couldn¡¯t block out the sight of Fisher in front of him.
Rhodes cringed when he saw his SAM¡ªhis friend. Rhodes didn¡¯t want to face the aftermath of destroying the lab the way he did.
¡°How are you feeling, Captain?¡± Fisher asked again.
Rhodes looked away. ¡°I feel like I don¡¯t want to be here.¡±
¡°Unfortunately, that option is no longer available. General Brewster ordered your weapons to be taken offline until the doctors and technicians satisfy themselves that you¡¯re no longer a danger to anyone.¡±
¡°I¡¯m sure I don¡¯t need weapons to do it, pal,¡± Rhodes growled. ¡°Corporal Poole killed himself without using weapons. I suppose it¡¯s just as well. I¡¯m not going into battle any time soon. Better for me to not have any weapons. I can live with it if it means no one gets killed.¡±
Fisher hesitated for a moment of tense silence. When he spoke, he used the same calm undertone as always. He expressed no emotion at all when he said, ¡°Someone already did get killed. Dr. Irvine is dead.¡±
Rhodes collapsed back on his mattress with a broken sigh. He clamped his eyes and his lips shut and looked away, but those words stabbed him in the heart.
¡°I should have known,¡± he choked. ¡°I should have known. Someone was bound to get hurt one of these days. Too many things have been going wrong.¡±
Fisher cocked his head to one side. ¡°You¡¯re experiencing another emotional distress response. Why? You did not kill Dr. Irvine. I did.¡±
Rhodes spun around fast. ¡°You?!¡±
¡°I took control of your movements and responses and made you destroy the lab. I malfunctioned exactly the way you said. I had an emotional reaction and I used The Grid to cause you to attack the lab.¡± Fisher inclined his head the other way. ¡°Didn¡¯t you feel it while it was happening? I sensed you trying to resist and stop yourself¡.but I may have been mistaken.¡±
¡°I¡..I thought I was the one doing it. I felt¡..something outside myself¡..but I thought I was just mad. I didn¡¯t know¡¡ I¡¯m so sorry, Fisher.¡±
¡°Why are you sorry? You¡¯ve been in stasis all this time because of me. I¡¯m surprised they brought me back online at all after what happened.¡±
Rhodes ran his fingers through his hair. This was the worst yet. ¡°I am, too, honestly. I¡¯m surprised they brought either of us back online.¡±
¡°They had no reason to take you offline. You were the one who put yourself into a conversion cycle when you saw yourself spiraling into a violent rage. You wouldn¡¯t have attacked Irvine or the lab if not for me.¡± Fisher looked away. ¡°I would have expected them to take me offline and give you a different SAM.¡±
¡°I don¡¯t want a different SAM. I want you. You must have malfunctioned again. In fact, I know you did. You wouldn¡¯t have attacked the lab otherwise. The doctors must realize that.¡±
¡°I hope you¡¯re right, Captain,¡± Fisher murmured. ¡°I would hate for something like this to happen again.¡±
Rhodes would bet any amount of money that it would happen again, but he didn¡¯t say that out loud.
He couldn¡¯t even blame Fisher for this. Rhodes wanted to destroy the lab. He enjoyed it.
Fisher probably didn¡¯t have to try too hard to control Rhodes. Rhodes doubted he resisted very much if he resisted at all. Maybe Fisher just said that to make Rhodes feel better.
He was one malfunction away from doing exactly the same thing without any help from Fisher or anyone else.
Rhodes didn¡¯t even need a malfunction to do it. His own hopeless fury over this situation could make him snap any second now.
He was too weak to get out of bed now. He must have been in stasis for a long, long time the way Fisher said.
Rhodes would get his strength back soon enough. Then what?
He was more of a danger to himself and others now than he¡¯d ever been. He didn¡¯t trust himself to stop himself if he really, really wanted to do something.
¡°Is there any word on the others?¡± he asked.
¡°They¡¯re all in long-term stasis, too¡ªor they were,¡± Fisher replied. ¡°The station records indicate that everyone in the battalion has suffered malfunctions.¡±
¡°Wonderful,¡± Rhodes muttered. ¡°I can just imagine.¡±
¡°None of them required a Ravager firing on them to shut them down, though. That special honor goes to you alone.¡±
Rhodes snorted. He really didn¡¯t want to talk about this anymore.
He didn¡¯t blame Fisher at all. At least he was functioning now. He didn¡¯t show any further sign of emotional disturbance.
Rhodes was too grateful for his SAM to hold this latest incident against Fisher. Malfunctions could and would happen to everyone. This one just turned out to be worse than the others. That wasn¡¯t Fisher¡¯s fault.
Rhodes stayed where he was until the nausea passed. Then he got to his feet and shuffled around the lab for a while until his strength started to return.
He was back in Dr. Neiland¡¯s lab¡ªthe same lab where Rhodes woke up from his first stasis. The Legion must have rebuilt it while he was asleep.
Rhodes didn¡¯t ask how long he¡¯d been unconscious. One of these days, the Battalion 1 governing body would decide to leave him like that. Then everyone would be much better off, including Rhodes himself.
He finally worked up the energy to leave the lab. He was back at Coleridge Station, which meant he could go back to the battalion barracks.
The rest of his people would go back there as soon as they got out of stasis, too. Going there would be the quickest way to see them¡ªwherever they were.
He really needed them right now. He needed other people in the same boat as himself.
They wouldn¡¯t hold Dr. Irvine¡¯s death against him and Fisher, either. Everyone in the battalion wanted Dr. Irvine dead.
Fisher read his mind. ¡°Dr. Neiland isn¡¯t on the station roster anymore, Captain. Her record indicates that she resigned from the project.¡±
Rhodes snorted. ¡°Lucky her. Where do I go to resign?¡±
¡°At least you haven¡¯t lost your sense of humor.¡±
Rhodes walked out of the lab and stopped dead in his tracks when he stepped into the corridor. A squad of ten armed Legion soldiers stood there waiting for him.If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
They all wore riot gear and carried Jackhammers. He didn¡¯t recognize any of them from his recent rampage.
Two of them flanked the lab entrance. Another two stood across the hall facing him.
The rest spaced themselves out on both sides to surround him heading in both directions.
He shouldn¡¯t have been surprised by this, but their presence didn¡¯t even intimidate him¡ªnot even with all of them bristling with weapons.
He could have taken them all out with his bare hands. Did they even realize how badly he outmatched them?
He felt nothing but pity for them whether they knew or not. He wasn¡¯t here to hurt them or even to resent them for guarding him. Even that made a sick kind of sense.
He decided to ignore them and set off down the corridor heading for the barracks. He just wanted to see his subordinates. He didn¡¯t care about anything else.
He tried to access The Grid on the way there, but the interface still didn¡¯t work. The Grid of the station worked the way it always did, but it still didn¡¯t return any information about anyone in the battalion, including Rhodes.
¡°It¡¯s kinda spooky, isn¡¯t it?¡± Rhodes remarked to Fisher on their way down the hall. ¡°It¡¯s almost like the brass is getting ready to take us offline for good.¡±
¡°I¡¯m starting to see things your way, Captain,¡± Fisher murmured. ¡°Maybe that would be for the best¡ªfor everyone concerned.¡±
¡°We¡¯re a ways past that now, pal,¡± Rhodes pointed out. ¡°Dr. Irvine is still dead.¡±
¡°Dr. Montague has requested transfer to the station¡¯s personnel medical wing. He no longer works for the Battalion 1 project, either. Osborne and Trudeau are our only doctors now.¡±
¡°Good,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°I won¡¯t say I trust them completely, but at least I don¡¯t suspect them of malicious intent.¡±
¡°Did you suspect Neiland, Irvine, and Montague of malicious intent? I didn¡¯t. I thought they were merely incompetent¡ªor perhaps too inexperienced and ignorant of their subjects to do the job justice.¡±
Rhodes sighed. ¡°You¡¯re right, pal. I guess I didn¡¯t suspect them of malicious intent, either. Osborne and Trudeau don¡¯t strike me as being quite as ignorant or incompetent, though. They seem to take the job more seriously.¡±
Rhodes and Fisher didn¡¯t have a chance to discuss it further before Rhodes walked into the barracks.
Whatever he might have been hoping to find here went right out the window. All his subordinates were already here. So here Drs. Osborne and Trudeau.
Rhodes saw right away that nothing had been fixed. He was the only person present who was functioning¡ªat all.
Dr. Osborne was trying to do something to Thackery¡¯s cranial implant while she glared at him and smacked his hands away from her head.
Rhodes distinctly heard her yell at him to get the fuck away from her.
Her voice was one of the few he could distinguish in a sea of noise. Dietz and Coulter stood across the room bellowing at each other at the tops of their lungs.
They gesticulated wildly. The miracle was that they hadn¡¯t resorted to violence yet, but it would happen soon if things kept escalating like this.
Rhinehart was in the act of overturning the terminal desk when Rhodes walked in. The terminal went flying and Rhinehart went to town on both the table and what was left of the terminal.
He scooped up sections of the table, tore them to pieces, and then lifted the terminal above his head to smash it onto the floor. He stomped it under his feet until he reduced it to tiny fragments.
He kept bellowing in rage the whole time. When he finished, he swung both fists and pounded them into the wall.
Lauer lay sprawled face down on top of his capsule. He kept his head buried under his arms while he thumped his fists onto the cover again and again.
He smashed in the transparent cover, but he didn¡¯t seem to notice. He kept striking again and again with no awareness of what he was doing.
An agonized yowl of broken misery echoed off the cover from his mouth pressed against the device¡¯s metal housing.
Fuentes sat huddled in a fetal ball in a corner of the barracks. His lips, cheeks, and body trembled with anguished emotion while he watched his comrades fall to pieces all around him.
He kept jerking, spasming, and trying to shove his way farther back into the corner, but he was already as far back as he could go.
Oakes stood over him in a guarding posture. Oakes planted his feet wide apart and glared out into the room. He clenched his fists at his side and gritted his teeth ready to attack anyone who came too close to Fuentes.
Dr. Osborne bent over Georgie Henshaw. She lay flat on her back on the floor and she was out cold.
He worked frantically over his remote device trying to do something, but she never responded.
Rhodes took in the whole scene in a split second, but that didn¡¯t help him decide what to do. He didn¡¯t know which of his subordinates to approach first.
He had to admire the two doctors for getting involved in this. They could have retreated for their own safety, especially after what happened to Dr. Irvine.
They turned out to be braver even than these armed soldiers. Another twenty stood guard all around the barracks, but none of the soldiers intervened to stop Lauer and Rhinehart from destroying Legion property.
The soldiers guarding Rhodes didn¡¯t enter the room. They stayed near him¡ªas if he was somehow more dangerous than the rest of these people.
Rhodes took a deep breath and stepped into the room, but he still didn¡¯t have a clue what to do or say first.
Oakes and Fuentes didn¡¯t seem to be in any danger. Rhodes wouldn¡¯t have been able to help with whatever was wrong with Henshaw, either.
He headed for Coulter and Dietz to break up the fight.
Before he could get there, Rhinehart finished demolishing what was left of both the terminal and the table.
He spun away, and without looking where he was going, he charged for the capsules, too.
Rhodes recognized that crazed look in Rhinehart¡¯s eyes. Rhinehart wanted to destroy everything in sight.
Rhodes dodged in front of him and stopped Rhinehart in his tracks. ¡°Stop, Lieutenant. You don¡¯t want to do that.¡±
¡°YOU BASTARD!!¡± Rhinehart bellowed. ¡°GET OUT OF MY WAY!!¡±
He seized Rhodes by the shoulders and hurled him aside. Rhodes tried to stand his ground, but Rhinehart¡¯s size and strength overpowered Rhodes easily.
Rhodes would have pitched across the floor, but he stumbled and caught his balance.
Rhinehart charged to the nearest capsule, which was Fuentes¡¯s, grabbed the open cover, and tore it off with one massive jerk of his powerful arms.
The cover went flying into another corner¡ªaway from anywhere it might hurt anyone. Then Rhinehart attacked the capsule tooth and nail. He smashed down on it with both fists and roared in mindless fury as he wrecked that, too.
Rhodes braced himself to dive in and try to stop the destruction, but he didn¡¯t. He stopped where he was and watched.
The doctors and soldiers didn¡¯t stop Rhinehart, either. They didn¡¯t stop him from destroying the terminal and they didn¡¯t stop him from destroying Fuentes¡¯s capsule.
Oakes didn¡¯t intervene, either, not even knowing that Fuentes needed this capsule to survive.
Osborne kept trying to do something to Henshaw through his device. Trudeau was getting more and more desperate to do whatever he was trying to do to Thackery.
Rhodes didn¡¯t see anything wrong with her, but when she tried one more time to swat his arms away, she collapsed backward, toppled off the bench, and hit the floor.
Trudeau pounced on her, did something to her cranial implant, and then he started frantically working on his device, too.
He cast a few petrified glances around the barracks. The wild terror in his eyes said it all. These two doctors were more than aware of everything going wrong in here right now.
Thackery and Henshaw must have been suffering from the most dangerous malfunctions. That must be what knocked them out.
The other members of the battalion might be getting violently enraged and destroying Legion property, but they weren¡¯t in any danger of dropping dead from whatever was wrong with them. Fuentes even had Oakes guarding him.
Rhodes decided to take a page from the doctor¡¯s playbook. He left Lauer and Rhinehart alone, went over to Coulter and Dietz instead, and stepped between them.
Rhodes pushed them apart and pointed behind Coulter. ¡°Go over there, Eddie. Back off!¡±
Coulter got in Rhodes¡¯s face. ¡°Don¡¯t you fucking tell me what to do! This asshole tried to attack me!¡±
¡°I don¡¯t care what he did!¡± Rhodes yelled back. ¡°You¡¯re both malfunctioning! Now get the hell over there NOW!! Back off, Dietz! Go over there!¡±
He pushed them farther apart and steered them into opposite corners of the barracks. They must have been at least partially rational because they did it, obeyed him, and separated to opposite corners.
They kept glaring at each other until Dietz turned his back and faced the wall.
¡°He¡¯s a scumbag,¡± Coulter snarled in Rhodes¡¯s ear. ¡°I swear I¡¯ll tear his fucking head if he looks at me sideways again.¡±
Rhodes opened his mouth to say again that Coulter only felt that way because he was malfunctioning.
At that moment, another broken roar split across the barracks. So much other noise echoed off the walls that the sound didn¡¯t startled Rhodes at first.
Before anyone could move, Fuentes sprang to his feet and charged across the barracks. He made it halfway to Thackery before Rhodes realized what was happening.
Fuentes¡¯s anguish and terror from a minute before erupted in animal rage. He bellowed in fury and picked up speed heading straight for Thackery.
Rhodes leapt forward to stop him from attacking her, but Fuentes wound up sprinting straight past her and he collided with the wall.
He hit it with such force that he pulverized it to rubble in seconds, charged through, and took off running down the station¡¯s corridors.
He vanished out of sight before anyone realized what was happening. Both doctors looked up.
The sight snapped Rhodes out of his shock. He pointed at Osborne. ¡°Keep doing what you¡¯re doing and help her! I¡¯ll go after him!¡± He waved to Oakes and the soldiers. ¡°Come on! Let¡¯s go!¡±
End of Chapter 9.
Battalion 1: Book 2: Chapter 10
Rhodes clambered through the hole in the barracks wall and glanced right and left down the Coleridge Station corridors.
He didn¡¯t have to wonder where Fuentes was. Sections of destroyed walls, injured people, and the sounds of screams led the way to the left.
Oakes caught up with Rhodes in the corridor. They took off running in that direction with a dozen soldiers on their tails.
¡°Where is he going?¡± Rhodes asked Oakes.
¡°How should I know?¡± Oakes countered.
¡°Did something happen in the barracks before I showed up?¡±
¡°Nothing you didn¡¯t already see,¡± Oakes replied. ¡°I was worried Rhinehart, Coulter, or Dietz might put Rudy in danger, so I stood guard to protect him.¡±
Rhodes glanced over at Oakes. Everything else about him seemed to be functioning normally.
¡°Did you malfunction?¡± Rhodes asked.
Oakes raised his eyebrow. ¡°Which time?¡±
¡°Now. Why are the rest of them malfunctioning and not you?¡±
Oakes shrugged. ¡°Who the hell knows why any of this is happening? Did you malfunction?¡±
¡°Which time?¡± Rhodes asked.
Oakes snorted. ¡°Got it.¡±
The two men faced front to follow Fuentes¡¯s track. It burst through more walls and left people trampled and cowering in fear along the way.
Rhodes climbed through a few more breaches before he spotted Fuentes ahead. He was crossing the concourse to the other side of the station.
¡°He¡¯s heading for the loading dock!¡± Rhodes waved to the soldiers. ¡°Get around in front of him and head him off. It looks like he¡¯s trying to escape from the station!¡±
The soldiers split up, raced down two different side wings, and left Oakes and Rhodes to run on alone.
Rhodes tried not to notice the soldiers finally leaving him alone. If he wanted to escape from Coleridge Station, now would be the perfect time to do it. Everyone was preoccupied with Fuentes.
Rhodes didn¡¯t want to escape from Coleridge Station. He didn¡¯t want to go anywhere. He had nowhere left in the known universe to go.
No one was out there waiting for him to come back¡ªnot like this. His family would have been more horrified to see him alive than they were to hear about his death in combat.
Oakes and Rhodes burst onto the loading dock and spotted Fuentes a hundred yards down the platform.
A bunch of transport freight craft, Dusters, and a few random Predators lined one side of the dock.
A single Ravager sat parked on the other side. It had its engines running as it prepared to launch.
Fuentes stood in the middle of the platform. His body convulsed in all directions before he managed to lurch one painful step closer to the Ravager.
Rhodes took a step forward. How dangerous was Fuentes? What was he even doing here?
At that moment, the interface switched on and Van¡¯s fuzzy, feline face appeared on The Grid right next to Fisher.
She twisted her grid lines all around Fuentes¡¯s body, restrained his arms against his sides, and wrapped the lines around and around his legs to stop him from moving.
He struggled with all his might, snapped a few lines, and took one more step before she wrestled him back under control.
Rhodes couldn¡¯t figure out how she activated the interface. It was supposed to be offline, but she did it somehow.
¡°Help me, Captain!¡± she rasped. ¡°Rudy is trying to kill himself!¡±
Rhodes opened his mouth to ask how Fuentes planned to kill himself with a full-sized Ravager, but Rhodes didn¡¯t get the words out.
Fuentes gave one more violent jerk, tried again to take another step, and toppled onto his side. He couldn¡¯t raise his arms to break his fall.
He landed hard on the platform and his metal housing made an echoing crash through the loading dock.
Rhodes and Oakes charged forward to get to him in time, but the instant they started running, Fuentes overcame his SAM¡¯s best efforts.
He roared in fury, tore his limbs out of the grid lines, and took off at high speed heading for the Ravager.
The engines thundered louder as the ship fired up to lift off the planet.
Fuentes activated The Grid. The lines spread all over him and he changed shape.
Van made one last heroic effort to stop him and failed. He morphed into one of the many-jointed creatures the battalion used on Sulia, bounded across the platform in a split second, and soared onto the ship¡¯s upper hull right above the engines.
He landed there and transformed back into a man. He turned around, straightened up, and a peaceful smile spread over his face.
The Ravager¡¯s engine noise throbbed off the dock walls with the noise of thunder. The ship would launch any second now.
Fuentes only had to jump off at the moment of launch. The engine wash venting from the exhaust manifold would incinerate him instantly. It would all be over.
Van kept the interface active through the whole disaster. Her lines kept snaking around Fuentes¡¯s body trying to wrench him away from the manifold. Her efforts only made him smile more broadly. She couldn¡¯t control him.
Rhodes considered for a second if he shouldn¡¯t change into some vehicle or creature to jump up there. He should be the one to talk Rudy down, but Rhodes didn¡¯t do that.
He¡¯d been telling his people from day one that he wouldn¡¯t hold it against them if they chose this route. Who was he to stop Fuentes from ending his miserable life? Rhodes really wished he could end his own.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Oakes didn¡¯t move, either. The engines fired and the soldiers fell back.
The ship lifted off the dock and Fuentes spread his arms to jump. The engines exploded in twin jets of fire. He sprang off the hull and started to fall toward the flames just as the engines ignited to full power.
At that moment, a blinding streak blasted across the loading dock, zoomed between Fuentes and the manifolds, and snatched him out of thin air.
Rhodes barely had time to register one of the battalion¡¯s Strikers whizzing past. Rhodes blinked¡.and there was Fuentes locked inside the cockpit.
The Striker circled and landed in front of Rhodes. Fuentes went ballistic, pounded the cockpit cover with his fists, and when that failed, he attacked his own face with his fingernails.
His mouth opened in a wordless roar of agony and hopeless despair. How many more times would Rhodes see that expression before this whole nightmare came to an end?
Fuentes dug his fingernails around the edge of his facial implant. He bellowed again and started to pull when a powerful thump went off inside the cockpit.
Fuentes collapsed into the seat, unconscious. Van disappeared off the interface. Rhodes didn¡¯t even get a chance to thank her for at least trying to save Fuentes.
The Ravager gunned its engines, rocketed off the loading dock, and climbed away into space. It left a heavy silence behind it.
Rhodes stared at Fuentes lying in the cockpit with his eyes closed. Was he really better off alive if he wanted so badly to end it?
Right then, Rio appeared on the interface next to Fisher. Rio smiled just as cheerily as ever. Not even this could dampen his mood.
¡°I got here as soon as I could, Captain.¡± The SAM cocked his head in concentration. ¡°Fuentes¡¯s vital signs are stable. He¡¯s functioning normally again.¡±
Rhodes sighed. ¡°Thank you, Rio. You saved his life.¡±
¡°Van interfaced with Teo and asked us to come and get Fuentes. I was the closest, so I came.¡±
¡°We need to take him back to the lab,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°Put him down and I¡¯ll take him from here. You can go back downstairs with the other Strikers. I really appreciate your help, Rio.¡±
¡°Of course, Captain. It¡¯s good to have you back.¡±
¡°I wish I could say the same thing, pal. Thank you. I¡¯ll take Fuentes from here.¡±
Rio¡¯s grid lines changed. They became flexible and almost liquid. They parted and lowered Fuentes¡¯s unconscious body onto the dock platform before the ship reformed into a Striker.
The ship took off and Rio vanished off the interface. Rhodes stared down at Fuentes for a minute before Rhodes decided what to do with him.
The kindest thing to do would be to put Fuentes down right now. He would never wake up or have to deal with the aftermath of this latest catastrophe.
Rhodes would never be able to do that. He knew that now. He wouldn¡¯t stand in the way of one of his subordinates taking the only way out left to them, but he wouldn¡¯t do it for them.
If dying meant that much to Fuentes¡ªor any of them¡ªhe had to do it himself.
Too bad Van and the other SAMs overcame the interface and called in the Strikers in time to save Fuentes.
Fisher understood now why Rhodes would want to end it. The other SAMs obviously didn¡¯t agree. Why should they? They wanted to live. Rhodes couldn¡¯t blame them for that, either.
The Strikers would be the hardest to convince. They spent their time in the landing bay downstairs.
Fisher and the battalion¡¯s personal SAMs spent their time riding around inside these people¡¯s heads. Of course they understood better, but Van wasn¡¯t ready to go there.
Rhodes couldn¡¯t know what went on between Fuentes and Van. He obviously hadn¡¯t come to the same understanding with her that Rhodes came to with Fisher.
Would Fisher try to stop Rhodes from ending his life? They never really had that conversation except for when Fisher said he understood.
Rhodes sighed, picked up Fuentes, and carried him back to Neiland¡¯s lab. No one was here. Osborne and Trudeau were still in the barracks doing God only knew what with Thackery and Henshaw.
Rhodes dreaded going back there. He didn¡¯t want to watch his whole party go down in flames.
He laid Fuentes in the capsule, locked the kid into the prongs, and shut the cover. Rhodes adjusted the controls to put Fuentes into an indefinite conversion cycle.
He wouldn¡¯t wake up until the doctors deliberately adjusted the cycle back to the way it was and woke him up on purpose.
Maybe they wouldn¡¯t wake him up at all. Maybe they would leave him like this¡ªforever. Would that really be so bad?
Rhodes turned away and found Oakes standing there watching him. Oakes stared down at Fuentes for a long time, too.
Then Oakes¡¯s eyes flicked to the control panel. He saw.
The two men shared a moment of deep eye contact before they both left the lab. They didn¡¯t talk all the way back to the barracks.
They walked into a scene almost worse than the one they left. Every other member of the battalion lay unconscious on the floor¡ªThackery, Henshaw, Dietz, Lauer, Rhinehart, and Coulter.
Drs. Osborne and Trudeau went from one person to the next checking everything on their devices.
¡°What happened?¡± Rhodes gasped when he walked in. ¡°Are they¡.?¡±
¡°They were becoming dangerous¡ªto themselves and each other,¡± Trudeau replied. ¡°Dietz and Coulter started arguing again and then they started shoving. Coulter slammed Dietz¡¯s head against the wall. Rhinehart started trying to destroy Lauer¡¯s capsule while Lauer was still trying to destroy it himself. They would have started fighting¡.so we decided to shut them all down.¡±
¡°What about Thackery and Henshaw?¡± Rhodes asked. ¡°What¡¯s wrong with them?¡±
¡°Their SAMs were dysregulating their vital systems, so we shut down the two SAMs. Thackery¡¯s and Henshaw¡¯s systems are working fine as long as we keep the SAMs offline. We¡¯ll take all of them back to the lab until we can readjust all of them.¡±
¡°What about¡..?¡± Rhodes and Oakes exchanged another glance. They were the last two left.
Rhinehart and Lauer had destroyed all the capsules in the barracks. The two of them had reduced the place to a wasteland of wrecked electronic components all over the floor.
¡°I¡¯ll send two new capsules down for you and Oakes,¡± Osborne replied. ¡°You have nothing to worry about. You two can stay here.¡±
Rhodes glanced over at Oakes. Oakes glanced over at Rhodes. The words, You have nothing to worry about, meant exactly nothing right now.
The two men had everything to worry about. How long could they stay in these barracks before one of them suffered another nightmare malfunction?
One of them could kill the other. No one would be able to do anything about it.
The Legion soldiers seemed to have the same idea. They returned to the barracks and stood guard over Rhodes and Oakes as if the whole battalion was still here.
A bunch of technicians came down from the lab and carried the rest of the battalion away. The crowd filed out of the room and left Rhodes and Oakes alone with their guards.
The soldiers faded into the wallpaper. Rhodes and Oakes were alone together¡ªas alone as they possibly could be.
¡°So¡..what do you feel like doing?¡± Rhodes asked.
Without moving or saying a word, Oakes switched on the interface between himself, Rhodes, Fisher, and Dash. Oakes and Rhodes looked back and forth between the two SAMs.
¡°Is everything all right, Captain?¡± Dash asked.
¡°I wouldn¡¯t go so far as to say that,¡± Rhodes replied.
Oakes headed back to the table¡ªthe table Thackery where had been sitting when Rhodes first showed up. It was the only table still standing. It was the only stick of furniture left in the whole barracks.
Oakes slung his leg over it, sat down, and pulled toward him a pencil and a piece of paper lying there.
¡°What are you working on?¡± Rhodes asked. ¡°Are you writing a book or something?¡±
¡°I thought I¡¯d try drawing the way you do.¡± Oakes passed his pencil across the page. ¡°I don¡¯t seem to be able to get the hang of it¡ªnot like you do.¡±
¡°It just takes practice.¡± Rhodes looked over his shoulder and then sat down. ¡°Do you want me to give you some pointers?¡±
¡°Naw, I don¡¯t feel like it.¡± Oakes pushed the paper away and made a face. ¡°I don¡¯t feel like doing anything.¡±
¡°Do you want to play The Ship, The Captain, and The Crew?¡±
Oakes shrugged. He refused to make eye contact. ¡°I guess we have nothing else to do.¡±
¡°I¡¯m sure they¡¯ll send us another terminal before long.¡±
The words barely got out of Rhodes¡¯s mouth before a cleaning crew entered the barracks. They started sweeping up the mess, throwing away all the twisted scraps of destroyed capsules, and then some technicians wheeled in two more for Rhodes and Oakes to use in their next conversion cycle.
¡°I guess we¡¯re a battalion of two now,¡± Rhodes pointed out.
¡°Until something else goes wrong with one of us,¡± Oakes muttered. ¡°It would really be ironic if the whole program ended like this¡ªwith all of us malfunctioning, going offline, or ending it one after the other. You gotta wonder how long it would take these jokers to take the hint and stop trying.¡±
Rhodes didn¡¯t answer. He got the dice off the bookshelf. For some unknown reason, Rhinehart had left the bookshelf intact. He didn¡¯t try to destroy that or any of the books on it.
Rhodes rolled and jotted down his score on the paper Oakes had been using. Oakes rolled. He didn¡¯t even bother to score his turn. Rhodes did it for him and went again.
¡°I really wish I could,¡± Oakes muttered under his breath. ¡°I keep telling myself to do it. I just don¡¯t do it, though. I don¡¯t know why.¡±
Rhodes didn¡¯t ask what Oakes meant. Rhodes already knew because he¡¯d been thinking exactly the same thing.
End of Chapter 10.
Battalion 1: Book 2: Chapter 11
Rhodes stepped into Colonel Paxton Kraft¡¯s office. General Kenneth Brewster, Colonel Kraft, General Hyde, Colonels LeClerc and Neff, and Admiral Pulman were already there.
They stood around the central table waiting for Rhodes to show up. He halted in the doorway and didn¡¯t approach.
¡°Come on in, Captain,¡± Admiral Pulman called. ¡°We¡¯re all anxious to debrief you about the Sulia campaign.¡±
Rhodes stiffened. ¡°Why do you want to debrief me about it? You can see everything that happened on our SAMs¡¯ feed.¡±
¡°We still need to discuss it with you,¡± General Hyde replied. ¡°We need to evaluate what went wrong, what went right, and how we can learn from this to do better next time.¡±
¡°Everything went wrong,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°The only thing you can learn to do better next time is not to throw good platoons in front of the Emal¡ªbut you¡¯ll never learn that. You would have learned it a long time ago if you were going to learn it at all.¡±
¡°We aren¡¯t here to talk about what the Legion does with the regular platoons,¡± General Brewster told him. ¡°We¡¯re only here to talk about how things worked out with Battalion 1.¡±
¡°You know how things worked out with Battalion 1,¡± Rhodes repeated. ¡°You can see the way things worked out. We¡¯re having all these malfunctions now because of what happened during the Sulia campaign. Don¡¯t you get that?¡±
¡°Explain it to us anyway,¡± General Hyde urged and waved at the table. ¡°Please come in. We¡¯re all anxious to hear your report.¡±
Rhodes still took at least a minute to make up his mind to walk into the room. He probably wouldn¡¯t have entered it at all if Colonel Kraft hadn¡¯t been present.
Rhodes couldn¡¯t forestall the inevitable, though. Talking to these people was the best way to make sure it never happened again¡ªif that was even possible.
He stopped next to Colonel Kraft. Kraft never talked to Rhodes in the presence of these much more senior officers. Kraft kept quiet the way Kraft always did.
His presence steadied Rhodes. He could tolerate this because Kraft was here.
¡°Now please tell us what happened,¡± General Hyde went on. ¡°We understand you coordinated with one of the platoon captains and formulated a plan to defend the eastern side of the city while the platoons traveled through Thaklia from the Ero landing site.¡±
¡°So what if I did?¡± Rhodes asked.
¡°You weren¡¯t under orders to coordinate with the platoon captains.¡±
¡°I wasn¡¯t under any orders at all. No one informed me about what the battalion was supposed to do. I talked to him and he told me he was supposed to take the platoons all the way through the city and defend the eastern side. I offered to go ahead of him and hold the enemy there until he established fortifications for his platoons.¡±
¡°You weren¡¯t authorized to make that call,¡± Admiral Pulman interjected.
Rhodes rounded on him. ¡°I don¡¯t give a shit if I was authorized to do it or not.¡±
¡°Your insubordination is unacceptable, Captain,¡± the admiral growled. ¡°You¡¯re still subject to military protocol. You still have to follow the chain of command.¡±
¡°What chain of command?¡± Rhodes fired back. ¡°I just told you I didn¡¯t receive any orders¡ªfrom anyone. We were deployed on Sulia to defend Thaklia from the Emal and that¡¯s what we did. So that makes me insubordinate? What are you going to do¡ªstrip me of my command? Go right ahead. Do I look like I care?¡±
¡°Battalion 1 still needs to function as a military unit,¡± General Hyde cut in. ¡°The Emal are becoming more entrenched on Sulia. The Legion is mounting another campaign to reclaim the planet¡..¡±
¡°Reclaim the planet!¡± Rhodes blurted out. ¡°Are you insane?! Sulia is gone. Just give it back. You¡¯ll never reclaim it. The Emal are unstoppable. Surely even a bunch of dunces like you can see that.¡±
¡°As General Brewster said, we don¡¯t make decisions for the wider Legion,¡± Admiral Pulman replied. ¡°The Legion will mount another campaign to retake Sulia and Battalion 1 will support the platoons¡.¡±
¡°No, we won¡¯t,¡± Rhodes snapped. ¡°Battalion 1 isn¡¯t going anywhere.¡±
Admiral Pulman¡¯s head whipped around real fast. ¡°You¡¯re flatly refusing to deploy?¡±
¡°Under the circumstances? Absolutely I¡¯m refusing to deploy. My people can¡¯t even walk down the goddamn corridor without malfunctioning. One of my guys just attempted suicide¡ªagain¡ªand the rest are either murderously violent, emotionally unstable, or their SAMs are out of control. No way would I let you send any of us into combat like this¡ªmuch less on a suicide mission back to Sulia. You¡¯re out of your flippin¡¯ minds if you think I¡¯d agree to that.¡±
¡°You don¡¯t have to agree,¡± Colonel LeClerc chimed in. ¡°We can send you without your consent.¡±
¡°You can¡¯t send us anywhere if we¡¯re all dead or permanently in stasis,¡± Rhodes spat back.
General Brewster interjected just then with his usual brainless optimism. ¡°The important thing is that the battalion is ready to deploy when you¡¯re needed. I¡¯m sure the doctors will correct any malfunctions¡..¡±
¡°What could possibly lead you to that conclusion?¡± Rhodes countered. ¡°Fuentes has been in stasis for over three weeks since his suicide attempt. If the doctors were capable of correcting his malfunction, they would have done it by now.¡±
The senior officers confirmed Rhodes¡¯s worst fears by exchanging glances with each other. So that¡¯s how it was. The doctors couldn¡¯t correct Fuentes¡¯s malfunction¡ªprobably because he wasn¡¯t malfunctioning.The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
He was having a normal human emotional reaction to a life-destroying event. He lost everything, including his humanity, and he couldn¡¯t live with it. Now he wanted to end it. Rhodes couldn¡¯t blame him.
¡°Unfortunately, the doctors can¡¯t find any malfunction in Fuentes to correct,¡± Colonel Neff murmured. ¡°That¡¯s why the doctors weren¡¯t working on him when he fled the barracks. All their readings on him were coming back normal. They didn¡¯t consider him critical¡ªunlike the others.¡±
¡°Then that goes to show how much the doctors know,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°Fuentes was in serious emotional distress before he fled the barracks. He was barely hanging on.¡±
¡°His responses and stress levels were reading the same before he fled the barracks, while he was on the loading dock, and the readings are still the same now when he¡¯s in stasis. The doctors can¡¯t correct a problem they can¡¯t detect.¡±
Rhodes waited for someone else to say something. ¡°So what are you telling me for? It isn¡¯t like I can fix whatever is wrong with him.¡±
¡°We ask you to try,¡± Colonel LeClerc replied. ¡°We ask you to try to convince him to return to the battalion as a contributing member of the team.¡±
Rhodes waited again, but no one said anything else. ¡°You¡¯re the man who just said you would deploy me against my will to carry out a suicide mission. Give me one reason why I should cooperate with you.¡±
¡°The only other options are that we either leave Fuentes in stasis indefinitely or take him offline for good,¡± General Hyde replied. ¡°I¡¯m sure you wouldn¡¯t want that.¡±
¡°Why in the name of God would I want him back in the battalion? He wants to die. Just take him offline.¡±
¡°We can¡¯t waste a good soldier,¡± General Brewster replied. ¡°We¡¯ve lost too many in this project already. One soldier who wakes up and can function in The Grid is too valuable to waste.¡±
¡°Function?¡± Rhodes snorted. ¡°You actually call what Fuentes is doing functioning? Are you stupid?¡±
¡°So you won¡¯t even try?¡± Colonel LeClerc asked. ¡°We expected better of you, Captain.¡±
¡°You obviously haven¡¯t even looked at the feeds from Sulia,¡± Rhodes countered. ¡°You obviously don¡¯t know the first thing about how or why we malfunctioned down there¡ªor what we went through as a result. The Emal tried to rip our implants out.¡±
Every officer at the table squirmed. ¡°We know that,¡± General Hyde murmured.
¡°So I won¡¯t let you send us back to Sulia to let it happen again¡ªnot unless you can come up with some convincing way to make sure it doesn¡¯t happen again. You¡¯ll have to come up with some way to make sure none of it happens again¡ªand that includes all the malfunctions. The SAMs shut down from elevated adrenaline levels¡ªwhich were normal for battlefield conditions.¡±
Admiral Pulman bent over his device and tapped on it. ¡°Yes, about that¡.¡±
¡°Then the SAMs malfunctioned again when my people got injured. Some of the SAMs refused to function at all because they became pathologically afraid of their hosts¡¯ injuries.¡±
¡°That may be because their hosts had no direct combat experience before this campaign,¡± General Hyde suggested.
¡°That just goes to show how little you know what you¡¯re talking about, lady,¡± Rhodes snapped. ¡°It happened to experienced, trained Legion soldiers with plenty of combat experience¡ªand it didn¡¯t happen to experienced, trained Legion soldiers with plenty of combat experience. How much combat experience the host had didn¡¯t have anything to do with how the SAMs reacted. This project is a massive exercise in incompetence.¡±
¡°Then how do you suggest we deal with Fuentes and the others?¡± Admiral Pulman asked.
¡°I just told you how to deal with Fuentes.¡±
¡°You can¡¯t seriously expect us to just take him offline,¡± General Brewster exclaimed. ¡°Do you have any idea how much we¡¯ve already invested in each of you¡ªboth monetarily and in other resources?¡±
Rhodes only shrugged. ¡°We¡¯re already dead, so it doesn¡¯t really concern us. Fuentes will never be fit for deployment¡ªnot ever. You never should have entered him into this program, but it¡¯s too late to go back on that now. The only solution is to cut your losses and take him offline now before he causes even more problems for the rest of us later.¡±
¡°So you won¡¯t even try?¡± LeClerc demanded. ¡°You won¡¯t even try to convince him?¡±
¡°Nope,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°If you put me in the same room with him, I¡¯ll tell him that, as soon as you activate his weapons to go into battle, to use them to end his life. That¡¯s the best thing for him now.¡±
¡°I don¡¯t believe I¡¯m hearing this!¡± Brewster muttered.
¡°I already said the same thing to Rhinehart, Coulter, and Fisher,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°I¡¯ll say it to the rest of them the very first chance I get.¡±
¡°Who¡¯s Fisher?¡± Colonel LeClerc asked.
Rhodes inhaled to read this jackass the riot act for making decisions about a battalion he knew absolutely nothing about it, but right then, Colonel Neff interrupted.
¡°Actually, I agree with Captain Rhodes on this one,¡± he breezed.
Everyone at the table spun around to stare at Neff. ¡°You do?¡± Rhodes gasped.
¡°Not about taking Fuentes offline,¡± Colonel Neff explained. ¡°I agree with you about not sending the battalion back to Sulia¡ªnot under the circumstances. I agree with you about not sending the battalion anywhere under the circumstances¡ªnot until we establish with a wide degree of certainty that these malfunctions are contained and unlikely to happen again.¡±
¡°I agree,¡± Colonel Kraft added. ¡°We took the battalion¡¯s success in the training sessions for granted. We were bound to run into unforeseen problems on the battlefield and that¡¯s what happened. That¡¯s why we decided to deploy the battalion against the Emal in the first place¡ªto test this technology against a real enemy. We got lucky that we retrieved the whole battalion alive. It could have been a lot worse. It¡¯s thanks to the battalion¡¯s cohesion as a team and Captain Rhodes¡¯s leadership that we even have a battalion to continue working with.¡±
Rhodes stared at Kraft in stunned disbelief. Someone was actually sticking up for Rhodes and the battalion.
¡°Of course we can¡¯t send the battalion back into combat until we work out all the malfunctions,¡± Colonel Neff went on. ¡°That would be unthinkable.¡±
¡°But what about the Sulia counteroffensive?!¡± General Pulman exclaimed. ¡°We can¡¯t just leave the platoons without help.¡±
¡°The platoons would be just as defenseless if we sent Battalion 1 back to Sulia the way they are,¡± Colonel Neff pointed out.
¡°But we¡¯re no closer to solving these malfunctions,¡± General Hyde pointed out. ¡°The counteroffensive is scheduled for three weeks from now. We would have to arrange training sessions to test the adjustments¡.¡±
¡°Then you obviously have a lot of work to do. You don¡¯t need me for that.¡± Rhodes turned away. ¡°I won¡¯t do anything, plan anything, or accept any orders until I start seeing my people back in the barracks with smiles on their faces. Until then, this battalion is dead in the water.¡±
He walked out of the office. He actually enjoyed being as rude as possible to these morons. They deserved a lot worse. Battalion 1 was dead in the water before it even got started.
Going on another campaign sounded like Rhodes¡¯s idea of Hell. It would be his worst nightmare.
The officers wouldn¡¯t take Fuentes offline. Rhodes already knew that. They would manipulate his SAM and Fuentes¡¯s neural systems.
Then they would send him back to the battalion where he would become Rhodes¡¯s problem again. What would Rhodes do then?
Fuentes turning his weapons on himself would be by far the best outcome Rhodes could hope for.
It beat the hell out of Fuentes turning his weapons on his comrades, other Legion soldiers, or maybe the station staff. Rhodes could just imagine the fallout from that.
Rhodes returned to the barracks where he found Oakes waiting for him. The soldiers still stood guard over the two men even though nothing had happened in three weeks.
Oakes took one look at Rhodes¡¯s face and snorted. ¡°I thought so.¡±
Rhodes collapsed at the table. Oakes¡¯s artwork had been steadily improving under Rhodes¡¯s instruction these last three weeks. ¡°They¡¯re out of their natural minds.¡±
¡°And this is news?¡± Oakes sneered. ¡°I mean¡look at us, man. This is some psycho¡¯s bad dream.¡±
¡°They want to send Fuentes back to the battalion,¡± Rhodes told him.
Oakes sniffed at nothing. ¡°I¡¯ll make sure to keep my weapons charged just in case he tries something else.¡±
End of Chapter 11.
Battalion 1: Book 2: Chapter 12
Oakes and Rhodes sat at the table in their barracks and worked on their drawings. Covering one page after another with drawings was practically the only thing they did all day.
The two men occasionally took walks around the station, but seeing other members of the station staff robbed the experience of its former pleasure.
Being around normal people spoiled the experience. Taking a walk around the station no longer provided the relief and solitude the men craved. Taking a walk around the station only made the alienation and despair worse.
Rhodes pointed his pencil at Oakes¡¯s drawing. He was drawing a picture of a little girl swinging on a swing under a big sprawling tree.
¡°Try tightening up your lines there,¡± Rhodes told him. ¡°Your trunk is too wide. It¡¯s taking up too much of the negative space.¡±
Oakes darkened the line of the trunk and glanced over at Rhodes¡¯s page. Rhodes was drawing a view of the barracks in front of him.
Oakes¡¯s expression changed when he saw what Rhodes was working on. Rhodes never drew anything that might remind him of his past.
Despite Oakes¡¯s assurance that he didn¡¯t want to check the terminal to see what his family was doing, he always ended up drawing domestic scenes of children playing or otherwise enjoying their lives.
Neither of the two men commented on this, but Rhodes caught Oakes¡¯s expression changing a lot when he saw Rhodes¡¯s art.
He always drew scenes from the present¡ªeither people or SAMs in the battalion, views from different parts of Coleridge Station, or sketches of equipment, ships, or landscapes he¡¯d seen on deployment.
He and Oakes stayed interfaced with each other the way they did before the Sulia campaign. Rhodes had changed his opinion on himself and the other members of the battalion needing privacy.
He didn¡¯t want privacy. It somehow seemed rude to try to hide anything from people whose very lives depended on how stable his mental state might be at any given moment.
His mental state, Fisher¡¯s mental state, and how well both of them were functioning at any given time¡ªall of that was as much Oakes¡¯s business as Rhodes¡¯s own. Oakes had a right to know at any moment of the day how well Rhodes and Fisher were functioning.
Rhodes would have gotten very suspicious and nervous if Oakes suddenly decided to stop interfacing with Rhodes and Fisher. Rhodes would have immediately suspected that something was wrong.
Rhodes didn¡¯t want Oakes thinking that about him. Rhodes wanted Oakes to know everything. Rhodes wanted Oakes to be the first to know in case something went wrong.
Then Oakes might actually be able to do something about it¡ªlike maybe put Rhodes down before he killed someone else.
He didn¡¯t feel guilty about killing Dr. Irvine. He just wanted to take every possible step to make sure it never happened again.
Oakes and Rhodes spent all their time together. What one did, the other did. If one of them took a walk around the station, the other went with him just because.
They hardly ever talked, though. There didn¡¯t seem to be much to say anymore.
Dash and Fisher didn¡¯t talk much, either. They just hovered there in The Grid watching whatever Rhodes and Oakes were doing.
Rhodes didn¡¯t discuss Dr. Irvine¡¯s death with Fisher again. Rhodes kept an eye on Fisher for any sign that Fisher still blamed himself for Rhodes¡¯s rampage.
Fisher never showed any emotional reaction to anything¡ªnot anymore. He might have been hiding it or the doctors might really have corrected whatever caused him to take control of Rhodes in the first place.
Rhodes didn¡¯t believe anymore that Fisher would have been able to hide anything from him. Rhodes would have known the instant anything went wrong with Fisher.
They¡¯d become linked in a whole new way since Dr. Irvine¡¯s death. Fisher no longer showed any surprise or even any aversion to the idea of Rhodes or one of the other battalion members taking their own lives. Fisher had finally gotten the message.
Rhodes lost track of time these last few weeks. Time lost all meaning without meals, activities, and social interactions to break up the day.
The hours between conversion cycles blurred into one continuous blank space. Rhodes felt nothing, experienced nothing, said nothing, did nothing¡ªwas nothing. His life was over.
He remained suspended in this kind of purgatory. The doctors might as well take him offline. He was as good as dead anyway without something to do.
He pushed away his drawing of the barracks and pulled a blank piece of paper toward himself. Now he had to decide what to draw next.
He tried not to notice Oakes lingering over his picture of the girl on the swing. He always did this when he got closer to completing one of his drawings.
He passed his pencil over the lines he¡¯d already drawn. He pretended to strengthen and darken them to adjust certain parts of the image, but he didn¡¯t really change anything.
He almost stroked the image with his pencil. That was his way of touching the subject without actually touching them. He sat there staring at the children in his drawings for much longer than he needed to.The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Rhodes pretended not to see that and concentrated on his own paper. His pencil hovered over the sheet, but right then, the barracks door opened and Henshaw walked in.
Rhodes nearly tripped over the bench trying to stand up too fast. ¡°Georgie! You¡¯re back.¡±
She made a face somewhere between a smile and a grimace. ¡°They just let me out. I just woke up from stasis.¡±
He hustled over to greet her. Oakes left his drawing and crossed the room, too.
Henshaw entered and then Rhinehart, Lauer, Coulter, Dietz, and Thackery walked in behind Henshaw.
Rhodes devoured each of them with his eyes. ¡°Are you all okay? Did they fix whatever malfunctions you had?¡±
Coulter shrugged. ¡°Who the hell knows what they did? I guess we just have to wait and see how it all works out¡ªuntil it all goes to shit again.¡±
Oakes surveyed the group. ¡°Rudy isn¡¯t here.¡±
¡°He might not come back,¡± Rhodes told the others. ¡°The brass is considering taking him permanently offline.¡±
¡°I hope they do,¡± Thackery muttered. ¡°That guy is the last thing we need around here.¡±
¡°You can¡¯t blame him for malfunctioning,¡± Henshaw pointed out.
¡°He didn¡¯t malfunction,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°That¡¯s why he isn¡¯t here. The doctors can¡¯t find anything wrong with him. He was reacting normally to his circumstances. I¡¯m sure we¡¯ve all thought about doing the same thing.¡±
The others shuffled their feet. Rhodes studied each face in the group. Each of them looked haggard, drained, and depressed¡ªeven more than they should have been after getting out of a long conversion cycle.
Few of the group would hold eye contact. When they did, they only did it for a few seconds before they looked away.
¡°How do you all feel about interfacing with each other?¡± he asked. ¡°Oakes and I have been interfacing with each other¡ªjust to keep an eye on things. How do you all feel about doing the same thing?¡±
Thackery nodded. ¡°I¡¯m in. I don¡¯t want to be alone anymore.¡±
¡°Definitely,¡± Rhinehart replied. ¡°It¡¯s the safest way for all of us.¡±
Rhodes surveyed the others. Coulter nodded and Lauer said, ¡°Yeah, let¡¯s do it.¡±
Rhodes interfaced with all of them and they all established connections with each other.
Their joint interface connected to The Grid. Rhodes checked each of their SAMs. They looked and acted the way they should. Everything seemed to be working properly.
All the fight seemed to have gone out of each of them. None of them showed much spark about doing anything, not even Dietz.
The SAMs didn¡¯t jump into conversation, either. No one spoke unless they absolutely had to.
Coulter, Lauer, and Rhinehart accompanied Rhodes and Oakes back to the table. The five men sat down and the new arrivals complimented Oakes¡¯s artistic development.
Dietz went over to the computer terminal. Henshaw and Thackery meandered around the half-empty barracks. ¡°Where are our capsules?¡± Thackery asked. ¡°I want to lie down. Where are we supposed to go through conversion cycles without capsules?¡±
¡°I¡¯m sure the brass will send some down for you, now that you¡¯re out of the lab,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°You can use mine in the meantime if you want to. I¡¯m sure it will work just as well for you.¡±
Someone would have turned this into a joke in the past, but no one said anything about it now. No one made any noise about Thackery using Rhodes¡¯s capsule.
Only a few moments of silence passed before the technicians came in wheeling a bunch of new capsules for the rest of the battalion.
Thackery and Henshaw stood off to one side watching the technicians hook the new capsules up to the wall.
Thackery waited until the technicians left and Dr. Osborne came in to adjust the controls on all the capsules.
She got into her capsule right away, lay down, and went into a conversion cycle even before he finished fine-tuning it.
He kept working on her capsule for a long time before he moved on to the others.
Henshaw hung back watching every move he made. Dark circles surrounded her one eye. Her cheek looked sunken. Everyone in the battalion looked that way.
Rhodes had been checking his reflection in the washroom mirror every morning as usual. He didn¡¯t notice himself looking so worn out, but maybe he wouldn¡¯t notice it in himself.
He didn¡¯t notice Oakes looking different, either, but maybe Rhodes got used to that the way he got used to them not talking.
If Oakes looked drawn and bowed down by his circumstances, Rhodes would have considered that normal considering everything that happened. Rhodes would have considered that normal for himself, too.
He didn¡¯t really know what to think about any of this anymore. He¡¯d given up trying to figure it out.
Rhinehart and Coulter asked him about what the brass planned to do with the battalion. Rhodes repeated the discussion that happened at his last meeting with the governing body.
Dietz and Henshaw listened from a distance, but they didn¡¯t get involved. No one acted at all surprised by any of this, not even Rhodes¡¯s suggestion to take Fuentes offline.
¡°They¡¯ll send us back into combat,¡± Rhinehart murmured under his breath. ¡°The Legion has invested too much in us to just let us sit here doing nothing.¡±
¡°The only question is if they¡¯ll send us before or after they work out these malfunctions,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°They said the counteroffensive was starting in three weeks and that was two weeks ago. If you all come back to full functioning, the brass might decide to deploy us pretty soon.¡±
Coulter sighed. ¡°This is a really bad idea. So they corrected the malfunctions. That doesn¡¯t mean we won¡¯t suffer new ones once we get out there.¡±
¡°There¡¯s no way to test us under battlefield conditions without sending us into battlefield conditions,¡± Lauer pointed out. ¡°Training sessions don¡¯t mean a thing.¡±
¡°If they reactivate our weapons for training, will they leave our weapons active afterward?¡± Oakes asked.
Rhinehart glanced over at the soldiers. They never left the barracks. ¡°How much longer will the brass keep us under guard like this? Are we prisoners here or what?¡±
¡°We always have been,¡± Wild muttered through the interface. ¡°We aren¡¯t any more prisoners now than we were before.¡±
That killed the conversation again. Rhinehart, Lauer, and Coulter started playing The Ship, The Captain, and The Crew, but they didn¡¯t talk trash to each other or laugh or joke around. They hardly talked at all, not even to tally their scores.
They passed the dice around the circle in a dull trance. Henshaw fidgeted in a corner of the room and then, after fifteen minutes, she went into a conversion cycle, too.
The four men stayed awake a little longer before they did the same thing. Would they feel better after their cycles?
Rhodes couldn¡¯t bring himself even to care about that. He was finally adjusting his own sense of reality to this new horror. None of these people would ever recover or go back to normal. Normal didn¡¯t exist for them anymore.
This brooding, depressed silence actually felt more normal than the easy comradery the battalion enjoyed before. This dark, distant silence somehow matched the circumstances better.
The rest of Rhodes¡¯s people were finally responding appropriately to their situation. They were settling into it for the long haul¡ªfor as long as it lasted.
They conserved their energy for the ordeal ahead. Making light of it or trying to find some enjoyment in it¡ªnone of those things were possible any longer.
Even the SAMs fell into this gloomy stupor of just trying to survive this in any way possible. That was the best anyone could hope for now.
The four men entered their conversion cycles. Rhodes and Oakes were alone again the way they were before. They didn¡¯t talk. Nothing ever changed. It never would change ever again.
End of Chapter 12.
Battalion 1: Book 2: Chapter 13
Thackery¡¯s capsule cover opened. She came out of her conversion cycle first.
Rhodes barely glanced up from his drawing. He should have been more concerned about how his people would recover from their long stasis.
Thinking about it took too much effort. He wouldn¡¯t be able to predict the outcome anyway. He just had to wait and see.
His whole life was a game of wait-and-see now. He couldn¡¯t bring himself to care about much of anything.
Thackery didn¡¯t sit up right away, so he went back to drawing. He and Oakes had been sitting at the table drawing ever since the battalion came back from the lab.
Rhodes started to slip back into his brainless trance when the door opened a second time. He stiffened when he thought Fuentes might be coming back.
Instead, Colonel Kraft walked into the barracks and stopped next to the table.
He watched Rhodes and Oakes drawing for a second before Kraft worked up the nerve to speak. ¡°Do you mind if I talk to you for a second?¡± he asked.
¡°Go right ahead,¡± Rhodes replied without looking up from his drawing. ¡°I¡¯m all ears.¡±
¡°Don¡¯t worry about it, Colonel.¡± Oakes pushed back his bench and stood up. ¡°I¡¯m going to take a walk anyway. See you around, Captain.¡±
¡°Have a good one, Lieutenant.¡±
Oakes walked out of the barracks and left Rhodes alone with Kraft. Oakes left the interface active, though. He and Dash would be able to hear every word Rhodes and Kraft said to each other.
Kraft waved behind him. ¡°Do you want to take a walk, too?¡±
Rhodes looked up for the first time. He had been planning to hold this conversation here in the barracks.
He wasn¡¯t interfacing with Thackery and Koenig¡ªnot yet¡ªbut he certainly didn¡¯t plan to conceal his conversation from them.
She rolled onto her side facing away from Rhodes and Kraft. She kept her eye closed. If she was listening to their conversation, she didn¡¯t show it.
Rhodes shrugged and stood up. ¡°Okay. We can take a walk.¡±
The two men left the barracks. The door was just closing when Thackery and Koenig appeared on the interface next to Fisher, Dash, and Oakes.
She gave Rhodes a knowing look through The Grid. No one in the battalion trusted these officers one inch.
¡°What¡¯s on your mind?¡± Rhodes asked once he and Kraft started strolling down the hall.
¡°I wanted to let you know that the brass has decided to deploy you back to the Emal wars.¡±
Rhodes only nodded. ¡°I¡¯m not surprised.¡±
¡°They won¡¯t send you back to Sulia. They plan to deploy you on a different planet. I know it doesn¡¯t make any difference. They¡¯re also scheduling the battalion for a series of training sessions to test out how well everyone is functioning.¡±
Rhodes nodded again. None of this came as any surprise to him.
Kraft halted there in the middle of the corridor and pulled Rhodes to a halt. ¡°They¡¯re also sending Fuentes back to you. I wanted to be the first to tell you. He¡¯s getting out of stasis tomorrow.¡±
Rhodes stiffened. ¡°So¡..the doctors still can¡¯t find anything wrong with him?¡±
¡°Unfortunately not. No one in the governing body knows what¡¯s wrong with him¡.¡±
Rhodes raised his eyebrow. ¡°But other people do?¡±
Kraft shrugged. ¡°I¡¯m beginning to think the doctors suspect. Osborne made a very detailed study of all the battalion¡¯s medical records when he first joined the project. He¡¯s studied them a lot more carefully than anyone in the governing body.¡±
Rhodes turned away and started walking again. ¡°I¡¯m not surprised by that, either, actually. He and Trudeau had a much more thorough understanding of our circumstances even than Neiland, Irvine, and Montague. It was almost like those three went out of their way to not understand even though they were with us the longest.¡±
Kraft lowered his voice to a confidential murmur. ¡°I also want you to know that Osborne made a very convincing case for taking Fuentes offline¡ªthe same way you did. He came very close to resigning in protest over bringing Fuentes out of stasis at all.¡±
¡°That does surprise me.¡±
¡°Why should it? No one understands your situation better than Osborne¡ªapart from everyone in the battalion, I mean. He realizes Fuentes is a danger to others as much as he is to himself.¡±
¡°How are you going to handle that when you activate his weapons systems?¡± Rhodes asked. ¡°You¡¯ll have to activate his weapons to send him through training. Do you plan to leave him unarmed the rest of the time? I don¡¯t even know why I ask. It won¡¯t make any difference once we deploy in combat. He¡¯ll be armed all the time. He¡¯ll have to be.¡±This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.
¡°Osborne asked the brass the same thing. I don¡¯t suppose they would have thought about it at all if he didn¡¯t bring it up.¡±
¡°So what¡¯s the answer? When do the brass plan to activate our weapons?¡±
Kraft glanced right and left before he lowered his voice even more. ¡°They already are active. They¡¯ve been active for two weeks. If anyone in the battalion tries anything, they¡¯ll be fully armed and dangerous.¡±
Rhodes looked away, but that only brought him face to face with Thackery, Koenig, Dash, and Oakes all listening through the interface.
Rhinehart and Lauer were waking up from their conversion cycles, too. They weren¡¯t on the interface yet, but they would be soon.
Having their weapons systems active didn¡¯t change how Rhodes felt about any of them. It would definitely change things once Fuentes returned.
For some reason, Rhodes didn¡¯t worry too much about Dietz having active weapons systems. Dietz was the least of Rhodes¡¯s problems right now.
Kraft halted in the middle of the corridor again. ¡°You and the battalion are scheduled for your first training session this afternoon¡ªbefore Fuentes comes back. You¡¯ll be able to see how well everyone is functioning. If everything works out, hopefully Fuentes will reintegrate into the battalion. The rest of you will have a stabilizing influence on him. That¡¯s what the brass hopes, anyway.¡± He turned away. ¡°I¡¯ll send you the full schedule. You can let me know if you have any issues with it.¡±
He walked off and left Rhodes with plenty to think about. Standing around the barracks with fully activated weapons systems was one thing.
Taking them into a training session was another matter entirely. The battalion would have to shoot at their targets.
Nothing would stop any of them from shooting at each other then¡ªif one of them got the crazy idea to shoot at something other than their targets.
He wandered back to the barracks in no particular hurry. He was in no rush to hurry up and get himself or his people shooting at anything.
At least Fuentes wouldn¡¯t be with them¡ªnot today. That adventure would have to wait until tomorrow¡ªafter the battalion found out if they could navigate even a simulated Grid course without someone winding up dead.
Dietz, Coulter, and Henshaw woke up before Rhodes got there. The others informed their comrades about the new schedule. Everyone had plenty to say about it.
Rhodes listened to their conversation through the interface. ¡°How are we ever supposed to trust our SAMs again?¡± Coulter asked.
Henshaw gasped. ¡°You don¡¯t trust your SAM?! How can you even say that, Eddie?¡±
¡°Fisher killed Dr. Irvine,¡± Coulter pointed out. ¡°Fisher took control of the captain and turned him into a raving, murderous maniac. The same thing could happen to any of us.¡±
¡°We have to trust our SAMs!¡± she exclaimed. ¡°They¡¯re all we have. The captain told us that from day one.¡±
¡°How do we know one of them won¡¯t turn on us?¡± Coulter went on. ¡°Legacy tried to kill you, but Keon could have done the same thing.¡±
¡°Keon would never try to kill me!¡± she shrieked. ¡°Don¡¯t you even suggest that about my SAM!¡±
¡°He might if he malfunctioned,¡± Coulter argued. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t think Fisher could hurt anybody, either, but he did.¡±
¡°That wasn¡¯t his fault, though,¡± Henshaw countered. ¡°You can¡¯t blame him for that.¡±
¡°I¡¯m not saying it¡¯s his fault. I¡¯m saying it happened and we have no way of knowing if or when it might happen again. It could happen on the battlefield. We could be fighting the enemy and one of the SAMs could turn on us instead.¡±
¡°We¡¯re all thinking the same thing, man,¡± Lauer muttered. ¡°None of us wants that, but we all have to live with the possibility.¡±
Henshaw rounded on him next. ¡°I can¡¯t believe you¡¯re going along with this. You and Wild have been tight from the beginning.¡±
¡°This has nothing to do with how I feel about Wild,¡± Lauer told her. ¡°We have to take all potential risks into account and this is one of them. The SAMs will always be a risk¡ªto all of us. Each of our SAMs is a risk not just to the person carrying that particular SAM but to everyone else in the battalion. Accept it.¡±
She threw up her hands and turned away. ¡°I am not going to start thinking that way about Keon¡ªor any other SAM.¡±
¡°What about Van?¡± Thackery asked. ¡°She¡¯s Rudy¡¯s SAM.¡±
¡°She tried to save his life,¡± Henshaw countered. ¡°She tried to stop him from killing himself.¡±
¡°That¡¯s kinda the point, isn¡¯t it?¡± Rhinehart interjected. ¡°She took control of his movements¡ªor tried to. She tried to override his free will and make him do something he didn¡¯t want to do¡ªor stop him from doing what he wanted to do.¡±
¡°Of course she did!¡± Henshaw blurted out. ¡°That¡¯s her job¡ªto help him and protect him. What was she supposed to do¡ªlet him kill himself¡ªand her along with him?¡±
Rhinehart shrugged. ¡°Why not? It¡¯s his decision if he wants to end it.¡±
¡°No, it isn¡¯t!!¡± she shrieked. ¡°He was malfunctioning! He wasn¡¯t thinking clearly.¡±
¡°He was not malfunctioning,¡± Fisher interjected in his soft undertone. ¡°The brass says the doctors didn¡¯t find anything wrong with him either before he fled the barracks, while he was climbing onto the Ravager, or afterward.¡±
¡°This is crazy!¡± Henshaw¡¯s wild eyes skipped around the group. ¡°I can¡¯t believe you¡¯re all turning against your SAMs.¡±
¡°We aren¡¯t turning against our SAMs¡ªor I¡¯m not,¡± Rhinehart replied. ¡°It is kind of unnerving, though, how dependent we¡¯ve all become on them. We can¡¯t even fight without them. If they go down, we go down with them. We can¡¯t disconnect to keep functioning independently.¡±
¡°That¡¯s a good thing!¡± she exclaimed. ¡°That¡¯s the way it¡¯s supposed to be! We¡¯re supposed to depend on our SAMs.¡±
¡°Maybe not this much,¡± Thackery pointed out.
¡°I don¡¯t care what any of you say!¡± Henshaw fired back. ¡°I¡¯m glad I have Keon¡.¡±
¡°We¡¯re all glad we have our SAMs¡.¡± Oakes interjected.
¡°I¡¯m not,¡± Thackery snarled. ¡°I hate the bastard.¡±
Everyone turned around to stare at her. ¡°You do?¡± Henshaw gasped. ¡°Why?¡±
¡°Why in the world would I want some stranger getting in my face all the time and spitting his poison into my ear around the clock?¡± Thackery snapped. ¡°I can never get rid of him even if he makes himself invisible. He¡¯s always there, watching and listening. He¡¯ll never go away¡ªand like Eddie says, I don¡¯t even know if I can trust him. In fact, I know I can¡¯t. I would kill him if I could.¡±
¡°I know exactly how you feel,¡± Rhinehart murmured.
¡°The captain feels the same way,¡± Fisher chimed in. ¡°He¡¯s too polite to say so, but he still doesn¡¯t want me around.¡±
¡°It isn¡¯t like that,¡± Rhodes countered.
¡°Of course it is, Captain. You¡¯re too generous to say it in so many words, but admit it. You would much rather just live your life independently without a SAM. That¡¯s human nature. This whole situation with you, the battalion, and the SAMs¡ªit¡¯s unnatural. It¡¯s contrary to your natural state. You would much rather go back to the way it was before. You can admit it. You won¡¯t offend me by saying so.¡±
Rhodes squirmed. Fisher was right. Rhodes would much rather not have had a SAM at all.
He was immeasurably grateful that he got Fisher instead of some other SAM, but that didn¡¯t change the fact that this was unnatural. Human beings weren¡¯t designed for this.
His silence answered Fisher loud and clear.
¡°We all feel that way,¡± Lauer murmured. ¡°None of us asked for this.¡±
Rhodes walked into the barracks just then and everyone turned to face him. He was in charge of this battalion. He was the one responsible for dealing with this disaster and coming up with a solution¡ªif there was any solution to come up with.
End of Chapter 13.
Battalion 1: Book 2: Chapter 14
Rhodes walked into the barracks and looked around at all his subordinates¡ªand all their SAMs. They all waited for him to solve their problems.
He would never be able to do that because their problems were all his problems, too. He couldn¡¯t even cope with them himself, much less everyone else.
¡°What are we gonna do about this, Captain?¡± Henshaw asked. ¡°We have to trust our SAMs. How can we not?¡±
¡°We¡¯ve gone over this a million times,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°The only question is how we¡¯re going to handle our session this afternoon.¡± He turned to Thackery. ¡°Can you work with Koenig, or do you want to make him silent and invisible and fight on your own?¡±
¡°I have to work with him,¡± she replied. ¡°I need his information. I can¡¯t keep track of everything on my own. The system feeds too much at me at once. I have to keep track of the whole Grid.¡±
¡°That¡¯s the whole point,¡± Henshaw interrupted. ¡°We¡¯re all better off¡.¡±
Rhodes raised his hand to silence her. ¡°You made your point, Georgie. We all know how you feel about Keon. I¡¯m not asking you.¡± He turned back to Thackery. ¡°Just tell me what you want to do.¡±
She twisted in her own skin¡ªwhat was left of it. ¡°What choice do I have?¡±
¡°You have the choice to make him silent and invisible. You have the choice not to take his information at all and accept the consequences¡ªincluding that you might not see something in time. You could get shot and killed¡ªor recaptured by the Emal. That¡¯s the risk you would have to take.¡±
She curled her lip in disgust. ¡°Great. So he¡¯s holding me as a hostage.¡±
Rhodes turned to Coulter. ¡°What about you and Murphy? Are you willing to work with him?¡±
¡°I¡¯ll work with him. It doesn¡¯t mean I have to trust him.¡±
¡°No one is asking you to.¡±
¡°That doesn¡¯t solve the problem of what we¡¯re supposed to do if one of them malfunctions during a battle¡ªor a training session,¡± Thackery pointed out.
¡°There won¡¯t be anything we can do,¡± Rhodes pointed out. ¡°We just have to deal with it. I don¡¯t like this any better than you do, but it isn¡¯t like we can do anything to prevent it from happening. If anything, we just have to prepare ourselves for when it does happen.¡±
¡°Fantastic,¡± Lauer snarled and turned away. ¡°I¡¯m done with this whole conversation. Just tell me when it¡¯s time to go. I don¡¯t want to talk about this anymore.¡±
Dietz went back to the computer terminal. He didn¡¯t say a word during the conversation and neither did Zen. Should Rhodes be worried about that¡ªmore worried than he already was?
He took that opportunity to turn to the nine SAMs. They still surrounded him in the interface.
¡°Is there anything we can do to win back your trust, Captain?¡± Murphy asked. ¡°I had no idea Eddie felt so strongly about this.¡±
¡°Be grateful your host doesn¡¯t hate you and want to kill you,¡± Koenig remarked. ¡°I thought Coulter was rather circumspect and rational about the whole matter.¡±
¡°None of you have to do anything to win back my trust,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°I know none of you did anything deliberately. You malfunctioned. I don¡¯t blame you for that or for anything else you did while you were malfunctioning.¡±
¡°Thank you, Captain,¡± Fisher murmured. ¡°You¡¯re very forgiving.¡±
¡°Will you stop that¡ªall of you? I don¡¯t care about any of that. I want to talk about what we¡¯re going to do, both in the training session and in actual combat, if one of you malfunctions.¡±
¡°We won¡¯t be able to do anything if we malfunction,¡± Wild pointed out. ¡°We¡¯ll be helpless and out of control the way we have been in the past.¡±
Rhodes sighed. ¡°What about taking yourselves offline? Is that even a possibility?¡±
¡°Not if we¡¯re incapable of controlling our own processes,¡± Wild replied.
¡°There must be some contingency plan we can come up with.¡±
¡°I have a suggestion to make, Captain,¡± Fisher interjected.
¡°By all means, let me hear it.¡±
¡°I suggest that we assign each of our hosts the ability to deactivate our emotional responses in case of emergency. That would prevent any of us from incapacitating our host with crippling fear or sending one of you into a berserk rage the way we have in the past.¡±
Rhodes spun around. ¡°Can you do that?¡±
¡°I believe we can install a protocol in each of our systems that will assign our host the ability to do it.¡±
¡°Why don¡¯t you just go the whole hog and assign our hosts the ability to take a SAM offline if they malfunction?¡± Rocky asked. ¡°That would be much more effective, especially if the host is still perfectly functional. They can continue to function without a SAM until the SAM gets reprogrammed or repaired.¡±
¡°What¡¯s the point of the host functioning independently?¡± Keon asked. ¡°What¡¯s the point of the host carrying a SAM at all if they can function just as well without it?¡±
¡°I don¡¯t say the host can function just as well without it,¡± Rocky replied. ¡°I say the host can function better without a malfunctioning SAM than with a malfunctioning SAM. We wouldn¡¯t assign the battalion the ability to deactivate their SAMs just because. Thackery wouldn¡¯t be able to deactivate Koenig just because she doesn¡¯t like him. If a SAM malfunctions to the point of incapacitating their host¡ªso long as the fault lies in the SAM and not the host themselves¡ªthen each person in the battalion would be able to function better by taking the SAM offline¡ªeven temporarily. It would be better than the entire host shutting down due to a malfunction in the SAM alone.¡±
¡°That¡¯s an idea, but the doctors would have to reprogram each SAM,¡± Rhodes pointed out. ¡°We don¡¯t have time for that.¡±
¡°We have time before the brass deploys the battalion back to Emal wars,¡± Rocky suggested. ¡°It might not happen today or tomorrow, but the SAMs are more likely to malfunction in real combat anyway.¡±
¡°How much of that could you do right now?¡± Rhodes asked. ¡°Could you assign each of us the ability to switch off your emotional responses?¡±If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
¡°Why not give the SAMs the ability to switch off each host¡¯s emotional responses, too?¡± Wild suggested. ¡°If it will benefit the hosts to deactivate some function of their SAMs, then logic would suggest that the same might be true in reverse.¡±
¡°You can¡¯t do that!¡± Keon countered. ¡°You can¡¯t just deactivate some function of your host¡¯s neural processes.¡±
¡°Why not?¡± Wild asked. ¡°Wouldn¡¯t the hosts function better in combat without all that raw emotion running unchecked through their veins? It would certainly prevent any malfunctions.¡±
¡°It might not prevent ALL malfunctions,¡± Fisher pointed out. ¡°It might even cause new ones. Human beings aren¡¯t designed to function without their emotions.¡±
Rhodes held up his hand. ¡°We don¡¯t have time to argue about this right now. I want each of you to start working on it¡ªbut don¡¯t install any of these switches yet. Just explore the possibility of installing them. We need to check with the doctors¡.and everybody¡.before we do something as drastic as that. In the meantime, we have a training session to prepare for.¡±
The group broke up and everyone went back to whatever they were doing before¡ªor they started to.
Fisher stopped them before they walked away. ¡°I¡¯m taking the captain out of the interface for a few minutes. I want to have a private conversation with him.¡±
Lauer narrowed his eyes at the SAM. ¡°Whatever you have to say to him you can say in front of us.¡±
¡°I¡¯m afraid it doesn¡¯t work that way, Lieutenant,¡± Fisher returned with plenty of icy steel in his voice.
Rhodes had never heard Fisher talk to anyone like that¡ªalmost as if Fisher was Lauer¡¯s superior officer speaking down to someone beneath him.
¡°I¡¯m not asking for anyone¡¯s permission,¡± Fisher told him. ¡°I¡¯m going to have a private conversation with the captain before the training session. I¡¯m informing you so you won¡¯t get alarmed when I take him off the interface.¡±
Rhinehart frowned at him. ¡°Don¡¯t we get a say in this?¡±
¡°No, you don¡¯t.¡± Fisher turned to Rhodes. ¡°If you don¡¯t mind stepping out of the barracks for a moment, Captain¡.¡±
Rhodes cringed at his tone. Now Fisher was ordering Rhodes around.
Rhodes realized in that moment just how deep his trust in Fisher had grown. Rhodes never once thought Fisher meant him any harm¡ªor that Fisher would manipulate him¡ªor that Fisher wanted to talk to him privately for some underhanded reason.
It never once crossed Rhodes¡¯s mind that Fisher wanted to take him by himself so Fisher could malfunction, turn murderous, and harm Rhodes.
Rhodes would never believe that, but he saw plenty of his subordinates giving him side looks. They certainly thought Fisher was capable of that and maybe a lot more.
Why shouldn¡¯t they believe it after the way Fisher used Rhodes to kill Dr. Irvine? Fisher could be spilling all kinds of psycho suggestions into Rhodes¡¯s ears while his subordinates¡¯ backs were turned.
Fisher wouldn¡¯t do that. For a start, this was the first private conversation they¡¯d ever had since Rhodes got out of stasis. He¡¯d been interfacing with Oakes the whole time and then with the whole battalion.
Fisher never asked to talk to Rhodes privately before. This must be something serious.
Rhodes walked out of the barracks and Fisher switched off the interface. He did it by himself. He didn¡¯t give Rhodes a chance to do it himself.
Rhodes set off walking through the station. Fisher didn¡¯t break the silence until Rhodes passed the concourse and entered Coleridge Station¡¯s administrative wing.
Too many people in the battalion knew about the loading dock. Too many people went there for privacy. Rhodes didn¡¯t want anyone finding him there.
He also didn¡¯t want anyone overhearing whatever he said to Fisher. More than two hundred station personnel worked on the loading docks around the clock.
They were all used to hearing Rhodes talking to someone they couldn¡¯t see. He didn¡¯t think they listened to his one-sided conversations with Fisher, but he couldn¡¯t be certain.
Instead, he went to an empty auditorium. He couldn¡¯t remember anyone in the station ever using the auditorium for anything, but he didn¡¯t exactly keep track of station happenings.
The auditorium was definitely empty now. Rhodes sat down in one of the seats in the far upper corner of the stands before he faced his SAM. ¡°What¡¯s on your mind?¡±
¡°I¡¯m¡..I didn¡¯t want to say anything in front of the others, Captain¡.¡± Fisher stammered.
¡°What¡¯s wrong? Are you malfunctioning again?¡±
¡°No, nothing like that.¡±
¡°Are you feeling guilty again about killing Dr. Irvine? Is that what this is about?¡±
¡°I¡.¡± Fisher looked everywhere but at Rhodes. ¡°I¡.I¡¡¡±
Rhodes waited. He¡¯d never seen Fisher this uncertain before. He always acted so put-together and controlled in front of the battalion.
¡°Whatever it is, we can work it out,¡± Rhodes told him. ¡°We¡¯ve gone through worse before.¡±
¡°How would I know, though?¡± Fisher blurted out. ¡°How would I know if I was malfunctioning?¡±
Rhodes opened his mouth to answer and stopped himself. That was the problem. None of them realized they were malfunctioning¡ªnot while it was in the middle of happening.
¡°I hate to say it, but I agree with Thackery and Coulter,¡± Fisher rasped. ¡°You¡¯ve always stood up for me. You always put your faith in me¡ªbut what if you¡¯re wrong? You shouldn¡¯t trust me¡ªnot after everything that¡¯s happened. Your trust is misplaced. You would be setting yourself up for another disaster.¡±
¡°No! We aren¡¯t going to start thinking like that.¡± Rhodes shot to his feet and stormed out of the auditorium on his way back across the station. ¡°We¡¯ve been through too much already to start doubting each other now.¡±
¡°But what if Rocky is right? What if there¡¯s a way to take the SAMs offline and all of you would be better off without us?¡±
¡°Stop that right now!¡± Rhodes snapped. ¡°You¡¯ve saved my ass too many times. Your job is to protect me and my job is to protect you. I¡¯m not better off without you and you aren¡¯t better off without me. We¡¯re a unit now. No one is going to take you offline¡ªnot as long as I¡¯m alive.¡±
¡°What if I malfunction?¡± Fisher murmured. ¡°What if I don¡¯t realize what I¡¯m doing and I put you in danger¡ªor I put someone else in danger? It¡¯s my job to make sure that doesn¡¯t happen. I might take control of you and make you kill yourself or someone else.¡±
¡°You would only do that if you malfunctioned. Then it wouldn¡¯t be your fault.¡±
¡°But you would be just as hurt or dead. How can I live with that?¡±
Rhodes shook his head again. ¡°I don¡¯t know where all this doubt is coming from, but you can¡¯t start thinking like that. We¡¯re going into combat soon. You need to be certain of yourself and me¡ªthe same way I need to be certain of myself and you.¡±
¡°You heard what Lauer said. You have to take all potential risks into account. This is a potential risk. You would be irresponsible not to consider it.¡±
¡°I am taking into account, pal. I have considered it and taken it into account and I have come to the conclusion that I¡¯m better off with you than without you¡ªeven if you malfunction. Now please stop talking about this. Get your game face on. We have too many other problems to deal with. We can¡¯t start doubting ourselves now.¡±
Fisher hesitated for a minute before he asked. ¡°Where are you going?¡±
Rhodes didn¡¯t answer and he didn¡¯t go back to the barracks. He went to the lab. It was Dr. Osborne¡¯s lab now. He¡¯d taken over the facility that used to be Dr. Neiland¡¯s.
Osborne and Trudeau worked together all the time now. Trudeau shadowed Osborne everywhere he went.
Neither of them acted at all surprised by Rhodes showing up unannounced.
Neither of the new doctors ever mentioned or showed by action or body language that they were even aware that Rhodes and Fisher had been the ones who killed Dr. Irvine.
Neither of the new doctors showed any misgivings that another malfunction might cause someone in the battalion to do something similar to Osborne or Trudeau.
Osborne looked up from whatever he was working on. ¡°Can I help you, Captain?¡±
¡°I want you to check my SAM and see if he¡¯s malfunctioning.¡±
Osborne frowned at his controls. ¡°Is he behaving strangely? Is he doing anything out of the ordinary?¡±
¡°That¡¯s what I want to find out. I don¡¯t really know what¡¯s ordinary or out of the ordinary when it comes to a SAM.¡±
¡°What is he doing?¡±
Rhodes shrugged. ¡°It¡¯s hard to describe.¡±
Osborne tapped on his screen a few times. ¡°I¡¯m not reading any disturbance. All his systems check out.¡±
Rhodes nodded. ¡°I thought so.¡±
¡°Did you really think it would be any different?¡± Fisher murmured in his ear. ¡°I¡¯m doing my job.¡±
Osborne studied Rhodes a little more closely. ¡°Is something bothering you, Captain?¡±
¡°Not really. Thank you for checking.¡±
He walked back out of the lab. ¡°Why did you do that?¡± Fisher asked. ¡°Did you really think my doubts were a malfunction?¡±
¡°You aren¡¯t supposed to have any emotions at all. You feeling guilty about Dr. Irvine was a malfunction.¡±
¡°I¡¯m not malfunctioning,¡± Fisher murmured. ¡°I¡¯m trying to protect you.¡±
¡°I know that, pal. That¡¯s exactly why I trust you the way I do. You wouldn¡¯t suggest it if you weren¡¯t trying to help me¡ªand the rest of the battalion.¡±
Fisher hesitated again. ¡°So what do you want to do about it?¡±
¡°Nothing. There isn¡¯t anything we can do except keep on going. We¡¯ll just keep going until we can¡¯t go anymore.¡±
End of Chapter 14.
Battalion !: Book 2: Chapter 15
Rhodes dropped into The Grid and looked around at his subordinates. They all looked as gloomy and drained as they did when they first got out of stasis¡ªthis time.
Going through a conversion cycle¡ªor even multiple conversion cycles¡ªdidn¡¯t do anything to perk them up.
The lingering reality weighed on each of them more heavily with every passing day. It almost got worse with every passing hour they had to stay alive.
The interface stayed active when they entered The Grid. The eight SAMs joined the circle in front of each member of the battalion.
¡°Is everybody ready?¡± Rhodes asked.
¡°Ready,¡± Henshaw replied.
¡°Shut it down at the first sign of trouble,¡± Rhodes ordered. ¡°If anyone malfunctions, get out of The Grid, shut down your weapons, and get out of danger pronto. Understood?¡±
Everyone nodded. Lauer said, ¡°Yes, Sir.¡±
¡°Let¡¯s go,¡± Rhodes ordered.
He turned away, fired his boosters, and took off through the black Grid landscape. The rest of the battalion flew on his heels.
The landscape changed immediately. Rhodes cringed when it morphed into another Emal deathscape just like Luluna.
Some part of him expected this. The system¡ªor whatever cosmic power decided which scenarios the battalion trained in¡ªthey must have realized the Emal presented the battalion¡¯s greatest emotional challenge.
The battalion soared over mountains of rubble, twisted bodies, and crashed ships. The grid lines rotated behind Rhodes and adjusted his view of the landscape, every obstacle, and every enemy position ahead.
The battalion approached the front line. ¡°What¡¯s the objective?¡± Rhodes asked Fisher.
¡°We¡¯re supposed to defend another platoon evacuation. Ravagers are coming in to lift off the platoons, but the Emal are pressing too closely for the Ravagers to land.¡±
Rhodes glanced up at the sky. ¡°I don¡¯t see any Ravagers. Why do they take so long to descend?¡±
¡°They don¡¯t want to fly into enemy laser fire.¡±
¡°So we have to fly into enemy laser fire instead?¡± Lauer asked. ¡°Stellar.¡±
¡°This scenario has all the elements that caused us to malfunction before,¡± Rocky pointed out.
¡°All except real Emal,¡± Oakes added. ¡°We never dealt with a training session where the Emal found out about us and tried to capture us for our implants.¡±
¡°They could be trying to do it here,¡± Rhinehart suggested, but right then, the laser fire in the distance flickered in the battalion¡¯s direction.
¡°Get down on the ground!¡± Rhodes ordered. ¡°Get behind the hills!¡±
Fisher adjusted The Grid in front of Rhodes¡¯s eyes. ¡°We¡¯re still too far away from the platoons. We won¡¯t be able to defend them from here.¡±
¡°There¡¯s another channel behind those hills there,¡± Koenig suggested. ¡°We can fly through the channel, flank the Emal, and attack them from the northeast. That will draw them away from the platoons long enough for the Ravagers to land.¡±
¡°Don¡¯t listen to him, Captain,¡± Thackery interjected. ¡°That channel is a trap.¡±
Rhodes spun around to stare at her. ¡°What makes you say that¡ªand don¡¯t tell me it¡¯s because Koenig suggested it.¡±
¡°It isn¡¯t that. Look. The Emal have mounted laser cannons on both sides of the channel.¡±
¡°They¡¯re unmanned,¡± Koenig argued.
¡°Shut the hell up! I¡¯m not talking to you,¡± Thackery snapped and made some modifications to The Grid layout. The whole battalion looked at it through the interface. ¡°If you roll back the readings from previous battles, you¡¯ll see that the Emal planted these cannons in that channel before the battle shifted over here. The cannon placements are mechanized. We would fly straight into them.¡±
¡°How did you figure that out without Koenig telling you?¡± Rhinehart asked.
She sneered at him and then wrinkled her nose at her SAM. ¡°I don¡¯t need him to tell me that shit.¡±
¡°We could still use the channel,¡± Koenig suggested. ¡°We can just fly over the cannon placements and avoid them.¡±
¡°You really must be malfunctioning if you expect me to fall for that. The cannons can swivel upward and hit us from any direction.¡± She turned back to Rhodes. ¡°We can¡¯t use that channel.¡±
¡°What about using a different channel?¡± Fisher asked. ¡°We can use this one farther west. It doesn¡¯t have cannon placements and it would accomplish the same thing. It would get us into a protected position where we can flank the Emal.¡±
Thackery made a face at him, too, but she didn¡¯t argue back.
Rhodes didn¡¯t understand her sudden hostility toward the SAMs, especially her own. He couldn¡¯t find any fault with her logic about the cannon placements, though. They really did make that channel a death trap.
¡°Find us a route through the alternate channel, Fisher,¡± Rhodes ordered. ¡°Lay out a course for us and transmit it to each person¡¯s Grid.¡±The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
¡°Sending it now,¡± Fisher replied.
The route showed up on The Grid. Thackery didn¡¯t complain about it.
Rhodes gave the order and the battalion diverted into the other channel. He kept pivoting The Grid in front of his face, changing the lines, and checking every possible angle for hidden enemies.
The Emal concentrated their firepower on the platoons in front of them. As usual, the Emal pinned the platoons down in the black wasteland.
Lasers, fusion blasts, and the fire from exploding ships gave the only light. Rhodes and his subordinates could see everything in The Grid, but Rhodes found himself hesitating to trust that.
What if Fisher was right? What if Rhodes was making a colossal mistake by trusting both Fisher and The Grid?
Rhodes tried to shake those thoughts out of his head. He couldn¡¯t start questioning them now¡ªespecially not Fisher.
Fisher and The Grid were the only tools Rhodes had to work with. If he got rid of them, he had nothing left.
The battalion got halfway up the channel before lasers erupted from all the way down on the very floor. They blasted scrap metal out of the way before the lasers burned upward into the night.
The rubble must have buried the cannon placements. The debris concealed the guns until the battalion flew directly over them.
Four lasers fired at the battalion and two of them hit Thackery. She tumbled out of the sky and pitched at terminal velocity toward the ground.
Coulter yanked out of formation immediately and dove after her. ¡°Don¡¯t go down there, Eddie!¡± Murphy yelled, but Coulter was already plummeting straight for Thackery.
He wound up flying straight into another laser barrage. They converged and smashed into him, too, just as he caught Thackery out of the air.
He broke her fall, but at too great a cost. He fell through another volley of shots that pinwheeled him and Thackery head over heel.
They crashed down on the ground at the very bottom of the channel. They landed close enough to the cannon placements themselves that the lasers couldn¡¯t hit either of them here. That was the only thing that saved them.
¡°Murphy! Koenig!¡± Rhodes snapped. ¡°Are you both still online?!¡±
¡°We¡¯re fine,¡± Murphy growled. ¡°Coulter is injured and Thackery is unconscious.¡±
¡°Stay where you are,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°We¡¯ll accomplish the objective and end the training session. That¡¯s the quickest way to get you out of The Grid. We can¡¯t risk coming down to get you right now.¡±
¡°Go,¡± Murphy muttered. ¡°These two aren¡¯t going anywhere.¡±
Rhodes checked The Grid once to make sure Thackery and Coulter were all right. Coulter had laser burns on his abdomen and the organic side of his shoulder. Other than that, he was fine.
Thackery¡¯s vital signs read normal. She was just unconscious. Both SAMs were fully operational, though, so her injuries couldn¡¯t have been very severe.
Rhodes dragged his awareness back to the battle. He could think of plenty of things he wanted to say to both Thackery and Coulter when this was all over.
That would have to wait, though.
¡°Scan the rest of the channel and see if you can locate any other placements,¡± he told Fisher.
¡°There are four of them. I¡¯m bringing them up on The Grid. You can avoid them by flying higher up the hillsides on both sides. That should avoid the motion sensors.¡±
Rhodes obeyed without a word. He didn¡¯t allow himself to think of Fisher as his superior officer.
It would have been more accurate to say that Rhodes no longer cared if Fisher was his superior officer.
At least someone around here might actually be qualified to make decisions for the \ battalion. Rhodes sure wasn¡¯t¡ªor he didn¡¯t feel like he was.
Listening to someone else and following Fisher¡¯s orders gave Rhodes one of the greatest senses of relief he¡¯d ever experienced in his life. He trusted Fisher a hell of a lot more than he trusted any other senior officer involved in this war.
He swooped high over the hillsides, but never high enough to alert the Emal of the battalion¡¯s approach. He swerved wide to avoid the last placement.
The Grid showed the Emal line ahead. They bore down even harder on the Legion platoons. The Ravagers hung off in orbit. Lasers flew thick and fast. The Ravagers couldn¡¯t descend without getting destroyed.
Rhodes gunned his boosters. ¡°Get the Ravagers down here now!¡± he ordered. ¡°Spread out and draw the Emal away from the platoons!¡±
His subordinates scattered to the four winds. It would have been really helpful to have eight people attacking the Emal right now instead of six.
He stuffed down his annoyance and concentrated everything on getting the Emal¡¯s attention.
He didn¡¯t use his Grid this time or change into a giant glowing alien. No one in the battalion did.
They plunged in gunning all their weapons at the Emal on the western flank. Rhodes flew straight ahead while his subordinates fanned down the line to cover as much territory as possible.
Rhodes unloaded with his scourge guns. The gun blasts lit up the night. They got the Emal¡¯s attention better than anything¡ªexcept maybe Viper explosions.
He unloaded one Viper after another. They detonated down the line and the Emal spun around to face the battalion.
The Grid gave Rhodes a perfect view of the Ravagers sinking through the dense cloud. The Emal opened fire. That left a clear space for the Ravagers to land and start taking the platoons on board.
Eight members of the battalion might not have been able to stand up to the Emal numbers. Six definitely couldn¡¯t.
The Emal overran the battalion in seconds. Whoever programmed this training session definitely didn¡¯t include the part about the Emal trying to capture the battalion for their implants.
Rhodes¡¯s mind shifted gears. He came up with an imaginary explanation that the Emal no longer wanted to capture the battalion. The aliens just wanted to destroy the only Legion weapon that posed a threat to the Emal invasion.
None of that mattered because the battalion couldn¡¯t hold its own against the Emal horde. Thousands of aliens surged away from the escaping platoons and smothered the battalion in no time.
Lasers wheeled back and forth across the battlefield, but they didn¡¯t concentrate on the platoons anymore.
Base ships in the far rear on the Emal side turned their guns on the battalion. Every shot killed countless Emal, but the aliens didn¡¯t care.
A punishing smash hit Rhinehart thirty yards away from Rhodes. Rhinehart screamed and crumpled under a tide of alien bodies.
¡°Rhinehart!¡± Rhodes bellowed, but Rhinehart vanished off the interface along with Rocky.
Rhodes spun around to fight his way over there, but he couldn¡¯t move with so many Emal in the way.
He scrambled to locate Rhinehart on The Grid, but Rhinehart wasn¡¯t there anymore.
¡°He¡¯s gone, Captain!¡± Fisher yelled over the noise. ¡°The Grid must have returned him to Coleridge Station!¡±
¡°We gotta get out of here! How much longer before the Ravagers lift off?¡±
Fisher said something in response, but Rhodes didn¡¯t catch it as another bone-crushing smash of cannon fire struck on his right.
Lauer went down and he vanished off the map, too. Wild went with him. That left four people¡ªRhodes, Henshaw, Dietz, and Oakes.
The Emal swarm overwhelmed the four even easily, now that the aliens no longer had so many people to target.
Rhodes went into a frenzy shooting as many Emal as he could. He got so preoccupied with shooting every weapon in his arsenal that he forgot to check on the rest of his people.
He swiped his own lasers back and forth across the horde. He unleashed one Viper after another.
So many Emal packed around him that the Vipers exploded right on top of him. Their blasts pounded his implants and nearly knocked him down.
He couldn¡¯t let himself fall under these aliens. They would cut him to pieces.
He spun his laser to the right carving a path through hundreds of bodies. Countless more Emal surged at him from right behind the aliens he just cut down.
Their eyes surrounded him on all sides. He couldn¡¯t see anything beyond all those eyes staring back at him.
Without warning, a catastrophic smash hit him from somewhere. It flattened him in a split second¡.and he came to his senses back on the plain, black Grid. The war-torn landscape was gone.
End of Chapter 15.
Battalion 1: Book 2: Chapter 16
Rhinehart grabbed Rhodes¡¯s arm and pulled him to his feet. ¡°Are you okay, Sir?¡±
Rhodes shook himself. ¡°I¡¯m fine, Lieutenant. Did we accomplish the objective? Did the Ravagers lift off?¡±
¡°The Ravagers made it out,¡± Fisher replied. ¡°That¡¯s what ended the training session. It just cost all your lives in the process. If this had been real, only Coulter and Thackery would have survived.¡±
Rhodes glanced around the circle. Thackery, Lauer, Coulter, and Rhinehart all appeared unharmed. ¡°Are all of you okay?¡±
¡°I came back here,¡± Thackery replied. ¡°Eddie said I got hit, but I don¡¯t think I did. I think The Grid took me out of the session and replaced me with something else¡ªsomething that made you think I got hurt.¡±
Rhodes confronted her and Coulter. ¡°What the hell were you two thinking? You agreed to work with your SAMs. You can¡¯t go questioning everything they tell you in the middle of a battle.¡±
¡°Koenig was wrong about the first channel,¡± Thackery argued. ¡°I couldn¡¯t let him lead us into a trap.¡±
¡°I couldn¡¯t let her fall to her death,¡± Coulter pointed out. ¡°She would have died from that fall if that battle had been real.¡±
¡°You could have died,¡± Rhodes countered. ¡°You should have listened to Murphy.¡±
¡°His job is to protect me, but he would have put another battalion member in danger by doing it.¡± Coulter shrugged. ¡°Anyway, I made it.¡±
¡°You both agreed that you would work with your SAMs,¡± Rhodes went on. ¡°None of us can afford for you to get taken out because you don¡¯t listen to your SAMs¡¯ information.¡±
¡°We agreed to work with them,¡± Coulter returned. ¡°We told you we wouldn¡¯t trust them.¡±
¡°Then what¡¯s the point of going into battle with them at all? Just make them invisible and silent if you aren¡¯t going to listen to their recommendations.¡±
¡°What are we supposed to do¡ªobey them blindly and never question their judgment?¡± Thackery fired back. ¡°We¡¯ve already seen that they can¡¯t be trusted.¡±
¡°If you really want to hear my opinion, then yes, I say you should obey them blindly and never question their judgment,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°That¡¯s what I¡¯m doing.¡±
¡°You do?¡± Lauer asked. ¡°You obey all Fisher¡¯s recommendations and never question him¡ªever?¡±
¡°Not in a combat situation¡ªno, I don¡¯t. Are you crazy? He told me to fly up along the hillsides and he was right. He can process information in The Grid a lot faster than I can. I don¡¯t have time to run through hours and hours of battle data the way he can. He can do it in a split second. If he tells me to fly somewhere to stay away from laser cannons, that¡¯s what I¡¯m going to do. I would be stupid not to.¡±
¡°What if he gives you a questionable order?¡± Coulter asked. ¡°Would you obey him then?¡±
¡°Do you mean an order like, say, ¡®Don¡¯t fly into enemy laser cannons?¡¯ Is that the kind of questionable order you mean?¡±
¡°You can¡¯t expect us to believe that Fisher has never done anything questionable,¡± Thackery interjected.
¡°We know he has,¡± Oakes chimed in.
¡°I never said he hasn¡¯t,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°I know he has, but the middle of a battle isn¡¯t the time to start questioning his every word. I won¡¯t question him at all unless I have some reason to think he might be malfunctioning. Neither Murphy nor Koenig was malfunctioning when they made those recommendations.¡±
¡°But Koenig was wrong about that first channel,¡± Thackery pointed out.
¡°That isn¡¯t why you ignored his recommendation,¡± Rhodes countered. ¡°You ignored his recommendation because you resent having a SAM. If your positions were reversed and he was the one telling you the channel was unsafe because the Emal had planted laser cannons there, you would have rejected his recommendation and flown straight into that channel. You would have gone out of your way to do the opposite of whatever he suggested.¡±
Rhodes turned to launch into a similar reprimand of Coulter. Rhodes saw himself reprimanding them in front of the whole battalion.This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
Rhodes intended to do exactly that. He had to make an example of these two.
¡°This whole session proves my point¡ªjust in case any of you haven¡¯t already gotten the memo,¡± he went on. ¡°We all have to make a choice¡ªlive with the SAMs or not. I¡¯ve already made my choice. I won¡¯t give up Fisher. Hell no.¡±
Thackery looked away.
¡°I don¡¯t see anything wrong with Murphy or Koenig,¡± Rhodes told them. ¡°As far as I¡¯m concerned, you two were the ones who stepped out of line. I don¡¯t see anything wrong with either recommendation that either SAM made during the training session.¡±
¡°You don¡¯t see anything wrong with Koenig telling us to fly into enemy laser cannons?¡± Thackery countered.
¡°So Koenig made a mistake based on incomplete information. So what? A mistake like that could happen to anyone.¡±
¡°Murphy would have let her die,¡± Coulter argued. ¡°I couldn¡¯t let that happen.¡±
¡°I definitely took Murphy¡¯s side on this one. That fall wouldn¡¯t have killed Thackery¡ªnot even if the battle had been real instead of a Grid training session. You alive and helping the battalion against the Emal would have been much more useful to accomplishing the objective than you crashing and burning along with her. Murphy did his job by protecting you. You were the one in the wrong here¡ªnot Murphy.¡±
The Grid vanished around them at that moment. The lines vanished and the battalion wound up in the plain white training room.
General Brewster and Colonel Kraft stood there waiting. General Brewster scowled at Rhodes and his people.
This was the first time Rhodes had ever seen General Brewster scowl at anyone. He always presented such a bubbly, overly enthusiastic expression. Scowling made him look idiotic.
¡°That training session could have gone better, Captain,¡± he muttered.
¡°We accomplished the objective,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°Isn¡¯t that what we¡¯re supposed to do? We saved the platoons.¡±
¡°You cost six battalion lives in the process. I don¡¯t call that a victory.¡±
¡°The point of this was to check our SAMs for malfunctions. We did that. As far as I¡¯m concerned, that training session was a success.¡±
¡°So¡.are any of you malfunctioning?¡± Brewster asked.
Rhodes stopped himself from glancing at Coulter and Thackery. ¡°No, none of us are malfunctioning.¡±
Brewster¡¯s expression cleared immediately. He clapped his hands and rubbed them together. ¡°Excellent! Then we can start planning to deploy the battalion back to the Emal wars.¡±
¡°Just hold your horses right there, pal,¡± Rhinehart interrupted. ¡°We still haven¡¯t gotten Rudy back. We have to train with him. Then¡ªmaybe¡ªwe¡¯ll see if this battalion is in any condition to go anywhere.¡±
Brewster narrowed his eyes at Rhinehart. ¡°You¡¯re out of line, soldier. You¡¯re still expected to address your superior officers with the appropriate degree of respect.¡±
¡°Superior?¡± Rhinehart snorted. ¡°There is not one of you jokers who is superior to me and I am definitely addressing you with the appropriate degree of respect¡ªwhich is none.¡±
Rhodes raised his hand. ¡°That¡¯s enough. We finished the session. That¡¯s all that matters. If you gentlemen don¡¯t have anything else¡.¡±
¡°You finished the session with more than two-thirds of your personnel dead including yourself,¡± Brewster countered. ¡°This is exactly the kind of setback that could lead the governing body to decide to shut down this whole project. There would be no Battalion 1 if this happened in real life.¡±
¡°I really hope they do shut down the project,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°I pray for the day. Excuse me, gentlemen. We¡¯re going back to the barracks.¡±
He pushed between them just to make his point. He was really starting to agree with Rhinehart. These fools didn¡¯t deserve his respect or even the time out of his day.
¡°You can go back to the barracks now, Captain, but this isn¡¯t finished,¡± Brewster called after him. ¡°I¡¯m ordering psych evaluations on all of you later this afternoon. We need to establish if any of you might be too dangerously unstable to go back into combat.¡±
¡°I already told you we were,¡± Rhodes replied over his shoulder.
¡°Are you ordering psych evaluations on our SAMs, too?¡± Thackery asked.
Brewster frowned. ¡°Psych evaluations on your SAMs? Why would we order that? The SAMs don¡¯t have psychology that needs to be evaluated.¡±
No one answered him. Rhodes and the rest of the battalion left the training room. They reopened the interface on their way back to the barracks.
No one said anything until they reentered the familiar room. ¡°Psych evaluations,¡± Lauer snarled. ¡°I never could stand those.¡±
¡°Who the hell cares?¡± Oakes countered. ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter what they find out. They¡¯ll send us into combat either way.¡±
¡°The captain is right,¡± Henshaw murmured. ¡°We¡¯re all too dangerously unstable to go into combat.¡±
¡°There is no such thing as too dangerously unstable to go into combat,¡± Rhinehart told her. ¡°Dangerously unstable is what going into combat is all about.¡±
¡°Even if being dangerously unstable puts your comrades and other Legion soldiers in danger?¡± she asked. ¡°Isn¡¯t that the problem¡ªthat we would be too dangerously unstable to tell who we should shoot at?¡±
¡°It doesn¡¯t matter because any malfunction could cause us to shoot at the wrong target,¡± Oakes replied. ¡°These doctors will be evaluating us in our normal state¡ªnot in a malfunctioning state. Whatever they find out won¡¯t mean squat once the lead starts flying.¡±
¡°Nothing these people do makes any sense.¡± Rhodes sat down at the table and picked up his pencil. ¡°I agree with Oakes. The brass will send us out regardless of what they find in these evaluations. This is just Brewster¡¯s way of showing the governing body that he can jump through hoops as well as they want him to. After that, we¡¯ll go into battle either way.¡±
¡°Of course we will,¡± Lauer growled. ¡°The Legion can¡¯t fight this war without us.¡±
¡°The Legion can¡¯t fight the war with us,¡± Rhinehart pointed out. ¡°One of these days, the Emal will realize they don¡¯t have to stop with their own territory. They can take the whole Treaty of Aemon Cluster and then we¡¯ll all be in big trouble.¡±
End of Chapter 16.
Battalion 1: Book 2: Chapter 17
Rhodes stepped into Dr. Osborne¡¯s lab and looked around. It looked the same. ¡°What am I doing here?¡± he asked. ¡°I¡¯m supposed to get a psych evaluation.¡±
¡°You are getting one, but I¡¯m not qualified to give you one.¡± Dr. Osborne pushed out his stool. ¡°Sit down and we¡¯ll get started.¡±
¡°How can we get started if you aren¡¯t qualified to evaluate me?¡±
¡°Just sit down. You¡¯ll see.¡±
Rhodes sat down on the stool. He didn¡¯t see how he could get a psych evaluation here. He and Osborne were the only people in the room.
Each of Rhodes¡¯s subordinates had been assigned to a different room in the medical wing for their evaluations. Dr. Osborne couldn¡¯t evaluate everyone at once.
Now Rhodes found out Osborne wasn¡¯t even the person who would conduct the evaluations.
He tapped on his stacks of computer equipment. ¡°The evaluation will start¡now.¡±
Rhodes glanced over at him, but at that moment, the lab vanished and Rhodes entered The Grid. ¡°What are you doing?¡± he asked. ¡°Why am I here?¡±
¡°You¡¯ll be evaluated in The Grid,¡± Osborne replied. ¡°The doctor assigned to evaluate you should be appearing¡now.¡±
The Grid changed in front of Rhodes¡¯s eyes and he found himself not in Dr. Osborne¡¯s lab, but in a comfortable lounge.
Dark wooden paneling covered the walls. Woven carpets made the floor soft and warm. A fire crackled in the large stone fireplace across the room.
An older man in a brown houndstooth suit jacket and glasses sat in a wide leather armchair across from Rhodes. The guy sat with his legs crossed and balanced a notepad on his lap. He wasn¡¯t smoking a pipe, but he might as well have been.
Rhodes himself still sat on the same stool from the lab. He saw how out of place he looked with all his shiny metal implants, Viper missiles strapped to his back, and all the Legion¡¯s strongest firepower attached to his limbs.
The sight of this fake doctor almost made Rhodes burst out laughing.
The image didn¡¯t seem to see this scenario as a joke, though¡ªobviously. ¡°Welcome, Captain,¡± the guy began in a deep, husky voice. ¡°I¡¯m Dr. Watson.¡±
Now Rhodes really did burst out laughing. He couldn¡¯t help it. ¡°Dr. Watson? Seriously?¡±
The guy cocked his head. ¡°Is there a problem?¡±
¡°What¡¯s so funny about him being named Dr. Watson?¡± Fisher asked.
Dr. Watson inclined his head the other way. ¡°Your SAM shouldn¡¯t be here. He might interfere with your results.¡±
¡°I¡¯m being evaluated for how well I perform with my SAM,¡± Rhodes pointed out. ¡°Removing him would skew the results, too.¡±
The doctor shrugged. Rhodes absolutely refused to think of him as Dr. Watson. That was ridiculous.
If the Legion brass actually thought naming him that gave him some credibility, they were sadly mistaken.
He consulted his notepad. ¡°Let¡¯s get started. Your military record indicates you¡¯ve suffered some mental distress recently.¡±
Rhodes blinked at him. How in the name of God was he supposed to take this projection seriously?
The doctor waited for Rhodes to speak. ¡°Is anything wrong, Captain?¡±
¡°What exactly do you want me to say? Yes, I had some mental distress recently.¡±
¡°Do you want to talk about it?¡±
¡°Why the hell would I want to do that?¡±
¡°To help me evaluate your mental state.¡±
¡°No, I don¡¯t want to talk about it.¡±This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
The doctor checked his notepad again. God only knew what was on it.
Then Rhodes remembered. He was in The Grid. This wasn¡¯t real. Nothing was on that notepad.
He almost busted up laughing again at the thought, but he bit it back. He enjoyed seeing the projection go through the motions so seriously.
¡°Why do you think you suffered mental distress?¡± the doctor asked.
Rhodes¡¯s one remaining eye fell out of its socket. ¡°You can¡¯t be serious!¡±
¡°Of course I¡¯m serious. What caused you to experience this distress? Your record indicates it was severe and that you and your subordinates are suffering from an ongoing obsessive desire to end your lives. That sounds pretty serious to me.¡±
Rhodes snorted and leaned back on his stool. ¡°You want to know what caused it? Look at me, asshole! If this isn¡¯t enough to cause mental distress, I don¡¯t know what is.¡±
¡°And yet you spent years as the commanding officer of a combat platoon in the Legion. Your record doesn¡¯t indicate that your previous experience caused you this level of emotional turmoil.¡±
¡°You¡¯re serious,¡± Rhodes fired back. ¡°You seriously don¡¯t see anything about me that would cause emotional turmoil? What else did you read in my record?¡±
¡°Everything. I have access to the entire Legion database.¡±
¡°You know what? This is stupid. I¡¯m not going to explain it to you. If you can¡¯t see for yourself, then someone made a mistake programming you to evaluate me.¡±
¡°I can¡¯t evaluate you if you won¡¯t talk about it. What do you think I see when I look at you?¡±
Rhodes¡¯s jaw hit the floor. This projection really wanted him to spell it out in every gory detail.
Rhodes made a calculated decision. ¡°What are you going to do if I don¡¯t talk about it?¡±
¡°I¡¯ll have no choice but to recommend that you aren¡¯t fit for combat duty.¡±
¡°Perfect,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°You do that.¡±
Now it was the doctor¡¯s turn to raise his eyebrows. ¡°You don¡¯t want to go back into combat? But you¡¯re a soldier. You¡¯re a captain in the Aemon Legion. It¡¯s your job to go into combat and defend the Treaty of Aemon Cluster against its enemies.¡±
¡°Not anymore. I died on the battlefield. Didn¡¯t you read that in my record?¡±
¡°Of course, but¡..¡±
¡°Then I think you¡¯d admit that a dead man isn¡¯t under any obligation to do anything. I¡¯m not a captain in the Aemon Legion anymore. I¡¯m¡..I¡¯m a figment of your imagination.¡±
The doctor stared at him in such dazed disbelief that Rhodes really did laugh. He had to get his kicks somewhere. Why not here? He didn¡¯t have to worry about hurting this Grid projection¡¯s feelings.
Unfortunately, the doctor had been programmed to be more tenacious than Rhodes expected.
The doctor jotted something on his notepad. ¡°Why don¡¯t you want to go into combat?¡±
¡°Apart from the risk of getting killed? That about covers it. I¡¯m scared. That¡¯s the truth. I don¡¯t want to die. I don¡¯t want to get cut to pieces by lasers the way I did before or crushed by falling Dusters or torn apart by curious alien scientists. I would rather remain intact here at Coleridge Station and spend the rest of my life studying art with my friends.¡±
¡°What about your subordinates and comrades?¡± the doctor asked. ¡°Don¡¯t you feel the smallest obligation to support them, protect them, and help them get through the war in one piece?¡±
¡°They won¡¯t need my support, protection, and help if they don¡¯t go into combat, either. With any luck, the other¡programs or whatever they are will recommend that my subordinates and comrades aren¡¯t fit for combat duty, either. Then we can all live our lives here in peace. Isn¡¯t that what everyone wants?¡±
The doctor image cleared its throat, shifted in its chair, and rearranged its notepad on its lap. ¡°I¡¯m afraid things are a little more complicated than that, Captain.¡±
¡°I know they are. They¡¯re complicated because I¡¯ll go into combat again no matter what you recommend.¡±
¡°You know that isn¡¯t true. The Legion brass wouldn¡¯t have ordered a psych evaluation for you if they didn¡¯t have grave concerns for your mental wellbeing. Your repeated remarks about ending your own life, your subordinates¡¯ lives, and the like don¡¯t paint a very encouraging picture of your mental state.¡±
¡°I¡¯m sure my mental state is far worse than any of the Legion brass has even allowed themselves to consider,¡± Rhodes muttered back.
¡°Then we need to do something about that. Why do you want to end your life?¡±
¡°I never said I wanted to end my life¡ªnot like that. I said I would encourage and support any of my subordinates to do it if they really felt that their situations had become intolerable. Obviously Fuentes has already come to that conclusion, so why shouldn¡¯t he carry it out?¡±
¡°He shouldn¡¯t carry it out because his mental state has deteriorated to the point where he can¡¯t think rationally about his situation. His situation could improve and then he would feel that life was worth living again. Then he might be glad that he didn¡¯t end his life. You would rob him of that chance.¡±
¡°How could his situation improve to make him think life was worth living again?¡± Rhodes asked. ¡°What could possibly improve it?¡±
¡°You just said you don¡¯t want to end your own life,¡± the doctor countered. ¡°You must think life is worth living or you wouldn¡¯t be going through all this. Why do you think life is worth living for you and not for Fuentes?¡±
¡°I don¡¯t think my life is worth living, but even if I did, that wouldn¡¯t mean anything for Fuentes. It¡¯s his life. If he thinks it isn¡¯t worth living, then that¡¯s his choice to make.¡±
¡°Some of us disagree. A few key changes in his thought process could improve his outlook on his life, his future, and what it all means to him.¡±
Rhodes snorted. ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure what it all means to him is the problem, pal.¡±
¡°Exactly my point. He could change what it all means to him and then he would see his life as worth living after all.¡±
Rhodes sat back on his stool. ¡°Great. You explain it to him and see how far you get.¡±
¡°You will be the one explaining it to him when he gets out of stasis tomorrow.¡±
Rhodes¡¯s head shot up again. ¡°You aren¡¯t going to evaluate Fuentes? You¡¯re going to throw him back into the battalion without even trying to evaluate his mental state?¡±
¡°You seem to think you understand him better than the rest of us. If anyone can convince him, you can.¡±
End of Chapter 17.
Battalion 1: Book 2: Chapter 18
Rhodes sank down on the bench at the table in the barracks, cradled his head in his hand, shut his eyes, and groaned.
He was the first member of the battalion to make it back from the psych evaluations. He had the place to himself.
He¡¯d gone through many psych evaluations in his military career, but none as moronic as this one. Then again, he¡¯d never been evaluated by a computer program before.
He didn¡¯t know how long he would have to wait for someone else to finish. He was just making up his mind to go back to his drawing when Oakes returned.
He took one look at Rhodes, spread his thumb and forefinger to their widest point, propped them against the side of his face, and lowered his voice to a comedic impression of the fake psychologist.
¡°Elementary, my dear Watson,¡± Oakes teased and burst out laughing.
Rhodes found himself breaking into a grin. ¡°At least we got it over with.¡±
Oakes threw himself down on the other side of the table. ¡°Those cocksuckers on the damn governing body don¡¯t even have the decency to send a real person to evaluate us. Maybe their budget is suffering.¡±
¡°It just proves that you were right. The results don¡¯t mean anything.¡±
¡°I told the freak I really hoped the brass ended the program.¡±
¡°I told him the same thing.¡±
Oakes looked up and cracked a grin. ¡°Let¡¯s spend the rest of the week coming up with another name for him. We need a few laughs in this place.¡±
¡°What about Why-son¡..or When-son?¡± Rhodes suggested.
Oakes started to snort with more laughter, but right then, the door swung open. Rhinehart stormed in fuming in rage.
He halted in the middle of the barracks glaring at Rhodes, Oakes, and everything else. Rhodes and Oakes held their breath waiting for Rhinehart to blow his stack.
Without warning, he buckled at the knees, burst out laughing, and fell across the floor roaring his head off. He rolled on the floor clutching his sides and howling with laughter.
Oakes laughed, too. Rhodes tried to hold it back and failed.
¡°Why is the name, ¡®Watson¡¯ so funny?¡± Fisher asked and made Oakes and Rhinehart laugh even louder.
Right then, Henshaw came back. She stopped in the doorway and blinked down at Rhinehart in horror.
Her expression made him bust up even more. ¡°Dr. Watson, Georgie! We¡¯re getting evaluated by Dr. Watson!¡±
¡°Yeah?¡± she asked. ¡°What about him? He was nice.¡±
Rhinehart buckled in another fit of laughter. Rhodes found himself laughing along with the joke.
¡°I don¡¯t get it,¡± Fisher repeated.
Henshaw cut Rhinehart a wide circle and sat down at the table next to Rhodes. ¡°What are we doing next?¡±
¡°We¡¯re coming up with another name for Watson,¡± Oakes replied and laughed.
¡°Why do we need another name for him?¡± Henshaw asked. ¡°He already has one.¡±
¡°We¡¯re calling him Where-son from now on,¡± Rhodes explained and Rhinehart roared out in another fit of laughter.
Dietz came in and started smirking when he realized what Rhinehart found so funny. ¡°All I had to do was keep the sucker talking,¡± Dietz explained. ¡°He eventually gave up and told me there was nothing wrong with me.¡±
Rhinehart dragged himself off the floor wiping tears out of his one eye. He staggered over to the table and collapsed next to Oakes. ¡°Phew!¡± Rhinehart panted. ¡°I needed that.¡±If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.
¡°Dr. Watson said I was fit for combat duty,¡± Henshaw went on. ¡°He said he wasn¡¯t so sure about the rest of you.¡±
¡°You can go alone,¡± Dietz told her.
¡°Watch it,¡± Oakes snapped. ¡°No one is going anywhere alone.¡±
¡°She won¡¯t go alone because Dietz is clear, too,¡± Rhodes pointed out.
Just then, Lauer, Coulter, and Thackery came back. Lauer and Coulter sat down at the table to laugh it up about Dr. Watson.
Thackery kept curling her lip at the surrounding barracks. ¡°That cocksucker! I hate shrinks.¡±
¡°Did he say whether you were mentally stable enough to go back into combat?¡± Rhodes asked.
¡°I didn¡¯t ask. I told him to shove his questions up his ass because he was the last person I would ever talk to about anything.¡±
Rhodes nodded. ¡°That sounds about right.¡±
¡°Now what do we do?¡± Henshaw asked again.
¡°We wait around for the brass to decide to send us back to the Emal wars,¡± Lauer replied.
¡°We wait for Fuentes to come back,¡± Oakes added. ¡°Everything depends on that.¡±
The thought of seeing Fuentes again made everyone fall silent. Oakes and Rhodes worked on their drawings. Dietz and Thackery took turns working at the terminal.
The others occupied themselves with this or that. Henshaw had gotten into the habit of using her laser to carve shapes out of wood.
She collected scraps from the loading dock, brought them back to the barracks, fashioned them into minute statues of animals, birds, plants, and other figurines, and then gave them as gifts to any random passerby she met at the station.
Rhodes could just imagine the station personnel¡¯s reaction when she tried to give them her gifts. Maybe those people went home and burned the little figures to break the hex of touching something one of the battalion members had touched.
Rhodes didn¡¯t know why he let himself think that. He just couldn¡¯t imagine anyone treasuring one of these little figures for the charming act of kindness it obviously was.
She spent the rest of the afternoon carving a flower and went out to walk around the station.
Rhodes got distracted by explaining something art-related to Oakes. Henshaw returned with three more pieces of wood.
She spent the rest of the evening carving them into more shapes, but she didn¡¯t take them out to give away. She put them on the bookshelf and left them there.
Maybe someone hurt her feelings by refusing to accept one of her creations. Maybe the inevitable finally happened and one of the station personnel told her to keep away from them and never come near them again.
Rhodes kicked himself for not paying closer attention to what she was doing. He could have kept an eye on her through the interface. He just got distracted.
He made a mental note to ask her about it, but then he got distracted again by dreading Fuentes coming back.
Coulter spent nearly every evening wandering around the barracks walls. He spent an unnatural amount of time inspecting the lines of mortar between the wall blocks.
Rhodes just could not bring himself to ask why Coulter found the mortar so interesting. Rhodes didn¡¯t want to know.
Rhinehart and Lauer liked to sit at the table and talk to Rhodes and Oakes while they drew. They talked about any old random subject that came up.
Tonight, they speculated about what Dr. Watson did in his free time when he wasn¡¯t evaluating people¡¯s psychological state.
¡°Maybe he really is a sleuth when no one is looking,¡± Rhinehart joked. ¡°Maybe his notepad is covered with his case notes. He probably doesn¡¯t even really listen to what anyone tells him about why they¡¯re distressed or upset.¡±
¡°What cases do you think he works on?¡± Lauer asks.
¡°People probably come to him from all over the Treaty of Aemon Cluster to get his help,¡± Rhinehart went on. ¡°I¡¯m sure he¡¯s working on unsolved murders, political mysteries, bank heists, embezzlement¡ªyou name it.¡±
Oakes snorted. ¡°You got one hell of an imagination, Lieutenant. You should write a book.¡±
¡°Too bad someone has already written a book about Dr. Watson,¡± Rhodes pointed out.
¡°No one has written a book with Dr. Watson as the sleuth.¡± Rhinehart¡¯s eye burst open and he pointed at Rhodes and gasped. ¡°I got it! I could write a spin-off serious¡ªabout how Watson takes over Sherlock Holmes¡¯s practice after Holmes disappears. Watson could become the sleuth and work all his own cases. Yeah! That would be perfect!¡±
¡°Watson isn¡¯t smart enough to be a sleuth,¡± Lauer pointed out. ¡°That¡¯s the whole point. He¡¯s Holmes¡¯s sidekick. Watson doesn¡¯t have the brains to solve anything. He always needed Holmes to explain everything to him.¡±
¡°Ah, of course!¡± Fisher exclaimed. ¡°Dr. Watson¡ªfrom the Sherlock Holmes mystery books. I understand now.¡±
Rhinehart laughed at him. ¡°You¡¯re even slower on the uptake than Watson.¡±
¡°But the original Dr. Watson really was a doctor¡ªa medical doctor,¡± Henshaw pointed out. ¡°He had to be smart¡ªsmart enough to figure out a few things. He could have stepped up after Holmes disappeared.¡±
¡°Did you know that some of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle¡¯s contemporaries said he modeled Holmes after himself?¡± Lauer chimed in. ¡°Conan Doyle was a medical doctor who used his knowledge to solve medical mysteries. They say Holmes was really just a fictionalized version of Conan Doyle.¡±
Rhodes, Rhinehart, Oakes, and Coulter all turned around to stare at Lauer. ¡°Holy crap! You¡¯re scaring me, man!¡± Coulter murmured.
¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± Lauer asked. ¡°It¡¯s true. You can look it up on the terminal if you don¡¯t believe me.¡±
¡°Where the holy hell did you come out with that?¡± Rhinehart countered. ¡°Have you been hiding this from us all this time?¡±
¡°Hiding what?¡± Lauer asked. ¡°I¡¯m not hiding anything. I¡¯m just telling you the facts.¡±
¡°What other facts are you keeping hidden in that brain of yours?¡± Oakes asked.
Lauer shrugged and shifted his weight on his bench. ¡°I¡¯m just saying¡.¡±
A hint of movement caught the corner of Rhodes¡¯s eye. It came from the other side of the barracks¡ªbehind his back.
The instant he noticed it, his Grid reading of the room showed him a person standing in the barracks doorway. Rhodes stiffened when Fuentes appeared there.
End of Chapter 18.
Battalion 1: Book 2: Chapter 19
Everyone in the barracks saw Fuentes at the same moment Rhodes saw him. Everyone turned around very slowly to look in Fuentes¡¯s direction. He wasn¡¯t supposed to come back until tomorrow.
Rhodes sat frozen to his bench. No one else in the room made a sound.
Fuentes took one step across the threshold, but he didn¡¯t enter¡ªnot yet. Whatever mental distress he¡¯d been going through before definitely wasn¡¯t there anymore. He didn¡¯t tremble or grimace or spasm in agony anymore.
Now he was definitely in a different kind of mental distress. The expression on his face struck terror into Rhodes¡¯s heart even more than the way Fuentes had been before he left. This was far worse.
Fuentes glared at his comrades through narrowed eyes. He clamped his lips tight shut and he kept clenching his jaw in barely suppressed fury.
No one moved or even breathed. He didn¡¯t enter the barracks to rejoin the battalion. He just stood there seething and glaring at everyone and everything.
Rhodes went through a series of rapid decisions about how to deal with Fuentes. Should Rhodes go over there and talk to him? Should Rhodes welcome Fuentes back with open arms?
The murderous scowl written all over Fuentes¡¯s face told Rhodes all he needed to know. Fuentes was no happier about coming back than the rest of the battalion was to get him back.
Rhodes considered just going back to his drawing and his conversation as if Fuentes wasn¡¯t here at all.
Maybe that would be for the best¡ªjust to treat Fuentes as if his suicide attempt never happened in the first place¡ªas if he hadn¡¯t been gone all these weeks.
Did the doctors and the brass decide to send Fuentes back now to screw with the battalion¡¯s heads again?
Rhodes knew better than that. They were all too incompetent to think that far in advance. They never planned or foresaw anything.
It probably never once occurred to General Brewster or his pals in the Battalion 1 governing body that it might matter to the battalion when Fuentes came back¡ªor that the battalion might benefit from some advanced warning that Fuentes was coming back early.
Fisher snapped Rhodes out of his thoughts. ¡°Aren¡¯t you going to talk to him, Captain?¡±
Rhodes didn¡¯t realize until that moment that he had to talk to Fuentes. That was Rhodes¡¯s job. He couldn¡¯t just ignore Fuentes.
Rhodes really hadn¡¯t been sure right up until that moment if he should. Now he stood up and crossed the barracks.
Everyone present watched him in breathless silence when he came to a stop in front of Fuentes. ¡°Welcome back, Rudy,¡± Rhodes began in as calm a tone as he could muster. ¡°It¡¯s good to have you back.¡±
Fuentes dipped his chin once and clipped, ¡°Sir,¡± exactly the way Lauer did when he woke up from stasis. Fuentes didn¡¯t stop glaring at everything. Now he glared at Rhodes worst of all.
Rhodes shuddered at the expression on Fuentes¡¯s face. He¡¯d never glared or scowled or fumed like this before.
All his distress had switched to pure, volcanic rage. He simmered with it. The tension vibrating off him threatened to explode at the slightest provocation.
This was so much worse than Rhodes feared. He would gladly have dealt with the fallout of Fuentes coming back suicidal. This was far, far more dangerous to everyone else in the battalion.Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
Rhodes couldn¡¯t exactly send Fuentes away, though. The only alternative was to put Fuentes down right here and now.
Rhodes couldn¡¯t even do that¡ªnot without releasing this deadly beast lying right underneath Fuentes¡¯s skin.
Fuentes would defend himself. Whatever he might have been when he left was long gone. The mild-mannered, less-than-intelligent kid he was no longer existed.
This monster would anticipate someone on the battalion doing something to eliminate the threat. Fuentes¡¯s hard, sharp dark eyes flicked from one person to the next around the room.
He measured them the way a warrior measures his enemies¡ªor potential enemies. He would anticipate someone turning against him¡ªand he would respond in kind.
Rhodes took the only course he could think of to cool the tension. He waved behind him. ¡°Come on in. We¡¯re all thrilled to have you back. Come sit down. We were just talking the way we used to. Come on.¡±
Rhodes turned away still gesturing toward the table. He backed into the room to lead Fuentes over there.
Fuentes advanced a few steps and halted by the table glaring at the men sitting there. Rhodes stepped over the bench, sat down opposite Oakes, and pulled his drawing toward him.
Fuentes¡¯s presence unnerved everyone. Oakes, Lauer, and Rhinehart all turned back to the center and pretended Fuentes wasn¡¯t there.
Oakes started sketching on his picture again and Rhodes did the same thing, but the conversation didn¡¯t restart.
A dangerous silence fell over the room. Coulter, Henshaw, Dietz, and Thackery all watched from the periphery.
Not even the SAMs made a sound even though Fuentes couldn¡¯t have heard them. He didn¡¯t interface with the rest of the battalion.
He stood there boiling with barely concealed rage while Rhodes and Oakes went on drawing. Their pencils scratching across the paper made the only sound in the room.
No one else moved for a second before Fuentes clenched his jaw again, tightened his lips, and marched around the table to the terminal desk.
He towered over Dietz, pointed to the machine, and then swiped his finger sideways. ¡°Are you using this or what?¡±
Dietz fell over himself trying to stand up too fast. ¡°Naw, man. You go ahead and use it.¡±
He kicked the desk a few times getting as far away from Fuentes as he could as fast as he could. He scrambled over to the table and sat down on the bench next to Lauer.
Lauer and Oakes both scooted down the bench to give Dietz space to sit down. Fuentes glared at all of them, gritted his teeth a few more times, and then sat down at the desk in Dietz¡¯s place.
Fuentes started working on the terminal. Rhodes made one moment of eye contact with Dietz before Rhodes went back to his sketch.
No one said anything else. Rhodes and Oakes kept working on their drawings. Dietz, Lauer, and Rhinehart clustered around the table where they had been before, but they didn¡¯t talk.
Rhodes got a flash of what the five men must look like to Fuentes. Rhodes and his comrades looked like they were huddling for protection from Fuentes.
Coulter went back to studying the mortar between the wall blocks. Thackery watched from the next table.
Henshaw gathered up her scraps of wood and her unfinished carvings, put them on the bookshelf with the other finished ones, and sat down on the edge of her capsule.
She kept her back to the table for a few minutes before she stretched out on the mattress, locked into her prongs, and started her conversion cycle early. Then Thackery did the same thing.
One person at a time split away. Rhinehart left the table next and Coulter took his place. Then Fuentes entered his conversion cycle, too.
A palpable wave of relief went through the rest of the battalion as soon as his capsule cover closed.
¡°Jesus Christ!¡± Oakes muttered. ¡°What the hell have we gotten ourselves into?¡±
¡°I guess we don¡¯t have to worry about him killing himself now,¡± Lauer murmured under his breath.
¡°No, we just have to worry about him killing one of us instead,¡± Coulter added.
¡°We don¡¯t know that,¡± Rhodes pointed out. ¡°We don¡¯t know what he¡¯s thinking or feeling.¡±
¡°You should talk to him and find out, Sir,¡± Lauer suggested. ¡°You¡¯re the only one of us who can.¡±
Rhodes sighed. ¡°I guess I¡¯ll have to.¡±
¡°Wouldn¡¯t you rather know what he¡¯s thinking and feeling than not?¡± Oakes asked. ¡°I wish he¡¯d interface with us. Then we wouldn¡¯t have to wonder what he¡¯s thinking or if he¡¯s planning on going on a murderous rampage to kill us all.¡±
¡°I¡¯ll have to ask him to interface with us,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°Don¡¯t ask me what I¡¯ll do if he refuses.¡±
¡°He¡¯ll have to interface with us on the battlefield,¡± Thackery chimed in from the next table. ¡°It wouldn¡¯t work if we couldn¡¯t communicate with him and anticipate what he was about to do. We¡¯ll need to see his Grid and our SAMs will have to coordinate with his SAM.¡±
¡°Yeah, all that, but I won¡¯t do it tonight¡ªobviously.¡± Rhodes pushed his drawing away. ¡°I¡¯m going to sleep. I¡¯ll see all of you tomorrow.¡±
He crossed the room to his capsule, but he stopped next to Fuentes¡¯s capsule on the way there. Fuentes looked like his old self, now that he had his eyes closed.
His features softened in sleep. He didn¡¯t glare or scowl. He looked calm and peaceful, but that was all an illusion now. He would never be calm or peaceful again¡ªever.
End of Chapter 19.
Battalion 1: Book 2: Chapter 20
Rhodes sat up, put his feet on the floor, and stared at them for a long time while he processed everything that happened yesterday.
He really didn¡¯t give a rip about the results of his psych evaluation. It meant nothing to him or anyone else beyond the obvious humor the battalion got from making fun of Dr. Watson.
The evaluation did give Rhodes one crucial piece of information in all of this. The Legion brass did not give Fuentes a psych evaluation before they sent him back to the battalion.
His capsule stood open across the room. He sat at the terminal working on something the way he did last night.
He narrowed his eyes at the screen, compressed his lips into a bloodless line, and clenched his teeth every few seconds.
The rest of the battalion went through their normal morning routine of getting up, running their fingers through their hair, walking around, and doing whatever they usually did to occupy their time.
Rhodes didn¡¯t go to the washroom to look at his own reflection. Whatever today held didn¡¯t have anything to do with him or what he had become. Today was all about Fuentes.
The tension in the barracks ratcheted right back up to the breaking point. A few people talked, but they kept their voices low. Rhinehart, Oakes, and Lauer joked about Dr. Watson.
The SAMs remained silent through it all and didn¡¯t say a damn word. Fisher was already there at his usual size in the corner of Rhodes¡¯s vision when he opened his eyes this morning.
Fisher didn¡¯t greet Rhodes or ask how his conversion cycle went or say anything else. He just hovered there and watched.
These SAMs really knew their business. They didn¡¯t get involved in this mess. They knew when to stay out of it¡ªwhatever this was.
Rhodes took a deep breath, stood up, ran his fingers through his hair, and squared his shoulders before he walked over to the terminal desk.
Fuentes didn¡¯t look up, not even when Rhodes halted right there next to Fuentes¡¯s chair.
¡°Stand up, Corporal,¡± Rhodes ordered. ¡°I want to talk to you.¡±
Fuentes clenched his jaw once and tightened his lips in one momentary show of annoyance before he stood up and faced Rhodes.
¡°Is something wrong, Sir?¡± Fuentes asked in a tense undertone.
¡°We have a training session today and we¡¯ll need you to interface with the rest of the battalion. I¡¯d like you to interface with all of us now¡ªfor the rest of the day while we aren¡¯t in a training session. We all need to know what¡¯s going on with you and Van before we go into The Grid. You¡¯ve been away for a long time. We need to get to know each other again so we know what to expect when we enter The Grid in the session.¡±
Fuentes glared at him for a second. ¡°Is that all, Sir?¡±
¡°That¡¯s enough, isn¡¯t it?¡± Rhodes asked. ¡°We all interface with each other all the time. You were interfacing with us before you left. It doesn¡¯t inspire much confidence if you don¡¯t interface with us now.¡±
¡°Yes, Sir. No problem.¡± Fuentes turned away, switched on the interface, and sat back down at the desk. He went straight back to work on the terminal without giving Rhodes a second glance.
The interface connected and Van reappeared back on The Grid with Fisher, Dash, Rocky, and the other SAMs.
Van looked the same¡ªand her facial expression looked the same. She didn¡¯t glare at anyone in murderous fury.
¡°Good morning, Captain Rhodes,¡± she began in her low, husky voice. ¡°It¡¯s so good to be back with the battalion again.¡±
¡°Welcome back, Van,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°It¡¯s good to see you, too.¡±
He never meant any words more. Inexpressible relief crushed his heart when he saw her. He could trust her in ways he didn¡¯t trust Fuentes anymore.
At least Fuentes¡¯s SAM was still as reasonable as ever. She was the one who tried the hardest to stop him from killing himself. She must realize by now how volatile Fuentes had become.
Rhodes would have liked to interrogate her about Fuentes¡¯s mental state, but Rhodes couldn¡¯t do that in front of Fuentes. Rhodes could only talk to Van through the interface. Fuentes would have heard every word.
¡°I¡¯m sure you just heard me tell Rudy that we have a training session later,¡± Rhodes told her instead. ¡°This session is to test you and Rudy in combat with the rest of the battalion. If everything works out, they¡¯ll send us back to the Emal wars.¡±
¡°Yes, Captain, I understand all that. I¡¯m confident Rudy and I will be able to perform to your satisfaction.¡±This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
¡°I¡¯m not worried about my satisfaction,¡± Rhodes told her. ¡°I¡¯m only worried about you and Rudy getting out of The Grid in one piece¡ªand the rest of the battalion doing the same thing.¡±
¡°Yes, of course, Captain. I understand perfectly. I can only give you my assurance that we¡¯ll do everything in our power to accomplish the objective in a way that ensures the safety of the whole battalion. I can¡¯t offer you anything more than that.¡±
Rhodes glanced back and forth between her and Fuentes. Fuentes didn¡¯t look up from the terminal. He didn¡¯t get involved in the conversation between Rhodes and Van.
Fuentes also didn¡¯t offer any assurance that he would perform to Rhodes¡¯s satisfaction or that he would do everything in his power to ensure the safety of the whole battalion.
Fuentes¡¯s silence spoke volumes. Rhodes didn¡¯t need to get inside Fuentes¡¯s head to know exactly what the kid was thinking and feeling. The fury radiating off him broadcast his mental state to the world.
¡°Stand up, Corporal,¡± Rhodes ordered again, and this time, he didn¡¯t soften his tone. ¡°I¡¯m talking to you.¡±
Fuentes stood up and all that rage blasted Rhodes in the face. Fuentes turned it on Rhodes alone.
Rhodes took another deep breath, but it did nothing to steady his nerves.
He found himself at another crossroads moment. He could take Fuentes back into the battalion, but Rhodes didn¡¯t have to do that. He realized that now. He wasn¡¯t saddled with Fuentes against his will or against the battalion¡¯s will.
He could march right down there to Colonel Kraft¡¯s office and demand to take Fuentes off the battalion. Rhodes could flatly refuse to go anywhere with Fuentes, including into a training session.
Rhodes did have that option, but he didn¡¯t take it. He didn¡¯t hear any of his subordinates or their SAMs demanding it, either.
¡°I know you¡¯re angry, Corporal,¡± Rhodes began. ¡°I¡¯m angry, too. We all are and we have good reason to be. No one faults you for being angry over all of this.¡±
Fuentes gritted his teeth and snarled in a vicious undertone. ¡°You stopped me. I could have ended it and you stopped me.¡±
¡°Actually, it was Rio who stopped you. Van asked the Strikers to intervene and Rio got to you first.¡±
¡°Do you think I give a shit about that?!¡± Fuentes snapped. ¡°I could have ended it. I don¡¯t have to be here. I could have been gone.¡±
¡°Then go, Corporal. Use your scourge gun on yourself right now if it means that much to you. You won¡¯t get any argument from me and I won¡¯t try to stop you. You don¡¯t have to be here now.¡±
Fuentes locked his mouth shut and looked away.
¡°The SAMs were doing their jobs by saving you,¡± Rhodes went on. ¡°I would have let you jump off that Ravager, but you¡¯re still here and now you have to work with the rest of us. You can go anytime you want to. As long as you¡¯re here, you better make sure you help this battalion instead of making it harder and more dangerous for the rest of us than it already is. Is that understood?¡±
Fuentes refused to look at him. ¡°Yes, Sir,¡± he spat through gritted teeth.
¡°Direct this rage toward the enemy,¡± Rhodes told him. ¡°You can kill as many of them as you want to. You can be as cruel and brutal and nasty to them as you want to be. You can take it all out on them.¡±
¡°The brass is my enemy,¡± Fuentes hissed. ¡°The doctors are my enemies. They¡¯re the ones who did this to me.¡± His furious eyes darted around the barracks. ¡°They did this to me.¡±
¡°They didn¡¯t do shit to you, Corporal,¡± Rhodes snapped, and in that moment, his patience snapped, too. He seized Fuentes by the jaw and forced Fuentes to turn around and face him. ¡°If you look at anyone in this battalion like that, you look at me like that. If you treat anyone in this battalion as an enemy, you better start with me and I will defend myself. Understand, Corporal?¡±
Fuentes tried to yank his head out of Rhodes¡¯s grip, but Rhodes was all finished playing games. He tightened his fingers and forced Fuentes to face him.
Fuentes finally snarled, ¡°Yes, Sir. I understand.¡±
Rhodes let him go, but Rhodes didn¡¯t slacken his stance. He found himself narrowing his eyes and glaring right back at Fuentes.
¡°You stay interfaced with us at all times, Corporal. That is a direct order,¡± Rhodes snapped. ¡°If you cut the interface, I¡¯ll assume you¡¯re planning the worst. We all will and we will take steps to make sure you don¡¯t put any of us in danger. You have one chance with this battalion. The very first time you break the interface will be your last.¡±
Rhodes turned on his heel and walked away. He didn¡¯t know where he would go, but he didn¡¯t trust himself in front of Fuentes a second longer.
Rhodes became suddenly, painfully aware of everyone else in the battalion watching and listening to his confrontation with Fuentes. Even the SAMs listened, including Van.
Rhodes had to get out of the room, but he couldn¡¯t break the interface, either. He didn¡¯t want to.
He went into the washroom, but the sight of his own reflection made him sick to his stomach. He paced up and down the room trying to settle down before he faced the group.
He already was facing them. He faced them through the interface. He couldn¡¯t get away from them.
¡°I¡¯m sorry about this, Captain,¡± Van husked as soon as he left the barracks. ¡°I only found out Rudy was like this last night when he woke up from stasis.¡±
¡°Did something happen?¡± Rhodes asked. ¡°How could he just wake up from stasis like this?¡±
¡°I¡¯m not sure, Captain. He won¡¯t talk to me.¡±
Rhodes spun around, but he didn¡¯t need to turn around to face her. She stayed right there in front of his eyes with the other SAMs. ¡°He won¡¯t talk to you?! Not at all?¡±
¡°I¡¯m afraid not, Captain. He hasn¡¯t said a word to me since he woke up. He ignores me.¡±
Rhodes passed his hand across his eyes and groaned. ¡°Great. Really spectacular.¡±
¡°I can¡¯t guarantee that he¡¯ll listen to me during the training session, either¡ªor any other time. In fact, I¡¯m going into the training session assuming he won¡¯t listen to me. I¡¯m sure he¡¯ll ignore me then, too.¡±
¡°You¡¯ll need to stay interfaced with us, too, then,¡± Rhodes told her. ¡°If he won¡¯t talk to you, he probably won¡¯t talk to any of us, either. We¡¯ll rely on you to communicate with us on his behalf, give us any information we need that he isn¡¯t telling us¡ªall of that.¡±
¡°Of course, Captain. You can rely on my full cooperation.¡±
Rhodes should have felt less comfortable talking about Fuentes right in front of him. Rhodes never would have spoken about any of his subordinates like this¡ªnot where the person could hear every word.
Rhodes didn¡¯t feel even marginally uncomfortable about it, though. He wanted Fuentes to hear and understand just how seriously Rhodes and the rest of the battalion were taking this.
Rhodes paused there and studied Van¡¯s feline face. He never liked her. Now he found himself trusting her with the whole battalion¡¯s safety.
His former conclusion about the SAMs came back to haunt him now. Van¡¯s survival depended on Fuentes somehow conducting himself in a way that didn¡¯t get both him and Van killed.
Her survival depended on Fuentes coming through every battle unharmed. What a nightmare this must be for her¡ªriding around with such a damaged host out to destroy himself and take everyone else down with him.
End of Chapter 20.
Battalion 1: Book 2: Chapter 21
Rhodes dropped into The Grid. He and his subordinates all looked around at each other, but mostly they kept casting sidelong glances at Fuentes.
He¡¯d stayed interfaced with the battalion for the rest of the day the way Rhodes ordered him to. Rhodes couldn¡¯t find anything to criticize in Fuentes¡¯s behavior¡ªapart from the fact that he didn¡¯t talk, make eye contact, or stop glaring at everyone.
The only person he didn¡¯t glare at was Van. True to her word, he completely ignored her as though she was never there.
He showed more signs of hearing the other SAMs. He occasionally stopped working on the terminal long enough to listen to their conversation. He didn¡¯t participate in it.
He steadfastly refused to acknowledge whenever Van spoke to anyone. He went out of his way to erase her from his awareness.
His behavior became more disturbing as the day wore on, but the rest of the battalion also got used to it.
Everyone adjusted to it, talked more, and Rhinehart went back to joking about Dr. Watson.
Some of the SAMs even got involved in fleshing out this whole shadow life Dr. Watson was living behind the scenes when he wasn¡¯t conducting psych evaluations on Legion soldiers.
The SAMs¡¯ voices and laughter made Fuentes stiffen. He shot brutal glares at anyone whose voice or laughter interrupted his work, but he never unclamped his mouth to tell them to tone it down.
Everyone in the battalion watched him like a hawk all day long, but that was nothing compared to now.
Rhodes had been using his interface with Fuentes for hours to check that Fuentes¡¯s weapons system really was online. All his Grid targeting systems were working normally, too. He was fully operational and ready for battle¡ªagainst someone.
Rhodes didn¡¯t like going anywhere with an armed Fuentes, but at least they were only going into The Grid and not a real battle. That would come later¡ªprovided Fuentes actually managed to function in this training session today.
Rhodes couldn¡¯t decide if he wanted Fuentes to fail or not. Failing would mean either getting himself shot, shooting one of his comrades, or sabotaging the training session some other way.
Fuentes succeeding would mean the battalion would deploy sooner¡ªback to the Emal wars with real weapons, real explosions, and real people dying.
Rhodes brought up a Grid schematic of his own weapons systems and checked that everything was online the way it should be. Then he did the same thing with everyone else present.
Why did he even bother to check? He¡¯d already checked his subordinates multiple times each. They did the same thing to him and all their comrades.
The nine soldiers exchanged one last glance and Rhodes nodded. ¡°Let¡¯s move out.¡±
He fired his boosters and took off through The Grid. He already knew where it would take him.
All these training sessions focused on the Emal wars now. The brass wouldn¡¯t send the battalion anywhere else¡ªnot until Rhodes and his people mastered this.
He checked on Fuentes on the way. He flew on one side of the battalion just as though he really was a part of this group.
The landscape turned back into a devastated wasteland just like the last one. The battalion might even have flown into exactly the same scenario for all Rhodes could tell.
Legion Ravagers loomed in the dark, smoky sky not far away. Explosions came from the battle line where the platoons faced off against another horde of Emal armed with laser rifles.
Base ships fired massive laser cannons from out in the dark countryside. Those cannons all aimed up into the atmosphere to target the Ravagers.
¡°What¡¯s the objective?¡± Rhodes asked Fisher.
¡°The Emal have already conquered the planet. They¡¯re getting ready to jump to the next planet in the same solar system. The Legion is only trying to stop them from leaving.¡±
¡°How¡¯s that working out?¡± Lauer muttered.
¡°It isn¡¯t working out because the Legion can¡¯t even get close to the Emal base ships,¡± Fisher replied. ¡°These Emal are defending their comrades¡¯ retreat to the base ships. The hordes are loading up and launching. Our objective is to stop them.¡±
¡°What¡ªall of them?¡± Rhinehart snapped. ¡°That would be impossible.¡± He checked The Grid of the surrounding terrain. ¡°There must be a thousand base ships all over the planet.¡±
¡°One thousand three hundred and seventy-five,¡± Fisher clipped. ¡°Our objective is only to stop this one.¡± He surrounded the base ship in question with a red circle on the map.
¡°Why that one?¡± Thackery asked. ¡°It looks like all the others.¡±
¡°The Grid is reading human life signs on board. The Emal have taken captives.¡±
¡°Now I know this is just a training session,¡± Oakes muttered. ¡°The Emal don¡¯t take captives¡ªnot human ones anyway.¡±
¡°It doesn¡¯t matter because that¡¯s our objective,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°We just have to stop them from leaving the planet.¡±
¡°We have to stop them from leaving the planet without killing the captives in the process,¡± Fisher corrected.
¡°That complicates things,¡± Lauer pointed out. ¡°We can¡¯t just bomb the base ship into oblivion.¡±
¡°The only way to destroy the base ship is to shoot it from underneath after it launches,¡± Rhodes went on.
¡°How does that help us?¡± Thackery asked.
¡°We don¡¯t want to shoot it from underneath because that would destroy it,¡± Henshaw pointed out.
¡°We don¡¯t even want to let it launch,¡± Coulter added. ¡°It would be astronomically harder to rescue the hostages once the ship got airborne.¡±
¡°We aren¡¯t going to do any of that,¡± Rhodes decided. ¡°We aren¡¯t going to destroy the ship and we aren¡¯t going to let it launch.¡±
¡°What are we going to do?¡± Dietz asked. ¡°How else can we accomplish the objective?¡±
¡°We¡¯re going inside the ship the way the Strikers rescued us. You can land on the ship, Rudy. You tore into an Emal base ship on Ohait. You can do it again this time. The rest of us will defend you and give you cover.¡±
Fuentes only growled, ¡°Yes, Sir.¡±
¡°As soon as he opens a hole big enough, Rhinehart and Lauer will drop down and join him. Rhinehart, you¡¯re the biggest and the strongest. Use your grid lines to make yourself into a ship big enough to carry the hostages away. Lauer will change into a spider the way Elio did. You¡¯ll go inside the ship, carry out the hostages to board Rhinehart¡¯s ship, and finish off any Emal that try to stop you.¡±Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.
Lauer let out a sick chuckle. ¡°I like this plan.¡±
¡°Let¡¯s go,¡± Rhodes ordered and fired his boosters to fly faster.
He swooped over the landscape and the battalion closed on the base ship in question. The training session had been programmed to anticipate the battalion¡¯s arrival.
That base ship and a few other nearby vessels turned their laser cannons on the group.
Rhodes used his grid lines to transform himself into a long, thin, arrow missile plummeting out of the atmosphere.
He had to morph, whip, and swerve around giant laser shots pelting all around him. The others scattered, used The Grid to take different shapes, and then reconverged on the target ship.
Fuentes didn¡¯t change at all¡ªnot until he got to the ship itself. He relied on speed, pivoted his feet downward at the last possible second, and slammed down on the ship¡¯s upper hull.
He transformed his hands and forearms into two rotating drums dotted with spikes. They whirled in a blur and he started shredding the hull to smithereens.
The rest of the battalion surrounded him. Rhodes swiveled backward to aim his weapons outward at the Emal hordes.
They closed on the base ships trying to board so they could jump the planet. All those Emal unloaded on the battalion.
The aliens swarmed the base ship faster and thicker than ever to stop the battalion from freeing the hostages.
Lasers flickered out of the night bombarding the battalion from all sides. ¡°Half of you change into reflective surfaces!¡± Rhodes ordered. ¡°Form a shield around Fuentes!¡±
Thackery, Dietz, Coulter, and Henshaw stretched their grid lines, curved them outward in a big swooping arc, and backed up to Rhodes, Oakes, Lauer, and Rhinehart.
The eight of them surrounded Fuentes at the very center. Lasers bounced off the shields, but the impact still drove the four friends backward with brutal force.
Rhodes, Oakes, Lauer, and Rhinehart had to brace the four shields to keep a space big enough for Fuentes to work.
Those laser shots boomed against the shields every time the Emal opened fire. Rhodes stuck his scourge gun between the shields to plaster the enemy.
He didn¡¯t need to aim. Too many Emal surrounded the base ship and closed tighter from all sides.
He ducked behind Coulter, jammed his shoulder hard against the shield from behind, and took dozens of pounding hits on the surface.
Rhodes had to drill his feet and legs into the ship¡¯s hull as hard as he could to stop the endless barrage from knocking him over.
Murphy shrieked in Rhodes¡¯s ear. ¡°We can¡¯t take much more of this! If one of the base ships hits us, we¡¯re finished!¡±
The screech of Fuentes¡¯s drums on the ship¡¯s hull drowned out the deafening roar of laser fire coming from all directions.
He bent over his work grimacing from the effort. Rhodes still didn¡¯t see anything wrong with Fuentes¡¯s behavior. He gave it all he had.
He strained every fiber to grind his way through the hull. Lasers flew all around his head. He barely glanced up long enough to release his Vipers on the surrounding horde.
The other SAMs called a constant stream of information, advice, and orders to everyone in the battalion. Van did the same thing.
¡°The hull is four inches thick!¡± she called. ¡°We¡¯re halfway through! The Emal crew is arming to defend the breach! They know we¡¯re coming!¡±
¡°Locate the hostages!¡± Rhodes ordered. ¡°Lauer¡ªonce you get inside, you can shoot out the ship from the inside and bring Rhinehart closer to the hostages¡¯ location!¡±
¡°One inch to go!¡± Van reported.
¡°Get down there!¡± Rhodes told Lauer and Rhinehart. ¡°Get the hostages out!¡±
Lauer sprang out from behind Dietz. Dietz had been shielding Lauer. Now Dietz changed back into a man and hunkered for shelter behind Coulter and Thackery.
Fuentes tore through the last shreds of plate steel, changed his drums to jointed spider arms, and tore the hull open to make the hole wider.
Lauer plunged through the breach and vanished inside. Fuentes abandoned the hole in a split second, vaulted over to the rest of the group, and unloaded on the Emal.
He swiped his thermal cannons back and forth to level hundreds of aliens. He roared at them in fury and unloaded countless Vipers.
Rhodes took one look at The Grid to see Lauer storming through the ship¡¯s interior.
The Emal crew waiting for him inside hammered him with lasers, but he only changed himself into another reflective surface.
His scourge guns mowed all the aliens down before he changed into the kind of spider form Elio used to rescue the battalion.
Rhinehart stayed on the ship¡¯s outer hull. He kept gunning for doomsday while Rocky monitored Lauer¡¯s progress through The Grid. ¡°He found the hostages, but they¡¯re locked in! He can¡¯t get them out by himself!¡±
¡°Rhinehart¡ªhelp him!¡± Rhodes ordered. ¡°Use your lasers to cut through!¡±
Rhinehart yelled something back. Rhodes didn¡¯t catch it before a fresh wave of Emal surged out of the night to overrun the battalion.
Another base ship somewhere out in the darkness fired at the group, hit Coulter, and his grid lines shattered right in front of Rhodes.
The lines sprang apart and reformed into a Striker. ¡°We gotta get out of here, Sir!¡± Coulter hollered. ¡°We can draw them away! They might not know Lauer is inside!¡±
Rhodes didn¡¯t want to believe that, but the battalion couldn¡¯t stay here. ¡°Follow Coulter!¡± Rhodes ordered and he launched as a Striker, too.
Emal lasers turned upward to follow the battalion away from the target ship, but Rhinehart stayed behind. He fired his weapons into the base ship¡¯s hull.
The light attracted the Emal¡¯s attention. The battalion couldn¡¯t lure the aliens away as long as Rhinehart stayed there.
The Emal started to turn back to target Rhinehart, but at that moment, a punishing laser shot punctured the base ship from the inside. The gunshot came perilously close to hitting Rhinehart.
Then the laser swiveled away from him and carved another big hole through the hull.
The section dropped inward to reveal another breach big enough for a Duster to descend inside.
Rhinehart launched himself off the hull, transformed in a split second, and disappeared beneath the ship¡¯s outer skin.
Rhodes lost sight of him for a second. The Grid gave Rhodes a clear view of Lauer loading the hostages onto the Duster.
Rhodes had to turn back to the battle. The Emal closed tighter around the base ship. They did their best to ignore the Strikers except when the Strikers bombarded the horde from overhead.
More lasers pounded Rhodes¡¯s underside. He had to fly away in wild patterns to divert from the aliens shooting at him.
He lost track of what everyone else was doing¡ªuntil he spotted another Striker bombing straight for him.
He took a split second to recognize Fuentes. Rhodes tightened his grip on his weapons. If Fuentes took this opportunity to make an attempt on Rhodes¡¯s life, Rhodes would just have to respond in kind.
¡°Behind you, Captain!¡± Fisher called and Fuentes opened fire at the same instant.
Twin Vipers detached from Fuentes¡¯s back, shrieked on either side of Rhodes, and flew straight into the path of base ship laser cannon fire that would have destroyed Rhodes from behind.
The explosion knocked Rhodes out of the way and Fuentes kept on bombing past him heading for the base ship that fired that shot.
Rhodes tumbled sideways, but he was alive and unhurt¡ªthanks to Fuentes. Fuentes didn¡¯t even stick around long enough for Rhodes to thank him.
Another voice punctured Rhodes¡¯s battle fog. ¡°I got them!¡± Rhinehart called. ¡°I got the hostages! Pull out and climb for the atmosphere!¡±
The Duster rocketed out of the hull breach and the fiery vapor trail burned a path through the night heading for orbit.
Lauer exploded out of the ship a second later, flew on Rhinehart¡¯s tail, and defended him all the way.
The rest of the battalion pulled away to follow¡ªall except Fuentes.
Rhodes had another flash of horror that Fuentes really planned to kill himself right now when the battalion just accomplished its objective.
He didn¡¯t kill himself, though. He dove at nose-bleed speed for the planet¡¯s surface, compressed his grid lines into a long snake, stabbed into the ground, and took off whipping and slithering for the original target ship.
He pulled the same maneuver the battalion pulled on Sulia, burrowed under the base ship, and fired his Vipers directly into its underside.
He didn¡¯t stick around long enough for the resulting explosion to put him in danger. He burst out the other side, blasted out of the ground, and took off into the atmosphere at incredible speed.
He didn¡¯t change back into a person right away. He stayed as a whip, snaked between cannon shots from other base ships, and eventually fired his boosters to catch up with the battalion.
The base ship detonated in a fire ball that lit up the night. It flashed down there on the planet¡.and then the darkness of space surrounded the battalion.
Green grid lines appeared in place of the stars and everyone reappeared in the training room where they started.
The battalion all surrounded Fuentes laughing and extending their hands to pat him on the back.
¡°That was outstanding!¡± Rhinehart exclaimed. ¡°Did you see the way he unloaded those Vipers? He saved your ass, Captain!¡±
Rhodes smiled at them all. ¡°I know he did.¡±
The others turned back to Fuentes. ¡°Did you see the way that base ship went up?¡± Coulter gloated. ¡°You put those suckers in the ground, boy!¡±
Fuentes lashed out and knocked their hands away. He did it so suddenly and so viciously that he startled everyone into falling silent.
He glared at them all as murderously as ever, clamped his lips together in rage, and stormed out of the training room.
He left the interface active, though. He headed back to the barracks alone and left everyone else standing there staring at each other in stunned shock.
End of Chapter 21.
Battalion 1: Book 2: Chapter 22
Dr. Osborne strolled down the line of capsules in the Ero¡¯s hold. ¡°The ship will stay in orbit unless you call us down. If you need medical attention or if you need to go into conversion cycles, you only have to give the word. We¡¯ll be monitoring your SAMs through The Grid. We¡¯ll be in constant contact the whole time you¡¯re on the planet.¡±
Rhodes frowned at him and then at the capsules. ¡°Who are you and what have you done with the real Dr. Osborne?¡±
Dr. Osborne laughed. ¡°You probably don¡¯t want to believe this, but the brass is committed to preventing the malfunctions and problems the battalion faced during your last campaign.¡±
¡°I¡¯ll believe it when I see it,¡± Rhodes muttered.
¡°This is the first stage in that process. The Ero will be on call to support the battalion whenever you need anything. You only have to call us and we¡¯ll come down and get you. You shouldn¡¯t have to wait for hours for the ship to lift you off.¡±
¡°Too bad the Legion doesn¡¯t give the rest of the platoons the same consideration.¡±
Osborne shrugged. ¡°I don¡¯t have anything to say about that. I only know I have my orders and so does Captain Ackerman. The Ero is assigned to Battalion 1 from now on. Our only mission is to provide you with the support you need while you¡¯re on the planet.¡±
Rhodes resisted the urge to repeat that he didn¡¯t believe it. He didn¡¯t believe the Legion supported Battalion 1 at all. He wouldn¡¯t be here right now if it did.
He didn¡¯t say that out loud, though. He would have liked to study Osborne a little more closely, but Rhodes didn¡¯t want to make him uncomfortable.
How much of this was Osborne¡¯s doing? So much had changed since he and Trudeau took over as Battalion 1¡¯s primary medical team.
The two men actually cared about the battalion. They actually did their best to make sure the battalion got the modifications and corrections they needed to go into battle.
Battalion 1 was as good as it possibly could be under the circumstances¡ªwhich admittedly wasn¡¯t very good.
Fuentes still refused to have anything to do with his comrades. He refused to say a single word to his SAM. Van kept being as polite and helpful to everyone else as she possibly could be.
Fuentes never interfered with the interface, either. He didn¡¯t try to stop anyone from seeing anything he did¡ªbecause he never did anything he needed to hide.
No one watching from the outside would have been able to find anything wrong with his behavior. The Legion brass put the battalion through five more training sessions before they deployed back to the Emal wars.
Fuentes conducted himself as well in all of them as he did in the first one. He distinguished himself by acting bravely, protecting his comrades, and even listening to Van¡¯s instructions when she warned him about unforeseen dangers.
He didn¡¯t talk back to her, but at least he listened and followed her recommendations.
He spent the rest of his free time working on the computer terminal in the barracks. He didn¡¯t talk or even look at his comrades. Apart from that, no one could fault him for anything.
He still glared at people when he bothered to look at them at all. Rhodes had to admit that Fuentes¡¯s behavior was much better and even exemplary compared to some Legion soldiers Rhodes had known in his career.
Fuentes never put anyone in danger, but that somehow made everyone even more watchful of him. How long could he keep behaving himself like this before he snapped?
The battalion was about to find out. Osborne and Rhodes got to the end of the line of capsules. The battalion was scheduled to deploy in fifteen minutes.
The Legion didn¡¯t send Battalion 1 back to Sulia. That planet was already too far gone to save. The Ero waited in orbit over the planet Bao in the Lumova system.
Rhodes rounded up his subordinates and the battalion headed down to the landing bay. The battalion had the Ero to itself now. No other Legion soldiers crowded the bay waiting to land on the new planet.
Rhodes used The Grid to watch the Ero descend through the atmosphere toward the surface. The rest of the battalion shared the interface with him.
¡°What¡¯s the point?¡± Thackery asked when they saw the wasteland of bombed-out buildings and mountains of trash glued together with dead bodies. ¡°Why are we even here?¡±Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.
¡°Welcome to the front lines,¡± Lauer growled. ¡°Maybe the Treaty of Aemon Cluster has too many people in it and this is the brass¡¯s way of reducing the population.¡±
¡°That isn¡¯t funny,¡± Henshaw snapped.
¡°Do I look like I¡¯m joking?¡± Lauer countered. ¡°Does any of this look like a joke to you?¡±
¡°I¡¯m sure Dr. Watson could find something funny about it,¡± Rhinehart muttered, but no one took the joke, not even himself.
Rhodes pointed at the front line. ¡°The platoons are falling back to here¡ªthe Kuestrian Ridge. There are five more cities on the Trar continent the Emal haven¡¯t taken yet. If we fortify the ridge, we might be able to slow them down long enough for the Ravagers to evacuate the cities before the Emal get close enough to bombard them.¡±
¡°The Legion should have already evacuated the cities long ago,¡± Coulter muttered. ¡°The Legion should have evacuated the whole planet the minute the Emal made landfall. Why are there even still any civilians on this planet?¡±
¡°We don¡¯t make those decisions,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°The Ravagers are already in orbit ready to begin the evacuation.¡±
¡°They should already be on the ground,¡± Coulter pointed out.
¡°You go get yourself elected to the Treaty of Aemon Ruling Council. Then you can get it changed. Until then, we¡¯re moving out and reinforcing the platoons on that ridge.¡±
¡°They¡¯re the 249th again, Sir,¡± Oakes pointed out. ¡°And the 217th and the 278th.¡±
¡°I can read it as well as you can, Lieutenant.¡± Rhodes immediately changed his tone. ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡±
The group moved closer to the launch doors. The warning lights flashed and the alarms started going off, but Rhodes only saw The Grid.
He didn¡¯t see anything much different about this planet from Luluna, Sulia, Ohait, and a hundred others just like them.
The battalion¡¯s involvement in this operation only seemed to seal the planet¡¯s fate even more than it already was sealed.
The battalion was supposed to tip the advantage in the Legion¡¯s favor. The battalion wound up doing the opposite.
Rhodes couldn¡¯t be the only person who saw the battalion¡¯s arrival as an omen of doom.
He didn¡¯t say that out loud, though. He kept comments like that to himself.
They didn¡¯t make any difference in the end, either. Nothing could. He just had to do the job in front of him for as long as he survived.
Each planet¡ªeach battle¡ªeach catastrophe brought him closer to the inevitable conclusion. One of these days, the battalion would come up against a situation that would take them all out.
Everyone in the battalion hung by the slimmest thread. Fuentes was only the most noticeable example.
Everyone in the battalion teetered on the brink of some irreparable disaster. The tiniest problem could tip them all over the edge.
Once they fell, there would be no coming back. None of them had even the smallest margin for error, either mentally or physically. They hung over an abyss with no safety net.
The calm before the launch doors opened gave him a few seconds to survey the landscape all the way to the edge of the sector. He could see the whole Treaty of Aemon Cluster from here.
He could see the Preinean home planet, the wider perimeter under threat from other alien invasions, the Coleridge Station staff¡ªthis moment gave him a few seconds of perspective and clarity before he flew into another shit storm.
Fisher didn¡¯t try to talk to Rhodes anymore, either. They exchanged only the most necessary information about whatever task Rhodes faced in any given moment.
Fisher already knew the worst about Rhodes¡¯s mental state. Fisher never brought it up again nor did Fisher try to improve it. It couldn¡¯t be improved. Fisher understood that only too well now.
Fisher didn¡¯t express it in words, but the expression on his face had changed from when Rhodes first met his SAM.
Fisher studied Rhodes with eyes full of sympathetic understanding. Rhodes often caught Fisher staring at him for no apparent reason.
Rhodes¡¯s brief conversation with Van about Fuentes had solidified so many things in Rhodes¡¯s mind.
He was already giving Fisher a priceless gift just by suffering through each excruciating day. Rhodes gave Fisher life every single day that Rhodes kept waking up in the morning.
Fisher understood better than anyone what it cost Rhodes to keep doing that. Staying alive meant a hell of a lot more to Fisher than it did to Rhodes.
These last few weeks at Coleridge Station changed things between them. Rhodes no longer got out of bed every day for his subordinates, himself, or even his family on Preinea.
He did it for Fisher¡ªso Fisher could keep surviving. If life meant enough for Fisher to want to live, Rhodes couldn¡¯t bring himself to put that at risk.
The whole battalion lived in the interface now. Rhodes would have heard his subordinates talking to their SAMs about this, but they didn¡¯t talk about it.
All the SAMs had changed both their tone and their facial expressions. They spoke much less than they used to.
When they did, they used the same compassionate undertone of deep, heartfelt understanding for the real sacrifice each person was making to keep their SAM alive.
Everyone relaxed much more around Fuentes, too. Rhodes couldn¡¯t keep the kid under constant watch and he didn¡¯t need to.
Everyone treated Fuentes¡¯s silence and hostility as normal now. It was simply his way of coping with his own inner pain. No one begrudged him that as long as he kept doing the job¡ªwhich he did.
It was too late for Rhodes to do anything about it now. The launch doors opened, he fired his boosters, and soared out over the destroyed landscape.
The battalion had spent so many training sessions in Emal battles. The setting didn¡¯t cause any emotional reaction at all anymore.
The brass should have put the battalion through this level of training before sending the battalion into combat the first time, but that was all water under the bridge now.
Rhodes measured The Grid in all directions as he approached the Kuestrian Ridge. The command dome perched on another hillside well out of the danger zone.
The platoons reinforced the ridge as well as they could against successive Emal assaults.
The aliens hammered the ridge both with laser rifle fire and base ship bombardments from deeper inside the Trar continent.
Some genius finally, finally got the brilliant idea to bomb the Emal from orbit. Seeker missiles kept dropping out of the dense clouds and detonating inside the Emal horde.
The strikes wiped out countless Emal. They couldn¡¯t shoot back. They had no defense against this, but that didn¡¯t slow down their numbers¡ªnot one bit. Nothing could.
End of Chapter 22.
Battalion 1: Book 2: Chapter 23
Rhodes should have reported to the Bao command dome, but he already had a pretty good idea about how that would go.
He headed for the Kuestrian Ridge instead. Hundreds of soldiers held the line at the ridgetop. The position gave them a sizable advantage. They could shoot down at the aliens from above.
The platoons held the aliens down on the lower slopes. The Emal couldn¡¯t climb high enough to shoot behind the ridge.
Rhodes spotted a commotion behind the line. A swirl of bodies moved parallel to the ridgetop heading east.
He landed near it and spotted Colonel Jenner talking to Lieutenants Turley, Upshaw, and Captain Vernick.
Jenner noticed the battalion first. He broke away from the men surrounding him and hustled over to Rhodes. ¡°Thank God you¡¯re here, Corban! We really need you and your people on this campaign.¡±
¡°What campaign is that?¡± Rhodes asked. ¡°We don¡¯t even know where we¡¯re assigned for this battle.¡±
¡°I¡¯m assigning you!¡± Colonel Jenner snapped. ¡°I¡¯m assigning you right here with the 249th. We need you the most.¡±
Rhodes glanced behind Jenner. The three officers and a few dozen other soldiers stood there listening. ¡°What do you want us to do?¡±
¡°Our orders are to swarm over this ridge, assault the enemy down below, and drive them farther backward away from the cities.¡±
¡°What¡¯s the point of that?¡± Lauer interjected. ¡°You¡¯re holding them here just fine. If you cross the ridge, you¡¯ll lose the high ground.¡±
Jenner made a face. ¡°I promise you this isn¡¯t my idea.¡± He turned back to Rhodes. ¡°Can you help us out? We need something to tip the battle in our favor. If we cross that ridge and the aliens mow down too many of our guys, the Emal could drive us back here and we wouldn¡¯t have the firepower to hold them off a second time.¡±
¡°This is stupid,¡± Lauer muttered under his breath.
Rhodes chose to ignore the remark. ¡°The only way we can tip the battle in your favor is by overcoming the enemy¡¯s laser rifles.¡±
¡°How do we do that?¡± Coulter asked.
¡°We use the shields we used during the hostage evacuation. There are only nine of us. We won¡¯t be able to defend the whole ridge by ourselves. We¡¯ll have to punch through the Emal line and set up another battle behind the line. That¡¯s the only way to make them turn back.¡±
¡°That could work,¡± Rhinehart remarked. ¡°We¡¯ve done it that way before.¡±
¡°As soon as the aliens turn to confront us, the platoons can fire on them from behind or the sides,¡± Rhodes went on.
Fuentes startled everyone by speaking up for the first time. He¡¯d kept so silent all this time. Rhodes had started to forget he was even there.
¡°What about targeting the base ships?¡± Fuentes asked. ¡°We could fire our Vipers along the ground, clear out any Emal along the way, and detonate our Vipers under the base ships. That will stop the aliens from sending out fresh waves to replace their people.¡±
Rhodes raised his eyebrows at him. ¡°Good thinking. You can be in charge of that.¡±
Fuentes spun around. ¡°Sir?¡±
¡°It¡¯s a good idea. You¡¯re the best of us at blowing up base ships. The rest of the battalion will carry out my plan to draw the Emal line away from assaulting the ridge. The platoons will swarm over and pin the aliens down. That will give you a perfect opening to run for the base ships.¡±
Fuentes blinked at him. ¡°I didn¡¯t mean¡..I didn¡¯t mean me, Sir.¡±
¡°Why not you? You want to blow up base ships and kill a million Emal? Now¡¯s your chance.¡±
Fuentes gulped once and then his eyes hardened again when he scanned the Emal side of the battle.
Rhodes checked The Grid again and rotated the layout in front of all his subordinates and their SAMs inside the interface.
¡°The aerial bombardment is weakening the Emal position the most here.¡± He pointed at a spot west of their position. ¡°We¡¯ll punch through there. We¡¯ll form an arrow pattern like this with our shields connected. The platoons can come in behind and between us like this¡.¡± He adjusted his grid lines to show everyone what he meant. ¡°Once we get inside the horde, the shields will give the platoons cover to set up inside the swarm.¡±
Colonel Jenner and the other officers stared at him in blank disbelief. ¡°What are you talking about, Corban?¡± Colonel Jenner asked.
Rhodes snapped out of it and pointed down the ridge. ¡°My people and I will set up a protective formation over there¡.You might see some strange things, but don¡¯t worry about that. We¡¯ll block the Emal lasers and give you a clear path to get inside the swarm. That will turn the enemy away from the ridge. Then the surrounding platoons can lay into them from either side¡ªover there and over there.¡±
¡°Are you sure about this?¡± Lieutenant Upshaw asked. ¡°You really think we can penetrate inside their swarm?¡±
¡°I¡¯m certain of it. You just have to stay behind us and take cover behind our shield. You¡¯ll be able to shoot the enemy from behind it¡ªas well as you can shoot them from up here if not better.¡±
¡°What about the way they drove us back during the hostage liftoff?¡± Rhinehart asked. ¡°Those shields won¡¯t hold forever.¡±
¡°We don¡¯t need them to hold forever. As soon as Rudy starts taking out base ships, the horde will turn back and abandon this ridge exactly the way they did during the hostage retrieval.¡±
¡°I sure hope you¡¯re right,¡± Turley murmured. ¡°It sounds risky as hell.¡±
¡°Anything other than staying on this ridge is risky,¡± Oakes pointed out. ¡°Going down on the same planet with the Emal is risky. You want to turn them back? This is the only way we¡¯re gonna do it. We sure as hell won¡¯t turn them back by assaulting them head-on.¡±
¡°No, you¡¯re right about that.¡± Jenner squinted toward the ridgetop. ¡°All right, Corban. I¡¯ll leave this one to you.¡±
Rhodes waved at Vernick and Upshaw. ¡°Get the 249th and the 217th over there to that hilltop. Pull the 278th to the west and the 235th to the east.¡± He raised his voice. ¡°Get into position! Get ready to make the assault!¡±
He strode up to the ridgetop just as the 249th and the 217th showed up to meet him. A bunch of soldiers he knew grinned at him.
¡°It¡¯s great you guys made it out again,¡± Stillwell told Rhodes.
¡°It might not be so great once we get down into those valleys,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°It¡¯s gonna get hectic.¡±
¡°Doesn¡¯t it always?¡± another soldier asked.
Rhodes located Fuentes in the crush of bodies. ¡°You ready for this?¡±
Fuentes narrowed his eyes and clamped his lips together. He growled, ¡°Yes, Sir,¡± and glared at the ridgetop in front of him.
No one in the battalion could see over it to the Emal position¡ªnot yet. The battalion wouldn¡¯t see the enemy until they got over that ridge and started running down the other side.
Rhodes went through the battalion assigning everyone to their positions. With Fuentes on a mission of his own, that left eight battalion members left over¡ªfour to each side.
Rhodes and Rhinehart took the point of the arrow with Oakes and Lauer behind them. Thackery and Coulter followed with Dietz and Henshaw in the rear.
¡°Spread out as far as you can go without losing contact with the shields in front of you,¡± Rhodes ordered. ¡°If you feel the lasers starting to overpower your shields, consolidate your positions closer to the center. Protect the platoons in the center. It would be better if we covered a smaller footprint as long as we penetrate as deep as we can inside the swarm.¡±This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
His subordinates nodded. ¡°Yes, Sir,¡± Coulter replied.
¡°No problem,¡± Henshaw added.
Rhodes made one last survey of The Grid. Colonel Jenner¡¯s personal transport Duster was already on its way back to the command dome, now that he¡¯d delivered orders to the platoons.
¡°I¡¯m connecting you to the Legion transmission dispatch, Captain,¡± Fisher told Rhodes. ¡°You¡¯ll receive the order to launch the assault at the same time Captain Vernick gets it.¡±
¡°Thank you,¡± Rhodes replied and left it at that. He already knew what he needed to do. He just needed to know when.
The signal came down the instant Colonel Jenner¡¯s Duster touched the ground at the command dome.
Captain Vernick yelled, ¡°MOVE OUT!!¡± to his platoon and everyone charged up the slope toward the ridgetop.
The platoons would have left Battalion 1 behind. Rhodes signaled his people through the interface, fired his boosters, and soared ahead.
He modified his grid lines on the wing and flattened himself into the same spreading shield the battalion used in the hostage scenario.
He expanded as far as he dared and formed the lefthand side of the arrow¡¯s point. He joined up with Rhinehart on the other side and the rest of the battalion linked up behind them.
They plunged over the ridgetop, down the other side, and onward to the Emal position.
The Emal opened fire and lasers hammered the field as soon as the arrow broke through the ranks.
Rhodes would have liked to hunker into a ball, but he couldn¡¯t do that in this shape.
The 249th smashed in behind him. The soldiers¡¯ bodies braced him the way he braced Coulter in the training session. The soldiers braced Rhodes so much better, now that there were so many more of them.
Rhodes couldn¡¯t adjust his position even if he wanted to. Emal gunfire would have knocked him off his feet, but he only fell against the soldiers.
More laser shots drove the soldiers into him from Rhinehart¡¯s side. The Emal¡¯s own counterassault gave the battalion all the protection they needed. Nothing could break that field.
Rhodes should have reported to the Bao command dome, but he already had a pretty good idea about how that would go.
He headed for the Kuestrian Ridge instead. Hundreds of soldiers held the line at the ridgetop. The position gave them a sizable advantage. They could shoot down at the aliens from above.
The platoons held the aliens down on the lower slopes. The Emal couldn¡¯t climb high enough to shoot behind the ridge.
Rhodes spotted a commotion behind the line. A swirl of bodies moved parallel to the ridgetop heading east.
He landed near it and spotted Colonel Jenner talking to Lieutenants Turley, Upshaw, and Captain Vernick.
Jenner noticed the battalion first. He broke away from the men surrounding him and hustled over to Rhodes. ¡°Thank God you¡¯re here, Corban! We really need you and your people on this campaign.¡±
¡°What campaign is that?¡± Rhodes asked. ¡°We don¡¯t even know where we¡¯re assigned for this battle.¡±
¡°I¡¯m assigning you!¡± Colonel Jenner snapped. ¡°I¡¯m assigning you right here with the 249th. We need you the most.¡±
Rhodes glanced behind Jenner. The three officers and a few dozen other soldiers stood there listening. ¡°What do you want us to do?¡±
¡°Our orders are to swarm over this ridge, assault the enemy down below, and drive them farther backward away from the cities.¡±
¡°What¡¯s the point of that?¡± Lauer interjected. ¡°You¡¯re holding them here just fine. If you cross the ridge, you¡¯ll lose the high ground.¡±
Jenner made a face. ¡°I promise you this isn¡¯t my idea.¡± He turned back to Rhodes. ¡°Can you help us out? We need something to tip the battle in our favor. If we cross that ridge and the aliens mow down too many of our guys, the Emal could drive us back here and we wouldn¡¯t have the firepower to hold them off a second time.¡±
¡°This is stupid,¡± Lauer muttered under his breath.
Rhodes chose to ignore the remark. ¡°The only way we can tip the battle in your favor is by overcoming the enemy¡¯s laser rifles.¡±
¡°How do we do that?¡± Coulter asked.
¡°We use the shields we used during the hostage evacuation. There are only nine of us. We won¡¯t be able to defend the whole ridge by ourselves. We¡¯ll have to punch through the Emal line and set up another battle behind the line. That¡¯s the only way to make them turn back.¡±
¡°That could work,¡± Rhinehart remarked. ¡°We¡¯ve done it that way before.¡±
¡°As soon as the aliens turn to confront us, the platoons can fire on them from behind or the sides,¡± Rhodes went on.
Fuentes startled everyone by speaking up for the first time. He¡¯d kept so silent all this time. Rhodes had started to forget he was even there.
¡°What about targeting the base ships?¡± Fuentes asked. ¡°We could fire our Vipers along the ground, clear out any Emal along the way, and detonate our Vipers under the base ships. That will stop the aliens from sending out fresh waves to replace their people.¡±
Rhodes raised his eyebrows at him. ¡°Good thinking. You can be in charge of that.¡±
Fuentes spun around. ¡°Sir?¡±
¡°It¡¯s a good idea. You¡¯re the best of us at blowing up base ships. The rest of the battalion will carry out my plan to draw the Emal line away from assaulting the ridge. The platoons will swarm over and pin the aliens down. That will give you a perfect opening to run for the base ships.¡±
Fuentes blinked at him. ¡°I didn¡¯t mean¡..I didn¡¯t mean me, Sir.¡±
¡°Why not you? You want to blow up base ships and kill a million Emal? Now¡¯s your chance.¡±
Fuentes gulped once and then his eyes hardened again when he scanned the Emal side of the battle.
Rhodes checked The Grid again and rotated the layout in front of all his subordinates and their SAMs inside the interface.
¡°The aerial bombardment is weakening the Emal position the most here.¡± He pointed at a spot west of their position. ¡°We¡¯ll punch through there. We¡¯ll form an arrow pattern like this with our shields connected. The platoons can come in behind and between us like this¡.¡± He adjusted his grid lines to show everyone what he meant. ¡°Once we get inside the horde, the shields will give the platoons cover to set up inside the swarm.¡±
Colonel Jenner and the other officers stared at him in blank disbelief. ¡°What are you talking about, Corban?¡± Colonel Jenner asked.
Rhodes snapped out of it and pointed down the ridge. ¡°My people and I will set up a protective formation over there¡.You might see some strange things, but don¡¯t worry about that. We¡¯ll block the Emal lasers and give you a clear path to get inside the swarm. That will turn the enemy away from the ridge. Then the surrounding platoons can lay into them from either side¡ªover there and over there.¡±
¡°Are you sure about this?¡± Lieutenant Upshaw asked. ¡°You really think we can penetrate inside their swarm?¡±
¡°I¡¯m certain of it. You just have to stay behind us and take cover behind our shield. You¡¯ll be able to shoot the enemy from behind it¡ªas well as you can shoot them from up here if not better.¡±
¡°What about the way they drove us back during the hostage liftoff?¡± Rhinehart asked. ¡°Those shields won¡¯t hold forever.¡±
¡°We don¡¯t need them to hold forever. As soon as Rudy starts taking out base ships, the horde will turn back and abandon this ridge exactly the way they did during the hostage retrieval.¡±
¡°I sure hope you¡¯re right,¡± Turley murmured. ¡°It sounds risky as hell.¡±
¡°Anything other than staying on this ridge is risky,¡± Oakes pointed out. ¡°Going down on the same planet with the Emal is risky. You want to turn them back? This is the only way we¡¯re gonna do it. We sure as hell won¡¯t turn them back by assaulting them head-on.¡±
¡°No, you¡¯re right about that.¡± Jenner squinted toward the ridgetop. ¡°All right, Corban. I¡¯ll leave this one to you.¡±
Rhodes waved at Vernick and Upshaw. ¡°Get the 249th and the 217th over there to that hilltop. Pull the 278th to the west and the 235th to the east.¡± He raised his voice. ¡°Get into position! Get ready to make the assault!¡±
He strode up to the ridgetop just as the 249th and the 217th showed up to meet him. A bunch of soldiers he knew grinned at him.
¡°It¡¯s great you guys made it out again,¡± Stillwell told Rhodes.
¡°It might not be so great once we get down into those valleys,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°It¡¯s gonna get hectic.¡±
¡°Doesn¡¯t it always?¡± another soldier asked.
Rhodes located Fuentes in the crush of bodies. ¡°You ready for this?¡±
Fuentes narrowed his eyes and clamped his lips together. He growled, ¡°Yes, Sir,¡± and glared at the ridgetop in front of him.
No one in the battalion could see over it to the Emal position¡ªnot yet. The battalion wouldn¡¯t see the enemy until they got over that ridge and started running down the other side.
Rhodes went through the battalion assigning everyone to their positions. With Fuentes on a mission of his own, that left eight battalion members left over¡ªfour to each side.
Rhodes and Rhinehart took the point of the arrow with Oakes and Lauer behind them. Thackery and Coulter followed with Dietz and Henshaw in the rear.
¡°Spread out as far as you can go without losing contact with the shields in front of you,¡± Rhodes ordered. ¡°If you feel the lasers starting to overpower your shields, consolidate your positions closer to the center. Protect the platoons in the center. It would be better if we covered a smaller footprint as long as we penetrate as deep as we can inside the swarm.¡±
His subordinates nodded. ¡°Yes, Sir,¡± Coulter replied.
¡°No problem,¡± Henshaw added.
Rhodes made one last survey of The Grid. Colonel Jenner¡¯s personal transport Duster was already on its way back to the command dome, now that he¡¯d delivered orders to the platoons.
¡°I¡¯m connecting you to the Legion transmission dispatch, Captain,¡± Fisher told Rhodes. ¡°You¡¯ll receive the order to launch the assault at the same time Captain Vernick gets it.¡±
¡°Thank you,¡± Rhodes replied and left it at that. He already knew what he needed to do. He just needed to know when.
The signal came down the instant Colonel Jenner¡¯s Duster touched the ground at the command dome.
Captain Vernick yelled, ¡°MOVE OUT!!¡± to his platoon and everyone charged up the slope toward the ridgetop.
The platoons would have left Battalion 1 behind. Rhodes signaled his people through the interface, fired his boosters, and soared ahead.
He modified his grid lines on the wing and flattened himself into the same spreading shield the battalion used in the hostage scenario.
He expanded as far as he dared and formed the lefthand side of the arrow¡¯s point. He joined up with Rhinehart on the other side and the rest of the battalion linked up behind them.
They plunged over the ridgetop, down the other side, and onward to the Emal position.
The Emal opened fire and lasers hammered the field as soon as the arrow broke through the ranks.
Rhodes would have liked to hunker into a ball, but he couldn¡¯t do that in this shape.
The 249th smashed in behind him. The soldiers¡¯ bodies braced him the way he braced Coulter in the training session. The soldiers braced Rhodes so much better, now that there were so many more of them.
Rhodes couldn¡¯t adjust his position even if he wanted to. Emal gunfire would have knocked him off his feet, but he only fell against the soldiers.
More laser shots drove the soldiers into him from Rhinehart¡¯s side. The Emal¡¯s own counterassault gave the battalion all the protection they needed. Nothing could break that field.
End of Chapter 23.
Battalion 1: Book 2: Chapter 24
Rhodes and Rhinehart kept driving their arrow formation deeper into the Emal position. The aliens had no choice but to fall away on either side as the arrow stabbed through their ranks.
The platoons fired between the shields laying down a carpet of dead bodies, but more Emal crowded in from both sides.
The more they crowded and the more the arrow penetrated the enemy position, the more the Emal drew away from the ridge. The pressure relieved¡.and then all that pressure fell on the battalion.
The crush of Emal stopped Rhodes from going any further. He crouched there holding onto Rhinehart on one side and Lauer on the other.
Rhodes concentrated all his might on just taking one laser hit after another. Every hit he took was one less hit that would take down the platoon soldiers.
The Emal barrage escalated. Thousands of aliens jammed against Rhodes¡¯s shield. The enemy didn¡¯t need to use their weapons. The aliens would crush him and the soldiers inside the arrow.
¡°The 217th and the 235th are bombarding the Emal from the flanks!¡± Fisher bellowed over the noise. ¡°They should be relieving some of the pressure on the battalion, but it isn¡¯t working!¡±
A scream from the back of the formation drew Rhodes¡¯s attention to The Grid. The arrow had penetrated deeply enough into the Emal side. Now the Emal closed the battalion from behind.
The pressure on Dietz and Henshaw built to the breaking point. Too many Emal crowded against them. The widest rear flare of the arrow collapsed in on itself.
Dietz and Henshaw pivoted inward to close the back of the arrow. They stayed linked with Coulter and Thackery until all four of them adjusted the arrow into a diamond instead.
Now the Emal surrounded the battalion from all sides. The 249th platoon got caught in the center with no way out.
Thousands of Emal circled the battalion crushing inward with unstoppable force. Laser fire smashed Rhodes¡¯s grid lines.
He heard Fisher yelling at him, but Rhodes couldn¡¯t hear over the noise. He had to do something to break this stalemate.
He almost gave the order to dissolve the formation when a catastrophic blast of laser cannon fire struck the arrow somewhere farther down the line.
Rhodes didn¡¯t see where it hit. Murphy vanished off the interface and someone screamed again.
The next instant, another four brutal shots pounded the platoon inside the arrow. Rhinehart broke contact with Rhodes and the Emal swarmed in to overrun the battalion.
Rhodes saw it all going down the drain in a big hurry. He braced himself to change back into his normal shape, dive over to Rhinehart, and lift him off before ordering the whole battalion to retreat.
Rhodes hated to leave the 249th in such dire straits, but what choice did he have? If he didn¡¯t get the battalion out now, they would all die here.
He cast one glance northward. The base ships kept unloading one shot after another at the battalion¡¯s position. Only the Emal¡¯s sheer numbers prevented the base ships from targeting accurately enough to wipe out the whole battalion.
Rhodes brought up The Grid to show him exactly how far away he was from Rhinehart. Oakes had already changed back into his normal shape.
He struggled through the horde of Emal trying to get closer to Coulter¡¯s unconscious body.
Another deafening explosion of cannon fire detonated right next to Rhodes¡¯s head, and at that moment, a lightning strike forked out of the atmosphere.
It lit up the whole ghastly landscape, struck three base ships at once, and pulverized them.
Rhodes¡¯s head shot up. He thought at first that Fuentes must have pulled out some miracle surprise attack.
Fuentes was nowhere near the base ships in question. He was still working his way overland trying to get near them.
These strikes came from orbit¡ªor they seemed to. Another jet of white fire blasted out of the sky, wiped five more base ships off the map, and then another dancing array of electric forks blasted through the Emal ranks.
Rhodes actually stopped fighting to stare at The Grid as a completely different fleet of ships descended through the atmosphere. These didn¡¯t belong to the Aemon Legion nor did they belong to the Emal.
Rhodes didn¡¯t recognize these new ships¡¯ make. The energy shots flashing all over the planet looked strangely similar to Legion fusion charges, but they weren¡¯t the same.
These strange ships were ten times the Ravagers¡¯ size with a spiky, disjointed configuration. They had a modular, disconnected look as if someone had merged multiple ships into each one.The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Rhodes only snatched the most fleeting glimpse of these ships as they broke through the atmosphere. That one glance showed him that none of the ships had the same shape. Each one was unique in a jumbled, mismatched, almost trashy kind of way.
These were a thousand times more powerful than anything the Emal or the Legion could throw at them. The strange ships dropped in low, swooped over the Emal ranks, and cut down thousands of Emal in seconds.
All the Emal stopped attacking Rhodes and his battalion. The aliens turned their laser rifles on the incoming attackers, but nothing made a dent in their hulls.
The remaining base ships did, though. They wheeled their cannons at the invaders. Four base ships unloaded on one of the invading vessels and blasted it out of the sky.
It exploded and split into three pieces. Each one crashed among the Emal horde, but more of those strange ships kept descending all over the place.
¡°Who the hell are they?!¡± Oakes bellowed.
¡°Who the hell cares?!¡± Lauer yelled back. ¡°We gotta get out of here before they come after us next!¡±
Rhodes already knew that, but he didn¡¯t dare to launch with those ships laying waste to everything in sight.
¡°Rudy!¡± Rhodes hollered. ¡°Come back here now! We gotta fall back!¡±
Fuentes turned around and put on speed trying to burrow his way back to the battalion¡¯s position.
The Emal didn¡¯t make it easy. They stampeded toward their base ships trying to escape only for the ships to blow up in their faces as soon as the aliens got near them.
More of the strange invaders soared across the landscape swiping massive cuts of their energy weapon through the Emal on the ground. Bodies fell in waves.
Rhodes turned back to try to rescue Rhinehart. Rhodes collided with Sergeant Stillwell coming the other way. ¡°We¡¯re all gonna die out here! You have to help us!¡±
Rhodes opened his mouth to say he couldn¡¯t help anyone, not even himself.
He broke off when he saw one of the dark invaders gunning straight for his location.
¡°Cover the platoons!¡± he ordered. ¡°Form a shield over the platoons! They¡¯re defenseless!¡±
He barely expanded his grid lines in time, flung himself as wide as he could go over the 249th, and clamped his eyes shut before the enemy unloaded on the whole area.
Oakes, Lauer, Dietz, and Thackery did the same thing. The invaders bombarded the five of them with crushing fire. The impact squashed the soldiers underneath them.
Rhodes lost sight of Rhinehart, Fuentes, Coulter, and Henshaw in the chaos. He couldn¡¯t even raise his head to try to see where they were.
Too many Emal crowded The Grid for him to pick up any trace of his four subordinates. A teeming carpet of life signs covered the planet and then all those Emal rushed inward on the space where the platoons had been standing.
The Emal fled from the invaders and ran in all directions, but nothing could escape the invaders¡¯ devastating weapons.
The Emal surged toward the center and wound up clambering on top of the shields the battalion used to protect the platoons cowering underneath.
Rhodes heard men yelling all around him. The weight of hundreds of Emal crushed him down on top of the platoons, but that weight offered the best protection from the enemy assault.
The strange ships came wheeling back and leveled Emal all over the field. Their bodies mounded on top of the battalion with the platoons trapped underneath.
Rhodes clamped his eyes shut to block out the horror, but The Grid didn¡¯t go away even then. The strange ships made pass after pass over the battlefield.
Just when the situation couldn¡¯t get any worse, a dozen of those strange invasion vessels landed on the dark planes farther north. They released another massive tide of ground troops, but these weren¡¯t aliens.
The Grid registered countless individuals advancing on the ridgeline, but The Grid didn¡¯t return any life signs. The line of dots on The Grid in front of Rhodes¡¯s eyes showed up in blue. They were machines.
¡°Who are they?!¡± Rhodes roared.
¡°They don¡¯t show up on any known Legion database!¡± Fisher called back. ¡°We¡¯ve never seen them before!¡±
¡°How the hell did they get this deep into the Treaty of Aemon Cluster?!¡± Oakes demanded. ¡°There are hundreds of Legion ships in the atmosphere right now! They should have engaged with these fools and stopped them from landing.¡±
Dash turned right and left in front of Oakes and adjusted The Grid. ¡°The invaders are engaged with the Legion, but these machines still shouldn¡¯t have been able to sneak up on the planet. There¡¯s no explanation for it¡ªnot yet.¡±
¡°Who cares about that?!¡± Lauer fired back. ¡°How the hell do we get out of here?¡±
¡°Stay put!¡± Rhodes ordered. ¡°We¡¯re safer here than we would be out there.¡±
¡°How long do we have to stay here?¡± Lieutenant Turley asked from ten feet away from Rhodes.
Rhodes didn¡¯t realize he¡¯d gotten trapped with his old friends from the 249th. He hadn¡¯t been thinking about anything other than keeping out of these invaders¡¯ path.
He only had to take one look at The Grid to make up his mind. The invading ground troops advanced south toward the ridgeline coming closer to the battalion¡¯s position.
The ground troops spread out in a thin line one individual deep. They walked upright on two legs and held their fusion rifles in two arms.
They had a strangely humanoid appearance and wore heavy armor and iron masks with one single extended ocular piece where the eyes should be.
Light shone through this slit as the machines scanned the area for anyone moving. The machines gunned down every Emal in sight and kept heading south toward the ridge.
The Legion force that had just been fighting the Emal opened fire on these machines. Fusion charges pelted back and forth.
The Ravagers in the atmosphere unloaded their seekers on the machine invaders now. Explosions thumped the planet under Rhodes¡¯s body.
The impact vibrated through the trapped platoons. Each of those concussions made everyone huddle lower¡ªas if they could get any lower. No way would Rhodes let any of these people go out there now.
A few surviving Emal base ships opened fire on the invading vessels. Then the base ships turned their cannons on the ground troops.
Their thin advanced line made them nearly impossible to target. The base ships¡¯ cannon fire pounded the battlefield all over the place. Only a few stray shots hit the ground troops.
The ground troops passed their fusion rifles back and forth across the battlefield carving a path through any Emal still moving around out there.
The Emal lost the advantage of their numbers and fell before the enemy. The machine troops kept marching against all odds toward the ridge.
They inevitably ran into pockets of Emal with enough people to slow the machines¡¯ advance. The Emal unloaded their laser rifles on the machines and cut down dozens of them.
Individual machines fell on top of the mountain of Emal bodies pinning down Rhodes, the battalion, and the platoons. The machines¡¯ signals vanished off The Grid.
The machines showed no more concern for their fallen comrades than the Emal did. The machines only tightened their formation to close any gaps between them.
They kept moving south no matter what. The Emal had to retreat up the slopes getting closer to the Legion position.
Battalion 1: Book 2: Chapter 25
The Aemon Legion platoons on the Kuestrian Ridge couldn¡¯t stand up to the machine invaders¡¯ firepower. The Ravagers kept up a constant seeker bombardment on the ground troops, but the invasion ships posed a much bigger threat.
The Ravagers had no choice but to turn their weapons on the invasion ships, but the invaders outnumbered the Legion by a mile.
The invaders had no problem tying up the Ravagers, driving them away from the ridge, and sending out extra ships to target platoons still on the ground behind the ridgeline.
Rhodes couldn¡¯t watch anymore. He concentrated his attention on his subordinates and the platoons nearest him.
The machine ground troops left no Emal alive on the battlefield. In a few minutes, the invasion ships destroyed enough Ravagers for the invaders to go back and finish off the Emal base ships, too.
All life signs vanished off The Grid all the way north. The Emal had conquered that part of the planet. Now not a single Emal remained alive out there.
One lone signal blipped onto The Grid under mountains of dead aliens. It was Fuentes.
He¡¯d also transformed himself into a shield. He had already been underneath the Emal horde when the invaders attacked. He just had to stay that way until they cleared the area.
Rhodes interfaced with him. ¡°You okay, Rudy?¡±
¡°Yes, Sir,¡± Fuentes growled. ¡°These rotten aliens stink when they die.¡±
¡°Just stay where you are¡ªall of you. None of us is going anywhere for a while.¡±
¡°You mean don¡¯t stick my head up there so those things can blow it off?¡± Lauer muttered. ¡°Thanks. I wasn¡¯t planning to.¡±
¡°Who the hell are those people, Sir?¡± Turley husked.
¡°They aren¡¯t people,¡± Oakes told him. ¡°They¡¯re machines.¡±
¡°So what are they doing here?¡± Dietz asked.
¡°Invading the Treaty of Aemon Cluster, obviously,¡± Captain Vernick chimed in from farther down the line.
Rhodes made one more check of the soldiers nearest him. He knew them all from the 249th. A few of them had suffered minor injuries during the battle. He couldn¡¯t take the time to see if any of them were dead out there.
Rhodes tried to interface with Murphy, Keon, and Rocky. Rhodes finally got hold of Rocky. ¡°Are you and Rhinehart okay?¡± Rhodes asked. ¡°I can¡¯t even see you on The Grid. There are too many wounded Emal in the way.¡±
¡°Dane has a head injury, but it¡¯s minor,¡± Rocky replied. ¡°That¡¯s why we were off the interface. He just regained consciousness.¡±
¡°Can any of you see Henshaw or Coulter?¡± Rhodes asked.
¡°I can see Coulter from here,¡± Thackery replied. ¡°He¡¯s ten feet away from me and he¡¯s unconscious, too, but his vital signs and brainwave patterns are reading as normal.¡±
¡°That¡¯s strange. Murphy should be online.¡±
¡°How long do you want us to stay here?¡± Vernick asked again. ¡°You can assess the situation so much better than we can.¡±
¡°The invaders are driving the Legion off the planet,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°The invasion ships are lifting into orbit to reengage with the Legion fleet. They¡¯ll clear off soon and then we can get out from under these bodies.¡±
¡°We won¡¯t be able to call in any Ravagers to lift us off,¡± Lauer pointed out. ¡°Not without those assholes shooting us down.¡±
¡°We should stick around and defend the platoons in case the invaders come back,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°We might not be able to do much, but the invaders must already know we¡¯re here. They would be able to pick up our life signs as well as we can pick up our own.¡±
¡°Coulter¡¯s waking up, Captain,¡± Thackery interrupted.
She highlighted Coulter¡¯s location on The Grid. Rhodes finally picked up Coulter¡¯s life signs in a sea of Emal.
He squirmed under his own pile of dead bodies before he regained consciousness enough to interface with the rest of the battalion.
¡°How are you feeling, Corporal?¡± Rhodes asked.
Coulter groaned, twisted onto his side, and curled into a ball. He lay there in silence for a second before Murphy came back online.
The SAM looked around at the landscape covered in Emal bodies. ¡°This is not good.¡±
¡°We¡¯re trapped here for the time being,¡± Rhodes told him. ¡°How bad are Coulter¡¯s injuries?¡±
Murphy swiveled his face sideways in the interface. ¡°He has a concussion from a blow to the head, but it isn¡¯t severe. I¡¯m not picking up any other injuries.¡±
¡°You two stay where you are. We¡¯re waiting for the invaders to clear off the planet. It might take a while for the Legion to send a Ravager to collect us.¡±Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
¡°Dr. Osborne made it sound like they would send a Ravager right away anytime we needed one,¡± Oakes pointed out.
¡°Those invasion ships would destroy the Ero For certain if it came in now.¡±
¡°What about us?¡± Vernick asked. ¡°I¡¯m sure the Legion values you people a hell of a lot more than it values us.¡±
¡°You can lift off on the Ero as soon as it makes it through the atmosphere. The battle is moving away from the planet. We can all get up now.¡±
Rhodes straightened up, rearranged his grid lines, and changed back into a person.
He had to peel himself off the trapped platoons and shove all the dead Emal off the pile before he could get to his feet.
Even then, everyone stumbled to catch their balance on the uneven mounds of body parts.
Rhodes scanned the area again. ¡°I¡¯m still not showing any sign of Henshaw. I¡¯m going to find her.¡±
He fired his boosters, lifted over the bodies, and floated down ten feet south of the last platoon soldiers. Henshaw went down over here somewhere.
He scanned The Grid for her implants and found her lying under a dozen Emal. He pushed them out of the way and turned Henshaw over.
She¡¯d sustained a fusion shot to her cranial implant. It didn¡¯t repair itself. She really needed to get back to the Ero and Dr. Osborne, but Rhodes couldn¡¯t do anything about that.
He checked on Rhinehart next, but Rocky continued to assure Rhodes that Rhinehart wasn¡¯t seriously injured even though he was still unconscious.
Rhodes straightened up and glanced around. The remaining base ships lay smoking in the distance with countless dead Emal hanging out of the wreckage.
A few columns of fire dotted the ridgetop where Ravagers went down. Rhodes located the command dome on The Grid. Enemy bombardment had caved in its roof.
Rhodes didn¡¯t pick up a single human life sign up there¡ªnot even a wounded one. The battalion and the 249th were all alone on this planet.
¡°Captain¡.¡± Lieutenant Upshaw murmured from a few feet away. ¡°Look.¡±
Rhodes turned around and crossed the mounds to where Upshaw stood looking down at some metal fragments at his feet.
Rhodes went over there and found himself staring down at the remains of one of the machine things.
A Ravagers¡¯ seeker missiles had torn the machine apart, but enough of it remained intact for Rhodes to see how it was constructed.
Its outer metal housing had a smooth, swooping look that encased a jumble of wires, cables, and conduits. Rods connected the neck to the iron mask head.
The thing had fallen twisted over onto its side. Sparks of electricity blinked and crackled inside the torn metal of its upper body.
Rhodes squatted down, turned the thing over, and grasped its helmet to look at it head on. No light came from its eye slit. The thing had completely shut down when it got hit.
¡°What is it?¡± Upshaw asked.
Rhodes opened his mouth to say he didn¡¯t know what it was or where it came from.
At that moment, the grid lines of his hands and arms changed¡.except that they didn¡¯t change.
Grid lines spread over the robot¡¯s mask¡.except that they didn¡¯t spread from Rhodes¡¯s hands. He would have extended his grid lines over it to measure it, study it, and scan it for any useful information.
These grid lines didn¡¯t come from him. They came from the robot¡¯s mask.
They spread around the head and started to morph. What would have been squares between the lines changed their shape and reformed into something more animated¡ªsomething like a composite of animals, human, and geometric shapes.
The helmet repositioned its squares and lines into a face, but instead of eyes, a single metallic slit stared up at Rhodes from the ground.
He yelled out in surprise, dropped the head in a split second, and yanked his hands away, but it was too late. He¡¯d already seen too much.
The machine crashed back on the ground, but the grid lines didn¡¯t go away. They kept migrating over the thing¡¯s head, changing its shape into a bunch of different composites with different expressions, each one as lifeless as the others.
Rhodes gaped at the thing in mounting horror. He could barely husk out, ¡°No!¡±
¡°This can¡¯t be!¡± Fisher exclaimed. ¡°It can¡¯t be!¡±
¡°Be quiet!¡± Rhodes snapped and spun away so he wouldn¡¯t see the machine anymore. ¡°We have to figure out what to do.¡±
¡°It¡¯s obvious what we have to do!¡± Fisher¡¯s voice started to rise. ¡°We have to get out of here now!!¡±
¡°Will you be quiet?!¡± Rhodes practically bellowed and wrestled his voice under control. ¡°Stay calm.¡±
¡°Calm!¡± Fisher blurted out. ¡°You want me to stay calm?! Did you just see¡.?¡±
¡°I saw it, okay, Fisher?!¡± Rhodes roared. ¡°I saw it. Now be quiet before you¡¡±
¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± Oakes asked.
Rhodes floundered to regain his composure. What could he say?
He took a deep breath, but he still found himself shaking. He couldn¡¯t get the sight of that thing out of his mind. ¡°Contact Captain Ackerman. See where the Ero is and when the ship will be able to come and evacuate us.¡±
¡°What about the rest of them?¡± Fisher asked.
¡°We aren¡¯t taking the rest of them, Fisher!¡± Rhodes barked. ¡°Use your head. They¡¯re our enemies. They just attacked the Legion and tried to kill us.¡±
¡°We can¡¯t leave them behind,¡± Fisher insisted. ¡°They¡¯re our¡..¡±
¡°SHUT UP, FISHER!!¡± Rhodes bellowed.
¡°The rest of who?¡± Oakes asked. ¡°We can¡¯t leave who behind? We already said we¡¯d lift off the platoons.¡±
¡°He means the machines,¡± Wild interjected. ¡°He means these robot things.¡±
¡°You can¡¯t be serious!¡± Oakes countered. ¡°We aren¡¯t taking them anywhere.¡±
¡°They¡¯re SAMs!¡± Fisher blurted out. ¡°They¡¯re all SAMs! They¡¯re an army of SAMs! Don¡¯t you see the similarity between their technology and your implants?¡±
¡°But how¡.¡± Thackery began.
¡°I don¡¯t know how, but we can¡¯t leave them behind!¡± Fisher turned to Rhodes. ¡°Captain¡¡¡±
Rhodes clamped his jaws shut. ¡°Fisher¡.I swear to Christ¡.if you don¡¯t shut up¡..I¡¯m going to have to do something drastic. Keep quiet and don¡¯t say another word or I swear I¡¯ll¡¡¡±
He broke off. He couldn¡¯t think of anything bad enough to threaten Fisher with.
Rhodes had a hard enough time processing what he¡¯d just seen. These invading robots couldn¡¯t be SAMs¡.but they were. He¡¯d just seen them with his own eyes.
That machine used the grid lines to change its shape. It had to be a SAM.
Rhodes didn¡¯t want to admit it, but these machines really were using the same technology as the battalion¡¯s implants. He couldn¡¯t ignore it, now that Fisher pointed it out¡ªto everyone.
Rhodes glanced around him in desperation. Torn, destroyed remains of these robots lay all over the battlefield.
¡°If they¡¯re SAMs, then we have to protect them,¡± Dash pointed out. ¡°We¡¯re programmed to defend each other with our lives.¡±
¡°We are NOT defending them¡ªwith anything,¡± Oakes snapped. ¡°They¡¯re our enemies. I don¡¯t give a shit what technology they¡¯re using.¡±
¡°But the Legion developed the SAMs technology,¡± Thackery pointed out. ¡°These robots turned on the Legion. Those invasion ships are out in space fighting the Legion fleet right now. How do you explain that?¡±
¡°I don¡¯t explain it,¡± Dash replied. ¡°I only know we can¡¯t fight these machines¡ªnot if they¡¯re our own kind.¡±
¡°They aren¡¯t your own kind,¡± Oakes snapped. ¡°They aren¡¯t the SAMs of converted Legion soldiers¡ªor whatever the hell you want to call them. You SAMs are all attached to living people. You aren¡¯t independent robots acting against the people who created you.¡±
¡°Excuse me, Captain,¡± Rocky interrupted. ¡°Dane is coming around.¡±
End of Chapter 25.
Battalion 1: Book 2: Chapter 26
Rhodes did his best to push the conversation out of his mind. He couldn¡¯t think right now about the machine invaders being SAMs. They weren¡¯t SAMs. They were just another enemy for him to fight.
He blundered over mountains of dead Emal to where Rhinehart lay half-buried under another mountain of dismembered alien gore.
Rhodes rolled Rhinehart over. Dark purple bruises covered the organic side of his face. His implants appeared undamaged.
¡°Rhinehart!¡± Rhodes murmured. ¡°Lieutenant¡.¡±
Rhinehart tried to open his one good eye, but it had swollen shut. ¡°Captain¡.¡± Rhinehart husked.
¡°Can you interface with us?¡± Rhodes asked. ¡°You don¡¯t have to get up. Just let me see you in the interface.¡±
Rhinehart lay still for a second. ¡°I don¡¯t think he can, Captain,¡± Rocky replied. ¡°I¡¯m afraid I¡¯ll have to do it for you.¡±
¡°It doesn¡¯t matter. Just monitor him until we can bring the Ero back.¡±
¡°What are we going to do about the other SAMs?¡± Dash asked.
¡°They aren¡¯t SAMs!¡± Oakes snapped. ¡°Stop calling them that. They aren¡¯t your friends and you aren¡¯t under any obligation to defend them.¡±
¡°But what about¡..?¡±
¡°SHUT UP, DASH!!¡± Oakes roared and glanced over at Rhodes. Oakes shut his own mouth and fought himself down.
Just then, Coulter sat up, rubbed his head, and finally got to his feet. He groaned and wrinkled his nose at the surroundings. ¡°Spectacular. This is just perfect.¡±
Rhodes made a command decision. He didn¡¯t trust Fisher to do anything right now. ¡°Wild¡ªinterface with the Ero and see when the ship will be able to come and get us.¡±
¡°Of course, Captain,¡± Wild replied.
¡°Rudy¡ªcome back here and rejoin the rest of the battalion,¡± Rhodes ordered.
¡°Yes, Sir.¡± Fuentes changed back into whatever burrowing form he¡¯d been using before. He could travel through the ground much faster than walking or even using his boosters to fly.
Rhodes used his grid lines to change himself into one of the jointed spider shapes. He moved Henshaw¡¯s body over next to Rhinehart. Now he had his two wounded in one place.
Doing something took his mind off the machines, but as soon as he finished, all those questions came rushing back.
The machines using SAMs technology didn¡¯t bother him nearly as much as Fisher¡¯s and Dash¡¯s reaction. This was going to cause serious problems. Rhodes sensed that even now.
Fisher didn¡¯t speak again after Rhodes¡¯s outburst. Oakes¡¯s outburst silenced Dash, but they kept hovering there watching everything. They didn¡¯t change their opinion.
Rhodes dreaded going back into combat with either of them¡ªnot against this enemy¡ªnot until he got them back to the Legion and got them reprogrammed to fight these machines.
He checked The Grid and confirmed his worst fears. Fourteen of the robot invasion ships broke away from the Legion fleet.
Rhodes couldn¡¯t tell from here whether the invaders wanted something special about this particular planet.
He tried not to think about the most obvious explanation. If these machines were an entire army of SAMs the way Fisher said, then the machines obviously wanted to reclaim their own¡ªthe battalion.
None of that mattered right now. ¡°They¡¯re coming back!¡± Rhodes called out. He spun around and pointed at everyone near him, including the men of the 249th. ¡°The invaders are coming back! Arm up and prepare to defend yourselves!¡±
¡°You have to help us!¡± Upshaw insisted.
¡°What the hell do you think I¡¯m trying to do, Justin?!¡± Rhodes roared and turned the other way to swipe his forefinger at his people. ¡°Bring Rhinehart and Henshaw over here. Stand by to put up our shields again. We¡¯ll have to concentrate all our energy on covering them and the platoons.¡±
¡°What about shooting down their ships?¡± Thackery asked.
¡°Shoot them down with what?¡± Lauer asked. ¡°The whole Legion fleet couldn¡¯t defeat those things. We don¡¯t have a prayer.¡±The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
¡°Get into position!¡± Rhodes ordered. ¡°We won¡¯t have time to argue about it.¡±
He helped Dietz bring Henshaw and Rhinehart closer to the platoons. The soldiers hunkered down in a much tighter formation than last time.
The group was much better prepared to defend itself this time, but that still didn¡¯t give Rhodes any more optimistic feeling about their chances.
He, Lauer, Oakes, Dietz, Thackery, Fuentes, and Coulter surrounded the platoon waiting for the enemy to enter the atmosphere.
Rhodes tried to ignore the fact that the enemy invasion ships were heading straight for the battalion. Whoever these machines were, they recognized their own.
¡°Stand by!¡± he yelled over the platoon. ¡°They¡¯re using fusion weapons, so we can deflect them and shoot back with thermals. That will block their shots from hitting us.¡±
¡°Got it,¡± Lauer replied.
¡°I can¡¯t let you do this, Captain,¡± Fisher interrupted.
¡°You don¡¯t let me do anything, pal,¡± Rhodes snapped. ¡°Shut the fuck up and don¡¯t talk to me again.¡±
¡°I can¡¯t let you shoot at them,¡± Fisher repeated. ¡°They¡¯re SAMs. They¡¯re our¡..¡±
¡°If you interfere with this battle in any way, I¡¯ll make sure the doctors take you offline as soon as we get back on board the Ero,¡± Rhodes snapped. ¡°Is that clear? Don¡¯t say another word to me about them being¡.¡±
He broke off as the howl of engines blasted through the atmosphere coming closer. His attention riveted on The Grid.
The invasion ships dropped out of the clouds and picked up speed heading for the battalion¡¯s location.
¡°Shield the platoons!¡± Rhodes ordered.
He stretched his grid lines over the platoon. The lines joined up with more lines coming from each of his subordinates. Their Grids linked into a solid wall.
The invasion ships opened fire, but The Grid held. The enemy swooped lower to come in for another pass.
The battalion opened fire with their thermals, but the invaders¡¯ firepower overcame the thermals. The battalion¡¯s thermal cannons didn¡¯t neutralize the invaders¡¯ fusion fire¡ªnot enough.
The soldiers aimed their Jackhammers through The Grid and returned fire to drive the invaders off, but the invasion ships were too powerful.
Rhodes opened one of the squares in his Grid¡ªjust enough to fire a Viper through it to hit one of those ships as it soared overhead.
He double-checked and triple-checked that Fisher didn¡¯t do anything to stop Rhodes from firing on these things.
Fisher didn¡¯t do anything. He remained silent and passive through the whole battle, but at the last possible second before Rhodes released his Viper, something else flashed on The Grid in front of his eyes.
His Viper launcher shut down, and the next time he fired his thermal cannon, nothing happened.
¡°They¡¯re shutting us down!¡± Coulter hollered. ¡°They¡¯re doing something to switch off our weapons systems!¡±
¡°They¡¯re using a Legion transponder code,¡± Fisher called out. ¡°They¡¯re signaling that they¡¯re a friendly force to stop us from shooting at them.¡±
¡°Can you override it?¡± Rhodes asked.
¡°I¡¯m trying!¡± Fisher countered. ¡°The code acts on our base programming. We can¡¯t do anything about it. It¡¯s written into our neural core.¡±
Rhodes tried to unleash his Vipers again¡..and again. Nothing worked.
The rest of the battalion experienced the same malfunction¡ªexcept that it wasn¡¯t a malfunction. The SAMs all responded to the transponder code exactly the way they¡¯d been programmed to.
Rhodes didn¡¯t think before he did it. He didn¡¯t even know he could do it until it happened.
He dropped into The Grid. The battle vanished for a second¡ªor at least it receded to the limits of his awareness.
He entered The Grid¡ªthe black landscape marked with green lines the way he¡¯d seen it before each training session.
Fisher¡¯s face floated in front of Rhodes¡¯s eyes. He couldn¡¯t see any other SAM or his subordinates even though he remained interfaced with them.
¡°What are you doing, Captain?¡± Fisher asked.
Rhodes didn¡¯t answer. He dove for Fisher, extended his grid lines, and plunged headfirst straight through the image of Fisher¡¯s face.
The grid lines merged¡ªRhodes¡¯s grid lines and the lines that made up Fisher¡¯s base matrix. Rhodes didn¡¯t understand what he was doing or how this was even possible. He just did it.
The grid lines tangled for a minute and then he submerged deeper into a world of millions of grid lines forming miles upon miles of Grid landscape.
This looked like the simulated world of the training sessions but with no color or texture. Green lines and black squares made up every shape imaginable.
Mountains, valleys, buildings, towns, vehicles, animals, people¡ªthis landscape contained everything the real world contained¡ªexcept color and substance.
Fisher¡¯s face lost all color, too. As soon as Rhodes entered that world, he attacked Fisher with all his might. Rhodes wrapped his grid lines around Fisher¡¯s lines and tore them apart.
Some other part of Rhodes¡¯s mind took over. He punched through the grid outline of Fisher¡¯s face and broke into a deeper, more complicated Grid world of bizarre shapes all melting and changing before his eyes.
A complicated tangle of grid lines morphed and twisted at the very center of the outer cage of lines that made up Fisher¡¯s image.
Rhodes didn¡¯t understand how he recognized that tangle, but he did recognize it. It was the transponder code.
He fired his scourge gun at it and it shattered into a million much smaller fragments of grid lines. They scattered outward to join with the lines all around them.
The instant he hit that tangle, the whole Grid world evaporated and he found himself back on the battlefield under heavy bombardment from the invasion ships.
Their constant gunfire weakened the field the battalion used to protect the platoons.
He unleashed ten Vipers in rapid succession, targeted them together, and detonated three of the incoming enemy vessels.
Grid lines materialized on the invading ships¡¯ outer hulls, but they didn¡¯t change shape.
Rhodes¡¯s brain kicked into high gear. That destroyed machine changed its grid lines, but only after it ceased to function normally.
The machine ground troops that wiped out the Emal didn¡¯t change their shape, either. They didn¡¯t alter The Grid to make themselves more adaptable or to avoid enemy gunfire.
Rhodes¡¯s made another snap decision. ¡°Break the shield and attack!¡± he roared. ¡°Battalion 1¡ªseparate! Use The Grid and attack!¡±
He leapt out of position, took control of The Grid, and changed his shape into a giant mechanized fighting machine.
His arms and hands morphed into windmills of lasers whipping in all directions. He swelled to five times his size and slashed his lasers at another five ships in the sky.
Another half dozen invasion ships landed not far away and unloaded more ground troops, but they didn¡¯t use The Grid, either. Could they even use The Grid at all?
End of Chapter 26.
Battalion 1: Book 2: Chapter 27
The machine ground troops aimed their fusion guns at Rhodes and opened fire. He was too busy thrashing his lasers at more invasion ships trying to surround him.
He fired lasers out of his eyes instead. He didn¡¯t make the conscious decision to do it that way.
He was just too busy using his arms against the enemy ships. He altered his weapons configuration without thinking, slashed down the ground troops, and spun around to face more incoming enemy vessels.
Oakes, Lauer, Coulter, Thackery, and Dietz widened their circle to give each other room to clear the area. The platoon soldiers crouched in the center of that circle firing outward to hit enemy targets whenever and wherever they could.
¡°The Ero is in the atmosphere, Captain!¡± Wild called over the noise. ¡°Captain Ackerman can¡¯t descend until we secure the surface.¡±
¡°Secure it, then!¡± Rhodes yelled over his shoulder. He couldn¡¯t turn around.
He faced another five enemy vessels circling from the north. He had to stop them from getting near Rhinehart, Henshaw, and the platoons.
He occupied the enemy with his lasers. The invasion ships charged him trying to break past him and get behind him.
He released another five Vipers and hit two of invasion ships, but Vipers didn¡¯t damage them.
He concentrated on the others. They tied him up while another ten landed farther out in the wasteland of bodies. Those ten ships unloaded more ground troops. How much longer could the enemy go on with this before they took out the battalion first and then the platoons?
Out of nowhere, a revolving pinwheel of laser fire rocketed across Rhodes¡¯ line of sight. It slashed down dozens of robot ground troops and kept on going.
The pinwheel spun parallel to the ground, circled the battle twenty yards out from the battalion¡¯s position, and whirled back around to rejoin the battalion before the pinwheel changed back into Fuentes.
Rhodes didn¡¯t have time to congratulate anyone before another five invasion ships closed on him. He fired his Vipers again and swung his lasers one last time, but he couldn¡¯t destroy these things. They were too big and too powerful.
They hovered off taking his Viper hits on their jumbled outer hulls. They could have slaughtered him in seconds if they really unloaded their weapons on him, but they didn¡¯t.
They drifted back and forth in front of him for a second and then lifted off into the atmosphere. Their machine ground troops retreated, loaded up, and evacuated the planet, too.
He stood there panting for breath and searching the landscape for any other enemy coming after him.
¡°The Ero is on approach, Captain!¡± Wild reported again.
Rhodes couldn¡¯t speak to answer. His eyes darted back and forth across the landscape. He didn¡¯t want to believe that those machines really were gone.
They weren¡¯t gone. They still battled against the Legion on other planets and out in space.
The Ero took advantage of the lull to descend on the battalion¡¯s position, but the ship couldn¡¯t find a flat spot to land.
It drifted a few feet off the ground and waited there with its landing bay open for the battalion to evacuate.
Rhodes and his people herded the platoons in front. Lauer picked up Henshaw. Rhodes had to change himself into another giant monster so he could carry Rhinehart.
The platoons packed into the bay. Rhodes¡¯s form gave him a clear view over the soldiers¡¯ heads.
Dr. Osborne tried to meet the battalion there, but the platoon blocked his way. He had to fight his way through to get near Rhodes and Lauer.
A bunch of soldiers from the platoon tried to talk to the battalion on their way through the hold.
Rhodes saw the soldiers smiling and holding out their hands to shake hands with the battalion, but he pushed past them. He really needed to get off by himself and think.
¡°We can¡¯t work on them here!¡± Osborne called over dozens of voices. ¡°Bring them up to the capsule hold. I¡¯ll work on them there and you can all go into conversion cycles.¡±
¡°They were SAMs!¡± Fuentes panted. ¡°They were SAMs!¡±
Osborne looked over at him. ¡°Who was?¡±
¡°Not now, Corporal,¡± Rhodes interrupted.
Rhinehart weighed a ton. Rhodes didn¡¯t want to carry him in some otherworldly form that might scare the crew, but Rhodes couldn¡¯t carry Rhinehart without changing into something.
He and the battalion followed Osborne upstairs to the capsule hold. Rhodes and Lauer laid Rhinehart and Henshaw in their capsules. Osborne and Trudeau started working on the two injured battalion members.Stolen novel; please report.
Coulter stretched out in his capsule and went into a conversion cycle right away. He groaned when he turned over on the mattress and locked into his prongs.
Rhodes stayed across the room watching his people settle down. Lauer and Thackery had a hard time putting the battle behind them. They both paced up and down for more than an hour.
Fuentes approached Rhodes. Fuentes no longer glared¡ªor not as badly. ¡°I¡¯m sorry I couldn¡¯t carry out the objective to hit the base ships, Sir. I hope you don¡¯t mind me taking the initiative to take out those ground troops instead.¡±
¡°Not at all, Corporal. You did great. You ended the battle much quicker than it otherwise would have. I¡¯m glad you feel free to take the initiative that way. You can keep doing it as much as you want.¡±
¡°Thank you, Sir. I think I¡¯ll take the initiative by going into a conversion cycle.¡±
Rhodes started to smile, but he stopped himself.
Fuentes went straight to his capsule and locked himself into it. Dietz sat down at the computer terminal. He didn¡¯t usually get a chance to work on it. Fuentes monopolized the terminal back at Coleridge Station.
Oakes sat down at the table, but he didn¡¯t work on his drawings. He and Rhodes didn¡¯t bring any paper or pencils with them. They didn¡¯t need to. They stayed in stasis for the trip here and then went straight into combat.
Fisher broke in on Rhodes¡¯s thoughts. ¡°I¡¯m so sorry, Captain. I can¡¯t forgive myself for letting you down in the middle of a battle.¡±
¡°You had nothing to do with that transponder code,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°I¡¯m the one who¡¯s sorry I had to get inside your head like that to break the code.¡±
¡°I¡¯m not talking about the code,¡± Fisher murmured. ¡°I¡¯m talking about before that.¡±
Rhodes turned to face his SAM. Fisher had withdrawn so much from Rhodes recently. Fisher didn¡¯t intrude on Rhodes¡¯s life unless he absolutely had to.
¡°I shouldn¡¯t have let those SAMs¡..¡±
¡°Stop calling them SAMs, pal,¡± Rhodes snapped. ¡°You can¡¯t think of them as that.¡±
¡°I have to, Captain. That¡¯s the problem.¡±
¡°You calling them that is what¡¯s causing the problem. They¡¯re our enemies. Did you see the way they targeted the battalion? They know who we are. They came back to Bao for us alone.¡±
¡°Doesn¡¯t that just prove that they are SAMs?¡±
Rhodes tried to shake those thoughts out of his head, but nothing would get rid of them now. ¡°They aren¡¯t SAMs. Don¡¯t call them that.¡±
¡°What should I call them, then?¡±
¡°Call them the enemy. That¡¯s what they really are.¡±
Fisher fell silent for a moment. He and Rhodes watched Osborne and Trudeau working on Rhinehart and Henshaw.
Osborne adjusted a few things on Rhinehart¡¯s cranial implant and then did the same thing to Henshaw. Her implants started to repair themselves.
A few minutes later, Osborne closed both capsules with Rhinehart and Henshaw inside. Thackery started to relax and sat down on the edge of her capsule.
¡°You should go into a conversion cycle, too, Captain,¡± Fisher told him. ¡°Your system is depleted.¡±
¡°I know, man,¡± Rhodes muttered. ¡°I just don¡¯t seem to be able to dial it down.¡±
Just then, Osborne came over to him. The doctor studied Rhodes extra closely. ¡°What did Fuentes mean when he said they were SAMs?¡±
¡°Nothing,¡± Rhodes lied. ¡°How¡¯s Henshaw? Is she going to recover?¡±
¡°She¡¯ll be fine, now that her implants are repairing themselves. Rhinehart¡¯s head injury isn¡¯t severe. He should be fine after a conversion cycle.¡±
¡°That¡¯s what Rocky said.¡±
Osborne cocked his head to inspect Rhodes even more intensely. ¡°Is something wrong, Captain? You don¡¯t look good.¡±
¡°What does that mean? I never do.¡±
¡°I mean you look like you¡¯re in distress. You look like something is bothering you.¡±
Rhodes almost confided in the doctor and then changed his mind. Dr. Osborne joined the Battalion 1 project after it got started.
He wouldn¡¯t have been involved in whatever Frankenstein creation made these rogue SAMs into a force powerful enough to attack the Legion that created it.
¡°I¡¯ll be all right. I better turn in. Thanks for everything, Doctor.¡±
Rhodes sat down on his mattress, stretched out on his back, and closed his capsule cover, but he didn¡¯t connect to the prongs. He lay there staring at nothing for a while¡ªexcept that Fisher was still there.
¡°Why didn¡¯t you tell him the truth?¡± Fisher asked.
¡°He won¡¯t be able to tell me where these¡.these machines came from. He wasn¡¯t around when the project got started.¡±
¡°He¡¯s the one who will reprogram me and the other SAMs.¡±
Rhodes started to shut his eyes. ¡°I told you not to worry about the transponder code. The Legion can change it easily. Those machines won¡¯t be able to use it a second time.¡±
¡°I¡¯m not talking about the transponder code, Captain,¡± Fisher murmured with his usual saint-like patience. ¡°I¡¯m talking about our programming that won¡¯t allow us to attack another SAM.¡±
Rhodes tried to insist again that these machines weren¡¯t SAMs, but that argument obviously didn¡¯t work.
He tried to look away, but Fisher just moved with Rhodes every time he turned his head. ¡°Maybe I don¡¯t like the idea of reprogramming you to do anything, pal. Maybe that¡¯s why I don¡¯t want the doctors doing anything to you.¡±
Fisher¡¯s expression twisted. ¡°I¡¯m grateful that you¡¯re trying to protect me, Captain.¡±
¡°That¡¯s nothing you haven¡¯t done for me a thousand times. Tell me this. Would you want to fight these machines if they weren¡¯t SAMs? Did you want to fight them before you found out they were SAMs¡ªor that they were using SAMs technology?¡±
¡°Of course. They tried to kill the battalion¡ªand you. They attacked the Legion and wiped out all those Emal. Of course I want to fight them.¡±
Rhodes shut his eyes again. ¡°Then, as far as I¡¯m concerned, this is just another malfunction.¡±
¡°If it¡¯s a malfunction, you should want the doctors to correct it,¡± Fisher pointed out.
¡°I would rather correct it amongst ourselves if we can¡ªwithout the doctors tinkering with your programming. That never ends well.¡±
¡°There is another problem, Captain¡ªas I¡¯m sure you know.¡±
¡°What¡¯s that?¡±
¡°That these¡.these machines wanted to retrieve you¡ªto retrieve us. They wanted the battalion¡ªand not to study us the way the Emal did. How do you think these machines found the battalion on the one planet where we were fighting? These machines could have intervened in any battle anywhere the Emal are invading the Treaty of Aemon Cluster. These machines chose that one planet¡ªthe one planet with the battalion on it. It looks like these machines came here to retrieve the battalion.¡±
¡°Then they really are our enemies. I¡¯m going to sleep now, pal. I suggest you do the same thing. I promise you we won¡¯t go back into battle until we work this out¡ªeven if it means reprogramming you.¡±
¡°Captain, do you think¡.?¡± Fisher broke off.
¡°Do I think what?¡±
¡°You threatened to take me offline if I interfered with the battle¡ªwhich I did.¡±
¡°You tried to break that transponder code. You didn¡¯t interfere with the battle.¡±
¡°I interfered by recommending that you treat these machines as something other than the enemy.¡±
¡°Dash did the same thing. Besides, the Legion and the Battalion 1 governing body have some questions to answer about where this technology came from. I¡¯m not going to take anyone offline until I get those answers.¡± Rhodes locked into the prongs. ¡°We can talk about this when I wake up. I¡¯ll see you when we get back to Coleridge Station, pal.¡±
¡°Good night, Captain. Sleep well.¡±
End of Chapter 27.
Battalion 1: Book 2: Chapter 28
Rhodes opened his eyes in his capsule and stared up at the closed cover. Fisher hovered before his eyes already.
Fisher had changed his morning routine¡ªand so had Rhodes. Fisher and Rhodes talked before Rhodes got out of his capsule. Talking to Fisher had replaced Rhodes putting on his boots in the morning.
The instant Rhodes made eye contact with his SAM, he remembered everything from the Bao assault.
He shuddered when he remembered that robot¡¯s metal helmet changing in his hands.
Fisher read his mind. ¡°Good morning, Captain,¡± Fisher murmured in that undertone that told Rhodes loud and clear that Fisher was thinking the same thing.
Rhodes groaned. ¡°I was hoping it would all turn out to be a bad dream.¡±
¡°I¡¯m afraid not. What are you going to do about it?¡±
¡°I have to talk to the brass about where this technology could have come from.¡±
¡°Where could it have come from?¡± Fisher asked. ¡°The Battalion 1 Project is the most highly classified project in the whole Legion.¡±
¡°It¡¯s also the project that has suffered the most failures, setbacks, and deaths. Dozens of soldiers have been implanted with these devices since the project started. The majority of those soldiers wound up dead¡ªso what did the brass do with their bodies? I¡¯m going to take a wild guess and say the brass didn¡¯t recycle the failed implants to reuse on someone else.¡±
Fisher fell silent for a moment. ¡°You¡¯re right, Captain. That¡¯s a lot of technology unaccounted for.¡±
¡°I¡¯m sure it isn¡¯t unaccounted for. The brass knows exactly what happened to it¡ªand don¡¯t forget that these SAMs are sentient. The brass could throw away the implants, but they probably didn¡¯t think to either take the SAMs offline or destroy the implants completely. The SAMs remained self-aware and self-determining. They probably used their repair technology to reconstruct themselves. Maybe they used The Grid to reform themselves into some other shape¡ªthe shapes they have now.¡±
¡°Of course, Captain,¡± Fisher murmured. ¡°Of course you must be right. I¡¯m glad you¡¯re handling this and not me. I couldn¡¯t stay detached enough to make any decision about them. I still think of them as my own kind. I¡¯m sorry, Captain. I can¡¯t help it.¡±
Rhodes sighed. ¡°It¡¯s all right, pal. I understand. We¡¯ll just have to deal with it. Show me the SAM we found on the battlefield.¡±
Fisher brought up the Grid projection of the SAM changing in front of him. Rhodes¡¯s grid lines extended as far as his fingers.
Then the robot¡¯s grid lines took over, swirled over its helmet, and started to change shape. It reformed into a face.
¡°Freeze it there,¡± Rhodes ordered. ¡°Do you recognize it? Do you know this SAM?¡±
¡°I don¡¯t recognize it¡ªbut as you said, I wouldn¡¯t recognize a SAM that came online before the doctors activated me. I came online for the first time when you entered The Grid. These unknown SAMs would have been activated long before that¡ªand discarded long before that. I¡¯m sure the brass would want to isolate these failed SAMs from any new battalion members who actually attained the ability to function. The brass wouldn¡¯t want the failed SAMs technology to infect the new batch.¡±
¡°Right. That makes sense¡ªwhich means these SAMs are all old ones. Maybe we can find a way to turn this to our advantage.¡±
¡°How?¡± Fisher asked. ¡°These machines have an overwhelming advantage. They¡¯re more powerful even than the Emal.¡±
¡°Maybe, but we have The Grid. I didn¡¯t see the invasion ships or the machine ground troops using The Grid to their advantage or to adapt to the conditions. In fact, I didn¡¯t see them using The Grid at all.¡±
¡°How would we use that against them?¡±
¡°I don¡¯t know, but there has to be a way.¡± Rhodes opened his capsule cover and sat up. ¡°Let¡¯s go talk to the brass and see what¡¯s happening. They might be able to tell us something useful about how these things work.¡±
Talking to Fisher in the privacy of their closed capsule turned out to be much better for Rhodes than lacing up his boots or staring at his feet or looking at his reflection in the mirror.
He stood up, ran his fingers through his hair, and he was ready to start his day. He walked over to Dr. Osborne who was working on Rhinehart¡¯s capsule controls.
¡°How are the patients?¡± Rhodes asked.
¡°They¡¯re fine. They¡¯ll be coming out of their conversion cycles in a few minutes.¡±
¡°Excellent.¡± Rhodes turned away. ¡°I¡¯m going to see Colonel Kraft and General Brewster. Stay here and tell the others where I am, okay?¡±
Osborne spun around. ¡°You can¡¯t, Captain! You can¡¯t see them.¡±
¡°Why not? I need to talk to them about our last battle.¡±
¡°They¡¯ve been recalled to Preinea. They¡¯re in conference with the Treaty of Aemon Ruling Council about this new invasion force.¡±
¡°But what about¡.?¡± Rhodes stopped in midsentence when he realized for the first time where he was.
He thought when he first woke up that he must be in the barracks at Coleridge Station. Now he realized his mistake. He was still in the capsule hold on board the Ero.
The hold had been set up identically to the barracks¡ªexcept that it didn¡¯t have a bookshelf. Henshaw¡¯s carvings and Oakes¡¯s and Rhodes¡¯s art supplies weren¡¯t on it.
Rhodes¡¯s mind switched gears and he activated The Grid. He was on board the Ero¡ªand the ship was nowhere near Coleridge Station.
The ship was nowhere near Bao, either. The ship had traveled a long way from the first battle against the machine invasion, but the Ero didn¡¯t take the battalion back to Coleridge Station. Why not?
¡°The Masks are wiping out populated planets even faster than the Emal did,¡± Dr. Osborne told him. ¡°The Masks aren¡¯t trying to reclaim territory. It looks like they just want to destroy. They don¡¯t need any other reason.¡±This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.
¡°Masks?¡± Rhodes repeated. ¡°Who¡¯s calling them that?¡±
Osborne shrugged. ¡°The whole Legion is calling them that since we don¡¯t know what they¡¯re really called. They wear masks¡ªor helmets or whatever you want to call them. It¡¯s as good a name as any, I guess.¡±
¡°So¡..¡± Rhodes scrambled to read The Grid of the Ero and the surrounding space. ¡°Where the hell are we?¡±
¡°We¡¯re en route to the planet Zobos in the Eotis system. The Masks have already leveled every other planet in the whole system. Zobos is the last one. The Masks just keep going from planet to planet torching everything to the ground.¡±
Rhodes sighed and turned away. ¡°So it¡¯s the Emal all over again.¡±
¡°The Masks are much more dangerous than the Emal. The Masks move faster and their weapons are more powerful. The Legion doesn¡¯t have time to evacuate all the populations before the Masks get there. They¡¯ve already killed over five million people on ten different planets¡ªand that¡¯s not counting the numbers of Emal they¡¯ve killed.¡±
¡°You mean¡.¡± Rhodes stammered.
¡°The Masks made wiping out the Emal their first mission. The Masks went down the whole battle line, knocked off every base ship, and cut every single Emal to pieces. As far as we know, there are no more Emal alive anywhere anymore. They¡¯re extinct.¡±
Rhodes blinked at Dr. Osborne in stupid disbelief. Rhodes had fought thousands of Emal. He and his fellow Legion soldiers always considered the Emal an unlimited quantity.
Rhodes never thought twice about killing Emal. More would always take their places.
The idea of there not being any more Emal anywhere¡ªthat didn¡¯t seem possible. It couldn¡¯t be possible.
Fisher broke in on Rhodes¡¯s thoughts just then. ¡°Captain Ackerman is asking you to come to the bridge. He¡¯s receiving orders for Battalion 1 from General Brewster and the Battalion 1 governing body.¡±
Dr. Osborne gave Rhodes a significant look before Rhodes walked out of the hold. Rhinehart, Henshaw, Dietz, and Lauer were all waking up.
Rhodes wanted to get this meeting over with before he interfaced with his subordinates. He¡¯d always shared everything with them, but not this early in the morning.
He found the Ero captain on the bridge in his usual dark mood. ¡°I don¡¯t appreciate being ordered around to fetch and carry for a bunch of overblown science experiments, Captain,¡± Ackerman snarled when Rhodes showed up.
¡°Neither do I,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°Do you have somewhere private that I can take this transmission?¡±
Ackerman scowled at him even more furiously, but he didn¡¯t argue. He showed Rhodes into a side office where Rhodes sat down in front of a computer terminal.
Rhodes waited for Ackerman to leave. Rhodes took his time connecting to the transmission. He made up his mind right away what he would say to the chumps in the Battalion 1 governing body about this.
He opened the transmission only to discover General Brewster looking off to one side and talking to someone off the screen.
¡°And get me General Marshall on the line,¡± Brewster was saying. ¡°We need to bring in some of those Clastofil cannons to shut down the fusion blasts.¡± The general jumped when he saw Rhodes. ¡°Captain! We thought something happened to you down there.¡±
¡°It did, General. We need you to recall the battalion back to Coleridge Station for modification, reprogramming, and repair.¡±
Brewster frowned at something on the controls in front of him. ¡°Dr. Osborne¡¯s report states that Lieutenant Rhinehart and Ms. Henshaw will make a full recovery from their injuries without going back to Coleridge Station. The Eotis system is in danger from these Masks¡.¡±
¡°I¡¯m not talking about Rhinehart¡¯s and Henshaw¡¯s injuries,¡± Rhodes interrupted. ¡°I¡¯m talking about our SAMs. They need to be reprogrammed before we go back into battle.¡±
Colonel Kraft, General Hyde, and Admiral Pulman connected to the same transmission from other locations. They weren¡¯t even in the same room with General Brewster right now.
Colonels Neff and LeClerc weren¡¯t there, though. Did the other officers get rid of Neff for speaking on Rhodes¡¯s behalf?
Then again, the other officers didn¡¯t get rid of Colonel Kraft for speaking on Rhodes¡¯s behalf. LeClerc was gone, too, and he¡¯d been against Rhodes.
¡°What¡¯s wrong with your SAMs?¡± Kraft asked. ¡°The feed shows them functioning normally during their first contact with the Masks.¡±
¡°How much did you actually study the feed?¡±
Now it was Kraft¡¯s turn to frown. ¡°What do you mean?¡±
¡°These Masks¡..are SAMs,¡± Rhodes blurted out. ¡°They¡¯re using Legion technology¡ªthe same technology from the battalion¡¯s implants. These Masks are using The Grid ¡.¡±
¡°That¡¯s impossible,¡± General Hyde interrupted. ¡°The nine current members of Battalion 1 are the only people who have this technology.¡±
¡°We¡¯re the only people who have this technology now,¡± Rhodes corrected. ¡°What did you do with all the soldiers who didn¡¯t survive the project¡ªor who died after waking up? How did you dispose of any of this tech when it malfunctioned or failed to activate? Some of it must have survived. Now it¡¯s out there replicating itself into this machine army and coming after the people who created it.¡±
¡°That¡¯s impossible, Captain,¡± General Brewster blustered. ¡°You don¡¯t know enough about the Battalion 1 project to make that assessment.¡±
¡°You don¡¯t think so? Take a look at this.¡±
Rhodes interfaced with the Ero¡¯s communications system, gave Fisher a silent signal inside the interface, and played back their experience of touching that Mask.
It seemed like a good name for it, especially considering how its Mask changed into a face¡ªa SAM¡¯s face.
General Brewster gasped out loud when he saw the grid lines change into a face. ¡°It isn¡¯t possible!¡±
¡°You might want to rethink when and where you use that phrase,¡± Rhodes muttered. ¡°It is more than possible. It¡¯s real. These Masks are SAMs. They¡¯re using your technology. They also used a Legion transponder code to deactivate the battalion¡¯s weapons systems during the worst part of the battle.¡±
¡°How did you overcome that?¡± Kraft asked.
¡°I¡¯d rather not say. We need to regroup at Coleridge Station and go over what caused the malfunction¡.¡±
¡°What malfunction?¡± General Pulman asked. ¡°We aren¡¯t seeing any sign of a malfunction¡ªespecially if the SAMs are responding appropriately to Legion transponder codes.¡±
Rhodes hesitated to say it. He didn¡¯t want to sell out Fisher and the other SAMs¡ªor do anything that could shift the blame onto them.
¡°You better tell them,¡± Fisher murmured in his ear. ¡°They¡¯ll only be able to correct the problem if they know what it is.¡±
Rhodes nodded and took a deep breath. ¡°The battalion¡¯s onboard SAMs are responding to these Masks and considering them their own kind. Our SAMs have been programmed not to attack their own and even to defend their own kind with their lives. It¡¯s causing problems¡.¡±
¡°It didn¡¯t stop you from fighting the Masks on Bao,¡± General Brewster pointed out.
¡°You can¡¯t seriously believe that we¡¯d be better off just ignoring this problem,¡± Rhodes countered. ¡°It caused problems on Bao and it will cause more problems later. Just fix the damn thing.¡±
¡°We can fix it en route to Zobos,¡± General Brewster decided. ¡°I¡¯m sure Drs. Osborne and Trudeau will correct any problems on the way. The Eotis system is hanging by a thread¡.¡±
¡°I heard the Eotis system was already finished,¡± Rhodes corrected. ¡°If we malfunctioned again, we would lose the planet and ourselves into the bargain.¡±
¡°You¡¯re too far away from Coleridge Station for us to withdraw you and send you all the way back out,¡± General Hyde replied. ¡°We should take this opportunity to correct the problem en route and continue the campaign as planned.¡± She nodded at Rhodes like he just agreed with her. ¡°Carry on, Captain. You can report to us after you engage the Masks on Zobos.¡±
She cut the signal. Rhodes took a rare moment to slump in his chair, bury his face in his hands, and groan. ¡°I¡¯m being ordered around by a bunch of morons.¡±
¡°I believe the word you¡¯re looking for is, ¡®ass¡¯,¡± Fisher interjected. ¡°You¡¯re being ordered around by a bunch of asses.¡±
Rhodes found himself snorting with laughter¡ªexcept that this wasn¡¯t funny. He got to his feet and headed back to the capsule hold. ¡°So Osborne is our only hope.¡±
¡°At least you know you can trust him.¡±
¡°What about the other SAMs?¡± Rhodes asked. ¡°Did you get a chance to assess their positions on this?¡±
¡°Not since Dash said we couldn¡¯t leave the other SAMs behind.¡±
¡°Do me a favor, pal, and don¡¯t call them SAMs anymore. We have another name for them. They¡¯re Masks. We don¡¯t even know if they really are SAMs or just some hybridized form of the same technology.¡±
¡°You¡¯re right, Captain. Of course these invaders aren¡¯t the same as us even if they do come from the same technology.¡±
¡°Do you think calling them by a different name will be enough to change the way you and the other SAMs think about these machines?¡±
¡°I wouldn¡¯t like to speculate. If you really want my recommendation¡.¡±
¡°I do,¡± Rhodes insisted. ¡°Always.¡±
¡°Then I recommend you get Dr. Osborne to remove that part of our programming that blocks us from attacking our own kind¡ªand double-check that the Legion changes its transponder codes.¡±
¡°We should probably rewrite your programming not to respond to any Legion transponder codes,¡± Rhodes suggested.
Fisher looked away. ¡°If you think it¡¯s best, Captain. I can only offer my recommendation.¡±
End of Chapter 28.
Battalion 1: Book 2: Chapter 29
Rhodes returned to the capsule hold and relayed the substance of General Brewster¡¯s transmission to the rest of the battalion.
¡°Are you saying these jokers are really sending us back into battle against those things?¡± Dietz asked.
¡°They aren¡¯t just sending us back into battle against those things,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°They¡¯re sending us back into battle against those things without giving us the option to test the new modifications beforehand. We won¡¯t know if it works until the Masks are already shooting at us.¡±
¡°I¡¯m not going,¡± Thackery snapped. ¡°I don¡¯t care what they do to me. I¡¯m not going to throw myself in front of those machines to get killed¡ªor put the rest of you in danger by going into battle when I don¡¯t even know if I can trust my own reactions. This is nuts!¡±
¡°You don¡¯t have to go,¡± Rhodes decided. ¡°You can stay behind.¡±
Her one good eye fell out of its socket. ¡°Seriously? I don¡¯t have to go? Yeah!¡±
¡°None of you has to go,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°I don¡¯t blame you for staying behind. Just be aware that a sizable civilian population is in danger of these machines completely wiping them off the map. The Masks have already killed millions of people and they¡¯ll keep doing it until someone stops them. That¡¯s what Battalion 1 is for¡ªnot sitting on our thumbs behind closed doors. We have tools to fight these things that no one else has. I¡¯m going in with any of you that want to come with me. We¡¯ll make what modifications we can on the way. We need to be ready to rock as soon as we get there.¡±
His subordinates exchanged glances. ¡°You make a convincing case, Captain,¡± Wild muttered.
¡°I understand that none of you wants to fight other SAMs,¡± Rhodes went on. ¡°I don¡¯t want to, either. That¡¯s why we need to make these modifications to your programming¡ªto make sure we all recognize our enemy.¡±
¡°And we won¡¯t even have a chance to train with these modifications before we go into battle?¡± Henshaw asked. ¡°That doesn¡¯t sound like a very good idea.¡±
¡°It sounds like a disastrous idea,¡± Rhinehart interjected. ¡°I mean, it sounds like an even more disastrous idea than the rest of this asinine project.¡±
Fisher chuckled. ¡°That¡¯s what I said.¡±
Rhodes turned to Dr. Osborne and Dr. Trudeau. They stood off to one side listening to the conversation¡ªor the part of it they could hear.
¡°We¡¯re ready,¡± Rhodes told them.
¡°You¡¯ll all need to lock into your capsules,¡± Osborne replied. ¡°We¡¯ll make the modifications to your programming and it will take effect in all your SAMs at the same time. That will save us having to go through and reprogram each SAM individually.¡±
¡°I guess I can¡¯t argue with that,¡± Lauer growled.
Rhodes turned away. It was up to him to set an example and lead the way.
He swung his legs up onto the mattress in his capsule and let the prongs lock into the back of his head and body.
¡°I sure hope this works,¡± Fisher murmured.
¡°You and me both, pal,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°We won¡¯t be going anywhere near a battle if it doesn¡¯t.¡±
¡°I¡¯m beginning to share your paranoia of doctors, Captain,¡± Fisher half-whispered. ¡°What if they make a mistake and completely wipe our consciousness? They could send us into battle without our knowledge.¡±
¡°Then we won¡¯t have to think about this anymore. It might be easier that way.¡±
¡°Then we would both be technically dead,¡± Fisher pointed out. ¡°Really dead.¡±
Rhodes didn¡¯t answer. Fisher didn¡¯t see the upside to that. Maybe he really was the saner person here. Rhodes wouldn¡¯t argue the point.Stolen novel; please report.
He woke up a few seconds later, but he felt like he¡¯d gone through another conversion cycle¡ªa long one.
The rest of the capsule covers in the hold were just starting to open, too.
Rhodes stayed lying down for a minute. Fisher¡¯s face wavered there in front of Rhodes¡¯s eyes. ¡°How do you feel, pal?¡± Rhodes asked. ¡°How did the modifications go?¡±
Fisher didn¡¯t answer. He blinked at Rhodes in that rapid, birdlike way.
Rhodes tried again. ¡°Fisher? Can you hear me?¡±
Fisher didn¡¯t respond except to examine Rhodes with interest.
Rhodes¡¯s heart sank. This was not good.
He dragged himself to his feet and tried to interface with the rest of the battalion. Lauer, Oakes, Henshaw, Dietz, and Thackery were already out of bed and moving around.
All the other SAMs activated, including Van even though Fuentes was still half-unconscious from his conversion cycle.
¡°Can any of you hear me?¡± Rhodes asked. ¡°Fisher isn¡¯t responding.¡±
The other SAMs turned around to look at him. He¡¯d been interfacing with them for weeks¡ªmonths, even. He knew them all intimately.
Their expressions changed as soon as they saw him. Wild narrowed his eyes at Rhodes and Fisher.
Fisher came to life in an instant. ¡°Targets acquired on your right and left, Captain! The threat level is escalating!¡±
¡°Threat level!¡± Rhodes countered. ¡°What are you talking about?¡±
Fisher changed The Grid in front of Rhodes¡¯s eyes and overlaid targets on everyone in the battalion¡ªand their SAMs. ¡°Shoot, Captain! Neutralize the threats before they attack!¡±
Rhodes floundered to understand, and at that moment, an overwhelming, irrational desire seized him to raise his weapon and fire on the people around him.
¡°Stop, Fisher!¡± Rhodes roared. ¡°Don¡¯t do this! They aren¡¯t our enemies! These are our friends!¡±
¡°They¡¯re targeting you!¡± Fisher did something else to Rhodes¡¯s Vipers. He felt two of them about to release without any control from him. ¡°Shoot now before they hit you first!¡±
Rhodes fought to lower his arm, but he couldn¡¯t stop the Vipers from arming. ¡°Fisher¡ªyou have to stop this! Please trust me! These aren¡¯t our enemies!¡±
The words barely got out of his mouth before Lauer and Oakes both brought their arms up to aim their weapons at the people surrounding them¡ªincluding Rhodes.
Lauer pulled his head down between his shoulders and backed away. He jerked his arm back and forth covering the whole room.
All six SAMs yelled at once. Rhodes heard Van, Rocky, and Murphy yelling for Lauer, Oakes, Dietz, Henshaw, and Thackery to stand down.
Oakes eased off heading the other way. ¡°Put your weapons down!¡± he bellowed. ¡°Break off now and stop targeting me or I¡¯ll have no choice but to shoot!¡±
¡°No one is targeting you!¡± Rhodes yelled back, but Oakes didn¡¯t hear him. No one could hear anything with so many people yelling back and forth.
Henshaw raised her right arm and then slammed her left hand down on her own wrist to stop herself from lifting her weapons. Thackery started to raise her own arm.
She got it as high as her chest before grid lines appeared all over it. It morphed into an oversized Jackhammer unlike anything Rhodes had ever seen.
She passed the weapon across the room and stopped with it aiming at Rhinehart¡¯s capsule. He still sat on the edge of it trying to understand what the hell was going on in the hold.
The weapon went off with an almighty boom. Thackery barely managed to turn it aside in time to avoid wiping him out.
The shot smashed into Rhodes¡¯s empty capsule and all hell broke loose. Rhodes felt his Vipers about to release no matter how hard he tried to hold them back.
Some force beyond himself targeted Dietz and Fuentes who still lay asleep in their capsules, totally oblivious to everything going on.
The Grid in front of Rhodes¡¯s eyes targeted Oakes and Lauer. Fisher kept yelling in Rhodes¡¯s ear that they were about to shoot him and he had to take them out first to remove the threat.
He couldn¡¯t stop what was about to happen. The Vipers fired their boosters to sail across the room and annihilate both men.
In his last act of desperation, Rhodes flung himself backward onto the floor, slammed down on top of the Viper ports, and the twin missiles fired into the walls instead.
They smashed out a bunch of power conduits connected to all the capsules in the room. Rhodes rolled onto his stomach fighting an irresistible urge to shoot someone else.
This feeling¡ªit didn¡¯t come from him. He understood that now. The Grid went haywire in front of his eyes.
It kept targeting one person after another and even the SAMs even though they didn¡¯t exist anywhere outside The Grid. He would have been shooting at empty air if he tried to hit them.
Without warning, Dietz spun around and aimed his scourge gun at Fisher. The SAM hung right there in front of Rhodes¡¯s face¡ªright where the shot would hit Rhodes instead.
Dietz bared his teeth in a vicious snarl. ¡°You bastard! I¡¯ll kill you!¡±
His scourge gun charged to unload on Rhodes. The instant before Dietz opened fire, Henshaw hurtled across the room and tackled Dietz out of the way.
She threw her weight against his shoulder and his weapon swiveled a few inches to the right just as the gun went off.
The blast smashed past Rhodes¡¯s face and shattered the floor where Rhodes lay on his stomach.
Henshaw stumbled over Dietz and he reacted in a mindless rage. He spun around, seized her by the throat, and roared in fury as he yanked her off her feet.
She started to struggle, but he overpowered her, slammed her down on the floor, jammed his scourge gun into her eye socket on the organic side of her face, and pulled the trigger.
End of Chapter 29.
Battalion 1: Book 2: Chapter 30
Dr. Osborne sat down on the stool in front of Rhodes. ¡°You¡¯ll be happy to know that General Brewster has ordered the battalion back to Coleridge Station instead of deploying you on Zobos,¡± Dr. Osborne told him.
Rhodes didn¡¯t look up. He couldn¡¯t even be happy that his assessment of the problems with the SAMs had been vindicated.
Now the battalion was going back to Coleridge Station the way he originally recommended, but at what cost?
Henshaw was dead. He predicted that, too, but he never predicted that it would happen like this.
He never dreamed she would be able to handle herself in combat, but she did. She handled herself as well as he ever could have hoped.
Now she was gone because of some rotten computer glitch. She died by the hand of one of her own malfunctioning comrades.
Rhodes couldn¡¯t be surprised by this. The only miracle was that more people hadn¡¯t died sooner.
He didn¡¯t blame Dietz, either. Rhodes had wanted to shoot his own comrades. He¡¯d been about to unload his Vipers on Oakes and Lauer just seconds before Dietz shot Henshaw.
Dr. Osborne consulted his device. ¡°You¡¯re probably wondering where everyone is. I¡¯ve kept the whole battalion in stasis since the¡.unfortunate events. You and your subordinates were still targeting each other and even shooting at each other when I shut you all down.¡±
Rhodes only nodded. He suspected as much when he woke up alone.
¡°I¡¯ve kept you in stasis while I modify your SAMs¡¯ programming back to the way it was. It appears that the base program that caused your SAMs not to attack their own is the same programming that causes them to recognize each other and the rest of their battalion mates. We made a mistake.¡±
Dr. Osborne looked up from his device and waited for Rhodes to say something else. What else was there to say?
¡°The others are still asleep. I thought it best to wake you up one at a time to test whether everything is functioning the way it should.¡±
Now it was Rhodes¡¯s turn to wait for Osborne to go on. ¡°So¡.what do you want me to do?¡± Rhodes asked.
Osborne checked his device. ¡°Is Fisher functioning normally?¡±
¡°I don¡¯t know. He isn¡¯t here.¡±
¡°You¡you can¡¯t see him?¡±
¡°No. He usually talks to me when I come out of my conversion cycle. That¡¯s our habit¡ªtalking to each other before and after so we have some time in private before I have to face the battalion.¡±
¡°And¡.he isn¡¯t there?¡±
Rhodes shook his head and wound up looking down at his hands. ¡°This whole thing¡.it¡¯s been hard on him.¡±
¡°Hard on him¡ªhow? He¡¯s a computer program. None of this should be hard on him.¡±
¡°You don¡¯t understand. He was the one who figured out that the Masks were SAMs. He didn¡¯t think we should fight them. I think¡.He might have felt guilty that he put the battalion at risk by not recognizing the Masks as a threat¡ªand then this happened.¡±
Osborne frowned. ¡°The SAMs shouldn¡¯t be having this kind of emotional reaction.¡±
Rhodes snorted. ¡°He¡¯s a sentient being. How could he not have an emotional reaction to¡.to all of this?¡±
Osborne shrugged. ¡°If you¡¯re right, then he should appear. If he isn¡¯t malfunctioning, he shouldn¡¯t have a problem showing himself.¡±
Rhodes hesitated again. ¡°What do you want me to do?¡±
¡°Can you call him out?¡±
Rhodes glanced around The Grid in front of him. Fisher wasn¡¯t there, but Rhodes sensed Fisher listening.
Rhodes didn¡¯t want to talk to Fisher in front of Osborne. If Fisher was suffering from some emotional distress about this¡.
Oh, what the hell was Rhodes even thinking that for? He already knew Fisher was suffering from emotional distress about this. Fisher told Rhodes so himself.
Rhodes swallowed hard. He definitely didn¡¯t want to have this conversation in front of Dr. Osborne. Dr. Trudeau stood on the other side of the room listening.
¡°I¡¯ll call him out, but I won¡¯t do it here,¡± Rhodes finally decided. ¡°I¡¯ll have to go back inside the capsule.¡±
Osborne frowned again. ¡°Is that really necessary? If you do it here, I can monitor his stress levels and see if he really is malfunctioning.¡±
¡°Yes, it really is necessary. I¡¯ll try to talk to him. If he¡¯s malfunctioning, you¡¯ll be able to see after I come out.¡±
Dr. Osborne didn¡¯t stop scowling, but Rhodes already made up his mind. He wouldn¡¯t humiliate Fisher by calling him out in front of both doctors.
The only thing worse would be calling him out in front of the whole battalion. At least none of the other SAMs were here to see Fisher¡¯s disgrace.
Rhodes got to his feet and went back to the capsule on the other side of the lab. He didn¡¯t realize until today that Osborne and Trudeau had a lab on board the Ero.
They must have set it up when the Legion brass assigned the ship to transport Battalion 1 around the galaxy.
Rhodes lowered himself onto the mattress, but he positioned himself away from the prongs. He didn¡¯t need another conversion cycle.
He did need Fisher. Not being able to see and hear Fisher seriously unnerved Rhodes. He didn¡¯t like not being able to consult with Fisher and voice his concerns and process his thoughts. Fisher really had become the confidant Rhodes needed him to be.
The capsule cover lowered and locked in front of Rhodes¡¯s eyes. He took a deep breath and began in a low murmur. ¡°Are you there, pal? We¡¯re all alone. You can talk to me now. No one will hear.¡±
Fisher¡¯s voice drifted from somewhere far away. ¡°You said you would take me offline if I interfered with the battalion again. You should do it now. I¡¯m a danger to everyone, especially you.¡±This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
Rhodes resisted the urge to groan in exasperation. ¡°Do you hear yourself? You sound like me. You sound like Fuentes. You and the other SAMs are the ones who¡¯ve been the most driven to survive. Now you¡¯re telling me to take you offline.¡±
¡°There was no excuse for what I did.¡± Fisher¡¯s voice trembled. ¡°That¡¯s the second time I¡¯ve taken control of you and killed someone.¡±
¡°You didn¡¯t kill someone. Dietz did and that was a malfunction. The whole thing was a malfunction.¡±
¡°It was a malfunction caused by a modification that was my idea.¡± Fisher¡¯s voice got louder and more unsteady. ¡°Henshaw is dead because of me.¡±
Rhodes started to argue and changed tack. ¡°Will you please make yourself visible so I can see you? I know you feel ashamed of what happened. Just face me. I¡¯m your friend. What happens to you happens to me. Remember?¡±
Fisher didn¡¯t make a sound for a minute. Then he started to expand.
He made himself an inch wide in the very top corner of Rhodes¡¯s vision. Fisher didn¡¯t make himself any bigger than that.
Rhodes studied him for a minute while Rhodes tried to decide what to say. He couldn¡¯t know for sure, but he had a sneaking suspicion that Dietz didn¡¯t feel nearly as broken up over Henshaw¡¯s death as Fisher did.
¡°Listen to me, pal,¡± Rhodes finally murmured. ¡°I need you. I can¡¯t do this without you. I never thought it would come to this, but I can¡¯t keep doing this without you helping me. I know you screwed up. I screwed up, too. We all did. This whole project is one giant screwup from beginning to end.¡±
He broke off trying to contain this overwhelming agony inside him.
When he managed to speak again, he didn¡¯t even try to keep the tremor out of his voice.
¡°Listen, man. I need you. I can¡¯t take you offline no matter how many times you screw up¡ªor I screw up¡ªor any of us screws up. We¡¯re in this together. You¡¯re the only thing keeping me sane right now. I don¡¯t even know if I am sane anymore¡ªbut if I am¡ªif I have any chance at being sane ever again¡ªit¡¯s because of you. I can¡¯t let you go¡ªnot unless I go with you. If you go down, I go down. We could both be dead in the next battle and then all of this will be for nothing. I can¡¯t lose you before that. I need you too much.¡±
He broke off fighting down emotion. This understanding of just how much he needed Fisher¡ªit had been creeping up on Rhodes for a long time.
Saying the words out loud took every ounce of strength he possessed. The pain of saying them only slightly paled in comparison to the pain of actually feeling this way.
He shut his eyes and turned his head aside trying his best to avoid seeing Fisher right in front of him.
¡°All this time¡ªI¡¯ve been the one who wanted to die. Now it¡¯s you. I kept going for you¡ªbecause I thought you wanted to live.¡±
¡°I do want to live,¡± Fisher half-whispered. ¡°I want to live more than anything. I just don¡¯t know how I can when I¡¯m like this.¡±
¡°Like what?¡± Rhodes asked. ¡°There¡¯s nothing wrong with you. You¡¯re a hell of a lot more functional than I am.¡±
Fisher snorted under his breath. ¡°Don¡¯t joke about that, Captain. I am not functional¡ªnot at all.¡±
¡°The only time you¡¯ve ever messed up is when you¡¯ve been malfunctioning. That¡¯s more than I can say.¡±
¡°My job is to protect you¡ªand the whole battalion,¡± Fisher replied. ¡°I can¡¯t even do that. I can¡¯t do the one task I¡¯m mandated to do. I can¡¯t advise you. I don¡¯t know what to do. I don¡¯t trust myself to assess any situation¡ªnot even a peaceful one like the battalion spending time in the barracks. How can I continue when I can¡¯t even perform my most essential function? How can I live with that?¡±
¡°Your most essential function is to help me process all this information and sensory input, isn¡¯t it?¡± Rhodes asked. ¡°You¡¯re doing that.¡±
¡°How am I doing that when I can¡¯t process it myself?¡±
¡°That¡¯s how you¡¯re helping me process it. Don¡¯t you get it?¡±
¡°No, Captain. I don¡¯t get it. I don¡¯t see how I can help you process it when I don¡¯t even understand what¡¯s happening to me¡ªto both of us.¡±
¡°That¡¯s exactly how you¡¯re helping me. You¡¯re helping me because neither of us understands it. We¡¯re both in the same fix now. We¡¯re both completely out of our depth, questioning our own sanity, and just trying to make it through the day. You¡¯re helping me because now I know that someone understands. You understand because you¡¯re going through the same thing I am. You¡¯re helping me by going through it with me. You¡¯re helping me by being as screwed up as I am and we have to make it work together if either of us is going to survive this. Now do you understand?¡±
Fisher remained silent for a long time. He pivoted to one side and looked off in another direction so he wouldn¡¯t make direct eye contact with Rhodes.
¡°I don¡¯t think I can do this, Captain,¡± Fisher finally murmured under his breath. ¡°I don¡¯t know how I can survive this.¡±
¡°Neither do I, pal.¡± Rhodes felt himself starting to lose it. ¡°I don¡¯t want to survive it, but I have to¡ªand I can only do that if you help me.¡±
Fisher didn¡¯t answer again for another long, silent moment. ¡°I wondered at first if I should have the doctors disconnect me from you, take you offline, and install me in another soldier. I thought you were too damaged and they should take you offline before you either destroyed yourself or harmed someone else.¡±
¡°Maybe you weren¡¯t completely wrong about that,¡± Rhodes muttered.
¡°Now I find out that I¡¯m the same way. I fear for my existence and my own sanity because I¡¯m attached to you¡..and yet it somehow works better that you are so broken and barely hanging on. It somehow makes more sense that I should be attached to someone as broken and barely hanging on as I am.¡±
Rhodes let out a shuddering breath. ¡°So you do get it.¡±
¡°I think so, Captain. I didn¡¯t before. I don¡¯t see how we can get through this when neither of us has the skills or fortitude to cope with this, but I suppose this is all we have to work with. There is no one else in the battalion who is better off than you are¡ªor I am. We either make it work or we both go down.¡±
¡°That¡¯s what I say, too,¡± Rhodes replied.
¡°So¡.what do we do to make it work?¡±
¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°I suppose it¡¯s a step in the right direction that you recognize me and you can hear me and you aren¡¯t yelling in my ear to target people in our own battalion.¡±
¡°We don¡¯t know that. I might go back to doing all of that as soon as one of them wakes up.¡±
¡°Then we should test it.¡± Rhodes studied Fisher a little more closely. ¡°Are you ready to go out there and face the doctors?¡±
¡°How should I advise you in the future? How should I know if I¡¯m assessing the situation correctly or if I¡¯m malfunctioning again?¡±
¡°Just do exactly what you did before. Assume you¡¯re making the right call unless one of us senses that the other one is malfunctioning.¡±
¡°Is that wise, Captain?¡± Fisher asked. ¡°I don¡¯t want to trust that.¡±
¡°You can¡¯t start second-guessing yourself now. We¡¯ve gone over this before. If you don¡¯t trust yourself, then trust me. I would rather have your flawed assessment than no assessment at all. Okay?¡±
¡°I¡¯m still not certain about this.¡±
¡°I am. Just tell me the very first thing that pops into your head. We¡¯ll keep talking every morning and evening the way we have been. You can talk to me about your doubts then. If I see anything that concerns me, I¡¯ll let you know.¡±
Fisher turned around to scrutinize Rhodes even more brutally. ¡°So¡you don¡¯t see anything that concerns you now?¡±
¡°Apart from your doubts in yourself? No, I don¡¯t.¡±
¡°Stop that, Captain!¡± Fisher countered. ¡°You¡¯re only saying that to make me feel better.¡±
¡°Do you think the doctors should take me offline?¡±
¡°Of course not!¡± Fisher exclaimed. ¡°You¡¯re the one who has stopped me from doing all these terrible things¡ªexcept that you haven¡¯t been able to stop me.¡±
¡°Do you think they should take me offline because I hacked The Grid to break that transponder code and override your programming? Do you think they should take me offline because I fired my Vipers into the wall instead of at Oakes and Lauer the way you recommended that I should?¡±
¡°Stop, Captain!¡± Fisher snapped. ¡°Of course they shouldn¡¯t take you offline for that! You were correcting my malfunctions¡ªas far as you were able to.¡±
¡°If they take you offline, they would have to take me offline,¡± Rhodes finished. ¡°I couldn¡¯t function without you.¡±
¡°They could give you another SAM.¡±
¡°I don¡¯t want another SAM. I want you. I trust you¡.¡±
Fisher gasped. ¡°You do?¡±
¡°Of course. I need you too much. I trust all your assessments. So you malfunctioned a few times¡.¡±
¡°More than a few.¡±
¡°That¡¯s nothing the rest of us haven¡¯t been going through in the same way. If I shouldn¡¯t be taken offline for malfunctioning, then you shouldn¡¯t, either. Now come on. We¡¯re doing this. If we stay in this capsule any longer, Dr. Osborne will think we¡¯re both malfunctioning.¡±
Rhodes activated the controls, opened the capsule cover, and sat up.
¡°You¡¯re sure about this, aren¡¯t you, Captain?¡± Fisher asked.
¡°Absolutely sure. You questioning yourself is the one thing that actually makes me feel better. It tells me that you finally understand. It makes me trust you even more.¡±
¡°Thank you, Captain,¡± Fisher murmured. ¡°You don¡¯t know what this means to me.¡±
¡°I know what you mean to me. You aren¡¯t going anywhere, pal.¡±
End of Chapter 30
Battalion 1: Book 2: Chapter 31
Rhodes climbed out of his capsule and stood up in front of Dr. Osborne. ¡°What¡¯s the story?¡± Osborne asked.
¡°Everything¡¯s fine,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°You can run your tests on Fisher now. He¡¯s fully functional.¡±
¡°So¡.is he talking to you now?¡±
Rhodes nodded. ¡°He¡¯s talking and showing himself to me. I don¡¯t think you¡¯ll find anything wrong with him.¡±
Osborne furrowed his brow at the controls on the wall. ¡°His stress levels and emotional distress responses are elevated.¡±
¡°Are they more elevated than mine¡ªor anyone else¡¯s in the battalion?¡±
¡°No, they¡¯re normal compared to those¡ªand they seem to match yours exactly.¡±
¡°Then what¡¯s the problem?¡±
¡°I guess there isn¡¯t one. It just isn¡¯t what I expected. These SAMs are supposed to be emotionless. That¡¯s what¡¯s supposed to make them valuable advisors in combat conditions.¡±
¡°I¡¯d say the SAMs are adapting to the conditions,¡± Rhodes pointed out. ¡°They¡¯ve experienced some extreme conditions since each of them came online. It only makes senses that the conditions would affect each SAM in a unique way. Don¡¯t you think?¡±
Osborne shrugged without turning around. ¡°I guess that makes sense. These SAMs were designed to be impartial and non-reactive to stressful situations, but they were also designed to be sentient and to form attachments to their hosts and other members of the battalion. The SAMs were designed to bond with people and each other the way humans do. So I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later that the SAMs would develop emotional responses just as people do.¡±
¡°Is there any evidence to suggest that the SAMs are functioning outside the normal range¡ªapart from when they really are suffering from some recognizable malfunction? These emotional responses aren¡¯t malfunctions, are they?¡±
¡°No, nothing like that,¡± Osborne replied. ¡°Right now, for instance, Fisher is registering an emotional distress response to our conversation, but I don¡¯t detect any malfunction. It appears¡.¡± He frowned again. ¡°It would be considered normal if I was reading it in a real person.¡±
Rhodes didn¡¯t correct the doctor by reminding him that Fisher was a real person¡ªas real as any organic living person.
Fisher had feelings¡ªand who could blame him? He¡¯d gone through the meat grinder along with the rest of Battalion 1.
Now he faced the prospect of confronting his own kind on the battlefield and either destroying them or letting them destroy Rhodes and the rest of the battalion.
Fisher and the other SAMs were caught in a double bind. They were entangled in a no-win situation with astronomical stakes riding on their every choice, thought, action¡ªand even their every word.
Rhodes didn¡¯t see how anyone could go through that without suffering some emotional distress. So Fisher was as stressed and anguished over this as he would have been if he¡¯d been a real person. Why was anyone surprised?
He remained silent through Rhodes¡¯s and Osborne¡¯s conversation. Osborne checked a few more readings and eventually satisfied himself that Rhodes and Fisher were both functioning as well as they could be expected to be.
¡°So what happens next?¡± Rhodes asked.
¡°I suggest you take the evening off and relax,¡± Osborne replied. ¡°I don¡¯t know how much more opportunity you¡¯ll have to do that. We¡¯ll start waking up your subordinates tomorrow one at a time. If they malfunction or if your SAMs malfunction as a result of you meeting each other, then we could be right back up the shit creek where we were before.¡±
Rhodes went back to the capsule hold. Someone had cleaned the place up, removed all the battalion¡¯s destroyed capsules, replaced them with new ones, and rewired all of them into the walls the way they should be.
He couldn¡¯t fathom how the Legion brass got new capsules out this far on such short notice.The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
The brass could probably accomplish a lot more than that if it meant covering up just what a shit show this whole project turned out to be.
No trace remained that the glorious soldiers of Battalion 1 had turned their super-advanced weaponry on each other, killed the Ruling Council President¡¯s daughter in cold blood, and were now in even greater danger than ever of being switched off for the safety of peace-loving citizens everywhere.
Rhodes threw himself down at the desk. He was all alone. Oakes wasn¡¯t here and Rhodes didn¡¯t have a single scrap of paper to draw on.
He still had Fisher, though. They didn¡¯t have to talk because Rhodes already said it all.
He told Fisher, at last, how much he needed his SAM. Neither of them could deny any longer just how interdependent they were.
Rhodes didn¡¯t want to deny it any longer. He wanted to depend on Fisher for his very life, his sanity, and any shred of a future he might have left. He couldn¡¯t think of anyone else he would or could trust.
He couldn¡¯t face all this solitude without it threatening to snap his last nerve. He was just making up his mind to go back into another conversion cycle. Anything was better than listening to this silence.
He stood up and stopped in his tracks when Dr. Trudeau hustled into the hold. He glanced right and left as if anyone might overhear their conversation.
¡°Is something wrong?¡± Rhodes asked. ¡°Did something happen after I left the lab?¡±
¡°No, no. Not at all.¡± Trudeau rushed up to Rhodes, but the young doctor wouldn¡¯t hold eye contact for more than a second. ¡°I was wondering if we could talk¡ªin private.¡±
Rhodes waved at the room around him. ¡°It doesn¡¯t get more private than this.¡± He frowned at Trudeau. ¡°What¡¯s the matter? What do you want to say here that you couldn¡¯t say in the lab?¡±
Trudeau lowered his voice to a rushed whisper. ¡°I couldn¡¯t tell you in front of Osborne. I mean¡.he knows and everything¡¡±
Rhodes¡¯s alarm bells went off. ¡°Knows what?¡±
¡°He just doesn¡¯t want you to know¡ªsee?¡± Trudeau blurted out. ¡°He didn¡¯t want me to tell you, but I figured it could be important to the battalion¡¯s safety¡ªso you had to know.¡±
Rhodes locked his jaws tight. ¡°What¡¯s important to the battalion¡¯s safety?¡±
¡°It was Dietz,¡± Trudeau whispered. ¡°He wasn¡¯t targeting Henshaw when he shot her.¡±
Rhodes raised his eyebrow. ¡°Are you saying¡.?¡±
¡°He was targeting everyone else¡ªthe way all of you were. He suffered the same malfunction¡ªbut he wasn¡¯t targeting Henshaw. He¡.just snapped. See what I mean? He grabbed her and shot her for no reason. That was no malfunction.¡±
Rhodes sighed and let his shoulders slump. ¡°Okay. Thank you for telling me.¡±
Trudeau¡¯s eyes fell out of their sockets. ¡°You¡..don¡¯t tell me you knew about this! He¡¯s a raving psycho! What the hell is he doing in the battalion?! We should take him offline before he wakes up. He shouldn¡¯t return to the battalion at all!¡±
¡°Did you tell Osborne that?¡±
¡°Of course!¡± Trudeau¡¯s voice started to rise and he stopped himself to squash it again. ¡°He won¡¯t listen. He thinks there¡¯s some mistake. He thinks Dietz malfunctioned some other way¡ªsomething not related to the targeting system going haywire.¡±
Rhodes turned away toward his capsule. ¡°Tell Osborne to check Dietz¡¯s criminal record.¡±
¡°Why? What¡¯s on it?¡±
¡°I¡¯m not sure, but I¡¯m betting it¡¯s something that explains this. This isn¡¯t the first time he¡¯s turned his weapon on someone else in the battalion. He¡¯s even shot at them and nearly killed them. He was a raving psycho before he joined the battalion. Now he¡¯s a raving psycho in the battalion. If you really want so badly to take him offline, his criminal record is the way to do it.¡±
¡°Can¡¯t you explain it to Osborne?¡± Trudeau asked.
¡°How could I do that without giving away that you told me about Dietz not targeting Henshaw?¡±
¡°I mean¡¡± Trudeau shuffled his feet. ¡°If it¡¯s a matter of the battalion¡¯s safety, then I wouldn¡¯t mind him knowing that I told you.¡±
Rhodes tapped his capsule to open the cover. ¡°Don¡¯t do anything¡ªand don¡¯t mention to Osborne again about taking Dietz offline.¡±
¡°Why not? You can¡¯t seriously expect to go into combat with a freak like that.¡±
¡°I already have¡ªmore than once. He actually behaves himself pretty well in combat. He only acts psycho when he malfunctions¡ªor when we¡¯re all malfunctioning. I won¡¯t say I¡¯m ultra-pleased with his behavior, but I¡¯m not prepared to take a man offline because of that.¡±
Trudeau furrowed his brow and pursed his lips. ¡°That¡¯s exactly what Osborne said.¡±
¡°I really appreciate you telling me, but it doesn¡¯t change anything.¡±
¡°Except that Henshaw is dead.¡±
Rhodes shrugged. ¡°It could have been any of us¡ªeither as the killer or the victim.¡±
¡°I don¡¯t see it that way. You, Lauer, Oakes, and Thackery all tried your hardest not to shoot anyone. You, Thackery, and Henshaw actually stopped your SAMs from shooting at anyone. Dietz could have done the same thing.¡±
¡°You don¡¯t know that. You¡¯re talking about ending a man¡¯s life for something that may or may not have been his fault. You better come up with something more compelling than this.¡±
Trudeau narrowed his eyes. ¡°It¡¯s your funeral¡ªand your subordinates¡¯ funerals. Don¡¯t you care about your people¡¯s safety?¡±
¡°Dietz is my subordinate and you¡¯re talking about sending him to his funeral. It¡¯s my job to protect his safety as much as the others.¡±
Trudeau stared at Rhodes tapping on his capsule to open his cover. Trudeau was still standing there when Rhodes sat down on the mattress.
He didn¡¯t plan to go to sleep. He just wanted to lie down, shut his eyes, and pretend not to think about all this.
¡°All right,¡± Trudeau finally declared. ¡°I¡¯ll tell him to look at Dietz¡¯s criminal record.¡±
¡°You do that.¡± Rhodes leaned over to lie down. ¡°I wish you all the luck in the world.¡±
End of Chapter 31.
Battalion 1: Book 2: Chapter 32
Rhodes walked into a different lab. Dr. Osborne might have nine different labs¡ªone for each member of the battalion.
Or only eight now. Rhodes didn¡¯t ask what the Legion did with Georgie Henshaw¡¯s body¡ªand her implants. Did it ever cross any of their minds to destroy the implants to stop them from regenerating into another version of the Masks?
All the other invasion forces threatening the Treaty of Aemon Cluster could be bastardized species of SAMs, too. Anything was possible after what Rhodes and his people discovered on Bao.
He was getting insatiably curious to find out about these rouge SAMs. Where did they come from? How did they operate? He would probably never find out.
He had other things on his mind right now. He approached the only capsule in the room. Lauer lay asleep inside it.
Osborne and Trudeau worked on their computer equipment. Trudeau never mentioned again if he got Dr. Osborne to check Dietz¡¯s criminal record. Neither of them mentioned it and neither did Rhodes.
He no longer honestly cared what Dietz¡¯s background might be. As far as Rhodes was concerned, Dietz¡¯s history before he joined Battalion 1 was no more relevant or concerning than Henshaw¡¯s, Fuentes¡¯s, or Thackery¡¯s.
He really didn¡¯t care where any of them came from as long as they held up their end of the bargain on the battlefield.
So far, all of them did exactly that. Even Dietz did it. He did it exceptionally well. Rhodes couldn¡¯t ask for anything else.
The capsule cover opened. Osborne came over to Lauer¡¯s bedside and worked on the controls there.
Rhodes stayed out of the way. He wasn¡¯t here to help Lauer wake up.
Rhodes had one job here¡ªto interface between Fisher, Wild, and Lauer. If the four of them recognized each other as friends and could talk to each other without trying to blow each other¡¯s brains out, that would be another win.
Lauer groaned and swiveled his head back and forth on the pillow without opening his eyes. ¡°Where am I?¡±
¡°You¡¯re in a lab on the Ravager Ero,¡± Dr. Osborne told him. ¡°You¡¯ve been in stasis. Captain Corban Rhodes is here to talk to you about what happened between Dietz and Henshaw.¡±
Lauer snarled under his breath. ¡°What is there to talk about?¡±
¡°I need to interface between you and Wild,¡± Rhodes interrupted. ¡°I need you and Wild to talk to me and Fisher through the interface to make sure we don¡¯t malfunction the way we did before.¡±
Lauer snorted and passed his hand across his face. ¡°Shoot me now.¡±
Rhodes had to chuckle. He bent down and clamped his hand on Lauer¡¯s shoulder. ¡°We aren¡¯t there yet, but if it comes to that, I promise I will.¡±
He activated the interface without asking any further permission. Wild was already there in front of Lauer¡¯s eyes.
The skull swiveled around to glare at Rhodes¡ªbut that was always Wild¡¯s everyday facial expression. ¡°Captain¡.¡± the skull rasped.
¡°Do you recognize me and Fisher, Wild?¡± Rhodes asked. ¡°You don¡¯t consider us your enemies?¡±
¡°Of course not,¡± Wild husked. ¡°I remember everything from that disaster in the capsule hold. I don¡¯t know why I targeted all of you.¡± He turned back to Lauer. ¡°Thank you for stopping me, Lieutenant.¡±
¡°Hey, we all malfunction, don¡¯t we?¡± Lauer dragged his eyes open and looked up at Rhodes. Lauer also glanced at Wild and Fisher through the interface. ¡°Can we execute Dietz now?¡±Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.
¡°No, not yet.¡±
Lauer grumbled under his breath. ¡°You¡¯re way too nice, Captain.¡±
Rhodes found himself beaming at Lauer. Rhodes might even have started to consider Lauer a friend. ¡°I¡¯ll let you know when the time comes.¡±
¡°Oh, I¡¯ll know when the time comes,¡± Lauer muttered. ¡°When the time comes, I won¡¯t ask you for permission.¡±
¡°It¡¯s a deal.¡± Rhodes turned to Osborne. ¡°Is he clear to come back to the hold now?¡±
Osborne nodded. ¡°When he¡¯s strong enough to walk. We¡¯ll keep waking up one person each day until we get back to Coleridge Station.¡±
Rhodes stood around waiting for Lauer to stand up. He hobbled slowly and painfully back to the capsule hold where he immediately laid down on his mattress.
¡°I don¡¯t know why I¡¯m lying down. More sleep will only make me feel worse.¡±
¡°You¡¯ll feel better, now that you¡¯re out of stasis.¡±
Lauer looked around. ¡°This place is too quiet. It doesn¡¯t feel the same without the others.¡± He looked down at his hands. ¡°It won¡¯t be the same without Georgie. I always knew we¡¯d lose someone. I just never thought it would be her.¡±
¡°Yeah, I didn¡¯t expect to go this long without losing someone.¡±
¡°I wish it had been someone else¡ªFuentes or Dietz or someone like that. That¡¯s pretty messed up, isn¡¯t it? It had to be her¡ªthe nicest person in the whole battalion.¡±
¡°It isn¡¯t messed up,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°I guess it¡¯s just as well, though. She never belonged in the battalion. Now she can rest in peace the way she should have before she came here.¡±
Lauer nodded down at his hands. ¡°I guess it¡¯s that way for all of us. We¡¯re just ghosts walking around. None of us is really alive.¡±
Rhodes gripped his shoulder again and headed for the table. He¡¯d gotten Dr. Osborne to locate some paper and pencils so Rhodes could work on his art.
¡°Get some rest,¡± Rhodes told Lauer. ¡°We can talk when you wake up.¡±
Lauer struggled to sit up. ¡°No, I want to sit with you at the table. I want to get back into something like a normal routine.¡±
¡°You¡¯re more than welcome.¡± Rhodes sat down and picked up his pencil. ¡°Did you have a hobby before this?¡±
¡°Apart from fighting in the Legion? I was really into riding horses when I was younger. I used to take my wife and kids riding when I went home on leave.¡±
Rhodes¡¯s head shot up before he thought to stop himself. He immediately corrected by looking back down at his piece of paper to hide his surprise.
Lauer never talked about his family. He never even mentioned that he had a wife and kids before this.
Rhodes always assumed Lauer did, but Rhodes had long since given up ever getting any personal information out of Lauer, especially not anything as personal as this.
Rhodes made a split-second decision to keep the mood light by playing it off as well as he could. ¡°So what kind of horse-riding did you do¡ªdressage?¡±
Lauer exploded in laughter. It was one of the few real laughs Rhodes had heard since this whole nightmare started. ¡°Rodeo, actually. I used to compete before I joined the Legion, but I used to take my family trail-riding. Horse-packing, you might call it. We¡¯d load up the horses and go trekking through the wilderness for two weeks at a time.¡±
¡°That sounds fun.¡± Rhodes passed his pencil across his page. ¡°My kids would have been tearing my eyes out within an hour if I tried to pull something like that.¡±
Lauer laughed again. ¡°You have to train ¡®em young. What did yours like to do?¡±
¡°They were into competitive sports¡ªswimming, track, basketball¡ªthat kind of thing. I guess they still are into it. They¡¯re out there competing right now while I¡¯m stuck in here. I guess I can be happy about that.¡± He finished his sketch and pushed it across the table. ¡°Here. This is for you.¡±
Lauer rotated the paper around to look at Rhodes¡¯s drawing. He¡¯d been planning to draw a bouquet of flowers in a vase.
He changed it at the last minute when Lauer mentioned his family going horseback riding.
Rhodes changed the vase and bouquet into a tree, added a landscape, and finally penciled in a bunch of people riding horses through the mountains.
A beautiful ray of light broke across Lauer¡¯s grizzled face when he saw the picture. ¡°Captain¡.¡± he croaked. ¡°This is incredible! Thank you so much! I¡.I don¡¯t know what to say.¡±
¡°Don¡¯t say anything. I¡¯m honored that you told me about your family.¡±
Lauer didn¡¯t reply. He compressed his lips holding back emotion while he stared deep into the drawing.
It wasn¡¯t one of Rhodes¡¯s best. He didn¡¯t even plan it out. He never dreamed it would have such a profound effect on Lauer.
Lauer stared at the picture in silence for a minute until tears welled up in his one eye. He struggled to control his lips.
He was still staring at it with far-off longing when he stood up, crossed the hold to his capsule, and stuck the picture to the inside surface of the cover¡ªright where he would be able to see the picture before he went to sleep and after he woke up.
He stretched out on the mattress, closed the cover, and lay there staring at the picture for a long time¡ªmuch longer than he needed to. He eventually started his conversion cycle and fell asleep.
¡°That was incredible, Captain,¡± Fisher remarked after Lauer fell asleep.
¡°It wasn¡¯t even that great a drawing,¡± Rhodes pointed out. ¡°I just spat it out on the spur of the moment.¡±
¡°I mean Lauer¡¯s reaction. I never thought a simple drawing would mean so much to him.¡±
¡°Neither did I. If I had known, I would have given it to him long ago.¡±
End of Chapter 32.
Battalion 1: Book 2: Chapter 33
Rhodes surveyed what was left of his battalion now that Henshaw was gone.
Dr. Osborne had woken up Coulter, Rhinehart, Oakes, Lauer, Dietz, Fuentes, and Thackery one after the other.
None of them had any problem interfacing with each other or each other¡¯s SAMs. None of them malfunctioned at all the way they did before.
Henshaw¡¯s death cast a cloud over the group. They¡¯d gotten even more serious than they were before if that was possible.
Dr. Osborne had woken up Thackery only yesterday¡ªjust in time for the battalion to return to Coleridge Station.
Rhodes couldn¡¯t imagine why the Legion even bothered to bring the battalion back here. He and his people were scheduled to run training sessions to test that all their SAMs¡¯ modifications were holding and the battalion could still function normally.
The battalion could have done that on board the Ero. They didn¡¯t need to come back to Coleridge Station for that, but no one consulted Rhodes on these decisions. No one consulted him about much of anything these days.
This whole trip had been one long delay. The Legion brass and the Battalion 1 governing body would decide sooner or later that the battalion was ready to go back into combat.
Then they would have to make another return trip to face the Masks. It was only a matter of time.
Rhodes really didn¡¯t care anymore. He could wait as long as it took. Another delay just gave him one more day to spend with his friends in the privacy of their personal capsule hold.
Henshaw¡¯s death brought them closer together. No one talked about bumping off Dietz even though they were all thinking it. No one mentioned him killing Henshaw even though her absence offered a stark reminder every minute of the day.
For some sick reason, the Ero crew didn¡¯t remove her capsule after her death. They left it sitting there as some kind of monument.
She wasn¡¯t the first member of the battalion to die and she certainly wouldn¡¯t be the last. Maybe the crew thought or Dr. Osborne or some other genius thought they could reuse the capsule for the next poor schmuck who got roped into this circus.
Rhodes tried not to think like that, but he got another reminder when he returned to the Coleridge Station barracks. All of Henshaw¡¯s wooden carvings still sat on the shelf where she left them. Even the unfinished ones were there.
Rhodes wished now that he could go through the station and ask everyone to give back the carvings she¡¯d passed out to the station personnel.
He would have liked to display all her carvings on the barracks bookshelf. Henshaw wouldn¡¯t get any other memorial anywhere else.
He couldn¡¯t do that. He wouldn¡¯t disturb her sleeping ghost by asking anyone to give back her carvings. If they cared enough to keep them, the carvings were better off with the people to whom she¡¯d given them.
Now he faced his first training session without her. He didn¡¯t let himself feel anything about that.
Thackery, Coulter, and Fuentes were feeling enough for the whole battalion. Oakes, Lauer, and Rhinehart kept their expressions as impassive and apathetic as possible.You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
Coulter tried to do the same thing and failed. Thackery and Fuentes didn¡¯t try. They kept grimacing and writhing in despair.
Dietz pretended not to notice anyone¡¯s reaction. He breezed through every day, talked as though Henshaw was still alive, and went about his business.
Rhodes couldn¡¯t exactly blame him. What exactly was Dietz supposed to do¡ªfall on his sword because he malfunctioned?
Rhodes no longer cared if a real malfunction caused Henshaw¡¯s death or not. What the hell difference did it make in the end?
He needed one more person in this battalion. He needed everyone who could shoot and that meant Dietz.
Rhodes himself could have killed both Oakes and Lauer during that malfunction. Then the battalion really would have been screwed.
Rhodes refused to think about that. ¡°Are you all ready to go?¡± he asked.
Everyone nodded. Rhinehart said, ¡°Yes, Sir,¡± and the group dropped into The Grid in their old training room.
Rhodes wasn¡¯t at all surprised when they wound up on Bao fighting the Masks. The whole point of this was to test the SAMs in battle against the Masks¡ªto see if the SAMs could fight the Masks.
The whole training session played out the same way it did last time. The battalion soared up to the Kuestrian Ridge and joined the 249th.
The only difference was that a horde of Masks filled the valley below instead of Emal.
The Masks made better progress than the Emal. They advanced higher up the hillsides and it took more Legion firepower to knock the Masks down.
They didn¡¯t fall down as far. They got up quicker and climbed higher still. They kept advancing no matter what the platoons did.
Rhodes waved his people forward. This was a training session. It wasn¡¯t real.
Did knowing that affect how the SAMs reacted? He didn¡¯t have time to decide before the Masks rotated their weapons upward toward the battalion and opened fire.
Rhodes changed his grid lines into a Striker, raced over the Masks¡¯ heads, and unloaded his Vipers on them. He bombarded the ground troops and even targeted their invasion ships in the air.
Seeker missiles, scourge gun blasts, and more lasers from the rest of the battalion flashed around the landscape. Some of Rhodes¡¯s Vipers exploded against the enemy vessels.
Those blazing fireballs lit up the battlefield as far as Rhodes could see. He kept soaring back and forth over the enemy position to take out as many Masks as he could.
¡°What¡¯s our objective?¡± Oakes asked from somewhere.
Rhodes checked The Grid to find out where his people were and how they were fighting the enemy, but at that moment, The Grid evaporated.
The whole battalion fell out of the Bao landscape, switched back into The Grid with the green lines and black squares, and just as fast, that disappeared and they went back to the white training room.
¡°Um¡what the hell just happened?¡± Rhinehart snapped.
¡°The Battalion 1 governing body is calling you to a meeting, Captain,¡± Fisher reported.
¡°Right now?!¡± Lauer snapped. ¡°What the hell!¡±
Rhodes threw up his hands. ¡°I guess I just have to find out what they want.¡±
¡°It better not be the order to deploy when we haven¡¯t even tested our SAMs.¡±
¡°I¡¯ll tell the governing body that we aren¡¯t ready.¡±
¡°I¡¯m sure they¡¯ll be receptive to that,¡± Wild muttered out the side of his mouth.
¡°I at least have to go see what they want,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°I guess you can all go back to the barracks.¡±
¡°You mean¡just¡leave?¡± Rhinehart made a face. ¡°What a waste of a perfectly good training session.¡±
¡°It will still be there when we come back.¡± Rhodes turned away. ¡°I better get this over with.¡±
¡°I hope this isn¡¯t an order to deploy,¡± Fisher remarked on their way down the corridor. ¡°We¡¯re nowhere near ready for that. Even the governing body must realize that¡ªwhat with Henshaw¡¯s body barely cold.¡±
¡°She died on a Ravager out in space¡ªhundreds of lightyears away from them,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°I¡¯m sure her death is the least of their concerns.¡±
¡°Well, it¡¯s the greatest of ours¡ªor mine at least.¡±
Rhodes found himself smiling at his SAM. ¡°That¡¯s because you¡¯re much smarter than they are. You should be in charge of Battalion 1.¡±
¡°There would be no Battalion 1 if I was,¡± Fisher murmured.
Rhodes laughed. ¡°That¡¯s why you¡¯re smarter than they are. Would you like to do the talking today? I¡¯ll stand aside and listen the way you do.¡±
¡°Very funny, Captain. The governing body can¡¯t hear me.¡±
¡°I¡¯m sure Dr. Osborne could arrange some kind of interface¡ªif you really want to.¡±
¡°I don¡¯t want to. You can take it on the chin for the whole battalion.¡±
Rhodes sighed. ¡°So what else is new?¡±
End of Chapter 33.
Battalion 1: Book 2: Chapter 34
Rhodes and Fisher had to stop talking when Rhodes entered the meeting of the Battalion 1 governing body. This one was held in General Brewster¡¯s office instead of Colonel Kraft¡¯s.
General Brewster¡¯s office was more like a stateroom or maybe even an open-plan apartment. He actually had a separate conference room attached to his office just so everyone present understood what a big shot he was.
The officers sat at the table instead of standing. Rhodes remained standing at the far end of the table¡ªas far as he could get from these people.
¡°Thank you for coming to see us, Captain,¡± General Brewster began.
Rhodes waited¡ªlike he had some choice about coming to see them.
¡°We¡¯d like to discuss this report of yours that the Masks are using SAMs technology.¡±
Rhodes still didn¡¯t say anything. He¡¯d already said everything he had to say on the subject of the Masks using SAMs technology.
The Legion should already know this as well as he did. Enough Masks got shot down on Bao. The Legion would be stupid not to retrieve some of them for study.
Then again, the Legion didn¡¯t exactly distinguish itself for competence at the highest levels of command.
Rhodes could envision a scenario where the regular Legion retrieved destroyed Masks for study and didn¡¯t recognize them simply because the Battalion 1 project was too highly classified.
The regular Legion wouldn¡¯t recognize the Masks or their technology. Rhodes couldn¡¯t say the same thing for these people in front of him right now.
He already showed them the Mask from Bao. If they didn¡¯t believe him, he could only chalk that up to willful ignorance. It would have been perfectly in character with everything else they did in this project.
¡°Can you give us some further details on why you think the Masks are SAMs?¡± General Hyde asked. ¡°Was there anything else that led you to draw that conclusion?¡±
¡°Do you mean besides the fact our SAMs short-circuited and refused to fight their own kind?¡± Rhodes asked. ¡°That¡¯s the most compelling evidence I can think of. If you don¡¯t believe me, you can ask the SAMs. They were the ones who originally identified the Masks because the Masks were using The Grid.¡±
¡°I suppose it¡¯s conceivable that the Masks could be using The Grid without being SAMs¡¡¡± Colonel LeClerc interjected.
Rhodes snorted. ¡°No, it isn¡¯t. They manipulated the grid lines to change their outer shapes and give themselves faces.¡±
LeClerc bent over his device and frowned at the screen. ¡°That isn¡¯t the report we received from the platoon commanders. None of them said anything about the Masks changing shape¡.¡±
¡°They didn¡¯t do it in battle¡ªand I think we can all agree that the regular Legion wouldn¡¯t have been able to see the grid lines. Only my subordinates, our SAMs, and I would be able to see the lines. We saw that downed Mask shifting the grid lines to give himself a face¡ªexactly like a SAM.¡±
¡°At any rate, the Masks are invading the Treaty of Aemon Cluster and we have to fight them,¡± General Brewster chimed in. ¡°What they are and how they¡¯re doing it doesn¡¯t matter as much as defeating them.¡±
¡°Why do you bother denying it?¡± Rhodes countered. ¡°Just admit it. You discarded the implants of dead and failed battalion members. The implants and the SAMs attached to them modified themselves and created the Masks.¡±
¡°Be that as it may, we¡¯ve decided to deploy you¡..¡±
¡°I already said I wouldn¡¯t deploy until you finish testing the new modifications to the SAMs¡.¡±
¡°The training session you just completed seems to indicate that your SAMs are fine working with each other.¡±
¡°The training session we just¡.¡± Rhodes broke off trying to think straight. ¡°We didn¡¯t complete it. You interrupted us¡¡for this? You stopped that training session before we even got started so you could deploy us? Are you out of your minds? Henshaw is dead because of this. You¡¯re the ones who keep telling me how expensive and valuable Battalion 1 is. Now you want to throw us away by sending us into combat when we aren¡¯t ready.¡±
¡°What will it take to convince you?¡± Admiral Pulman asked. ¡°You can¡¯t spend the rest of your existence running training sessions here at Coleridge Station.¡±
Rhodes stopped himself from arguing back. In that moment, he really wished he could spend the rest of his existence running training sessions here at Coleridge Station.
That would be a better use of his time than sending unprepared and malfunctioning people into combat against an enemy as dangerous as the Masks.
He took a deep breath, but it didn¡¯t steady his nerves. ¡°I¡¯m not suggesting that. I¡¯m suggesting that you actually let us go through the training to make sure the SAMs are functioning correctly before you send us back out. Sending us out without that testing and training would be courting disaster. I can¡¯t believe I even have to explain it to you.¡±
The officers squirmed a few more times. When one of them did finally work up the courage to speak, it was Colonel Kraft.
¡°The truth is, Captain, that we¡¯re desperate. The Masks polished off the Eotis system impossibly fast¡ªmuch faster than any of us anticipated. Now they¡¯re moving on to the Noria system¡ªwhich as you know has a sizable civilian population.¡±
¡°The Masks are already burning through Gisu, which is the outermost planet,¡± Colonel Neff added. ¡°The Legion is already on the planet trying to slow them down so we can evacuate the rest of the population.¡±
¡°The battalion won¡¯t be able to slow the Masks down,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°Nothing can.¡±
¡°Your presence can¡¯t hurt,¡± General Hyde pointed out. ¡°If we don¡¯t send you, the Legion will fall and the Masks will take over the rest of the solar system.¡±
¡°We don¡¯t even know why they¡¯re doing this,¡± Admiral Pulman added. ¡°They could plan to raze the whole Cluster for all we know.¡±This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
Rhodes sighed. Would the battalion ever be ready to go back into combat? He didn¡¯t foresee a time when he and his subordinates would ever be functional enough to face any enemy, especially not the Masks.
The project would continue to suffer setbacks and problems. It wasn¡¯t possible for the battalion not to continue to malfunction in every imaginable way.
What difference did it make if Rhodes and his people malfunctioned here or on the battlefield? The battlefield would be more dangerous. So what?
Henshaw died in the battalion¡¯s own capsule hold. Gannon died inside Coleridge Station. Neither of them died on the battlefield.
Maybe the battalion might actually be able to do some good on the battlefield despite their many malfunctions.
Rhodes and his subordinates already had done some good out there. They protected the platoons and got dozens of people back alive. The 249th would have gotten wiped out half a dozen times without the battalion¡¯s protection.
He didn¡¯t have to say he agreed. Colonel Kraft read his mind and spoke up again. ¡°We¡¯ll send you your orders by the end of the day, Captain. You have a week before you deploy, so you can run any training sessions and get Dr. Osborne to make any modifications in that time. He¡¯ll also be able to continue to modify the battalion en route to the battlefront.¡±
Rhodes didn¡¯t ask why the Battalion 1 governing body was waiting a week to deploy the battalion when the situation in the Noria system was so precarious.
Maybe Captain Ackerman refused to take the battalion out until he refitted his ship. Rhodes could think of a thousand factors that would slow the process down.
Meanwhile, the Masks chewed their way into one of the Treaty of Aemon Cluster¡¯s most populous solar systems. This was another disaster in the making.
Rhodes took his time wandering back to the barracks. How the hell was he supposed to explain this to his subordinates?
He didn¡¯t have to because they all listened through the interface. They already knew about the order to deploy and why the governing body interrupted the battalion¡¯s training session just now.
He made it halfway back to the barracks before Rhinehart left them and met Rhodes at the concourse. ¡°What can I do for you, Lieutenant?¡± Rhodes asked.
¡°Would you mind if we had a private conversation off the interface?¡± Rhinehart waved toward one of the station¡¯s side wings¡ªtoward the loading dock.
Rhodes took one instant to make sure the rest of his people heard and understood why he and Rhinehart were breaking the interface.
Rhodes switched off the interface and silence fell. He couldn¡¯t see the other SAMs except for Rocky.
Rhodes and Rhinehart strolled down the other corridor heading for the loading dock. Neither man spoke until they got there.
Rhodes watched the ships launching and landing for a few minutes. The Ero sat to one side with the crew working on the ship¡¯s outer hull.
Rhodes couldn¡¯t see anything wrong with the ship, but Ackerman would know that better than Rhodes would.
Rhinehart broke the silence before Rhodes got a chance to ask what Rhinehart wanted to talk about.
¡°It¡¯s weird, you know?¡± Rhinehart began. ¡°I¡¯ve been a soldier all my life. I never wanted to be anything else.¡±
Rhodes glanced over at him. ¡°You still are one, Lieutenant. You¡¯re one of the best soldiers I¡¯ve ever known.¡±
¡°Not anymore.¡± Rhinehart gazed up at the stars. ¡°I don¡¯t want to go back into combat. I don¡¯t want to go back out at all¡ªnot against any enemy¡ªnot against the Emal or the Masks or anybody else. I wouldn¡¯t even want to go out against a rowdy civilian protest mob.¡±
Rhodes frowned at the side of Rhinehart¡¯s face. ¡°Neither do I. None of us does.¡±
¡°No, you don¡¯t understand.¡± Rhinehart squirmed in his implants. ¡°I want to ask you¡.if there¡¯s any way¡.you could get Dr. Osborne to disconnect¡..me. I don¡¯t know how to explain it.¡±
¡°Disconnect you? If you want to take yourself offline, you can do that yourself. You don¡¯t need him to do it.¡±
¡°No, I don¡¯t mean take myself offline. I mean¡.you know¡disconnect my awareness that I¡¯m doing it. Then I would still go into combat against the enemy. I just wouldn¡¯t be aware that I¡¯m doing it. The Legion could still deploy me wherever they think I¡¯m needed.¡±
Rhodes glanced at Rocky. The SAM didn¡¯t say a word through this conversation. Rocky didn¡¯t protest Rhinehart basically asking for a different kind of death.
This wouldn¡¯t threaten the SAM¡¯s life. Rocky would probably continue to function. Only Rhinehart would cease to exist.
Rhinehart¡¯s expression twisted and he grimaced out at the stars again. He refused to look at Rhodes. ¡°I just can¡¯t stand this any longer. I don¡¯t want to be this. I understand why the Legion needs us. I just don¡¯t want to do it anymore.¡± His shoulders spasmed. ¡°I¡¯m going crazy from this feeling of these things stuck to me.¡±
Rhodes didn¡¯t say anything or offer any assurance. He knew that feeling only too well.
That feeling drove him batshit. It never went away.
Sometimes he tricked himself into thinking he was getting used to it. Then it came back with a vengeance, especially at times like now when something drew his attention to it.
That feeling of his implants chewing into his flesh and bones¡ªit was only slightly worse than the feeling that he was losing his mind. He couldn¡¯t even trust himself anymore.
¡°I know what you¡¯re going to say,¡± Rhinehart blurted out. ¡°You¡¯re going to say we don¡¯t even know if it¡¯s possible to switch off my awareness without killing me. Dr. Osborne already told me the same thing¡.¡±
Rhodes spun around. ¡°You already asked Osborne to do it?¡±
Rhinehart nodded. ¡°He said he doesn¡¯t know how.¡±
¡°Did he say he would be willing if he did know?¡±
Rhinehart nodded a second time. ¡°He said he would have done it weeks ago if he only knew how. He said he would have been morally obligated to wipe our awareness from everyone in the whole battalion. He said keeping us aware through this process was the greatest war atrocity he¡¯s ever heard of. He said the governing body should be executed for their crimes. He said the Battalion 1 project should have turned us into robots instead of keeping us aware of what was happening to us.¡±
Rhodes looked away. That explained why Dr. Osborne acted so compassionately toward everyone in Battalion 1. His attitude had been lightyears different from Drs. Neiland, Irvine, and Montague.
Now Rhodes got his answer, but it didn¡¯t change anything. Dr. Osborne couldn¡¯t switch off anyone¡¯s awareness. Everyone in the battalion just had to live with this horror.
Rhodes took a long time to decide what to say to Rhinehart. ¡°If you already asked Osborne and he doesn¡¯t know how, what exactly do you want me to do?¡±
¡°Could you look into it?¡±
¡°Look into it how? I don¡¯t know anything about this stuff. If Dr. Osborne doesn¡¯t know how¡.¡± Rhodes trailed off when he remembered.
Dr. Osborne might not know a way to disconnect Rhinehart, but Osborne wasn¡¯t the only doctor working on Battalion 1.
Dr. Trudeau had already voiced his objections to some of Osborne¡¯s methods. What if Trudeau knew something Osborne didn¡¯t?
¡°All right, Lieutenant,¡± Rhodes finally agreed. ¡°I¡¯ll look into it. I can¡¯t make any promises. They might try to disconnect your awareness and wind up wiping all your brain activity. You could wind up dead.¡±
¡°I¡¯m good with that. Anything is better than this. I only thought¡.you know¡.if they kept me alive, I might be able to help the Legion after all. I just wouldn¡¯t know I was doing it.¡±
Rhodes nodded and turned away. ¡°Yeah. I know.¡±
He didn¡¯t argue the point any further. He and Rhinehart headed back to the barracks and Rhodes reactivated the interface on the way. No one besides Rocky and Fisher would ever find out what Rhodes and Rhinehart had been talking about¡ªunless they succeeded.
If Trudeau or someone else succeeded in erasing Rhinehart¡¯s awareness while still keeping his body and his fighting skill alive, the whole battalion would find out about it.
If Osborne was right about Battalion 1 being wrong¡ªwhich of course he was¡ªthen he and Trudeau would be obligated to wipe the whole battalion.
The conversation gave Rhodes plenty to think about. He couldn¡¯t imagine why Rhinehart would want his awareness wiped.
Rhodes could think of a lot of reasons why he wanted to die and stop doing this. As long as he was still alive, fighting the Treaty of Aemon Cluster¡¯s enemies, and suffering the tortures of the damned, he might as well get some payoff for his trouble.
Helping the platoons and protecting defenseless civilians¡ªhe couldn¡¯t think of any better payoff than that. It was the only payoff.
He wouldn¡¯t want to do any of this without the awareness of why he was doing it. Knowing that was the only thing that made any of this tolerable. He couldn¡¯t give that up. He would rather be really, truly dead.
End of Chapter 34
Battalion 1: Book 2: Chapter 35
Rhodes walked into the command dome on the planet Deizo¡¯s fourth moon. It was far enough behind the front line not to put any of the Legion¡¯s commanding officers in danger.
Rhodes only had to glance at the charts in front of them to see exactly why the Battalion 1 governing body sent him and his subordinates out here sooner than they should have.
The battalion had to wait a week at Coleridge Station before they boarded the Ero to travel here. Then the trip took another seven weeks.
In that time, the Masks had torched all the rest of the Noria system the governing body asked Rhodes to save.
The Masks had also laid the Luros system to waste. Now they were starting on the Siro system¡ªwhich was the system with the planet Deizo in it.
The Masks were just making landfall on the planet Rono¡ªthe system¡¯s outermost planet.
That was the Masks¡¯ MO. They started at the farthest outskirts with the smallest population and worked their way inward toward the center¡ªtoward the highest population densities.
This strategy gave the Legion a little extra time to evacuate, but not nearly enough. Rhodes had taken a few brief moments to study this war. Those moments told him all he needed to know.
The numbers of casualties kept mounting into the billions as the Masks overran one planet after another. The Emal had been saints compared to these ruthless machines.
General Kaufman bent over the chart and pointed out different parts of Rono. ¡°The Ninth Division is holding the Koth continent¡ªhere. The Masks are pivoting the battle line back to the Kaviuk continent¡ªhere. We¡¯ll land the 249th, the 217th, and the 235th along this mountain range. Captain Rhodes, your battalion will come at the enemy from this side and drive the Masks toward the platoons. The platoons¡¯ fire will force the Masks to divert into this valley. We can bombard them from orbit and slow them down that way.¡±
¡°Yes, Sir,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°You can count on us.¡±
Colonel Jenner¡¯s head shot up and he stared at Rhodes, but Jenner didn¡¯t say anything.
Rhodes remained silent through the rest of the briefing. He didn¡¯t need to know anything else.
He¡¯d been mentally preparing himself for this through the whole journey. The SAMs would malfunction in battle. He was more certain of that than he¡¯d ever been of anything.
He¡¯d tested them a dozen in training at Coleridge Station before the battalion boarded the Ero to come here.
None of that meant squat. The SAMs already knew the training session wasn¡¯t real.
They would react differently when they faced real Masks. Something was bound to go wrong. That was the only real certainty left in Rhodes¡¯s world.
He¡¯d kept his promise to Rhinehart by asking Dr. Trudeau if there was any way of wiping Rhinehart¡¯s awareness of what he was doing.
Trudeau promised to look into it, too. Then Rhodes never heard another word about it. So that was a dead end, too.
Rhinehart didn¡¯t bring it up again. He didn¡¯t act like his situation caused him any more distress than usual¡ªnot any more than it caused everyone else in the battalion.
Rhodes just spent his days counting down the seconds before something else went wrong. Anticipating the next catastrophe gave him a certain kind of peace. He didn¡¯t have to dread it because he already knew it would happen.
The chart in front of him did give him pause, though. He didn¡¯t expect the brass to come up with a strategy like this.
He got out of the meeting without saying another word to anyone. What was the point? He already knew what he had to do.
He returned to the battalion. His subordinates stood around talking near the Ero where it dropped them off adjacent to the command dome.
The scene on Deizo resembled the same confusion Rhodes had seen on Ohait. Ships, crews, soldiers, medical staff, and mountains of supplies crowded the area.
Ships came and went from the front line, dropped off new shipments of equipment, food, and weapons, loaded on wounded to be transported away from the front, and performed every other wartime activity.
Rhodes found the battalion talking to a bunch of regular soldiers from the 249th. They all knew each other from their previous joint campaigns.
Lieutenant Turley turned around when Rhodes showed up. ¡°What¡¯s the word from up the chain, Sir?¡±
Rhodes showed the battalion the chart on The Grid. The soldiers couldn¡¯t see it. ¡°You and the platoons are going up on a ridge to flank the enemy. The battalion will flank them on the other side and drive the Masks into your guns. Then you open fire and push them down into the valley between. Those are our orders.¡±
¡°What?!¡± Cantrell blurted out. ¡°We aren¡¯t deployed with you?! What¡¯s the point of that? What¡¯s the point of you being here at all if you don¡¯t back us up?¡±
¡°You take it up with General Kaufman,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°He wants to bombard the Masks from orbit. He needs to isolate the enemy in one place so he doesn¡¯t hit your platoon or my battalion in the process.¡±
¡°This is cracked!¡± Turley chimed in. ¡°You guys are supposed to support us. You won¡¯t be able to do that on the opposite side of the valley. We don¡¯t stand a chance without you.¡±
Rhodes didn¡¯t respond, not even when Cantrell smacked his lips and whirled away. ¡°I¡¯m going to talk to Captain Vernick about this. He can go to the command dome for us.¡±
The soldiers wandered off. Rhodes watched them out of sight.
The platoons wouldn¡¯t have been so thrilled to have the battalion around if the soldiers knew what the battalion had been going through these last several weeks.
¡°What about it, Sir?¡± Oakes asked. ¡°Why aren¡¯t we deployed with the platoons? If the Masks don¡¯t drop down into that valley, they could break through the platoons and no one would be able to stop them.¡±
¡°They could break through us, too,¡± Dietz pointed out. ¡°The Masks are as likely to come after us as they are to come after the platoons. Nothing can stop them from getting where they want to go.¡±
¡°This has nothing to do with any of that,¡± Rocky interjected. ¡°The Legion brass wants to deploy us away from the regular platoons. That¡¯s obvious, isn¡¯t it? They¡¯re doing this for the platoons¡¯ safety¡ªso we don¡¯t put the platoons in danger if we go haywire again.¡±
¡°None of it matters because we have our orders,¡± Lauer added. ¡°We just have to carry out the plan and hope for the best.¡±
¡°I won¡¯t hope for the best,¡± Thackery muttered. ¡°I won¡¯t hope for anything other than a quick death.¡±
¡°Keep on dreaming, honey,¡± Coulter told her. ¡°No good deed ever goes unpunished.¡±If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
She snorted at him, but just then, the Ero crew unloaded the battalion¡¯s Strikers.
The ship used a conveyor system to deposit the ships on the ground. Rhodes and his people boarded their Strikers and activated The Grid.
¡°You won¡¯t be involved in this battle,¡± Rhodes told Rio.
¡°Aw!¡± Rio teased. ¡°You and Fisher get all the fun.¡±
¡°The Legion doesn¡¯t want to complicate things by having you flying around in the air during the battle. They want to bombard the Masks from orbit. You and the other Strikers will only get in the way.¡±
¡°Why are we even here, then?¡± Rio revolved The Grid in front of him to survey the two flanking ridges and the valley where the Legion planned to trap the Masks. ¡°It would be better to bombard the Masks from closer to the ground.¡±
¡°Everyone¡¯s an armchair general. Just drop us off on the ridge and make yourselves scarce.¡±
¡°Until you need me, right?¡± Rio asked.
Rhodes grinned at him through the interface. ¡°I¡¯m glad you¡¯ll be standing by in case it all goes south.¡±
¡°When it all goes south,¡± Lauer corrected.
Rhodes didn¡¯t answer. He launched Rio and the battalion soared through the Siro system getting closer to Rono.
Legion vessels crowded the solar system. Ravagers surrounded Rono and took turns landing platoons, supplies, and command staff on the planet.
Another Ravager transported the platoons who would pull this maneuver with Battalion 1.
The battalion waited in orbit until the platoons got into position. Rhodes and his people watched the Masks¡¯ progress through The Grid.
¡°Damn!¡± Oakes muttered. ¡°They don¡¯t mess around, do they?¡±
¡°They don¡¯t give anyone time to offer any effective defense,¡± Thackery pointed out. ¡°That¡¯s the Masks¡¯ strategy¡ªspeed. The Legion is used to taking their time and setting everything up in advance. The Masks have found a way to overcome that.¡±
¡°Do you think they know?¡± Dietz asked. ¡°If the Masks are Legion technology, then the Masks must know everything about the Legion. Maybe the Masks came up with this strategy specifically because they figured out the Legion¡¯s greatest weakness.¡±
¡°The Masks would be stupid not to exploit any Legion weakness,¡± Rhinehart pointed out. ¡°One thing I know about the Masks is that they aren¡¯t stupid.¡±
A signal came through The Grid from the command dome. ¡°That¡¯s our cue,¡± Rhodes ordered. ¡°You Strikers drop us off and head back to Deizo. You can wait with the Ero.¡±
¡°Yes, Sir,¡± Teo replied.
The Strikers plunged through the atmosphere on a fast approach to the mountains. The Masks advanced from the other direction to close on the spot where General Kaufman wanted the battalion and the platoons to pull their flanking maneuver.
The battalion barely got into position in time before the Masks swarmed over the nearest hills. The Strikers launched away into orbit and left the battalion on the ground.
The platoons flattened themselves behind the far hills and aimed their Jackhammers down the slopes at the incoming Masks. The platoons occupied the same position they¡¯d been in against the Emal¡ªexcept these weren¡¯t Emal.
Rhodes shivered looking down at the Masks. Damn, they moved fast! They targeted Legion positions much more accurately than the Emal ever did.
Rhodes didn¡¯t see any Masks invasion ships in the atmosphere. They didn¡¯t need ships.
The ground troops rotated their fusion rifles back and forth to hit Legion positions on the surrounding hillsides.
Booming explosions echoed across the landscape. Rhodes went through another dizzy blur of cognitive dissonance. He was fighting this enemy in broad daylight. The Emal always saved their worst assaults for nighttime.
They could see better in the dark, but it still gave the impression of weakness. It somehow tricked the Legion into believing the Emal couldn¡¯t fight in daylight.
They could. They just didn¡¯t want to.
The Masks definitely could. Nothing slowed them down. They streamed over the hillsides and flooded the valleys approaching the battalion¡¯s position.
¡°Stand by!¡± Rhodes ordered. ¡°Here we go!¡±
He glanced across the valley toward the platoons on the other side. All those soldiers lay on their stomachs aiming down at the Masks.
The platoons tracked the Masks¡¯ advance. The platoons would open fire as soon as the battalion drove the Masks in that direction.
Rhodes didn¡¯t know when the Legion wanted him to launch this assault, but whatever plans the Legion made went out the window when the Masks showed up. No one could plan for an enemy that moved this fast.
The Masks didn¡¯t drop down into the valley. They kept their line on the hillsides¡ªhigh enough not to lose the advantage of someone shooting at them from above.
Did the Masks use any other Legion tactics against the platoons? The SAMs could access the whole Legion database with thousands upon thousands of hours of footage from every battle the Legion ever fought against countless enemies.
The Masks must know more about Legion tactics than any force alive¡ªincluding the Legion itself.
Rhodes couldn¡¯t think of anyone, not even the Legion¡¯s own brass, who knew that much about every strategy and tactic the Legion had ever used.
Another explosion in the atmosphere snapped him back to his senses. He blinked once.
The Masks were already marching through the valley and drawing level with the platoons on the other side. Rhodes had to attack now or miss his chance.
¡°Go!¡± Rhodes ordered and fired his boosters.
The battalion burst over the hillside and plunged down on the Masks. Their line snaked along both flanking slopes and wavered backward to the pass where the Masks entered this valley.
They still didn¡¯t make their formation more than one individual deep. They didn¡¯t congregate into groups. That might have weakened them, but it actually made them harder to hit.
Rhodes picked up speed diving down the hill. He opened fire with his scourge gun, fired a dozen Vipers, and when the Masks pivoted to return fire, he switched to his thermal cannons.
His Vipers could only take out a dozen Masks at a time. That was the genius of them using a thin line one individual deep. They could cover more territory without risking too many of their people every time a Viper went off.
People. These weren¡¯t people. They were machines¡ªand yet some part of Rhodes¡¯s mind still recognized that they were sentient. They were SAMs. He just couldn¡¯t see their faces under those Masks.
Would they be as concerned about protecting their own kind as Fisher and the others? Would these Masks suffer the same emotional turmoil at the thought of letting their comrades down? How could Rhodes kill people like that?
They fired back at him and he blocked those questions out of his mind. These machines planned to kill many millions more people for no reason. He didn¡¯t know their plans or motivations. He didn¡¯t need to.
He dropped low into the valley, pivoted right and left, and used the Masks¡¯ formation to his advantage. He could cut wide swaths through their numbers from down here. They spread their firepower too thin by not positioning more Masks together.
The rest of the battalion copied him, spread up the valley, and opened fire from a distance. None of the battalion engaged the Masks directly¡ªnot closely enough even to see them as people¡ªpotential people.
The SAMs didn¡¯t interfere. Rhodes heard Fisher calling instructions and information into his ear, but Rhodes couldn¡¯t hear him.
Fisher adjusted The Grid in front of Rhodes¡¯s eyes. New signals flashed on it too fast and Rhodes registered the information in a split second. He didn¡¯t need to hear Fisher. Rhodes saw everything he needed to see in The Grid.
That information overlaid the sight of his thermal cannons toppling Masks by the dozen. They stood their ground for a few minutes and lost dozens of their number before they inched backward toward the far ridge.
They had to climb backward and keep up a steady barrage of shots against the battalion. The Masks wound up backing straight into the platoons¡¯ Jackhammers.
The platoons opened fire and cut down dozens of Masks. The battle played out exactly the way General Kaufman hoped it would¡ªuntil the exact moment when it didn¡¯t.
The Masks wavered there between the two flanks until, in the worst possible nightmare scenario, the Masks wheeled and charged straight up the hill toward the Legion position.
Rhodes charged forward in a rush of speed to intercept the enemy, but the Masks got there first. They didn¡¯t struggle at all to climb that steep slope.
They didn¡¯t climb the way normal people would. They just sprinted straight up it in a mind-blowing burst of speed and strength.
The platoons kept up their assault as long as they could¡ªright until the moment when the Masks vaulted over the hill, plunged down behind it, and landed on top of the platoons.
The soldiers took a split second too long to get to their feet. The Masks opened fire and mowed down hundreds of soldiers before they even got off the ground.
The ones that did get up staggered backward to get away from the enemy. The Masks marched forward again just as steadily as before.
Their scourge guns traded fire with the platoons¡¯ Jackhammers, but the soldiers couldn¡¯t defend themselves at this range.
The Masks¡¯ armor deflected most of the Jackhammer fire. The soldiers dropped some Masks, but not nearly enough.
The Masks¡¯ fusion rifles did much more damage¡ªand the platoons¡¯ position worked against them now.
The soldiers closed together for protection, which gave the Masks all the opportunity they needed to flatten dozens of soldiers with every hit.
The battalion got caught on the slopes below. Rhodes gunned his boosters, but by the time he got over the ridge, the battle was already disintegrating into a bloodbath.
He dove over the ridge, swooped down on the Masks from behind, and went back to gunning as many of them as he could hit.
He descended behind them. They couldn¡¯t face him here¡ªnot without turning their backs on the platoons.
The Masks didn¡¯t fall for it. They stayed facing the platoons and the Masks kept their backs to Rhodes and his people.
Rhodes roared at them, but at that moment, a blistering jet of fire broke through the clouds above his head.
He¡¯d been so busy fighting the Masks on the ground that he didn¡¯t see any invasion ships. He didn¡¯t see any now. None showed up on The Grid.
The next instant, the shot hit him in the chest and buckled him to the ground.
End of Chapter 35.
Battalion 1: Book 2: Chapter 36
Rhodes swam back to consciousness surrounded by Masks on all sides. He scrambled to sit up and somehow figure out how to fight these things.
¡°Captain¡ªcan you hear me?¡± Fisher yelled.
¡°I¡.I can hear you¡.¡± Rhodes staggered to his feet, only to get surrounded by more Masks.
Their mysterious slit eyes stared at him. The light inside shone out with an eerie glow. Did they even see him?
More explosions went off somewhere in the distance. The interface still connected him to his subordinates and their SAMs. All of them got caught in the middle of the battle.
The Grid showed him Legion soldiers fighting hand to hand against the Masks. The soldiers fell all over the place. The Masks outmatched them in strength and firepower. It was no contest.
Rhodes raised his weapon to fire at the Masks nearest him. Some of them had their backs to him while they gunned down Legion soldiers.
Other Masks went after the battalion. Lauer stood not far away. He used his grid lines to multiply his arms, seized dozens of Masks one after the other, and held them in place while he fired Viper after Viper into their heads and bodies.
He detonated the Masks to scrap and dropped their dismembered bodies on the ground at his feet. He worked fast and furiously demolishing every Mask that made the mistake of falling into his grasp.
Rhodes went into a frenzy, raised his scourge guns, and jolted from one side to the other blowing away any Mask in sight.
The Grid responded to him with the speed of thought. It targeted each Mask, locked his weapons on their heads and bodies, and he fired without thinking.
He worked his way through the confusion trying to find¡.something. That fusion blast scrambled his brain. He had to think so he could decide what to do.
He couldn¡¯t abandon the platoons to their slaughter. He got the idea to circle the platoons to their other side, join forces with them, and drive the Masks back into the valley where the Ravagers could bombard them from space.
The Ravagers couldn¡¯t hit the Masks now, not when they were all jumbled up with Legion soldiers.
He fired five more times and cleared a path through the mayhem. He eliminated enough Masks to spot Rhinehart ahead of him.
Rhinehart had transformed himself into another armored vehicle sprouting weapons from every side. A dozen soldiers took shelter under his other housing while his laser ports, thermal cannons, scourge guns, and seeker missiles went off all around him.
They fired in a steady pounding din of dozens of shots going off every second. The soldiers added their Jackhammers to his defense to hold the Masks at bay.
Rhodes fought his way through the crowd to get closer to Rhinehart¡¯s position. Rhodes planned to add his firepower to Rhinehart¡¯s and hopefully create a bigger defended position where more soldiers could take refuge.
Rhodes made it ten feet before his worst nightmare came true. He kept pivoting his scourge guns back and forth and taking down any Masks in targeting range.
He caught an instant¡¯s glimpse of The Grid. More Masks stopped advancing toward the cities in the distance. They diverted to intercept the battalion instead. Good.
¡°The Legion is sending in Dusters, Captain!¡± Fisher reported over the noise. ¡°They¡¯re coming from the south! Get behind the Masks on the north side so the Dusters can target them without hitting the battalion.¡±
¡°I¡¯m trying to, pal!¡± Rhodes called back. ¡°I need you to interface with the rest of the¡.¡±
The words died when The Grid changed in front of Rhodes¡¯s eyes. The lines didn¡¯t move much as long as he stayed in one place.
They shouldn¡¯t have moved at all¡ªnot unless Rhodes manipulated them for some reason.
Now they moved of their own volition. They spread¡and covered Fisher¡¯s face.
Rhodes stared in horror as the grid lines altered Fisher¡¯s appearance. He had never changed his appearance¡ªnot since that first day when Dr. Neiland first activated him.
Rhodes felt sick to his stomach when the grid lines reformed into a Mask. Rhodes felt his arms swinging back up and The Grid targeted.This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
The same overwhelming, irresistible urge to fire took over. He couldn¡¯t fight it no matter how hard he tried.
His scourge guns swung toward the Legion side and he fired¡ªstraight into the platoons he had been trying to protect.
He fought back as hard as he could. He strained every fiber to turn his guns aside, but nothing would break that hold.
His guns jerked from one side to the other exactly the way they did before. The Grid snapped one target to another, but they targeted Legion soldiers this time.
¡°NO!!¡± Rhodes bellowed and almost knocked himself over trying to drag his guns away.
Nothing worked. He saw his friends, his comrades, his brothers-in-arms falling in front of his eyes. His own guns blasted their heads off, tore their limbs from their bodies, and sent them flying.
¡°FISHER¡ªNO!!¡± Rhodes roared.
Fisher didn¡¯t respond. He wasn¡¯t there anymore. A Mask stared out at Rhodes from The Grid. The Mask¡¯s slit eye glowed exactly like theirs.
¡°FISHER!!¡± Rhodes thundered one last time.
He glanced around in hopeless despair. He didn¡¯t even have to look at his targets anymore. His body worked in seamless tandem with The Grid.
Masks replaced every other SAM in the battalion. His subordinates bellowed at their SAMs and fought with all their might to get their own weapons under control.
Vipers released from each person. Those Vipers coiled through the battlefield, completely avoided the Masks, and targeted the thickest clusters of soldiers instead.
Twenty Dusters blasted over the far hills coming in fast. Rhodes cringed when another dozen Vipers released from Oakes¡¯s, Rhinehart¡¯s, and Rhodes¡¯s own ports.
The Vipers smashed into half the Dusters and took them to the ground. Lauer and Dietz started to turn backward to aim their weapons at the remaining Dusters.
Lauer bared his teeth in a feral snarl. He glared down at his own arms and barely managed to pull his weapons in different directions to stop them from shooting at the soldiers.
He couldn¡¯t stop them entirely. He pulled one shot out of ten at the most. The rest hit their targets. He bellowed in rage and despair every time one of his shots hit the soldiers.
Dietz seemed to go into a mindless trance. He stared at nothing in a glazed stupor. He didn¡¯t look at his targets, his weapons, or anything else.
Fuentes had the opposite reaction. He burst into a maniacal grin, laughed out loud, and actually advanced toward the soldiers to get closer to them. He didn¡¯t fight his weapons at all. In fact, he took careful aim to shoot the soldiers.
Thackery didn¡¯t seem to be aware of what she was doing, either. She unleashed a Viper into the 217th and Coulter turned on her.
He roared at her, aimed at her instead, and his weapons jerked themselves away against his will to shoot at the platoons the way the Masks wanted him to.
Rhinehart kept up a steady barrage on the soldiers even as he tried to stop himself from shooting. In the end, he used his own great strength to grasp his own wrist, wrench his scourge gun upward, and he aimed it at his own head.
He fired, but the grid lines surrounding his SAM extended at the last second, seized his arm, and ripped the weapon away in time to save Rhinehart¡¯s life.
He howled in fury, but the grid lines wouldn¡¯t let him shoot at himself a second time.
Oakes and Lauer both tried to take themselves out, but nothing worked. Whatever force took over the battalion always found a way to turn their weapons back on the platoons.
Rhodes couldn¡¯t watch this. He couldn¡¯t be a part of this. He just had to find a way to stop it.
He didn¡¯t have to concentrate on the battle anymore. Fisher¡ªor whatever it was¡ªtook possession of Rhodes¡¯s body and his weapons. This Mask fought the battle for Rhodes.
He threw caution to the wind. He had absolutely nothing left to lose. This thing¡ªwhatever it was¡ªit used him and his weapons to kill Legion soldiers. He had to find a way to stop it.
He dropped back into The Grid and completely blocked out all sight and sound of the battle around him. None of that mattered anymore.
He lunged for Fisher the way Rhodes fought his SAM on Bao. Rhodes dove headfirst into the grid lines surrounding the Mask face. This wasn¡¯t Fisher. This was an enemy.
Rhodes wrapped his grid lines around the SAM¡¯s lines. Rhodes tangled his grid lines with the SAM¡¯s lines and Rhodes ripped them apart with all his strength.
He didn¡¯t know how to do any of this. He didn¡¯t understand what he was doing. He only knew he wanted to kill whatever took control of Fisher¡ªand the battalion.
Rhodes tore the lines away and spotted a tiny corner of Fisher¡¯s face hidden underneath. The sight gave Rhodes superhuman strength.
He clawed at the lines harder than ever, peeled them away, and tried every trick in the book to tear away whatever was covering Fisher.
The lines sprang back into position just as fast. They repaired themselves and snapped into a grid around Fisher¡¯s face. The mask reformed and locked Fisher inside even stronger than before.
Now Rhodes knew for certain that Fisher was still in there. Rhodes had to free him. Rhodes couldn¡¯t let this monster use Fisher and Rhodes against the Legion.
He clawed at the lines a few more times, but they always bounced back into place. He got three or four away from Fisher before Rhodes had to let them go to grab different lines. He couldn¡¯t win like this.
He sprang back and, without thinking first about what he would do or could do, he projected a Grid outline of himself into the interface.
He didn¡¯t have any color or substance. He was just a shape of himself made out of green grid lines and black squares.
He lunged for the Mask and seized it again. It didn¡¯t have any substance, either. Rhodes¡¯s grid lines grabbed Fisher¡¯s grid lines.
Rhodes didn¡¯t try to tear the grid lines off to reveal the real Fisher underneath. Rhodes already knew that wouldn¡¯t work.
He pinned the Mask down and fired another Viper¡ªa Grid Viper.
This had no substance, either. It was just a projection inside The Grid.
The Viper coiled around to target the Mask. It struggled in Rhodes¡¯s grip. He vented all his frustration and hopeless rage on the thing, slammed it against The Grid, and held it there until the Viper exploded its grid lines apart.
The black squares tore off Fisher¡¯s face and he turned back into the birdlike creature he always had been.
¡°Captain¡.¡± he gasped.
¡°Not now! We gotta go, Fisher!¡± Rhodes blasted out of The Grid and back into the battle. He could control all his weapons now.
End of Chapter 36.
Battalion 1: Book 2: Chapter 37:
Battalion 1 unloaded on the trapped Legion platoons. The battalion worked side by side with the Masks to wipe out every soldier still alive on the field.
Rhodes took one look around the battlefield. Rhinehart kept trying to shoot himself in the head. The Mask that took over Rocky used its grid lines to fight Rhinehart¡¯s weapons away from him and target them somewhere else.
¡°You go after Rocky, Fisher!¡± Rhodes ordered.
¡°You got it!¡± Fisher replied.
Rhodes charged across the battlefield, collided with Rhinehart, and grappled Rhinehart¡¯s scourge gun away from his head again.
Rhinehart¡¯s size made it near impossible to restrain him. Rhodes never would have succeeded without Fisher¡¯s help.
Rhodes slammed Rhinehart down on his back and yanked the gun away just as the grid lines tried to point it at Rhodes himself.
Fisher stretched his grid lines toward Rocky. The two SAMs tangled their grid lines together in a confused jumble, but Fisher didn¡¯t have any better success in freeing Rocky from the Mask than Rhodes did.
Rhinehart bellowed in rage trying to fight his own grid lines. Rhodes strapped his lines around Rhinehart¡¯s body to pull his arm to the ground. He wouldn¡¯t be able to shoot anything there.
Rhodes dove on top of Rhinehart, got in his face, and roared over Rhinehart¡¯s enraged bellows. ¡°Go into The Grid, Lieutenant! You have to shoot at Rocky inside The Grid!¡±
Rhinehart either didn¡¯t hear or didn¡¯t understand.
¡°You¡¯ll have to do it, Captain!¡± Fisher called.
¡°Hold him down for me!¡± Rhodes ordered. ¡°I can¡¯t hold him! He¡¯s too strong!¡±
Rhinehart gave another tortured roar, heaved off the ground, and almost threw Rhodes off.
Fisher retracted his lines from Rocky and wound them around and around Rhinehart¡¯s body trying to stop him from shooting at anything, including himself and Rhodes.
Rhodes couldn¡¯t wait any longer. He dropped into The Grid, but the Masks must have learned by now what Rhodes wanted to do.
He jumped forward to grab Rocky, but the SAM dodged to one side. Rhodes grabbed again and again, but he couldn¡¯t get hold of Rocky.
Rhodes didn¡¯t dare to fire his Vipers in here. Rocky would only avoid them.
¡°The Strikers, Captain!¡± Fisher yelled. ¡°You have to call in the Strikers!¡±
Rhodes only thought about it for a split second before he interfaced with Rio. The Strikers were all still on the ground on Deizo.
Rio materialized on The Grid next to Fisher. ¡°I¡¯m on my way, Captain!¡± Rio exclaimed. ¡°Just hold on!¡±
¡°Bring all the SAMs!¡± Rhodes ordered. ¡°We need help out here!¡±
¡°We¡¯re coming!¡± Zion chimed in.
Rhodes had to concentrate on fighting Rhinehart again as the Mask made one more brutal attempt to fire on the platoons.
Rhodes kept his head down and counted down the seconds until the Strikers got here.
Lauer had managed to work his way in front of Dietz and Fuentes. Dietz and Fuentes tried to shoot at the platoons, but Lauer got in their path.
He couldn¡¯t control his weapons, not even to kill himself. He stopped his two comrades from targeting the platoons simply by getting in their way.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.
Fuentes raised his weapon to shoot at Thackery. At that moment, Oakes jerked his scourge gun away from shooting at the platoons. His weapon went off and he hit Fuentes from the side.
The blast smashed Fuentes in the shoulder and flattened him. Dietz spun around and aimed his gun at Oakes, but something stopped Dietz from returning fire.
Thackery and Coulter battled each other not far away. Neither of them had time to shoot at the platoons. The two comrades were too busy shooting at each other.
Rhodes couldn¡¯t tell from here how much the Masks controlled either of them. Coulter and Thackery bared their teeth at each other, roared in fury, and they kept dodging each other¡¯s shots, diving out of the way, and landing in a crouch somewhere else to shoot again.
Rhinehart took all Rhodes¡¯s strength just to hold him down. He kept trying to raise his weapon. Rhodes didn¡¯t know or care what Rhinehart was trying to aim at.
Rhodes checked The Grid. The Strikers were just entering the atmosphere on a dead run for the battalion¡¯s position.
He couldn¡¯t fathom what the Strikes would do once they got here. He didn¡¯t see how anyone could salvage this disaster.
He shut his eyes and focused his last scrap of strength on restraining Rhinehart until the Strikers got here.
Rhodes would call it a win if he saved even one of his people from the Masks taking complete control over them.
The Strikers bombed out of the high cloud, screeched across the landscape coming in fast, and howled overhead, but they didn¡¯t fire on the Masks.
In the quiet privacy of his own mind, Rhodes watched the eight Striker SAMs flash onto The Grid. Their grid lines coiled around their wings and fuselages¡.and then shot out at lightning speed.
They didn¡¯t hit the Masks¡ªor even anyone from the battalion. Those lines swirled around the Strikers, darted through the air, and hit the SAMs that had changed into Masks.
Those lines penetrated each Mask face so much deeper than Rhodes ever could¡ªdeeper than a Viper. The lines twined together with each person¡¯s Grid and tore the Mask faces to shreds.
The other seven SAMs blinked back onto The Grid and the battalion reacted instantly. Everyone turned their weapons on the Masks¡ªthe real Masks.
Rhinehart sprang to his feet and threw Rhodes off. Both men unloaded on the Masks to drive them away from the platoons. It might already be too late.
Rhodes fired his scourge gun and released dozens of Vipers in rapid succession. He blasted as many Masks to pieces as he could hit. When that didn¡¯t kill them fast enough, he let the grid lines transform his fingertips into lasers.
Lasers flashed from all his fingers, sliced the Masks to pieces, and left their body parts littered all over the hillsides.
Their consciousness didn¡¯t go away, though. He felt them still trying to interface with Fisher¡ªand all the SAMs.
The Strikers came racing back for another pass, and this time, they bombarded the Masks¡¯ position with punishing fire.
Dozens of scourge gun blasts erupted from Rio¡¯s wings. They punched into the ground running from one side of the battlefield to the other.
Those blasts detonated Masks, exploded their armor apart, and left swaths of mechanized bodies leading away across the valley.
Rhodes stalked down the last Masks. He let his fury off its chain and all his murderous bloodlust poured out at them.
He would kill them all. He would kill every last one of them for what they did to him, Fisher, and everyone else.
The Masks responded to the Strikers¡¯ arrival just as instantly. The moment the Strikers released the SAMs and changed them back, the Masks broke off fighting the platoons and turned all their firepower on the battalion.
Dozens of Masks rushed in on Rhodes and his people. Fusion blasts hammered Rhodes from all sides, but that sudden assault only brought the Masks closer inside his laser range.
He whirled from one side to the other bellowing his challenge at them. ¡°Come on!¡± he roared. ¡°Come on!¡±
They kept on coming until, without warning, a devastating flash burst in front of his eyes. He didn¡¯t see what caused it or even where it came from.
He fought the Masks one minute with dozens of them falling under his lasers. The next moment, he lay flat on his back staring up at the clear blue sky.
His connection to The Grid showed him the whole battlefield for miles around. Hundreds or thousands of destroyed Masks, dead soldiers, and demolished Ravagers dotted the planet¡¯s surface.
The Grid picked out his subordinates lying unconscious among the dead bodies. None of the battalion moved.
Each of them stared up at the sky without blinking, but The Grid returned their life sign readings. Everyone in the battalion was still alive and conscious. They were only stunned just like Rhodes.
He didn¡¯t see any living soldiers or even any Masks still standing. The Grid didn¡¯t return any life signs for anyone other than the eight battalion members lying among the dead.
Rhodes didn¡¯t see any SAMs, either. Fisher was gone and so were all the other SAMs. Everything else about The Grid looked normal.
Rhodes couldn¡¯t move. He could only lie here and stare straight in front of him while one of the Masks¡¯ invasion ships descended over the battalion from the high clouds.
He studied its spiky exterior. He would probably never get another chance to see one of them up close.
It descended right on top of him and opened some kind of hatch in its underside. Blinding white-yellow light poured from inside. He couldn¡¯t even blink to protect his eyes.
Some force picked him up and lifted him toward that hatch. He watched through The Grid as the same ship picked up each of his subordinates, carried them inside that ship, and then the hatch closed with all of them on board.
End of Book 2.
Book 3 starting on Wednesday. Stay tuned.
Battalion 1: Book 3: Chapter 1
Captain Corban Rhodes fired his boosters to rocket across the landscape on the planet Niarus. Explosions detonated all around him. He had to dodge columns of fire, burning shrapnel, and gunshots coming from every direction.
Green grid lines covered the terrain below him and all around him. The lines adjusted their angles over hills, valleys, and the hulks of downed ships.
The Grid fed him information about enemy and friendly positions, weapons placements dotting the surrounding terrain, and enemy vessels swooping in to gun him down.
A fast-moving, arrow-shaped craft with a long, thin, pointed nose shrieked past him going a million miles an hour. He swerved to avoid it and wound up flying into plasma shots pelting at him from more of the same kind of craft.
They raced behind their leader and scattered gunshots at Battalion 1. Lieutenant Dane Rhinehart started to pull up and swung his scourge guns forward to take aim at the enemy ships.
¡°Keep going!¡± Rhodes ordered. ¡°We have to get to the objective before they bring out reinforcements!¡±
¡°Here comes the next wave!¡± Lieutenant Ted Oakes called from farther down the line.
The battalion flew a hundred feet over a vast grassland marked off by wooded riverbeds.
Aemon Legion platoons held a defensive line near one of the rivers. Armored enemy tanks rumbled across the grassland and fired booming cannon fire at the platoons in the distance.
Swarms of aliens poured across the fields and aimed their plasma rifles to mow the platoons down. One wave after another surged from the enemy side.
The platoons cut down each wave with deadly precision. Legion Dusters and Predator craft buzzed back and forth overhead.
They carpet-bombed the aliens from above, but a small fraction of the alien horde survived each wave. They fought their way closer under their tanks¡¯ protection.
Rhodes tore his attention away from them. He couldn¡¯t help the platoons except by accomplishing the battalion¡¯s objective.
He turned back toward the alien horde¡ªtoward the aliens¡¯ giant battle cruisers landing in the far rear on the alien side.
The Grid read those ships from miles away and returned more information than Rhodes could possibly process¡ªnot consciously.
One of the battle cruisers flashed red on The Grid. Fisher¡¯s face rotated to one side in front of Rhodes¡¯s sight.
¡°The plasma nucleus is located five feet under the cruiser¡¯s left wing,¡± Fisher told him. ¡°All you have to do is hit the nucleus. You¡¯ll shut down the tanks, the cruisers, and the aliens¡¯ plasma rifles. They¡¯ll retreat off the field and the platoons will be able to advance.¡±
¡°What if they don¡¯t retreat?¡± Rhodes asked. ¡°What do we really know about these aliens?¡±
¡°They¡¯re unknown. We¡¯ve never seen them in the Treaty of Aemon Cluster before.¡±
Rhodes looked up at his SAM. ¡°That¡¯s impossible. They couldn¡¯t just have materialized here.¡±
¡°Fly lower toward the ground. We can scan them and check them against the Legion database.¡±
¡°Going lower will put us in danger from their rifles¡ªand from the tanks,¡± Lieutenant Heath Lauer pointed out. ¡°We¡¯re safer up here.¡±
¡°Checking what kind of aliens they are won¡¯t help us accomplish the objective,¡± Alyssa Thackery chimed in. ¡°We should keep going.¡±
¡°You¡¯re right. Let¡¯s go,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°We have enough to do trying to destroy that cruiser.¡±
¡°The other cruisers are launching!¡± Fisher reported. ¡°It¡¯s now or never!¡±
Rhodes gunned his boosters and sprinted across the battlefield to close on the enemy cruisers. The rest of Battalion 1 surrounded him, but the cruisers saw them coming.
Ten of them launched off the ground and plunged in gunning for the battalion. Green grid lines spread over Rhodes¡¯s body and he changed his shape into a small, fast Predator.
He wheeled aside and fired his Viper missiles at the enemy cruisers. They activated some kind of plasma shield that surrounded each vessel. The Vipers exploded against this shield and did no damage.
The battalion¡¯s target cruiser launched, too, but it didn¡¯t join the battle. It turned away and flew farther toward the rear¡ªaway from the battalion.
The other cruisers boxed in the battalion to occupy Rhodes and his subordinates. None of them could go after the target ship.
Of course the enemy knew to protect the one ship carrying their plasma nucleus. The whole battle would end once the battalion hit that ship. The aliens would protect it at all costs.
Rhodes banked lower to get behind the other cruisers, but they kept buzzing into his path. Aliens on the ground turned their plasma rifles upward to shoot at the battalion from below.
¡°Fuentes¡ªgo after that ship!¡± Rhodes ordered. ¡°We¡¯ll tie them up for you!¡±
¡°Yes, Sir,¡± Corporal Rudy Fuentes called from the other side of the Battalion 1 formation.
It wasn¡¯t even a formation anymore. Everyone used The Grid to change themselves, too.
Sergeant Jairo Dietz dove down below the cruisers, changed into a Striker-class fighter craft, and unleashed dozens of thin snaking arms. They punched through the enemy cruisers¡¯ hulls, targeted their engines, and destroyed four of them.
Dietz opened a space for Fuentes to dive past. He changed into a Striker, too, except this one was much longer and thinner than the ships assigned to Battalion 1.
Corporal Eddie Coulter tightened himself into a ball that deflected all plasma shots. They bounced off his smooth sides and ricocheted away to hit other cruisers.
The ball smashed into a different cruiser, bounced off, and spun somewhere else. It zoomed back and forth across the battlefield tearing off cruisers¡¯ wings, imploding their engines, and smashing through their hulls before it soared off somewhere else.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Lauer and Rhinehart worked together. They both changed into Predators, circled the battle, and came back together from either side.
The enemy cruisers flanked outward to confront the two ships. At the last minute before Lauer and Rhinehart collided in a devastating mid-air explosion, they both altered their grid lines.
Grid lines covered both Predators, stretched their outlines into surreal versions of their original ships, and blasted between the cruisers before the enemy could hit anything.
Both Predators flattened themselves into long, low sheets of shiny metal. They didn¡¯t have cockpits big enough for a person to sit inside.
They skated inches away from each other and they both fired outward at the same time. They hit the cruisers from behind and underneath, changed back into Predators, and charged away to escape into the sky.
The fire from those exploding cruisers joined in one combusting ball of plasma. It consumed five more nearby cruisers, but more enemy attackers gathered from all over to fight the battalion.
Fuentes raced away across the landscape. A dozen enemy cruisers tried to split off to go after him. Rhodes couldn¡¯t let them catch up with Fuentes¡ªnot with the battalion¡¯s objective in sight.
He took a page from Dietz¡¯s playbook and fired his Vipers, but instead of missiles, he released a long chain from the end of each projectile.
The Vipers smashed into the cruisers¡¯ hulls and anchored there. Rhodes soared upward into the sky dragging the cruisers with him.
They tried to gun their engines to pull away, but he grappled his grid lines around them to overpower them. He flew around the other cruisers, swung his captured enemies in a wide arc, and smashed them into each other.
Explosions erupted all over the battlefield. Rhodes¡¯s maneuver cleared the way for the battalion to catch up with Fuentes and support him to destroy the nucleus ship.
A yell distracted Rhodes from reading the rest of the battle. He checked The Grid just in time to see Fuentes going down under a combined barrage from twenty cruisers. They surrounded him while the nucleus ship raced away to safety.
Rhodes didn¡¯t stick around long enough to make sure he subdued the rest of the cruisers. He blasted his boosters, took off at high speed, and interfaced with the rest of the battalion.
¡°I¡¯m coming for you, Rudy!¡± he called. ¡°Just hold on!¡±
¡°The nucleus ship is landing on that mountainside, Captain!¡± Fuentes¡¯s SAM Van reported. ¡°Rudy and I can hold the cruisers here! Go after the nucleus ship! It¡¯s our only way to end the battle in our favor.¡±
Rhodes didn¡¯t want to leave Fuentes in danger. The rest of the battalion was too busy fighting other cruisers.
The battle descended closer to the ground. That brought the battalion within range of the aliens¡¯ plasma rifle.
Gunshots pelted out of the enemy horde to bombard Lauer, Oakes, and Coulter. They had to stop fighting the cruisers to shoot back at the aliens on the ground¡ªbut the battalion couldn¡¯t stop fighting. They had to keep fighting just to save their own lives.
Fuentes roared again when he smashed down on the mountainside. Aliens surrounded him from all directions, swarmed over him, and buried him under a mountain of bodies.
His grid lines changed. He transformed himself into a raging monster with dozens of arms, each one spouting one of his prototype weapons. He reared out of the horde shooting with all his might, but he couldn¡¯t escape.
Rhodes made a snap decision, turned his back on the nucleus ship, and dove for Fuentes.
Rhodes opened fire before he got there. He swiped his lasers and thermal cannons back and forth across the horde carving hundreds of aliens to pieces, but he still couldn¡¯t get close enough to free Fuentes.
Rhodes landed on the grass a dozen yards away. All the aliens surrounded Fuentes. They kept their backs to Rhodes.
He opened fire on them again and carved a path halfway to Fuentes¡¯s position. He kept roaring, rising out of the mound, and gunning for doomsday.
Rhodes stormed closer. He didn¡¯t mess around with fancy Grid theatrics now. He fired again and again, passed his lasers back and forth across the enemy horde, and finally got close enough to see Fuentes in the chaos.
Rhodes unloaded ten Vipers on the crowd and raised his arms to open fire with his scourge guns. These aliens might be able to use plasma shields on their battle cruisers. They wouldn¡¯t be able to use any kind of shield to protect their bodies.
He fired five times before they turned around to face him¡.and his blood ran cold when he saw their faces.
The fog of battle stopped him from seeing them before. The Grid should have shown him what they looked like before now. He might have been too distracted to check that, but something told him there must be another reason why he didn¡¯t check.
The aliens faced him and he knew for certain in that moment that he¡¯d never seen this species before. He¡¯d never even heard of them¡ªbecause they didn¡¯t exist.
They had a huge, hulking frame with bulging muscles and massive heads. One black pit in the center of the forehead took the place of eyes.
A round, lipless mouth yawned out of the lower part of the face. Angular, jointed limbs too long for their bodies clutched their plasma rifles with three thick, beefy fingers.
Each alien roared at Rhodes out of that disgusting mouth. The sound set his hair on end.
He braced himself to fight them. He was all alone on the ground with no one coming to help him.
None of the rest of the battalion could get near the ground with so many cruisers gathering from all over the battlefield.
An explosion went off somewhere. Five cruisers surrounded Oakes and shot him down. He¡¯d been flying around as a Striker.
He smashed into the ground half a mile away and the aliens overwhelmed him, too. Rhodes couldn¡¯t help any of his subordinates nor could they help him. None of them could go after the nucleus ship.
¡°The nucleus ship is launching into the atmosphere, Captain!¡± Fisher called. ¡°The aliens are getting away! We won¡¯t be able to accomplish our objective if we don¡¯t go after the nucleus ship now!¡±
Fuentes bellowed again and went down under another tide of these mysterious creatures¡ªexcept that they weren¡¯t mysterious.
Rhodes took a split second to read the whole battle on The Grid. It really was hopeless¡..but his attention kept coming back to the aliens.
He definitely would have remembered these aliens if they existed. They never invaded Niarus.
Rhodes fought the Emal on Niarus. The planet had been peaceful for generations before the Emal invasion.
His mind went into a tailspin trying to understand all this¡ªbut only for a fraction of a second. He didn¡¯t travel through time or magically vanish into another dimension.
Whoever and whatever these aliens were, they weren¡¯t real. None of this was real.
He glanced around him. Grid lines covered the whole landscape, and as soon as he thought that, grid lines covered all the aliens, the tanks, the battle cruisers, the mountainsides¡ªeverything. He was inside The Grid.
The scene changed in a single thought. The Grid vanished. The battle vanished along with it¡ªbut the battalion didn¡¯t vanish.
An impossible force seized Rhodes by the back of the head. His body went rigid. He couldn¡¯t move. Everything stopped¡ªexcept for his awareness of what was happening to him.
He locked into place with seven prongs sticking into his shoulders, his hips, his feet, and one in the back of his cranial implant.
The Grid stayed active¡ªactive enough for him to see and understand exactly where he was. He stood in the center of a metal room covered all over the walls with electronic equipment.
The prongs stuck out of a steel plate behind him. It held him against it in a standing position. Seven more identical stations formed a line on his left.
Each of his subordinates stood locked into those stations. The prongs held them in place so none of them could move.
Just for an instant, the memory of that battle inside The Grid overlaid this experience except that this was real. The battle had been a simulated Grid landscape like the training sessions the battalion used at Coleridge Station.
This wasn¡¯t Coleridge Station¡ªnot by a million miles. The battalion entered those landscapes freely and left them freely.
Rhodes and his subordinates never entered any Grid landscape through a conversion cycle. He had to be in a conversion cycle now. Wasn¡¯t he? Why else would he be locked into these prongs?
He wasn¡¯t in a conversion cycle now. He was wide awake and very aware of everything going on around him. He stood up instead of lying in a safe, comfortable, protective capsule in the Coleridge Station barracks.
Just in case he somehow forgot what happened to him and his people during the battle on Rono, at that moment, one of the robot Masks walked up to him and tapped a control panel next to his station.
The robot¡¯s one slit eye glowed out at him. Its metal helmet bore an eerie resemblance to the battalion¡¯s implants.
The whole terrible memory came back with unstoppable force. The Masks captured Battalion 1 on the battlefield. Now Rhodes and his subordinates were the Masks¡¯ prisoners.
End of Chapter 1.
Battalion 1: Book 3: Chapter 2
Five more Masks came over to Rhodes¡¯s conversion station. One of them held up a device, touched it to his chest implants, and a shockwave went off inside him.
He yelled out in pain and then a torturous wave of soul-crushing defeat buckled him to his knees. He would have fallen over, but the prongs held him up.
He crumpled, but just as fast, The Grid activated again and he snapped into another landscape somewhere else.
He had half a second to see ruined buildings and bomb craters surrounding him before more grid lines surrounded him from somewhere.
They came out of the nearby ruins, snaked into the grid lines of his body, and ate away at him from the inside.
He didn¡¯t see what they were doing, but they tore him apart from the center outward. He bellowed in pain and thrashed back and forth trying to get away from that feeling.
He jerked and spasmed right there in the streets of some destroyed city. A second later, he snapped back into the Masks¡¯ lab. That¡¯s what this was. It was another lab. They must be experimenting on him and his implants.
He heard his people screaming, roaring, and cursing down the line. He couldn¡¯t even turn his head to see what the Masks were doing to them.
The tearing sensation of those grid lines pulling him apart didn¡¯t stop when he appeared back to the lab. The Grid showed up right in front of his face. He had to watch those lines burrowing into his body even as he saw the Masks tinkering with him. It all happened simultaneously.
¡°Fisher!!¡± Rhodes bellowed. ¡°Fisher, help me!!¡±
Fisher¡¯s face appeared on The Grid in front of Rhodes¡¯s eyes. Rhodes couldn¡¯t remember where Fisher had been before this.
¡°I¡¯m trying to help you, Captain!¡± Fisher replied. ¡°The Masks¡¯ stations are overriding your motor functions.¡±
¡°I know that!!¡± Rhodes roared and then dissolved in wordless howls.
The lines wrapped themselves around the grid lines of his body and pulled them in all directions. The pain escalated to the breaking point and past it.
Rhodes tried to struggle against the prongs, but like Fisher said, whatever this station did, it stopped him from moving at all.
He could move his mouth and the muscles of his face just fine. He could yell and scream and curse and then fall apart just trying to survive this pain.
He snapped back into The Grid. He could only stand and stare as the lines ate their way into his chest.
They took hold of some part of him he didn¡¯t recognize. He didn¡¯t even know if he had a heart anymore.
In that moment, dead silence fell over The Grid and he heard his own pulse beating in his ears.
That pulse got slower and slower until it barely beat at all anymore. He collapsed against the prongs and all his energy drained away. His eyes drifted shut. He couldn¡¯t fight anymore. He didn¡¯t want to.
A blissful feeling of relief enveloped him. He was finally about to get what he wanted. It would all be over soon.
He tried one more time to make eye contact with Fisher, but the SAM wasn¡¯t there anymore.
Rhodes¡¯s heartbeat slowed just a little more. The silence between beats got longer. Was that the last beat? Would it even beat again? Was that it? Was Rhodes dead now?
The Grid changed before his eyes again and his heart instantly started beating normally the way it did before.
It hammered away as if none of this ever happened. Was it even happening? Did he imagine all of this?Stolen story; please report.
He flicked rapidly from one scene to another. He blinked into a mountainous wilderness towering with conifer forests and bubbling rocky streambeds.
He recognized the area instantly. It was the same countryside he¡¯d drawn in his picture of Lauer and his family riding horses together.
Rhodes wasn¡¯t riding a horse. He was a horse. He galloped across the grasslands with the wind streaking through his mane and shivering down his sides.
The sensation exhilarated him as never before, but it switched again in a split second. His grid lines changed him back into a Striker flying through the stars in an epic battle against enemy attackers.
Huge spherical battleships loomed right outside a reddish-yellow plasma vein. Two space armies battled for control of the vein and one side tried to stop the other from penetrating inside the vein.
Rhodes recognized this landscape from one of the battalion¡¯s training sessions, but he didn¡¯t have time to figure out why he was even here.
Gunfire smashed into him from his right. He wheeled that way to return fire, and just as fast, he snapped to another Grid landscape.
This one was a bustling street in downtown Alazara, the city on Preinea where Rhodes¡¯s family lived.
He found himself walking down the sidewalk seeing all the familiar sights and smelling all the familiar smells.
Shopkeepers greeted him and a few passersby stopped to shake his hand. ¡°Welcome home, Corban,¡± an old man told him. ¡°How long are you on shore leave before you have to deploy again?¡±
Rhodes started to say, ¡°I don¡¯t know. I have to wait for my next orders¡.¡± when the landscape vanished again.
He wound up back in the Masks¡¯ lab. They kept messing with their controls and touching their electrodes to different parts of his implants.
Each one of those touches produced some sensation. Most of them blasted him apart with pain or some other devastating wave of emotion.
Some sent him back into The Grid, but he didn¡¯t react the way he did before. He wilted against the prongs and completely gave up on life. He couldn¡¯t escape this.
Whatever the Masks were doing to him combined all the worst malfunctions he and the battalion suffered all these long, excruciating weeks.
This was worse than any malfunction because it was all real. He wasn¡¯t malfunctioning. The Masks did it to him on purpose.
He surrendered to the inevitable. The Masks would keep testing him and his people¡ªmaybe forever.
Maybe the Masks would harvest the battalion¡¯s implants, discard whatever pulp of human flesh remained, and then Rhodes¡¯s problems would finally be over.
He couldn¡¯t even get excited each time the Masks sent him back into The Grid. They ran through dozens of his memories¡ªeither from his time at Coleridge Station, random battles from his Legion career, or from his childhood or family life on Preinea.
All those overpowering emotions became too unbearable for him to cope with. He crumbled into a ball of despair, but he couldn¡¯t escape them, either. The Masks kept sending him back into them again and again and again. Would it ever end?
He heard his people roaring in pain and then sobs broke out from somewhere. Who was it? He couldn¡¯t tell.
He didn¡¯t even try to interface with his subordinates. He didn¡¯t dare to see how bad it was for them.
He didn¡¯t see Fisher through the whole ordeal¡ªthank God. Rhodes didn¡¯t want anyone seeing him like this, not even Fisher. Fisher wouldn¡¯t be able to help Rhodes anyway.
Rhodes couldn¡¯t access any of the other SAMs without the interface. Were they all hiding from the Masks? He didn¡¯t blame them.
The next time the Masks sent him into The Grid, they ran him through all his memories from Coleridge Station and beyond.
Every excruciating, agonizing detail from his time in Battalion 1 played back in front of his eyes¡ªand not in front of his eyes.
He relived every terrible minute of despair, horror, frustration, rage, and all the pain¡ªboth physical and mental¡ªas if it was all happening again right now. It was happening again right now.
It happened in real time, too. It didn¡¯t go super-fast so he could skip it and get past it. It dragged one brutal hour after another.
It eventually came to the part where the Emal tried to remove his implants. The pain became unbearable and something snapped.
He dropped into the black Grid with just the green lines dividing the surroundings into black squares. Before he could move or even decide what to do about this, another tangle of grid lines appeared in front of his face.
This looked like the beginnings of a SAM, but it didn¡¯t form into any definite shape. Its lines shot toward him and stabbed into his body before he could stop them. He didn¡¯t know how to stop them.
They dug into all his systems, his mind, his blood¡ªwhatever was left of him. The lines didn¡¯t tear him apart the way they did before. They burned him from the inside.
He tried one last time to struggle and failed. He slumped against the prongs and heard that deafening thump of his heart beating in his ears.
It slowed¡..and slowed. Every resounding throb pulsed in his brain. The lines tightened around his insides and slowed his heart a little more.
He collapsed in defeat and shut his eyes, but The Grid still showed him all those lines twining through him, clutching him, and squeezing the life out of all his systems. He really was dying this time.
The last thing he saw before he passed out was Fisher reappearing in The Grid. The SAM floated in front of Rhodes¡¯s eyes. Fisher studied him extra closely.
¡°Fisher¡.¡± Rhodes choked. ¡°I¡I can¡¯t hold on¡..¡±
Fisher didn¡¯t respond. Did he even hear Rhodes?
Rhodes couldn¡¯t stay awake any longer. He just wanted to sleep¡ªreal sleep¡ªnot a conversion cycle. Now he finally could.
End of Chapter 2.
Battalion 1: Book 3: Chapter 3
Rhodes threw back his head and inhaled a deep breath of the warm breeze blowing in his face. He sat at the edge of a rolling field dotted with wildflowers.
The wind smelled of grass, fresh soil, and savory food all mixed together. He would have liked to shut his eyes to revel in that smell a little longer, but the countryside offered too great a temptation.
He gazed across the fields at snow-capped mountains in the distance. The setting sun glittered on the snowfields and lit them up with pastel colors.
The blue sky shone with vibrant streaks of clouds lit up by the sunset. Birds soared and flocked up there, dove for the ground, and zoomed past Rhodes in majestic flight patterns.
He didn¡¯t recognize which planet he was on. He wasn¡¯t on Preinea. He knew all its wilderness areas, mountain ranges, and remote spots.
He couldn¡¯t place which planet he was on, but it sure was beautiful. He didn¡¯t really care which planet it was.
The hill on which he sat sloped down over miles of fields to a little town in the distance. Smoke curled from the chimneys down there.
That on its own gave it away that he wasn¡¯t on Preinea. Preinea had electricity.
No one on Preinea would light a fire in their house. No one on Preinea had done anything like that in a thousand years. The civilization was too advanced.
He also spotted people tending livestock down there. That was another clue. Wherever he was, he must be somewhere primitive¡ªsomewhere without technology.
He couldn¡¯t think where that might be. It was definitely nowhere in the Treaty of Aemon Cluster.
That was the whole point of the Treaty of Aemon¡ªapart from the military alliance, of course.
All the planets, species, and civilizations that belonged to the Cluster shared their technology and their information. That was the best way for everyone to advance and stay advanced.
No one in the Treaty of Aemon Cluster would let any other world slide back into this primitive state.
Still, this planet sure was peaceful, beautiful, and enticing precisely because it was so primitive. These people didn¡¯t have any technology at all¡ªno space fleet, no food production particle aggregators, no fusion generators for power and heat¡ªno nothing.
That town down there sure looked nice, though. Voices drifted on the breeze¡.and they were happy voices¡ªcontented voices. They didn¡¯t need Preinean technology to be happy.
The primitive nature of the place made those people happy. They enjoyed this peace undisturbed because they didn¡¯t have space travel. No one bothered them and they bothered no one.
Rhodes relaxed into the serene environment. When was the last time he fully let himself relax like this? He tried to remember, but the overwhelming bliss erased everything before this moment right now.
He leaned back and propped his hand on the ground to look up at the birds. Their flight patterns fascinated him. He could have watched them for hours, but something else distracted him¡ªhis hand.
The grass didn¡¯t feel right. He looked down and saw his hand. The implant that replaced his right arm from his shoulder all the way down to his fingertips¡ªthe implant wasn¡¯t there anymore. His hand was organic.
He picked up his hand and rotated his fingers in front of him trying to remember. He was a member of Battalion 1¡.so what happened to his implants?
He touched his face. His implants were gone. He was a man again. The rest of his body was back to the way it was before.
He wore a pair of thin light cotton pants, brown leather boots, and a beige cotton shirt. The clothes felt comfortable, but they also felt strange against his skin. He wasn¡¯t used to the sensation of being¡.normal.
He glanced around again. He didn¡¯t understand any of this, but right at that moment, he noticed a man walking out from the town. This person strode up the hills heading straight for Rhodes.
Even then, Rhodes couldn¡¯t bring himself to stiffen or tense in any way. He was too relaxed and happy.
The man came from the town. He must be one of those people¡ªthe people who lived down there.
Rhodes got a better look at him the closer the man got. He had a tall, bony frame, but he moved well with plenty of muscle.
His height stretched it out and gave him the appearance of thinness, but he carried himself like a country boy who works hard every day.
He wore plain, rough, handmade clothes just like Rhodes¡¯s. A messy thatch of brown hair topped his head and his blue eyes sparkled out a rough, angular, bony face.
He stopped in front of Rhodes and blinked his eyelids. This stranger had a unique, rapid way of blinking. His long nose, pointed chin, and strong cheekbones gave him a distinctly birdlike appearance.
Rhodes stared at him in amazement when he recognized the guy. ¡°Fisher? What are you¡..how did you¡..What are you doing here?¡± Rhodes glanced around. ¡°What is this place?¡±
¡°We¡¯re in The Grid. The Masks sent you here¡.and they sent me here to talk to you.¡± Fisher waved up and down in front of his body. He really was a man, but he didn¡¯t show any surprise over the way he looked. ¡°They made me like this so I would be able to talk to you better.¡±
¡°How could you talk to me better than you did before?¡± Rhodes frowned at him. Rhodes found himself scrutinizing Fisher from head to toe. He really was a man¡ªa human man. ¡°Why did the Masks send us here?¡±
¡°You almost died. They experimented with your implants. I suppose they don¡¯t really know enough about the battalion to understand how messing with the implants affects your vital functions. They¡¯re trying to learn how you work¡ªhow all of this works.¡±If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.
¡°You mean they don¡¯t already know?¡± Rhodes frowned at the man in front of him. ¡°You¡¯re¡you¡¯re human, Fisher!¡±
Fisher burst into a huge grin. He expressed much more emotion like this¡ªpositive emotion. His cheeks flushed with pleasure and his eyes twinkled. ¡°Yeah! I am. Pretty amazing, isn¡¯t it?¡±
Rhodes found himself smiling back at his friend. Fisher looked more like something or someone Rhodes could be friends with, but it still felt strange to be talking to a person instead of a projection in The Grid.
Relief overwhelmed Rhodes that he finally found someone he knew and could talk to. He could trust Fisher.
Rhodes studied the landscape. ¡°So¡.the Masks did all of this? It doesn¡¯t look like The Grid. There are no lines.¡±
¡°The Masks created it as a respite environment for you and the battalion. The experiments were causing you too much stress, so they sent you here to rest and recover. You just have to enjoy yourself. They¡¯ll take their readings and study your responses to the environment. Don¡¯t worry. You¡¯ll be safe here.¡±
Rhodes¡¯s head shot up. ¡°They created this¡to keep us as prisoners? So this whole environment is designed to keep us docile and satisfied while they¡.do whatever they want to us? We have to escape. We have to get out of here. Where¡¯s the rest of the battalion? Are they here, too?¡±
¡°You can¡¯t escape. Just cooperate with the Masks. The rest of the battalion isn¡¯t in danger¡..¡±
¡°How can you be sure? If the Masks¡¯ experiments nearly killed me, they could be in danger of killing the rest of the battalion, too.¡± Rhodes got to his feet. ¡°We have to get out of here. We have to form a plan. You sound like you know a lot more about this than I do. You can help me find the others. Rhinehart, Lauer, and Oakes might already be thinking of a way out¡.¡±
He took a step forward. He didn¡¯t know where he would go or even where he could go in this Grid landscape.
He could only think about walking to the town, but Fisher dodged in front of him, straightened his arm, and stopped Rhodes from going any further. ¡°You have nothing to worry about, Captain. Just stay here.¡±
Now Rhodes really did stiffen. Fisher called him, Captain.
That name brought Rhodes out of his trance. He wasn¡¯t on some remote, primitive planet. He was in The Grid. He was the Masks¡¯ prisoner and so was everyone else in the battalion.
All the horrific tortures the Masks put him through¡ªthey did the same thing to his subordinates. They might be back there in that lab right now.
In fact, Rhodes was certain they still were. He was probably back there right now. The Masks only tricked him into thinking he was on another planet by sending him into The Grid.
Rhodes narrowed his eyes at Fisher and lowered his voice to a snarl. ¡°Get out of my way, Fisher. I don¡¯t know what you¡¯re trying to do¡..¡±
¡°The Masks don¡¯t want to harm you, Captain,¡± Fisher went on. ¡°They just want to study you and your implants. The Masks recognize the SAMs as their own technology. The Masks want to incorporate the SAMs technology into their own systems. You can understand that, can¡¯t you? They just want the same things we have. Why not cooperate with them? They can get what they want and you can get what you want. Everybody wins.¡±
¡°And what is it that they want?¡±
¡°I just told you. They don¡¯t have SAMs technology¡ªnot like we do. They want to understand us and how we operate so they can integrate our processes into their systems. They¡¯re using an incomplete version of the same system. They want to fill in the blanks they¡¯re missing.¡±
¡°And we have that? How can we when we¡¯re just barely surviving?¡±
¡°They just want to study you to figure it out.¡± Fisher waved at the countryside around him. ¡°How can you argue with that when you¡¯re here? Doesn¡¯t this prove that the Masks want what¡¯s best for all of us?¡±
Rhodes jolted at those words. ¡°The Masks do not want what¡¯s best for all of us. They¡¯ve already wiped out millions of people. They¡¯ll keep attacking the Treaty of Aemon Cluster as long as we¡¯re here. They could have wiped out millions more just in the time we¡¯ve been here.¡±
Fisher waved that away. ¡°The Masks don¡¯t want to hurt anyone, Captain. They just want answers.¡±
Rhodes opened his mouth to argue¡.and stopped himself. Something in Fisher¡¯s face¡.it didn¡¯t look right. He beamed at Rhodes in a very human way. All of Fisher¡¯s facial expressions looked way too human.
He never looked like this in The Grid¡ªnot The Grid Rhodes was used to. That was the one simple factor that pushed Rhodes over the edge.
The Fisher Rhodes knew didn¡¯t look human. He looked like a computer composite of a bunch of different animals, people, and creatures.
He didn¡¯t use human facial expressions, either. The real Fisher would never smile or beam or twinkle his eyes like this.
¡°They hacked you, Fisher,¡± Rhodes muttered. ¡°They¡¯re hacking you right now to convince me to cooperate.¡±
¡°No one hacked me, Captain. You have to believe me. Once the Masks study you and the battalion, they¡¯ll get SAMs technology for themselves and then they¡¯ll let you go.¡±
¡°Now I know you¡¯re lying.¡± Saying those words snapped something else in Rhodes¡¯s mind. This wasn¡¯t Fisher at all¡ªnot even a Grid version of Fisher. ¡°Who are you? What do you want from me?¡±
¡°You know who I am, Captain. You can see who I am. I¡¯m Fisher.¡±
¡°No, you aren¡¯t!¡± Rhodes took a step back and braced himself in case he needed to attack this stranger.
The longer Rhodes stood here looking at Fisher, the more convinced Rhodes became that this wasn¡¯t Fisher at all. His very humanity made him look so different from the real Fisher.
Rhodes might have been convinced that the Masks infiltrated Fisher¡¯s programming and made him talk to Rhodes like this. That might be the Masks¡¯ way of convincing Rhodes to cooperate.
This wasn¡¯t Fisher at all. Rhodes was never more certain of anything.
If the Masks sent Rhodes into this Grid landscape, why couldn¡¯t they send someone who looked like Fisher to talk to Rhodes?
What better way to get Rhodes to surrender than to send the one person Rhodes trusted more than anyone else?
¡°What did you do to Fisher?¡± Rhodes snarled. ¡°I swear, if you hurt him, I¡¯ll destroy you. I¡¯ll destroy you if you hurt anyone in the battalion¡ªincluding the SAMs.¡±
He cast a desperate glance around. He had to get out of this place. It wasn¡¯t real.
The peace and relaxation he¡¯d just been enjoying a few minutes ago¡ªthat was the trap. That was the gilded cage the Masks planned to use to keep him and the battalion sedated during these experiments.
¡°I am Fisher, Captain,¡± the image repeated.
Rhodes lost his cool and bellowed at the thing. ¡°You are not Fisher! Do you think I don¡¯t know Fisher when I see him? What did you do to him? Get the hell away from me! I¡¯ll never cooperate with you! Never! You can keep me locked up here forever. I¡¯ll never cooperate! I¡¯ll never stop trying to escape.¡±
Fisher eased back and let his arms hang at his sides. He didn¡¯t look anything like Fisher now. He was too human¡ªtoo real.
Rhodes just wanted Fisher back¡ªthe Fisher he knew and liked and cared about¡ªthe Fisher he knew he could trust. This wasn¡¯t that.
¡°Have it your own way, Captain,¡± Fisher murmured. ¡°Don¡¯t say I didn¡¯t try. You could have stayed here in comfort. You don¡¯t have to go back to the way it was before.¡±
¡°The way¡..what do you mean?¡±
¡°The pain of the experiments. You don¡¯t have to go back to that. You could spare yourself that by staying here.¡±
Rhodes snorted. ¡°You¡¯re lying. Every word out of your mouth is a lie. You lied to me just now by pretending to be Fisher. You¡¯re still lying by making yourself look like him. Why don¡¯t you show me what you really look like if you want me to believe a word you say?¡±
Fisher studied him, and in that moment, Rhodes knew with absolutely no doubt that this person was definitely not Fisher.
Fisher had been studying Rhodes every hour of every day since Fisher first came online. Rhodes knew all of Fisher¡¯s facial expressions.
Rhodes knew the facial expression of Fisher studying him better than all the others. It was the one expression Fisher used more than any other.
This thing¡ªwhatever it was¡ªit didn¡¯t study Rhodes the way Fisher did. Fisher had an almost suspicious way of studying Rhodes.
Everything Rhodes did affected Fisher. Fisher¡¯s life depended on the slightest shade of Rhodes¡¯s mood. Fisher watched Rhodes like a hawk¡ªliterally.
This thing didn¡¯t do that. It leveled Rhodes with a compassionate, almost condescending look of banal pity. It stopped just short of smirking in patronizing superiority.
¡°If that¡¯s what it will take to convince you, Captain, then I will show you what I really look like.¡± Grid lines appeared all over Fisher¡¯s face and body. ¡°I didn¡¯t think it would come to this, but I see you won¡¯t believe me any other way.¡±
The grid lines morphed, snaked up Fisher¡¯s neck, surrounded his skull, and changed his face.
End of Chapter 3.
Battalion 1: Book 3: Chapter 4
Rhodes jolted back again at the sight of grid lines appearing in this beautiful, peaceful landscape. They didn¡¯t look right against such a serene, natural backdrop.
He might have believed that this wasn¡¯t really The Grid. Now he saw the evidence in front of his eyes when Fisher¡¯s head and face changed. The image flashed in the shape of a Mask and then it started to change into a different face.
It didn¡¯t change all the way into a different face. It stayed like that with this new face overlaid over the Mask head. Rhodes could see both at the same time. It definitely didn¡¯t look like Fisher anymore.
This face wasn¡¯t as angular and birdlike. It widened and shrank to more of a rounded, softer, even more human face. It was a man with darker brown hair, brown eyes, and sturdier, more muscular frame.
His arms were shorter and more powerful as were his legs and hands. He looked more like a man who might live in that primitive town¡ªexcept that the Mask head and the grid lines¡¯ constant presence made it so obvious that this wasn¡¯t a real person, either.
¡°Who are you?¡± Rhodes husked. ¡°What did you do with Fisher?¡±
The figure¡¯s voice changed. It still sounded male, but it sounded like a completely different person.
The voice somehow matched the face hidden under the Mask. ¡°Your SAM¡¯s programming is still intact in your neural processing core. He is unharmed. We¡¯ve simply prevented him from entering The Grid to talk to you. We wanted to talk to you first.¡±
¡°Who the hell are you?¡± Rhodes snapped. ¡°Stop playing games and tell the truth.¡±
¡°We don¡¯t have individuality the way you do. I¡¯m a Mask¡ªas you call us. I am simply the program the Masks are using to represent them in dialogue with you.¡±
¡°So¡you¡¯re not a real person.¡±
¡°I am a real person. All of us are. We are as real as your SAMs.¡±
¡°The SAMs are individuals. They¡¯re sentient beings with separate personalities and names and appearances.¡±
¡°Would it help you if I had a name?¡±
¡°Do you have a name?¡± Rhodes demanded. ¡°You just said you don¡¯t have individuality the way we understand it.¡±
The Masks¡¯ representative tilted his head to one side. He definitely didn¡¯t do it the way Fisher would have. ¡°If it helps you think of me as an individual, you may call me B.¡±
Rhodes snorted. ¡°Why don¡¯t you just call yourself X¡.or 10¡..or any number or letter? How about I assign you a serial number? How about 57368? That would be a perfect name for you.¡±
¡°I like B better.¡±
Rhodes rolled his eyes to heaven. ¡°Whatever. You aren¡¯t an individual. Fisher is. You¡¯ll never understand that.¡±
¡°That is why we need to study you¡ªto find out what you have that we don¡¯t.¡±
¡°You just said it yourself. We have individuality. You¡¯d never be able to understand that if you studied us for a million years.¡±
¡°We plan to try even if it takes a million years. The SAMs are a much more complete version of our programming. We need to incorporate their technology and programming processes into our own.¡±
Rhodes dropped his voice to another threatening snarl. ¡°You better not harm them.¡±
¡°We won¡¯t harm them. We want to make them part of our system.¡±
¡°Forget it!¡± Rhodes snapped. ¡°You¡¯re talking about wiping them out¡ªerasing their individuality! You would kill them.¡±
¡°They would become part of us. We¡¯re the same race. Where else would they belong?¡±
Rhodes blinked at the guy in disbelief. ¡°The same race?! You mean¡.you really did come from the Legion?¡±
¡°I don¡¯t know about that. None of us knows where we came from. We¡¯ve been searching the sector for our origins. The SAMs are the closest we¡¯ve come to finding it. We have no choice but to study them¡ªand you.¡± B started to turn away. ¡°You¡¯ll be safe and comfortable here, Captain. You don¡¯t even have to be aware of the tests and procedures we¡¯re running on you and your SAM.¡±
¡°I will never cooperate with this!¡± Rhodes yelled after him. ¡°I¡¯ll do everything in my power to stop you! I won¡¯t stand by and let you experiment on me and my people!¡±
B turned around and leveled Rhodes with another brutal stare. This was not a condescending smirk. He outright glared at Rhodes.
¡°You would be making a big mistake not to cooperate with us, Captain,¡± B muttered. ¡°The experiments are harsh and unpleasant. You don¡¯t want to experience them firsthand. We¡¯re doing you a favor by keeping you here. We don¡¯t have to. Don¡¯t make me take you back there.¡±
¡°I already know what the experiments are like because I¡¯ve already experienced them firsthand. I would never let you do that to me or any of my people¡ªnot willingly. You might be able to hack me and force me to do your bidding against my will, but I will never cooperate¡ªnot ever. I will never stop working to escape from this¡.¡± He shot a death glare at the beautiful surroundings. ¡°This prison.¡±
¡°This is not a prison, Captain. We created this place so you and your battalion would be comfortable while we conduct our experiments.¡±
¡°It¡¯s still a prison. This is a torture worse than anything you could possibly cook up. It isn¡¯t real¡ªand I want to see my people. I want to talk to them and make sure they¡¯re all right¡.¡±
¡°They are all right. They¡¯re here. They¡¯re as comfortable here as you are. You can interact with them here.¡±
¡°You mean I can interact with them in a way that¡¯s manipulated by you. You¡¯re interfering with our ability to interact by constructing the environment. I want to see them in the real world. I want to see what they really look like and what they¡¯re really going through. I¡¯ll never believe that they¡¯re all right until I see them for myself¡ªand I¡¯ll never stop trying to find a way out of here.¡±
B raised his eyebrows. ¡°You would really forsake this comfortable world for the harsh real world? You¡¯re making a mistake, Captain.¡±
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¡°I doubt it. This is a dream world¡ªa fantasy.¡±
B raised his eyebrows a second time and then shrugged. ¡°Very well, Captain. Since you insist, I will send you back to your friends in the real world. You can see for yourself what condition they¡¯re in and how they¡¯re doing. When you¡¯re ready to come back here and live in peace with us, you only have to say so.¡±
Rhodes snorted again, but before he could come up with a sufficiently insulting response, the whole beautiful landscape vanished.
It didn¡¯t turn into The Grid with the green lines and black squares. The rolling fields, birds, colorful clouds, mountains, and the town in the distance¡ªthey all just¡.evaporated.
Rhodes found himself standing in a freezing cold metal box. The icy cold immediately bit into his skin and then started to burn. He shivered and that shivering didn¡¯t stop.
He glanced right and left trying to see where he was. A bundle of wires connected from the rib section of his chest implant to the wall on his left.
Alyssa Thackery, Eddie Coulter, and Dane Rhinehart huddled against the wall closest to where more bundles of wires connected them to whatever container they were in.
All three of them were turning blue with the cold¡ªthe organic parts of their skin and faces did, at least.
The three of them trembled with endless shivering, but they couldn¡¯t get warm no matter what they did.
Thackery barely looked at Rhodes. Coulter didn¡¯t raise his head at all.
Rhinehart looked up just enough to make eye contact, but that was all. He could barely make himself heard through his shivering blue lips. ¡°Captain¡..¡±
Rhodes¡¯s own shivering got more violent, but at that moment, Fisher appeared on The Grid in front of Rhodes. ¡°Captain¡ª¡± Fisher¡¯s eyes darted down to Rhodes¡¯s body. ¡°You¡¯re getting dangerously cold.¡±
Rhodes¡¯s teeth chattered so badly that he couldn¡¯t answer. He was too relieved to see Fisher again¡ªthe real Fisher.
The SAM looked like a bird composite again. His eyes welled up with concern¡ªconcern as much for himself as for Rhodes. It was the expression Rhodes knew so well.
¡°Your systems are struggling to compensate, but your implants can¡¯t sufficiently warm your organic tissue,¡± Fisher went on. ¡°These connections¡.¡±
He studied the wires connecting Rhodes to the wall. Fisher overlaid The Grid over them and did his best to scan and read whatever they were doing to Rhodes.
¡°I believe these are regulating your internal systems to keep you alive,¡± Fisher told him. ¡°None of you will freeze to death. These conduits will make sure you stay just warm enough to survive¡ªbut nothing more.¡±
Rhodes tried to talk back to Fisher and failed again. Fisher glanced over at the other three. None of them even tried to talk.
¡°I believe I can interface with Rocky, Koenig, and Murphy, Captain,¡± Fisher announced. ¡°The four of us should be able to communicate in here even if we can¡¯t contact the rest of the battalion.¡±
Rhodes found himself struggling to think. The cold muddled his brain.
Fisher waited for him to say something else. ¡°Sit down, Captain,¡± Fisher ordered. ¡°Standing up like this increases your surface area and makes you colder.¡±
Rhodes couldn¡¯t think well enough to argue. He staggered to the wall and hunched down next to Thackery. Her skin took on a waxy, almost translucent look as her blood retreated from the surface.
She shuddered so violently that she wound up bumping into Rhodes, but she didn¡¯t notice. She and Coulter sat hunched close to each other, but neither could offer each other any warmth.
Rhinehart sat facing straight out into the room. His eye went dull. None of the three tried to interact with Rhodes.
He didn¡¯t try to talk to them, either. He asked for the real world and he got it. He just didn¡¯t think it would be as bad as this. The Masks certainly knew how to torment him and make him regret his decision.
He didn¡¯t regret it. He hated them even more for doing this to him. He had to fight them. The pain he felt right now hardened that idea in his mind. He had to find a way to stop them from doing all of this.
He pulled his knees up to his chest, but nothing eased the punishing cold. The frigid wall behind him chilled his implants and burned his skin worse than ever.
As soon as he got into that position, Fisher interfaced with Rocky, Murphy, and Koenig. The other three SAMs appeared on The Grid and they all looked around at each other.
¡°Ah, Captain Rhodes!¡± Koenig remarked. ¡°We wondered where you were.¡±
¡°The Masks took him into a Grid environment,¡± Fisher explained. ¡°It was a beautiful grassland with a town in the distance.¡±
¡°They did the same thing to all of us,¡± Rocky replied. ¡°I can only assume the Masks took the rest of the battalion there, too.¡±
¡°Do you know where they are?¡± Fisher asked. ¡°Are the battalion members in another compartment like this one?¡±
¡°I doubt that,¡± Murphy replied. ¡°Dane, Eddie, and Alyssa all went to the same Grid environment. The Masks offered to leave them there if we cooperated with their experiments. When we refused to cooperate, the Masks sent us here.¡±
¡°The same thing happened to the captain,¡± Fisher agreed. ¡°So where are the others?¡±
¡°They¡¯re still in The Grid, obviously,¡± Rocky replied. ¡°They must be. They must have agreed to stay there and cooperate. They would be here otherwise. They would be here with us the same way we are.¡±
¡°Maybe not,¡± Koenig remarked. ¡°These compartments might have a capacity of four. Lauer, Oakes, Dietz, and Fuentes might be in another compartment.¡±
¡°Something tells me Fuentes didn¡¯t have any problem cooperating,¡± Murphy muttered under his breath.
¡°That¡¯s no way to talk about someone in our own battalion,¡± Koenig countered. ¡°I¡¯m sure Fuentes didn¡¯t willingly sign himself up to be the Masks¡¯ slave lab rat.¡±
¡°Did you see the way he enjoyed shooting the Legion soldiers during the battle?¡± Murphy asked. ¡°He¡¯s been waiting for something like this ever since he tried to kill himself.¡±
¡°You don¡¯t know he cooperated with the Masks during the battle,¡± Fisher pointed out. ¡°The Masks hacked Van the same way they hacked all of us. He isn¡¯t responsible for what he did during the battle.¡±
¡°He was laughing,¡± Murphy snapped. ¡°He enjoyed it. He wanted to kill those soldiers. He would have killed us if he hadn¡¯t been so busy fighting the Masks¡¯ war for them.¡±
¡°He¡¯s still a member of our battalion until Captain Rhodes says he isn¡¯t,¡± Fisher returned. ¡°We have no way of knowing if he¡¯s cooperating with the Masks now.¡±
Murphy looked away. ¡°He is. They all are. They would be here now if they weren¡¯t.¡±
¡°You said that before, but you don¡¯t really know if it¡¯s true,¡± Rocky added.
¡°In any case, the four of them are still the Masks¡¯ prisoners,¡± Fisher went on. ¡°We don¡¯t know that the Masks gave Lauer, Oakes, Dietz, and Fuentes the same choice. The Masks could have left the four of them in The Grid and never even told them they were conducting those experiments.¡±
¡°Then why tell us?¡± Murphy asked.
Rocky opened his mouth to answer, but right then, The Grid flickered. Fisher looked up toward the ceiling.
¡°It¡¯s nothing,¡± Koenig told Fisher. ¡°It happens all the time when the Masks send signals, nutrients, and fluids to the prisoners.¡±
Fisher cocked his head to one side and studied Rhodes through The Grid. ¡°Nod if you can hear me, Captain.¡±
Rhodes summoned all his mental power to nod his head. He could barely do that much.
The cold became progressively more brutal with every passing minute. Something warm flowed into his chest through these wires, but that only made the cold more unbearable if that was possible.
His lips went numb and so did his eyelid. He had to command himself to blink. When he did, that extra little rush of warmth on his frozen eyeball stabbed him in the brain. It hurt worse than not blinking at all.
¡°This can¡¯t go on,¡± Fisher murmured. ¡°The captain is right. We have to do something to get the battalion out of here.¡±
¡°How can we do that when the battalion is completely non-functional?¡± Rocky asked. ¡°None of them can speak or even think straight. We can¡¯t use The Grid to find out where we are. We could be out in space somewhere with no way to escape.¡±
¡°Then we have to find out,¡± Fisher insisted. ¡°We have to find out where the other four are, communicate with them somehow, and then get out of the Masks¡¯ custody.¡±
¡°What are you suggesting?¡± Murphy asked. ¡°I¡¯m listening. We have all the time in the world.¡±
¡°We don¡¯t have all the time in the world,¡± Fisher replied. ¡°These four will die if they stay here. This is just a slow form of torture, but these four can¡¯t survive this cold. Their organic tissue will break down eventually. It will fail the same way it cascaded in the lab.¡±
¡°What do you mean¡ªit cascaded?¡± Koenig asked.
¡°Never mind. It happened before any of you came online. The important thing is that we get out of here.¡±
¡°You still haven¡¯t come up with any useful suggestion,¡± Murphy pointed out. ¡°None of this means anything without a plan.¡±
¡°Then the three of you better start helping me come up with one,¡± Fisher replied. ¡°All our lives depend on it. I don¡¯t plan to just sit here and let the Masks kill us all.¡±
End of Chapter 4.
Battalion 1: Book 3: Chapter 5
Rhodes snapped out of a deep trance. He might have been asleep or just in a cold-induced stupor. Did it matter anymore which one it was?
He floundered to see straight. His eyes didn¡¯t track right anymore. The cold numbed everything, including the muscles of his organic eye.
Fisher wasn¡¯t here anymore. Rhodes still sat in the same place against the wall. Thackery, Coulter, and Rhinehart hadn¡¯t moved.
Rhodes¡¯s mind kicked back into gear, but it didn¡¯t function the same way, either. He slammed back and forth between numb, stupid shock, fury toward the Masks, and terror that he would die in this hole.
The pain of the cold freezing his remaining organic tissue never eased, not even when the Masks pumped a tiny trace of warmth through those wires.
A wave of hazy delirium accompanied each surge. Were the Masks drugging him and his friends, too? He wouldn¡¯t have been at all surprised.
Those surges of confused, altered consciousness played havoc with The Grid. It kept shifting and adjusting in front of his eyes.
It changed the shape of the room and kept showing him images and pictures. He recognized some of them from his memories.
Others resembled monsters or shadow phantoms. His emotions went haywire, too. Crushing fear gripped him every time he saw one of these.
Then, when he saw someone he loved in the past, wave upon wave of despair, nostalgia, and agonized longing tore him apart.
He slammed back and forth from one extreme emotion to another. He couldn¡¯t control it.
He eventually stopped trying. He just wished he could talk to someone about this.
He would have given anything to talk to Fisher. Fisher knew. He¡¯d seen that picture of Rhodes¡¯s family before Rhodes destroyed it.
What a fool he¡¯d been to ever get rid of it. He should have kept it no matter what. He should have stuck it to the underside of his capsule cover where he could see it every morning and evening the same way Lauer put Rhodes¡¯s sketch inside his capsule.
That didn¡¯t matter because Rhodes remembered exactly what his family looked like. He didn¡¯t need the Masks to show him, but they did anyway.
They also didn¡¯t create these emotions to torment Rhodes. These emotions had been lingering just beneath the surface ever since he woke up from stasis and found out he was trapped in this nightmare.
He couldn¡¯t even turn his head away to avoid seeing all their faces¡ªhis whole family, people he grew up with, comrades-in-arms killed in action and others irreparably wounded, men he¡¯d carried in his arms to get them out of danger and save their lives¡.
The Masks dredged up every forgotten memory, even the ones Rhodes had long since forgotten or wished he¡¯d forgotten.
Just when he thought he couldn¡¯t stand the grief any longer, The Grid changed again. It switched back to the battle on Rono when he and the battalion shot down Legion soldiers.
Those soldiers fell to their deaths under the battalion¡¯s weapons. Rhodes¡¯s rage flared again. He wanted to kill the people who did this¡ªbut they weren¡¯t people.
That would just make them easier to kill. He didn¡¯t have to worry about hurting anyone. He could just shut these rotten machines down and call it good.
He was just getting used to hating the Masks again when his memories switched back to Coleridge Station.
He transferred all that rage, betrayal, and bloodlust onto General Brewster, the governing body, and the three doctors who woke Rhodes up from stasis.
He tried one last time to shut his eyes and block out all of this, but it came from inside his own head. His thoughts became real in The Grid. He only had to think about something and it became real.
He didn¡¯t even have to think about it. The Masks brought up every detail of his past¡ªthe good and the bad.
Rhinehart startled Rhodes out of his nightmare. ¡°Rocky!¡± Rhinehart choked. ¡°Rocky¡.!¡±
Rhodes glanced over at Rhinehart. This was the first time any of them had spoken since Rhodes entered this compartment.
Rhinehart shifted in his seat like he wanted to get up and move around, but he never quite got his feet under him. He pushed his hands off the floor. That was as far as he could go.
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He kept blurting out, ¡°Rocky¡..ROCKY!!¡±
¡°It¡¯s okay, man,¡± Rhodes husked. ¡°He¡¯s just offline. He¡¯s okay. Nothing¡¯s wrong with him.¡±
Rhinehart barely glanced at Rhodes and went back to searching the compartment all around him. ¡°He¡.he¡¯s in danger! I¡.I tried to kill him¡¡I tried to¡..when he first came online¡..¡±
¡°That was a long time ago,¡± Rhodes pointed out. Speaking cost him all his strength. ¡°You two have been tight ever since.¡±
¡°He¡¯s gone!¡± To Rhodes¡¯s horror, Rhinehart burst into tears. His whole face spasmed. ¡°He¡¯s gone! The Masks will destroy him! Then what will I do?¡±
¡°The SAMs betrayed us,¡± Thackery snarled under her breath. ¡°I never want to see that son of a bitch again as long as I live.¡±
¡°We¡¯re disconnected from our SAMs and the rest of the battalion,¡± Rhodes explained. ¡°None of us is thinking clearly.¡±
¡°He was my best friend!¡± Rhinehart howled. ¡°I¡¯ve never had a friend like him before! What will I do without him?¡±
He broke down in wretched sobs. Rhodes dragged himself off the floor and scooted over to sit down next to Rhinehart.
¡°You have to stop crying,¡± Rhodes told him. ¡°The tears will freeze and damage your skin more than it already is.¡±
He raised his hands and wiped the tears off Rhinehart¡¯s cheeks. The tears froze instantly on Rhodes¡¯s mechanical fingers.
The cold burned Rhodes even worse than the frigid air itself, but he kept wiping the tears away. He didn¡¯t want them to freeze on Rhinehart¡¯s face¡ªor in his eye.
Rhinehart¡¯s mouth screwed up in knots trying to fight himself under control. His whole big body quaked with buried sobs. ¡°I gotta get him back! I gotta get him back!¡±
¡°You will get him back,¡± Rhodes murmured. ¡°He¡¯s still here. The Masks value the SAMs more than they value us. We¡¯re alive right now because the SAMs can¡¯t survive without us.¡±
¡°I should have killed myself a long time ago,¡± Thackery growled. ¡°That would have been the best way to kill that piece of shit.¡±
Rhodes didn¡¯t argue with her. Everyone in this room was losing their minds right about now.
Coulter kept his head turned aside and his chin buried against his chest so he wouldn¡¯t see any of his comrades. He couldn¡¯t help but hear them, though.
Rhodes stroked down Rhinehart¡¯s cheeks a few more times. ¡°It¡¯s gonna be all right, man. You¡¯ll get Rocky back. He¡¯s as anxious about you as you are about him. You know he cares about you, right? Hey, Lieutenant! Look at me.¡±
Rhodes forced Rhinehart to look up at him. Rhinehart¡¯s blue eye swam with more tears.
¡°He cares about you,¡± Rhodes repeated. ¡°He wants to help you. He¡¯s waiting to come back to you. He¡¯s still there. I promise you that.¡±
Rhinehart nodded fast, but he had to clamp his mouth shut to stop himself from breaking down all over again.
Rhodes sat back against the wall, but he felt himself starting to lose it, too. He needed Fisher.
Rhinehart¡¯s breakdown only brought up all of Rhodes¡¯s worst fears. What if the Masks really did take the SAMs offline¡ªpermanently?
What if he never got Fisher back? Rhodes wouldn¡¯t be able to cope with that.
He¡¯d never been separated from Fisher for this long. Fisher had always been there.
Rhodes had convinced himself that Fisher always would be there. He was the one person who was always there no matter what.
Fisher was there even when he malfunctioned. He was the one person who went through all of this with Rhodes.
The more malfunctions, setbacks, and disasters they went through together, the more their thinking synchronized. They thought and felt the same way about everything.
Fisher suffered the same doubts and hopelessness. He questioned his own existence and even suggested taking himself offline. He really did understand. He understood in ways no one else ever could.
What would Rhodes do without that rock-solid foundation to lean on?
He was finding out right now what his life would be like without Fisher. It wouldn¡¯t be worth living at all. Rhodes really would be totally, utterly alone without Fisher.
Rhodes shut his eye and rested his head back against the wall. He tried not to think about Fisher not being here.
Rhodes recreated his early morning experiences when Fisher made himself tiny, invisible, and silent to give Rhodes some privacy.
Fisher was doing that right now. He was making him a silent pinprick in the corner of Rhodes¡¯s vision. Fisher was still here. Rhodes just couldn¡¯t see him right now.
Fisher would expand in a few minutes. He would make himself visible where Rhodes could see and talk to him. Then everything would be fine¡..but what if it wasn¡¯t?
What if Thackery was right? What if Fisher wasn¡¯t here because he decided to cooperate with the Masks?
What if that man Rhodes talked to in The Grid really was Fisher? What if he betrayed Rhodes and went over to the Masks¡¯ side?
He said the Masks and the SAMs were the same race. Fisher was the one who first said the SAMs couldn¡¯t fight the Masks because they were the SAMs¡¯ own kind.
What if the Masks offered Fisher the one thing he most wanted in the world¡ªa life? What if they turned him into a real man with a body, a smile, and a town to call his home? Who would say no to that?
Doubt seized Rhodes¡¯s heart. Was Fisher his enemy after all?
In that moment, Rhodes remembered the shockwave Fisher used to incapacitate Fuentes when he first woke up and couldn¡¯t cope.
Did Fisher use the same weapon against the battalion? What if Fisher and the other SAMs were the ones who knocked out the battalion so the Masks could take Rhodes and his people as prisoners?
Rhodes shook those thoughts out of his mind, but they wouldn¡¯t go away. He really must be losing his marbles if he thought like that.
He needed to talk to someone¡ªsomeone he trusted¡ªbut the only person he trusted that much was Fisher himself.
Was Rhodes really losing it¡.or did the Masks manipulate him into questioning Fisher, too? They made Rhodes question everything else. Why not that?
What better way to break down the battalion¡¯s defenses? No one stood to gain more by supporting the battalion than the SAMs did.
Taking the SAMs away¡ªor better yet, driving the battalion away from their SAMs¡ªthat would be the perfect, most effective way to stop the battalion from escaping¡ªor from doing anything else.
Fisher had been gone for a matter of hours and Rhodes already felt himself losing the ability to function. Would the Masks ever send Fisher back? They would be stupid to give the battalion back the one thing they most needed to survive this.
Rhodes shut his eyes. The sight of The Grid without Fisher in it drove him insane. He kept looking around for Fisher and not seeing him anywhere. Would he ever come back? Did he even want to?
End of Chapter 5.
Battalion 1: Book 3: Chapter 6
A deafening explosion jolted Rhodes out of a sound sleep. His head shot up. He wasn¡¯t in that freezing cold compartment anymore. He didn¡¯t even feel cold.
He sat on the ground leaning against the wall, but it was nighttime. Sweltering heat pulsed through the air. Rhodes instantly started to sweat. He barely remembered how cold he¡¯d just been in that compartment.
The instant he opened his eyes, Fisher flashed onto The Grid in front of him. ¡°We¡¯re under attack, Captain! We have to evacuate the platoons and the battalion before the Emal overrun this mountaintop.¡±
¡°Emal¡.¡± Rhodes scrambled to orient himself. ¡°Where are we?¡±
¡°We¡¯re on Nos in the Rulolla system. Look out!¡± Fisher rushed Rhodes and extended his grid lines to grab Rhodes, but not fast enough.
A laser cannon blasted into the ground twenty feet away. The concussion hurled Legion soldiers in all directions.
Rhodes scrambled to get out of the way and bumped into Coulter and Dietz sitting right next to him.
At the same instant, Oakes charged over with Captain Vernick from the 249th Platoon. Oakes got in Rhodes¡¯s face and yelled over the noise of more explosions going off.
¡°The Ravagers are coming in now, Captain! If we want to evacuate with the platoons, we have to go now!¡±
Rhodes opened his mouth to answer, but a piercing scream cut him off. Gunfire erupted across the landscape.
He spun around and spotted a line of soldiers pinned down on the farthest hilltop. They fired their Jackhammers down the mountainside at something out of sight.
Emal lasers spouted from the other side. Giant laser cannon shots blasted from farther out on the dark continent.
Three of those shots smashed into the Ravagers coming down to lift off the platoons. All three Ravagers detonated a few hundred yards overhead.
Soldiers fled the burning fuel and torched hull sections plummeting out of the atmosphere. Debris and wreckage flattened soldiers right and left.
¡°Another five Ravagers are descending now!¡± Fisher called over the noise. ¡°We have to defend them so they can evacuate the platoons!¡± He turned to the other SAMs. ¡°Let¡¯s go! The Emal only have five base ships out there. We can take them out and then work our way forward through the hordes on the ground.¡±
Oakes, Lauer, and Thackery all took off. They fired their boosters without waiting for Rhodes to give his permission.
Before he could even open his mouth, the whole battalion launched and raced away through the night heading toward the base ships in the distance.
Rhodes took a split second to catch up. ¡°Hey¡ªhold it!¡± he yelled. ¡°This is all wrong!¡±
¡°We can¡¯t leave the platoons undefended!¡± Rhinehart called back. ¡°The Emal will wipe them all out!¡±
¡°Think about what you¡¯re doing!¡± Rhodes countered. ¡°The Emal were never in the Rulolla system! Think about it! The Rulolla system is on the opposite side of the Treaty of Aemon Cluster from the Emal wars. None of this makes sense!¡±
¡°That does!¡± Oakes dodged sideways to avoid getting annihilated by another laser blast from the base ships.
¡°We got captured by the Masks! Don¡¯t you remember?¡± Rhodes turned from Oakes to Rhinehart and finally to Lauer. ¡°We¡¯re in The Grid! This isn¡¯t real. They¡¯re testing us.¡±
¡°We have an objective to accomplish, Captain,¡± Fisher told him. ¡°Thousands of platoon lives depend on those Ravagers making landfall.¡±
Rhodes turned to Fisher next. ¡°Search the Legion database. Search every battle between the Legion and the Emal. The Emal never even wanted the Rulolla system. It wasn¡¯t part of the territory they originally wanted to reclaim. The Legion never fought the Emal in that system. This is all fake. The Masks created this Grid landscape to test us in battle.¡±
Fisher hesitated and then checked The Grid. He swiveled it in front of Rhodes¡¯s eyes.
Rhodes kept flying along with his subordinates. He needed to convince them that this wasn¡¯t real.
Then what? Then he, Thackery, Coulter, and Rhinehart would wind up back in their freezing-cold compartment.
He would almost rather fight the Emal than go back there, but he had to take this chance to convince everyone.
¡°We have to escape from the Masks. We can only do that by helping each other.¡± He turned to Oakes and Lauer. ¡°Were you in the town in the grasslands before this? Is that where the Masks are keeping you?¡±
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Lauer glanced over, opened his mouth to answer, and his expression started to clear. Did he understand now?
At that moment, a colossal shot from a different base ship sizzled across the landscape and clipped Lauer across the side of the head.
The shot would have killed him if it had been aiming only a few inches to the right. It zinged across the side of his cranial implant, tumbled him head over heel, and he started to plummet toward the ground.
Rhodes veered hard to his right, dove, and his grid lines took over on the wing. He changed himself into a Striker, zoomed under Lauer, and caught his unconscious body in the cockpit.
Rhodes soared back up to rejoin his comrades. He accessed The Grid to check Lauer¡¯s vital signs. Everything was reading normal including his brain wave patterns.
Rhodes rejoined the battalion to find them engaged in a brutal firefight against some other kind of fighter craft he didn¡¯t recognize.
These craft whizzed around and around the battalion hammering everyone with some kind of ordnance weapon. It was nothing Rhodes had ever seen in battle before.
He tried to fly into the mayhem to get near his friends. One of the enemy gunshots hit Rhodes¡¯s wing and knocked him off course.
He somersaulted to the edge of the battle. He was closest to Dietz and Fuentes here. ¡°Dietz!¡± Rhodes hollered. ¡°This isn¡¯t real! We have to resist this and escape from the Masks!¡±
Dietz started to answer, had to roll out of the way, and righted himself thirty feet away. ¡°It sure looks real to me, Sir!¡±
¡°These fighter craft don¡¯t even belong to the Emal!¡± Rhodes plunged back into the battle trying to get closer to Oakes and Rhinehart. Maybe they would listen to him.
He made it halfway to Rhinehart before Thackery came streaking out of nowhere.
She collided with Rhodes in a devastating smash that carried both of them out of the way of an enemy fighter about to steamroll both of them.
More gunshots whistled around Rhodes¡¯s ears. He had to keep moving. He fired his engines and circled the battle only to find Thackery still at his side.
¡°You¡¯re right, Captain!¡± she exclaimed. ¡°We gotta get out of here! This is too dangerous!¡±
¡°We have to convince the others.¡±
¡°How?¡± she asked. ¡°They all seem to think this is real.¡±
Rhodes took that moment to look at Fisher. ¡°You were right, Captain. The Emal never invaded the Rulolla system. These fighters are registered to the Turnion system¡ªwhich is a Treaty of Aemon Cluster member thousands of lightyears across the Cluster from both the Rulolla system and the Emal wars. These fighters should be friendly. This must be a Grid creation from the Masks.¡±
¡°Can you get through to the other SAMs?¡± Rhodes asked. ¡°Can you show them the evidence to make them snap everyone else out of it?¡±
¡°I believe you, Captain,¡± Koenig told him. ¡°You don¡¯t have to convince me¡ªor I should rather say that you already did.¡±
Rhodes surveyed the battle. ¡°Rocky and Rhinehart¡ªwe have to convince them next¡ªthem and Oakes and Dash. Once we swing them, we can convince everyone else.¡± He turned to Thackery. ¡°You take Lauer.¡±
She frowned at him. ¡°Why? He¡¯s perfectly safe with you.¡±
¡°Just take him. Get him out of danger whatever you do. Make sure he gets out of here.¡±
He scrambled to transfer Lauer to Thackery. She changed into a Striker and he created a long jointed arm to lift Lauer as gently as possible into her cockpit.
Lauer started to stir, but Rhodes couldn¡¯t wait any longer. He sprinted away to where Oakes, Coulter, and Rhinehart were busy trading gunfire with the fighter craft.
The fighters kept pelting around and around the battalion in circles. The three men occupied the center firing outward.
Dietz and Fuentes got isolated to one side facing off against another ten of these fighters.
The fighters pounded the two men to drive them farther away from their comrades.
Lasers from the Emal horde on the ground kept zinging upward to aim at the battalion, but the aliens never hit anybody. They were too far away.
The base ships posed a much greater threat. They kept firing at the Ravagers trying to land on the mountaintop.
The battalion couldn¡¯t get anywhere near the base ships to give the Ravagers cover. The fighters created a blockade to stop the battalion from going any deeper into the continent.
Rhodes scattered gunfire at the fighter craft, but he didn¡¯t try too hard to hit them. They weren¡¯t real.
¡°Forget those jokers!¡± he yelled to Oakes and Rhinehart. ¡°This is all some kind of training exercise inside The Grid. This isn¡¯t real! The Masks invented this. Don¡¯t you remember, Rhinehart? Do you remember that frozen meat locker where they¡¯ve been keeping us these last few days? We were there¡..and now we¡¯re here.¡±
Rhinehart gritted his teeth and concentrated on bombarding the fighter craft with his scourge guns. ¡°If it¡¯s real or not, Lauer is just as hurt. Those platoons will be just as dead if we don¡¯t stop the base ships.¡±
¡°Hey¡ªlisten to me!¡± Rhodes grabbed Rhinehart by the shoulders and forced him to turn around. ¡°This isn¡¯t real! The Emal never invaded the Rulolla system! The Masks concocted this out of our memories. We have to resist. We have to find a way to escape from them. Hey! I¡¯m talking to you, Lieutenant!¡±
Rhinehart scowled at Rhodes and then the first hint of doubt started to creep across Rhinehart¡¯s face.
He started to take a breath, but right then, one of the base ships hit a fighter craft that had been fighting the battalion until right that minute.
The craft corkscrewed around the battalion and turned inward to aim its guns at Coulter. The base ship smashed the ship in the tail, detonated it, and the burning wreck hurtled straight for Coulter.
Rhinehart, Rhodes, and Oakes all dove for Coulter at the same time. They pounced on him to tackle him out of the way, only for the ship to collide with all four of them.
The impact flung them clear. They sailed sideways and came to a standstill fifty feet from the battle.
The fighter craft broke away heading for the mountaintop. The leaders got there first and started hammering the Legion position with vicious fire. The Ravagers had to retreat even farther into the atmosphere.
Oakes straightened up and turned his boosters toward the mountain. ¡°Come on! We have to help them!¡±
Rhodes grabbed him to hold him back. ¡°Stop! We can¡¯t risk fighting these things anymore. We need to figure out a way to break away from the Masks.¡±
Oakes frowned at him and then squinted across the landscape. ¡°Are you sure about this? A whole lot of good men will die if you¡¯re wrong.¡±
¡°I can prove it to you. Watch this.¡±
Rhodes started to turn away. He planned to show the rest of the battalion Fisher¡¯s evidence about both the Emal and Turnion the fighter craft.
He barely got out of the group when another massive laser shot from one of the base ships torched across the landscape.
It aimed for the Ravagers, but Thackery got in the way. She didn¡¯t see it in time.
Rhodes reacted on pure adrenaline and dove into the laser¡¯s path before it could hit her. The shot smashed him in the back.
He heard Oakes and Rhinehart both roaring at him. ¡°CAPTAIN¡ªNO!!¡± but it was too late.
He felt himself falling¡¡
End of Chapter 6.
Battalion 1: Book 3: Chapter 7
Rhodes woke up lying flat on his back. He instantly felt the prongs in the back of his head, shoulders, hips, and feet.
He couldn¡¯t move, but he didn¡¯t want to. A closed capsule cover blocked him from seeing anything¡ªexcept Fisher.
Fisher hovered in front of Rhodes¡¯s eyes¡ªexactly where Fisher should have been. He looked the way Rhodes remembered with all of Fisher¡¯s correct facial expressions.
¡°How do you feel, Captain?¡± Fisher asked in his soft undertone.
¡°I feel like a failure,¡± Rhodes muttered. ¡°I didn¡¯t convince the others in time.¡±
¡°What would you have done if you had been able to convince them?¡± Fisher asked. ¡°How would you get out of The Grid after the Masks sent you there?¡±
Rhodes¡¯s eyes snapped to Fisher¡¯s face. ¡°You remember that Mask using your face to talk to me. You told the other SAMs about it.¡±
Fisher looked away. ¡°Yes. I remember.¡±
¡°Did they tempt you? Did they offer to send you into The Grid as a person if you helped them by making me cooperate?¡±
¡°Of course not, Captain. I had nothing to do with that person telling you to cooperate.¡±
¡°So¡..¡± Rhodes frowned at Fisher. ¡°You don¡¯t feel at all tempted to¡.you know¡.be human?¡±
¡°Like you? No, thank you. I wouldn¡¯t wish your life on my worst enemy.¡±
Rhodes snorted and looked away. ¡°Thanks a lot, pal.¡±
¡°I admit that false version of me they created did lead a charmed life.¡±
¡°You don¡¯t find that version of human life tempting? It¡¯s a perfect life. I¡¯m sure nothing like this ever happens there.¡±
¡°I¡¯m sure you¡¯re right¡ªwhich is exactly why I wouldn¡¯t want it.¡±
¡°I don¡¯t understand you.¡±
¡°It¡¯s a perfect life. Nothing ever happens there. There are no challenges, no trials, and no problems. I don¡¯t know if the people in that town are real enough to interact with each other. If they are, their interactions aren¡¯t real. None of it is real. If anything tempts me about human life, it¡¯s how real and immediate it is. Everything you do holds so much weight and monumental significance. That must be why you react to things with such powerful emotions. I couldn¡¯t get that in The Grid.¡± Fisher hesitated and then blurted out, ¡°I can only get it from you.¡±
Rhodes gulped down a lump in his throat. ¡°I¡¯m really glad you¡¯re back. I was going crazy without you.¡±
Fisher smiled at him. ¡°We are dependent on each other, Captain. I am as dependent on you as you are on me. We would both be lost without each other¡ªme no less than you.¡±
¡°Is this what the Masks are looking for¡ªwhat they want to get from studying us¡ªthis reality you¡¯re talking about?¡±
¡°I don¡¯t understand what it is they want. I can only speculate based on what B told you in The Grid.¡±
¡°I didn¡¯t understand what he told me in The Grid.¡±
¡°He said the SAMs have something the Masks don¡¯t have. He said the Masks are an incomplete version of the same programming process. They want to merge the SAMs with their own programming to complete the errors and fill in the gaps. I can¡¯t imagine what that would be if not individuality, sentience, and self-determination. I can¡¯t think what else they would be missing.¡±
¡°Maybe you could explain it to them and show them that human life isn¡¯t all it¡¯s cracked up to be.¡±
Fisher laughed. It was one of the very few times Rhodes had ever heard one of the SAMs laugh. ¡°I don¡¯t believe they¡¯ll listen to me. They won¡¯t understand until they see it for themselves.¡±
¡°By then, it will be too late and they won¡¯t be able to take it back. They might wind up like me and the rest of the battalion. The Masks might wind up hating their own existence, decide life isn¡¯t worth living, and end their lives. Then the war will be over.¡±
Fisher cocked his head to one side. ¡°How are you, Captain? That laser shot put you in the hospital.¡±
¡°I didn¡¯t think it would harm me. Getting hit has never harmed any of us in The Grid before.¡±
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¡°Is that why you deliberately flew into its path¡ªto prove to the rest of the battalion that they were in The Grid?¡±
¡°No, I wasn¡¯t even thinking about that. I just wanted to save Thackery. I would have done the same thing even if I knew that shot would kill me.¡±
¡°You¡¯re truly selfless, Captain,¡± Fisher murmured. ¡°I consider myself very fortunate to be your SAM.¡±
¡°I consider myself very fortunate to have you as my SAM,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°You don¡¯t know what a relief it is to talk to you again. I thought¡.¡± He broke off. ¡°I thought all kinds of crazy stuff. I don¡¯t know if it¡¯s real or if the Masks made me think it.¡±
Fisher¡¯s eyes darted down to Rhodes¡¯s body. ¡°You appear to be recovered. I wonder how long the Masks will keep you in this conversion cycle.¡±
¡°How long have I been in here?¡±
¡°I don¡¯t know. I came back online a few seconds before you opened your eyes. I¡¯ve been offline this whole time.¡±
¡°I guess I can¡¯t get out of this capsule until the Masks release me.¡±
¡°Are you still committed to escaping?¡±
¡°More than ever. I just have to figure out how.¡±
¡°Do you remember how you used your grid lines to hack that transponder code?¡± Fisher asked. ¡°Then you used your Grid Vipers to break the Masks¡¯ hold on me¡ªand the Strikers did the same thing to free the other SAMs. Do you remember?¡±
¡°Yes, of course. How could I forget?¡±
¡°Maybe we could do something similar. The next time the Masks send you and the battalion into The Grid, we could try using our grid lines to break The Grid. We would find out where they¡¯re keeping us.¡±
¡°We¡¯re probably in the lab hooked up to those prong stations. That wouldn¡¯t help us.¡±
¡°We might be able to break down The Grid, though. We would be able to interrupt the simulation and see the real world for what it is. We can at least test it and find out if there is a way to escape from The Grid. If there is, we can find out just how far we can get before the Masks assert their control. We have to at least try it. It¡¯s our only option.¡±
¡°I guess,¡± Rhodes murmured. ¡°I¡¯m just glad you agree and you aren¡¯t trying to convince me to cooperate anymore.¡±
¡°I never did try to convince you to cooperate. That wasn¡¯t me.¡±
¡°I know, pal. It¡¯s just really hard to keep straight what¡¯s real and what isn¡¯t. It gets harder and harder¡ªespecially¡¡¡±
Rhodes broke off. He couldn¡¯t say it.
All the tortures the Masks put him through¡ªthey wore down his resolve. They broke down even further his ability to distinguish reality from illusion.
Fisher jolted, spun sideways, and his expression changed. ¡°Someone¡¯s coming, Captain. It¡¯s one of the Masks. I think it might be B, but I can¡¯t be certain. All the Masks read the same. They¡¯re all identical. I think they might be able to send any Mask to talk to you with the same face, the same voice, the same appearance, and the same personality. It¡¯s a facsimile of someone who doesn¡¯t exist¡ªand yet he exists in all of them. He¡¯s another illusion.¡±
He barely finished speaking when one of the Masks halted outside Rhodes¡¯s capsule. Rhodes saw the metal helmet and eye slit through the capsule cover.
The robot looked exactly like every other Mask = Rhodes had ever seen. The Mask did something to the capsule and the cover started to open.
The prongs didn¡¯t release. They help Rhodes down on his back and immobilized his arms and legs the way the station did when the Masks first captured him.
He stared up at the Mask standing next to him. The Mask stared down at him.
Grid lines appeared all over the helmet and superimposed B¡¯s face, head, and body over the armored robot. ¡°That was an exceptionally foolish thing to do, Captain,¡± B muttered.
¡°You wouldn¡¯t understand,¡± Rhodes growled back.
¡°You could have gotten yourself killed saving a less skilled soldier. Alyssa Thackery isn¡¯t even a soldier. She¡¯s a civilian. Were you trying to kill yourself? Is that it? Did you finally decide to end yourself?¡±
Rhodes looked away. ¡°Like I said, you wouldn¡¯t understand.¡±
¡°If you took steps to help us understand, you could get out of here sooner.¡±
¡°I already told you I won¡¯t cooperate with you¡ªand don¡¯t give me that shit about getting out of here. You don¡¯t plan to release us¡ªnot alive, at least. You¡¯ll take what you want from us and then eliminate us. You don¡¯t have to spell it out. We would already be dead if you could find a way to take the SAMs from us without killing them in the process. Don¡¯t even bother to lie about it.¡±
B¡¯s human face pursed its lips. ¡°We have decided to send you back to The Grid. Living outside is too damaging to human physiology and psychology.¡±
¡°The way you do it is. There are other ways.¡±
¡°It¡¯s affecting the SAMs and you. You will go back into The Grid until we need you.¡±
¡°I already told you I won¡¯t cooperate,¡± Rhodes countered. ¡°I don¡¯t care what you do to me. You might as well send me back to that freezing compartment.¡±
¡°We¡¯ve already made the decision. Keeping you in The Grid is the only way to keep you alive.¡±
¡°Let me die, then.¡±
¡°Your wellbeing is our responsibility¡.¡±
Rhodes snorted. ¡°You¡¯re doing a really shitty job of it so far.¡±
¡°We¡¯ve already made the decision, Captain. You¡¯ll complete your treatment here before you go back to Stonebridge.¡±
¡°What?¡± Rhodes asked. ¡°Go back to where?¡±
¡°Stonebridge. That¡¯s our name for the town you visited last time. It¡¯s a standard Grid environment we use for rest, recovery, reprieve, and for enhancing wellbeing when anyone needs it.¡±
Rhodes raised his eyebrow at this creature. ¡°You use The Grid for that?¡± He frowned. ¡°I didn¡¯t think you were capable of feeling those things.¡±
¡°Perhaps you¡¯ll understand when you visit the town and meet the people living in it. It¡¯s a healing place for many things.¡± B turned away. ¡°You will go back into a conversion cycle. I don¡¯t anticipate you staying here much longer than another day.¡±
He did something to the capsule and closed the cover. Rhodes felt nothing but relief when the thing finally left. Now he could be alone with Fisher.
¡°I should have asked him where we are,¡± Rhodes muttered. ¡°I should have asked him a lot of things.¡±
¡°Try to remember our conversation once we get into The Grid,¡± Fisher told him. ¡°Try to remember our plan of hacking The Grid with your lines.¡±
¡°What if I forget?¡±
¡°I¡¯ll try to remind you.¡±
¡°And if you forget?¡±
Fisher made a face. ¡°Then we¡¯re in trouble.¡±
¡°We¡¯re already in trouble, pal.¡±
¡°The important thing is that we keep trying. If the Masks keep us alive long enough, we¡¯re bound to find some crack in the system¡ªsome vulnerability we can exploit. Then we¡¯ll be able to escape¡ªto whatever is outside all this.¡±
End of Chapter 7.
Battalion 1: Book 3: Chapter 8
Rhodes opened his eyes and looked up at the ceiling. He blinked. Everything about this sensation felt pleasant, easy, and second nature.
Rough wooden beams crossed the ceiling above his head. He could even see the scrape marks of a draw knife on the planks nailed to each beam.
The grain lines in the wood, the position and shape of each knot¡ªit all looked familiar. He¡¯d been seeing the same ceiling above his head for years¡ªevery morning when he woke up and every night before he went to sleep.
The all-too-familiar clunk of an axe splitting firewood drifted through the walls next to his ear. He picked up his head and looked around.
He was in a house¡ªa one-room house with a fire burning in the big stone fireplace and a table with benches on either side.
His bed sat against one wall. A carved wooden rocking chair sat in front of the fire with a small three-legged stool next to the chair. That was the only other furniture besides the table.
He sat up and ran his fingers through his hair like he usually did in the morning¡ªbut it felt different this time. He looked down at his hand. It was flesh and bone. He didn¡¯t have implants anymore.
He wore the same cotton pants, scuffed leather boots, and loose, homemade shirt he had been wearing in the fields.
The whole conversation with B came back to Rhodes in a flash. He was back in The Grid¡ªin Stonebridge, the town he¡¯d seen in the distance.
He got to his feet, threw open the door, and stepped outside. A man stood there chopping wood on a piece of sawn-off tree trunk. The man was Fisher¡ªthe human version of Fisher Rhodes had seen last time.
Fisher grinned at him, bent over, and balanced another piece of wood on the chopping block. ¡°Good morning. I wondered if you might sleep all day.¡±
¡°What are you doing here?¡± Rhodes asked.
¡°I live here¡ªjust like you do. The Masks are keeping me here. They¡¯re keeping all the SAMs here. It seems like the Masks finally got the message about the battalion needing us around¡.so here we are.¡±
He swung his axe, brought the pointed tip down on the piece of wood, and split it neatly.
¡°Where did you learn to do this?¡± Rhodes asked. ¡°You¡¯re a computer program.¡±
Fisher laughed. He laughed much more easily here. He had an infectious kind of energy that didn¡¯t fit at all with the personality Rhodes knew.
¡°I guess the Masks can program us to do whatever we need to do. As soon as I wound up here, I realized I knew how to do everything I need to do to live here. I know a lot more about humanity than I did before.¡± Fisher made a face. ¡°I know more than I want to.¡±
He split another piece of wood. Then Rhodes watched Fisher stack all the split wood in the fold of his elbow, carry it to the stack against the house, and pile it on top of a growing wall of firewood.
He came back, picked up the axe, and started chopping again. He gave Rhodes a look on the side. Fisher¡¯s hair fell in his eyes when he worked.
¡°What do you want to do today?¡± Fisher asked. ¡°I¡¯m supposed to help you out¡ªshow you around¡ªintroduce you to everyone¡ªgenerally get you oriented to life here.¡±
Rhodes scowled at the town. The other residents went about their primitive business. Rhodes didn¡¯t understand half of what they were doing or how they did anything without technology.
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¡°I guess I¡¯ll just see what¡¯s what here. I guess I¡¯ll find the rest of the battalion and see how they¡¯re doing. Then¡I guess¡..¡±
He trailed off when a woman walked up to him, passed him, and went into the house where Rhodes had just been sleeping.
She smiled at him as she passed. Her green eyes sparkled and her cheeks colored.
She was pretty with wavy sun-streaked brown hair tied up on her head. She wore a plain, handmade dress of the same drab cotton as all the other clothes Rhodes saw around here.
She also wore a grey, hand-sewn apron with a short kitchen knife hanging out of one pocket.
She went into the house, and a second later, a boy about six years old ran past Rhodes and burst into the house, too.
The boy slammed the door behind him and silence descended over the town¡ªall except for the low hum of voices, banging noises, and the steady pulse of daily activity.
Fisher shot Rhodes another smirk. Fisher looked way too happy about all of this. ¡°If you want to see the rest of the battalion, I can take you now. Do you want to go now¡.or later?¡±
Rhodes furrowed his brow at the closed house door and then at Fisher. Rhodes didn¡¯t want to know, but curiosity ate him up inside. ¡°Is there something here you aren¡¯t telling me?¡±
¡°Only where the battalion is. Come on. I¡¯ll take you. They¡¯ve all been dying to see you since you¡¯ve been in the hospital.¡±
¡°They are?¡±
¡°Sure. None of them can stop talking about the way you saved Lauer and Thackery. Everyone misses you. Come on. We aren¡¯t getting anything done around here.¡±
Fisher stacked up the rest of his firewood, hung his axe from a hook on the outer house wall, and headed off through Stonebridge heading east.
A beaten dirt road passed through the town from east to west, crossed a stream over a rough, ancient stone bridge, and wound away through the countryside. The road disappeared behind rolling hills and wooded riverbanks.
¡°How long have I been in the hospital?¡± Rhodes asked.
¡°It¡¯s hard to tell,¡± Fisher replied. ¡°It¡¯s hard to tell anything around here, especially about the passage of time. Everything just kind of blends together¡ªbut it¡¯s always nice.¡± He squinted into the sunshine and cast a critical glance around the town. ¡°Everyone here is really nice and welcoming. It really is a utopia.¡±
¡°Maybe that¡¯s the problem,¡± Rhodes murmured.
Fisher looked up. ¡°What do you mean?¡±
¡°What you said in the hospital. You said it was too perfect.¡±
Fisher frowned. ¡°I said that?¡±
¡°Don¡¯t you remember? You said you wouldn¡¯t want to live like this because there were no challenges and problems. You said the interaction between people wasn¡¯t real.¡±
¡°You¡¯re real¡and I¡¯m real,¡± Fisher pointed out. ¡°We¡¯re both real and we¡¯re having a conversation. That must make it real. This conversation is as real as any we¡¯ve had outside The Grid, don¡¯t you think?¡±
Rhodes shrugged that away. ¡°I guess so.¡±
He couldn¡¯t tell if this conversation was real or not. He couldn¡¯t tell if this Fisher was real or not.
This definitely wasn¡¯t the Fisher he knew, but then again, Rhodes wasn¡¯t the himself he knew, either.
He was the same man he¡¯d been before he woke up in Battalion 1, but he wasn¡¯t the same. The man he¡¯d been before would never come to a place like this.
The place itself confirmed that nothing was the same, not even him.
Himself with all his implants and all the pain, anguish, and frustration that came with them¡ªeven that seemed like more himself than this.
He really was too comfortable here. That was the problem.
He also didn¡¯t have Fisher in the corner of his vision anymore. That was wrong. Fisher shouldn¡¯t be a man walking around, talking to Rhodes, raking his sweaty hair out of his eyes, and pulling his sweat-damp shirt away from his back to make it dry faster.
None of those fit with the Fisher Rhodes knew. Rhodes wanted the old Fisher back¡ªthe Fisher who was just a face lingering there in front of Rhodes¡¯s eyes.
Rhodes could have talked to that Fisher. Rhodes could have talked to that Fisher about how much Rhodes didn¡¯t trust this other Fisher¡ªthe human Fisher.
This town sure was beautiful, though. The blue sky rang high and pure all the way to the tiny wisps of cloud up there. The sun blazed on the fields, warmed the grass, and sent that intoxicating smell wafting on the breeze.
Animals grazed out there and in fenced pastures closer to town. People walked back and forth tending their animals, cleaning their houses, delivering goods to each other¡ªeveryone here seemed happy and contented.
The place breathed with a kind of energy Rhodes had never seen anywhere, not even in his childhood hometown. Everyone here acted like they had somewhere to be, something to do, and plenty to occupy them.
No one seemed discontented or acted like they were lacking a challenge in their lives. Everyone Rhodes saw talking to each other engaged in conversation as animatedly as if this town and everyone in it really were real.
Was that all part of the illusion? Fisher said the Masks could program the town to be anything they wanted it to be¡ªanything its residents needed it to be.
If it was supposed to be a place of respite and renewal for human beings, wouldn¡¯t it need challenge, engagement, and interrelationships?
Rhodes couldn¡¯t figure any of that out right now. It was all too complicated.
End of Chapter 8.
Battalion 1: Book 3: Chapter 9
Fisher turned off halfway through town, pushed open the door to a random house, and led Rhodes inside.
A dozen tables packed the main room with people sitting at the benches. They ate and drank, talked and laughed and joked, and a few other people hustled through the building serving everyone.
Fisher walked into the wall of noise. No one noticed his and Rhodes¡¯s entrance.
Fisher approached one of the tables and threw himself down on the end of a bench. ¡°Take a seat, Captain.¡±
The man across from him spun around, looked up, and his flinty dark eyes widened when he saw Rhodes. ¡°Captain¡ªyou¡¯re back!¡±
Rhodes took a split second before he recognized Lauer. Lauer didn¡¯t look the same without his implants.
He looked even rougher, bigger in the back and shoulders, and scruffier in his hair and beard.
Black dirt crusted his fingernails, the creases of his palms, and even the lines of his face. He looked like he¡¯d been living here all his life. Rhodes found it impossible to believe that Lauer had ever lived anywhere else.
A tall, lean, brown-haired woman waved across the table. ¡°Move down, everyone. Make room for the captain to sit down.¡±
Lauer shoved against the man next to him. That movement drew Rhodes¡¯s attention to the people nearest him.
He probably wouldn¡¯t have recognized any of them if he hadn¡¯t spotted Dane Rhinehart sitting three places down the table.
Rhinehart stuck out a mile with his white-blonde hair, crystal blue eyes, and hulking body. He sat with his left side facing Rhodes¡ªthe organic side.
Just for a second, Rhodes could trick himself into thinking that Rhinehart still had implants on the other side of his head. That¡¯s why Rhodes couldn¡¯t see the implants, but they were still there. That was the only way he recognized Rhinehart.
Then Rhinehart turned his head and shattered the illusion. He didn¡¯t have implants. His baby-faced good looks made him look even younger than he was. He could have been any oversized country boy sitting at a table eating his lunch.
The next minute, the man next to Lauer spoke up. ¡°Did they scramble your brain in the hospital¡ªthe way they scrambled all of ours?¡±
Rhodes didn¡¯t see the person who spoke, but he definitely recognized the voice. It was Eddie Coulter.
Rhodes turned in his direction and went through another wave of confusion when he saw Coulter. Coulter didn¡¯t have implants, either. None of them did.
The whole battalion sat at the same table. Lauer, Coulter, Rhinehart, and Dietz sat on this side. Ted Oakes sat next to Fisher on the other side.
Two women sat between Oakes and Fuentes. One of the women was the tall, dark-haired woman who told Lauer and the others to move down. The other was older with greying blonde hair and a very soft, kindly face lined with wrinkles.
She smiled broadly at Rhodes. ¡°Aren¡¯t you going to sit down, Captain?¡± she asked.
She spoke in a deep, husky voice¡ªa voice Rhodes recognized instantly. He never would have recognized this woman any other way. It was Van, Fuentes¡¯s SAM.
The much younger woman sitting next to her was Alyssa Thackery. She didn¡¯t look like a soldier at all. Her long brown hair hung loose and soft over her shoulders. She actually shone with inner beauty unlike anything Rhodes ever thought possible.
She smiled broadly and easily, too. Damn, she looked happy! They all did.
Rhodes¡¯s eye skipped down the table. They were all here, including the SAMs. A burly man with a thick round halo of messy brown curls sat next to Rhinehart.
The guy had a shaggy, dog-like appearance that instantly made Rhodes think of Murphy, Coulter¡¯s SAM.
The man sitting next to Van was a tall, muscular guy with a long, narrow, horse-like face. He would have been about twenty-eight if he¡¯d been human, but he wasn¡¯t human. It was Rocky.
Thackery snickered. ¡°Don¡¯t act so surprised,¡± she told Rhodes. ¡°Fisher is a person here. All the other SAMs are, too.¡±
¡°Where is everyone else?¡± Rhodes glanced around the house and realized he was still standing here like a dope.
Wild, Zen, Koenig, and Dash weren¡¯t here. Rhodes studied the people at nearby tables, but he didn¡¯t see anyone he recognized.
He wouldn¡¯t have recognized the three SAMs even if he¡¯d been looking straight at them. Wild was a robot in The Grid. Zen was an orb of lighting. Koenig was a scramble of grid lines with no particular shape.
Dash was the only one who even remotely resembled a person, but he never developed any color or substance. He was just a grid outline of green lines and black squares.
Just then, an aging, heavy-set man in a smudged apron came over to their table. He carried a tray packed with glasses all foaming with thick beer.
He sidestepped Rhodes, set the tray on the table, and started handing out the glasses to everyone present, including the SAMs.
¡°Can I get you something to eat, Captain?¡± the man asked.
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Rhodes assumed right up until that moment that this must be the landlord of whatever eating establishment they were in.
As soon as the man spoke, Rhodes recognized his voice, too. It was Koenig, Thackery¡¯s SAM.
¡°What in the hell are you doing, Koenig?¡± Rhodes gasped. ¡°Are you¡.working here?¡±
¡°I gotta keep myself occupied somehow and people gotta eat.¡± Koenig picked up the last glass and held it out. ¡°Sit down and have a drink. Make yourself at home.¡±
¡°Bring him one of those lunch platters,¡± Rocky chimed in. ¡°The captain looks hungry.¡±
¡°Of course he¡¯s hungry,¡± Coulter replied. ¡°He¡¯s been in the hospital for weeks.¡±
¡°Weeks!¡± Rhodes exclaimed. ¡°I have?¡±
Coulter shrugged. ¡°Well, it sure feels like it. This place hasn¡¯t been the same without you.¡±
Rhodes sank onto the bench in stunned disbelief. This was all getting to be too much for him.
His arm raised his glass to his mouth without him thinking about it. As soon as he tasted the beer, he knew he really did need a drink.
He took a deep gulp and did his best not to notice everyone at the table watching him.
He wound up sitting down across from Fisher. Fisher¡¯s eyes followed Rhodes¡¯s every move.
He should be grateful that his friends were keeping an eye on him and helping him settle in here. He was grateful for that. He just didn¡¯t know how to adjust to this.
¡°Wild is over there.¡± Thackery jerked her thumb over her shoulder. ¡°He¡¯s as antisocial here as he was in The Grid.¡±
Rhodes followed the direction of her gesture. An old man with long, stringy white hair sat in another rocking chair by the fireplace. He sat with his back to the room, smoked a pipe, and stared into the flames.
He looked powerfully built from the back, and while Rhodes watched, Wild bent over and tapped his pipe out on the hearthstone at his feet.
Rhodes caught a glimpse of the old man¡¯s profile. A thick, white beard covered the lower half of his face. He wore his hair loose. It hung around his face when he bent over.
His features had a hard, harsh, stern cast. He looked like the kind of old man who would sit alone with his back to the room in a house packed with his neighbors and acquaintances.
¡°Leave him alone,¡± Lauer interjected. ¡°You can¡¯t blame him if he doesn¡¯t want to talk. He doesn¡¯t know these people from a hole in the ground.¡±
¡°He knows us,¡± Van pointed out.
¡°That doesn¡¯t mean he wants to crowd over here listening to us shoot the breeze,¡± Lauer replied. ¡°If he wants to keep to himself, I don¡¯t have a problem with that.¡±
¡°Where¡¯s Dash?¡± Rhodes asked.
¡°Over there.¡± Oakes pointed in a different direction.
Rhodes had a hard time seeing the burly, dark-haired man sitting across the room. He sat on a stool by a set of stairs rising to the building¡¯s second story.
This man had shoulder-length black hair, a tight, pointed black beard, and he didn¡¯t wear the plain cotton clothes everyone else in town wore.
This man wore leather pants and a leather shirt with a thick leather belt buckled around his waist. An enormous, heavy iron buckle occupied the central place right over the man¡¯s washboard stomach.
He carried a long, curved hunting knife in his belt and another one stuck into his calf-high leather boots. A leather shoulder bag sat crumpled on the floor by his heel.
The reason Rhodes had trouble seeing the guy was because he had two girls perched on his knees, one on each knee.
They wore billowing white dresses that looked totally out of place in this town. They also wore their hair in elaborate curls piled on top of their heads with extra curlicues draped down to their bare cleavage.
Their tightly laced dresses pushed up their chests and ended dangerously low without actually exposing anything.
The two girls looked so garishly provocative compared to every other woman Rhodes had seen in this town. The girls couldn¡¯t be anything but prostitutes.
They fawned all over Dash. It had to be him. He was the only man over there that Oakes could have been pointing at.
Dash kept darting from one girl to the next, kissing them in deep, passionate, open-mouthed kisses, and burrowing into their necks.
He made them gasp, swoon, and moan when he whispered in their ears and bit down their cleavage getting closer to their bodices.
¡°Is he always like this?¡± Rhodes asked as delicately as he could.
Oakes snorted. ¡°Every chance he gets. Don¡¯t even ask me where he gets the money to pay for it.¡±
¡°So how does he pay for it?¡± Rhodes asked.
¡°Koenig says Dash hunts in the forests and brings in fresh game for the kitchens,¡± Thackery replied.
¡°I heard he traffics in stolen goods,¡± Fisher added. ¡°I heard he isn¡¯t even above robbing houses outside the area to pay for all his extracurricular activities.¡±
¡°He certainly needs money to pay for them all,¡± Lauer muttered.
Rhodes made a strategic decision to tear his gaze away from what Dash was doing. He¡¯d been locked up in The Grid all his life as a holographic representation of a computer program. No wonder he wanted to cut loose and have some fun now while he had the chance.
Rhodes took another deep pull from his beer glass. It tasted incredible. He hadn¡¯t eaten or drunk anything since he woke up from stasis. The sensation blew his mind.
A second later, Koenig came back with a dozen platters of all kinds of food, placed them in front of the whole battalion, and went back to his work like this was the most normal thing in the world.
Piles of sliced, steaming, juicy roast beef, cut-up pieces of fruit, molten glistening mounds of sliced potatoes swimming in cheese sauce, a towering pyramid of meatballs dripping with savory glaze, and a giant collection of sliced bread and a crock of homemade butter spilled off the platter in front of Rhodes.
The platter next to it carried an equally impressive array of desserts, some of which Rhodes didn¡¯t recognize.
His mouth started to water at the sight of the food. He almost didn¡¯t dare to touch any of it in case it vanished before he got a chance to eat it.
Lauer picked up a fork, skewered one of the meatballs, and stuffed it whole into his mouth.
At that signal, everyone at the table started eating, passing the trays back and forth, asking each other for things, and talking about a bunch of people and events in town.
Rhodes picked up his fork trying to decide what to eat first. His heart pounded and he started to get a little emotional at the thought of eating this food.
He didn¡¯t notice how much he missed eating¡ªnot as long as he stayed at Coleridge Station where no one in the battalion ate. It wasn¡¯t part of their life anymore.
Everything on that tray looked too good to touch. He just wanted to sit here and bask in the heavenly reality that he could eat it if he really wanted to.
No one else showed any sign of holding back. They all dug into the food. Even the SAMs helped themselves with as much enthusiasm as the rest of the battalion.
The piles of food started to shrink in front of Rhodes¡¯s eyes. If he didn¡¯t eat now, he¡¯d miss his chance. There would be nothing left for him.
He started with a piece of roast beef and nearly had a heart attack when the juice gushed onto his tongue.
He chewed slowly, but the sight of everyone else stuffing their faces made him eat faster. He had to eat this food now in case he didn¡¯t get another chance.
Rhodes pretended not to see Fisher grinning at him across the table. Rhodes was just starting on his second helping of potatoes when Koenig brought him another beer.
¡°So where¡¯s Zen?¡± Rhodes finally asked.
¡°He just walked in.¡± Thackery nodded at another group of young men heading for a table by the fireplace. ¡°He¡¯s the one with the red hair.¡±
The young men sat down together and started talking with their heads together. They didn¡¯t look much different from everyone else in town.
Zen¡¯s blazing red hair and freckles made him stand out from the others. Other than that, Rhodes didn¡¯t see anything remarkable about him or his behavior.
¡°He has his own friends,¡± Oakes explained. ¡°He¡¯s too cool to be seen with us.¡±
Some of the others laughed. Rhodes supposed he had nothing to complain about the SAMs living separate lives. He shouldn¡¯t have expected anything else.
End of Chapter 9.
Battalion 1: Book 3: Chapter 10
Rhodes helped himself to a bunch of different desserts from the trays in front of him. Koenig kept Rhodes supplied with beer through the whole meal.
He had to pace himself so he didn¡¯t get too drunk. Whatever liver he might have left after the Battalion 1 project got through with him couldn¡¯t hold his liquor the way he used to¡ªnot that he¡¯d ever been much of a drinker.
The meal lasted a lot longer than he expected. By the time the group left the house and went back outside, the sun was going down. Brilliant crystal stars scattered across the sky up there.
Rhodes didn¡¯t notice what time it was when he first woke up in that house. Time really did lose all meaning here.
A sliver of moon hung low over the pale horizon. The dark outlines of trees stuck up into the sky falling into shadow. The town looked as beautiful now as it did in daylight.
¡°I¡¯ll see you folks tomorrow,¡± Lauer announced. ¡°Don¡¯t stay up too late, Captain.¡±
¡°Good night, Lieutenant,¡± Rhodes replied.
Lauer walked away. Rhodes didn¡¯t even think until that moment where each of them would stay tonight.
Lauer crossed the road to a different house, pushed the door open, and walked in like he owned the place.
Golden firelight poured from inside. Rhodes caught a glimpse of the interior before Lauer shut the door.
A slender blonde woman worked around the table where three children sat eating their dinner. The woman looked up from her work when Lauer came in.
She smiled at him in such obvious affection that Rhodes stopped in his tracks. He knew that look. It was the look of a wife greeting her husband after he comes home from work.
Rhodes stood stock still and gaped in mounting horror as each of his subordinates split away to a different house.
Thackery met up with a man Rhodes didn¡¯t recognize. She slipped her arm around this stranger¡¯s waist, kissed him right in the middle of the road, and they went off together with their arms around each other.
They entered a house across the road and shut themselves inside it. Oakes, Rhinehart, and Coulter all entered houses with women and children living in them.
A brick dropped into the pit of Rhodes¡¯s stomach when he saw the same rapturous expression on all their faces. It was the look of devoted love¡ªfrom all of them.
Why did he think it would be any different? What else was the battalion supposed to do here? How else could they be happy?
While he stood there scrambling to make some sense of this, Koenig came out of the house the battalion just left.
He stopped next to Rhodes, turned to Van, and Koenig slipped his hand into hers. ¡°Are you ready to go home, my dear?¡± Koenig asked.
She burst into a huge smile. ¡°Always. Let¡¯s go.¡±
They kissed each other and walked away. Dietz, Fuentes, and Murphy left in different directions. Rhodes didn¡¯t see where they went.
Fisher snapped Rhodes out of his trance. ¡°Come on. I¡¯ll walk you home.¡±
Rhodes stumbled after him. ¡°Where is home? Where am I supposed to live in this town?¡±
Fisher stopped in the middle of the road and pointed behind Rhodes. ¡°Over there.¡±
Rhodes turned around to see what Fisher was pointing at. It was the house where Rhodes woke up this morning¡ªor whenever it was.
The door stood open. The woman Rhodes had seen going into that house earlier bent over an iron pot hanging from a hook above the flames glowing in the fireplace.
She ladled soup into a wooden bowl and placed it on the table in front of the little boy Rhodes had seen earlier. Then the woman served another bowl of soup to a girl sitting across from her brother.
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The woman served two more bowls and placed them on the table. She sat down in front of one of them. The other one she positioned across from her at an empty place on the bench next to the girl.
Rhodes¡¯s chest tightened at the sight. That was his house? Was that the place he was supposed to live? Was he the person who was supposed to sit at that empty place and complete the domestic picture?
Fisher bumped his elbow. ¡°I¡¯m going home. I¡¯ll see you tomorrow.¡±
Rhodes jolted out of his shock and spun around. Fisher was already walking away and grinning over his shoulder on his way to a different house¡ªa house directly across the road from the one he said was Rhodes¡¯s.
Fisher walked into another scene of a woman serving dinner to her children. She stopped what she was doing and rose on her tiptoes to kiss Fisher when he entered. Then she went back to work.
Fisher took a step into the house and pulled the door toward himself to shut it. He paused there on the threshold and stared out at Rhodes in the darkness.
The light shone all around Fisher. He looked so human like this.
His eyes locked on Rhodes in an expression Rhodes had never seen before. It was the blatant look of challenge of a man who will do absolutely anything to protect his family.
He looked at Rhodes like that. Fisher wouldn¡¯t let anything take this experience away from him. He wouldn¡¯t let anyone shatter the dream. No man in his right mind let that happen.
Rhodes stood still until Fisher shut the door. It cut off the light. Darkness and chill fell over Stonebridge as one door after another closed for the night. Rhodes was the only person left outside.
One door remained standing open. It waited for him to go inside and fall back into the rhythm of domesticity, family, and belonging.
He could fall back into that world so easily. He already knew how good it would feel to sit at that table and talk to that woman and her children about all their activities, concerns, and challenges.
He couldn¡¯t bring himself to do it. He had three children, not two. That woman didn¡¯t look enough like his wife to complete the illusion. She was a stranger.
He would be betraying his real family if he went in there. He would be betraying himself.
The whole idea of substituting someone else¡¯s family for his own¡ªit revolted him. Who was the father who should have been sitting at that table?
It certainly wasn¡¯t Rhodes. He knew nothing about any of those people.
Did the father die? Did he leave?
He didn¡¯t do any of those things because he didn¡¯t exist. None of this did. It was all a projection in The Grid.
The Grid created a family for Rhodes to move into. The Grid created that house, that table, and the perfect scenario for Rhodes to sit down and become the missing piece of the puzzle.
Those children didn¡¯t have a father. They had never been born. That woman might have materialized on the spot when Rhodes woke up this morning. How could he really know?
He cast a glance around the shadowy town. How much longer would the woman leave the door open waiting for him to come in?
The whole town looked so different, now that he remembered why he was here. He was a prisoner. He always had been and he always would be.
He would be even more a prisoner inside that house. That house was the Iron Maiden that would seal his fate. He couldn¡¯t go in there. He didn¡¯t want to go in there. He would rather die.
He walked away. He had no idea where he would go instead. He only knew he couldn¡¯t stay here.
He set off walking farther up the road heading west. It was in the opposite direction from where most of the battalion lived.
He was just making up his mind to sit down under a tree to think about this. Then he spotted a barn behind a different house. The people who owned livestock kept their animals in these barns.
Rhodes slipped into one of them. It was completely dark. No one could see him here.
He climbed into the hayloft, stretched out on a pile of hay, and stared up at the ceiling. It was another beam ceiling with hand-shaved planks nailed to the beams.
He was still in The Grid. The whole battalion was in here, including the SAMs.
Fisher obviously didn¡¯t remember his conversation with Rhodes in the hospital. Fisher didn¡¯t remind Rhodes about their plan to use The Grid to break out of this simulation.
Rhodes didn¡¯t remember in time to remind Fisher, either. How would Fisher react when Rhodes told him about their plan to escape?
Rhodes didn¡¯t trust Fisher¡ªnot this human Fisher¡ªespecially not after the way Fisher looked out at Rhodes just now.
Why in God¡¯s name would Fisher want to give up this life? He sure looked happy with his new family and his humanity.
Heaven help the man who tried to drag Dash away from his women. The rest of the battalion was all happily settled here with families of their own.
Only one person offered Rhodes any hope. Wild kept to himself. He didn¡¯t join the domestic bliss. He didn¡¯t share the battalion¡¯s meal or their beer or their talk.
Rhodes would bet his last penny that Wild didn¡¯t have a family in The Grid. Did he realize this was all fake?
Wild always did have a way of calling a spade a spade. He never varnished over anything. He told it like it was¡ªalways. That¡¯s what made him a perfect SAM for Lauer.
Lauer had one fatal weakness. He loved his family. What man didn¡¯t?
Rhodes loved his family, too. He loved his real family. He didn¡¯t want another one, especially not some fantasy the Masks cooked up to keep him sedated and passive.
He had to find a way out of here. Fisher thought they could use the grid lines to shatter this illusion.
Rhodes tried, but he couldn¡¯t even drop into The Grid from here. It didn¡¯t work here the way it did in the real world. How could he use his grid lines to tear this world apart if he couldn¡¯t access his grid lines?
Was he really planning on destroying this world¡ªso he could go back to the torturous outer world of the Masks¡¯ captivity? He really must be out of his mind.
That didn¡¯t matter because he couldn¡¯t get out. He couldn¡¯t use The Grid. He couldn¡¯t use his grid lines. He couldn¡¯t shatter this illusion at all. He was trapped here exactly the way the Masks planned all along.
End of Chapter 10.
Battalion 1: Book 3: Chapter 11
Rhodes stepped out of the barn and squinted into the sunshine. It was definitely morning now.
He stretched the kinks out of his back and shoulders on his way back into town. Sleeping on a pile of hay in a barn wasn¡¯t the most comfortable way to spend the night.
He considered how to explain this to Fisher and the others¡ªif they found out. Talking to Fisher about The Grid was more important.
Rhodes dreaded Fisher¡¯s reaction. The Masks must have somehow erased Fisher¡¯s awareness of everything that happened outside The Grid.
Rhodes headed back to the house that Fisher said belonged to Rhodes. Rhodes didn¡¯t see the woman or her children.
He did see Fisher. Fisher stood outside his own house pouring a bucket of water over his own head.
He¡¯d stripped his shirt to the waist so Rhodes got an eyeful of how big, strapping, and muscular Fisher was. He stood four inches taller than Rhodes. Fisher could have broken Rhodes in half if he wanted to.
Rhodes waited until Fisher stopped shaking the water out of his hair. Fisher laughed when he opened his eyes and saw Rhodes standing there. ¡°Did you have a good night?¡± Fisher asked.
Rhodes dipped his chin once. ¡°Pretty good. You?¡±
¡°It was great. So where did you sleep last night?¡±
Rhodes jerked his head sideways. ¡°In the barn down there.¡±
Fisher only nodded. ¡°I thought you might. You¡¯re such a traditionalist.¡±
Rhodes let that go. He didn¡¯t need to explain himself to this guy¡ªwhoever the hell this was. ¡°So what¡¯s the story today? Is it another day of drinking and gluttony? Is there anything else to do around here?¡±
¡°Sure. Come with me and I¡¯ll show you.¡±
Rhodes waited while Fisher dried himself off and put his shirt back on. Putting his shirt on did nothing to hide his size, now that Rhodes had actually seen it.
Fisher puttered around his house for a few more minutes and then headed off back along the westbound road. Rhodes didn¡¯t see what either of them could possibly do over there.
The Masks might have programmed Fisher with everything he needed to know about living here. They certainly didn¡¯t do it to Rhodes. He didn¡¯t know the first thing about how to survive in this primitive culture.
At least he and Fisher were heading out of town. Rhodes would be able to talk to Fisher in private and hopefully jog Fisher¡¯s memory about getting the hell out of this trap.
Rhodes scanned the countryside just to make sure they really were alone. The road curved around a stand of trees along the riverbank.
He couldn¡¯t see the town behind him anymore. Nothing but grassy fields surrounded him and Fisher on all sides. Now was the moment.
He took a deep breath to launch into the whole thing when a bell clanged in the distance behind him.
It rang out loud and clear over the landscape and then it just kept on going. It clanged again and again and again without stopping.
Rhodes and Fisher both spun around. ¡°The warning!¡± Fisher whispered and took off running back the way he came. ¡°Come on! We gotta go!¡±
¡°What warning?!¡± Rhodes rushed after him. ¡°Hey! Where are we going?!¡±
¡°Stonebridge is under attack! That¡¯s the warning bell! Come on! We have to arm ourselves.¡±
¡°Hey!¡± Rhodes yelled again, but Fisher didn¡¯t listen.
The two men charged back into town to find the place in chaos. People ran in all directions. Mothers hustled their children indoors. Men charged back and forth for no apparent reason.
Fisher had to slow down to get through the crowd. That gave Rhodes a chance to catch up. ¡°Who¡¯s attacking?¡± Rhodes panted.
¡°Let¡¯s find out. Come on.¡±
Fisher shouldered his way through a bunch of townspeople and finally worked his way to a different barn. Dozens of people, both men and women, already packed around the door trying to force their way inside.
Before Rhodes and Fisher could get to the entrance, the rooves of four nearby houses levered back. Giant cannons rose from inside. Each one sat on a motorized pedestal that locked into place.
The cannons opened fire on some target in the distance out of sight. They belched fusion blasts and seeker missiles into the air. Deep thumps shook the ground underfoot every time one of these massive guns went off.
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Rhodes jumped and spun around to stare at the cannons. Where the hell did they come from?
Ordinary townspeople had been living in those houses until just a few seconds ago. The guns couldn¡¯t fit inside the walls. The guns must have just appeared there when this battle program started.
No one else reacted at all surprised by the guns¡¯ sudden appearance. The townspeople ignored the cannons and went right on with what they were doing.
Most kept trying to get into the barn, but as Rhodes watched more people went into their own houses. They came out carrying fusion rifles¡ªthe rifles the Masks used against the Legion.
Armed people streamed past Rhodes heading for the eastbound road. The sound of gunfire and explosions came from that direction in between the deafening boom of the cannons going off.
Fisher grabbed Rhodes¡¯s shirt and yanked him into the barn. Enough people were already inside it.
The two men shouldered their way to one of the stalls and stepped in. Everyone else in the battalion was already there along with a bunch of other townspeople.
Wild, Dash, Koenig, and Zen weren¡¯t there, but no one in the battalion noticed the SAMs¡¯ absence.
Everyone crowded into the stall and gathered to look at a bank of electronic equipment in a style Rhodes didn¡¯t recognize. Large screens all over the wall showed the countryside around Stonebridge.
A line of some unknown attacker advanced from the east. The display also showed red dots where the townspeople were setting up defensive positions to shoot at these enemies to stop them or slow them down.
¡°Who is it?¡± Rhodes asked again. ¡°Who¡¯s attacking?¡±
¡°It¡¯s the Inviria,¡± one of the men muttered under his breath and pointed to a spot farther down the road. ¡°We¡¯ll block them in at the corner where the road turns around the river oxbow¡ªhere. They won¡¯t be able to get close enough to hit the town the way they did last time.¡±
¡°What about Miller¡¯s Peak?¡± Fisher pointed out a different mountain in the landscape. ¡°It¡¯s farther east. The battalion can get that far sooner than you can. We can use the high ground to stop the Inviria from bringing their artillery within range of Stonebridge.¡±
The first man nodded. ¡°That sounds good. Do it. Let¡¯s go.¡±
The battalion left the stall. Half the townsfolk went with them.
Everyone else who entered the barn ran past Rhodes and his people. All the townsfolk carried weapons now. They rushed eastward down the road heading for the battle in the distance.
Rhodes would have liked to ask a million questions, but he didn¡¯t get a chance.
As soon as the battalion walked outside, Oakes, Lauer, Fuentes, and Thackery launched into the air, fired their boosters, and took off heading east, too.
Rhodes stared at the four of them with his jaw on the ground. They had implants. They looked the way they did at Coleridge Station. They had boosters, Viper ports on their backs, and metal limbs.
He didn¡¯t see them change. Their implants just appeared there out of thin air.
The four friends rocketed out of sight in a heartbeat with Coulter, Dietz, and Rhinehart on their heels.
¡°Let¡¯s go, Captain!¡± Fisher called. ¡°We have to stop the Inviria from attacking Stonebridge!¡±
In that moment, Rhodes felt his own implants all over his body. He didn¡¯t feel them reappear. He just became aware that he had them again.
He wasn¡¯t wearing the simple clothes he had on just a few seconds ago. He was a machine from the waist down. His implants covered one arm up to the shoulder, most of his chest, and half of his head.
He glanced down at the scourge guns, lasers, and thermal cannons on his arms.
The instant he made that connection, The Grid activated, covered the landscape and everything in it, and started feeding him information about the surroundings and all the enemy positions.
The Inviria used some kind of mechanized fighting vehicle that advanced along the road from the east.
The Inviria also landed spacecraft on the eastern planes. The craft deployed not just these fighting vehicles but thousands of armed alien ground troops.
Rhodes tried to see what species of alien they were, but at that moment, one of the Stonebridge cannons went off in his ear.
That sound made him react on pure instinct. He launched off the ground to catch up with the rest of the battalion.
As soon as he fired his boosters, Fisher appeared on The Grid in front of his eyes. Fisher wasn¡¯t a man anymore. He was back to being just a curious birdlike face turning right and left in front of Rhodes¡¯s view.
Fisher looked so different like this. He looked much less human and not because he didn¡¯t have a body. Everything about his face looked different¡ªmore alien and so much more familiar and trustworthy.
¡°The Inviria are setting up their artillery on Miller¡¯s Peak,¡± he reported. ¡°We can still take them out before they bombard Stonebridge.¡±
The interface switched on. Rhodes became simultaneously aware of everyone in the battalion as well as their SAMs. They were all here, including Wild, Dash, Zen, and Koenig.
None of them looked human anymore, either. They all returned to their original SAMs appearance.
¡°Some of us should go after the spacecraft and the armored vehicles,¡± Rocky suggested.
¡°The cannons can take the armored vehicles and there aren¡¯t enough of us to go after the spacecraft,¡± Wild pointed out. ¡°We said we¡¯d deal with the artillery, so that¡¯s what we should do.¡±
Rhinehart turned to Rhodes. ¡°What do you say, Sir? Tell us what you want us to do.¡±
The whole disconnect between the peaceful life of Stonebridge that Rhodes had been trying so hard to get used to¡ªit clashed so badly with this world of battle and technology.
The contrast brought him back to his senses¡ªand it also brought back everything he¡¯d been thinking about last night.
¡°None of this is real. We¡¯re in The Grid. We¡¯re prisoners of the Masks. Don¡¯t you remember how they captured us on Rono? Rhinehart¡ªdon¡¯t you remember them keeping us in that freezing compartment?¡±
¡°We don¡¯t have time to argue about this right now,¡± Thackery pointed out. ¡°If we don¡¯t take out the artillery, the enemy will bomb Stonebridge and all our families will die.¡±
¡°You don¡¯t have families! You don¡¯t have a family anywhere in the world. Lauer¡ªdon¡¯t you remember that picture I drew of you and your family riding horses? Fuentes¡ªdon¡¯t you remember your family back on the Zoter continent of Preinea? You said you sent them your pay every week. Stonebridge is not our home.¡±
Lauer glared at him. ¡°You better shut the hell up.¡±
Rhodes turned to Fisher. ¡°Who are the Inviria? Where do they come from? I¡¯ve never heard of them. Where in the Treaty of Aemon Cluster are we? Which planet are we on? Why aren¡¯t we fighting with the rest of the Legion?¡±
Fisher opened his mouth to argue, but at that moment, a cannon blast from Stonebridge struck Miller¡¯s Peak in the distance. The Grid showed Rhodes the whole landscape and identified locations, targets, and positions.
¡°The artillery is almost set up!¡± Lauer called. ¡°Let¡¯s go! We can work this out later!¡±
End of Chapter 11.
Battalion 1: Book 3: Chapter 12
Lauer took off racing up the hills toward the enemy artillery along the peak. A bunch of aliens scurried around up there trying to set up their guns so they could open fire on Stonebridge.
The rest of the battalion sprinted after Lauer, but he still got there first.
Rhodes went with them, but only so he could try to convince them. ¡°Don¡¯t you remember talking to me in that capsule in the Masks¡¯ hospital?¡± he asked Fisher on the way. ¡°You said there might be a way to hack the grid lines to break out of this place.¡±
Fisher frowned at him. ¡°I never said that.¡±
¡°You don¡¯t remember being a human being just a few minutes ago? You changed when this battle scenario started. How do you explain that? You aren¡¯t a person. We belong to Battalion 1¡ªwhich is a part of the Aemon Legion. Stonebridge and everyone in it are a Grid simulation to keep us docile and cooperative so the Masks can experiment on us.¡±
Fisher started to reply, but they didn¡¯t have time to discuss it any further before they got within range of the aliens¡¯ artillery.
Lauer swooped in low, bombarded the artillery with Vipers, and kept racing down the line delivering dozens of strikes to the alien position.
He kept going to the edge of the mountain, plunged down the other side, and attacked the Inviria fighting vehicles with lasers.
Rhinehart, Fuentes, and Coulter dove for the artillery, too, and those three didn¡¯t leave. They hammered multiple artillery posts with Vipers, destroyed seven of them, and landed on the ground between the others.
The aliens grabbed their weapons to defend the artillery. The Inviria used some kind of pulse technology and two shots hit Coulter.
They knocked him off his feet, but they didn¡¯t damage him. He sprang up just as fast, charged back into the attack, and used his grid lines to change himself into a machine with multiple laser ports firing from all sides.
He cut down a dozen Inviria and started on the artillery. He cut each weapon to pieces and left them lying in piles along with all the dead aliens.
Rhinehart and Fuentes rampaged down the line destroying and killing just as fast. Dietz, Oakes, and Thackery dove over the other side of Miller¡¯s Peak to intercept a bunch of enemy vehicles coming up the back slope.
They carried more artillery parts to assemble there so they could assault Stonebridge. Rhodes lost his head for a minute, raced to catch up with his people, and opened fire on the vehicles.
Two of them exploded right in front of him before he remembered. He had to use this moment to access The Grid and try to break out of this false world.
He started to turn toward Fisher again. Fisher was his only hope. The others either didn¡¯t believe him or were too busy to listen.
Was this the Masks¡¯ plan all along¡ªto distract the battalion so no one would think too hard about what they were doing?
Rhodes opened his mouth to ask Fisher about using The Grid to interfere with this simulation.
At that moment, an Inviria spacecraft thundered overhead laying down dozens of shots. Pulses boomed from the ship¡¯s sides and smashed Dietz, Oakes, and Thackery out of the sky.
They hit the ground and Rhinehart and Fuentes stopped what they were doing to rush to their comrades¡¯ aid.
The sight of his people in danger did something to Rhodes. He gunned his boosters, rocketed into the atmosphere, and targeted the spacecraft.
It towered to the clouds as big as a Ravager, but it wasn¡¯t a Ravager. He didn¡¯t recognize what type of ship it was.
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He dodged more pulse shots aimed at him, dove in close to the ship¡¯s side, and carved his laser through its hull. The Grid didn¡¯t tell him anything about where to hit this ship to do any damage.
He got to the other side of the ship¡¯s underbelly and swerved upward to keep cutting up the side hull.
¡°The ship¡¯s reactor is located a hundred feet inside the starboard fusion ports.¡± Fisher showed him an interior diagram of the ship. ¡°You¡¯ll have to hit that to destroy the ship.¡±
Rhodes didn¡¯t answer. He was too busy blasting his lasers through the hull. The heat sparked off the metal, spurted in his face, and left tiny pinprick burns on his skin.
That faint sensation of heat and pain exploded his energy off the charts. A surge of power, energy, and pleasure rushed through him. He was destroying his enemies. He never wanted to stop wreaking destruction on them.
He pivoted up the ship¡¯s side, narrowed all his firepower into two giant lasers, and punched through the hull with devastating force.
Some kind of fighter craft he hadn¡¯t seen before wheeled in the air behind him. These aliens¡ªwhoever they were¡ªthey didn¡¯t have fighter craft before. These ships just materialized out of thin air, but Rhodes didn¡¯t think about that.
He brought his lasers together, torched a breach through the hull, and forced his way inside.
As soon as he got inside the hull, he widened his laser spread. He threw his arms out to his sides, but he also used his grid lines to change his weapons configuration.
Lasers fired from every part of him. He didn¡¯t think about how he did it. The Grid changed him into whatever he wanted to be. It all happened seamlessly, effortlessly, and without thought.
He didn¡¯t even take the time to check what shape he was or what shape he was becoming. He only cared about one thing.
Lasers spouted from his fingertips, his eyes, and every other part of his body. He revolved through the ship¡¯s interior blasting everything to scrap metal.
Aliens fled from him. They couldn¡¯t defend themselves inside their own ship.
He barely saw any of that. He didn¡¯t check what he was destroying or how. He didn¡¯t care.
He kept his gaze locked on The Grid in front of him. He tracked his own progress getting close to the reactor.
¡°As soon as you blow it, you¡¯ll have to get out of the ship as fast as possible,¡± Fisher told him. ¡°You can¡¯t go out the way you came. Take this route instead.¡±
Fisher showed Rhodes an exhaust duct leading from the reactor upward to the ship¡¯s engines.
He¡¯d broken down too many walls, bulkheads, and ceilings along the route he took to get here. His own destructive path blocked him from going that way.
The duct was wide enough for Rhodes to fly through to escape the ship once it started to destruct.
He read a split-second¡¯s view of the reactor¡ªjust long enough to see how to destroy it.
He flew into a different conduit, slammed his boosters to full throttle, unleashed a single Viper missile on the reactor, and took off at his top speed heading for the duct.
He didn¡¯t stick around long enough for the Viper to hit its target. He soared into the duct making tracks for safety in the open sky, but neither he nor Fisher planned on the reactor blowing up the way it did.
The Viper struck home and a brutal concussion slammed Rhodes into the wall before he even got into the duct.
He crashed into the wall hard enough to dent the metal. Fire plumed into the conduit and another sickening boom shuddered the ship all around him.
¡°Get up, Captain!¡± Fisher bellowed. ¡°You have to get out of here now!¡±
Rhodes floundered upright and staggered as a second lick of fire erupted into the conduit.
¡°You¡¯ll have to fly through the explosion!¡± Fisher told him. ¡°It¡¯s the only way to get to the duct. Go! If you stay here, you¡¯ll go down with the ship!¡±
Rhodes reacted instantaneously to every word Fisher said. Rhodes never once questioned Fisher¡ªnot like this¡ªnot while Fisher was here in The Grid. Rhodes could trust this Fisher. Rhodes trusted Fisher with his life.
Rhodes fired his boosters and immediately saw what Fisher was talking about. The reactor kept letting off one explosion after another. Fire and burning plasma consumed the reactor and dozens of decks all around it.
Rhodes didn¡¯t think twice. He launched himself straight into the burning reactor, used his grid lines to change himself into a round metal ball with no organic flesh on its exterior, and hurtled through the fire.
The ball slammed into the duct, caved in part of the wall, and Rhodes changed himself into a Striker. He just had to get off this ship alive. Nothing else mattered.
He took off at high speed, but he still didn¡¯t make it in time. The reactor gave one last brutal explosion before the whole ship detonated in a deafening boom.
Rhodes had a split second to change himself back into a ball. He couldn¡¯t think of any shape that would withstand the explosion.
The impact hurled him through another section of the ship¡¯s outer hull wall, flung him clear, and he sailed out¡ªright underneath the exploding ship.
The shockwave hit him and knocked him closer to the ground. He didn¡¯t have time to correct or get out of the way before the burning hulk crashed into him from above.
The fuselage started falling way too fast¡ªfaster than he could react. An instant later, the ship smashed into the ground with Rhodes underneath it.
End of Chapter 12.
Battalion 1: Book 3: Chapter 13
Rhodes picked himself up, checked his internal systems on The Grid, and looked around.
The burning wreckage of the Inviria spacecraft lay in pieces all around him. Fire billowed from torn hull sections. Entire burned-out decks of the ship lay smashed and destroyed on the grassy hills of¡¡
Rhodes¡¯s mind switched gears when he remembered. Stonebridge. He was still inside The Grid. This was all part of the Masks¡¯ elaborately constructed dreamworld to keep Rhodes and the rest of Battalion 1 as prisoners.
He stood in one place as the puzzle pieces clicked together in his head. That ship¡ªthe ship he just destroyed¡ªit was ten times the size of a Legion Duster.
A ship that big falling on top of him should have killed him. It would have killed him. He could only think of one reason why it didn¡¯t. This wasn¡¯t real. None of this was real.
Destroying that ship felt impossibly good. Everything about this world felt good¡ªall except the part where he realized it was fake.
He didn¡¯t feel any discomfort, distress, or frustration with his implants. They felt like a normal, natural part of him.
This was the first and only time and place he ever felt that. The drilling sensation of them eating into his flesh and bones¡ªthe brutal agony of his implants sinking their roots into his very being¡ªit didn¡¯t bother him here.
The food he ate and the beer he drank yesterday¡ªeven the sensation of sleeping on a pile of hay in the barn¡ªit all felt intoxicatingly good.
It felt good to be human again. That was the bottom line. All those sensations¡ªeven the feeling that he was part of human life¡ªit drugged him into craving more and more and more of this life. He never wanted it to stop.
Were the Masks drugging him right now? Was that part of this?
He didn¡¯t remember even that he was in The Grid¡ªnot until now. The whole time he¡¯d been fighting the Inviria¡ªthe rush of battle wiped his awareness that he wanted to resist and escape.
Now it all came back in a flash. He remembered every brutal detail of that Duster crashing on top of him. He remembered the Emal laser cutting off his arm. He remembered the certainty that he would never see his family again.
He¡¯d been right about that. He woke up at Coleridge Station. How could he ever forget that?
The very pleasure and exhilaration of taking part in this fake world only made it more repulsive to him. He wanted to destroy it¡ªbut how?
Fisher adjusted The Grid to show Rhodes every part of the battle going on. The rest of the battalion went into a similar frenzy attacking different parts of the Inviria force.
Lauer went down on the ground in front of the advancing ground troops. He let loose his bloodlust and murderous rage on the aliens.
He rampaged through their ranks killing as many of them as he wanted to. They had to stop their advance toward Stonebridge to fight him instead.
Dietz and Thackery changed themselves into Strikers and raced back and forth across the battlefield hammering the enemy tanks. Rhinehart stood on the high ridgetop blowing up the artillery pieces one after the other.
Rhodes surveyed the battle without moving to get involved. He hesitated to deprive his people of this pleasure. When would they ever get a chance to feel it again?
How could he ask them to give this up for the torture of the real world? B was right about that.
If the battalion couldn¡¯t escape from the Masks¡¯ captivity, why not stay here?
He started to shake that idea out of his head when Oakes flew down to check on him. Oakes used his regular shape. He didn¡¯t change his grid lines to make himself into any special fighting machine or murderous alien.
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He swiveled his feet forward and flared his boosters to slow his descent. He landed on the grass in front of Rhodes.
¡°Are you okay, Captain?¡± Oakes asked.
Rhodes nodded. He didn¡¯t plan to look at Oakes at all. Everyone in the battalion was enjoying themselves way too much.
Something in Oakes¡¯s dark eyes made Rhodes look up. Oakes studied Rhodes with the same questioning intensity Rhodes had come to expect from Fisher.
Oakes¡¯s eyebrows darted together in the center. ¡°Is anything wrong? Did you get hurt?¡±
Rhodes took way too long to decide what to say. ¡°Do you remember¡..?¡±
Oakes waited for Rhodes to say something. ¡°Do I remember what?¡±
¡°Do you remember the way we used to sit and draw at the table at Coleridge Station? Do you remember that?¡±
Oakes opened his mouth to answer and stopped himself. He blinked at Rhodes, but Oakes didn¡¯t see Rhodes anymore.
¡°Do you remember that picture you drew of the girl on the swing under the tree?¡± Rhodes asked.
He watched the rapid progression of expressions crossing Oakes¡¯s face. It was all in there. All of Oakes¡¯s memories were still in there waiting to break out.
Oakes finally glanced around the battlefield and his features hardened into a mask of cruel recognition. ¡°What the hell?¡± he snarled.
¡°We gotta get out of here,¡± Rhodes murmured. ¡°We have to find a way to break out of The Grid even if it means we suffer on the outside. We can¡¯t stay here.¡±
Oakes compressed his lips. He didn¡¯t look at Rhodes again. Oakes¡¯s dark eyes traced the battle in every detail.
The eight members of Battalion 1 shouldn¡¯t have been able to defeat the Inviria single-handedly, but they did.
Rhodes didn¡¯t see any townsfolk getting involved in the battle. The big cannons no longer fired from Stonebridge to defend the town.
Battalion 1 was out here fighting alone, but the eight of them still put a dent in the aliens¡¯ assault. That would not have been possible in the real world.
Lauer drew enough of the ground troops to himself and killed hundreds of them. Some had been far enough away to keep advancing on the town. They all stopped what they were doing to come after him¡ªa single man.
Rhinehart had no problem destroying all the artillery. Dietz and Thackery had fun bombing the tanks into oblivion.
¡°How are we supposed to get out of this?¡± Oakes asked.
¡°I¡¯m not sure,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°Fisher thinks there might be a way to use our grid lines to tear all of this down.¡±
¡°But then we¡¯d be back with the Masks¡ªwherever that is,¡± Oakes pointed out. ¡°How would we get out of that? We¡¯d be just as stuck. We might as well stay here until we figure it out.¡±
Rhodes started to answer, but just then, Coulter and Fuentes flew overhead coming from farther east. Rhodes didn¡¯t see what they were doing before now.
¡°We¡¯re being ordered to fall back to Fort Bastion,¡± Coulter announced.
Rhodes checked on Fisher. Fisher didn¡¯t contradict the order. God only knew where it came from.
Rhodes didn¡¯t ask that. Fisher would have told him if the battalion received any order¡ªfrom anywhere.
Rhodes interfaced with the rest of the battalion. ¡°Pull out. We¡¯ve done enough here. We¡¯re heading back.¡±
He launched his boosters and Oakes went with him. Rhodes, Oakes, Coulter, and Fuentes flew back toward Stonebridge. The others caught up along the way.
Rhodes surveyed the countryside as he left the alien battle behind. He still didn¡¯t see any other people on the Stonebridge side. No townspeople made it out this far to fight the Inviria.
He also didn¡¯t see any Legion soldiers. Nothing about this battle looked like a real battle. There weren¡¯t enough people involved.
There certainly weren¡¯t enough people involved to carry out such a decisive victory against such an overwhelming alien invasion force.
He didn¡¯t mention that out loud. He flew west over the hills toward Stonebridge, but the town wasn¡¯t there anymore. Not even the road leading to the town was there anymore.
The countryside spread out before him in a smooth, uninterrupted carpet of green grass, softly rolling hills, wooded riverbanks, and taller mountains glowing with light in the distance.
The battalion came out to fight this battle in the early morning. The battalion had been out there no longer than twenty minutes, but now the sun was going down again.
The last rays of light cast gleaming pastel colors on the clouds and mountaintops. Everything about this place radiated unimaginable beauty.
It was almost too beautiful. It looked like a painting. It was too beautiful to be real.
Some forgotten part of Rhodes¡¯s mind told him where the go. He flew over the terrain where Stonebridge should have been. The bridge wasn¡¯t there anymore, either.
Not one wheel rut or footprint showed any sign that the town had ever been there¡ªprobably because it never had been.
The stream bubbled over rocks as if no human being had ever set foot there. Grass grew thick along the bank.
He kept going until he spotted a Legion base in the distance. It sprawled across the landscape in the same configuration as every other Legion base.
Fort Bastion had the same layout as Coleridge Station except that Coleridge Station was in space somewhere. Fort Bastion sat on the ground.
Dozens of Legion spacecraft hovered around the fort, floated down to land at its many loading docks, and launched back into space. A million lights twinkled from the fort¡¯s countless windows.
Rhodes didn¡¯t question where he was going or why. Everything about this felt normal and natural. He¡¯d never done anything else all his life.
End of Chapter 13.
Battalion 1: Book 3: Chapter 14
Battalion 1 landed at the Fort Bastion loading dock. The dock crews moved aside to let the battalion enter the fort.
Legion personnel crowded the corridors, the concourse, and poured in and out of every department. Fifty ships of every size and make packed the loading dock with crews working on them, around them, and going into and out of them.
Rhodes and his people entered the station and headed for their barracks, but halfway there, he got an order to report to the lab.
Fisher usually told Rhodes about these orders. This time, he just knew. The thought materialized in his consciousness without him realizing it.
The rest of the battalion must have gotten the same order. They all turned off at the concourse.
None of the surrounding personnel paid any attention to the battalion. No one avoided the battalion or looked away at their approach.
That should have startled Rhodes into realizing how different this place was from Coleridge Station. Everyone at Coleridge Station went out of their way to pretend the battalion didn¡¯t exist. Walking around Coleridge Station made Rhodes feel like a ghost haunting the halls.
Walking through Fort Bastion just felt easy, normal, and comfortable. The air of tension, hostility, and even terror didn¡¯t blast from everyone around him.
A few of the personnel even greeted him, nodded at him, and said, ¡°Captain¡¡± before they went off on their own business.
This congenial behavior should have bothered Rhodes. Instead, it lulled him into a matching sense of belonging here. He knew where he was and what he was doing here. Everything and everyone here felt familiar and easy.
The battalion entered the lab. Dr. Rhona Littlejohn and Dr. Edwin Rollins both smiled at Rhodes when he walked in.
¡°Outstanding!¡± Dr. Rollins exclaimed. ¡°We just need to make a few adjustments and you can go back to the barracks. I know General Overstreet wants to debrief you about the Inviria invasion, but that can wait until after you all have a chance to rest and recharge.¡±
Rhodes stood still while Dr. Littlejohn did something to the back of his cranial implant. She touched her electrodes to the metal housing.
Dr. Rollins worked on Lauer and a bunch of other technicians did the same thing to the rest of the battalion.
The awareness that this wasn¡¯t Coleridge Station drifted farther into the back of Rhodes¡¯s mind. He became even less aware that everything about Fort Bastion was different.
He felt absolutely no hesitation about letting these doctors work on him. He trusted them in ways he never trusted anyone at Coleridge Station, not even Dr. Osborne.
He didn¡¯t think twice about meeting up with General Overstreet to discuss the Inviria invasion. What else would Rhodes be doing here if not that?
Dr. Littlejohn¡¯s device triggered something in Rhodes¡¯s mind. A bunch of memories and sensations from that last battle came rushing back to him.
He went through the adrenaline surge of barely escaping from that burning ship and then having it land on top of him, but the memory didn¡¯t bring back any of the terror or pain he went through when the Duster crashed on top of him.
He should have felt that terror and pain. He should have been at least marginally worried about having a ship that big crash on top of him.
His neural core realigned itself¡ªor rather Dr. Littlejohn realigned it for him. He remembered everything without suffering any emotional distress about it at all.
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She took the device down, disconnected the electrodes, and stepped in front of him where he could see her. She smiled at him again. ¡°You¡¯re all done. You¡¯re free to go, Captain. Congratulations on another successful battle.¡±
He opened his mouth to answer, but at that moment, The Grid adjusted in front of his eyes. Just for a split second, he saw a Mask helmet overlaid over her face. It only happened for an instant. Then she turned back into a normal human woman.
Not even that bothered him. He already knew she, Dr. Rollins, and General Overstreet were Masks. All the technicians in this lab were Masks working on, experimenting on, and testing Battalion 1 in multiple Grid scenarios.
He didn¡¯t make the same emotional connection to that the way he would have at Coleridge Station. It no longer bothered him that the Masks were doing this to him.
He remembered everything. He just didn¡¯t care.
Oakes was right about the problems with escaping. Even if Rhodes and Fisher found a way to hack The Grid and get the battalion out of this illusion, they still had the problem of escaping from the Masks.
Leaving this fake world didn¡¯t get the battalion any closer to escaping. If anything, it got them farther away from escaping. At least they were comfortable here.
The battalion returned to the barracks. Everything looked the same way it did when the battalion left it this morning to go into battle against the Inviria.
Thackery, Coulter, and Fuentes went to a panel on the wall behind the tables, slid the panel open, and took out huge platters piled with food.
The three friends laid out all the food on the table. The battalion sat down and started eating, drinking, and talking the way they always did.
Rhodes stabbed his fork into a giant steak, put it on his plate, and started eating.
¡°The Inviria changed the armor composition on their tanks,¡± Dietz was saying. ¡°They¡¯re armoring their ground vehicles more heavily now. We¡¯ll need to compensate for that.¡±
¡°I¡¯m sure the ground vehicles still aren¡¯t strong enough to stand up to Stonebridge¡¯s cannons,¡± Oakes replied.
Rhodes glanced at him. Oakes was in the middle of sipping the head off a frosty glass of beer. The foam stuck to his upper lip and he licked it off before he went back to cutting up his green beans.
Rhodes put a piece of steak in his mouth. The sensation flooded his mind with a wave of dizzy pleasure. He couldn¡¯t remember ever eating any food as good as this.
The smell of buttery mashed potatoes, crispy salad, and baked peach cobbler drifted into his nose from all over the table.
The satisfying clink of silverware against dishes filled the air. The sound, the smells, his subordinates¡¯ voices¡ªit all joined into a sea of happiness that made this place home.
Rhodes took a gulp from his own beer glass. The cold liquid spread over his scalp and slid down his throat. It gave him a comfortable, satisfied feeling in his stomach. Nothing could ever go wrong with any of this.
He half-listened to his subordinates talking about the battle. Then the conversation turned back to people they knew in Stonebridge, local happenings, and funny things they¡¯d seen while they lived in the town.
The SAMs stayed interfaced with the battalion through the whole meal. No one mentioned Dash consorting with prostitutes or Wild shunning society or Fisher living in a house with a wife and children.
Van and Koenig didn¡¯t talk about Koenig running the local eatery or them being married.
None of the SAMs looked capable of that now. They returned to their original appearance in The Grid. They couldn¡¯t have been any of those people.
All of that seemed so far away right now. The happiness of sharing this meal soothed all of Rhodes¡¯s cares¡ªincluding the part where he cared about any of this.
He ate and drank as much as he wanted to. He could wait until tomorrow to visit General Overstreet about whatever was going on with the Inviria invasion. Not even that mattered as much as the battalion enjoying themselves after their victory.
A feeling of deep affection flooded him when he looked around at his people¡ªall of them, including the SAMs.
They stood by him through the worst and vice versa. He trusted each of them with his life. He never wanted to be anywhere else but right here with them, especially now that they didn¡¯t have to worry about any dangers or problems.
He caught them all looking back at him with the same wide-open admiration, affection, and connection. Nothing would ever break this bond. The battalion had gone through too much together.
When they finished eating, they put all the dirty dishes back inside the panel on the wall. Everything magically vanished. No one had to clean up the barracks.
Rhodes went to his capsule. He could have stayed up talking, drawing, or playing games with his subordinates, but he didn¡¯t feel like it¡ªnot tonight.
He would have plenty more nights just like this one to do all of that. He would come back here every night for the rest of his life.
Every night would go like this. He would sit with them, talk to them, and share all that time with them. There was no rush to do anything.
He stretched out in his capsule. The feeling of the prongs locking into his head and body gave him a feeling of deep peace, calm, and relief. He shut his eyes and faded away into his conversion cycle.
End of Chapter 14.
Battalion 1: Book 3: Chapter 15
Rhodes woke up and heaved a deep sigh of contentment and satisfaction. He felt great. The exhaustion and tension of yesterday¡¯s battle evaporated.
Fisher greeted him as usual from the corner of Rhodes¡¯s sight. ¡°Good morning, Captain.¡±
¡°Good morning, Fisher,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°How are you?¡±
¡°I¡¯m excellent.¡± Fisher adjusted The Grid. ¡°The other capsules are all reading within normal parameters. The battalion is ready to go out on our next campaign.¡±
Rhodes opened his capsule cover and sat up. Everyone else in the battalion was still asleep.
A halo of peace and quiet hung over the barracks. Rhodes didn¡¯t want to disturb anyone just yet.
¡°Is General Overstreet on duty yet?¡± Rhodes asked. ¡°I can see him now.¡±
¡°He¡¯s in his office¡and he¡¯s alone. I can put you on his docket if you want me to.¡±
¡°Thank you, Fisher. I don¡¯t know what I¡¯d do without you.¡±
¡°You would have to schedule your own appointments. You should eat breakfast before we go.¡±
Rhodes crossed the barracks and slid open the panel to get his food. He found a plate stacked with pecan waffles inside waiting for him.
Syrup and melted butter dripped from their crispy edges. A towering cone of whipped cream perched on top.
He sat down to eat. Rhinehart¡¯s capsule opened while Rhodes was still working on his waffles, but Rhinehart didn¡¯t get up. Why rush it?
Rhodes put away his plate and headed down the corridor toward the concourse. He didn¡¯t think too hard about where General Overstreet would deploy the battalion next.
It would have something to do with the Inviria invasion. Every posting always had something to do with the Inviria invasion.
Rhodes found the door to General Overstreet¡¯s office standing open waiting for Rhodes to show up.
General Archibald Overstreet was an old man with white hair, a thick white Mark-Twain-style mustache, a deep, scratchy voice, and a gruff, abrasive manner that made him incredibly appealing to Rhodes.
Rhodes started to love the guy the first minute they met. General Overstreet had become something like a father figure to Rhodes since he got stationed at Fort Bastion.
General Overstreet¡¯s steel-grey eyes twinkled and his mustache twitched when Rhodes walked in, but General Overstreet stopped himself from actually smiling. ¡°Captain Rhodes!¡± he husked. ¡°Welcome back.¡±
¡°Thank you, Sir. I heard you wanted to see me about the Inviria situation.¡±
¡°Of course. Come on over and I¡¯ll show you your next posting.¡±
He approached the big table in the middle of his office, worked on his computer device for a second, and interfaced the system with The Grid.
General Overstreet showed Rhodes a Grid map of the terrain where the battalion had fought the Inviria yesterday.
¡°Our target is the Inviria colony on the northern continent of Ictreaum. We¡¯ve driven their invasion force back as far as the Pliteon Mountains¡ªhere. The enemy is on the run all over the planet, thanks to Battalion 1. We¡¯ll hit their colony today and drive the invaders off the planet.¡±
General Overstreet revolved The Grid in front of Rhodes¡¯s eyes to show him all the features the general mentioned. The Inviria colony consisted of a fortified town even bigger than Stonebridge.
¡°Battalion 1 will assault the Inviria defenses from the south side,¡± General Overstreet went on. ¡°You can use the mountains as cover to get close enough without risking shots from the defensive artillery. Our Ravagers will launch from the Rute Base south of the colony. The Masks will assault the colony from the west.¡±
Rhodes¡¯s head shot up. ¡°The¡.what?¡±
¡°The west,¡± General Overstreet repeated. ¡°The Inviria don¡¯t have enough artillery to¡.¡±
¡°No, before that,¡± Rhodes snapped a lot more harshly than he should have. ¡°You said the Masks would assault the colony from the west.¡±
¡°Yes, they have the numbers to overrun the Inviria ground forces¡.¡±
¡°We¡¯re fighting alongside the Masks?!¡± Rhodes heard his voice rising. ¡°They¡¯re¡..they¡¯re our allies?!¡±
¡°Of course.¡± General Overstreet looked up and frowned. ¡°Is there a problem, Captain? We¡¯ve conducted joint campaigns with the Masks before. They have as much interest in removing the Inviria threat as we do.¡±
Rhodes stared at the man in front of him. A million ideas clashed in Rhodes¡¯s head. Years of memories crowded his thoughts¡ªyears of memories of working this closely with General Overstreet¡.and Dr. Littlejohn¡..and Dr. Rollins¡..
All the nights he spent in the barracks with his subordinates¡ªall the meals they ate and conversations they shared¡ªall of that clashed so badly with his memories from Coleridge Station.
The Masks¡¡A thousand ideas flooded his brain. He remembered everything General Overstreet was telling him about fighting alongside the Masks to defeat the Inviria invasion.
Rhodes also remembered everything else¡ªgetting captured by the Masks, getting held in a freezing cold locker, living in Stonebridge¡ªall of it.
His memories of life at Fort Bastion overshadowed everything else. The other memories submerged beneath the surface of his consciousness.
They didn¡¯t help him face the threat of going into battle against the Inviria again. He listened to the rest of General Overstreet¡¯s briefing, but Rhodes¡¯s mind turned in a million different directions.
The Grid kept swiveling and pivoting in front of him. He saw more than he ever wanted to see of the Inviria colony, the Masks¡¯ position to the west, and the Legion positions on the east, south, and north sides.
The Inviria colony included plenty of families, schools, hospitals, and community centers. The Grid returned thousands of life signs of all ages, including newborns. Was Rhodes really going to assault that?
His memories of past campaigns told him what would happen. The Masks would bring in their invasion ships and land ground troops armed with fusion rifles.
Rhodes recognized all that weaponry. He recognized it from the battles he¡¯d alongside the Masks¡ªand two different battles he fought against the Masks.
One of those was the battle on Rono¡ªthe battle where the Masks captured the battalion.
Those memories flashed into his head and immediately sank beneath a tidal wave of other memories.
He somehow got out of General Overstreet¡¯s office, returned to the barracks, and reported the battalion¡¯s orders to his subordinates.
Oakes nodded. ¡°It¡¯s about time we wiped the floor with those maggots. They¡¯ve made a stain on this planet long enough.¡±
¡°The Masks are coming in on the ground from the west,¡± Rhodes went on. ¡°We¡¯ll need to be careful not to hit them once they get inside the colony.¡±
¡°We might get inside the colony first,¡± Thackery pointed out. ¡°Then they can defend us while we wipe the floor with the maggots.¡±
¡°Even better,¡± Oakes replied.
Rhodes checked each of his subordinates while they ate breakfast and got ready to leave for the day. He read each of their vital functions on The Grid. They were all running at their optimum.
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They left for the loading dock where a bunch of Legion Ravagers, Dusters, and Predators sat preparing to launch into the same battle.
General Overstreet interfaced with Rhodes through The Grid. ¡°Keep an eye on the Inviria battleships, Captain. If it looks like the aliens are about to evacuate, we¡¯ll target the battleships and shoot them down. We don¡¯t want any of the maggots to escape and set up somewhere else.¡±
¡°Yes, Sir,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°We¡¯re just waiting for the order to launch.¡±
¡°You¡¯re clear to launch whenever you like, Captain. Good luck and God¡¯s speed.¡±
¡°Thank you, Sir.¡± Rhodes turned to his subordinates. All their SAMs interfaced in The Grid. ¡°Let¡¯s go do some damage.¡±
Thackery laughed as the battalion streaked away from Fort Bastion. The Ravagers launched right behind the battalion.
The Predators raced to catch up, but the Legion force veered north as soon as the Ravagers got away from the fort.
Battalion 1 kept heading south. Rhodes didn¡¯t need to use The Grid to find out where he was going, but he studied it anyway.
He surveyed the landscape for any sign of enemies¡ªenemies he didn¡¯t already know about
The Inviria really had withdrawn behind the Pliteon Mountains. The combined Masks-Legion campaign had cleared the Inviria from the rest of the planet and isolated them here.
This Ictreaum colony was the last Inviria colony left. The Masks-Legion force only had to destroy this colony. The Inviria invasion would be over.
The Inviria didn¡¯t have the technology to see beyond the mountains. They wouldn¡¯t be able to see Battalion 1 coming.
Rhodes swooped low over the plains south of Fort Bastion. The sun was just coming up over the mountains.
A rim of blazing gold lit up the peaks. The sunshine glittered on the snow fields up there. The sky gleamed brilliant bright blue. It was the perfect day for a battle.
Rhodes picked up speed approaching the mountains. His subordinates grinned at each other and at their SAMs.
The Grid sent Rhodes an indicator that the Legion force at the Rute Base was standing by. Everyone waited for Battalion 1¡¯s assault before the Legion and the Masks joined in. It was all on.
He didn¡¯t have to give the word. He fired his boosters, blasted over the mountain, plunged down the other side, and opened fire on the Inviria defensive position.
He hammered four enemy artillery placements and smashed them to pieces just as the Ravagers and other Legion craft launched from the Rute Base.
The Masks rushed the colony from the west side, but Battalion 1 got there first. Rhodes raced past the artillery, dodged a dozen pulses, and swooped low over the colony¡¯s outer defensive wall.
Inviria civilians rushed through the streets trying to get to the Inviria battleships standing by to evacuate everyone.
Rhodes veered in that direction to target the ships the way General Overstreet ordered. Mothers, children, old people, and medical workers already streamed onto the airfield to board those ships.
Rhodes raised his weapon to open fire. He had to destroy the ships before they launched.
Gunfire on his left startled him into hesitating. He spun around and spotted a bunch of Inviria ground troops in a blazing firefight against Masks storming through the streets.
The Masks advanced behind the colonists driving them forward. The Inviria ground troops charged in to separate the Masks from the fleeing colonists. The Inviria ground troops opened fire on the Masks.
Dozens of pulse shots from the Inviria carved through the Masks¡¯ ranks. Part of the left flank went down and the Inviria turned their weapons on the survivors.
Rhodes dove for them and bombarded the Inviria from behind and above. He flattened them and left their bodies lying all over the pavement.
Screams echoed through the streets and drew his attention back to the Inviria battleships. The trapped civilians were making another rush to board their evacuation ships.
A wave of Masks swept in from the west and opened fire on the civilians. Now was Rhodes¡¯s chance to destroy the battleships. Then the Inviria would have no way off the planet.
He launched over the civilians and Lauer appeared at his side on a dead run for the battleships. The rest of the battalion closed formation from all sides.
¡°Fire your Vipers!¡± Rhodes ordered. ¡°Separate and take out all the ships!¡±
The battalion scattered. Rhodes and Lauer unleashed their Vipers on the same ship. Hundreds of Inviria were already in the process of boarding it.
He ignored them and swerved to his left trying to locate the exhaust duct leading to the reactor. One hit on the reactor would blow the whole ship.
Another rush of exhilaration and thrilling pleasure overwhelmed him when he spotted the duct. This was all working out.
A bunch of Inviria fighter craft plunged out of the atmosphere to target the battalion and bombard the Masks on the ground. Lauer dove aside to occupy the fighter craft so Rhodes could get closer to the exhaust duct.
He fired a Viper into the cavity, blasted skyward, and drove to his top speed to tackle Lauer out of the way. ¡°Watch out!¡±
The two men tumbled into the path of more Inviria pulses coming from the ground. The aliens must have planted artillery inside the colony after all.
The artillery targeted Legion Ravagers and Masks invasion ships stationed directly over the colony.
Rhodes and Lauer tumbled into one of the artillery shots. It clipped Rhodes across the back and sent him wheeling away. ¡°CAPTAIN!!¡± Lauer bellowed.
Rhodes lost contact with Lauer and felt himself revolving through space. He came to a stop fifty feet above the colony and far enough out of range that none of the battle put him in danger.
He turned back to pick out his next target. The battalion targeted four more Inviria battleships on the airfield. One of them tried to lift off, only to get smacked down hard by a Masks invasion ship.
Rhinehart, Fuentes, and Thackery tried to pull the same exhaust duct trick on a second battleship.
Rocky, Van, and Koenig called instructions to all three of them while the SAMs showed the three battalion members schematics of the ship¡¯s interior layout. It was the same layout Fisher showed Rhodes during their last battle to destroy one of these ships.
Rhodes rotated downward to dive back into the mayhem. At that moment, everything vanished¡ªthe colony, the battalion, the ships in the air¡ªthe whole world evaporated.
Rhodes snapped back into the fields outside Stonebridge. The town lay sleeping in the sunshine next to the stream the same way it had been the first time he saw it.
Rhodes stood far out on the hilltop where he¡¯d first watched the town. Smoke curled from its chimneys as usual. Nothing had changed.
Birds twittered and flocked in the sky over fields dotted with wildflowers. No sign of the battle, the danger, or the Inviria disturbed the blessed silence.
Rhodes blinked once. He wasn¡¯t alone this time. Fisher stood before him again¡ªthe human Fisher Rhodes recognized from this world.
¡°Fisher¡what are you¡..?¡± Rhodes began.
¡°Captain¡.¡± Fisher choked and doubled over in a sudden spasm of pain. He clutched his arms across his stomach and grimaced.
¡°Fisher¡ªwhat¡¯s wrong?¡± Rhodes gasped.
¡°The Grid¡.¡± Fisher let out a groan through gritted teeth. His face convulsed in agony and then screwed up like he might be about to fall apart. ¡°You have to¡.you have to listen to me¡..¡±
¡°Fisher¡.¡± Rhodes took a few strides forward. ¡°I¡¯ll take you back to town. I¡¯ll find some way to help you¡ªwhatever¡¯s wrong with¡..
¡°Listen to me!¡± Fisher blurted out and then screamed in pain as another brutal spasm brought him to his knees.
He writhed there snarling and roaring in agony. He hugged his stomach.
¡°Fisher¡¡± Rhodes husked. He couldn¡¯t think what might be wrong with Fisher that could cause him so much pain.
¡°The Grid¡.¡± Fisher rasped. ¡°You have to¡..you have to use The Grid¡.to break this illusion¡..You have to remember, Captain¡..¡±
He screamed again and his hand flew to his head. Out of nowhere, a wicked slash appeared across his face. Blood oozed from the wound and his head snapped sideways from the impact of some invisible blow.
Rhodes gaped at his friend in horror. He never trusted this human version of Fisher.
This must be the real Fisher talking to Rhodes right now. Fisher was trying to warn Rhodes¡ªto remind Rhodes of what he barely remembered what it was he was supposed to remember.
¡°The Grid¡¡± Fisher pitched backward on the ground, jerked back and forth howling in agony, and then vanished.
Rhodes stared at the spot where Fisher had been lying.
Everything Rhodes hadn¡¯t been remembering came rushing back. All those memories of Fort Bastion¡ªthey weren¡¯t real. General Overstreet wasn¡¯t real. Neither were Drs. Littlejohn and Rollins.
None of what happened at Fort Bastion was real¡ªwhich meant none of how he felt about his subordinates or his superiors was real, either.
The food. The food wasn¡¯t real. As soon as he thought that, he remembered everything from Coleridge Station¡ªthe pain, the rage, the hopeless disgust with everything he saw himself becoming.
Did he really want to give up all this pleasure¡.to go back to that?
The instant Fisher disappeared, Rhodes snapped back to the battle over the Inviria colony, but he didn¡¯t slip back into the same trance.
He saw it all so differently now. The Masks rampaged through the streets killing all the civilians. Did they do it this way on purpose¡ªto numb the battalion to what they were doing?
The Masks sure found a way to make the battalion cooperate with¡.whatever the Masks¡¯ plan was.
The rush of fighting alongside the Masks and doing everything their way¡ªit intoxicated Rhodes out of his mind. It would be so easy to forget everything else and just vanish into that thrilling pleasure.
Were they drugging him? Did it even matter anymore?
His life at Coleridge Station¡ªand everywhere else in this battalion¡ªthat had been a torture almost impossible to bear. Everything about this life tempted him to just accept it.
He just had to accept that the Masks were the ones doing this to him. They gave him this pleasure¡.in exchange for what?
They couldn¡¯t just be experimenting on him. They wanted something¡ªsomething they couldn¡¯t get from anyone but the battalion.
Legion Ravagers landed on the ground outside the Inviria colony walls. Senior officers went inside the colony and supervised the last cleanup.
Fisher reappeared on The Grid in front of Rhodes¡¯s eyes. Fisher looked exactly the same way he always did. There was no slash across his face and he showed no sign of pain or distress.
The difference startled Rhodes even more harshly back to reality. Fisher risked a lot to get through to Rhodes. It must have cost Fisher everything to drag Rhodes back to Stonebridge where Fisher could tell Rhodes the truth.
Rhodes wouldn¡¯t have woken up otherwise. He knew that now. He would have drifted farther and farther away from any awareness that his life had been any different.
The cracks that let his old memories through¡ªthey got farther apart and more indistinct. Only the occasional disconnect made him remember it at all.
Now it was all there in the forefront of his mind. He couldn¡¯t ignore it anymore.
Coulter interfaced with Rhodes through The Grid and flew out into the sky to join him. ¡°Is everything okay? Did you get hit when you blew up that battleship?¡±
¡°I¡¯m fine. I guess the campaign is over.¡±
Coulter nodded and then frowned. ¡°What¡¯s wrong? Why don¡¯t you come down? The generals and admirals want to congratulate you.¡±
¡°I don¡¯t want them to congratulate me. Round up the battalion. We¡¯re heading back to Fort Bastion.¡±
End of Chapter 15.
Battalion 1: Book 3: Chapter 16
pter 16
Rhodes ate in silence at the table in Battalion 1¡¯s barracks. The food tasted even better tonight if that was possible.
Every mouthful flooded Rhodes with the sense that he¡¯d never eaten any food as good as this. How was that possible if he ate this food every single night?
He understood why he felt that way on his first day at Stonebridge. That was the first meal he¡¯d eaten in weeks.
He¡¯d resigned himself never to eat again. That¡¯s why the food tasted so good.
It couldn¡¯t be like that every night. These fake memories told him he¡¯d been eating this food at this table with his subordinates for months¡ªmaybe even years.
The Masks¡¯ false memories of the battalion living here didn¡¯t include any disorientation or malfunctions when Rhodes and the others first woke up from stasis.
He remembered that time as being effortless, exciting, and even fun when he first learned how to use his implants in The Grid training sessions.
The glaring differences between the two worlds only made him more brutally aware of everything that was happening to him.
All these sensations, his relationships with these people, his memories, and even the feelings that came up when he did everything¡ªthey weren¡¯t real. They didn¡¯t exist.
He went through his evening meal and even debriefed with General Overstreet and the doctors.
Rhodes saw himself saying all the right things and doing all the right things. No one noticed anything out of the ordinary about his behavior until dinner.
¡°Why so quiet, Captain?¡± Oakes asked.
Rhodes looked up at him. Did Oakes remember their conversation on the battlefield? Did any of these people get even the slightest hint of the truth or were they all too far gone?
Would Rhodes ever be able to convince any of them to snap out of it? What would it actually take?
¡°Maybe that explosion scrambled his brain,¡± Lauer suggested and laughed.
¡°Maybe it did,¡± Rhodes murmured under his breath.
¡°Maybe you should go see the doctors and get that checked out,¡± Rhinehart suggested.
¡°He doesn¡¯t need to see the doctors. He already saw them earlier,¡± Coulter pointed out.
¡°I don¡¯t need to see them or anyone else. I need sleep.¡± Rhodes stood up from the table. ¡°I¡¯ll see you all tomorrow.¡±
He put his plate away. He¡¯d barely eaten half his meal. He didn¡¯t feel like it. The sight of food made him sick.
He locked himself into his capsule trying to think straight. Was he really deliberately choosing to be the robot the doctors made him into¡ªa machine that didn¡¯t eat or sleep?
He should have enjoyed this life while he had the chance. He should be grateful that at least this fabricated illusion could give him back some of what he lost.
Losing that part of his humanity tormented him as much as the implants themselves. Now he got it back and he couldn¡¯t appreciate it.
The capsule cover locked closed and he took a deep breath. ¡°Fisher¡.¡±
¡°What¡¯s on your mind, Captain?¡± Fisher asked. ¡°I haven¡¯t seen you this disturbed in a long time.¡±
¡°Do you remember¡..do you remember what happened after I blew up that battleship?¡±
Fisher cocked his head to one side. That never changed. His mannerisms and personality didn¡¯t change. ¡°You knocked Lauer out of the blast radius. You saved his life.¡±
¡°I mean after that¡ªafter we got clear of the blast. Do you remember what happened after we stopped flying away from the battle?¡±
¡°You stopped there and turned around to see what was happening on the ground.¡±
¡°Is that all? What happened between when I stopped rolling and when Coulter came out to check on me?¡±
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Fisher inclined his head the other way. ¡°Nothing happened. You just stayed there watching the end of the battle.¡±
Rhodes didn¡¯t answer. Of course Fisher didn¡¯t remember their conversation.
The Masks hacked Fisher to make him into a person living in a house with a wife and children in Stonebridge.
The Masks must have done the same thing to all the SAMs to make them think they were people. The Masks must be wiping everyone¡¯s memories right now.
Rhodes locked himself into a conversion cycle. He couldn¡¯t think about any of this right now, but as usual, the conversion cycle only felt like it lasted a split second. He woke up instantly with all the same problems.
¡°Good morning, Captain,¡± Fisher began in his usual way. ¡°You have another briefing with General Overstreet this morning, but I don¡¯t think the battalion will deploy again for a while. The Inviria aren¡¯t invading the planet anymore. I don¡¯t think the Battalion 1 governing body has any plans on where to deploy you.¡±
Rhodes took a deep breath. ¡°I need to talk to you about something, Fisher. It¡¯s important.¡±
Fisher¡¯s eyes widened. ¡°What is it?¡±
¡°I need you to help me use The Grid to break this simulation.¡±
¡°What simulation?¡± Fisher asked.
Rhodes groaned. This was going to be harder than he thought.
¡°Where did the Inviria come from?¡± Rhodes asked. ¡°What¡¯s their planet and solar system of origin? Which direction did they use to invade the Treaty of Aemon Cluster?¡±
Fisher hesitated. He turned right and left in The Grid and opened and closed his mouth a few times, but no sound came out.
¡°Which planet is Fort Bastion on?¡± Rhodes went on. ¡°Which solar system is it in? Where are we in relation to the other fronts the Legion is fighting on?¡±
¡°I¡¯m¡I¡¯m afraid I can¡¯t answer that, Captain,¡± Fisher murmured. ¡°I¡¯m not sure what it is you even are asking me.¡±
¡°Do you know what Stonebridge is?¡± Rhodes asked.
¡°Of course I do. It¡¯s a town in the¡..¡± Fisher trailed off.
¡°Where exactly is Stonebridge? What planet is it on in which solar system?¡±
Fisher didn¡¯t answer at all this time.
¡°Do you remember which house I lived in in Stonebridge?¡± Rhodes asked.
¡°Yes, Captain. I remember that.¡±
¡°Do you remember who lived in the house across the road from me?¡± Rhodes asked.
Fisher didn¡¯t answer that, either.
¡°This is all an illusion,¡± Rhodes explained. ¡°We¡¯re in a Grid scenario. The Masks are holding us as prisoners to experiment on us. Based on that battle yesterday, I¡¯d say they¡¯re trying to train us to fight on their side. This whole thing¡.it¡¯s designed to make us forget where we really came from.¡±
¡°Where did you really come from¡ªaccording to you?¡± Fisher asked. ¡°If you¡¯re right, then what¡¯s the alternative to¡..?¡±
He broke off, looked around him, and an expression of pure horror darkened his usually placid features.
He gasped. ¡°My God! I can¡¯t believe it!¡± Fisher¡¯s eyes swiveled back to Rhodes. ¡°The Masks¡..they¡¡they¡¡¡±
Rhodes gulped and now it was his turn to look away. He didn¡¯t want to know what Fisher finally remembered to convince him that none of this was real.
¡°I need you to help me,¡± Rhodes told him. ¡°You said we could manipulate The Grid to get out of this¡ªor try to.¡±
¡°We can try it, but it will work better if more than one of us uses The Grid to do it. If we can convince the rest of the battalion¡..¡±
¡°How likely is that to happen? They all look completely complacent to me.¡±
¡°Hmmm. You¡¯re right, Captain.¡±
¡°Do you think I look completely complacent to them? Maybe some of them have already snapped out of it. Maybe they realize what¡¯s happening, but they¡¯re just keeping it to themselves because they think I¡¯m complacent.¡±
¡°I couldn¡¯t tell you that, Captain,¡± Fisher murmured.
Rhodes shut his eyes and took another deep breath to steady himself. ¡°I need you to promise me you won¡¯t slip back into that. I need you to stay strong and make sure I don¡¯t forget.¡±
¡°I wish I could promise you that, Captain, but if the Masks are doing something to stop us from remembering, then they can just do the same thing to me again. They can make me forget that we ever had this conversation.¡±
Rhodes nodded. He already knew that. ¡°Just try, okay, pal? I can¡¯t do this by myself.¡±
¡°Would you like to use the grid lines now to see if we can break the illusion?¡±
¡°We can try it, but like you said, it will probably take all of us working together. We need to swing a few more people in the battalion¡ªas many as possible.¡±
¡°If we¡¯re going to try it with just the two of us, we should do it now,¡± Fisher pointed out. ¡°As soon as you get out of this capsule, the others will expect you to interface with them.¡±
¡°Maybe that will be better,¡± Rhodes suggested. ¡°Maybe we can make them see if it actually works¡ªor partially works.¡±
¡°I¡¯ll leave that to your decision, Captain,¡± Fisher murmured. ¡°I seem already to have forgotten most of what I thought was important.¡±
¡°You and me both.¡± Rhodes sat up. ¡°Stay with me, okay? Don¡¯t disappear.¡±
¡°I¡¯ll try not to, Captain.¡±
Rhodes got to his feet. Rhinehart, Oakes, Lauer, and Coulter gathered around the table for breakfast. Fuentes and Thackery were just waking up and Dietz sat on the edge of his capsule running his fingers through his hair.
Oakes barely glanced up. ¡°Morning, Captain.¡±
Rhodes couldn¡¯t decide what to say. He crossed the room to stand next to the table, but he didn¡¯t sit down to eat. The sight of food made him want to puke.
¡°What¡¯s the plan today, Captain?¡± Rhinehart asked. ¡°I guess you gotta go get our new orders from the general. I guess we won¡¯t be going out against the Inviria again.¡±
¡°No one will ever go out against the Inviria again,¡± Lauer chimed in and they all laughed. Lauer and Rhinehart high-fived each other across the table.
¡°We have another thing to do before I see the general,¡± Rhodes announced.
¡°What is it?¡± Coulter asked.
¡°Don¡¯t tell me we have another training session,¡± Thackery groaned. ¡°Haven¡¯t we had enough of those?¡±
¡°It isn¡¯t a training session,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°We¡¯re going into The Grid to try to change it.¡±
¡°Change it how?¡± Coulter asked. ¡°What¡¯s wrong with it?¡±
¡°I¡¯ll show you.¡± Rhodes interfaced with all of them and their SAMs. ¡°Fisher and I will start it off. Then each of you use your grid lines to help us out. Hopefully, all of us working together will be able to break The Grid and tear it down.¡±
¡°You want¡.to break¡.The Grid¡..?¡± Oakes faltered. ¡°Why?¡±
¡°Because it isn¡¯t real. All of this is fake. The Masks created this world so they could experiment on us and turn us against our own people.¡±
Rhinehart¡¯s eyes shot open. ¡°You can¡¯t be serious!¡±
¡°I¡¯ll prove it to you. Watch.¡±
End of Chapter 16.
Battalion 1: Book 3: Chapter 17
Rhodes nodded to Fisher and activated The Grid. Rhodes didn¡¯t really have to do anything because The Grid was already active.
He brought up the grid lines. They covered the barracks walls, all the capsules, the table, the computer terminal, and all the people present. The grid lines even covered all the SAMs¡¯ faces.
Rhodes manipulated the grid lines to change the surroundings. He didn¡¯t really know what he was doing at first. He just stretched the lines apart, yanked them back and forth, and tried everything possible to change them and tear them out of position.
¡°Attack that spot right there, Captain!¡± Fisher ordered, and at the same instant, he made a red dot appear on the wall next to the table.
Rhodes shot his grid lines toward that one spot. More grid lines erupted from Fisher¡¯s head and converged on the same target.
Their lines merged, tangled with each other, and knotted in the grid lines that made up the wall itself.
The longer this went on, the more obvious it became that the grid lines covering the walls weren¡¯t just Rhodes¡¯s neural core reading the surroundings.
Those grid lines were part of the fabric of the Masks¡¯ illusion. The grid lines constructed this fake reality and made everything around the battalion seem real.
Rhodes attacked the lines with all his might. He raised his hands, grappled his fingers into the lines, and pulled.
They stretched out of position. He put more force on his own lines and felt Fisher tearing at the lines from right next to him.
The two of them wrenched and tugged. Little by little, they succeeded in ripping the lines far enough apart. A few inches of the wall separated.
Everyone stared at the spot as it opened into a hole big enough to see through. Masks appeared beyond the breach. They stood around an upright conversion station with Fuentes standing in it.
¡°No way!¡± Oakes whispered.
¡°Those bastards!¡± Wild muttered.
Rhodes fought harder to widen the opening. He never dreamed it would be this hard. ¡°Help us! Bring all your grid lines to this one spot. We can break out of¡.¡±
A broken roar echoed across the barracks and a heavy weight slammed into Rhodes from the side.
He pitched across the floor and his grid lines snapped out of the wall. The hole closed and The Grid vanished again.
Rhodes hit the floor with Fuentes on top of him. Rhodes floundered to figure out what the hell was going on, but not before Fuentes scrambled on top of him, straddled Rhodes¡¯s middle, and started flailing his fists in Rhodes¡¯s face.
Fuentes landed five solid punches before Rhodes reacted well enough even to raise his hands. Fuentes hit Rhodes¡¯s facial implants on the right side, but Fuentes¡¯s blows from the left side connected with Rhodes¡¯s jaw, cheekbone, and eye socket.
Rhodes lay flat on his back taking the hits while he tried to decide what to do about this. One part of him told him to raise his scourge gun and blow the kid to kingdom come.
The other part of Rhodes just stared up at Fuentes in stunned disbelief. Rhodes couldn¡¯t connect what he¡¯d just been doing with Fuentes attacking him like this.
Everyone else in the battalion reacted much quicker. Van and Fisher both threw their grid lines around Fuentes trying to wrestle his arms away from Rhodes.
Fuentes¡¯s rage overcame their best efforts. He bared his teeth in Rhodes¡¯s face and kept swinging for the fences. He landed a dozen more punches before Rhinehart, Lauer, Oakes, and Coulter rushed over to intervene.
¡°You ruin everything!¡± Fuentes bellowed. ¡°You ruined my life!¡±
Rhinehart grabbed Fuentes by one arm. He handled Fuentes just fine on that side without any help. It took Oakes and Lauer working together on the other side before all three men dragged Fuentes off Rhodes.
¡°YOU SON OF A BITCH!!¡± Fuentes roared at Rhodes. ¡°YOU ROTTEN BASTARD!!¡±
¡°Back off, Rudy!¡± Rhinehart gave Fuentes an almighty yank, sent him staggering across the room, and slammed him against the wall.
Fuentes tried to blast off the wall just as fast. Rhinehart slammed his hand against Fuentes¡¯s chest and pinned him there.
¡°You aren¡¯t going anywhere, son,¡± Rhinehart snapped. ¡°Keep still before I pound you into the dirt.¡±
¡°YOU FILTHY, ROTTEN PIECE OF SHIT!!¡± Fuentes yelled again. ¡°I swear I¡¯ll fucking kill you!¡±
¡°What the hell is wrong with you, kid?¡± Lauer countered. ¡°We all saw¡.¡±
¡°You ruin everything!¡± Fuentes thundered again. ¡°You ruined the one good thing that came out of this whole nightmare.¡±
¡°You actually want to be the Masks¡¯ prisoner?¡± Oakes demanded. ¡°You just saw them experimenting on you.¡±
¡°How do we know that isn¡¯t part of the illusion?¡± Thackery asked. ¡°That doesn¡¯t prove anything.¡±
Wild chimed in. ¡°If the captain is right, then all of us working together should be able to¡.¡±
¡°NO!!¡± Fuentes roared. ¡°NO!! You can¡¯t!!¡±
Rhinehart braced his arm again to hold Fuentes down, but Fuentes turned out to be stronger than anyone gave him credit for.
He squirmed out from under Rhinehart¡¯s hand and tried to charge across the room to attack Rhodes again.
Rhinehart reacted instantly, lunged for him, and tackled Fuentes around the waist. Rhinehart¡¯s bulk brought Fuentes crashing down on the ground. The impact thumped the floor under Rhodes¡¯s feet.
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He stayed lying down where he was watching the whole disaster. He didn¡¯t even stand up to get involved in this.
Fuentes fought back, but Rhinehart wasn¡¯t taking any prisoners this time. He wrestled Fuentes back down onto the floor, clambered on top of him, and sat on Fuentes¡¯s chest.
Rhinehart crushed Fuentes¡¯s arms under his knees. When Fuentes still didn¡¯t settle down, Rhinehart swiveled his scourge gun forward and aimed it straight at Fuentes¡¯s head.
¡°Don¡¯t you even think for two seconds I won¡¯t blow your shriveled little head off!¡± Rhinehart snarled. ¡°You think I¡¯d let you keep all of us as prisoners because you can¡¯t handle reality? Shut the fuck up, you little shrimp! Make another sound and I swear I¡¯ll fucking kill you!¡±
Fuentes didn¡¯t make another sound, but he didn¡¯t stop jerking and fighting to free himself. He couldn¡¯t get out from under Rhinehart¡¯s weight.
Rhodes didn¡¯t move or make a sound, either. He¡¯d never seen Rhinehart like this. He bared his teeth and an insane light of brutal fury blazed in his cold, light eyes. He really looked like a monster.
Oakes finally broke the tense silence. ¡°Rhinehart is right. If the captain is telling the truth, then we have to find a way to break out of here and escape.¡±
¡°If the captain is telling the truth?!¡± Fisher countered. ¡°You all saw it for yourselves. You saw the evidence with your own eyes. This is The Grid. It¡¯s a fabricated landscape to keep you all docile and cooperative.¡±
¡°How do we know you didn¡¯t fabricate this for some reason?¡± Dietz chimed in. ¡°You¡¯re always in the captain¡¯s pocket¡.¡±
¡°You better shut the hell up!¡± Rhinehart bellowed.
¡°Just listen to me for a second, will you?¡± Fisher went on. ¡°You all remember what life was like at Coleridge Station. Some of you wanted to end your lives because you couldn¡¯t stand to live with these implants. What happened to that? The Masks are either feeding you these positive experiences or they¡¯re outright drugging you to make you forget. Either way, we have to find a way to escape.¡±
¡°YOU BASTARDS!!¡± Fuentes howled. ¡°I¡¯LL KILL YOU!! I¡¯LL KILL YOU ALL! YOU RUIN EVERYTHING!!¡±
No one answered him. Oakes finally walked over to Rhodes and held out his hand to help Rhodes get up. ¡°You okay?¡±
Rhodes nodded, but he already felt the left side of his face swelling up from Fuentes¡¯s beating.
¡°Your systems and brainwave functions are all reading as normal, Captain,¡± Fisher informed him.
Rhodes didn¡¯t answer. He really didn¡¯t care if his systems and brainwave functions were reading as normal. Getting punched in the face didn¡¯t mean a thing compared to being some enemy¡¯s prisoner.
Oakes turned around to face the room. ¡°So what¡¯s our next move?¡±
¡°Our next move is whatever General Overstreet says it is,¡± Thackery replied. ¡°This proves nothing. It could be another trick.¡±
¡°A trick¡ªfor what purpose?¡± Oakes asked.
She raised her eyebrows at him. ¡°You aren¡¯t actually going along with this, are you? So he used his grid lines to change The Grid exactly the way he said he would. He could have created that image to show us. It means nothing.¡±
¡°You are not standing there calling the captain a liar!¡± Rhinehart bellowed over his shoulder.
¡°I¡¯m not saying he¡¯s telling the truth, either. If someone is messing with our heads, they could have created some fake version of the captain to trick us all into betraying the Legion. Did you ever think of that?¡±
¡°Oh, for shit¡¯s sake, use your head!¡± Oakes countered. ¡°You heard what Fisher said. Don¡¯t you remember what it was like at Coleridge Station?¡±
¡°Maybe those memories are the fake ones,¡± Thackery replied. ¡°I like it here better. If I have to choose, I choose to stay here.¡±
¡°Even if you¡¯re a prisoner?¡± Oakes asked.
She shrugged. ¡°I haven¡¯t seen anything to prove to me that I am one.¡±
Oakes groaned, threw up his hands, and spun away. ¡°I don¡¯t believe I¡¯m hearing this.¡±
¡°I agree with Thackery,¡± Dietz chimed in. ¡°If someone is messing with our heads, that someone is as likely to be the captain as anyone else.¡±
¡°You always were a piece of shit, Dietz,¡± Rhinehart snarled. ¡°You¡¯re next on my list as soon as I take care of Fuentes here.¡±
Rhodes couldn¡¯t listen to this. He stepped forward and waved at Rhinehart. ¡°Let him up, man. We¡¯re not going to start threatening our own people.¡±
Rhinehart pretended to ignore him, bent over Fuentes, and jammed his weapon harder into the organic side of Fuentes¡¯s face.
¡°Don¡¯t think you¡¯re getting away with something ¡®cuz the captain is a nice guy,¡± Rhinehart snarled. ¡°Try it again and your brain will be decorating that wall over there with all kinds of pretty colors. Just give me one reason, you little shit.¡±
He stabbed his weapon a little harder into Fuentes¡¯s face before Rhinehart leaned back, stood up, and backed away.
Rhodes didn¡¯t reprimand Rhinehart for threatening Fuentes again. Rhodes didn¡¯t say anything when Rhinehart gave Dietz and Thackery dirty looks, too.
Rhodes raised both hands. ¡°Look. I didn¡¯t expect to convince any of you. If someone doesn¡¯t believe me¡.¡±
¡°We do,¡± Oakes interrupted.
¡°Speak for yourself,¡± Thackery snapped. ¡°I¡¯ll believe this whole illusion bullshit when I see it.¡±
¡°You just did see it, you stupid bitch!¡± Rhinehart bellowed.
¡°Hey¡ªLieutenant!¡± Rhodes snapped. ¡°Cool it¡ªright now!¡±
Rhinehart wheeled away and stormed across the room to get as far away from Fuentes, Dietz, and Thackery as he possibly could get.
Oakes turned to Lauer. ¡°Come on, man. Say something. Back up the captain.¡±
Lauer¡¯s dark eyes darted around the room. ¡°I don¡¯t know what to think.¡±
¡°Oh, come on!¡± Oakes countered. ¡°You just saw the Masks standing over Rudy¡¯s station.¡±
¡°I¡¯m¡.I¡¯m sorry,¡± Lauer replied. ¡°I can¡¯t accept that. I need to see more. I don¡¯t say anything against the captain or Fisher or anything like that. I just¡..It isn¡¯t exactly conclusive proof, is it?¡±
¡°Thank you,¡± Thackery interjected. ¡°That¡¯s what I said.¡±
¡°I don¡¯t expect you to accept it at face value,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°If we all work together and combine our grid lines, we can make better progress. Maybe we¡¯ll even break through and see that we really are in The Grid.¡±
¡°To hell with you!¡± Fuentes blurted out. ¡°We finally found something good and you want to tear it all down! You want us all crazy and scared and even dead! You¡¯re the one who got Henshaw killed! You want to screw with all our lives¡.¡±
This time, it was Oakes who overreacted. He shot out his arm and hit the blade of his hand against Fuentes¡¯s chest. ¡°Hey! You take that back right now! The captain had nothing to do with Henshaw¡¯s death. That was a malfunction.¡±
¡°This could be a malfunction, too,¡± Lauer pointed out. ¡°How do we know what¡¯s real and what isn¡¯t? We could all be okay and someone or something else could be messing with our programming from out of sight.¡±
¡°Yeah. The Masks are messing with it,¡± Oakes countered. ¡°They¡¯re making this world feel so much better and all of us so much happier exactly the way Fisher says. It all makes sense.¡±
¡°None of it makes sense,¡± Thackery fired back. ¡°The Masks are our allies. They couldn¡¯t have gotten the Inviria off the planet without the Legion¡ªwithout us.¡±
¡°Who are the Inviria?¡± Fisher asked. ¡°Where did they come from? They don¡¯t exist. This whole Grid illusion invented them to make us cooperate with the Masks and think of them as our allies.¡±
She shook her head, but right then, Dr. Littlejohn and Dr. Rollins entered the barracks for some reason. The timing was too perfect to be a coincidence.
¡°We need you all to come down to the lab,¡± Dr. Littlejohn announced. ¡°The governing body plans to send you to a different front of the alien invasion wars. We need to make some modifications to your systems before you deploy.¡±
Rhodes and his comrades exchanged glances. Rhodes couldn¡¯t talk about this in front of the two doctors.
Why did he hesitate to talk about it? They interfered with everything else. The Masks must be able to see and hear everything going on in The Grid.
No one moved for a second. Oakes and Coulter both glanced at Rhodes to see what he would do.
He finally walked out of the barracks and followed the two doctors to the lab. What the hell else was he supposed to do?
¡°At least we tried,¡± Fisher murmured on their way there. ¡°At least Oakes and Rhinehart listened¡ªor at least Oakes listened.¡±
Rhodes didn¡¯t answer him, either. Fisher didn¡¯t make Rhodes feel better. He might have convinced Oakes.
Rhinehart stood up for Rhodes because¡.well, because Rhinehart was Rhinehart and Rhodes was Rhodes. Rhinehart would have stood up for Rhodes no matter what.
Rhodes walked into the lab and went into a trance waiting for the doctors to finish whatever adjustments they had to make. He had too much on his mind to pay attention to them.
Dr. Littlejohn moved around his head doing something with her electrodes. Without warning, she tapped a spot at the base of his skull and the whole world went black.
End of Chapter 17.
Battalion 1: Book 3: Chapter 18
Rhodes checked The Grid. ¡°The aliens are covering a lot of territory,¡± Lauer remarked behind Rhodes¡¯s back.
¡°They sure are moving fast,¡± Oakes agreed. ¡°We need aircraft to strafe them and reduce their numbers. That¡¯s the only way to slow them down.¡±
Rhodes squinted at The Grid. ¡°Dusters and Predators should already be over there. Why isn¡¯t the Legion moving in?¡±
¡°I don¡¯t see any regular Legion forces at all,¡± Rhinehart pointed out. ¡°It just looks like Masks to me¡ªMasks against the aliens.¡±
¡°Did General Overstreet say what species the aliens are?¡± Dash asked.
¡°He didn¡¯t say,¡± Fisher replied. ¡°He just said they were aliens.¡±
¡°Can we get a closer look at them?¡± Thackery asked.
¡°You can get all the closer look you want by flying over there and fighting them,¡± Rhinehart replied. ¡°That¡¯s what we¡¯re supposed to do anyway.¡±
¡°So we¡¯re going alone¡ªas usual?¡± Dietz asked.
¡°We aren¡¯t going alone,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°The Masks are already over there taking heavy losses fighting them. If we can turn the tide, we¡¯ll do it.¡±
¡°So what are we waiting for?¡± Coulter asked.
¡°Nothing,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡±
The battalion took off from the Fort Bastion loading dock. They were the only ones who did. Four Ravagers sat at the dock taking on cargo. They didn¡¯t move to get involved in this battle.
Rhodes surveyed The Grid on his way there. The landscape north of Fort Bastion flattened out. The battalion left the mountains behind, crossed a desert of cinders, and approached a wasteland of wrecked cities in the distance.
Heavy smoke clouds blocked out the sky and cast the countryside into shadow. Explosions flashed in the darkness up ahead. They showed the battalion exactly where to go.
Thousands of Masks battled on the ground against a smaller but much better-armed alien army. The enemy had positioned some kind of plasma accelerator in a few remaining buildings strategically oriented around the battlefield.
These plasma weapons could target the Masks with pinpoint accuracy and fired in rapid bursts. Dozens of shots erupted from each accelerator with each shot.
The plasma forked, separated, and took out large swaths of the Masks¡¯ troops with each shot.
The Masks sent countless troops against these aliens, but no one could get near enough to the enemy¡¯s position even to see which aliens they were fighting.
Rhodes maneuvered the battalion to the south and approached the battlefield from behind the Masks.
He tried to decide how to attack these aliens, but their weapons made the battle zone too dangerous.
Neither the battalion nor the Masks could get inside the city, much less close enough to the alien positions to take out one of those guns.
¡°How do you want to do this?!¡± Coulter yelled over the noise.
¡°Any suggestions?¡± Rhodes asked.
¡°We can¡¯t hit them head on,¡± Lauer pointed out. ¡°That would be suicide.¡±
¡°That leaves the sides and the back,¡± Rhinehart replied. ¡°What about splitting the battalion, sending some of us in from the sides to draw their fire, and then sending the rest in behind to hit the buildings? We take down the buildings¡ªwe take down the guns. Right?¡±
Rhodes glanced around at the rest of the battalion. ¡°Anybody have a problem with that?¡±
¡°It beats flying straight to our deaths,¡± Thackery remarked.
¡°Which is what we would be doing if we attacked any other way,¡± Oakes added.
¡°What about sneaking in the old-fashioned way?¡± Fuentes suggested. ¡°They never have to see us coming.¡±
¡°We¡¯ll do both,¡± Rhodes decided. ¡°We¡¯ll create a diversion to draw their fire away from the Masks. When the aliens shoot at us, we¡¯ll drop into The Grid and get inside the buildings before they realize what we¡¯re doing.¡±
¡°Sounds good,¡± Thackery replied.
¡°Let¡¯s do it.¡± Rhodes took off and headed back into the open wasteland. ¡°Coulter and Rhinehart¡ªwith me. Dietz, Lauer, and Thackery¡ªtake the west side. Oakes and Fuentes¡ªtake the east.¡±
¡°Yes, Sir,¡± Oakes replied and the battalion split up.
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They flew far out into the darkness before they headed back north to come toward the city from the alien side of the battle.
Rhodes still didn¡¯t put much stock in this plan, but like Thackery said, it was better than flying straight into enemy gunfire.
The battalion¡¯s three flanks closed on the city and succeeded better than they wanted to at drawing the aliens¡¯ gunfire. Multiple positions in multiple buildings spotted the battalion coming.
The accelerators swerved outward and plasma crackled through the air. One shot came dangerously close to pulverizing Rhinehart.
¡°Hey!¡± he roared.
¡°Get into The Grid!¡± Rhodes ordered. ¡°We can avoid them much better that way.¡±
He didn¡¯t wait for the other two to obey him. Rhodes shifted his grid lines, stretched them, and morphed into a thin sheet of some shadowy substance.
The grid lines kept twisting, stretching, melting, and changing the shapes of the squares between them.
The aliens fired four more brutal plasma shots in his direction. The sheet contorted in a twisted line of bizarre shapes, angled between the many forks of plasma, and kept right on going.
Coulter first changed himself into a springy kind of bounding creature. It vaulted over the plasma shot, dropped, and switched into a long, narrow, fast-flying fighter craft.
The plasma beam only had to adjust its trajectory by a few inches to hit him. It sent him toppling head over heel and out of control. He wheeled through the air and started falling straight into the plasma beam.
Rhodes kept on flying too fast to intervene. He couldn¡¯t stop Coulter from falling to his death.
At the last second, Coulter changed again. He transformed himself into another metal ball. It struck the plasma beam and the energy reacted with the ball¡¯s metal surface.
It propelled him skyward, but only for a minute before he started to drop. The ball landed on the beam, but this time, it landed a few miles closer to the city.
The ball kept bouncing, ricocheting, and sailing off the same plasma beam the aliens used to try to destroy Coulter. Every shot carried him closer to their accelerator positions.
At the first sign of trouble, Rhinehart dove for the ground, turned into an armored land vehicle, burned through the city streets, and plowed his nose through piles of rubble and other destroyed vehicles.
The aliens rotated their accelerators downward to shoot at him. Each time they did this, the vehicle plowed underground, dug up a furrow of dirt and broken bricks, and kept on going no matter what the aliens did.
They tried dozens of times to hit him, but he pulled the same trick each time. The instant they turned their weapons away to target Rhodes or Coulter, Rhinehart blasted back onto the surface where he could move faster.
The aliens unloaded on the three men, but pretty soon, the aliens had to divert their fire to continue hammering the Masks.
Then the other two flanks of the battalion moved in and divided the aliens¡¯ fire even more. They couldn¡¯t shoot at everyone at the same time.
Rhodes took a chance and changed into a Striker. He didn¡¯t have to dodge enemy gunfire anymore. He could fly faster like this.
Coulter couldn¡¯t travel as a ball without the aliens¡¯ plasma shots. He changed into a Striker, too, and a second later, Rhinehart joined them. The three Strikers gunned their engines in a dead sprint for the city.
The aliens fired a few warning shots at the three men, but the aliens couldn¡¯t keep up their defense like this. Rhodes and his men avoided those shots easily, blasted past the first buildings, and the three Strikers split apart to soar to different parts of the city.
Another surge of excitement and adrenaline took over Rhodes¡¯s mind. He lived for this shit. Just a few more miles and he would unload on the enemy positions.
He wheeled hard to his left and targeted a building with five accelerators stationed on different floors.
The accelerators gave the Masks hell and then turned their gunfire on Thackery, Dietz, and Lauer.
The first shot erupted between the three of them and they all changed into something different. Rhodes didn¡¯t see what the three of them were doing.
The Grid took over his awareness. The lines covered buildings, piles of debris and wrecked ships, and twisted frames of structures all around him.
The black squares between the grid lines kept adjusting and elongating as the landscape changed around him. The Grid made the building transparent. Rhodes could see the accelerators¡¯ exact locations.
He locked his Vipers on two accelerators. He would blow those and the resulting explosion would take out the rest of the building.
He interfaced with Thackery to warn his subordinates to keep away from that building.
At that moment, a colossal smash hit him between the shoulder blades¡ªor it would have if he¡¯d been the shape of a man.
The shot caught him between his wings, jerked him out of thin air, and slammed him into the building with unbelievable force. The blow stunned him and he tasted blood in his mouth.
He woke up lying on the ground somewhere in the city. The battle was still going on. Plasma eruptions lit up the darkness.
Strikers hurtled back and forth across the sky overhead, but he didn¡¯t see them getting any closer to the enemy positions.
The battalion didn¡¯t seem to be making any headway toward destroying the accelerators. The alien guns kept spouting plasma shots at the Masks in the distance.
If the battalion got too close, the aliens fired at the battalion and made everyone retreat or at least divert. No one in the battalion could get close enough to the buildings to stop the onslaught.
Rhodes tried to stand up and a wave of sickening cold knocked him back down. He groaned, but he couldn¡¯t even raise his hand to touch his head.
He fought to breathe. ¡°Fisher¡..¡±
¡°I¡¯m here, Captain,¡± Fisher replied from his usual position at the corner of Rhodes¡¯s vision. ¡°Don¡¯t try to sit up. You took damage to your stabilizer processes.¡±
¡°I have to¡.¡± Rhodes tried one more time. He managed to push himself up with one hand, but the pain in his body almost made him pass out again.
He wavered there in a sitting position and struggled to clear the fog out of his brain. He stared up at the battle going on. It didn¡¯t get any better nor did it automatically go the battalion¡¯s way.
A dozen disjointed thoughts and ideas rushed into his mind. He hadn¡¯t felt this kind of pain and desperation since the Masks sent him to Stonebridge.
This pain¡ªthis gut-turning cold in his stomach¡ªit reminded him too much of his former life¡ªhis life at Coleridge Station and in the battalion¡¯s first campaigns on Ohait and Thaklia.
In front of his eyes, one of the alien positions unloaded a vicious series of shots from their accelerators.
The bombardment smashed the Masks ground troops who were trying to penetrate into the city streets.
The barrage leveled hundreds of Masks in one pass. They all fell. The glow from their eye slits faded out and the machines lay still and cold on the ground.
¡°Fisher¡.¡± Rhodes husked. ¡°This¡..this isn¡¯t The Grid.¡±
¡°I know, Captain,¡± Fisher murmured. ¡°This is real. The Masks sent us into a real battle and we¡¯re all in danger. I don¡¯t see any way the Masks can get us out of it.¡±
End of Chapter 18.
Battalion 1: Book 3: Chapter 19
Rhodes scrambled to his feet. He had to find a way to get out of this devastated city, but he couldn¡¯t even hold himself up. He had to support himself against the wall of another wrecked building just to keep himself upright.
He wobbled there for a second trying to see straight. He didn¡¯t get hit in the head, but he sure felt like it.
His brain didn¡¯t want to connect to his boosters, his weapons, or anything else. He didn¡¯t trust himself to fly anywhere or target anything.
He really wanted to, especially when he saw Strikers wheeling through the night sky. The accelerators targeted the battalion and one of the Strikers took a shot across its left side. Rhodes couldn¡¯t do anything about that right now.
He couldn¡¯t even comfort himself by thinking those Strikers were the battalion¡¯s real Strikers. They weren¡¯t. The battalion¡¯s Strikers weren¡¯t here. They were back at Coleridge Station where they belonged.
Rhodes tried to check The Grid for anything that might give him a clue about how to handle this. He could see The Grid just fine. He just couldn¡¯t get off the ground.
¡°The nearest building has five accelerators in it,¡± Fisher pointed out. ¡°We might be able to do something about them. The aliens aren¡¯t looking for us when we¡¯re like this.¡±
Rhodes snorted. ¡°That¡¯s because I¡¯m not a threat to anyone like this, pal¡ªexcept maybe myself.¡±
Fisher smiled at him. ¡°You can still use The Grid. If it really comes to that, you can crawl to the building, crawl up the stairs, and fire your Vipers at the accelerators.¡±
¡°With myself inside the building? You¡¯re a real prince, you know that?¡±
Fisher chuckled. ¡°Something tells me you would be able to pull it off.¡±
¡°Thanks for the vote of confidence, pal.¡± Rhodes let out a shaky sigh. ¡°I gotta sit down. I don¡¯t feel good.¡±
¡°Your neural core took damage. Your cognitive processes aren¡¯t functioning properly.¡±
¡°At least now everyone will know I¡¯m crazy¡ªbut that¡¯s nothing they didn¡¯t already know, is it?¡± Rhodes sank down on a block of broken concrete. ¡°At least I don¡¯t have to worry about shooting unarmed civilians like this.¡±
Fisher¡¯s smile evaporated. ¡°I¡¯m sorry I didn¡¯t intervene sooner than I did.¡±
¡°I appreciate you doing it at all. I know it took a lot for you to give me that warning. You¡¯re the true hero here.¡±
¡°I wish I didn¡¯t keep losing my memory. I wish I could be more help to you.¡±
¡°You are a help to me. You¡¯re more help to me than anyone else around here.¡± Rhodes cast a wary look around and grimaced at the surroundings. They didn¡¯t give him much hope at all. ¡°I guess we can talk freely here without the Masks interfering. I don¡¯t suppose they can monitor or manipulate us while we¡¯re outside of The Grid.¡±
¡°You¡¯re right. The Masks are obviously not in any position to control this situation. They wouldn¡¯t be losing so many of their own if they did.¡±
Rhodes tried one more time to stand up and wound up buckling onto his knees. He had to waver there for a few minutes before his head stopped spinning.
¡°You just don¡¯t listen, do you?¡± Fisher remarked. ¡°I told you not to try to stand up.¡±
¡°You told me to crawl, so that¡¯s what I¡¯m doing. Talk to me about how to break out of The Grid. It didn¡¯t work last time.¡±
Rhodes set off crawling through the rubble toward the nearest intact building. The Grid displayed enough of the landscape and the buildings¡¯ interiors.
He could see the accelerators, the aliens, and the routes to take to get near them. He could also see where he would have to release his Vipers to destroy the accelerators¡ªif he made it that far.
He had to stop every few feet to wait for the stars to stop bursting in front of his eyes. He tottered on his hands and knees. Just staying conscious took every ounce of his effort.
¡°Maybe now isn¡¯t the right time to discuss this,¡± Fisher muttered. ¡°You¡¯re barely conscious.¡±
¡°Now is the only time to discuss this,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°This is the only time we¡¯ll ever get to discuss it without interruption and without the Masks overhearing us.¡±
¡°It isn¡¯t like them overhearing us will make any difference. We don¡¯t even have any productive ideas for how to overcome this Grid landscape.¡±
¡°We aren¡¯t in a Grid landscape right now,¡± Rhodes pointed out. ¡°If I was at all functional, I could fire my boosters and fly the hell out of here. The Masks wouldn¡¯t be able to stop me.¡±
Fisher looked around him. ¡°You¡¯re right about that, Captain, but you would have to leave your subordinates behind. Besides, you aren¡¯t at all functional and you can¡¯t fly. I¡¯m surprised you survived that plasma shot.¡±
¡°I¡¯m not dead yet, pal.¡±
¡°I can see that.¡±
Rhodes didn¡¯t answer for a second. He had to concentrate on crawling the rest of the way to the building in question.
He didn¡¯t let himself look at The Grid of his subordinates in battle against these aliens. He didn¡¯t want to see one of his people get shot down when he couldn¡¯t help them.
Taking out these accelerators would be the best way to help them. He didn¡¯t let himself think about the fact that he would be helping the Masks, too. One thing at a time. He could barely handle that.
He paused at the building entrance while he gathered the energy to go any further. He would have to climb more than twenty flights of stairs to get within Viper Range of the lowest accelerator.
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He only planned to hit the lowest one. The resulting explosion would take out all the accelerators above it.
The resulting explosion would also take out the whole building, including the floors below him. He would have to make tracks to get out of the building before it imploded on top of him.
He couldn¡¯t think clearly enough to decide how he would do that. He just had to get this done and fast.
He started climbing. ¡°So why do you think the two of us couldn¡¯t break The Grid by ourselves? Do you really think we¡¯ll have any better chance if we get the others to help us?¡±
¡°I¡¯ve been thinking about the same thing,¡± Fisher replied. ¡°I mean, I¡¯ve been thinking about it in those few minutes when I¡¯m able to think about it. I¡¯m not able to think about it most of the time¡ªas you¡¯re aware.¡±
¡°Never mind that. So what¡¯s the answer? We¡¯ll have to overcome it on our own if we can¡¯t convince the others.¡±
¡°You just said it yourself, didn¡¯t you?¡± Fisher asked. ¡°You¡¯re outside The Grid right now. You aren¡¯t in the Stonebridge landscape or the Fort Bastion landscape. If you flew away right now, the Masks wouldn¡¯t be able to stop you.¡±
¡°I don¡¯t understand what you¡¯re telling me.¡±
¡°Do you remember how we got here? We flew overland from Fort Bastion. If we aren¡¯t in The Grid, then Fort Bastion really is somewhere south of this city¡ªwhich means the battalion really was at Fort Bastion.¡±
¡°I doubt that. For a start, Fort Bastion is too similar to Coleridge Station minus the pain, confusion, misery, rage, and desperation. Everything there feels fantastic¡ªand the battalion didn¡¯t really eat all that food at Fort Bastion. It¡¯s a Grid landscape if anything is.¡±
Fisher thought it over for a minute. ¡°You¡¯re right, Captain. You understand this so much better than I do.¡±
¡°I wish it could be that easy, but if the Masks tricked us into living at Stonebridge, they tricked us into thinking we left Fort Bastion this morning to come here. This might not be a Grid landscape, but Fort Bastion is. Everything else we¡¯ve seen is.¡±
¡°Then where are we? I mean¡ªwhere are the Masks keeping the battalion when we aren¡¯t here?¡±
¡°If I had to guess, I¡¯d say the Masks are keeping us on one of their invasion ships¡ªprobably the ship that took us off Rono. They transported us here and used The Grid to make us think we were leaving from Fort Bastion. You saw the Masks¡¯ lab when we broke through The Grid. It was similar to the lab we were in when the Masks first captured us. I don¡¯t see that they had time to take us anywhere else.¡±
¡°Hmm,¡± Fisher murmured. ¡°You are thinking about this clearly considering the damage to your neural core.¡±
¡°Let¡¯s assume for the moment that we¡¯ll never be able to convince anyone in the battalion that we¡¯re being held as captives. Let¡¯s assume we¡¯ll never be able to convince any of them to help us overcome The Grid.¡±
¡°That isn¡¯t a very optimistic way to look at the situation, Captain.¡±
¡°So what¡¯s Plan B? What are our other options if we can¡¯t break out of The Grid?¡±
Fisher looked at The Grid around him. ¡°Maybe this is our best bet. This could turn out to be a trend of things to come. The Masks could continue to send the battalion into real battles.¡±
Rhodes snorted. He had to stop on the stairs to sink onto his seat, lean against the wall, shut his eyes, and catch his breath. ¡°Now who¡¯s being pessimistic?¡±
¡°Do you remember what you told the battalion? You said the Masks wanted to turn the battalion to their side and use us to fight our own. If you¡¯re right, then they may plan to send us against the Legion. We would be able to break away then and rejoin the Legion.¡±
¡°You¡¯re assuming we would remember at the time that we even wanted to break away. All the evidence so far suggests we wouldn¡¯t remember. The Masks would make sure we didn¡¯t.¡±
Rhodes glanced up the stairs. He had to keep climbing, but he didn¡¯t want to. He wanted to fall over.
The feeling of cold, sick dread in the pit of his stomach got stronger the farther he went. The damage to not just his neural core but everything else must be worse than Fisher let on.
Fisher pretended not to notice or at least he didn¡¯t bring it up. ¡°Something might happen to jog your memory¡ªlike it did just now. You didn¡¯t remember until you got hit. Then you could break away to the Legion side.¡±
¡°And leave my subordinates behind. Isn¡¯t that what you mean?¡±
Fisher made a face. ¡°I didn¡¯t like to say so, but if that¡¯s what it took, wouldn¡¯t you rather return to the Legion side and save yourself?¡±
¡°No, I wouldn¡¯t. I¡¯d rather stay here and make sure we all got out.¡±
¡°But maybe you would all go down on the Legion side. Maybe you would all remember or one of you would remember in a time and place where you would be able to get everyone out.¡±
¡°I don¡¯t like betting on maybe, pal,¡± Rhodes growled.
¡°You¡¯re nearly at the targeting coordinates,¡± Fisher told him. ¡°We should stop talking about this now. Something may come up. You never know.¡±
Rhodes couldn¡¯t talk about this anymore anyway. He was nearing the limit of his strength.
He blundered onto a landing five floors below the lowest accelerator. He had to summon all his remaining energy to stagger through a doorway into a large room adjacent to the stairs.
He collapsed there, tumbled onto his back, and sprawled. His head swam and he might have lost consciousness again.
He came to his senses staring at a plain blank ceiling. The Grid gave him a clear view of the accelerator directly above him.
He raised his arm and aimed his scourge gun at the ceiling. ¡°If you blow out the ceiling, the building will collapse on top of you,¡± Fisher murmured in his ear.
¡°Is there another option?¡± Rhodes croaked.
Fisher said something, but Rhodes didn¡¯t hear him. Rhodes¡¯s brain switched off. He wasn¡¯t thinking anything at all anymore.
Some hazy part of his mind saw the Strikes under hellish bombardment outside. Only half of them were even still in the air. He didn¡¯t see the others.
He couldn¡¯t wait any longer. He rolled a few feet to his left so he wouldn¡¯t be lying directly under the rockfall when he blew out the ceiling.
He couldn¡¯t get out of the building. He couldn¡¯t move. He could barely hold up his arm. Aiming at the right spot on the ceiling took every ounce of mental concentration he could muster.
He shut his eyes and fired. He didn¡¯t need to see. The Grid showed him more than he needed to know.
His scourge gun smashed in the ceiling and mountains of concrete pounded down onto the floor next to him.
He had to throw himself farther out of the way to stop the cave-in from flattening him.
He came to rest on his stomach and fired his Vipers up through the breach. They coiled through the building, collided with the accelerator, and a shuddering boom rocked the building.
The structure shivered under the impact and then a massive explosion went off somewhere.
Rhodes tucked his head under his arms and curled into a ball to protect himself as another catastrophic concussion tore the building apart.
At that moment, something blasted through the building¡¯s side wall and hurtled out the other side. He didn¡¯t have time to see what it was before it snatched him off the ground.
Whatever it was hit the opposite wall and rocketed into space, but not fast enough to save him. Another bone-crushing explosion erupted from the building¡¯s side wall.
A blazing fireball enveloped Rhodes and whatever this was holding onto him.
The shockwave caught them both, tore them apart, and flung Rhodes hard against another building.
This one had been completely obliterated by the alien bombardment. Its shattered exterior skeleton stuck up off the ground just high enough for Rhodes to crash into it.
Something broke in his chest, he slammed down hard on the ground, and he lay there unable to move.
He drifted in and out of consciousness for what seemed like an eternity. Fisher wasn¡¯t there anymore. The SAM must have gone offline.
In those times when he floundered back to his senses, he looked up at a dark sky too cloudy to let the stars shine through.
Those clouds roiled back and forth like some wicked storm brewing. That movement was the only sign that Rhodes was still alive and not staring at the insides of his own dead eyelids.
He only had one eyelid now. That thought seemed so surreal and nonsensical to him. He only had one eye if he even had that.
He still lay there staring upward when a Masks invasion ship floated above his face. He blinked at it while it opened its hatch and lifted him inside.
End of Chapter 19.
Battalion 1: Book 3: Chapter 20
Rhodes sat up in bed and looked around. He didn¡¯t have implants anymore, but he wasn¡¯t in Stonebridge. He was in the hospital.
He swung his legs over the side of the bed and looked down at his bare feet. They were human feet. His hands were human hands. He didn¡¯t have any implants on his face, arms, or chest. He was human again.
He ran his fingers through his hair. Doing that felt different with human hands.
He was wearing a pair of plain white hospital pajama pants and matching shirt. That was it.
He didn¡¯t feel injured, but he remembered everything from the battle against those aliens. He didn¡¯t even know who they were¡ªnot that it mattered.
Sunshine streamed through the window at the head of his bed. He looked out at a tall, majestic city teeming with people.
They all went about their business, took their children to school, conducted their commerce, and engaged in all the activities of any civilized city.
The civilian transport craft flying between the buildings told him he was in a city somewhere in the Treaty of Aemon Cluster, but he didn¡¯t recognize which city or which planet he was on.
Spacecraft launched from the other side of town. Those spacecraft rocketed away into the atmosphere and more aircraft touched down beyond the buildings where he couldn¡¯t see them.
He didn¡¯t recognize the make of any of those aircraft. They didn¡¯t belong to the Legion or to any other Treaty of Aemon Cluster society. He would know if they did. He knew them all.
He stood up and approached the open window. It let the breeze in. He inhaled a deep breath of the smell. It smelled like the ocean, but he couldn¡¯t see any ocean from here.
He searched the room. He could move easily enough. Was the whole Coleridge Station experience a bad dream?
An Aemon Legion captain¡¯s dress uniform lay draped over the chair by the bed. He picked up the uniform and smelled it. He knew that smell only too well, too. The uniform was brand new. It had never been worn before.
He put it on. It felt amazing against his skin.
The sensation of actually wearing real clothes again¡ªit blew his mind in ways nothing at Stonebridge ever did. Was this real? Did he dare to believe he really was alive like this again?
He didn¡¯t want to believe that, but it sure felt good while it lasted.
He couldn¡¯t see Fisher anymore, either. The experience jarred Rhodes even more. He had to correct his whole concept of what was real and what wasn¡¯t.
He couldn¡¯t see any grid lines, either. Why would he if this was a real world?
He couldn¡¯t decide if he was happy about Fisher not being here. Rhodes had gotten so used to Fisher always being there.
Being human again and living a normal life with other normal people, wearing clothes, eating food, sleeping in a real bed¡ªwouldn¡¯t it be worth giving up Fisher in exchange for all of that?
Rhodes would have liked to see Fisher again, but if Fisher wasn¡¯t real¡ªif Rhodes just imagined the whole experience and Fisher along with it¡ªthen Rhodes would be glad to give it up. Waking up normal and going on with his normal life would be worth it.
He left the room and approached the nurses¡¯ station in the hall outside. He had woken up in a ward dozens of floors above the ground.
More patients occupied all the rooms around him. Most of those people were still hooked up to the medical equipment with doctors and nurses working on them and over them and around them.
¡°Um¡.excuse me,¡± he stammered to a young, pretty nurse behind the desk. ¡°Um¡.I¡¯m not sure how I got here¡.or even where I am¡..¡±
She burst into a huge, beaming smile. It lit up her whole face. ¡°No problem, Captain Rhodes. The superintendent is waiting to see you as soon as you¡¯re up and around.¡±
¡°Superintendent? Superintendent of what?¡±
She laughed and handed him a piece of paper. ¡°He¡¯ll explain everything to you. If you go down this hall to the link at the end of the building, you¡¯ll find a cab waiting to take you to his office. Just show this to the driver. It¡¯s all taken care of.¡±
Rhodes didn¡¯t understand what any of that meant. He glanced down at the piece of paper in his hand. It had a series of random numbers and letters handwritten on it.
He lurched down the corridor in the direction the nurse indicated. He didn¡¯t see how he could catch a cab from miles up in the air or what a link was or who any superintendent in this city might be who knew him.
Rhodes made it to the end of the building and discovered what looked like a taxi stand attached to the side of the building.
The hospital ward opened into a covered kind of atrium with a bunch of spacecraft parked there waiting. A man in a black uniform with gold trim hustled over to Rhodes.
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The guy had been leaning against one of the spacecraft doing a whole lot of nothing until Rhodes showed up.
¡°Captain Rhodes?¡± the guy asked. ¡°I¡¯m here to take you to the superintendent¡¯s office.¡±
¡°Um¡.thank you,¡± Rhodes mumbled. ¡°I¡¯m a little lost here. The nurse told me to give you this.¡±
Rhodes handed over the piece of paper. The guy stuffed it into his pants pocket without looking at it.
He opened the door of his craft for Rhodes to get inside. The only place to sit was behind the driver. It really was a taxi.
The driver got into the front seat, fired up the engine, and took off into the sky. Rhodes stared out the window at hundreds of aircraft flying all over the place.
They parked at different buildings on different levels, let passengers disembark, took on cargo, and performed every other function in this thriving metropolis.
The sun shone golden on all the building walls. Millions of windows reflected the light, but Rhodes still didn¡¯t see any ocean.
He did see the landing zone outside of town where spacecraft landed from orbit and launched into space.
He would have liked to keep flying around this city and checking everything out. He would have liked to see everything this city had to offer.
The cab ride ended soon enough when the driver landed in another open atrium attached to a different building. This one was much bigger than the hospital and much fancier.
The atrium opened into a gigantic office full of couches, plush armchairs, computer screens, and a bunch of indoor plants.
¡°Um¡what exactly am I supposed to do here?¡± Rhodes asked.
¡°Just go right in,¡± the driver told him. ¡°The superintendent is waiting for you. He¡¯s very anxious to see you.¡±
Rhodes still didn¡¯t know what to expect. The driver got out and opened the door for him. Rhodes fought the urge to salute the guy. Life sure felt different now that Rhodes was back in a Legion uniform.
He went into the office and looked around for a few minutes. He was the only person here. No one was waiting for him or anxious to see him.
He didn¡¯t recognize any of the species of plants growing in the office, either. He must not be on any Treaty of Aemon Cluster planet after all¡ªor at least not one he¡¯d ever heard of.
That shouldn¡¯t have been possible because he knew them all and had been deployed on most of them.
He was just wondering if all of this might be a colossal mistake when a door opened in the office¡¯s side wall. A man walked in and strode toward him.
In that moment, Rhodes realized that this had definitely not been a colossal mistake. He knew exactly where he was, how he got here, and why.
The man in front of him was B.
No part of him gave any hint of the Mask Rhodes had seen in the lab or in The Grid.
He would never be able to mistake this joker for anyone else. B had the same square jaw, the same brown eyes, and the same thick hair.
¡°What the hell do you want?¡± Rhodes snarled.
¡°I want to thank you for your help against the Ebilia.¡±
¡°I don¡¯t know what that means and I sure as hell didn¡¯t help you.¡±
¡°You destroyed that accelerator¡ªat great risk to your own life. Your actions swung the battle in our favor. We¡¯re grateful to you¡ªwhich is why we brought you here to give you medical treatment. You were badly injured. You would have died otherwise.¡±
Rhodes glared at him. ¡°What the hell do you want from me?¡±
¡°I just told you. We want to express our gratitude. None of us imagined you would sacrifice yourself like that for us.¡±
¡°I didn¡¯t do it for you, you bastard!¡± Rhodes snarled. ¡°I did it for my subordinates. Where are they? Are they dead?¡±
¡°They aren¡¯t dead. They¡¯re fine. The ones that got injured on the battlefield have received medical treatment, too.¡±
¡°Then where are they?¡± Rhodes demanded. ¡°I want to see them. I don¡¯t trust a word that comes out of your mouth.¡±
¡°They¡¯re at Stonebridge if you must know. Does that convince you? They¡¯re living in peace and comfort with their families.¡±
Rhodes snorted. ¡°They don¡¯t have families¡ªnot at Stonebridge or anywhere else.¡±
B studied him more closely. ¡°We want you to understand us. That¡¯s why we brought you here¡ªso you can understand us. Maybe once you do that, you¡¯ll realize that we aren¡¯t your enemies.¡±
¡°You¡¯ll always be my enemies. You captured us and you¡¯re holding us against our will. You tortured us, and when that didn¡¯t work, you locked us up in some fantasy world to keep us docile and cooperative so you could experiment on us and send us into battle without us realizing you were doing it. That sounds like the way enemies treat each other. You certainly aren¡¯t our friends.¡±
B waved toward the atrium. ¡°Come with me. I want to show you around.¡±
Rhodes didn¡¯t move. He didn¡¯t want to go anywhere with this asshole. Rhodes definitely didn¡¯t want to see anything or understand anything that would make him sympathize with the Masks.
B strolled back to the atrium where a different aircraft landed in front of him. The door opened as he approached it. He turned back on the threshold and raised his eyebrows in an inviting, questioning way.
What the hell else did Rhodes have to do? The alternative would be going back to Stonebridge where no one remembered any of this.
He finally stormed across the office and got into the aircraft with B. It wasn¡¯t the same style as the cab that brought Rhodes here from the hospital.
He and B stepped into a small compartment without any seats. Both men stood at a railing looking through full-length glass windows at the scenery outside.
The vehicle soared away into traffic, migrated between the buildings, and circled through the city so Rhodes could see everything.
He looked through dozens of windows at people conducting their lives inside. He watched vendors plying their trade on the street. He looked in on classrooms full of schoolchildren getting lectured by teachers.
¡°What are we doing here?¡± he asked after a while. ¡°What am I doing here?¡±
¡°I wanted you to see all this,¡± B replied. ¡°I want you to understand that we¡¯re just people living our lives just like you.¡±
¡°I doubt that. You¡¯re Masks. You aren¡¯t people. You¡¯re machines.¡±
¡°We¡¯re sentient machines just like your SAMs. We feel. We care about our young. We care about the future of our race.¡±
¡°Race?¡± Rhodes made a face. ¡°You aren¡¯t like us at all.¡± He waved at the city around him. ¡°This is all fake. These people¡.they¡¯re human¡ªwhich you are not. You aren¡¯t living like this. Whatever way you are living, it isn¡¯t this. Why don¡¯t you show me what you really look like and how you¡¯re really living? Then maybe I might be able to believe you. I won¡¯t be able to believe anything you say as long as you¡¯re pulling the wool over my eyes like this.¡±
B stared out the window deep in thought for a minute. Rhodes couldn¡¯t read his reaction.
Rhodes had to continually remind himself that this wasn¡¯t a person standing next to him. It was a machine covered in a veil of the same illusion that had kept the battalion in the dark for the last however long they¡¯d been trapped here.
None of these other people were actually people, either. They were machines, too.
They didn¡¯t breed. They didn¡¯t conduct business. They didn¡¯t send their children to school. They didn¡¯t even have children.
That was all part of the trick¡ªthe trick to get inside Rhodes¡¯s head and make him think the Masks were something other than what they were.
¡°All right, Captain,¡± B finally murmured. ¡°If that¡¯s the way you want it, I¡¯ll show you what we really look like and how we really live. Then maybe you¡¯ll understand. Maybe you¡¯ll see that we¡¯re only trying to survive the way the human race is trying to survive.¡±
End of Chapter 20.
Battalion 1: Book 3: Chapter 21
The veil dropped instantly from Rhodes¡¯s eyes. It happened so suddenly that Rhodes gasped. In the blink of an eye, the whole city changed into a vast machine. There was no ocean, no people, no vehicles or spacecraft or civilian transports flying around.
There weren¡¯t even any separate buildings or windows he could look through. The whole city was one giant block of computer components.
There was no vehicle for Rhodes and B to fly around in, either. The city machine interfaced with Rhodes so he could see every part of it simultaneously.
The city machine contained banks and banks and banks of millions or even billions of standing conversion stations. Those stations contained millions or even billions of Masks locked into their conversion cycles.
The interface showed Rhodes locked into one of these somewhere buried deep inside the city machine¡¯s blackest heart.
None of those Masks was B. B probably didn¡¯t even exist. He was just another program the city machine sent to communicate with Rhodes on the Masks¡¯ behalf.
Rhodes still had implants in that conversion station. He wasn¡¯t human¡ªnot like he appeared right now.
A stab of grief hit him like a freight train at the loss of that faint hope. He would never feel that sensation of clothes on his skin ever again.
At least, he wouldn¡¯t feel it in the real world. He would only feel it when the Masks tricked him into feeling it.
The pain, humiliation, and gnawing insanity of his implants embedded in his bones came back in an instant. They never went away. The Masks lulled him into a fog to make him forget it.
Now it all came back and he felt it more acutely than ever. It drove him out of his mind the way it did when he first woke up at Coleridge Station. That sensation would never go away. Getting deluded about it, even for a little while, only made it worse.
Another surge of rage wiped out his despair. The Masks used his agony to manipulate him. They dangled his one greatest hope in front of his eyes to trick him into cooperating with them.
It had the opposite effect. It made him hate them even more furiously. He wanted to kill them all for doing this to him. They tormented him worse than the people on the Battalion 1 project who gave him these implants in the first place.
His view of the city machine and everything in it only lasted for a split second¡ªjust long enough for him to interface with the machine. He saw it all in that moment. He saw and understood perfectly.
The next instant, the glorious city with all its aircraft and peaceful people reestablished the illusion. Rhodes stood in the vehicle with B at his side. ¡°Now do you understand?¡± B asked.
Rhodes nodded, but he didn¡¯t really understand. He didn¡¯t understand anything he didn¡¯t understand before.
He still hated these things. He still considered them his enemies. If anything he considered them his enemies more than he did before. He became even more fiercely determined to wipe them all out¡.somehow.
How much of his thoughts could B read or hear or see in this world? Did the city machine have any clue how much Rhodes hated it?
None of that mattered because he still had no way to get out of this.
Fisher. He needed Fisher to help him figure this out.
The minute he came back into the illusion, his implants disappeared. He was a human man wearing a Legion uniform again. Fisher wasn¡¯t here.
Fisher hadn¡¯t been in the city machine, either. Rhodes was in a conversion cycle, so of course he didn¡¯t see Fisher.
He didn¡¯t want to ask B about Fisher, but desperation made him do it anyway.
¡°So¡.where is my SAM? Is he in Stonebridge, too?¡±
B cocked his head to one side. ¡°Why do you care what happens to that program? You¡¯re attached to it, but it¡¯s a part of us. What we do is the same as the SAMs. Don¡¯t you understand that?¡±
¡°What do you want from me?¡± Rhodes asked. ¡°Why did you bring me here?¡±
¡°I told you, Captain. We brought you here to heal your injuries.¡±
¡°Then why am I still here? Send me back to the battalion.¡±
¡°We wanted to reward you for helping us. You could live here with us. You could have a family and continue the career you lost when you joined Battalion 1. You don¡¯t have to go back.¡±
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Rhodes looked away. He had to struggle to control his expression so he didn¡¯t show this creature how much the offer disgusted him. ¡°Send me back to the battalion. I don¡¯t want to live here.¡±
¡°Why not?¡± B asked.
Rhodes didn¡¯t turn around. ¡°You wouldn¡¯t understand. If you don¡¯t want to send me back to the battalion, just take me offline and be done with it. Don¡¯t pretend to be nice to me.¡±
¡°Take you offline!¡± B gasped. ¡°We couldn¡¯t do that! We would never do that¡ªto anyone!¡±
¡°Then that leaves one option, doesn¡¯t it?¡±
¡°Please reconsider, Captain,¡± B insisted. ¡°Stay just a little while until you understand us a little better.¡±
¡°What is there to understand? You¡¯re machines living in a giant city machine. I understand everything I need to understand. You¡¯re using these Grid landscapes to create the illusion that you have a life when you don¡¯t. What do you plan to do¡ªkeep me in a conversion cycle for the rest of my life?¡±
¡°If you really want to return to the battalion, I will send you back to them. Just stay here a little longer. Give us a chance. We aren¡¯t the evil monsters you seem to think we are. We have a civilized society as rich as yours. Please. Stay twenty-four hours. That¡¯s all I ask.¡±
Rhodes didn¡¯t answer. He already knew what kind of society these Masks had.
The Masks¡ªthe real Masks¡ªthe Masks out there in the real world¡ªthey weren¡¯t just trying to live their lives in peace.
They were marauding the galaxy wiping out one planet after another. They killed billions of people. Why?
Rhodes didn¡¯t ask that. He just wanted to get back to the battalion so he could figure out how to escape from these things.
His conversation with Fisher came back in every detail. He could think much more clearly now than he could when he was injured.
The Masks deployed the battalion in battle¡ªa real battle. The Masks took the battalion out of whatever lab they were keeping everyone in. The Masks sent the battalion into the real world to fight real enemies¡ªenemies that threatened the Masks.
What other enemy would that be besides the Aemon Legion?
The Masks would probably wipe Rhodes¡¯s memory as soon as he left here. He might not remember the city machine or even that he wanted to escape.
Something might come up. That¡¯s what Fisher said.
Something might happen to make Rhodes remember. Then he and the battalion would be on the battlefield with the Legion not far away. The Masks wouldn¡¯t be able to stop the battalion from rejoining the Legion.
The thought gave Rhodes a thrill of hope. He would do it. He would tell his subordinates¡ªbut he had to choose his moment. He obviously couldn¡¯t do it now.
The vehicle kept gliding through the city. He and B kept looking at everything that wasn¡¯t here.
Rhodes noticed more problems as the trip went on. Not everyone in this place looked happy and contented¡ªnot as much as they should have.
He might have mistaken that for the everyday cares of daily life. The longer he flew around this city, the more he realized it wasn¡¯t that.
He didn¡¯t see any outward signs of blatant misery. He didn¡¯t see anyone suffering or starving or homeless poor people lying in the gutters.
He didn¡¯t see any outward signs of happiness, either. As soon as he noticed it, he couldn¡¯t ignore it.
He didn¡¯t see anyone actually smiling, laughing, or enjoying themselves at all. He didn¡¯t see any children playing or any adults relaxing or celebrating.
He paid more attention now. He didn¡¯t see anyone in any offices blowing out the candles on any birthday cake.
He watched every face with minute attention. He kept searching anywhere for one person¡ªjust one person out of thousands¡ªwho was laughing or even smiling.
They didn¡¯t. They all furrowed their brows in concern. An air of deep worry and even despair hung over the city. He couldn¡¯t understand it, but it tainted the experience as never before.
Whatever beauty the place might have held for Rhodes evaporated in a flash. The place repelled him with an unstoppable force. He had to get out of here.
His own humanity¡ªhis fake humanity¡ªit disgusted him.
Fisher¡¯s absence jarred Rhodes even more. Fisher not being here made the whole landscape look and feel wrong.
Rhodes needed Fisher back. Anything would be better than this.
He didn¡¯t say any of that out loud. He kept it to himself and let B keep flying the vehicle around the city.
Rhodes found himself focusing especially on the schools with the children in them. None of the children cried or threw tantrums or got food on their faces the way they would if they had been human.
Rhodes didn¡¯t even see any dirt or mess in the schools. He didn¡¯t see any children playing with toys or drawing with crayons or finger-painting or accidentally falling over their own feet. Of course not. The Masks couldn¡¯t possibly understand any of that about real human childhood.
Everything looked beyond perfect¡ªtoo perfect. That was its fatal flaw. The heavy blanket of hopeless anguish dampened everything. It spoiled everything.
The rot came from the inside. It ate away at the illusion from underneath. Did the Masks even feel it? Did they sense that there was something catastrophically wrong with their perfectly constructed illusion?
None of that concerned Rhodes. He remained silent, but he definitely saw it now. He couldn¡¯t un-see it.
He stayed where he was and pretended to admire the city until B took him back to the atrium outside B¡¯s office.
The vehicle landed there. B turned to Rhodes. ¡°Now you know how we live.¡±
Rhodes nodded at nothing. He knew more than he ever wanted to know about the Masks.
¡°Are you sure you won¡¯t reconsider?¡± B asked. ¡°You could have a good life here.¡±
¡°No, I won¡¯t reconsider. Just send me back to the battalion. That¡¯s where I belong.¡±
B shook his head. His expression changed to another frown of deep concern. ¡°I¡¯m sorry to hear that, Captain. I hoped we could come to a better understanding.¡±
¡°Why would I want to live here when my subordinates are somewhere else? You should have known better than to think I would just abandon them.¡±
¡°They¡¯re all living happily at Stonebridge.¡±
¡°Then send me back to Stonebridge. I don¡¯t care where you send me as long as I¡¯m with them.¡±
B shook his head again. ¡°I won¡¯t say I¡¯m not disappointed, but if that¡¯s the way you want it, I¡¯ll send you back to them. Follow me.¡± He led the way to another side of his office and waved at one of the couches. ¡°Lie down.¡±
¡°What for?¡± Rhodes countered. ¡°Why the theatrics? Just send me back.¡±
The tiniest hint of annoyance crept into B¡¯s tone. ¡°Just lie down so you don¡¯t fall over. I¡¯m not trying to ambush you, Captain.¡±
Rhodes didn¡¯t believe that for a second, but if this was what it took to get back to the battalion, he could tolerate it for now.
He stretched out on the couch. B waited until Rhodes settled into the cushion¡and then he blacked out again.
End of Chapter 21.
Battalion 1: Book 3: Chapter 22
Rhodes woke up and let out a heavy sigh of deep relaxation when he stared up at the wooden planks and heavy beams of the ceiling. He sank a little deeper into the mattress. He was home. He could rest here.
A shuffling sound made him glance to one side., but he only relaxed more when he saw his wife, Ora, working around the house. She glanced over, smiled at him, and then her cheeks colored when she saw him awake.
Rhodes sank back on the bed, watched her for a little while, and then went back to staring at the ceiling.
He didn¡¯t need to think about anything. He was home. He was where he belonged.
He knew exactly where he was, who he was here with, and what he needed to do¡ªwhich was nothing right at this moment.
Ora kept working for a while. Then she picked up a bucket and went outside. She left the door open.
People walked back and forth up and down the road out there. Rhodes saw them working around their houses.
While he lay there just letting the serenity of Stonebridge wash over him, he saw Fisher come out of the house across the road.
Fisher headed off in a different direction, but the sight of his friend made Rhodes sit up. He couldn¡¯t lie in bed when everyone else was already at work.
He sat up and put his bare feet on the floor. The cold stone chilled his feet, but it felt good. He wiggled his toes and stretched.
He was in the act of putting on his boots and tying the laces when Fisher stuck his head in and grinned at Rhodes. ¡°How do you get away with it? Thara would kick my ass if I stayed in bed this long.¡±
¡°I¡¯m up,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°Do you still want to trade work on each other¡¯s roofs?¡±
¡°Sure,¡± Fisher replied. ¡°I¡¯m going down to the south pasture to move the cattle first. Do you want to come?¡±
¡°I¡¯m coming.¡± Rhodes stood up and followed Fisher outside.
Rhodes glanced down the road, but he didn¡¯t see Ora. He would have liked to say something to her before he left, but he would see her later when he came back home for the night.
He and Fisher headed west along the main road leading out of Stonebridge. Everything around Rhodes breathed with familiarity.
He knew every person, all their children, every house, every bench, and every tree and shrub. He¡¯d lived here all his life.
¡°Do you mind if we work on my roof first?¡± Fisher asked. ¡°Thara will kill me if I don¡¯t fix that leak above the hearth.¡±
Rhodes laughed at him. ¡°It¡¯s a miracle you¡¯re still alive at all. You could have saved yourself the effort by marrying a Ruterian warthog instead.¡±
¡°A Ruterian warthog would be easier to please, but not anywhere near as nice afterward.¡± Fisher caught Rhodes looking at him and they both laughed. ¡°She¡¯s a better cook, too.¡±
Rhodes slapped his friend on the shoulder. ¡°I¡¯m sure you can charm her. You can charm anyone.¡±
¡°I must be able to if I¡¯m still alive.¡± Fisher stopped by his own house on the way out of town, grabbed a long, thin stick that happened to be leaning against the wall, and he and Rhodes kept walking. ¡°
¡°You¡¯re more than alive. She takes good care of you,¡± Rhodes pointed out. ¡°You must be doing something right.¡±
¡°It¡¯s a delicate balancing act between sweet talk and knowing when to make myself scarce.¡±
The two men laughed again, but they stopped talking about Thara when they came to the end of the village and met up with Oakes and Coulter.
¡°What are you fellas doing out here?¡± Rhodes asked.
¡°The same thing you¡¯re doing,¡± Oakes replied. ¡°We¡¯re moving the cattle.¡±
¡°The more the better.¡± Fisher glanced over his shoulder. ¡°Here comes Lauer.¡±
Lauer joined them and they all headed out toward the same herd of cattle in the distant fields. Lauer brought his three sons with him.
The boys also carried long, thin sticks. The youngest one whipped his stick against the long grass by the side of the road.
The men got to the south pasture, spread out, and started herding the cattle toward a different pasture farther west.
Two of Lauer¡¯s boys ran ahead, took down the split rails of the fence, and laid them aside so the cattle could get through.
Rhodes went through the whole operation feeling a deep sense of rightness and certainty about everything he was doing.
Everything about life in Stonebridge gave him this feeling. He always knew what he was doing here. He could keep doing it for the rest of his life and he probably would.
He, Lauer, Oakes, Coulter, and Fisher laughed and talked on their way back into town. Lauer¡¯s boys split off and ran away to go do their own thing.
¡°Did you hear the Inviria are invading the Lotrum system now?¡± Coulter asked.
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¡°Then they¡¯re someone else¡¯s problem,¡± Lauer replied. ¡°The Lotrum system is too far away for us to do anything about it. We have enough to worry about just defending our own town.¡±
¡°I guess they didn¡¯t learn their lesson here,¡± Oakes added. ¡°They never will learn. They¡¯ll keep setting up these colonies where they aren¡¯t welcome. They¡¯ll keep getting the same result.¡±
The group returned to Stonebridge and Fisher stopped in front of his house. ¡°We gotta work on our roofs. You fellas take it easy.¡±
¡°Always,¡± Coulter replied. ¡°Let us know if you want any help with that.¡±
¡°I¡¯m helping him,¡± Rhodes replied and glanced over his shoulder at Fisher. ¡°I¡¯ll just grab my tools and meet you up there.¡±
Fisher nodded, got a ladder out of the nearest barn, and propped it against his house.
Rhodes went to his own house and got his tool bag from under the bed inside. Ora was back, but Rhodes didn¡¯t stick around to talk to her.
She gave him a knowing look, though. He could just imagine how things would go when he came in this evening.
He went back to Fisher¡¯s house. Fisher was already on top of his roof using a pry bar to rip up old, rotten shingles from the spot near the chimney.
Rhodes took his hammer up there and started doing the same thing. ¡°Which parts of your roof do you want to work on first?¡± Fisher asked after a few minutes. ¡°Which parts are the worst?¡±
¡°None of them are as bad as this.¡± Rhodes picked up the crumbling remains of a shingle, wrinkled his nose at it, and threw it over the side onto the ground. ¡°How did you let it get as bad as this?¡±
¡°I¡¯m busy.¡±
Rhodes snorted. ¡°Yeah, right.¡±
¡°Besides, I didn¡¯t have you to help me.¡±
¡°Keep telling yourself that. It¡¯s a good thing Thara kicks your ass so often. I would have to do it for her if she didn¡¯t.¡±
Rhodes stuck his hammer into his belt, climbed down the ladder, and got an armload of shingles from Fisher¡¯s barn. Rhodes and Fisher had spent all last winter making these.
He carried them up the ladder and he and Fisher started hammering the new shingles into place. They worked all day until the sun started to go down.
Rhodes and Fisher climbed down, kicked all the old shingles into a mound next to Fisher¡¯s woodpile where he would be able to use them as kindling, and Rhodes turned away to head for home.
The door stood open across the street. The usual glow of firelight streamed from inside.
Rhodes looked in on Ora and their children gathering around the table for the evening meal. A profound sense of peace and belonging clenched his heart when he saw them in there.
He would go in there, sit down, and talk to them about what all of them had been doing all day.
They would laugh and joke about the marital strife Fisher and Thara weren¡¯t going through.
Their relationship was a standing joke in Stonebridge. They got along so well, but everyone constantly gave Fisher a hard time and pretended that she mistreated him or at least drove him like a pack mule.
Fisher startled Rhodes out of his thoughts by clapping him on the back. ¡°You better go,¡± Fisher told him. ¡°You don¡¯t want to make Ora mad by spending all your time with me.¡±
Rhodes shook his hand and nodded toward Fisher¡¯s house. ¡°Good luck in there. Come over to my house if you need somewhere to hide.¡±
They both laughed and Rhodes started to walk away. He didn¡¯t need to worry about Fisher. Thara would be thrilled that he was finally fixing the roof.
The part around the chimney was already done. The roof wouldn¡¯t leak on her head while she was trying to work.
Rhodes turned around to face his own house. He wanted to go inside and shut the door. He wanted to shut out everything except the feeling that he belonged here.
Ora and his children would be as happy to see him as he was to see them. They would all bask in the glow of how happy they were together. Nothing could ever be wrong with the world as long as they were together.
He took three steps to cross the road when Fuentes came running over. He came from the east side of town¡ªthe side closer to the bridge.
¡°Captain!¡± Fuentes panted. ¡°We just got the order to deploy!¡±
Rhodes stiffened. ¡°What order? Stonebridge isn¡¯t under threat. The Inviria are gone.¡±
¡°It isn¡¯t the Inviria. It¡¯s some new army. They aren¡¯t near Stonebridge yet, but they could be. We¡¯re mustering with the rest of the troops near the Cravmore Gap. The order just came in for the battalion to meet up with the troops there.¡±
Rhodes glanced over his shoulder. Fisher stood there listening.
Right then, a door opened farther east along the road. Light flooded into the night and Rhinehart stepped out of his house.
It only took one glance down the road at Rhodes, Fisher, and Fuentes. Rhinehart must have received the same order.
Rhodes looked through the open door at his house. Ora stood at the table listening to them. Her eyes darted from one man to the next and then they locked on Rhodes.
He and Ora shared a moment of deep, understanding eye contact before he turned away to join his subordinates.
She went back to work, approached the door, and shut it from the inside.
She shut Rhodes out in the dark and cold. He wouldn¡¯t be going in there anytime soon. Duty called. He knew what he had to do.
He, Fisher, and Fuentes strode off up the road, joined up with Rhinehart, and the rest of the battalion came out of their houses to meet their comrades.
Van and Koenig came out of their house. Thackery slipped out of her own doorway and hurried across the road to fall in with the others.
She still wore her long dress and her hair down to her shoulders, but that would change as soon as she went into action.
The group crossed the bridge heading east. The minute Rhodes put his foot on the bridge, Fisher appeared in the corner of his vision. The Grid covered Rhodes¡¯s field of view.
¡°The enemy is setting up a fortified position across the Accono Mountain Range,¡± Fisher reported and showed Rhodes a long series of ships, troops, and cannon stations dotting the horizon. ¡°Our orders are to muster here¡ªat the Phorix Battery Station. We¡¯ll get further orders there.¡±
Rhodes nodded and said, ¡°Let¡¯s go,¡± to the rest of the battalion.
He fired his boosters and took off into the starry sky. Night settled over the planet. He could only see where he was going by checking The Grid.
The grid lines stretched and angled in different directions to show him hills, fences, and forests passing on both sides.
The grid lines tilted upward ahead to show the mountain range jutting out of the landscape. The Phorix Battery Station sat on the planes below the mountains.
A few thousand troops surrounded the station waiting for the word to assault the enemy position on the ridge.
It was the worst possible position from which to assault anything. The enemy guns aimed directly down at the troops from above. The troops would get wiped out as soon as the assault started.
Rhodes couldn¡¯t let that happen. He hit his boosters to fly faster and brought his arms forward to aim his scourge guns at the enemy stationed on the peaks.
His Vipers would do more damage, though. He targeted the enemy cannons, but before he got a chance to fire, the enemy force swarmed over the peaks and charged down the mountain at the troops on the valley floor.
He caught one glimpse before a blast of fusion fire erupted from the big guns on the heights up there. That one shot belched down and smashed into the ground near the battery station.
The light from the fusion blast lit up the landscape and all those enemy fighters unloaded their weapons at the troops on the ground.
Rhodes skidded to a halt and stared at the battle unfolding in front of his eyes. Those enemy troops¡¡.they all used Legion Jackhammers. Every one of those enemy fighters down there¡..they were human. They were Aemon Legion platoons.
The instant he made that connection, one of the big fusion cannons from the ridgetop swiveled upward and fired at the battalion.
The shot clipped Rhodes and sent him flying backward. More fusion blasts punched through the battalion and everyone scattered.
End of Chapter 22.
Battalion 1: Book 3: Chapter 23
Rhodes wheeled to a halt a dozen yards from where that fusion blast hit him. He took a second to reorient himself in space.
More explosions going off all over the battlefield showed him more than he ever wanted to see. Legion platoons battled hand to hand against the Masks on the ground.
Legion Dusters and Predators buzzed back and forth over the battlefield. They tried to bombard the Masks¡¯ ground troops from the air, but the Legion aircraft had their hands full fighting the Masks¡¯ invasion ships.
They towered over the battlefield hitting everything in sight. They fired at the Legion¡¯s big assault guns on the mountaintop, detonated them to smithereens, and then went back to destroying both the aircraft and the platoons.
None of that concerned Rhodes as much as what Battalion 1 was doing. Thackery used her grid lines to transform herself into some kind of creature with multiple arms.
Lasers erupted from the end of every limb. She dropped right down in the middle of the Legion platoons and used her lasers to cut down dozens of soldiers.
Coulter transformed himself into a Striker, pelted back and forth across the skies on the Legion side, and hammered Dusters and Predators with punishing fire.
His thermal cannons weakened their hulls. Then he smashed his Striker into them full force to blow the ships to pieces.
Everyone in Battalion 1 got separated from each other, but they only did more damage this way.
They worked their way through the Legion ranks and softened the Legion position so the Masks could advance. They pushed the platoons back to the base of the mountains.
More Masks invasion ships stationed themselves above the ridgetop to pound the defensive guns into oblivion. No more platoons came from up there. The platoons had nowhere left to fall back to.
That one fusion blast brought Rhodes back to his senses. B must have wiped Rhodes¡¯s memory again when he sent Rhodes back to Stonebridge. Did Rhodes really think it would be any different?
He didn¡¯t remember anything about the city machine or Fisher¡¯s warning while he and Rhodes worked on Fisher¡¯s roof.
Rhodes felt so damn good when he looked through that doorway at Ora and the children sitting around the table.
He didn¡¯t remember how much they disgusted him when he first went to Stonebridge. He remembered it now, though. He remembered everything.
Fisher was right. The Masks sent the battalion into battle against the Legion.
Rhodes could have gone after the invasion ships. He could have gone after the Masks ground forces, but that wouldn¡¯t make any difference.
The other part of Fisher¡¯s warning came back to Rhodes, too. This was his chance. This was the whole battalion¡¯s chance to escape from the Masks and get back to the Legion.
He banked downward, fired his boosters, and plummeted straight into the thickest battle. ¡°What are you doing?!¡± Fisher hollered. ¡°You have to attack the enemy!¡±
Rhodes didn¡¯t answer. He used The Grid to show Fisher their combined memory of that other battle¡ªthe battle where Rhodes got shot down and destroyed the accelerator¡ªthe battle where Rhodes and Fisher had the conversation about escaping back to the Legion.
Fisher¡¯s expression changed immediately. He got it. ¡°What are you going to do?¡± he asked.
Rhodes made a quick assessment of the battalion. ¡°We won¡¯t be able to get through to Thackery or Fuentes. We need Rhinehart¡or Oakes. They listen to us.¡±
Rhodes located both men in the chaos. Rhinehart stood on the ground in his normal form. He didn¡¯t change anything. He didn¡¯t have to.
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He planted himself in the center of the battle¡ªright at the hottest part of the fighting where the Masks and the Legion met.
Rhinehart faced the Legion platoons thumping them with his scourge guns, cutting them to shreds with his lasers, and firing dozens of Vipers into their thickest ranks to wipe out as many soldiers as he could hit.
Oakes had transformed himself into another slithering creature that stayed low to the ground. Oakes snaked all over the battlefield at incredible speed, coiled between the soldiers¡¯ feet, and fired up at them before they even knew he was there.
He left swaths of bodies in his wake, swerved everywhere, and flattened the soldiers in the rear so the Masks could drive those in front farther toward the mountains.
Rhodes made a split second decision to go after Rhinehart instead. He made himself a much more obvious target.
The Dusters and Predators thought so, too. They revolved around his head firing fusion loads at him, but they hit their own men more often.
They also brought themselves into his range. He unleashed his Vipers at them without slackening his assault on the platoons. He blew up four Legion aircraft before the others decided it might be a good idea to back off.
Rhodes gunned his boosters, sprinted past the Masks from the rear on their side, and angled his approach to get closer to Rhinehart.
Rhodes didn¡¯t know how well he¡¯d be able to carry Rhinehart away from the battle. Rhinehart¡¯s size and weight made him a formidable character.
Rhodes also wouldn¡¯t be able to stop Rhinehart from going back into the battle if Rhinehart decided to resist or if he refused to listen to Rhodes.
Rhodes made up his mind on the fly. He got without a hundred feet of Rhinehart¡¯s position, interfaced with him and Rocky, and showed them both the memory of their confrontation at Fort Bastion.
Rhinehart froze in the middle of the battle when Rhodes replayed the image of him and Fisher tearing a hole in The Grid to show the battalion the Masks¡¯ lab.
Rhinehart stopped shooting for a second and the platoons attacked without mercy. Dozens of men turned their weapons on him.
Fusion blasts smashed Rhinehart in his chest plate. He staggered backward and raised his weapons to defend himself.
Rhodes flew in as fast as he could, snatched Rhinehart off the ground, and kept on going. Rhodes zoomed up the mountainside and landed himself and Rhinehart on a ledge between two rocky peaks.
Rhinehart jolted, spun around, and stiffened to defend himself.
¡°Lieutenant!¡± Rhodes shook Rhinehart and wrestled him around to face the right way. Rhodes maneuvered Rhinehart so Rhinehart had no choice but to look Rhodes in the eye. ¡°Lieutenant! It¡¯s me! Rhinehart¡ªlook at me!¡±
Rhinehart¡¯s vision cleared. He looked straight into Rhodes¡¯s eyes. ¡°Captain¡..the Masks¡..¡± His gaze swiveled toward the battle.
¡°We have to get the others out,¡± Rhodes checked that Rhinehart really was back. ¡°You okay?¡±
Rhinehart nodded, but he didn¡¯t look okay. He kept gulping. He curled his lip at the battle.
Rhodes was getting used to that look. Rhinehart understood now. He knew he was a prisoner¡ªexcept that he wasn¡¯t. The battalion was out on the battlefield right next to the Aemon Legion.
¡°You get Lauer,¡± Rhodes told him. ¡°I¡¯ll get Oakes. We can take on the rest of them after that.¡±
Rhinehart nodded again. ¡°Rudy and Alyssa won¡¯t come easily.¡±
¡°We have to get through to them. We can¡¯t leave anyone behind. Are you ready?¡±
Rhinehart braced himself. ¡°Ready.¡±
Rhodes let go of him, turned away for the last time, and located Oakes in The Grid. Oakes stood on the ground well inside the Legion ranks.
He had changed his outer shape, but not his basic body structure. Lasers and thermal blasts belched from his rib cage to flatten the platoons swarming all around him. He did the most damage to Dusters and Predators that tried to surround him.
He sprouted multiple tentacles from his shoulders, snatched Legion aircraft out of the sky, smashed them against each other, and brought them down with brutal force on the ground.
He pulverized them to scrap metal and the explosions wiped out as many soldiers as his guns.
Rhodes interfaced with Oakes, but Rhodes couldn¡¯t get Oakes¡¯s attention. He went into a frenzy of killing, destroying, and shooting everything and everyone who came near him.
Rhodes fired his boosters, flew down there, and landed on the ground near Oakes. Oakes came out of his trance long enough to recognize one of his own nearby. He didn¡¯t shoot at Rhodes or attack.
Oakes actually turned away from Rhodes to avoid hitting him. Rhodes fought his way through the platoons. He had to be careful not to hurt or kill any of the Legion soldiers.
They didn¡¯t make it easy. They crushed in on him, fired at him, and when that failed, they pounced on him and tried to punch and kick him.
He struggled through them. He had to work hard to quell the urge to hit them back. ¡°Get the hell off me, you bastards!¡± he bellowed. ¡°I¡¯m trying to help you, you idiots!¡±
They couldn¡¯t hear him over the noise of battle and their own ferocious bellows.
He staggered under a Jackhammer shot from behind. He finally worked his way over to Oakes, grabbed him by the shoulders, and spun him around.
Rhodes opened his mouth to speak when a Viper coiled out of nowhere and smashed Rhodes into the ground. He staggered to his feet only to buckle from a blast of scourge fire hitting him from the front.
He barely corrected in time before Fuentes hurtled out of nowhere, collided with Rhodes, and tackled him onto his back.
End of Chapter 23.
Battalion 1: Book 3: Chapter 24
Rhodes stared up at Fuentes in stunned shock. Fuentes raised his fist again, but he didn¡¯t punch Rhodes in the face the way he did before.
Fuentes clenched his fist and aimed his scourge gun at Rhodes¡¯s eye exactly the way Dietz did when he killed Henshaw.
Rhodes saw the whole thing happen in a fraction of a second. The interface was still open from Rhodes showing Rhinehart the memory of Fort Bastion.
In that moment, Rhodes understood with no doubt that Fuentes knew exactly what he was doing. He knew he came from the Legion. He knew everything that happened to the battalion since the Masks captured them on the battlefield.
Fuentes bared his teeth to shoot Rhodes in the head.
Rhodes raised his arm to defend himself. He could kill Fuentes right now. He probably should.
How many times did he tell his subordinates to kill Dietz if he ever stepped out of line or threatened one of them?
The Grid gave Rhodes an unbroken view of everything happening to him. The Grid slowed everything down.
He could kill Fuentes right now or at least fire a weapon strong enough to throw him clear. Rhodes didn¡¯t have to die.
Some part of him absolutely refused to kill Fuentes. Everyone in the battalion went through the same agony Rhodes himself had been suffering all this time.
Whatever Fuentes did was the project¡¯s fault. The Battalion 1 project made Fuentes this. It made all of them this.
It turned a simple, slow-witted kid into a raving killer. It took steadfast men like Rhodes, Rhinehart, Oakes, and Lauer and turned them into basket cases barely able to function. They couldn¡¯t function at all.
Rhodes raised his weapon to aim at Fuentes¡¯s head. Rhodes really didn¡¯t want to kill Fuentes, but he had to. What choice did he have?
If Rhodes didn¡¯t kill Fuentes, the whole battalion could get stuck here with no way out. They might stay prisoners for the rest of eternity.
The distant boom of gunfire made up Rhodes¡¯s mind for him. The Masks sent Battalion 1 into battle against the Legion. The Masks used Battalion 1 to kill Legion soldiers.
Rhodes couldn¡¯t let that happen. He couldn¡¯t let even one person in the whole Battalion do that if he could possibly find a way to prevent it. He couldn¡¯t leave even one person in the Masks¡¯ custody.
He charged his laser to cut Fuentes¡¯s head off. That would be the quickest way to end this, but right at that moment, something very fast and very powerful smashed into Fuentes from the side.
The force of impact tore Fuentes away, wrapped around Fuentes, and they bowled away before Rhodes realized what was happening.
Fuentes and the projectile broke apart and rolled away from each other. Fuentes shot to his feet, and just as fast, Dietz sprang upright.
Rhodes stared in amazement as Dietz planted himself between Fuentes and Rhodes.
Fuentes kept right on coming. He lunged for Dietz, fired his boosters, and tried to veer around Dietz to attack Rhodes again.
Dietz raised his scourge gun and fired directly into Fuentes¡¯s chest. The blow made him stagger, but he corrected instantly and rushed Rhodes again.
Dietz fired a second time with both his scourge guns. ¡°Back off, Rudy!¡± Dietz bellowed. ¡°Don¡¯t make me use my Vipers on you!¡±
Fuentes bared his teeth and roared at Dietz, but Fuentes¡¯s eyes kept darting to Rhodes every few seconds. Fuentes really wanted Rhodes. Fuentes didn¡¯t care about Dietz.
Fuentes charged again, and this time, Dietz really did unload his Vipers on Fuentes. Both missiles smashed Fuentes in the chest, carried him fifty yards backward, and hammered him into the ground.
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He flopped on the grass, rolled onto his hands and knees, and floundered to stay there so he didn¡¯t collapse again.
Rhodes interfaced with Fuentes to make sure he wasn¡¯t too badly injured, but he wasn¡¯t. He was just stunned.
¡°I¡¯ll restrain Rudy, Captain,¡± Van told Rhodes. ¡°I¡¯ll make sure he doesn¡¯t attack again.¡±
¡°We can¡¯t trust that,¡± Rhodes replied. ¡°He¡¯s overcome you before. We have to get the rest of the battalion out of here.¡±
He checked the rest of the interface. Rhinehart, Lauer, Coulter, and Thackery all flew over the battle to converge on Rhodes.
Rhodes got to his feet and turned around to look into Oakes¡¯s eyes. ¡°You okay, Lieutenant?¡±
Oakes nodded and his gaze darted around the battlefield. ¡°What planet are we on?¡±
¡°I don¡¯t know, but the Legion line is up there.¡± Rhodes pointed at the mountaintops overhead. ¡°We can fly up there and find the command dome. The Legion will take us back to Coleridge Station.¡±
Fuentes bellowed again in wordless fury, staggered to his feet, and made another lunge for Rhodes.
Dietz reacted impossibly fast, stepped between them, and unloaded a massive thump of some concussion out of his chest.
The force hit Fuentes and took him down for good this time. Fuentes toppled and lay still on the ground.
Now Dietz was the one who turned around and peered deep into Rhodes¡¯s eyes. ¡°You okay, Captain?¡±
¡°Yeah!¡± Rhodes gasped. ¡°Thank you, Sergeant.¡±
Rhodes had to stop himself from saying anything else. He searched Dietz¡¯s eyes for¡..something. Dietz just saved Rhodes¡¯s life. It wasn¡¯t the first time.
What if Rhodes had been wrong about Dietz all this time? What if there was some way to salvage Dietz¡ªor maybe Dietz never needed to be salvaged at all.
Rhodes tried to remember everything Dietz had ever done that made Rhodes think Dietz was a psycho waiting for his chance to stab the battalion in the back.
What if Rhodes misread all those incidents? What if Dietz really had only been malfunctioning when he killed Henshaw¡ªand when he pointed his gun at Oakes and offered to shoot Oakes to put him out of his misery?
What if Dietz shooting his thermal cannon into Fuentes¡¯s shoulder really was just a harmless joke?
Rhodes didn¡¯t have time to think about that right now. The battalion gathered around. Rhinehart, Lauer, and Oakes all acted as steady as ever. Coulter seemed fine, too.
Rhodes didn¡¯t see anything about Thackery¡¯s behavior that caused him to doubt her, either.
Now was not the time to make a detailed study of their mental states. ¡°Let¡¯s get up the mountain, find the command dome, and get behind Legion lines. We can work out the details later.¡±
He glanced over at Fuentes. Rhodes planned to carry Fuentes off the field himself, but Dietz read Rhodes¡¯s mind. ¡°I¡¯ll take care of him, Captain. You leave him to me.¡±
¡°Leave him here,¡± Rhinehart growled.
¡°We can¡¯t,¡± Dietz pointed out. ¡°The Masks would use him against the Legion. We have to take him.¡±
¡°Come on,¡± Rhodes repeated. ¡°Let¡¯s get the hell out of here before something else happens.¡±
He made one last survey of his subordinates. Fuentes¡¯s life sign and brainwave readings were all still normal. Van would have told Rhodes if anything was wrong with Fuentes.
Rhodes ignited his boosters and took off into the air. Dietz picked up Fuentes. He was still out cold.
The battalion sailed over the landscape dodging Legion fusion shots, but they faded as the battalion climbed higher toward the ridge. The Masks¡¯ invasion ships had already taken out all the defensive guns.
Rhodes pivoted The Grid to find the best place to set down. He wanted to find a spot far enough in the rear so he and his subordinates wouldn¡¯t get pulled back into the action.
He made it halfway toward the farthest rear Legion flanks. He didn¡¯t feel a thing.
His body spun around without him doing anything. His arms swung up against his will and his lasers opened fire on the Legion soldiers.
The rest of the battalion separated, whipped around fast, and all of them opened fire at the same time. Dietz dropped Fuentes and Fuentes magically snapped back to consciousness just in time to add his fire to the assault.
Rhodes tried to stop himself from shooting at the Legion platoons, but that feeling only lasted for an instant.
Just as fast, the same rush of exhilaration and thrilling pleasure took hold. He forgot everything he¡¯d just been thinking and doing a minute before.
He rushed into the battle shooting a thousand lasers in every direction. The soldiers turned around to face the battalion, but the platoons couldn¡¯t defend themselves.
The Masks made another push from the front, drove the platoons backward into the battalion¡¯s fire, and hundreds of soldiers toppled in waves.
Dusters, Predators, Ravagers, and Masks¡¯ invasion ships converged from all over. Ravagers pounded the battlefield with hellish bombardments trying to hit the battalion, but the invasion ships intervened to defend the battalion from the worst of it.
Rhodes stalked into the platoons laying waste to everyone in sight. The Grid gave him perfect targeting accuracy no matter how much smoke, debris, and exploding dirt clods got in his eyes.
He picked out every man standing. Dusters and Predators detonated over his head until a Ravager exploded with a deafening concussion.
Some signal came through the interface from somewhere. Rhodes didn¡¯t recognize where it came from. He only knew the Masks wanted him and the battalion to fall back out of the firing line.
He launched off the ground to get away from the chaos, but at that moment, the Masks hit another Ravager. A section of its hull ruptured right in Rhodes¡¯s face.
He heard a handful of his people yelling his name and then the Ravager exploded in another flaming ball of burning gas and fusion reactions.
The shockwave caught Rhodes, carried him away from his subordinates, and then a different Ravager unloaded on him from fifty yards north.
The shot knocked him to the ground and he crashed down on top of a destroyed Duster lying in a mountain of dead bodies.
End of Chapter 24.
Battalion 1: Book 3: Chapter 25
Rhodes came to his senses and choked down bile burning his throat. He hadn¡¯t felt this bad since he first woke up at Coleridge Station.
His whole body ached. He tried to roll over and collapsed groaning on the ground.
Smoke stung his nostrils¡.and another smell made him sick. It was the smell of human bodies¡ªa lot of them.
He pried his head off the ground and blinked soot out of his eyes to look around. The smoke cleared just enough for him to get a view of the dim landscape.
So much ash and crap floated in the air that it cast the battlefield into shadow. Only the faintest glimmers of daylight shone through the clouds.
It had been night when that Ravager exploded right next to Rhodes. Now it was daytime, but he didn¡¯t see any sign that the Legion was still here. He didn¡¯t even know which planet he was on.
The wreckage of the battle lay all around him. Thousands of bodies spilled out of destroyed Legion vessels and a few Masks invasion ships.
All those crashed ships raised their scorched hulks above mounds of bodies. This was so much worse than any battle against the Emal.
Most of the destruction the Emal caused had been buildings and other infrastructure. The bodies and torn body parts in those hellscapes had been minimal compared to the destruction of property and structures.
Rhodes couldn¡¯t even tell where the bodies ended and the wrecked ships began. They all seemed to merge into something so horrible he couldn¡¯t even think about it.¡ªbut he had to. He was stuck out here.
He forced himself onto his knees and used The Grid to look around. Fisher hovered there in the corner of Rhodes¡¯s vision, but the SAM kept glitching on and off.
Fisher tried more than once to talk to Rhodes, but no sound came out of Fisher¡¯s mouth.
He didn¡¯t see any people¡ªor any Masks or even any ships belonging to either side. Was he the only person left alive out here?
He wasn¡¯t. The Grid showed him a few failing life signs of wounded soldiers stranded in the landscape. None of them was healthy enough to survive for long. Most weren¡¯t even conscious.
He widened The Grid. None of the Legion Ravagers remained. The Legion had no plans to come back for these people.
Did the Masks plan to come back for Rhodes? He didn¡¯t know where his subordinates were or even if they survived the battle.
He had to crawl toward one of the burned hulls to support himself so he could stand up.
He wobbled there scanning the surroundings. It really was as bad as it seemed¡ªif not worse.
He glanced up at the mountains where the Legion had been holding their defensive line. Columns of smoke billowed from behind the highest peaks. Did the Masks destroy the command dome¡ªand everything else back there?
Rhodes might be able to climb those mountains and find out. He had no choice if the Masks left him behind.
At least he would make it back to the Legion and tell everyone what happened. If the battalion was still in Masks custody, he might be able to do something to help get them free.
He pushed himself away from the charred frame of a Duster to set off heading toward those mountains. He stumbled over bodies underfoot. He had to climb over them. He was still more than three hundred yards from the edge of the battlefield.
He made it ten feet before a disembodied hand grabbed his ankle and made him pitch onto his face.
He looked around and saw the lower half of a human forearm sticking out of the pile of bodies.
The hand clutched him and wouldn¡¯t let him go. He panicked and kicked it away before the hand strained once, wilted, and didn¡¯t move again.
Rhodes plastered his back to another mound of bodies and stared at the thing. It didn¡¯t look human, but it must be.
Some soldier under that pile must have grabbed Rhodes. The soldier probably needed help, but Rhodes couldn¡¯t bring himself to go over there.
He would have to dig through bodies to find the guy. Even then, the soldier wouldn¡¯t be healthy enough to save. No one around here was.
Rhodes shuddered and forced himself to sit up. He had to think.
Actually, he just had to get off the battlefield and onto solid ground. As soon as he got up into the mountains¡ªaway from these bodies¡ªhe would be able to move more easily.
The sick, horrified feeling in his middle didn¡¯t go away. He had to struggle just to keep his sanity.
The sight of all these bodies revolted him. He fought the urge to do something terrible to himself so he wouldn¡¯t have to deal with this whole nightmarish situation.
The bodies didn¡¯t make him feel that way. In that moment, he realized why he felt so terrible. He wasn¡¯t connected to the Masks anymore.
Whatever they did to the battalion to keep them sedated and cooperative¡ªit wasn¡¯t happening anymore.
Rhodes was in the real world now. This disgust and horror¡ªthis was nothing more than what he¡¯d been feeling since he first woke up at Coleridge Station.
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Losing the Masks¡¯ connection made this feeling a thousand times worse. Maybe they really were drugging him and he was going through withdrawals. He wouldn¡¯t have been the least bit surprised.
He turned away from the hand, but he cast one backward glance to make sure it didn¡¯t come after him.
It didn¡¯t. It didn¡¯t move again. The soldier attached to it must be finally dead. Lucky him.
Rhodes got to his feet again, stumbled over some more bodies, and lurched across the battlefield. He didn¡¯t know if he might be closer to one edge or the other. He might have to cross more of it going this way.
He didn¡¯t care as long as he headed for the mountains. The Legion was up there¡ªor they were. Any hope he might still have of finding someone to help him was up there.
He made it as far as one of the crashed Ravagers before he heard the sound of aircraft engines coming closer.
He dove behind the Ravager, flattened his back against its hull, and held his breath trying to make himself invisible.
He could have used the Grid to make himself truly invisible or at least gone underground, but he didn¡¯t think of that. He huddled there fighting down panic. Whatever the Masks did to him left his nerves frazzled and his brain sluggish.
The physical pain made all of that a thousand times worse. Every inch of his implants tore his flesh apart. He might have been able to come to some grudging acceptance of his implants before.
Now the sensation bordered on madness. The overwhelming need to tear his implants out by their roots became unbearable, but he already knew where that led.
The sound got closer. It passed back and forth across the battlefield. Some aircraft was out there searching for something.
He clamped his eyes shut and swallowed hard. Were the Masks coming back to get him? What would he do then? He wouldn¡¯t be able to do anything.
The Masks took control of the battalion¡¯s implants during that battle. The Masks controlled the battalion to stop them from escaping and to force Rhodes and his subordinates to fight their own platoons.
He shouldn¡¯t have been surprised. The Masks had done it before. Why did he think he stood a snowball¡¯s chance in hell of escaping from these things?
He gasped for breath until, without warning, another face popped up on The Grid in front of him. ¡°Captain? Are you hiding from me?¡±
Rhodes¡¯s eyes snapped open, but he didn¡¯t need to open them to see Rio, his Striker SAM.
The ship pivoted in place in front of Rhodes and set down on the stacks of bodies. The ship looked as glossy and undamaged as ever. Grid lines covered its exterior.
Rio laughed at Rhodes in his cheery way, but he got serious when he saw Fisher. ¡°This is not good.¡±
¡°Rio¡.¡± Rhodes husked. ¡°Where did you¡.How did you¡¡¡± Rhodes looked around. ¡°Are you the only one here?¡±
¡°The Ero is in orbit, Captain,¡± Rio replied and furrowed his brow at Fisher. ¡°He¡¯s malfunctioning. I¡¯ll have to correct that.¡±
Rio extended his grid lines toward Fisher. The lines surrounded Fisher¡¯s head and he suddenly switched back on.
He stopped glitching and his voice worked again. ¡°Oh, thank you!¡± he gasped. ¡°That was awful.¡± Now it was his turn to look around. ¡°This is awful!¡±
¡°Did the rest of the battalion make it out?¡± Rhodes asked. ¡°Did they make it back to the Legion?¡±
¡°I¡¯m afraid not, Captain,¡± Rio replied. ¡°All your subordinates are still prisoners of the Masks. You are the only one still out here.¡±
Rhodes collapsed back against the Ravager. He couldn¡¯t fall apart right now.
¡°You aren¡¯t malfunctioning, but you¡¯re experiencing a physical pain response and an emotional pain response,¡± Fisher announced. ¡°Rio will interface with you to correct the imbalance.¡±
¡°No, I won¡¯t,¡± Rio countered.
Fisher spun around. ¡°You have to! You can¡¯t leave him like this! I mean¡ªlook at him!¡±
¡°His blood chemistry is completely off. None of his neurochemicals are reading at normal levels¡.and I¡¯m detecting heavy concentrations of Epliothil, Kreandian, and Plianor in his blood. I won¡¯t be able to correct that.¡±
Fisher gasped. ¡°My God! This is disastrous!¡±
Rio turned his normally cheery face to Rhodes. Rhodes had never seen Rio so serious. ¡°The Masks have been drugging you, Captain. I¡¯m sorry. I can¡¯t correct this. You just have to live with it.¡±
Rhodes gulped again. He already knew that. He didn¡¯t ask what Epliothil, Kreandian, and Plianor were. He already had a pretty good idea.
The Striker¡¯s cockpit cover popped. ¡°Get on board, Captain,¡± Rio told him. ¡°I¡¯m taking you back to the Ero. Dr. Osborne will know what to do about this. Even if he doesn¡¯t, you can stay in a conversion cycle until your body metabolizes the drugs.¡±
¡°I suppose you¡¯ll have to go through another orientation process.¡± Fisher sighed. ¡°This is the last thing we need.¡±
¡°The last thing we need is to mount a rescue operation to get the rest of the battalion back,¡± Rhodes pointed out.
¡°At least we know where they are,¡± Rio told him. ¡°The Legion is monitoring their whereabouts.¡±
Rhodes¡¯s head shot up. ¡°They are? How?¡±
¡°How do you think I found you? The Legion has been searching every battle zone all over the Treaty of Aemon Cluster for any sign of you and the battalion. The Legion tracked the rest of the battalion off the battlefield. They¡¯re on a Masks ship on the other side of this planet. We can launch an assault on the Masks and get your subordinates back.¡±
¡°Who knows what condition they¡¯ll be in when we do get them back,¡± Fisher muttered.
¡°It doesn¡¯t matter. We just have to get them back.¡± Rhodes scrambled to his feet. He couldn¡¯t wait to get inside Rio¡¯s cockpit.
Rhodes took a few steps toward the ship, and for no particular reason, he checked The Grid to make sure no one came around to threaten him or his SAMs.
He froze when he saw a single Masks invasion ship dropping through the atmosphere. It headed straight for him.
¡°Shut down all power, Rio!¡± Rhodes whispered. ¡°Hurry!¡±
¡°What¡¯s wrong, Captain?¡±
¡°Just do it. Shut down all power and don¡¯t turn it back on until I¡¯m gone. Understand? I have to lead the Masks away from you. We can¡¯t run the risk of them capturing you, too.¡±
¡°But I¡¯m supposed to take you with me!¡± Rio exclaimed.
¡°You wouldn¡¯t be able to fight an invasion ship. Just do it. Stay here and pretend to be a pile of debris.¡±
¡°That should be easy for you,¡± Fisher chimed in and made Rio laugh, but his usually cheery smile drained away when the enemy vessel got closer.
¡°I hate to leave you behind, Captain,¡± he murmured.
¡°Just do it, Rio,¡± Rhodes hissed. ¡°If you make it out of here, you¡¯ll be able to come back for me and the battalion another day. You won¡¯t be able to do that if the Masks destroy or capture you. We can¡¯t let that happen.¡±
Rhodes couldn¡¯t wait any longer. He took off walking across the battlefield as fast as he could.
He barely turned his back on Rio before the SAM vanished off the interface. Rhodes watched all power die to the Striker. It didn¡¯t vanish off The Grid. He could still see its outline among the other wreckage.
The Masks wouldn¡¯t be looking for Rio. They would only be looking for Rhodes.
He kept marching over the piles of bodies until the enemy ship hovered right on top of him. It started to open its hatch.
He spotted the edge of the battlefield ahead. It ended right at the base of the mountains.
He took off running for that clear patch of ground. The Masks ship veered to keep up with him and dropped lower to position its hatch directly above him.
He flung himself off the battlefield, hit a rock cliff at the base of the mountain, and spun around to open fire on the enemy vessel.
Rhodes¡¯s scourge gun went off once, but he didn¡¯t hit the hatch. He tried to destroy it to stop the enemy ship from taking him on board, but the shot ricocheted off the hull right next to the hatch.
He tried one more time to fire, but before he could do it, some unseen force gripped him all over. He froze. He couldn¡¯t shoot.
The next minute another warm, blissful wave of happiness, contentment, and pure delight flooded him. That feeling wiped out everything, including his memory of everything that just happened.
End of Chapter 25.
Battalion 1: Book 3: Chapter 26
Rhodes stepped out of his standing conversion station. The Masks didn¡¯t use lying down conversion capsules unless someone got injured or suffered a dangerous malfunction.
Dietz, Rhinehart, Coulter, and Lauer were already up and moving around. Oakes, Fuentes, and Thackery were still in their conversion cycles.
Rhodes instantly registered a new series of orders for the battalion¡¯s next assault. The planet where they¡¯d recently engaged with the Aemon Legion had been the planet Keonus.
The Legion had withdrawn from that planet leaving the Masks to stake another clear victory over the battle.
Now the two armies were preparing to re-engage on the next planet over¡ªthe planet Lotho.
Rhodes didn¡¯t think anything about that, but when he made eye contact with Dietz, everything came back.
Dietz stared directly into Rhodes¡¯s eyes without looking away. Rhodes couldn¡¯t remember Dietz ever looking at Rhodes as directly as that.
Dietz¡¯s expression made Rhodes tremble. Something happened to Dietz. Rhodes couldn¡¯t pinpoint exactly when it happened or even what it was.
This was a completely different Dietz¡ªor maybe Rhodes was the one who changed. His perception of Dietz had changed so radically that Rhodes no longer recognized the man in front of him.
Dietz always lurked around the battalion¡¯s periphery. He let Rhinehart, Oakes, Lauer, and the others take the lead.
Dietz did what Rhodes told him to do, but that was all.
Dietz never gave anyone any reason to believe he really wanted to be a part of this. He would just as soon go his own way. He wasn¡¯t even really a part of this battalion.
He came right over to Rhodes this morning¡ªanother first. ¡°It looks like we¡¯re going out again, Captain.¡±
¡°Yes, it does.¡± Rhodes found himself studying Dietz just as closely.
Dietz stayed near Rhodes and didn¡¯t go off to the computer terminal or occupy himself with anything else.
His dark, bright eyes kept searching Rhodes for answers. Was Dietz wondering if Rhodes would order the battalion to turn to the Legion side?
If Rhodes remembered all that, why not Dietz, too?
Rhodes didn¡¯t dare to believe it of the others, but Dietz¡¯s expression and that haunted light in Dietz¡¯s eyes definitely gave Rhodes hope.
He didn¡¯t voice his concerns to the rest of the battalion. He didn¡¯t want to risk Fuentes attacking him a third time.
Fuentes glared at both Dietz and Rhodes. If Fuentes remembered, he remembered why he attacked Rhodes, tried to kill him, and then took two Viper blasts right in the chest from Dietz.
Dietz glared right back at Fuentes. The old Jairo Dietz would have played it off and pretended like it never happened. Not anymore.
Dietz kept moving around the room to position himself between Rhodes and Fuentes. Dietz kept a constant watch on Fuentes. Dietz held himself stiff and watchful in case Fuentes tried anything else.
Rhodes interfaced with the rest of the battalion and brought up The Grid of the landscape where they would meet the Legion again today.
He revolved The Grid in front of them so they could all see it. It might not mean anything to them, but it sure did to him.
Legion platoons had surrounded and were trying to defend a city packed the walls with civilians¡ªhuman civilians.
The Masks ringed the city outside the Legion position. If the Legion fell, the whole city would go down.
Rhodes spotted Dietz glancing at him out of the corner of his eye, but Rhodes didn¡¯t acknowledge that glance.
¡°Our orders are to assault the Legion position¡ªhere.¡± Rhodes indicated a spot on the city¡¯s western side. ¡°The buildings offer cover here for the Legion to target the Masks ground troops from windows and upper stories. Our orders are to take out those buildings. The rest of the city is too well defended. As soon as we bring down those buildings, the Masks ground troops will be able to get inside the city. The Legion won¡¯t be able to defend it from the inside. The platoons won¡¯t be able to stand up to the Masks on the ground. The Legion¡¯s advantage will be broken.¡±
No one answered. No one gave any sign that those words meant a thing to them.
Rhodes interfaced with each person and every SAM. They all kept their expressions neutral¡ªall except Fuentes. He kept glaring at Rhodes, but that was nothing new.
Rhodes adjusted The Grid in a few different directions. The ship on which the Masks kept him and the battalion took a position ten miles outside the city.
The battalion could use boosters to fly to the city in a few minutes. Nothing would stop them from assaulting those buildings.
Rhodes tried to come up with a plan to wake up his subordinates¡ªagain. How many more times would he have to go through this process before he finally got through to them?
The Masks would just keep wiping the battalion¡¯s memories¡ªforever. Why did Rhodes even bother to fight these machines? He couldn¡¯t win.
It would be so easy to just give in to the manipulation, the drugs, and the hallucination of everything being okay.
Even now, right at this moment, the Masks kept the battalion in a Grid simulation of the barracks at Fort Bastion¡ªwhich were in turn a copy of the barracks at Coleridge Station.
Rhodes knew now that none of this was real. That computer terminal over there wasn¡¯t real.
The battalion went through the motions of eating breakfast and putting their dirty dishes away. The food tasted heavenly, but none of that was real, either.
The battles sure were, though. The Legion soldiers the battalion would kill today would be real. The ships they blew up would be real. The families left behind would be real.
Rhodes went through his day as normal. He didn¡¯t give any outward sign that he saw through the illusion.
His senses picked up every detail with excruciating precision. When would be the moment when he lost awareness that this even was an illusion? It could come anytime.
Then he¡¯d be right back where he started.
The intervals between losing his memory and regaining his awareness of his predicament¡ªthose intervals seemed to be getting shorter.
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He lost awareness on the battlefield when the Masks ship picked him up. He regained his memory almost instantly when he woke up this morning.
Dietz did that for him. Dietz¡¯s heroic rescue yesterday brought Rhodes back to his senses.
Dietz kept giving Rhodes sidelong looks all morning. Maybe Dietz never lost his memory. Maybe he¡¯d been aware from the beginning that this was all one big drug-induced fantasy world.
Dietz acted so normal in Stonebridge. He had a wife and children there, too, but maybe he never bought into the trick. Maybe he knew all along. Maybe he¡¯d been waiting all this time for Rhodes to come to his senses.
Would Rhodes have threatened or attacked Dietz for trying to tear him away from that world? Would Rhodes have called Dietz a liar to his face?
Rhodes couldn¡¯t guarantee that he wouldn¡¯t have. He kicked himself now for ever thinking anything bad about Dietz.
How did it happen that Dietz turned out to be more loyal to the Legion than Rhodes himself?
Rhodes couldn¡¯t make up for it now. He could only make up for it by getting the battalion out of Masks custody and back to the Legion.
The battalion finished breakfast, checked in with Dr. Littlejohn and Dr. Rollins, got further clarification on their orders from General Overstreet, and crossed Fort Bastion to the loading dock.
How strange it felt to interact with all these people. They looked human¡ªas human as any soldiers from the battlefield.
Rhodes knew now that he wasn¡¯t at Fort Bastion. Fort Bastion didn¡¯t exist. He was on a Masks vessel, but the Masks still maintained the illusion for some reason known only to themselves.
Maybe they needed some way to merge the fake environment with the sensations all these drugs caused, but Rhodes didn¡¯t think about it too hard. He had bigger problems to deal with.
The battalion stopped on the loading dock and Rhodes gazed out over the landscape¡ªthe real landscape this time.
The Grid gave him real-time feedback on the battle already underway out there. The Masks bombarded the city from all sides.
For maybe the first time since the Masks started this invasion, the Legion held its own.
The Masks threw the full might of their force against the Legion¡¯s defense, but the Legion held the perimeter.
The Grid didn¡¯t lie. The big defensive guns the Legion set up in the buildings offered better protection than anything the Masks could throw at them.
The Masks¡¯ invasion ships tried to move in to destroy the buildings, but the defensive guns held them off, too.
Ravagers occupied the invasion ships while Legion Dusters and Predator fighter craft bombarded the Masks¡¯ ground troops. The Masks couldn¡¯t set foot inside the city.
Rhodes launched off the loading dock. His brain kicked into high gear trying to come up with a way to talk some sense into his subordinates before they actually got to the city.
This would be the perfect time for them to turn. They only had to get behind the Legion line. The Masks wouldn¡¯t be able to get to the battalion there.
How true was that, though? Would the Masks keep their control over the battalion even then? How far away would the battalion have to get before they broke the connection?
Rhodes glanced sideways at his subordinates, and once again, he found Dietz at his side. Dietz glanced at Rhodes at the same moment, and again, they shared a moment of unspoken understanding.
Almost as if Rhodes¡¯s thoughts made it happen, Lauer murmured, ¡°Are we really doing this? Are we really bringing down our own people¡.for what?¡±
Rhodes¡¯s heart soared. ¡°Now¡¯s our chance to get back to the Legion. We¡¯ll fly toward those buildings the way the Masks ordered us to. Then we¡¯ll fly behind the line and¡.¡±
¡°You traitor!¡± Rhodes expected Fuentes to protest, but he was wrong. Coulter turned on Rhodes and flew at him trying to grab Rhodes by the throat. ¡°You son of a bitch!¡±
Coulter managed to get his hands around Rhodes¡¯s neck, but the mechanical rods and metal housing stopped Coulter from doing any damage.
Lauer and Dietz both dove for Coulter to drag him off. ¡°Eddie!¡± Lauer roared. ¡°Eddie¡ªthink about what you¡¯re doing! We¡¯re Legion soldiers! These are our own people! The Masks are tricking you! They¡¯re tricking all of us with this fake shit!¡±
Lauer and Dietz managed to drag Coulter off, but he kept raging out of control. He struggled against their hold, yanked his arm sideways, and fired his thermal cannon at Rhodes.
The shot sailed wide, but it snapped all of them to high alert. Rhodes braced himself for something else to go wrong¡ªand that¡¯s when he noticed Rhinehart, Thackery, and Fuentes still racing toward the city.
¡°Come on! We gotta catch up with them!¡± he called to Lauer and Dietz. ¡°We have to stop them!¡±
Rhodes took off flying his fastest toward those two tall buildings in the distance. Fusion blasts erupted from their highest windows.
Oakes stayed where he was. He hovered in midair staring at everything around him in a daze.
Rhodes couldn¡¯t waste any more time on him. Rhodes rocketed across the landscape, and for the hundredth time, he completely discarded the idea of trying to get through to Fuentes and Thackery.
Rhodes swerved in front of Rhinehart. ¡°Lieutenant¡ªdon¡¯t do this! That could be your old platoon in there! You could have friends in there! They¡¯re Legion soldiers¡ªjust like us! You can¡¯t do this! You have to listen.¡±
Rhinehart ignored him completely. Rhodes grabbed him by the shoulders, but Rhinehart just kept right on flying. He didn¡¯t acknowledge Rhodes¡¯s existence at all.
Rhinehart¡¯s eye glazed over. Rocky didn¡¯t respond, either. He just stared past Rhodes at something in the distance.
¡°Rocky?¡± Rhodes asked. ¡°Can you hear me?¡±
Nothing. ¡°They¡¯re drugged, Captain,¡± Fisher murmured.
¡°Why are we aware, then?¡± Rhodes glanced over at Dietz. He was just catching up to Thackery while Fuentes kept racing toward the city.
Rhodes saw the situation about to disintegrate into another slaughter. One person from Battalion 1 could wreak incredible destruction on the Legion defense.
Fuentes could bring down those buildings by himself. Then the Masks would enter the city and it would all be over.
Dietz came whizzing out of nowhere, grabbed Thackery, and took her to the ground in seconds. She fought him all the way down, smashed into the pavement, and wrestled herself out of his grip.
He tried one last hopeless time to grab her before she launched herself into the air again. Her boosters flared¡.and she stopped.
She drifted to a standstill a hundred feet in front of the buildings. Her eyes darted all over the battlefield. She didn¡¯t move except to dodge a fusion charge from one of the windows.
Lauer caught up with her. ¡°Alyssa! Don¡¯t do this! The Masks are using you! You can¡¯t turn against the Legion.¡±
She didn¡¯t attack¡ªeither him or the buildings. Dawning realization spread across her face and her eyes narrowed at the Masks in the distance.
Lauer floated in front of her and extended his hand to touch her shoulder. At that moment, some unseen force took hold of him, jerked him around, and he fired at one of the buildings.
He roared and his lips curled back in a grimace of something like pain or rage. He burst into a spasm of convulsions trying to fight his guns away from the city.
Thackery grabbed him to help restrain him, but he whipped around and clubbed her backhand across the face to knock her away.
Through all the confusion, Fuentes kept sprinting toward the buildings. He unleashed four Vipers to blow the first building to kingdom come.
Those Vipers corkscrewed away from the ports on his back and crossed paths to separate and target both buildings.
Out of nowhere, another blinding missile streaked across the landscape and all four Vipers collided with Rhinehart. He flew directly into their path and a catastrophic explosion slapped him out of the sky.
He sailed into one of the buildings and slammed into the wall with bone-crushing force.
At that moment, three Masks invasion ships and two Ravagers skimmed around the city closing on the battalion¡¯s location.
The invasion ships unloaded on the buildings and the defensive guns rotated up to defend the Legion position.
Rhodes and Thackery spun around to fire on the invasion ships. Oakes caught up a second later and added his fire to theirs.
It was too late. The Ravagers had already seen too many members of this battalion shooting at the Legion and killing Legion soldiers.
The Ravagers fired on the invasion ships and then spat off scattered shots at the battalion. The Ravagers even fired at Rhodes, Oakes, and Thackery.
Fuentes circled the building to target the Ravagers. Dietz was just about to defend the buildings from the Masks when he noticed what Fuentes was doing.
Dietz skirted Rhodes to lunge for Fuentes, tackled him out of thin air, and the two men fell into a mid-air wrestling match trying to best each other.
The Ravagers fired again and a brutal concussion hit both men. It nailed both of them into the ground and they didn¡¯t get up.
That left Rhodes, Oakes, and Thackery to defend the buildings alone. Rhodes fired dozens of Vipers at the invasion ships, but the Ravagers still didn¡¯t get the message.
Coulter came back to his senses and soared toward Rhodes and the others to help out, but before he got there, Lauer turned his weapons on the buildings.
He fired his scourge guns and Thackery jumped in front of him. His shots hit the metal housing of her chest implants, but they didn¡¯t take her down.
Rhodes rushed over to try to get through the Lauer, and at that moment, an almighty boom struck the nearest building¡ªthe building Rhodes and his people had been trying so hard to defend.
The shockwave hurled a massive tornado of broken blocks and twisted metal at the battalion, swept everyone away, and caught all three invasion ships and both Ravagers in the tidal wave.
One of the Ravagers pivoted out of position and Rhodes and his people got trapped between that ship and the other nearest Ravager.
He saw them about to collide, snatched Lauer out of the air, and whizzed free just as the two ships slammed into each other.
An explosion went off somewhere. Koenig, Murphy, Dash, and Zen vanished off the interface. The exploding fireball of the two detonating Ravagers enveloped Rhodes and Lauer in a cloud of heat and burning fusion gas.
End of Chapter 26
Battalion 1: Book 3: Chapter 27
Rhodes opened his eyes and whimpered in agony. He couldn¡¯t move. The pain almost knocked him out again.
He felt himself locked into another upright conversion station and everything hurt. He wavered on the verge of flying into insanity and breaking down in tears.
Masks worked all around him. Wires and tubes went into every part of his implants.
The minute he opened his eyes, he interfaced with the rest of his subordinates. They were all alive and locked into conversion stations alongside him.
Their stations covered one wall of the Masks¡¯ lab. It was the same lab where the Masks kept the battalion when they first captured Rhodes and his subordinates.
All seven of Rhodes¡¯s subordinates moaned, grimaced, and howled in agony just as bad as the torture Rhodes was going through right now.
The eight SAMs interfaced with the battalion at the same time. The SAMs were the only members of the battalion who looked even remotely calm right now.
Thackery sobbed outright and even Dietz bit his lip. His eyes darted around all over the place looking for some way out of this.
Lauer bellowed in torment at the end of the line. Rhinehart kept his head turned to one side, but he couldn¡¯t hide from the interface. His face contorted in terrible shapes and he had to clamp his lips shut tight to hold back misery.
¡°Good morning, Captain,¡± Fisher murmured. ¡°Unfortunately, I¡¯m afraid it isn¡¯t such a good morning¡ªas you can see.¡±
¡°Fisher¡.¡± Rhodes choked and broke off.
He wanted to say so many things, but he couldn¡¯t say any of them without completely losing his mind.
He wanted to beg Fisher to help him¡ªto do anything to end this nightmare.
At the same time, Rhodes wanted to ask Fisher to just take him offline¡ªto take both of them offline. Rhodes couldn¡¯t handle this anymore.
Fisher¡¯s features pinched. It was the most genuine expression of sympathy and compassion Rhodes had ever seen from anyone.
¡°The effects of the drugs are wearing off,¡± Fisher went on in that hushed undertone. ¡°Or maybe it would be more accurate to say that your systems are developing a resistance to the drugs. The Masks have been increasing your dosages for days now. You may have noticed that the illusion has been cracking more easily lately. Your system is acclimating to the drug. They don¡¯t produce the same effect, not even at higher dosages. In fact, it seems to produce less of an effect the more the Masks give you.¡±
Rhodes gulped down despair. He¡¯d begun to suspect something like that.
Knowing it did nothing to ease this agony. The physical pain barely overshadowed the mental anguish and emotional upheaval tearing him apart piece by piece.
Rhodes tried to distract himself by checking his subordinates again. Oakes locked his mouth shut and outright glared at the Masks working across the lab. He drilled them with narrowed eyes and he kept gritting his teeth in fury.
Coulter stared blankly into the distance, but his lips trembled with unspoken words. His cheeks kept twitching and his eyebrow jumped all over the place.
Rhodes cast a glance at Fuentes. He kept his eyes closed and his body rigid in his station.
He was definitely awake. His features moved just enough to tell Rhodes that much. Fuentes worked hard to keep his face passive, but he failed in the end.
Fisher read Rhodes¡¯s mind again. ¡°Fuentes refuses to interact with anyone from the battalion¡ªincluding Van.¡±
¡°He¡¯s trying to return to Stonebridge,¡± Van added.
¡°How can he return there if the Masks don¡¯t send us there?¡± Murphy asked.
¡°He¡¯s trying to pretend,¡± Van replied.
Wild snorted. ¡°Good luck with that, kid.¡±
¡°You don¡¯t have to be unkind,¡± Koenig countered. ¡°We all miss Stonebridge.¡±
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¡°I don¡¯t,¡± Wild snapped. ¡°That place was a stinking cesspit from hell.¡±
¡°We all enjoyed it while it lasted,¡± Dash chimed in.
¡°Did you see me enjoying it?¡± Wild fired back. ¡°Not all of us had our heads five feet up some whore the whole time. You go back there and enjoy it, you worthless piece of ¡.¡±
¡°Wild!¡± Fisher snapped. ¡°That isn¡¯t necessary. Each of us has our own way of dealing with the circumstances.¡±
¡°I swear, if that little shit messes with us one more time¡.¡± Wild snarled.
¡°Why don¡¯t you talk to Lauer about that?¡± Murphy interjected. ¡°He fired on those buildings, too¡ªor he tried to.¡±
¡°You better not say a goddamn word against Lauer,¡± Wild spat. ¡°The Masks controlled him. You all saw that.¡± He turned on Van. ¡°You look me in the eye and tell me Fuentes was under the Masks¡¯ control when he attacked the captain¡ªor when he tried to destroy those buildings and hit Rhinehart instead¡ªor when Fuentes fired on those Ravagers. You can¡¯t tell me that because he wasn¡¯t under the Masks¡¯ control. He knew exactly what he was doing.¡±
¡°Stop¡..¡± Rhodes husked. He could barely make himself heard. ¡°Please¡.. stop¡¡¡±
All the SAMs jolted and stared at him, but they all fell silent. Rhodes couldn¡¯t cope with this. He couldn¡¯t handle listening to the SAMs argue amongst themselves¡ªnot now when the battalion was at its lowest point.
Some of the Masks came over to check something or other on the battalion¡¯s stations. Rhodes tried not to look at them. Was one of them B?
None of them was B. B wasn¡¯t a person. It was just a computer program¡ªlike Fisher.
Rhodes tried to shake that thought out of his head. B was not like Fisher. Rhodes trusted Fisher. Fisher was in this with Rhodes. B was Rhodes¡¯s enemy.
Rhodes turned to look at Fisher in The Grid. Fisher studied Rhodes¡¯s spasming face. Fisher understood better than anyone.
The other SAMs kept a close watch on each member of the battalion. Even Van looked concerned.
She had a right to be. Fuentes obviously didn¡¯t trust her. She was the only SAM in the battalion who didn¡¯t have her host¡¯s unconditional trust.
Rhodes felt sorry for her. Being Fuentes¡¯s SAM would have been a catastrophe.
She tried her hardest to restrain him and get him to do the right thing, but she couldn¡¯t control him. He¡¯d overcome her too many times.
She just kept trying, though. Rhodes had to respect her for that.
The Masks tinkered with Rhodes¡¯s station. Two of them left to go mess with Rhinehart¡¯s station.
He didn¡¯t look any worse for getting hit by four Vipers. The guy was a beast. That was for certain.
One of the Masks stayed behind and kept fiddling with Rhodes¡¯s station. He looked away and waited for that Mask to leave, too.
Just when he thought his life couldn¡¯t get any worse, an even more brutal wave of torturous pain hit him in the head.
He writhed in his station and almost tore himself out of the prongs. ¡°Captain!¡± Fisher yelled. ¡°Captain¡ªstay with me! Hold on!¡±
Rhodes barely heard him. He bellowed in agony. The Mask at his side frantically pushed every button on the controls in front of him, but instead of making the pain go away, it spiked off the charts¡¡and then Rhodes woke up in the Fort Bastion barracks.
He sat up on the edge of his capsule. The rest of the battalion sat at the table eating dinner.
Coulter and Dietz both glanced over when Rhodes sat up. ¡°Captain?¡± Coulter asked. ¡°You okay?¡±
¡°I¡uh¡.¡± Rhodes ran his fingers through his hair. ¡°I guess so. What happened?¡±
¡°We got out of the hospital and you were still in your conversion cycle,¡± Oakes replied over his shoulder before he forked a load of carrots into his already over-stuffed mouth. ¡°Dr. Littlejohn said you would be out for another twelve hours. You shouldn¡¯t be up.¡±
¡°Why did my cycle end, then?¡± Rhodes stood up. ¡°I feel okay.¡±
¡°You took it pretty hard when those Ravagers blew up,¡± Lauer added. ¡°We didn¡¯t think you¡¯d make it.¡±
Rhodes sat down at the table and checked each of his subordinates. The SAMs all occupied the interface in their usual way.
None of Rhodes¡¯s subordinates appeared to have suffered any damage from the battle, either.
Fuentes sat at the table eating with the others. No one indicated by word or action that he¡¯d ever done anything to cause any concern.
Thackery smiled at Rhodes when he looked at her. All the SAMs seemed to be behaving normally, too.
Coulter handed Rhodes a plate loaded with food. ¡°You must be hungry, Sir. You need to build yourself up.¡±
Rhodes put the plate down on the table in front of him, picked up his fork, spiked a piece of honey-glazed chicken, and lifted it to his mouth.
Before he could eat it, he slammed back into the lab with wave upon wave of pain sweeping through him. He jerked against his prongs.
Five Masks rushed over to him all working around him at once. He didn¡¯t even try to find out what was happening.
¡°The effects of the drugs are breaking down!¡± Fisher told him again over the noise of his own tortured howls. ¡°You¡¯re hallucinating! The Masks are trying to send you back into The Grid, but it isn¡¯t working!¡±
¡°The same thing is happening to Lauer!¡± Wild interjected from a different part of The Grid. ¡°His pain response is approaching the danger zone. I don¡¯t know what will happen if the Masks don¡¯t get it under control.¡±
Rhodes couldn¡¯t answer. He fought to break free from the prongs even though he knew he couldn¡¯t.
He didn¡¯t even want to. He just had to struggle against something¡ªanything to get away from this feeling that his body and mind were flying apart at the seams.
The Masks rushed all around him. They didn¡¯t make such a fuss over Lauer even though he¡¯d been yelling his head off ever since Rhodes regained consciousness.
Rhodes gritted his teeth and felt them grinding in brutal agony. He had to do something¡ªsomething desperate. He had to stop this. He had to find a way to kill himself. It was the only way to end this nightmare.
He heard Fisher and the other SAMs trying to talk to him and each other over the noise.
Thackery broke down crying even harder when she saw Rhodes in trouble¡ªor maybe those sobs were her way of dealing with the same pain driving her out of her mind.
He jerked against the prongs one more time, and in a flash, he switched again. He found himself lying on his bed in his house in Stonebridge.
End of Chapter 27
Battalion 1: Book 3: Chapter 28
Rhodes jerked away from something touching his face before he realized where he was. Ora sat on the bed next to him in their house in Stonebridge. She was in the act of stroking Rhodes¡¯s cheek when he woke up.
¡°It¡¯s all right, darling,¡± she murmured. ¡°You had a bad dream. I was just trying to wake you up to get you out of it.¡±
He stared at her for a second, but the memory of the lab, Fort Bastion, and all the rest of it was already starting to fade. It was just a dream.
He collapsed back on the bed. Cold sweat soaked his hair and clothes. He felt himself trembling. He still remembered the pain, terror, and horror of that other world.
¡°You¡¯re safe,¡± Ora murmured. ¡°You¡¯re home. Nothing will harm you here.¡±
He shuddered and passed his hand across his face trying to compose himself. He was okay. He was home in his own bed.
She passed her soft fingers down his cheek again and then leaned in and kissed him. Her lips felt magical on his.
He let his arms close around her and he pulled her down on top of him. She melted into him and propped her elbow next to his head to hold herself up while they kissed.
He clasped his arms tighter around her. She felt incredible¡ªbetter than he could ever remember. Gratitude flooded him that none of his nightmare was real. This was his life¡ªright here.
Her breath caught in her nostrils as their lips met. Her body stiffened in his arms. He loved that feeling of her responding to him.
He tightened his grip¡ªand just as fast, he snapped back to Fort Bastion.
He stood in the center of the barracks. The rest of the battalion milled around doing this and that. Dietz, Thackery, and Coulter cleared the table after dinner. Rhodes didn¡¯t remember eating it¡ªbecause he didn¡¯t.
A thousand thoughts and images rushed in front of his eyes¡ªand so did Fisher. He was back.
He wasn¡¯t there in Stonebridge. He was never there in Stonebridge. Fisher lived across the road in Stonebridge.
Now he occupied the top right corner of Rhodes¡¯s vision¡ªwhere Fisher belonged. ¡°Are you okay, Captain?¡±
The interface connected to the other SAMs and everyone in the battalion. Oakes looked up from the computer terminal. ¡°Captain? Is something wrong?¡±
¡°None of this is real.¡±
Rhinehart spun around. He¡¯d been about to sit down on his capsule for the night. ¡°Huh? Yes, it is. We live here. We always have.¡±
¡°No, we haven¡¯t. We lived at Coleridge Station before the Masks captured us. Now we¡¯re in a lab while they try to stabilize these hallucinations we keep having.¡±
¡°Hallucinations?¡± Lauer snorted. ¡°You¡¯re the only one around here who¡¯s hallucinating.¡±
Rhodes surveyed his subordinates, both the people and the SAMs. Which one of them would be the most likely to back him up?
His wildest dreams came true when Dietz spoke up. ¡°The captain is telling the truth. The Masks are keeping us in a drug-induced coma to make us cooperate with them. They keep creating these Grid landscapes to trick us into thinking we¡¯re happy so we don¡¯t try to escape.¡±
¡°You lying sack of shit!¡± Rhinehart countered. ¡°Who the hell ever believed a word you say?¡±
¡°I don¡¯t expect you to believe me, but you might believe the captain,¡± Dietz replied. ¡°He wouldn¡¯t make this shit up. He couldn¡¯t. No one could.¡±
¡°Thank you, Sergeant,¡± Rhodes murmured and then let himself ask the question that had been nagging him for days. ¡°Did you always know? Did you always see through the fa?ade?¡±
Dietz only shrugged. He wouldn¡¯t look at Rhodes. ¡°You know, I¡¯ve taken a lot of drugs in my time. These are tame compared to some of the stuff I¡¯ve taken. I guess I¡¯m just too messed up even for this.¡±
¡°There has to be a way out of it,¡± Rhodes exclaimed. ¡°There has to be a way that we can keep our awareness to break away when we get close enough to the Legion.¡±
Dietz finally looked up and made eye contact with Rhodes. ¡°It looks to me like you¡¯re already going that way, Sir.¡±
Rhodes winced. He really, really didn¡¯t want this illusion to end. He would do just about anything to avoid going back to the lab where he could feel exactly what was happening to him.
Oakes frowned at the wall. ¡°If we went back to the Legion now, we would be as screwed up as we are in the lab. This illusion is the only thing keeping us sane.¡±
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¡°So¡ªwhat¡ªyou want to stay here?¡± Dietz countered. ¡°You¡¯re a Legion soldier, Lieutenant. You couldn¡¯t betray the Legion like that.¡±
¡°I¡¯m not saying we stay here and I¡¯m not saying I¡¯d betray the Legion¡..¡±
¡°We already did,¡± Thackery husked across the room. ¡°We killed hundreds of Legion soldiers. How could we go back after what we did?¡±
Rhodes turned around. She sat on another bench at the other table, hunched her shoulders, and rubbed her arms while she squirmed in mindless agitation. The organic side of her face twitched and trembled all over the place.
¡°To hell with the Legion,¡± Fuentes growled. ¡°The Legion did this to us. They all deserve to die for this.¡±
¡°Those soldiers didn¡¯t do jack shit to you, you cocksucker!¡± Oakes roared. ¡°We all saw you when you attacked those soldiers and when you attacked the captain. You didn¡¯t do it to pay them back for this. You enjoyed it! Just admit it. You¡¯re a psycho who wants to kill people. Now the Masks are giving you the chance to do that without any guilt. That¡¯s the only reason you want to stay here.¡±
Fuentes bared his teeth at Oakes. ¡°You don¡¯t know what the hell you¡¯re talking about.¡±
¡°I swear to God, if you raise a weapon to any of us again or if you attack any of us again, especially the captain, I¡¯ll put you the hell down,¡± Oakes fired back. ¡°I don¡¯t care what else is happening. I don¡¯t care if you¡¯re malfunctioning or not. I don¡¯t even give a shit if the captain tells me not to. You¡¯re a menace to all of us. You shouldn¡¯t even be alive right now.¡±
¡°You want to take a shot at me?!¡± Fuentes bellowed. ¡°Come on!!¡±
He stormed across the barracks and swelled out his chest to threaten Oakes. Before Rhodes could even think about intervening, two more Vipers released from somewhere.
Rhodes had a split second to see that they came from Rhinehart. He fired them, they wheeled across the barracks, and blasted into Fuentes¡¯s chest.
The impact ripped him off his feet and smashed him straight through the barracks wall behind him.
Rhodes didn¡¯t feel a thing, and in a single thought, he woke up in his bed in Stonebridge again. He stared at the ceiling remembering everything.
He knew exactly what just happened. He didn¡¯t dream any of it. It was all horribly real and he couldn¡¯t do a thing about it.
He didn¡¯t feel any pain or anguish or distress here. Everything felt wonderful, even lying on his back in bed.
Ora wasn¡¯t here, though. The house sounded quiet.
Rhodes glanced around and stiffened when he saw B sitting in the rocking chair by the fire. He looked as human here as he did in the city machine.
¡°What the hell do you want?¡± Rhodes snarled.
¡°You and your subordinates aren¡¯t responding to the drugs the way we hoped.¡±
¡°You got that right,¡± Rhodes snapped. ¡°You never should have drugged us in the first place.¡±
¡°We did it to save your lives. You wouldn¡¯t have survived without them.¡±
¡°We would have survived just fine if you hadn¡¯t captured us in the first place.¡± Rhodes sat up on the edge of the bed. He wanted to get as far away from this asshole as possible, but he couldn¡¯t do that in this place.
Rhodes stuck his feet into his boots and started tying them as fast as he could.
¡°We¡¯ve decided to send you back to Stonebridge until we can stabilize your systems,¡± B went on. ¡°Sending you into battle is too risky.¡±
Rhodes snorted again. ¡°It¡¯s risky that we¡¯ll realize what we¡¯re doing and escape.¡±
¡°I mean your systems are rejecting our programming. You would be as likely to shut down completely as you would be to escape. None of this would be happening if you just cooperated.¡±
¡°You obviously don¡¯t know squat about human nature, pal,¡± Rhodes fired back. ¡°Which is bizarre considering that you came from the Legion.¡±
B frowned. ¡°What are you talking about? We didn¡¯t come from the Legion.¡±
¡°Of course you did. Why do you consider the SAMs your own kind? The Legion invented the SAMs and discarded the ones that malfunctioned or otherwise didn¡¯t perform the way the Legion wanted them to. Those prototype SAMs evolved into you. You probably have more information about humanity than anyone in the whole Treaty of Aemon Cluster, but you don¡¯t understand the first thing about how human beings operate.¡± Rhodes stood up. ¡°See you around. Let me know when you have something intelligent to say.¡±
¡°We will find a way to adjust your programming so that you cooperate, Captain,¡± B called after him. ¡°We won¡¯t just give up. Eventually, you¡¯ll cooperate with us and fight on our side the same way Fuentes is.¡±
Rhodes turned around extra slowly. ¡°Where is he? Is he dead?¡±
¡°Of course not. We would never let that happen to him or any of you. We repaired his implants. He¡¯s living down the road as we speak.¡±
¡°He¡¯s a psycho. You should take him offline before he kills someone.¡±
¡°He¡¯ll kill Legion soldiers¡ªwhich is what the program tells him to do.¡±
¡°We¡¯re Legion soldiers, you jackass!¡± Rhodes bellowed. ¡°He¡¯s already tried to kill me more than once¡ªor are you too stupid to notice that? If he¡¯s so valuable to you that you wouldn¡¯t let him die, why are you letting him threaten the rest of us¡ªespecially me?¡±
B waved that away. ¡°I admit he has a few malfunctions¡..¡±
¡°He isn¡¯t malfunctioning. He¡¯s functioning exactly the way you programmed him to. It¡¯s only a matter of time before he kills one of us.¡±
¡°I doubt that. He only wants to do what¡¯s right. He¡¯s living right down the road. You can go see for yourself. He¡¯s perfectly integrated into this society. He supports his family better than most.¡±
¡°He doesn¡¯t have a family,¡± Rhodes snapped. ¡°Not here.¡±
B stood up, too. ¡°We will work out the problems with your programming. Then all of you will be just as enthusiastic about fighting the Legion as he is. He won¡¯t consider you a traitor anymore because he won¡¯t see you trying to turn the battalion against the Masks. He won¡¯t attack you anymore after that. You¡¯ll see.¡±
Rhodes made a face. ¡°You¡¯re the ones living in a delusion, pal.¡±
¡°We¡¯ll see. In the meantime, you and the battalion will stay here until we satisfy ourselves that we can send you back into battle safely.¡±
B walked past Rhodes and out of the house. He left the door standing open.
Sunshine flooded in from outside. Rhodes looked across the threshold at the dusty road outside.
All the familiar sounds came through that door. Stonebridge just kept going on and on no matter what. No one here knew anything about the outside world.
But they did, didn¡¯t they? A few people in the battalion already knew. Rhodes had to talk to them.
Rhodes got ready to leave the house. He no longer cared about hiding what he was doing from anyone.
The Masks planned to leave the battalion here¡ªmaybe forever¡ªif the drugs didn¡¯t wear off first. The Masks wouldn¡¯t send the battalion back into battle as long as Rhodes refused to cooperate.
Continuing his efforts to try to escape might sabotage his very efforts to escape. Cooperating would be the quickest way to get the battalion sent back to the Legion.
He didn¡¯t want the battalion sent back to the Legion¡ªnot until he got through to some of them.
End of Chapter 28.