Six hours after they'd left, right on schedule, Hawkes and his team came back to the campsite.
"Any luck, Sir?" inquired Lieutenant Reese. Hawkes appreciated the fact that the young lieutenant asked him instead of going straight to Macy. "Three of them," he answered, grinning in satisfaction. "And we got the cannon," added Macy. "They dropped it when they started running." Hawkes looked around at the camp. "So," he asked. "Wha'd I miss?"
"So, you've been through SERE and JEST, huh? And SSS?" Cullen and Hawkes had been working quietly together for some time when she voiced the question. Hawkes shrugged. "I didn't know it at the time, but yeah." "Any fun?" He thought about that. "Some," he finally admitted. "Hmmm," she answered, noncommittally. Then she surprised Hawkes with another question. "So, this still and silent thing, how do you do it?" It was a new experience, being the one asked for advice instead of the other way around. Most of the time he felt like he was a step behind everyone else -- always the one who had to have the situation explained to him. How did people give advice, anyway? Hawkes frowned reflectively. He didn't know how he was supposed to explain it to Cullen. Being still and silent was the first lesson ingrained into him and his batchmates at the Philadelphia facility. They hadn't been allowed to talk at all, unless spoken directly to by the Monitors, and their movements controlled and precise, always with purpose. Looking back at his life, still and silent pretty much covered it. Sitting still to listen to the Monitor's lecture. Sitting still to watch the training films. Sitting still to eat the food placed in front of them, without even knowing what it was. Even their combat exercises had been performed in silence, the Monitors being the ones to count off the kicks and punches and stabs. Even their guns had silencers. He remembered the first time he'd heard an actual gun shot -- the noise had been deafening. And he never heard any of his batchmates shout or cry or scream, even when they were punished or beaten. Monitors were gods and assassination was a silent occupation. He doubted Cullen would understand. He tried anyway. "You just… listen, I guess. Feel. The air around you, the ground beneath. You get to know it good enough so you're the first to know if anything changes. When you learn how to listen you learn how to keep still." "Hmmm," Cullen nodded thoughtfully. "I always thought it was the other way around. That you have to learn how to be still before you can listen." Hawkes blinked, suddenly unsure. "Well… maybe it is." Cullen smiled, reassuringly. "Don't worry about it, Cooper, you explained it very well." She sighed. "I'll try it that way, okay?" Hawkes grinned. It was hard to imagine Cullen silent. "Okay."
"You know, I used to spend summers with my grandparents, in Louisiana. People think the swamp's quiet, but it's not. The frogs alone could drive you insane. Some nights you had to shout to be heard." She tried to keep her tone light but Cooper could hear the wistfulness in her voice. "And New Orleans -- it was always so bright, so loud. One party after another. My Tante Coco -- that's my Aunt Coco -- said it was because of the legends. You know -- vampires, werewolves -- dark spirits waiting to pull you into the shadows. Tante said people were afraid of them and lights and the noise kept them away." Her smile was also melancholic. He stared at her in confusion. "Sarah, you've got nothing to be scared of." "I used to think I was pretty brave. Me, braving three hundred years of tradition, not to mention Senator Edward Cullen's wrath to join the Marines to become a fighter pilot. I had no idea." "Sarah…" Hawkes was getting nervous. Cullen had always been pretty easygoing. He didn't know how to deal with her when she was in this kind of mood. "You know what scares me?" she asked, again out of the blue. "I'm afraid that no matter what I do, however hard I try, it still won't work." "What won't?" "Us. This new 58th." "Sarah ---." "I know it's childish, but every time you or West or McQueen look me, I know you want to see someone else." "That's not true." "And Tyler -- I think it actually hurts her that I'm here. I remind her of… of Demios, and the 'Wings. I think she just thinks she owes me. She makes such allowances for me." "She doesn't," answered Hawkes, definitely. "She's as hard on you as she is on everyone else because she knows you can handle it. Otherwise, she'd have sent you away already." He was quiet for a while. "You want to know something?" he asked. "What?" "Before they…" He faltered, then tried again. "Before, it was Shane who kept us together, who made the team work. I mean, McQueen was our CO and all, and but among us, it was Shane." "I know," she said. "You miss her a lot, don't you?" He smiled at the sympathy in her voice. It was just like her, to put aside her own crisis when she thought he was feeling bad. "Yeah," he answered softly, then shook his head as if to clear his thoughts. "But what I meant to say was, it was her, but now it's you." She wrinkled her brow, sure he was joking. "What?" He looked at her seriously. "You take care of us. You force us to do things together," he stated. "You're the only reason I still think of the 'Cards as a squadron, not just a bunch of guys forced to stay in the same room and shoot at the same targets. I think you're the only reason we still even talk to each other. You keep us together." He looked thoughtful for a moment. "I'm glad you're here," he said, simply, sincerely. She was more touched than she could have put into words. "Yeah?" "Yeah."
"That's it, then," concluded Rain, hours later. "I think we're ready." Reese grinned, surveying their work with satisfaction. "I think so, Sir." "Still no luck with the link?" asked Hawkes. "Afraid not, Sir," answered Lancing. "Though hopefully, since we missed our check-in at 1200 today they'll know to send help." "The Silicates will be expecting that," pointed out Reese. "Which means they'll definitely attack tonight. Their window is rapidly closing." Nathan nodded. "We've got about 5 hours of daylight left. Everyone should get some sleep while they can." "No one's going to sleep, Sir," repeated Reese. "Not with Silicates around." "They won't attack in daylight," pointed out Cullen. "They hunt by infrared -- they loose their advantage." "We don't know that," argued Lancing. "Remember the AI's code. 'Take a chance.' They're unpredictable. We can't take the chance." "That's a fallacy," replied Rain. "You can't use logic against illogical creatures." "That's enough," said Nathan. "The mere words 'AI Rebel' should be an oxymoron, but it's not. The fact is we can't predict anything when it comes to Silicates. So we plan for every eventuality and just deal with whatever else they throw our way." "Hope we're up to it," muttered Cullen. "Ma'am," said Radhe. "We don't know about the 58th, but we're 12th Force Recon. We can handle anything."
"It's a good plan, Nathan," Hawkes said. "You should follow your advice and get some rest while you can." Nathan didn't answer. "What's wrong?" asked Hawkes. He followed Nathan's gaze over to where the members of the 12th were sitting, having coffee. "Still having trouble with the 12th? They're good guys." "I know…" "So what is it?" Nathan sighed. "We used to be like that," he said. Hawkes' brow wrinkled in confusion. "Like what?" Nathan's smile was wry, wistful. "Young. Focused." Cooper's brow wrinkled further. "You still are," he pointed out. Nathan shook his head. "We used to know what we were doing. We used to… be able to understand each other, communicate with just a look. Like they do." He looked up at Hawkes, his eyes full of sadness and resignation. "It was hard enough losing Paul, Shane and Vanessa as friends, as individuals. But we lost the team, too." West wasn't paying attention to Hawkes' face or he would have seen the hurt and anger there. "I thought we had this conversation already," Hawkes said coldly. "Cooper --." "No," Hawkes interrupted, crossing his arms over his chest in an angry, defensive gesture. "After Gethen -- you said you'd try. I thought you meant it." "I did," protested Nathan, "but --." "No," Cooper growled. " _We're_ here. Sarah's killing herself trying to live up to your expectations, and Jordan's going insane trying to keep the peace." "Me?" demanded West. "It's not me they're doing all this for, and it certainly isn't me who's been making all of our lives hell." "Bullshit," snapped Hawkes. "Tyler hates everybody so they know better than to take the dirt she dishes out personally." Except him, Hawkes contradicted himself mentally. The antagonism between himself and Tyler was definitely personal. "But they think you hate them. And they don't know why. And that's what's wrong." "Dammit, Cooper, I'm trying --." "No. We're trying. You're the one who's not." He sighed in frustration. "I can do this," he continued. "'Cause I have to. I don't got a choice. If I have to do it without Shane, without Paul, without Vanessa, I'll do it." He glared at West. "If I have to, I'll even do it without McQueen. Or without you." "Cooper…" "I don't have a choice," Cooper repeated. "You do. If you're not going to be here anyway, then you should go. If you're not going to make it easier, don't make it harder." With that, Cooper stalked away, leaving Nathan staring after him. He turned away himself muttering an expletive to find that Jordan had been watching their exchange quietly, thoughtfully. "What?" West snarled. "Nothing," answered Rain, flatly, with just the slightest hint of irony. "Sir."
The battle began, like the previous one, in darkness. The AIs thought the Marines were going to be easy pickings. Visibility was near zero, even with the laser torches and the bonfires that the Marines had set. They did, indeed, hunt by infrared and the Carbonites' body heat made them glow, in the Silicates' eyes, like the torches themselves. Sitting ducks. At least until the first shot was fired. Liu was the unlucky one, getting a direct hit in the chest. "Goddammit!" shouted West. "Reese! Now!" Suddenly, the light was blinding, and the Carbonites disappeared in a haze of heat. West pushed his shades in place and watched in grim satisfaction as the advancing Silicates faltered, confused by the light. Carefully working around the facility's security system, Lancing and Hops had rigged a line from their COM unit, feeding electricity into and through the energy shield. Since the field was a circuit of sorts, the added energy was magnified and multiplied with each revolution, until the glow compared to that of incandescent lamp. The result was one brightly blazing dome, brilliant enough to illuminate the surroundings, and hot enough to mask their body heat. He made out Cullen and Saliers running out and dragging Liu to safety, and hoped against hope that the young private would be alright. "Marks at ten o'clock!" "Fire at will!" The Silicates tried to retreat but Hawkes and Macy's team dropped out of the trees and surrounded them. "Leaving so soon after all that work to crash this party?" Hawkes asked, silkily. "I don't think so." It didn't take long to take care of the Silicates after that. "So," commented Sergeant Krieger once it was all over, and Lancing had cut the power illuminating the dome. "Think anyone saw that?"
Their ordeal wasn't over. Forty-five mikes later Chig attack jets could be seen in the distance. "I think we just blew the 'secret base' thing," murmured Cullen. "Stay low and don't move," warned West. "With any luck they'll fly right by us." "I don't think there's much chance of that, Sir." replied Reese. "After all, they are here." "It took them forty-five mikes to get here," answered West. "They saw something, but hopefully, they don't know what." He took out his radio. "Rain, are you in position?" "Roger that. I still hate doing this, though." "I'll alert Greenpeace," West muttered. "Our guests are here. Time to light the birthday cake." A few miles away, Rain, Kerrigan, Radhe and Saliers set fire to several strategically-placed stacks of dry wood and leaves that had been doused with alcohol. It wasn't the best flame accelerator, but it was all they had. Soon they had a small field of weeds engulfed in flames. "I hope this works," murmured Saliers over their radio. "Brush fires start for no apparent reason all the time," answered Rain. "And in this heat they won't think it too strange." "Won't they wonder that there's not more area burned?" "They won't see much in this darkness anyway. We just want them to think this is where the light came from," said Rain, unfolding and ripping open a small tent and fanning the flames. "Is this how you spell 'Chiggy Go Home' in smoke signal?" grinned Kerrigan, fanning her own area with another piece of cloth. "No," deadpanned Rain. "'Eat at Joe's'." "Sir, I've got a visual on the Chigs," announced Saliers. "Bandits at eleven o'clock." "That's it, then," said Rain. "Fall back to the tree line." "Aye, Sir." They fell back and regrouped, hidden by the tree line. They waited with bated breath as half a dozen Chig planes flew into the sky above them, made a couple of circles above the area in question. They thought they'd blown it when two of the jets separated and flew lower. They were surprised when a small hatch opened at the bottom of each jet and something spewed out, right over the flames. They watched, in fascinated wonder, as the Chigs kept spraying the unknown liquid until the flames died. The jets hovered a while longer, as if to make sure that the flames were totally out, before they joined the others and they all flew away. Good God, thought Rain. The Chigs had mercilessly massacred two colonies, had killed more than a million soldiers, had wreaked havoc and devastation wherever they went… And they had just put out a brushfire. He could see that the others were just as bemused as he was. "Imagine that," Saliers said, slightly stupefied. "I know." Kerrigan nodded in understanding. "Go figure." Next : Black Eyed Man part 5 of 5 Previous : Black Eyed Man part 3 of 5 |