Republican base "Biem Hoa", headquarters, land battle of Dvar.
Still without a word, the two soldiers led Jay to a group of bungalows a little apart. They stopped in front of one of them and opened the front door which led to a small desk with two chairs. The room was deserted.
"Wait here" said the soldier, putting it abruptly on the chair in front of the desk.
They went out by closing the door. She heard the sound of the key in the lock.
Jay found himself alone in the silence. She glanced around in a circle at what had become her cell and did not see any bars, which seemed to indicate that this building was not intended for this function. She got up and approached one of the windows to realize that her two jailers were standing guard. No chance on that side.
She then noticed a door on the right, behind the desk. She approached it, turned around and pressed the latch with her hands tied. That's closed.
She turned her attention to the desk. There was a drawer on either side. She repeated the same operation than the door. They were both empty. That made her tick. She looked down and doesn't see dust around the legs of the furniture.
"It's just been brought in" she thought.
She looked at the chairs and the desk looking for a sharp edge to wear out her ties. No hope not on this side either. There was nothing to do for now but wait. She sat down, and began to drowse, her senses on the alert.
A long time passed. Night had completely fallen when she started. Noises came from the partition behind the desk. Someone must have come in through the back of the bungalow.
She got up. A key had just turned in the lock. The door behind the desk opened, and a man entered.
It was Spade.
Jay responds immediately. She ran at the sergeant, gave him a headbutt that surprised him, shoved him and finally passed the doorframe to enter the room where he had come from. She glanced so quickly that she could see more than she could see the objects in the room. room, really more like a blind storage room. There was only a bed and a bedside table.
She grabbed the latch and tried to close the door behind her, but Spade, recovered from his surprise, had already placed the end of his shoe in the meantime. She did try to push it, only his anchoring was not as good as his opponent's and inexorably the panel opened.
She then heard the sergeant's voice from the other side of the door:
"Excellent... tire yourself out especially..."
It increased his rage tenfold. She just turned around when he entered the room and kicked him just below his knee with all her energy. His attacker groaned in pain and threw a left hook immediately followed by a second from right in the middle of his liver.
Jay partially dodged the first shot by turning his head but could not avoid the second. The pain was so intense that it remained frozen in place, and then collapsed in a state of semi-consciousness.
Spade caught his breath. The burning sensation below his right knee began to diminish. He lowered eyes and saw Jay, motionless, face down on the ground. This worried him. What if...
He bent down and put his hand on the prisoner's shoulder to turn her over. This simple touch felt like a branding iron. Jay was startled, and rolled over, taking refuge under the bed. Spade tried to grab her by the leg, but it was a wasted effort.
Jay found himself face down under the bed, his two hands grabbing one of the slats to avoid being pulled or lifted. Spade first tried to grab her by reaching under the bed, but she had pressed herself against the wall and resisted with all her might.
So he decided to use another way, straightened up and removed the mattress and threw it behind him against the wall. From where he was, he could contemplate his prey under the slats, as if it had been in a cage.
"Small bird, you're caught now!"
His voice was still as calm, but more out of breath than at the beginning of the meeting. He then tried to get Jay to let go, but he felt as if his fingers had fused together to form a compact mass. He then tried to lift the bed, but only managed to get a slat.
This fierce resistance had initially stimulated him, but he was beginning to find the time long and was in a hurry to finish.
He then grabbed the frame of the box spring, and with all his strength lifted it up as one opens the lid of a chest. Jay, still clinging to his slat, found himself facing him, and in a last effort tried to give him a headbutt. He ducked him, and punched him in the temple.
Jay bit the dust for the second time.
He caught his breath and saw the room in a big mess. The mattress, the collapsed shape, the box spring up, the slat on the floor...
He has hauled his prey in the middle of the room and was in the process of putting the slat back in its housing when he heard the floor creaking behind him. This surprised him, for he had given the instruction formalizing his two henchmen to guard the exits.
He turned around and saw Alan Kotec in the doorway frame looking out at the scene. There was a few seconds of silence and then the second lieutenant says:
"Get out"
Spade had never really been impressed with the stripes, so he replied:
"Don't get involved in this. Get out and forget it"
Kotec then pulled out his blaster. From the speed of the movement, the sergeant realized that all the the gun's safety catch had already been removed.
"You got three seconds"
"All right, all right, aye, aye..."
He walked towards the door. Kotec moved back to his left to let him pass and then moved back three metres behind him as he walked through the office and out of the bungalow. He then found his two companions, one of whom was pressing a doubtfully clean scarf over his face. Kotec ordered him:
"Go with them"
Spade advanced to the level of the two soldiers, turned around and said:
"What do we do now?"
The second lieutenant raised his gun.
"Hey Lieutenant, don't fuck around!" exclaimed one of the soldiers who, in a fit of emotion, had just given him an extra rank.
Kotec fired over the heads of the three men, the blast going to pulverize an alarm box attached to one of the camp's streetlights. All the lights at the base went on and a siren began to scream.
Destroyer Imperial II, ESV262 "Destiny Blade", fourth traffic artery port side.
Hanson and his crew had sat on the compressed air cylinders and all were dozing while waiting for new instructions. They were not the only ones to do so, and a catacomb silence reigned in the crowded hallway. He thought:
"We should have taken some rations. It would have passed the time"
All of a sudden, a noise came from the end of the corridor. He raised his head and saw three death troopers that had just appeared at the end of the hall. The first one stopped right away, the second one in the middle, close to them, and the third at the other end.
Whoever was close to them then spoke. The other two probably had to do the same, but they were too far away for Hanson to hear them.
"At the first blast of the horn, you'll need to put on your helmets and check your oxygen supply. You'll have one minute to do so before the corridor depressurizes"
Then a break. He resumed, pointing to the red-striped plates above their heads:
"You will then wait for the emergency escape hatches to unlock. When the horn sounds for the second time you will cross them!"
Hanson looked up and saw that they were almost halfway between openings. As if he had reading his thoughts, the death trooper added:
"Agregate among yourselves for the order of passage. There mustn't be any jostling!"
He continued: "Once you are out, you will obey the commands of the scouts who came before you. Any questions?"
Hanson raised his hand.
"How about the guns?"
"A rifle for two. You'll have to pick the best shooters. The other two carry the grenades. Is that clear?"
Hanson nodded.
"Good. Get some rest. It won't be long now"
The first elite soldier had finished and had just joined him. They then continued on to the third and out of the hallway. Silence fell again. No one wanted to talk.
Republican base "Biem Hoa", headquarters, land battle of Dvar.
Spade was sitting in a chair in one of the command post offices. Facing him, behind a at the table were the intelligence officer, the base commander and Alan Kotec. The Base Commander sat between the two men and watched him without showing the slightest expression.
It was the intelligence officer who spoke first:
"Sergeant, we'd like to hear your explanation of the events of that night in which you were involved and which resulted in a general alert and a prisoner in the hospital"
Spade boasted that he despised the senior officers whom he held in contempt as a herd of badgers and shirkers. Nevertheless, he realized that this time he had to keep a low profile.
"Well, you know, Officer, I had brought this prisoner into my office for questioning"
"On what grounds? Interrogation is the domain of the intelligence service"
"Well, I thought I'd get some information faster..."
"By beating and then raping her?"
"It went wrong..."
The intelligence officer then turned to Alan Kotec.
"Sub-Lieutenant, you're the one who tripped the alarm. What did you see?"
Alan described to them the sequence of events. His insomnia, the sounds of a struggle in the bungalow, the soldier who had tried to keep him out and finally the description of the blind room behind the desk.
Spade realized then that he had made a huge mistake. As long as he was on the front lines, he could do all he wanted, but improvising in the heart of the base had been insane. He couldn't not to curse the officer who kept him away from Jay after he was captured. This whole mess was his fault.
Now we had to save his ass, and in view of the commander who hadn't opened his mouth yet, it wasn't a sure thing. So he tried to plead his case:
"Officer, when you're always on the front lines, you have to make quick decisions..."
"That's odd; it seems rather premeditated your business" replied the intelligence officer in a frosty voice.
He didn't know what to say, so he thought it best to add:
"That's kind of the way it is on Dvar..."
The commander then spoke:
"Well, we've wasted enough time with you. So here's what's going to happen: you're going to leave immediately for the eastern front or you'll be assigned as a corporal to the de-mining of the axes of attack"
Mine clearance! And on the eastern front as well! In this sector the average life expectancy of a pioneer did not exceed fifteen days!
"You have no right to degrade me! This must be pronounced by a court-martial!"
"Shut up! You'll appeal when you get back! In the meantime, you scratch your balls without an order and it's the execution stake in front of the lines! Is that clear?"
Spade couldn't help swallowing his spit. This was the punishment for traitors and cowards. Exposed attached to a stake under enemy fire. The guys on the other side knew it and made the fun last.
The commander turned to the intelligence officer:
"Go get the provost marshals"
The officer walked out of the room. A brief moment passed, and he returned with two military policemen, true giants with a mineral face. They each positioned themselves on one side of the sergeant. The commander took the floor again and addressed Spade, still seated.
"Stand up"
Spade obeyed. The Major then addressed the two provost marshals who were standing by:
"Get that man's stripes off"
With a few quick gestures, the rank marks were thrown to the ground. It was then the intelligence officer who spoke:
"Entrap him and take him to location E4. A liaison shuttle is waiting to pick him up"
One of the two MPs then took out a pair of handcuffs and bound Spade's wrists behind his back. The ex-sergeant and his two cerberians then went out and the door was closed without a sound.
The two officers and Kotec were left alone in the room. The commander finally broke the silence:
"Too bad, he's a good scout. But then he crossed the line"
"We've already let him do a lot of things," replied the intelligence officer.
"How is the prisoner? Is there any news from the hospital?"
"She's been sedated, she has three broken ribs, internal haematomas but no bleeding"
"Sacred good woman anyway" Kotec relieved. "To stand up to that scoundrel with her hands tied behind her back..."
"Yes, fortunately they are not all like that" replied the commander.