22: Train
The maglev station had been lightly guarded. John and the others had been required to stealthily dispatch a pair of Calsharan soldiers standing guard directly in their path, before they had boarded an idling train. It was a sleek, grey affair, reminiscent of the bullet trains one could find in places like Japan. Kav'rak made it clear as they boarded that it was a makalvari design, commandeered by the invading Calsharans for their own use. Much of the signage about the station and on board the train was written in the common makalvari language, although the Calsharans had stuck their own signs near it so that their soldiers better understood what was what.
The group, and this included Lieutenant Sha'Pek and his Sergeant, Hur'Par, gathered in one of the rear cargo compartments. The train had got going about ten minutes after they had settled aboard, and according to Kav'rak it was likely an automated driver. The soldiers on board were probably not going to come back here, unless something happened to draw them to the cargo area. The train itself travelled smoothly, shooting across its magnetic rail with an ease that surprised John. There were no jolts, no buckles to be felt as the train shot into the wilderness surrounding Blaskane, headed for the forested mountains. Headed for trouble, John thought, and he once again wondered if this mission would even be worth that trouble.
The group sat amongst metal crates, and out of curiosity Kav'rak forced one open. Within were Calsharan ration packs, all neatly wrapped up in a grey, foil-like material. All of them contained meat of some variety, no doubt harvested from livestock back on their home-world and colonies. Kav'rak tore one open, taking a sniff of the contents before wrinkling his nose in distaste.
"There reaches a point when a meat has been so thoroughly preserved that it hardly qualifies as 'meat' anymore," he said.
John was seated nearby, joined by Aithris and Natalia. The former was checking over his rifle, whilst Natalia had pulled out one of the Air Force-issued MREs for herself. Nearby, Jonas leaned against one stack of crates, notebook in one hand as he wrote down what John figured were his observations of the mission so far.
"Excuse me, sir." It was Sergeant Hur'Par who said this, and Kav'rak turned to him, one eyebrow-ridge cocked. "Could I have that, please?"
"This?" Kav'rak held up the opened Calsharan ration and frowned. "Whatever for?"
"I'm hungry, sir."
"You want to eat this?" Kav'rak snorted in derision, but he otherwise threw the packet to the burly makalvari Sergeant who caught it with ease. "Suit yourself, Sergeant."
Hur'Par did not seem to mind the Calsharan ration. He began picking out pieces of the dried alien meat, chowing down as if it was premium cuisine. Elsie Rhodes, who had been seated across the aisle from the Sergeant, rose to her feet then. She had her Barrett rifle leaning against a nearby wall, perhaps the least practical weapon any of them had on them at the moment. She crossed to the opened crate and pulled out one of the ration packets, before she tore it open and took a sniff. Apparently satisfied, she put a hand in and pulled out a few strips of what looked like beef jerky. She started eating, not bothered at all by the taste.
"Not bad," she said, and she sat down by the crate, pulling out some more of the dried meat before she stuffed it into her mouth. "Not the best, but it's all right."
"You sure you should be eating an alien meat?" It was Natalia who asked this. Elsie looked to her, her face still visibly bruised from her run-in with the Calsharans earlier. She shrugged in reply and kept on eating. John found the woman's laidback attitude refreshing, and all this talk of food, alien or not, only served to remind him that he had not eaten for a while either. Now was as good an opportunity as any, he supposed. His gaze wandered as he fished into a pouch on his vest for an energy bar, and he surveyed the team as a whole. Three makalvari, one Nomad and a bunch of humans. They made for a disparate bunch, all headed onwards into further danger.
Lieutenant Sha'Pek was seated to the Sergeant's right, and he was toying with his rail rifle, making adjustments to the sights. John watched him, curious, and Sha'Pek noticed his interest.
"They don't have these where you're from, Colonel?" Sha'Pek asked him, and he held up the rifle.
"Not really."
He held it out to John.
"You can take a look, if you want."
John was surprised by the gesture, but Sha'Pek struck him as a reasonable person. He took the hefty grey-metal rifle into his grasp, peering down the sights towards a spot on the far wall. It was not as light as the Calsharan plasma weapons. No, this thing was sturdy, which hinted at a rawness behind the principle it worked on.
"We use those because they're more reliable than our own energy weapons," Sha'Pek said. "And more accurate, too. That thing could take the wings off a bird from a mile away, if you knew what you were doing."
John lowered the gun, before he handed it back to the makalvari Lieutenant.
"It looks mean," he remarked.
"That's because it is. And it has to be, if we're going to take down these stinking lizards." His voice soured at the thought of the Calsharans. There was some understandable animosity there. John did not feel that mentioning his former Calsharan friend and team member, Valkas, would be appropriate in this instance.
"You been fighting the Calsharans for long?" It was Jonas who asked this. He had that eager, thirst-for-knowledge look on his face. His eyes lit up even more than Daniel's did whenever he was on the verge of uncovering some new discovery.
"There's been an on-again, off-again conflict with them for decades," Kav'rak said, turning to Jonas. "But it was never as widespread as it is now. We had disputes over strategic, resource-rich worlds. A strike force lead by Commander Rila Cassalis laid waste to Blaskane several years ago."
Hearing the name, John perked up. Kav'rak noticed this and he gave a grim smile.
"Yes, it seems we both have had our run-ins with that one. She is a Supreme Commander now, apparently. Courtesy of the new Calsharan High Protector, who just so happens to be her nephew. She lead a strike force here years back that broke a cease-fire, and they deployed chemical weapons on Blaskane. Thousands died, and the place has never been properly reinhabited since. And the Calsharans continue to use chemical weapons, even now."
"And you, Lieutenant?" Jonas asked, turning to Sha'Pek. "It looks like you've been fighting this war for a while."
"I've been fighting for years, and not only the Calsharans." Sha'Pek leaned back where he sat, placing his rifle aside as he did so.
"Who else have you fought?"
"Mostly humans," Sha'Pek replied, and he smirked when he saw the surprised, questioning glances he received from the humans present. "You see, the great Republic of Makvar has been expanding its holdings for a very long time. Some worlds we have under our administration were home to less advanced human societies. Many of them did not take kindly to our presence."
"The Lieutenant here saved a General's life," Hur'Par added.
"Is that right?" Jonas was fascinated. John, on the other hand, not quite as much. Still, he listened nonetheless, as there was little else to do in the cargo carriage than sit and chat.
"That was maybe five years ago?" Sha'Pek seemed to think carefully on it, unsure if that guess was accurate. Looking back, so much of those past battles seemed to merge together in one long, unbroken chain of bloodshed. "Sometimes I wonder why I bothered."
"Why is that?" It was Elsie who asked this. Sha'Pek glanced to her, and then he nodded at Kav'rak, whose eyes narrowed into a hard frown.
"Because people like him never give me a break," the makalvari Lieutenant said. "They made me an officer for saving that man's life. Not many proper officers, like the Captain here, think highly of a jump-up like me."
"That isn't true, Lieutenant…" Kav'rak began, but Sha'Pek was quick to interrupt.
"You and I know just how true it is." He intentionally left out the 'sir' at the end, if only to further irritate the Captain.
"You know, I can sort of relate." Elsie nodded her head. "I mean, it's not the same, not really, but I've pretty much blown every opportunity I had to get promoted. I'm a troublemaker, you see. When you're in the military, you have to take a lot of shit. Except sometimes, I don't tolerate it." She looked to the Colonel, offering him a friendly smile. "I do think Colonel Sheppard here isn't likely to do anything to piss me off. Not like some of the other bosses I've had."
If what she said was true, then John could understand why a woman well into her thirties was still a Lieutenant. She could have made Captain by now, if she had been in the service for as long as John figured she had been. She was certainly not green, not by a longshot, and her skill with a precision rifle had become apparent earlier. She had not stated as much, but John knew she was the one who had saved his life earlier. All with one long distance shot to the head of a Calsharan, one who had practically been on top of him. A risky shot to take and John was grateful that she had taken it.
Kav'rak appeared uninterested in the discussion, and so he headed towards the far end of the carriage.
"I'm going to check the other compartments," he said. A flimsy excuse, since they had already swept through them upon boarding the train. The cargo section was empty of Calsharans. Kav'rak simply wanted time to himself. Once Kav'rak had gone on into the next carriage, Sha'Pek spoke again.
"You know, I recognised his name. He's the son of the previous Captain of the Royal Guard. Kav'rak there has been around royalty all his life." Sha'Pek gave a derisive snort then, as if the idea of royalty offended him. "The gods only know why the hell he's here, of all places. Someone like him should be back home hosting parades and attending ceremonies."
"I think he was forced to take this mission," John said, voicing his suspicions. "And I think he's playing an agenda that doesn't really line up with ours. We're here to support an ally and recover information."
"I never knew there was a weapons research facility on Dalabrai," Sha'Pek said. "It must have been top secret. And now we're what, going there to blow it up? Our merry little band?" He shook his head, his head plume swaying with each movement. "I think we're going in to clean someone else's mess. Probably one the Captain had a hand in himself. And you and your people, they're dragging you into this because maybe they think it'll get some of the heat off of them?"
"You might be right, Lieutenant," John replied. "But we're here, now, and it wouldn't do anyone any good to pull out or even to second guess our presence here. We're here to gather as much intelligence as we can, and that includes anything about what was being done at that facility."
"I'd be careful, Colonel. You go poking your nose in there and the Captain might arrange some unfortunate 'accident' for you and your team." Sha'Pek spoke with all seriousness, and John found himself listening closely, taking in the warning and realising immediately that there was a level of legitimacy to it. "It wouldn't be hard to do. He could have you get caught in the blast when the facility goes up. Maybe he shoots you in the back and then blames it on a sniper."
"I doubt he's going to kill us," John said. Still, the possibility lingered. "Are you sure your promotion to officer didn't increase your paranoia as well as your standing?"
Sha'Pek bared his pointed teeth in a smile when he heard this little joke. Sergeant Hur'Par, who had just finished off the dried meat inside the Calsharan ration pack, leaned forwards then and added something of his own to the conversation:
"You people don't know what our leaders are like," he said, his voice laced with an unusual accent that greatly differed to Sha'Pek's and Kav'rak's own ones. It was not unlikely, as the makalvari were likely as diverse a people as humanity was. "All backstabbing and lies and scheming. Bunch of crooks, as far as I'm concerned."
"You fight in their army."
"I don't fight for them, I fight for my people. My friends and family back home. The Emperor, or Regent I mean, can go jump off a cliff for all I care."
Such talk might have been considered seditious, and judging from the way the makalvari conducted themselves, they would have taken a serious stance on that kind of thing. The group fell silent when Kav'rak reappeared, apparently satisfied with his cursory search of the other compartments.
"And as I was saying, sir, those old stories might have some merit to them," Hur'Par said, much more loudly. He turned to Sha'Pek, giving the impression that they had been engrossed in a very different conversation than what had really taken place.
"What do you mean, Sergeant?"
"I mean, all legends have an ounce of truth behind them. Our people fought some nasty things way back in the day. It's a shame so many now have forgotten about it. You know, my grandfather used to tell me those stories, passed down onto him from his father and going back generations through the family."
"Are we talking about the 'Void Demons'?" Jonas asked them.
"I suppose that's one name for them," Hur'Par answered. "You know, many years ago, my grandfather was convinced that demons were out to get him."
"And what happened?"
"Well, they got him, they did."
The journey went on for close to another hour. Lieutenant Elsie Rhodes found herself growing increasingly bored as it went on, and so she got up and went for the rear of the carriage. There was little back there save for more boxes. She slid open the door at the very end, allowing the midday light to stream in, tempered by a chilly breeze. She paused on the small platform at the very end of the train, looking back across a forested hillside. The landscape rushed by in a green blur, the speed well beyond anything one might consider 'safe'. She gripped the handrail around the platform, reconsidering her idea to get some fresh air. Catching fresh air at two-hundred kilometres an hour was not exactly the pleasant setting she had envisioned.
She had made a mistake. That was all that was on her mind now. She had survived when her team had not, and that to her was a mistake. She supposed it was to be expected, the so-called 'survivor's guilt'. The ambush played out in her mind again and again, sometimes with slight alterations as she pondered what she could have done better. And sometimes, there was the alteration in which she died instead of one of the others. It was all pointless, really. What had happened had happened, and there was no going back to change it.
At least now she could maybe redeem herself. If they got to this facility and destroyed it, then that would maybe alleviate the sense of failure. Maybe she got herself killed along the way? She was surprisingly accepting of that. The nature of the work meant she would brush with death on the regular, except now there was less of that underlying fear regarding the possibility of death. If it happened, it happened. She would simply do as she normally did and try to avoid it.
Her father would be disappointed to see her wallowing in her own thoughts like this. The old man had been hard, but she had since come to realise that it had been for her own good. Growing up in some small flyspeck rural town bred hard men like her father, not to mention had lead to the kind of boredom that had driven her to join the Army.
The bruises on her face were still tender. She had caught her reflection earlier and had been surprised by how bad she looked. The Calsharans had been rough, and she could feel at least one front tooth that was a lot looser than it had been previously. Even so, she was not about to let a mere beating stop her. As long as she had a breath left in her, she would push onwards.
From one pocket, she pulled an old silver lighter. A memento left to her by her father, an item he had carried with him when he had fought in Vietnam. She flicked it open, closed it, flicked it open again. So on and so forth, she fiddled with the lid, fluid like with the well-practiced movement.
"Lieutenant?" It was Colonel Sheppard. He had stopped in the doorway behind her, hands holding onto the edges of it. "You sure it's safe to be standing out there?"
"No, sir." She turned around to face him. "I'll come in. I just needed some air."
John stepped aside to allow her back into the compartment. He slid the door shut behind her once she was inside the somewhat warmer interior.
"You all right?" He asked her. He sounded sincere. Elsie stopped nearby, looking his way.
"Yeah, I'll be fine, Colonel."
"What's that?" He glanced at the lighter she still had in her hand. She held it up, giving the Colonel a solid look.
"My dad's old lighter. He used to smoke like a chimney." She chuckled then, popping open the cap on the lighter and igniting a flame. "I don't even smoke, but I keep it around. Always handy to have a flame ready to go."
"Yeah, I'll bet."
She flicked off the flame then, closing the lid on the lighter before she slipped it back into a pocket.
"He had it with him in Vietnam, it's that old. Battle of Long Tan, you hear of it?"
"Vaguely. Is he the reason you got into the army?" This Colonel was certainly observant. Her uniform denoted her as Australian Army, rather than the Royal Australian Air Force.
"Sort of. It's complicated." She shrugged. "You probably don't want to hear about it, sir."
"Maybe. But if we've got time…" He was interrupted then, as Kav'rak called from further down the carriage.
"Colonel Sheppard, we are minutes away from our destination. I suggest we ready ourselves."
"All right, Captain." John returned his attention to Elsie. "Like I said, maybe you can tell me all about it when we're off this planet?"
"Yeah, maybe." If we're still alive, she was about to add, but there was no need. They both knew all too well that this particular result was very much up-in-the-air.
"I know what you're feeling, Lieutenant. I've been there." John surprised her with this statement, as the pair headed for where the others were gathered. "Losing people, it's tough. Always is."
"I'm the only one in the team still standing."
"And don't beat yourself up over it. You're here, able to fight and so you keep pushing on. Don't let their deaths be a waste."
"Yes, sir." Elsie nodded, even if she was not really feeling it. "I'll try, sir."
The train came to a halt in the middle of a small depot of sorts, fenced off on a forested hillside with little remarkable about it. The Calsharans had claimed the former makalvari depot as their own and used it to routinely transport supplies through to the weapons facility some kilometres further north-east. The facility had been built decades before, used for one project after another, and it had been placed well off of the beaten path for good reason. The depot served to supply not only the facility, but a mine further south, although that mine had been abandoned for about twenty years now.
The depot had been converted by the Calsharans into a guarded compound, staffed by a handful of soldiers and workers. There were some anti-air defences scattered about, as well as a pair of guard towers overlooking either end of the compound. In all, it was a token presence at most. The bulk of the soldiers would be at the facility, where the most important work was taking place.
Disembarking the train was easy enough. Kav'rak lead the way, apparently confident in his abilities to get the team out of the compound without being discovered. John allowed the makalvari Captain to take charge, as he was the only one here who knew the way to the compound. Slowly, they left the train's rear, jumping down to the platform nearby whilst a pair of Calsharan soldiers strolled over to the forward car. Above, the sky was a dismal overcast grey, the ground wet underfoot from the recent rainfall. More was to come, if the scent of it on the air was any indication. They would likely be working their way to the facility when it started again.
There were two plain grey buildings in the compound, surrounded by a cluster of smaller sheds and the like. The team moved quickly and quietly, making their way past one of the main buildings. Through a door they passed, voices could be heard. Laughter even, as a group of Calsharan soldiers sat about a table and played some kind of game involving dice and the exchange of money. John caught sight of them through a narrow window in the middle of the door, three of them seated around a table with their armour on but helmets off, rifles leaning up against the wall nearby.
It would have been foolish getting into a fight now if they did not need to. Getting discovered was one thing, avoiding discovery was preferred. Any trouble here would be relayed to the soldiers at the weapons facility, and the increased alertness there that followed would only make their job harder later on. For now, they had to play it by stealth, and that meant sneaking out of this compound with a minimum of fuss.
The makalvari in their group moved with a swiftness and light-footedness that spoke of their species' agility and speed. It made sense, John supposed, given their avian nature (if such a term could even be applied to an alien species. Such Earth-bound terms did not necessarily hold relevance to something not from Earth).
They came upon the northward fence, which was comprised of solid metal sheets fitted upon steel posts. In the shelter of a nearby shed, marked with makalvari signage that the Calsharans had not bothered to replace, the group came to a stop. Here, Kav'rak pulled a small two-pronged device from a pouch at his waist. It was little larger than his hand, and with the push of a button a small blue beam of energy began to emanate from its fork-like end. This short beam began cutting into the metal, and Kav'rak kept the hole low, having started behind where a stack of containers was situated. A way out, and when it came to their extraction, a potential way in. Getting out was something John had pondered, as that was one part of the plan that had not been entirely clear. They could very well destroy the facility and get out of it alive, but what then? Would they come back here, when their activities would have no doubt brought an army down upon them? Stealing a Calsharan vehicle seemed to offer a way out, and there had to be some around, either here or at the facility.
Aithris kept a lookout down the lane they had travelled, rifle raised. The Nomad had been as attentive and sharp-eyed as ever, working with a finesse John had seen from few other soldiers. Natalia and Jonas were crouched across the lane from John, whilst Elsie was to his left, her rifle propped upon the top of a metal crate. She kept it trained down the way they had come, ensuring that if any enemy did appear, they would not be standing for long.
Kav'rak had cut a decent-sized hole in the fence after a few minutes. With a light push, the cut-out fell onto the gravel beyond. Through it, they could crawl out one at a time. The last one out could drag a few of the nearby crates behind them, a means to cover up this new escape route.
Kav'rak switched off the laser cutter then, slipping it back into his combat vest before he turned to the others.
"All right, one at a time," he said, his voice low. Somewhere above came the whine of a Calsharan fighter, and they all glanced upwards. The fighter shot across the grey sky well above the compound, and it was unlikely the pilot would have noticed the group of non-Calsharans amongst the clutter of the old depot. Looking back down, John saw Kav'rak already crawling through the hole. Leading from the front, or simply eager to be first out of the compound.
"Come on, it's clear." Kav'rak's voice sounded from the other side of the fence a moment later. John looked to the others, motioning to Natalia first.
"Go on, Sergeant," he told her. She nodded, before she went down on her stomach and began commando-crawling through the hole. Jonas was next, with Sha'Pek and Hur'Par following. Then Elsie, who pushed her Barrett sniper rifle ahead of her for one of the others outside to hold onto as she crawled. Finally, Aithris followed, with John once again being the last one out. As he went, he dragged one of the closest metal crates after him, pushing it in front of the hole before crawling outside. He found himself on a gravel surface, a stretch of which surrounded the perimeter of the compound. The ground was mostly clear for about twenty metres around the compound, the trees here having long since been cut down and cleared away. The grass had grown long, however, and John figured they might be safe if they crawled through it all. The tree line beyond that twenty-metre mark was thick, the beginnings of a rainforest that went on for miles all around. Rocky hills were situated far off into the distance, looking down upon the overall valley. Somewhere among them was the facility, although from here it was impossible to see where it may have been.
"Stay low." John plunged into the long grass, keeping down with the others following suit. One of the guard towers was further off to their right. Glancing towards the tower, it was hard to discern from this distance if the guard up there was even looking their way. Regardless, the group went the longer, slower way, crawling through the overgrown grass in a staggered line. From afar, it would have appeared unchanged, save for some swaying. With the breeze coming through from the mountains, it would have appeared natural, and it was under this cover that the disparate group made their way into the surrounding rainforest, scrambling through the undergrowth at the tree line. Once in the shelter of the forest canopy, they were offered a chance to relax, no longer under the direct threat of discovery. Heading down a slight slope, the team came to a stop amongst a cluster of tall, aged trees. There was a chill in the air from the cold breeze that wafted in from the west, and the bushes and leafy branches around them rustled and swayed. The ground underfoot was soft and damp, with the sounds of chirruping insects sounding from all around, interspersed by the twittering of some exotic alien bird.
John saw a small, yellow lizard-like creature dart along a branch near his head. It ignored him, disappearing into a cleft inside the tree trunk.
"All right, what's the plan?" It was Elsie who said this, from where she stood in the shade of an old tree a few metres opposite of where John stood. "Where's this facility?"
"Further north," Kav'rak replied, and he turned to her, regarding the female Lieutenant with a slight frown which he then set upon the others with her. "This area is under regular patrol, so we must tread lightly. The less trouble we cause now, the easier it will be to carry out our mission at the facility."
"How far are we talking?"
"Five of your kilometres, perhaps. Nothing too far, easily traversable in good time. The terrain is rough in places, but as we are all experienced soldiers here I believe we should have no trouble with it." One eyebrow ridge quirked, as if he expected differently. "I mean, that is the case, is it not? General Janssen assured me that SG-1 are the best at what they do."
"Oh yeah, we're great. Great cooks, great athletes, all around Renaissance men. And women." John smirked when he saw Kav'rak's irritated glance. "We should take turns with who takes point and who follows up at the rear."
"Exactly what I was thinking, Colonel." It was Elsie who said this, causing all heads to turn her way. "Captain Kav'rak should take point. This is his mission, after all. And all good leaders do so from the front." Her sarcasm was clear, even to the makalvari. John saw Sergeant Hur'Par give his species' version of a smirk, pointed teeth flashing.
"It only makes sense, sir," Sha'Pek said, turning to Kav'rak. "You're the only one who knows the way to this 'secret facility'."
Kav'rak, an officer who had seen little frontline combat for some years, knew he had no other choice but to take the lead. John saw the way he seemed about to protest, before he caught himself and simply gave a nod, relenting to the plan despite his obvious displeasure. Taking point in hostile territory and in a rainforest no less only increased one's odds of getting killed. They all knew that, and John knew better than to leave their one means of finding this facility easily to get left in the firing line. Sure, a road was likely present, but sticking close to it would only increase their odds of discovery.
"I'll go with him," John said, and he noticed some small trace of relief upon Kav'rak's features. "It's only fair. We're supposed to be cooperating, right?" He expected no answer to that question. He received none. After they took a moment to check their equipment and doublecheck that they were not being followed, Kav'rak started on into the forest, with John keeping pace by his side. The others followed, moving in pairs and staggering the line somewhat. Aithris took up the rear, his blazing violet eyes taking careful notice of the forest around them, keenly searching for anything that might have been abnormal.
Five kilometres was not far, not for people like John. He had marched much further than that in a day. Still, in this terrain it would feel more like fifteen. From a ruined town, to a train and now a forest; it seemed this mission was going to take him all over Dalabrai. He wondered then, such as he did when starting on a long walk, as to how Daniel might have been going with his own investigation. Probably nowhere near as dangerous, he mused.
