33: Landing Field

They had to be cutting it close. Twenty minutes to break out of the facility was not a lot of time, and John was starting to think that maybe they were running out of it as the team charged down the latest corridor. Kav'rak knew the way, or said he did, as the place had been built by the makalvari originally. He had the layouts memorised, although they did not take into account the additions and alterations the Calsharans had made in the interim. Nonetheless, his intel seemed accurate enough, for they were yet to hit any dead-ends. As they moved, their diminishing time limit only became more apparent.

John was near the head of the team, and as he moved he checked his watch. One minute left. Yes, they were cutting it fine, especially as there was no sighting of an exit yet. Behind him, Aithris and Natalia followed closely, with the Nomad showing no sign of weariness. Unlike John, who was puffing and panting and having to contend with increasingly sore legs. Even Natalia looked flushed and sweaty, despite the relatively cool temperature inside the underground facility. At the rear, Jonas and Elsie followed with Lieutenant Sha'Pek and Sergeant Hur'Par in the mix. The corridors were of the typical grey concrete sort, bearing some wear-and-tear that hinted at this section being part of the original construction. The team came upon a set of double doors then, large ones that were opened by a wheel to the right-hand side. A wheel that was stiff and hard to move, which incited Kav'rak to call for help as he tried to turn it.

John joined him there, and the pair threw their weight against it. The wheel, stiff after so long without use, suddenly gave way and creaked loudly within its housing. John saw the timer at his watch again: ten seconds. They had to be close to the exit, surely? The doors groaned, slowly sliding open as the wheel was turned, further and further. The tunnel beyond wound on for some distance, bending slightly and thereby placing its end out of sight. Once the wheel had turned all the way, it locked into place, keeping the doors open. John stretched his aching arms before he unslung the plasma rifle he had picked up earlier. He looked back at the others, about ready to get them moving again, when the entire facility was shaken by a violent rumble, the entire corridor rattling around them as the first of the explosives in the laboratory went off. And they, in turn, ruptured the power core that provided energy for the facility.

What began as a rumble turned into something far more severe, a violent shaking that caused chunks of rock and concrete to fall from the ceiling. Kav'rak stumbled, as did a few of the others. Further back down the corridor, a beam fell from the ceiling, a thick plume of dust billowing forth after it. Something back down the way they came exploded, and sparks and flame erupted from what had been a panel on the wall. Conduits sparked and ruptured, and white smoke started blowing out of a ruptured pipe.

Chunks of rock and concrete fell down all around the group. John covered his head with his hands, feeling a few pieces strike him on the shoulders.

"Through the door!" John shouted, trying to be heard over the deafening rumble. It was as if the entire mountain was moving, struck by an earthquake that threatened to cave it in entirely. John could hear something collapsing somewhere, and he assumed that as the laboratory was destroyed, those sections directly above it were starting to fall in. The facility's overall integrity had been compromised, as had been the intention, although John had not wanted to be here when that happened. The team begin to hurry through the opened bulkheads, with John being the last one out, sighting further fires sprouting back down the way they came.

He went to the wheel at the other side and began to turn it, slowly closing the doors. Aithris joined him, having had the same idea, and the both of them struggled and groaned as they tried to get the ageing sliding bulkhead to close all the way. Another support strut fell in from the ceiling on the other side, bringing with it a rain of rock and pieces of steel rebar. The floor cracked open towards the other end of the corridor, blue-tinted flame rushing up from underneath. The doors creaked to a close, shutting out the worst of it, but still the facility rumbled.

"Let's go," John told the group, and they resumed their hurried run down the facility's upper tunnels. Behind them, more of the walls and ceilings gave way as they ran, caution thrown to the wind. If they were in a hurry to get out, then so would the Calsharans, so hopefully they would not run into any trouble ahead. Kav'rak lead the way, taking them down the length of the tunnel and to another warehouse space. This one was older, not as well-maintained as the previous ones (nor as tidy). Old metal containers were scattered about, debris cluttering the floor as pieces of rock were shaken free from the ceiling. Ahead lay a pair of sliding doors, with sunlight creeping in underneath them. A way out, fresh air and the outside world. John felt a great sense of relief when he saw this, even more when he caught a whiff of the air from outside, tinged as it was with the smell of damp earth.

Kav'rak was first to one of the doors. There was a simple control panel next to it, with a lever and a few buttons. The makalvari Captain pulled the lever down, sounding a bell somewhere that continued ringing as the door slid open. Sunlight streamed inside, revealing an open, grassy hillside and a gravel road winding down it from the door itself. John joined Kav'rak at the opening, gazing down at what he could only describe as a 'landing zone': the ground below, at the base of the hill, had been cleared to make way for a large, concrete strip and a trio of hangar-like structures. As the group emerged from the concealed warehouse, a Calsharan fighter-craft took off from the airstrip, its engines a quiet hum as its wings extended and it shot off into the skies above the forest. John had to assume it was headed to the frontline. Forest surrounded the landing area, and from their vantage point the team had a good view of the entire compound. Would there be a way off of Dalabrai down there? At a glance, there appeared to be a distinct lack of Calsharan air vehicles. No other fighters were present, and certainly nothing any larger.

"You got a plan to get us home?" John looked to Kav'rak, who returned the gaze with his yellow eyes narrowed.

"We'll have to get back to that compound and take a train," Kav'rak said. "None of our forces are able to get here without the Calsharans detecting them."

"So, we hijack a train?" John wondered if this escapade would ever end. "Is that the best plan you have?"

"As a matter of fact, it is. This mission was very high-risk, and I'm convinced my superiors do not expect me to return alive."

"You mean they'd happily leave us for dead?" Behind them, another rumble sounded as part of the facility exploded. Smoke plumed out of the tunnel the team had emerged into the warehouse space from.

"We're expendable, aren't we?" It was Natalia who asked this, and she approached Kav'rak with a less-than-enthused look on her face. Kav'rak turned to her, offering the Russian a toothy smirk.

"We're soldiers. We're always expendable."

"You dragged us here so we could clean up your mess," Natalia countered, her tone shifting into something much firmer. "And now you're telling us your people are leaving us for dead?"

"We're still alive, aren't we? Exfiltration is by whatever means necessary. If that means trekking all the way back to Blaskane, so be it. You're all experienced at this kind of thing, or so I was assured. What is the problem?"

"The problem is that you haven't been forthcoming with us," Natalia stated. "I believe that your superiors brought us on board to encourage the Calsharans to shift some of their war effort towards us, towards Earth. And if we didn't make it back, then all the better." She was fuming, John could see as much. He had never really seen Natalia upset before, and he found himself paying close attention at the possibility of it happening right now.

"Not to mention the crystal I saw you take from that terminal in the lab," Jonas interjected, although as usual his tone was much more chipper. "Something you want to share with us, Captain?"

"That crystal is none of your concern, human," Kav'rak stated, shooting Jonas a mean glance. "Strictly confidential business of the Republic, I'm sure you understand."

"This isn't a surprise," Aithris added. "We all saw this coming from the start. Expendable assets, pure and simple."

Natalia raised her rifle, waving it in Kav'rak's face. John put out a hand, pushing the barrel down.

"Not like this, Sergeant," he told her, and he met her irritated eyes with a level gaze of his own. "We're supposed to be allies."

"Then the Captain should hand over that crystal, shouldn't he, sir?" Natalia asked him. She lowered the gun, no doubt realising that shooting the Captain would be a little extreme. Nonetheless, John detected the tension in the air, the kind that could blow up into something much more serious at any moment.

"We can't make him do that," John said, as much as he was inclined to snatch it off of the Captain. "We'll sort this all out when we get home. For now, we need to work together."

Lieutenant Sha'Pek had been standing some distance away, not at all concerned that his commanding officer was being threatened. He had instead been looking towards the landing area, exchanging a binocular-like device between himself and Sergeant Hur'Par. Kav'rak turned to the Lieutenant, anger taking hold of his features.

"Lieutenant, what are you doing?"

Sha'Pek turned to him, eyes narrowed.

"Scouting, sir." His reply was succinct, with a slight wry quality. "Why?"

"Why? You're supposed to back me up, Lieutenant."

"With all due respect, Captain, but it sounds like you brought this trouble onto yourself." Sha'Pek exchanged glances with his Sergeant, who in turn offered him a makalvari smile, pointed teeth showing. John felt a hand tap his shoulder then, and he turned to find Elsie standing on his right, Barrett rifle in her hands.

"I don't see any lizards down there, sir," she said, and she nodded in the direction of the landing area. "But no rides either." She had been holding out hope that there might be a vehicle down there they could commandeer, even a Calsharan landing craft. No such luck, it seemed. John did not find this surprising, as this was the older and less-used end of the facility. All the important stuff was back the way they had come, which would have likely sent them headlong into any Calsharan reinforcements.

"We'll just have to take it slow," John replied. He motioned for the others to follow, and his team started down the hill in earnest. Kav'rak, who was still busy speaking with his Lieutenant, turned and saw the group walking away and so quickly fell into step after them.


The team found their way to the rear of one of the large hangar-like structures. There was a door here, and John slowly pushed it open. Again, it appeared that this was part of the old facility, built by the makalvari many years before. The Calsharans had simply repurposed it for themselves.

The inside of the hangar was mostly empty, save for a Calsharan fighter that was undergoing maintenance. Its engine port was open, exposing the conduits and crystal circuits within. The main door was wide open onto the landing strip itself. A pair of Calsharan soldiers loitered over in one corner, talking quietly amongst themselves. One had his helmet off and was eating some kind of nutrient bar, typical military rations.

A Calsharan land-crawler was parked near the hangar opening. It was a bulky six-wheeled vehicle, its grey metal body scuffed and dented from general wear-and-tear. The rear doors were open to the cargo compartment, metal boxes stacked beside it. That seemed as good a ride as any, and John pointed it out to the others.

"If that thing's good to go, we may have a way out," he said. The group scattered amongst the containers and shelves, weapons trained on the pair of oblivious guards. Kav'rak was the one who gave the order to fire, with him, Sha'Pek and Hur'Par letting fly with a sudden volley of mag-rail shots that tore into the two unsuspecting Calsharans. The rounds punched through armour and blood spurted, causing the pair to twitch and jerk before they both fell into bleeding heaps. John looked to Kav'rak, having held off on his own order to fire until they were sure this was all the enemies they were faced with. The makalvari Captain barely offered him a second glance, and instead ran over to where the crawler was parked. The others followed, with Sha'Pek being the one to open the driver's side door and check the controls.

"Looks like it's got the power to go," he said, after a cursory examination. "Forest is pretty dense out there. I'm not sure how far we'll be able to go with this."

He had a point. They had all seen how dense the forests around here could get; even a vehicle such as this, with the all-terrain build necessary for tough drives, would have some issue bashing its way through the bush. They could stick to the roads, but that would only make them an easy target for the enemy.

"It's a start," Kav'rak declared, and he smacked a fist against the side of the sturdy vehicle. "We'll get as far as we can before we dump it."

John saw Aithris standing a little further past the crawler, his gaze directed out onto the landing strip. Something had caught the Nomad's attention, and John sidled up next to him, following his gaze to the hills beyond the other side of the landing zone.

"What is it?" He asked Aithris. The Nomad turned to him, his violet-hued eyes narrowed.

"I hear something," he said. The Nomad's sharper senses had not been wrong yet, so John had plenty of reason to take what he said seriously. John tried to listen out for whatever it was himself, yet the sounds of the others readying the Calsharan land crawler for use were a distraction. Whereas Aithris seemed capable of entering that Zen-like state of pure concentration, John on the other hand found himself much more easily distracted. Sometimes he envied the Nomad's superhuman abilities.

He saw it then, coming in low over the forested hills. A large, black-metal Calsharan landing craft. It was a little bigger than the others he had seen, and for a moment he thought that maybe they could hijack that instead. A fleeting idea, for it was quickly quelled by the fact that the landing craft was full of heavily armed Calsharans. The doors at the sides of the bulky, winged aircraft slid open as it approached. Long, black ropes fell from either side, and it slowed down over the landing strip. Its engine was a faint, high-pitched whine; no doubt what Aithris had heard shortly before everyone else's ears had picked up on it.

"We're about to have company," John said, and he turned to the others. "Get that thing moving. We're going to have to leave in a hurry." He checked his plasma rifle, ensuring that it was charged enough for an engagement. The landing craft had stopped just outside the hangar, and down each of the ropes came rappelling a black-armoured Calsharan soldier. More followed the first group, and more after that; something like a dozen of them came roping down out of the landing craft.

Sha'Pek and Hur'Par packed into the driver's cabin of the crawler. Kav'rak clambered into the rear. John shoved Jonas towards it, along with Aithris. Plasma fire cut through the air from outside the hangar, striking the nearby shelves and containers, sparks flying at each impact. The crawler's engine started, sounding as a dull growl as Sha'Pek revved the powerful motor.

"Natalia, you got any explosives left?" John turned to her as she started up the crawler's rear steps. She pulled out a claymore and a fragmentation grenade; John took both, before he gave her a light push. Someone was going to need to cover their escape. Elsie must have realised what he was thinking, for she jumped out of the rear of the crawler.

"Sir, aren't you coming?"

"I'll try and draw off the pursuit." He turned to the others, seeing Aithris and Natalia's expectant faces looking to him from the rear of the crawler. "Get that thing out of here!" He gave the back a kick with one booted foot, before he turned to Elsie. "You too, Lieutenant."

"You'll need help, Colonel."

"Get on that crawler, Lieutenant." His voice adopted a much harder tone, yet Elsie looked him in the eyes and did not move. Not even with the enemy platoon running their way from outside.

"You'll need help, sir." Her tone made it clear that she was not going to take 'no' for an answer. John, with no time to argue the point, simply sighed and gave her a nod. If she wanted to join him on one of his suicidal escapades, then so be it. The crawler lurched forwards then, with Aithris closing the rear doors as it took off. Plasma fire glanced off of its armoured sides as it barrelled on out of the hangar, charging across the asphalt and towards the far end of the compound. John and Elsie opened fire on the approaching Calsharans, with Elsie's Barrett thundering, the shot echoing about the hangar before the fifty-calibre round tore through one of the Calsharans, sending them falling.

John ducked behind one of the unloaded containers. The Calsharan crawler was speeding down the landing strip now, plasma bolts striking its armoured sides but leaving little more than minor black scorch marks. With the team heading off to relative safety, John pulled the fragmentation grenade from his waist, arming it before he tossed it in the direction of the gathered Calsharan soldiers. He ducked, as did Elsie, with the grenade detonating with a loud thump that knocked aside two of the Calsharans, throwing them to the asphalt like a pair of ragdolls.

John had intended to try leading these Calsharans away, giving enough time for the others to make their getaway. With the crawler now speeding off into the distance, John felt some small measure of contentment in the fact that for the time being, the heat was off of his team. With this in mind, he ran for the parked Calsharan fighter sitting inside the hangar. The open engine compartment showed him a host of control crystals derived from Ancient technology, technology granted to the Calsharans on the Broadsword battle-station little over one-thousand years ago. It was ironic, really, that the reason the Calsharans were so advanced was because of a human-made ship they had received centuries ago. The Calsharans had had one-thousand years to build upon it and refine it, unlike every other major power in the galaxy right now.

John knew there was a power core inside the engine somewhere. Nearby, Elsie sent another Calsharan falling, the fifty-calibre round having busted the visor on their helmet, splattering blood and brain matter out of the back of their head. She turned to John, wondering where he had gone to. John ducked as a few errant plasma bolts zipped by him, one of which left a blackened mark on the side of the fighter nearest to him.

Ripping out some of the crystals, throwing them to the floor where they clinked rolled about, John pulled open another panel inside the engine compartment itself. Behind it was what he was looking for: a simple metal cylinder with a narrow window on one side, the device itself being little under a foot long. Through the 'window' emanated a blue-white light. The power core, no doubt using the same energy principles as the weapons deployed by the Calsharans. It also had some level of volatility; nothing to the extent of a zero-point module going critical, but enough to create a sizeable blast. It was the same thing Aithris had done on Chulak, when they had needed to break into the compound surrounding the stargate. John, however, did not have the same technical knowhow as the Nomad did when it came to Calsharan systems. He did not know how to create a 'feedback loop' as Aithris had done that time, and so John resorted to the much simpler method he preferred: brute force.

He had to twist the cylindrical power core to get it free from its housing. It was warm to the touch, although it weighed almost nothing. Elsie was still nearby, and another one of her well-placed shots put down a Calsharan who had taken shelter just to the left of the open hangar door. The fifty-calibre round punched through the metal wall with ease, and in turn went through the Calsharan soldier's chest armour and blew out his heart. The soldier landed in a heap, dead before he even hit the ground. Ducking behind the unloaded containers, Elsie began to reload the bulky sniper rifle, glancing at John with increasing worry as she did so.

John held the power core in one hand now, and he raced back over to Elsie's place, ducking as a cluster of plasma bolts darted by him. He crouched behind the boxes with her, and she looked at him with a quirked eyebrow, curious as to what he intended with the power core.

"You have a plan?" She asked him.

"Not really." John threw the cylindrical power core up and over the containers. It clanked upon the concrete floor of the hangar before it began rolling steadily towards the Calsharans gathered outside. John leaned around the side of the containers he and Elsie were crouched behind, taking aim with his plasma rifle as he did so. He had no idea if his plan would work, although the way in which the Calsharan soldiers had turned and started to run at least suggested that maybe he was onto something.

He fired the plasma rifle, missing the rolling cylinder by a few inches. Adjusting his aim, he hit the pressure-pad trigger of the rifle again. This time, the blue plasma bolt struck the side of the cylinder square-on, and there followed a brilliant flash as the case cracked and the exotic energy within escaped. Inside those power cores, the plasma was contained in liquid form, a glowing blue viscous fluid that burned off slowly through a typical Calsharan engine, be it in a fighter or a land-crawler. Having it rupture, exposed to similar plasma energy, was a volatile combination. The explosion that followed knocked John flat on his backside, his eyes filled with a dazzling blue array of lights. The concussive shockwave of air that erupted from the source of the detonation rattled the nearby containers and knocked over a few of the Calsharans. The windows about the hangar all shattered, glass raining down from up high. Elsie ducked behind the containers, shaking her head and blinking her eyes in an effort to get the brilliant blue light out of them.

John's sight returned after a moment, although some blue scorch marks still lingered across his vision, slowly receding as the seconds ticked by. He picked himself up, dimly aware that the front of his vest was burning. Blue flame licked at his combat vest, the heat quickly building as it ate through the Kevlar and began to torch the shirt underneath.

"Help me with this," John said, wincing at the burning sensation as it came upon his chest. Elsie came over, assisting him in ripping the vest off and throwing it aside. Smoke wisped off of it as the small point of blue flame continued to eat through it, before finally burning itself out. The vest itself now had a gaping hole through it, and with that in view John decided he could do without it.

A smouldering blackened mark had been left at the entrance of the hangar, where the power core had gone up. Bodies were dotted about it, most sizzling from the lingering heat. Those were of the Calsharans shot down before the explosion, although John counted three more on top of that who had been caught in the flame. The top of the hangar opening had been partially sheared away, metal warped and blackened from the heat.

The land crawler was long gone by now. John held his rifle at the ready as he searched the vicinity for any sign of the enemy. Those that had fled the explosion were outside again, although they appeared to be hanging back. John heard the rumble of engines, multiple vehicles coming in from the other end of the compound. Reinforcements, and too many for him and Elsie to fight themselves.

Amazed that his haphazard plan of action had worked like it had, John turned to Elsie who appeared as surprised as he was.

"Holy shit, Colonel," she said. "That was something, all right."

"Yeah, it was." He saw the first of the Calsharan vehicles pulling to a halt on the landing strip outside. An open top vehicle, black and four-wheeled, not too dissimilar to a Jeep back home. It was followed by two more armoured land crawlers, each one with a plasma cannon mounted upon the back.

"We should run," John suggested, and he turned around and started for the hangar's rear entry. Elsie followed, the pair racing out of there before the enemy outside could organize itself. At least with the two of them on the run, their pursuers were less likely to focus their attention on the others. John wondered just how he was going to get out of this one. As always, he figured that an opportunity would present itself sooner or later. One always did.


Major Dravesk brought his staff car to a halt on the runway of the old makalvari airfield. He had been driving up with his armed escort when something had exploded at one of the hangars ahead, taking with it several Calsharan soldiers who had only just arrived here from the garrison. Now, parked across the runway from the partially wrecked hangar building, Dravesk looked to the mess made by what he assumed was an ignited power core and frowned. Behind him, two-armed land crawlers came to a stop. Further behind them came an armoured personnel carrier, packed with a dozen more soldiers. More reinforcements were on the way from the train depot. Dravesk had called in just about everyone he could for this assignment, as he had no intention of letting the humans and makalvari vermin responsible for his facility's destruction get away.

"Send someone in there to check it out," Dravesk said, speaking to the Lieutenant seated next to him. His aide nodded and climbed out of the staff car. Two soldiers came running over then, and he saw that they were two who had come from the site of the explosion. Both had their faces concealed under their helmets, although from the voices he heard they were a little frantic.

"The intruders fled in one of our land crawlers, sir," the one on the left said. Dravesk frowned, and the soldiers got the hint, the pair of them snapping off a salute. "Sorry, sir." The soldier pointed towards the far end of the airfield, to the tree line and forested hills beyond. "It went that way, sir. Westwards."

"There were two of them in the hangar, sir," the other soldier said. "We lost them in the explosion."

Behind Dravesk came the low, animalistic growls of the trio of calsagri hounds he had seated on the back seat. The three four-legged, grey-skinned creatures huffed and shifted restlessly, each one with a leash going from their neck to where it was tied to a handlebar at the rear of the staff car. The calsagri were mean predators and excellent trackers; Dravesk needed both traits if he were to find the humans responsible for this entire fiasco.

"Go back there and find them," Dravesk told the two soldiers, barely concealing his mounting anger. These soldiers must have been new transfers, since they did not carry themselves like some of those Dravesk had had at his disposal in the facility. He gestured for the four in the crawler to his right to join them, and the group climbed out and started across the runway. Dravesk remained seated, watching them from afar, the warmth of the morning sun pleasant against his skin. He need not have waited long, for a pair of them returned a few minutes later. One of them carried a vest of some sort, damaged and scorched in places but evidently one of human make.

"No one was in there, but we found this," the lead soldier, a Corporal, told him. He handed the wrecked vest to Dravesk. No one had died in it, unfortunately, but this item did present a certain other opportunity that the Major had come prepared for.

He held the damaged vest to the calsagri in the seat behind him. The three of them sniffed at it, nostrils flaring, their yellow eyes widening as they took in the scent. Right away they began to bark and growl, jaws snapping at the prospect of a fleshy meal. The three had been trained well.

"Take the hounds and find those runaways," Dravesk told the Corporal. "Take six troopers with you. The rest of us will pursue the crawler." He reached past the snarling calsagri, saliva trickling out of their mouths, in order to untie the trio from the handle behind them. The Corporal took the leads in turn, having to pull hard on them as the hounds jumped off of the staff car and tried to make a run for the damaged hangar.

"West, driver." Dravesk pointed a finger towards the far end of the airstrip. "And be fast about it."

The driver hit the accelerator hard on the staff car, sending it screeching along the asphalt. One of the armed crawlers and the personnel carrier followed, leaving the Corporal and his team to hunt down the runaways with the assistance of the calsagri. With more help arriving, it was unlikely the intruders would get far. Even if it meant turning the entire forest upside-down, Dravesk would find them. He would find them and present them as a gift to the High Protector; that is, those of them who survived. He did not intend on going out of his way to take them alive, but prisoners would be more valuable than corpses nonetheless.