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"We are not here to curse the darkness, but to light the candle that can guide us through that darkness to a safe and sane future."
~John F. Kennedy
Chapter Fifty-one: Shadow
"I want everyone ready to move. No breaks until Shen and the high forehead team are done with those data files."
"It's going to be a hell of a fight, Jane." Aileen sidled out of Cameron's way, forced to press into the wall because Jane wasn't yielding an inch in passing and wasn't slowing down to let the blonde catch up either. "I doubt Advent's going to let us waltz out with Doctor Vahlen-"
"They don't get a say." Jane thundered around the next corner, cracking her knuckles. "I want you, and I want Mox. I'll take Fatima too."
"What about me?" David rapped Jane on the shoulder when she didn't immediately respond. "You could use the fire support, Irish."
"I imagine we're punching into this facility on the down-low, like the raid to recover Mox. Throwing grenades and kicking ass is only going to complicate our job." Jane's jaw worked for a minute. "I'm not taking you, David."
"Damn it, Jane!" His face split with an impressive Down Under scowl. "Going in with a half-team is a suicide mission-"
"Which is why I have Aileen to cover me."
"I'm not letting you just run off and-"
"David." Jane shot him a harsh look. "We've had this conversation."
His turn to work his jaw. "I don't like-"
"I don't care." Without another word or thought, Jane deployed the Cold Shoulder. "I don't want anyone checking out, not for a minute. If something else comes up while we're deployed, I want a second squad to be able to engage. David, you can have that strike team. Take Charlotte, take Julie, take Meysam and..."
Jane ground to a halt. For a moment, she fought a pulsing wave of red rage.
"And?" Aileen frowned.
"...and his friends. Meysam and his friends." Jane pushed herself on, eye twitching. "Leaves you with no Ranger support, but since our illustrious and objective XO stripped Mariah of her sword, we're low on options."
"Have you gone to the Commander about that?" Aileen chewed her lip for a moment. "We need all hands on deck, and Mariah's good at what she does. Gallant could overrule Bradford-"
"He's in no mood to talk to anyone. Last time he and I spoke..." Jane's eye twitched again. "He's losing himself in desperation. We talk about Bradford's lack of objectivity? Gallant's even worse. He's acting like he did before Switzerland."
David scowled. "I thought he'd gotten over whatever it was-"
"It's fear, David, that makes him into the snide asshole he is." Jane didn't think she needed a psychology degree to put that together. "He's afraid, and he feels powerless, and he takes it out on everyone around him. He's downright terrified, because threatening Vahlen threatens him right where he lives. It'd be like if I was missing. You two would be out of your minds."
"He would be. I'd be drinking." Aileen beamed when Jane glared at her. "You love me. You know you love me."
"You certainly bring up strong emotions-"
Jane snapped to attention as they rounded the next corner. Her hand shot to her forehead in the most precise, most formal, most fuck-you-asshole salute she could muster.
"Captain." John Bradford eyed her, eyed Aileen, and eyed David, each for a pregnant moment. Slowly, he returned their salutes.
"Central." Jane bit her tongue from there on out, but she did admire Bradford's nice cheek bruises.
"Captain." Bradford eased past her, angling for the bridge. He shouldered Aileen out of the way.
"Central." Jane watched him go.
No one moved.
"That..." Aileen nodded judiciously. "That was fucking awkward."
"I'm sending over the next sequence...now." Lily hit the transmit button. Her screen glowed blue, and then...
"Received." Tygan tapped on his own screen for a moment. "SHADOW protocols engaged. Running decryption."
"And we've just passed the sixteen hour mark." Jiaying rubbed her eyes. "Have any of you slept? I haven't slept."
"No, but I brought the life potion." Kipler deposited a tray of steaming chipped mugs on the laboratory's center counter. "Venti caramel macchiato with an extra shot or six, with almond milk, berserker steroids, and a half pack of Splenda."
"Say what?" Jiaying stared.
Kipler frowned. "You have something against Splenda?"
"I didn't know we had a Starbucks on the Avenger." Tygan claimed one drink and downed half of it in one go. Meanwhile, Lily tried to touch hers and nearly scalded her finger.
"I didn't know you were genetically enhanced, Doctor." She returned to typing, hunting through Julian's treasure trove of Advent data. "There's a lot of crap in here. Repeated transmissions, odd orders thrown in all out of sequence..."
"It seems like junk mail." Kipler rooted around on his own terminal for a minute, nursing his coffee. "Leftover and refuse, thrown out by Advent and awaiting deletion."
"Certainly nothing so far has been exciting." Jiaying's face lifted as she inhaled a gulp of Kipler's brew. "Oh, lord. That could pry an Elder out of his life pod."
"Julian said his calculations indicated over a ninety percent chance that the data in this shit pile was worth more than the paper I use to-"
"I believe I have something." Tygan gave Lily a stink-eye, but she was feeling magnanimous so she ignored it. "It's not much, but there's something orderly about this sequence. I'm increasing the complexity of the decryption algorithms."
"Ninety percent." Lily beamed. "You can't fail with ninety percent."
"Ten percent of the time you can."
"Semantics. When was the last time you missed a ninety percent shot?"
Kipler slowly raised an eyebrow. "I don't know if you've been paying attention to where we are, but-"
"Data decrypted." Tygan paused. "Hold on."
"Doctor?" Lily frowned, waiting as he typed and typed. A moment later, the big screen on the SHADOW Chamber wall flickered. Then...
"Data!" Lily bounced to her feet as characters spilled onto the screen, clockwise from the inner right in Advent style. "Data!"
"Not just data." Tygan hit another few buttons, and the characters rapidly turned to English. They didn't re-sort into left-to-right rows, but they didn't need to: everyone in the room had been reading Advent data sets for long enough.
"...these are coordinates," Jiaying breathed. She swallowed, wide eyes red. "I don't believe it. That computer actually...he came through."
"He did." Kipler shook his head. "Or did he? It could be a trap."
"He has no motive." Lily felt a smile break out across her face. "He gains nothing. He did this for us - for Dad. He led us right to Doctor Vahlen!"
"And not just her." Tygan pointed to another data entry. "This came from-"
"Outrider!" Jiaying clutched at the ends of her hair. "Outrider doesn't mean Vahlen-"
"Julian was right that this was significant data. We can tentatively assume he was right about the rest of it." Lily copied the coordinates and put them into a map system. "Okay. It looks like..." She glanced up at Jiaying. "Canada. Not far from Calgary."
"We need to get these coordinates to Central." Tygan set to work quickly. "I'll write a briefing note. Shen, inform the Commander immediately."
"Will do." Lily hesitated a moment later. "Unless you think he means you, cuz?"
"No, you can have it." Jiaying pursed her lips. "I don't like this."
"You think?" Kipler's beard quivered as he exhaled worriedly. "I think it's a trap. Why would Advent broadcast Dragunova's name and location like this? They're luring us in."
"Even if that's the case, we have no choice but to take a look." Lily claimed her tablet and transferred files.
"But, Lily-"
"She's right, Jiaying." Tygan clasped his hands behind his back. "If there's even a chance Outrider and Vahlen are at this location, we have to make an attempt to rescue them."
"But...you..." Something defeated finally worked over Jiaying's cheeks. "So be it, then."
"Don't look so morose." Lily punched her on the am. "We might take some knocks, but we'll still have Avenger, no matter what happens. Even if it's a trap, we can pull Menace out of the fire and pull up stakes."
"That's true." And, if anything, it only seemed to make Jiaying sadder. "And the war will continue, for us at least."
"That's the idea. That's the job: eternal vigilance." Lily finally got a gulp of coffee down, then headed for the door. "Finally, I get to give the big man good news."
Thump! Thump!
"Who is it?" Tinny, the voice, echoing from the other side of the sealed compartment door. It didn't quite sound right for the occupant.
"Julie Richardson." She waited for a moment, and when no audible reply came forth, decided to press. "I thought I'd check in on you."
There came no response, but after a moment feet hit the deck. Julie waited as they approached the door. It hissed, and...
"It would seem some minds think alike." Charlotte Moineau inclined her head.
"Oh. Hello." Julie did her best to smile. She pulled the little box from under her arm. "I made brownies."
"Now I feel inadequate." Charlotte glanced over to the bed and its occupant. "Mariah?"
"I like brownies." There was more animation in her tone than Julie had heard in days.
"I'll take that as an invitation in." And Julie stepped over the threshold. Charlotte shut the door behind her, then settled at Mariah's right.
"I can't speak for how good they are. I had to scrounge a good bit to find the ingredients. Eggs in particular!" Julie shivered theatrically. She offered the box first to Mariah, who gently took it and began to pry morosely at one of the corners. Julie put her hands on her hips. "Take the damn center piece, Mariah, and don't feel guilty."
"But..." Hesitantly, she did as she was told. Julie nodded.
"That's right. Now enjoy it, or else."
"But you made them. I feel guilty." Evidently she wasn't guilty enough to avoid eating the sinfully soft oblong chunk of chocolately joy, studded with peanut butter chips.
"How are you holding up?" Julie handed the box to Charlotte.
"I..." Mariah had to deal with a mouth full of heaven in the only appropriate way known to even the Elders before she could answer. "I'm fine. I'm just fine."
"That is what she was saying to me a moment ago." Charlotte raised a golden eyebrow. "I am not convinced."
"I am!" Mariah huffed. "It's not...sure, maybe running around with a mop instead of a sword isn't glamorous, but it helps in its own way. It's...it's just as important. Maybe I'm better suited for it."
"No one on this ship believes that except you." Julie smiled.
Her smile faltered when Mariah's eyes flicked up, full of hurt and snide disbelief.
"You...and..." Julie coughed into her elbow. "Well, I mean...um...he'll come around..."
"People have been saying that. They've said it since I came aboard." Mariah's eyes didn't flash, and her lips didn't thin: as if even anger was beyond her state of being. "He'll never see me as anything more than scrap blown in on the breeze. I've been a fool to think he ever would."
"I don't..." Julie worked her jaw, trying to find words that weren't shit. "I...I like to think I know your father a bit better than most of the soldier complement-"
"Yeah, that's one way of putting it." Mariah looked down, turning red. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean that the way it sounded."
"So you read my file, huh?" Julie sighed. "I don't know if it helps or hurts, but I saw a different side of him in those days."
"It's me. It's something about me." Mariah pulled her legs up under her, dark eyes vacant. "I'm not up to his standards. Not like you."
"Me?" Julie scoffed. "I'm hardly some martial legend-"
"Our first psi-op?" Mariah's face twisted up. "Should I have gone to the psi-lab? Would that have made him happy?"
Julie blinked. "I don't...um..."
"Mariah. This is not helping." Charlotte gently laid a hand on her shoulder. "Julie is not your enemy."
"No. No, she's not." Mariah took a deep, chest-rattling breath. "I'm sorry. I'm not in a good space lately."
"I don't blame you." Julie broke bad and stole one of her own brownies. "It would get all of us some way or another, what's happened to you." She contemplated the chocolate in her hand. Mariah didn't speak, so Julie felt obligated to break the silence after two bites. "Well...I delivered what I wanted to...I'm sorry I'm not much help-"
"Just have a seat." Mariah smacked the bed beside her. "I don't want to be alone and you're nice. Don't go running off, please. I don't...I don't mean anything by any of it."
Julie hesitated. "I don't...um..."
"What?" Mariah cocked her head. "You don't want to sit?"
"I..." Julie cleared her throat, rather loudly. "I don't...well..."
She'd hoped someone might ask for clarification. No such luck. Charlotte and Mariah both stared quizzically, and Julie found herself fidgeting and rocking back and forth as she tried to find a way to...find words...
"I just..." She finally took a deep breath. "Okay. You can't tell anyone, all right? This is...it's huge. It's big, and it might shock you." Her heart thundered as blonde and brunette traded glances. "It's...it's a really big one. And I'm not sure how to put it."
"What are you talking about?" Mariah frowned.
"I'm...I guess I'm..." Julie inhaled, then put all her cards on the table, bracing for their incredulous responses. "I am a lesbian."
She waited. She dug her fingernails into her palms, wincing in anticipation...
...that continued for a good long while...
"...oui." Charlotte didn't twitch. "And?"
"And...and what?" Julie fought not to shake. "Sylvie and I kissed. I haven't really thought about it until recently, but I guess...like I said."
Neither of them moved. Neither of them spoke.
Julie fidgeted.
"And?" Mariah blinked slowly. "Keep going."
"Keep going? Why?" Julie frowned. "I just...I just told you-"
"You said there was a dramatic, earth-shattering, shocking revelation." Mariah shrugged.
"Oui." Chralotte made a looping gesture. "So...keep going. What is it?"
"I just...I told you..." Julie let out a long, aggrieved sigh, covering her eyes so she didn't have to see their matching idiot grins. "You two are dicks."
"Then why are you so interested in us?"
"Oh my God." Julie rapped her forehead hard. "I've just made myself the laughingstock of the ship."
"Easy on there, red: you already were." Charlotte beamed. "You say you and Sylvie finally went and did it, when you weren't in imminent mortal danger?"
"Damn it, frog: I'd hoped you'd forgotten." Mariah sullenly pulled a few Advent credits from her back pocket and fairly threw them in Charlotte's lap.
"You're the one who bet on imminent mortal danger." Charlotte's smile widened. "Literally any other kind of kiss-"
"Oh my God!" Julie plopped down on the bed and seized her brownies. "I'm taking these back. You can all jump off the stern." Curiosity won out in the end. "...how long have you all been placing these bets?"
"And John-"
"Tygan's probably already let him know, Commander." Lily Shen managed a tired smile. "This may not be the end, but-"
"But it's more than we had." Gallant scowled anyway, rolling a pen between his fingers. "I think Kipler's right. It could be a trap."
"That's your and Bradford's area of expertise. Although..." Shen hit a button on her tablet, pulling up specs. "We did finish work on the EXO and Spider Suits."
"Excellent." Gallant spent a moment imagining the tactical implications. "Quinn gets the Serpent. Give Kelly the Spider and Tariq the EXO. Mox will have to make do, but I think he'll figure it all out one way or another."
"Sir." Shen recorded the orders. "If Bradford gets us moving on the double, we should hit Canada around midnight."
"Ah. A late op." Gallant nodded once. "I want the strike team catching shuteye, even if we have to induce it. No one fucks up on this one."
"Yes, sir." Shen saluted. "Anything else?"
"Chosen?"
"Sir." Shen pursed her lips. "Our best guess is that this is the facility Cameron was nearly transferred to, which puts it square in Warlock territory."
"Can't have it easy. Issue mind-shields to the team."
"We've only got two, sir."
"Kelly and Mox."
"Got it."
"Good." Gallant nodded. "Now get some shuteye yourself, Lily: you look deader than a Texas armadillo."
"Sir." She managed one more smile. "Thank you, sir. I've had more coffee than I can stand."
"I imagine there's more in your future. Take the chance you've got." Gallant made a shooing motion. "Get out of my office, Lily."
"I'm going, sir. That's a promise." And she did.
"Moira..."
Gallant picked up her picture one more time. He ran his thumb along the line of her cheek. What was she enduring? What had she endured these last few days?
"We're coming." Gallant set his teeth. "It won't be long now, Moira: we're coming."
"Commander."
Gallant's eyes flicked up across his desk. "Haven't you ever heard of knocking, dipshit?"
"The demands of war and the metaphysical encroachment from Beyond do not allow for such trivialities." Geist shook his head. "I come to you one last time-"
"Selling Girl Scout Cookies?" Gallant leaned back in his chair. "No! You have a mixtape, don't you?"
"Commander, my mixtape is neither here nor there. What matters is that this war you have undertaken in defense of your world-"
"Last I checked it was our war for our world, just one of us never learned to share."
"I gave you the scientist who could have provided you Moira Vahlen's location! That you failed to take her is not my sin. And who was it who provided you with the design of the mind-shield?" Geist's lip curled toward his judgmental pinprick eyes. "Lecture me not on sharing when I have shared everything with you at every corner."
"Yeah, that's nice and all, Kane, but one of us is fighting the aliens and the other is leading bootleg Bible studies." Gallant eyed the Templar darkly. "You talk a big game, but you're too caught up in your human grudges and sins to risk your neck for anyone and anything but yourself."
Geist's eye twitched. "You malign my people unfairly."
"Do I?" Gallant stood, glaring down at him. "Prove it, jackass: give me Ross and Lawrence as attaches on this ship, like Betos down the hall did with Mox and Volk upstairs did with Dragunova and Mordecai. Bring a contingent of Templars to bear on the facility we've located in Canada. Prove to me your people can do more than sit in the shadows mumbling at the voices only they can hear."
Geist slowly crossed his arms. "Commander Gallant, we have the same enemies."
"Yet we're here measuring-"
"But that does not make us friends." Geist shook his head once. "No, Commander. So long as you ally with the Skirmishers, you will have no aid from me or my people."
Gallant nearly spat. "You're a shortsighted prick."
"I do not take kindly to insults, and I do not see the need to spend my loyal soldiers' blood in the names of those who are alien to us." He almost looked like he regretted the words, but they came out regardless. "Some alliances are not worth what they will cost."
"And some costs are far weightier than any other concerns." Gallant sighed, then rolled his head back to glare at the ceiling. "I'm looking away now. You can go."
Geist's feet shifted on the carpet. "Commander-"
"Get out, baldy." Gallant leaned on his desk. "If you're not stepping up to the plate in our hour of need, you and I have nothing to discuss."
When he looked down, Geist was indeed gone.
"Good." Gallant plopped down and powered up his terminal, checking those coordinates again. "Maybe deployment further north toward the snowfields..."
"I have a question."
"Oh, hey Moose." Firebrand waved lazily over her shoulder, then knelt to rifle through spare parts for another minute. "Shoot."
"Do you..." Cameron frowned. "Do you ever take the flight suit off?"
He thought he caught a flash of amused eyes under her helmet visor. "You should be so lucky, right?"
"No!" Cameron coughed. "I just...I never see you without..." He took a moment, and Firebrand spent it returning to broken junk and discarded splinters. Cameron's nerve failed, and he barely fought the temptation to run for the door. "I...um..."
"Relax! Christ, I'm not going to kill you." Firebrand's purr belied the assurance. "Did you hunt me down just to ask that?"
"No." Cameron cleared his throat. "I mean, I noticed someone rooting around in Shen's junk storage and I just wondered at the who and the why."
"Why? Why's easy." Firebrand held up what looked like a hard drive. "She doesn't need all her scrap metals and electronics, and I have my own hoard further aft."
"Why?"
"So I can repair my baby. Of course!" She had quite a nasty glare. "So I can rebuild her if she takes a shellacking!"
"I still don't..." Cameron coughed into his elbow. "Nothing."
"You don't think I could do it, huh?" Firebrand rose to her full, unimpressive height. "You doubt me."
"No! Never said that." Cameron coughed again. "It just seems crazy, that's all. I have enough trouble imagining us building the one we have."
"Give me a month and the contents of this storage bay, and a Skyranger's the least of what I can whip up." Firebrand kicked a piece of cracked plating, for something like emphasis. "I'm half-tempted to crash the bird now just so I can prove it to you."
"Jeez. Hell of a mechanic, you must be." Cameron shivered theatrically. "Making me feel inadequate."
"That's the nicest thing you've ever said to me." And Firebrand punched him on the arm to prove it. "Careful, now: you might find out if I ever take the suit off."
"I..." His mouth went dry. Was that an offer? Would she take offense if he acted like it was? Would she take offense if he asked for clarification? "Um...well-"
"Mission Alert! Mission Alert! All hands to General Quarters!"
"Saved by the bell, huh, Moose?" Firebrand snapped past him in a flash, and then she was out in the hallway. "Don't look so disappointed!"
"Do I?" Cameron couldn't keep up with her, which was upsetting. It did give him a moment's privacy to examine his expression in the reflective wall paneling, though. "Yeah. I guess I do." He whistled under his breath. "God, if that was an offer..."
He had never before resented the mission alert klaxon so much.
Waves thundered on the LA shore. Sand bunched up between his toes.
Edward Gallant sucked in the salty Pacific air.
"Here we are again."
"Oh..." Gallant turned, muscles thick and strong as they had once been. He reached up to his short-cut military hair, and just the feeling of how strong, how powerful and professional he had once been...
"It's been a little longer than I had hoped." Lithe and bikini-clad, framed by her billowing sarong shining white under starlight and in the faint glow from the LA skyline like a precise mirror for the half-moon casting ethereal glow over her face and sending iridescent shimmers through her still-scarlet hair...
"Angelis." Gallant nearly missed his own voice in the thunder from the breakers.
She didn't. She, in fact, smiled, and her teeth shone beautiful and ivory in the pitch of darkness.
"Welcome back, Commander."
Author's Note 51: Why do they call her Firebrand?
Armor management: the bane of my existence. I love the suits with grapnels and rocket launchers, man, but every damn game I forget I even built them. They languish in my armory, forgotten, because they only pop into my head when I deploy my team. There was one XCOM Enemy Within game where I turned the entire team around because I forgot to equip a certain item that I've forgotten all about. 5 hour flight, stop, 5 hours back, one item switch, 5 hours to return. I bet those operatives hated me so much.
Anyway, I don't do that much anymore. No item is worth that much hassle - as much as I love the Ruler Armors(ICARUS!) and the others, the odds of them being what makes or breaks a mission are very low.
I usually issue light armor to Rangers and Sharpshooters. Heavy armors go, logically, to grenadiers first, but I'm not above giving them to Rangers too. Hell, I give anything to a Ranger: Rangers are my favorite class. I got the Overpowered achievement with Rangers. High speed, low drag, lots of mobility, flank and fire with run and gun and sword work. I tend to give the Bolt Caster to a ranger too - it's basically an oversized shotgun. And with only one shot, you want to give it to a soldier who is A) going to be close enough they can't possibly miss and B) has a secondary weapon, and a specialist does not count for either.
Until next time, Vigilo Confido.