Chapter 5

Drake looked around the barracks, eyeing the firefight that had recently taken place. Gunfire was erupting further ahead. Luckily, it didn't look like anyone had died here. Plasma burns scored the walls on one side while holes pockmarked the wall opposite, clearly depicting the battlelines that had been drawn between the combatants.

"Let's pick up the pace," he said. There was no way he wasn't interrupting the firefight that was no doubt taking place ahead of them. "Jagger, cover our rear. Khovostov, up front with me and Conner."

"We'll take the right tunnel, flank around their cover," Eric spoke from behind, taking his and Kel's own assignment into his hands before Drake could say anything.

It's not a bad idea, he decided.

"Got it."

The two of them branched off as the others pushed forward. As the group rounded the corner, he saw the source of the gunfire. Half a dozen people were firing back on their assailants. Another ten or so Jackals were in the tunnel, their shields brought up in an offensive formation, each one of them slowly advancing through the gunfire of the command center. They were, however, unprepared for a rear assault.

"Hit 'em hard! Move!"

Drake lit up with his rifle along with every other marine beside him. The unaware jackals didn't stand a chance as they were torn apart by the storm of rounds that peppered their bodies. A few moved their shields in time to block the rounds, but that only left them vulnerable to Eric and Kel, who had just flanked to an opposing corridor. Rounds from their weapons pierced the skull of two more before the third was blown apart by the three needle rounds that stuck their way into his chest, blowing eviscerated organs all across the cave floor..

It was over before it even began. The defenders sat slightly dumbfounded at the sudden lack of fire coming in their direction as they looked to their saviors. Vickinson visibly relaxed as he saw Drake. Jackson was there too, along with a few of the techs. Eric rushed past him upon seeing one of the engineers.

"Oliver, thought you might've bit the dirt," he said, clasping the man on the shoulder as he stepped by the makeshift steel barricade.

"Nah," he responded. "I hid behind all the guys with guns."

Before Eric could respond, another voice sounded from behind. "Damn it!" Eric looked over to find Kel knelt down beside another Kig-Yar.

Looks like another Tow Vowen? Whatever they're called.

Several bullets riddled the now corpse. Indigo stained the ground all around, making the situation evident that he was dead.

Then it clicked. That was that other guy she hung out with. Kav I think?

"Crap, anything?"

Kel stood up. "No, he's dead."

Eric watched as she stared up at a cave wall for a moment, looking as if she was trying to bore through it with her eyes alone. "Sorry Kel. I know that's tough."

She didn't respond. "Kel?"

"What?"

Tenth time I've asked this today.

"You good?"

Usually the skirmisher would respond with a yes, or something at least. This time though, she remained silent as she stepped away from the corpse. When Eric saw her face in full again, he realized her eyes still hadn't lost that glazed look.

Finally, she answered. "Lets go, before more show up."

At any other time he would push the issue. At any other time he would mention that she was in fact, not fine, or at least not acting it. But there wasn't any time for that now; they either had to move or die. Instead he looked at her and said, "Okay."

Eric looked around after that. He wasn't sure of what to do exactly. He was Kel's friend, sure, but what were you supposed to say? It occurred to him then what was truly happening, and he felt like an idiot and an asshole. How much of her past is she reliving right now?

The ODST was lucky. He had nightmares every now and then, and the mercenary work didn't help, but he had never gone into shellshock, thank God. It had just occurred to Eric that Kel might not have been so lucky.

Maybe it's just best to leave her be, he decided.

Combat affected everyone differently. For Eric, it didn't phase him much. Hell, he was back in it simply because he didn't know how to do anything else. The worst part about combat for him was when it finally ended and he realized all his friends were dead. For Kel, it seemed like the aftermath left her too much time to think. Maybe it's the anticipation too.

All he knew for sure was that whatever was affecting her, it didn't affect her abilities in a firefight.

"Got it."

Eric turned around to look at Drake, who had just spoken. He was talking to Vickenson. Upon seeing the shock trooper's querying face,he explained. "The birds are swarming us from all sides. According to Vickenson, they're just holding position."

"I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that's bad."

"Depends," Oliver said from behind. "They probably have a plan cooking. Maybe they want us to surrender?"

"No," Kel spoke up. "I smell promethium. We need to move."

Eric couldn't smell anything, but he trusted Kel's nose better than his own. "They're going to burn us out then?"

"They have probably set up kill zones. It is what I would do."

Drake gestured at an exit. "Then we need a plan, and fast."

Oliver briefly tapped away at a datapad while the rest spoke. There wasn't a good answer here. When he looked up, he joined in on the conversation. "If we head up the northern path, we might be able to bypass them as long as they heaven't strengthened their blockade that far around yet. Hopefully, their forces will be thinner on that side."

Drake thought for a moment, considering the idea. He didn't like it. Actually, he hated it, but they would have to make a break for the Condor before they got burned out. "It doesn't matter if they are weaker over there or not. We don't have a choice."

The group nodded more to themselves, than to each other, realizing the truth in his words. "We best not waste time then," Kel said. "Lets move."

The group did, though no one had a clear cut plan. Drake took point, moving up as fast as he could without sacrificing good common sense. Everyone else was close on his heels, trigger fingers a hairs of a breadth away from unleashing hell. They headed down the northern path as Oliver had suggested, and so far, it seemed like the techie might have been right.

The group was coming up on a T-junction. Drake raised his rifle and gestured at the left path. "Khovostov, check that corner. Conner, behind me. Jackson, how are we doing behind?"

"Clear," came the reply.

Drake held up his fingers for the others to see. Three, two, one.

He quickly stepped out of the passageway, eye glued to his rifle's targeting reticle. Nothing.

"Clear," Khovostov said from behind.

"Clear." The sergeant gestured forward, and the group began moving again.

Should be coming up on a four-way here pretty soon, he thought, playing through the maps of the twisting cave tunnels in his head.

Sure enough, after a few dozen more yards, they arrived upon the junction that Drake had been thinking of. The immediate way was clear, the marine being able to see straight through till the cave winded off to the right ahead of him. The other two tunnels were still obscured though.

He braced himself against the cave wall, preparing to check the corners again as Eric came up on his other side. Three, two, one-

Just as he was about to move around the corner, Movement started along the main corridor. "Scatter!"

Drake dove right into the opposing hallway as Eric chucked himself into the left tunnel. Kel just made her way to him just as the shot from a carbine whipped its way past her head. Eric saw their attackers. They were Kig-Yar rangers. A wall of blue shields blocked the way forward as a trio of carbines fired from behind. With them, against all of what he thought should be right, the two jackals that had gotten away in their initial encounter were there two, needle and beam rifles in hand. The warriors they were facing were advancing in a well organized line, suppressing their targets with alternating fire from their pistols as the riflemen behind them took potshots from behind the shield wall.

The ODST looked back to see two of the engineers had not been as lucky as the rest of them, their bodies lying dead on the floor, plasma burns scorching through their chests. Alongside them, hunkered into a crevice in the wall, was Jagger, who returned fire.

"Grenade! I Need a Grenade!" Drake was yelling over the gunfire. Jackson seemed to share the same sentiment as he primed a fragmentation device and hurled it at the Jackal shield wall.

The weapon landed perfectly in the middle of the Jackal shield wall. The aliens backed away in shock, but before the small device could detonate, a red-armored foot connected with it and sent the grenade tumbling away from the enemy squad. It detonated mid-air, blasting out a cloud of shrapnel in all directions.

Eric only got a quick look at the enemy Jackal. He was clad in red armor, not like the rangers, but in something a good bit heavier. On top of that, he was Ibie'shan. The Jackal raised a heavy point-defense gauntlet and gestured forward with his weapon. Fire resumed as the enemy advanced.

The distraction had given everyone time to find proper cover though. Oliver was on Eric's side now. The rest had managed to make it to the right.

Eric gestured to the rest. "Go! We'll find another way around." All he got was a nod from Drake as the two sides took to sprinting down the opposing tunnels.

The three of them hit a bend and kept going, trying to put as much distance between them and the enemy squad as possible. The walls eventually opened up to small cavern. A massive stone column rose from the ground in the center of the cave. Off to the right, there was another entrance.

"You think we lost them?" Eric asked, panting.

"I do not hear them." Kel responded, rifle pointing towards where they had come from. "We should still move on though," she said, turning back.

"Right, I guess it's time I finish up then."

"Finish up what?" Eric asked as he started heading towards the right cave tunnel.

His answer came with a loud shot and Kel dropping to the floor. Eric's mind reacted instinctively as he dove for the column. A gunshot whizzed past his head as he made it to cover.

"Kel!"

"Sorry Eric, it's just business." He couldn't see Oliver from behind the column, and he almost got a face full of lead as he tried to peek out. Instead, all he saw was the flash of an M6D.

"You bastard! It was you wasn't it?"

"The beacon? Yeah."

Eric was looking at Kel though, who was lying on the floor. "Kel! Kel, get the hell up!"

"Never understood you with that bird. Thought you helljumpers killed them for fun Eric."

"I'll fucking kill you!"

"Oh stow that language Eric. Like I said, it's nothing personal."

"Why? Why do this?"

Oliver just laughed a little. "Are you really so naive as to think that Vickenson's going to actually pay us? No, I'd rather trust in a Jackal. Do you even know how much that's saying?"

Eric just grit his teeth in rage as he tried to find an angle in order to gut the bastard. "That's worth killing people for?"

"Hell yeah. I don' know you shitheads. A good half of you are damn space chickens anyway. Why should I be-" Oliver's sentence was cut off as the blur of a purple bolt ripped through his head.

"You talk too much." Kel was on the ground, needle rifle in hand. She had rolled herself over, venting a small pool of blood out of her back.

"Kel!" Eric scrambled over to her as he tried to help her sit up.

"Shit. I knew that the beacons going down was too convenient."

"What's the damage? Can you walk?"

Kel grimaced as she sat forward. "It missed my spinal, so yeah. It hurts like nothing else though."

The ODST got a better look at her injury now. A gaping hole was blown in her armor around her lower back and muscle was blown apart, indigo meat hanging off in ligaments. "Hold on, let me get the biofoam."

He fished through his gear until he came upon a small black can with a long, flip-up nozzle on it. "Hold still," he commanded as he pressed the straw-like tube into her back and began spraying. Instantly, a yellow-brown looking foam spewed forth from the canister, filling the wound and hardening almost instantly.

"Ahh. That stings."

"Yeah, it ain't pleasant but it should keep anything from falling out for a while." He then stood up and walked back around to her, before offering his hand. "Jesus lady, don't spook me like that again."

"I'll try," she answered, taking his hand, grunting a little as she stood. "I suppose someone could be stupid enough to betray the dig afterall."

"Whaddaya mean?"

"I had disregarded the possibility of betrayal." After a few seconds of silence, Kel seemed to snap from her reverie. "Come, we should not linger. Now help me forward please."