"If pain must come, may it come quickly. Because I have a life to live, and I need to live it in the best way possible. If he has to make a choice, may he make it now. Then I will either wait for him or forget him."
Paulo Coelho
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There was no escaping it. It was a cycle; One he'd gotten himself caught in without a hint of escape when he'd begun on this path. It was like a wheel. It would turn round and round, always finding itself somewhere new and serving some new purpose, but the same face would always strike earth again. This would not change this path from being one he saw no other alternative for, and if he had, he would not have cared to acknowledge it.
A breeze rushed past, pushing the sea of tall grass over one another as they waved like a living sea, with many a strand brushing against his pants legs. There it was, not too far in the distance, and standing out amongst the waving hills and patches of thin, brushy trees that dotted them, was that damned place–the one he had felt the call from with every step. A Weyland-Yutani blacksite. And it was a rather large one at that. It spread itself wide over the plains, with its many buildings fenced off and widely spaced between one another. Save for the dense cluster of them near the center.
By the time he'd landed in the divot just behind him–a necessity considering the anti-air had nearly singed his hairs already during atmospheric entry–alarms had already been ringing incessantly. The chaos, though distant and hard to see, remained incredibly palpable. He was reliving the same nightmare over and over. It was the very same side of the wheel striking face yet again.
Adrian grimaced and rubbed his chest, trying to suppress a terrible urge to cough. He had first noticed it just before his… stint on Khasban, and it had only gotten worse since. He knew if he let the cough loose, it would never let up.
Yet, she was so close. So close. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, trying to swallow down that terrible burning–a task that grew more difficult each time. And yet still too far away.
When he had grown near the planet, he had felt her soul drifting alongside his again with incredible clarity. Still, it would stay for only for so long before her presence was muddled again, just to be torn away and sending him back into the throes of yearning and the burning that it lit inside.
He opened his eyes again, steeling himself for what was to come. It was time to go. Uncrossing his arms, he picked his rifle up from where it leaned on his leg.
There was no time like the present, and he had gotten all the time to rest and mend his wounds that he needed–even if the fatigue and aches were ever-present. No more time could be sacrificed towards himself.
It was all or nothing, and it was all for her–his Elena. She was still there, still in that cursed place–that black stain upon humanity–waiting for him.
The grass split around him as he strode forth, and then he reached the trees at the bottom of this hill until he pushed through and began up another hill through more open grass plains.
Up. Down. Up and down. Grass, then trees. Trees, then grass. The same monotonous and rather winding pattern repeated in his jog with the black site, never seeming to get any closer anytime he crested another hill.
After cresting another hill and nearing its bottom row of trees, Adrian stopped, but not out of any sense of fatigue. Something was off - something sounded closer than it should have been. It wasn't the alarms nor other distant cacophony that was spawned from it. No, it was close and getting closer. Actually, it was right on top of him!
Adrian's eyes widened, and his head darted around, struggling for a decision before the impulse of panic finally took over. He threw himself out of the path of the growing shadow behind the trees and blocked the rays of light that filtered between their branches. They, not a moment later, began to creak and crack before a deep rumbling drowned it out as they were felled and tumbled down to where he had been standing a mere moment ago.
The branches were crushed beneath the large wheels that rolled over them, blending their remnants into one. And now, that shadow fell over Adrian.
There, it stopped as he watched it. A metal beast of United Americas design, yet clad in Weyland-Yutani white. An M540 Armored Recon Vehicle. It was a metal beast far worse than what had pursued him through the mountains out of Khasban.
Its pointed shadow blotted out the sun, and the thin slot that was the driver's window stared at him, dark and foreboding. And yet, the short dual Gatling guns that sat atop it did not turn on him or begin to spin so that they may cut him down. Neither did its large wheels resume to turn so they may add him as a shade of red to their crushed path below.
Instead, and most surprisingly at that, was when the hatch above the turret swung open with a hiss and a clang as it bounced on its hinges.
Well, if they wanted to come and hand him his ticket there on a silver platter, he wouldn't complain. Without wasting a second, Adrian quickly hopped up onto the sloped front of the vehicle and bounded up to the hatch, pressing the barrel of his rifle into the nose of the man who was in the process of popping out of the hatch.
Both their eyes widened to dinner plates as they looked at the other, with Adrian barely shooting his finger off the trigger before it had done its work.
"Yeah…" The rifle's barrel was slowly pushed away by the finger of the man who had almost played a real-life game of whack-a-mole were the toy hammer a bullet. "Considering all the trouble I've gotten myself into on you and your 'morph buddies' accounts today, I'd appreciate it if you didn't reward my troubles with a hole in the head."
Adrian pulled the gun back down as his shoulders fell.
Goddammit, Jules.
"Goddammit, Jules." Adrian lowered his gun with a huff. A thousand questions ran through him, but he relegated only a few of the most current and pressing to reaching reality. "What are you doing here? And what the hell are you doing in that thing?"
The man smiled up at him and lowered himself back down.
"I knew that getting a thanks out of you would have been a rare thing," His voice echoed from within, "but you can't even spare a hello after all my struggles?" He clicked his tongue. "Lucky for you, we haven't got time for reach-arounds, anyways. Best you hop in because those are some good questions, mate. But ones I don't have good answers for other than that Elena of yours is in some trouble."
"Wait, wait, what?" Adrian's eyebrows furrowed like mad as he stepped on top of the armored vehicle, looking down into the interior. He had been in constant dreadful fear ever since the clarity of their unadulterated connection was obscured yet again almost immediately after the veil had been lifted. Yet, nothing he had been able to discern from that fleeting moment had indicated towards such developments. "What the hell do you mean she's in trouble?!"
"I meant exactly what I said!" He shot back as he wiggled himself back into the driver's seat.
"Well, how exactly ?!" Adrian demanded, rubbing his chest again as both his lungs and heart felt like they were doing him more harm than good.
"To make a long story short, we had finally got out of that labyrinth and saw the sun for the first time in God knows how long, only to realize we were down one, and just as soon, Elena had already disappeared back inside to find them. We were about to be in there, too, but Weyland had a different idea and pulled a quick one, shutting the door in our face tighter than a nun's legs! We didn't have much of a choice but to get out of there when a small army was coming down on us. And, I'll be honest, I haven't seen her or the little one since, but the others seemed sure they were still alive, and I highly doubt they would have killed her after all this trouble. So listen, we haven't gone through all this trouble just for you to be the weak link. Are you getting on that gun or what?"
Adrian was still reeling at the revelation but could only manage to say one of the now million things that stormed in his mind as he awkwardly slid in.
"What are we still doing here?! Kick it into gear, and let's go! I'd sooner let the fires in hell find me before I let anything else happen to her or make her wait even a second longer!"
"Love the spirit, mate, but do you know how to work that thing?" Jules asked as he pushed a pedal and pulled a lever, jerking the machine back to life as it turned.
"Even children can figure out how to work this thing, considering half the people who do practically have the capacity of one. I doubt it should take me too long. Let's get moving."
The turret spun around as he quickly got the hang of it, his finger feathering the trigger on the front of the control stick.
"You're an omen, Jules. I just can't tell which kind."
"Better that neither of us do."
Adrian chuckled as they quickly began towards the compound. Jules spoke up again, speaking what had been on Adrian's mind since day one.
"Let's not keep the lady waiting, then. I'd think she has for quite long enough."
"For too long, my friend." Adrian ran a heavy hand down his face before taking the controls. "For far too long."
/|\
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A low, rumbling growl echoed across the tall walls that made up this side entrance into the facility. Adrian's finger traced along the edge of the acid burn on the tiled floor before he grabbed a broken helmet off the floor as he stood.
"GOD DAMNIT!" He threw it into the nearest wall where it bounced away with a few pieces flying off of it.
As Jules had said, this must have been where she was taken and once more hidden from his mind's sight.
He stormed out of the battle-worn junction and back into the light outside. Jules was perched halfway out of the hatch as he surveyed their surroundings before he noticed Adrian's emergence.
"See?" He shook his head as he sank back into the APC where his voice echoed like in a tin can. "I already told you she wouldn't be here."
"I had to make sure." Adrian bounded up to the opening after him.
"Had to make sure we wasted time that we don't have? Then I have to say, you're doing a good job."
"A big mouth to the very end, huh?" Adrian barked as he got back into his seat. "And what about the others–her sisters?"
"Well, right after they'd cut us off from Elena, they were well set on showing that hell hath no fury until I reminded them of the dangers of a violent and premature death that impulsive and impassioned decisions often bring. So, I offered up a better one." Jules spread his arms, presenting the machine he currently looked like the centaur of. "After some convincing, they were willing to help me get my hands on this little creature, and now they're sitting safe and sound on standby should we need them."
"Hopefully we won't." Adrian again hopped towards the hatch, sliding in after Jules had.
This area, where she'd last been free of whatever they were using to restrain her connection to him, had acted like a hotspot for his lingering connection to her. It was an echo that drew him in. Now, all he had was the faint sense of where she wasn't. It seemed this would be a terrible game of hot and cold.
Adrian's teeth ground together as he tapped his foot incessantly, wringing his mind for the most likely direction. Suddenly, his head almost hit the gun screen as the M540 got moving again.
"Where are you taking us?" He looked down towards Jules, who looked like a man on a mission.
"You see that transport that landed here not that long ago?"
Adrian looked up, seeing the craft that peeked over the buildings surrounding it in the central cluster.
"Yeah?"
"That's probably for her."
Oh. His haste and worry had blinded him yet again.
"Might be. But best we make sure." Adrian sat back up to the controls.
"I know it is. That's why I even said it! Ha-ha!" Jules laughed with deep satisfaction.
This little – No. Adrian cut himself off. There would be plenty of time to think up detestable names for him later. For now, he was right. Not to mention, he'd gone well above the call of duty for him and Elena. Even though that call had never been for him, he had still answered it. Adrian just couldn't understand why.
"It won't be easy getting to it, but it helps that we have this little thing."
"I'm hoping you know how to get there."
"Me? Here I was hoping you knew the ins and outs of this place."
"Don't give me crap about it. I'm putting my trust in you, y'know. Everything rides on this–everything that matters to me. So, if you know how to get there, then lead on and bring us forth unto the horizon so bright."
Jules twisted his head around, giving him a queer look before he shook his head and sped them along with another jerk of the gears.
"We ride."
/|\
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Sitting still and warm under the sun, the gravel was content with its idle and inanimate existence. Yet soon, it rumbled, its existence once again disturbed. This disturbance continued with growing intensity until it, and all the pieces around it, shook madly in chaotic union. Soon, the source of this growing disturbance sped over, launching that particular away from the path so that it may fall deep within the recesses of the tall strand of grass where it would spend the rest of its existence in perpetuum.
"For being a recon vehicle, you'd think this thing would have better suspension," Jules grunted. "Brace."
The two tensed just before the armored recon vehicle shook as it smashed through yet another gate.
"Doesn't seem to be giving me much of an issue up here." Adrian said as he easily swiveled the turret as he scanned the gravel road that trekked the outskirts of the blacksite.
"That's because there's only one suite of stabilizers that can let someone shoot the tail off a squirrel while going a hundred and ninety, and it isn't down here."
"There is no way this is anywhere near one-ninety."
"In kilometers, you dickhead."
"Newsflash: this is a UA-designed vehicle. So, tell me, what's that speed gauge down there say?"
"Other than a hundred and ninety? Just three letters. And I'll tell you right off the bat, they don't start with an M."
"Whatever. How fast can this thing go, anyways?"
"About one-ninety."
"This is the fastest we can go?"
"Oh, I was speaking in miles that time."
Adrian bit back a growl and continued.
"And how fast do you think you can get it to go?"
"I might be able to squeeze that a little higher. We're about to get onto the long stretch that runs down the wider perimeter of this place, anyways, and it's all downhill from there."
"Can you make it happen?"
Adrian braced himself as he was pushed against the wall when they suddenly ground to a halt, the wheels digging deep trenches into the gravel.
"I think I might just have to." Jules leaned in close to the small window on his left.
The turret quickly whirled that way to see what exactly he meant, and when he did, he knew they were down to the wire. Over the wall they could just barely see above thanks to the road they were on being raised, was a growing glow in the engines of that transport ship. They were still too far from it for comfort, much too far with it being at the other end of the inefficiently large compound.
"Get us to that ship, NOW!" He yelled into the driver's cab when the rising panic finally let him draw air back into his lungs.
"Yeah!" Jules strained through his teeth as the wheels struggled for traction, throwing up gravel behind them. "Kind of on it already!"
Having found traction once more, they roared forward again. They needed to get off this damn sand trap of a gravel road and onto the actually paved one that ran down through the entirety of the compound and straight to their goal.
What would hopefully be the final gate busted open like all the rest before. Their ARC briefly soared through the air as they jumped off of it and landed on the main road, skidding to a stop.
"Ah, Christ." Jules muttered in a disbelief that made itself horribly at home in Adrian as well. This would be the final stretch, albeit a long one that rounded the entirety of the place until it finally gave access towards the center, and it wouldn't be easy. As if easy or hard ever changed a thing.
It was most definitely looking more towards the hard end of the spectrum, for as far as the two could see until the road disappeared around a turn were growing layers of defenses, likely being made special for them. Most of it was little more than a handful of people or even a squad posted here and there, with a few setting up heavier emplacements. They wouldn't be much of an issue, but they would just serve to slow them down. Who could tell what awaited them deeper in?
"This doesn't change anything. At least not for me." Adrian looked down at Jules, who returned his gaze.
"Me? Yeah, normally, I'd just call it a day and get right out of here. But… I might be willing to make an exception. Just this once."
Adrian patted Jules' back.
"I can always count on you, can't I? You've made more than one exception for my sake so far. Let's make 'em worth it."
"Who else could?"
Adrian scooted back into his seat and primed himself, mentally and physically for what was to come.
"Then let's leave no question of who shot first."
"Now you're speaking my language."
The turret's motors whirred to life as the optics leveled on the nearest real threat. Finally, he could scratch the itch on his twitching finger as it squeezed the bright red trigger.
The two turrets atop the vehicle began to shoot almost as soon as they'd begun to spin. He'd only held it down for a second, maybe a two, but it was enough to create several fist-sized holes through the first man who sat on a gun of the same caliber, shredding it in the process.
Adrian winced at the sight. It was nothing more than a waste–a terrible waste of life–but, unfortunately, a necessary one.
The gig was up, though. While they had initially been given queer looks due to the stunt-like nature of their entrance and how they had then sat idle on the road, that soon changed when said vehicle had turned one of their comrades into a fine red mist.
As soon as the others had begun to move, their wheels quickly followed suit, sending them soaring forward again.
Adrian put the trigger back to work and continued to in measured intervals. Shifting from target to target, he scrutinized everyone, picking and choosing who or what would be an actual threat before removing them, despite however much that growing feeling of indiscriminate brutality began to resurface.
After having nothing but time during his transit here to look upon said brutality play over and over in his head, he was now of the mind to expend as little life as possible and let it take as little hold as it could.
Soon, they zoomed past the others, who weren't more than a few angry plinks that bounced off the sloped armor.
"Yeah-haha! C'mon, fellas!" Jules yelled with an enthusiasm that was soon tempered to a nervous laugh followed by a wince with each plink that bounced off of them and reverberated through the cabin.
It didn't take long for a few larger, anti-armor calibers to find them. They slammed into the vehicle just below Adrian with a heart-racing boom. But, even those could be ignored if you refused to acknowledge the three or four new holes letting air and natural light flow in from outside.
"This isn't a shooting range, mate! You don't have to worry about picking up the brass! Lay into them!"
Adrian didn't respond. All of his focus was spent on rending the souls from those that he did not know were deserving of this fate or not. All that he did know, is that he would not sacrifice Elena's for theirs.
They continued along this road of fate, quickly garnering the speed they desperately needed while Adrian struggled, trying only to cut down those who could threaten their path or at least scare them away. It was a sentiment that only became harder to abide by as Adrian's breaths grew more rapid and shallow with each new hole or large added dent.
There were more than a few who took that chance to run and hide wherever would allow, not daring to emerge again. Adrian's finger hungrily itched at the trigger as he tracked one of those who had the sense to run away until they finally disappeared back inside. He blinked and began breathing again, unaware that he hadn't been until the shadows around his vision faded and showed him the larger picture again.
He'd been too close to letting it take him again like it had taken him on Khasban. He shook his head to drive it back into the shadows that had birthed it, disappointed in himself for how close he'd been to letting it back in. He was tainted enough as is, and he wouldn't dare apply a fresh coat of that overtaking savagery to stand before Elena in; he already feared what she'd think of him as it was. But, whether she loved or hated him for it, he would do it all again without a second thought should he must.
No matter - now was not the time for such fatalistic ruminations. Enough doom already stalked them at such a crucial moment.
"How much further we got?" Adrian called down to Jules now that they finally had a moment to breathe in this more barren and deserted section of the large perimeter road.
"You tell me. I haven't been here more than a day, and I wasn't spending it studying the map."
"What?! How only a day? That courier ship should've been twice as fast as mine!"
"And it was. But this wasn't my destination, not originally. They only called to have me make a u-turn after I'd already put close to a parsec between me and here."
"Shit." Adrian mumbled and tried to focus on the road ahead and the fence that followed it. "Alright, then we'll both just have to find out. And hope and pray while we're at it."
"Hopes and prayers haven't been what's kept me alive in this business for this long, mate."
Adrian looked out at the large fields between them and the center of the site. The only reason they hadn't taken advantage of their all-terrain capabilities was the several-meters-tall fence that was more heavy-duty than what they could handle. All it served to do currently was slowly guide them further and further away as they scrambled to reach the main access road to the landing pads.
A sudden beeping brought the two's attention down to a detection-warning alert to the side of the controls.
"Says we've got a laser on us from 10 o'clock."
Jules tried to squint out of the small view slot, and Adrian followed with the turret sight that allowed him more clarity than Jules' already bad vision could have found. Atop a distant tower was, indeed, a previously unseen point-defense turret tracking them.
"Goddamn turret!" Adrian desperately yelled, nearly breaking his voice at the sight when its barrel began to glow. "Stop! Stop! Stop!"
A blinding light filled the cabin as they shook violently, not more than a second after the brakes had been applied with a force that would have thrown Adrian face-first into the controls had he not been strapped in. They stopped with a violent lurch when the vehicle careened, sliding into the crater left by the blast.
Rapidly pulling himself back together after the chaos, Adrian swung the turret around, briefly passing by the hostile turret before bringing it back into focus.
It was looking straight at them through the large hole it had left singing in the tall fence. It had barely missed them, shooting where they would have been had they not slowed down last second, but that wasn't going to stop it from trying again.
"Back up!"
"On it!"
The gears didn't sound too happy with the grinding to be heard when Jules quickly threw it into reverse and punched it, digging themselves back out the way they came.
After struggling to pull free of the hole while the loose soil gave way under the tires and was thrown back in, another blast sounded. Yet, it wasn't nearly as jarring as the last one, and a plume of smoke rose from one of the support pillars that was now terribly deformed. The two looked up, with Jules straining more to, as its tall shadow shifted, and they soon had to give way to its fall.
"The hole in the fence! Get us through it quick!"
"And make ourselves the easiest target known to man?!"
"Not like it makes any difference out here! We don't have the time to circle around this entire place–that'll take us straight through! Come on!"
"Christ, man…" Jules rapidly flicked his eyes between both paths as they steamed forward again. Adrian's heart raced as it looked like they would keep driving right past it until Jules whipped it to the side at the last second, jumping over the breach.
"You're whipping me like a mule down some real questionable paths here!" He shook his head, and his temper seemed to fade. "But while we're at it, put those smoke launchers you've got up there to use, why don't ya'? Just so we don't get cooked to a nice four-thousand Kelvin is all. Nothing too crazy, y'know?"
Adrian looked at him, dumbfounded that he found the time for such antics even now. Still, he quickly put that advice into effect after a moment of searching on the array of buttons for exactly how to.
A row of canisters flew out all around the front of where the turret faced, jumping out of their tubes in rapid succession and flying a few dozen meters away before exploding midair and casting a large cloud of smoke that glistened with millions of specs of white-hot metal strips and shavings all around.
It didn't take long for them to fly out from the cloud. It had, however, been long enough for the turret to lose its lock and shoot into the middle of it, causing the smoke and burning magnesium and aluminium to spew high into the air behind them, serving to only further confuse its tracking system even more. It could barely keep a solid line of sight on them as they dashed across the field, cutting the distance between them and the access road.
"No wonder their defense line split like the Red Sea. We're the damn Egyptians!"
Another beam shot above them, landing not far to their right.
"Screw this!"
Adrian swung his turret back to what he could see of the cannon through the layer of smoke that now permeated the length of the field. His lips peeled back, baring his teeth in a mad rage and fervor, and he squeezed the trigger with a shaking force.
Most plinked off the cannon's thick metal ineffectually, but whether it was the lingering effects from the smoke or some small parts of his efforts, it delayed in firing again.
"Get more smoke up!"
With a growl, Adrian practically slammed the controls next to him and sent out another round of the smoke-chaff mix. Yet, as the pods careened into the air, and just before they were due to burst, a beam of plasma soared between them and skimmed across the top of the M540, scraping the turret.
"AGH!"
A terrible heat seared through the turret, causing Adrian to pull away with a short scream as it burnt his arms.
Jules whipped his head at the scream and rapidly shifted his focus between the viewing slot and Adrian.
"You alright up there?"
"Yeah!" Adrian growled between his teeth as he squeezed his burning arm. "Yeah! Keep going!"
"Why the hell wouldn't I?! Ah, Forget it! Just hold onto something; this is gonna be rough!"
Stalling to do so for even a second might have proved to be the last mistake Adrian would have ever made. For, nearly the moment he had grabbed hold of the handles above him that would have normally served to help a crewman out of the hatch above, he felt a brief weightlessness before gravity returned tenfold, and his arms felt like they were threads away from being torn from their sockets.
Hissing through his teeth as the best way to express his discontent, Adrian kept his grip until the force–and the pain it brought–subsided. After it had passed, he steadied himself on the controls again and rapidly whipped the turret around, only to find walls on either side with no sign of the cannon.
On the other hand, Jules wasted no time speaking up while Adrian focused on their rear.
"Eyes ahead, up there. It was a hell of a gamble, but it paid off–God bless–and we're in the actual final stretch now. Just a few more minutes and this damned nightmare will be a passing dream."
"Do we even have that long?"
"A lady that big needs some time to get ready to launch." Jules glanced over his shoulder. "We'll make it."
Adrian nodded once and with a trepid breath.
"You ready?"
"I'll give you the same answer you got the last time: No!" Jules laughed. "But I'm in too deep for that to make a difference now."
"Then put it to the ground and get us on that ship!"
On cue, and just as Jules had sent their engine roaring again, the large transport ship that sat with an idle glow in its engines until now began to warble as its engines grew brighter with its final preheat. It wouldn't be long now, but it was a big thing and needed more time than most—the time they so desperately needed.
One final drive - one last effort, and this could all be over soon. He would make it back to her, he would do right by her and she would wait no more. There was no other conclusion that he would accept.
"Guess they didn't expect us to make it this far." Jules commented on the absence of heavy resistance.
The buildings, with their tall walls and windows and the intersections that ran between them, flew by as they quickly regathered their speed and zoomed downhill.
"Guess not." Adrian said absentmindedly, eyes locked onto the large ramp leading onto the ship for the slightest movement as they closed the distance.
"What happens after this?"
Adrian was silent as his focus remained dead set on the opening.
"After this?" He repeated the question to himself. He hadn't given much thought about what came next besides finding Elena on that ship, even if that didn't say much about 'what exactly' itself. "That comes later. All that matters is we get on that thing."
"Yeah. Sure…but I mean, we're still in between a rock and a hard place here, mate. Not only do we need to get onto that ship and get her out, but even then, there's no telling what else they have waiting for us up their sleeves."
Adrian finally peeled his eyes away from the gunport to catch Jules as he glanced back at him and caught him with an empty stare.
"I've come too far to die now. So whatever comes? Let it. They won't make it any further than all the rest who have tried so far."
"Ah…" Jules pulled his side glance away from Adrian. "Well, I'm glad we've got Mr. Combat Android with us in that case. Cause I guess there's nothing to fear when you don't flinch at being shot, burnt or beat, eh?" Jules was mocking and aloof until he sharply raised his voice. "Get your head out of your ass, man! I've seen men I thought invincible die the most undignified and unexpected ways you could imagine. And you know why? Because they started to think they were invincible, too!"
Adrian's brow creased, and his lip twitched, but Jules continued anyway.
"Do you really have the right to that state of mind? It's not just you on the line, and neither is it me. You've got someone very important waiting for you, and she needs you to keep your head straight and on your shoulders–especially now!"
Adrian grit his teeth, listening to Jules berate him, but right he was.
"I know!" Adrian struggled even to yell as the words almost got caught in his tightening throat. "I know, and believe me, this? All of this? It scares me more than you could believe - and you weren't there to see the worst of it. But it's also what's seen me through all the way here, and I need it now more than ever. I hope that…I need you to understand because we don't have the time for this right now."
Jules shifted his jaw from side to side as he focused on the road, which was quickly disappearing behind them. They were almost there; this was it.
"Yeah." He looked back at Adrian again. That habit was starting to worry him, especially since they were coming up quickly on the ship. "You're probably right. It's been quite a long few days, and I just hope you're about this only being a means to the ends. Especially when the ends are this important, right?"
It sounded more like Jules was asking for Adrian's sake. To get himself to screw his head back on.
"It's what I like to tell myself. It makes it easier to swallow. Cloaks it in a veil of righteousness but- oh, shit! Eyes up, wheelman!"
Jules whipped his head back around, also causing them to whip to the side slightly. His eyes locked on to what now lay ahead, making his stomach drop just like Adrian's had.
Coming up faster than a coked-up Arcturian in the middle of the last intersection before their goal was an M577 APC that had pulled out right in front of them. It was an armored transport vehicle much like their own, but stronger in just about every category. It had thicker armor, two guns–with the weaker of the two being the same as their own–and it was large enough to block off any chance of skirting past it as its two guns rotated to meet them as they raced towards it.
"Hit the gun on top!"
Adrian focused on the dual particle-beam cannons that now starred right back. Without a moment to spare, he squeezed the trigger with a click.
A click?
He tried again, no click this time, but no response at all.
Oh shit .
"It won't shoot!" He punctuated each word by hitting the controls in a desperate, vain attempt to make them work.
"We still have a several-tonne projectile that's going almost two hundred kliks, don't we?" Adrian looked down wildly at the madman, who showed no signs of stopping. "Let's even the odds a little."
"That's not how this works, you crazy son of a bitch. Don't you even- ah, fuck! Turn! TURN!" Adrian screamed as he braced himself, pushing himself as far back as he could.
Only doing as he was told at the last second, Jules whipped the wheel to the left as he slammed the brakes. The screeching of their tires could barely be heard above the rapid and ear-splitting thumps of particle beams hitting metal that the M577 sent pounding against their recon vehicle's exterior, quickly turning what it hit into slag. Too many of those sounded like they split through one side and out the other, if Adrian even wanted to entertain the idea. But it wasn't like he really could when soon all their momentum had been turned into a weapon, and they'd fully swung around. Adrian closed his eyes, and the rear of their vehicle slammed into the M577.
The two vehicles melded into each other as they collided, one half disappearing into the other as they slid violently across the road with a terrible screeching of rubber and metal. They continued until the screeching wreckage drifted to the side and into the gravel trap, quickly arresting their motion. The M557 tilted steeply into the air, refusing to move anymore as the M540 continued to press against it until it, too, slowed to a stop. They both were pushed into each other and now stood in the air, forming a triangle with the ground until they slowly slid back down, slamming into the gravel below.
Once their chaotic, cacophonic crash subsided as the wreckage stilled, only a lingering silence, broken by an occasional pop and groan of the settling wreckage, remained. The silence persisted for half a minute before the side door of the M540 exploded open. The emergency release hydraulics blasted it open with enough force to send it flying off its hinges. It bounced violently across the ground a few times before sliding to a stop some distance away.
A shaking hand reached out into the open air from inside the M540's small troop bay. It grasped around until it found the edge of the opening and latched onto it. With it was a foot that cautiously slid out until it found gravel to dig itself into.
Adrian pulled himself out with slow measure, bracing himself on the side of the vehicle as he held the back of his head. Jules followed after him, with Adrian giving him a hand as he hopped out.
Adrian groaned as he gathered his bearings.
"I can't keep doing this. I've probably lost a few years of my life in these past few days alone."
"The sooner, the better, in my case."
"Good for you, but I'd rather sooner come later. Now, come on." Adrian dragged his rifle out, one that he swore was the same model that the Royal Marines used to try and snuff him out. "We're almost there."
Jules carried out another signature bright and white Wey-Yu battle rifle as he followed.
They both cautiously eyed the wreckage as they rounded it. The rear half of their M540 had disappeared, having been crushed within the troop door side of the M577. It was disquieting to see just how close the turret had been to being added to the mix. Had they melded together anymore, the M540's interior would have been given a nice new coat of Adrian.
While the main hatch had been crushed well beyond any idea of use, the driver's door was still an area of concern as they both carefully watched it while they crept around. Adrian took notice of a small flame that began to creep up from where the partially crushed engine of the M577 met the rear of their M540 and decided it wasn't worth the time. The growing whir of the ship behind him only elevated that feeling.
"There's not a chance those turrets will ever see use again, so we don't have to sit here and worry about them shooting us in the back." Adrian began with haste towards the ship. "We're out of time."
Jules looked up towards the engine, slightly holding his ear to it.
"Nah, we've got a minute still. Actually made pretty good time if I do say so myself."
"That doesn't mean mosey around like we're taking a Sunday stroll! We're right here!"
Adrian motioned for him to follow one last time before sliding his rifle over his shoulder and bounding away towards the ramp. He knew he had already been asking a lot of Jules, demanded even, but he couldn't dare risk it; he needed his help. No matter how much he didn't want to admit it.
Almost there, Elena. Adrian felt his heart thrum in his chest with each labored but bounding step up the ramp. It won't be long now, girl. I promise. I'm close, so close. And when I'm there, I'll never let you go again.
And yet, promises bring pangs of painful remorse. Remorse that she had suffered this long, that their life together would only be born of blood and fire, for every minute with her he'd missed, and most of all, a whispering fear of what she'd see when he finally made it.
Would it be him? The same person she had cared for and trusted so existentially, so unconditionally, or had that man been the first victim?
The man here now. The one who'd come all this way. Adrian hardly knew who he was.
This man was beaten and tired. Driven nigh feral as he stood in the blood of others just as much as his own, all the while haunted by the ghosts of his deeds just as much as the thing inside that had driven him to make them such.
Then again, he'd hardly ever known who he was in the first place.
But was he still her Adrian?
He squeezed his eyes, trying to cast the doubts away as he had each time before so that they may return to the shadows that had spawned them to fester.
That's all he had ever tried to be...hadn't he?
It wasn't himself that he dreaded such things would cast a shadow over. It was his memory of her which he was - the sweet and pure image of her love that he kept close to his heart. They were all he had of her right now–for this entire damnable trial–and he would dare not sully it, for he knew it was true. It was the truest thing he'd ever known. It was why he was here, wasn't it?
It sang to him even now, with a force that grew stronger the closer he was and the more he could feel her. A particular image stood out, and it did more to quell the fears of his mind and ease his heart than any lie he could tell himself.
It was back on the station, in the bright white operating room. It was that silent and tender moment when he could finally meet the one who had cared for him so much for no other reason than the sake that he existed despite the imminent danger they had posed for him. Because, despite that, he was her host. Her one and only, and now, he was her bonded. It was that moment when there was nothing in her enraptured gaze up to him than the unadulterated affection that she beamed with when he so carefully held her dear for the first time.
The memory had danced around him so many times. It had spun its web and sang its song and bound him forevermore. It was what drove him here, even if it had to take upon itself the maddening cloak of mania to see him through. But despite that, despite all that dared try to stop him or stand in the way of her and her happiness, it had seen him through.
Elena…It-it was all for you. I hope you know that. I hope you'll understand because it was so that you'd never have to cry again. I'll make it all up to you–I'll make it right–so that I can be the man you need or whatever you want me to be.
He took another step, unaware of how he'd slowed to a halt as the moment had taken him. Now, it was time for him to take the moment. No matter how hard they might try to blind each to the other, when they were this close, he could feel her no matter what. Even the faintest touch of her being made it all worth it, but there was still so much more waiting for him–for her.
Light was on the horizon, and it soon would be there to stay so long as he had her.
He neared the top, but just before he could crest it, Jules' sharp, panicked yell for Adrian rang out behind. Looking back, he feared the worst. Except there was nothing to fear. Nothing save for the stark terror that ruled Jules' features as he stood frozen like a statue stuck in the middle of finagling with the M577's door. Worst of all, his wide eyes did not watch Adrian but above and beyond him into the recesses of the ship that lay above.
Slowly and with a latent regret, Adrian's gaze followed Jules' own, moving slowly back up the ramp.
His breath grew shallow. How had he not heard him–this thing–approaching? His throat felt dry. How had they not seen him?! Had he been too caught within himself and Jules too distracted to notice or even care to notice? His vision shifted in and out of focus. Why here? The drum in his chest pounded louder–faster. Why now? The depth of his visions blended into one plane as they tunneled in on the figure who stared back from above.
Two dark visors pierced deep into Adrian. Like black holes, they caught him in their empty gaze. They were the ever-shielded eyes of ever-haunting Horrigan. Goliath. The man stood eerily still. There wasn't a twitch of movement as he bore simmering death at Adrian.
Neither moved. Perhaps they waited for the other to first–despite how foolish such a notion was. Or perhaps it was just one savoring the moment while the harrowing grip of a sheer and overtaking biological fear response froze the other.
The moment felt like minutes but was likely not more than a few seconds. At least, not until Horrigan unsurprisingly moved first. His boot, the size of Adrian's chest, came clanging down onto the ramp as one of his hands lumbered over his shoulder to grab the auto-cannon on his back.
Adrian stumbled back a step, trying not to trip on the incline as he reached for his own. It hadn't been fast enough and wasn't nearly as decisive as it should have been, as Horrigan promptly followed with another rattling step, closing the gap as he dragged the back of his free hand through the air and into Adrian's chest.
Adrian was sent tumbling down the ramp and fell off the side. His chest was tight, contracting as it sought the air it had been stripped of. The outside world had momentarily ceased to exist. He could only clutch at it, gasping to drag the air into his lungs as he lay at the bottom with each successful gasp, only to be evicted by a series of gagging coughs. The thundering steps that thumped closer and closer helped invigorate the process.
When his vision came back into focus, it couldn't have been soon enough, even if the dark barrel that pointed at his eye and peered into his soul made it seem like he had not been so lucky.
A sharp whistle drew both heads towards Jules, still beside the crash. His hand gripped an emergency release latch.
"Heads up, big guy!"
The handle was roughly yanked down, and Jules ducked out of the way. With a violent hiss and a pop, the door went flying. In a heartbeat, it had skipped across the ground, developing a fatal spin as it tumbled straight for Horrigan. The man–if he could even be called such–himself must have had cat-like reflexes unexpected for one of his stature with how quickly he threw his gun up to shield him. Despite this, his mass still limited how fast he could be, acting like a bottleneck for his much faster reaction speed.
Just barely as he'd moved his weapon-turned-shield in front of him, the weighty door skipped off the ground one last time and slammed with a force unprecedented into his gun. This would have been the end of it had it not then bounced off of it and sent the rest of its momentum straight up and into his head.
As it went, the larger they were, the harder they fell. Had the ramp not been built with weight in mind, his ringing crash onto it would have likely left a Horrigan-shaped dent. His limp body slid down the rest of it, coming to a facedown rest at the button next to his autocannon that now looked more like an L than a gun.
There had been too many close calls, far too many.
Adrian clutched at his throat as he struggled up to his knees, trying to keep the pain in his chest from finding its way out through more coughing.
Once recovered enough, he looked at the body. Jules had been right. An undignified way to go for a man of that stature. He only wished it could have been himself that put him down.
Adrian shook his head and was still a bit shaken up inside, but turned towards as he stood up only to see him dragging a body out of the newly accessible M577 as if nothing had happened. As he struggled to wrangle the limp, and what Adrian hoped was not lifeless, form out of the way, he caught sight of Adrian watching him. He gave a rather out-of-place smile and thumbs up, considering the scene. It wouldn't last, though, falling away as his head jerked up towards the engines. Their steadily increasing hum had quickly pitched a few decibels and a sudden heat washed over them both as dust was kicked up. Brushing himself off, he cautiously eyed the large, limp form of Horrigan once more and gave him a swift kick to the head as he walked over him.
"That one was for Elena, you dirty brute! Should never have touched her."
With a slight limp that gradually disappeared with each step, he returned to the top, stopping just at it. Cargo of all forms lined the walls and cut through the room in columns upon tracks. It looked like they'd been in something of a rush and called it good enough, just wanting to get off planet before trouble found them–should this pair of misfits have even counted as trouble. Either way, they hadn't been quick enough in leaving, and Adrian would make sure they'd realize the depths of their mistake in full.
"Jules!" Adrian called back, the man now halfway inside the vehicle as he messed with something else. "Quit messing around in there. It's time to go!"
"Listen, mate." He called back, his voice echoing from inside the compartment as he still struggled with whatever he was pulling on. "I know that we've been walking in and out of Hell together for the past few days, and I know that you went through an especially hot and painful portion of perdition, but I'm still 2-to-1 with you in the 'pulling your ass out of the fire' competition. Besides," He finally scooted back out, carrying a bandolier, a few extra magazines, and a wide grin, "I've still got some ladies down here to keep an eye on."
"Well…Where are they?" Adrian called out above the growing noise of the engines.
"Beats me. They could be sitting right where I left them still and twiddling their thumbs…claws? Don't they have two? Whatever." He shook his head. "Who knows, they could be frolicking through some fields or even starting a fight of their own. I don't know. All that matters is that it's not the latter. They're a keen bunch, and they've grown on me a bit. If anything, you're the one to blame for expanding my horizons." That same sly smirk that Adrian had seen too much of but grew to begrudgingly like crept onto his face. "Do you remember what I told you about how I liked my women?"
"Don't you even start with that!" Adrian ran a hand over his mouth, having to suppress the laugh. "Helpful as always, Jules."
"I try." He shrugged. "But, the bottom line is I've gotta stay down here. For their sake. Wouldn't want 'em getting themselves into too much trouble."
"As much as I hate to know the grief you're about to cause those ladies, it is probably what's best. I'd hate to see Elena suffer any more grief, especially if it came to her sisters. They've probably done more for her than I have." His brow twitched, and he briefly glanced at the floor, a pit appearing in his chest. He threw that feeling away, however, as his hand went up in a wide, grandiose gesture. "Keep them safe. I'll see you on the other-"
A loud bang against the ramp cut Adrian off, causing him to stumble at the top even when he wasn't on the sloped surface.
No. No, it couldn't be. He'd had his entire-
A voice as deep and dark as the abyss itself rattled out in a buzzing stutter.
"Y-y-YOU-yooou aren't going A- anywhere."
With a swallowing fear, Adrian's eyes landed on the fist that had slammed a new dent into the ramp and, just next to it, the source of that electronic voice. One that he hadn't believed existed and now wished didn't.
There, still at the bottom of the ramp, yet still alive, was Horrigan. He whose large form slowly lumbered off the ground as he pushed himself up by his fists. After taking a knee, he stopped so that he may look up, or at least the best that he could.
Adrian sucked the air in between his teeth and drew back a step.
His–this thing's –head jerked and spasmed as it strained to look at him, bent in a way no neck should ever be. Slowly, it twitched and struggled up until it got caught on its broken tubing and artificial vertebrae, getting stuck at a terrible, crooked angle. Horrigan only brought his hands up, roughly clutching both sides of his head that looked up and away at nothing in its gruesome state.
His huge hands and arms slowly began to shake, struggling for a moment before the resistance gave. His head snapped back the rest of the way with an awful crack but still left the slightest and most uncanny of angles out of place.
Just as–or teetering on the very edge of even more–awful was what the readjustment revealed. Dripping white and gaping open was the empty space that was once a jaw. Accompanying it was a concerning, yet almost unsurprising, lack of gore or viscera. Instead, tubes hung out where they hadn't been torn away as an indiscernible cloudy white liquid slowly seeped from them.
Adrian stumbled back a step. He should have seen it sooner; he didn't know how he hadn't seen it sooner. What foolish idea had lodged itself into his skull to make him think that this, before mute, behemoth had been anything close to human?
It didn't matter; Adrian told himself like he did with so much else that did, but neither was it a surprise. All it did was cast away any misbegotten burden killing him might have naively placed on his soul.
This was a combat android and one that broke countless intergalactic laws of ethics and war. Slowly, it swiveled what was left of its head left and right, realigning it the best it could before something finally snapped into place, and it stopped, looking directly at Jules. The pit that formed in Adrian's when Horrigan lost interest in Jules–despite the man having been the cause of the damage–and shifted focus to Adrian felt ready to swallow his heart whole.
As much as he wanted to believe this was another sick joke in the long line of them, he couldn't anymore. They were beyond that now, far beyond that. There was no need to blame it on anything that it wasn't, as what was to be blamed stood before him now.
But it wasn't, not when Horrigan unsteadily pushed himself up, bringing his goliathan nature to bear once more.
Jules yelled something that could not be discerned when what stood just before Adrian took full primacy of his attention, but a few bullets slammed into Horrigan's back, despite most plinking off the thick armor or getting caught within. Through it all, his searing laser focus never wavered as it tried to burn a hole through Adrian. This did not change even when the ramp began to rise after he'd stomped into the cargo bay, following each of Adrian's back steps in. A final sliver of light stood behind Horrigan's crooked head, casting its final shadow upon Adrian before it, too, faded as the ramp closed with an echoing click.
Fear it, hate it, but he would not run from it. Adrian had stepped upon a bed of nails this entire path, digging his feet into the sharp heads until he bled, all the while telling himself he was paying his debt in blood. But it wasn't his debt to pay. It was theirs, and he intended to extract it in whole–starting with this beast that had hurt Elena, nearly squeezing the life out of her when she was so small and delicate.
His feet stayed, his breathing was rough and ready, and his eyes stared right back, sharp and laden with the hatred and pain that burdened him. He would rid himself of it one way or another, for he wished not to carry such when he was finally with her. But, he was slow to make such a promise, for he feared it would break him should he break it.
It may have seemed a fool's errand, and he may have been the mouse staring down the cat, but he steadied himself, with gun gripped tightly, as it longed for use, even if he wasn't sure how useful it would even be.
Horrigan's reverberating, almost broken-record-like voice ground to life again, inciting a dread so dire within all who had the misfortune of hearing it. None–save for the select few–were much longer to live and remember its dreadful rolling thunder had they the misfortune to hear it in the first place.
"Primary m-mandate: Asset pr-pr-protection. Priority: At all costs. Consideration of col-collateral damage... negligible–acceptable… Inhibitors disabled." Each syllable rolled like gravel with the robotic overtones to make it all the worse, with the last part slithering out almost dreadfully eager.
"You're already one foot in the grave there, Jack, and I'd bet you don't even realize just how close the other is. If you cared."
Suddenly, the two braced themselves as gravity felt to triple with the ship rocking madly. Horrigan handled it much better than Adrian could despite his damage, but it was still enough to throw him off balance. Likely thanks in part to the gaping wound and what other damage that hid behind his broken, mangled mask.
For the split moment that Horrigan wasn't crushing Adrian with his eyes, the latter took the opportunity to slide in between the rows of crates. It was all too similar to what started this journey through hell, and he wasn't about to go 0-2. Especially not to the likes him.
Adrian spoke up as he slinked in and out between rows of crates, boxes, and all other items large enough to conceal him.
"It's time you died as you lived-"
Horrigan's head tried to snap to the row Adrian had yelled from but got caught on its own broken insides, making him turn in full.
"-An abomination! It'll be an act of mercy for everyone and probably the only decent thing you'll ever do!"
/|\
A/N:
Hello again!
I want to give you all something of a preemptive update for the next chapter. While I know that my upload schedule has been somewhat slow (albeit consistent), this next chapter will take a bit longer to get out than usual.
This is mainly due to two reasons: First is that I like to keep a few buffer chapters between what I have written and what I upload, and so far, I've nearly finished writing everything I had a more detailed roadmap for.
And Second: The next chapter is about twice the length as this one.
I'll need time to map out what comes next since, with where the story is now, it can go practically anywhere. Despite that, I already know how and where I want the story to end, but I'm still trying to add a good amount without dragging it on for longer than it's due.
But, while we're at it, I might as well go out on a limb and see if there's anything any of you would want to see me mention or touch on, as my priority is you, the reader. (Please note this is entirely determinant)
Either way, I've taken up enough of your time and want to thank you all for your continued patience, and I hope you enjoy what's to come!
