Osdal (Harmony War Series Book 3) (44 page)

***

It had taken two nerve-wracking days, but the Troopers that had been seeded throughout the occupied towers had linked up with the Troopers above them.

Ortiz sat down in what had been someone’s living room. There was garbage everywhere, the view screen had bullet holes in it and the bathroom was open to the hallway where Troopers were wandering around or taking a seat like Ortiz.

He’d seen what the biological weapon had done to the Chosen. The toxin had turned to an acid inside their systems and melted their innards.

In the end it had come down to three decisions for the powered armor wearing Chosen: either they suffocated in their armor, they opened it and died from the toxin, or they ran at the Troopers and got cut down.

Many had gone with the second option, thinking that they were immune or that what had happened to their friends wouldn’t happen to them. The smart ones charged the Troopers. It was the least painful of all the options.

Already techs and armorers were swarming the city, dumping out Chosen bodies and using the exoskeletons to install their upgrades.

There were 47 Cities on Osdal Actual, and all but nine were under the control of the EMF. Osdal Three had been cleared, with only a company staying behind to make sure none of the Chosen emerged from the forests.

Three processing stations still had Chosen in them.

Ortiz let his head fall backwards and sighed. His body hurt to his very bones, fatigue seeping through every fiber of his being.

Chapter 62

Tower

Earth, Sol System

10/3267

Nivad looked over from the reports that dominated his screen. There were unfiltered views coming straight from the battlefield, most of which the paying customer would never get to see. Well, Nivad was thinking of selling a special highlight reel once the war was done.

It would probably pay quite well and serve as a reminder for those that thought about pushing off the company partnerships that owned the planets they lived on.

“You called?” Dalia asked, closing the door behind her.

“Yes, I want orders sent to the carriers in Osdal. Leave one behind to deal with the remaining Harmony forces, the rest are to move on to Fernix. Have them take the powered armor that they need. They are to modify the armor while travelling to Fernix,” Nivad said.

“Yes sir, I will have the orders sent within the hour.” She made to leave.

“Also, make it clear that if they are to capture any of the ships that left Osdal for Fernix, they will be rewarded with a third of what the ship and its cargo earns at auction,” Nivad said.

Realization dawned in Dalia’s eyes and she smiled. “I will make a point of that with them.”

Nivad smiled as she left.

The carriers were faster than the freighters by a large margin. If they left soon enough, then they might be able to catch up with the freighters from the last five years, only giving Fernix 12 years of Osdal’s processed materials instead of 17.

It would also put all of those freighters under the control of Nivad, to be auctioned off to whoever had the credits for the cargo and ship.

Chapter 63

Mining City Twenty-One

Osdal Actual, Osdal System

10/3267

Tyler looked at CSM Haas in confusion. It had been three days since they had escaped Mining City Twenty-One’s Central Tower.

Their armor had been charged, serviced and given back to them. They’d pulled new weapons and ammo, and eaten, slept and prepared for their next mission.

“We’re going to the carriers?” Tyler asked, stunned.

“Orders from on high. They want us in Fernix as soon as possible. We control most of Osdal Actual, the processing stations and OsdalThree. EMFC Avenger will stay behind to clear the remaining Chosen, and make sure that there isn’t a resurgence in the system,” Haas said.

“It just feels wrong, leaving the bastards running around while we head off for Fernix,” Jerome said.

“There are just a few cities left; as long as they armor up and hit them one by one then they should be fine, it’ll be just like Sacremon was for us,” Mark said.

Not many people looked happy.

“Have your people ready to move in two hours, we’re going to be berthing on the carrier Dauntless,” Haas said.

“We staying together?” Tal asked.

“No, we’re getting split up to spread the pool of our knowledge to the other Troopers on the carrier. Hope is that we can help them get past the BM and turn them into real Troopers.” Haas sounded tired.

Chapter 64

EMFC Dauntless

Osdal Actual, Osdal System

10/3267

It seemed like they had barely sat down at the maintenance pad when they were being ordered to board Combat Shuttles that were going to take them up the EMFC Dauntless, their new home.

Fearless was going to be home for most of the people from Reclaimer. Ortiz, and those in the regiment under his command, were being pulled apart and sowed throughout Dauntless’ Troopers.

They were filling their gaps, and the hope was that they could pass their training on.

To the Troopers it all happened in a blur. Mark was sent to the medics, and he got the full go-over as a number of people tried to remove his scars. The quickly found themselves forcibly ejected from his stall.

Those scars were his memories, a way to never forget his past.

They all took Nerva’s death hard, but they understood why Ortiz had kept it from them. He was as close to a father figure as they had got. He had helped them all become the people that they were now.

In five days, they went from breaking out of Mining City Twenty-One’s central tower to being on the carrier with leave, their armor and supplies following on as they waited to be sent out into the abyss towards their next fight in Fernix.

Mark was quickly making his way through a bottle of liquor. It was the second day he had been on leave. The past two days he’d drank himself to sleep, but the nightmares still found him, and in the morning the hangover made him forget all about them.

He’d gone to the mess early and started his day off right, with a good ole bottle of booze.

He had a nice buzz going on when Alexis walked over and took a seat in the chair opposite.

***

“Hey sis,” Mark said, sitting back in his chair and taking a long swig of the bottle in his hands.

“Hey Mark, you okay?” she asked, not knowing how to ask the question any other way.

The way he looked at her made her wince. He didn’t try to hide his emotions with that much drink in him. There was hatred and sadness there.

“You tell me,” he said, his voice hot as he took another angry drink, looking away.

“Well, tell me what’s going on inside that thick skull of yours.” She cared for Mark, he had looked out for her more than once, and he was part of hers and Tyler’s family.

He drank, silent for a long time as if remembering something.

“I met this girl called Caroline in the camp,” Mark said, still staring off into space.

He laughed, a real smile on his face as he remembered something, then he took another drink as if to drown that memory.

“She looked after me, taught me what happens in the camp, taught me what to do and, and she was nice,” Mark said, his words failing him. He looked at Alexis, tears in his eyes and a sad smile on his face.

Oh shit,
she thought, her heart breaking as she saw the one emotion she had only seen on her wedding day on his face: unconditional love.

“She didn’t care that I was a fighter, or a killer, and when I got the nightmares she crawled in closer and soothed my worries away. She cared for me.” He laughed and shook his head, blinking rapidly, tears falling down his cheeks as he took another swill.

“I protected her, looked out for her, and we would talk. She was as broken as me and I couldn’t care less. I never saw her face, just her eyes and this scar running across her face, called it a promise. A promise to avenge her family. She didn’t tell me the real reason was because she was so pretty she was scared about those fucking animals getting to her.” Mark’s hand tightened on the bottle. He took a few moments to calm down before forcing two mouthfuls of liquor back. He wiped some on his shirt that fell on his chin.

“She was the one that patched me up after I got dragged across the fucking desert. The Chosen saw, and when everything started to go to shit with those videos and Castillo blowing his brains out, they came for me again. Probably wanted to finish off what they’d started with towing me behind their air car,” Mark laughed, a harsh noise to Alexis’ ears.

Mark searched the table with his eyes. “Well they wanted to cause me some more pain before I died. Seems like they’d been watching how Caroline and I cared for one another, so they beat me using shock sticks so I couldn’t fight back.” He looked up into Alexis’ eyes, holding them there. His deep brown eyes almost looked black, filled with hatred.

“See, they wanted to hurt her to hurt me. They skinned her in front of me. I tried to fight them, they kept hitting me with shock sticks but made sure I was conscious to hear her scream as they cut her skin off. Fuckers didn’t do it right,” he snorted, shaking his head, his eyes finding Alexis’s again.

“See, they cut too deep, they took off most of her one side from her kneecap, up her ribs to her chest. Fuckers were touching her the entire time.

It was only when they were going down the other side when one of the Chosen was about to rape her, that I got my chance. The fucker watching me was distracted, and made it so I could kill him. Killed the rest of them good too.” He drank from the bottle, putting it on the table and looking at it.

“See, I was too late. They'd cut chunks out of her sides, and she was losing blood and fast, pain sent her into unconsciousness for a little bit, so I used some of the Chosen’s drugs so she could deal with the pain. If I’d had just a can of sealant, or a hot brand, I might have been able to save her, but all I had was some clothes.” His eyes drifted to Alexis and then away, his voice and body heavy.

A small sad smile that made tears well in Alexis’s eyes appeared on his face.

“She said she liked me.” He laughed; it was a painful thing, but full of wonder.

“Said that she wished we could have got an asteroid miner, just gone off and done our own thing. That was the first time I saw her face, and she was beautiful.” Mark slid in his seat, looking at the ceiling, wrapped in his memories, drinking from his bottle. He stayed like that for some time. Alexis knew that there was nothing that she could do for Mark right then and there. She knew she would be in the same place if Tyler died. It hit her close to home, and she held tears at bay, barely.

She reached across the table and squeezed Mark’s hand. It was hard seeing him going through this inner turmoil.

“Let me know if you need anything,” She said, holding his hand for a few more moments before letting go.

“Help me kill the bastards that killed Caroline, help me kill Harmony.” His eyes chilled her to the bone. There was no hatred, no love, just the eyes of a killer.

Chapter 65

SLS Furtim

Heading away from Osdal System

10/3267

His last memory was of being in a spinning Combat Shuttle with a hole revealing missiles going off in the distance.

He woke in a warm substance. He had been in it many times before, but never while he was part of Earth’s Military Forces.

He pushed himself out of the medical vat. It looked like a pool of swirling silver, but in reality it was a vat of nano machines that were small enough to work on the molecular level.

“Sir, I’m going to have to ask that you get back into the medical vat. This is our medical ward and we’re trying to…” The medicos in the room started. There were fourteen other medical vats chugging away that Nerva could see.

“Legate Nerva, Recruiting for the Legion. Why the hell am I here?” Nerva demanded. The medicos’s placating gestures disappeared.

“Nerva,”
NIDenise started.

Nerva closed his eyes, rubbing his head and sighing at her tone. He felt like he wasn’t going to like this next part.

“Your enlistment within the EMF is over, it was the thought of myself and of Legate Aurelius that it would be best if you died in the eyes of the EMF. Nivad Selvra was taking a close look at you and the people of the carrier Reclaimer,”
NIDenise continued.

“Who is Centurion of this ship?” Nerva asked, looking to the Medico. They looked almost puzzled as to why he hadn’t asked his Neural Interfacing Artificial Intelligence.

“
Centurion Exceter
,” NIDenise answered.

Nerva nodded and started walking out. The Medico shook his head and went back to looking over his charges through the holographic screens at the bottom of their medical vats.