First Foray
February 2062
“Does MOTHER know you are here?”
The grime on Arinna’s face hid the scratches from shrapnel. She looked tired, young, and scared. Jared’s gut clenched.
Her sky blue eyes, innocent and wide, turned towards him. Jared looked away. He saw her features harden from the corner of his eye.
“No,” Arinna spat.
“You shouldn’t be here, Minister. I don’t have the soldiers to babysit you,” Jared told her, his voice harsher than intended. Too many had died, leaving broken morale in the scattered fragment of the Guard that was left.
“I don’t need babysitting. I practiced with Michael.” Her voice was raw on the name. She needed to swallow before continuing, the words coming quieter through a tightened throat. “I know what to do.”
“Practice does not make combat ready.”
“I was a soldier once too,” she snapped back.
“Over eight years ago and before taking the job with MOTHER,” Jared pushed. He said the last word with the implication of it being where she should be. Not here in Sofia being shot at. He’d already lost most of his close friends. He wanted to keep the few he had left. “I’ll see you out of this and back to the safe zone on Vitosha.” He shifted to signal a Sergeant.
“That won’t be necessary, Captain.”
The title hit him like a bullet, knocking breath from his chest as it burned through him. The Command was too new and the cost of attaining it paid in the lives of friends. She knew it too. It had been Michael who had worn it last. Jared looked into her unflinching eyes.
“I’m staying.”
To prove it, she picked up her gun and darted forward, making it to the shadow of the next building as a mortar sliced the roadway between them. The lull in the fighting was over, closing the slim opportunity for Arinna to leave.
“Fuck.”
It was a panicked ten minutes before Jared caught up with her. They were past Borisova park now, deep into Slatina. Shells struck a concrete building a breath after Arinna’s form disappeared through its door. Jared made the opening in a haze of white dust. The only thing keeping him from yelling at her was the faces of fifteen others of the Guard, his Guard. He swallowed the slip in his control. His first battle as captain was no time to become unhinged. Gods, he needed to save what was left. He just wasn’t sure if he meant Europe or his troops.
Gabriella Faronelli saluted into his dry mouthed silence. “The mortars are coming from the Central Railway, Captain. Should we change mission to take them out?”
“No,” Arinna answered, her voice firm. “That isn’t why we are here.”
Gabriella’s gaze jumped between them. Jared fought back his anger, unlocking clenched fists. His neck muscle pulled so tight it ached. But Arinna took no notice as she moved to an easterly window.
One finger, he motioned Gabriella and nine others around the room to guard the perimeter. Then he went to deal with Arinna.
“Exactly what is the mission, if I may ask?”
“The railroad tracks,” Arinna replied without elaborating.
“Then shouldn’t we be heading to the Central Station?” Jared hissed.
“It is too heavily defended. This is the main line the FLF has been using to bring fuel and weapons from the middle-eastern depots. We need to take it out.”
“Then where?”
“Further east. The primary tracks run from a bridge over the Iskar River back to the Slatina Industrial Park. We take out that section, we’ll slow the FLF down a bit.”
“They’ll rebuild,” he warned.
“Depends on how well we take it out,” she replied with a grin. It was one he could see Michael wearing.
“We need to keep moving,” Arinna said, turning to survey the room and dispersed troops. He cut her off as she opened her mouth again.
“You are not Field Commander. They are my troops.”
She paused, long enough to study him. “No, they would listen to me only by your grace.” She waved Jared forward. “Tell them we head to the Industrial Park.”
Fury gripped him. The target was too tempting or he would have told his troops to head back to Vitosha. Kris glared out into the street like he wanted a fight. All of them looked like they wanted payback for what had happened in Kiev. Blowing something up would feel awfully good.
“Gabriella, radio the second wave. Tell them to meet us at the Industrial Park in Slatina and avoid the Central Railway as much as possible.”
Jared met Arinna at the eastern doorway.
“How much firepower does the FLF have in Sofia?” he asked, ready to cover her exit.
“Not much compared to the front lines, but more than we do,” she said before slipping out.
Great, it made him wonder why he’d brought his bloody sword. He doubted he’d get close enough to use it.
The second wave took the brunt of the artillery fire as they advanced. Their path into Slatina created a distant rumble, which overwhelmed the sharp retort of close impacts. With the distraction of the second wave, Jared’s small forward force could have marched down the car and impact riddled old interstate rather than weave through the back alleys. But instinct was hard to overcome. Jared preferred an indirect and more discrete path.
He’d also grown used to the chaos of the front lines where fighting ran through cities, civilians scattering as the push and pull of fighting surged across the countryside. Here, Sofia was empty. The streets echoed impacts, but not screams. Gutted vehicles and occasionally collapsed buildings littered the streets, but bodies were scarce. It was a scene of a war departed and the FLF winners. It knotted Jared’s intestines. Every empty window was a remembrance of the lives that were lived before, as well as a future he hoped to prevent. All of Europe could not crumble too.
The dark blocks of warehouses solidified out of the dusty haze. Jared took lead entry. He’d always been point for Michael, a desire not to lose his commander as much as wanting him to make it home to Arinna. But he hadn’t been point or wingman on the last mission. Orders had kept him grounded as leader of a backup wave; a force that hadn’t been necessary. The target had been annihilated along with most of the Guard. In one move, the FLF had erased the commander and the combined armed force that had stood between them and Europe. Jared was still reeling with new Command and loss when Arinna came to him, eyes dry but with dusty tracks on her cheeks. He’d grabbed onto her desire for action and revenge without asking enough questions.
Jared pushed down the flashback, the images of too many fights by Michael’s side leaving him trembling. Arinna skirted around him, muscle memory reawakened in her frame as she swept to the left, eyes searching for a threat in the dark interior. He didn’t want to see the motion that was more than training in her confident moves. She shouldn’t be there. That was the focus he needed. She wasn’t former EU army, navy, or air force and so she didn’t qualify for the Guard, the military unit created out of the remains of the rest. A former soldier before the war from a country that no longer existed, she belonged with the politicians and as a liaison with military intelligence.
Ahead of him, the Guard cleared the building with no need of direction from him. Empty but too big to defend, the warehouse offered only a brief respite until the second wave joined them. Gabriella approached, manner brisk as she saluted. An explosion overwhelmed the words on her lips. The force of the blast trembled the warehouse. Dust filtered down, obscuring the dark interior farther.
“That wasn’t from the FLF,” Jared stated.
Gabriella was pale when she replied, “It sounded west of us.” The roughness of her voice spoke of her fear. It was their remaining troops that lay west.
“Find out,” Jared snapped, not needing to elaborate. He walked briskly to the door, but kept himself from running. Fear, liquefying terror, was not the message he would relay to his troops, no matter his thoughts.
Outside, the air smelled like burnt concrete. Smoke was rising in a growing cloud to the w
est.
“A building along the interstate,” Arinna said. He hadn’t even noticed she’d stepped outside behind him. Her handgun was at ready but held low.
“You shouldn’t be out here,” he rasped.
“Someone needed to make sure you weren’t going to be target practice, Captain,” she replied before walking back inside. He heard the garbled reply from the second wave as the door opened. Relief pushed him against the door jamb before he followed on Arinna’s heels.
“Hold for orders,” Gabriella said before snapping off the mike. “They ran into an outpost of FLF that had fortified a pre-war hospital. Sergeant Assad said they were armoring up, most likely to come after us, so they took them out.”
“Our explosives or theirs?” Jared asked.
“Ours, they had to use all they brought along.”
“Dammit,” Arinna hissed. “We needed those to take out the rail line.”
“No back up ammunition on this little outing you planned?” Jared snapped at her.
Arinna’s reply was grudging despite her miscalculation, “No.”
“Well then, I guess we are done here. I’ll take a failed mission over more losses.”
Arinna said nothing as she turned away, arms crossed tightly over her chest. Jared turned back to a stone faced Gabriella.
Gunfire snapped in the distance followed by the heavy explosions of RPGs.
“Are they requesting assistance?” Jared asked. He paced as Gabriella relayed the question, mind turning over potential routes. It would be difficult not to get squeezed between the FLF outpost and the Central Station.
“Negative. Route to advance rally point is unclear. Will have to disperse south to join,” Sergeant Farrak Assad replied over the line.
“No, tell them to fall back to Borisova. Hold at remnants of zoo. We will join them there. If no word from us in one hour, go to rally point Alpha,” Jared instructed.
Relief settled upon him the moment he gave the order. It was war. Soldiers would die. But he wasn’t ready to offer the remnants of the Guard to FLF. The poorly planned attack on Sofia was folly, especially so soon after Kiev.
Arinna stood in the dark, barely seen where she leaned against a support column of the stripped warehouse. Whatever the building had held before the war was long gone. There was only dusty emptiness.
“We’ll give them a five-minute head start and then pull back as well,” Jared told Arinna as he joined her.
“We could use the FLF artillery to take out the tracks.”
“What?” he snapped, caught off guard.
Arinna pushed herself from the metal beam to face him. “The RPGs and whatever else they have hoarded up in the Central Station, it should be enough to destroy the tracks.”
“What is the point? There are other routes into Europe. You want us to attack an armed FLF facility, costing us God knows what in losses, to blow up one train track out of dozens?” The words burst from him on thoughts kept in check since Arinna had come to him with this plan. He should have asked them sooner.
There was the ghost of a smile on Arinna’s lips. The dim light caught on moisture in her eye as she turned away. The sight dried his throat.
“Michael and I used to argue the same thing. Yes, they will be able to reroute supplies, but it will take them time. The route through Sofia is primary and its loss will slow them down. Jared, Captain, you know that is what we need. Now more than before Kiev. We need to rebuild the Guard. We are too scattered, too broken. The FLF will cut through us and take the rest of Europe in a month if we don’t win a reprieve. This is our chance.”
Her words cut through the grief, clearing away the secret doubts he harbored. She was right, and she had seen what he could not.
“The second wave is already on the way back to Borisova,” he told her. His voice must have given away his agreement. She took a deep breath, a spark igniting in the blue of her eyes.
“We could use that. The zoo is securable. They can draw the fire and attention of the FLF at the rail yard while we come in from the north.”
“Seventeen of us take on a fortified FLF position?”
“It isn’t numbers that wins wars. It’s skill. I thought you’d been the one who told me that, Captain?”
A lifetime ago, he thought, but didn’t argue. Suicide mission or not, it needed to be done.
Jared pulled the team together and told them where they were headed. It was met with the silence carrying the weight of a tomb.
“If we don’t buy breathing room, the war is over and we lost,” he told them. Arinna exhaled a snort but said nothing.
“How do we take out the soldiers without harming the weapons?” Gabriella asked, picking her words carefully.
“The second wave will keep the FLF occupied while we come in from the north,” Jared replied.
“North? Could work. What route?” Kirkpatrick asked.
“If we take the streets we could run into another outpost,” Tanja said with a frown.
“We can follow the Iskar north, stay in the river bed, and come out at the old airport. That will bring us down on the north-east side of the Central Depot,” Arinna offered.
“It will take some ammo to take out the FLF and we are running low as it is,” Kirkpatrick added.
“Well, we don’t want them to know we are around anyway. Switch to swords until we reach range of the rail,” Jared ordered.
“And if we run into any FLF?” Tanja asked.
“Don’t be seen.”
The unit seemed to take Jared’s remark as a challenge. What had been a stilted offense became fluid defense as they moved through the remainder of Slatina and into Iskar. Arinna merged with the team, which considering that it was the first time most of them had fought together wasn’t so unusual. Together, the heightened senses of each combined into a silent whole.
The river was not a clear path. Debris from collapsed buildings, and fallen retaining walls along with the occasional car impeded the shallow water. At least here though there were few buildings with overlooking windows unlike the alleyways on the streets above. Safety was bought at the slight expense of wet feet.
The sound of gunfire was faint, blocked by buildings and distance. Jared felt the time passing in the sweat beading on his back and the faint ache of tense muscles. But there was no hurrying this mission. They couldn’t afford an error and walk out alive, not that there was a guarantee of survival even if everything clicked together the same way the unit had since leaving Slatina. There was simply too much risk.
Cameron was first over the retaining wall at the airport, Gabriella on his heels. Jared’s first glance was of the cratered runway, destroyed until only the shrapnel of a plane’s wings spoke of the history held in the debris filled landscape. The terminal and hangers had burned, leaving rusted iron girders exposed like the ribcage of a massive and long dead creature. Relief burned through Jared. There would be no FLF resistance hidden among this wreckage.
The walk across the airfield was more exposed than along the path of the Iskar, but enough debris remained to offer some cover. It was mostly wind that moved through the dirt and broken concrete, eruptions of mortar fire growing louder as they crossed to the west. The hum of a motor was the first warning that they had found the FLF and it was far closer than the Central Rail yard. Arinna’s frown held the same feelings Jared felt: annoyance, worry, and curiosity. What was the FLF doing with what sounded like a crane on the outskirts of the airport?
To stay out of sight, they delved deeper into the tangled ruins of the terminal. The fire gutted remains of hotels blocked their view westward, hiding everything but the hum of equipment.
Kirkpatrick risked glancing out of a window, pulling back with annoyance. “I can’t see a bloody thing from this angle. We could try to head further north to get around them.”
“We are still east of the Central Rail. We need to go north anyway if we want to drop in on them,” Gabriella offered. Silence met her suggestion.
r /> “You want to take a peek?” Jared asked Arinna, the answer clear on her face.
“It could be supplies,” she replied.
“This far from the main depot on an offshoot of the rail line?” Cameron wasn’t buying it.
“You and me, we head over to the closer hotel to get a visual. The rest of you, take a break. It is still a long way to the Central Rail and those fireworks. I’ll be in radio contact if we need anything.”
Jared didn’t want to admit it, or maybe he didn’t want to remember it, but dodging across from shadow to shadow to reach the blackened shell of the hotel held the same essence as the myriads of times he’d run a similar course with Michael. All the way down to he and Arinna swapping the lead. They risked the stairs up to the third floor, making their way along a hallway strewn with charred remnants of prewar life. Even years after the main fighting had ended here, Jared could still smell the soot. Arinna edged to a window, careful of a plummeting hole, which had eaten most of the floor. The western wall of the hotel was a fragile open sore, ready to finish its collapse.
“Careful,” Jared said automatically. Female soldiers made up just over half of the Guard, but Arinna was different. She was his best friend’s wife, his dead best friend. It still hurt.
“The sun is behind us. Anyone looking this way will see a black building, not us,” Arinna answered, misreading his caution. Jared pushed down his regrets and moved carefully to join her.
Outside, a sleek charcoal grey machine dangled above a flatbed rail car. Slowly, the crane lowered it until the cable lines fell slack. Shouts filled the air as it was unstrapped. Jared leaned forward, tracing the angular outline with his eyes. They were sleek and armored, three mechanical beasts perched like sleeping predators. It took his mind a moment to make sense of what they were. When it did, the air caught in his chest.
“What the hell?” Jared glanced at Arinna.
Her fingers clawed into the soft wood of the window frame. The paleness of her face made her blue eyes seem that much larger. He knew her though and knew the look.
“You knew about them?”
“They aren’t supposed to be here. I didn’t think ... that they existed.”
Jared stabbed his thumb back to the safety of the hallway. Arinna scurried back, but kept walking until she reached one of the more intact central rooms. There she paced, right hand pulling at the tips of her shorn curls.
“How did the FLF build such advanced aircraft?” Jared asked.
“They aren’t FLF,” Arinna said, ceasing her frenetic movement. “They are ours.”
It took Jared a moment to respond. “The Guard’s? When ...?” The pieces did not make sense.
“No, the USA’s during the martial law of the early fifties.”
“Then how are they here? What do you know about them?”
“You know I was a military tactician. I’d seen blueprints. It was all theoretical. I knew that a few experiments were being run in Europe. It was safer here even then. But I didn’t think any had been built, much less three.”
Jared leaned against a wall, feeling the decayed wood and plaster give under his weight. He shifted back to his feet. “How the hell did they wind up in Sofia and unharmed after the bombing that place took?”
Arinna shook her head. “I have no idea. An underground bunker and testing facility beneath a hangar probably. There were dozens of those scattered around, but I didn’t know there was one here.”
Jared tossed her a sidelong look, but Arinna’s gaze was lost in the dust at her feet. “I guess you weren’t told everything.”
“No, I’ve been left out of a few things.” Her voice was bitter, the words sour.
“You think they are prototypes or just mock-ups?” he asked after a moment of silence hung in the room.
“They look complete.”
“We can’t let the FLF take them.”
Arinna rocked back on her heels, arms crossing as she gave him a cool look. Tension rose in the room.
“We could use them. After Kiev, we need planes, especially armored aircraft.”
“Are we here to take out the tracks or steal weaponry? Cause we can’t do both.” He wasn’t backing down from her challenge.
She smiled at him. “We can use the planes to take out the tracks.”
Arinna was decidedly more infuriating than Michael.
“You don’t know if they are functional, much less have fuel.”
“If they are the designs I saw, they don’t need gas.” Jared’s stony glare bought the answer to the question he refused to ask. “Either hydrogen or nuclear fuel cells,” she said.
“You’re not sure?” he asked, keeping any sign he was impressed out of his voice.
“Like I said, I didn’t know they had been built. Jared, we need one. Imagine if we can copy the design.”
“I thought we needed time.”
“What if we can take both?” she shot back.
“Dammit. Look, I’m sorry for Kiev. I’m sorry about Michael. I should have been there with him. I ....” The words burned a hole through his chest. No more would come. Arinna spun away from him, facing the corner so that he could not see her face.
“We are all angry,” Jared said with a quieter rasp. “But revenge is no reason to be here. It is no reason for you to be here. We are grasping at straws with no clear plan. It will get us killed.” He resisted the urge to shake her, afraid to feel the warmth of her shoulders under his hand. Instead, he ground his teeth.
“The Guard,” Arinna said, her voice choking. He had to move to see her face, but no tears glistened on her cheek as she stared unseeing into the hall. “They weren’t supposed to be there.”
Jared’s anger faded, replaced with a deeper cold. “What?” he growled.
“The agreement was for another plan, not trying to retake Kiev. That was discussed, but never approved. Michael, the Guard, never should have been there. Whatever regret you carry, Jared, mine is worse.”
“Misinformation? A spy?”
“I almost wish. No, idiocy I think. One Secretary’s blind hunger for glory killed most of our armed forces. That is why I’m here. Not revenge, but to make sure that it doesn’t happen again.”
“You don’t trust someone in MOTHER to relay the target to the Guard?”
Arinna snorted, finally glancing over at him. “More than that, I didn’t tell them what we were doing.”
Jared paused. Arinna didn’t look away. She wasn’t lying. “Anything?” he asked.
“Nothing. And I don’t intend to. I’m done with asking permission, done with damn politicians and their games. I’m done with losing.”
“That should go over well,” Jared said, amused despite where her actions had placed him.
“I think the only way they won’t have me killed is if we succeed in something here.” Arinna wasn’t smiling.
The desolate room ate the tension of a moment before, leaving behind a grim weariness.
“It would be nice to have new planes,” Jared said, sweeping his arm toward the door. “We were running out.”
—
“What is it?” Tanja asked as she dropped her position covering their return.
“Planes,” Jared said.
“Here?” Gabriella asked.
“Well, it is an airport,” Kirkpatrick told her.
Gabriella rolled her eyes. “More like was.”
“They are three experimentals being loaded onto rail cars. High tech, former USA developed.”
“Shit. How did the FLF get them?” Cameron asked.
“Is that the real reason we came?” Gabriella asked, her gaze on Arinna. “You work for MOTHER. Did you know they were here?”
“No. I didn’t even know they’d been built,” Arinna told her.
“How high tech?” Pietre asked.
“Sounds like very,” Jared said with a nod to Arinna.
“From the designs I saw, they run on fuel cells, either hydrogen or nuclear waste,” she told
them.
“They’re nuclear? Fuck,” Cameron rocked back on the crate he’d pulled up.
“Spent nuclear waste, not actual fission,” Arinna replied.
Cameron rubbed his fingers across his eyelids. “Great, what else?”
“Let me guess. Fancy weapons of some sort? The USA loved blowing shit up,” Kirkpatrick asked.
“Yeah, some traditional weapons, but the plan was for lasers,” Arinna replied.
“And the FLF is taking them home? No way. We’ve got to blow them up,” Pietre said.
“Actually, we were hoping to take them home ourselves,” Jared replied. There was a pause during which a crisp thud of something heavy and metal settling resounded through the broken terminal. The FLF had placed the second plane on a railcar. Only one more to go. They were running out of time.
“How do you propose to do that?” Gabriella asked, calm despite the doubt on her face.
“We’ll fly them,” Arinna replied.
Cameron’s gaze jumped between Jared and Arinna. “Do you know if they are operable? I mean, you said you didn’t know they’d been built? They might not be finished.”
Arinna leaned forward, a smile flirting with her lips. “We’ll have to get close, even if we are going to blow them up. It’ll only take another minute to see if they can fly.”
Jared suppressed his doubts. “Do you know enough about the system to be able to tell if they’ll fly?”
“Yes, the interface is fairly standard,” Arinna replied.
“Aren’t you forgetting something?” Tanja asked. “The runway isn’t exactly stellar. I don’t think you’ll get anything off the ground.”
“Not a problem. They take off like the old Harriers,” Arinna said, unconcerned.
Cameron gave a low whistle. “Vertical? Spectacular.”
“Unless they changed something or didn’t finish it in the first place,” Kirkpatrick snipped. “What about the railroad tracks. Isn’t that the mission? Going after the planes will use up the last of our ammo.”
“If the planes are operational, we can use them to take out the tracks. If not, we use what we have left to blow them up and we fail on both counts,” Jared ordered.
Arinna shifted next to him, but said nothing.
“If the planes are a no go, we’ll have to make it back to rally point Alpha with no ammo, passing through at least one outpost of FLF,” Gabriella said quietly. “Those aren’t good odds.”
“Hell with that, I’m not sure I like the option with the planes. You said there were three? There are seventeen of us, in case you lost count. Three fighters won’t hold more than six,” Kirkpatrick pointed out.
“They aren’t just fighters. Each should hold six additional people in the rear. They were meant to transport small forces,” Arinna replied.
“That still means we need pilots. Most of us ... aren’t,” Pietre said, his gaze slipping to the shadows.
“We only need a pilot for one plane. Jared is qualified and I can handle the onboard systems,” Arinna said.
“One plane? Why?” Gabriella asked.
“They were designed to recognize each other and even follow if commanded. The other two should follow the first.”
“Should again,” Kirkpatrick grumbled.
“Do you have a problem with the mission?” Jared growled.
“No, Captain. I’m concerned we are dealing with too many unknowns.” Kirkpatrick’s voice was crisp.
“We’re going to go look at some planes and either steal them or blow them up. I think you should be able to handle that. Now follow orders.”
“Whose, Captain?” Kirkpatrick said, a hint of rebellion in his eyes.
“Mine and Arinna’s while we are on this mission. Is that clear?” Jared eyed everyone to be certain they understood.
“Is there any good news?” Cameron asked.
“There aren’t many FLF soldiers near the planes,” Arinna said with a shrug. Jared chuckled as they broke up to prepare for the assault.
—
It was difficult watching Gabriella launch the surprise attack. Every instinct in Jared was to be in the thick of it with her. Next to him, Arinna shifted, her eyes darting between the Guard and the planes. There were perhaps twenty FLF working on loading the strange aircraft. Despite the attack earlier, the number of soldiers hadn’t been increased.
Of course, that assault had been on the other side of the city and the small band of Guard had been driven back to Vitosha. It was just as likely that the FLF thought the Guard had come on a foray for the planes. It would make sense, after losing the fleet in Kiev. The operation to load them was prudent in that light. Perhaps the lack of soldiers had more to do with repelling the Guard while workers loaded the planes behind the front line.
Cameron was being cautious with his fire, conserving the few bullets he had. A ricochet tinked off the plating of a plane, causing Arinna to hiss. The FLF was being far less cautious with its ammo. Of course, it had access to the old USA stockpiles. It would probably take another decade of war for them to burn through that supply.
The FLF soldiers increased pressure. The fire from the eighteen still on their feet was continuous. Sweat trickled down Jared’s spine as he watched his unit take the beating, hiding behind overturned railcars and debris. Jared didn’t see the signal, but the Guard contingent broke, scattering backwards along the tracks to the north. The FLF took the bait.
“Now,” Jared told Arinna, without needing to. She was already on her feet.
“How long do you think we have?” she asked.
“Fifteen minutes before backup arrives,” he told her, expecting a curse for the lack of time. Arinna gave a curt nod.
He covered her as she climbed onto the one plane remaining on the ground, her fingers finding a hatch in the armor plating where he never would have expected one. The front cockpit window slid back, revealing two side by side seats and an array of computers and controls that made him dizzy.
“What is this thing?”
Arinna smiled at his tone caught between doubt and desire. “Hopefully functional, that’s what.”
She slipped inside, while movement caught his eye. The soldier wasn’t expecting resistance and walked into Jared’s line of sight. Arinna looked up at the sound of gunfire.
“Keep working,” he hissed at her. “And give me your gun. I’m nearly out.”
“Backup arriving already?” she asked.
“No, returning soldier. You have five more minutes,” Jared told her as he checked her rounds. More than he had, and she’d been dropping targets the whole day too. He’d have to give her credit for being a decent shot. If she hadn’t just gotten them killed with her desire for the planes.
Two more FLF soldiers returned and were dispatched. Still no sign of the Guard. Jared’s throat was dry. He turned to tell Arinna it was time to plant the bombs when he felt the plane vibrate under him. It hummed to life.
“Will it fly?”
“If you can work the controls,” she retorted.
Jared jumped inside, scanning the bank of computers, screens, and controls coming online. Fortunately, it made more sense than it had looking at it from the wrong angle outside. He slid into the left-hand chair. “You can’t fly?” he asked her.
“Nope. I work the computers,” she said without apology.
“What about the other two,” he asked, glancing behind him. Through a narrow door there was a small cabin with two bench seats against each wall he saw with relief. If the other planes would run, they really could get out of there. Assuming everyone else hadn’t been killed by drawing off the FLF.
“Systems are coming online now. I’m programming them to follow this one.” As she spoke, the two planes on the railcars dropped their back hatches.
“Get back here now. Split up between the three planes,” Jared ordered into his comm. Gabriella’s “Yes, Captain” was nearly drowned as the engines began to power up.
“Okay, the planes run. They’ll
follow each other. Do we have weapons too?”
“Geesh, you just want everything don’t you?” Arinna snapped, but her eyes were dancing when she tossed him a glance.
“Well?”
“Not much on traditional weapons loaded, but the lasers are online and warming up. It should be fun to see what they can do.”
It was the first time that day that he couldn’t argue with her. Kirkpatrick came back at a run. He slid to a halt, face stunned as he took in the humming planes.
“Get in!” Jared yelled. It spurred Kirkpatrick enough to send him scampering toward the closest on a rail car. Gabriella was next, followed by Tanja, who was limping but moving on her own. All came back, two with bad wounds. But they were alive. The Guard scrambled into the two planes perched on the rail cars. They had planes. Shit, it was a good day after all.
Arinna puffed out a breath. Her nervous expression dampened Jared’s optimism.
“Problems?”
“Nope. You ready to try this thing out?”
There was movement across the tracks as the beginning of the FLF backup edged from the cover of buildings. “Yeah, get us out of here.”
“You’re flying,” Arinna said.
Jared gritted his teeth and looked over the controls again. Throttle he could find, but the controls for takeoff were unfathomable. Flap positions, wing angles, engine pitch, Jared stared at the mess of options without understanding any of it.
“Um, Captain?” Arinna asked.
“Straight up, like a Harrier?” he asked. Arinna nodded. “Shit,” he grabbed the yoke and pulled, praying it would be that easy.
The engines roared, the plane shimmying up and sideways. But it wasn’t gaining enough altitude. It was seeing the tiny wings on the other two planes that made him understand some of what was happening. Jared slid the control for wing surface to full. The two planes before him unfolded dark wings. They started gaining altitude. Jared grinned.
The plane responded like a simulator designed by alien aficionados. Even the helicopters he’d flown hadn’t been as steady. Jared swung the cockpit to face the oncoming FLF from a height just above the crane.
“Want to see what the lasers can do?”
“Do I need to answer that?” Arinna asked, reaching for the controls.
It wasn’t like the movies he remembered. No beam of red or green erupted from the plane. Nothing was visible until the dust from the first building disintegrating filled the air. Then the red laser beam showed in the broken haze. Mostly, it was more like what he’d envisioned hell-bending telekinetic destruction would look like. Buildings, people, debris, anything in front of the plane vaporized. And it was eerie to not feel or hear recoil. Only a slightly higher vibration to the engines signified a strain.
“That should take care of the tracks into town nicely,” he said as Arinna paused. She was as cautious with the laser fire as she had been with her bullets.
“I love this plane,” she said with a grin.
“Why aren’t the other two in the air?” Jared asked, sharing her sentiment but still carrying concerns.
“We’re too close. We need height and distance.”
“Well then, let’s give them some.”
The other two planes followed his, Arinna directing them to fire on the tracks as well as they swept away from Sofia.
“What is it?” Arinna asked, glancing over at him as he frowned at the screen.
“I keep looking for fuel,” he admitted.
Arinna leaned back in her seat and laughed. Jared grinned as well, relief replacing some of the disbelief. But not much. After everything, the years of war and loss, he could not fully believe that fate had been kind.
“Do you want to fly us back to base?” he asked her.
“No. I told you I can’t fly.”
This time, what she said sunk in. “You don’t know how to fly at all?” he asked. The fact that Michael had been Air Force just made that feel impossible to him.
“No, I never had to with Michael around. He flew enough for both of us.”
“What were you planning on doing with these things then?” he asked, wondering what her plan would have been if no one could have figured out how to fly the damn thing.
“I figured you would teach me,” Arinna said, matter of fact.
“I can’t believe you are still alive,” Jared replied with a shake of his head at her grin. “I’ll have a lot to teach you if you’re going to be joining us in the field.” He caught her quick glance from the corner of his eye.
“Not going to make me stay behind?”
“Nah, you proved useful enough. So if you are going to be joining us on missions, what should we call you? If you enlist, you won’t be in a position to command,” Jared teased.
Arinna’s glance was full of amusement. “I don’t think I’ll enlist. I’d have to leave my position as the Minister of the Armed Forces, which wouldn’t do any good. We’d be stuck listening to some other political jockey. The troops are yours, Captain.”
“Yes, well I seem to be taking orders from you and I’ll be damned if I call you MOTHER.”
That did earn a laugh. “Hah, I’m sure you’ll think of something.”