The vehicle lifted and pulled away from the temporary Russian camp. Inside, red lights washed over armored figures strapped into their seats.
Jace sat near the center with his arms crossed, watching the holographic displays flicker with static. Beside him, Mike was busy checking the seals on his nanotech suit, while Maya leaned against a crate, lazily rolling a green lollipop in her mouth.
A man in Russian combat armor stepped into the aisle, bracing himself as the transport tilted slightly.
"I am Lieutenant Petrov." he said in thick-accented English. "I am in charge of Team B until we meet Colonel Viktor at the drop point."
Jace nodded. "Second In Command, Jace Holloway. Clyck Squad."
Petrov grunted, clearly unimpressed.
Jace looked up. "And about the drop point. I was thinking that, why don't we just evacuate the people there cause it's a 1,2 kilometer walk from the tunnel instead of going to that 6,3 kilometer."
Petrov stared at him for a second before he laughed once, humorless. "Fucking pilots." he muttered. "Always with the questions. Why are you even here? Just do your job and stop thinking."
Mike leaned back in his seat, smirking. "We wouldn't be here if you guys were good at your job, Lieutenant. But hey, I guess that's a conversation for another day."
The rest of the Clyck Squad squad chuckled.
Petrov's face turned a deep shade of purple, his hand twitching toward his sidearm.
But before he could do anything an explosion hit the vehicle, it slammed violently to the left, throwing men against the bulkheads.
"Mayday! Mayday!" the pilot's voice screamed over the intercom. "We've lost the left wing! Losing altitude fast!"
It began to spin, a terminal spiral that pinned everyone to their seats. Through the cockpit glass, Jace saw the ground rushing up – a jagged graveyard of blackened buildings.
He's going to belly-land it. Jace thought, unbuckling his harness. The fuel cells are in the floor. If he hits flat, the whole back of the ship is going to incinerate.
Jace pushed himself out of his seat and moved forward, grabbing handholds as the floor tilted beneath him. He burst into the cockpit.
"What are you doing?" Jace shouted.
The pilot's hands were shaking on the controls. "Trying to keep us level!"
"If you level it, everyone in the back dies!" Jace said. "You have to nose it."
The pilot looked at him. "Are you insane? If I nose it down, I die."
Jace immediately, grabbed the pilot by the collar and yanked him out of the sit, throwing him toward the navigator's station.
He strapped himself in, hands already moving across controls.
"What the hell are you doing, Jace?!" Mike shouted from behind.
"I'm angling the nose down, I can't risk men dying." Jace said, his voice calm despite the chaos. "One life doesn't matter. Now go take a seat!"
Mike stared at him. "That's bullshit and you know it!"
"Go sit down, Mike!" Jace snapped. "That's an order."
Mike hesitated – then obeyed.
Jace let out a deep breath. "Alright, Jace." he muttered. "Let's land this baby."
He cut power to the damaged wing, fired the forward stabilizers in short bursts and forced the nose deeper, aiming for a soft patch of ruins. The ground rushed up fast.
One life shouldn't matter. he thought. Save everyone else.
The vehicle slammed down nose-first, skidding across broken ground. Sparks exploded along the hull and the impact threw Jace forward. Something struck him hard and everything went black.
Sound came back before sight, distant high-pitched shrieks and gunshots.
"Jace! Jace, talk to me!"
Mike's voice came from far away.
Jace tried to breathe but his lungs felt heavy and he tried to speak. "In… here." he rasped.
Pain suddenly tore through his body. He looked down, his vision blurring.
A jagged metal shard had punched through his back and out through his stomach, pinning him to the cockpit frame. And blood flooded beneath his feet.
"Oh shit." Mike breathed, rushing toward him. "Don't move. Don't you dare move." His laser rifle dissolved into his suit and he grabbed Jace's shoulders. "MAYA!" he shouted.
Mike grabbed the shard and carefully eased Jace free, lowering him to the floor.
"MEDIC!" Mike shouted again. "MAYA!"
Maya rushed in, a lollipop still in her mouth. She froze when she saw him."Well." she said, pulling the candy out. "That's not good."
She dropped her med-kit and pulled out a bulky silver device. She pressed the nozzle against the wounds. And a translucent blue liquid sprayed out, instantly hardening into a crystalline foam.
Jace groaned, his head lolling back as the chemical flash froze the area.
"This will only hold for an hour." Maya said. "After that, he bleeds out."
Mike swallowed. "Then we need to move fast."
They helped Jace to his feet. His legs trembled but he stayed upright. When they emerged from the wreckage, the scene was hell.
Elyrians poured through the streets, their forms moving fast.
"They're everywhere!" a Russian soldier screamed before a needle of plasma silenced him.
Mike turned to a Clyck soldier crouched behind wreckage. "Ryan! Talk to me."
Ryan looked up. "We lost all ten Russians. And… Verónica, she didn't make the fall."
Mike closed his eyes for half a second and he then turned to Petrov, who was sitting in the dirt and staring at his shaking hands.
"Hey!" Mike shouted. "Call Team A for backup! We're pinned down and the Jace is injured!"
Petrov just stared at the wreckage. "I can't."
"What do you mean you can't?" Mike grabbed him by the vest and shook him. "Call them!"
"I can't." Petrov whispered. "We were ordered that… if one team is compromised, the other does not turn back. The objective is the only thing that matters."
Mike stared at him. "That's bullshit." He ripped Petrov's communicator off and plugged it into his suit.
"Team A, this is Mike of Clyck Squad. Team B is down! Do you copy? We are at Grid 4-Niner with heavy contact and multiple casualties! We need immediate extraction and backup!"
The comms crackled.
Then a voice came. "Team B, why are you not at the drop point? You are behind schedule."
"We crashed, Colonel! We lost eleven men! Jace is injured! We need immediate backup!"
There was a long pause.
"Negative, Team B." Viktor said. "The objective is the civilians."
"Colonel, you can't be serious!" Mike shouted. "We have the Second-in-command dying over here!"
The line went dead.
"Hello? Colonel? You son of a–!" Mike slammed the communicator into the ground, shattering it.
He looked at Maya and Jace, who was leaning heavily against a piece of twisted metal.
"We're on our own now." Mike said, his voice dropping.
Maya took the lollipop out of her mouth and threw it away. "What?"
"Backup isn't coming." Mike said, his nanotech suit shimmering as two heavy cannons formed over his forearms. "We've got sixty minutes of life left in that wound seal. So we've got to move now."
Ryan lowered his laser rifle, after the last Elyrian was shot down and he jogged back toward the group.
Maya tapped a command into her wrist console. And a translucent holographic map bloomed between them. "If we cut through the industrial ruins here." drawing a glowing line with her finger. "We can get to the pick up point in forty minutes from where we are now."
Ryan gestured to the four surviving Russian soldiers standing near Petrov. "What about them? We leaving them here?"
Jace straightened slightly despite the pain tearing through his abdomen."No. We're not leaving anyone behind."
"Alright." Mike said, stepping forward to take the lead. "Maya, you help Jace walk. Me and Ryan taking the front."
Jace huffed a breath that might've been a laugh. "I'm the second-in-command for a reason, Mike. Remember?"
Mike didn't even turn around. "Yeah, yeah. But right now, you can barely stand, so you need babysitting."
Maya slung Jace's arm over her shoulder, her nanotech suit adjusting to help carry his weight. "So I gotta baby? Why do I always have to be the one to babysit?"
Lieutenant Petrov stepped forward, adjusting his damaged armor. "I can look after..."
"Oh no, buddy." Mike interrupted, pointing his forearm cannon at the ground. "You and your men stay right at the back. You already did enough for one day."
Petrov stiffened but said nothing.
They started moving, Mike and Ryan advanced first with their weapons raised, as they the corners checking for enemies.
They covered two blocks before they reached a turn into a narrow plaza.
"Wait." Mike hissed, holding up a fist. He peered around the corner. And saw a pack of Elyrians, their violet eyes snapping toward the sound of the squad's movement. They let out a screeching alarm.
"Turn back! We've been spotted!" Mike shouted.
"Where do we go?" Jace rasped, his breath coming in ragged hitches.
Maya glanced at the map. "Take that left! Through the subway entrance!"
Ryan and Mike stepped out from the corner, their suits flaring as they opened fire. Mike's arm cannons barked, sending heavy energy that turned the lead Elyrians into charred husks.
But more Elyrians poured in.
"Damn." Ryan muttered, his laser rifle bucking against his shoulder. "We just opened a carnival show."
Suddenly, the four Russian soldiers surged forward with Petrov leading them. He reached toward the back of his suit, and two swords snapped into his hands.
"You guys go!" one of them yelled. "We've got this!"
Petrov turned to Mike with a strange smile on his face. "I didn't want to say this but... I am low-key honoured to have shared the battlefield with the Clyck Squad."
Before Mike could respond, Petrov charged. He was fast – spinning and decapitating Elyrians in flashes of blue light. And his men followed, firing relentlessly.
"Yeah, Mike." Ryan said, grabbing Mike's shoulder. "They got this, let's go!"
They sprinted down the subway stairs, following the bioluminescent trail Maya had left. They ran until the sounds of the swords and the screams faded, emerging on the other side of the district.
Maya was ahead was carefully balancing Jace against her side to keep him steady.
Suddenly, a crack echoed through the ruins. The ground beneath Maya's feet spider-webbed violently. She froze, looking down to see that she was standing directly in the center of a fractured concrete slab.
She shifted her weight to try and step back but the movement caused the slab to tilt dangerously.
"Maya, wait! Don't move!" Ryan shouted, reaching out a hand.
"I can't hold him and stand still." she said. "Take Jace!"
She tried to shove the him toward them but the platform groaned and dropped another inch.
"No!" Mike shouted, stepping up beside Ryan. "We aren't leaving you. "We'll pull both of you!"
Ryan slid beside him, their hands locking together. They leaned out over the edge, straining to reach the pair.
Maya shifted her foot and the crack split wide open. She cried out as the slab beneath her began to tilt.
"NOW!" Mike shouted.
Ryan lunged forward and caught Jace's wrist. "I've got you!" He tried to get a better hold on him but the extra weight was too much.
The rest of the ground collapsed immediately, dragging Maya down. Jace was yanked forward, ripping Ryan off his feet.
"Ryan!" Mike shouted, trying to pull them out but he was pulled in instead. And they fell together, tumbling down a slanted shaft and hit hard.
Jace was the first to move, slumped on his knees and coughing. "Is… is everyone okay?"
"I'm good." Maya coughed, pushing herself up.
"I'm here." Mike added, shaking his head to clear the cobwebs as he stood up. He looked around, squinting through the gloom. "Where's Ryan?"
"Over here."
They followed the sound, weaving through twisted supports and collapsed plating until they saw him found him pinned from the thigh down beneath a slab of broken infrastructure.
"Ryan! Hold on!" Maya scrambled toward him.
"I'm okay, I'm okay." Ryan said, his voice surprisingly calm. He looked up at them, a confused frown on his face. "I'm stuck but honestly? There's zero pain. I can't feel my leg at all but it doesn't hurt."
Mike looked up and his face went pale. Directly above Ryan was an industrial support beam dangling by a frayed cable. It swayed, creaking louder with every second.
"If that thing drops." Ryan said quietly, eyes flicking upward."I'm definitely a dead man."
Maya looked around frantically until her eyes landed on a reinforced steel pipe sticking out of a nearby pile. "There! We can use that as a lever!"
She and Mike grabbed the pipe, shoving it under the slab pinning Ryan. Even Jace limped over, his face pale with pain and gripped the end of the bar.
"Guys, faster!" Ryan urged, his eyes locked on the swaying beam above. It groaned and raining dust down to his face. "It's coming down!"
"On three!" Mike yelled. "One, two..."
The three of them threw their entire weight onto the lever and the slab lifted just enough.
"Now, Ryan! Get out!" Maya yelled.
Ryan scrambled backward, dragging his numb leg clear of the wreckage just as the overhead cable snapped. And the beam plummeted, slamming into the ground where Ryan's head had been a split second before.
Ryan let out a breathless laugh. Mike sank to the ground, wiping sweat from his forehead and started chuckling too – the hysterical laughter of people who had just cheated death.
Jace barely stayed upright, he looked around and his eyes landed on the tunnel. Team A was there but they were being pushed back, the Elyrians were closing in.
Mike looked at Jace, then at Maya.
Maya shook her head immediately. "Don't even think about it. If we go in there and then head for the pickup point, you won't make it in time."
Mike exhaled sharply. "Say the word and we keep moving. We can bypass the fight and head straight for the extraction."
Jace stared at the tunnel and clenched his fists. "If we don't go in there… then I crashed that ship for nothing."
"But come on, man!" Mike scoffed bitterly. "They let us to die! Viktor said the only objective was the civilians! Let them do their job alone!"
"Except it's not their job alone." Jace said, looking Mike in the eye. "We're still alive. And we can't just abandon the mission."
"Man, I am so fed up with your bullshit!" Mike shouted, punching a nearby concrete pillar. "This one life shouldn't matter shit is so absurd! Every life matters, Jace! And trading lives is not what we do!"
Jace managed a weak smile. "If it was the Captain in my state... she still would've wanted to do the same."
Mike looked at the tunnel, then back at Jace. "There's no getting through you, is there?"
Jace shook his head slowly.
"Fine." Mike snapped. He reached down and hauled Jace up, slinging him over his shoulder. "But if you die on me, I'm killing you again."
They descended wreckage. Ryan took the lead, his laser rifle clearing a path through the stragglers. The Russian troops at the entrance, saw the Clyck Squad colours and let out a desperate cheer, stepping aside to let them through.
Inside the tunnel, civilians were huddled on the floor. There were only about twenty-three left, the rest were dead on the ground.
"What the hell?" Ryan whispered, looking at the small number of survivors.
Colonel Viktor emerged from the gloom. He stopped when he saw them, his eyes widening slightly. "You made it." he said, walking close to them. "Are you the only survivors?"
Mike released Jace and crossed the distance in three strides. He planted a fist directly into Viktor's face.
The Colonel hit the floor hard, sliding back several feet. Instantly, the surrounding Russian soldiers snapped their rifles up, aiming at Mike's head.
"Stand down!" Viktor said from the floor, wiping blood from his lip. He waved his men back, breathing heavily. "I understand that you're mad but that is what we all agreed on."
"Agreed on?" Mike stepped toward him, his cannons glowing. "We never agreed to leave our own to rot in the dirt!"
"Calm down, Mike." Ryan said, stepping between them. "We have bigger problems."
Maya looked around the grim cavern. "What happened here?"
Viktor stood up slowly, leaning against a wall. "When we arrived, the Elyrians had already breached the southern vents."
"Why haven't you evacuated the survivors yet?" Jace asked, leaning against Maya.
"We are pinned." Viktor said. "Every exit that leads to the road to the pick-up point is guarded by Elyrians."
Jace took a deep, closing his eyes as he fought the pain. "Okay... okay. But we've got to think of a plan and we have to do it fast. Look around, these people... they won't make it until tomorrow."
"We're definitely not waiting until tomorrow." Maya added, glancing at Jace's stomach. "Because you won't make it either."
Colonel Viktor looked at the four Clyck Squad members who were battered but still standing. "Alright." he said, his voice finally sounding with respect. "What's the plan?"