Hell divers x fallout, p.11
Hell Divers X: Fallout, page 11
He switched on his headset. “Captain Two Skulls, what’s the ETA on our teams?” he asked.
The reply came back a few beats later. “Ten minutes, sir.”
“Copy that. And the radar—you picking up anything?”
“Negative, sir. It’s gone now.”
“On my way back to the CIC.”
X still had no idea what they had picked up on radar, but he doubted it was the airship Vanguard. There was no way in hell Captain Rolo would have returned.
But if not the airship, then what was up there?
X had plenty of other things to worry about right now. He left the engine compartment with his guards, Sebastian and Nicolas.
Moving through the cold, dim-lit corridors, X heard shouting in Spanish. The voice drifted from a connecting passage—something about medics.
“What did they just say?” X asked Sebastian.
“Requesting medical teams in the cargo hold,” Sebastian said.
X switched back to the command channel. “Captain, was there another attack?” he asked.
“Negative, King Xavier, but there is a request for a medical team to treat some injuries.”
“What injuries?”
Static cracked over the channel, then the reply.
“Unconfirmed, sir,” Two Skulls said.
X gave his guards new orders and headed aft. He didn’t know exactly what had happened out there with Magnolia, Gran Jefe, and Team Octopus, just that they had run into two Tasmanian devils on the cargo ship, with only minor injuries sustained.
When he reached the stern, the sprawling cargo hold looked far different.
A quarantine area partitioned off almost half the space.
Some of the soldiers from Teams Eel and Knife were already back and going through decontamination in a makeshift plastic chamber. Inside, the Cazadores scrubbed their naked, tattooed bodies with chemical soap. To his surprise, X heard laughter as he approached the sheeted-off area.
Laughter was good.
They had lost two scouts and two more infantry soldiers on the mission, but now that the others had returned with the parts, there was hope. Hope that they were leaving this accursed wasteland that had taken so much from them.
All around the space, technicians and soldiers worked efficiently, cleaning and stowing gear. A medical team of three rushed through the cordoned-off area.
X went over to the door, where Edgar, Sofia, and Tia stood behind the plastic sheets of the quarantined sector, waiting for their Hell Diver friends to return. They watched the hatches for Magnolia and Gran Jefe.
“King Xavier,” Edgar said. He stood at attention along with Sofia and Tia.
“At ease,” X grunted.
He hated the formalities that came with his position—especially on a day like today, when he felt deserving of little respect. If anything, his people should be questioning his leadership more than ever.
On the other hand, most everyone seemed to be focusing their attention on staying alive. And all their anger was directed at Captain Rolo.
“Any word about Magnolia and Gran Jefe?” Sofia asked.
“They should be back soon,” X said. “Mind if I wait with you?”
The Hell Divers stepped back. X could see everything, from the soldiers scrubbing down in the decontamination chambers, to the workers in hazard suits carrying away parts. At the end of the cargo hold, two soldiers opened the hatch to the weather deck.
“Here we go,” Edgar said.
The heavily armored soldiers backed away from the hatches, letting in a new surge of soldiers and gusting rain. At the front of the group, four hulking Cazadores lugged a large crate containing the air-cooling unit, X assumed.
He allowed himself a tentative sigh of relief. The salvage mission had been a success. Now they just needed to get out of here before the fallout baked them all.
He looked to the group of soldiers. Not all of them were standing. The medics on standby hurried toward the group.
Gran Jefe limped into the chamber with Magnolia in his arms.
“Mags!” X yelled.
He started toward the quarantine door, but Sebastian and Nicolas moved in front of him.
“We must remain here,” Nicolas called out.
“What happened to her?” X yelled. “What’s wrong with Magnolia?”
He tried to get through, but both soldiers held him back, now with help from Edgar.
“She’ll be okay, sir.” The familiar relaxed feminine voice finally got X to back off. He turned to find Valeria approaching. Dressed in hazard gear, she went through the cordoned-off space to a secondary clean room before proceeding.
X watched her cross over to the medics, who were walking with Gran Jefe, who still carried Magnolia like a child in his massive arms. They were both covered in mud, blood, and grit.
“I thought she was okay,” Sofia said.
“I did too,” X said.
“She’s tough; she’ll be okay,” Edgar said.
X watched Gran Jefe set Magnolia down in one of the decon chambers. The showerheads opened up, spraying them with white foam.
A message came over the headset. “King Xavier, this is General Forge. Respectfully requesting your presence in the CIC.”
“Why?”
“I’d rather tell you in person, sir.”
X could hear background chatter, including the deep rasp of Captain Two Skulls. Conflicted, he wanted to stay behind. But Magnolia was safely back and conscious; she would be okay.
“Update me as soon as you know something,” X said to Edgar.
“Will do.”
Once again X found himself rushing through the corridors, wondering what was so urgent in the CIC. He arrived to find General Forge and Captain Two Skulls near the weather station with Corporal Tiger.
They all came to attention.
Miles, who had been sleeping, jumped up and ran over to X.
“Skip the formal shit,” X said. “What’s going on?”
Two Skulls nodded to the corporal sitting in front of the weather station. Miles followed X over.
“What ya got?” X asked.
“The worst of the fallout will be on us in an hour, maybe two,” Tiger said in English better than X’s.
“How long until they get the air cooler up and running?”
“I need three hours, maybe four,” replied the captain.
“Obviously, we don’t have that much time.”
“I know. We’ll have to make do, and test the engines as we go. I’m prepared to do that.”
“Do it,” X said. “I also want crews working to seal up this ship and buy us more time.”
“On it, sir.”
Two Skulls barked orders across the room.
“I have a sitrep on the estimates you were asking for,” said General Forge.
He handed a ledger out. X took it and started reading the numbers of remaining troops and rations: Twenty-five crew members. Seventy-five soldiers. Six injured. Five Hell Divers. One injured. Two weeks of food and provisions—maybe two and a half if we’re careful with rations. Enough fuel to cross the Pacific.
X felt some hope after reading through the notes. They had the means to get to Panama. The real question was, what would they find there? If the outpost was destroyed, then they wouldn’t be able to reprovision before going back to the Vanguard Islands.
But first, they had to get to there. They were running out of time to escape the fallout.
He handed the ledger back to General Forge. The crew stood at their stations, waiting for orders. X scrutinized them all. From what he could tell, they were still with him and believed in him, even when they had every reason to doubt him.
Forge turned his eye to X. The burns on his face seemed to tighten. X could almost feel the rage radiating off the general.
X hated Captain Rolo and had promised to tear the old scorpion limb from limb, but maybe he would let the general deal with Rolo. After losing over half his forces in Rolo’s cowardly attack on the Immortal, Forge had the stronger claim.
“We’re almost on our way home,” X said. “Keep the faith. We will get back to the Vanguard Islands, one way or another.”
“Prepare to test engines,” said Captain Two Skulls.
The crew returned to their work with newfound enthusiasm.
X stuck around for a few minutes to watch, all the while thinking about Magnolia. There was little he could do belowdecks, though. This was where he needed to be.
Miles followed X across the room.
A flurry of shouting announced the first tests of the engines. Judging by the crew’s reaction, everything was going to plan. Or at least, X didn’t detect any panic suggesting imminent disaster.
After fifteen minutes, he asked for an update on Magnolia.
“She’s been moved to medical,” Forge replied. “Don’t worry, she’s in good hands, but go visit her if you wish. I will keep you updated.”
“I’ll stay here,” X said.
As he started to sit, a tremor passed through the ship. A metallic ding echoed into the CIC. At first, X thought it concerned the engine test.
Faces across the command center looked up. The vibration and ding came again, catching the attention of more officers. Even the guards posted at the hatches seemed unsettled by it.
Chirping followed from the area of the sonar and radar stations. Corporal Tiger was already there, checking the monitor. Two Skulls and General Forge hurried over with X.
“We’re picking up contacts,” said Tiger.
“In the air again?” X asked.
Tiger brushed a strand of hair from his face and studied the screens. “No. In the water.” He motioned to another officer and said something in Spanish. The officer replied in a panicked voice, but X couldn’t make any of it out.
“Uh,” Tiger said. “We’ve switched to our bioscanners on the ship’s hull, and these are definitely sea creatures.”
“More of those cyclops monsters?” X asked.
“Maybe, but some are much bigger in size.” Tiger spoke again to one of the officers sitting at the stations. The man nodded and tapped at his screen.
“The computer is working to form a digital image. Stand by,” Tiger explained.
X went to the cracked windows, now taped up to keep the rain and storm from getting inside. Through the panels, he could see the ocean clearly now that most of the fog had retreated.
He searched the whitecaps for beasts but saw nothing in the choppy water.
“What is that?” said General Forge.
X went over to the screen to find a digital recreation of whatever was out there. This was no cyclops.
“The computer says this is a . . .” Tiger leaned down, struggling to pronounce the words. “Lethocerus insulanus from the family Belostomatidae.”
“Come again?” X said.
Tiger looked up at X. “Big-ass water bug, or what was once called the giant fish killer. It says they live in fresh water and use a snorkel to breathe underwater, but I guess these have mutated like everything else. And I’ve got more bad news.”
“They are attaching to the hull,” X said.
“Sí, King Xavier.”
The dings echoed through the vessel over the next few minutes.
“No hay problema,” said Captain Two Skulls. “No chance they get through.”
“Really? ’Cause Corporal Tiger just said they aren’t supposed to be able to breathe underwater, and here we are.”
“The hull is three inches of steel plate, King Xavier, and that is just the exterior. It should hold back these bugs.”
X hoped the captain was right. He watched as a dozen of the man-size beasts seemed to concentrate around a single area.
“Where is that?” X asked. He tapped the screen where they seemed to be gathering.
It took Captain Two Skulls a moment to identify the location. He confirmed what X had suspected. “Outside the engine room,” said the captain.
“Fuck, they must be attracted by the engine testing you’re doing. Can you stop it?”
“If we stop the test and just fire up the engines, they could burn out.”
“You’re sure they can’t get through the hull?”
“Sí.” There was a slight hesitation in the captain’s voice.
“Put all security teams on high alert,” X said. “Seal up the ship the best we can.”
“Yes, sir.”
X went back to the windows with Miles. He still couldn’t see anything in the water, but he could feel and hear them clatter against the hull. Miles growled. He could feel them too. The dog was ready for a fight.
X felt his heart quicken with the realization that the chances of their getting out of here without a fight were shrinking by the second.
EIGHT
Kade cursed himself for not bolting into the wastes when he had the chance. He might not have made it far, but maybe it would be better than sitting on his ass in the storage room. The door was shut, but was it locked?
Outside, voices and grinding machinery kept him from even trying to sleep.
Five hours had passed since the Sirens’ attack, and the knights were still busy repairing the helicopter door. He finally got up and tried the regular door. Unlocked. Ever so gently, he eased it open just a few inches, letting in the clank and clatter.
Bulldozer was back in his sling, fixing one of the tracks in the ceiling.
The door was closed, but apparently, they now couldn’t get the damned thing open, stranding their helicopter pilot, Garrett, out in the wastes.
Kade had picked up a conversation between General Jack and Lucky about the pilot putting down at the Crab Nest.
He watched the knights for a few moments, then lay down on the floor and curled up on the pad. Sleep finally came but wouldn’t stay. Nightmares from the past haunted his dreams for hours.
A voice woke him from restless slumbers.
“Get up and get ready to move.”
Kade pushed himself up in front of Lucky.
“Are we finally going to find King Xavier?” he asked.
“That would be impossible at this point,” Lucky said.
“What do you mean?”
“Garrett isn’t responding on the radio. We’re sending a party out to his last known location, and you’re going.”
“On foot?”
“Yeah. We leave in ten, so rattle your dags.”
Kade packed up his meager gear and joined the knights out in the chamber. With the loss of Mal, only six knights remained, including General Jack.
Bulldozer lowered himself back to the floor. He unbuckled his harness and went to a table, where he plucked the battery unit for Kade’s armor off what appeared to be a jerry-rigged charging system. Kade’s helmet was there as well, with the rest of his armor.
“You’ll need this, mate,” he said. “Sorry to say, I had to get rid of a few systems on your heads-up display, though.”
Bulldozer tossed the helmet. Kade fumbled for it, nearly dropping it.
“Thanks,” he said.
“Try the battery. Gave it some juice,” Bulldozer said.
Kade put on his helmet, then inserted the battery into his armor chest slot. The unit glowed blue, and his HUD flickered to life. Raising his wrist, he checked his computer as his systems rebooted.
“Ninety-nine percent charge,” he said. “Not bad.”
“You’ll need it, I reckon, considering we got more radioactive fallout coming our way,” Bulldozer said.
“More fallout?” Kade asked. Of course, he thought. The nuclear blast from the Immortal.
“That’s right,” Lucky said. “Your people have poisoned our land.”
“Not my people.”
Bulldozer climbed back in his sling while Kade crossed over to the broken-down helicopters, where General Jack and Nobu were standing and drinking from a flask. For the first time, Kade saw Nobu without his helmet. He was middle aged, with a dark complexion and short-cropped hair, and he was watching Kade like a bird of prey.
Zen wasn’t far away. He looked a lot like Nobu, with buzzed hair and dark eyes, though a bit younger. He was the best shot of anyone at the Coral Castle, or so Kade had heard. His eyes went to the bolt-action sniper rifle that Zen carried.
“We’re ready to go,” Lucky said.
The general took another drink from his flask. “I don’t like this,” he growled, “but it’s our only option right now.”
“You sure you can handle him?” Nobu asked, jerking his chin to Kade.
Lucky snorted. “Yeah, but feel free to go out there in my place.”
Nobu looked away.
“Be careful. His people brought the monsters—like sharks to blood in the water,” said General Jack. “That attack was the most brazen I’ve seen in over a decade.”
The general drew his sword, and Lucky got down on one knee and bowed his head.
“May the Trident protect you,” the general said.
“I will protect the Trident,” Lucky replied.
General Jack eyed Kade up and down.
“This is your chance to prove you aren’t an enemy,” he said. “You help us, and it will help your case when you head back to the Forerunner for judgment.”
Kade was anxious to prove himself if it meant getting back to his people.
“I’ll do whatever I can,” he said.
“Good luck,” Zen said.
Nobu nodded.
Kade dipped his head in respect. Then he followed Lucky, who didn’t wait around. He was halfway across the chamber already, forcing Kade to trot and catch up.
Kade put his helmet on, checking his HUD. Most systems were online and working properly. He checked the time—almost midnight. The maps were gone, though—wiped, obviously, so he wouldn’t know where this place was.
