Hell divers x fallout, p.36
Hell Divers X: Fallout, page 36
“Lower the airship, or we will blow you out of the sky,” he said. “Those first shots were a warning. There won’t be another.”
Layla looked back up to Michael for permission, it seemed, to turn the capitol tower into an artificial reef as she had threatened. But Michael couldn’t give that order to kill the innocents there—people like Imulah, Pedro, and innumerable other friends.
Charmer had called their bluff.
A strong tremor rocked the ship from another impact. The lights flickered. They continued to rise away from the tower, but they wouldn’t make it if Charmer made good on his threat. Even with the reinforced armor plates on the hull after the last retrofit, the airship could take only so many hits from the cannons.
Warning sensors flicked on across the bridge. Alarms blared, one announcing a water leak. He had to get the ship out of here before Charmer blew them out of the sky. He had seconds to make a decision. Looking at Layla and his son was all he needed.
Michael talked into the nearest radio. “Charmer, we have every piece of weaponry on this ship aimed at the capitol tower. If we go down, you go down. I’ve already given the order to Timothy to fire if you shoot so much as another arrow at us.”
“You won’t get away with this,” Charmer seethed. “I will hunt you, and I will find you.”
“Oh, you won’t have to hunt me, because one day you will wake up, and there I’ll be. I want to look in your eyes when I kill you, but if you’d prefer to die now, it’ll be a lot quicker and won’t hurt as much. Your choice, Polyphemus.”
Michael switched off the radio. “Timothy, get us out of here,” he said.
Timothy’s hologram emerged. “Where to, sir?” he asked.
“Into the storms.”
TWENTY-EIGHT
At midnight, the Frog pushed through the darkness, closing in on the Vanguard Islands. After three days of travel, the troop hold was full of eager warriors ready to fight for their home.
Magnolia sat on a plastic gear crate, sharpening one of her curved swords with a block.
Sofia was sitting beside her, head bowed. Tia and Edgar were standing and talking.
“You don’t have to come with us,” Edgar said.
“I want to. These are my people, and they tried to kill me,” she said. “I want to be there when Charmer goes down.”
Magnolia switched to a fine-grit hone. She didn’t plan on using her blades on Charmer even if she got to him first. Everyone knew to leave that to X. Charmer’s and Rolo’s fates would be up to the true king.
Precombat sounds filled the long room.
Each soldier dealt with the final minutes of waiting in their own way. Some thought of a loved one, as Sofia was probably doing. Some prayed. Others joked nervously.
Slayer walked around to check on the troops, giving some words of encouragement here, cinching down a strap there, checking suit integrity.
When he got over to the Hell Divers, he abruptly stiffened and saluted.
Everyone stopped whatever they were doing when General Forge walked into the room.
“All hail King Xavier!” he shouted.
“Just ‘Xavier,’ my friends, or better yet, just ‘X.’” He entered the troop hold with Miles, but the dog wasn’t wearing a combat suit, which told Magnolia he wasn’t coming today.
She got up and studied the king.
For the first time this week, she saw the true X in front of her. His hair and beard, though unruly, were not too wild. The color had returned to his face, and he looked as though he had actually slept.
He strode forward in shiny armor and polished boots.
“The moment is upon us,” X said. “We don’t know what awaits us, but we do know there was an attack at the capitol tower several days ago. Since then, there has been complete radio silence. And whatever aircraft we detected on radar has long since vanished.”
Magnolia was still curious about that, but maybe it was some sort of glitch with their equipment. Whatever the case, they were almost to the islands.
X walked in front of the troops and pulled out the hatchet that Steve had made for him before they headed to Panama.
“If we’re lucky, that attack will have cut the cancer of Rolo and his minions out of the Vanguard Islands,” X said. “But if it failed, then I will hack it out myself.”
He paused to look at the faces around the cargo hold.
“This will be the last time I go to war,” X said. “The last time I lead men and women into battle and experience the horrors that we humans are capable of . . .”
He turned the blade over.
“But I promise you one thing. If today we have to fight, I will lead you to victory.” He held the hatchet up higher. “Who is with me!”
Angry and excited voices rose throughout the troop hold. Magnolia didn’t even recognize her own voice among them.
“Grab your weapons, and prepare to take back the Vanguard Islands!” Forge shouted.
Most of the soldiers moved over to the racks of rifles and spears, but Slayer gestured to Gran Jefe.
“Jorge,” Slayer said.
Gran Jefe stepped away from the line. The hulking warrior had swapped out his Hell Diver gear for traditional Cazador armor. An axe with a curved blade hung over his back. On his duty belt, he wore a saw-toothed cutlass. But those were the only two weapons he was going to get. Slayer explained this to him in Spanish, and to Magnolia’s surprise, Gran Jefe didn’t curse or argue.
“I no need gun,” he said with a laugh. “They need gun.”
The giant walked away just as General Forge gave the order for the fire teams to move to the weather deck. He put on his red-feathered helmet and walked with King Xavier through the doors—repaired since the cyclopes had broken them open. Thirty-two warriors followed them outside into a light rain.
Lightning forked across the dark sky. If Magnolia didn’t know better, this could be anywhere in the world. But the Vanguard Islands were mere miles away.
Not far behind, Magnolia could see the Osprey trailing off the Frog’s starboard quarter. She couldn’t make out the twenty soldiers on the deck, all headed to oil rig 15 to take it from the other sky people.
Yejun had been moved back to the ship, where he would spend the attack locked away in his cabin for his own protection.
Shouting in Spanish rang out across the weather deck of the Frog. Forge barked orders to the soldiers, who marched in lines to the aft elevator. On it, four black assault rafts waited to ferry them to the capitol tower. The former Zodiacs had been found in storage on the Immortal supercarrier and transferred to the Frog.
Magnolia followed Edgar, Sofia, and Tia onto the elevator with the Cazadores and X. They would be in the first wave, tasked with taking out Charmer and any guards unwise enough to fight back.
Of course, they had the Wave Runners to deal with, but Gran Jefe had already assured King Xavier and General Forge that he would handle his cousin Jamal, their leader.
Magnolia wanted to believe him. She had fought with Gran Jefe long enough to know that he wasn’t evil. He had saved her life on several occasions, and he had felt the loss of Arlo. She had to trust that he wouldn’t betray them when the time came.
The real wild card was the airship Vanguard. It was the only real threat to the Frog, and Captain Two Skulls had been ordered to deal with it by any means necessary, even if that meant shooting down the airship.
“One mile out!” Forge shouted. “All teams move into position!”
The teams boarded their motorized inflatable assault rafts as the elevator clanked down toward the ocean. Miles stayed on the deck above, barking.
“It’ll all be over soon, boy!” X called out. “See you in a few hours!”
He got into a raft with the Barracudas, which included Slayer, Blackburn, Gran Jefe, and four more soldiers. General Forge got into another boat with a fire team of six Cazadores, and Magnolia and her Hell Divers joined six Cazadores in yet another raft. A fourth raft was being boarded adjacent to them.
Memories of fighting el Pulpo and his cannibalistic warriors surfaced in her mind as she took a seat next to Sofia. But so much had changed since then. They each had lost their best friend and lover.
And yet, there was still life to be lived.
“We will find Rhino Jr., don’t worry,” Magnolia said. “He’s going to be fine.”
“I can’t lose him. I should never have left him in the first place.”
It was the first time Magnolia had heard Sofia show any regret. She had been firm in her belief that heading to Panama and Australia was the best thing for her son.
“Accept your past without regret,” Magnolia said. “You’ll be with him again soon. I promise you that.”
“I’ll be with you,” Edgar said.
“Me too,” Tia said.
Magnolia bowed her helmet with the other three divers, clacking them together in solidarity. She still didn’t know Tia that well, but she had shown a lot of bravery since Brisbane and losing Kade.
The elevator lowered the rafts to the choppy water, and as soon as the deck submerged, all four craft headed out.
The boats fanned away from the stern of the Frog and spread out over the waves, leaving the warship behind for now. Only a handful of soldiers remained on the ship with the crew, with cannons and machine guns ready to fire. Soon it would begin its search for the airship Vanguard.
Magnolia feared what would happen to her former home. The thought of it being blasted from the sky again was hard to stomach. But this was a fight for their home. They had to do whatever they could to save it.
The boat’s twin engines roared, skipping it over the waves in the darkness. All four inflatables sped toward the invisible wall that separated the wastes from paradise. Behind them, the Osprey chugged along.
It was just after one in the morning when they caught the first lights from the distant rigs. Magnolia prepped her laser rifle and looked quickly back to see the Frog as it continued its hunt for the airship.
She watched X, standing casually in the bow. The next instant, he was gone. The boat had passed through the barrier of darkness into light. Magnolia’s raft did the same a few moments later. She cursed when she saw an almost full moon glowing above them.
“There’s a rig,” Tia said. She pointed west, to a tower with three wind turbines churning lazily in the mild breeze.
Magnolia thought of Michael, who had overseen their construction to generate more energy for the islands.
The thought of losing Michael, on top of losing Rodger, made her broken heart ache. Yes, there was that ghost of a chance that Tin was still alive, but she had learned better than to hope.
She patted the pocket where she had placed Rodger’s mangled glasses. I’m sorry, Rodge. God, I’m so sorry . . .
Seeing Sofia beside her reminded Magnolia that she had to keep strong for her friend. For the people who were still alive: Rhino Jr., Layla, Bray, X, Edgar . . .
The raft motored around another rig. Pinpricks of light outlined each level. This was a civilian tower that a thousand Cazadores called home.
Magnolia brought her rifle scope up and zoomed in. She raked the sights over the decks—only a few people were still awake on the various levels.
Lowering the weapon, she focused on the open water and the sky. They had yet to see the airship Vanguard, but if Magnolia had to guess, it would be hovering over the capitol tower.
She checked over her shoulder, searching for the Frog. That she couldn’t see it in the moonlight was a good thing. She hoped that meant no one else could either.
Until it’s too late for them . . .
Magnolia stared up at the rig. This was the largest of them all. Bridges connected the two towers of concrete and rusted steel. It was not so long ago that she had passed under the bridges on a small boat after she was captured by the Cazadores. She remembered those hostile, barbaric-looking people clacking their sharpened teeth and looking down at her as if she were an alien.
In the glow of torchlight, she saw guards with spears patrolling the bridges and the various decks. No one seemed to notice the boats, though. They gave the rig a wide berth as they passed.
“Almost there,” Edgar said.
Magnolia studied the horizon until she saw the dome of the capitol tower. To her surprise, the airship wasn’t hovering overhead. It wasn’t mounted there either.
“What’s that?” Tia asked.
“The capitol tower,” Magnolia said.
“No, over there.” Tia pointed to the left.
Magnolia followed her finger to a tiny dot moving across the water. It wasn’t one of the other rafts.
She raised her rifle and zoomed in on a Jet Ski zipping toward them at full speed.
“Shit, we got company!” Magnolia shouted.
The other boats didn’t seem to notice.
“X!” she yelled.
Slayer turned toward them from the king’s boat. Magnolia pointed in the direction of the Jet Ski. The rider had eased off and was standing with a pair of night-vision goggles.
“Oh, no, you don’t,” Magnolia said.
The Cazador soldier lowered the glasses and began to turn his Jet Ski.
“Don’t let him get away!” Edgar shouted.
“He’s a Wave Runner,” Gran Jefe yelled.
“Shoot that fucking Jet Ski!” Slayer ordered.
Gunfire immediately cracked from two different rafts. The hostile rider slumped off the idling Jet Ski.
Gran Jefe went to the edge of his boat, looking out as if he were in shock.
It struck Magnolia then: the Cazadores with X were going to have to kill other Cazadores—and they already had.
“Let’s hope he didn’t get a radio transmission off,” Sofia said.
The boats kept motoring over the water, leaving the unmanned Jet Ski still idling in the water. Magnolia searched in all directions for other Wave Runners. Seeing none, she looked ahead, to the capitol tower. All the floors were lit up except for the rooftop.
She zoomed her night-vision goggles in on what looked like new construction. It was hard to see, but she could make out platforms protruding off the deck with sandbags and . . .
“Holy Siren shit,” Magnolia whispered.
She located two cannon emplacements and two machine-gun nests. The scope wouldn’t allow her to zoom in any farther, but there were surely more.
A geyser of water rose up twenty feet from the boat, showering them all. Again fire flashed from the rooftop, and she understood what was happening.
“Incoming!” Edgar shouted.
More cannons across the roof blazed, one by one. Shells burst under the water around the rafts, sending up more geysers into the sky.
“Faster! Faster!” Magnolia shouted. “Get under their artillery!”
The Cazador pilot needed no coaxing to open up and go at full throttle over the waves.
Magnolia aimed her rifle at the rooftop, but it was still too far away to bother wasting any shots. She slung the weapon and grabbed a handhold instead as the boat bounced along. More shells exploded as they closed in on the tower.
Bright-green tracer rounds arced away from machine-gun nests.
The boat carrying X curved away, right into a huge, foaming explosion in the water. Magnolia held her breath as the newly formed crater in the ocean slammed shut, sending up a pillar of water.
In the green view of her HUD, she made out the boat, and its occupants still miraculously on board. One Cazador hung over the side but was hauled back in.
Machine-gun fire forced her down, bullets whizzing right over their boat. She glanced up over the edge as screams rang out behind them. The other boat went up in the air, bodies cartwheeling in all directions. Magnolia stared for a horrified second.
Now that their stealth approach had been blown, the comms fired with a message from X. “Frog One, we’re under heavy fire,” X said. “Do you have eyes on the airship?”
“Negative.”
“Fuck. Then head to the capitol tower. We need covering fire now!”
Magnolia kept low as the boat sped toward the objective. She pulled Tia down to the bottom of the raft.
“Stay down!” she shouted.
The Cazador pilot was doing a crackerjack job keeping them away from the machine-gun spray, but it was guesswork where the artillery would land.
Another shell burst somewhere in front of them, showering the craft with water. Magnolia looked up. The rooftop was within accurate firing range now. But her muzzle flash would give away their position again. The only thing to do was stay down and hope they could get to the marina without being blown up.
“¡Miren! Look!” shouted the Cazador on the motor.
He was pointing at more Jet Skis ahead. A dozen of the little speedsters were spreading out from the marina of the capitol tower.
Gran Jefe’s voice came over the open channel. Magnolia listened, trying to pick up something useful but not getting much.
“What’s he saying?” she asked Sofia.
“He’s telling Jamal to stand down, to join us,” she said.
Magnolia watched the riders approaching, hoping they would listen to Gran Jefe.
The response came in the form of bullets as every rider opened fire with small arms.
“Down!” Edgar yelled.
Magnolia ducked down with everyone else on the boat.
A gruff voice came over the channel in reply. It was Jamal, according to Sofia, who translated.
“He says he is general and for us to stand down,” she said.
A scream came from behind Magnolia. She turned to find one of the Cazadores shot in the gut.
The other soldiers needed no further motivation to fire back. Magnolia sure as hell didn’t. She aimed her rifle at a Jet Ski, then pulled the trigger. The laser bolt flashed a three-inch-wide tunnel through the rider, who splashed into the water as the Jet Ski skidded to a stop.
