Love looms in times of war

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CHAPTER 13

Battle
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Grant's forces advanced in synchrony. On the massive court, opponents were far from playing an even game. Dr. Reed's discovery and the bio-robotech units had shifted the battle's balance, giving the RDF an advantage over its foe's drones.

Luminous circles flashed and dimmed where combat raged. Human and Invid guided their mecha through the enemy's fire. Inside her cockpit, Ariel's helmet reflected deadly streaks of light as she partook in the hunt as both hunter and prey.

She fought with all her strength; she gave the battle all her skill and all her thought. She pushed herself harder than ever; she had to, because if she let her concentration go, even for a second, her mind would spiral back to Scott. A thought of him, an image would be all it took for her fragile control to shatter. She pushed her emotions aside, yet it was difficult to keep the lid closed.

Her mind strove to wander, so she shoved it toward a different path. She longed to see Rand, Rook and the baby, Lancer and Sera, Annie and Lunk; she longed for the ocean and the sunset on earth. This was it, the last battle. If she survived, she'd go back to her friends without a backward glance. There was nothing here for her. The quest that brought her to Mars was a lost cause and she had the feeling that her tour of duty would end one way or another on this day.

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Scott Bernard's Alpha banked in a controlled motion to avoid a round of enemy blasts. His mind was clouded by anger. A part of him realized that the negative feelings his jealousy of Uld had ignited wouldn't serve any purpose. The officer struggled to compose himself; the enemy was relentless and demanded he gave the battle all of his attention.

Reluctantly, Scott had kept his distance form Ariel. It was the best he could do to keep his mind aimed at destroying as many drones as possible. The irony of having to keep away from one that he loved to better protect her wasn't lost on him. His sister had made him see how the better he fought the enemy, the better chances his loved ones had of surviving.

Before he entered the hangar, Scott had met Dana Sterling one more time. It was because of her that he had been able to pull himself together for battle. Without him saying a thing, she knew he was breaking down. The connection they shared, regardless of growing away from each other during their entire lives, amazed him. Dana helped him to gain back his focus which seemed irreparably lost up to that point. Her words had been harsh and angry, yet comforting in the end

“You are a soldier, Scott. You will go out there and do what you were trained to do.”

“I've made a mess out of things... I... I can't... ”

“You can!” she yelled at him, grabbing and shaking him by the arms, “and you will. You are going to fight this battle!”

“Dana...”

“You know what, Bernard might be excused. He can whine and quit right now for all I care!” she had angrily. “But Scott Sterling isn't. You gotta go out there and help defeat this enemy, brother. Our chances are the best they have been in a long time. You gotta help! You have to fight for Max and Miriya, and for all the people stranded in the battle fortress! Damn, you gotta go out there and fight for that Invid chick of yours!”

He looked down as he regained himself. His sister's words had hit home.

“Fight for those you love, Scott. The better you do your job, the higher the chances of all of us being together again.”

He hugged her tight. “Thank you,” he said; she patted his back.

“No matter the mess you're in, Scott. You can fix it, remember that,” she told him softly and felt him nodding lightly against her shoulder.

“Watch out for yourself out there, little brother, will you?” she told him as he released her.

“And who will watch out for you?” he asked. She smiled.

“Leave the grown-ups alone,” she said sighing, “I can take care of myself, you know.” And Scott knew she could. She was, after all, the legendary Major Dana Sterling, his sister.

“I'm serious, Scott,” she scolded lastly, “I don't want you to lose track of your mission or your responsibilities because of me,” she searched his eyes, “promise you wont!” she demanded, “promise me!” So he did.

As a close by blast shook his Alpha, Scott refocused on his destructive task. It was not easy, even aided by Dr. Reed's enemy movement relay system. Still, it was taking too long to dispose of the annoying drones. A glowing green device flashed in Scott's memory. Every second counted for the unknowing Invid; their protective shields depleting as their implants' counters ticked.

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Red eyed, over-caffeinated Karl Reed felt an urge to violently destroy his computer terminal's screen, for the second time in 36 hours. He recalled that it hadn't really been that bad when he did it the first time; in fact he had felt great. One thing bothered him about the incident, however, his assistants seemed to have made themselves scarce afterwards. They don't think I'm a violent man, do they? Because he was far from it, he reassured himself. It was the stress, just the stress...

After the display hit the floor and spilled its contents in a disorderly mess, sparks traversed tiny conductors, hitting the core all at once. It was burnt, fried. The fuming, crispy circuitry appeased his frustration with Isabel Iskandar and Tamron's god-dammed impossible-to-deflect waves.

Edgy, he rubbed his already abused eyes. His instincts screamed at him; that woman was up to something, something bad. Her lab had been out-of-limits for him since he discovered entranced by that implant-monitoring software of hers. If only he had the time to figure out what she was hiding...

Yet, at the moment, he was faced with another more pressing dead-end and the screen appeared a good candidate to take his ire -for lack of a better subject.

Destiny, however, had other plans.

With a frustrated sigh, that sounded more like a repressed grunt, he lifted his right hand to strike the offending inanimate object and get it over with. It was going to be one mighty blow, yet overworked Dr. Reed had forgotten the cup of coffee that rested on his desk. His forearm made contact with it, spilling its boiling contents over himself and his innocent keyboard. They both sizzled, the synthetic keyboard even foamed.

Reed yelped calling his assistants to the scene immediately. One of them helped him with his arm while another called a cleaning crew. Between the pain and the tangy aroma of burnt plastic, Dr. Reed's mind made a connection. Who would have thought destruction was going to be more than therapeutic this time.

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“General Grant!” Karl Reed yelled, reaching the military officer and struggling to catch his breath. The doctor didn't seem at all concerned about having interrupted a meeting between Vice and his captains. The news he had come to share was worth it.

“Dr. Reed, is everything OK?” Vince asked looking at the bandage on his arm.

“More than OK, general,” he gasped, “I have news.”

“You have found a way to deflect those control waves?” inquired Captain Cooper.

“No captain, that's impossible, unfortunately. The mass needed is too great to...” Vince frowned, making the Dr. decide to get to the point. “But we don't have to deflect them.”

“What?” gasped Christensen.

“We can damage the drone's ability of receiving them instead.”

Reed explained that the enemy ships worked much like an ultra-sensitive ear. If exposed to waves outside of the range they were designed to withstand, their receptors would be damaged.

“Or like when an electrical device enters in contact with hot liquid -any liquid for that matter. It causes a surcharge you see; only this time it is a wave and it would turn the drones deaf. In a sense...”

“How do we do this, Dr. Reed?” Vince interrupted the excited scientist.

“Well, a wave capable of damaging their mechanism was synthesized in our labs. It is safe to our forces, as they aren't sensitive enough to be affected by it. Now all we have to do is distribute it over the battle coordinates. We just send it to each of our pilots and have them blast the enemy with them.

“How long do you need to set everything up?”

“About 60 minutes.”

“What will happen to the drones?” asked Cooper.

“We can't tell with complete accuracy, but by the way their mechanism are set up, most likely they will be disoriented and lose the ability to fight. They will lose any means of coordinated attacks and may even deactivate altogether.”

“That would be enough to ease our clearing of a path to the battle fortress,” said Sinclair.

“Proceed immediately, Dr. Reed,” ordered Vince, “inform all our forces, use maximum encryption protocols,” he added, facing his captains.

“And Sinclair...”

“Yes, sir?”

“Ready the recovery teams.”

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On Commander Bernard's screen, Raider 09 moved slowly, too slowly.

“Raider 09, you are lagging behind, reunite with your squadron...” Scott heard Lieutenant Hopkins' voice over the tac net, “...I repeat, reunite with your squadron.” Yet the Invid pilot didn't acknowledge or obey the control room officer's order.

“Raider 09, what's your status?” Scott called this time. No intelligible reply came, just meaningless, pained sounds. The mecha had all but stopped by now and commander decided to tune his screen to the Invid pilot's cockpit. He saw his head tilted to the front; he was very still and now silent. He was also an easy target.

“Raider 09, report your status,” he insisted, halting his Alpha. Silence.

“Raider 02, lead the squadron in my stead, I'm going back for 09.”

“Yes, sir.”

As Scott moved toward the immobile mecha, he had its pilot image on the screen. With dread he saw him move, twist and then convulse violently. He could have sworn that he saw green light seeping out of his helmet.

It wasn't long before he he heard Captain Cooper's voice. “He's dead, Bernard,” she said, “return to your squadron at once!”

“What happened?” he asked, knowing the horrific answer. Cooper didn't bother to reply.

“Bernard, return to your squadron! We are about to transmit!” He waited trying to piece it all together.

“Return this instant!” she bellowed.

Oh God, the counters are off, the commander realized, left the dead pilot and rushed to back to his unit. The drones where quick to blast the remains of Raider 09 out of existence and then chased after the fleeing veritech.

The Invid were running out of time. While he escaped his pursuers, all Scott could think about was Ariel. Fight for those you love, his sister had told him... Ariel couldn't end like 09, he wouldn't let her.

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