Rykarn gets up as his device unfolds. “Doyouwant to do this?”
Panels shift above us. The clanging of hail on the collapsed silo tells me Talhuskin forces in orbit aren’t done blasting our location yet. They’ll likely keep up the barrage until we’re flattened.
“Rykarn,” I call to him.
Osiris and Rykarn keep arguing about priorities while Vryskas laughs like he’s watching an old married couple fight, and we aren’t on the edge of annihilation. My team is…different. Sidius would say we're sadistic with addictions to pain and self-torture. I agree, with a bonus of taunting death.
The window for escape is closing. So I walk to the bore pack, climb on the foot pegs, set the depth, and ignite the burner. When it punches into the soil, chars a hole, and submerges, I step off, grab Rykarn by the collar of his armor, and sling him down the hole.
Rykarn lets out a maniacal yell of joy and then curses my name.
“Fuck you too, you crazy bastard.” But really, I’m grateful he and Vryskas came back for us after they rescued a squad on civilian duty, whose bore soldier took a devastating hit.
The unit’s hum changes, and I know Rykarn has taken over, carving a new path below.
“Vryskas?” I ask.
He points between Osiris and me. “Something is going on here that I think I should…”
I shove Vryskas into the hole with my boot and hear his swear echo up at me. All it takes is a look at Osiris.
He lifts his hand, the other still holding the bandage at his side, and walks to the edge. “I won’t say anything. I got upset because that power was…more than I’ve ever felt.”
When he has dropped below the surface, and I’m left alone on top without having to listen to any bickering, the sobs of a hatchling reach my ears. I look around but can’t see anyone close.
“Jorusk?” Osiris calls up to me.
“I think there’s a hatchling up here. I’m going to search.”
“There’s no time!” Osiris calls up.
I glare down at him and study the red eyes that peer up at me. “I’m not leaving a hatchling to die.”
Osiris gapes at me but gives me the devil’s horns with his fingers. “Til Magnium.”
“Get to the outpost. I’ll find you. Switching to local coms,” I reply.
“Don’t be late,” Rykarn simpers in his most feminine voice.
Vryskas makes a playfully disgusted noise on coms. “Command is coalescing resources for another exodus. We can’t stay here.”
This world is wrecked.Deep down, I hope wherever we go is far away from Talhuskins. We need time to recuperate.
I hunker under my shield as hail breaks through the structure.
“Jorusk, you’ve tempted fate enough,” Osiris sounds desperate. I should listen to him. But out here, we are soldiersfirst, brothers second, and friends last. Hatchlings are our future. Without them, we are nothing but fading embers.
“Go. I will find a way.” I stalk off to snake through the debris, searching beneath panels, and following the sounds of the crying hatchling. But every time I think I’ve found them among the misshapen silo panels, their volume quiets.
Stepping through a gap in the pile, I get a glimpse of the other side of the farm. An entire squadron is frozen, several hundred encased in green-tinted ice. But it is the two in front of me that stop me dead. A hatchling, mostly buried, reaches for another smaller one, who is already entombed in a frosty pale green stalagmite.
His cries become muffled as hail clumps up and closes him in.
I feel his fear, his agony, and his anger.
Iknowit.
Watching him strain for his sibling even as death claws its way up his neck and swallows his face brings memories rushing back to me with fresh force.
