Rise

Chapter Twenty Three: Quick, Clean, and Quiet

The innards of the air base looked much the same as the laboratory with its simple grey corridors and plain tile floors. Red alarms flashed every five metres down the hall washing the walls with a demonic glow. 

“If you’ve got any kind of vision assist I’d suggest turning it on now,” Kestrel said, pulling a pair of goggles down over his eyes. Matt wasn’t entirely sure what they were for but he guessed they had to be night or heat vision. Kestrel often frightened Matt with his access to advanced technology. While the rest of the world struggles getting a simple digital watch to work, he has access to devices that were top of the line even before the Great War. 

Once again, Matt set his wonderings aside for the time being, and tapped the eyepiece Sam had installed on his helmet. He had almost forgotten it wasn’t just an average piece of metal and ceramics sitting on top of his cranium. Instantly the screen winked to life, startup scripts running past his left eye. As the software loaded, real-time telemetry began to fill the screen, monitoring his heart-rate, the motion around him, and displaying a compass. 

Where did Sam find this? Or did she make it herself? Matt thought to himself, readying himself as the eyepiece marked targets rounding a bend. As soon as they were in their sights the enemy soldiers dropped, their blood adding another shade of red to the hall. 

“Is it just me or are these soldiers not putting up much of a fight?” Matt muttered to the Old Bear as he replaced the magazine in his assault rifle. 

“It’s not just you. I expected more fight out of them too. And I haven’t spotted any of those ones in that nasty armour either. It’s certainly strange. Stay on your guard, this might be a trap,” the old man replied, shouldering his rifle and fixing his gaze down the corridor. 

“You say that as if there’s another option,” Matt smirked, though he hoped they were both wrong.

With a hand signal from Kestrel, the party began to make their way down the hall, checking corners and rooms as they went. They split up where the building forked. One path head towards the tower, the other to the air strip. There was little resistance on the way. It appeared most of the enemy was already outside bringing the fight to Kestrel’s main company. 

“You know your jobs. Quick, clean, and quiet. I don’t like the smell of this place. The Ascendancy’s filth will be wrung out by the day’s end. Kelder, Harris, with me. Bear, Finn, and Swann, the tower,” Kestrel commanded.

Everyone nodded. Bear gave Matt a clap on the back as they parted, and the corridor suddenly felt very empty and cold despite the fact he was surrounded by his comrades. The only man here who’s name I know is Kestrel’s and even then I don’t truly know him. Somehow sensing  sensing his disdain, Flint pressed up against Matt, as if to remind him of his presence. A warmth returned to his chest though the doubt was still ever present.  

Kestrel gave Matt  a quick nod and they were off, quickly closing the gap between them and the exit. Not a round was fired over the trip, though Kestrel’s machete was bloodied as he slit the throat of a dying soldier. It had looked like he had sought shelter within the compound, but there was no one left to help him. The young man had found a corner in which to rest as his life’s blood seeped onto the floor from a wound in his chest. 

“A mercy,” Kestrel had called it. Matt was sickened. They could have taken him prisoner, or left him to die on his own. The look of horror that was plastered on the kid’s face as Kestrel loomed over him was enough proof for Matt that it had not been “mercy”. But Matt said nothing. It was apparent enough Kestrel had no sympathy for his foes. 

Kelder took point and opened the exit, flooding the silent hall with a wash of the sounds of war, something Matt had not missed. Not one hundred metres behind them the battle raged on, and yet the field was bare before them.