Mission Origin View (Final Days Trilogy) (23 page)

“
Ready, Commander?” Gideon asked as Commander Steward placed his helmet on and sealed it to his upper body armor.

“
Yes, Lieutenant,” Commander Steward said slowly as he looked down at Captain Neubauer’s body. “I don’t know what to say.”

“
There’s nothing to say right now, sir. I have to get you and the rest of the team out of here,” Gideon responded.

Gunny
Xia materialized several yards away from the breach. He was dragging his right leg as he approached.

“
Manelly, help Gunny,” Gideon ordered. “Looks like he’s been hit.”

Manelly materialized and immediately ran to assist Xia.

“We have company,” Commander Steward said, using his helmet’s speaker, and pointed down an adjacent street littered with CTU bodies, debris, patches of fire, and mangled burning vehicles. A CTU citizen dressed in a gray jumpsuit walked toward them through the obstacles, holding his weapon above his head.

Manelly and Xia arrived
, and Xia took off his helmet.

“
How bad?” Gideon asked Xia.

“
Laser through the thigh, sir,” Xia said with pain. He paused to catch his breath, then asked, “How’s the captain?”

“
Sorry, Gunny, the captain’s dead,” Gideon replied and looked over toward Neubauer’s body.

Xia looked shocked as he stared at the body. A moment later his hardened expression returned.

“Gunny, I want everyone out now! Including the captain’s body,” Gideon said.

“
With your permission, Lieutenant, I’ll carry the captain,” Commander Steward requested.

“
Thank you, sir,” Gideon responded and then remembered he hadn’t seen or heard from Gault.

“
Where’s Gault?” Gideon asked.

“
On his way, sir,” Manelly reported, using his helmet speaker.

“
Tell him to get here on the double!” Gideon said.

“
Yes, sir,” Manelly replied.

The CTU citizen
who had approached the team with his weapon held over his head now stood in front of Gideon as GFF and CTU weapons’ fire could now be heard blocks away.

“
I am GFF,” the CTU citizen said. “May I lower my weapon?”

“
Yes,” Gideon answered. “And thanks for assisting us.”

“
You’re welcome. I’m
Colonel
Zuesna
,
Canton Mie
GFF commander. I assume you’re from the United States ship I’ve heard about. I decided to use this opportunity to show the CTU how well the GFF is organized,” Zuesna stated.

“
Yes, we’re from the ship. I’m Lieutenant Klaxton, US Marines. We’ve completed our mission and are on our way back to our ship,” Gideon said.

“Please let your government know the resistance movement on
Gliese
is very well organized and would like any assistance that can be provided to our movement to free the peoples of this planet,” Zuesna requested.

“
I will,
Colonel. I also have a new recruit for you,” Gideon said as he motioned Carrie to join them.

“
Sergeant Carrie Thompson, reporting for duty, sir,” she said as she saluted
Zuesna.

Zuesna returned her salute and asked,
“You wouldn’t happen to be related to Captain Anton
Thompson, would you?”

“
Yes, Colonel, he was my father,” Carrie responded with pride.

“
I served with the captain. Excellent officer,”
Zuesna commented.

“
Sir, I wish I had more time to talk with you, but I have a wounded man here and another man under fire outside the sphere. I have to get my team to safety,”
Gideon said.

“
Of course,
Lieutenant,” Zuesna replied, then looked at Carrie. “You still have family?”

“
My mother, a brother, and four cousins,” she answered.

“
We have to falsify your death, or your family will be in danger,” Zuesna said.

“
Yes, sir. Lieutenant Klaxton said he’d help me with that if I helped him and his team escape,” she replied.

Gideon kn
ew he needed to get his people out and had to hurry and fulfill his promise. He thought for a second and said, “Thompson, give me your knife and get out of your armor.”

She reached behind her neck and took out her concealed knife, handed it to Gideon
, and began taking off her armor. Moments later she stood wearing only her armor liner, and her armor lay on the ground.

“
Gunny, have everyone ready to leave in two minutes. I’ll be right back,” Gideon ordered

“
Carrie, grab your armor and come with me,” Gideon said as he began to walk away, carrying a weapon in one hand and a knife in the other.

Carrie picked up her armor and followed. Zuesna also followed.

Gideon stopped a few meters from some burning debris, which was laced with bodies of CTU armored soldiers.

“
Keep your helmet and throw your armor in the fire,” Gideon requested.

Not questioning Gideon, Carrie
laid her helmet on the ground, walked to the fire, threw her armor in, and walked back to stand by Gideon.

“
Here,” Gideon said and gave Carrie the knife. “I’m going to need some of your blood to put in the helmet.” 

Carrie used the knife and made a shallow three
-inch cut just above her hairline. Blood began to flow. Gideon knew she had cut herself there so her hair would cover any scarring; also there was generally a lot of blood associated with head wounds.

Gideon picked up her helmet
. “Smear blood in your helmet and drop it.”

Carrie complied
, and Zuesna nodded approval.

Gideon set his weapon
’s mag rail setting to its lowest velocity setting, aimed at the helmet, and shot off just a very small section of the right top part of the helmet. Anyone examining the helmet would conclude that the wearer had been hit by a mag rail projectile. The remaining helmet rolled away. Next Gideon, set his weapon selector to particle beam, then to wide beam continual fire. He pointed the weapon at the fire, which was consuming Carrie’s armor and other armored bodies, and pulled the trigger. He fired a constant green particle beam until the material in the fire was reduced to a blob of fused ground, rock, armor, and anything else that was in the fire. The particle beam would completely disintegrate body flesh in the blob.

“
If the CTU does any identity checking, they’ll ID you with the blood in your helmet and assume you’re dead,” Gideon said as he lowered his weapon. “They won’t get any DNA in that fused blob, but they might find enough of your armor’s id number to identify you.”

“
Excellent idea, Lieutenant.” Zuesna commented.

“
Let’s stop that bleeding, Sergeant,” Gideon said to Carrie as they hurried back to the breach. The GFF and CTU battle was beginning to get closer. He was out of time; the team had to leave know.

“Gunny, toss Sergeant Thompson a nano bandage and get everyone back to
Bernice
,” Gideon said and then turned to Commander Steward. “Commander, contact Captain Bowser when you get to
Bernice
, advise her of the situation, and tell her I recommend that she leave me and continue the mission.”

Steward agreed with a nod.

Xia pulled a nano bandage out of his belt kit and tossed it to Carrie and then looked at Gideon. “Sir, I’ll stay with you. My CO2 scrubber was knocked out by another laser hit. It’ll be cutting it close getting to
Bernice
before I suffocate. Anyway, with my leg the team has a better chance if they don’t have to help me along. They already have to carry the captain.”

“
Negative, Gunny. You’re going with them,” Gideon said, then turned to Sergeant Manelly. “Sergeant, have Sipes come in. He’ll carry Gunny.”

Xia said, “Sir, I’m not going! I’d rather die than have that idiot carry me!”

“
At ease, Gunny! I’m not just thinking about your survival. Captain Neubauer once told me that you were the best fighting marine he had ever served with. I need your experience out there if the team runs into another CTU force.” Gideon addressed Xia in an authoritative voice that didn’t usually come from a lieutenant. Then he asked, “Understand?”

“
Yes, sir,” Xia responded.

“
You wanted me, sir?” Joseph said after he entered the biosphere. 

“
Yes, Sipes. Stand out of the way for now,” Gideon said and pointed to a spot just to the left of the breach hatch.

***

Joseph walked to the spot. He looked around, saw the destruction that surrounded him, and heard the firefight between the GFF and CTU. He’d been listening to the transmissions over the team channel, and had an idea of what was happening, but had never imagined the devastation he was seeing. He then noted a woman dressed in a thin armor insert and a man in a gray jumpsuit help Commander Steward lift a body off the ground and place it on the commander’s right shoulder. He realized the body was Captain Neubauer and he shuddered.

This can
’t be happening, he thought. He’d been told in his dream that he was there to save people. Why was the captain dead?

“
Where’s Gault?” Gideon asked Manelly again.

“
He said he’d be here by now,” Manelly answered.

“
What’s he doing?” Gideon asked.

“
I don’t know, sir,” Manelly responded.

A second later Gault appeared with a suit of CTU armor draped over his left shoulder. He walked to the breach and dropped the suit.

“Figured you could use this, LT, to get out of here. I found its previous owner lost in an alley just after the resistance attacked, and I convinced him to take it off so I wouldn’t have to put a hole in it and in him. He was happy to help,” Gault said with a grin.

“
Good man,” Gideon said as he picked up the armor and began to examine it. “There’s a rip just above the right knee.” Gideon poked two fingers in the hole.

“
Sorry, LT. I figured if the guy was walking, the suit would be okay,” Gault said disappointed.

“
I’m sorry too, Corporal, but thanks for the thought,” Gideon said as he dropped the armor.

“
Manelly, take Gault and the commander out now. Link up with Kindle if you can and get back to
Bernice
. Sipes and Gunny will be right behind you,” Gideon ordered.

“
Yes, sir,” Manelly responded.

The men opened the breach
, and seconds later they were on their way.

“
Sipes, carry Gunny to
Bernice
. He’ll tell you which way to go. Do whatever he orders,” Gideon said.

“
Sir, I can repair the armor you were just looking at,” Joseph said.

“
What?” Gideon asked.

“
I can fix the rip in that armor. It looks like the same type of armor I was trained to repair in tech school before the self-sealing armor was used,” Joseph said.

“
Do you need special tools?”

“
No, sir, just some type of metal and heat. This type of armor is made with a resin already in the armor, so it will adhere to most types of metals. It’s like soldering two metals together.”

“
If you had heat and metal, how long would it take to repair it?”

“
Seconds,” Joseph said.

“
Can you use the heat generated by a particle-beam weapon?” Gideon asked.

“
That’ll work perfect, sir,” Joseph said and added, “All we need is a piece of metal.”

“
How about this?” Carrie said as she held out her knife.

“
That’ll work,” Joseph said as he took the knife and examined it. He lowered himself to one knee, picked up the armor, and slid his hand into the leg to find the rip.

“
Sir, would you hand me that jumpsuit by you?” Joseph requested.

Gideon looked down and picked up the gray CTU jumpsuit D
r. Harper had taken off and handed it to Joseph. Joseph withdrew his hand from the leg, took the gray jumpsuit, and pushed it into the leg under the rip.

“
That should keep the metal in the knife from adhering to the back of the armor leg,” Joseph said as he withdrew his arm. He then placed the knife blade over the rip. “Sir, melt the blade with the particle beam. I’ll have to press the blade onto the armor using the handle while you’re melting the blade so it’ll stick better to the armor.”