Hell divers x fallout, p.37
Hell Divers X: Fallout, page 37
Magnolia searched for her next target, waiting for the boat to even out. When it steadied, she pulled the trigger. She only got off a few shots before she was suddenly rising up in the air with the boat somehow still under her.
She didn’t know what had happened until she hit the water.
Another shell burst fifty yards away, sending another massive column of water into the sky. She flailed in the waves, her armor weighing her down. Machine-gun fire striped the ocean around them.
Magnolia kicked and struggled to stay above the waves. She slipped under, bullets whizzing around her. Reaching down, she shucked off her left boot, then the right.
It didn’t help much, but at least she could kick now.
Breathing the oxygen supply from her helmet, she took another terrifying moment to pull off her chest armor. It was the second-heaviest thing. Losing it was tough, but it was no decision, really—either this or death.
Probably death, no matter what.
She broke through the surface, treading water and searching for the others from her boat. Two Cazadores had resurfaced, and Sofia was also treading water.
A round of bright explosions lit the rooftop. Debris rained down, along with a burning soldier, kicking as he fell.
Magnolia looked for Edgar and saw that he had surfaced with Tia. Behind them, a ship was moving across the water.
Fiery bursts from cannons and muzzle flashes from machines guns lit up the deck of a warship. Magnolia braced herself to be obliterated. But the shells and bullets screamed and zipped high overhead.
The weapons weren’t aimed at the Hell Divers or Cazadores fighting to stay above the water. They were aimed at the capitol tower.
“It’s the Frog!” someone shouted.
She kicked around and watched explosions across the rooftop.
Still, they weren’t safe yet.
They still had to swim to the marina, break inside the capitol tower, and take it back from forces that knew they were coming.
TWENTY-NINE
“We’re almost there,” Bulldozer said over the short-range comm channel.
“Be ready for anything,” Lucky said.
With every mile that brought them closer to the Vanguard Islands, Kade’s fury grew.
“You’re an asshole, Gaz,” he said. “You lied to me all this time.”
Ignoring him, Lucky stared out the helicopter windshield.
They had spent the past day following the Frog and the container ship through the Caribbean. Bulldozer had kept the bird at a distance, keeping to the turbulent storm clouds to avoid being spotted. That made the last stretch of the journey rough, to a nauseating degree.
“I could help bring peace between our people,” Kade said.
“Your people started a war,” Lucky replied. “The only way there will be peace is if those responsible are dead. I swore an oath to the Trident, to protect the Coral Castle and all the souls living there, and that is exactly what I’m going to do.”
Kade fell silent. There was nothing else he could do now. His actions that had saved Lucky multiple times were meaningless. The knight was putting his people first, and for that, Kade couldn’t blame him. He wanted to do the same thing.
Unfortunately, his actions were doing the exact opposite. He had put his people at risk by helping the Forerunner track down King Xavier. Soon, the Knights of the Coral Castle would know the location of the Vanguard Islands.
The chopper rattled and banged through a pocket of turbulence. Lightning flickered in the distance, the low roll of thunder lagging far behind.
Kade focused on his breathing, trying to keep calm. His mind went to Alton, Tia, the Hell Divers, and King Xavier. He had failed them all.
“Hold on, I’m taking us lower!” Bulldozer said over the comm channel.
The Sea King speared down through the shelf of clouds. Rain beat against the windshield while gusting wind buffeted the chopper this way and that. Kade willed his food to stay down. He would rather not taste that seaweed again.
Lightning broke into a thousand kinks of white light across their flight path. Lucky peeled back his helmet and reached for the bucket. He hurled into it as Bulldozer fought to keep them steady.
“Just don’t miss!” the pilot shouted.
The wall of darkness seemed to lighten ahead of them.
Or maybe it was just Kade’s eyes playing tricks on him?
He squinted at what appeared to be streaks of light dancing on the horizon.
The chopper cut through the final wall of black and flew under a brilliant moon. They glided through the last of the rain until there was none at all.
The last drops sluiced down the windshield.
Distant thunder faded away, leaving only the steady thump of the main rotor. Moonlight captured the dark bulk of oil rigs in the distance. But it wasn’t just the bright light of the moon out there.
A mile to the east, orange explosions bloomed at the top of a rig. By its height, it had to be the capitol tower.
“There,” Bulldozer said.
“Bloody hell,” Lucky said, the bucket sloshing between his feet. “Get us higher on approach.”
Bulldozer pulled up as they flew toward the battle.
Tracer rounds arced from the tower rooftop, and cannons blazed from multiple locations at targets on the water. One of those targets fired back.
Kade didn’t need his night vision to see the Frog’s dark bulk silhouetted in the moonlight. The guns on the decks blasted the tower of concrete and steel.
“Bloody oath!” said Bulldozer. “This isn’t a battle; it’s all-out war!”
Hours earlier, when they’d found the Frog and the cargo ship again, Kade had seen soldiers gearing up on the weather decks. He had hoped they were about to ambush King Rolo.
But it seemed their surprise attack had gone horribly wrong.
The rooftop turrets continued to fire down on the water. Kade tried to see whatever they were shooting at, catching glimpses during the rocky ride. He made out Jet Skis dead in the water and two capsized rafts.
The chopper dipped lower, providing a clear view of the marina at the capitol tower. A third raft had made it to the dock, and Cazador soldiers from it were running up the piers with rifles blazing. People were flailing in the water. He could tell by the helmets, these weren’t all Cazadores. One looked a lot like a Hell Diver.
The thought of Tia being down there made Kade fight against his restraints.
“Let me out!” he yelled. “I have to help!”
“Keep us clear of those cannons and machine guns,” Lucky said.
Bulldozer pulled up, carving back into the sky.
“No, let me out!” Kade said. “My friends are being slaughtered down there!”
“What do you plan on doing?” Lucky said. “If they spot us, they could blow us out of the sky. Both sides will think we’re the enemy.”
“Then get me low enough to the ocean, and I’ll jump, then swim—”
“Stop talking,” Lucky said forcefully. “I won’t let you throw away your life—ours either.”
Kade worked his hands against the rope. He couldn’t just sit here and do nothing.
“Incoming!” Bulldozer shouted.
The chopper banked hard to the left, pressing Kade against the window.
An arcing line of small round holes appeared in the side of the Sea King.
“Fuck me dead!” Bulldozer shouted. “We’re hit! Shit, we’re hit!”
“Get us out of here!” Lucky yelled back. “Go low if you have to!”
Out the port window, Kade saw tracer rounds streaking down at them from a machine-gun turret. The arcing line of projectiles ceased when a fireball on the tower rooftop swallowed up the machine-gun nest. Several smaller explosions puffed across the edge of the roof.
Lucky fell as he tried to move back into the troop hold. He got up and scrambled over to the same wooden crate he had lugged up the lighthouse back in Aruba. He opened it, pulled out a dish, and unfolded the legs.
The knight was going to activate the Trident.
To Kade’s astonishment, he got his thumb knuckle out from under the rope he’d been working at. A minute later, he had freed his left hand. For a fleeting moment, he was too surprised to do anything. Then he made short work of the rope binding on his right hand and went quietly to work on the ankles as Bulldozer flew them low over the water.
Now with his feet free, Kade sprang up and lunged straight for the cargo hold door as Lucky pulled something from his duty belt.
“Don’t do it!” Lucky shouted.
Kade turned to find a pistol aimed at his head. The chopper roared upward.
“Hold on!” Bulldozer shouted. “I’m making a run for the clouds.”
“We’re getting out of here and activating the Trident,” said Lucky, still crouched on the deck. “I’m sorry, Kade, but your people are savages. That is fucking clear!”
“Not all of them!”
“Really? ’Cause from where I sit, they look like a bunch of cavemen!” Bulldozer yelled.
In the cockpit, an alarm blared.
Lucky looked past Kade. “What is it?”
“We got a problem,” Bulldozer replied. “I’m losing hydraulic fluid!”
The chopper whined and shook as the pilot fought to keep it on an even keel.
“I can’t control . . .” Bulldozer grunted over the comm.
Lucky fought his way up to the seats and buckled in not a moment too soon before the chopper began to rotate clockwise. Kade tried to suppress the nausea as he hung on, muscles quivering from the effort.
Bulldozer was doing his level best to control the bird, but they were going down. “I’m gonna try to land on the tower!” he shouted.
Lucky looked back at Kade, who said nothing.
Moonlight streamed through the cockpit, illuminating their two very differently designed armored suits. In a flurry of muddled thoughts, Kade marveled at how they had come from different civilizations and were both just trying to survive in a world gone mad.
A view of the rooftop came into focus through the cockpit. Kade could make out trees and a field of crops below.
Bulldozer managed to slow the rotation just as the rooftop came leering up at them.
“Brace yourselves!” he shouted.
The trees reached up at struts that somehow just cleared them.
The Sea King burst over the edge of the orchard and smacked into the dirt with enough force that Kade lost his grip and slammed against the hull across from him. His helmet absorbed some of the impact, but it still hurt like hell.
Plants rose up and slapped against the cracked windshield. And on they slid, across the rooftop for several agonizing seconds.
Finally, the machine came to a stop.
More alarms blared, and something sparked under the dashboard. Tangled wires hung from the open overhead. Moonlight shone through the gaping holes from high-caliber rounds in the fuselage.
Kade flopped onto his stomach. He pushed himself up to his knees to find that Lucky was no longer in his seat.
Kade soon found him in the hold, where he had been tossed and now lay pinned beneath two heavy cargo crates. A touch to his neck confirmed he had a pulse.
“Kade,” Lucky whispered.
“I’ll be right back,” Kade said. He went up on both knees and turned to the cockpit.
Bulldozer was slumped over the controls, not moving. His helmet had smashed into the windshield. Blood spatter surrounded the cracked glass, which had pushed inward. Kade stumbled over to check the pilot.
He checked for a pulse. Nothing.
“Shit,” he mumbled.
“Kade . . .” Lucky called out from the back of the wreckage.
Kade made his way through scattered supplies across the hold. There were muffled voices in the distance, and gunfire he could hear over the ringing in his ears.
He pulled out his revolver and pulled back the hammer. Then he staggered to the door and looked out at the rooftop.
“You have to help me,” Lucky said. He reached out to Kade, then pulled his hand back with a whimper of pain.
Kade went aft. “How bad are you hurt?”
“I can’t feel my legs,” Lucky said. “I . . .”
Kade looked for blood but saw nothing. It sounded like a spinal injury. That meant moving him now, alone, was too dangerous.
“I’ll come back for you,” Kade said.
“No,” Lucky groaned. He grabbed Kade’s arm.
“I have to . . . have to activate the Trident,” he said.
Kade looked at the crates, then back to the knight. He felt a trace of empathy for Lucky, but he wasn’t going to help him activate the Trident; that was for damned sure.
“Please help me, mate. Please . . .”
Kade got up and banged open the side door.
“I’ve been risking my biscuit to help you,” he said. “And you still treat me like a criminal. Well, from here on in, you dag-snapping mongrels are on your own. It’s time for me to help my people and our king.”
* * * * *
Two days after leaving home, the airship Vanguard cruised through storm clouds just above twenty thousand feet. Lightning flashed beyond the viewport, illuminating mounds of clouds that looked like dark ocean waves.
Layla had never thought she would be looking at this view again. It was a far cry from the sunshine and clear water of the Vanguard Islands.
She had traded the view to be with her family and didn’t regret it one damned bit. Being with them was a gift.
“A gift, right, Bray?” she asked.
The child hung in the harness on her chest. He reached up and patted her chin.
Michael was belowdecks with Steve, fixing panels damaged during the escape from the capitol tower. They would soon know just how bad that damage was.
“Timothy, you there?” Layla asked.
Bray waved at the hologram of Timothy that emerged in front of them.
“Well, hello there, Bray,” Timothy said. “And Layla Everhart, how are you?”
“That depends on the condition of the ship. How about a sitrep?”
Timothy blinked while digesting information for the report. She already knew most of what he explained. The ship had taken severe damage to sections 14 and 15, directly under the water-treatment plant, rupturing a pipe and causing it to leak over 20 percent of their water supply. The water had also caused a power outage. Steve and Michael were checking it out now.
Layla let out a sigh, which Bray mimicked.
“What else?” she asked.
“The damage to panels thirteen through eighteen and eighty-five through ninety-one is severe,” Timothy said. “I’m not sure they will protect us from a direct lightning strike.”
He walked closer, waving to Bray.
The child laughed and raised a finger to point at the AI’s hologram.
“The good news is, the damaged panels can be replaced, and with the proper wiring, Chief Everhart and Deputy Schwarzer should be able to get the plant back online. But of course, that means . . .”
“Diving,” Layla said.
“I’m afraid so.”
“Understood.” She heaved a breath. “How about transmissions? Have you picked anything up from the islands?”
“Still nothing. My guess is, King Rolo has gone radio silent out of self-preservation,” Timothy explained. “They are likely preventing any long-range transmissions, too.”
“Which means we can never explain what really happened to King Xavier and the Immortal in Brisbane.”
“Correct.”
Layla still had trouble understanding how Rolo could have betrayed everyone the way he had. Launching a nuke on their own people and killing not only King Xavier but all of their friends and hundreds of Cazadores just didn’t seem possible. Then again, she had seen what Charmer had done to her husband. It seemed Rolo was just as bad.
Timothy had confirmed it was all true, and Layla had even seen the footage of the missile launch that destroyed the supercarrier Immortal back at Brisbane. Her heart broke for Eevi, who had tried to stop it all, only to be murdered by the Wave Runners once the ship returned to the islands. Tears welled in her eyes as she thought of her friend, but Layla fought them back. Now wasn’t the time to cry.
“Is there anything else I can assist with at this time?” Timothy asked.
“No, you have the bridge. I’ll be back later,” Layla replied.
She left the room with Bray and headed through the ship. The colorful passages evoked memories—some good, some bad.
“Elephant,” Layla said to Bray. “Magnolia loved those. Rodger carved her one out of wood once.”
More memories flashed in her mind as she stood holding her child. Soon, she would paint new images on these walls. Bray would paint with her, so they would never forget the Vanguard Islands despite all that they had suffered there.
Maybe someday, they would return home. But for now there was no turning back.
Layla walked the dimly lit corridor to the sickbay. The doors whisked open, and she entered pure darkness.
“Timothy, lights,” she said.
The overhead turned on. At the end of the open room, she could see Victor sleeping peacefully.
“Dim lights,” Layla said.
She moved as quietly as possible down the aisle of empty beds to Victor’s side. He was alive thanks to Timothy and one of the crew members, who had agreed to help in exchange for being let go.
Ten people had been on the airship when the escapees took it. After the crew’s surrender, they were lowered to the ocean in a raft and allowed to return to the islands with a written message to Charmer from Michael and Layla.
Your time is coming. Someday—maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, maybe not even a month from now, but someday—you will wake in the middle of the night to a knife at your throat. Or perhaps you will stroll through the gardens in the moonlight when a figure steps out from behind a tree . . . Someday, when you least expect it, we will return, and we will make you pay. Depend on it.
