In Utter Darkness: Chapter 6: Acceptable Losses
#7 of New Beginnings
Sacrifice is a funny thing. You give up your entire being just so that a group, ideal, person can live on...you better hope they are worth it.
In Utter Darkness: Chapter 6: Acceptable Losses
Date: (3 days after invasion)
Location: Donavan Military Base
Arlen still looked slightly nauseous as we stood in front of Sgt. Major Marlowe. "You three are being deployed to assist with the Russian offensive that begins in 36 hours," he began, "At least, that's the official story. The Russians are not to know that you three are 'special.' They would probably want to replicate the results and we don't need them experimenting on their own people just to get the small chance of producing super soldiers. I also believe in holding your cards close to your chest and the Russians are on a need to know basis. Janko, can I trust you to keep this information from your superiors?" Janko nodded but looked uneasy, "I don't entirely trust my fellow 'comrades' myself," he stated, "It is why I always requested solo assignments, I am well aware of our history." Marlowe nodded and continued, "There is another reason I want you three there, we think we may have found another one of those experimentation facilities and we want you to destroy it. Your secondary objectives are to locate any survivors and have Dr. Summers take a look at them and to gather as much intelligence as possible. The Marine Recon team should have set up nearby positions to assist." "Wait," I asked, "Dr. Summers is coming with us?" He nodded, "Yes, along with a few specialists and the Ranger company. Oh, by the way Janko, I have been informed you might have a history with one of people we are sending by the name of David Cohen." Janko's eyes light up at that one, "David? I thought he died in Israel? How is he doing?" Marlowe just shook his head, "Probably not as well as you think, he lost a lot when the bombs went off. He now works as a mercenary for us and believe me, you guys will need his skill set." I was puzzled but also slightly saddened by the mention of Israel. Iran had made good on their promise to "annihilate the Zionist vermin" and, once they had acquired nuclear weapons, simultaneously set off three high-yield nukes inside Israel. Israel was completely destroyed along with the Palestinians and significant portions of the borders of the neighboring countries. The world had expected the U.S. to retaliate but not to the extent we had. President Issac Abrams decided that turnabout was fair play and proceeded to detonate multiple nuclear missiles deep in the heart of Iran. The entire country was now designated a "wasteland" and no one would be venturing anywhere near there for the next 35 years. The U.S. was on high alert for the next year or so, fully expecting a nuclear retaliation from Iran's allies but none ever came. Evidently Iran had pissed off all of its allies and the U.S. was actually praised by the UN for 'eliminating a significant threat to the security of the world.' That hadn't helped the Jewish community at all and in particular those Israelis who had lost everything but there lives in the blast. Janko looked saddened as well and asked softly, "Was he in Israel when it happened?" "No," was the reply, "He was in the States at the time as a liaison for the Mossad at an intel swap we had requested." Janko just nodded but looked relieved that he was still alive. "Wait," Arlen interjected, "How do you know each other if you are a SOI Shadowblade and he is an Mossad operative? I thought you two didn't get along" "That is a story for another time," was the muttered reply, "Perhaps I will regale you with tales of it while we sit on our laurels for the long trip to Russia." "Well gentlemen," Marlow continued, "I have a chopper en route that will take you to the nearby airfield, from there I have three transport planes waiting to take all of you to the fight. Good luck gentlemen." We all nodded and saluted, even though mine was a little crooked as I didn't know how, we had our orders.
The thumping sound of the chopper blades as we made our way to the airport was strangely soothing to my tired mind. It seemed that was less true Janko who was clutching his seat with white knuckles. "Are you frightened of flying?" I queried. He nodded and said, "No matter how much I do it I never get used to it. I am fine with heights but not with being in helicopters or airplanes, it unnerves me." Arlen just remained silent, lost in his own thoughts. "15 minutes out from the airfield," the pilot said over the intercom, "Just a friendly heads up." Janko just muttered to himself and banged his head against the seat behind him. Arlen finally spoke up, "I suppose it is finally time I told you two why I greatly loathe Russia." Janko and I both glanced at him and Janko replied, "I would be glad to hear it if only to put your mind at ease with the idea of being my squad mate." Arlen just chuckled darkly and continued, "As I said previously it has to deal with a mission I was a part of when I first joined the S.A.S. be warned however, as it isn't very pretty."
"My first mission when I joined the S.A.S. ended up being the most harrowing," he began, "The British Prime Minister's son had been kidnapped by Chechnyan rebels while he and his son were visiting and were threatening to kill him if the Russians didn't pull out of talks with the UK and release their captured leader. The Russians, naturally, refused and the squad I was attached to was tasked with working with the Russians to rescue him. Our infiltration into the guarded complex was flawless but we were somehow detected and the rebels opened fire. I was hit badly in the leg and abdomen and after some slight medical care I convinced my squad mates to leave me behind while they finished the mission, fully expecting to be picked up later. What happened instead is that the Russians we were working with decided this was a good an opportunity as any and captured me. I later found out that the Russian government claimed that the rebels had found me and after torturing me, had executed me, they even provided "proof" that I had been KIA. I didn't know this at the time; all I knew was the exquisite agony of torture. I was treated for my fatal wounds and the Russians proceeded to interrogate me about anything they could really. They had a man that, for all intensive purposes, no longer was living and they wanted to savor it. They tortured me for three months but never managed to get anything vital from me, I managed to stave them off with relevant but outdated information that they already knew, what they really expected of me I never found out. After those three months they decided they had tired of my presence and proceeded to use me for training their new recruits in the art of 'coercion.' Their students known they had done well when they managed to get a response from me, I had made it my personal goal to be as unfeeling as possible, that was the only way I could survive." I just looked at him, horrified by what he was describing. Janko looked the same and told him, "I was Spentaz, our training consisted of physical torture but we were never trained to do it to anyone else. Even as a Shadowblade I haven't tortured anyone, my duties are observation and assassination." "I understand that," was the response, "But when I learned you were a Shadowblade by mind immediately went back to those times as a teaching aid. This was before the last coup, mind you, so I don't know if things have gotten better or worse since then. Anyways, after a month of 'training' the new generation of sadists, someone finally talked and the British military was alerted to my plight. To say they went ape shit was an understatement; they proceeded to burn that facility to the ground and got my ass out of there. The Russian government denied the existence of that facility and claimed that rebels have burned it down. When I got back to England I couldn't even tell anyone about my ordeal as it might strain our relationship with Russia. I was literally covered in scars from my time there and all I could say about it was that was 'injured in training.' I had lost feeling in two of my fingers and I had a permanently deformed ankle because of what they put me through. After the energy exposure my supposed 'regeneration' has kicked and I am now physically fine. The mental scars won't fade any time soon though." He sighed and leaned back, "And now you two know why I loathe Russians so much. I will do my best to work with them but I still have my demons from over ten years ago that I carry with me. I suppose I should leave it in the past but I just can't seem to put it behind me." He looked at his scarless hands and popped his knuckles, "I suppose now that the physical wounds are gone I should at least try to heal the psychological ones. I am sorry Janko, for my mistrust but it will take some time to dissipate entirely." Janko nodded, "I understand, we all have our burdens to bear." "Damn straight," replied Arlen. "Two minutes out," came the notice from the pilot. Janko looked relieved that our flight was coming to an end. I looked out the side door at the approaching airfield with a sense of determination. I was going to be the type of soldier that Arlen and Janko were, it was time to leave my problems behind, we had work to do.
After we landed I saw another helicopter approach with the good doctor and a few Rangers. "Good morning doctor," I called. "Morning?" she snapped, "Its 3 A.M. I still consider that the time when no one should be awake, never mind preparing to leave the country to go to a frozen wasteland!" I gestured to the three waiting C-5 Galaxy cargo planes, "Which one are you flying on." She pointed at the middle one that seemed to have the least amount of soldiers, "I want peace and quiet, that one will suffice." Arlen and Janko still seemed lost in their respective thoughts as they tagged along with their gear behind me. The middle plane was indeed mostly empty, only about 12 Rangers were in there and a man talking with the pilot with his back to us. Janko stiffened when he saw him and then strode towards him yelling, "David, you magnificent bastard! I hear you are a merc now." The man turned and gave a sad smile, "Janko, it is good to see you again and yes, I am a mercenary now. Not many people wanted a former Mossad operative working for them, never mind that the Mossad no longer even exists." Janko winced at that and responded, "I am just glad you are working with us, granted it was always fun trying to get away with you guys after me." He gave a genuine grin at that one, "You only got away half of those times because I warned you. I still owe you for saving my ass." Arlen and I both looked at them curiously and Arlen commented, "It seems you have stores to tell us as well." David just looked at both us and asked Janko, "New friends?" "Indeed," he replied, "I hope you will be working closely with us as well. Your skills as a sniper and your tech experience set you apart from the three of us." I perked up at the tech experience bit and thought about the alien crystal I still carried with me, I would have to ask Janko if David could be trusted with it. David cracked a wicked grin, "I have gotten a hell of a lot better since you saw me last." Janko just chuckled and they wandered towards the back of the plane to catch up with each other. I watched them chatting like old friends and strapped my gear away in preparation to take off. "Ten minutes to takeoff," yelled the pilot, "All we are waiting for is a fighter escort to be prepared just in case the aliens take offense to our flight." I was worried at that one, their version of our 'fighters' were vastly superior and the Galaxy's would be sitting ducks to them. As I strapped myself in next to Arlen, David and Janko joined us near the middle of the plane. As our plane had less soldiers it had more hardware in it to compensate, that just mean we would be more of a fireball if hit granted we were pretty much screwed anyways if they got to us. Once the escort of four F-22's arrived we were cleared for takeoff. Janko had his eyes closed the whole time and was mumbling to himself the whole time we were on the runway. "Jesus," commented David, "You really are scared of flying." Janko just glared at him and within moments we were airborne. We were headed to Russia, hopefully to take down an alien capital ship; I couldn't help but wonder if we would be able to do it.
Once, we had reached cruising altitude I unbuckled myself and went to find Dr. Summers, I had a few questions about the genetic defects she had mentioned as the possible reason we survived. I found her near the cockpit frowning as she was examining a data pad. "Can I ask you some questions about what you mentioned last night?" I queried. "Sure, go ahead, I am not doing anything important right now besides writing an angry speech to give Marlowe when we get back," she said with a huff, "What the hell is he thinking sending a scientist to a warzone!." I just laughed, "I am a civilian as well, you know. Anyways, you mentioned that this genetic defect shortens the life span significantly, can you explain that a little more to me." She nodded, "I can try but it may be a little over your head. The genetic defect is caused by the DNA being slightly corrupted from normal, I don't know what causes it but I do know its effects. As normal people get older by default their DNA is slightly damaged as a result of cellular reproduction, the DNA has been reproduced so many times to produce proteins that some information is lost, this process is what causes the physical effects of aging. Scientists have been looking for a way to combat this by 'capping' the telomeres of DNA preventing them from unraveling but I digress. In people with the defect something happens usually in their early 40's which starts an accelerated version of the aging process. The DNA begins to lose integrity catastrophically and results in vital organs such as the liver, kidneys, heart, etc failing simultaneously. It's not a pretty way to die and happens nearly overnight. Alexander the Great was thought to have this defect and it is my theory on why he died so suddenly. I have started calling it the "Prometheus Syndrome" as, from what I can tell; many brilliant scientists and soldiers have had it only to die before they reach their prime. I don't know why but nearly 95% of those who I have found to possess are soldiers and scientists." "How do you know all this?" I asked, "What prompted you to study it? I thought you were a medical doctor." "I am," was the response, "I also have a PhD. in molecular biology. I found about the Prometheus Syndrome when I took at graduate level genetics class. We had to take samples of our own DNA and examine them to see if we had any genetic predispositions to things like cancer, heart disease, etc." "You are shitting me!" I exclaimed, "You have it too?" She nodded sadly, "I think I have about 3-4 years left before my number is up. I found out about it in that college class and I wanted to do something with my life before I died. I became a scientist to find if there was something I could do about it, either to cure it or prevent it but nothing has come of it and now we are all embroiled in a battle against aliens." "Could you try exposing yourself to the energy?" I asked excitedly, "It is why you think we all survived." She just shook her head, "I don't know that, for all I know it didn't actually cure Arlen and Janko and I am not completely sure that it is the reason you three survived. For all I know, other sufferers of it were tested and they didn't make it." I frowned, her logic made sense but it saddened me that she was going to die in just a few years. "I am examining Arlen and Janko's genetic structure now so I will know if they are free from any ill effects, here in a little bit. I am not about to potentially throw my life away just to live a few more years, I have more important things to do with my life right now, namely helping to find a way to win this war." I nodded; I understood completely, "Can you tell me what you find out about us though? I took a few advanced biology courses so I am curious about it myself." She just chuckled and shooed me away with the promise to keep me notified.
As I was walking back to my seat I heard the pilot come on, "All right folks, skies, we are linking up with tankers now to refuel for the rest of the trip. No enemy bogies yet and hopefully they are busy somewhere else. We will be meeting friendly Russian fighters in about fifteen minutes to assist in the escort. Good luck on the ground once we get there." I sighed, as much as the new part of me relished combat it was the waiting it didn't like. I decided I could pass some of the time bugging Janko about how he had met David, that should at least be interesting. I found both of them talking in rapid fire Russian to each other with the rest of the Rangers and Arlen looking on curiously. I just stood there, curious myself, but not wanting to intrude. "Ah and here is my other compatriot, Ryan," Janko said, switching to English, "Him and Arlen are partly responsible for why I am here now." I just laughed, "I doubt I had much to do with it, you two could have gotten out of there with me." "Perhaps, but then again, we weren't the ones who took down the Titan." "What's a Titan?" one of the soldiers queried. "Something you only want to fight with tanks," Arlen muttered, "It shredded through the group that was sent to look for survivors." "We have anti-tank weapons," asked a soldier with Cpl. Casey on his chest, "Should that work at all?" "If you can hit it, yes," I responded, "The motherfuckers are fast though." The soldier nodded but looked concerned, "Let's hope it doesn't come to an infantry fight then." David just looked thoughtful, "Any weak spots at all? I am quite a good shot with a rifle." "We seemed to get a good response from the eyes," remarked Arlen with a wicked grin, "It didn't take to kindly to Ryan driving a spike through one of them." "Jesus," Casey exclaimed, "I don't want to get anywhere close to melee range with any alien and a Titan just sounds nasty." Arlen, Janko, and I just chuckled, and Janko warned, "Oh you have no idea. But if there is anything my countrymen are known for its firepower. We shouldn't have to worry about it." "Everyone, strap in now!" came the panicked cry over the intercom, "We have unidentified aircraft on an intercept vector with us. They are coming for us!"
Janko just cursed heavily and we all strapped ourselves in. David scrambled up to the cockpit and settled into a seat up there. "How many and how far out?" he asked of the white knuckled pilot. "Only two right now but they can tear through us in seconds. They are about three minutes out at this moment." "And how far are the Russians out?" he questioned further. "About five minutes but we will be dead by then." "Maybe not," David barked, "mind if I take control of the radios?" "If you have a plan, by all means," responded the flustered pilot. I listened intently to this exchange, I shouldn't have been able to hear it as I was about 25 feet away and the roar of the engines was astounding but, judging from the looks on Arlen and Janko's faces they were hear it as well. "All birds this is David," he began, "As you may already know we have enemies approaching. I have a plan but it won't be pretty. Captain Bishop, can you direct your fighter escort to engage the enemies? It will buy the transports enough time to link up with our other allies." The radio was silent for a moment before a response was heard, "We hear you David, when you get there...give 'em hell from us." "We will," David sighed and turned to another frequency, "Transport pilots, dive as fast as you can to pick up speed, our escorts sacrificing themselves means nothing if we can't link up with the Russians fast enough. I estimate they will give us another minute or so, we will have to make the other one up by ourselves." Without waiting for a response he switched frequencies again but this time all I could hear was Russian. "Hang on," shouted the pilot, "We are headed down to the deck." The huge plane immediately nosed over and dived towards the water's surface in a desperate attempt to pick up speed. Janko looked positively green and I honestly couldn't blame him. Arlen just looked at him and said, "Twenty euro says you puke." Janko just bared his teeth at him and growled, "You're on. I want it after we land though." As, I settled into my seat, I thought I understood why Janko hated flying, you weren't in control of the situation, at any moment we could be blown out of the sky and it wouldn't have been due to any failure on our part, it made me slightly queasy as well. I heard muffled thumps behind us and knew that it had begun.
"30 seconds till the Russians are in missile range!" David shouted, "Keep up your evasive maneuvers!" The pilot just ground his teeth, "I am trying, you try and evade anything in a crate like this!" I felt the plane shudder and heard the whine of energy weapons close by. "Left wing is hit!" the pilot screamed, "Engine two is offline and leaking!" "Shut it off," exclaimed David, "The last thing we need is for it to catch fire." "Russians are in range!" crowed David, "They have targeted the remaining ship. Hang on folks we got maybe ten more seconds of this." Time seemed to crawl those last ten seconds as the ship came for another strafing run at us. It had just opened fire, burning holes from the top to the bottom of the plane when a loud explosion and a crow from the pilot told us it was over. "Anyone hurt?" the pilot asked. "Negative," Casey replied, "A few close calls though." Janko just retched and turned and punched Arlen's shoulder, "You owe me twenty euro you bastard. I intend to buy a bat with it to beat you upside the head with it." Arlen grinned at him, "Glad to see you feeling better, granted the green hue was quite amusing." All of us laughed at that one including the Rangers, well besides the one that had actually vomited when the 'fun' began.
As David rejoined us with a sad look on his face I recalled him sending the F-22's to their death. "You did well," commented Janko, "It is hard to send men to their deaths. It is why I detest command and avoid it if all possible. To me there are no 'acceptable losses.'" David nodded and asked Janko, "You have been avoiding my questions as to how you met up with Arlen and Ryan. Whatever it is you are not telling me I would very much like to know. I repaid the fact that you saved my life many times over. I believe I deserve an explanation." Janko glanced at Arlen and I and we nodded. Janko turned to him, "I will tell you but it is not just my story to tell. If you will come with me please, it is an interesting story and I would ask you to keep it to yourself." David narrowed his eyes and looked out the corner of his eyes at the Rangers. "So be it old friend," he said heartily, "Let us resume our discussion about the SOI vs. Mossad." As they began speaking in Russian and moving towards the back of the plane, Arlen and I followed, we were disobeying a direct order from Marlowe about revealing our changes but I had a feeling that David could be trusted. As we moved behind a stack of weapons crates, deftly avoiding the punctures in the hull we found Dr. Summers typing on her datapad. David moved to ask her to leave but I interjected, "She already knows everything, we can talk in front of her." He looked uneasy but Dr. Summers just looked up at him, "Really, you three? I thought you would never disobey that old codger. I personally don't mind if you tell the whole world, just make sure you can handle the consequences." David looked even more confused but Janko just tapped his arm, "Like I said, it is an interesting story. I would recommend you suspend any disbelief till we finish." He just chuckled, "We are fighting aliens, I think anything is possible right now." "I have one request," I broke in, "After we tell you our story would you mind telling us how you met Janko?" "Sure," responded the thin Israeli, "I don't mind telling it. The Mossad is now destroyed; they do not control me anymore."
"Well," Janko said slowly, "I suppose I should start the tale three days ago, I was in Washington D.C. when..."
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So ends chapter 6, I had a lot more planned but it would take up about 35-40 pages and here was a decent stopping place.