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Hidden: Chapter 9

New Orders

"Squad form up on me, we need to get those doors closed."

"Sir, they're getting closer."

"They're getting through, we need to fall back into the engine room."

"We're cut off, they're coming in from the flanks."

"Concentrate fire into the main mass of them."

"They're too many."

"Focus your fire, focus your fire."

"They're getting through."

"Fuck it, blow the reactor. We need to get the doors closed and keep the werewolves contained."

"Charges set si..."

"Dammit, Gordon's down. Get the detonator."

"I can't get to him. We're completely cut off."

"Keep shooting, don't stop fighting."

"Captain Anderson. Captain Krauss. Get this Dr. Ruse and get off the ship. Complete the mission. Don't let us die in vain." Static filled my helmet after that. A simple press of a button banished the noise from my ears and I was left to think in silence. My heart raced and sweat was pouring down my face causing the monitors in my hud to set off alarms. I ignored them, they weren't important at the time.

In less than a three hour window, two Spec Enforcer Squads were entirely wiped out. I never saw all of squad two's vitals go out, but their fates were undeniable. Nothing like this had ever happened in the history of our existence, never. There had been close calls and even times when an entire squad was lost, but never like this and in such a short amount of time. We were supposed to be the best and now we were falling like flies. This mission was perverted from the beginning, we all knew it, but we had our duties. Squad two and four had their duties as well and they died doing them. I would die to fulfil my tasks if I needed to and face whatever horrors this ship sent at me.

I nodded, my mind was made up. There would be hard times ahead, but they would not stop me from doing what had to be done. Turning around, I was met with a less sure scene. Sergeant Millard was crying again and Ivan was with him, barely keeping it together himself. I would have to file for a transfer when this was done, Sergeant Millard was in no way shape or form, suited for Spec Enforcers. He was just a boy, innocent and forced to see things which were better left unseen and unknown.

The three prisoners were desperately trying to get the vomit out of the third prisoners mask without exposing him to the atmosphere of the ship. They were opening up the bottom of the mask slowly, letting the vomit slowly spill out while maintaining an air tight seal. It would work for a bit, but if they went too far, the man would get a puff of bad air. Normally, I would have stopped them, but I just couldn't get myself to care. They weren't even a secondary objective. They had provided us with information and if one died, there were still two left. I needed to care for my own dwindling numbers.

Sergeant Crane was mindlessly playing with his cards. He flipped them in his fingers and gazed at the numbers on them. It kept his fingers busy and his mind occupied. He would get over it, he had seen just as much as I had over the years and personal experience told me that he would manage in time. He would be joking within half an hour. It was demented if one thought about it too long, but it was just how he learned to cope. It was healthier than some of the ways I had heard about. Rumors of people cutting themselves, turning to drugs and partaking in other self-destructive behavior had made their way over to me over the years. I didn't know how many of them were true, I knew that they started because there was some form of truth in them and I was glad that I knew Sergeant Crane had a less depressing methods.

Captain Krauss was a hard man and he must have come to the same conclusion as me. He didn't slump over like some of his men were doing. He stood with his arms crossed and he was looking at me. He tapped the side of his helmet and I understood. He would want to get the men back together and contact the colonel again. We had stayed here too long doing nothing and now it was only a matter of time before the werewolves found us.

I turned my radio back on and connected with Krauss. His heavy accent came through. "We can't linger here too long. I suggest that we get everyone together." I was right, at least there was another person here who was thinking clearly. "The colonel will want to hear this, I doubt he'll pull us since so much has already been invested into this mission." I knew that he meant lost instead of invested. He was just trying to do his best with what had happened.

"Yeah, I'll get right on it. You get the men together while I get a transmission set up." He nodded and went to tend to his own men first. I walked over to the coms. All I had to do was flip a switch, it would automatically attempt to connect with its last known frequency. With a bit of time, and Krauss busy with his own men, I switched my frequency over to that of my own men.

"All of you get over here." There was no need to see their reaction. I just stood there and waited for thirty seconds. They would have been behind me and ready in ten, but the extra time let them compose themselves. I didn't want to see a bunch of sappy men, I wanted to see professional soldiers. When I turned around, there they were, standing at attention and waiting for me to address them. I needed to get everything cleared up and them into a right mindset. There would be time to grieve for everything, just not now.

"We're not done here yet." I gave it a chance to sink in a bit. "I don't want you giving up on me when the job has hardly started." It was a start. "Lieutenant, I need you to start downloading all of the ships logs and security footage and then I want you to begin searching for Dr. Ruse. The sooner we find him, the sooner we get back home." Without a word, Ivan saluted and walked over to the far side of the room. Now that the lights were back on, I had a chance to get a good look at the bridge. It wasn't nearly as bad as I previously thought, the low light made it seem much more grisly than it really was. There was a lot of blood, but it was just localized to large pools rather than being splattered everywhere. Sadly the pile of bodies was still as large as I remembered. Shaking the thoughts out of my head, I returned my gaze to the other two and checked my hud to make sure Ivan was still on the channel. He was.

"If any of you have anything you want to say. Say it now because once things get rolling again, I won't be in the mood and there won't be time to talk too much." It was true. Talking about our worries too much was a waste of time at the moment and this was the only time we were going to get to voice our concerns.

"Sir, do you think we'll be pulled out?" It was Sergeant Millard who voiced the question I predicted him to. He was smart and I knew that he already had his answer in his head, but just needed closure on it.

"No, sergeant. You may be new to Spec Enforcers, but you need to know that there is a reason why they send us on these kinds of missions." I had no intention of sugar coating it for this sheltered boy. He had expected a simply no. I wasn't going to give him that, I was going to explain everything and he was going to understand. "We are sent on missions that are expected to be completed at any cost. We are the best and most capable and therefore the most reliable. When military command wants to send in a force and not have to worry about overwhelming casualties, they send us in because if we fail, it's easier to send four letters back home rather than 400. We will stay here and finish the mission or die trying. That is the duty of a Spec Enforcer. Do you understand?" Oh, he understood.

"Y... Yes, sir." The poor boy's knees were shaking, on the verge of giving out, but he stayed up. Sergeant Crane on the other hand was rigid and I could hear him breathing hard over the radio. He must be furious for being so harsh on Sergeant Millard. Sergeant Crane was too fun loving and soft to appreciate such cold truths, that was why he was still a noncom and I was the officer. He would probably take the time to talk to me personally about it later when there was time, if there was ever time even though I had given permission to talk freely. I would beat him to the punch though.

"Sergeant Crane, do you have something to say." He jolted a bit and slumped, knowing that I had him cornered. He would have talk now that I singled him out.

"Sir." I detected a hint of annoyance in his voice and something else I couldn't identify. "What happened to you?" It was my turn to get a jolt. It was not what I expected. "You're all pent up all of the sudden. You're not yourself." It was worry in his voice which I couldn't recognize just a few seconds earlier. "We've been in bad situations, albeit nothing as putrid as this, but you've always remained yourself. Able to take a joke, always managing to remain calm and collected, but now..." I needed to hear this. "Now, you're just sour and distant." He was right. Sergeant Crane had his humor to fall back on in bad times, Sergeant Millard expressed what he felt and I just bottled it up and let it ferment and now I had sprung a leak, letting whatever I had stored over time spill out.

I was about to reply, but Captian Krauss was coming over with his squad and had connected to our frequency. The prisoners were just a bit behind unguarded. I doubt they would try anything since we were their best chance at getting out of this alive. They had calmed down even though one of them still had a quarter of his mask filled with his vomit. He had no choice but to live with it. I felt a bit of pity for him, the smells would be horrible and he probably wasn't puking more because his stomach was empty. Krauss' men seemed to be doing fine, though it was impossible to tell exactly since I couldn't see their faces.

"Captain Anderson, my men are ready and it appears yours are too. Let's get this transmission underway." I was annoyed that he had just come and interrupted me, but I could hardly blame him, he didn't know.

"Alright, let's get started." I kneeled down and flipped the switch on the coms equipment and all of our helmets automatically synced with it. It was only two seconds before the colonel's voice came on.

"What is it captain?" He was annoyed, I was annoyed, Sergeant Crane was annoyed; this was not going to be a pleasant conversation.

"Sir there have been more developments and it is vital that we do not delay any longer." Krauss cut in. He was always one to be on the move. His large frame was jittery like a cat right before it pounced.

"Please, enlighten me." The casual and snobbish reply got on my nerves. I wonder what kind of personal hell the colonel was going through on his side. He had to deal with all of the high ranking officials who were probably yelling his ear off for losing an entire squad of Spec Enforcers. The rest of his day would probably give him an aneurism once he heard what we had to say.

"We've lost contact with squad two sir." A meep came out of the radio, but I quickly continued before he had a chance to explode. "They managed to restore power to the ship and I have one of my men downloading the security footage and ship logs. He is also attempting to find Dr. Ruse. With your permission, I would like to attempt to extract him if he is still alive." This was the moment of truth for me. Technically we had finished all of our mission objectives that were assigned to us at the beginning, but the real job of discovering what really happened was still unfinished. Secretly, I prayed for him to order a pullout.

"It is regrettable that Captain Luther and his squad was lost as well." That sounded rehearsed. I had no idea if it was because he had said similar things before on many occasions or if it was because he didn't care and held the belief that we were just slightly less disposable than normal soldiers. "I have been in contact with military command and they have expressed an interest in Dr. Ruse." There was the sound on rustling papers. "I have been informed that Dr. Ruse was attempting to flee into NATO protection from J&H. He has research, the nature of which I do not know, and his safety is now your top priority." So military command had sent us in with only partial information. It didn't make much sense unless they wanted to keep this all secret. We knew that J&H was interested in Dr. Ruse, but to know that vital information was withheld was disheartening.

"Sir, we are aware of J&H's involvement. We apprehended several of their employees who were instructed to capture Dr. Ruse." I peered over at the prisoners. We had the transmission on our radios, they had no idea we were talking about them. The one with the vomit was trying to get his mask clear again and had developed a routine of lifting his mask up for a second to let a bit drain and closing it before air got in. He repeated it several times and the level of vomit in the mask was now at the bottom of his chin.

"Dr. Ruse is to be brought into NATO protection. The J&H employees are a liability and will only slow you down. You are to abandon them where you are." It had never crossed my mind to simply leave unarmed people behind like this. It seemed cruel, yet combat was cruel. The colonel was right. At least he didn't order us to execute them, I doubt I would be able to follow those orders. "Is there anything else?"

"No sir."

"Very well. Once you have the doctor, make your way to the main hangar. Now that the power is restored, we should be able to open up the main doors for a quick extraction. Good luck and god speed." A little red light in my hud cut out showing that the transmission had ended. We just had one more task on our hands and then we were getting out. Just one more task that probably involves fighting through hordes of those monsters.

"Sir." Ivan's voice came up excited. "I've found Dr. Ruse, he's still alive." Everyone ran over to Ivan who had been working diligently during the entire transmission. "Here, he's still in the infirmary." Somehow Ivan got the camera feed to come up on the large screen that covered the front of the bridge. It showed an old man in a lab coat sitting on a bed in the infirmary. There were rows of beds, but he was alone. There was only one body, a werewolf that was lying just a few feet away. He seemed unharmed and was simply looking at a picture he had in his hands. It was impossible to tell what the picture was from this angle, but at least he was well.

"Can you get directions and a feed of the path we have to take?" I wanted to know exactly what we were getting into. A few presses on the keyboard later, and multiple images came up. A few of them had a couple of werewolves, but overall there wasn't a lot of traffic. This was the first time I got to get a close up look and extended look at one of the beasts. I noticed that they weren't wolves at all, but took on the characteristics of domestic breeds of dogs. There were German Shepherds, Labs, Retrievers and just about every other kind of dog. This led to a huge assortment of sizes and colors. Interesting.

"Well, the way looks mostly clear." Krauss chimed in. "I'll give a few side arms to the prisoners. I don't think they'll try anything, they're too scared." He looked over at the prisoners. They were simply talking among themselves. They had calmed down quite a bit since nothing big had happened for more than ten minutes. I hated the thought of leaving them alone, but we didn't have a choice. At least this way, they would be able to defend themselves.

It took a bit of talking to get the three terrified men to agree to let us leave. We had to tell them that we would be going towards more of the werewolves to get them to stop complaining. Giving them a few of our side arms helped as well. I left the coms equipment behind, but put a few rounds into it so the J&H guys wouldn't be able to use it. The colonel would position a ship just outside of the main hangar and that would be well within range of the radios in our suits when we called for evac. The eight of us squeezed through the small exit and stood in the hall way.

"No time to waste, let's go." I waved over my shoulder and I led the way.