Bang!
The gunshot rang through the forest, loud and sharp, bouncing off every tree until the echo swallowed itself. It missed by a hair.
"Captain! We are being targeted!" a soldier shouted.
"What’s the plan?"
Bang!
The second shot found its mark, punching clean through a soldier’s torso at the weak point of his armor. He bled as he ran but he kept moving as Stopping meant death. Behind them, the dire wolves were still coming.
The captain gritted his teeth and forced himself calm. He reached into his side pocket, pulled out his gun, and turned it on the soldier running beside him.
The man slowed, eyes dropping to the barrel pointed at him.
"...Captain?"
Bang!
The shot went straight through the soldier’s foot, dropping him instantly. The captain’s eyes stayed cold. He pulled every gas bomb he had and threw them all at once. The remaining soldier didn’t need to be told. She knew the strategy. Tear gas and smoke swallowed them both whole as the wolves caught the scent of the one left writhing behind them.
They ran until the anti-gas perimeter stopped them.
Ethan had been watching from the tree line. He stood still now, eyes on the wolves as they closed in on the fallen soldier.
He couldn’t help but see a bit of himself in the man. As cruel as it looked, this was the empire. The Roman empire. A cold system that placed success above everything else, including its own people.
Lightning crackled in his palms, ready.
Marcus grabbed his arm. "Don’t. If you attack them, we become the target."
Marcus was right. He was always right. Ethan let the crackling die in his hands and watched in silence.
One wolf locked onto the soldier’s leg. Another went for his head. The man screamed, raw and desperate, fighting back with everything he had. His B-grade strength landed a punch solid enough to stagger one of them. But they kept pulling.
His leg came off first. Blood hit the snow. His screams didn’t stop until one of the wolves took his neck clean.
Marcus looked away. Ethan didn’t. He kept watching until it was over, the man’s betrayed eyes burned into his memory.
"Marcus." he said quietly.
"What." Marcus replied, still facing away.
"Do you still believe the empire is great?"
Marcus was quiet for a moment. When he spoke, his voice was flat.
"It’s not about believing the empire is great. It’s the world. The empire just adapted to it. Became a monster to survive in it. Same as what we just did back there, leaving him behind."
Ethan said nothing. His eyes followed the two surviving soldiers as they disappeared into the trees. They would come back. Better equipped, more backup. He just didn’t know how soon.
"Do you think I can kill that so-called monster?" he said, almost to himself.
Marcus turned and looked at him directly, staring straight into his glitching blue eyes.
"Ethan. I know you’re powerful, but..."
"Haha. No? Fair enough." Ethan huffed. "Most of the world already tried and failed. Stop being delusional. And forget that for now because we need to catch them before they regroup and come back for us." Marcus said.
Ethan nodded, eyes still on the tree line.
Delusional, huh. he thought, the blue mission screen still glowing faintly in his vision. I guess I have to be.
Bevour, the captain, leaned against a rock and caught his breath. The only soldier left with him sat nearby, scanning the trees through her binoculars.
"We are clear. They stopped following." she said.
He nodded slowly, wiping blood from his face with the back of his hand. The same blood that had caught him when he pulled the trigger on his comrade. The same man he had run missions with for years.
It hadn’t hit him in the moment. It hit him now and she could see it on his face.
"Captain, it had to be don..."
He raised a hand. Silence.
"I know." he said. "That’s not what’s bothering me. The briefing said a D-grade traitor. A simple target. Not whatever that was back there." He pulled out his comms device. Fried completely. Useless.
She checked hers. A bullet had gone straight through it.
"The facial signature matched." she said slowly. "But his eyes, his hair, and that ability... none of it fits the file."
He still felt it. The lightning. It had crawled across his skin right through the armor. The only reason either of them was still breathing.
"It’s not a standard awakening." he said. "He has the blood."
She looked at him carefully, not wanting to follow where that was going.
"Half blood? That can’t be right. It would have flagged during training. Our intelligence tracks that from birth. He probably just awakened late, Captain. Another supernatural. That’s the more likely answer."
"I’ve fought awakened ones. I’ve fought half bloods." he said. "That was a half blood. Or worse."
She went quiet.
"...True blood?"
He didn’t answer. He just nodded once.
"We need the ship. We need backup now. And he’s not alone. That sniper knew exactly what he was doing."
"Marcus." she said. "We have a file on him. Best marksman of his year. We had flagged him as a potential asset for apprehending the target, not..."
She trailed off.
The captain stood, eyes already on the distant shape of the ship through the trees.
"Doesn’t matter. The mission stands. One way or another." he said. "For the empire."
She reloaded her gun and fell in beside him.
"For the empire."
They moved fast and quiet, every step precise, listening for the wolves. The numbers were bad now and both of them knew it. The whole operation had been picked apart, from the electric burst to the perfectly timed sniper shot. Someone had planned that carefully. Someone who knew exactly how a Leviathan crew operated.
She scoped the ship one more time as they closed the distance. Trees, branches, nothing moving.
"Clear."
The captain led them in, gun up, watching her back as she pressed her finger to the panel. The door slid open as they stepped inside and locked it behind them.
The cold air of the ac hit their faces. Both of them exhaling slowly.
"Anesha, join me at the chief’s channel." he ordered, moving toward the back.
She slid open the radio booth screen and began reaching for headquarters.
Bang!
Blood sprayed across the screen. Anesha stood for one long second, like her body hadn’t caught up yet, then collapsed forward onto the keyboard and slid down to the floor. A massive hole sat clean through the side of her forehead.
Marcus stepped out from the corner, gun still raised, pointed at the back of the captain’s head.
"Calm, are we?" he asked.
The captain didn’t move. Didn’t flinch. Just smiled, slow and a bit tired.
"Not calm. Angry. Clearly angry at how easily we lost a soilder like you." he said.
"You haven’t lost me yet." Marcus replied. He raised his voice. "Ethan! We got him!"
The door slid open again. Ethan walked in, holding a severed hand loosely at his side. He tossed it onto the floor without ceremony.
The captain stared at it.
"Four trained soldiers and one experienced operative. Gone. All for one soldier and a half blood." he said, more to himself than anyone.
"Half blood?....True blood." Ethan corrected flatly.
"Impossible."
"I don’t care." Ethan stepped forward and pressed one finger to the captain’s forehead. Blue light and lightning bled from his eyes. "Two choices. Die right here, right now. Or you fly us to the base." He leaned in slightly. "And I genuinely hope you pick the first one, because I have been waiting for an excuse."
If I just kill him, the mission ends here. he thought. But that’s not the point anymore, is it.
The captain felt the heat against his skin, steady and patient and nodded.
"...Okay."