Visisonor's blog
Chapter 13: Déjà Vu
Enemy forces approach. Evacuation imminent.
The announcement, accompanied by sounds of alarm, rolled over the entire base.
Leliana groaned and shifted around restlessy in her ward in medical bay. Linda, stiff and sore from uncomfortable sleep on the couch nearby, cursed under her breath, knowing they would have to move Leliana again, and she wasn’t in the best shape for it.
Several corridors away, in living quarters, Vera floated up from another nightmare, glad it was over but upset she wasn’t any closer to her objective.
— I’ll make him pay, sis, — she whispered, staring at the ceiling, then jumped out of the bed.
Kate jolted awake in Wolf’s room: it was in disarray, her and his clothes scattered on the floor.
— How long did we… — she asked, realizing it was early morning. — I guess my idea of “rest” deprived us of the actual rest.
— It was worth it, — replied Wolf as the two of them disentangled from the embrace they fell asleep in.
In yet another room, the only one locked from outside, Chloe couldn’t help but compare this alarm to the events she read about yesterday evening.
— What did they do this time? — she wondered privately and proceeded to get dressed.
They were on the way out after a quick briefing, abandoning everything but the most essential.
— Can’t we just blast them into oblivion? — asked Wolf.
— We can, but human forces possibly include agents, and we do not want to harm them, — explained Rick.
— And we need to move out either way, — added Tess. — This location is compromised.
But quick as they were to move out, it was not quick enough — human forces were hot on their tracks. Most of them zeroed in on one vehicle which happened to carry Vera and Chloe, with Rick in driver’s seat. It evaded one rocket explosion after another, but was eventually caught in a blast wave which hit too close. The vehicle was toppled and landed on its side.
Rick climbed out of driver’s door, jumped off and opened a hatch in the roof.
— Are you all right? — he asked, helping Vera step out.
— More or less, — Vera massaged her temple, then stretched a hand to the other girl. — Chloe?
— I’m fine, thanks.
— You will need a transport, — Rick aimed his assault rifle and took a single shot.
Several seconds later a motorcycle, sliding on its side, screeched to a halt near them, while its rider’s body tumbled on the ground not too far away.
— Now go. Put as much distance between you and me as you can.
With these words Rick went off towards pursuing human forces, rifle in hand.
— We need to move away from this car too, — muttered Vera, crouching near the motorcycle.
— Vera, wait! — said Chloe. — I know you are after that guy from command. Max, or whatever.
— How do you… — Vera dropped the half-raised bike. — What makes you think so?
— No time to explain, — Chloe helped Vera raise the bike again. — I know where he might be.
— And you waited until now?!
— Nobody ever asked me!
— All right, good point. We’ll go after him once we get to the new base.
— It’ll be too late. The truce didn’t hold, I noticed.
— That’s hard to miss, yeah.
— So he’ll evacuate, — continued Chloe. — Maybe he already did, I don’t know.
— This is a blind guess then.
— Yes. Don’t wanna give you false hope.
— How do I know I can trust you?
— I don’t understand why you suspect me in the first place! I can’t prove it, but I’m telling the truth.
Vera went silent for a few seconds.
— All right. Lead the way, — she said finally, slinging her rifle over her back.
As Chloe mounted the bike, Vera picked up its former rider’s rifle and slid it between the frame and exhaust pipe. Then they drove off.
They rode without exchanging a word — engine noise was too loud anyway. But it wasn’t loud enough to muffle the earpiece speaker, so once they were out of range of attacking forces’ communication jamming, Vera heard a chorus of voices asking her what the hell she was doing.
— I’m going after Max, — she tried to sound calm. — Chloe knows where he can be now.
— And you trust her? — asked Tess resignedly.
— It’s a leap of faith, I guess, — replied Vera. — Follow me, will you? We’ll need reinforcements.
— We’ll be there, — it was Kate’s voice this time. — Be careful.
— Can’t promise I’ll be all right, — Vera echoed back Kate’s earlier words. — But I will be careful.
— Revenge her foul and most unnatural murder, — encouraged Linda’s voice through rising static.
Then communications were cut off again.
The two of them wound between buildings and ruins for some time before stopping near one of the mostly intact structures.
— I was briefed here before my last mission, — said Chloe, dismounting the bike.
— You’ll need this, — Vera passed her the other rifle. — But we are short on ammo. I’ve got two extra mags and that’s it.
Chloe nodded and went up to the door. She knocked several times, in a distinct pattern.
— Let’s hope they didn’t change the password sequence.
— And if they did? — asked Vera, taking a position at the side of the door.
It opened before Chloe could answer. A heavily armored trooper appeared in the doorframe, and Chloe shot him point blank, hitting the visor of his helmet.
Once he fell, Vera peeked through a door, noticed another trooper and fired a burst aiming at his legs. He fell too, not dead but quite out of commission.
The girls stepped over the body of the first guard. They were in a hall with several doors. The door at the opposite wall opened too, revealing several more troopers behind it.
— What now? — shouted Vera, firing at them and forcing them out, at least for now.
— To the left! — Chloe started firing too.
They ran up to the door she indicated and found it unlocked. Several bullets hit the frame as they went through, barely missing them.
— We’ll have to hold them off now, and there will be guards ahead too, — warned Chloe.
— Really? You’ve placed us between two groups of hostiles?!
— You have better ideas? At least we have cover!
Indeed, the guards now filtered into the hall, and it was devoid of anything that could shield them. Vera stuck out and fired another burst, wounding three guards.
However, when she turned back in to reload, another trooper appeared in the corridor. He had a clear shot at them, but Chloe was faster and killed him first.
— We won’t last long here! — complained Vera, breathing heavily.
She fired into the hall again, trying to hit as many targets as she could, and quickly emptied another magazine.
— Right, — agreed Chloe. — Let’s go!
Vera closed the door behind them, inserted the last magazine into her rifle and followed Chloe, who now turned the corner and was firing at yet another enemy.
— Damn, I’m empty! — grumbled Chloe when the rumble of gunfire subsided.
— Take mine, — Vera passed her rifle to Chloe and pulled her handgun out.
— And here we are, — exclaimed Chloe, catching the rifle. — His office. If he is still here.
Vera kicked the door open and went in.
Max was there. He was sitting at the desk behind the laptop, surprisingly calm.
— Ah, you’ve brought one of the copies, — he said, looking at Chloe.
Vera didn’t take note of his words or his indifferent posture. She raised her gun and…
Before she pulled the trigger, Chloe grabbed Vera’s arm and pushed it up. The shot hit the wall way above Max’s head.
Chloe, meanwhile, twisted Vera’s wrist and wrought the gun out of it, then threw her on the floor over the shoulder.
Vera started to get up, but froze, staring into the barrel of her own pistol.
— I shouldn’t have trusted you, — she grumbled angrily.
Chloe sighed, her face unreadable.
— Of course, — Max finaly rose from his seat. — You’ve reached this far only because Chloe here reports directly to me.
He took a few steps towards the girls.
— And now, my precious Chloe, you know what you need to do.
— Huh, — murmured Vera resignedly. — Déjà vu.
