The Battle for Allegra: Advance

Season Two: Episode Twenty

Caleb Fast

Copyright © 2022 Caleb Fast

www.calebfast.com
First Published in 2022 by the Author on Amazon
All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the author.
For information regarding permission, please email the author at calebfast@calebfast.com Please direct all further inquiries to the author at calebfast@calebfast.com

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and events are the product of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to real-world people, events, or locations are entirely coincidental.

Contents

Title Page

Copyright

One

Two

Three

DESPERATE PLEA!

The Story Continues,

Other Books By Caleb Fast:

One

The Bulwark, Allegra

“Ah, Matthew, you have no idea how happy I am to see you,” Captain Johnson says with a wide, genuine smile. He lets out a long, nostalgic sigh and frowns, “I lost a lot of friends recently with the latest Beet charge—the one just four Allegrian days ago… But, we’re in luck. They—the Beets—seem to have stopped not long after their charge. That gives us time to recoup and prepare for the next run.”

“Sounds like they’re waiting for something,” Matthew points out ominously, “Like they know that they’ve got time to burn.”

Johnson shrugs and shakes his head sadly, “I don’t know what they’re planning, or if they even have a plan. It’s the same case with the Coalition and General Nelson. I think they’re still trying to feel things out—but hey, what do I know. I’m just a glorified delivery boy today, which is something I’ve been trying to be for a while now.”

Nodding, Matthew looks away from Johnson and he surveys the wide assortment of ships that had landed alongside Johnson. All those ships are being unloaded by their crews and stacks and stacks of things that Matthew had requested are quickly piling up.

Christmas came early this year and all the gifts are just for me, Matthew stifles a chuckle at the thought. Growing up on Sinclair, Matthew seldom got much of anything for Christmas other than a few handmade gifts. The bounty before him right now was more than everything that he had ever even seen delivered to Crail.

“Where are the Toaz?” Matthew asks when he notices their absence.

When Matthew had first gotten to where Captain Johnson’s fleet had landed, he was already late and the unloading had already commenced. By his estimates, the ships had likely been on the ground for a good half hour before he got there, so there was already quite the commotion as the first bit of cargo was unloaded. Through all of that, Matthew hadn’t thought to look for his friends, the Toaz.

“They’re still on the ship they came here in,” Captain Johnson assures Matthew, “They requested to remain there until after all the unloading is done. You know how they’re treated by soldier-types.”

Nodding slowly, Matthew briefly considers allowing things to continue on like they are, but he can’t accept it. Now shaking his head, Matthew requests, “Take me to their ship.”

“Are you…” Captain Johnson trails off and then gives in, “You’ve got it.”

Nodding once to Johnson, Matthew says, “Lead the way.”

As Matthew follows Johnson, he reaches down to his radio, pulls it out, and passes along the news to his team that the Toaz were back at long last. In addition to that, Matthew tries to reach out to Rav’ian, but he can’t seem to rouse her. It seemed this particular surprise would have to wait for now.

“Now I know you’re probably thinking I’m some sort of bad guy here with the Toaz, but they requested this specifically,” Johnson starts, “I hate what happens to them just as much as you—”

“I wasn’t thinking that,” Matthew interrupts, “I know you’re a good guy. That being said, can we hurry up a bit? I’m sure they’re all itching to get back home.”

“Of course, of course,” Johnson says as he picks up the pace slightly. A few moments pass before he chuckles and jokingly asks, “Is this just for them, or are you excited to get real soldiers under your command again?”

Matthew can tell that Johnson’s remark is only partially a joke and he takes a moment to think. He had missed the Toaz’s fighting prowess, however, his Mudders had come a long way since the Toaz had left.

Despite all of that, however, Matthew knew the real reason why he requested their return. Rav’ian had asked, and Matthew had obliged. Matthew momentarily considers telling Captain Johnson the full truth, but he relents. Matthew didn’t know just where Johnson landed on the spectrum and he didn’t know how the man might react if he found out that Rav’ian had slipped under the Coalition’s radar and avoided being moved to the new front.

“So, there’s a different reason then, interesting,” Johnson says after Matthew’s prolonged pause.

Knowing that he could only hide so much from Johnson, Matthew relents, “Yeah, there is.”

“Well, I hope you can trust me enough someday to tell me,” Johnson says as he offers Matthew a reassuring nod, “I can’t begin to tell you just how much I understand where you’re coming from—but I’ve already said too much.”

Matthew purses his lips and he can’t help but want to share more with Johnson and to assure Johnson that he could share more as well. However, Matthew had figured out enough in his short tenure on the front to know that the Coalition and everyone in it couldn’t be trusted. There were still times that Matthew’s faith in people like Vansen was shaken due to their relations with the Coalition, no matter how strained or old those relations were.

It was just far too hard to trust.

“That’s the Toaz’s ship over there,” Johnson says as he points toward a lonely ship on the fringes of the impromptu landing area, “I’m assuming that you’ll want to escort them all out of here and to the Bulwark, is that right?”

“It is,” Matthew nods.

“Can I offer some of my more trustworthy soldiers to help? They could keep the others from doing anything regrettable.”

“Only if they won’t try anything,”

“They won’t.”

Matthew’s eyes narrow when he sees one of the soldiers that Johnson brought along spit in the direction of the ship the Toaz are in. Pressing his luck, Matthew offers Johnson a warning, “Just know that I will shoot anyone who does try anything.”

“I’d do the same if I were in your shoes,” Johnson shrugs, “I’ll tell the boys to relax, hopefully, they don’t try anything.”

“I’m serious, sir,” Matthew presses, “I will shoot people.”

Captain Johnson lets out a bemused laugh, “You’ve changed a lot and yet you haven’t changed at all, Campbell. You still look out for the little guy. Don’t lose that.”

Matthew doesn’t say anything, instead, he reflects on what Captain Johnson had said. He hadn’t considered it much before, but he did watch out for people. Over all the years that was a common theme. Chuckling, Matthew feels slightly uncomfortable because of how his whole life could be so easily summed up.

It is at that moment that Matthew realizes something, Johnson was much of the same.

Smiling slightly, Matthew looks over at the man and returns the compliment, “You as well, sir. I don’t know where I’d be if it wasn’t for how much you’ve helped.”

“I hope I’ll be able to keep helping too,” Johnson smiles, “You’re the best guy I know who’s still standing on the front. Everyone else who’s left is either as corrupt as Nelson, jerks, or they’re totally incompetent. If you ask me, you’re the only Mudder out here who stands a chance at pushing back against the Beets and succeeding.”

Matthew chuckles thanks to the last tidbit of Johnson’s compliment and he can’t help but share, “You know, I’m actually setting up a little scouting raid right now against them.”

“Really?” Johnson asks, his surprise abundantly evident, “That’s interesting indeed, are you sure it’s safe to do it?”

“Well, I’m sure it’s not safe, but it needs done. I need to check some things out and my mechs should help things—”

“Mudskipper!” a soldier calls from nearby.

Turning, Matthew sees that the soldier is a Mudder and his eyes lock onto a piece of paper that the man is holding. A second passes before Matthew asks, “What is it?”

“A message, sir,” the soldier hands off the paper and a small object once they are closer. With a nod, they say, “That is all, sir.”

Matthew can tell that the soldier is prompting Matthew to excuse him, and he does so. As the soldier turns to leave, Matthew skims over the note and he sees that it’s from Hamilton.

According to the note, Hamilton and his soldiers had cleared out of the Bulwark and they were waiting for Johnson and the others to leave once more before they came back down.

Matthew’s eyes drop to the bottom of the note and he sees that Hamilton had also requested that he be careful on his jaunt behind enemy lines. That part of the note made Matthew wonder just who was leaking information to the Dawn soldiers. No, he didn’t have anything to hide from them, but he did find it interesting.

With the note skimmed over, Matthew’s attention turns to the small object, which he reasons must be a bar of gold. Judging by its weight, it is at least sixty grams, which piques Matthew’s interest. There is a note attached to the bar as well, but Matthew opts to ignore it for now. Since he had an audience, Matthew is sure to pocket both items without making much of a show of it. Looking up to Johnson, he can’t help but think that the gold bar went unnoticed.

“You use paper notes up here?” Johnson asks, “Aren’t radios easier to use?”

For the dozenth time since Johnson had arrived, Matthew feels the urge to tell the truth, but he stops himself yet again. Swallowing, he decides to tell a half-truth, “We aren’t sure what messages the enemy can intercept,” Matthew doesn’t elaborate and say that said enemy was the Coalition and not the Beets. On top of that, Matthew isn’t entirely convinced that the Beets didn’t have the capacity to intercept messages, so he isn’t sure if what he had said was actually a lie. Nodding once, Matthew continues, “Besides, it’s harder to forget stuff when you’ve got it on paper.”

Johnson’s jaw slackens slightly, “We hadn’t considered the—you were some of the first to call them Beets, you know? Anyway, that’s really taking on around Allegra, thanks to the information your people have been passing along. Back to what I was saying though, we haven’t considered that the Beets could intercept radio broadcasts, are you sure about that?”

“Can’t be too careful,” Matthew shrugs. He didn’t have any evidence that the Beets were able to do anything, he isn’t even sure if they’re sentient, all he knew for sure was that his greatest enemy on Allegra wasn’t from another galaxy.

His greatest enemy was a human, like him, and the man’s name was Nelson.

“Dixie’s dead,” Matthew blurts out, “She was my girlfriend from Crail. She was the one that Nelson—” Matthew can’t continue as he is suddenly overcome with sobs that rake through his body. With each sob, his entire body convulses like a drowned man coughing up water. Stumbling over to the nearest stack of crates, Matthew reaches out and holds himself up. The sudden weight of emotions that just washed over him was too much to bear and he knew that he’d fall without the support.

“I’m sorry, Matthew,” Johnson says after a minute or so of Matthew’s crying, “I didn’t know. Is there… is there anything I can do?”

Matthew shakes his head as he gets a hold of his emotions. Swallowing, he does his best to push them back down and he lets out a low breath before he puts on a strong face. Wiping the remaining tears from his eyes, he clears his throat and tries to sound strong, “No, but just know that I’ll be…”

“I’ll stay out of the way between you and Nelson,” Johnson says with a nod when Matthew trails off, “And I won’t be telling anyone about this either.”

Matthew looks around and sees that he and Captain Johnson are alone. Part of him is thankful for this, but he can’t help but wish that the twins or someone else from his team was around to tell him if Johnson really was on their side, or if he was just a good actor.

“Now, I’m sure the Toaz are ready to stretch their legs, so let’s get to it,” Johnson says chipperly, somehow acting like nothing that had just happened actually transpired.

Two

The Bulwark, Allegra

“All mechas—I mean mechs—ready. We’ll head out on your mark, Mudskipper,” Louise intones.

Matthew looks out of the Firefly’s viewport and he can’t help but smile slightly. This was what he was out here on the front for. He was here to fight, to take out Beets, to reclaim lost land. He wasn’t here to just wait around and let the Beets chew away at the Bulwark’s defenses and rip into his soldiers.

“Let’s go,” Matthew orders from his spot in one of the gunner seats. Despite his brand-new promotion to Second Sergeant, Matthew still didn’t feel fit to control the Firefly. Sure, he was willing to give orders, but he knew enough to know that Louise was a lot better at controlling the mech than him.

As for the promotion, that was a tidbit that Captain Johnson mentioned shortly before leaving. Evidently, General Nelson had given the order to promote Matthew as often as possible but not so often that it drew too much attention. There was supposedly a happy medium, according to Johnson, but Matthew didn’t know what that medium was, nor did he care. These promotions were rather meaningless to him, seeing as how it was his enemies giving them. What Matthew cared about was the Bulwark and everyone in it. If things continued as they were, Matthew’s attention would soon be on the whole of Allegra as the rebellion kicked into high gear. He would make the Coalition pay for what they had done and he would see his new home freed from their tyrannical rule.

“You’ve got it, boss,” Louise says as she gently eases forward on the Firefly’s controls.

The large mech lurches forward and quickly falls into a smoother rhythm of walking. As they make their way to the open hangar door, Vansen’s team sounds off as they give chase.

This was going to be the first real military operation that Matthew led at the helm of a mech. Sure, he had taken part in other operations and he had led smaller salvage attempts, but this was the first mission that might really impact the war effort.

At least, that’s the way Matthew saw it.

“Vansen, do you want to take point on this?” Matthew asks as the Firefly slips out of the hangar and its cockpit is illuminated by Allegra’s midday sun.

Thanks to Johnson’s arrival, Matthew’s little escapade to find Allegra’s lost general was pushed back five hours. Sure, that was a very fast turnaround for everything to get unloaded and then for most of it to be stowed away, but that was time that Matthew didn’t want to waste. As he saw it, he didn’t have a second to spare between now and when he could have the Bulwark fully powered up and ready for some real fighting. With everything that the Bulwark would have to face off against in the coming days, months, and even years, Matthew wanted to be ready for anything.

Electricity was his best bet to prepare for a drawn-out war with the Coalition.

Sure, a war with the Coalition would have to wait for now, but there was no knowing just when there might be a bite on that line and Matthew would have to focus on that.

Regardless of what happened, it all depended on this. Matthew had been telling himself as much for a while now.

Matthew had a few of the people he trusted, Vansen trusted, and a slew of Toaz working on the geothermal plant while others guarded it. Matthew needed to know more about the plant itself and he sent in only the best people for the job.

Thanks to the efforts so far, Matthew already knew that the geothermal plant was missing a few key elements that it needed to run. He had a feeling that those things were stowed nearby for a rainy day, however. As Matthew saw it, there was no way that someone would go through all that effort and then scuttle their project at the end.

“I don’t think that’d help,” Vansen radios back after a short bit, “Remember I’ve never gone here either, sir.”

“Alright, we’ll lead,” Matthew sighs as he finally relents. He had been pestering Vansen nonstop to try and get her to take point and lead the way, but she always shot that idea down.

“Keep your eyes open, team,” Jane happily chirps over the radio, “We’ll keep everything under control here in the Bulwark.”

“Thanks, Jane,” Matthew radios back, “Make sure the Toaz get whatever they want or need too.”

Jane laughs, “Trust me, Mudskipper, they’re fine. They’ve gotten to the point that they’re avoiding me now because I’m annoying them.”

“Copy that,” Matthew sounds. As he kills his feed, he can’t help but chuckle. From what he had heard from the Toaz, they had been mistreated every moment since they left, so just being back in the Bulwark was a relief for them. Finding out about everything else just improved the Toaz’s mood further. The fact that the Dawns actually showed up in response to their message really boosted their morale.

The only problem Matthew had now was that the Toaz were insisting that his request to get them returned to the Bulwark saved their lives. Due to their codes, they now owed him their lives in return. Matthew had tried to redirect that debt to Rav’ian, but the Toaz, Trellik in particular, wouldn’t have it.

Besides all of that, Rav’ian was quite pleased with everything as well. She thoroughly enjoyed having her people back and all the new supplies simply highlighted the celebratory mood.

“Well, now starts the long walk to whatever this place is called,” Louise says as Firefly steps over the final trench in the Bulwark.

Matthew involuntarily turns and he examines his computers long enough to ensure that there isn’t anyone hacking into their radio feed. After mentioning as many things as he had to Johnson, Matthew can’t help but feel like he has to be more vigilant. After a few seconds of staring at the screens and various datapoints, Matthew assures himself that all is well. While he didn’t understand everything laid out before him, he had been shown enough that he now had a working knowledge of things. A curious look on his face, Matthew asks, “What is the name of this place anyways, Vansen?”

“Your guess is as good as mine,” Vansen answers over the radio.

“The general never told us what he called his place,” Fahy chimes in, “All he said is that it was a ranch and that we were welcome to go there.”

“Admittedly, we were on our way there before everything happened,” Vansen finishes, “When the Beets arrived, those plans changed. We doubled down on our camp in the mountains instead.”

“It’ll be nice to finally see what it’s all about,” Boris says after a few moments, “I’m hoping they’ve got some cool weaponry.”

Alois nods from his spot in the copilot seat as he radios back, “If they’re still around, then they’ve got to have some cool weapons.”

Vansen laughs at that, “Trust me, this guy’s hard to track down and even harder to kill. They’ll still be there.”

I sure hope so, Matthew thinks. As much as he wanted to think that his desire for this general and the others with him to be alive, Matthew knew that wasn’t entirely the case. He wanted all the information he could get on the geothermal plant, plus whatever else the general could share with him.

On top of all that, Matthew wanted a solid in with the Allegrian militia, if they truly were the force to be reckoned with that Vansen made them out to be. An ally like the Allegrian militia and their leader could really turn things further into Matthew’s favor when he kicked off the rebellion.

Marie, who is sitting across from Matthew in the other gunner seat, pulls off her headset with a huff. A second passes before she loudly asks everyone in the Firefly, “Do you really think this guy is the leader of the militia here? I mean, Vansen’s stories about him and all of that is pretty convincing… But, really, could the Coalition somehow not notice all of that for all those years he was in charge?”

Alois pushes his mouthpiece up, turning it off in the process. Craning his neck around, he says, “You’d be surprised what the Coalition overlooks.”

“Yep, they’re oblivious to a whole lot more than you might think,” Louise affirms after turning off her own microphone, “You probably just haven’t seen that since the Coalition keeps such a close eye on the Toaz you stayed with.”

“Well, I sure hope it’s all true,” Marie says with a resolute nod.

•••••••••••••••

“Four hostiles, six o’clock,” Matthew warns everyone as he swivels one of the Firefly’s shoulder-mounted cannons as far as it can go to the right, “Louise, if you could turn, I could—”

The Beets on Matthew’s screen suddenly disappear in a cloud of light blue Beet blood that looks almost white in the midday sun. Suspended throughout the cloud of Beet blood there are pieces of the insectoid body parts of the beast. Matthew pans his camera back the way that the tracers had come from and he sees the Shad’s smoking guns.

“Dealt with, sir,” Vansen sounds triumphantly.

“I love these things,” Boris whoops as the Mesh’s cannons roar to life. A second later, he reports, “One more Beet down, sir.”

“Not very much resistance around here,” Vansen notes, “I guess no one’s ever cut this deep into Beet lines to find that out before.”

“Maybe we’re just getting lucky and we are getting around the bulk of them,” Matthew points out, “We have to keep our eyes out for anything.”

“Yes, mom,” Louise teases.

Matthew lets the comment slide, especially after everyone else laughs at it, and he gets back to watching his screens. He had been doing as much for three hours now and nothing was about to change that. He didn’t want anything sneaking up on him and the others. All he had the power to do from this seat was keep an eye out on the scanner readouts and keep an eye on the Firefly’s external cameras.

•••••••••••••••

“Stop!” Matthew calls out over the radio, “All stop! Now!”

“What is it, Mudskipper,” Louise asks after wrestling with the controls in order to quickly stop the Firefly.

Matthew continues staring at the readouts before him for a couple of seconds before he sees what he had been afraid of for some time now.

There is something, somewhere, that is causing the ground under the Firefly to rumble.

For the past half hour or so, Matthew had assured himself that the Firefly’s sensors were just picking up the steps of the other mechs. Sure, the readouts weren’t anything like what they had already been showing, but he just shrugged it off. But, now that all the mechs were still, he knew that wasn’t the case.

“There’s something out there,” Matthew breathes, not wanting to raise his voice. For an instant, Matthew wonders if his reluctance to raise his voice was because he was afraid of being heard by whatever it was that was causing the vibrations, but he shakes that idea off. He knew the reason he didn’t want to speak loudly was because he still wanted an out. He wanted to think that maybe, just maybe, the strange vibrations the Firefly was picking up were from his own voice.

The vibrations continue coming in, now a lot clearer since the other mechs’ steps aren’t disrupting anything.

“Care to elaborate?” Louise prompts.

Taking in a long, slow breath, Matthew can’t help but wish he didn’t have to share what he was seeing. He knew that the readouts could be easily shrugged off by anyone, but that didn’t mean that he hadn’t convinced himself of that just yet. He knew what the normal readings should be, and these were anything but normal.

Still staring at the screen, Matthew sees a peak in the vibrations that the Firefly is recording.

“Mudskipper?” Louise presses.

“Matthew, talk to us,” Marie urges.

Looking away from the screen and at the others, Matthew says in a shaky voice, “There’s something really big out there.”

“How big?”

“According to the readings, it’s a lot bigger than the mechs—even bigger than Firefly!”

“Have you tried resetting the scanners?” Louise asks.

“Sometimes sensors get weird readings when they’re running too long, it could be worth a try,” Fahy adds over the radio.

“I’ve tried it,” Matthew reports, “I’ve tried it twenty-some times now.”

“Do it one more time, just to entertain us,” Fahy requests, “Maybe it’ll behave now that we’re not moving.”

Sighing, Matthew gives it another shot. As the electronic seismometer restarts, he goes about resetting a few other systems that he assumes may be linked to it as well.

“What do you think it is?” Louise asks. A moment passes before she offhandedly adds, “If it’s anything, that is. Maybe it’s nothing.”

“I’m afraid that I might already know exactly what it is,” Matthew breathes, “James, the Fulcrum leader, told me about them—if it is what I think it is.”

Upon saying that, Matthew’s mind races back to the quick lesson that James had given him on the Beets. The lesson wasn’t at all in-depth, and Matthew is sure that he had forgotten a lot of the information by now, but he remembered one important detail.

He knew what James had called this particular beast.

There was no knowing if this actually was what Matthew feared it was, but that’s the thing about emotions and feelings; they didn’t always obey reality or facts when fears and potential lies snuck into the mix.

“Matthew, you’re not saying it’s one of the…” Marie trails off. Glancing at the others, Marie then leans closer to Matthew and whispers, “One of the Biggies that James always talked about?”

“I think it is,” Matthew whispers back, “But I didn’t think they were that big!”

“You know James and the others never actually saw them, right?”

“What?”

“Some of the soldiers that found their way to the Bulwark mentioned them. They never shared much about them though.”

“Well, did you hear them talk about it?”

“I did,”

“And?”

“And I knew they were real, judging by the stories. But I had hoped that the stories weren’t true.”

“Any specifics on them?”

Marie purses her lips, “Yeah, and they’re not good.”

“Listen, I hate to interrupt, but your scanners are live again,” Louise says from her seat, “I’d also like to say that you two need help whispering. Alois and I were able to hear a good chunk of that.”

Matthew spins around and looks over the information that is now presented to him on the scanners. A small part of him hoped that the information would be different now and that something had been acting up all the other times, but he knew better. He knew that things would be exactly the same. He knew that he would see that whatever it was that was shaking the ground would still be moving.

And, sure enough, it is.

“I’m still seeing it,” Matthew says over the radio for everyone to hear. Sighing, he continues, “What now?”

“Mind if I hop on over and take a look for myself?” Fahy asks.

Matthew shrugs, knowing that a second opinion wouldn’t change anything. Sighing once more, he says, “Yeah, go ahead.”

“Give me a bit to work my way over,” Fahy requests.

As Fahy maneuvers the Abe over to Firefly, Matthew lets his mind wander away from the screen for the first time in a while. As he thinks, Matthew is suddenly aware of the weight in one of his pockets and he reaches down to it.

The moment his fingers touch the outside of his pocket, Matthew remembers receiving the letter and small bar of gold from Hamilton. His heart races for a moment before he reminds himself that he hadn’t forgotten anything nor messed anything up by procrastinating this long.

After taking a steadying breath, Matthew fishes out the now-crumpled note and the bar of gold which still had its note attached.

Matthew reads through the original note more carefully this time and he confirms that he hadn’t missed anything. That done, he turns his attention to the gold bar.

Matthew had never seen gold in person before, but he knew enough to know that this was what he was staring at now.

Matthew gently removes the note and rolls the small bar around in his hand as he examines it. The bar is about twice as heavy as the lead weights of similar sizes that Matthew had used on his father’s fishing ship, which he found interesting. Atop the bar is a small seal and something that says Two Troy Ounces Pure Gold. Smiling after reading it, Matthew chuckles as he thinks, Well, I guess that confirms it’s gold.

“What’s that?” Marie asks after a short while.

Matthew doesn’t say anything, instead, he hands off the small bar to her and he unfolds the note that had been attached to it. Reading through it, he sees that Hamilton meant for Matthew to buy the general’s trust and cooperation with the bar of gold. Hamilton had admitted that it wasn’t much, but it should still get the job done. After reading that, Matthew can’t help but chuckle. Well, that’s a lot better of a gift than the little bit of fuel we were bringing him, Matthew thinks as he smiles and shakes his head in disbelief, I’m glad Hamilton’s watching out for us.

“I’m beginning to think that I need to make a point to keep Hamilton in the loop of things,” Matthew says when he finishes reading through the message, “He’s a big help when he knows what we’re doing.”

“You mean he knew about this trip?” Marie asks, surprised.

“Yeah, and it sounds like he is for it too,” Matthew nods, “It’s interesting, for sure.”

“I’m here, open up,” Fahy requests over the radio, “Just open your hatch and I’ll hop on in.”

“You’re outside of your mech?” Matthew asks, concerned, “What about the Beet snipers?”

“I’m still in it,” Fahy assures Matthew, “I’ll make a run for it as soon as you open up.”

Matthew reaches over to the Firefly’s hatch and opens it up. Peering outside, he sees the first bit of unfiltered sunlight for the first time in hours and he smiles slightly. Looking all around, Matthew confirms that the coast is clear and he nods at Fahy, who is waiting for him in the hatch of the Abe.

Fahy leaps out of the Abe and clamors up Firefly’s ladder before slipping through the hatch and shutting it. After completing his run, he says, “Well, I guess it’s time I take a look at things myself.”

Matthew nods but doesn’t say anything. The others take an interest in Fahy’s work, but Matthew allows his attention to drift toward the outside world, this time through the Firefly’s cockpit window once more.

As he looks outside, Matthew can’t help but notice how untouched the world beyond looked. Just a few dozen kilometers from the Bulwark and the rest of the front and Allegra looked just as peaceful as Matthew assumed it looked before the Beets arrived.

Sure, there were the occasional signs of what had transpired, but those were few and far between.

“It’s sure pretty out there,” Matthew whispers to himself as he allows himself to daydream about living here once the war was over.

“Looks like the Mudskipper was right,” Fahy announces after a short while, “Judging by what I’m seeing… well, it looks like this thing is heading our way.”

“Any idea if it’s coming after us, or if it’s just heading in the general direction?” Louise asks.

“Oh, it’s heading straight for us alright,” Fahy shakes his head, “I’m guessing that there must be some Beet snipers or something that are keeping tabs on us…” Fahy trails off and shudders, “Now I’m nervous about climbing back into the Abe.”

“You’ll be fine if you move fast,” Louise assures him, “Even the best marksmen would struggle to make the shot, and the Beets have proven to be rather unreliable shots as it is.”

“Tell that to all the people that have been hit,” Fahy grunts.

“Stand too still for too long and even a novice can hit you,” Louise shrugs, “Everyone knows that. Well, at least everyone that stays alive.”

“Dually noted,” Fahy grunts. Standing from the seat he had taken from Matthew, Fahy looks at the hatch and sighs, “Well, I guess we have to decide if we’re going to fight whatever this is, or try to outrun it. I don’t want to lead it to the ranch, personally, but that’s just me.”

“We’ll talk about it when you’re back in the Abe,” Matthew nods, “I’m partial to your thinking though.”

Fahy swings the hatch open, slips out, and shuts it behind himself.

“What do you all think?” Matthew asks the others in the Firefly.

“By the sound of things, this baddie is going to be a big one,” Louise frowns, “I don’t like it.”

Sighing, Matthew agrees, “Me either, but I think we all know what needs done.”

“I’m all set,” Fahy says over the radio. Without skipping a beat, he addresses Vansen, “Ma’am, we’re definitely looking at a hostile.”

“Any way we can avoid it?” Vansen asks.

“Negative,” Fahy answers, “By the look of things, it’s heading our way and it’ll get to us sooner or later.”

Matthew swallows and decides to break the news to everyone, “If this is what I think it is, then it’s called a Biggie by those who have seen them. As I’m sure you’ve figured out, they’re pretty stinking big.”

“Big enough to shake the earth with every step,” Fahy affirms.

“Any idea on its ETA?” Vansen asks.

“Negative,” Fahy answers, “I would have thought that it would have gotten to us by now, judging by what I saw. All I can say for sure is that it isn’t too far. Maybe a kilometer or so. It’s over the ridge that we’ve been tracking along.”

“You got that all from the scanners?” Matthew asks, surprised.

“I had some friends who showed me a thing or two back on our Watchtower,” Fahy explains, “It’s the readouts plus a chunk of math. Obviously, I’m not that good at the math part or I’d be more sure of what we’re looking at.”

“Well, regardless, we have to make a decision,” Matthew announces, “Are we going to make a run for it and lead this thing to the ranch, or are we going to face it?”

“Face it,” Boris sounds right away.

“We can’t lead it to the general,” Fahy says, “We have to stop it.”

The twins exchange a look before they both say, “Let’s kill it.”

“If it’s as bad as what I’ve heard, we can’t risk leading it to them,” Marie sighs, “We have to take it head-on.”

“Vansen?” Matthew prompts.

“I’ve talked to some of the people who think they’ve seen one of these Biggies,” Vansen starts. There’s a long pause before she finishes, “We don’t have much of a choice, I don’t want to think about what it might do to the general’s people if we lead it there. Let’s take it down.”

“It’s settled then,” Matthew smiles, glad that everyone was on board with what he felt needed doing. Nodding confidently, he adds, “If anything was going to have a chance at taking one of these out, it’d be our mechs. If anyone was about to do it, it’d be us. Let’s get the job done and get a move on.”

“Yes sir,” Vansen’s team says in unison.

“Let’s do this, Mudskipper,” Louise smiles.

Smirking, Marie says, “That’s one of your best speeches to date, Matthew.” Marie winks as she asks, “Have you been practicing?”

Three

No Man’s Land, Allegra

“We’ve got eyes on!” Matthew calls out excitedly.

For some reason, seeing the Biggie at long last was soothing to Matthew. It felt like he had finally unraveled the last remaining mystery that James had left him with. Sure, there were a lot more mysteries that had arisen since then, but those were for another day.

For now, all that mattered was the Biggie.

The Biggie, for one reason or another, looked almost nothing like the normal Beets that Matthew had encountered thus far. Beyond being several times larger, standing around twenty meters tall instead of the usual two to three, they don’t look at all similar either.

Sure, there were a few characteristics that made Matthew think that the Biggies and Beets had to be from the same planet, but they clearly weren’t the same species.

The Biggies, like the normal Beets, stand on six legs, leaving their other two to wreak havoc. Their shells appear to be made of the same material as well.

That’s where the similarities end. Rather than have somewhat scorpion-like bodies, like the Beets, the Biggie’s body is much more stout and looks much less flexible. Its legs are a lot thicker as well. The Biggie’s two arms don’t have terrifying pincers like the Beets, instead, they have a strange array of segmented fingers that resemble their spider-like legs.

And then there’s the matter of all the armor and weapons that the Biggie is encased in.

“What’s on it?” Alois asks as he pulls up an enlarged image of the beast before them.

“Looks like some sort of oxygen rig,” Vansen answers over the comms, “Probably how the thing survives in this atmosphere, no way a bug could get that big and survive without extra oxygen.”

“But it looks like it has armor too,” Alois points out, “Some intense armor.”

“My guess is that they’re just trying to protect all the life support gear that they can,” Marie points out, “Without it, that thing would probably keel over pretty quick.”

“Keel over, eh?” Louise laughs, “Sounds to me like you’re picking up on me and Alois’s verbiage!”

Marie chuckles, “I like the way it sounds, you can’t blame me for stealing it.”

Still giggling a bit, Louise teasingly says, “Well, I wouldn’t but I don’t know what Hamilton would think of one of his royals talking like us peasants.”

Marie shrugs, “I hate to sound rude, but I’m pretty sure I can talk a whole lot worse and still speak better English than him.”

“It’s a good thing that speaking clear English has no bearing on being smart,” Louise says as a bit of a sidebar, “We all know Hamilton’s probably smarter than all of us—even if we can’t understand him half the time.”

“Same as Reggie,” Alois says with a sad sigh, “I miss that man sometimes.”

Louise lets out a loud laugh before she says, “If we’re talking about people that are hard to understand, that man took the cake! You guys know how many orders I missed or messed up because I didn’t get what he was saying? Sheesh!” Louise pauses long enough to let out a nostalgic sigh before she continues in a softer tone, “But yead, I miss him too.”

“We’ve all lost a lot of people,” Marie nods.

A few still seconds pass before Matthew decides to take control of the conversation once more, “Well, let’s even the odds and do this for the people we’ve lost!”

“I like the sound of that!” Alois exclaims, turning slightly, he asks Marie, “Mind if we trade spots so I can get some shooting out of my system?”

Marie stands and says something, but Matthew doesn’t hear her.

Instead, Matthew’s complete attention is now on the Biggie which is still marching along. As far as Matthew can tell, the Biggie still hasn’t taken note of the Firefly, or the other mechs, which are still getting into position all around. If Matthew isn’t mistaken, the Biggie is heading out to intercept roughly where the Firefly had been going before their little detour, which Matthew finds strange and concerning.

But that was a matter for another time.

“Vansen, Fahy, Boris, are all of you in position yet?” Matthew radios the other mechs. He didn’t expect them to be ready just yet, but he hoped that they were.

“Negative,” Vansen responds.

“Copy that,” Matthew frowns. A moment passes before he reissues a warning that he had already given, “James said the cannon that the Biggies have can incinerate things, so be careful. Don’t get hit. Stay behind cover, preferably behind the ridges that we’re setting up behind.”

“I’m not feeling like turning into bacon today!” Fahy laughs.

“In position,” Boris reports after a few seconds.

“We’re going to try and draw most of this thing’s attention,” Matthew tells Vansen’s team, “That should give all of you the time you need to line up some good shots.”

“We’ll aim for the exposed life support stuff,” Vansen says, “As Marie said, that stuff is important and, since some of it is hanging out, that sounds like our in.”

Nodding, Matthew gives Vansen the go-ahead, “You all do that, we’ll try finding another weak spot.”

“Why don’t you make the most of it too, sir?” Vansen asks, “If we know it’ll work, then why waste the time or ammo elsewhere?”

“We’ll be facing these things again in the future, I want to know more about them,” Matthew answers confidently.

“Yes, sir,” Vansen sounds.

“What did you have in mind for us to shoot?” Alois asks.

Matthew shrugs, “The legs, head, the cannon, maybe. Whatever you think is a weak spot. Just be sure to test a few things out.”

“Understood,” Alois responds.

“In position,” Fahy reports.

“How long for you, Vansen?” Matthew asks.

“Remember I’m the one that had to go the furthest,” Vansen chuckles, “I still need a minute or so.”

“I’m seeing Beets all over near the Biggie,” Louise warns, “Be careful, I don’t want them getting close.”

“We’ll handle them,” Alois grunts.

Leaning over one of his monitors, Matthew trains the cannons that he is manning on the Biggie’s cannon. As he saw it, the cannon was his biggest threat right now and it would be nice to remove it before he had to take it on.

“Fahy, Boris, you two have your shots lined up?”

“Yes, sir,” Fahy answers.

“Aye,” Boris grunts.

Without turning, Matthew asks Alois, “How about you?”

“Yep,” Alois says.

“Vansen, mind if we start without you?” Matthew asks. He felt like he already knew the answer, but he felt the need to ask, just to be nice.

“Go ahead,” Vansen replies, “I’ll pop in and save the day when everything goes wrong.”

Matthew chuckles at that and shakes his head. Turning his attention fulling onto his weapons, he orders, “Open fire.”

Alois and the others manage to beat Matthew to the punch and they fire first. Because of that, the Biggie reacts and moves faster than Matthew had expected it to be able to, causing his first shot to miss.

Grimacing and feeling like an idiot, Matthew quickly starts working at his controls to line up his next shot with his larger armament. He still had to knock the Beet’s large cannon out of the picture.

Meanwhile, with his smaller autocannon, he is raining lead on the Biggie’s face and throat automatically, thanks to the Firefly’s computers. Because of the Biggie’s stouter, more grub-like torso, there isn’t a lot of throat to shoot at, but Matthew doesn’t let that stop him.

“Looks like the legs aren’t much of a weak point!” Alois reports, “They’re tougher than they look! Changing targets…”

“Same case with the life support!” Fahy calls out over the sound of his cannons firing wildly.

His eyes still on the Biggie’s cannon, Matthew takes in the information. It made sense that the Biggies would be hard to kill, otherwise, they wouldn’t have a reputation of being absolutely terrifying.

Matthew finishes lining up his shot and he taps a few buttons to allow the Firefly’s computers to help him get the perfect shot off. Once the Firefly starts aiming on its own accord, Matthew sends off two shells in rapid succession.

The first bounces off harmlessly before detonating a few meters from its target. Thanks to the shrapnel, Matthew can see that it did a tiny bit of damage despite that.

Before Matthew can get a good read on the damage done, the second round hits home and bathes the Biggie’s back in fire and smoke, obscuring the cannon in the process.

At that, Matthew allows his eyes to drift from the cannon and he sees that his autocannon had yet to do any serious damage to the Biggie’s face. Tapping a few buttons, he directs the fire lower, this time for the beast’s underbelly. Turning the right systems back on, he allows the Firefly to fire on its own once more.

Matthew’s eyes snap first to the Biggie’s legs, which have clearly received some punishment thanks to Alois. Despite that, Matthew can immediately see that none of Alois’s attacks pierced the Biggie’s shell, which meant that Alois’s choice of changing targets was the right one.

“Looks like we’ve popped a few holes in the oxygen lines,” Fahy says after a few beats, “It’s not much, but I guess it’s a good sign!”

At that, Matthew starts looking at some of the air hoses and other life support gear.  The damage is noticeable, but quite pitiful. Despite the pummeling and visible dents and holes, Matthew can see that the life support is by no means a weak spot.

That’s when Matthew’s attention finally returns to the Biggie’s back.

Not just its back, but the cannon, which is still intact.

And pointed directly at him.

“Louise! Drop!” Matthew shouts out in warning.

Before Louise can react, the Firefly is bathed in light.

Matthew can’t help but feel thankful that his back is turned, otherwise, his eyes would be burning right now. A split-second passes before Matthew realizes that he isn’t dead.

Another split-second passes before Matthew realizes that his ears are ringing and that people are screaming.

A few more moments pass before Matthew realizes that he is one of the people screaming.

The intensity of the light suddenly drops to nothing and Matthew momentarily thinks that the Firefly fell into some sort of dark hole. It isn’t until Matthew turns that he sees that Louise had dropped beneath the crest of the hill, finally getting the Firefly out of the line of fire in the process.

Matthew sees the others’ mouths moving, but he can’t hear them. He momentarily wonders if he had gone completely deaf, but the ringing in his ears convinces him that isn’t the case. His brow furrowing in the process, Matthew puts all his effort into trying to hear anything beyond the ringing.

The efforts are fruitless and Matthew swallows. Perhaps he was now deaf. Perhaps he would be stuck this way forever. Maybe he’d die someday because he couldn’t hear something coming for him.

But those were all worries for another time.

Matthew makes a few motions at Louise and she nods when she ascertains what he wanted her to do.

They were getting back into the fight, with or without their hearing.

Spinning back around, Matthew shifts his attention back to the controls on his weapons.

As the Firefly works its way back up the hill, Matthew hits a few icons and pulls up some sensor readouts to try and see the hot spots on the Biggie’s cannon. In theory, a hotspot could indicate a weakness.

It isn’t until the Biggie is back into view that Matthew discovers that there is too much heat coming off Firefly’s hull for the sensors to get a proper reading.

Swallowing, Matthew realizes that he is on his own with this one now.

Matthew briefly considers telling Alois to target the cannon as well, but he opts against it. He didn’t have the time to try and communicate with gestures just yet. He had to do this on his own.

Lining up another shot, Matthew aims at the rear of the Biggie’s back-mounted cannon. There are several stacks of things that Matthew assumes are electronics in some form and, knowing electronics enough to know that they are seldom durable, Matthew casts his lot.

Spinning around after pulling the trigger, Matthew looks out of the cockpit window.

He can just barely see the wake of his shell’s path and, by the time his eyes had focused on the wake, the shell detonates.

The explosion is the same size as Matthew’s last shot, so Matthew instinctively knows that his effort to destroy the cannon had failed once more. Spinning back around, he zooms in further on the cannon to try and pinpoint any damage that he might have caused.

The smoke from the explosion takes too long to clear for Matthew’s taste, so he fires once more.

Then he shoots again.

Five shots later, Matthew finally relents.

Every round had exploded and, if Matthew was correct, they all detonated upon impact.

“Drop down! Everyone!” Matthew shouts. His pulse quickens when he realizes that he had actually heard himself speaking, even if it was only barely. A little hearing beats nothing, Matthew thinks with a smile. Turning, Matthew taps Louise’s shoulder and motions for her to get the Firefly out of sight once again.

When the Biggie slips out of view behind the crest of the hill, Matthew cranks up the volume on his headset and he tentatively tries to talk to Vansen and her people, “Are you all clear?”

Through all the ringing, Vansen’s muted voice comes through, barely loud enough for Matthew to hear, “We’re still here.”

“Question is, how are you all still here?” Fahy asks with a nervous chuckle, “We thought you were all gone until you popped back up.”

“Why weren’t you responding?” Vansen asks, “We tried raising you after you got hit.”

“We can’t hear much of anything,” Matthew answers, just now realizing that he is talking far too loud. He is about to speak softer, but he can’t bring himself to do as much, “I want to wait and see what kind of damage we did to that thing before we start shooting again.”

“Good luck with that,” Vansen chuckles, “The Beets are coming this way fast. We’ll have to either make a run for it or hope we get lucky.”

“I’d say we still have a few minutes before they get here,” Fahy clarifies.

Matthew nods slowly as he takes in the latest batch of information. If the Beets got beneath the mechs they could do all sorts of damage or even destroy one of the units. At the same time, another hit from the Biggie’s cannon could potentially destroy the Firefly. Matthew knew he got lucky once, there was no guaranteeing he’d be able to take another hit.

“Want me to pop up so we can have a look, Mudskipper?” Louise loudly asks as she turns to face Matthew, “I can make it quick.”

Matthew nods and gives Louise a thumbs up.

Louise turns back to her controls and Matthew stands up so he can see the Biggie without having Firefly get too far out into the open.

“This ground is sure soft,” Louise grunts as she wrestles with the controls.

Matthew smiles when he realizes that Louise hadn’t said that last bit as loud as everything else, which made him think that his hearing loss wasn’t permanent. Despite that, Matthew knew that it would take some time for the ringing to stop and for his ears to stop aching.

The moment that he can see over the ridge, Matthew taps Louise’s shoulder and she stops.

Squinting, Matthew takes in the Biggie, which is turning around.

“It’s running away!” Matthew shouts, causing his own ears to ring again. Matthew winces and reaches up to his ears and that’s when he sees that his yelling had hurt the other’s ears as well. Pursing his lips, Matthew reminds himself to speak quieter now.

“Why’s it running?” Vansen asks, “What kind of damage did we do?”

Matthew drops to his seat which, for some odd reason, causes his ears to throb once more. Despite the pain, Matthew pulls up the feed from one of Firefly’s cameras and he hones in on where he had been shooting.

Sure enough, there is some lingering smoke and, if Matthew isn’t mistaken, there appears to be a small fire as well.

“We found a weak spot!” Matthew exclaims, this time quiet enough to not hurt everyone’s ears. Excited, Matthew quickly fills everyone in on the small bit of damage.

“That’s not a lot to go off of,” Vansen grunts, “We did that much damage everywhere.”

“This looks different to me,” Matthew argues, “Besides, the Biggie wouldn’t be running right now if this wasn’t important.”

“Dually noted,” Vansen says. A moment passes before she asks, “But how can we be sure it isn’t because of anything else that we hit?”

Matthew shrugs, which he knows isn’t helpful for Vansen who can’t see him, but he can’t think of anything to say right away. After a few seconds of thought, Matthew offers, “Well, if nothing else, knocking out the cannon will let us press our attack a little more. This is our only bet, if we’re going to take this thing out.”

Vansen clearly isn’t convinced, “You said it yourself, it’s running away. We don’t have to kill it anymore. It’s not going to follow us to the ranch.”

“I also said that we have to find its weakness,” Matthew scowls as he is overcome with resolve. He knew what needed done, regardless of what anyone else said. Nodding confidently, he adds, “You and your team can stay out of sight, I’m taking this thing out.”

“Mudskipper?” Louise asks, concerned.

Matthew’s eyes drop and he sees that Louise is covering her mouthpiece and is giving Matthew a scared look.

Covering his own mouthpiece, Matthew addresses his team, “The cannon isn’t pointing at us, it’ll be safer this time. We all know we need to do this…”

At first, no one says anything. Then Marie speaks up, “We know.”

“I’m not sure if Alois can hear yet, but we both agree,” Louise reluctantly admits, “I just… well, I hate the idea. I’m with you, but I hate it.”

“Let’s do this then,” Matthew nods at everyone. When Alois doesn’t say anything, Matthew signals for him to open fire on the Biggie’s cannon as best he can.

By the time Matthew is back in his seat, Alois is shooting.

Matthew lets off a few shells as well. Now that the risk of getting shot at is momentarily gone he can’t help but feel a whole lot safer too.

A few moments pass before Matthew sees the other three mechs popping out of their spots. As they emerge, their cannons join in on the assault once more.

About ten shots in, Matthew sees a different color in the explosions atop the Biggie.

Before he can press his attack, there is a bright flash.

Squinting against the bright screen, Matthew strains to see anything, but the camera’s lens is awash with too much light.

Knowing he would regret it, Matthew tentatively turns, using one of his hands to block out some of the light, and he looks out of Firefly’s cockpit.

It seemed that their attack paid off in spades.

The immediate area around the Biggie is absolutely drenched in a bright white fireball. Along the fringes of the firestorm, Matthew can see a plethora of colors including red, aqua, and even silvery flames. If he wasn’t seeing it with his eyes, Matthew felt like he wouldn’t think it was real.

All around the ball of fire, Matthew can see Beets fleeing, many of them on fire. Thanks to the copper in their blood, the flames emerging from their bodies burn blue and green, which Matthew finds oddly satisfying and horrifying at the same time.

The vast majority of Beets, however, are laying on the ground dead, dying, or on fire.

The battle was won.

“We got lucky,” Vansen sounds, her dissatisfaction evident.

“I don’t know about that,” Matthew says with a shake of his head, “I thought I found a weakness and I went for it.”

Vansen is clearly not convinced, “You bet a lot on a hunch.”

Matthew shrugs and he lets Vansen’s comment linger in the air. What mattered was that his hunch worked. His faint memories of helping with electrical things back on Crail had bolstered his confidence in what he saw, but his call had in fact been a bit of a hunch. There was no knowing how the Biggie’s cannon worked, so Matthew just got lucky by barely piecing together a few things about it.

Even then, Matthew still didn’t know exactly how his efforts had worked.

“Looking at the fire, I can confidently say the Beets and Biggies have access to a lot of minerals we don’t have a lot of here,” Fahy says after a while, “When we’re heading back to the Bulwark, could we swing by here so I can get a sample?”

“Sure,” Matthew nods, happy for the subject change.

Matthew drops down to his gunner seat and he feels like he is melting into it. Looking down at one of his hands, he can see that it is tremoring.

He knew that he got lucky.

He knew that he should have been killed.

He knew that the odds of his plan working out were impossibly slim.

Yet here he was, alive. Him and the rest of his team.

Pulling his arms toward his torso, Matthew decides to hide the fact that he is shaking. Swallowing, he then clears his throat and says in the strongest voice he can muster, “Come on, let’s get going. We’ve got a general to visit.”

•••••••••••••••

“I’m telling you,” Fahy yammers on, “We really did think you all died back there.”

Fahy had been doing most of the talking over the past two or so hours since the Biggie was destroyed. That equated to perhaps ten minutes of talking in total, however. Between Vansen’s silence and Matthew and the others now being hard of hearing, no one else cared to talk too much.

Which left it mostly to Fahy, who was quite quiet, to begin with.

“We did,” Boris agrees with Fahy.

“All we saw was this bright beam of light,” Fahy continues, “There was a huge explosion sound, I’m surprised any of you can even hear anything.”

“Me too,” Matthew chuckles, happy that his hearing had mostly returned now. Sure, there was still a ringing in his ears and everything sounded rather muted, but Matthew was sure that would go away. Marie insisted as much, which was relieving.

“You’ll have to repaint the Firefly, though,” Fahy says, “Most of the paint is gone, your cartoon included.”

Matthew frowns, saddened by the news. He hadn’t considered the possibility of the paint burning off the hull in the blast.

“Looks like the metal’s warped too,” Boris adds, “If you stayed in the beam any longer, you’d all be gone.”

“They know that, Boris,” Vansen says.

“Well—” Boris starts.

“I see it,” Vansen interrupts, “We’re almost there, just a few more minutes.”

“How far away is it?” Matthew asks as he looks out of the cockpit window at the low, rolling hills beyond the Shad, the mech that Vansen is controlling. Vansen had taken the lead and made sure to keep her distance from the rest of the group since they killed the Biggie.

“Just a couple more hills,” Vansen answers, “I’m hoping that what I’m seeing is just an outpost. It’s not much to look at.”

“If they’re still here, then why haven’t they sent out someone to meet us?” Matthew wonders aloud.

“If I know the Allegrian militia, they’ll have some sort of ambush set up,” Vansen grunts. A few moments pass before she says, “I know this sounds weird, but do you have any paint or anything like that?”

“Paint?” Matthew asks, surprised, “No…”

“Why do we need paint?” Louise asks.

“To show that we’re friendly,” Vansen answers, “We can put the Resistance chevron on the mechs so the general knows we’re on his side.”

“I thought you said he was militia though,” Matthew says, unsure if he is asking a question or just commenting.

“He’ll understand,” Vansen assures Matthew. She continues in a much friendlier tone than she had been using, “Just trust me on this, we trusted you with the cannon thing.”

Poking through one of Firefly’s storage bins, Matthew pulls out a flare. Shrugging, he offers, “Could we use a flare to burn on the chevron?”

“If that’s the best we’ve got, then I don’t think we have much of a choice,” Vansen says.

Taking a deep breath, Matthew quells all his thoughts about how leaving the safety of the Firefly was a bad idea. After telling the others his plan, he opens the hatch at the rear and steps out.

Closing the hatch behind him, Matthew carefully climbs up one of the ladders to the roof of the Firefly and he carefully works his way to the front. Chuckling, Matthew shakes his head, “If it wasn’t for my sea legs, I would have fallen off by now.”

Looking over the edge, Matthew surveys the damage to the front. Sure enough, Fahy and Boris were right. Firefly looked like it had gotten into a fight with a small volcano. Sighing, he reminds himself that there was nothing he could do to change that right now and he squats down.

Reaching out a hand, Matthew checks to see if the hull is too hot to touch. When he doesn’t feel heat radiating from it, he gently touches it and finds that it’s still warm, but not dangerously so.

Satisfied, Matthew takes hold of one of the rails atop Firefly and he allows himself to hang. Looking down, he chuckles, seeing that his legs are dangling in front of the cockpit.

With his free hand, Matthew pops his flare open and it sputters to life. Timing things as best he can with the constant swaying as Firefly walks, Matthew makes a rough chevron of black soot.

Now finished, Matthew briefly considers making the same mark on Firefly’s sides, but he realizes that he can’t pull himself up with just one hand thanks to how drained he felt after everything today. Shrugging, he allows the flare to drop and pulls himself up. Walking to the rear he drops down the ladder and reenters the cockpit.

“I think we’ll have to get by with just us having the Resistance sign,” Matthew says, “That was hard.”

“I was thinking we could stop and do it,” Vansen laughs, “You really did it as you were moving?”

“Oh,” Matthew breathes. He felt immensely stupid all of the sudden. A beat passes before he counters, “But if we stopped, we’d be easy targets for the Beet snipers.”

“I guess that’s fair,” Vansen sounds, “I just wasn’t expecting that.”

“Speaking of the Beet snipers,” Marie speaks up for the first time in a while, “How come we haven’t actually come across any of them?”

“I’ve been thinking the same thing,” Matthew frowns, “They’re out there, for sure. I mean, they’ve shot at us a few times since we left and they’re probably the ones who let the Biggie know where we were. But we still haven’t seen any of them. That’s just weird.”

“Maybe they’re not actually Beets?” Fahy offers.

Matthew cocks his head, “Not actually Beets? What are you getting at?”

“Maybe they’re robots. The tech in that cannon was pretty impressive and I didn’t see the Biggie doing anything to directly control it, maybe the Beets have good A.I. stuff.”

“Oh, right,” Matthew chuckles, “About that…” Matthew proceeds to fill in Vansen and her team with everything that he had learned about the War Makers and how they were the controllers of the Beets. He also shares everything he can on the War Maker robots that were below the Black Forest. He does his best to keep things short, but the speech still lasts a good ten minutes or so.

“We heard some whispers, didn’t know that much though,” Vansen says, “Now I’m as scared as I am confused.”

“But it does make me think that the Beet snipers aren’t actually Beets,” Matthew says.

“Indeed—wait a second, I’m getting something,” Vansen says. A few beats pass before she continues, “I’m seeing a few heat signatures, they look human to me. I’m thinking we’ve found ourselves a welcoming party.”

“Let us take the lead,” Matthew says, “We’re the ones with the chevron.”

Vansen lets the Firefly catch up and then overtake her. Once they’re a good distance ahead, Matthew sees the first signature on one of his sensors.

“Louise, take us another half kilometer and then stop,” Matthew orders, “Vansen, you and your team stop behind us.”

“You want to show them that we know they’re out there?” Vansen asks.

“Yeah,” Matthew nods, “That, and I don’t want them to start shooting at us from behind if they think we’re hostile.”

Matthew waits anxiously as Louise closes the remaining distance and he can’t help but flinch slightly with every heat signature that pops up on his screen. By his count, there are over a hundred people out there. Judging by the signatures themselves, all of those people have their guns trained on Firefly.

The Firefly eventually slows to a stop.

A second passes before Louise whispers, “That’s it, Mudskipper.”

“Well, let’s meet our new friends,” Matthew says. Taking in a deep breath, he rises to his feet and puts his hand on the hatch. Stopping, he adds, “Everyone, stay in your mechs. If this doesn’t work out and if these aren’t the general’s people, I don’t want them to get all of you.”

Matthew slips out before anyone can say anything and he stops after shutting the hatch. For a brief moment, he considers climbing on the roof to talk to whoever is out there but something tells him not to. Sighing, he works his way down the ladder. Since the Firefly is still standing, Matthew has to drop to the ground and he does so as gracefully as he can.

That done, Matthew slowly walks forward, unsure what—or who—he is going to find.

DESPERATE PLEA!

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Caleb Fast

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The Story Continues,

Matthew is about to meet with the old general of Allegra.

Is the man still alive? Will he be friendly to the cause?

Read on the see what happens in the war for Allegra!

The Battle for Allegra Episode Twenty-one:

Available 2022

In the meantime, check out my series of full-length novels! The Coalition will face its greatest test yet!

Renaissance: The Limit of Infinity

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07QXKFDV9

Other Books By Caleb Fast:

The Battle for Allegra Series:

Season One:

Conscripted (1)

First Kill (2)

The Hunt (3)

Relegated (4)

Retrieval (5)

Sanctuary (6)

Secured (7)

Harborage (8)

Revelations (9)

Promotion (10)

Season Two:

Awakening (11)

Arrival (12)

Dawn (13)

Fortify (14)

Black Forest (15)

Seeder (16)

Warpath (17)

Fireworks (18)

Underground (19)

Advance (20)

The Limit of Infinity Series:

Renaissance: The Limit of Infinity

Escapade: A Price to Be Paid

Overcomer: No Man Left Behind

Wayward: Long Way from Home