Fireteam Delta, J. Halpin [online e book reading .txt] 📗

there. Free. And unknown.

That was its own kind of terrifying.

But it didn’t change what he needed to do.

“Uh, sir?”

Summers turned to find a soldier at their side. The man looked more than a little nervous.

“We’re ready to get started. If you’d approach the Anchor—”

“Ah, no need.” The thin man snapped his fingers, and the sphere in the center of the room responded. It pulsed with an unseen energy as it rotated, slowly ramping up as the tendrils on its surface reacted in kind.

The thin man gave Summers one last smile.

“We’ll see you off.”

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>>

Asle watched as the sphere in the center of the room began to vibrate. Then, all at once, the world seemed to split.

There was a flash of light, and the room was suddenly much, much larger, with several very confused soldiers standing on the other side.

Before they could react, the colonel approached the threshold, her hands raised.

That was good thinking on her part. The soldiers on the other side were all armed, and surprised. She was shouting some kind of jargon Asle couldn’t quite understand, but she’d announced her title, so Asle was confident her meaning would get through.

A few feet away, Summers stood beside the thin man. He’d tensed once the Anchor started to do something. Now that the colonel was closer, he only seemed more focused.

“We’re going to start heading across, no more than three bodies at a time,” the colonel announced. “I want the injured up and going, now!”

Asle saw a group of soldiers help limping and bandaged men to their feet.

She questioned the reasoning behind the colonel’s order before remembering what had happened to the beast they’d encountered when they first got here. It had been torn to pieces when the “portal” turned off.

Considering its opening or closing was dependent on their enemy, she could imagine what that would do to a human body. In fact, from what Summers had told them, the colonel was probably more than aware of that fact herself.

Another man took a soldier under his arm, helping one who was missing a leg.

“Delta . . .” The colonel approached their group. “We have people coming to handle your team’s transfer once this is done. Contamination procedure. Need you to hang tight until then.”

“Understood,” Nowak replied.

There was an implied order there. They were still outsiders to the army at large; they’d need to be watched. That was something she would need to get used to all over again.

She’d found somewhere she belonged, somewhere she could be useful, where she was trusted, and where she could live a real life. And now, that was going to end. But it wasn’t the worst fate she could imagine. At least she had friends.

Bit by bit, the soldiers from their side began to move to the other.

“Squads One and Three!” the colonel shouted.

At once, the soldiers that were called began to cross over. The soldiers on the other side all held weapons at the ready, watching for anything strange, but not showing any outright hostility.

In less than a minute, the room had emptied out.

Only their group remained.

Then, a handful of heavily armed soldiers arrived on the other side. They wore the same rubber suits Asle had seen on the colonel’s men. The colonel gave them a nod of approval.

“Delta!” the colonel yelled from the far wall at the other side of the portal.

“Sarge . . .” Summers called to Nowak. “Get everyone over. I’ll follow once we have the others clear.”

Nowak hesitated for a moment, glancing between Summers and the portal.

“Cortez, Asle, you’re with me. Pat, Synel, and Bard next. We’ll cover from the Earth side.”

Cortez nodded, hefting her gun.

“C’mon.” She held out a hand to Asle.

Asle walked to the machine, turning back to look at Summers as she approached the threshold. To her surprise, he was focused on them, not on what he was doing, not even on the men who had come to “handle” their reception.

And for whatever reason, he seemed sad.

He’d been trying to sell all of them on his world, ignoring any troubles he’d face by leaving. Or even the problems he’d bring to his “Earth.”

And suddenly, she understood what was happening. Asle stopped just as they crossed the threshold, then started walking back.

“Asle!” Nowak shouted.

“Shit, what’s she doing?” Cortez held her gun aimed at the thin man.

But neither of them followed.

As Asle approached, Synel gave her a small smile.

“He’s a terrible liar, isn’t he?”

“Asle, get back over there.” Summers spoke harshly.

Asle didn’t move. None of them did.

“You were planning on staying, weren’t you?”

Summers hesitated.

“Please . . . go,” he repeated.

Pat moved up beside him. The twins followed.

Orvar cast a quick glance to the portal, to Cortez, before he too moved to Summers’ side.

“As I said,” Pat began, “I trust you. We trust you. If this is your path, then it’s our privilege to follow.”

“And as much as I prefer living, life in a cage would be much lonelier without company,” Synel added.

“Goddamn it,” Summers muttered.

The thin man listened to the exchange, still grinning.

“Wonderful. You’ve made a wise choice.”

Summers gave the man a harsh look before he raised his gun.

Asle saw both Cortez and Nowak bolt toward the portal as one. Summers acted before they could, firing into the machine beside the Anchor.

“Summers, you a—”

Cortez’s voice was abruptly cut off as the portal collapsed, leaving the room much smaller, and emptier, than it had been.

Summers allowed his gun to drop, letting out a long breath.

“You want to know the difference between me and you?” Summers started as he looked at the man known as Wendel. “I don’t try to justify what I’ve done as some greater good.”

In