A ragged and childlike illustration of a wolf’s skull sewn with a white thread on a grey background hang above the entrance that Captain Alicia Ek walked through. Behind her, clutching a stack of documents in his arms, followed 1st Lieutenant Bjoern Johansen. Both of them, with a slight hint of dark bags below their eyes, wore the standard uniform of the UN, and from the base of Alicia’s neck up to the edge of her hair the top half of a fang tattoo could be seen in black and red ink.
The sharp end of it pointed upwards, partly covered by her blonde hair, and a red blot covered its roots.
It was an unofficial mark of the Wolfskulls; a rite of passage reserved for those that had already tasted the sweet bitterness of a fruitless war.
To say Alicia’s face radiated a positive light would have been far from the truth as she sat down in the brown leather sofa with a sneer, the upper left part of her lip curving upwards. She leaned her head backwards and gave a deep sigh.
“The others are just jealous,” Bjoern said with a hint of a grin. “It’s not normal for someone here to pilot a Gripen.”
“I know,” Alicia said, twirling away at her hair with a finger. It was one of those things she did without noticing, especially when she was annoyed. “I wish they hadn’t given it to me, to be honest. Now I’ll have to deal with ‘oooh’s and ‘aaaah’s. I could do without that.”
“Come on. It isn’t so bad. Your old Viggen was falling apart! The alternatives weren’t that great, you know.” He put the documents down on the table and took a seat opposite Alicia. The green sofa, newer than the other, groaned from the sudden pressure. “Besides, what’s wrong with a little attention?”
“Jealousy breeds dislike. Dislike leads to problems. Problems, well...It isn’t good, that’s all I’m saying.”
“Is it Eric?”
“Partly, but not just him. I’ve gotten some glances from others as well. A glare or two is enough to make them look away, though.”
Bjoern chuckled. “You have to be careful with those glares of yours. You’ve been given them out quite a lot recently.”
“I have?” Bjoern nodded and Alicia swore with embarrassment building on her cheeks, mixing with her annoyance. “I thought I had gotten rid of that habit.”
“Well, no matter. It’ll fizzle out eventually, trust me. It always does.” An eyebrow raised, he scratched his dark beard which covered most of his face. On the side of his neck a slight hint could be made of the tattoo. ”Though, speaking of Eric, where are those two?”
“Here,” a voice said from the doorway. Alicia looked over as Katrine and Eric entered, the latter of which took a seat next to Bjoern while Katrine, in all of her stoic apperance, remained standing with her arms crossed, leaning against the wall. As usual, her expression displayed either boredom or arrogance. Alicia still hadn’t decided which one.
“Wolfskulls assembled, then,” Bjoern said.
Taking it as a cue, Alicia rose and stood by the end of the table. Behind her there was only a white wall with nothing on it but a single, old picture; that of five TSFes standing side by side. Of the four in the room, only one of them were in the picture.
“We don’t have much time,” she began, ”but I’ll give you the details before we sortie. Twenty minutes ago, a distress call came in from a TSF unit pinned down in the north, about forty kilometers off. Command wants us to extract them.” She picked out a document and read from it. She hadn’t bothered to memorize the part, seeing how the brass hadn’t bothered to install the electronic equipment for briefing sessions. “The unit is called ‘The Silver Axes’; a Black Ops unit appointed the task of investigating suspicious BETA activity on the Norwegian border. The details say they were on their way home when they suddenly dropped off the radar, until the distress signal was broadcast.” She paused, looking each of them in the eye. “This is highly classified, so this doesn’t leave this room.”
“What if someone asks?” Katrine said.
“Then say it’s just an ordinary mission. Invoke my authority if they press it.”
“Who would be dumb enough to press it?” Eric asked. “They should get the point anyway.”
“I don’t know, but low-level spies are still possible. We might be allies with the other countries, but that doesn’t mean Command want to share everything.” She shrugged and put the paper down. “To me, it would be better if they would share.”
“Nature of man.” Bjoern shrugged. “There’ll always be conflict. Even when the world is pretty much dead.”
“It’s stupid,” Katrine said, a frown across her serious face.
“Isn’t it just?” he replied, smiling. Katrine looked away with a sneer. Bjoern’s antics weren’t for the serious type, which Alicia had admitted to herself a long time ago. Katrine was part of that type. The days the two of them looked similar on things had yet to arrive, despite the fact they worked together in combat.
“Any questions?” she continued, hiding her amusement. Katrine raised her hand. “Yes?”
“How long will this mission take?”
“I don’t know, it depends.”
“A rough estimate?”
“Can’t say.”
Katrine sighed and hung her head, eyes closed. “I hope it won’t be long. I need a vacation.”
“You can have vacation in hell when all this blows over,” Alicia said, her good mood gone. “Anymore questions?” Silence told her there weren’t, which was for the better. She wanted to get a move on. “Alright. Suit up and get ready to move out.”
*
It took them less than ten minutes to get into their reinforced suits and assemble in the hangar, standing at attention with their TSFs towering behind them. The machines, three of them JA-37 Viggens and one with a more edgy look a JAS-39 Gripen, had been recently cleaned and repaired, and it showed in their metallic hull; the unblemished surface shone, reflecting the light of the spotlights hanging from the roof. From a distance they resembled gigantic discolored marble statues with streaks of black and yellow at their joints, mechanical monuments of art trapped in a box of concrete. Yet, they were nothing more than machines meant for death and destruction.
Or redemption and salvation depending on who you asked.
Five minutes had passed, Alicia’s patience wearing thin, when they were approached by a British man - followed by a young woman who Alicia deduced was his aide - emerging from another entrance; Colonel McDouglas. While short, reaching up to Alicia’s eyes at best, he carried with him an authority few she had met ever had. It wasn’t for nothing he had been assigned command of the entire base.
At that fact, she chuckled to herself, just low enough so the Colonel wouldn’t hear. The UN had needed to send someone to take over the base, and they had chosen someone from Britain instead of assigning someone used to the area. His authority, she figured, must have been part of it, and though she had an odd sort of respect for the man from the start, she doubted he actually knew how to fight in a winter landscape. Politics would be politics, one of the few things that remained constant even after the End.
“Captain Ek,” the Colonel said, shaking her hand. He didn’t offer it, she’d noticed; it was like a silent order by pure will. You shook it, whether you wanted to or not. “I’m not used to commanding a set of soldiers so unfamiliar to me as you are... But I have great trust in you that you will succeed in this mission. Especially after seeing your track record.”
“Thank you, sir,” Alicia said.
“Though I have to ask; where did you get the name from? ‘Wolfskull’... it rolls off the tongue. Do you like wolves?”
“It’s a long story, Colonel.” And she didn’t feel like telling it.
“Ah, I see. Though, I’ll be happy to hear it while having a drink or two. Once you ‘Wolfskulls’ get back, I’ll treat you to a few. How does that sound?”
“Sounds splendid, sir.”
“Great!” The Colonel nodded to himself, slapping his palms together. “I won’t keep you any longer. Go, Wolfskulls. Bring me back my team.”
“We will, sir,” Alicia said and saluted. Turning on her heel, she and the others left the Colonel as he turned their back on them - with his aide chattering in his ear - and approached their TSFs. The silence seemed to linger a bit longer than usual and Alicia had a hunch why.
Eric broke the silence with a chuckle once they were out of earshot and ascending in the lift. “I can’t believe he invited us for a drink.”
“He did,” Bjoern said, grinning. “I wouldn’t count on it, though.”
“Why not?”
“He just says that. Besides, if we fail there’ll be hell to pay.”
“Enough chatter,” Alicia said as the lift stopped and opened its gates. “From here on out, let’s be serious.”
The others nodded, turning serious as if her command actually worked, and they boarded their machines. The hatch closed behind Alicia and the TSF powered up, flooding the cockpit with red light. The ambient hum that always accompanied it filled her ears. For a long time she had considered it a soothing song before a mission, sung by electricity. It accompanied her as she went through the routine pre-flight checks. Soon, the entire squad was ready.
The permission to launch came shortly afterwards, their machines tearing into the raging snowstorm. Deep within the white blizzard, only the deafening roar of their engines betrayed their presence.
*
A few hours later, Wolfskull had made good distance towards their objective. Though their instruments provided them with the information they needed, not being able to see through the storm with the naked eye made Alicia nervous. Instincts were screaming at her that the weather conditions were not optimal for what they were about to do. The mission had too many parameters that could go wrong. The snowfall didn’t help alleviate that fact.
She had no say in the matter, however, she steeled herself and focused on the task at hand, shaking off the more worrisome thoughts. It wouldn’t help her one way or another if she brooded.
“Captain,” Bjoern said, his video feed popping up, “Around twenty minutes left to the destination, if we keep this speed. A bit faster than anticipated.”
“The wind?”
“Yes. It’s stronger than we thought and it’s blowing north.”
“It’ll be a problem on the way home,” Katrine said, another video feed appearing. She sighed. “Longer and longer missions.”
“Unless it turns,” Alicia said and checked her radar. Katrine’s whining about the length of missions still annoyed her more than it should have. A tiny thing, considering the situation but she still wished Katrine could shut up about it. Tiny annoyances had a thing for blowing up in time. “The snowfall is breaking up a little. WF-02, scout ahead. I don’t want any surprises once we get over that ridge ahead.”
“Roger that,” Bjoern said and his TSF boosted forward, just enough to propel him outside Alicia’s field of vision. As the Storm Vanguard, keeping him in the front was the logical thing to do, but if he ran into trouble, they would be slow to react thanks to the weather.
Then again, Bjoern didn’t much care about it. Alicia had seen what he could do and that’s why she could focus.
The minutes passed slowly. Alicia spent the time checking the intel that she kept receiving through the external net, a constant stream of data hooked straight into the base’s data center. None of it made her worry worse, though it still asked more questions than it answered on a larger scale. The situation in Europe, and then especially where they were, had worsened again. It wouldn’t take long before the Rovaniemi Hive would grow too big for their military forces to handle and they would all be overrun, much in opposite of the belief that the whole region was already lost. The fact that Scandinavia had suffered catastrophic losses, yet retained control of some parts of it told her they still had the fighting spirit to pull through.
The question was whether they had the manpower to make use of it.
“Captain.” Bjoern again. “Beacons up ahead. We’ve arrived.”
“Wolfskulls,” Alicia said, readying herself, “Group up and get ready to engage.”
Bjoern waited for them at the bottom of a ridge. Once he joined them again, they all jumped as one atop of the ridge. On the other side they could see a low valley, the pings on her instruments told her the beacons were close by somewhere within it. The snowstorm around them let up in intensity and things came into view.
A battlefield filled with slaughter lay before them as far as they could see, filling the valley with destroyed TSFs and bodies upon bodies of BETA. Thousands of them laid sprawled in their own intestines and blood, lifeless and still. The sheer silence made a shiver run through Alicia’s spine, but what stood in center of it all made her disbelief spike.
On the ground, that was now colored red instead of white, stood one lone Gripen amongst a heap of BETAs. Its Flugelberte axe lay buried into a Destroyer-class that gave off a last shudder as the TSF pulled the axe out, blood dripping off its blade. That same blood covered the machine’s armor from head to toe, the usual whiteness so typical of a Gripen hidden under the gore.
“What in the...” Bjoern said, almost breathless. “It’s alone?”
“No.” Alicia pulled up the other beacon on their radars. “There are two beacons, though different. BC-03. That white TSF, though...”
“SA-02,” Bjoern said, disbelief clouding his voice. “We found them. Or that one, at least.”
Alicia connected to the Silver Axe TSF and an ‘Audio Only’ prompt appeared. She could hear heavy breathing on the other side. “SA-02, this is WF-01. What is your status?”
The TSF’s pilot said nothing at first. It lowered its Flugelberte and slowly turned to face her, its right side coming into view. Though heavily damaged, its metal bent and scratched, it didn’t seem to impede the machine in any way. No fuel came from the damaged pipes that had been ripped in half underneath its hull, an indication that the fuel had been cut off at those parts. The machine as a whole, though, whined as it moved. Its movements were awkward and unnatural.
“An ambush,” its pilot said. Male, Alicia concluded. It wasn’t panicked or strained as she had expected. Unnatural calmness. “They killed everyone but me.” The machine turned and glanced in the direction of the other beacon. “And her. I saved her.”
“Just you two?” Alicia asked, a bad taste in her mouth.
“Just us.” SA-02 chuckled and sighed. “Died like bugs. They didn’t stand a chance. Too weak. They shouldn’t have been here.”
“Alicia.” Erik’s screen appeared, his face stern. “He’s acting weird.”
“I know,” she replied. “PTSD, I think. He might be dangerous. Bjoern, go and check on BC-03.”
“Roger that.” Bjoern’s TSF got into motion and moved ahead toward the overhang where the beacon was sending from. He managed five steps before SA-02 slammed into him, knocking him to his side in one swift strike. The ground rumbled as the machine fell over and SA-02 raised his axe.
“What are you doing?” Alicia shouted and raised her weapon to aim at him. Eric and Katrine did the same. With three weapons pointed at him, SA-02 froze, as if considering the situation. The moment lingered for a while, Alicia’s heartbeat rising through her throat. She cursed herself for relaxing. She should have seen it coming.
The axe was lowered and SA-02 repositioned himself between Bjoern and the beacon with a small jump. “No one approaches her but me,” SA-02 declared. “No one so much has touches her!” To clarify his point he raised the axe straight out from his body, creating an imaginary line. It stayed there, at the ready.
A low ping in Alicia’s cockpit told her the other TSF had established a connection to her machine. She opened it and met the eyes of a horrified young girl on the screen. Auburn hair lay strewn across her pale face, but as far as Alicia could see she was unhurt.
“BC-03?” Alicia whispered. She knew no one else could hear her, but she did it anyway.
The girl nodded. “Svetlana Bakhtin, ma’am.” Alicia was impressed that despite her appearance, the girl could remember how to speak so clearly. “It’s as SA-02 says, but he’s gone insane. He wasn’t like that before.”
“I can see that,” Alicia said, lowering her weapon. Though she felt he was still a danger, keeping the weapon aimed at him seemed like a fruitless ordeal, though she remained weary of him. The others had their weapons aimed at him anyway. “Can you operate your TSF?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
She heard a groan of metallic steps from behind SA-02, and though she expected him to argue he said nothing as Svetlana’s TSF walked out from the overhang. Alicia had expected it to have sustained some kind of damage, but its armor was undented. It didn’t even have any splatters of blood on it. It was a clean MiG-29 Lastoshka that came to stand a little beside SA-02, though it still lacked any sort of weaponry. Alicia wasn’t all that unfamiliar with the model, but though she had heard the girl’s name, she was still surprised to find an actual Soviet TSF stood before her.
“Wolfskulls, lower your weapons,” Alicia ordered. They did so, though Katrine lingered a little too long for Alicia’s liking. SA-02 relaxed his stance as she stood down, lowering his axe.
“The BETA will pay,” he said, gesturing towards Svetlana. “If you intend to take us back to your base, then do so. However, I will protect her with all I have. If you try to stop me...” He went silent and weighed the Flegelbarte in his hands.
“I get your point,” Alicia said. “Still, do you have a name? You might be Black Ops, but I doubt it matters much now.”
A heavy sigh sounded through her speakers. “I have no name no more. I am beyond names. I am now only known as Nidhogg.”
“Nidhogg?” Alicia asked. The name meant nothing to her. It sounded silly. The whole situation felt silly.
“Your ignorance baffles me,” Nidhogg said and marched off. “We need to move. A new BETA wave is coming from the East.”
“Johansen!” Alicia said, startled by Nidhogg’s statement. She’d had no warning about it until now. All her instruments and even the intel were quiet. Or was he trying to rile her up? If he was, she’d--
“He’s right,” Bjoern said, much to Alicia’s chagrin. “I don’t know how he detected them but I’m seeing them now.”
“Instinct. I can smell them.” Nidhogg chuckled. “Their smell is quite special.
Alicia ignored him and hissed through grit teeth; “Wolfskulls, let’s go.”
*
Nidhogg was faster than all of them, though he waited for Svetlana to catch up when they fell behind. The six of them kept a tight formation as they jumped over the hills and mountains, Svetlana being in the middle. Normally, Bjoern would be in the front, but arguing with Nidhogg felt like a waste of their time. They couldn’t afford that delay. Instead she kept her eyes peeled backwards, focusing on spotting the BETA through the thick wall of snow that surrounded them. Thanks to the storm that had started up again, it provided them with enough cover to render Laser-class BETA close to useless. The TSFs were even moving faster than usual because of it as they didn’t have to take it into account.
“So what, or who, is Nidhogg?” Eric asked. Alicia paid him no mind, though she wished he wouldn’t talk. As his officer, she could tell him not to... but she had to admit she was somewhat curious herself.
“An ancient dragon,” Nidhogg said. “I’ve seen it when I slaughtered the BETA. They are afraid of it. It eats from beneath until nothing remains. I feel a kinship with it.”
Eric didn’t reply and remained silent. Alicia, while not stunned, shook her head in disbelief and suppressed a laugh.
“The BETA,” she said. “Are they any closer?”
“Negative, ma’am. They can’t keep up with us. The terrain is too rough and this snow is just enough to hinder them a bit.” He paused. “I am, however, seeing some intel about weird movement further ahead of us. It might be nothing.”
“Or it might be BETA. Understood. Keep your eyes open, Wolfskulls.”
As soon as she had said that, she contacted Svetlana. She still hadn’t received a weapon as they couldn’t spare any, but if she showed any hostility because of it, she didn’t show it. Her expression was calm when it appeared on the feed. “I need you to tell me what happened,” Alicia said. “I don’t trust SA-02, though I can’t help but feel he has some truth in him.”
“He’s telling the truth, ma’am. I was part of a small Soviet quad in Norway when we got a request to head home. SA-02 was part of the squad that was designated to escort us.” She paused and swallowed hard. Sweat had broken out on her forehead. “We got about thirty clicks from the base when they first hit. The snow was too thick and our radar was acting up. We didn’t see them coming. Half of my squad was killed, but we got through that. There were still some left of us and all of SA-02’s squad remained.”
“The Silver Axes,” Alicia said.
“What?”
“SA-02’s squad.”
“I see. They never told us their real name.” She swallowed again. She shivered a little, barely noticeable. “We got another twenty clicks before we ran straight into them. It was a slaughter. I couldn’t do anything. I fired and fired but it didn’t seem to do anything. They just kept coming, taking us down one by one. They just wouldn’t stop.” She paused again. It took several seconds before she began again. “I was the last one left standing when I could see clearly. Machines lay everywhere, ripped to pieces. The ground wasn’t white anymore.
“A BETA charged me and knocked me down. I honestly believed that was it... But then SA-02 swooped in, knocked the BETA off and cut it in half. He went on to repeat the process on a whole group.”
“And did he say anything during it?”
He laughed.” She shuddered again and closed her eyes. “I don’t want to hear that laugh again. It was something out of this world.”
“Nidhogg’s laugh...” Alicia murmured.
“What?”
“Nothing. Thank you, Svetlana. I’ll leave you alone now.”
“Thank you, ma’am.”
The connection was cut and Alicia returned her attention to the others. Throughout their chat, their formation and speed hadn’t changed. They landed, recalibrated, and jumped again once the computer gave the command to the rest of the TSF’s body. Her input, while still there, was so small during cruising that she could take her mind off it. Her body worked by itself.
“BETAs incoming!” Who said it slipped through her mind as she saw the horde moving straight towards them. The snowfall had lightened up a little, and just as she realized that, lasers cut through towards them. The bolts of light streaked past her too close for comfort, shaking her around just enough to make her lose her bearings. It took her a moment to correct the error.
“Status!” she said, checking the Wolfskulls’ heart rate monitors. All of them looked clear, which made her draw a sigh of relief. She had slipped up again.
“We’re fine,” Bjoern said. “Just a bit surprised. They slipped under the radar somehow.”
“Damnit. What’s wrong with it?”
“No idea. And I don’t think it matters right now. The first Destroyer-class will be here soon.”
“Wolfskull, form up on me,” Alicia said. “Put SA-02 and BC-03 at the back and form a crescent around them. Keep moving low until we get a shot at those lasers. We can’t move out until they are destroyed. No reason to kill everything.”
“What about Nidhogg?” Bjoern said on a private channel.
“Ignore him. If he runs off, let him.”
“Roger.”
They completed their formation and Alicia saw the first BETA race over the hill, a white cloud of snow trailing behind them. On her cue, she, Eric and Bjoern opened up with their GWS-9 Assault Cannon, opting for their 120mm cannon function, ripping the Destroyers’ armor to shreds, while Katrine fired a flood of 105mm bullets from her Mk. 57, demolishing the smaller BETA that accompanied the rest. Once the first that still lived reached them, they jumped to the side as one tight group and kept firing. With the Destroyers out of the way, the Laser-classes had a free shot at them, but Alicia ordered the Wolfskulls to move behind the ridges, denying the BETA a window of opportunity.
The rest of the horde, filled with Grappler- and even more Destroyer-classes, flowed from the hill above them. The Wolfskulls responding by throwing more gunfire at them, starting to move one by one, providing cover fire for each other. It sped up their own movements while slowing the BETA enough to create a gap between them, though Nidhogg seemed to move beyond the others, jumping all over the place. Their normal maneuvers for a battle such as this had been thrown out the window the moment Svetlana had joined them, and so they fought in a non-standard way to protect her, and to take Nidhogg into account.
When it came down to it, Alicia didn’t bother to order Nidhogg around, opting to ignore him as she had told Bjoern. He did a good job anyway, picking off the stragglers that got through their relentless onslaught. She started to believe in his insane ramblings and Svetlana’s account did help her to reinforce that belief. Perhaps he was useful after all and not a danger to them as she had first thought. Including him in their ranks, after a very thorough psycho-analysis of course, would substantially increase their combat effectiveness.
While the battle raged, Alicia started to draw up new tactics in her head, judging from the way Nidhogg was moving related to the rest of the Wolfskulls. She didn’t see any particular patterns or any sort of order; a mad dog fighting. If she could convince him, she might--
The rest of the BETA traversed over the hill and Bjoern received a glancing hit as the Laser-classed appeared. His TSF spun from the impact as it cut his right arm, making a big chunk of the metal melt, disfiguring the already old and batter Viggen. He retaliated by facing them with his other side, firing more bullets. It seemed to be the answer to everything in their current situation.
“WF-02, fall back,” Alicia said while shooting down several more BETAs advancing on her position. “You can’t fight like that.”
He started to say something when Nidhogg stroke past him at high speed, pushing him out of the way, heading straight for the BETA, his jet engines flaring with a mad blue color. Bjoern stumbled before regaining his balance and faced the way Nidhogg had gone. The video feed showed his astonishment and surprise.
“Return from where you came,” Nidhogg said on their comms, voice booming. “You cannot hold here, you’re too weak.”
“What did you say?” Katrine growled.
“What are you doing?” Alicia said, anger flaring in her mind. Once again she changed her opinion of him. She tended to do that a lot, she noticed.
“I can’t stand by and watch,” Nidhogg said. “These beasts are mine. Take Svetlana and bring her home. I dont want any interference from you.”
“We can’t let him do that, can we, Captain?” Bjoern said. “The brass would be quite pissed if they find out.”
“And you suggest dying here?” Eric said, jumping in. “Let’s just get the fuck out of here.”
His outburst brought Alicia to the edge. Gritting her teeth, she said; “You two, shut up! SA-02, get the hell back here. You can’t do anything by yourself here.”
The TSF, still drenched in blood, stopped a fair distance away from them and turned around, its damaged side showing. Behind him, the white cloud of snow created by the amassing BETA still roamed the horizon. Then, SA-02 for the first time since they had met him, changed his voice to something akin to a normal human; “I can.”
The machine burst off the ground launched himself headfirst into the advancing BETA. One Destroyer-class splattered into gory bits as he chewed through it with his Flugelberte, breaking up those following it. Another Destroyer split in half, spilling its contents over the snowy ground, but Nidhogg didn’t stop to look. He continued his mad dash through them all, cutting and slashing each and every BETA he could reach. Though a tornado of pure death and mayhem, it didn’t take long before they had him surrounded, providing him with easier targets as he barely needed to look where he hit. A laughter began to mount through their comms, slow at first, building into a crescendo of madness.
At the same time, the BETA’s advance had slowed. They were distracted, looking away from the others.
“Captain,” Bjoern said. He seemed hesitant, weighing his words. “We can go back now.”
“And forfeit the mission?”
“What mission? The Silver Axes were killed in action.” His TSF faced hers. “See the logic, Captain.”
Alicia sneered and looked back down at SA-02, his laughter reaching its climax. Body parts were flying in all directions and the ground was a dark shade of red. SA-02, a blur of swift strikes and slashes, moved back and forth at a ludicrous speed, still dodged anything the BETA threw at him.
Yes, she admitted, she saw the logic. But in her position, she just couldn’t jump at it.
“And Svetlana?” she asked. “How do you explain her? That we just happened to stumble into her?”
“It isn’t that far-fetched,” Bjoern said, turning to face Svetlana. “Or what do you say?”
The girl’s face appeared on the video feed and Alicia noticed she had calmed down substantially from last time. Her face had regained its color and in her eyes she saw determination. “The Silver Axes extracted me and my squad. Then we got ambushed and I was the sole survivor.” She paused. “Thanks to Nidhogg. I think that deserves mention.”
Bjoern and Svetlana both faced Alicia and waited for her decision. She, in turn, didn’t put up much of a struggle. The alternative was to go and help Nidhogg, which would in all likelihood get them all killed. Then again, if someone were to find out what they had done...
“Alright,” she said and sighed. Rueful grins spread across the faces in the squad on the feed. “We’ll go back.”
The group of five turned away from the battle, leaving Nidhogg to fend for himself. Before his radio feed disappeared due to the snowfall and low hills, she could hear the creaking of metal in the background while his laughter drenched out everything else.
Once they were a few minutes away, moving at a high speed over the surrounding hills and through the thick forest, Alicia felt a pang of foreshadowing. She turned slightly, looking back. In the horizon from where they had come from, a strange light filled the dark evening sky.
“Land, now!” she shouted and dove, crashing into the ground hard as the machine had no time to soften the impact. The others landed right next to her and Bjoern opened a comm link to, what Alicia guessed, ask what the hell was going on. Before he could get a word out, a howl drenched everything out as the shockwave from the nuclear explosion roared past overhead, shaking her machine as if an earthquake had erupted beneath them. The electronics within the TSF flickered, a brief spike of light blinking on and off, before it all went dead.
With her heart in her throat, the shaking remained for a few seconds before subsiding. Hearing only her own breathing, she initialized an emergency reboot. The TSF’s systems came online, a few errors demanding her attention, and the ambient sound that always accompanied it returned to fill her ears.
“Status?” she said and waited. No response came, though she could see the others lying beside her, unmoving. Her heart beat faster in her chest. “Wolfskulls!”
“Here,” Bjoern said, his TSF rustling to life. “I’m alright.”
“That hurt,” Katrine said and moaned. Alicia saw her TSF flip over on its side and tried to stand up. “Shockwave caught me in the back a little.” She paused. “Thanks for asking.”
“And WF-03?” Alicia said.
“Up and ready, ma’am,” Eric said. Trees had been thrown to ground around them, lying in heaps and splinters. Some of them had landed on Eric, who now threw them off. “Somewhat.”
“Svetlana?”
“Here, ma’am.”
“Good.” She couldn’t help but smile a little as her TSF stood up. The others were waiting for her, their machines facing her, and her heart had resumed its normal beat. Relief washed over her. “Nidhogg did a hell of a job. Wolfskulls, set destination for the base. We are going home.”
*
Daylight broke when Alicia’s TSF landed on the grounds right outside the base. Four more thumps told her the others had arrived along with her. On the runway, vehicles were already approaching them; ambulances, maintenance crew, transports. The trucks made best speed towards them, expecting the worst.
She opened her machine and stepped outside to stand on the edge of the towering TSF. She hadn’t been outside for two days and the cold wind that stroke against her cheeks welcomed her if in a hurtful way. It stung, just as the rest of body did as it protested her sudden movement.
“Refreshing, isn’t it?” Bjoern said. He sat on his machine, legs crossed and eyes closed.
Alicia nodded and eyed the crew that had arrived while they approached, not the Wolfskulls, but the Soviet TSF, first. It didn’t surprise her and she was glad she didn’t have to tell them. Svetlana, though she had retained her calm from earlier, was led out of her TSF with a helping hand and brought to the ambulance that had arrived. Alicia noted that though she had seen the girl unhurt on the video feed before, the truth was another. On Svetlana’s right thigh ran a long tear through the fabric of her bodysuit, and a long gash of dried blood had clotted it up. The pain must have been immense, but she hadn’t uttered a word about it. Her respect for the Soviet woman rose as the doors closed and the ambulance drove away.
Alicia let herself be winded down by the internal lift and regrouped with the Wolfskulls on the ground; Katrine, looking tired and pissed, Eric, with a small gash over his left eyebrow and a small strain of blood next to it, and Bjoern, who seemed to have injured his foot, noticeable by the way he was walking. Amongst them, she realized that only she herself had sustained no injuries apart from a bruise on her forehead.
It was both a bitter and sweet feeling at the same time.
“I think this deserves a few days of rest,” Bjoern said, switching his stance back and forth. “Preferably with a visit to the bar.”
Katrine snorted. “Days? Try a day.”
“Is it really worth a toast?” Alicia said, eyes hopping between them and crossed her arms. “We failed our mission.”
“Still on about that?” Bjoern smiled. “Well, whatever. I wasn’t planning on toasting.”
“Just drinking?” Eric said.
“Yeah.”
Alicia shook her head, put her hands on her hips and laughed. “I’ll join you, Bjoern. Truth is, I’m tired as hell. Besides, I might have a surprise for you in the fridge.”
“Oh? It isn’t what I think it is, is it?”
She turned on her heel and started walking towards the base. The others followed. “I heard it smells...”
“Oh for fuck’s sake,” Eric said and moaned. “She’s taking out the surstromming.”
Bjoern blinked and then succumbed with laughter. Before his laugh died down they had entered the base, trading the bitter cold outside for a welcoming warmth on the inside.