CHAPTER 27
Lumiea
Year -19 (L.D.)
More than a year and a half as a squad and Jace still had not gotten used to sharing his life with others. It was his own fault. He knew that. But he couldn't go from leaving everything and everyone behind to attaching himself to his squad so easily.
The others didn't seem to struggle with this, not even Trin, who enjoyed her alone time. Jace walked quietly through the living room, trying not to wake the others. Apparently after he'd gone to bed, they'd stayed up together and fallen asleep out here. Lyon lay curled on his side with Nikka's arm around him. Aeryn faced the opposite direction, close enough to the other two that Jace was sure they'd all gone to sleep talking. Alix's foot hung off the couch but a blanket covered the rest of him. Even Trin had curled up on the loveseat.
They all had beds to sleep in, which would give them much better rest for training today than crashing out here. But they'd bonded. And as hard as Jace had tried to avoid it, he had as well, even if he tried to distance himself from it.
Quietly, he grabbed food from the kitchen and packed it to eat on the way to the gym. They'd been on active duty in a nearby restricted zone for the past seven weeks. Sometimes they were able to return to town and stay at the apartment rented out for them, but often they had to sleep in their tents. They'd had the rare privilege of staying two nights in a row this time. It gave him the perfect opportunity to practice with an upgrade to his handmods that he hadn't felt comfortable yet using in active combat.
Once at the gym, Jace warmed up with a workout before swapping his regular hand mods for the upgraded ones. The energy produced by these was more powerful, but the handling was different enough that he needed more time to feel confident with them. He practiced simply activating the energy that could power his punches and stared at the hazy red glow. His palms filled with heat.
"Do you even sleep?" Alix threw his bag down on the ground by the wall. "It's so early."
"I slept plenty."
"You missed out last night. What's up with you disappearing lately?"
Jace frowned and shut off the energy. Though he had a long-standing habit of not spending nearly as much time with the squad as the others, he had been more reclusive for the past few weeks. It had been foolish to hope no one would notice. "I've got this upgrade."
"That's not what it is."
"What do you care?"
"People are worried about you. That's why I care. I have to hear about it."
"I'm fine."
Alix moved in front of Jace. "I know that. Aeryn and Lyon love to worry about precious Jace, though."
He leveled his look at him. Something was up with Aeryn. She'd always tried to get him to engage more than he wanted to, but lately, she'd been insistent, even going so far as to tell him that eventually he'd fall behind if he didn't stick with the group. That there was only so far he could go alone. "I'll do dinner tonight."
"Thank you." Alix stretched his fingers and then rolled his wrists. "What are we working on today?"
"I'm working on my upgrade. You do whatever you came to do."
"This is what I'm talking about it. Be a team player, buddy." The other man wore a grin, always so eager to annoy others when the chance arose.
Jace drew upon the energy in his palm again and ignored him.
Just when he'd started getting focused again, the door to the gym opened and closed hard. Jace wasn't sure he saw her from the corner of his eye as much as he sensed her. Aeryn. There was a certain heat she carried that warmed the room when she walked in.
Frustrated, he only trained his eyes on his mod with more determination than before to not look her way. He could only hope she'd come for Alix, not him. Whenever he started spending too much time with Aeryn, home eventually got brought up. Neither one of them could afford this distraction. He wouldn't jeopardize his hard work and the hope his family had put in him. Some days, he missed them so badly, he wasn't sure how he kept breathing. This couldn't have all been for nothing. If he'd lost all this time with his family, then he had to succeed. So he certainly couldn't do that to Aeryn either. Jace wouldn't be responsible for splitting her focus for even a moment. To jeopardize the sacrifice she and her family had made would be unforgivable.
Jace had done an excellent job of ignoring her until he realized that she was headed straight toward him, cutting through two privates gearing up to spar with a determined stare and quick pace.
He lowered his hands just as she stopped directly in front of him, close, and clearly frustrated, or maybe unnerved. Twists of hair tickled the side of her face. Copper eyes drilled his with intensity.
"I don't understand you," she said.
"What–"
"It was you, all this time. You spent the past year ignoring me, but you're secretly sending me mineral packs?"
Fucking fuck.
"Why didn't you just tell me?" Her brows twisted in confusion. "I asked everyone if you guys knew where the minerals were coming from."
Jace had to smile. Aeryn, sweet Aeryn. Sweet, Fucking clueless Aeryn. "You yell at me when I'm nice to you."
"I do not."
"You do."
Her nose scrunched in classic Aeryn frustration. "Is this because of the Witness thing?"
No need to think. He nodded. What a perfectly reasonable excuse she had delivered right to him. "Yes."
"This is why I yell at you. I don't need someone babying me."
"You know Aerie." Jace sighed. "For such a wise person, sometimes you're really immature."
Her mouth opened in a perfect circle. "Oh," she said in a growl. Then she bit off a contemptuous chuckle with vengeance lighting her eyes. "Oh! Okay."
Shit.
Why did Jace do that to himself? It was like his mouth had to do the opposite of what he actually wanted. "Stop letting your insecurities make you throw a fit when someone helps you." Stop. He was the one who needed to stop. "There's so many great things about you. Just get some confidence."
Yeah, he'd really done it this time. Aeryn wasn't even speaking anymore. Her eyes glowed with anger and hurt and her hand curled tightly into fists.
Jace waited for the hit–whatever form it might take. A perfectly worded insult, perhaps. Instead, Aeryn glanced down and a tight, forced smile popped onto her face.
"Thanks for the pity minerals." Turning sharply on her heel, she walked back for the door.
Fucking fuck.
It hurt so much worse than if she'd just lobbed her worst attack at him. "Aerie," Jace called to her retreating form. But she kept walking. "I didn't–"
Wheeling around, Aeryn pointed at him. "You're immature too. You realize that? If you weren't so intent on being alone, then you'd have a friend who cared enough about you to tell you about the shit stain on your pants you just can't see."
He snorted a laugh. Shocked. "I have a shit stain on my pants?"
"Yeah, a giant metaphorical shit stain on your shitty pants." Aeryn flipped away from him. He'd never seen her purposefully utter a mean word in her life. She was so incredibly kind that he still didn't understand how such a nice person could make it through this cruel program. And he'd infuriated her enough for this.
She slammed the door shut.
Jace rubbed the back of his neck.
"That was phenomenal." Alix clapped loudly. "You suck with women, man. I had no idea. To think, I used to feel jealous of you."
Jace cut him a look from the corner of his eye.
His teammate heckled, grinning from ear to ear. "Oh, how the mighty Jace has fallen. I've never seen anything like that in my life. How did you manage to ruin a year's worth of secret gifts?"
"You think you're funny. I will seriously punch you in the face."
Alix continued chuckling as he returned to training.
Jace wouldn't have to worry about trying to avoid Aeryn, because he doubted she'd want to talk to him for at least a week.
The quiet few days in the apartment felt like a lifetime away already. Fatigue weighed Jace down as he studied the street below him.
The battle had already raged for eight days straight when their squad arrived to provide reinforcements. This city reminded Jace of the first one where they had patrolled, only it bordered territory that their military had a strong foothold in. The rebel soldiers had descended on this deserted city to establish a headquarters and to try to take back what they'd lost in the previous year.
Over the last year and half, his squad had entered plenty of battles. This one was particularly large and complex.
While they joined their division to fight with them, the rebels were relying upon a mix of tactics, with covert troops utilizing guerrilla warfare. Jace's squad had been tasked with hunting down these rebels while the larger battle waged on. They still had much to learn about fighting in a large formation, but they excelled now as a team.
Jace and his five teammates lowered themselves to their stomachs on a rooftop and surveyed the city block they would soon search.
"Major Winnes gave the all clear," Trin said through their earpiece. "We can proceed when we're ready."
Jace tapped his goggles so the data that Trin had collected about the area they'd soon enter scrolled down his lenses. No obvious signs of hidden enemy combatants, though the area was crawling with troops fighting on the streets. If there were any traps here or any enemies hiding to prepare a surprise assault, they hadn't done it yet.
He pressed the button again so the text disappeared.
Every few seconds, or sometimes without pause, bursts of energy and explosions from bombs painted the skyline in reds, blues, and greens. In the rare moments without an eruption, darkness pressed in on them from above, while the distance glowed with fire.
Drones shot through the air overhead and flew in a circuit around the perimeter of the southern side of the city that the enemy currently controlled. The unmanned aircraft peppered the enemy forces with missiles that targeted specific combatants that soldiers on the ground had identified. Meanwhile, soldiers clashed on the streets while automated weapons, mostly on their side and rarely from the rebel side, strategically provided cover for the soldiers.
Inside the buildings, a much different war waged. It wasn't only the stealth fighters who would sneak past enemy lines to secretly attack the Iylan forces. Troops hid throughout the city like his squad did, trying to hack the AI interface of analysts, or take control of the drones, or force the automated guns to malfunction.
It was more than anyone could track. Jace had always appreciated Trin as arguably the most important member of their squad. But battles like these showed how desperately they needed analysts and their AI.
At any time, Jace could pull up information about the larger battle on the flexible screen encircling his forearm, from how many enemies had been identified to how many killed or captured, or how many of their own troops had fallen. That wasn't his mission, though. One day he hoped to be an advanced officer who oversaw the fate of an entire battlefield. Today, he needed to find the rebels hiding throughout the city and watch the back of his teammates. So he kept his focus narrow and razor-sharp.
Besides, as overwhelming as the battle was and as advanced of equipment as these rebels had, they were no match for the Iylan trained military. Jace could see their enemy losing in slow motion.
Still, this was a dangerous battle.
"Move in," Trin said through the earpiece.
The whole squad moved as one, now experts in following Trin's instruction through the earpiece. They climbed down a fire escape, waited for breaks in the explosions popping like bright confetti in the sky, and slid into the darkness of a building across the street from where they'd hidden on the roof.
With silent steps, they picked their way through an old apartment and toward the hall when Trin's voice came again.
"Wait."
Jace eased against a wall and toggled the vision on his goggles to infrared. No sign of anyone other than them. If Trin detected someone, they were masking their heat signatures. He switched back to night vision.
Quickly he checked on Aeryn's placement to make sure there were no vulnerabilities. He was always aware of her location and condition, no matter what went on around him. When Vehru said to protect her, he took that seriously. Not that he ever needed to hear it from the commander. Jace would have done the same thing even if Aeryn wasn't a candidate for the Witness Program.
Whatever that was. Infuriating to still have so little information about it. Aeryn didn't talk about it often, but he knew it was always on her mind.
"Area clear. Proceed."
Jace didn't bother even wondering what Trin and her integrated AI had potentially detected. It could have been any number of things that required more attention, even something as innocuous as a mouse.
But by the time they made it to the second floor, Trin had located a group of rebels.
"They're masking themselves, but one of them must have damaged equipment. I can make out part of a body."
Before proceeding, they listened to the rest of the information Trin had to provide. Then, they continued without hesitation.
Alix, who had been training on deployables, detached three black discs from his arm. They shot forward and disapeared in the darkness immediately.
"Shit," one of the rebels cried out. Jace was surprised that they'd noticed a disc. It was too late though.
Their squad had quickly surrounded the rebels while the discs positioned themselves hovering over them. Only a moment's glow and then they exploded into thousands of bits of sharp shrapnel.
Jace fired as he heard the first cries and made out the rebels scattering away from the blast zone.
Normally, they aimed to stun the enemies and capture them. Battles of this size were different. They had not simply been cleared to use lethal measures but ordered to do so.
He counted only four rebels, all wounded, which meant this would have been an easy skirmish.
But an explosion at the end of the hall busted a hole through the ceiling and a dozen enemies began to jump down into the hall.
Switching his target, Jace raised his hand, and fired a blast of energy at the hole two soldiers jumped from. Someone from the ground deployed an energy shield, managing to absorb most of the blast.
No, this would not be an easy fight.
And Jace could only assume there were at least as many hidden and waiting for their opportunity to attack.
