Nicholas Smith - Hell Divers

X felt a hand on his shoulder and heard Sam’s robust voice.

“Commander!” he shouted. “Commander, we have to move!”

“We’re too far away from the ship,” Murph shouted back.

Sam shook X again, harder this time.

“We have to get into the sky,” X finally said. “It’s our only chance. Captain Ash will pick up our beacons and maneuver the Hive accordingly.” He faced his team. “Everyone get outside and deploy boosters. Now!”

“No,” Magnolia said, her entire body shaking. She stood and turned to run. “We have to hide!”

“There’s no time” X yelled. “We have to get back to the ship!” He grabbed her by the wrist and yanked her back to the window, then climbed out onto the mound of snow and pulled her with him. Before she could react, he spun her around, punched her booster, and yelled, “Shoot ’em if they get close!”

Magnolia launched into the sky, screaming her lungs out. X went next. Reaching over his shoulder, he punched his booster. He gripped his rifle tightly as the balloon exploded out of the pack, inflated with helium, and hauled him up into the sky.

The moment he was off his feet, he shouldered his rifle and took aim at the Sirens. Several of them had broken off from the right side of their formation and were already swooping toward Magnolia. Behind them stretched a wall of clouds as far as he could see. Lightning streaked across the swollen edges of the storm.

He lined up the sights and fired a volley of shots at the creatures. The bullets found targets, tearing through wings and torsos and sending the Sirens spiraling or tumbling back down to the surface. But the kick from the gun also jolted him backward in his harness, so that his feet rocked up in front of him.

Swinging back upright, he aimed again, this time squeezing off single shots. The rounds ripped through the torso of one of the creatures, and it flapped spastically away, losing altitude with every wing beat.

Gunfire cracked below, and three more of the Sirens fell from the sky. But others were quickly closing in, and bullets didn’t seem to deter them much.

X looked to his HUD. Five minutes had already passed since the message from command, and they were only seven thousand feet in the air. Even if they could hold back the Sirens, he wasn’t sure they would make it back to the ship in time. He twisted his body around for a better view of the storm expanding to the west. The clouds churned, the electrical flashes providing a snapshot inside the belly of the storm.

A voice broke over the flurry of static. “X! This is Captain Ash, do you copy?”

“We’re on our way back!” X quickly replied.

“Do you have the cells and valves?”

X hesitated, knowing his response could lead Ash to abandon them. “Negative. But we have something else: a map that shows where the cells and valves are.”

There was a terrible pause.

“You’ve got ten minutes to get up top before we have to get the hell out of here,” Ash said. “Make it work.”

“Understood.”

The distant sound of thunder boomed over the whine of the Sirens. Two were sailing toward Magnolia, and three swooped down on Murph and Sam. X twisted in his harness to focus on the two making a run at Magnolia. Aiming at the leader’s wings, he fired off a short burst. A gust of wind threw off his aim in the last second, and the rounds went wide, narrowly missing Magnolia.

Cursing, X grabbed a toggle to steer his balloon with his right hand. He raised the rifle with his left and, leading the Sirens with the muzzle, squeezed off another volley. This time, one of the monsters’ skulls exploded.

There was no time to celebrate. A scream erupted over the comm channel, and X glanced down just as a Siren crashed into Sam. The creature wrapped its wings and legs around him, then began slashing at his helmet with the talons on its hands.

“Sam!” X shouted. He trained his gun on the blur of armor and flesh but knew he couldn’t risk firing. Helpless, he watched predator and prey tumble away through the clouds.

Another Siren came whistling through the sky as Sam vanished from sight. X raised his rifle and fired two shots. The first took off the creature’s jaw, and it spun out of control, its wings narrowly missing the suspension lines to X’s balloon.

Magnolia, firing wildly, held off the other Siren above. Then, at fifteen thousand feet, the last few of them wheeled away, returning to a surface that X could no longer see.

“Sam,” X said over the comm. “Sam, do you copy!” He searched the clouds for any sign. Sam’s beacon was still active on X’s HUD, but he wasn’t responding.

“Where’s Sam?” Magnolia said, the trepidation in her voice weakened by static.

“They got him,” X replied. “The bastards fucking got him.” He continued to scan below his feet. Murph looked up at him, his mirrored visor hiding his eyes.

The team continued their ascent in silence. Hope for Sam faded as the beetle shape of the Hive came into focus. The edge of the storm was closing in.

Above, the oval doors in the belly of the ship separated, revealing the small recovery room. Magnolia tugged on her toggles and steered her balloon inside. Her feet disappeared as her balloon pulled her to safety. X used his toggles to adjust his own ascent. With one eye on his HUD and the other on the recovery bay, he followed Magnolia.

A blip on X’s HUD pulled his attention to his visor. His heart skipped a beat when he saw Sam’s beacon rising a few thousand feet below. X glanced down as he was pulled into the ship. Magnolia dangled a few feet away, where her balloon rested against the translucent domed ceiling. As soon as Murph joined them, the ship began moving.

X bumped his chin pad. “Captain, Sam is still down there!”

The metal walls of the recovery space groaned as the ship’s turbofans flared to life. He blinked, realizing that Captain Ash wasn’t abandoning Sam; she was maneuvering into position to pick him up.

“Where is he?” Magnolia said.

“We’re picking him up,” X replied.

The three divers probed the clouds below. As the ship moved, a tiny blue dot rose into the sky.

“Sam, you’re almost here. Just hang on!” X shouted.

The diver didn’t reply, and as he got closer, X saw that his head was bowed to his chest. His balloon pulled him into the reentry bay right in front of X. Blood flowed from Sam’s cracked visor, spreading over his vest and armor. Steam rose off it. There was too much blood—an impossible amount that left no question: Sam was dead. The doors clamped shut, and X reached forward to pull Sam’s right hand outside his vest. Even in death, he was protecting the map, clutching it so tight, X had to pry it from his bloody fingers.

“All clear,” Ensign Ryan shouted. “The storm is below us.”

But not a soul on the bridge was listening. Everyone, including Captain Ash, was huddled at the porthole windows before the bridge. Where they had known only darkness, they saw light.

With no time to outrun the storm, Ash had used the turbofans to rise above it. Silence washed over the room as the ship ascended higher into the sky. Ash squinted and shielded her face from the dazzling glow. They were looking at a sight that none of them had seen in years: the sun.

The ball of fire hung suspended in an ocean of blue. The clearest, most beautiful blue that Ash had ever seen in her life. High above the dark morass below, thin yellow clouds drifted, their translucent outlines fired with golden light.

But overshadowing the beauty was the failure of Raptor’s mission. Still without the cells and parts, she would be forced to send all three teams down to Hades.

Jordan cupped his headset and pivoted away from the view. “Captain, I just got a message from Ty…” He paused and caught her gaze. “We have a casualty.”