Episode 8: The Order / The Escape

The captain gives the order no one wants to hear. A man who has spent his life seeing what comes next runs for a pod while the ship he could not save burns behind him. Chapters 15 and 16 of The Battle of Mars.

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Pathfinders of the Dark Book one The Battle of Mars Episode eight Chapter fifteen The Order The reprieve did not last. Alarms began blaring again across the vigilant guardian. The Verithra had returned, and this time they were not holding back. Multiple contacts closing fast, Torres shouted. They are coming in hard. Stone stood at the center of the damaged bridge, her face grim under the flickering emergency lights. All remaining batteries fire at will. We hit them as hard as we can. The rail guns and missile tubes answered, but the response was weaker than before. Too many systems were offline. Too many of the crew were dead or wounded. Jax pressed the lens against his temple and reached into the futures. They were narrowing fast, and almost all of them ended in fire. He had felt this exact shape once before, in a training simulation the instructors had built specifically so that every candidate would lose. They had wanted to see what each pathfinder did when there was no winning path left. Most froze. Jax had kept calling shots until the simulated ship died around him. He had hated the instructors for that test. He understood it now. He had also, though he had not told them, felt it once before that, at a yard gate at thirteen, watching a crane he could not climb. Port side, full burn, he called. Target the lead ships with everything we have left. The Guardian twisted and fired. They scored a few hits, but the swarm barely slowed. Another wave of missiles streaked toward them, and Jax saw the futures branch and branch again, every limb of them dark. Captain, he said, voice tight, we are not going to make it through this one, not all of us. Stone looked at the tactical display, then at what remained of her bridge crew. For a heartbeat, something like pain crossed her face. Then she opened a shipwide channel. All hands, this is the captain. Abandoned ship, I repeat, abandoned ship. Make for the escape pods immediately. That is a direct order. The words hit the bridge like another missile. Jax turned to her. Captain, no. That is enough, Jax. Her voice was firm, with a rawness underneath. You are getting on a pod. I can still help. I can buy us time. You have already done more than anyone could ask. She stepped closer and gripped his shoulder. There are almost none of you left. You know that better than I do. The enemy is afraid of exactly one thing in this whole war, and it is people who can do what you do. If humanity is going to have any chance, the people who can do that have to survive it. That someone is you. Jax's throat tightened. The lens showed him futures where he ran and the ship died behind him, and futures where he stayed and they all died together. None of the second kind helped anyone. I am not leaving you, he said. Stone's expression softened just slightly. You do not have a choice. This is my ship. These are my people. I am not abandoning them while there is still a chance to get some of them out. Another explosion rocked the hull. The deck tilted. Pod three is still functional. Go, now. Jax stood frozen for one long second. Then he pulled her into a brief, fierce embrace. She returned it for a moment, before pushing him away. Go. Jax turned and ran. The corridors were chaos. Crew streamed toward the remaining pods, carrying the wounded where they could. Debris fell from the ceiling. The ship groaned with every new impact. Left passage is blocked someone yelled. Jax felt the futures shift. This way, he shouted, leading a group of engineers down an alternate route just before a bulkhead collapsed behind them. He reached the pod bay as red warning lights flashed across the doors. Several pods had already launched. People still fought for space in the last few. Pod three, a deck officer yelled when he saw Jax. Priority! Jax hesitated at the hatch and looked back down the corridor toward the bridge. Smoke made it impossible to see, but he could imagine Stone still standing at her post, refusing to leave until the last possible second. A massive explosion rocked the ship. The deck lurched. Get in! The officer screamed. Jax climbed into pod three and strapped himself down with shaking hands as the launch sequence began. Chapter sixteen The Escape The pod fired away from the dying ship with brutal force, and Jax was slammed back into his seat. The pod's systems came online with a series of soft chimes. Emergency protocols took over, calculating trajectory, preparing for atmospheric entry. Jax didn't touch the controls. Through the small viewport, he watched the vigilant guardian grow smaller behind him, a broken, burning shape still firing what weapons it had left. He could not look away. Captain Stone was still on that ship. Most of the crew was still on that ship. And he had left them. The guilt hit harder than the acceleration. He pressed his forehead against the cool glass and closed his eyes, and the faces came anyway. Stone, ordering him to go. Reyes, her eyes going still under the beam, half a meter from her daughter's drawings. Okafor's hand on his shoulder, settling a thing that had come loose. The crew who had looked at him with that uneasy mix of hope and fear once they learned what the lens could do, and under all of them, older than all of them, his father at a yard gate saying, We keep it close. He had kept them alive as long as he could. It had not been enough. It was never enough. That was the oldest lesson he had. The pod's AI spoke in a calm, synthetic voice. Atmospheric entry in ninety seconds. Brace for turbulence. Jax opened his eyes and looked back one last time. The vigilant guardian was barely recognizable. Sections had broken away, and the rest was wreathed in fire and debris. As he watched, a massive explosion tore through the midsection, and the ship began to come apart in slow, silent pieces. He turned away. He could not watch anymore. The pod began to shake as it hit the upper atmosphere of Mars. Red and orange flame licked along the heat shield outside the viewport. The ride grew rougher by the second. Jax gripped the armrests and braced. The lens was quiet now. Either it had nothing left to show him, or it was as exhausted as he was. For the first time since the battle began, there was no one depending on him. No crew, no captain, no ship to save. Just a man, a damaged pod, and the red planet rushing up to meet him. He thought of Stone's last words. There are almost none of you left. The people who can do what you do have to survive it. He did not feel like someone who could survive a war. He felt like a man who had just watched his world burn. Landing zone selected, the AI reported, emergency beacon activated, brace for impact. Jax closed his eyes. The pod slammed into the Martian surface. The impact was brutal. His restraints dug into his chest and shoulders, the viewport went dark with flung dust, and metal groaned around him. For several long seconds there was only noise and violent motion. Then stillness. The pod settled with a low metallic groan. Outside, the dust slowly began to clear. Jax sat there a moment, breathing hard, hands shaking. Then he unbuckled the restraints and pushed himself up. The hatch released with a hiss. Cold, thin air rushed in as the door opened, and Jax stepped out onto the surface of Mars. Episode 9 arrives next week.