Chapter 73 They weren't joking when they said being a pilot is a shit job

Luke woke up with a sore throat, he remembered. Ever since Saskia had come to live with him, he had gotten used to her too quickly. The way she woke up, the way she snored, the way she tried miserably to make herself breakfast. Her smile and the sparkle in her eyes when she talked about her work in the PR department. He himself had had to struggle through, it wasn't the material or the technique, he had struggled to get to grips with things. 

When he stood in front of his training exo for the first time and saw the ugly thing, he had doubts. After all the lectures he had to listen to that came out of the infrantrist suits from 1 breakout to these things. His instructor said it was technically the same as the ones the others used, just without the armor, weapons and bells and whistles. 

Luke slipped into a suit like the other candidates, slipped his arms and legs into the designated openings and the cockpit, as they called it, closed and the HUD set up. 

The first few hours were spent switching the thing on and off, moving around the cockpit, using the arms and so on. Then came the walking exercises, which were pure horror, his exo stumbled non-stop.

Liz then gave him a training device that the exo soldiers had used in the beginning. No motors, but mechanics and balance exercises. He'd taken the damn thing every morning and evening to run and exercise, which only encouraged Tes to do it harder.

With the result of being in the top 3 of the course. Once they realized he had mastered the basics, the next step came. Practice scenarios and practice missions in EXOs. He got to grips with this. Then introductions to maintenance and repair of the exos, technology, etc. He worked his way through. He thanked himself for the time he had spent sitting in front of the mini-exo model and staring at the blueprints for hours to install the electronics.

Saskia stared at him more than once, confused and questioning, when he came back with dirty hands and dirty clothes.

Then came the first missions where he was part of the main squad. Luke had asked his grandfather if it was really okay for him to go on missions with the squad. 

He nodded, so he wasn't worried. Sarge had only come at the beginning to give him homework, which he had then done during the breaks. What the senior officers didn't tell him was that they were sending him with the others into war zones with infected and humans. 

He asked if that was really okay, the captain told him to shut up. So he risked his ass like the others, 27 times Luke was loaned out to ground troops, in the field. Where he gained more raw, naked combat experience. Fortunately, they weren't reserve troops.

He asked when something like this would go on his record, the answer was when he was done. So he bit, shot, blasted, stabbed, chopped, kicked, punched his way through. When he got back, he'd chill with Saskia and let her talk, take her out to dinner or lounge around on the couch with her. 

Then a few officers dropped out and new recruits were recruited, including him. So he first had to lead sub-teams on missions in the large squad. Then several missions where he went out alone with 3 others. He had given Sarge his work assignment before he left, it was his 52nd solo mission, and said he didn't know if he would make it back in time. Sarge read through the work order on the spot and said it was okay. 

He had to think about the missions he'd had so far, most of which were search and destroy, wipe out swarms, recon, attack rebels, escort convoys, support the army or whatever he hated the most. When the captain would come in and say, "Luke, you're assigned to maintenance today," which meant that from then until now he was just busy screwing around with the techs on the Exos. At least he learned something from them. 

In this mission, which the captain had described as a simple matter, Luke and two others in Scout EXOs were to advance an area ahead of scouts to troops. Everything went well, they thundered with their jetpacks until their scanners detected a mega-swarm. Before they could report in, their systems went down and there was a loud bang. 

Luke heard a scrape, looked up, a bloody hand scratching at his helmet, his arm had been torn through a bullet hole. He pulled his arm out of its socket and reached for his gun, the bloody hand retracted and a disfigured, infected grimace pressed greedily into the hole. Luke punched him in the head. He pressed buttons, but the EXO's system was dead, as were his watch and helmet. With difficulty, he opened the escape hatch and squeezed out

He took off his helmet and an icy wind whistled in his face. It was a winter landscape, there was snow everywhere, he could see fallow fields and a forest. His Exo was a wreck, the torso smashed, the arms torn off, as were the legs. He threw his helmet in and jumped down, trudged to the emergency compartment, took out the protective vest, which he put on, assault rifle, spare magazines, medkit and a balaclava. 

Which he pulled over his head. He looked around, saw clouds of black smoke, he ran in that direction, in front of a grove in the field lay two EXO's the cockpits looked like someone had used a giant pair of scissors to cut them open. He saw tire tracks, blood, infected corpses and shell casings in the snow. He ransacked what was left in the compartments.

He lit a cigarette and thought. It was 1 ½ hours at full throttle and jet propulsion to the nearest troops. He could forget it, especially with the swarm. On the horizon he saw an old radio antenna. He flew towards it. It took him 2 hours. Snow was an obstacle, then groups of infected, which he avoided or killed if he couldn't avoid them. He came to the edge of a village, it lay derelict, carefully he walked in along the walls, he found the source of the antenna, an old mixed fire and police station. 

He went inside, it was deserted, chaos reigned inside, everything was lying around haphazardly, he carefully combed through every room until he came to a room with candlelight burning in it. He pushed the door open with his foot and went in. An elderly couple in their 90s were sitting on a couch. Luke walked in and looked around, he saw a radio, walked over and pressed a button. It was dead.

"The power's gone, Hermann turned it off," came from the old man.

" Why haven't you been evacuated?" he felt his throat ache and his voice cracked and became hotter. "

"My Babet was bitten by our daughter then. I stayed by her side. "

He smiled at the woman next to him, who nodded.

" Only she never turned ..."

She pointed to her knotty arm, Luke saw the healing bite wound. "Now we wait for death, Hermann leaves us alone, we're just old fools to him." She said.

"Are there any car batteries around here?" 

"Hermann took all the cars, I think ... Yes, I saw uniforms like that in one of the cars."

"Where?"

" In the old market hall, just down the street. "

"Thanks, I'll be back."

He hurried out, sprinted down the street, took cover when he saw an old wooden shed with a small car parked in front of it. He scanned the area, saw no one, everything was quiet. He cautiously approached the shed. He looked inside, Benny saw one of his men on his knees, his face smashed, blood dripping on the floor. 

In front of him stood two gaunt guys in hunting gear, smoking and laughing. 

He switched the rifle to stun and fired two quick shots at the two, hitting them in the neck and causing them to fall to the ground, twitching convulsively. He came closer, took a knife from one of the guys and cut Benny loose.

"Where's Sammy?" 

Benny pointed upwards. 

Luke looked up, Sammy was hanging from the ceiling, they had cut off his ears, genitals, nose and tongue and stuffed them in his mouth. There were countless bullet holes in his chest.

"They wanted the access codes for the north block system ... we told them we had a clue because we were new ... but they didn't believe us. "

Luke growled, looked around, grabbed an axe, heaved the two guys to their knees, slapped the first one so hard he woke up. The moment he opened his eyes and saw Luke with the axe, he struck and chopped his head off, went to the second one and punched him in the ear, he woke up, stared at Luke and spat at him. 

His eyes wandered to the side and saw the headless body, horror spread across his face and Luke struck. He searched the body, found cigarettes, cigars and matches, which he pocketed.

"Benny, help me push the cart." He did as he was told and they pushed the cart in, He took off the battery he put it in Benny's hand, took out and hooked hole in the side of the potion until the splatter ran out, then he broke open several barrels in the hall. 

Took a match and threw it into the brew. They both ran for the nearest cover, the hall burst into flames and was ablaze. Luke was about to leave when several cars drove up, guys dressed like the two corpses got out. 

"Those stupid sons of bitches, fuck you! I told you not to smoke in there!"

"What about the prisoners?"

"Fuck them! Soon the freaks will come and the swarm will tear them to pieces and with the EMP bombs their equipment is fucked anyway."

He laughed.

"Come on, let's go back to the power station." After five minutes of waiting, they hurried back to the station. Benny was crouched against the wall. Luke took the battery and screwed it to the radio with the power cable, it roared to life.

"We've seen a fire."

"The hall's on fire," Luke commented, tuning in the radio.

"Do they have a radio?"

The old man nodded. Luke sighed and crouched down. The thing was a relic, he had to see what it could do. He had set the right frequency, pressed the button for Morse code and entered a code. Only static sounded, he repeated it until it cracked after the 20th time.

"Secure line, radio center."

"EXO W S7 APOLLO, my unit has been ambushed. Pass the word to High Command that the operation in sector 31d13c is not safe. Huge swarm with EMP bombs. Pass this on and I need a medivac for my position even sector quadrant a9 small village Piktar."

"Apollo, our images show that your sector is clear."

"Negative, we were knocked out of the sky by an EMP and shot at with missiles. One dead and one wounded. "

" Hold on, I'm switching to satellite. Apollo, we can't get them out. The satellite's scanners say the area is contaminated, they need to find the weapons the EMP charge is giving off so we can send something." 

Luke growled.

" I'll take care of it, priority is first report, pass it straight to ops. "

" They're on the moon, Apollo ..."

" Then pass it on to Ai, they'll pass it on."

" Understood, we'll get them when ..." The radio went off. 

He lit a cigar and crouched down.

"Lieutenant, what do we do now?" Benny asked. Luke tossed him a medikit.

"Wait until it's dark, then I'll crack the EMP launcher."

" I ... " he coughed.

" You stay here and look after the two of them. "

Benny nodded silently, Luke handed him the assault rifle and the ammunition for it. 

Then he sat down opposite him, pulled up the mask, his mouth was free and he continued smoking.

"Shit ... Lt. His neck ..." 

He reached in with his hand, felt burnt plastic. He grinned and took a drag on his cigar. 

The older man looked at Luke. 

"How do you look without the mask?" he asked.

Luke sighed and took off the mask, feeling it stick to his temple. He took it off and looked at the blood on it.

He stood up, got a wound spray from the first aid kit and misted the side of his head.

"No better than the cold outside."

The older woman looked at him.

"Is his father Russian?"

Luke pondered.

" Hhmm, I think my grandfather is from there and everyone before that. " 

He drew on his cigar. 

She looked at the older man.

"He reminds me of you when you were so young and proudly wore the uniform." 

"What was it like in the army then?"

" No different from today, apart from the technology, even today you still march proudly for the flag. "

" Do you have grandchildren?"

" They are in the safe zone. "

Luke took a drag on his cigar. " I'll take them to them. Then they can spend their twilight years with them."

It was getting dark, and Luke set off after asking where the power plant was located.

He walked in that direction and crept the last few meters, sounding out the location. It was a remnant from the past. A nuclear reactor. 

Outside, he saw three guards doing their rounds, bored. Luke crept up to the fence, climbed over it, sneaked up to a guard, put his hand over his mouth from behind and rammed the knife blade into his lower jaw from below. He pulled him aside, crept up to the next guard and repeated the whole thing. 

Then he hurried to the entrance, listened, it was quiet here. He entered cautiously, a door opened in front of him, a guard came out, turned and ran ahead of him. Luke sneaked up and killed him. He went through room by room. 

He had found a radar box on the roof, but no cables and the box was made of steel. He snuck up to the control room, the door was open, two people were inside. A security guard and the guy from the car. Luke killed the first, snuck up on the second and put the barrel of his gun to his head.

"You're late to the north block, your people are dying. "

Luke pulled the trigger, the guy fell, a remote released from his hand, he heard a loud buzz and the devices flickered briefly.