Chapter 11: Crossroads

The knock on the door came just as Nathan finished speaking.

"We need to defect."

The words hung in the air of their shared quarters like an unexploded bomb. Kessler and Ilson stared at him, processing the implications of what he'd just said. Outside, the sounds of the military base continued, personnel moving through corridors, equipment being maintained, the normal rhythm of military life that suddenly felt hollow and wrong.

The knock came again, softer this time.

"Nathan? It's Riley. Can we talk?"

Nathan's blood turned to ice. Riley Webb, the one decent member of Mora's squad, standing outside their door just as he'd declared his intention to commit treason against the UNSC. He exchanged panicked glances with Kessler and Ilson.

"Shit," Ilson whispered. "How long has she been out there?"

"I don't know," Nathan replied, his mind racing. Did she hear? Was she here to arrest them? Or was this just terrible timing?

"Nathan?" Riley's voice came through the door again. "I know you're in there. I need to talk to you about what happened today. About Danny."

Nathan made a decision that would change everything. He walked to the door and activated the lock release.

Riley Webb stood in the corridor, still in her duty uniform but with her hair disheveled and her eyes red from crying. She looked like someone who'd been carrying a heavy burden and was finally ready to set it down.

"Riley," Nathan said carefully. "Come in."

She stepped into their quarters and Nathan sealed the door behind her. Their shared living space was larger than most military accommodations, one of the luxuries of being stationed in a purpose-built city like Nyulassy rather than a cramped forward base. But with four people in it, the room suddenly felt very small.

"I wanted to apologize," Riley began, then stopped. Her gaze moved between Nathan, Kessler, and Ilson, reading the tension in their faces. "I wanted to apologize for David's actions today. For leaving you behind. Danny..." her voice broke slightly. "Danny didn't have to die."

"No," Nathan said quietly. "He didn't."

Riley looked at him carefully. "What did you just say? Before I knocked?"

The question hung in the air like a challenge. Nathan could lie, deflect, try to convince her she'd misheard. Or he could trust the only member of Mora's squad who'd shown any sign of conscience.

"I said we need to defect," Nathan replied. "From the UNSC."

Riley's face went white. "Nathan, you can't be serious. That's treason."

"So is murdering civilians," Kessler said, her voice sharp with anger. "So is sending soldiers to die for intelligence gathering. So is covering up war crimes."

"What are you talking about?" Riley demanded, but there was something in her voice that suggested she already knew.

Nathan sat down heavily on one of the bunks. "Riley, how much do you know about the real situation here on Acer? Not the official briefings, but what's actually happening?"

"I know the Liberation Front is a terrorist organization that's been attacking civilian infrastructure," Riley said, but her tone lacked conviction.

"The settlement we passed yesterday during the convoy mission," Kessler said. "The one that was destroyed. I ran detailed scans on the ruins."

She activated her personal tablet, displaying the data she'd collected. Biological readings, weapons analysis, structural damage patterns, all the evidence of systematic destruction.

"There were dozens of people in those buildings when they were destroyed," Kessler continued. "Civilian casualties. Families. And the weapons signatures show they were killed with UNSC Titan Frame weapons."

Riley stared at the data, her face growing paler. "That's... that can't be right."

"It's right," Nathan said grimly. "We're not here for peacekeeping, Riley. We're here for resource extraction, and anyone who gets in the way gets eliminated. Including our own people, apparently."

"What do you mean?"

Nathan told her about the convoy mission's discovery of civilian casualties. About the biological readings in the destroyed settlement. About the growing realization that their "peacekeeping" mission was actually resource extraction backed by systematic elimination of resistance.

"You're saying we're not here to protect people," Riley said quietly. "We're here to clear them out."

"That's exactly what I'm saying," Nathan replied. "And when Phantom showed up today, Mora's response was to abandon us. 'Command said one of our teams wouldn't make it anyway.' He was willing to sacrifice us for intelligence."

Riley's face went pale. "I heard him say that over the comm. I thought... I thought he was just panicking."

"Were you panicking when you left us behind?" Kessler asked, her voice sharp.

"Yes," Riley said honestly. "But David ordered the retreat. He said experienced pilots had a better chance of bringing back useful intelligence about Phantom. That the mission was more important than..." She stopped, unable to finish.

"Than our lives," Nathan said. "He said the mission was more important than our lives."

For a long moment, Riley was silent. When she finally spoke, her voice was thick with emotion.

"How did you even escape from that thing? Phantom. I saw it cut Danny in half like he was made of paper, and then there was that explosion..."

"Kessler figured out we could use Danny's reactor core as a weapon," Nathan said. "Ilson made an impossible shot with his rail rifle to detonate it."

Riley looked at Ilson with something approaching respect. "You hit a reactor core with a rail rifle while under fire from that monster?"

Ilson shrugged, but Nathan could see the pride in his eyes. "Seemed like the thing to do at the time."

"Jesus," Riley said. "Maybe you guys are better than I had you pegged for."

"Riley," Nathan said gently, "when Mora ordered the retreat, did you want to stay and help us?"

Riley's expression darkened. "Of course I did. But David was the squad leader, and he said our priority was getting intelligence back to base. He said..." She paused, her voice growing bitter. "He said that's what Danny would have wanted."

"You weren't being naive," Nathan said. "You were being human."

Ilson leaned forward. "Riley, I have to ask, where's Mora now?"

"Getting drunk at some strip club in the civilian district," Riley said with disgust. "Said he needed to 'decompress' after losing Danny. But the way he talked about it..." She shook her head. "Like Danny's death was just an unfortunate operational outcome."

The room fell silent. Nathan could see the conflict playing out on Riley's face, loyalty to the UNSC that had trained her, horror at what that organization was actually doing, fear of the consequences if they acted on their conscience.

"Nathan," Ilson said quietly, "I know you lost Marcus, and I know you want to honor his memory, but you're not the hero here. Saving everyone isn't up to you."

Kessler shot Ilson a sharp look. "Don't bring Marcus into this."

"No, Kess," Nathan said. "It's okay. He's right." He looked at his teammates, then at Riley. "Ilson's right. I'm not the hero. I can't save everyone. But this is bigger than Marcus, bigger than my need to follow in his footsteps. This is about trying to do something that actually matters."

"And what would that be?" Riley asked.

"Stop participating in war crimes," Nathan said simply. "Stop being part of a system that treats human lives as acceptable losses. Find a way to fight for something better than resource extraction and corporate interests."

"And how exactly do you propose we do that?" Riley's voice carried a note of challenge. "Where would we go? What would we do? The UNSC will brand us as traitors and hunt us down."

"I don't know," Nathan admitted. "But I know I can't stay here and watch this happen. I can't be part of it anymore."

Riley was quiet for a long moment, staring at the evidence on Kessler's tablet. Finally, she looked up at them.

"If we did this, if we actually went through with defecting, how would we even manage it? We can't just walk off the base."

Nathan felt a flicker of hope. She was asking practical questions, not dismissing the idea outright.

"When I went to meet Damali and Jake at the restaurant yesterday, I noticed something," Nathan said. "The Meridian only has two guards. Two bored sentries standing around a ship that could carry us anywhere we wanted to go."

"You want to steal the Meridian?" Riley's voice rose in disbelief.

"I want to appropriate a military asset for a higher purpose," Nathan said with a slight smile.

"That's still theft of government property," Ilson pointed out.

"So was the Boston Tea Party," Kessler said dryly.

Riley shook her head. "Even if we could somehow steal a UNSC carrier, where would we go? Every military installation in human space would shoot us on sight."

"Not every installation," Nathan said. "There are neutral territories. Free ports. Places where people ask fewer questions about where you came from."

"There's got to be someone out there," Nathan said. "Someone who's figured it out like we have."

"And what about the anti-aircraft defenses around the city?" Riley asked. "I've seen the specs on those systems. They could swat us out of the sky before we made it to orbit." She was quiet for a moment, thinking. "Actually… I might know someone who could help with that. I have a friend in the defense systems division. Mika Tanaka. We went through basic training together before she specialized in technical operations."

"Think she'd help us?" Kessler asked.

"Maybe. She's been having her own issues with command lately." Riley paused. "Nothing like what you've shown me, but she's been complaining about the workload, the pressure to keep the systems running at full capacity around the clock. She thinks the defense posture here is excessive for the supposed threat level."

"What do you mean?" Nathan asked.

"She says they've got enough firepower to defend against a full-scale invasion, not just colonial insurgents with improvised weapons. Makes her wonder what Command really expects to be fighting."

"Well… do you think she'd help us?" Kessler asked, doubling down on her own question.

"I think she'd help us disappear," Riley said carefully. "But this is insane. You're talking about stealing a military vessel, committing treason, and running away to... where, exactly?"

"I don't know where we'll end up," Nathan said honestly. "But I know we can't stay here. Not if it means being part of this."

They sat in silence for several minutes, each of them processing the magnitude of what they were contemplating. Finally, Kessler spoke up.

"When has Nathan ever steered us wrong?" she asked, looking at Ilson and Riley. "In three years of training, when has following his lead ever been a mistake?"

"There's a difference between training exercises and committing treason," Ilson said, but his tone suggested he was wavering.

"Is there?" Nathan asked. "We've been trained to follow orders, to serve the greater good, to protect innocent people. Everything we're talking about doing serves those principles better than staying here and following orders that violate them."

Riley rubbed her forehead, looking exhausted. "If we do this, and I'm not saying we should, but if we do this, we need a real plan. Not just 'steal the ship and hope for the best.'"

"What do you have in mind?" Nathan asked.

"The manifest system," Riley said. "Every ship that leaves Acer has to file a departure manifest with traffic control. If we just try to leave without proper authorization, they'll stop us before we clear the atmosphere."

"So we need authorization," Kessler said.

"Or we need to make it look like we have authorization." Riley was thinking out loud now, her tactical mind engaging with the problem. "There's another ship scheduled to depart tomorrow,The Takagi. It's a similar class to the Meridian, similar mission profile."

"What are you suggesting?" Ilson asked.

"We swap the manifests. Make it look like the Meridian is scheduled to depart instead of the Takagi. Traffic control won't question it if the paperwork looks right, and by the time they figure out what happened, we'll be long gone."

"What happens to the Takagi?" Nathan asked.

"They'll get stopped when they try to leave without proper authorization. But that's their problem, not ours." Riley paused. "And if Mika can arrange for the anti-aircraft systems to develop a convenient malfunction at the right time..."

"It could work," Kessler said slowly.

"It's still insane," Ilson said. "We're talking about throwing away our careers, our futures, everything we've worked for."

"What future?" Nathan asked. "Being sent on suicide missions to gather intelligence? Participating in war crimes? Watching our friends die for corporate profit margins?"

"Nathan's right," Riley said quietly. "Danny died today because Command decided his life was worth less than information about Phantom. How long before it's one of us? How long before we're the acceptable losses?"

The room fell silent again. Nathan could see the moment when each of them made their decision, Kessler first, her loyalty to him overriding her doubts; then Riley, her anger at Danny's death and the system that caused it finally outweighing her fear; and finally Ilson, his natural caution losing out to his sense of justice.

"Alright," Ilson said finally. "What's the timeline?"

"We have maybe eighteen hours before David notices Riley's gone and starts asking questions," Nathan said. "We need to move fast."

"The Meridian is scheduled for routine maintenance tonight," Riley said. "That gives us an excuse to be near the ship without raising suspicions. Mika's on duty at the defense station from 0600 to 1800 tomorrow."

"So we make our move during her shift," Kessler said.

"What about supplies?" Ilson asked practically. "Food, fuel, equipment?"

"The Meridian is designed for extended deployments," Riley said. "It should have everything we need for several weeks, maybe longer. And we can top off the fuel tanks during the 'maintenance' tonight."

"Where do we go once we're off Acer?" Kessler asked.

Nathan was quiet for a moment. "I don't know. Maybe we try to find someone else who's asking the same questions we are. Someone who's figured out that all sides in this war are doing terrible things."

"That's a pretty slim hope," Ilson said.

"It's the only hope we've got," Nathan replied.

They spent the next several hours working out the details. Riley would contact Mika and arrange for the anti-aircraft systems to malfunction at precisely 0900 the next morning. Kessler would handle the manifest swap, using her technical knowledge to access the traffic control database. Ilson would prepare their Titan Frames for transport, making sure they were loaded and secured aboard the Meridian. Nathan would coordinate everything and be ready to pilot the ship when the time came.

It was a plan that required perfect timing, absolute trust, and more luck than any of them were comfortable depending on. But it was also their only chance to escape a system that treated them as expendable assets rather than human beings.

"There's no going back from this," Riley said as they finalized the details. "Once we start, we're committed. No matter what happens."

"I know," Nathan said. "Are you sure about this?"

Riley thought about Danny's death, about the casual way Command had written off their lives, about the civilian casualties hidden in sanitized reports. "I'm sure," she said.

"Damali?" Nathan asked.

"When has following you ever been a mistake?" she replied with a smile that didn't quite hide her fear.

"Ilson?"

"Someone needs to keep you all from getting killed," Ilson said with forced lightness. "Might as well be me."

Nathan looked at his squadmates, former squadmates, he supposed, since they were about to become something else entirely. Fugitives, maybe. Traitors, certainly, by UNSC standards. But also, perhaps, the first step toward something better.

"Alright," he said. "Tomorrow morning, we become the crew of the UNSC Meridian. And we find out what's really happening in this war."

Outside their quarters, the night shift was beginning, and the base settled into its quieter rhythm. Tomorrow, when the sun rose over Nyulassy City, four young soldiers would make a choice that would define the rest of their lives.

They just hoped they would live long enough to see where that choice led them.