[Location: The Extraction Point]
We hit the metal grating of the bridge. The dropship ramp was down.
"Go! Get inside!"
Miller scrambled up the ramp, hyperventilating. Elara followed, turning to cover us with her rifle.
"Jax! Move your ass!" I waved him forward.
Jax was five steps behind me. He was grinning. His faceplate was open. He looked like a kid who just won a football game.
"I told you, Boss! I told you we'd—"
BOOM.
It wasn't an enemy. It wasn't a sniper. It wasn't even aimed at us.
A Federation artillery shell—fired from a battleship in orbit—malfunctioned. It spiraled out of the sky, miles off target. A random, mathematical error.
It hit the support pillar of the bridge.
The metal groaned. The floor tilted.
Jax slipped.
"Shit!"
He slid toward the edge. Below him, the black water churned, acidic and deadly.
"JAX!"
I threw myself flat on the wet metal. My Ouroboros arm shot out. My servos whined as my metal fingers clamped around his wrist.
CRAAAACK.
The sudden weight nearly dislocated my shoulder. I grunted, tasting blood. Jax dangled over the abyss, his heavy armor pulling us both down.
"Sarge!" he screamed, his eyes wide. "Don't let go!"
"I got you!" I roared, digging my boots into the grating. "I fucking got you! Climb!"
I looked into his eyes. I saw the fear. I saw the trust.
"I promised you that pie, Jax! We are going home!"
For a second, I had him. I was strong enough. My arm was rated for two tons. I was pulling him up. He was going to live.
Then, the universe corrected the error.
The explosion above us dislodged a piece of the bridge railing. A jagged, rusted iron bar, spinning through the air.
It fell silently.
It didn't hit me. It didn't hit the ship.
It threaded the needle.
THWACK.
It hit Jax.
It entered just above his collarbone and exited through his back. It severed his spine instantly.
Jax didn't scream. He choked.
A bubble of bright, frothy blood burst from his lips. His body went rigid, then completely limp. The light in his eyes—that bright, stupid optimism—vanished in a microsecond.
I was still holding his wrist.
"Jax?" I whispered.
The dead weight swung in the wind. Blood ran down his arm, coating my metal hand, warm and sticky.
"Jax! Wake up! Climb, goddammit!"
I hauled him up. I dragged his body over the edge of the ramp just as the dropship lifted off.
I collapsed on the floor, gasping for air. Jax's body landed next to me.
Miller screamed. It was a high, thin sound.
"Jax? JAX!"
Miller crawled over, shaking the big man's shoulders. But Jax was gone. His eyes were open, staring at the ceiling, unseeing.
I lay on my back, staring at the rivets in the ship's hull. My arm was shaking. The blood on my hand was starting to cool.
I saved him from the sniper. I saved him from the mine. I saved him from the fall.
And a random piece of rusty metal killed him anyway.
[Casualty Recorded: Unit 404 - Heavy Gunner Jax.]
Vesper's voice crackled in my ear.
"Specialist Caelum. Telemetry indicates successful extraction. Casualties within acceptable parameters. Good work."
Something inside me snapped. It sounded like a dry twig breaking.
I sat up. I ripped the earpiece out of my helmet.
"Acceptable parameters?" I whispered.
"Specialist?" Vesper asked.
"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" I screamed, smashing the earpiece against the wall.
I stood up, swaying. I looked at Jax's body. I looked at Miller crying. I looked at Elara, who was staring at the floor, clutching her knees.
I walked over to the wall and punched it.
CLANG.
My Ouroboros arm left a dent in the steel.
"FUCK!"
CLANG.
"Fuck this war! Fuck your math! Fuck this loop!"
I punched the wall until my arm overheated, until the metal skin of the ship buckled. I fell to my knees, panting, sobbing dry, angry tears.
I failed. Again.
Elara walked over. She didn't say anything. She just sat down next to me on the blood-slicked floor and lit a cigarette. Her hands were shaking too.
She took a drag and handed it to me.
"Nice try, Boss," she whispered, her voice cracking. "Nice try."
I took the cigarette. I smoked it, staring at Jax's dead face, knowing that in a few days, I would have to watch Miller and Elara die too.
And there wasn't a damn thing I could do to stop it.