He was standing by a side-door, one I'd dismissed as just another part of the facility. His posture was rigid, the barrel of his weapon pointing downward, a clear sign of no immediate threat.

  My heart was a drumbeat in my chest, pounding out a rhythm of hope and fear as I made my way over. "What do you mean he's here?" I demanded, my voice betraying the sudden rush of adrenaline.

  Koog didn't answer, just stepped aside, revealing a figure slumped against the wall in a badly torn Revix battleskin. Priest was still holding his weapon, that probably saved his life, I thought. Even from a distance, I could make out the rise and fall of his chest. He was breathing. Alive.

  "Son of a bitch," I whispered, the words a prayer and a curse as I knelt beside him. "Priest?"

  His eyes fluttered open, confusion warring with recognition. "Kovach?" His voice was weak, barely above a whisper. "Thought I was dead..."

  "Not yet, buddy," I said, a grin splitting my face, relief washing over me in an almost painful wave. "Not yet."

  We needed answers—how he got here, what he knew. But looking at him, seeing the pallor of his skin and the way his hands shook, those questions could wait. He was barely alive, and for now, that was going to need to be enough.

  I turned to Koog, clapping him on the shoulder with a gloved hand. "Good job, Corpsman. Can you help him?"

  “Of course!” The large Marine medic was already pulling out the portable Autodoc unit and inserting IV lines. “He was using this?”

  I looked at the generic looking tube of cream.

  “Can’t imagine it was doing much good, though,” Koog said.

  I laughed, “This shit works miracles, Marine. Anadium, one of the little gifts we borrowed from the other side. It's a nano healing gel, use it sparingly. It will fix him up pronto! Believe me, I know it works.”

  Priest just nodded, the corners of his mouth turning up in a rare smile. Against all odds, we were still pulling each other away from the brink. “I knew I would find you, brother!” His voice was weary and weak, but it was my friend.

  “You did, man, you did.” I patted his shoulder, then pulled him close, his head resting on my shoulder. “We will get through this,” I whispered. Thinking that this man just voluntarily came to hell to try and help me. That was love, that was duty, that was family.

  The command center, with all its secrets, suddenly felt less like a trap and more like a starting point. We had another warrior. He wasn’t in great shape yet, and I had a ton of questions for him, but it felt good, getting the band back together. Now it was time to put the pieces together and take the fight to whoever had tried to bury us.

  "Help me lay him flat," Koog said to Riker. "I've got work to do."

  As Koog and Riker gently hoisted Priest into a more suitable position, laying him on a set of mats they'd found, I turned my attention back to the screens. There was still a mountain of intel to sift through, and with Ada back online, we could cut through the digital noise faster.

  "Ada, what have you got for me?" I asked, my eyes scanning the streams of data that flowed across the displays like a digital river. “Did Priest trigger that false signal to lure us here?”

  "It’s possible, Joe, but that implies Mister Taggert is a lot more capable with technology than I had assumed.”

  I nodded in understanding.

  “There is a series of encrypted files here," Ada's voice piped in, clear and focused. "High-level stuff. It's going to take some time to crack, but from the metadata, it looks important."

  I nodded, my thoughts racing. "Important how?"

  "Logs of communications, high command directives, maybe even the origins of the dampening field," she elaborated. "And something else...I'm detecting references to a project code name that keeps cropping up: 'Project Revenant.'"

  "Revenant, huh?" I echoed, the word leaving a bitter taste. "Like the old movie or…"

  “The word means ‘Ones coming back,’” she said ominously.

  Priest stirred, his voice a gravelly whisper, "Bayou, she…she…."

  I glanced back at Priest with a furrowed brow. "You hold tight. We're going to figure this out." Turning to Ada, I continued, "Work on those files. Anything you can give me, any leads."

  Koog finished up his treatment and set up a perimeter check, his suit’s sensors extending our security net around the command center. Riker, after making sure Priest was as comfortable as could be, joined Koog in the sweep. Lux’s voice chimed in through the comm, the Decimator still standing sentinel at the entrance, “You think that Revenant thing is linked to the attacks, to the Furies?” He’d obviously been following the activities inside the building.

  I shrugged. “It’s a solid lead,” I said. “And right now, solid is good enough.” Still, I didn’t like the feeling that we’d been manipulated into finding this place and the bigger question—did that mean that I was meant to find Priest, or was that just a coincidence?

  Right. There are no coincidences in war.

  “Kovach,” Ada interrupted, urgency in her synthetic tone. “I’ve managed to decrypt a fragment of the data. It’s... it’s a list of names. RDT members.”

  I straightened up, my focus narrowing. “Any names I’d recognize?”

  “There’s two,” she paused, and I could almost picture her digital brow furrowing. “One is yours, Kovach.”

  The air in the room seemed to grow colder. My name on some black-ops list wasn’t the kind of news that brought comfort. It brought questions, the kind that didn’t always have answers you wanted to hear.

  “And the other?”

  “I think you already know, Joe. Bayou told you before you jumped ship.”

  “He’s dead,” I said.

  “He’s still on the list,” she replied.

  "Keep digging, Ada," I said, my voice steady. "We need to know what this project is about. And why our names are on that list."

  As I looked around at my team, at Priest recovering and Lux in his Decimator, I felt uneasy, it seemed we were constantly playing catchup, and no soldier likes feeling that way. But with Ada back and firing on all cylinders, maybe we had a fighting chance again.

  I'd asked Ada how much of what had transpired in the last few weeks she was aware of. I didn't know if she’d been completely offline or just unable to communicate.

  "All of it, Joseph. I've been cataloging and filing every bit of intel you have come across. I was simply unable to access your comms or even your neural pathways to let you know. The field they are using is ingenious and had to be targeted to the particular channels I am designed to operate in."

  That was good to know. I wanted to know how she had finally circumvented them, but that could wait. "So, what conclusions have you come up with? And can you help get us out of this Red Zone?"

  "My conclusions are incomplete and probably mirror your own. The Order has gone to great lengths to hide something in this geographic area. I have no idea how far the dampening field reaches, but at the altitude I first encountered it, I am assuming it is an immense area. From your encounters with Solomon, they may be looking for an artifact, although your distrust of anything he said was on point. Lastly, we have to fully get the dampening field down in order to signal for an exfil."

  "Good enough," I said. "Let's get to work. Banshee Team has a new mission. Shut down this dampening field and maybe figure out what The Order's next move is."

  CHAPTER

  TWENTY-SIX

  The abandoned command center had become our temporary fortress, the flickering screens painting our faces in a ghostly glow. I was piecing together the fragmented intel from Project Revenant, but every lead felt like grabbing at smoke. Priest, unconscious on the makeshift cot, was also a concern. I wanted…no, needed to know what he was doing here.

  “Kovach,” Koog’s voice drew me out of my funk. “You think he knew something; I mean, before he dropped?”

  I shook my head, gazing at Priest’s still form. “Hard to say, no idea how long he’s been here. Maybe he learned more about who was attacking us. Whatever made him drop alone I want to know, that’s not in the rulebook, unless you're me. I also need to know about Deb, Halo, and Gi. I am very curious if Captain Valyn is still in charge up there.”

  "Or if the Stone Mountain is still up there," the Marine said somberly.

  The room felt cramped, the air heavy with the scent of electronics and stale sweat. Lux’s Warbot, a hulking shadow at the entrance, was our only real muscle if Solomon decided to come knocking anytime soon.

  "Joe, I have urgent information on enemy forces," Ada offered.

  Something about the way she phrased that triggered something in my subconscious. "Hit me."

  Her reply was immediate, a hint of urgency in her tone. "Solomon’s forces appear to be converging on our location. We have a narrow window before they’re upon us."

  "Fuck! And how do you know that?"

  “I have intermittent access to active sensor arrays deployed from this complex.”

  I cursed again under my breath. We were running out of time. I hit the comms channel. “Prep for a potential siege. We can’t let them take this place. No way to move Priest. How much time do we have, Ada?" I knew she was using makeshift sensors we had dropped, failing satellites in high orbit, and drone coverage from the Decimator assets for intel.

  "Just over an hour."

  Koog nodded, moving to check our ammo supplies, while Riker set up a backup defensive perimeter inside the facility. The tension was quickly becoming a living thing, coiling around us, ready to strike.

  Lux’s voice, tinged with anxiety, echoed from the Warbot. "What if they come in force?"

  I looked at him out there, the weight of command had never been heavier on my shoulders. “Then we give them hell.”

  The air was stuffy, and I needed space. I moved past the Warbot and called Sumo. “Let’s go get Bishop's battlesuit.” It wasn't far, but I was on edge. Whatever I’d been feeling in the command center was magnified out here. My spidey-sense, as the team called it, was layered intuition and battle scars. Some fears were real, especially when you were wandering out here in the waste. I should have gotten the damn armor yesterday, but it had just felt wrong. Now, the owner was going to need it.

  The battle armor was right where we left it. I examined it again and realized not just the P-cells but the connections themselves were fried. Damn thing would have weighed a ton without the mechanical assist. I amped up my own power assist, slung the suit’s torso over my back, and let the leg portion drag behind me. I was leaving a very obvious trail, but Solomon’s people seemed to be able to find us anyway.

  The WitchWalker appeared suddenly just ahead of me, her ethereal presence a stark contrast to the badlands we were traversing. She seemed agitated, pacing like a caged animal. Her connection to all this chaos was a puzzle, but her unease was as clear as a warning siren.

  “What is wrong?” I asked. I knew I would get no answer. “Ada, any idea what has her so upset?”

  “Scanning, Prowler, nothing yet. I think it is safe to assume that Solomon has patrols out looking for her…and all of you. Likely she wants the man dead.”

  "That figures," I muttered, angrily. The girl was troubling on so many levels. I knew she was human, but damn, she appeared more. I could get more intelligent conversation from Sumo than her, but still, I somehow felt that she was trying to help us.

  Twenty minutes later, I was back inside the command center the team had been busy transforming into a more usable battlespace. They would come, I knew that, and I had a feeling the Witch was drawing all of her creatures close as well.

  I dropped the combat suit at Priest's feet. "Riker, see if you can get him some fresh P-Cells, and resolder those contacts. Maybe he’ll wake up before they get here. Either way, he needs protection if we have to make a stand. This chamber will be a bullet magnet."

  Night had fallen, and with it, the ominous cloak of an impending attack. We knew Solomon’s warriors wouldn’t be subtle; they’d come at us with everything they had. The command center was a big-ass target in the night, a target screaming for attention.

  Koog and Riker were like coiled springs, ready to unleash at the first sign of trouble. Lux was again our ace in the hole. I hated what it was doing to the kid’s emotional well-being, but shit…it had to be better than being dead.

  I checked on Priest again, hoping for any sign of consciousness. But he was still out, lost in whatever nightmares were playing behind his closed eyelids. We’d have to face whatever came without his help.

  “Kovach,” Riker’s voice was tense, “I’ve got movement. Multiple hostiles approaching from the north.”

  I moved to his side, peering into the darkness. The screens showed blips, a swarm of them, converging on our position. “Here we go,” I said, my voice a low growl. “Positions, everyone. This is it.”

  Lux’s tiny voice sounded nervous, and I couldn't blame him. He was in the most exposed location; I knew he was going to take fire, but he was our muscle. His job was to guard the entrance to the command center.

  The first wave hit us like a hammer. Solomon’s men, emboldened by their numbers, came at us hard and fast. But we were ready and pushed them back with our own assload of pent-up aggression.

  Bullets flew, ricocheting off the walls of the command center. Lux’s Warbot roared into action, its guns a symphony of destruction. Koog and Riker returned fire as well with more disciplined bursts, each shot a potential death sentence.

  The WitchWalker was beside me, her gyrating movements a blur of deadly grace. She wasn’t just a bystander; she was a warrior in her own right, her presence adding to the chaos we unleashed on our attackers. As she moved, creatures of the night swept in on the attacking force cutting them down, in some cases devouring them in the process. Our command center only offered a few firing lines, but we were taking full advantage of them. “Koog, watch our six," I yelled, almost too late.

  Another force, a larger force had come up on that side, our blind side. The group we were fighting was just a distraction. What really pissed me off was they were using rifles and ammo I had given them. Well, now we had replenishing stock down below, so I let the plasma rounds fly.

  As the battle raged, I couldn’t help but wonder what was driving this enemy. Surely, stealing one of their prisoners wasn't enough to piss them off this bad. Then again, we had released Furies into their compound. Most likely, it had become a killing field in there.

  But right now, none of that mattered. Right now, it was about survival, about protecting what was ours. My Rattler pushed fire downrange with deadly accuracy moving from target to target with practiced ease. I had to trust the others were doing the same, as my world had narrowed down to the scene on the other end of my gunsight. Breathe, center, squeeze, adjust. Targets dropped, and more took their place. It was going to be a long night.

  CHAPTER

  TWENTY-SEVEN

  We had barely a moment to catch our breath after repelling the first wave of Solomon's attackers. The central room, its walls now bearing the signs of the ongoing fight, was not a great location, but much better than being outside. Outside where the boy was, I had to remind myself. We knew Solomon was not going to stop now that he had us trapped.

  I checked on Priest again, but he was still out cold, oblivious to the chaos around him. "Hang in there, buddy," I whispered, my mind racing with plans and contingencies. We'd managed to get his suit on the big man, but it was not attached properly and mostly just doing the basics of covering his head and vital organs.

  "Ada, do you have remote control of the Warbot?"

  "Affirmative, Prowler," was her instant reply. "Lux Reynolds is handling the controls himself, though. He is as fast as I would be with most defensive systems."

  That was good. The firing was subsiding outside. I felt sure they were just reloading or working out an alternate strategy. As long as they hadn’t brought along any of the crewed weapons, I thought we would be fine.

  The floor shook violently, and far off in the distance I caught sound of a massive explosion. Ada remained silent letting me know she had no information on whatever it was.

  I moved back to the main console, my fingers dancing over the controls as I accessed more of Project Revenant's files. Ada's voice filled my helmet. "It seems the project was about control of the human population through whatever means were necessary."

  “Control? What the hell does that mean?” I growled, my eyes scanning the decrypted files.

  “They were playing God, Kovach,” Ada replied. “Genetic manipulation, terraforming technologies, advanced AI—all part of a grand design to reshape the world. The plan goes deep.”

  Control of humanity. That was scary as shit. A utopia project or a madman’s dream? Either way, it was clear we were up against something much bigger than just a rogue military project or synchronized terrorist attack. "Someone wanted us to find this, Ada. Do what you can to verify that any of this is valid…and maybe more important, what is actionable."

  Lux’s voice crackled over the comm, pulling me back to the present. "Prowler, we've got more incoming. Looks like they're regrouping for another push."

  I clenched my fists, feeling the weight of the armor around me. "All right, guys, let’s get ready to give them another warm Banshee welcome. Koog, Riker, check your firing lanes. Lux, keep that Warbot singing that song."

  As I looked out of the shattered viewport, I saw them—a dark mass moving against the twilight, Solomon's raiders, hungry for revenge. I flipped down my visor, the HUD lighting up with targeting reticles and tactical data.

  "Get some guys!" I yelled, my voice a steel blade of readiness. "Let's show these clowns what happens when you fuck with Banshee Team."

  The raiders surged forward like a tide of hate, but we were not giving one more fucking inch. The command center again filled with the sounds of gunfire and explosions, each shot hammering home our need to rid the planet of people like this.