Elin
The helicopter touched down and the two of them exited, Kallore ducking extra low to avoid the rotors and excessive wind. She ran with him, sheltered by his body as they slowed to a walk a dozen yards outside of the blades.
“That was fun,” he admitted. “But it’s nothing compared to soaring through the sky unencumbered, riding the thermals higher and diving for the ground before pulling up just in time.”
She clamped her lips tight as he described the experience. It wasn’t the first time, and she doubted it would be the last. But Elin just didn’t have the heart to tell him to be quiet. Not when the joy was written on his face plain as day, the bounce in his step increased tenfold. Kal was genuinely at peace with himself and the world when he relived those memories, and she wasn’t going to strip him of that. He had enough pain in his past; she needed him to remember the good as well.
“I’m just glad we didn’t have to drive, or take commercial transport.”
“Well, your stature sure has shot up recently.”
“It’s all thanks to you,” she grumbled, still not sure how to react to the wealth of resources suddenly available to her.
The video of Kallore taking on the Outsider and tossing it around like a ragdoll had made the rounds of a select few officers and highly positioned government officials shortly after it occurred. Although they tried to make it very clear that he hadn’t killed the thing, and that there could still be more of them out there, the brass had been properly excited at the prospect of having a superweapon that they could actually unleash for once.
Which meant that Colonel Elin Mara was abruptly elevated into the good books, and told that she had but to ask, and if it was within their power, it would be granted to her. She’d even received a signed letter from the president praising her good work.
The mission that she’d thought would be her last—which would result in her leaving the army—was now going to change her entire career. It had been close, and she’d almost caved. But with Kallore at her side and the backing of her superiors, she was ready for anything the world could throw at them. Which is why, in preparation for the next steps, she’d brought him out to view the portal itself so that he could glimpse just what awaited them.
“You earned it just as much as I did,” he muttered as they walked through the base. “You stood your ground and fought just as hard as I did, in your own way. Without you stalling for time, I wouldn’t have been able to recover and do what I did. They should acknowledge that.”
“They have.” They were going over old ground now. “That’s why they gave me carte blanche and said that whatever it took to get more dragons to fight for us, they would do it. That’s not something they give out every day.”
Kal didn’t respond; his head was craning left and right. They had taken the helicopter from Fort Stark to the newly expanded Fort Banner, the location that housed the portal itself. With the realization that some of the Outsiders had slipped into their world and were now moving undetected, the army had decided to up their game. Another two battalions of troops equipped with the latest advanced weaponry and gear had been deployed to the base, and they were so new that the paint was still drying on their buildings.
“This...is a lot of firepower,” Kallore said as they moved through the area, passing tanks, highly secret battlesuits, and other tech that Elin knew the public had no knowledge even existed.
Such as the portable-railgun heavy weaponry section they were just passing through. She was curious to see what one of those would do to an Outsider. Or what the larger track-mounted versions would do to one of their walkers. The army was no longer taking the Outsider threat half-assed. They were worried, and rightly so.
It was assumed the trio of Outsiders that had first appeared had now disappeared into human civilization. To the tacticians in the military, that screamed one thing. Scouts. And a good scout always tried to get information home. Which meant going back through the portal.
“I thought the portal was in the mountain?” Kal asked as he looked behind them at the heavily fortified and patrolled walls.
“It is. But now they have to worry about attack from outside as well, in case the scouts try to make their way home.”
He glanced past the walls and farther down the hill, out of the mountain. She followed his gaze and nodded. “That’s Barton City down there.”
“Awfully close.”
“We have covert teams deployed throughout the city to act as first responders until the heavy guns up here can mobilize. In the event that the Outsiders come through from their side, they’ll act to help evacuate as many people as possible. We’re also moving a bus line into the city that will house nearly a hundred buses on site, just on the outskirts of the city. It’s not much, but five thousand people is five thousand people. We have other plans as well. Lots of road widenings are going to be happening over the next few years on the evacuation routes.”
Kallore nodded. “I would have called this all overkill if you’d shown me at first. But now…” He shivered and reached for her hand.
Despite herself Elin caught his fingers and held onto them. Every time they talked about it, she remembered the face of the Outsider as it reached in to steal her life. How very humanlike it had looked, despite the features barely being etched into the surface of the armor. It gave her nightmares, and she’d woken up more than once to find Kal holding her tight, whispering into her ear that it would be okay, that he would be there to protect her, no matter what.
Eventually they reached the portal. Nobody had stopped them. Everyone knew the pair by now, even if it was their first visit to Fort Banner. Their pictures had made the rounds, especially Kallore’s, but even hers, to Elin’s surprise. They weren’t worshipped as heroes, but respected as soldiers.
Which is all she’d ever wanted upon joining the army, and had been denied to her for so long.
“By the gods,” he whispered, stepping forward as they emerged into the cavern that housed the portal.
It was huge now. Nearly a hundred feet tall and easily that wide, it flickered and crackled with energy. Scientists and their equipment were arrayed all around it, taking readings and doing who knew what to it. Scientist-y things, she supposed. That wasn’t her area.
“What are they doing?” he asked, pointing at the cluster of women and men in white coats.
“Trying to figure out a way to close it. It’s our best hope for ending it before the war even starts.”
Kallore nodded, walking up to the portal itself. He stared at it, trying to peer through the murky darkness contained within its purplish borders. There was nothing to see though, she knew that. Elin had sat there and stared for nearly an hour after first being assigned the mission and made aware of everything going on.
“You can’t see through it,” she said. “And right now going through would probably kill even you. The radiation on the other side is still too high from the nuke.”
He nodded, stepping back and walking over to her, casting one more look over his shoulder. “So how do you know the details of what’s on the other side?”
“We send robots through. A lot of them. Most don’t come back. Those that do often have scrambled readings. But we get enough back that they provide images and readings of the conditions.”
She showed him to a bank of monitors. One of the techs, having overheard her, pulled up the latest video footage, allowing Kallore to see the ranks of walkers and other Outsiders pulled up roughly a mile behind the lines. Waiting. Eerily silent and unmoving.
“Elin?” he said after staring for five minutes.
“Yes?”
“You’re going to need more dragons.” He turned to look at her. “A lot more dragons.”