Chapter 15: Partners

McConnel

Lieutenant Patterson turned around. “Yes?”

“I know we’re in a bit of a hurry, but before we leave, I’d like to check out one of the offices here,” explained Riley.

“Right. Nick mentioned that you worked here?”

“Yes, but the office I want to check is Trevor’s. He was quite clumsy, so there’s a chance that he may have forgotten to hide the more sensitive information when we attacked.”

The lieutenant nodded and then turned to Captain Kingsley. “Can you get the APC ready while I help McConnel with his burglary?”

“Certainly,” he said with a smile. “I have a few stories in my pocket so take as much time as you need.”

“Right. We’ll try not to hurry too much.”

Riley’s office was located on the third floor of the building, though it technically wasn’t his. He and Trevor shared one ever since Riley’s demotion, and if he still kept his things in that drawer of his, there was a good chance that Riley would find something exciting.

On the way up, he decided to break up the silence. “We didn’t have much of a chance to talk yet.”

“Nope,” Patterson replied quickly.

Riley then stopped. After taking a deep breath he continued.

“Look, I’m not that good when it comes to thanking people, but I wanted to tell you that I appreciate you coming here to our aid,” he explained while trying his best to not sound too corny. “When I got demoted in the ANC for saving a group of people I gave up on the military and its officers, but you and your unit did a pretty good job at restoring my faith in them.”

Patterson patted Riley on his shoulder, then they continued walking upwards. “Believe it or not I actually heard about that event.”

“Oh, you did?”

“Surprising, I know. I also saw the reason for the demotion. Blatantly disobeying orders and having extreme disregard for your personal safety just so that you can rescue a few hostages? It gives a new meaning to bravery, that’s for sure.”

Riley looked down at the floor. “I sure as hell didn’t feel brave when I got back to the base without my squad.”

“Losing men under your command is always hard. And trust me, I know. But what’s important is to not give up and keep going forward.”

“Yes, I know…”

They walked forward in silence for a while until Patterson broke the silence. “You know Nick mentioned that you didn’t want him going with you at first. Is this the reason behind that? You were afraid you’d end up losing him too?”

Riley lowered his head. Patterson managed to hit the nail straight on its head.

“Yes. This is also why I almost lost my mind when he told me that you had orders not to evacuate until the mission was complete. So many people died over the years to keep my ass safe, and quite honestly, I’m not sure if I’m worth it. I lost my first squad, Collins, my family probably…”

Patterson looked at Riley with a raised eyebrow. Riley never talked with anybody about his past most of the time, especially his family, and while it seemed like the lieutenant wasn’t going to judge him, Riley figured that there would be a better place and time to discuss this.

“Well, if it makes you feel any better, I went through the exact same thing as you do now,” Patterson said.

“Really?”

“Yes,” he replied as he took off his beret.

The lieutenant had a long scar on his head buried below his coal-black hair, running from his forehead to his temple, pretty much splitting his head in half. Riley couldn’t see it before due to the beret Patterson was wearing. “That’s a souvenir from Grarrak city,” he explained. “My helmet caught a throwing axe, but it didn’t do much against it. It would have been a whole lot worse if it wasn’t for Daniel and Rockfield dragging me out of there though.”

“Is that how he lost his arm?” asked Riley.

“Yes, while Rockfield got shot in the throat and has been in a coma since then. However, the point is that I was mad at both the world and Daniel for what happened for weeks, just like you right now.”

Riley looked away again. “I’m not mad at the world, I’m just––”

“Riley, every single soldier wants to curse the world out of existence at some point in their life, and they all have their own share of nightmares. Things that haunt us day and night. Things that we or others did, whether willingly or because of an order.”

He then put his beret back onto his head. “You out of all people should realize that you can’t control what others do. If I was awake when Daniel and Rockfield were dragging me out I would have told them to leave me behind. But I wasn’t, and Daniel made his choice, and even though it cost him a limb he never once regretted that decision. And when I spoke to him after yet another one of our arguments he told me that he would have dragged me out of there even if both of his legs were missing, because he wasn’t going to leave his friend behind.”

“Sounds like Collins…”

“I know you’re upset right now about everything that’s happening and that you think you’re not worth it. But, instead of being mad at people like Collins, you should be grateful to life that you have people like them watching your back.”

They walked in silence afterwards. Riley wasn’t exactly feeling better or worse now that he told somebody the thing that’s been bothering him for years, but instead he felt lighter. More clear-headed. When they finally reached the office, Riley was surprised to see it was locked. “Huh. He never kept the doors locked before…”

Patterson stared at the lock for a bit before he crouched down to take a closer look at it. After observing it for a while he stood back up. “There is definitely something attached to this lock…”

“Well, I know one way to fix that.”

Without further clarification, Riley walked over to the door and kicked it in. For once he didn’t mind that he wasn’t that tall, because if he was a few centimeters taller the saw blade that launched as soon as the door opened would have flown right into Riley’s forehead. Instead, the blade just cut a small part of his hair off and flew right into the wall behind them.

The two of them both stared at the saw blade for a while before Patterson finally spoke up without taking his eyes off from the wall. “…how about we be a bit more careful from now on?”

“You got it...”

Riley fully expected to find Trevor’s office completely trashed and filled with garbage. Instead, that room was probably the cleanest thing in a five-kilometer radius. The floors and the walls were sparklingly clean, and the plants were green and full of life.

As Patterson looked through the office, he whistled with an impressed look on his face. “This is one fine office you have here McConnel.”

Riley just shook his head in disbelief. He decided to check Trevor’s computer while Patterson took a look around in his cabinets. Trevor’s computer turned on, but the screen immediately notified Riley that the computer didn’t have a data-drive. Judging from the open window, Trevor must have thrown the storage unit out of it when Rhino and the others stormed the building.

He had to give credit to the man for his quick thinking, but he also hoped that he burned in hell if there was an afterlife.

There wasn’t anything else worth looking at other than just how ridiculously clean the office was, and how ugly that bookshelf was on the other side of the room, so Riley just leaned back into his chair.

About a minute passed by when Patterson called Riley. He showed him a small button inside one of the drawers.

“Ooo! A hidden button! Wanna press it? I bet it opens a secret door…” blurted Riley excitedly.

“…or it could be attached to an IED waiting for someone careless enough to press that button.”

That was an excellent point, but Riley didn’t want to waste more time than necessary, so he just shrugged and pushed it. Patterson immediately tackled him onto the floor to shield him from the exploding bomb that was probably hidden behind the drawer. However, no explosion came, and the only thing that changed in the room was that one of the bookshelves was moving.

“Hah! Told you it was a door!” exclaimed Riley as he was looking at the moving bookcase.

“Maybe the bomb has a timer…”

There was definitely another room behind the bookcase, but just as they were about to get up from the floor and enter, Weiss walked up to their office with a glass in her hand that was filled with some sort of white liquid that reminded Riley of coconut juice. With Paks being located right on top of Azuno’s equator, and the conditions being excellent for planting coconut trees and growing other tropical fruits, it was possible that that’s what she was drinking.

Weiss looked at the saw blade in the wall and then turned to the two soldiers on the floor with one eyebrow raised. She didn’t seem amused. Riley just smiled back and gave a thumbs up.

“Found anything interesting?” she asked after rolling her eyes.

“That we did,” said Patterson as he stood up and helped Riley back onto his feet.

The three of them walked into the room, and Riley pretty much saw exactly what he expected to find. A dark room, filled with folders, editing equipment, a green screen, and of course a large green and grey flag with a planet symbol. Riley could clearly see that the Planet was Azuno, but otherwise, he had no idea what the flag represented, or whose it was. As for the room itself, he concluded that making a more cliché secret room would have been pretty much impossible, even for somebody as “talented” as Trevor.

Patterson looked around the room and crossed his arms. “Quite the equipment your colleague had here,”

“So,” said Weiss as she took a sip from her mug. “What are we looking for in here?”

Riley didn’t answer but instead walked over to the mounted camera in front of the green screen. It was Riley’s old video camera which had actual armor plating on it. He grabbed it and opened the storage slot. He wasn’t surprised at all to find it empty.

“My old camera,” Riley said in a monotone voice. “Trevor told me that these “terrorists” smashed everything in the office including my camera. I figured that if he lied about his “employment”, he might have lied about the fate of this thing as well.”

“Any idea what he needed it for?” asked Cole.

Riley scratched the back of his head. “Not sure, but this is a proper studio all right. Maybe he wanted to manipulate my recordings in a way, or perhaps this is where that voice recording you found was made.”

Patterson didn’t say anything else. While he and Weiss continued looking around, Riley took out his other camera and he removed its storage card, then placed it into the plated one. There wasn’t anything else noteworthy in the room, and the folders only contained Riley’s recordings of the invasion. Since he had backups of it on that memory card, he decided to leave the folders there. The fact that they were in this room however proved that someone did want to manipulate his recordings, though, for what purpose, he didn’t know.

After a bit of thinking, he eventually decided to leave with the others. As he was about to leave the office however, he saw a crate on the floor that was unlocked. He pointed at it while looking at Patterson. The Lieutenant just shrugged, so Riley took off the crate’s lid.

“Huh… I guess he did keep our gear.”

Inside the box were two pairs of blue armor vests, along with two matching helmets.

“Something I should know about?”

“When my old captain politely told me to get back to Aftonia after my notorious hostage rescue, we had to give back our gear. On the plane ride back, Trevor bought an extra backpack with himself. I asked him what was inside, but he said it was just food.”

Weiss shook her head. “Not a single honest word has left that guy’s mouth, huh?”

Riley nodded, then he and Patterson went back down the staircase as soon as Riley put on his old military gear. They said goodbye again to Weiss on the way back down.

Before they left the office building, Riley grabbed a roll of duct tape and taped the plated camera to his helmet. Patterson raised an eyebrow when he saw that, but Riley just simply told him that this way he wouldn’t lose it again for sure.

*

When they finally made their way back down to the rest of the team, Captain Kingsley was telling how he and Captain Brown fought off an entire APC by themselves after their crash landing. When Nick saw Riley’s duct-taped blue helmet he tried to hide his laughter, only to then burst out anyway.

“Wow, nice helmet buddy.”

Corporal Hopkins on the other hand seemed curious. “That looks like one of the older models we used. We replaced them because the soldiers felt that they were a bit too heavy, but I always preferred these over the new ones.”

“These are stronger than the AMC ones, right?” asked Riley. “Because after seeing how clean of a hole Ira shot into the one Nick has…”

Hopkins was about to reply when Kingsley spoke up. “Alright soldiers, I think we wasted enough time here. Who’s driving?”

“I am!” said Daniel and Hopkins at once.

They both looked at each other with lowered eyebrows. Riley turned on his helmet camera.

“I have more experience, and my rank is also higher. I’m driving.” Daniel argued.

“Experience? The last time you drove this girl, you went right into the wall of a building, and you also crashed your glider! I’m driving!” retorted Hopkins.

“Crashing is an essential part of the Rhino platoon experience!”

Riley wanted to watch the fight for longer, but Patterson separated them. In the end, the two tech-nuts settled the matter with an ancient game of rock, paper, and scissors. A minute later the squad was inside Rhino’s air-dropped APC, with Daniel in the driving seat and a grumpy Hopkins sitting next to him. Nick seemed disappointed that he wasn’t with the mechanic, who he seemed to have been spending a lot of time with, but the fact that he was sitting in the gunner seat again probably made him feel better.

“Alright Sergeant, get us to that prison on the double!” Kingsley shouted as he knocked on the driving compartment’s door three times.

The APC started rolling forward. Riley wasn’t sure how long it would take for them to get to their destination, but he was more concerned about the upcoming firefight itself. He took comfort in the fact that the soldiers in the T-Croc were all veterans except Hopkins, who made up for her lack of experience with her technical knowledge. Riley figured that he’d get some rest while they were traveling.

Or at least that’s what he wanted to do before Patterson spoke up.

“North, did you learn anything about the Claymore cannon that we found at the roof?”

“Nothing new LT. Howitzers like this are cutting-edge technology so normally a terrorist group shouldn’t have them. That said, I don’t think we’re dealing with simple dissidents anymore, given what we heard on the recording.”

“Indeed,” replied Nick. He was keeping an eye on the road, but he was sitting on top of the ladder that led to his seat so that he could hear the conversation. “...and what I would like to know is how a group like them managed to get all of this gear without anybody getting suspicious.”

“They didn’t, they just used operated under multiple names,” explained Kingsley. “This Danuvee’s Defenders group wasn’t the first terrorist group operating in Aftonia. Before them we already dealt with another two ever since the Grarrak city invasion, but as we can see the assholes keep popping back up.”

Riley raised his eyebrows. “You think these groups are the same?”

“It’s just a guess at this point Priva––.” He suddenly stopped when he realized his mistake. “Oh, my apologies. Anyway, it’s just a gut feeling Riley.”

Patterson raised his head and quickly looked around the passenger compartment. He then walked over to the driver’s door and knocked on it. After he exchanged a few words that Riley couldn’t hear, the lieutenant went back to the compartment with Hopkins.

“Well, I wanted to do this properly,” started Cole “...but I guess it’s fitting that we do this here.”

“Do what?” Riley asked. He had no idea what Patterson was doing.

“Riley, I’m not sure if Daniel or North told you, but one of our squad members died while we were trying to regroup. We’re missing one person from our squad.”

Riley still had no idea what the Lieutenant was going for. “Right.”

“Now, we’ve only met about an hour ago, but from what I’ve seen, and what Nick told me, I think that you would be an excellent squad member.”

Patterson was trying to recruit him into Rhino.

At first, Riley wanted to punch him in the face. Why in the world would he ever willingly serve in the army that swept him under the rug because he disobeyed one order, which actually resulted in a handful of hostages being saved? As far as he was concerned the Aftonian Military Corps could eat it, but after thinking about the offer for a bit, he decided to answer differently.

“You know, if you would have told me a week ago that I was going to serve in the AMC again, I would have broken your nose.”

Captain Kingsley laughed at that, while Patterson just lowered his eyebrows.

“I’d pay to watch that!” the captain said jokingly.

“But honestly,” Riley continued “…right now you need all the help you can get. As long as I don’t have to work under someone else’s command, I’m in.”

Patterson smiled. “I’m glad to hear it. Captain Kingsley?”

The captain stood up and took out a small notebook from one of his pockets. He quickly rolled through the pages until he found what he was looking for.

“So…” he said as he cleared his throat. “…per regulation C6-M12, I hereby draft you into Rhino squad under the command of Lieutenant Cole Patterson. Until stated otherwise by a commanding officer, you are to serve under his command and follow all of his orders and blah blah blah…”

He threw his notebook behind him. “To cut it short, you’re in the AMC again at the rank of Private. Congratulations kid!”

Riley felt a strange mix of happiness, determination, and a bit of fear in his heart. But instead of thinking about it he stood up and saluted his new commanding officer. “I’m honored… sir!”

Patterson saluted back. Hopkins and Nick both seemed happy, and North was outright excited.

“You certainly earned it,” said Nick.

“No doubt about that. Might want to get your helmet repainted though.” Hopkins said with a smile.

“Or just steal one…” added North, partly seriously and partly jokingly.

They chatted for a bit then Hopkins went back to the driving compartment while Nick climbed back up to the machinegun. As Patterson went back to his seat, he looked at Riley’s armor vest, and then back at his.

A moment of hesitation later he tore off one of the Lieutenant insignias on his armor and handed it to Riley along with an extra radio.

“Here you go. We’ll get you your own once we finish our mission here, but until then keep the insignia displayed, and the radio charged. We don’t want the others to think that you’re just some random civilian, now do we?”

Riley stared at the insignia with wide eyes. “Are you... are you serious?”

“Well, I don’t have any other badges with me so… yes. I’m going to need that back when we’re done here though.”

McConnel shook his head in disbelief and then pinned the metal object to the front of his vest. The fact that he could later rub it into Captain Brown’s face almost made up for the events of the past week.

After the quick trade, Patterson walked back to his seat. They still had a long way to go until they reached the prison, but Riley was actually looking forward to it now.