“You do remember we aren’t deploying to a city right? The chances of finding a Mazda logo on this one is just stupid, Rose.”

“Cap’n, you think we’ll be near any highways?”

Captain Baron was sitting across from the bickering pair of men and trying to sleep with his head resting against the harness he was strapped into. It wasn’t anywhere close to a comfortable position but it made the jarring flight go by faster. That is if he wasn’t interrupted, again.

“If you paid attention in briefing you would already know, Rose.” Baron replied without opening his eyes and sounded half asleep or half annoyed. Either way, it was obvious he didn’t care about the seriousness of the wager being bet on by his men.

“Mazda was a pretty common car though, right?” The Captain ignored him and waited for someone else to answer. Fortunately, the buzzer responded instead.

“Helmets on!” Moses yelled from the front of the dimly lit compartment they were jammed into. Six men instinctively stood up and donned their black matte colored helmets which matched the armor they wore. Moses being the oldest member of the team had the most scars both on his body and armor. Deep jagged gouges in his chest plate broke the otherwise smooth surface were a few years back a Gray had thrown him off the side of a building. It wasn’t the only defect in Moses’ pitted and worn armor but was the most noticeable. The gouges cut through his service number on his chest plate making the 1 in 187 look more like an x. He was due for a replacement piece but had been stalling. Part of him liked the old armor and it reminded him of what he’d been through. Regardless of scars and rugged treatment the team religiously cleaned and cared for the sacred suits.

The helmets made a hissing noise as they hermetically sealed. Moses didn’t need to remind them when to suit up. They had done this more times than they could remember but the old man yelling was practically a tradition at this point. The men stood together in two rows shaking back and forth as the compartment bucked and swayed. They stood as casually as someone riding a subway to work on a daily commute and for them, this was just that. A commute to the office, a drive to the yard, a walk to the plant, and in another life maybe it would have been so simple for them.

The dim white light turned a sharp red as the front of the compartment began lowering down to act as a ramp. The outside air was filled with dirt and dirty snow being blown around by the engines of the drone they were riding in. It didn’t take long for the drone to touch the snow-covered ground and the ramp to finish extending. The light turned green and they all shuffled for the door as the engines drowned out any noises they made. The drone lifted a few inches as each man stepped off the ramp, their heavy suits no longer weighing it down.

The black figures fanned out along the uneven surface crouching down in intervals of several yards between each other. The snow was a dirty dishwasher color just slightly whiter than the bleak sky. It was supposed to be 1300 hours but you’d never know it by looking up. The engines from the drone blew more snow against the backs of the figures as it rose higher and higher into the black sky which swallowed it up. The noise from the engines became a distant humming before finally fading away. Leaving the men with only the whistling of the wind and the breathing inside their helmets.

Adam shifted his rifle and keyed his radio up.“Gabriel, Pale Horse on location and proceeding to the objective.” After a few seconds scanning the horizon, Baron stood up and motioned to his team to move out.

“I don’t see any damn roads.” Rose pointed out as he looked around the new surroundings while catching up with the rest of the formation.

“You wanna just pay me now?” Mouse replied as he turned in time to see Rose giving him the finger. Which brought out a chuckle in reply. They didn’t have much to gamble with as the Bastion wouldn’t allow them to bring anything from the surface back but that didn’t stop an occasional smuggling operation.

Baron didn’t mind listening to the casual banter. It was a refreshing change from the Bastion where they were expected to be polished to the point of automation. No one wanted to see a Venator being human. They were tools to the Bastion and expected to act as such. Out here on the surface of the old world though they were free men and could be themselves.

They marched through the snow for about an hour as Rose and Mouse constantly bickered about anything they saw in the distance that could be a car. The small team may have been relaxed but no doubt they were alert. The old world was their domain but they respected and understood that at any moment it could swallow them up through the many dangers it concealed. They were constantly scanning their surroundings and acutely aware of any movement that stood out. Pain and experience had taught them to never let their guard down.

“What about a Ford?”

“What about it, Rook?”

“You don’t have any of those logos in your collection, how much you gimme for a Ford?” The younger Team member interjected into Rose and Mouse’s ongoing conversation.

“You’ll never find one intact, something about Chevy and Ford logo’s make ’em really brittle. They always snap when you try to pry them off.” Mouse replied as he walked backward at the end of the formation for a second to ensure nothing was trailing them. Rook was the youngest member of Team Pale Horse. Unfortunately for him, the turn over rate was shit in the Venators so he’d continue being the new guy until someone senior was replaced. He’d been with the team for years already and would be the perpetual rookie or boot until he earned a new name.

“Instead of looking for useful shit you hunt car logos, you have any idea how low we are on batteries for the CD player?” Grinch barked from the front of the formation over the in-helmet radio so they could hear him.

“Oh yeah, lemme just ask the Cap’n to stop at every building to search for batteries for a toy. I look for car logos since we walk past em, jackass.” Mouse sarcastically replied. Grinch was more pragmatic than anything, but that normally came off as pessimistic which earned him his name.

Baron signaled over everyone’s heads up display, which silenced the conversation as they all took a knee.

The objective was a compound reminiscent of a Doctor Seuss's depiction. Pipes flowed this way and that haphazardly with any manner of debris being used to support them in some areas to make what appeared to be makeshift arches for walking under. While not a feat of engineering Baron was impressed, comparatively speaking. The surface dwellers rarely built anything this complex. It may have been a sign they were getting more organized and capable. Probably a mile away on the other side of the compound was a bright red glow that filled the dark sky. The color was so vivid it took Baron's eyes a moment to adjust as they rarely saw anything this colorful. This was Yellowstone, the Super Volcano that was birthed when the bombs fell so many years ago. The caverns beneath the Earth continued to belch and burp the oozing red magma out where it was slowly creating a new landscape on the steep hills and valleys.

Static cracked into Baron's helmet and broke his momentary peace as he gazed at the red sky.

"Satellite imagery shows the facility is operational. How they managed this will be most interesting to discover." Gabriel was always listening, watching. It drove Baron mad but the machine seemingly kept most of what he overheard to himself as the BDF never raided their quarters for contraband. Who knows maybe the machine could be trusted, but Baron doubted it.

"I doubt they'll give us a tour of the place." Rose comically remarked as he struggled to put a flavored nutrient cube in his suits water supply. He was the biggest member of the team and as such his appetite was immense.

Baron moved his rifle away from his face where he had been sighting in on the compound with its scope.

"No Rose and I bet that place means a hell of a lot to them too." Baron grimly replied. Poor bastards on the surface had a hard enough time surviving with electrical storms, pockets of residual radiation, the twisted mutants, and swarms of the Gray roaming the landscape. Now they had to contend with the Bastion, a force that was supposed to be there to help. Baron knew all of this but had little choice in the matter. He knew his place in the hierarchy of the Bastion, a tool.

“Rose, take the East. When I give the word draw them all to you near that front gate. Rook you stay with Rose and back him during the brunt. Once things settle down go with Mouse inside the main jenny." It didn't take long for them to organize a plan and each member easily understood their role as this was a common raid for Venators.

"Good to go?” His men all checked green tic marks on his heads-up display to signal they understood. They began executing his orders and moved into position like a pack of wolves surrounding a loan hare.

As Baron moved to his position Moses's voice came over the radio.“Make Boot take the trailer. I’ll go in the jenny with Mouse.” Baron groaned as the senior Venator was always complaining.

“Command wants prisoners not corpses, Moses.” he said sarcastically.

“Ah...well, never mind then.” Moses gave in reply.

Moses was not one for taking prisoners since so many years had warped his mind into that of a butcher rather than a soldier. It was something Baron often wondered if they’d all become one day. Then again living as long as Moses had in the Venator ranks was surely a feat they all wouldn’t match. Most residents of the Bastion lived 100-150 years with the sterile environment and perfect medical treatment. Venators, however, weren’t so lucky and Moses was turning into a monster mentally and on an atomic scale with his DNA degradation.

Team Pale Horse continued to advance in the shadows. Slowly getting closer to the compound until they were right on top of it. Using the debris that littered the perimeter of the make-shift base made it impossible for the sentries to spot them even with the red glow of lava fields illuminating the area. This was a mistake that most of the sentries would pay for with their lives. Baron had positioned himself on the West side of the compound. He knew once the shooting started the non-combatants would try to flee out of the back. The nearest shelter for them would be the ruins of Idaho Falls a few miles away. Undoubtedly the Gray would be there and Baron had no interest in tangling with the monsters today if he could avoid it. Being on the West meant the rest of his team would be pushing the inhabitants of the compound to him for hopefully an easy capture if they didn't shoot at him.

“Rose, you’re free” Baron gave the command and from his position maybe a mile away he heard the scream of Rose’s repeater start firing. It stung his ears the way a saw cutting through metal does and made his teeth tingle. While the repeater drowned out any noise, Baron tore a hole through the chain-link fence with his gauntlets. Baron stopped at a wooden shack built against the side of the main building. He could see two figures inside through a slit in the wall. They were moving a .50 caliber machine gun on a tripod. That was one of the few weapons that could penetrate a Venators armor. Baron took advantage of their distraction and fired a bolt into each man’s torso through the slit in the wall. The first man hadn’t finished collapsing to the ground before he shot the second. They fell into a wet pile of blood with the .50 clattering to the ground and the belts of ammunition scattering about. The heavy electrical discharge from his rifle tore a sizeable hole in each man’s chest that made him confident they weren’t going to get back up.

Baron listened to the radio as the fight from Rose’s positioned waged on.

“Grinch, grenadier in the Easternmost trailer from me, get him.” Rose remarked with little emotion in his voice despite everyone in the compound wanting to kill him. An electrical burst drowned out Rose’s repeater for a brief second as Grinch must have silenced the grenadier. Grinch was the designated marksmen and was on a ridgeline a few hundred yards away. While not the most positive person he was always confident in his aim.

“Eastern trailer secure got two tied and ready. Moving to the main objective.” Mouse had finished his first job and was moving to the next.

“Ready at main objective for breach.” Rook must have moved from Rose’s position to already be at the generator’s front door. He was supposed to wait until Rose finished with the sentries but Rook was always moving too fast and trying to bite off more than he could chew. It was something he had been warned about but like anyone young, he wanted to prove himself to the veterans. Baron hoped to break him from the habit before it cost the team blood.

Baron stepped around the wooden shack to look down an alley between the Eastern trailer and the generator building. He was met with a survivor running right at him. The poor bastard was too busy looking behind him where Rose’s gunfire was coming from. As he got close Baron held his rifle with his left hand and used his right to punch the survivor in the gut which knocked him to the ground. Baron grabbed a pair of flex ties from his belt to secure the survivor’s hands but then he realized that the man’s gas mask had fallen off when he was knocked down. He was clutching his chest and gasping for air from the punch but the only air he would get was contaminated with heavy radiation. Baron dropped the flex ties and went to put the man’s gas mask on him but it had a broken eyepiece from the fall.

“Delicate piece of shit.” Baron mumbled under his breath.

As he had been fumbling with the gas mask the survivor pulled out a knife from his belt. He was wheezing from contaminated air in his lungs as he lurched forward from the ground to stab Baron who was kneeling over him. Baron still holding the gas mask in one hand smashed it into the man’s face as he scrapped Baron’s armor with his knife, which did little to save him. Broken glass stabbed the man’s face and the force behind the blow knocked him back to the ground where the wheezing stopped. Baron cursed himself as he didn’t mean to kill him but he was as good as dead anyway. This was faster than a slow death from the exposure he told himself, unsure if he believed it. As Baron stood up he noticed the man’s face was actually that of a boy, probably not even a teenager. He took a deep breath and pushed the thought aside.

Emotions get you killed, he told himself as he gritted his teeth.

An explosion thundered at the other end of the alley he was standing in. Mouse and Boot must have made entry inside the main building. Baron turned back around and sprinted towards the back door to the generator. He still wanted to catch the survivors before they were able to flee out the back.

“North is secure, got 4 tied and ready. I only killed one this time, so go to hell.”

“Hey, Moses, you wanna transfer over to Red Horse? I hear they only take prisoners.” Rose jokingly poked at Moses over the radio.

“I’ll burn your eyes out with my rifles muzzle, Rose.” Moses replied which only received silence over the radio in return.

“You know I’m joking, right?” Moses interjected after a few seconds of awkward silence, save the sporadic gunfire and Rose’s repeater occasionally spinning up.

Baron reached the back doors to the generator. He considered going through the back and helping to clear it but he knew his men could handle it and he didn’t want to miss any escapees. He reasoned that capturing them was more merciful than letting them run into the nearby city where they would surely end up as something’s next meal. Crouching down Baron hid behind a pile of sandbags that were likely meant to cover the sentries that he had executed in the wooden shack in the event of an attack from the West. Ironic it was now concealing his location from anyone exiting the back.

“Kill the chatter, we all know you’d do it, Moses.” Baron barked in his, I’m joking but seriously voice.

Just as he predicted, it wasn’t long until the rumble of footsteps on metal sounded before the back door burst open in front of Baron’s position. He stepped out from behind the sandbags and raised his rifle to meet 3 figures. Only 2 were wearing radiation suits as they spilled out of the generator building in a panic, not even holding weapons.

“Down!” Baron commanded as the 3 figures obliged with hands raised. He walked over to each one and secured their hands behind their backs with flex ties. They were being cooperative since they had most likely seen the rest of his team slaughtering their comrades.

“Where the hell is your suit?” Baron questioned a girl wearing a dirty green jumpsuit and an angry scowl on her face.

“I don’t need one.” She replied with venom in her voice.

“Don’t say anything!” The survivor to her left interrupted through his gas mask which muffled his voice.

Baron kicked the mouthy prisoner in the kidney, hard.

“You’re gonna die from the radiation unless you tell me where your suit is.”

“And I’m telling you I don’t need one!” She yelled over the sound of Rose’s repeater briefly firing up.

Baron furrowed his brow confused. This was the 3rd survivor they’d captured with immunity this month alone. The people trapped outside the Bastion seemed to be evolving at an astonishing rate. Regardless, their mission wasn’t finished yet and if she truly was resistant it wasn’t Baron's concern.

“Report?” Baron ordered as he kept an eye on his surroundings.

“Still clearing outside, but the main force is down!” Moses ended his transmission with a blast from his rifle.

“We’re still clearing the generator. 6 tied and ready in the bunk room. Lot more dead in...every other room.” Mouse reported.

Baron keyed his radio up. “Gabe, the objective is ready for secondary deployment.”

“Received Captain, moving quick reaction force to Objective. Ex-filtrate with drones after QRF has established a perimeter and return to Bastion.”

“We got 15 prisoners so far, probably gonna need a Coffin.”

The mouthy survivor that interrupted him earlier rolled onto his side after hearing coffin.

“What?!” Baron ignored the man’s concern. A coffin was a large personnel carrier attached to a drone. Named so for how every time one crashed no one survived. It was function over safety, the normal mantra of the Bastion as it viewed people as a renewable resource.

It didn’t take long for several drones to break into the horizon as they made their way to the compound. Meanwhile, his Team finished sweeping the area while they gathered all the prisoners in the central yard where Rose had been positioned taking the brunt of the defenders on. It was a large dirt and snowfield with scattered trailers the survivors had been using. The Team had done a number on the compound with scorch marks burned into the sides of the buildings and a few areas where Rose’s repeater quite literally cut narrow slits in the walls. Rose had always been of the mindset that quantity outweighed quality when it came to gunfire. Which is exactly why he got to carry the biggest weapon the team had. The repeater was half the size of Rook and since Rose was the biggest team member he got to lug it around. The burden of that much firepower being the weight.

The team casually stood in a circle around the prisoners while the drones landed just outside the worn compound fences. They watched and waited patiently as the drones offloaded the Bastion Defense Forces who were going to occupy the compound and see what could be salvaged, a brutal method but the only one the Team knew. BDF soldiers began fanning out around the team to inspect the compound and set up their own perimeter. The soldiers were considerably smaller than the Venators who were so genetically altered most of the Bastion didn’t even consider them human anymore. Between the suits and the gene-altering, it was obvious why the Bastion used the Venators for the dirty work.

The BDF wore blue radiation suits with a matching blue-plate carrier covering their vital organs. Supposedly it was blue so they could determine friend from foe but given how most survivor suits were held together with tape and happy thoughts it hardly seemed necessary. One figure stood out from the rest of the BDF. He walked with an air of superiority around him and didn’t bother to carry a weapon.

“Commander Burbank.” Baron nodded, as the rest of the team shifted uncomfortably. It was such a slight change in body movement that you’d miss it if you weren’t already looking for it.

“Captain 243, you did well like always.” The Commander put his hands on his hips in a dominating stance while looking over the prisoners. Most BDF personal wore a blue helmet with a black shield on the sides and the words “BDF” underneath it while a thin black slit acted as the visor. Commanders rarely if ever wore armor. They were more businessmen and politicians than soldiers. This was reflected in Commander Burbank’s choice of attire, a clean white radiation suit with an open plastic visor for the front of the helmet. It had two lights on the inside that lit up his face as if anyone wanted to see the wrinkled cheeks or constant smirk he always wore like he held the cards to win a game of poker and you just bet your entire savings.

“Some aren’t wearing suits. You trying to kill my prisoners?”

“No sir, apparently they don’t need them. The girl there has been outside for 30 minutes now and seems fine.”

Commander Burbank’s hands dropped to his side and the smirk faded to shock. “That’s...wonderful. We have so much to do! Gabriel, did you hear that we have more?”

“Yes Commander, shall I inform the research section to prepare for subjects?” Gabriel was good at his job Baron would give him that. He always brought supporting fire far enough to not danger the Team and supply drops close enough to make it a short walk. Which was more than could be said for the human counterparts in Command. Regardless of his accomplishments, Baron wasn’t a fan of the machine. He doubted the AI’s loyalty and it didn't seem to share there 'compassion' if it could be called that, for the survivors.

Baron watched Commander Burbank examine the girl without a radiation suit. He grabbed her brown hair that was fixed in a ponytail and jerked her head up.

“Yes, tell Genetics I see no signs of malnutrition or mutation. They’ll be curious to know what dosage this batch of subjects can take before side effects.”

Baron grimaced at not only the Commander’s words but he was uncomfortable watching him hold the girls head up by her hair.

Killing them may have been the merciful option after all. He thought to himself.

Baron’s stomach knotted up but he’d never say anything. It wasn’t a Venator’s place to question Commands methods. He made hollow promises to himself that the Commander knew more than him and whatever happened to the prisoners would be for the good of humanity. He didn't believe himself but it was better than accepting that he was a monster.

Commander Burbank finally let go of the girl’s hair as she squealed in pain. Her head came to a rest in the mud she laid in as the dirty snow slowly piled around her. Baron knew she and the others had to be freezing lying on the ground.

“This is an excellent find Captain. I’ll be sure your Team is compensated by allowing 'unauthorized baggage' into the Bastion.” The Commander knew about the contraband they snuck in after all.

Baron locked his jaw subconsciously, he felt like a dog being fed a treat.

“Thank you, sir, Pale Horse, on me!” Baron yelled to his team and they marched for the transport drones while he concentrated on his breathing to stifle his anger.