“Lower the rifle, wouldn’t do you any good anyway.” Mouse startled the girl pointing her rifle at Rose who was standing between her and the hanger door. She hadn’t seen Mouse in the dark hanger where he had just finished executing a BDF soldier that had been seconds away from pulling the pin on a grenade.

“Pale Horse stand down!” Baron barked from behind the girl who had gone from aiming at Rose to Mouse and now Baron.

“What the hell is going on! Wait, Pale Horse, you’re Venators!?” She screamed while refusing to lower the weapon.

“Yeah Cap’n, what the hell was that about? We all gonna get a recycle, hell probably a decommission.” Rose started walking towards Baron and the group of survivors who were trembling with fear, save the girl threatening them who no one had yet answered.

“Don’t fucking move!” The girl screamed as Rose shrugged in frustration.

“Listen, lady, we don’t ha*” Rose was cut off by a gunshot. She fired her rifle towards him. Not at him, but a few inches away from his head towards a BDF soldier that had been outside the hanger running at them. The soldier's head exploded backward from her shot and his limp body splashed in a pile of mud. Rose held his repeater with one hand while holding the other up in an exaggerated surrender.

“Baron what the hell is going on in there!?” Grinch yelled over the radio. He was still at his sniper’s roost in the hills and hadn’t seen the traitorous acts they had committed.

“Everyone shut the hell up! The BDF already knows what happened and another QRF will be inbound. I’ll explain later but for now, we have to move!” The girl lowered her rifle while Moses and Rook joined the unusual party as they came walking out of the shadows in the hanger.

“Why are you helping us?” Rachel asked the armored figure who seemed to be in charge.

Baron walked over to Rachel who pulled her rifle in closer as if to show she didn’t trust him. He held up one hand to show he wasn’t trying to hurt her while he used the other to reach behind his chest plate.

“I think we know each other.” Baron reached out with his open fist and showed Rachel her pendant. She quickly snatched it from his hand and stuffed it in a pocket. Baron was impressed by her bold attitude despite all that was going on.

“I understand you’re worried, we killed a lot of your people but the rest of your people are going to die if we don’t get the hell out of here.” Before Baron could say anything else yelling came from inside the Bunker at the other end of the hanger. The BDF soldiers that had been scouting the bunker must be coming back.

“Move!” Baron yelled as everyone darted for the hangar exit. With no time to doubt herself Rachel motioned for the last of the expedition to follow her. They were her responsibility now and she was determined for no one else to die. As the unlikely band ran out of the hanger and into the rainstorm they were met with more yelling coming from the drones to their right where they had landed earlier. Mouse screamed into the radio as everyone clambered over the collapsed doors of the hanger. “Grinch shoot the drone’s engines!”

“What?!” Grinch yelled in a confused reply, not understanding what was going on yet.

“Just shoot the fucking engines you asshole!”

BDF soldiers ran out of one of the parked drones with a tripod and a machine gun similar to Rose’s repeater. The weapon would slice through the team’s armor like paper if they were caught in the open.

“Grinch, that tripod is for us! I need you to shoot them now!” Baron screamed as Mouse’s commands seemed to have illicit no support yet.

“I can’t shoot BDF are you insane?!”

Baron cursed under his breath as they continued running towards the archaic trucks he was hoping could support his team’s weight.

“Rose, cover!” Baron ordered as Rose stopped on a dime which sent mud flying up in the direction he had been running. The BDF weapons team had finished setting up the tripod for their repeater. Just as the BDF soldiers started to open fire Rose gave them the same torrent of sparks. He didn’t need a tripod and the heavy weapon was integrated into his visor, giving him uncanny accuracy. The rain caused steam to rise from his weapon as it heated at an astonishing rate. Rose held the heavy cannon down at his side and adjusted it back and forth to paint the field in red fire.

“Moving!” Rose yelled as Moses stopped and turned towards the drones, copying Rose’s previous movements. Moses knelt and started firing towards the BDF forces that were now coming from the hanger and the drones. The night was lit up with rays of light from the BDF soldiers and the fleeing group. Occasionally a lightning arc would overshadow the gunfire as if to show them the power of nature was still mightier. Pale Horse continued to cover each other as they all sprinted towards the trucks. They had a head start but the enemy would gun them down with the drones if they tried to flee.

“Grinch, I know you can see what’s going on here, we are going to die if you don’t do something!” Baron yelled into his helmet’s radio as he turned around to fire a few rounds at a BDF soldier who was trying to close the distance between them.

“You fuckers are going to get me recycled!” Before Baron could argue with him a blast of light came from the hills where Grinch had been concealed. Grinch’s electromagnetic cannon was a fearsome weapon when he had time to use it properly. Rapid firing with the cannon could be used similarly to the rest of the Venator's rifles. However, when he had time to charge the projectile up he could send true carnage towards anything unlucky enough to be downrange.

The bright beam tore through the first drone’s right engine and it started to cough fire into the muddy dirt. BDF soldiers were diving for cover as another beam fired into the heavy weapons team which caught one soldier in the arm and threw him down into the ground, his arm seemingly vaporized. The valley was a battleground as most of Pale Horse took cover behind whatever rocks or debris they could find in the open field near the convoy of parked trucks while Grinch started destroying the drone’s flight capability with his cannon.

Rachel went to get into the lead truck but stopped for a second despite the chaos. The sentries they had left behind were lying in the mud, half-buried. One of them was clear enough from the mud that she could see the slit in his throat, no blood came from it as the rain washed it clean. Rain matted her hair to her face and drenched her worn and bloodied uniform. She gripped her stolen rifle until her knuckles turned white. Baron had been running behind her, he looked at the bodies and realized what had happened she knew what kind of monsters they were. He didn’t have a plan for this, he didn’t know what to do. No one was giving orders now. It was simply a matter of survival and the only way for that was to run.

“Get in the truck.” He stood still in front of the girl who glared up at him as the rain and gunfire continued to batter the dark fields. Her face was tense with hate, but she’d need to focus that hate and use it. Otherwise, the escape would devolve into a slaughter.

What choice did she have? Staying would get her killed and without these strangers, she wouldn’t make it far in the trucks. They needed protection until they could get far enough away from the drones that were surely inbound. She buried the emotions and got in the driver seat of the lead truck while the remaining survivors clambered into the others.

Pale Horse split up between the 3 trucks with Baron riding beside Rachel in the lead with Moses in the back. The trucks were centuries-old with various other parts being welded onto them to keep them functional. They all had plastic windows that were quickly removed by Pale Horse as they kept firing from inside the trucks, desperate to keep the BDF at bay until they could get away.

Mouse and Rose jumped in the bed of the rear truck while the only remaining soldier from the militia jumped in to drive. Rook at the direction of Moses got in the middle truck with several of the technicians climbing in with him, while no one was in the driver seat.

“Whose driving?!” Rook yelled at the tech sitting beside him who was shaking with fear.

“I’ve never driven before!?” He screamed at the tech who in anxiety-fueled haste jumped out and into the driver seat while fumbling with the door handles.

“Grinch move to Northeast 75 yards from your position. We’ll pick you up as we egress!” Baron yelled over the sound of his own rifle barking fire as he tried to stall the advancing BDF soldiers who were running at them with reckless abandon.

“Go!” Baron screamed as the old rusted truck lurched forward with the rain blowing inside from the open windows.

“Rose, you’re going to need to do the heavy lifting from the rear until we get out of range!”

“Isn’t that always how it goes?!” Rose replied to Baron over the sound of his repeater cutting down several soldiers who had just moved out from behind a rocky outcropping. Grinch’s rifle cut through a soldier who was reaching back to hurl a grenade towards the rear truck that was slowly catching up to the rest of the convoy. The soldier sprawled out in the dirt as his primed grenade exploded and threw the soldiers near it around like rag dolls. The fiery explosion tore chunks of mud, rock, and flesh from everything unlucky enough to be too close.

“We should have pissed the Bastion off years ago! They put up way more of a fight than the survivors ever have!” Moses yelled over the battle. Baron guessed he was smiling behind his visor, crazy bastard.

“No time for that Moses, just keep us alive!” Baron yelled back as he prayed the truck didn’t get stuck in the mud.

“There!” Baron yelled to Rachel as he pointed towards Grinch who was sprinting down a hill towards the convoy.

Baron yelled for Rachel to slow down as Grinch rapidly came closer. The BDF were still firing but the rounds were sporadic as the rain and distance made it a struggle to hit anything past a few hundred yards. Moses opened the back door just in time for Grinch to avoid crashing into it.

“What the hell is going on?!” Grinch screamed as Moses settled into the far seat and casually went about reloading his rifle.

“People got made dead.” Moses chuckled as everyone started to settle down.

“Not the time Moses.” Baron adjusted his rifle which he had stuck out the window as he scanned for drones.

“Everyone clear?” Baron asked over the radio.

“Mouse is hit in the shoulder but he’ll live, needs a patch job though or he’ll start leaking air in his suit.” Rose yelled as he and Mouse bounced around the bed of the rear truck while Rose applied a foaming spray over Mouse’s injury.

“Damnit” Baron whispered.

“Shut down all long-range comms. They’re going to be tracking us.” Baron added as he contemplated what he had just done. Grinch scooted up between the front two seats and grabbed Baron's shoulder.

“Are you going to tell me what’s going on? Who the hell is she and the people in the other trucks?!”

“We need to get away before we get into that.” Baron calmly replied despite Grinch getting aggressive.

“Goddamnit!” Grinch shifted his body and used his foot to kick the rear passenger door of its hinges which sent it flying into the night as the middle truck swerved to dodge it.

“I want answers, Baron!”

“I don’t have answers!” Baron turned around to face Grinch and Moses, who was still calmly going about checking his rifle.

“I don’t know what the hell is going on! I know this girl. I know something isn’t right. I know the Bastion is fucking insane!” Baron yelled at Grinch who sat back in his seat.

“So, you killed them?”

“Yes! I killed them, I killed Burbank and we killed most of the BDF in his team, is that what you want to hear!?”

“Over what? Because you think this girl looks familiar? She’s a scav!”

Rachel shifted in her seat and squeezed the grip on her pistol that she had slid in her lap earlier. Something wasn’t right and while she doubted her pistol would help her much as she was outnumbered 3 to 1 in the tiny confines of the truck, holding it gave her some degree of comfort. She recognized the name Pale Horse someone had said earlier though, they were Venators and supposedly no friends of the Bastion.

“Stop the truck!” Grinch yelled as he grabbed Rachel’s seat. Baron grabbed his wrist and pulled it away from Rachel as Grinch recoiled defensively.

“Easy lad’s.... we’re all on the same side here.” Moses attempted to defuse the situation and slapped the charging handle back into battery on his rifle. Rachel not wanting to get killed slowed the truck down to a stop as the others in the convoy followed suit. Grinch got out of the truck and started walking off into the rain with nothing but darkness and thunder in the distance.

“Where are you going!?” Baron yelled over the rain as he got out and followed Grinch.

“I don’t know, we don’t have a home anymore so where am I going, Captain?!” Grinch emphasized Captain as he turned around to face Baron in the muddy field.

“We have to stay together!”

“And where are we gonna go, with her?!” Grinch pointed at Rachel who had stayed in the truck, not wanting to get involved in whatever conflict was going on.

“I don’t know, maybe?” Baron answered as he took another step towards Grinch who looked down at the mud and shook his head.

“So, we’re traitors now?”

“Yeah, it looks that way.” Baron answered while putting his rifle on its holster and shaking his head.

“I don’t know Grinch. I don’t know anything anymore! We fight for the Bastion or against, what fucking difference does it make?” Baron was tired, not physically but mentally. He had struggled with his decisions for more years than he could imagine. He wasn't even sure how old he even was or how long he'd been a Venator. So much of there lives had been stripped from them by the Bastion but he was done giving anything to them. Grinch looked at Moses and Rook who were walking towards them.

“You guys okay with this, being traitors now?”

Moses leaned back with his rifle cradled in his arms and looked up at the sky.

“Fuck man, like he said what difference does it make. I’ll follow Baron wherever he takes me, good or bad. Been alright by me so far.” The old Venator’s voice lacked the nervous worry of the others. He knew death was coming for him soon and would rather spend whatever time was left with the family that he’d had for most of his life. Moses rarely worried about the future. He lived for adrenaline as it was the only time he felt anything since he was so detached from the world. It was a mental defense for his mind to coop with the horrors he had witnessed over the years of his service.

Rook looked around uncomfortably before answering. “You guys are all I’ve got. I don’t know what else to do but follow Baron.”

“You guys do remember I said Mouse has a hole in his suit, right?” Rose yelled over the radio as they stayed in the bed of their rear truck. Grinch threw his rifle in the mud and walked aggressively towards Baron with fists trembling.

“You did this! These scavenger fucks are going to end up destroying everything we’ve worked for!” Grinch yelled as he grabbed Baron’s chest plate with both hands and pulled him in close. Rook stepped forward to stop Grinch but Moses held his arm out to block him. Which Rook silently understood and nodded in return. Baron kept his arms at his side and looked into Grinch’s helmet calmly.

“Everything we’ve been working for is killing innocent people, they’re human too.”

“And what’s your point?! That’s our home and you’re going to give up on it for them! The only good thing in this fucked up world is the Bastion. It’s the only thing not covered in shit and blood.” Grinch let go of Baron and walked back towards his rifle.

“They're psychopaths who've been toying with us, Grinch.” Baron followed him and put his arm on Grinch’s shoulder before Grinch shrugged it off.

“The Bastion is the problem, the very tool that was rescuing and helping people in the early years is now slaughtering them.”

“What we do is for the good of humanity” Grinch recited the words as if it was something he told himself often.

“Don’t feed me that bullshit, Grinch. You’re not so naive to believe that shit they feed us. We’re killers they breed in lab tanks to do the dirty work they don’t want to. We get used up and thrown away like spent brass. They make us kill people who can’t even feed themselves, and for what?” Baron took a deep breath and thought about the distant memory of the women in the necklace pendant. They were fleeing the Bastion, they had discovered something about the Bastion that was wrong. It was hurting its own people. He couldn’t focus on the memory as it was faded and distorted. He couldn’t tell what was real and what was made up to fill in the gaps of what was missing. Baron looked back at Grinch.

“The Bastion has been killing its own people.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Grinch asked as he turned around to look at Baron.

“It's the Gray.”

Grinch shook his head, still confused.

"The Gray are made from raw organic materials, Grinch. The Bastion is using the survivors up here on the surface and it's own lower castes as fuel." Moses and Rook looked at each other, just as confused as Grinch.

“And how do you know that?” Grinch asked genuinely curious.

“I don’t remember but-"

“Oh you don’t remember!? So, what, we just fight against our home because of some delusions from a broken soldier!?” Grinch interrupted.

Rose jumped out of the rear truck and jogged over to the arguing group.

“No Grinch, they know.” Baron pointed to Rachel who was toying with the gear shift as she considered leaving them but wasn’t sure if they’d shoot her.

“They’ve been fighting the Bastion their entire lives because they know what it’s doing and if they stop fighting, they die. The Bastion is a group of old men with grand delusions and no grasp on the real world. We exterminate the survivors and the only thing left of humanity is going to be the monsters in the Bastion that we call leaders.” Baron waited for a second to let his words sink in as Grinch paced back and forth in the mud as the rain continued to hammer them.

Rose ran in between Baron and Grinch.

“I don’t give a fuck what’s going on but the seal I put on Mouse’s suit isn’t going to last forever and he’s gonna need medical treatment, so you fuckers get your shit together!” Rose pushed Grinch towards his rifle before turning to Baron and nodding respectfully. Despite all that had happened in the short time it was hard to ignore multiple lifetimes of taking orders from someone you respected and everyone besides Grinch still followed Baron. Even though no one quite understood what was going on yet or Baron’s motivation. Grinch picked his rifle up from the mud and headed back to the truck.

“Guess we’re all dead men.” Grinch whispered as he passed Baron.

“We’ve always been dead men.” Baron replied just loud enough for Grinch to hear.