Beyond the Horizon: New Dawn

29) Anthony

The command deck fell silent after video transmission ended. Matt collapsed into a chair and placed his hand on his hand in complete disbelief. Mila stood next to Anthony and stared at the monitor with seething rage as she clenched her fists. It was what they each suspected deep down, but hoped was not a reality. Captain Boyd and Adah were killed. Even after playing the message a second time for Mila, Beta, and Allen, it still did not feel real for Anthony.

"Listen," Allen began softly as he caressed the metal brace around his wrist. "I didn't know that-"

"It's not your fault," Anthony interjected.

"Yea," Mila agreed in frustration. "It's Wells'." She turned to face Anthony. There was a fire in her eyes that alarmed him. "We could track the Stormpike from this ship."

"And with the ship's stealth mode we'd be unrecognized," Matt added.

"You guys are thinking irrationally," Beta said plainly. "This is a trap. Not to mention that this is coming from Task Force 100. The very unit I explicitly said we should avoid."

Anthony wasn't overly fond of the idea of charging towards the Stormpike either. Matt and Mila knew Captain Boyd and Adah longer than he did, so it was not a surprise to see them respond in a more extreme manner than he was. But there was no proof to what Seventy-Six told them. They had accepted his message as fact without even checking. "Is there a way we could check to see if he's lying?" Anthony asked.

Matt shook his head. "We're fugitives. We've been locked out of the Alpha Systems. There's no way to check their status."

"I'm still with the UN," Allen began. "Could use my login."

"Won't work. Alpha Systems are their own network, done so for security purposes."

"I could hack into it," Beta volunteered. She took a seat at a computer terminal and went to work. "Give me about ten minutes."

The hologram projector turned on as Beta announced that she got through the UNSF's security measures. She rose from the chair and went to the hologram in the center of the room to navigate it. She opened up a window which contained the active status of the current Alpha Team members. A separate photo card of each member of the Alpha Team appeared with their information beneath it. At the end of the row were two darkened photos of Adah and Captain Boyd. Written across their photo cards in bold flashing red letters was 'KIA'.

Matt turned away from the hologram and told Beta to shut it off. The pain in his choked up voice was difficult for Anthony to listen to. He had grown accustomed to Matt's easy going nature. The pain and anguish he displayed was a step outside of his norm. Beta deactivated the hologram projector then offered Mila and Matt her condolences. But Mila refused to hear any of it. She wanted Beta to show that she really meant it through her actions. She wanted a course set to the Stormpike.

"There are sentinels on board," Allen began. "People who had nothing to do with it, just following orders."

"I'm aware," Mila responded. "But we have ACTs. All we need to do is dock."

"What makes you think he'll allow that?" Anthony asked.

"He'll let you dock," Beta answered. "He's a puppet. BlackDiamond owns him."

Mila pointed to Beta with her hand. "There's our answer."

"We're wasting time," Matt said with urgency. "Are you all in or out?"

"I'm against this," Beta answered. "Task Force 100 could be waiting for us there-"

"I don't care," Mila said with indifference. "I want to put a bullet in Wells."