Rebel's End (2020)

Alarms blared as Colonel Dmitri Zaytsev was rushed through the compound towards his emergency command center. Following hallways barely lit by flashing red lights, Dmitri and his two bodyguards pushed down the hall. In front of all of them, Kate Guillou, his most trusted bodyguard, his lover, pushed into the room first. As Dmitri rounded the final corner just behind her and into the command center, turning back to locked the doors behind him, the sound of the magnetic locks clamping shut was overpowered by the burst of M6 fire behind him. Spinning around, the Insurrectionist found Kate in front of him, magnum shoved in his face.

"Kate! What the hell are you doing‽"

"Ending this little rebellion." Scattered around the room, Zaytsev saw the bodies of his command staff lining the floor, a single bullet hole in each of their heads.

• • •

Kate stood their, finger on the trigger, gun in the Colonel's face. Yet, that small, lingering part of her that still found some attraction to the older man stayed her hand. She wavered, gave him a bit too long to process what she had said, and he knew it.

"What is this, Kate? What about Yvan‽"

"Yvan will be plenty fine without scum of a father like you."

"What about us‽ Did this mean nothing to you?"

Kate felt her lip tremble as she responded. "It meant something, for a time, Colonel. But this invasion... it reminded me of who I'm really loyal to. Reminded me of my mission!"

Every word she spoke was true, but why did she find it so hard to finish this off? Taking her deep breath, she nodded. "I'm sorry, Dmitri. I really am."

Yet, some part of her still didn't want to watch what was about to happen, and, as her finger closed in on the trigger, her eyes fell closed. In this single instant, this single mistake, a fist collided with her face and sent her stumbling backward, the last of her Magnum rounds firing of harmlessly into the floor. Cursing, she steadied herself, eyes flying open and stared at Dmitri, scowling. Drawing a knife from her belt, she watched him, circling slowly. It was the Colonel who broke the silence first.

"Do you really think my 'little rebellion' is worth the effort to stop, Kate, with aliens knocking at our door?"

"The aliens aren't my orders, Colonel," she spat the word at him, wiping blood from her nose, "You are. You have to die."

"I thought you were with me, Kate, and I'm truly sorry to see you're still a slave to the damn UNSC! ONI too, I'm betting, huh?"

• • •

The Colonel suddenly lunged forward, launching a strike at Kate's gut, not looking to give her time to respond. He had trusted her, confided in her as a lover and as a friend, had a child with her, but she had just been using the opportunity to betray him. Half of him blamed himself, but the other half was just a rage focused on killing the traitor. He felt his fist connect with her arm, deflected to the side. She was fast, he had to give her that. And then he was doubly reminded as a searing pain lanced from his shoulder. Reminded that she was armed, too. Crying out in pain as the knife sunk into his torso, his other fist swung wildly towards her face, connecting once more with her face, the pressure from the blade in his shoulder suddenly released as Kate stumbled backward.

Ripping the knife out, Dmitri kicked Kate in the chest this time, sending her down onto the ground, followed by another to the face to give himself time to stumble away across the room. Grabbing a biofoam container from a medkit on the wall, her stuck the nozzle into the profusely bleeding wound, grimacing at the sting as the medical sealant filled it. Pushing himself off the wall he was braced on, he saw a flash of movement just in time to get his arm up, hearing the crack of his wrist as the brass knuckles connected with their target. Crying out in bain, Dmitri once again found his other arm flailing towards Kate, shoving her off. Damn she was resilient.

"God DAMMIT Kate!" He cursed at her, watching her lunge for him again, the strikes landing on his chest this time. Once, then twice, and then he was pressed back against the wall. Bracing against the solid surface behind him, her grimaced through the pain in his chest, presumably from several broken ribs, and pushed off towards Kate, using his weight to tackle her to the floor.

• • •

Kate felt the back of her head impact on the concrete behind her, blinking her eyes as the brass knuckles she had been using as a backup weapon slid out of her hand. Just as her vision returned to her, a fist slammed into her face, knocking her back into the concrete again. Even concussed, and near unconscious, she could recognize that she was pinned, the Colonel's leg against her neck and his uninjured fist pulling back to punch once more. Reaching around for something, anything she could use as a weapon, her vision started to fade, when, across her fingers, she felt a sharp pain lance out as the blade of a knife cut her grip. Finding the handle, she weakly closed her palm around it and, as one more punch descended towards her, she swung her arm up at Zaytsev. She felt her head slam back into the floor once more, a spray of blood coating her face as her vision went dark, slipping into unconsciousness.

• • •

When her eyes flicked open again, Guillou could still hear the alarms blaring, but the rest of the room was strangely quiet. Stumbling to her feet, she saw that her last effort hand landed true, the handle of her knife sticking out from Dmitri's neck on the floor next to her. Standing there and taking one last look at the man she had called a lover, she hobbled herself out of the room and made her way to find Yvan and the hangar for their escape.