Children of Steel

by John Van Stry

“Just looks like the hanger controls, and an Aid station.” I called back, going over to where Hess had Marko’s helmet off and was trying to use a medkit on him. I grabbed one from the Aid station and did what I could to help, but without a medic there wasn’t much we could do. Marko died about a minute later.

  “Shit.” I growled.

  “Damn, always thought I’d be the one to go first,” Hess said leaning back against the wall.

  “I thought you both said I’d go first?” I sighed and shook my head.

  “No, you’re too crazy to die… Hey, you’re hit!”

  I noticed I was bleeding pretty well and sat down hard as Hess patched me up, berating myself for stupidity. If I had patched myself first and then gone in there, things wouldn’t have been any worse for Marko.

  “Give me a stim,” I said feeling a little dizzy.

  He handed me a preloaded needle from his medkit and I stuck it through the skin suit and injected myself. My head cleared quickly and we stripped Marko’s corpse of anything worthwhile, leaving his body behind.

  “What’s the situation Lieutenant?” I asked as we headed back towards the first hanger.

  “I got a relay back from the ship while you were trying to save Marko, all hell has broken loose, they need us ASAP.”

  I nodded.

  She looked at my arm and switched to the NCO channel that the others couldn’t hear and asked if I was okay.

  “Yeah, I’ve had worse. Anyone else hurt?”

  “Kim got winged in the leg, she’s okay.”

  We caught up with John about ten minutes later; they were pinned down in the hallway, unable to move forward, unable to move back. He’d already lost two of his people and had one wounded, plus himself. We poured supporting fire down the hallway over his head and they were finally able to crawl close enough to toss a few grenades in to the next room. The defenders retreated at that point and we made it into the room taking up a defensive position at the other exit.

  “These don’t look like regular station personnel,” John said nudging one of the bodies with a boot.

  “Let me look,” Riala said moving up.

  “Are you able to raise Captain Johnson yet?” I asked Aruba on the NCO channel.

  “No, and it worries me. They should be a lot closer to here by now. The shuttle said they were meeting stiff resistance.”

  “These aren’t station personnel,” Riala said. “They’re combat troops, part of a company.”

  “A company?” Aruba asked incredulous.

  “Apparently. Second Assault according to the unit patches.”

  “Oh great,” one of the others mumbled.

  “Now what?” John asked and just then the ground shook heavily and the lights went out.

  “They attacking?” Aruba asked the two stationed at the door.

  “No Mamm!”

  “Then what the hell was that?”

  Suddenly the ground shook again, and a blast of dirt, rocks and gasses blew in from the hallway knocking as all to the ground.

  “Sound off!” John called on the comm as the room filled with dust, we still had atmosphere apparently.

  As everyone sounded off I looked at the hallway back to the hanger. “That’s no longer an option.”

  “Damn,” Aruba sworn, “Only one way out, lets get going while there’s still an option.

  I switched to infrared and moved to the doorway,

  “They still holding up ahead?” I asked Hess.

  “Two are. Don’t know how may others.”

  “Okay, Let’s get ‘em,” I growled and started into the next room opening fire right after Hess did.

  Twenty minutes later we had made it to an airlock that led back out to the surface. We were having to fight every foot down the hallway, and I’d picked up another wound, and Hess had been hit as well.

  “Raj, you and Hess come up last,” Aruba said, “John come with me to check it out. Everyone else sit tight until I signal.”

  We all nodded as she went into the airlock. Five minutes later she was back.

  “It’s clear, everyone out now, go!”

  She waited till it was just Hess and me, then started up. I let Hess go next then tossed a few grenades down the hall and followed, leaving a timed charge at the door as I went through last.

  Coming out of the airlock I saw I was at the bottom of a long ladder. Using my hands only I quickly pulled my way up it. I was almost to the top when two grenades flew back down past me, and then John grabbed me and yanked me out.

  “Lock’s cycling.” He said over the comm.

  I nodded, then tossed my last grenade down as well.

  “Just in case,” I chuckled.

  “Now what Lieutenant?” John asked.

  “I just got the Captain on the command channel. We’re pulling out. They’ve gotten pretty badly chewed up and the Corporal was right, there’s a full company here. The Falcon’s been hit, but it’s still effective, the drop ships that landed us are gone, one of the two reserves was destroyed, the last one is going to land and pick up the Captain’s group once they get clear. We’re to head south and the remaining shuttle will get us once we’re clear.”

  “Remaining shuttle?” I asked.

  “Yes, they lost the other one as well. Apparently there were more defenses here than we were led to believe.”

  I took a mirror and peaked down over into the hole, the grenades had collapsed the walls, no one would be following us that way.

  “Let’s move out,” Aruba said, “before we get anymore company.”

  We nodded and got going.

  When we finally made the Falcon the Captain ordered the Shuttle to be scuttled, the drop ship had already been jettisoned. I didn’t see how the ship looked from outside, but Dave told me it wasn’t good. He’d survived fortunately. The Falcon however had been hit pretty badly, the base had launched the frigate and four shuttles. The frigate had been one that had escaped from the same planet we had come from, fortunately it had been damaged there, but the two ships had slugged it out at close range and low speeds. The shaking we had felt was its crashing and then exploding.

  The attack shuttles had made short work of the drop ships, and the Falcon had already been holed by then, it got beat up some more before the attacking shuttles were destroyed, but we lost the other attack shuttle in the process. As we broke orbit from the moon the Captain launched two nuclear tipped torpedoes back at the base, though it was pretty deep underground so most likely it would only slow them down for a little while.

  We spent the next two days patching the ship so we could get an atmosphere inside it. The only places that had one when we docked were the ship’s small medical area and the engine room. We patched the large assembly room first, we had too many wounded to fit into the medical bay, and leaving them in their vacuum suits wasn’t an option for some of the more seriously injured. And we had a lot of injured. Of the thirty three survivors in the block, only five were unhurt. Of the four intel specialists, three made it back.

  The Captain ran the Falcon at full throttle to get us back into jump as soon as possible, having expended much of the ship’s weaponry in the fight, and with the damage we had taken the Falcon was now only to make half normal speed. It took us four days to make jump, and an enemy ship jumped in a day before we left, though fortunately for us it was too far off to make an intercept.

  Once we were in jump word was passed that we were heading to our home base, Tau Delta thirty-eight. The trip only took two weeks, we were running fairly light and the jump drives hadn’t been damaged. Those of us who weren’t seriously injured spent our time either caring for those who were injured or fixing the ship.

  “We got our asses whipped,” I sighed a week later when Aruba and I managed to actually get to bed together. Two more had died from their wounds, everyone was in a very somber mood, and morale was getting lower every day.

  “Yes, we did.” She said pushing back against me as we lay in bed together; I squeezed her tight in my a
rms until I heard her give a little grunt.

  “How long do you think it will take them to fix all this and turn us around?”

  “I’ve no idea. The ship probably a few weeks, as a warship it’ll be a priority job. But I wonder about the block. We lost a lot of people in one shot. It’s been hard on unit morale.”

  “How did a company end up there anyway? Anyone figure that one out?”

  “The intel types guess that one of those outgoing ships brought them, and with our taking that planet they had no place to go, so they just left them there.”

  “And with that frigate there, they knew where they couldn’t go.” I sighed.

  “Exactly. Fortunes of war.”

  “I don’t want them to break us up,” I growled. “We may have gotten our asses handed to us, but we’re still a good team. We took on that company and we survived.”

  “I don’t know if it will be up to us,” she said. “Unless maybe we can turn the morale around.”

  I thought about that as I rubbed my chin over the back of her head thinking.

  “You’re always most dangerous when you’re quiet,” she said yawning.

  I rumbled and yawned myself, “uh-huh."

  As I fell asleep I thought about motivation, I knew what motivated me.

  The next day Captain Johnson called a meeting for the Block, or what was left of it. I looked around at the faces of the rest of the people there, the all looked beat, defeated. Even the Captain didn’t seem as optimistic as I remembered him to be.

  “As you all know,” he began, “we’ll be making Tau Delta thirty-eight in a week. Several have asked about the future of this unit, of Falcon Block, after our losses.”

  I had a pretty good idea where he was going; I could almost see it in his eyes. I raised my hand and stood.

  “Yes Raj?” He asked.

  “I’d like permission to address everyone before you continue Sir,” I said quietly. He looked at me, then at Lieutenant Aruba who just nodded.

  “Permission granted.”

  I nodded and walked to the front of the room and turned to face everyone.

  “I don’t know how many of you know the reason why I’m here, or even care. I’m here because those people hurt my family, my friends. They were executed, raped, tortured, murdered, and I didn’t just hear it in an official notice, I saw it, I was there when we retook Timpleton. I got to see the kind of people that drive them, the ones that make the decisions, the ones that we’re fighting.

  “We’re a good team, those of us here in Falcon block, those of the crew of the Falcon. We’ve had a lot of successes, and we’ve kicked a lot of ass.

  “A lot of ass.” I growled, “Including on this last mission which you all mistake as a defeat. And it burns me to see you acting like a cub running with its tail between its legs.”

  I noticed everyone’s heads had come up, they were all looking at me, and many were glaring. They were mad.

  “Yes we got nailed; yes we lost a lot of our friends and comrades, good people, good soldiers. But we didn’t lose. We came up against a company. An entire company of well trained fresh assault troops. Probably veterans like ourselves, and we not only survived those twenty to one odds, but we gave far better than we got!” I growled louder.

  “We destroyed a frigate! We shot down four of their attack shuttles. We trashed an entire complex! And we killed at least a hundred of their men, probably more! We went down into their rabbit hole and grabbed them by the ears, and we kicked them in the ass!

  “And now what? You’re feeling beat? You think we lost? You want to break up the block and crawl home to lick your wounds? What would the rest of the Block say? The ones we left behind? Do you think they’d approve? HELL No! Of course not!” I almost yelled staring back at each of them, meeting their glares one by one.

  “So the question is simple: Do we crawl home like a kit with its tail tucked, crying, ashamed, and beaten? OR do we stand tall and take it like an adult? Yes we got in one hell of a fight, but we didn’t come off second best and we’re NOT gonna quit until we’ve avenged the death of every last member of this block. Until we’ve had our revenge!”

  I had them now; I could hear growls coming from all of them, they didn’t want to be beat, they didn’t want to be losers, or even thought of as losers, anymore than I ever had.

  “When we get off the ship at dock, I don’t want them to see a group that’s been beaten and broken. I want them to see a Block that’s come through the fire and is harder for it, tougher for it, and has the will to WIN. The will to keep Fighting! I want them to see a Block so full of pride and spirit that they won’t even think to break us up! I want them to see what we are; I want them to see winners!

  “So what’s it going to be? FALL OR FIGHT?”

  “Fight!” They replied.

  “WHAT?” I yelled at them.

  “FIGHT!” They yelled back.

  “ARE WE GONNA RUN?”

  “FIGHT!"

  They were on their feet now and suddenly nobody looked like a loser anymore.

  “FIGHT!” They yelled again.

  I stepped back as they started to chant, the Captain smiling and stepping back forward as he waited for them to settle down.

  “There is no doubt in my mind, now or ever, that I have been given the honor of leading the best troops in the history of our corp, hell, of any corp!”

  They cheered that, I noticed even the wounded were standing or propped up.

  “When we dock I want us to march off this ship looking sharp, the sharpest we’ve ever been. I want them to see just how good we are, I want them to know what WE know! We’ve got a week, lets get our gear in order, and make this place SHINE!”

  “Yes Sir!” they all chorused together.

  “Dismissed!"

  Everyone fell out and strode off with a new sense of purpose, and no one had their head hung low.

  “A moment Raj,” the Captain said walking over to me.

  “Yes Sir.”

  “I’d like to thank you for that, I was even starting to doubt myself and I think you put into words what we all needed to hear. Plus it sounded a lot better than what I had planned to say.”

  “Thank you sir,” I felt a glow of pride. “I wasn’t sure how anyone was going to respond to what I said, but I had to say it.”

  He nodded, “In order to keep the Block alive I’m going to have to shuffle a few people around to replace those who we lost. So I’m moving John to my top NCO spot to replace Hamilton, and I’m moving you into his old spot.”

  “Thank you sir, I’ll do my best.”

  “I’m sure you will, I’m also promoting you to Warrant 1st Class. Your actions today I think did more to save this block than any in that last action.”

  I flicked my ears in embarrassment and saluted. “Thank you again Sir.”

  “Thank you Raj, dismissed.”

  A week later we marched off of the Falcon in perfect order, in full dress uniforms with every thing polished to a shine and every crease pressed sharp. Those who still could not walk we carried on stretchers in formation behind us. The Block’s quarters onboard the Falcon were also spic and span and shipshape. Everyone had worked hard around the clock for the last week to make everything perfect, to show we still had our pride. Captain Johnson marched us down to the head administrative office and put us at parade rest in the park across from it, and then both he and Captain Avera, who had also worn his dress uniform, went inside to report.

  After a half hour someone came out and told Lieutenant Aruba that the Captain would be some time so we could be dismissed. Her reply was that the Block would await their Captain’s return.

  It was several more hours before the Captain came out, accompanied by a human we’d never seen before. The Captain was smiling however so I know I felt better.

  “Block, Attention!"

  We all came too.

  “This is Mister Castello, he is in charge of corporate operations, he’d like to address the Block.
” Captain Johnson turned to him, “Sir?”

  “Thank you Captain. I just want to say to all of you, the members of Falcon block, that Tri-Star Mining and Mineral appreciates your esprite de corp, your spirit, and your willingness to face hardships for the corporation and not let it sway your determination or pride. It makes us all proud to see you gentlemen standing tall, even in the face of your most difficult challenges. I agree with your Captain that such a unit should be kept together.

  “The Ship will take ten days to repair and re-outfit, I’ve put it on the top of the priority list. I’ve also opened the call for replacements and volunteers to return your Block’s strength to its full complement before you leave. Keep up the good work; you’ve made us all very proud.”

  He turned and nodded to the Captain, “Thank you Sir for the privilege. Good day.”

  “Good day Sir!” The Captain saluted and turned back to the Block.

  “Dismissed!”

  We all took a step back, turned, and yelled together as we fell out.

  “FIGHT!"

  28

  Eighteen months later I was still serving on the Falcon, and the war was still going on. We had continued to raid the humanist movement's installations of course, and had dealt them a lot of damage. Lately we had been getting involved in some major battles as we finally located the rest of their primary bases. The campaign was obviously drawing to its conclusion at this point, and the rumor we picked up at every base we stopped at was that the final assault wasn't far away.

  It had been an enlightening process of course. We had been working closely with the member's of two other major Corporations, and several of the Unions were giving quiet support as well. In the last two years two minor companies had been totally wiped out in the fighting and Corporate maneuvering. Tri-Star and its allies were responsible of course, this had encouraged all of the other covert supporters of the humanists to drop them and get as much distance between them as quickly as possible.

  Some of the other interesting things that had turned up on a few of the primary bases were prisoners. It seems that the humanists had taken some after all, using them to perform slave labor on their major installations, but only those places under the worse conditions and attrition at them we learned was high. About a thousand had been liberated, the movement at its height had taken several large groups but killed thousands more. The raid that had gotten Cassandra was the first of many that had taken place, and while that month’s strikes were primarily directed at Tri-Star, several other Corporations had been hit as well. Nobody really knew yet just how many of the smaller concerns had been completely wiped out by the humanists in this war either.