Masoul (Harmony War Series Book 2) (31 page)

              None who knew Major ‘Iceman’ Nerva would expect that tone and heartfelt words.

              All too many of them would understand the emotions warring inside of him.

              To be a trooper was to defend your brothers and sisters lives. It was to stand against the anarchy of uprisings. They were the force that kept Earth and Her Colonies moving forward.

              Life was so precious to them because they knew that it could be taken at any time. They lived their life to it’s fullest at every moment they could because of that knowledge. Once they were gone they were gone. It was a hard pill to swallow but one Nerva had come to accept a long time ago.

              He took a deep breath of recycled air a new report of cleaner bots coming in to gather the EMF and Harmony fighter’s weapon tech. The workers would also be moving from orbit to help those that were left on the extractors to get the systems operational once again. The CEO’s had a ship coming in a year, they were still going to try and get their fuel to them in the meantime. War meant little to them, unless it paused their operations. Now the facilities were back under their control they’d push hard to keep up their end of a contract.

              Hopefully Nivad or someone told their CEO’s to treat their people nicely, else there might be more than just Harmony rebelling in Masoul.

              With that Nerva looked into the Combat Shuttles that had been moving wounded troopers from the extractors to
Reclaimer
and
Fearless
’ medical bays.

              “All areas seem clear, I’m moving up to the upper levels to re-check them and talk to the locals up there,” Demar said, NIDenise linking Nerva into the command channel.

              “Good work Demar. Ortiz, I want you to cut as many people free as you can to help the medical personnel,” Nerva said.

              “Yes sir, on it,” Ortiz said.

              “Dalton I want you coordinating the medical situation, if it’s working, don’t step on any toes,” Nerva said.

              “Yes sir, got it, if it ain’t broken don’t fix it,” Dalton confirmed.

               “We’ll have transport with us as soon as the medical cases are out of here. The carriers are warmed up and prepared to go to Shipping Station as soon as we’re all onboard. When more information comes in I’ll let you know,” Nerva said.

              Green lights dotted the top of his HUD, his people getting his Division into movement.

              His Division had been assigned the smallest of the extractors, some had warranted a couple of Forces. Most of them hadn’t even come under contact.

              Nerva was proud with his people. Their target was supposed to be easy, when it wasn’t they didn’t complain
much
and they got the job done.

              It also made him think that someone had it in for Third Force’s Second Division, the Two-Two was certainly getting hammered currently.

              He also knew that reinforcements weren’t coming for a good long time.

             
“NIDenise, I want you to look in and see if someone is intentionally putting the Two-Two in Danger,”
Nerva asked.

             
“I don’t need to, I already checked. The order came from General Wai,”
she paused letting Nerva absorb the news.
“Seems that while there is no evidence she thinks, correctly, that you wanted to keep her out of the battle so that you could fight it. From the reports made by Nivad he approves of your tactics. Something that looks good on her for bringing up someone like yourself, but also bad that it wasn’t her actions.”

              Nerva shook his head, the rage building in him, because of her short-sighted attempt to undermine his position she had got so many of his people killed.

             
I wondered why my support requests weren’t going through,
Nerva thought, his hand turning into a fist.

              “One problem at a time, let’s get the hell out of here and save those that can be saved. We’ll be fighting soon enough, I don’t think she’s going to be as worried about little old me as she will about Harmony,” Nerva said, feeling rather than hearing NIDenise’s agreement.

Chapter 27

             
EMFC Reclaimer

             
Departing Gas Planet for Shipping Station, Masoul System

             
11/3240

             
The casualty list wasn’t pretty
Jerome thought, he didn’t need to look at a surface or use his optical implants to know who was missing from the platoon or his own section.

              Mcnara, Rudkin, Kauv and Ohana’s cots lay bare, their bodies on Extractor Thirteen, Huang, Dooks and Bair were in medical, Sasaki was crying on her bunk.

              In all Second Division Second Regiment Alpha Company’s second platoon was down to nineteen people, ten of which were in medical bay, four more needed medical attention for when the medics weren’t getting run ragged.

              Jerome looked at the cot above him, not seeing anything but thinking all too much for his liking.

              He let out a sigh and rolled to his feet, pulling on the straps and catches that held his armor on his body.

              Jerome hung his gear out, looking at Sasaki crying away.

              “Get out of your gear and grab a shower, we’ll get some food afterwards,” Jerome said, adding enough command into his voice to get her moving.

              “Yeah,” she replied, wiping her face, leaving blood and grime where tears it had already been cleaned

              Jerome stripped out of his smart clothes tossing it in the armor box, shutting the door and turning the scanning and cleaning function on before heading for the shower.

              He let the water run on two showers, bringing them up to temp, he wasn’t going to have a cold shower.

              He got in, the water beating on his back, he stretched and moved, wincing as wounds opened. He was moaning and grunting as muscles were opened he cracked his back and popped his knuckles, closing his eyes and taking in that sweet release.

              He heard Sasaki walk in the shower. He made a noise of greeting, getting a head bob in return.

              They each just took in the shower, there wasn’t anything quite like it after two-days of fighting.

              He touched his side, while they’d been waiting for a shuttle a medic had injected an epoxy between his ribs.

              They weren’t scraping one another anymore at least.

             
I’ll go to the med-bay tomorrow,
Jerome thought knowing that they were full of more serious cases.

              Jerome lathered and cleaned off the three-day old grime of sweat and dirt.

              He went through three water rations before finally stepping out of the shower, he grabbed a towel, chucked it in the bin and pulled his smart cloth pants on.

              His muscles were tense and painful from fighting, falling on his bed he luxuriated in the feeling of the covers and mattress below him.

              He was asleep in minutes.

              ***

              Mark woke like a deep sea swimmer coming up for air.

              He looked around seeing tubes connected to his neck tap, pumping him full of drugs.

              His side was tense but it looked like the bones had fused together, the printer at the end of his foot told him he had yet another new limb.

              The leg was hard and stiff but it responded to his thoughts. Someone had been kind enough to give him one with some muscle density, it was fucking weird when they gave you a chicken leg and you had to train it up.

              He grabbed a water container from beside the bed, sticking the tube in his mouth he squeezed the zero-g rated water packet.

              “Once the IV is completed then you are free to go,” Lucille said from the curtain.

              Mark grunted, she was gone as he downed more water.

              His mind rested on her for a moment before he remembered Extractor Thirteen. He squeezed the packet harder and looked to the drip going in his neck. He grabbed that pouch off of it’s rack, squeezing to speed up the drugs.

              He took off his one boot, the other had been lost with his leg.

              His Armor was in a reinforced bag.

              Water pouch hanging from his mouth, armor in a bag over his shoulder and IV bag held in the sky he moved through the separating curtain.

              More than one person stared at him as he left.

              “Was wondering when you’d break out of here,” a voice came from his side, grabbing the bag from his hand.

              “Hey Jerome,” Mark said, happy to see the man and giving him a one-armed embrace.

              “You all sorted?” Jerome asked.

              “Just need to get all of this in me,” Mark said, pulling the water container from his mouth and shaking the IV bag.

              A message pinged on his implants, he checked it, finding it from Major Nerva, he wanted a meeting at Mark’s earliest convenience. It ended with,
without the damn IV bag and a new set of clothes.

              Mark snorted.

              “Something up?” Jerome asked as Mark started walking again.

              “Iceman wants to see me, wants this thing drained and me in new clothes,” Mark said as they left the med-bay. The medics looked at their passing, seeing the IV held aloft. After a shrug or a sigh, they went back to their work, it wasn’t the weirdest thing they’d seen.

              “Yeah, Tyler’s got a meeting today as well, he might be at it already,” Jerome said.

              They got on a lift and headed for their platoon’s area.

              “Haas was called for a meeting for later tonight. A service is being held tomorrow if people want to attend, people can do their own services whenever on the flight deck, hangar Alpha-One,” Jerome said.

              “Okay,” Mark said, his own thoughts and memories of Extractor Thirteen flashing through his mind.

              They stepped out of the lift, Mark’s new leg moving awkwardly.

              “Damn thing isn’t fully working yet, all seized. Needs to get some good blood flow through it,” Mark complained, shaking it in an effort to speed up it’s recovery. His complaining was getting a few looks, Mark and Jerome gave passing greetings, knowing more people from this area than anywhere else on the ship.

              “Gym later?” Jerome asked, looking forward to the therapeutic aspects of pushing one’s body and letting the world melt away.

              “Read my mind,” Mark said, grinning to the other and then squirting water in his mouth.

              “You just want to stare at ass all day,” Jerome sighed as they reached Mark’s door, it opened letting them in.

              “I’m an ass guy, I have enough staring at my own sculpted rear that it’s only fair,” Mark grinned.

              His face became somber as he looked at the three cots whose owners wouldn’t be returning to them.

              “Hey Sarge,” Dominguez said from her bunk.

              “Hey you lot,” Mark said, people all over the place, playing cards, reading books, some were still in the med-bay and others were out wandering the ship.

              Mark opened his locker using the door to hold his IV as he stripped. Jerome pulled armor out of his bag and put it up in Mark’s locker.

              “Any word if we’re getting assimilated into a new unit?” Mark asked.

              “None yet,” Jerome said, but he didn’t sound like he thought that they were staying together. There was too few of them all in brand new positions and so many units were missing people. It made sense to collapse their platoon and fill up the spots in other units.

              No one wanted to do that, but they would if ordered to.

              Mark threw his old smart clothes in the junk chute, they were holed, burned and the leg was missing on his pants.

              “Time for a freaking shower! Thanks for putting my armor away,” Mark said.

              “No worries bro, though I think you’re going to need a few new panels,” Jerome said, throwing some side armor, a shin and forearm section into the chute.

              Mark looked at his battle-stained and scratched armor.

              “Yeah I’ll get Joe to take a look at it soon when we’re done with all those meetings,” Mark said, wandering into the showers.

              “Fire me a message when you’re done,” Jerome said as Mark turned a shower on.