Maximus stood on his back legs, his front hoof-paws on what appeared to be a conference room table. Thad looked closely. The top was glass and inside, it was filled with bits and pieces from Ground Forces personnel, trophies from the Ground Forces Graveyard. The pig-dog sniffed and nodded toward something.
A bundle with a wallet, rank, and a name tape that said ‘Todd.’ Thad pulled his pistol out and shattered the glass. He reached in and took everything in the vicinity of Private Todd’s personal effects.
“Finish this and go home,” he said while fiercely gripping the items. “Cuff them and bring ‘em with us.”
***
The general thought he heard voices up ahead. He couldn’t be sure. There was so much noise inside his head, he was having trouble distinguishing the sounds. He stumbled forward through an entryway and into the building.
He heard a cheer, but it hurt his head. Maybe it wasn’t a cheer.
Glory waits for no man.
He pulled his hand blaster and staggered around a corner. The enemy!
He raised it to fire, but someone grabbed him. He tried to fight, but his head pounded, filled with cotton, and darkness appeared before his eyes. Someone took the pistol from his numb hands. He didn’t pass out. He came back to himself and opened his eyes.
“It’s over, General. We won,” the soldier told. “TerroCom won.”
***
“That sucks!” the tank commander yelled. “They surrendered and we never got to fire a shot!”
“I’m okay with that. Dude. You look pretty pale. Maybe you should sit down, take a load off,” the third member of the tank crew said.
“Bringing it in and shutting it down. I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to get the hell out of this sardine can.”
They ground to a halt. The driver’s hatch opened, and the driver climbed out. He stretched stiff legs and then faced the tank to relieve himself.
The APCs stopped and disgorged their passengers. “Jeez! You couldn’t wait two more minutes?”
Men and women walked by without batting an eyelid.
“No. I really couldn’t have waited two more minutes.”
“Need some help,” the crewman called from inside the tank.
“What? Is your big ass stuck?” He finished, zipped, and climbed onto the tank. “What happened?”
“He passed out. He was bleeding the whole way. Look at this lake down here.” He pushed the unconscious tank commander upwards. The driver reached under his armpits and pulled him free. Once he was laying down, they fixed the bandage on his arm and waited.
“We need to get him back to the ship.”
“Did the Big Nuts come back yet?”
“How would I know?”
The two men looked at each other. For being supposedly lightly wounded, the tank commander was in bad shape. The others felt bad for only having flesh wounds.
***
Thad leaned close to the general’s face to look into his eyes. “You have a concussion, General. You need to be off your feet.”
“We have work to do, Colonel,” Quincy argued.
“Don’t pull rank on me, Adam. You are in no shape to do anything. We have to wait for this clown show’s two fighter spacecraft to come back to the planet’s surface before the Explorer will return. They’ve been ordered, but we’re waiting. Do you believe that?”
“What about the army? We were supposed to fight an army?” the general mumbled.
“We did. If we hadn’t gotten the intel, then we would have fought five different forces like the one that attacked us when we landed. And then they had five more just like them in reserve. But TerroCom, General. Your baby. We only had to fight the one force, which pure dumb luck put them near our landing site. After that, we decapitated the hydra. Isn’t that what you envisioned for TerroCom? Destroy the enemy’s will to fight?”
The general couldn’t focus his eyes, but the colonel’s tone resonated. “I guess so. We did what we came to do.”
“What about those guys?” Thad asked, pointing to the handcuffed officers.
“Take them back to Melborn. Put them on trial for crimes against humanity. Starting a war is no small thing, Colonel. If you start one and you’re not the legitimate government, then you’re a terrorist. These men will answer to that charge. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I think I need to pass out,” the general said with all the dignity he could muster. Thad caught him and eased him to the ground. Maximus laid next to him.
“Send the shuttles to bring Craken and the wounded here!” Thad yelled at a lieutenant. “And take some people to help with the wounded.”
***
Craken sat with his head between his knees. Sergeant Ranier loomed over him. Three transport shuttles settled into the area and TerroCom soldiers ran off.
“We’re here to evacuate the wounded. We won,” the lieutenant said tersely. “Captain?”
“It’s just us.” The sergeant shook her head and helped pull Craken to his feet.
“But there was supposed to be, what, thirty people?” the lieutenant wondered aloud.
“Thirty-three, to be exact. They brought an airplane and shot up all the vehicles where we’d put the wounded. They didn’t die well.”
“What happened to the pilot?”
“The captain shot the murderer before he could fly away,” the sergeant answered.
The lieutenant twirled a finger in the air. Mount up. He stopped. “Do we need to bury the dead?”
“No,” the captain replied. “They are buried in steel coffins.” He took a deep breath and looked up. “But we won. Their sacrifice wasn’t in vain.”
“No, Captain. It wasn’t. We did a good thing this day and paid dearly for it, but it was a good thing.”
Craken gripped the soldier’s arm and smiled. “We earned our colors. TerroCom is a force for the future. Fight the enemy where they least expect it, with extreme violence. If we have to come, we’re coming with all we got.”
“I’ll second that, Captain.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
The recovery to the Bicknas Explorer took two days, most of which was spent getting the ship back into orbit over Centauri Prime. Thad kept the general on a cot the entire time as TerroCom dismantled the leadership backbone of the enemy force. They had called themselves the Peace Force and had taken every piece of military hardware left on the planet, most of which was Melborn-made.
Where the colonel had received sideways looks on the trip to Centauri Prime, the soldiers treated him with the utmost respect on the trip back to Ungwilook. He called for a formation to honor the fallen.
They wheeled the general down from sickbay. He sat off to the side with two other wounded. The soldier who had acted as the tank commander was next to him. After a couple bags of blood, he said he felt good as new, but once in sickbay, only the doctors could turn him loose.
Craken called the formation to attention. Thad marched smartly to the front, saluted, and put the soldiers at ease.
“This is where we celebrate victory, recognize the sacrifices of our fellows, and look toward the future. We lost sixty-seven people. That was one out of every three soldiers who landed on Centauri Prime.” Thaddeus let that sink in before he continued. “I would love to pin medals on people for actions above and beyond the call, but that’s what generals do. I’m just a grunt like you.”
“Hell no!” someone yelled from the back of the formation. “You’re a super-grunt. I want to be you when I grow up.”
Some soldiers laughed. Maximus grunted. “Don’t you dare!” Thad cautioned. The rest of the formation snickered.
“In the famous words of John Carter of Mars, I still live!” Thad smiled at the soldiers. “We never lament the lost. We celebrate that they were one of us. We remember them; we honor them; and we learn from their sacrifice to get better. TerroCom’s strength is in our flexibility. One minute, we’re fighting a standup battle with tanks, and the next, we’re going door to door in the enemy headquarters. That is yo
ur power and will carry you to victory in many battles to come.”
The colonel waved at someone behind him, who nodded and signaled to another standing in the corridor. The cooks and their helpers appeared, pushing carts of food along with a massive cake. A cheer sounded from over four hundred throats.
“We celebrate our brothers-in-arms, each other, and victory. We work together to accomplish the mission, but we fight for each other. Dismissed!” Thad saluted, turned away from the formation, and walked to the general.
The man waved as Thad approached. The general had learned that moving his head caused undue pain. He stopped all nodding and shaking, keeping his head as rigid as a Moai statue. “We’ll need an improved training area, one to practice urban operations along with the area on Ungwilook for open field engagements. What do you think, Colonel? Can we do this again with fewer casualties next time?”
Thad kneeled to be eye level with the general. “You already know my answer to that, don’t you?”
“I suspected from the start. The soldiers needed to see what was possible. I thank you for not getting yourself killed. That would have put a damper on the whole operation.”
“As my deputy would say, very muchly so.”
“That’s it then? You’re going back to being the sheriff in that podunk town?”
“One man’s podunk is another man’s heaven.”
“You’re good with TerroCom. You are a soldier’s soldier, the likes of which are rare. We need you, Thaddeus. I need you.”
“The soldier’s soldiers are the stallions, but organizations like TerroCom will ride those stallions until they crash and burn. I did all that I could, and still, people died. I’m not turning my back on these good people, but it’s time for them to take responsibility for themselves. Share the burdens. Promote soldiers and let them take charge. Ranier. Craken. There are a few others. Too bad we didn’t get them all planet-side so they could dip their toes into the fires of hell. See who could take it, see who thrived.”
“Like you?”
“I’ve heard that a true warrior is at home in battle. The way I felt down there? It scares the hell out of me.” Thad took the general’s hand and shook it. “When I leave this ship, I’m going to leave my uniform and all of this behind.”
“Understood, Colonel. I’m still going to give you a medal. From what I understand, that’s what generals do.”
Thad chuckled. Maximus snorted and bobbed his head.
Both men looked at the alien from Glakridoz.
“Two knock-down drag-outs for baths, and he’s still got blood on him.”
“Don’t we all?” the general said softly.
“I guess so, but at least others don’t have to see it on us.”
“I think they see more than you think. Be well, Colonel.”
“One last thing, General. If you hurt Penelope, I’m going to hurt you. If she leaves anything for me, that is.”
“You’re going to threaten an old man in a wheelchair?” The general laughed until he abruptly stopped, putting a hand to his head. “Don’t make me laugh. It hurts.”
***
The shuttle landed at the spaceport. Thaddeus Fry and Maximus were the only ones to get off. He waved to the general and the soldiers on their way back to the training area for final debriefings before returning to Melborn, where they would finally be announced as the premier fighting force of the inner system, a special force to avoid prolonged conflict, and help keep the peace throughout known space.
Thad watched the shuttle leave, waving even though he knew no one saw.
“I’m nervous, buddy,” he told the pig-dog.
Maximus ran to the fence and lifted a leg, relieving himself as if he had held it for the entire time they were gone. “Good effort. I think you have it right. Just do it.”
Together, they walked through the town. The wind was lighter than usual. Thad was pleased that he didn’t get the usual grit in his eyes. He had a bag over his shoulder, and his usual coat protecting his sheriff’s outfit from the weather. It was clean and pressed, a ‘gift’ from the ship’s crew. He wasn’t sure his outfit had ever looked clean. Even though it was well worn, it smelled like cash sales. He would never live it down.
He walked through the doors to the Mother Lode like he owned the place. Once inside, he stopped to take in the surroundings. New furniture but the same old saloon. It made him feel funny. “This is what home is supposed to feel like!”
He smiled as Mast Jotham noticed him. The deputy was toe to toe with a man. Thad strode toward them, never taking his eyes from the man. “Whatever he told you to do, do it. Now sit your ass down.”
The man sat quickly, mumbling an apology to Mast Jotham.
“Catch me up, Deputy,” Thad said, still grinning. Mast grabbed Thad in a bear hug, lifted him, and bounced up and down in joy.
He put the sheriff down, resuming his usual demeanor. “Mast Jotham is pleased the sheriff has returned. Catching you up bigly.”
“We’ll meet later and talk, Mast. Thank you for holding down the fort.”
“But there is no fort.”
Thad slapped the Unglok on the arm and walked past the bar on his way to the stairs. He nodded to Pierre. Dixie threw herself on him and kissed him fully on the mouth. She wrapped her legs around his waist. He held on to her to keep them both from falling, discovering to his dismay that she was wearing a thong and he had two hands full of bare butt cheeks. He pushed her down and away.
“Nice to see you too, Dixie.”
“I’m so embarrassed,” she said, flushing on command and winking. Thad’s eye-roll made her smile.
The custodian appeared from the back. “I thought I heard you,” the man said softly.
Thad reached into his pocket. “I have something for you.”
The custodian took the bundle in a shaking hand. His lips trembled as if trying to say something.
“I think we got the last of them. They will pay for what they did when TerroCom turns them over to the inner system. It won’t bring your boy back, but know that he was avenged.”
“I don’t know what to say.”
“You don’t have to say anything. This is the least anyone can do for the survivors of heroes. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have someone else I need to see.”
“She’s waiting for you,” Nimian Todd whispered. “Thank you.”
Thad hurried up the steps, trying to look calm and collected, but the higher he climbed the faster he went. Maximus stopped on the second landing and let the sheriff go. The pig-dog returned to the bar and someone let him out where he assumed his position, lying on the porch, getting some sun.
The sheriff knocked once and opened the door. A brief smile crossed Shaunte’s face before she turned back to her monitors. “Took you long enough. What’s for dinner?”
Thad dropped his pack on the floor and walked around the desk. Shaunte stood and kicked her chair to the side as if clearing space for a brawl.
“Yes?” she asked.
He’d had weeks to think about what to say when he returned to this moment. He forgot all the words. “I’m home,” he said simply and with one finger, brushed a strand of loose hair behind Shaunte’s ear.
“And?” she pressed.
“I’m home to you, Shaunte. I would like to take you out on a proper date, so I can tell you in an appropriately romantic setting that I am in love with you.”
“You are honest to a fault, Thaddeus Fry, but I asked. I should have expected a straightforward answer. I’ve gotten used to those, and they make my life easier. Isn’t that what partnerships are supposed to be? The total is greater than the sum of the parts and all that.”
Thad held her face in his hands and kissed her softly.
She caressed his face. “You smell like a military ship. You need a shower.”
“I guess with my water rations building up over the past month, I could afford one.”
Shaunte shook her head. She sniffed inside her shirt. “Hmm. I’m not th
e cleanest either. I guess I could use a shower, too. A perk of being the Company Man is an excess water ration, so we won’t run out, if we combine yours and mine, you see.”
The End of Episode 9.
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BONUS CONTENT
This is the original outline for Darklanding 9. I’m including it so you can see what I had in mind when I prepared the story, the original plot points and highlights and compare that to what you saw in the final story. I hope you enjoy it.
The Outline for Darklanding 09 – A Warrior’s Home
Thad is on the other side of the planet watching TerroCom train. They aren’t bad and he starts to miss his military days, the camaraderie, how tight warriors in combat became, blind trust. He lands his airship near an observation platform and strikes up a conversation with his ex-wife’s lover. The general is driven, but a bit overboard on the military option for Thad’s liking. Still…
The general asks Thad to help by being an OpFor (opposing forces), run a group against whom TerroCom can conduct a graduation exercise. This is where Thad is impressed by the subtlety of their approach – no bull rush, but sneaking, subterfuge, and high impact attach to achieve a narrow and focused goal.
The general is ready to take the unit away, deploy them on a real mission. He’ll get out of Thad’s hair, but the third wave of TerroCom soldiers is inbound and needs to be brought up to speed. Thad is uncomfortable with new trainees and doesn’t want a long-term commitment for helping out. He has a job as sheriff, but the Company Man is good with him protecting her investment (the TerroCom windfall) so she can do her job which is mineral exploitation.
Then Thad hears where TerroCom is going for their real operation – Centauri Prime. He goes to see Shaunte and talk with her. She becomes only too aware of the trials plaguing him as he is looking at deploying anew, going back into the meat grinder. He doesn’t want to do it, but feels that it is his responsibility. He liked the group of people he was given for his OpFor exercise.
A Warrior's Home: Assignment Darklanding Book 09 Page 8