Space Marine

by Merrell Michael

  "Yeah, but you havent seen one of them motherfuckers." Tims shivered. "Their like the stupid animal version of the warriors. Naked and crazy. And these fuck-os keep them as pets."

  "How does that work?" I said.

  "I saw it happen." Tims said. "With the last guy that was in here. Theyve got some kind of pit rigged up in this prison. They let the cell doors open, and, bam, the Chimera come out and do their thing."

  "Jesus."

  And thats exactly what happened.

  They grabbed us both, and threw us into the pit. There were crude hand-to-hand weapons down with us. A Machete. A sledgehammer. A farmers axe. I grabbed the blunt instrument.

  On the other side of the gate, we could see the wild Chimera straining at the bars. They were hissing and growling, feral noises. The Scrivener made some kind of brief speech. I couldn't have told you what it was about. Then he opened the cells.

  The wild Chimera ran in a helper skelter fashion, at us, limbs flailing. I panicked when I swung the hammer. Somehow it caught the beast clean in the temple, and it fell down dead. Tims was not as lucky. His machete caught in the things chest on the first blow. He jerked with it, an absurd tug of war.

  "Help me!" He cried out. "Get these fuckers!"

  I started, then realized the situation.

  All the Chimera were surrounding him. For the kill.

  I could see calmness in Tims eyes, as he realized.

  "Your a piece of shit, Sawyer." He told me. "I'll see you in hell."

  Then the pack collapsed on him, and he died. I stepped back, and watched as they ate him. It was not quick.

  When it was done the Scrivener and his men turned their automatic weapons on the Chimera and killed them quickly. I dropped the sledgehammer. A ladder appeared, and I climbed out of the pit.

  Scrivener eyed me up and down. "I was wrong about you." He said. "Your smarter than I thought. You let your friend die without even blinking." He gestured to his men. "Take him away."

  I was returned to my cell.

  And, having nothing better to do, I slept.

  I dreamt of Shayiza.

  When I awoke, the cell door exploded outward. First Sargeant Post was standing there, in full Power Armor.

  "Get your ass up, Marine." He growled. "We've got a war to win."

  SIXTEEN

  First Sergeant tossed me one of the guards crude automatic weapons.

  "How did you find me?" I asked.

  "Some crazy droid." He said. "Offered to let me butt-fuck it, then told me their was another jarhead nearby. Led me right to it." He shook his head. "Told me the whole story, about how you were a dumb shit and took off your Armor to get a piece of split tail. What happened, you forget about that blue alien bitch waiting for you on the station?"

  "Yeah." I said. "Guess I did."

  "Don't worry about it." Post said. "What happens on deployment stays on deployment. Now, get your ass out of here and suit up. I riled up these fuckers something fierce coming in, and we should have a nice little shitstorm on our hands on the way out."

  I ran out of the cell. The Power Armor was laying on a table, in the room next to me. I strapped it on as quickly as possible. The systems underwent a field expedient boot-up. I punched a hole in the wall, because I could. Then grabbed my Gauss rifle.

  On the way out, we turned the prison into a slaughterhouse.

  The Scrivener's men howled and ran at us with knives, or automatic weapons. We cut them down quickly, with single-fire shots from our Gauss rifles. Nothing they did penetrated. It was a steady march for us, to the hole First Sergeant had made in the outer prison wall. After a certain point, the men stopped following. They kept a distance, looking at us with hate. We walked for nearly an hour, through the rubble. We stopped in

  a ruined building. The droid was there.

  "How wonderful to see you again, sirs." It said. "I'm so pleased you escaped that dreadful place."

  "DaMi3ls here has an escape plan of his own." Post said. "Go on and tell him."

  "Indeed, sirs. With my locomotion being what it is, I am incapable of traversing the terrain at a fast enough rate to escape the explosion."

  "What explosion?" I said.

  "What I said before in the briefing." Post said. "Were nuking this city from orbit."

  "What about the survivors?" I asked.

  "Corporal, you met the survivors." Post said. "They turned out to be a bunch of no-account assholes. Those same fuckers greeted me with a few RPG's when I breached the wall."

  "So whats the plan?" I asked.

  Ten minutes later, DaMi3ls teetered toward the terraformer.

  "Good morning!" It said. "Human cyborg relations!"

  The Chimera warriors around it howled, and raised their Bullseye rifles.

  "Good morning!" DaMi3ls said.

  One of the Chimera fired off a burst, that hit the droid in its arm. The droid tottered forward.

  "Relations!" Dami3ls said cheerfully.

  The Chimera fired again. It caught the droid in the lower torso. He broke apart in a shower of sparks, and landed at the alien's feet.

  "Good!" It said.

  Then the proton charges we had placed inside DaMi3ls body blew, and what was left of the droid vaporized everything in 150 meters.

  "My word." Said Dami3ls program from inside my Armor's AI.

  "Its just your body." I said. "Your motherboard is safe right here."

  "Still." He sniffed. "I was rather attached to it."

  Post and I ran like hell towards the terraformer.

  We both hit the grav-lift at the same time.

  "Punch it!" Post said.

  The grav-lift worked on principles our scientist didn't understand. It was basically a floating platform. You press the right button on the haptic control, the platform goes up. I had had a class on it last deployment, the idea being that an opportunity might come for me to use it in the field. And that time was now.

  The lift shot up into the air at breakneck speed. Both Post and I were jerked back from the force. Stray Bulllseye fire nipped past us from below. When it hit the huge blue Terra-forming beam, it vanished in the haze.

  "Drive this thing out of here!" Post shouted on the comm. "We've got fifteen minutes until the nuke hits!"

  Using my hand motions, I weaved the lift through the upper spikes surrounding the city. From behind us Dropships appeared.

  "Thats not good!" Post said. "Try to lose them!"

  I accelerated the lift until a red warning light came on. I could smell ozone burning from its engines. The dropships leaned behind us, slow and heavy. Energy blasts went past us from its guns, close enough to shave off skin. Post was firing back with his Gauss rifle. It was no good. The shields on the ships were too strong. The ship was smoking now, and losing altitude.

  With no warning, the nuke hit.

  The grave-lift overturned, and we plunged to the ground. My visor went white, and then the emergency shielding kicked in. Even with the helmet dampening it, the roar of the explosion was tremendous.

  Somehow I lived. Somehow the lift made a shield of itself for me.

  Post was not as lucky.

  The nuclear blast had melted parts of his Power Armor to his skin. He was struggling to move. Both his legs were gone above the knee, and the suit had torniquieted itself off to stop the bleeding. Around him I could see the yellow sand had been melted into glass.

  I ran too him, and cradled his head. My AI linked to his suit. The main battery had ruptured, leaving only a four percent power capability. Barely enough to run emergency life support functions.

  "Leave me." He coughed. "Im no good."

  "Your my ride home." I said. "I don't have a tracking beacon."

  "You do now." His Armor uploaded the app to mine. His eyes were greying over. "You were always one of the best." He said. "I thought bringing you here would make a difference."

  I said nothing.

  "The city didn't even matter." He continued. "Just a random target. It would just ha
ve been a morale thing for the corporation. The Chimera wouldn't have cared. We don't even know where the main hive is-"

  He groaned. "It doesn't fucking matter. Your due a promotion, Corporal."

  My HUD lit up. CONGRATULATIONS! It said. An icon appeared, with three vertical chevrons, and crossed M4 rifles underneath. My rank was now displayed as E-5 (SGT). With his dying breath, Post had given me a battlefield promotion. His life support was now at zero, and his heart had stopped beating.

  It took several hours for the Stormraven to arrive. As it did I had to watch my own power supply dwindling. Several warning lights were flashing, for radiation levels, and Armor damage. I had to limp my way on board the bird. When I was in, a medic and a Crew Chief were checking me out. The Stormraven was lifting off, escaping the planets atmosphere. I was heading back to the station. I would see Shayiza again.

  SEVENTEEN

  I had a week in the sickbay receiving decontamination. My armor was disposed of as soon as the Crew Chiefs cut it off my body.

  "Its amazing." Doc Finley told me. "No real and permanent damage. Your going to live to fight another day, Sergeant."

  "Where's Shayiza?" I said.

  He frowned. "You know the Pandoran woman?"

  "Yes." I said.

  "You'll have to talk to representative Gibbs about that."

  "Who?"

  "The corporate liaison." Doc said.

  I cursed silently. Some part of me had thought that Post being dead would mean that things would return to normal between me and Shayiza. That wasn't the case. She was still a bargaining chip for Terra.

  Hunter slapped me on the shoulder. "What up, dickweed!" He said. "How was the op?"

  "Sucked." I said. "Hows your hand?"

  He lifted the prosthetic up for me to see. "Got a top of the line Luke model. This thing is sweet."

  "Did you re-up?" I asked.

  He nodded. "Yeah." He said. "Im a POG now, though. My MOS is supply and logistics, whatever that is. Im going to spend the rest of this deployment in the station."

  "Thats cool." I said. "Its a better deal than what I've got going on, anyway."

  "Dude." He whistled. "That alien chick? You never told me how freakin hot she was. Are you tappin that?"

  "Hands off, dude." I said. "Thats my girl."

  He made an obscene gesture with the prosthetic. "I could show her a good time, with this."

  "Have you heard from anyone else?" I asked. "Anyone from second squad."

  "Mcgovern and Chief both made it." He said. "No word on anyone else. Basically, after you got through, enough of the assault force was chased off to abort the whole mission. It was the biggest failure in Terran military history. That is, until you set off that nuke."

  "What are you talking about?" I said. "I didnt set off any nuke."

  "Thats not what the newsfeeds are saying."

  "Newsfeeds?"

  "You really dont know?" He took a small data pad out of his cargo pocket.

  "The condition of Sergeant Sawyer is still unknown." An attractive woman was saying. "It is unclear just how much of the mission to assault the Chimeran capitol was planned by him, and how much he improvised on the ground."

  "A true human hero." The other news anchorwoman said. "And an inspiration to all of us. This should truly bring about galaxy-wide unity."

  I switched the pad off. It was too much to take in.

  "A true human hero." Hunter said. "And your a Sergeant now. Thats a pretty good deal."

  "Its not." I said. "Thats not the way it happened."

  Hunter shrugged. "It doesnt really matter, at any rate."

  At that moment, Gibbs showed up.

  A lot of the mid level corporate representatives liked to have plastic surgery in order to make their appearance seem as non threatening as possible. Gibbs had made himself look like Paul Reiser, an obscure late twentieth century actor and comedian.

  "Ryan?" He said. "Hi." He came in. "You look great. Congratulations."

  "Thanks." I said.

  "Im Gibbs." He shook my hand. "I work for the corporation. Dont let that fool you, I'm actually an okay guy." His tone seemed as deliberately congenial as possible. "Wow." He looked at Hunter's hand. "Look at that. Great stuff. Its amazing what they can do these days, with advanced robotic prosthetics."

  "Yeah." Hunter said. "I like it okay. Almost as good as my last one."

  "Hey." Gibbs said. "I just want to take a moment to say, to both of you guys, thanks for your service. I mean that. I really do. I want you to know that you've got the support of Earth and Mars, all the way out to the rim. The Verse is really pulling for you guys."

  Not knowing what to say, I nodded.

  "Hey Ryan." Gibbs said. "Doc tells me your clear to leave sickbay for a little walkabout. Mind coming with me for a chat?"

  "Sure." I said. "Lets go."

  We walked down the large ring of the outer concourse. It was clean and white, a huge contrast from the black and yellow that had stuck to everything in Terra. There were neat screens on multiple walls showing various corporate and military apporoved net feeds. I felt almost naked, in my tan boots and ACU uniform, with my fresh sergeant insignia. It was good in a way. I felt like I could blend in. We passed other Marines and soldiers in clean uniforms, as well as many different civilian personnel. Gibbs was excessively talkative.

  "Have you seen the net feeds?" He said.

  "A little."

  "Wow." He shook his head. "They are all over you, buddy. They got wind of your story, and ran with it. All the reporters here are already embedded, but the next ship in, your going to get mobbed.

  We stopped in front of the Iwo Jima memorial. It was the same as the ones on Earth, with the exception of the flag being replaced with the Terran symbol, instead of the old US one.

  "Boy." Gibbs said. "I love this statue. It makes you think, doesnt it? 400 years of the Marine Corps. These guys, fighting the chinese in that war, do you think they knew what they were starting?"

  "It was the Japanese." I said.

  "The what?"

  "They were fighting the Japanese." I told him. "In World War two, America was at war with Japan and Germany."

  "Is that right?" Gibbs said. "I always thought it was China. I guess I dont know my history, huh?"

  "It wasnt the way it happened."

  "What?"

  "This statue was based on a photograph." I said. "In the photograph, they were raising a second flag on Iwo Jima, because the commanding officer wanted a larger one."

  "Really? Thats fascinating." Gibbs said. "After they won the war?"

  "They didnt win the war." I said. "They werent even finished fighting the battle. Two of the guys in the picture died later at Iwo Jima."

  "Thats interesting." Gibbs said. "I guess we really dont get the whole picture all these years later. Hey look-" He said. "Theres a haptic booth. Lets link to the net real quick. My treat."

  A few minutes later, we were at Disneyworld.

  It was a beautiful day. The central florida sun was shining bright overhead. Around us were happy families, laughing and holding hands. Taking screenshots of each other having fun.

  "Just so you know." Gibbs told me, "This actual Disneyworld server is free to active duty military servicemembers, and their families. Whenever you get a free shot at the net, you can log on and have some fun."

  "Thats great." I said.

  "Has Shayiza ever been to Disneyworld?" He asked.

  "I dont think so." I said. "I dont think she's been to many nice places, besides Pandora."

  "Yeah, wow." Gibbs offered me some cotton candy. "I just want to say, on the record, that what you were doing getting her out of that place, that Martian place, was great. And, First Sergeant Post, I dont want to speak ill of anyone thats passed on, but it wasnt right of him, to hold her over your head like that. It isnt something that we- that I'm very proud of."

  "What happens now?" I said. "Where is she?"

  Gibbs opened up a window in the net. "Tak
e a look." He said.

  The newsfeed showed a small camera clip of Shayiza in the sickbay, caring for a wounded Marine. The headline read, in giant Huffington Post font style PANDORAN WOMAN HEALS HEARTS AND MENDS BODIES. The basis of the article was how the new Corporate displaced-natives-relocation-program was helping a Pandoran woman find a new life as a sort of nurse.

  The newsfeed was, of course, a corporate shill. the displaced-natives-relocation-program was a quagmire of politics and corruption that was aimed at corraling Pandorans onto squalid reservations, and a mid level management official in it had been responsible for selling Shayiza into Sex Slavery on Mars.

  "You went public with this?" I said.

  "Sure did." Gibbs said. "And with your help, we'll go public with something else."

  He opened a new window. In it was a video clip of Shayiza and myself, arm in arm. I was in my dress blues, and she was in some sort of naturist type apparel. We were waving to a cheering crowd. It was obviously a computer generation, and one that had been put together in a hurry.

  "The two of you together." Gibbs had a huge, shit eating grin on his face. "Thats powerful stuff. All that you each have done individually. Overcoming obstacles. We can use that stuff."

  "Is that the catch?" I said. "Letting you use that stuff?"

  Gibbs opened up a new window. "Before we talk about catches." He said. "Let me sweeten the deal a little more."

  In it was a Whedon class personal spacecraft. A Firefly.

  "We don't want the two of you stuck here in this station." Gibbs said. "We want you both out there in the Verse, free and clear."

  "Your giving me a ship?"

  "Leasing it. With a very generous rate. You would have another promotion, and Shayiza would have a corporate position. Your duties would simply be to spread the good word. Let people know in the other rim that Terra does good. That we care about what happens to them."

  "Do you care about what happens on Chimera?" I asked.

  "Okay." Gibbs put his hands up. "There is a caveat. A little one. Your about to get a medal, and you have to accept it."

  "A medal?" I asked. "For what?"

  Gibbs put his hand on my shoulder. "Sometimes in war." He said. "A story has to be told a certain way. People need to see Marines as something larger than life. Something they can trust to get the job done. People need heroes."