When the car slowed to a halt at the far end, Standish’s vision was still blurry, but she could hear voices nearby, and as Bender picked her motionless body up, and stepped off the rail-car, she could hear someone ask why Bender risked his life for someone who was going to die anyway.
“She’s not going to die.” She heard Bender reply as he carried her into a lift, the doors closing behind them. “And if you open your mouth one more time, I’m going to leave you here.”
As Standish hung there, in Bender’s arms, her limbs dangled down, out of her control, her mind wandered. She didn’t know if she was about to die, but Standish didn’t feel like she could move a muscle if her life depended on it. Her red and black armour had four holes in it, and her blood and that of the combatants she had killed was on the inside and outside of the once pristine battle-suit.
When the lift stopped, Bender carried Standish’s broken body down a short hallway towards the rear of the building, through a set of double doors onto a massive balcony that hung off the side of the building. As Standish started to dip in and out of consciousness, she felt the fresh air blow onto her skin through the open holes in her armour, and the loud hum of a ship’s engines loitering in the air just off the balcony with only its ramp in touch with the building.
“There’s a healing bath forward.”
She recognised the voice. It was Reyn. After that, she was gone. Passed out. Unconscious. Unaware of what was happening around her.
When Bender reached the front hold of the craft, he set Standish’s body on the ground, then slammed his gloved hand onto the healing bath activating the switch, unleashing a belch of fluid that started to flood the capsule with green liquid. Crouching back down, Bender flipped up his blast visor and quickly went about removing Standish’s armour. The once clean and smooth red and black armour was now dirtied and covered in blood, holes, dents and scratches. He unlocked the armour, allowing him to remove her kit.
Once he was done, he picked up her body, and carried it over to the healing bath, and carefully lowered it into the green liquid that had filled the tank. Within seconds, a breathing apparatus was formed around her nose and mouth, and the sides of the container turned dark green to provide some privacy for the naked female submerged in the thick green fluid.
Checking the top of the tank, Bender could tell that the machine had already assessed her injuries and was prepping for a significant nano-bot surgery. She’d live, but her body was going to be permanently scarred by the four holes that had been blasted in her. Bender had switched off the cosmetic alterations program after he had put Standish in the tank. He knew that the scars she suffered that day would be the daily reminder that she needed to make sure something like this never happened to her again.
“Prepare to jump.” Reyn came over the ships comm net.
Bender took a step back from the healing bath and removed his helmet, placing it under his arm. Looking down, he let out a breath, then slumped against the wall of the compartment, exhausted.
72
The Present
Fury 161
The walk back to the ship was slow and ponderous. Her clothes were soaked, and her wounds not fully healed. There was a noticeable limp to her stride as Standish walked past the same derelicts and scum that she had seen on the way in. They paid her no attention. Just another visitor to the ruins of the once glamourous Core.
73
The Past
Amcro
When she opened her eyes, her head felt light, and she was a little drowsy. Looking at the ceiling, Standish wasn’t sure where she was, and when she mustered the strength to push herself up, she finally took the chance to look to her left and right and found that she was lying in the middle of an empty medical room. Only the hum of the machine that was monitoring her vitals made any sound.
Propping herself up against the back of the bed she was on, Standish looked down at the thin sheet that was covering her body. Almost too nervous to pull the sheet back, she resisted the temptation, and laid her head back down on the pillow and closed her eyes. The next time her eyes opened, there was a medical droid standing next to her bed, a data-pad in one hand, and a scanner in the other.
“Where am I?” Standish asked, but her voice almost cracked. Not only did she feel weak, she felt powerless.
“Medical facility.” The droid replied in a monotone fashion.
“What planet?”
“Amcro.” The droid replied.
Standish closed her eyes again. She had never heard of the world. “How long have I been here?”
“Five days.” The droid replied. “Here.” The droid handed her the data-pad. “You may check the news or for personal correspondence. Command has authorised it.”
Standish took the pad and set it down. “How did I get here?” Her memory was a little blurry.
“An operator brought you in.” The droid answered, then moved off.
Shaking her head, Standish picked up the data-pad and powered it on. After entering her fleet identification information and passwords, she had access to all the material that was networked with her personal computer back on Killious. After spending some time reading the official Alliance news service, none of which mentioned anything about Qera, she accessed the fleet message service and found a series of recordings from her father.
The messages had been sent the morning that she launched to Qera, and each message got progressively worse as he went into graphic detail about how the war between the Blacks and the Yellow gangs had intensified, and now the battle had come down to the planet’s surface. After the Yellow’s had taken over Port Sunlight, they had killed all the males aged ten to sixty in the town, including her brothers, to ensure that there would be no resistance to their reign. Luckily the farm was far enough outside of town to spare Standish’s father, but it seemed like the situation was now entirely out of hand.
The final message sent just hours ago was the shortest of the lot. Her father had been shot and wounded in a raid on the farming community by a band of Yellows. The situation on the planet was now utterly ruinous, and with nowhere to go on the planet, and not enough money to get off-world, her father feared for his life.
Setting down the data-pad, Standish closed her eyes, and a single tear started to fall down the side of her cheek. She was light-years away and helpless to do anything. She had left her family to die on her home-world, and now there was nothing she could do to aid them.
And then, the door opened.
“There’s that beauty!”
The sight of Reyn bursting into the room, Bender right on his tail, was enough to put a smile on Standish’s face. The two senior operators walked over to Standish’s bed and stopped at the foot of it. They were both wearing matching navy skin-suits; Reyn had his customary dual pistols on his hips.
“How are you feeling?” Bender asked.
Standish rocked her head from side to side. “As well as can be expected.” She looked down at the bedsheet, then back up. “How many got off?”
Bender pursed his lips and looked at Reyn for a moment, then back to Standish. “Almost half.” He replied.
Standish picked up the data-pad. “I couldn’t find a full casualty list.”
Bender nodded. “It’s complicated. There is a news blackout on this.” He replied.
“Did anyone from Beta Three-Six make it off the planet?” She asked. That was Num Blaz’s team, but she hadn’t seen him since they left Mechcharga.
“I can check.” Bender replied. He stepped around the side of the bed and moved closer to the top. “I’ve come here to ask you if you want to remain in D-O.” He pointed at the sheet that listed her injuries. “With those injuries, you could be eligible for a medical discharge.”
Standish shook her head. “I can’t go home.” She replied. The thought of the messages her father left almost made her cry.
Bender put his hand on Standish’s shoulder. “What’s wrong?”
“My homeworld is lost.” She looked
up at Bender. “There isn’t a local government anymore, and now it’s controlled by pirates.” She was on the verge of crying, but she held the tears back.
Bender looked over to Reyn who shrugged his shoulders.
“How bad is it?” Bender asked.
Standish shook her head. “I’m not sure.” She replied.
“What world are you from?”
“Nadolo Prime.” She replied.
Reyn pulled out a datapad and powered it on. “Second fleet territory.” He said. He put the pad away. “We don’t know anyone senior over there.”
“Our best bet would be Zalenious at Fifth fleet.” Bender replied. “He could speak to whoever runs second.”
Reyn walked around to the other side of the bed. “If we make this request, we’re going to owe Zalenious.”
Bender took a deep breath and looked down at Standish. “This girl helped me when my family was in need, now it’s my time to help her when her family is in trouble.”
Standish looked up at Bender’s face. “What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to ask Admiral Zalenious to get the Second fleet commander to restore order to Nadolo Prime.” He looked over at Reyn. “But I have a feeling it won’t be that simple.”
It was another three days before Bender and Reyn returned to Standish’s hospital room, and they brought news.
“The admiral has assured us that if we deal with the problem on the surface ourselves, then second fleet will come in, take back the system, and put an administration centre near your family home.” He looked down at Standish. “Port Sunlight?”
She nodded, a smile on her face.
“But we need to deal with the infestation first.” Bender repeated.
“What did D-O command say?” Standish asked.
Reyn shook his head. “They’re still reeling from Qera. So, they’re too busy to worry about what we do.”
“And there is something else.” Bender said, sitting down on the end of Standish’s bed. “Our pilot didn’t make it off Qera, so there is a slot on our team available.”
Standish’s mouth dropped. “A slot available on the Prime team?”
Bender nodded. “You did well flying that Swift Boat when you helped get my family Sandura 26G.”
Standish blinked a few times and nodded her head.
“What I am proposing is this.” Bender stood up. “You stay here and heal up. Once you’ve been cleared by medical, we get you all the augmentation required to join a Prime team.” Bender waved his hand in the air. “The augmentation will take a week or so to adapt to, and once you’re ready, we’ll visit Nadolo Prime, and put things right.” He looked at Reyn. “In between then and now, we will source some new armour, weapons, and a ship.”
“Also, some intel gathering.” Reyn added. “Whatever we can.” He looked at Standish. “We’ll need input on what you know about these pirates. Weapons, skills, anything that could be useful in planning.”
Bender nodded. “Once you’re ready, and the team is ready, we’ll launch.”
“And once we return, we’ll send you to D-O pilots training on Mella II.” Reyn added.
Bender smiled. “It’s a good course. Reyn and I have completed it.”
Standish pushed herself upright in her bed. “I accept.”
Bender smiled. “I knew you would.”
Bender started to walk away when Standish remembered that he hadn’t answered her question about Beta Three-Six.
“Bender.”
He stopped and turned. Standish could tell that he knew but had been holding the information back. “You want to know about the team, Three-Six.” He said, then shook his head. “None of them made it off the surface.”
Standish suddenly felt as if she had been punched in the gut, but she just sat there and nodded silently. She watched Bender and Reyn leave, and once she was alone in the room, she let all the emotions she had built up after waking up in the medical facility out in a torrent of tears, and screams. Everyone she had gotten close to, in Rescue Tech training, on Sandura 26G, and then in her team, Beta One-One were dead. Her brothers were dead. Her father shot. Everyone she loved.
Once the tears stopped flowing, and her breathing had calmed down, her resolve to save her father and her home was more hardened than ever. There was no chance that she was going to fail him. She was not going to lose another person she loved, and once she had received the Prime up-grades, she was going to be even more capable than ever before to keep the ones she loved safe.
Standish didn’t know much about the augmentations that happened to up-grade operators to Prime levels, but she had heard rumours, and she wasn’t looking forward to the second set of surgeries just as she was recovering from the blaster wounds she had received on Qera, but if it were going to help her liberate her planet from the pirates that had been running rough-shot over it, then she’d do it with a smile on her face.
Six days after Bender and Reyn’s second visit, she was cleared by the medical staff on Amcro, and put on a transport to Guhr 8-Nine; the only facility in the Etelainen where up-grades to Prime level were performed.
When the transport arrived on the planet’s surface, she spotted a large group of fresh students ready to start D-O school. She even thought she recognised a few of the instructors, even though they were at the other end of the landing field. Standish was greeted by a medical service droid, and taken, along with five other operators who were there for the upgrade procedures, to a waiting hovercar which sped them to the old temple where she had learned so much.
It had been a while since Standish had left the training grounds, but the minute the impressive building came into view, her pulse rate jumped. It was a place that she’d never forget. Looking out of the windows of the hovercar, Standish marvelled at the flat plains that stretched away in every direction. The vast mountains behind the D-O complex were covered in snow and looked as impressive as the first time she had seen them.
When the transport reached the complex, the medical droid escorted the operators into the massive structure, and took them directly to the medical centre, which Standish had visited when she had been training on the course, but instead of staying within the confines of the facility as she knew it, they were taken to a lift, down several levels, emerging onto a hallway that was flooded by dark blue lights, and looked like something more likely to be found at a night-club.
Following the droid, Standish’s eyes opened with amazement when they reached the next chamber, which led to a massive room with glass walls and several operating pods spaced evenly around it. She couldn’t see any activity in the room with the pods, but in an adjacent room, she could see four figures who were being treated by medical staff and droids. Before she could get a better look, they were taken into a room adjacent to the large room at the end of the hall and told to wait.
Standish and the other operators sat themselves down in the chairs provided and waited. The other operators that had arrived with her were all veterans from Qera. Rumour had it Prime teams had a much higher survival rate in getting off-world, and now D-O command wanted to fill any voids in the eight-person Prime teams as fast as possible, before expanding the number of Prime teams.
Regardless of what the future of Dynamic Operations looked like, they had lost fifty percent of all their operators sent to Qera, making it a disaster of monumental levels. Looking around the room, Standish noticed that there were pictures and charts on the wall, perhaps charting the improvements that had been made in creating the best warriors in the military over the years. Her study of the images was cut short when a tall figure from Bern 36 walked into the room.
Standish and the other operators shot to their feet and came to attention.
“That won’t be necessary. Welcome to Guhr 8-Nine. As you all know, you have been selected for Prime level augmentation.” The male figure looked at the faces of the operators. “Questions?”
No one said a thing. It was an old military habit that Standish had been taught, that
in almost every circumstance, it was best to just sit there quietly, and wait for everything to be explained.
“No?” The figure shook his head, then pointed a small remote at a blank wall. “Here is what we are going to do over the next days and weeks.” He activated a mini-projector which put an outline of a bi-pedal figure up on the wall. “I will give you the broad strokes of the work that we are going to do now, and then during a private consultation I will go into more depth, but in summary, we are going to make you much more durable, much faster, stronger, and much more lethal.” The figure had a grin on his face. “Now.”
After the initial briefing, the five operators were taken to the small, but comfortable accommodation that would serve as their living quarters until they were discharged. Wanting to freshen up after her journey, Standish stripped out of her clothes, and stood before the rooms full-length mirror naked, and gave herself an appraisal. It was less than a month since the raid on Qera, but she could tell that she had already started to lose some muscle mass due to a lack of training with weights. The four blaster injuries had been healed, but she was left with the scars across her front, and one on her right forearm. They’d serve as reminders of the frailty of her own body, and the risks that combat presented.
After a long shower, she dressed in her sports under-garments and made her way to the head surgeons office for her second briefing. As she walked around the small subterranean complex, she noted that there was hardly any staff, but several medical service droids moving about. Reaching the office, she entered the room to find a trio of staff, two males, one of whom had given her the briefing when she first arrived, and a female physician from Nadolo Prime, marking the first time she had seen one of her own species in a long while.
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