Dropship One

by L. D. P. Samways

  “So please, somebody explain to me what the hell happened here? Forgive me, but I’m finding it increasingly hard to imagine that something like this could just happen out of the blue. Someone must have incited this, and I want their name right now! I cannot and will not stand for this sort of behaviour. This is a unit of Marines, not the damn WWE,” the hefty General said.

  I couldn’t help but smile at his obscure reference. I’d heard about the entertainment of the past, and how people would watch so-called professional wrestling, which was in essence fake fighting. That sort of entertainment didn’t exist anymore. Back on Earth, all forms of combat sport were banned. People were expected to live and work in harmony. In fact, fighting was seen as weakness when it was for nothing of any significance. Only in the armed forces could one expect to fight and it be allowed, but even then, it had to be against the enemy, not one of your own men.

  The General was starting to look even more peeved. There was a wall of silence that the men in the line were holding up, and he wanted nothing more than to break it down. But nobody was speaking, so there were no discernable cracks to get through. And from my experience, anytime a superior officer was faced with impenetrable silence from their cohorts, they’d go the extra mile to extract the information they wanted. Usually, everything was put on hold. No mess, no dorm, no social – just standing in line. I wondered how long the silence would last and I also wondered what his response would be to that silence.

  Would he just sideline us from the big assault on the city? Would he risk losing a squadron of men just to get information on a domestic? I doubted it, but I didn’t want to risk losing my place on the battlefield. The more time I spent around my fellow troops, the more I realized that the only time I enjoyed their company was when we were pelting the shit out of aliens. As for the downtime, I’d found that falling outs would occur. That wasn’t my scene. I didn’t enjoy fighting with my teammates. Others loved it, and would relish in drinking games gone wrong. Me, I’d be in bed, curled up, reading a book, waiting for lights out. If only I’d done that on the Messiah, then I wouldn’t be getting chewed out right now.

  “I can stand here all night gentleman. And until you give me the name of the men responsible for the bust-up, that’s exactly what I’m going to do – stand here and wait,” the General said.

  By now, more Messiah-like vehicles were showing up in the underground complex. Some of the men coming out of the vehicles were watching us getting chewed out, whilst others were going about their business. But the wall of silence was still strong, even with the continuous questioning. I could tell that the General was serious when he’d said that he’d stand there all night. But I wasn’t. So I stepped forward. A hush of deeper silence fell through the ranks as I made myself known. I was about to speak up when somebody else stepped forward.

  It was Spooks. I hadn’t noticed, but the reason I hadn’t been able to see him was because he’d been behind me this whole time. Not to mention the welt on my face. That probably had something to do with me not being able to see him. The General didn’t look impressed though. He was livid, and the fact that the two of us were taking the blame was making things worst. Especially when Pea Shooter decided to step forward.

  “The three of you? Is that your final answer?” The General said, the sweat on his forehead gleaming, the bulge over his belt wobbling as he spoke.

  The guy still looked pissed, but we didn’t respond. Well I didn’t. Neither did Pea Shooter. Spooks was about to when the whole squad took a step forward. Now the lot of us were taking the blame. And the General was even more irate. I could see the vein in his neck throb as he tried to remain calm.

  “I won’t ask you again! Somebody, take the blame now, or suffer the consequences!” the General shouted. But none of us spoke.

  The silence was both eerie and hollow at the same time. By now, other squadrons had gathered around us to see what all the fuss was about. We must have looked like idiots to them. The expressions on some of their faces said it all really.

  “TELL ME WHO STARTED IT!” The General bellowed.

  But before he could lose his shit some more, somebody new walked into the fray. And this guy was adorned in medals that covered every spare inch of fabric on his smart shirt. We all stood to attention, saluted, and fell back in line, which pissed the General off some more, but this new guy was a top-flight guy. I didn’t know who he was, but I knew that he was somebody. And whenever somebody of importance came into contact with you, it was best to salute. I’d have saluted the General, but we all knew this guy from boot camp, and none of us liked him.

  “What seems to be the problem here, General?” the medal wearing officer asked, smiling at us and then frowning at the General who’d looked a little intimidated.

  “These men here have been involved in a mass brawl! We cannot allow this sort of behaviour to flourish in our great division!” the General said. The man nodded. “Understandable, but what seems to be the actual problem?” the guy asked, which stumped the General for a few seconds.

  “The problem is that none of them will tell me who the heck started it! So I cannot punish the ones responsible!” the General spat. By now, the other guy was grinning.

  “Don’t worry about it. We have bigger things to be concerned about, like the fact that we’re shipping out to the surface at midnight and surprising these bastards with an onslaught I’m sure they won’t see coming!”

  The General looked confused. He frowned and then lowered his head, as if he was embarrassed.

  “But they need to be punished, Sir,” the General said.

  “Nonsense Harrold, they’re just blowing off steam. These guys have been through a lot. Let’s say we cut them some slack and allow them to get a bite to eat? Time’s a ticking, General. We don’t want to send our men out with empty bellies now, do we? Let’s not forget we’re leaving in a few hours, so time is definitely of the essence.”

  The General nodded his head, but I could see that he was far from happy. He creased his face, as if he was fighting the urge to show his true feelings. But to the man's credit, he swallowed his pride and nodded.

  “As you say, Sir. You heard the Master General, you gentleman can be on your way. But if I spot you fighting again, then it will be a collective trip to the brig for the lot of you! DISMISSED!”

  We saluted both men and quickly scampered toward the other troops, who’d now stopped watching and were making their way to the mess hall. The underground complex we were in was obviously man-made and must have been some sort of pre-fab building that the Marines brought to the planet. Everything was fitted with human beings in mind. The doors were of the right height, and the hallways were wide enough for everybody. Plus, as I entered the mess hall, the smell of human food made the hairs in my nostrils flutter in excitement.

  “Jesus, that was close,” Pea Shooter said.

  “Yeah. If it wasn’t for the Master General, then I guess we’d be scraping mud off boots right about now,” I said, grabbing a tray and standing in line.

  “Or worse!” Pea Shooter interjected.

  I looked at my watch, it was a little past nine PM Earth time. We’d been told we were moving out at midnight, so we didn’t have much time to get our shit together before moving out. I knew that if I was going to be able to function out there in the battlefield, I’d need a good meal. So I was glad that they had a great selection of food at hand.

  “You stocking up for winter?” I heard somebody say behind me. I turned around and low-and-behold, Spooks was stood there holding his tray. He mustn’t have been that hungry, because only a solitary piece of meat sat on his ceramic plate, looking up at me, red-raw, oozing with blood. I wasn’t too fond of steaks done medium rare style. I preferred my stuff char-grilled.

  “Hungry, boss. Thought I’d take advantage of a good meal before we go to the top and bring it to these assholes!” I said, attempting to smile at Spooks, but I just couldn’t manage it. Not until I said sorry. So I sucked some air int
o my lungs, held my breath for a few seconds, and exhaled.

  “Sir, I do apologize for my actions earlier. It was unbecoming of a Marine. Not to mention that you’re my superior and I can’t just go around picking fights with you. I was an asshole, and for that I apologize,” I said, now able to flash my teeth into a smile. Spooks frowned, which made me a little nervous.

  “Why are you apologizing, recruit? You did what any man with balls would do, you stood up for yourself and told me what you thought. I respect you for that. Not many men in this outfit would even dare to do such a thing. I was the one who handled myself poorly, Jensen. I acted impulsively. It won’t be happening again. I think after this tour; I’m taking a desk job. Maybe then I won’t have to deal with leaving a bunch of our guys to rot in the sun,” he said. Pea Shooter got in between the both of us and raised his arms up in the air.

  “Easy fellas, don’t go ripping each other’s heads off again!” he said, smiling at the both of us. But Spooks and I didn’t return the smile, we just stood there staring at Pea Shooter who slowly but surely edged his way out of the middle and got back in line.

  “Sorry about Peters Sir, his jokes are both weird and unusually irrelevant. I think the guy lives in his own bubble sometimes,” I said.

  “He’s a good kid. Look after him Jensen. He’s proved himself today, as have you. When I do get this desk job of mine, I’m looking to do a little more recommending to the brass, and I have somebody in mind to take my job,” he said, smiling once again and then walking off. I watched him make his way to a table, sit down and tuck into his plate of meat. I then turned to Pea Shooter and shrugged my shoulders.

  “This is a strange job, Pea Shooter my friend, one minute you’re punching your squad leader in the face, and the next he’s giving you a promotion,” I said.

  Pea Shooter hadn’t heard our conversation. He was far too busy grabbing chicken legs off the buffet line to care about what I had to say, but his ears did prick up when he heard me mention the word promotion.

  “You have all the luck in the world Jensen. I landed a great punch on Spooks and he didn’t even give me a pay rise, let alone a promotion!” he said, belly-laughing as he grabbed yet another chicken leg off the rack.

  “God man, you sure you’re going to be able to eat all of that?” I asked.

  But before Pea Shooter could reply, the ground beneath us started to shake. Then an alarm sounded off in the mess hall. The lights went dark and then turned into a bright red hue. The emergency lighting had kicked in. But what had caused it to do so?

  “Earthquake?” I said, the words rattling through my lips with uncertainty.

  But Pea Shooter was on the floor, picking up the chicken that had fallen off his tray when the ground had started to shake.

  “Leave it, I think something is happening,” I said. Pea Shooter turned around and stared at me. “Yeah, something is happening, my food is on the floor and I’m trying to pick it up. You’re right though, probably some sort of quake,” he said, picking up the chicken on the floor, some of it was rolling away from him due to the constant vibration.

  “I don’t know about this,” I said, but before I could elaborate, the mess hall doors burst open and armed Marines rushed into the room. They were looking around the mess hall, their eyes moving frantically, as if they were looking for something specific. But they didn’t find what they were looking for and turned back around, leaving the room.

  “What the hell?” I said out loud, ignoring Pea Shooter who was still searching for his chicken legs.

  I ran up to the mess hall exit and into the corridor where I found Marines getting suited up, ready for battle. Spooks had joined them.

  “What’s going on here?” I asked.

  But no one said anything. It was then that I saw the electronic bulletin board behind the other Marines. It was a schematic of the city above. Right at that minute in time, a huge attack was taking place. The digital schematic showed a live overhead satellite image of a massive dinosaur ripping the complex up on the surface. This wasn’t an earthquake; this was an all-out assault.

  “Is that a T-Rex?” I muttered. But nobody answered me. They continued to strap on gear, getting ready for battle.

  “You expecting us to fight that thing, Sir?” I asked.

  Spooks looked at me, smiled and loaded his gun.

  “Son, we aren’t going to merely fight that thing…we’re going to kill it.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Back to the stone age

  “Marine coming up!” Somebody shouted, their voice distorted in my radio. One minute I’d been watching Pea Shooter eat chicken off the floor, and the next I was being shoved into what I could only describe as a mailroom tube. A huge mailroom tube at that! I didn’t even have time to ask what was going to happen to me once I got into it. Nobody was saying anything, well at least I couldn’t understand a word anybody was saying on account of the pounding in my ears.

  My heart thumped hard as air and blood rushed in-between my head, causing an unbearable static sound to pulsate through my cranium. And as somebody handed me my gun, they said something. I still couldn’t hear a damn thing besides from my heavy breathing. The world around me was muffled beyond belief. It was like all of a sudden I’d gone deaf and now all I had was my instincts. And as the guy locked me in the mailroom tube, my instincts were telling me to run for the hills. Yet there were no hills to run and hide in. Inside the tube, there was just darkness. The sort of darkness that frightens you. The sort of darkness that no light makes its way through. And if light couldn’t penetrate this tube, then air was unlikely to get in either.

  I started to panic. My hands held onto my weapon and my ears listened to the muffled voices in my head emanating from the earpiece I was wearing. All I could discern from those voices was a countdown. The muffled voices were counting down from ten. At first I had no idea what they were counting down to, but as they got to one, my fate became known to me.

  “Oh God,” I said, before I felt a rush of air ripple around me, and then as if I was two hundred pounds lighter, I began to shoot up this tube.

  “Shit!” I screamed, trying to hold on to my weapon. Thankfully, the tube was quite claustrophobic, so the chances of me dropping my gun and losing it were small thanks to the fact that the tube seemed to clutch onto my body like a cast mould.

  Before I knew it, I was no longer in the tube. I was above ground. I’d shot out of the tube and landed hard on the concrete. Luckily, the force of the impact only jarred me. My helmet and visor were still intact. My training kicked in, and I did a systems check as I lay on the ground. The scan came back negative for any damages. So I got to my feet. Surprisingly, I hadn’t noticed where I was or what was going on. And all around me, swarms of Marines ran past. They were all headed the same direction. My eyes slowly followed them until I locked onto their destination.

  Sure enough, standing a thousand meters from me, way down near the entrance of our complex, was that ginormous T-Rex that I’d seen on the billboard back underground. The Marines that had been running past me were headed toward the giant dinosaur, opening fire with their various weapons. I saw thousands of muzzles flashing at the same time, bullets catching the twilight of the stars above in the darkened sky as Marine after Marine let their guns rip into the dino. But I remained where I stood, completely taken back by the sight of the men running toward the T-Rex who was swatting and biting at them as they approached. Some of them were being ripped to shreds while others were being thrown into the air like ragdolls.

  “Holy fuck!” somebody said. I turned and saw Pea Shooter grinning from ear to ear.

  “Now this is what I call getting some action!” he hissed, my hearing coming back to me, the sound of gunfire roaring through the complex. I turned my head back toward the T-Rex and gulped.

  “Please tell me that they don’t expect us to fight this thing?” I asked.

  Pea Shooter punched me on the arm and fired his gun in the air.

  “
Yeehawww!” he yelled, starting to run toward the dino.

  He turned back to me and gave me the thumbs up.

  “This is what it’s all about Jensen. Kicking ass and saving Marines. Let’s go do both!” he yelled, charging full steam ahead toward the raging dinosaur who was giving our charging Marines a run for their money. From what I could tell, the bullets being fired from our weapons weren’t doing much damage.

  “Peters, you’re going to get yourself killed!” I shouted, but he was too busy charging the dinosaur, like it was some sort of boss in a video game.

  But there were no retries if he died, and I couldn’t help but think that the brass were out of their minds telling us to fight this thing head on. But orders were orders, and disobeying them wouldn’t do me any favours. So I sucked some breath in, counted to ten, exhaled and started to run as fast as I could.

  “New mission directive,” a robotic voice said in my ear. It belonged to Command. They used the robot to broadcast mission updates to us during battle. The sound of its monotone voice scared the crap out of me as I tried to catch up with Pea Shooter, who wasn’t that far from the charging Marines at the back of the spearhead line making their way to the dino. “Take out the immediate threat. Use all possible means. Heavy losses expected. Fight smart, Marines,” the voice said.

  I continued to run as fast as my legs would allow me to, and finally reached Pea Shooter, who had now joined the men at the back who were all aiming at the T-Rex. The massive dino stood around three hundred feet from us, and was swiping his tail, taking out a lot of the men at the front. Some of them were trying to climb on the beast’s tail, using it as some sort of tightrope and balancing on the scaly hunk of muscle. I frowned and shook Pea Shooter’s shoulder.