Maggie shook her head in simulated annoyance, “I always love your little speeches.”
“Yeah I think they may break the tension.”
She shifted towards him, “you ready or what?”
“Yeah let’s do this, it’s been a few hours since I have seen my breakfast anyway.”
Brad took in a deep lungful of reprocessed air, once again he saw Rebecca’s visage as tears streamed down her pale cheeks, “Locks away in three, two, one release.”
Maggie deactivated the magnetic locks and the drop ship fell silently from the relative safety of hold of the battle cruiser and began to plummet through the empty, gloom of space. Like a baby bird thrown from the nest for the first time.
“Engage engines,” Brad spluttered, as he felt his stomach rise into his gorge, while his heart began to pound in his rib cage. For a moment, he tasted his breakfast again and realized he shouldn’t have had that second serving of bacon.
“Afterburners coming online now,” Maggie retorted as she activated the vessels powerful engines.
“I have control,” Brad battled violently to level the ship off, the implant, flickered information and status updates. Once again he heard the sobbing.
After a few seconds the ship ceased to shudder and began to level off. Of course in space that was relative concept as there was no sky or ground to orientate you, instead he used the ships navigation computer and his own neural link. “Ok we’re all good, in the pipeline, now and looking nice.”
“Man I love that,” Maggie exclaimed and squirmed excitedly within her seat.
“You really are an adrenaline junkie Hot Rod, sometimes I worry about you.”
“Come on don’t tell me there’s not even a tiny part of you that loves that first moment when you drop. Feeling that transition from the artificially controlled gravity of the starship, out into space, feeling your body literally being pulled apart,” she paused and he could see her tremble. “Just makes me feel alive.”
Brad glanced over at her and chuckled, “Your one crazy chick, but I love it.”
“Yeah I could say a lot of things about you and I usually do, but I will give you this you can goddamn fly.”
“Is that a compliment?” Brad laughed, desperate to find a moment of humour, a moment of peace. “Flying in my genes, all the way back through my family to like my great, great, great, great something granddad who flew old planes back on Earth in the fucking Sol system.” He paused for a second as on the view screen ahead of him, tactical displays burst into life, “Ok input target data and we’re coming up on our first waypoint.” His implant, synched with the tactical display and abruptly within his mind he could see the flight plan. That was always quite a trip. Still he couldn’t shake Rebecca, he didn’t understand why she was so clear in his mind now and why that day was. It had been months since he had even thought about her, that was another falsehood, one he told himself often, he thought about her most days, he just wasn’t willing to admit it, even to himself.
Maggie’s fingers began to fly over the keyboard again, as she calculated the complex three dimensional trajectories needed to circumnavigate space, it was all too easy to get disorientated and if the computations were out by even a millimetre you could end up within the gravitational pull of a planetary body and that could truly ruin your day.
“Data ready, trajectory coming on line,” she announced as she hit the final key and sat back in her seat. She looked like if she could put her feet up she would, yet one finger remained as always next to the emergency jump button, just in case.
Almost immediately the flight path was projected onto the reinforced glass window of the cockpit. “All good,” Brad replied as he began to manoeuvre the ship to keep it within the predefined route. “You just sit back now,” the neural link hummed as his mind converted the flight information.
“Hey my jobs done for now, it all on you.”
“Ok we’re within the margins, everything is looking good.” Ahead of him along the yellow line he knew the Eclipse One waited, and that gave him a bad feeling that sat like a rock within his guts. He had never been a religious man, but for once he offered a prayer to whoever would listen. He knew one thing though for certain, nothing spends that long in the darkness of space without being changed.
Rebecca’s face peered back at him from the bleakness and blood covered her hands.
CHAPTER NINE
In the cramped confines of the troop hold, Daniel was desperately trying to keep his mind on the mission. He could feel his own sanity begin to crumble, like loosed earth under heavy feet. It was usually at this point that his training took over and he was able to push out anything else that clouded his thoughts, it was maybe why unlike most of his troops he preferred being on active duty, rather than sitting around on leave.
Right now though, he wasn’t able to escape what had happened just a few hours before, not only had he been almost ready to kill himself, but he had begun to hear voices as well. He attempted to convince himself, that it was simply the result of drinking too much and then taking the detox pills straight away. Yet something deep inside, tried to sway him, it had been too realistic, it had been his sister’s voice he was sure of that. Then there was the fact that for the first time in twenty years he had managed to shutter his eyes and sleep without the nightmares coming.
He just didn’t understand anything anymore, he barred his eyes and took in slow, relaxed breaths of the recycled oxygen. It tasted bitter and pallid. He would have given anything to be able to just take in one lungful of the summer air back on his home world, filled with exotic and alien scents, it was the smell of freedom, of school holidays, before all the misery had begun and perhaps the last time when he had been truly happy.
He forced himself away from all the pain, and attempted to shore up his sanity by taking his mind off everything and trying to find a comfortable position to sit in. Which was practically impossible in the bulky all atmosphere armour that he and his whole team were wearing.
They were basically just cumbersome space suits, thick, plump black material, which made it look like you were wearing a duvet and the doomed, glass helmets, distorted your features to such a degree, sometimes it became difficult to tell the marines apart. The cumbersome getup, with heavy plating was not ideal, especially for a recon marine, who liked to be able to move about quickly, yet it was a necessary evil, especially when you were entering a ship which may not have power or even a habitable environment.
He wriggled around on the small plastic seat and eventually gave up, realizing it was simply a losing battle and decided to stand up. He grabbed onto the overhead bars and hoisted himself up with some difficulty.
“You ok lone star?” Sergeant first class Bill “Monster” Huds asked from a pew across from him.
He nodded and attempted to smile. “Am all good monster just don’t like these goddamn suits”
Daniel looked at his first sergeant and second in command. His nickname was perhaps the most apt that he had ever heard, as he did indeed have the look of a beast, perhaps designed especially for combat. At full height he stood at almost seven feet, his dark mahogany flesh wrapped around a body that was almost entirely muscle, his face which he was sure you could never have called handsome, had been disfigured by the countless, angry, purple scars that now peppered it.
“Yeah I hate these space missions, give me a nice planet somewhere with some real air any day.”
“I hear that,” Daniel retorted idly. Without another word he waddled off, lost again within his own reflections.
The chamber was small, cramped and gave him the feeling of being in essentially a flying coffin. Drop ships after all had not been designed with comfort in mind, they were built to transport troops to war. Banks of plastic seats lined the walls, above them interspersed at about every two metres, portholes allowed a brief view out into the vast eternal expanse of the cosmos. While along the roof two metal bars ran, allowing marines as he was now to grasp onto them and move abou
t fairly normally. Even though the ship had its own gravity generator, it wasn’t a powerful one so there was still an element of weightlessness, which meant you often found yourself almost skipping rather than walking.
He paused to listen in on his troopers conversations. Four of them sat in a row, giant, rotund helmets leaned in. To him it gave them an almost farcical look. Like a row of four goldfish bowls and the inhabitants communicating with each other, like one of those films his sister had liked so much.
“Look everyone knows about you two, so why don’t you just admit it, no one gives a shit.” Private Mathieu “Little boy” Chavez uttered with a roguish smile, to Private Caroline “Lightning” Geffet and Corporal Yung Sing “Blade” Sun both members of Monsters second fire team.
“Fuck you little boy!” Caroline exclaimed, her tone less angry than exasperated. “When you’ve been in the Corp for more than a year then you can tell people what to do.”
“Hey I’m just saying, it’s like the most public secret that I’ve ever heard of.”
Caroline was about to reply when Yung placed a gloved hand delicately on her shoulder, and took over the argument with a more measured tone. “Look little boy you’re a dumb kid and you’re talking out of your ass and as much as I like you,” Yung smirked, “I’m a Corporal and Lightning’s a private, so for starts that’s against the rules and we’re both in the same fire team which breaks regulations. If anyone found out we’d both be in deep shit, so do everyone a favour and just keep your mouth shut on this.”
“Hey you can trust me, my lips are sealed. I’m just saying Lone Star knows and he doesn’t give a shit.” Mathieu said.
“Yeah Lone Stars a good man and I know he doesn’t mind as long as we keep it business in the field, but if it goes above him that’s the problem.” Caroline retorted her feelings now more in check.
Mathieu appeared genuinely hurt and tried valiantly to defuse the situation. “Look I wouldn’t say anything, I just didn’t really understand.”
“It’s simple it’s like the time you broke the unit record for most women in one day on leave.” Kelly “Geek” Hutson, the unit’s computer specialist and part of Daniels fire team butted in.
Mathieu nodded and a broad smile laced with pride creased his cheeks “Damn right four baby.”
“That’s right four, which is a great story don’t get me wrong, and has got you some much deserved respect. But if we were to tell the whole story, to admit the whole truth if you like, you know how you had to spend the next six days in the medical unit. With a dick the size of a watermelon pissing blood, puss and crying like a baby for your momma, then it would probably change a few things now, wouldn’t it?”
“Hey fuck you geek it was still worth it.” Mathieu exclaimed, more embarrassed than actually enraged.
Daniel grinned and left the conversation behind. Above his head a small holo screen floated majestically, he fixed his stare upon it, he only half looked at the news and sports results. It was always bad news anyway, economies were collapsing on a lot of worlds and people were suffering. The Sci-corp were going to put another hundred heretics to death for preaching other religions. He tried to study the latest galactic rugby scores, yet even his childhood passion couldn’t keep his thoughts from meandering away.
He gave up reading as a long forgotten memory was recalled. He was back on the family farm, it was Christmas, coloured lights gleamed in the tree, which his father always cut down himself and dragged into the house leaving behind a trail of pine needles. He was sneaking down to get an early start on presents, what he found was a scene of utter chaos as his sister had opened all the gifts and was now playing with all those that had been meant for him. He allowed himself to beam now, as he saw her so clearly, even after all these years. Her face a mask of almost pure and unadulterated joy, that perhaps only a child is able to experience, before we grow and place so much restraint on our true feelings. Her mouth cast wide, gaps where her baby teeth had started to fall out. He tried to hold onto the images, yet as is always the case they faded.
He marched further down the hold and found Private Hollis “Snowman” Kikner in deep conversation with his best friend Denzel “Killer” Horde, both members of his team and his heavy weapons specialists.
“No man you have got to be shitting me!” Denzel shouted excitedly the olive, sun-kissed skin on his face set in a broad trademark grin, which was distorted by the glass facemask, so that it appeared as if his mouth took up almost his entire helmet.
Hollis shock his head violently, “I’m not, I’m there with my pants round my ankles and she is on the floor in front of me and in walks her husband.” His thick accent and drawl was almost too much for people who didn’t know him to comprehend.
“That’s some bad and I would imagine awkward shit right there, did you know?”
“No man I had no idea.”
“So what did you do?”
“Well I apologized and excused myself.”
Denzel interrupted, “What a gentleman you are.”
“We both know that I am.”
They both chuckled, “One day you’re going to settle down and find yourself a good man like me or a woman in your case.” Denzel said.
“No way man I’m not ready for that yet, maybe when am like forty or something, if we live that long.” Noticing Daniel, Hollis turned towards him. “You alright Lone Star I didn’t see you there?”
“Yeah am doing good just stretching my legs these goddamn suits, you two holding up?”
“Me and Francine,” Denzel proclaimed as he stroked a gloved hand over the flame cannon next him, “Are doing real good.”
“Yeah we’re ready to kick some ass and chew gum and we’re all out of gum.” Hollis attempt at humour caused only one person to laugh, him.
Daniel shock his head, his tone purposelessly sombre, “You really are going to have to get some new jokes snowman.”
“Burn!” Denzel slapped his friend on the back.
Without another word, Daniel drifted away, to find a quiet place in the hold to become once again lost in his own contemplation. He wasn’t entirely sure what to make of any of this, not the crazy ghost ship he was currently flying towards, or the voice he had heard, or the fact he had almost blown his own brains out.
Once again he could feel the demon on his shoulder, the now familiar and almost daily tremors in his hands, as sweat began to pool within his suit. Right now he would even take the stuff that Denzel brewed himself, the concoction that smelt like paint stripper and would give you perhaps the worst hangover the universe had ever known. He shut his eyes tightly, he had to hold it together. He had no other choice.
His sister came to him again, surrounded by wrapping paper and toys. A cherished memory that he had almost forgotten and he felt his very soul lift.
CHAPTER TEN
Bill glanced down the dimly lit chamber, to where Daniel stood alone in front of a bank of surveillance monitors. He had seen the captain in some bad states, yet nothing like this, he seemed strung out. Bill knew about the drinking, at first he had just put it down to the Marine lifestyle, alcohol had always played a major part, whether it was on leave or after a tough mission, to cope with the memories of the horrors you had borne witness too. Yet recently, he had sensed a change in Daniel, he had seen his eyes darken and the life finally go out of them. He knew that the drinking was getting worse, but he was a man and men didn’t talk about their feelings or problems. It was even more difficult in this case, as he owed the Captain a debt that nothing could ever repay.
Almost instinctively he rubbed a gloved hand over the translucent faceplate of his helmet, tracing the lines of the scars, which stretched across almost his entire face, livid, dark and permanent reminders of how close death had been to him.
It was supposed to be a simple mission, as they always were. The first one Daniel would command, Bill hadn’t liked him at first, the young Captain had seemed aloof and lost in his own world. They had been dispatched to a back w
ater agricultural world, whose name he could never quite recall. Where after weeks of riots, public disturbance and disorder a military transport had been shot down. The assignment was straightforward, to go in and evac the crew. It should have been a cake walk, like countless operations before.
They shouldn’t have had anything to fear from a few, angry farmers arguing about trade tariffs or something. Yet the situation is usually not what you think, and as soon as they were on the ground, he had gotten a bad feeling. He could still feel his stomach churn and that familiar tingle rise up his spine.
The town had looked deserted, windows and doors sealed shut. Bullets holes, blood stains, broken glass and detritus littered the streets. Yet none of them could see any bodies, or police, or ambulances, or rioters, in fact they couldn’t see anyone at all. His own sneer now was sardonic, and filled with his own regrets. Even after all these years, he is still haunted by his own great mistake, the one that almost cost him his life. Rapidly it grows even more bleak as he thought of just how stupid he had been, in his heart he had known it wasn’t right, he should have stopped, radioed for support, but then he had believed himself to be invincible, a warrior borne for this, able to handle anything and survive. He hadn’t even waited for Daniel, his new commander, he had strode forward, like one of those ancient knights he had been shown as a child. Nothing could stop him, nothing could kill him, his own hubris, like Icarus he had not feared the sun and he had thought himself untouchable.
The First Dawn (The Sci-Corp War Saga Book 1) Page 8