Trampship Wars 2

by L. D. Roberts

  “The suit is in fair shape Mark. I had to use all of your plasma to boost you out from under the collapsing tunnel. Luckily we made it to the hatch before you ran out of power. That is why not even your electronics are working. Not even enough power to retract your helmet fully now we are out of that poisoned air. What little plasma that was left I had to put into your life supports to keep you breathing until even it ran out.”

  “What? Now you want to talk to me? Well. All I need is plasma? Why didn’t you say so?” Mark tapped his comm wondering why he had not checked the gage in front of his eyes . But then the heads up despay was dead. Looking down at his forearm, Mark shook his head. “Hey guys anyone have some spare plasma? I am fresh out.” But no one even looked at him as they continued their slow shuffling walk beside him as his voice did not carry very far beyond his lips. Reaching up with some effort, Mark tapped the sleeve of one of the marines and stopped walking. When she turned around to look Mark h e held up his forearm and tapped his power gage showing her that it was empty.

  “Oh sorry Mr. Collins.” Mark heard seemingly from a distance. She turned and pulled out a tube from her side waist and then a tube from the same place on Marks waist and plugged them together. It took a few seconds but the comm started working and seamed to grow in volume as more and more voices started hitting his ears. Then the suit suddenly s tarted ee med to com ing back e to life around him. “Sir , did you want enough for your gravcoils and thrusters?”

  “No thanks Sgt. I think I have had enough flying for one day. Besides I doubt the suit would fly very well after the beating it took. It can barely walk.” Mark glanced from the damage screen that was coming to life with more red than green showing most of the flight hardware was not operational, to the fuel gage still on empty. Taking a deep breath of fresh air and realized that the tunnels air was almost as stale as his damn suit. Taking a couple more deep breaths as oxygen started continued to flow up across his face even with the helmet half retracted before it closed around his head completely as the outside air toxicity alarm started flashing in his visor with the suits life support working again. Mark looked down at the power gage again and said. “That should be enough Sargent. Thanks. Now maybe I can at least walk in this thing.” Mark stared at the group of suits at the end of the tunnel still feeling self-conscious.

  The Sargent unplugged the tubes and put them away reaching down to tuck the end of his into its belt receptacle then started patting his armor and jerking things back into place as she walked around him. “There; that looks better sir. I brushed the worst of the dirt off but I think your thrusters and grav coils are all going to have to be replaced.” She reached up and jerked one of the thrusters that was hanging off his shoulder by its wires completely off and tossed it.

  “Thanks again Sargent.” Mark started walking again taking decent sized steps at least without having to work himself to death to do it. Though his leg joints kept trying to catch with each step but he was able to use the powered telescoping boots, extending them far enough and then lock them in place, for him to take 2 ties with each step without stretching . M , m aking it possible to walk normally without having to stretch his strides or take short steps which was still hard enough to do as it was. He brushed the little ball off his shoulder again. Ignoring her chirping inquiries about his health he now seemed able to understand without having to rea d his screen .

  They finely reached the end of the tunnel coming out onto the main line where a growing crowed waited for him and a transport platform sat across the rails at the mouth of the tunnel.

  Captain Tonoka stood on the transport sled’s platform with his arms crossed over his chest as Mark stopped a few feet from the sled. “Well Commander Collins. It is nice that you decided to rejoin the club. Hop aboard. It seems Captain Cook wants to talk to you. And just one little thing Commander. Do you think that the next time you order an evacuation; that you evacuate your own butt with the rest of your troops?”

  “Sorry Captain.” Mark started to salute the marine Captain but remembered that they were equal in rank . But then his arm did had not quit come to attention anyway as the suit did not want to cooperate when he raised his arm . Then slapping the little ball off his shoulder again since his hand was up anyway. “I will try to do that next time. It is just that I had a problem murdering that peace of bilge scum is all sir.” Mark’s suit’s right leg seemed to want to keep moving even though he was just trying to stand there. It kept jerking into a slight bend at the knee and back strait again making it hard to just stand there as the little ball tried to land on his shoulder again and he brushed it away with his hand.

  “Murder Commander?” The Captain watched Mark slowly step up onto the platform brushing the little ball away again. The Captain looked at Mark shaking his head as Mark seemed to be doing a slow dance to the side of the sled . “As far as I can tell. You were just following orders. Not to mention that Marines do not murder. They execute enemy scum-bags when they refuse to put down their weapons or pose a n immediate threat .”

  Frowning at a Commander that did not want to stand still Captain Tanaka shook his head. “From what I heard on the recordings of the troops around you at the time; you begged the idiot to put down his weapons of Mass destruction and he refused. Not even a gray area of him trying to lie about it. He was proud of all the lives he had taken and would take in the future. Unless you heard something no one else heard, the marine code demanded that you execute the monster thing before he could kill again. Possible killing one or many of your troops before you even got him out of the basement. Though next time be a man and shoot the fucker like a marine instead of demanding someone or something like a falling building do it for you. It does nothing to reduce your responsibility and says a lot about your maturity and ability to command men in battle. Now get your butt in the sled. ”

  The Captain watched Mark slowly walk jerkily to the back of the s led and step up onto the platform brushing the little ball away again. Standing up strait on the back of the sled Mark growled. "Fine. You command men in battle. I don't want anything to do with it anymore." The Captain watched Mark slowly step up onto the platform brushing the little ball away again.

  The Captain watched looked down at Mark as he slowly try to sit on the back bench but when his suit refused to bend enough to sit, settle with his butt a back on the back rail of the platform taking the strain off his leg letting it bend where it wanted to and grow still.

  Mark s S lapp ed ing the little ball away again as it tried yet again to land on his shoulder. The sled lifted slowly off the rails it was sitting on and started accelerating down the tunnel. Lifting the back up to slant the sled forward to keep from throwing Mark off the back as it accelerated until its speed stabilized and it leveled back out again. Mark wondering what that was all about since he knew the sled did not need to tilt forward to move forward. But then was thankful that it had as he realized that it was all too easy for him to fall back over the rail and off the sled with a suit that was not cooperating at the moment.

  The Captain smiled at Jack. “You might be a little tolerant of that ball Commander. It led us to you when your beacon was blocked by the tunnel walls and multiple hatches until we got a lot closer. Not letting us ignore it or taking “N n o .” for an answer. Sorry it took so long to listen but luckily, after trying to shoot it . , the little ball It got downright nasty.” Chuckling for a second. “Remind me not to piss that little thing off again.” Smiling at the little ball hovering next to Mark. “Then it was only a matter of shoring up the tunnels so we could get at you.”

  "What, I thought it had abandoned me to die." Mark moved his head to the side to focus cross eyed on the little ball as he stared at it now sitting on his shoulder , trying to figure it out.

  "No , it is a good marine. It did not abandon you Commander. As for you not wanting Command. It is too late for that know. You should have not put on the uniform. But you did. So it is time for you to grow up."

  "Ya sure Captain s
ir. Haven’t you heard? Captain Cook and the legal department think I shouldn’t even be an Ensign." The platform carefully turned down another tunnel without anyone driving. Then started beeping and chirping like Alice had been doing as words formed on his visor. "Glad you made it out Commander Collins. I am happy to give you a lift."

  Mark ’ s jaw dropped as he looked over down at the platforms control panel at the front left corner of the sled while the Captain tapped on his forearm for a second before contin uing with his voice changing tone and turning stern ued . “Bullshit Mark . It does not matter what they were trying to do or think now. They could not bust you down now even if they are that stupid with every marine on the ship b acking you. We take care of our own. Do you understand what I am trying to tell you Commander? You have the makings to become a fine officer one day. Just remember that in war, people die. You can't change that. Sometimes it will be your men. You cannot stop that. But you can reduce the number that do die by using your head. You just have to make sure that the enemy pays dearly for each one of your men that does die. And that means being ready to kill any enemy, any time they threaten your men or your ship and not waste time jerking off crying about hurting someone’s feelings or hopping they may have a revelation and suddenly turn saintly if you just give them a nother chance.” Shaking his head. “Utter liberal bullshit.”

  The Captain went from disgust to practically growling as he continued. “They are more likely to slip a dagger into your back or detonate a bomb killing more of your men because of your child ass liberal weakness. Something that fool AI could very well have done if you had sent it out with its Core processor. It could Or even have t aken ook over the remote robots again to remove itself from custody once it was safe. You just cannot know for certain what it could have done or already had pre-programed once it was safe outside the building even if it seemed helpless at the time. It has had too long to plan for any situation. Even defeat and being captured. When hundreds or even a quarter of a million lives are at stake, you just don’t take chances like that. It is not even worth losing sleep over so don’t ' .” The marine Captain experienced , discipline Commanding tone of voice pierced Mark hitting a nerve. Which was what the Captain wanted.

  Looking around at everyone staring at him. Most of them smiling. Mark’s tired exhaustion was taking its toll on him as was he start ed ing to get mad thinking that he was being chewed out in front of the men making him feel small and embarrassed with the growing crowed of marines flying along with the platform. He wanted to find a hole to hide in so they would not see what a fool he was as hate started to boil up inside of him for the officer that was degrading him to everyone in sight looking at him that could hear .

  Mark started to stubbornly lash out at the Captain to show the men around him that he was not a fool or weak. Trying to pick the right words to snap back as his mind started racing as his rage built. Not finding the perfect word but finally grabbing the first nasty word in his haste. His heart raced as he opened his mouth to lash out and a mild shock raced into his head, short circuiting h is mind from speaking . The short buzz through his head stopping him without being painful .

  “Love relax. The Captain is on a private command channel only you and him can hear. Check your comm icon on your visor’s screen. You do not have to broadcast to everyone all the time. You need to learn to use the command com but that just takes practice and time. The Captain seems to like you and is truly trying to help you. As I told you in the cavern. You could not let the Professor leave the cavern. He dumped a dozen secure programs across secret lines into computers scattered around several buildings in the city. All ticking time bombs with him as the trigger. The ones I have been able to follow and decipher so far are all programs that would have done considerable more damage , killing more people as distractions once he was safe. Including a contract with some underground Mafia organization to rescue him for a small large c hunk of that money he tried to bribe you with during those distractions. Not to mention detonating the bombs in the building as soon as he was out of danger to kill the hostages, reactivate the bots I took over as well as others across the city we don’t have access to even if we knew w here they were and free him in the confusion even if the criminal element failed, like the Captain said. He had back up programs for back up programs to be activated as soon as he was out of the tower. Some of them years old. A lot of people would have died all across the city if you had sent even his separated life support module out of the basement Mark. It had a low grade transmitter that could have tied into any of the civilian nods as soon as he was out of the basement. Activating uncountabl e dangers across the whole city. ”

  Mark looked at his comm and his whole d emeano ominee r changed as he realized that he was not being made a fool of or belittled to everyone. Besides he lacked the energy to stay mad long at that m oment. Feeling ashamed at himself for getting upset before telling himself again that he was not a murderer. “Yes Captain Sir . It is just that there has been so much killing already today. I just could not force myself to do it even though I knew it had to be done.” The little ball Alice chirped in agreement on his shoulder. Reaching up to brush her off without thinking, he stopped his hand a few inches away from her. Turning his head to look at her, he patted her gently across the top of the ball. T hen left his hand on her for a second to rub off a smudge before lowering it back to his side .

  “Good for you Commander. I am glad that you are not one to kill lightly but remember. This time you almost got yourself killed by hesitating. Next time you could get your men killed hesitating. Then it becomes a problem for me and Captain Cook and your fitness to command.”

  Mark turned to the Captain with his lip curling up in disgust without thinking . “Hey! I told you I didn’t want to Command in the first place Captain. You can have your Command . All I wanted to do was fl y a damn fighter and anyway . ; I should not even have been in Command here!.. And...” Mark ran out of words as he slumped back down placing his hand s to his side . Grabbing the rail he was sit ting on to keep from falling over the back even though he didn’t need to as the sled turned around a corner and he noticed a marine was sitting next to him with his leg over Mark’s foot .

  The Marine Captain looked at Mark and smiled. “And who else would or could have done what you did and not get the men that were looking for leadership killed Commander . Who else could have or saved a quarter of a million lives today? It was your plan. Good officers with the abilities you have, do not use the excuse of rank to shirk their responsibilities. Now, letting men die from lack of competent leadership; that is murder Commander Collins. And one thing is certain. You are competent. Just inexperienced. And that will just have to come with time as you learn from your mistakes. And yes , some of those mistakes will result in men getting killed. It cannot be helped. And all the training and experience in the universe will not prevent that from happening once in a while.”

  Taking a breath. “Even I have fucked up and gotten people killed.” Shaking his head as the Captain frowned at Mark. “All you can do is train and do the best you can and learn from your mistakes so no one dies the next time for the same reasons. But there are always going to be new reasons people die no matter what you do or how hard you try. You just have to make sure they are few and far between.” The platform slipped through another blown hatch as Mark realized the bulkhead around it was bowed a little though it at least looked stable. They continued their way through the maze of tunnels going around blockages and hatches that would not open that continued to get larger as they headed away from the network of collapsed tunnels . W orking their way back around the collapsed tower to the side the mar ines had entered the tunnels at . Captain Tonoka continuing to talk when all Mark wanted to do was sleep.

  Eventually entering a huge multiple transport line tunnel , they started s Followed l iding down between by growing parallel lines of marines lining the sides of flying in formation with the platform down the tunnels . A few minutes later they started up
a ramp as the Captain continued to lecture Mark on commanding marines. They and finely slid out of the tunnel into the thick dust and smoke still chocking the open outside air from thousands hundreds of fires throughout the building’s smoldering wreckage.

  Mark could see the four large transport boats grouped around the entrance with bright lights shining out from their open back hatches into the cloud darkened sky. The cloud only allowing a vague shape of the surrounding distant tower buildings to get through. Making Mark glad his helmet was closed with him breathing suit air. The sled turned toward the back of one of the transport boats in the glume.

  The platform slid through the aircurtain into the clean clear air in the back of the transport boat sitting not far from the tunnel exit leaving the choking air behind and settled to the deck as Marines touched down in the open spaces around the hold and started opening their helmets. D Companies' Captain Tonoka opened his helmet taking a deep breath of fresh air as he led Mark off the platform across the hold through a hatch in the side and up the ladder trunk. With Mark’s suit helmet open back around into his collar, the hold with hundreds of marines and equipment settling down to the deck as well as his suit as it squeaked and jerked with each step became a lot noisier to his naked ears. Almost deafening after hours in the total silence of the tunnel as his stomach grawled.

  Mark climbed the ladders in the chase, making the zig zag back around the horizontal hatch in each deck to the next ladder up 4 decks with some difficulty as the little ball darted around checking out every person and nook and cranny, nonmatter how small. Mark realized his leg was trying to catch or lock each time he raised it up the next step of the ladder . T it moved he suit’s control AI s having to power his suit leg through the catch with each step making for a strange looking walk . as p eace’s Pieces of damaged equipment dangl ing ed at the ends of wires swung and slapped into the ladders’ rungs and side rails and hatch combings . combings. He just hoped the suit was not going to lock up or completely come apart before he got time to fix it.