He rose. “Return to your ship, then enjoy a few days of rest,” he added, as John stood. “You’ll need it. The Board of Inquiry will give you no peace until it has dissected each and every decision you made. After that, we will find a new mission for Warspite. You may be sent right back to Vesy.”
“Yes, sir,” John said.
He saluted, then left the office and walked down to the shuttlebay. Nelson Base was secure, he reminded himself, as he boarded his craft. There would be no protesters in front of the gates, no crowds of civilians demanding answers or the head of someone who had been made a scapegoat. He nodded to the pilot, then sat down and keyed his console. A BBC news report appeared in front of him. Someone, somehow, had obtained footage recorded by the Marines during the battle.
“Well,” the presenter said, when the clip had finished. Rumour had it that she was an artificial composite, rather than a flesh and blood human being. Her breasts were too big, her chest was too thin and her figure was a perfect hourglass shape. She was just too inhumanly sexy to be real. “What do you make of that?”
“It proves that the Royal Marines are still the toughest soldiers in the human sphere,” one of her guests said. “They held out against overwhelming odds.”
“It proves that mankind, once again, has exported her problems to the stars,” the other guest said. “These aliens were no doubt civilised before humanity made contact with them.”
“The aliens were fighting amongst themselves before the Russians landed,” the first guest said. A pop-up note hastily clarified that the Russians had been renegades, rather than an official contact mission from Russia. “All the Russians did was introduce human weapons.”
“Which made the fighting worse,” the second guest said. “And then we slaughtered hundreds of them.”
More like thousands, John said, although he had to admit she had a point. Human weapons and ideas had made the struggle for power on Vesy much - much -worse. And it hasn’t ended yet.
He shook his head, then clicked off the channel. There would be a few days of shore leave, then the Board of Inquiry ... and, if he survived that, he would return to his ship. And then ... Admiral Finnegan had talked about a return to Vesy, after all. It would be exciting, perhaps, to see what had happened on the planet since their departure.
Colin would have loved it, he thought, as the shuttle docked with Warspite. And I think he would have approved.
The End
Warspite and her crew will return.
Soon.
Appendix: Glossary of UK Terms and Slang
[Author’s Note: I’ve tried to define every incident of specifically UK slang in this glossary, but I can’t promise to have spotted everything. If you spot something I’ve missed, please let me know and it will be included.]
Beasting/Beasted - military slang for anything from a chewing out by one’s commander to outright corporal punishment or hazing. The latter two are now officially banned.
Binned - SAS slang for a prospective recruit being kicked from the course, then returned to unit (RTU).
Bootnecks - slang for Royal Marines. Loosely comparable to ‘Jarhead.’
‘Get stuck into’ - ‘start fighting.’
‘I should coco’ - ‘you’re damned right.’
Levies - native troops. The Ghurkhas are the last remnants of native troops from British India.
Lorries - trucks.
Rumbled - discovered/spotted.
Squaddies - slang for British soldiers.
Stag - guard duty.
TAB (tab/tabbing) - Tactical Advance to Battle.
Walt - Poser, i.e. someone who claims to have served in the military and/or a very famous regiment. There’s a joke about 22 SAS being the largest regiment in the British Army - it must be, because of all the people who claim to have served in it.
Wanker - Masturbator (jerk-off). Commonly used as an insult.
Wanking - Masturbating.
Table of Contents
Cover Blurb
Author’s Note
ProloguePublished In British Space Review, 2207Sir.
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
Appendix: Glossary of UK Terms and Slang
[Ark Royal 04] - Warspite Page 42