Gun looked to Olik, Khan, and back to Spartan.
“You both succeeded, then.”
Spartan looked to the mountain that was now partially collapsed. The wreckage from the multiple Biomech ships still lay all over the site, with another five ships jammed into the chasm. Part of the mountain had given way into a great fissure, and deep inside it burned the heart of one of the enemy starships. The reactor had gone critical during the battle, and it still burned like the inside of a volcano.
“We both paid one hell of a price. Jack and Teresa dead, half our friends gone in the fighting, and this.”
He extended his two arms out to encompass the burned husk of a planet. None of the others had anything else to say, so they watched as dozens of civilian ships continued the long process of dropping off aid supplies and taking away the wounded. Above them, as always, sat the squat shapes of Alliance ships. Gun reached into a pouch and pulled out six shapes. They were the medals he had been sent from Terra Nova. He held out his hand for the other three to take them.
“What’s that?” Olik asked.
“Medals, from Alliance High Command for all of us.”
Spartan turned to spit on the ground.
“It was Admiral Churchill’s idea. It isn’t for me, or you. They are to remind everybody else of what we all had to do to end this.”
Spartan looked at him and then slowly nodded in agreement. None of them took the medals.
“The extra two?” Spartan asked, though he already knew the answer.
“Teresa and Jack. Teresa was the first to be awarded for the entire campaign.”
Again he raised an eyebrow and extended his hand further. Spartan shook his head.
“No.”
He then twisted his head about and nodded in the direction of the superheated fissure off to the side of the mountain.
“Are you sure?” asked Gun.
Spartan nodded but Olik spoke.
“Hand them over.”
Each of them took random medals until only three remained. Spartan looked at them, but they might easily have been each other’s as his, Teresa’s, or Jack’s. He took them and then turned to the fissure. One by one they dropped the small trinkets down, and they vanished into the fire. Spartan’s face glowed red in the heat coming up, but he refused to look away until he lost sight of them. Khan shook his head and looked off to a Byotai transport as it landed in a temporary landing bay. Its long, elegant wings were almost transparent at the center, and it positioned itself nearby to an Alliance Mauler. Vanguard Marines used their heavy augmented armor to help unload supplies to load onto the scores of wheeled vehicles.
“So, what now?”
He looked to the other three but stopped upon seeing Spartan. His face was hard, stern, and drained of emotion.
“I have a few ideas.”
They moved in close to listen to what he had to say. Finally, he stopped, and the three Jötnar joined him to watch from the ridge. The ruined city seemed an apt place to think for such people. Warriors in the center of a warzone, with no war to fight.
“Are you in?” Spartan asked.
Khan was the first to look to his friend.
“Did you need to ask?”
Star Crusades Nexus: Book 09 - The Black Rift Page 39