Behind him, Bianca grunted as she collapsed to the steps, her right leg completely removed at the knee and her left shoulder simply gone, her arm hanging loosely by a few strands of cooked muscle. The wounds smoked as they were cauterized by the raw power of the energy spheres that had caused them.
Samuel leapt back instinctively as his combat rifle was melted in half by a sphere directly in front of him. The heat damage sensors in his helmet blared alarms as much of his armor bubbled and peeled away. Next to him, Patrick was silent as the pieces that were left of his body smacked wetly upon the platform steps.
Samuel gaped at the smoking corpse of his friend and comrade of the last six years, then back to Bianca as the woman he’d grown to love went into shock convulsions. All around him marines were dying or already dead.
Without conscious thought, Samuel ripped his boarding knife from its sheath and charged straight at the cyborg.
Before the titan machine could react, Samuel plunged the wide blade deep into an exposed area of flesh in the creature’s side.
The cyborg howled in what Samuel hoped was pain. It attempted to rake him with its claws, only to have its attack interrupted by Boss Ulanti slamming into it from the back, ramming her own knife into its body.
As the two marines repeatedly stabbed at the creature, Jada Sek leapt into the fray and began slashing it with her knife. More marines joined her, all of them clinging like burrs, despite the titan’s efforts to dislodge them. All of them hacking and slashing and screaming, in a frenzy of anger that was almost madness.
The lone marine who had first started up the steps fell to his knees as the cyborg used its claws to tear his mid-section into ribbons. The titan opened its mouth, but before it could make a sound, Boss Marsters appeared atop the heap of attacking marines and drove the point of his blade through one of the beast’s eye sockets.
The pulse of energy powering the creature ceased instantly, collapsing the mighty machine and sending the marines tumbling down the platform with it.
The remaining legionnaires collapsed in boneless heaps to the floor.
Samuel was unconscious when he landed at the base of the platform, tangled in the body of the titan with the other marines. By the time he started to come around the Reapers had been reinforced by more marines, who worked quickly to attend the wounded and secure the area.
Samuel lay on his back as an unknown medic pulled away his armor, skin and body glove melted to the armor in places, and began treating the burns. Samuel rolled his head to the side and saw other marines carrying Bianca away on a stretcher. She was horribly mangled, but Samuel was able to slip back into unconsciousness knowing that she was at least alive.
14. TERMINAL INJURIES
Once back aboard the tug, much to their disappointment and frustration, the battle weary Reaper cadre was bluntly informed during their debriefing that Grotto Corporation had determined, based on intelligence and evidence gathered, that the Reaper force was not to be deployed on extended salvage duty of the alien site.
It had been decided by the Board of Executives and their advisors that further study was required before any salvage ops were to begin. Surprisingly, though the marines had been denied the several months of hazard wages performing the salvage, each marine was awarded the promised completion bonus. The Reaper fleet was en route back to Baen 6 within the hour
It was hard to absorb, but Samuel finally had the money to wipe out his debts, a wife to remarry, expatriate from Grotto Corporation, and still have enough left to stake a homestead somewhere on the frontier. Despite the joy and relief this brought him, after stripping his armor away and cleaning up, rather than celebrate his good fortune, he went to begin his vigil in med bay.
Samuel was there when Bianca Kade awoke from surgery. He knew from experience that a familiar face was important when a marine first returned from the black. Boss Marsters had once again exercised his privilege as their platoon leader to make medical decisions for one of his troopers.
The doctors had installed a high end Augur brand prosthetic knee joint. However, keenly aware of the tremendous financial impact of non-covered procedures, Wynn opted for Bianca’s actual leg prosthetic to be the basic metal and synth-flesh limb covered by the Reaper health plan. He had done the same for her arm and as Samuel held her human hand while she slept, he couldn’t help but think of Mags as he looked at the crude machine arm. It reminded him of the cyborg hostile they’d defeated planetside, Patrick’s grisly death, and the horrible deaths of so many others.
Samuel lowered his head and closed his eyes as he listened to her breathe. Suddenly she squeezed his hand making Samuel raise his head. He made no effort to hide the fact that he’d been weeping.
“The longer we do this the less of ourselves we become,” whispered Bianca as she touched Samuel’s face with her new arm and it was cold on his skin.
“Then let’s get out while we can,” said Samuel, leaning closer to look in her eyes. He gripped both of Bianca’s hands in his own. “If we stay we’ll either die or turn into people like Marsters or Ulanti.” Samuel paused, closing his eyes briefly, then charging on. “My family is on Pier 16, I know it’s crazy, but come with me. It’ll be messy, but we’ll figure it out.”
Bianca shook her head. “Sam, I can’t afford it, not for at least a few more years.” There was a hint of reproach in her voice. “The medical bills and expatriation fee would clean me out. I’d have nothing to live on. Not to mention my husband’s bond and expat fee. I’m not leaving him behind, Sam, and before you say you’ve got it, don’t, because you have your own family to worry about.” Bianca blinked back tears and her voice quaked with both anger and grief as she spoke.
“Respect me,” Bianca said, “and respect yourself, Prybar.” A new edge of hardness crept into her voice and her expression. She opened and closed her new hand as if truly experiencing it for the first time. “Samuel, Get your family off that station and live a better life.”
After that neither of them had much to say and they sat in awkward silence for a few moments more, simply holding each other by the hand. Eventually Samuel took a deep breath and stood up, letting her hand slip free. He looked down at Bianca and forced a smile.
“This is the job,” he said in a choked voice.
Bianca forced a smile of her own and nodded. Her features softened as she watched Samuel turn around and leave the ward. Lifting her new metal hand again, she flexed the fingers and sighed. “This is the job.”
As Samuel walked down the corridor he saw Ben leaning up against a wall nearby. He fell in step with Samuel as they continued towards the mess hall for the pre-night cycle meal.
“Want to talk about it?” asked Ben in his cold, digital voice.
“It’s done. Whatever we had is over,” Samuel said as they walked, “Doesn’t make it any easier, but I have to keep moving forward. I’ve got a family, a wife. I’m walking into a new life where I’m not getting shot at every other day.” Samuel snorted in disgust, “Not that getting shot at is an excuse for infidelity.”
“Mags would say it is what it is,” Ben responded, “She’d probably also throw out some clichés about battlefield romance, keeping war and home separate, or whatever. Boss was full of that kind of crap.”
“That she was,” laughed Samuel as they entered the mess hall, but somehow it made him feel a little better hearing Ben say that, even in his wrecked voice. “What about you Ben? Staying in?”