The shooting intensified as more marines and pirates emerged from various corridors, side hatches, and gangplanks. It seemed that both the marines and the pirates agreed that controlling the central deck was the key to controlling the ship.
Andrea joined Samuel on the rail and the two of them worked the actions of their rifles, steadily pouring rounds at a cluster of pirates who were attempting to mass for a counter-assault on the newest squad of marines to leap into the fight.
Suddenly, a tremendous explosion rocked the entire ship, and the shockwave of the blast knocked most of the combatants to the ground.
“What the hell was that?” shouted Spencer, sprinting to catch up with Boss Ulanti, who had also been knocked onto her back by the shockwave, “Feels like the whole ship is keening!”
“That’s because it is!” boomed Boss Ulanti’s voice over the com-bead, “Activate your void armor now!”
Samuel had landed on his chest and was shocked when pushing himself up actually sent him flying up away from the floor. Andrea was shouting below him as he soared away and it took his back slamming into the ceiling of the central deck before Samuel realized the artificial gravity was gone. He depressed the activator button on his neck to ignite the void seals. The armor would protect him from the hard vacuum of space for a short time, but he realized with stark terror, that the void armor was absolutely useless in helping him navigate in zero gravity.
Samuel’s disoriented gaze swept across the central deck to see the ship slowly spinning in a wide circle around the hapless floating marines and pirates and he realized that gravity was the least of his worries. The ship had clearly broken free of its moorings to the space hulk by whatever the explosions were and was now tumbling through open space.
“We still have a job to do people! The tug will recover us if we can clear the ship! So fight, damn you! Fight!” roared Mag in everyone’s com-bead as the veteran pushed off from the wall and went sailing across the central deck. Her trajectory took her over the position of several pirates who were struggling to regain their footing. The veteran fired several rounds into the pirates as she sailed over them and turned her body mid-flight so that when she hit the opposite wall she was able to break her impact with her boots.
Samuel pushed off the ceiling and took aim as best he could at a pirate floating nearby. The recoil dampeners in his rifle prevented the shooting from altering his course more than a few feet. He was able to land on the high deck’s floor even as the pirate’s bullet riddled body spun away in a tight circle that sent globules of blood flying in all directions. Andrea was using one hand to grip the rail and hold herself in place while she took carefully placed shots at various targets with the other hand.
Samuel moved to join her, but was knocked off of his feet by a hard round that impacted his chest plate. Thankfully, the bullet did not penetrate his battle armor, but it hit hard enough for Samuel to saw stars for a few seconds and left him unable to prevent himself from crashing into the wall behind him.
Andrea grunted in pain briefly and Samuel saw long streaks of blood jetting out of her as a pirate who floated above her fired dozens of rounds from a short-barreled submachine gun.
Samuel snapped his combat rifle to his shoulder and emptied his last four rounds into the pirate. The marine reloaded and gently pushed off from the wall to reach Andrea’s corpse. Samuel was down to his last magazine and he knew that the dead marine had at least had one fresh one. He felt odd about how quickly he’d overcome witnessing her death, though he knew that to hesitate in this sort of environment was suicidal.
The marine sighted down his rifle and looked out over the battlefield to witness a roiling three hundred and sixty degree firefight as the pirates and marines careened across the deck. He saw Boss Ulanti, who had apparently abandoned her combat rifle, sail across the central deck and swipe the head off of a pirate using her boarding knife. The man’s head and body went spinning away in opposite directions passing another pirate and marine locked in mortal combat with their own blades. It was madness, and the marine knew that standing still would make him an easy target. Samuel took a deep breath, unsheathed his boarding knife, and then pushed off to send himself careening into the melee as he fired.
Nearly twenty hours later Samuel, Ben, and Virginia walked from their barracks to the med-bay looking for Jada. They were politely informed when they inquired at the exterior waiting room that the marine was making an effective recovery, but was being sedated for the next several days as the various machines worked hard to repair her damaged lung. Boss Marsters emerged from the interior waiting room and nodded at the three marines as the doctor retreated back into the med-bay.
“Jada Sek is one tough soldier, she’s going to pull through,” Wynn Marsters assured the marines. “Like the doc said, they’re having to keep her sedated, the machines are doing what they can for the lung, but over the next few hours they are going to remove the damaged one and insert a nu-flesh lung.”
“Excuse me, sir, isn’t nu-flesh hugely expensive?”, asked Virginia as she and the other marines exchanged confused glances. “I thought only elites and management could afford that kind of medical treatment.”
“Yeah, I figured they’d just stick an auto-inflator in there and be done with it,” said Ben, “Our standard Reaper policies don’t cover nu-flesh.”
“They don’t, Takeda, and yes, Tillman, the nu-flesh organs are top of the line bio-ware, and Jada is going to have a mountain of debt to pay off for medical treatments outside of her standard plan,” agreed Boss Marsters as he sat down in one of the uncomfortable waiting room chairs and began to rub his temples, revealing the fatigue of the last several days, “And before you ask, yes, I was the one who authorized the procedure. Pursuant to REAPER Battlefield Protocol 16, the commanding officer assumes decision making responsibilities for a marine’s medical care if that marine is in critical condition and unable to communicate with the attending medical staff.”
“So you just decided that she was going to incur another debt that she’s got to pay back?” asked Samuel, with more heat in his voice than was wise considering who he was speaking with. Wynn Marsters’ face darkened instantly with anger.
“Hyst, and the rest of you, had better listen up,” said Boss Marsters in a low growl, “Until your time with the Reapers ends, your lives are in the hands of your squad leaders, and believe it or not we want you to survive.’ He paused and drew a breath before speaking again.
“Let’s say I decided to save Jada some money and she got the auto-inflator. We all know those things are fragile and prone to breakdown, so she’d have to get it replaced every year or so, and the standard plan doesn’t cover replacements. That means that she would either incur more debt buying the replacements or she would just go on living with one lung. I need a marine who isn’t going to get winded and out of breath in the middle of an engagement. I need a marine who isn’t going to take a few slugs to the chest and pass out because the armor impacts disrupted the inflator. And believe me, Jada doesn’t want that either, even if it means she’ll have to put in more time on the job to pay it down.”
Boss Marsters stood up and stormed away, but just before he reached the exit the squad leader turned around. His expression softened and he said, “We are soldiers, and that means that people get killed and people get hurt. Everyone knows that the standard Reaper plan is garbage and everything else is astronomically expensive. There is no middle ground. That’s life in the Grotto Corporation, and this is the gamble we make to earn the Reaper pay rate. None of us would be here if we were satisfied with our workforce assignments, so remember that we all chose to be here and to assume the risk.”