“I wonder if our
politicians, among whom armchair arguments about war are being glibly bandied
about in the name of state politics, have confidence as to the final outcome
and are prepared to make the necessary sacrifices”
-Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto.
It
was quite honestly the ugliest, dumbest, penis compensating thing she had ever
seen, and she had been to military school. Marie Montgomery eyed the Righteous from her approaching shuttle pod with both educated and
emotional disdain. It was a large,
shiny thing larger than earth’s Manhattan Island. It’s lines were supposed to be an intentional throwback to
the original, sleek diamond like shape of the old faster than light prototype, Far Star, that Cale Duncan’s socialists
first took beyond the Sol System. Another “Fuck you” to the past. The sharp lines of its intention were
obscured by its propulsion nacelles which one could describe as scrotal, and a
massive conning tower that brought the whole package together in a StarWarsian
Star Destroyer…thing. If she
didn’t know any better she would have guessed its name was something dumb, like
“Finalizer”, but since they were the good guys, everyone seemed to ignore the
aesthetic obvious. Emotionally, it
turned her stomach because she knew, on board, Marcus was waiting for her.
When
the airlock cycled to complete the docking procedure, the pressure door slid
away to reveal nothing more than the man himself. Marcus Vladimir Compton the third. Six feet tall, skinny, and exactly one hundred and sixty
pounds of shit meticulously measured into a one hundred and sixty pound
bag. To her friends he was simply
“the one who wouldn’t let go”. Who
took every chance to remind her how guilty she should be for the way their
relationship ended after the academy, who never missed a chance to kick her
when she was down. Small price to
pay in her opinion. It’s not like
she couldn’t give worse than she got.
“Hello
Commander, I hope your trip was enjoyable?” Marcus asked with spoiled charm. Marie gave him a polite grimace as she
smelled what he as cooking, decided to get the pleasantries over with before
the moved into the full unsavory.
She sighed.
“Permission to come aboard
Captain?” Marcus gave a sweeping, open handed gesture from high to low, like a
diving vulture, she thought.
“Permission granted.” Marie grabbed her duffel and strode
onto the deck. Marcus offered her his arm with the toothy grin she had learned
to hate years ago, she returned it with what she considered to be her fifth
best ever stink eye. He dropped
his arm and the grin as they fell in step beside themselves. Marcus refused the awkward silence.
“Fine, be that way, we’ve just
been…”
“Be what way?” Marie snapped back? “Be incredulous? Be rude? Reject your faux hospitality? Because I
know that not for a second the only thought you’ve had this whole time since
you found out I was coming here that you’d be trying to nail me? That you keep thinking that I’ll
somehow after all these years after leaving you for Karl suddenly realize my
mistake and come jumping back on it?
I left you because you’re an asshole. Fuck off.”
“No,” Marcus retorted, “Why would I
think that? I just thought, with
our history and time you’d maybe show some damn respect finally”. Marie refused to meet his eye, sneered
instead, since he was looking.
“Bull shit. And
why now? For all I know you are
the damn reason I’m here. Thought
going back to Antaria would be the perfect way to slide on into my life again,
like some kind of shared experience bonding exercise? Do you know what this means? Do you feel how horrible this is? This was the last
time…” This time Marcus cut her
off. His tone told him he’d given
up play acting, it was a welcome change.
“Yes, I know. It was the last time we were all
together, you, and I, Karl, Zed. I
know. It’s not a welcome
memory. Losing Karl…It’s not just
about you. I never stopped being
his friend, just yours. And when
they split us all up after the mission ended, I don’t have the words for that
lingering hollowness. Going back
is the last thing I want to do, especially with you, if it makes you feel any
better”. Maybe today wasn’t the
day she was going to give as well as she got. She decided to opt out and shut up. They walked in silence for a long stretch
of time. “Damn this behemoth”, she
thought.
“Well, what do you think of my new
ship? First of her class, largest
in the fleet, not bad, eh?” Marcus
broke in. It caused Marie to jump a little. She had almost forgotten they were still walking together.
“I hate it, It’s ugly, and it puts
too much faith in raw power. This
thing wasn’t built with brains, it was a very small dick.” Marcus surprised her by not
disagreeing.
“It’s like Admiral Yamamoto said
about the Yamato class ships during World War II,” Marie jumped him again.
“’The fiercest serpent may be
overcome by a swarm of ants’, Yes, I know. You’re not the only one who knows military history
fuckstain.” Boom, comeback!
“Feel better now?” Marcus asked.
“Yes”. She said. Marcus sighed this time.
“Alright, well, what I was going to
say was we will be departing immediately upon my return to the CiC. You were the reason we were still
waiting around in dock. The long
and short of it is, as soon as we get in system, we will cordon off the planet,
engage any orbital defenses the rebels have established, and immediately begin
a full orbital combat drop to relieve the encircled Planetary Guard. Should be plenty to cover, I hope your
recorder has enough storage, the brass wants a full prop-ed piece on this once
it’s all said and done.”
“Encircled? Orbital defense?” Marie looked at Marcus, confused. “Is
it really that far gone?” Marcus
gave a crisp, expressionless nod.
“The Governor and his family have
been taken prisoner, the capitol occupied, the defenders about to be driven
into the sea…yea, it’s that bad.
Whole damn planet has gone Ape-y this time.”
“Shit.”, was all she could
muster. The stopped in front of
the door to what she assumed were her temporary quarters. “This me?”
“Yes ma’am, everything is all
set. I’ll see you first thing,
0430. It’s going to happen fast,
so, ah, ‘get yo shit on’, as they say.
Goodnight Marie.”
“Goodnight Marcus.” She said. Fortunately, Marcus left it at that and spun on his heels
and out of there. She opened the
door to a sight she found even more opulent and offensive than the outside of
the ship. All the surfaces were
laminated hard oak, translucent stairs up to a second (second!) floor, and even
a crystal chandelier in the center of the room. There was even a kitchen, like she would even think of
cooking on this trip. The Irony of
it wasn’t lost on her. Here they
were, on a mission to a planet full of people starving and dying in mines for a
brutal regime, in a warship that had crystal chande-fucking-liers in it. Yeah, we’re the goodies, she
thought. She chucked her bag on
the floor and flopped down on the nearest couch. It wasn’t more than a second before the com patch on her
coffee table began to chirp. She
smacked the surface by way of answering it. She smiled like a Cheshire cat when she saw the familiar
face of Zedediah Johnston on the screen smiling back at her.
“ZED! SKEE! Are you here? Marcus didn’t say you were here!” Zed shrugged his heavy shoulders and
returned the smile.
“Well, shorty, I’m sure he tried,
but I bet you were a bitch to him and he got scared, wasn’t ya? Come on now,
was you a bitch?” Marie tried to
play coy.
“Mayyybe, but he started it. What the fuck are you doing here?” Zed
pointed to the oak leaf pips on the collar of his uniform.
“First officer, I’m helping Marcus
out on this one. Apparently the
brass thinks we need gotta go back and put our toys away or something, because
all the old guys from school are here too, in the Marine detachment.”
“It is turning into quite an out of
control development,” Marie said.
“They must be worried, but now I’m starting to worry. That hole already killed one of us, I
guess it hungers again.”
“You thinking about who it’s going
to kill this time already?” Zed asked.
Although she had remembered not to spill her secret, Marie couldn’t help
but hint.
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