“Prime, huh? That saw brutalcombat at the start of the Uprising. I mean seriouslybrutal.”
He then sighed.
“If your brothers had made it, they might have found me onSpascia. I did a tour there in the War. We lost so many soldiers.It would have been an honour to serve with the Valentineboys.”
Valentine struggled, but ahandful of tears ran from one eye as shenodded.
“Listen,” he saidcarefully, “These alien races, they donot think like us, they’re savages looking to kill and conquer. Wehave to stop them if we’re to have any chance. We’ll make them payfor this, Lance Corporal.”
He then walked away, leaving her standing there.
“Val?”
She turned and found Alexislooking back at her. The rest of the lance was taking a break as atech made some adjustments to the machine they had beenfighting. Two pieces of armour weremissing, as well as a bulked wing mount. The technician seemedquite irritable as he worked on it, made worse by the random sparksthat crackled around the damaged wing.
“I need to fit new parts,”he said, repeatedly shaking hishead.
“Then get them,” saidSergeant Jablonsky, “We’llwait.”
The man ran off, while theSergeant went over bayonet drills with the Novas of Tsarkov’slance. It gave Valentine and Alexis a moment of respite from thebrutal training. Even so, Alexis loweredher voice and continued.
“Uh, what the hell was that all about?”
“He’s having a tough time.”
“Oh…he told you, right?”
Valentine made sure he was gone beforesaying more.
“You could say that. He’schanged. I’ve not seen him for some time.He was cocky, arrogant, and confident for sure, but I alwaysthought he was a bit of a rogue. Now…I’ve never seen anything quitelike it.”
“I know. We noticed on Deimoswhile you were in surgery. There’s a ragethere now. Something about him makes me think he doesn’t want tocome back from this mission.”
“You’reserious?”
Alexis nodded.
“Maybe we should tell someone.”
“Who? He’s our CO on this ship.”
Valentine looked back in thedirection of the Lieutenant. Over the years she’d buried her ownfeelings deep inside her mind, but now itwas starting to come back, the loss of her family, the loss of herfellow marines and pilots, and then the brutality of the fightingon Deimos. It was all building inside her, and she knew it wouldtake little more to send her mad or turn her into an enragedmonster. She didn’t like the idea of either of them.
“Okay,Novas,” said Sergeant Jablonsky, “The drone is ready for trainingagain. Now, let’s practice paired drills, ranged and close combatoperatives working together. Valentine and Kallias, front andcentre!”
Valentine gripped her friend’s hand and then stepped away towardsKallias.
“Yes,Sir!”
“Let’s see what the two of you havegot!”
Valentine hunkered into positionon Kallias’ right side. She pushed outher left arm and activated her integral shield. It was nothingparticularly sophisticated, merely a series of movable plates thatpushed out to create something akin to a small hexagonal shield. Itwas bigger than a buckler, and closer in size to the kind of woodenshield used in the Dark Ages of human civilizations back on Earth.She rotated it slightly, making an adjustment so that it partiallycovered Kallias’ flank.
“What?” Tsarkovcomplained, “We had to…”
The Sergeant lifted a hand, and thennodded towards the two Novas waiting to fight.
“This is not a drill to test yourpre-practiced drill. This is preparedness against the unknown.Weapons down and turn away from the Ski’lig.”
As they moved away, the Sergeantmoved in front of the Ski’lig and removedits long rifle. He was armoured like the rest of the Novas, butcarried no extra equipment or weaponry, just his armour and hisexperience. He lifted the rifle like a club and adjusted hisstance.
“Ready?”
“Yes,Sergeant,” replied the two of them.
“Good.This time I’m increasing power and force metric to half of normal.We’re about to get serious.”
He waited and looked to them with interest. They were tenseand whispering to each other. He waited until they were inmid-sentence and then called out.
“Defendyourselves!”
He brought the rifle down hard,and as Valentine turned, she spotted itcoming right for her head. She lifted her shielded arm, exposingKallias for an attack. Most combatants would probably not even seethe gap, but the Sergeant fought like a machine. With a beautifullyangled cut, he adjusted his aim and brought the rifle up under theshield and into Kallias’ arm. It was a powerful blow and twistedhis arm back, throwing him to one side. He then attacked again,splitting them apart as he activated the Ski’lig.
“Watch out!” Alexis yelled as the robotic warrior moved in to assist theSergeant. It was brutal and messy, and after less than a minute ofcombat, both Novas were on the ground, and the Ski’lig was missingan arm. Blood ran down the Sergeant’s cheek, but for all that hedidn’t seem particularly tired and actually smiled for asecond.
“Good, very good. Now…who’s next?”
CHAPTER NINE
Morato Class Frigate‘Nautilus’, approaching theSki’lig Territories
4thJuly 2475
Theformation of ships waited motionless in space, the only sign oflight the single squadron of robotic Avenger drones circling themin case of an attack. There were twelve ships in total, with theIAB capital ships surrounding the escorting frigates. It was amighty fleet in itself, yet this only reflected the reconnaissanceelement. The rest of the fleet, along with numerous transportswould be arriving just hours after them.
Captain Regina placed her handson her hips and smiled as she watched the men and women of her crewgo to work. It had been a long journey, fraught withproblems. Some had been getting awell-deserved rest as the ship waited for the next phase of thejourney. But that was now all behind them, as the bridge eruptedinto a hive of activity, the crew returning to their stations.They’d been in this area for almost two hours now as adjustmentswere made, and the IS drive recharged for the next part of theirjourney. While the much larger capital ships could run aninterstellar drive for several weeks without shutting it off, asmaller ship like Nautilus was held back by its much
