Children of Steel (67 page)

“So the question is simple: Do we crawl home
like a kit with its tail tucked, crying, ashamed, and beaten? OR do
we stand tall and take it like an adult? Yes we got in one hell of
a fight, but we didn’t come off second best and we’re NOT gonna
quit until we’ve avenged the death of every last member of this
block. Until we’ve had
our
revenge!”

I had them now; I could hear growls coming
from all of them, they didn’t want to be beat, they didn’t want to
be losers, or even thought of as losers, anymore than I ever
had.

“When we get off the ship at dock, I don’t
want them to see a group that’s been beaten and broken. I want them
to see a Block that’s come through the fire and is harder for it,
tougher for it, and has the will to WIN. The will to keep Fighting!
I want them to see a Block so full of pride and spirit that they
won’t even think to break us up! I want them to see what we are; I
want them to see
winners!

“So what’s it going to be? FALL OR
FIGHT?”

“Fight!” They replied.

“WHAT?” I yelled at them.

“FIGHT!” They yelled back.

“ARE WE GONNA RUN?”

“FIGHT!"

They were on their feet now and suddenly
nobody looked like a loser anymore.

“FIGHT!” They yelled again.

I stepped back as they started to chant, the
Captain smiling and stepping back forward as he waited for them to
settle down.

“There is no doubt in my mind, now or ever,
that I have been given the honor of leading the best troops in the
history of our corp, hell, of
any
corp!”

They cheered that, I noticed even the wounded
were standing or propped up.

“When we dock I want us to march off this
ship looking sharp, the sharpest we’ve ever been. I want them to
see just how good we are, I want them to know what WE know! We’ve
got a week, lets get our gear in order, and make this place
SHINE!”

“Yes Sir!” they all chorused together.

“Dismissed!"

Everyone fell out and strode off with a new
sense of purpose, and no one had their head hung low.

“A moment Raj,” the Captain said walking over
to me.

“Yes Sir.”

“I’d like to thank you for that, I was even
starting to doubt myself and I think you put into words what we all
needed to hear. Plus it sounded a lot better than what I had
planned to say.”

“Thank you sir,” I felt a glow of pride. “I
wasn’t sure how anyone was going to respond to what I said, but I
had to say it.”

He nodded, “In order to keep the Block alive
I’m going to have to shuffle a few people around to replace those
who we lost. So I’m moving John to my top NCO spot to replace
Hamilton, and I’m moving you into his old spot.”

“Thank you sir, I’ll do my best.”

“I’m sure you will, I’m also promoting you to
Warrant 1
^st
Class. Your actions today I think did more
to save this block than any in that last action.”

I flicked my ears in embarrassment and
saluted. “Thank you again Sir.”

“Thank you Raj, dismissed.”

A week later we marched off of the Falcon in
perfect order, in full dress uniforms with every thing polished to
a shine and every crease pressed sharp. Those who still could not
walk we carried on stretchers in formation behind us. The Block’s
quarters onboard the Falcon were also spic and span and shipshape.
Everyone had worked hard around the clock for the last week to make
everything perfect, to show we still had our pride. Captain Johnson
marched us down to the head administrative office and put us at
parade rest in the park across from it, and then both he and
Captain Avera, who had also worn his dress uniform, went inside to
report.

After a half hour someone came out and told
Lieutenant Aruba that the Captain would be some time so we could be
dismissed. Her reply was that the Block would await their Captain’s
return.

It was several more hours before the Captain
came out, accompanied by a human we’d never seen before. The
Captain was smiling however so I know I felt better.

“Block, Attention!"

We all came too.

“This is Mister Castello, he is in charge of
corporate operations, he’d like to address the Block.” Captain
Johnson turned to him, “Sir?”

“Thank you Captain. I just want to say to all
of you, the members of Falcon block, that Tri-Star Mining and
Mineral appreciates your esprite de corp, your spirit, and your
willingness to face hardships for the corporation and not let it
sway your determination or pride. It makes us all proud to see you
gentlemen standing tall, even in the face of your most difficult
challenges. I agree with your Captain that such a unit should be
kept together.

“The Ship will take ten days to repair and
re-outfit, I’ve put it on the top of the priority list. I’ve also
opened the call for replacements and volunteers to return your
Block’s strength to its full complement before you leave. Keep up
the good work; you’ve made us all very proud.”

He turned and nodded to the Captain, “Thank
you Sir for the privilege. Good day.”

“Good day Sir!” The Captain saluted and
turned back to the Block.

“Dismissed!”

We all took a step back, turned, and yelled
together as we fell out.

“FIGHT!"

Eighteen months later I was still serving on
the Falcon, and the war was still going on. We had continued to
raid the humanist movement's installations of course, and had dealt
them a lot of damage. Lately we had been getting involved in some
major battles as we finally located the rest of their primary
bases. The campaign was obviously drawing to its conclusion at this
point, and the rumor we picked up at every base we stopped at was
that the final assault wasn't far away.

It had been an enlightening process of
course. We had been working closely with the member's of two other
major Corporations, and several of the Unions were giving quiet
support as well. In the last two years two minor companies had been
totally wiped out in the fighting and Corporate maneuvering.
Tri-Star and its allies were responsible of course, this had
encouraged all of the other covert supporters of the humanists to
drop them and get as much distance between them as quickly as
possible.

Some of the other interesting things that had
turned up on a few of the primary bases were prisoners. It seems
that the humanists had taken some after all, using them to perform
slave labor on their major installations, but only those places
under the worse conditions and attrition at them we learned was
high. About a thousand had been liberated, the movement at its
height had taken several large groups but killed thousands more.
The raid that had gotten Cassandra was the first of many that had
taken place, and while that month’s strikes were primarily directed
at Tri-Star, several other Corporations had been hit as well.
Nobody really knew yet just how many of the smaller concerns had
been completely wiped out by the humanists in this war either.

I was still sharing the room with Aruba, and
she was still the Lieutenant in charge of the second platoon. I was
still her second in command and had been promoted again bringing me
up to Senior Warrant officer after a continuing string of
outstanding performances. I wasn't taking insane risks anymore, but
I was still taking a lot of calculated ones.

Falcon block had done exceptionally well
during this time too, earning numerous company citations and a lot
of bonuses. Since our low spot after that moon base attack, were we
had lost so many, our morale had never sagged again and our
determination had reminded solid. As a group we were gaining a name
for ourselves and getting the harder assignments, which further
served to bolster our reputation and pride. Unfortunately this
didn’t come cheap, out of my original squad only John, Clem, and
Hess were still alive. From the time the unit had been formed
nearly sixty percent of the original members had died, and of the
replacements we had received, probably another eighty percent of
them hadn't made it this far. That was a lot people, some of whom
I'd known quite well.

We were now leaving Tau Delta thirty-eight
once more, having taken on troops and supplies. We had taken on an
additional sixty, besides the ten replacements we had needed. And
had strapped on two more drop ships, the shuttles having been
removed. With a hundred and twenty troops on board it was crammed.
Troops were sharing eight to a room, and even Aruba had to share
with the Lieutenant from the other block. At least we were on
opposing shifts, so it wasn't too bad. I was glad I wasn't in a
regular room however, the idea of hot bunking was never one I
really enjoyed.

It was obvious of course that we were going
somewhere big this time. Everyone was so keyed up that even having
to spend three weeks in jump didn't seem to matter much. I managed
to find out that we were going well outside of settled space and
rendezvousing with a lot of other ships, I told Aruba as much later
one night.

"How'd you find out that?" she asked, "Even
Captain Johnson hasn't opened his orders yet."

"Simple, I held one of the ship's crew up
against the ceiling and wouldn't let them down until they
talked."

"If the Captain hears about that, he'll fine
you for sure!" she laughed.

"I don't think the other person will talk," I
smiled craftily.

"Oh? Why not?"

"Because the Exec probably doesn't want to
admit to the Captain just what I was doing in her quarters." I
smirked.

"Raj! You put the arm on the Exec!" she
laughed again, "She's going to be out for revenge you know!"

"Hey, I told her a long time ago that I was
going to get even with her for that joke she played on us last
year. I just collected, that's all."

"I guess this mean's that they probably
tracked down another big target," she sighed, "I hope it's the last
one too. The fighting’s been a lot tougher this last year."

"Yeah, we've got their backs up against the
wall at last."

Several days later we broke out of jump. We
were in deep space all right; I snuck into one of the drop ships
and looked out of the pilot's canopy to see for myself. I could
also pick out the lights of six other ships; this was going to be a
big one for sure. Later that shift both blocks were assembled in
the hold. It was a pretty tight fit and quite a few ended up in the
halls.

"Okay everyone," began Captain Avera, the
Ship's Captain, "As you probably guessed already, this is it, the
final assault."

There was quite a bit of applause and
cheering at that, especially from the old timers in Falcon block. A
lot of us were really starting to get tired of the constant
fighting. We'd been through thirty separate actions since I'd
joined.

He waited until everybody had quieted down.
"We will be part of a force of thirty two ships," he began, "twelve
of which are ours. The other five frigates as well as the two
destroyers are here. Plus two troop transports carrying fifteen
hundred a piece. That make's roughly over thirty seven hundred
troops, and that's just from Tri-Star. The other two ships are the
company's new cruisers; they'll be protecting the rest of us as we
go in."

I hadn't heard that the company was building
any cruisers! And from the looks on the faces of those around me,
neither had anyone else.

"That's right the company built two heavies
just for today," he smiled at the assembled troops who were
beginning to like the idea. "Also there’s our two allies who are
here as well, they are also contributing over three thousand troops
each, and a lot of heavy artillery of their own."

Our two allies were The Lartansys Digital
conglomerate, and the Hudson Trinity Corporation. Neither was in
direct competition with the other, or us; the main thrust of each
Corporation's business being in a different area. But all had
extensive operations covering large amounts of space, and each had
been hit pretty hard. So it was an alliance that worked out well.
There were even rumors of a possible merger floating about of
course, but I doubted it. The Earth government probably wouldn't
let three of the larger corporations like that merge; they could
end up being stronger than them.

Hell, the only reason they had allowed us to
ally for this war was that while they didn't like humanists, it was
too politically hot a subject for the Earth government to get
involved in and deal with it themselves with the much larger Earth
Fleet. That and the distance from Earth, they didn't like the idea
of getting involved in a war that was primarily on the fringes of
settled space. That was fine by us, it meant we got to keep what we
took, plus I got the added pleasure of personally making the
bastards pay for what they did to Cassandra and Nepal!

"So here's the scoop," the Captain continued
bringing me back from my revery, "We are two days jump from the
system and tomorrow, we will all enter jump together. We will come
out three days drive from the target, with the other two groups
coming out at approximately the same time in separate areas.

"This ship will then drive in with the
Cruisers and the other Frigates and Destroyers. The Falcon and the
Marconi will both make close passes to the planet, at which time
both ships will drop four blocks of troops. We will then retreat as
the others continue to soften up space based defenses. Your jobs
will be to help soften up key ground targets so that the Main body
of troops will be able to land three days later."

"Now your individual Commander's will be
handing out your objectives and your orders. I don't need to tell
you that you will be performing a key mission in the attack, but I
will tell you that I have every confidence in you. Good luck!" He
stepped down then, and Captain Johnson took his place.