Chapter 25


Every few feet the lone figure would stop and punch the metal wall, then proceeded to curse, as h continued walking. With 11 days before they reached Earth the Captain of the 181st had absolutely nothing to do except replay the last major event over and over in his mind. The shameful retreat of his beloved ship from the heart of battle. To make matters worse it was in the face of Red Fury, especially Michael Lythe.

“Goddamn it that little prick. I swear I will enjoy kicking his ass up and down a TA holding facility.” He walked into the ships main bridge only to see it deserted.

“The hell, Arturo’s getting lazy on me, has the entire ship on autopilot.” Walking up to the captain’s chair, Marcus sat in it and brought up his main holo display screen. After typing in a set of commands, a display came up labeled Emergency Drills. Each exercise was rated from a category 1 to category 4. A 1 meant a simple weapons check and navigations check and a 4 was a full battle stations red alert.

“Heheheh, this is about the only fun thing I can think of for today.” Typing in his captains access code, a small accept button appeared at the bottom of the screen. Without hesitation, he pressed it.
Immediately all across the ship battle station sirens went off. All across the bridge every screen lit up showing everything from tactical data, to navigation and ship status. The ships computer fully duplicated a combat environment, even showing fake targets on all ship sensors.
All across the Iron Fist, crewmembers ran to their stations. All the MS mechanics suited up and ran for the hanger as the started the hanger depressurization sequence. In the medical lab Natasha was only ten minutes into her nap; for the past two days she been updating and reviewing all ship personal medical data. With only about three hours of sleep, she had all but passed out. The sound of the alarms made her jump out of her desk, loosing her balance she fell off her chair, along with a large stack of medical data cards.

“Oh hell no. Not again.” Taking a moment to collect herself she stood up and ran out of the office. (My god that’s like the 5th drill already, what the hell is he thinking).

Unfortunately for Arturo the Alarms only worsened his condition. He had been nursing a hangover after winning at a drinking game against bothDrake and Vladimir.

“Oh for the love of god and Mary and all the saints please what I do to deserve this.” He wined as he threw himself of his bed. Stumbling around the small quarters he finally was able to find his uniform.

Vladimir and Drake where both in the ships mess hall, completely unconscious from there drunken state. Bottles littered all around them as they slept on the table. The noise of the alarms where not enough to restore their consciousness.
Seating in the Captains chair Marcus starred out at the massive star field all along the bridges view port. Periodically he would check his watch, noting the time it took each station to report in.

“This is engine room all systems cleared ready for combat.” The face of the chief engineering officer appeared on a small holo screen projected onto the bridges main view-port.

“Mhhh, 35seconds not bad, however in real combat, you can die in less then 1 so keep that in mind. Remember what happen to Johnson.” The memory of the first encounter with the Y-light frigates vividly came back to his memory. When the Iron Fist lost its left engine Johnson had been ejected out into space. He had no time to put on his suit and died instantly.

“YES SIR.” The officer saluted as his image disappeared from the screen.

“Gunnery chief reporting SIR. All systems green all anti-missile defense batteries fully armed, we are ready for combat.” The image of a young Caucasian man appeared, he wore short black hair, and was in full combat gear. Marcus made a mental not of that. Looking at his watched he marked the time at 45 seconds.

“Well 45 seconds a bit slow, however I see you are all wearing full gear, so I wont harass you however get it down to 25 seconds, and there just might be a holiday bonus for the entire gunnery crew.” The officer smiled broadly, and saluted.

“Sir, Yes Sir” Saying this his image faded from view. As captain he new moral was everything, a ship with a high state of Moral was more deadly then the latest line of battleships. Out of the fleet the Iron Fist was one of the few ships who’s crew enjoyed the highest salary for both officers and enlisted personal. Marcus new the power of money to persuade people, so he would often reward military achievements with an increase in salary, this incentive was what pushed the crew to work double sometimes triple for their captain. Well almost all the crewmembers. The 181st MS pilots where a different category of their own.

“MF hanger chief reporting all systems green MS are all ready for combat.” The ships Ms repair chief and leader of the MS support team appeared on the bridges holo displays. She wore a full sealed combat spacesuit, however her radiant face still shinned through the helmet. He again noted how cute she was.

“You are late, you took 1minutes 32 seconds to report, had this been an actual attack, we would have been up shit creek without a pattle. Do I have to rethink my decision to promote a certain repair chief.” Marcus looked her straight in the eyes, his face showed no emotion, just a stoic stare.

“My Apologies sir we will not repeat this mistake again.” She saluted as her cheeks turned red.

“Make sure that you don’t…by the way you looking gorgeous as usual” he winked at her then closed the communications screen.

“Ok so where the ships pilot. We already at 5 minutes and no show, and where the Hell is Drake and Vladimir?” Marcus looked at his watch again. Out of all the ships crew those three where the ones he was most slack with when it came to military discipline. To him however, Arturo, Drake and Vladimir where more like brothers in arms. Hell and back they had all shared, the most intense and grueling jungle combat he had ever seen.
Seating back Marcus began to relive the first encounter with Vladimir. Back in the Punjab, Vladimir was the first TA officer he walked into, after fighting for 34 miles of enemy terrain. Vladimir had been the one that helped him bury her. He still remembered how he dug her grave, as all he could do was sit there and cradle her, rocking back and forth, whispering in her ear. He told her how much he loved her, how happy he had been with her.

Then Vladimir gently put a gloved hand on his shoulder and told him, it was time to let her go. He then proceeded to help him move her into the grave. Vladimir had even given her emergency aid, even though she had long been dead, he still patched her up and placed her intestines back inside her body. Then gave him the shovel, saying “she was your wife, so you should be the one to give her peace.

After he finished burying her Vladimir helped him move a large boulder on top of the grave, to forever mark the spot. Marcus even cut her name into the rock with his combat knife. It was that day he swore revenge on all the EAP for her death, that was the day he sold his soul in the name of vengeance.

As a single tear ran down his face, something caught his eye. Turning around there he saw Arturo stumbling onto the bridge with his shirt opened and his pants still unbuttoned.

“What the hell is this? We could be in combat right now and you still got a hangover?”         The look of outer disbelief played across his face as he looked at the sight of Arturo.

‘Well…at least…I am not crying. So yeah.” Arturo spoke as he moved to the pilot’s chair; dropping down into it he began switching the ship to manual controls.

Marcus quickly wiped his face with his hand, as he turned away from Arturo.

“I am not even going to bother with timing you.” Typing into his left hand keyboard, he switched off the Emergency drill.

“Well lets see we have a 70% readiness, so I guess that’s better then nothing, however we all be sucking vacuum if something where to really happen.” Marcus spoke to no one in particular. He just relaxed in his chair, and stared out into the gorgeous field of stars.