* * *
In the medical bay of the Santa Maria scores of marines were undergoing emergency medical aid. Teresa was on one of the examination beds while a medic examined her shoulder.
“You were very lucky, the aid pack stopped the bleeding and the bone is only partially damaged. I’ve applied a temporary seal and the pins will need to stay in until the tissue sealant kicks in. You’ll need to return in thirty-six hours for me to remove the pins,” she said before turning to wave another injured marine forward.
Teresa stood up and Spartan helped her put her jacket back on.
“How are you feeling?”
“I’ve been better, it could be a lot worse though,” she replied.
The two walked along the main corridor and into the mess hall to find mass celebrations going on. News of the final victories had spread through the ships and it was clearly going down well. Two more cruisers had just arrived and the rumour was that army transports wouldn’t be far behind. After hours of bloody combat, both in space and on the stations, the battle was finally over. With the civilians rescued, the Fleet had moved into a high orbit and established a strong blockade over the planet.
Spartan was moving ahead and towards the marines when he spotted Captain Mathews and a few of the commands chatting near a computer terminal. The officer quickly spotted Spartan and waved him over. The two walked over as the din from the rest of the marines continued in the background.
“How is the shoulder, Private?” Captain Mathews asked Teresa.
“It is pretty stiff. They will be looking at it tomorrow, right now they’ve got many more serious injuries to deal with. It’s not life threatening, just a real bitch!” she said.
“Glad to hear that,” he said before turning to Spartan.
“I’m sorry about your boarding party, it was a tough call but we had to know who was on board. How many of you got back?” he asked with a concerned look.
“I lost seven marines back there plus the rest have got a variety of wicked injuries. I don’t know what those things were but they came from somewhere and nothing would stop them, Sir,” he said quietly.
Captain Mathews was watching the marine’s camera feeds on his tablet as Spartan continued to talk. The picture was fuzzy and showed little detail on the attackers as they moved constantly in the darkness.
“Well, we’ve been hearing rumours from Prime about various things going on at the Bone Mill as well as other Zealot strongholds through the Confederation. It’s a shame you weren’t able to bring any of them back for study. Still, your video feeds will be better than nothing.”
“Better than nothing? What the...” Teresa shouted, but Spartan lifted his arm, gently keeping her away from the officer.
“That wasn’t the way I meant it, I have nothing but respect for the tremendous work and sacrifice you have all given. You have done the Corps and your unit proud. I’ve recommended you all to the General and I know he has something big planned..” he said before being interrupted.
“Have you seen the news?” shouted a marine as he ran past.
Teresa turned and watched him join a growing number of the crowd clustered around the large screens in the hall. Each screen was several metres wide and could be seen from halfway down the room. The sound in the room started to drop as more of the marines quietened, each of them enthralled by the video feeds.
“Come on,” said Spartan.
He moved off to examine the large screens and whatever news was getting all the attention. Teresa, Captain Mathews and the rest of the commandos followed him. As they reached the screens they stopped, each of them too busy watching to speak.
The screens were showing three repeating feeds, all of them from ground units in the trenches around the Bone Mill. A voice running over the top explained the material had been received in the last hour. The first screen shook quite badly and it was evident that the camera was mounted on a soldier somewhere. From the view, a group of five soldiers stood chatting when a series of explosions blurred the view. As the feed refocused and the dust cleared the other soldiers were getting up off the ground, though the man carrying the camera must have been hurt or killed as the camera remained stationary and on its side. A series of streaks moved past the camera and one of the soldiers waved his arms before a large number of hooded figures leapt into the trench. Each of the figures carried evil looking edged weapons and proceeded to slash and hack at the soldiers. Only one of them managed to get off a shot before he was knocked down and decapitated right in front of the camera.
An audible gasp rushed through the group of marines as they watched the Confederation soldiers being cut down in such a brutal and callous way. More Confed troops moved into the trench to try and retake it but even though they slaughtered dozens of the enemy, sheer weight of numbers pushed them back until the video feed showed nothing but crowds of the hooded, sinister figures.
They started to chatter when the second feed showed the terrible scale of what was happening. The feed said it was from an aerial reconnaissance drone directly above the Bone Mill. All around the perimeter a series of flashes and explosions signalled the start of the assault. From all across the structure swarms of the men came out in a bloody charge. The camera zoomed in to show at least ten of them leaping past soldiers as they were firing weapons and hacking with axes and blades.
The final feed was from a fixed camera mount on a vehicle near the battle. As the attackers moved in the camera zoomed in and paused on a group of three of them. The nearest one was biting into the shoulder of a soldier and another was in the middle of cutting down a fleeing civilian. Both were wearing a motley collection of metal plated armour that covered various parts of the body. It wasn’t pretty but certainly did the job of making them look terrible and dangerous.
“What the fuck is that?” shouted one of the watching marines.
“Zealot bastards!” shouted another.
Spartan was in shock, the attackers were exactly the same as the ones he had just been fighting on the transport. He turned to the Captain who was transfixed by the screens.
“Sir, that is what we found on the transport. They are strong, really strong and they can take a lot of punishment. Those soldiers aren’t going to stand a chance,” he said.
Captain Mathews reached down and pulled out his tablet. He looked at it, whatever he saw drained the blood from his face and within a few seconds he was already moving away from them.
“I need to go, Sergeant, we’ll be in touch,” he said before rushing off along with his group of commandos.
Spartan and Teresa looked at each other, before they could speak the loudspeakers throughout the hall burst into noise.
“This is Admiral Jarvis. Congratulations on an excellent operation. I can confirm that the stations have been neutralised and Confed forces are back in control of this sector!” she said. There was a short pause before she continued but in a much slower and more sombre tone.
“As you have probably heard, a massive and coordinated planet-wide offensive has begun on the surface of Prime. Initial reports say over ten thousand fighters have already broken out from the Bone Mill and more are appearing from underground facilities across the surface. We do not have clear information on the attackers but they have already overrun three army barracks and one marine brigade is conducting a fighting withdrawal to the Carlos spaceport. Infantry reinforcements are due to arrive in three hours. The marine battle group is being placed in reserve whilst it is re-equipped and re-supplied at the Kerberos naval yard. The rest of the Fleet will maintain the blockade around Prime and provide humanitarian assistance where required.”
More feeds from the planet showed the terrible carnage the horribly altered, or mutated, people were causing. They used firearms but when they were close enough they seemed to delight in using edged weapons and even worse, they were able and willing to use their hands and teeth to literally tear people apart. It was foul and sickening and an enemy that made the Zealots pale into insigni
ficance.
Teresa turned to Spartan as the marines around them erupted in excited shouting and arguments. “What the hell are they?”
Spartan said nothing. He just stood there dumbfounded. He couldn’t believe that there were more of those things still around. Based on the massive strength and capacity for absorbing damage he could already see the threat they posed. Finally he spoke.
“They must be a new weapon the Zealots have been working on, they are stronger and more dangerous than any man I’ve had to face, we’ve got a big, big problem.”
A marine officer pushed through the throng of people, handing out papers before reaching Spartan, he looked at Teresa and then back to Spartan.
“Sergeant Spartan?” he asked. Spartan nodded, saying nothing.
“I have papers from Captain Mathews. It says you are to join these marines on the Santa Cruz as part of the new Commando Company. You need to be fast, they are shipping out in twenty minutes.”
“Commando Company, what about me?” asked Teresa.
The officer showed her the list, she spotted her name on the paper. “That’s me,” she said.
“Ah, yeah, it says you’re to go too, you need to report to your new commander when you get to the Cruz,” he said before turning to head back to the mass of marines.
“Wait!” shouted Teresa as she grabbed the officer’s arm. He turned but looked flustered at being grabbed.
“Which commander?” she demanded.
“Um, General Rivers, he is taking command of the ship for something special. Don’t ask me what, I’ve no idea,” he said as Teresa made to interrupt him.
“That’s it?” Spartan asked him.
“He’ll tell you more when you get there I’m sure,” he said before finally turning and rushing off.
“General Rivers, why is he in charge of one ship, Spartan?”
“Who knows, we’d better hurry though or we’ll never find out!” said Spartan as they made their way to the transport level and the waiting shuttle. Scores of marines were already on board and they had to queue just to get on. After a short wait they climbed aboard and headed to their designated positions. Spartan noticed many more marines rushing about on the Santa Maria, some were heading to their quarters and others went to waiting shuttles.
“I thought this was over, we’ve done enough fighting to last a whole career!” Teresa said as she buckled herself into her seat.
Spartan turned his head in disagreement as he pulled the harness down tightly.
“No chance, this is just the start, and from what I’ve seen it is about to get very bloody,” he said with a grimace.
“All crew to their stations, we leave for the Santa Cruz in sixty seconds,” the pilot announced over the loudspeaker system.
The crew were already closing the door and going through the safety procedures prior to leaving the main hangar section of the ship. From inside the shuttle Spartan couldn’t see outside into space yet, but he could see several of the other shuttles preparing to leave. One of them must have just arrived from one of the warships, as it brought dozens of injured marines sprawled out on bloody stretchers. The marine transports seemed to be able to do just about everything.
For a brief moment Spartan felt a pang as he realised that he was leaving his home but then he remembered what it was actually like inside. He could manage without it. Teresa smiled at him, noticing he was lost in his thoughts, before lightly thumping his arm.
“I bet you’re wondering about your decision to join up now right?” she asked him.
Spartan thought back to the courtroom and the choice he had made. Right now, he wasn’t so sure on his decision. Still, it wouldn’t be long before his first year was up, only nine more to go.
“Well, I wasn’t, but now you’ve got me thinking about it!” he said with a mischievous look.
THE END
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