Chapter 36

The Gunny and I are both sitting in the shuttle, as it begins to lift off. We're both quiet. I'm not even sure where to start, as I observe him. "Gunny..."

"Skipper." He looks me dead in the eye. "You're probably thinking I'm crazy after everything that I've seen."

"Well, I don't know about crazy." I respond. "I knew that she fancied you and that you were sweet on her." He shifts in his seat a bit uncomfortable with the topic. "She's quite beautiful, and I'm not angry. Just concerned for you and Lahí."

"Skipper, I know That you shouldn't get involved in the personal lives of those under your command. But, I think you're the perfect man to talk to." The shuttle begins to lift off and increases speed. "These rings, they seem to make it hard, and I feel like they pull you together." He say.

I contemplate for a second his remark, and that is a pretty good description of what you feel. "It seem to have double the effect on the couple because we're human."

"It's almost like a back a and forth. I felt guilty and with her." I know exactly what you mean.

"I'll tell you what Gunny, it gets better over time." He nods understanding. "Now, we shouldn't be kissing and telling because I don't think our girls would appreciate that."

He laughs at that and by then we're almost at the docking port; our talk seems to have calmed him down a bit. I stand and walk to the pilots sticking my head into the cockpit watching, as we enter the station. And there she is the ISV Helios. She is smaller than most of the ships here, but she's mine to command.

Her lines are primitive compared to many of the Majah-tu ships, but she stands out. It's human. As we enter the shuttle bay I notice that all the shuttles are here. We had two on the surface, but I didn't notice that shuttle three was up here.

"Chief, who came up?" I ask.

"The Major came up last night Captain." Did she. She didn't inform me of that, or at least leave a message.

"Thanks Chief." I turn to the Gunny sitting down. "I think we have a problem."

Once on board the Helios we head straight for the bridge. I see Mandy in the Captains chair and a full crew prepping the ship for departure. Which means that she is not ready for any action.

I walk up to Mandy and she pretends not to notice me. "Major, what's going on here?"

"We're getting ready to leave the day after tomorrow." What the...

"On who's orders Major?"

"Mine."

"Your not the ship's Captain. You don't have the authority to give such a command." I'm trying to remain calm under the circumstances.

"I'm the mission commander and I think we've accomplished more than we could've hoped for." She looks up at me with a belligerent gaze. "Helm please check all the sub systems and run a pre launch sequence."

"Belay That order." The helmsman looks at us with uncertainty. "Major, you don't have the authority to take command of this ship, so this is an ilegal seizure of the Helios."

"Ilegal?" She stands up. "What you did is ILEGAL!" She puts her hands behind her back. "You have entered into an unsanctioned relationship with a member of a royal family of a foreign power!" She looks at Hal then at me. "You are comprised Captain."

"I'm sure they'll take that into account in your court martial Major." She steps back from me. Shock in her face. "This is a court martial offense, to take command of a ship of the line without proper authorization is called a MUTINY!"

She turns away from me. "So what now Captain?"

I look at the bridge crew and all of them are looking at us in surprise. "Take this ship back to a combat ready status. Our people on the ground need our support."

They all exchange looks with each other. When the young Lieutenant manning the weapons station stands up. "Aye aye Sir!" With that the rest of the crew snaps out of their stupor and begin to get ship battle ready once more.

"Master at arms." The Gunny steps forward.

"Please take the Major and confine to her quarters until proper accommodation can be made planet side." The Gunny grabs Mandy by elbow trying not to be to rough. She doesn't resist, which is good. I sit down in the Captain's chair and slump my shoulders.

I look around as everyone is busy with the task at hand and I stand up walking to each station, complimenting on a job well done or encouraging them to keep trying their best. I leave the bridge in command of a young Ensign who eagerly takes it. I step out of the bridge and I can't shake the feeling that this is a bad sign, that more is to come.

The hours move by quickly, as the ship is brought back to a combat ready status. Before I know it I'm in my quarters, to tired to do anything else but to just drop into bed. I hold up my hand studying my ring thinking of Jahní. When I focus on it I can feel her heart beating in my hand.

I smile at the memory of her. The way she smiles at me like no one else in the world matters, but me. I hope she's resting well tonight. I roll over onto my side, and I feel sleep finally over take me.

I feel it more than I hear it. I open my eyes and the ships alarms are going off I jump out of bed jamming my boots on, since I fell asleep in my utilities.

I run out of my quarters and the crew is moving rapidly, as the Gunny runs up to me. "Skipper the palace has been hit and the Embassy is under attack!" What!

"Get your Marines ready to move now! Are the heat shields on the shuttles?" I ask as we head for the bay.

"Yes sir, had them put on last night!" Thank God! We run to the armory and the Marines are grabbing their body armor and plas rifles and I do the same. We enter the bay and fifteen Marines climb into two shuttles; the ramps close. I get up to the cockpit. "This is a combat drop! You burn these birds up if you have to, but I want to be on the surface in ten mikes!"

"Yes Sir." I run back to the seat and strap in securing my rifle. The shuttle lifts and we move out of the shuttle bay and out into the space port. We pick up speed and stream out of the space port heading planet side, and all the Marines to the tee have their minds on rescuing the Embassy personal.

"Atmosphere entry in two mikes." The shuttles pilot reports.

"Patch me to the ground!" I order.

"Roger that!"

"Lieutenant Monroe do you copy." I call over the net and damn raisin protocol.

"Captain?" He says.

"What's the sit rep?"

"The enemy is in the Embassy grounds... they have a numerical advantage, but we're holding!" I hear the despiraton in his voice, since he's all alone commanding the ground forces.

"Just hold for a few, you've got this." I say to him.

"Will do!" I can here the fighting in the back ground; this is bad. The shuttle begins to shake and buck violently, as we enter the atmosphere. This is a combat drop. Entering the atmosphere of a plante at full speed using a fall away heat shield system, for added protection to keep from burning up.

Once we're close to the target we drop the shields and begin to spiral to slow us down a bit, for a more controlled landing. It took some time to develop this tactic, it's been used on Earth during the war successfully.

"Sir, we got enemy gunships over the Embassy." This is what I was concerned about, an enemy supported by air ships. "Oh crap!" The pilot exclaims. "One of the gunships just went down."

"Take out the other one!" I order.

"Roger That!" Yes! The thirty mil just did its job. They're probably trying to take it out now, with the other one. I hear the dull thud sound of the shuttles guns blazing as we pass by. "That got it Sir! She's going down!"

"Keep your eyes open for a third, and get us on the deck." I order, as we start to get some ground fire.

We peel to the starboard hard. "Twenty seconds!" Shouts the pilot.

"Heat 'em up." Commands Gunny. Everyone's plas rifle snaps to life, as everyone uastraps. The ramp opens just as we touch down and all of us disembark deploying fast, as we take fire one Marine goes down. I stop and turn to him almost falling down as I do. Recovering I reach him and he's still alive with a terrible burn wound, on his left shoulder.

I pick him up in the fireman's carry taking him behind one of the concrete barriers, and setting him down. "Stay low, don't get into this your injury is bad." I get on the horn. "I need a corpsmen here!" From no where the corpsman shows up and takes over. I Pat him I the shoulder and I move on.

I move up to the next barrier joining a young Marine who's there. "You ok!"

"Aye Sir!" He say with fear in his voice.

"We have to move on private, or they'll figure out we're here." I tap his arm. "Come on lets get over there to the Lieutenant!" An energy beam hits the barrier splashing us with molten pieces of it. Some of those bits get into my collar under the body armor.

I wince trying to pull them out, but I was only able to get a few. "Come on! Get moving!" I push him off of his ass and we move firing as we go. Reaching the barrier where Monroe is directing the battle as best he can, though the enemy is in some kind of armor themselves.

"Sir you've got set your weapon to point seven or your not stopping them!" Damn our charge won't last long like that. "They tried the front door and we've stopped them here, now we need to push them back!"

I look over the top of the barrier and they have been pushed to the corner. Though they've set up a good defense. I look to the right and more are coming over the wall my eyes open wide. "Contact right!" I open fire and they begin to move in to the attack; I finally hit one and he drops. All of us here shift our fire on to this group trying to out flank us.

Two of the six enemy troopers get to our position; one of them quickly deploys a blade from his forearms armor and he runs the private through picking him up with the blade. The poor private gurgles something as he dies. "You son of..." I open up on the enemy trooper and he falls down in a sizzling heap to the ground.

The Lieutenant fries the other one, but he drops a nasty surprise. "Grenade!" Shouts Monroe and he falls on it.

"No!" I shout as it goes off ripping Monroe to pieces. The force of the explosions pushes me hard into the barrier, and I'm covered in gore from Monroe. My head is kind of not feeling normal, just as an enemy trooper shows up off to my right missing an arm. He looks at me popping out his blade from the arm he still has walking towards me brandishing it menacingly.

I reach for my rifle, but upon picking it up I see that it's inoperable. When he sees that he moves more confidently to take my life; I pull out my plas pistol and open up on him. I might as well been using spit balls. He stands above me raising his blade high in the air, I'm dead... I'm so dead! A blast hits him hard dead center then another and another, all of them leaving a rather large holes at every impact point.

I turn and I see a silver armored warrior, walking firing the weapon that did all that damage. My mind calls out, but I can't seem to open my mouth. Jahní thank God! She brought reinforcements, as a squad of Majah-tu warriors run past her. She stands protectively over me. Jahní kneels next to me taking off her helmet I smile at her, and she removing one of the gauntlets freeing her hand. I can see the desperation on her face, as she is cleaning off the gore from my face. She's looking for an injury.

"I... I'm fine..." I say trying to get up as a sharp pain from my leg makes me fall back down. Damn I didn't notice that it's broken; it must've happened when that grenade went off, that thing was extremely powerful. I look at her. "I think my leg is broken." she feels for the break confirming it. A tear rolls down her cheek, but she is a professional soldier pulling out from behind her a folding splint system.

Jahní looks at me. "This will hurt." She picks up my leg and I grind my teeth while she applies the splint. I look up and the King is standing behind her. He moves to my left keeling down he sees what Jahní is doing, and nods at the excellent work Jahní has done.

"Captain, you're injuries are not life threatening, but it will take a healer to to know for sure." He stand up and looks at the battle field now that the enemy has been crushed. "You and your men fought bravely and have brought honor to your people." Well that's good to hear. Jahní restrains herself, though I know that if circumstances were different she would have thrown her arms around me.

"My daughter, your pledged is wounded treat him well." He turns his back on us giving his men further instructions.

Jahní moves closer to me putting her forehead to mine. "Thank the Creator that I got here when I did. I love you Captain Antonio Valdez, and now no one will question the courage of your people or yours." I nod at this, but my head still feels a bit funny it's as if something in me has been disturbed. I think I just need to rest and I should be fine.