Sean-Michael Argo - Dead Worlds

The gesture seemed superfluous until flashing spheres of energy emerged from the air surrounding it and shot away shearing four marines, including Boss Harker, into cauterized hunks of armored meat. The grisly spheres crackled with energy as they ripped through the marines, leaving the bodies to fall into pieces on the platform before the balls of light blinked back out of existence.

The cyborg opened its left hand and the shield was whole again. However, now all of them could see that whatever energy source the creature was accessing must be running low, as the shield was wavering.

The marine’s advance did not slow, a testament not only to their training, but to the horrors they had witnessed in their many years of service. Every Reaper on the mission was a veteran and they kept shooting as they closed in.

Twice more the cyborg opened its shield to obliterate marines with the deadly spheres even as its body was punished by hails of bullets every time it lashed out. They were paying with lives to damage the creature.

It seemed incapable of adapting its tactics, as if the willingness of the marines to press on despite their grievous casualties did not register in its mind. It simply seemed incapable of comprehending the willing sacrifices that the Reapers were making to grind down its defenses and tear at its body, a few bullets and a life at a time.

With a blast of energy that knocked all of the marines back a step, the shield finally gave out. Samuel bumped into Bianca and Patrick, surprised, not realizing they had followed him up the steps.

With another bellowing roar, the titan straightened both arms and fisted its hands. Dozens of crackling spheres burst from the platform in a nightmare swarm, tearing through legionnaires and marines alike in an explosion of screams and blood.

Behind him, Bianca grunted as she collapsed to the steps, her right leg completely removed at the knee and her left shoulder simply gone, her arm hanging loosely by a few strands of cooked muscle. The wounds smoked as they were cauterized by the raw power of the energy spheres that had caused them.

Samuel leapt back instinctively as his combat rifle was melted in half by a sphere directly in front of him. The heat damage sensors in his helmet blared alarms as much of his armor bubbled and peeled away. Next to him, Patrick was silent as the pieces that were left of his body smacked wetly upon the platform steps.

Samuel gaped at the smoking corpse of his friend and comrade of the last six years, then back to Bianca as the woman he’d grown to love went into shock convulsions. All around him marines were dying or already dead.

Without conscious thought, Samuel ripped his boarding knife from its sheath and charged straight at the cyborg.

Before the titan machine could react, Samuel plunged the wide blade deep into an exposed area of flesh in the creature’s side.

The cyborg howled in what Samuel hoped was pain. It attempted to rake him with its claws, only to have its attack interrupted by Boss Ulanti slamming into it from the back, ramming her own knife into its body.

As the two marines repeatedly stabbed at the creature, Jada Sek leapt into the fray and began slashing it with her knife. More marines joined her, all of them clinging like burrs, despite the titan’s efforts to dislodge them. All of them hacking and slashing and screaming, in a frenzy of anger that was almost madness.

The lone marine who had first started up the steps fell to his knees as the cyborg used its claws to tear his mid-section into ribbons. The titan opened its mouth, but before it could make a sound, Boss Marsters appeared atop the heap of attacking marines and drove the point of his blade through one of the beast’s eye sockets.

The pulse of energy powering the creature ceased instantly, collapsing the mighty machine and sending the marines tumbling down the platform with it.

The remaining legionnaires collapsed in boneless heaps to the floor.

Samuel was unconscious when he landed at the base of the platform, tangled in the body of the titan with the other marines. By the time he started to come around the Reapers had been reinforced by more marines, who worked quickly to attend the wounded and secure the area.

Samuel lay on his back as an unknown medic pulled away his armor, skin and body glove melted to the armor in places, and began treating the burns. Samuel rolled his head to the side and saw other marines carrying Bianca away on a stretcher. She was horribly mangled, but Samuel was able to slip back into unconsciousness knowing that she was at least alive.

Once back aboard the tug, much to their disappointment and frustration, the battle weary Reaper cadre was bluntly informed during their debriefing that Grotto Corporation had determined, based on intelligence and evidence gathered, that the Reaper force was not to be deployed on extended salvage duty of the alien site.

It had been decided by the Board of Executives and their advisors that further study was required before any salvage ops were to begin. Surprisingly, though the marines had been denied the several months of hazard wages performing the salvage, each marine was awarded the promised completion bonus. The Reaper fleet was en route back to Baen 6 within the hour

It was hard to absorb, but Samuel finally had the money to wipe out his debts, a wife to remarry, expatriate from Grotto Corporation, and still have enough left to stake a homestead somewhere on the frontier. Despite the joy and relief this brought him, after stripping his armor away and cleaning up, rather than celebrate his good fortune, he went to begin his vigil in med bay.

Samuel was there when Bianca Kade awoke from surgery. He knew from experience that a familiar face was important when a marine first returned from the black. Boss Marsters had once again exercised his privilege as their platoon leader to make medical decisions for one of his troopers.

The doctors had installed a high end Augur brand prosthetic knee joint. However, keenly aware of the tremendous financial impact of non-covered procedures, Wynn opted for Bianca’s actual leg prosthetic to be the basic metal and synth-flesh limb covered by the Reaper health plan. He had done the same for her arm and as Samuel held her human hand while she slept, he couldn’t help but think of Mags as he looked at the crude machine arm. It reminded him of the cyborg hostile they’d defeated planetside, Patrick’s grisly death, and the horrible deaths of so many others.

Samuel lowered his head and closed his eyes as he listened to her breathe. Suddenly she squeezed his hand making Samuel raise his head. He made no effort to hide the fact that he’d been weeping.

“The longer we do this the less of ourselves we become,” whispered Bianca as she touched Samuel’s face with her new arm and it was cold on his skin.

“Then let’s get out while we can,” said Samuel, leaning closer to look in her eyes. He gripped both of Bianca’s hands in his own. “If we stay we’ll either die or turn into people like Marsters or Ulanti.” Samuel paused, closing his eyes briefly, then charging on. “My family is on Pier 16, I know it’s crazy, but come with me. It’ll be messy, but we’ll figure it out.”

Bianca shook her head. “Sam, I can’t afford it, not for at least a few more years.” There was a hint of reproach in her voice. “The medical bills and expatriation fee would clean me out. I’d have nothing to live on. Not to mention my husband’s bond and expat fee. I’m not leaving him behind, Sam, and before you say you’ve got it, don’t, because you have your own family to worry about.” Bianca blinked back tears and her voice quaked with both anger and grief as she spoke.

“Respect me,” Bianca said, “and respect yourself, Prybar.” A new edge of hardness crept into her voice and her expression. She opened and closed her new hand as if truly experiencing it for the first time. “Samuel, Get your family off that station and live a better life.”