Children of Steel Read online

  I recognized one of them right away, it was Marcus. I threw the sink at him and charged. The other three fanned out but I just ignored them, I could get them later. He dodged the sink and swung at me with a bar of some kind. I blocked it with my arm and got him in the chest with my claw's drawing blood. Somebody grabbed at my arm then, and I kicked them hard in the leg. I was rewarded with a snap of bone, so I just hit them with an elbow and turned back towards Marcus who was hitting me in the chest with the end of his club.

  I came in fast ignoring the blows, I couldn't feel them anyway. I had a hand on his throat and was trying to get the other one up there as well, but somebody kept blocking it. Suddenly I felt a hard blow to the back of my head and staggered back. I turned around to kill whoever it was and I saw Cassandra.

  "Cassy!" I said then realized it wasn't her but Mist. For some reason this angered me even more but before I could take a step forward someone hit me on the back of the head again and I lost my balance. I got hit twice more before I hit the floor, and everything just went black.

  I woke up as something cold hit me in the face. I opened my eyes and saw Mist with a bucket, now empty. I growled and tried to reach for her, but I couldn't move. I looked down. I was trussed up hand and foot, and tied to the fixtures in the hall 'fresher. I started to struggle but whoever had done it was good, I couldn't get free.

  "Raj, It's Mist. Calm down dammit! Security will be here any minute, if they see you like this they'll shoot you on the spot!"

  I ignored her and tested the ropes again, to no avail.

  "Damn," that was Marcus. "Mist, help Star take Borus down to the infirmary before they find out about this. Make up a good story too."

  "What about Raj? I can't leave him like this!" I could see she was upset, but it didn't make an impression on me. After all, I had just lost Cassandra! What could she have to compare with that? I tried the ropes again.

  "Get! I'll take care of this, just go!"

  She left. I stared at Marcus and growled.

  "Can you hear me Raj?" he leaned on the edge of the stall and looked down at me. I could see the blood on his chest from where I had clawed him, I growled again.

  "Good, I guess that's a yes," he showed me the piece of paper in his hand. "Sorry about your girlfriend there, Cassandra wasn't it?"

  I tried to roar at him then, but I found that somebody had stuck a gag in my mouth. So I growled and tried the ropes again.

  "I tied those myself, so don't bother," He leaned down real close then, I thought about the possibility of biting him. "Now listen real close Raj. She's dead, got that? Dead! Some trash came along and put paid to her account. You got that?"

  It felt like salt in the wound, I thrashed some more, but I couldn't look away from him.

  "Now in about thirty seconds I'm going to pull that gag out of your mouth and if you don't have control of yourself I'll just let them find you here and shoot you. But before I do I want you to think about something. Just one word.

  "Revenge!"

  I felt like I had been shot. Revenge, that was what I wanted all right. To make somebody else suffer and die. Die slowly and horribly, or just die dammit!

  "Ahhh, I see that hit a nerve. You leopards are supposed to be real big on revenge, I'd bet you'd do anything to get it too!"

  I stopped struggling and looked at him. I made myself listen to everything he was saying.

  "Good, now do you think you're going to be able to get any revenge if they see you like this? Do you think you'll even be able to get to where those bastards live if you keep acting like this?" He grabbed the gag in my mouth, "If you want to get your revenge Raj, you're going to have to gain control of yourself, bide your time. So do you want to die here? Shot while helplessly trussed up in the 'fresher? Or do you want to get some revenge?" He pulled the gag out of my mouth.

  My first impulse was to roar, but I stopped it. He was right, I could feel his words singing in my ears. "Revenge!" I growled softly, "I want revenge!"

  "You got yourself under control then?"

  I swallowed, "Yes, untie me. I don't want to screw this up any worse than I already have."

  He drew my knife, which I was surprised to see still in its sheath. "Good thing you didn't grab this," he said smiling, "or Mist would have shot you for sure!" He cut my bonds then, and I sat up on the floor. I helped him gather up the rope, which he tossed in the disposal.

  "What'll I tell Security?" I asked him as a feeling of panic started to replace my anger. As I calmed down I started to realize my head hurt like crazy, and I had a couple of broken ribs. I think my wrist was broken too, it was swelling up pretty fast, that’s for sure.

  "Tell them your intended was killed, show them the note. Then tell them that you got so upset you didn't think it would be safe to go down to the gym and work it off, so you took it out on the room instead. Then you came in here to wash up. Now if you'll excuse me, I better take cover because I hear the storm troopers coming!"

  With that he ducked into one of the stalls and started to take a shower like he had been there for a while now. As long as they didn't make him come out they'd never see the blood. I got up and started for a stall myself.

  "Halt!" I heard, so I did. "Don't move or I'll shoot!" I guess these guys believed the stories about leopards because they obviously weren't fooling. "What's going on here?"

  So I told them the story Marcus had given me, and showed them the paper. Then I asked if I could shower off before they arrested me. They looked at me a little warily and called it in on their handset. I got the okay, and took a real quick shower so I could get out of there before they got suspicious about Marcus. They did ask him a couple of questions through the door; he just pleaded ignorance so they left him alone.

  The trip down to Security was longer than I would have liked it to be. I hurt all over at this point, and the broken ribs were beginning to grate. When I got there I repeated my story, and then asked if I could be excused.

  "I don't think we can afford to let a dangerous person like you to just go free!" said the human behind the desk.

  "Sir," I pleaded quietly, "All I did was trash my room, which I'm willing to pay for. I didn't attack anybody," I lied, "and when I finished I just went to the showers to clean up. Yes we leopards are temperamental, and I've just experienced a great loss. But I've got the rage out of my system and now I just want to mourn my loss and go back to work."

  He looked me over carefully; "Well your eyes don't have that glassy look that they warn us about, and I will admit you seem composed." he turned to the four security guards in the room with me, "Take him down to the Med center. If they say he's okay, you can let him go." He turned back to me then, "You'll be fined of course, and charged for the damages to your room. Somebody should have looked at your file before delivering that message; it should have been done with more care so you could have vented your anger on something less expensive and made for it.

  "At least you didn't go on a rampage, I'll give you credit for that. Take him away."

  We went down to the Med center then, and the Doc quickly cleared me, and then set about patching up my wounds. They were curious about how I had inflicted some of them on myself, especially the ones to the back of my head, but I pleaded ignorance and they didn't push it.

  When I finally got back to my room I looked around at the destruction. It was pretty severe, all the furniture was in pieces, small pieces, and the fixtures were all trashed as well.

  I sat down then and though about what had happened and cried. When Mist ventured to stick her head in an hour later, I was still crying. She came over and sat with me until I stopped.

  "You sure you want to get this close to the maniac?" I asked trying hard to smile.

  "If they had thought to check with somebody who knows you before showing you that note this would never have happened!" she said hotly, "That's usually required procedure, somebody screwed up big time!"

  "Thanks for getting everybody here and saving my life, and not sho
oting me. I'm sorry if I hurt you."

  "I could tell something was wrong as soon as you dropped the letter," she sighed. "So I grabbed it and ran for the door. Once I read it I knew what was up. Good thing the Tigers were around, I don't think I could have trusted anybody not from the Astra to keep their mouths shut."

  I looked around the room, "How much do you think they'll charge me for this?"

  "Oh probably only ten or twenty thou, and that'll include the fine too I bet."

  "At least I hadn't thought to go into the bedroom and destroy my new gear."

  "Speaking of bed," she grabbed my arm and started dragging me, "you look like the living dead, and I've had all the excitement I can handle."

  We went to bed then and I slept the clock around. When I woke up, Mist was still there. I thanked her for helping, gave her a hug and got up and left.

  I headed down to the personnel office and found a black bear who wasn't too busy to help me.

  "What do you need?" He asked as I sat down at his desk.

  "An assignment," and I passed him my ident tag.

  He stuck it in his desk terminal and started to look over the particulars, "Where's your ship now?" He asked.

  "Dry-dock on Earth I think. I don't expect to see it again."

  "With the present situation, that's a safe bet." He looked at the cast on my wrist, "What are you looking for?"

  "Combat," I stared through him and at the wall behind. He looked away.

  "Well let's see, I have several combat flying spots open."

  "No!" I said a little too loud, "Ground forces."

  He stopped and looked at me again, "You know that a straight fighting job will hurt your pay situation. You sure about this?"

  "Yes, I want to get my hands dirty. Real dirty."

  "I see," he said slowly and stared right back at me, I didn't flinch or blink. Eventually he turned back to his screen and started paging through a few things. "You willing to volunteer for extremely hazardous duty?" he asked without looking up.

  "Of course."

  "Well how's this sound then, we've got one of those frigates in port. She's shipping out as soon as she's fully staffed. You barely qualify on combat experience for the ranks, but they need one more backup pilot." He looked up at me then and actually smiled, "Special ops, I personally guarantee you'll get to slaughter all you want."

  I smiled back at him, "Where do I sign?"

  He handed me my orders a minute later, I was to report in two hours. So I went back to my room, packed my bag and went to find Mist.

  "What's up Raj?" she asked eyeing my gear bag on the floor.

  "I'm shipping out, I got a new assignment."

  "What ship?"

  I showed her my copy of the orders, "If you get back to the Astra, give everybody my regards okay?"

  "Sure," she looked a little uncomfortable, "Just one thing Raj okay?"

  "What?" I asked warily.

  "Don't get yourself killed on purpose, all right? You've got too many friends who'd miss you."

  "I promise," I said. "Give my regards to Marcus and the others all right? I've got to go now or I'll be late."

  "Sure. Bye Raj," she gave me a kiss, "Good luck, you'll need it."

  I turned and headed down the Hall. I hit the Buzzer on Dave's room as I went by, but there wasn’t any answer. He must have been out, so I wrote a short note and left.

  I made it to the Falcon in thirty minutes. I still had an hour left, but I just wanted to get on with it. I did stop for a minute and removed the cast from my wrist, the Doc's had told me to leave it on until tonight, but I didn't want anyone asking questions. The bandages on the ribs didn't show so I left them.

  "Warrant second Raj Rakir requests permission to come aboard." I saluted the Wolf at the hatch. I recognized him as one of the WSO's from the crew.

  He returned my salute, "Permission granted." Then as I passed inside he turned to me, "So Raj, they got you to join this little madhouse too, huh?"

  I stopped and turned to him, "I volunteered."

  He looked at me a little strangely then, "You don't sound so good. What happened?"

  "I'd rather not talk about it okay?"

  "Sure no prob, listen though okay? It's a different ship now, we got sixty troops on board and it's a bit tight. They're the tough guys too, so don't cop an attitude, or you'll end up in serious trouble. Understand?"

  "Yeah sure, when do we leave?" I asked turning towards the Captain's cabin.

  "As soon as you report in I guess," he said closing the hatch. "Now that we've got number sixty we're ready!"

  I headed forward to the Captain's cabin then and knocked on the door setting down my gear bag.

  "Enter!"

  I stepped inside and saluted Captain Avera, "Warrant second Rakir reporting for duty sir!"

  "At ease Mr. Rakir." He looked at his watch, "Glad to see you didn't drag your feet and got here early, now I'll be able to keep ahead of schedule." He looked back at me then. "Listen I gave your file a quick glance and I think I know why you're here. I'm sorry about what happened, but I think you'll find more than enough opportunities to avenge yourself, Okay?"

  "Yes sir, that's what I'm hoping for sir."

  "Good, that's what I wanted to hear. This isn't going to be a joy ride and I want serious fighters. You're in billet 17, welcome aboard."

  "Thank you sir," I saluted and left.

  I found my quarter's pretty quickly, I was sharing a room with three other's. Fortunately things were set up so only two of us were to be sleeping at any given time, being on opposite shifts. We each had separate bunks too; they folded into the wall when they weren't in use of course. I put my things in my locker, and went off in search of the ground forces Commander.

  The one nice thing I had noticed so far was that almost all of the troops were leopards. I thought I had seen some Jaguars too, but wasn't sure. I found the ground force’s Commander in his quarters; he had a room to himself like the Captain and the Exec, and reported in.

  "At ease soldier, have a seat."

  I took the proffered seat, and relaxed. He was a Jag, pretty good sized one too.

  "Any questions?" he asked looking at his desk terminal, probably reading my file.

  "What's the species makeup of our force sir?"

  "Forty Leopards, Six Jaguars and fourteen Tigers. Why, do you have any problem with that?"

  "No sir, I was just curious."

  "Fine. I see by your record that you do have some combat experience. Not as much as I'd like, but coupled with your performance there and the fact that we need a backup pilot, it'll do."

  "Yes sir."

  "Our basic fighting group is the same six man team you were trained with in advanced. I'm going to assign you to the number three slot in one, if you show me you can perform I'll move you into number two. Casualties are going to be a fact of life here, so if you perform well, you'll find quick advancement. Any other questions?"

  "Just what shift I'm on sir."

  "Second, I suggest you get some sack time and let that wrist heal. You'll need it soon enough, dismissed!"

  I stood up and saluted, he obviously wasn't anyone I'd be able to fool on anything.

  I headed back to my bunk, and sacked out for the next eight hours till I was due to report. By the time I had arrived at the ‘gym’ or hold area, we were well under way. I got several challenges on the way to the mess and then the hold, but I just ignored them. I still had an empty hole inside me, and I really didn't care what anybody else thought.

  The organization of Falcon block was fairly simple. Each squad was made up of two three man half-squad's. A squad was commanded by either a non-com, a warrant or an officer. Five squads made up a platoon, with one officer and a senior non-com in charge. Two platoons made up a block. The officer in charge of 1st platoon, (and the first squad in it), was the officer in charge of the block, in this case our commander who was a captain in rank. Of course on board he was referred to as 'Commander' as there is only one C
aptain onboard any ship.

  The head of the 2nd platoon was a lieutenant, I was in the second squad in the first half-squad under the senior NCO in that platoon. While I technically outranked him as a Warrant, I was comfortable with the situation. The corporal who was in charge of the other half of the squad looked like he had a big chip on his shoulder, so I just ignored him.

  So we had two officers in our block, three warrants not counting myself, and five NCO's. Everybody fought in this organization, and depending on the action we would either act as six man squads, or three man half-squads. The half-squad was perfect for hit and runs of course, about what a sixty man block without any artillery support was normally good for.

  We spent most of our first normal duty period doing drills and inspection. About ten of the people in the platoon had served together before this, the rest of us were new to this group. That left a lot of fitting in to be done, so a certain amount of drill was inevitable. I kind of liked the mindlessness of the whole thing though, it kept me from thinking blacker thoughts.

  The part I didn't care for, at least anymore, was the establishment of the unofficial pecking order. I wasn't out to impress anybody anymore; I really didn't care if the women wanted to be with me or not either. I was more than satisfied to keep to myself.

  Of course this wasn't to be. When we broke up for our other duties a lot of the younger troops kept bugging me. Even though they had more combat time than I did, most of them were my age or younger. The older hands I noticed steered well clear of me, they knew something was up. I just ignored the whole thing, performing my duties and not saying anything unless I was required too.

  After about a week the harassment started to make an impression on me. I guess my lack of response was giving people the wrong idea, and rather than leave me alone I was being bothered constantly. So the next day after drill I grabbed the corporal in my squad, who was one of my bigger pains, and told him if he didn't leave me alone I'd kick him and his half-squad all over the room.

  He figured that the three of them were obviously more than a match, and took me up on the challenge. I was only surprised when the Lieutenant directed the senior NCO to clear a space and started taking bets. At least I was allowed to put down two grand on myself, some habits die hard.