Children of Steel (57 page)

He laughed again at that, "You sound like
somebody with a lot of anger to work out!"

"More than a lot," I replied quietly and cut
off further conversation by closing my eyes and going back to
sleep.

The fallout of the match was pretty typical I
guess. I was removed from the second squad and given the number two
spot in the fifth one. This was the squad where all the worst
trouble makers in the block ended up. So it was usual to put the
toughest people in the block in charge of it. The Tiger I had
fought, John was his name, was the Sergeant in charge and now I was
his second in command.

The first thing I did was drag the two
leopards that made up my half squad into the fresher by their
tails, literally. They were not happy of course.

"Listen," I growled at them, "I'm going to
make it really simple for you. If either of you screw up and keep
me from killing those ani-murdering fanatics, I'll kill you two
instead!" I looked at both of them, "Is that understood?"

They just looked at each other then, so I
jumped them both and beat the living daylights out of them. I still
had so much anger on tap neither one of them really stood much of a
chance.

"In the future, I expect an immediate answer
to all of my commands!" I looked at them sprawled out on the floor,
"Is that understood?"

This time they didn't hesitate a second, "Yes
Sir!"

"Good, now that we've had this little
discussion I trust that in the future you'll be sure to keep out of
trouble, or a least not get caught!" I strode out of the 'fresher
and went back to the Hold.

"Any problem with your new troops?" Asked
John with a smile.

"No, I think I got the point across of just
where the line is." I looked at the Tiger and the Jag who made up
the other half of the squad. While they were under me as well, I
wouldn't be expected to work with them as close as John would. So I
wasn't about to beat them up unless they gave me a good reason.

"I trust neither of you gentlemen have a
problem with Mr. Rakir assuming the number two spot in this squad?"
John asked them both and they came to attention.

"No Sir!" Came the quick reply.

"I didn't think you would," he said sternly,
but still smiling. He motioned to me then and we walked away from
the others, "Clem and Russ won't cause you any trouble, at least
not while on duty. They're followers more than leaders and tend to
get into whatever trouble somebody else starts." At this point my
two troops entered and dragged themselves over with the rest.
"Those two however tend to start trouble on a regular basis if they
can't find any that's already there."

"I think a relationship based on
understanding will change that." I smiled ruefully to myself
then.

"Oh? And how does that work?"

"Simple, they
understand
that I'll
kill them both if they screw up big time."

"I always thought my old second was way too
nice," he said as we walked back over.

I started in on the training of Hess and
Marko, my two 'problem children' right away. I was happy to find
out that they were actually fairly decent soldiers, and looked
forward to the idea of combat almost as much as I did. They just
had a tendency to test the limits of authority on a regular basis.
I taught them the difference between testing authority and testing
my patience. They learned quickly to steer clear of the later, as I
had none.

I received several invitations to spend the
night from the ladies onboard after that of course. But I still
couldn't develop an interest in any of them, so I politely turned
them all down. I did go to the Clan meeting that Saturday however,
I had thought about staying away, but felt it would be unhealthy. I
also felt sorry for whoever would get sent to fetch me.

I showed up on time, the meeting was being
held in the hold of course, it was the only place large enough. I
greeted the clan head, who was the block's senior NCO. He was in
his thirties and the oldest Leopard onboard which was why he was
clan head, even though the Lieutenant ranked him.

"Greetings Raj, and welcome to the clan!" he
smiled effusively, "I've been told that you're keeping to yourself,
care to explain that?"

"I'm still mourning my loss," I said
quietly.

"I see," he said thoughtfully, "I strongly
suggest you change your ways a little then. The companionship would
do you good."

"Is that a ruling?" I asked grimacing
painfully.

"Not yet, but if I see you continue to
totally isolate yourself, it will be."

"I'll try," I promised, then found a nice
spot on the fringe of things and lay down. I was laying there, eyes
half closed with my hands propping up my chin and doing my best to
try and enjoy the atmosphere, when I suddenly noticed there was
somebody standing in front of me. I opened my eyes and looked up at
her. She was around my age, about five eleven, which was tall for a
female leopard, but was attractively built with a nice trim
muscular figure that I normally would have been chasing all over
the ship. I had noticed her before of course, it was hard not
too.

"Mind if I join you?" she asked as she lay
down with me.

"No, but you're wasting your time," I replied
non-committally.

"
I
don't think so," she purred leaning
against me.

"Look, I'm really not good company right now,
and I've been turning down everybody. So maybe you'd like to
reconsider?"

"Nope, your roommate has been complaining
that since you never spend time with anybody else, he's being
forced to do without himself."

"I hadn't considered that.” I thought about
it a moment, “I promise to try and give him more chances at
entertaining company, okay?" I was suddenly embarrassed.

"Seeing how you're going to be sleeping in my
bed tonight, I think that the problem will clear up, don't you?"
she purred again.

I looked over at her, "Umm, excuse me?"

She turned and smiled sweetly at me with half
lidded eyes, "It's non-negotiable Raj, you don't have a
choice!"

"Did the Clan put you up to this?" I asked
looking around. Nobody was paying us the slightest bit of
attention.

"Do you really think that Hamilton would
bother me with this?" she leered then, "This is for the good of the
platoon of course!"

"What, getting my roommate laid?" I asked
unable to keep from smiling.

"No, my getting my claws on you!" she
snickered at my shocked expression. "It's good to see some kind of
rise out of you! Here, make yourself useful," and she handed me a
brush.

I looked at it, then at her. She just
stretched out in front of me waiting. So I brushed out her fur.
After I had finished she returned the favor, fairly typical
behavior for a clan meeting. But I did notice that we were left
pretty much to ourselves, which was fine with me, this one
individual was more than enough for me to deal with.

When the meeting started breaking up, she
grabbed my wrist and dragged me to her room.

"I wasn't kidding in there!" She smiled
again; she had a nice one I'll admit.

"But just sleep, okay?" I insisted, "Nothing
else."

"Fine, don't worry." she laughed, "I promise
not to rape you!"

We went into her room then and crawled into
bed. I had to admit that it was nice to have someone to hold again.
I hadn't realized just how much I had missed it, and true to her
word she didn't bother me for anything more. When we woke up the
next morning she was looking at me concerned.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"You cried out several times in your sleep
last night," she said looking at me closely. "You're still having a
hard time of it aren't you?"

"Some," I admitted painfully, "And last night
I did have some bad dreams. I warned you."

"Well I think you're going to stay with me
for a while, it's obvious you need somebody to take care of
you."

"I think I can take care of myself," I
growled.

"Not from where I sit you can't," she growled
back. "You're sleeping here from now on and that's final."

"Oh really?" I replied coldly.

"Care to bet on it then?" she grinned nastily
back at me.

She won of course, but then I received orders
officially changing my room assignment. When I accused her of
cheating, she just smiled.

From then on I slept in her quarters, usually
with her. She was absent on occasion, I was still being celibate
and I know she wasn't. But we did become friends, she gave me the
company I guess I needed and was helping me find the peace I know I
desired.

About three weeks later we were getting ready
for our first strike. We had left jump nearly two weeks previously,
coming out well outside the system so as not to be observed. The
Falcon was small enough to be missed by most standard detection
systems and was well masked against most military ones as well.
Even the normal space drives had baffles to further obscure
detection.

So we would creep in towards our objective at
relatively low speeds, spending two or so weeks in normal space.
There were other methods available to the Falcon's Captain, but
this one allowed us time to gather what local intelligence we
could.

Our first strike was at a 'secret' training
camp for the group which had attacked Arboral. It wasn't heavily
defended as they figured that not only was it a secret, but who
would waste time on troops that still weren't combat ready. Pretty
stupid, huh?

I think they just didn't have the money and
the backing to afford a good defense, and probably gave that line
out to the new recruits to keep them from worrying. Or maybe they
just didn't figure anybody would be able to mount a strike without
them knowing. I don't know really, they obviously hadn't spent too
much time studying Tri-Star or any of the other Big Corporations if
they expected not to get a response. Maybe they were just being
used by some other corporation and fed a load of crap, or maybe
they had a lot more confidence in their spies.

Whatever, it really didn't matter, we were
going in to pull a quick hit and run. The two ships that were
standing guard were more than enough for the Falcon, if they caught
her that is. As they were stationed eight hours out from the
planet, we figured we had about four hours to do our thing.

Sneaking past them was really a pretty simple
affair, Captain Avera let the drives cool for a few days and we
coasted past totally unnoticed.

The plan for the strike itself was fairly
simple, shuttle number one would go in first and blast the ground
to air defenses. Right behind it would follow the two drop ships,
which would immediately drop forty eight troops. The number two
shuttle would fly backup, and both shuttles carried a squad to be
deployed on the edges of the fray.

After the drop we had three hours to march
across the camp wreaking maximum havoc, killing enemy troops, and
grabbing anything that might help our intel people. Then the drop
ships would land, and we'd leave. The objective pure and simple was
to incite the enemy command as much as possible, spread a little
fear among the troops, and hopefully pick up something that could
help us locate their other bases.

I especially liked the part about the
killing.

It was during planning for the drop phase
that I got my first real surprise since coming onboard the Falcon.
Dave was there.

“Dave?” I blinked walking over to him as the
group got settled. “How the hell did you get here?”

“Same way as you, what do you think?” He
smiled heading over to a chair with another wolf who I guess was
his pilot. “I tried to come down earlier and see you, but I was on
the opposite shift and you were spending a lot of time holed up in
your cabin there, so I thought it would be best to let you mourn a
bit.”

I nodded, it wasn’t hard to have not seen
him, most of the ship’s crew didn’t come down into grunt country,
they even had their own small mess.

“But why?” I asked surprised.

“Why?” he smiled, “Someone had to keep an eye
on you and after what happened it wasn’t hard to figure out which
way you’d jump. Plus let’s face it, the money is good, the Astra is
too far away and,” his face clouded for a moment, “I still haven’t
paid them back for Wendy.”

“Oh,” I nodded. “I see.” I smiled, “It is
good to see a familiar face though.”

“Dave, Raj,” Aruba nodded walking into the
room with Captain Johnson who walked over to the podium. I called
the room to attention, then we relaxed as he put us at ease and
started to call the plans for tomorrow’s drop up on the board.

“You know her?” I asked Dave quietly as I
settled into the seat next to him.

“Of course,” he grinned, “Who do you think
convinced her that you were worth saving?”

I gave him a light elbow jab, “I don’t think
saving me is what she has in mind.” I growled at him softly.

“That’s how you know I’m your friend,” he
snickered.

The drop ships were somewhat crowded when we
finally launched, twenty four was pushing the limit on what they
were intended to carry, but Captain Johnson, (Falcon Block's
commander) wanted us as unfragmented as possible when we started
out. We were strung out in deploy lines of six and were being
dropped at five hundred feet and point nine mach. We would be on
the ground in twenty seconds.

I was curled up in a ball on the deck, my
back to the hatch with the drogue chute in my hand. As soon as the
light by my feet lit, I tossed it and was sucked out into the
slipstream. I spread eagle as soon as I was clear, to try and slow
down as much as possible. I felt the jerks as each of the rest of
my squad were pulled out, then my main chute opened and I was
slammed hard against my harness. I could barely see the others of
my squad through the night's darkness.