Tailspin, page 20
I drank some more water. The cool liquid hit my stomach like lead, but I listened.
“No matter how well trained you are, how hard you study, or what you do, you’ll never forget your first loss. It doesn’t matter if it’s in an operating room or out in the field.”
“You’ve seen a lot of death?” I asked.
“More than I’d care to admit. My first was in training too. Some of the others on the Bears’ team made it to actual deployment before losing someone. But not one of us hasn’t lost someone we just met or someone we cared for. My first was a regular kid like me. Full of the hopes of making a difference, of learning to save lives, many lives, he always said. He was going to be the hottest medic on the helo teams, and he was. He picked up everything faster than anyone else, trained harder, and worked harder. I looked up to him with every cell in my body. I wanted to be like him, but I didn’t have his determination yet.”
“How’d he die?” I asked. I knew it was coming, but I still wanted to say it. Joe finally let go of my hand; it already felt better. Bruised, but better.
“It was a simple farm mission,” he said. “We were out helping see to a local crop infestation of vota. They’re little insects which eat our food, fast. We were just crop-dusting, that was it. Nothing heavy.”
“But something happened?”
“Yes, the farmer called in an attack on the west side. Croba were muscling in from one of the forests. They were another insect, but these were much bigger. We were the only ones in the vicinity with weapons that would penetrate their chitin. We landed, were given orders, and went in. At first, things went our way. We fought back, and we hit them hard. It turned in the blink of an eye, and the area was overrun. The croba brought in older, larger packs. We started to struggle and had no choice but to fall back.”
This was hard for him to talk about. He wrung his hands together, couldn’t focus, and his heart rate doubled. I could see it as the veins in his shaved head pulsed.
“Several croba broke through the defenses at the farm’s perimeter, and they made straight for us. They hit us fast and hard. My gun jammed. Both of the ones on either side of me hit it, but this one wasn’t going down. When it came in for me, its mandibles and jaw snapping, I knew it would take my head off. Nex came in at it with his knife just as it went for me. He stabbed it in the eye, and sure enough, it turned from me. But one of its stick-like, sharp claws got him in the chest. The others in the team hit it at close range, and it went down with Nex. We tried everything to get that thing off him, but any way we tried, the claw ripped him to shreds on the inside with its serrated edges. That thing went in but couldn’t come out. He was bleeding badly, so badly. It was more arteries than we could possibly fix.”
“I’m sorry,” I said.
“I held his hand as he died while the others racked up their guns and kept the rest of us alive. His last words to me were: Make that difference, Joe. Promise me. Work your fucking ass off and you make that difference.
“I leaned into him, and I promised him I would. I promised him I would because he already had. He’d made that difference in me. He’d made me want to be the best I ever could be. I didn’t want to be by his side; I wanted to outshine him. I’d never expected he wouldn’t get to do what he loved more than anything in the world.”
“But you are?” I asked. “You’re doing everything you love, is that it?”
“Not always,” he said. “Kuri had severe injuries. Not only that, but the skellies have a poison in their talons. He was fighting a battle that I don’t think anyone could fight, even with one scratch, let alone four.”
“He knew that,” I said. “He knew it the moment he saw his wounds.”
“Yes,” Joe said, and he faltered. “What were his last words?”
He looked at me then, and there was a sort of connection between us. “He told me to give the CO everything I had on the skellies, then he told me it wasn’t my fault, and that…” I choked up. “That whatever happened, I wouldn’t let it affect my future.” Tears dripped off my cheek, and I wiped them away. “Then he told me to tell his wife he loved her.”
Those words drifted between us, and we stayed silent for a while. “I’m not sure they’d allow someone not family to attend his funeral. I’ll do some checks and see if we can go.” Joe frowned.
“Not even the Bears, you mean.”
“Yeah. They might just want it to be family, out of respect to him and the life he gave us.” He stumbled a bit. “Rusty, we all trained under him. This isn’t just a normal death. This is going to hit this base hard. Really hard. Almost every single pilot here trained under him.”
When that sunk in, all of it, I leaned over and vomited up the water and the last bit of food I’d had in my stomach.
“CO’s asking for us.” Trevor’s voice drifted to me. “Is he okay?”
“He will be,” Joe said. “We’ll be in in a minute. Wait.”
“Of course, we go in together,” Trevor said.
Joe waited for me, and they waited for me, everyone waited on me.
It was too much, all of it was too much.
Then I felt something else, and E’toro’s memory drifted my way. The envelope that Jim had given me. “I need my jacket, my bag.”
“Sure.” Joe added, “We put it in our locker room, just on the side bench.”
I moved to go back to the building and into the locker room. Joe followed me.
I found my bag, opened the front zipper, and took out the envelope. Two words were written in a slippery scrawl I could only just make out. Rock Bottom.
I slipped my clean jacket on, straightened up, and put the envelope in my pocket. I was not at rock bottom.
Not at all.
23
I left the building and faced Joe. “Ready.”
I’d never been through a debrief before, nor anything this serious. But this was as serious as it got; one of their own had lost his life. I stood between Casey and Trevor, trying my best to not shake.
“We’re going in with you,” Casey said. “The rest of the team will give their accounts after.”
“He wants to listen to me first?”
“He”—they exchanged glances—”they will want to listen to you. This is as high up as an investigation goes.”
“You were on the ground with the commander,” Trevor said. “They’ll have all the stats and the video feeds, and they’ll have watched it all. Just tell the truth in your words. That’s all they want to hear.”
They. How many of them? “Okay,” I said, rubbing my hands together, the bruised knuckles already showing signs of healing.
Trevor opened the door, and I followed Casey as we left the rest of the team in the large room behind us. This room was smaller, with two sets of chairs, and the first set was occupied.
I only knew the one man on the left. Lieutenant General Michaels. Here, he was in a different uniform, darker. No, not just darker, there were no epaulettes or markings to his rank. Like he’d been dragged from wherever he had been to be here. Where had he been? Out in the field? Unknown and undercover?
They all stood, and he nodded at me. Michaels waved to his left. “This is Major General Roberts, Colonel Maitof, Lieutenant Colonel O’Conner, and Senior First Lieutenant Marx.” He turned to them. “Our newest recruit, Airman Ruslan Korolyov.”
I knew the name Marx, but I couldn’t think why. I promised myself I’d find out. But knew I’d soon forget too. This was too much, far too much. “I—” I fumbled for anything I wanted to say or do, and in the end, I nodded at them. Was Major General Roberts the one who had been in my final hand surgery with Michaels?
“Please sit, airman,” the Major General said with almost a smile. No, the voice wasn’t the same. He didn’t have that gruff edge to him. He almost squeaked. He also had an accent, a lilt to his words.
I sat in the middle seat, with Casey and Trevor on either side.
Major General Roberts focused in on me, and I squirmed under that scrutiny. “We understand you’ve no military training at all. So, we’ll skip all the usual talk. We’re just asking you to tell us what happened, from start to finish, in your own words.”
“Sir,” I said, and my voice trembled. I closed my eyes and sucked in a breath. Steadying myself some. “I’m sorry. I couldn’t do anything else for him. I really am.”
“Breathe, Rusty,” Casey said. “You can do this.”
“Thank you,” Colonel Maitof said, and I noted the puffy redness in her eyes. She’d been crying. That stung.
The three top people in this room, probably on this whole base, were just people, like me. “You did everything you possibly could under intense pressure and with little instruction. The circumstances left you with no options. We just need to hear your words for the record. There’s no blame and no consequences here. Just us.”
I took in a breath and focused. They were just people, and they needed to hear what I had to say, what we had witnessed.
So, steadily, I replayed our moments and our words, what we talked about and what I thought at the time.
Every single second I had been through, I talked through it.
I never realized the time that was passing around me. I took them through my whole experience.
When it came down to landing at the base and talking through the last minutes I was with him, I started shaking. Casey put her hand on my arm, and I caught her eyes with mine which steadied my breathing again.
I talked through those last moments, the behavior of the skellies and the thoughts Kuri had before the helo landed. They never interrupted; they only listened.
I finished with nothing left to give and tears streaming down my face. I noted Colonel Maitof and Marx wiping their eyes. Maitof softly blew her nose, while Major General Roberts leaned into her and whispered. The general nodded, returned his whisper, and I had to look away.
“Would you go through the rest of the mission? The escort to the hospital for us as well, please,” Lieutenant General Michaels added, his own voice thick with emotion.
I coughed, and then I spoke about what happened in the aftermath and how I worked the crosshairs of the helo. Both Major General Roberts and Colonel Maitof exchanged more than a few looks with each other, but again, they never interrupted me.
When I finished this time, Lieutenant General Michaels stood and moved in front of me. “Please,” he said. I was being dismissed.
I walked with him to the door, and he reached out to stop me. “I know it was hard,” he said. “Thank you. I will talk to you again soon. Hang in there.”
I left the room in a bit of a daze, the fuzziness of my head spreading through my body. Joe saw me at the door. “You did great. Sit with the others. We’ll be out soon.”
Joe went in, and I went and sat with the others, listened to their talk, and waited.
It was quite some time before Casey came out and, a little while later, Joe. Trevor was in there for quite a while on his own. Then he came out, and the rest of the team went in.
Casey went to him, wrapping him in her arms and holding on tight. I felt heat flush my cheeks. This was their private moment.
Lights caught my attention at the window, and I stared out of those for a while.
A moment later, Casey sat next to me. “You doing okay?” she asked
“Yeah,” I replied, taking in her red eyes, her blotchy face. “What will they do?”
“Usually,” Trevor said and stood with us, “they make joint decisions. Then they will either call us back in or we’ll hear something tomorrow. I think this will be a tomorrow job. They’ll probably talk most of the night.”
“They’ve a lot to take in.”
“Yes, they have,” Casey said.
“The colonel’s been crying,” I added.
“Yes,” Casey replied, her voice low. “We all have. There will be a lot more tears tonight, and tomorrow Colonel Maitof will stand up with Major General Roberts and they will address the base.”
“Everyone will hate me,” I said, and regretted it the moment the words were out of my mouth. “They’ll all know my name as the one who couldn’t save him.”
“No,” Trevor said, his voice so stern I looked up at him. “Not at all. They will know your name, but they won’t hold you hostage by it.”
“I hope so.”
“We’re heading to the bar,” Trevor then said. “The others won’t mind. We’ll get you something else to eat and a few drinks. You’ll need to sleep tonight and be fully alert and with it for tomorrow. We’d like you to stand with us when Major General Roberts delivers the news.”
Stand with them? That meant a lot to both them and me. “I will,” I said, the thought of standing with them terrifying. “If you want me there, I will be.”
“We want you with us,” Casey said.
“Protection?” I asked.
“Everyone will see you, yes, they’ll also know you stood with us. We will protect you, like we would any of our youth.”
We left the room and walked out across the base. It was a really long walk.
“We can get the last bus up?” Trevor said to Casey.
“I’d rather walk,” she replied, leaning on his shoulder.
He tugged her tighter and looked at me. “You okay walking?”
“Yeah, this is amazing to see, all of it.”
The night was setting in, and the lights around the area were lit up in wonderful colors. The ocean breeze drifted in, and it was wonderfully warm and salty. After walking for a bit, I realized I was sweating, so I took my jacket off and carried it.
The high-rise buildings dropped a few stories; there were no houses here, but I noticed where we were heading.
Bar?
The bar. Holy shit, we walked up to a large circular area, with watery rivers running around the outside and in through different sections, crisscrossing the whole area over. It was the only way Techean, and other species could drink together without them being out of water, or us in it. It meant some very winding pathways between all the tabled areas. Spaghetti junction anyone? Then I saw couples, men in uniform with women beside them, some laughing and others just chatting. Alongside them in raised waterways were Techean.
I tried not to stare as we walked past a couple enjoying cocktails; the man’s chest wasn’t covered, his skin a green and yellow, with obvious metal tech that traced in lines down his abs towards…damn, I couldn’t see because of the water.
He smiled at me as our eyes met. He had visible ocular mods, and they twinkled with intelligence and tech. A metal construct snaked around his eyes, jaw line, and ear. Delicate and detailed, it was high-end tech, possibly even tier four. His lady friend giggled at my staring, and I blushed before muttering, “Sorry.”
“Never met anyone outside Artem’s inner city, have you?” Trevor asked.
“No,” I said, feeling heat flush my cheeks.
“You never noticed Chief Kuri wasn’t human, did you?” Casey asked.
“No.” I shook my head and looked at Casey till she answered.
“He was part elf.”
Part elf? Damn, I had no clue. I needed to pay more attention. So much more attention.
Approaching the bar, there were quite a few stares my way from other people. “Most of Sector Two comes here,” Casey said. “There are four sectors, and we’re split with four wonderful servers.”
“This is Anders,” Trevor said. “Anders, one of our newest recruits, Ruslan. He’s here with us for tonight. Special consideration his way, please.”
Anders swam towards me. He was so graceful, the water didn’t even move around him. His shimmering white hair, eyebrows, and silvery metallic plaited scales ran in wonderful patterns over his torso. I got a fantastic view of his tail in the glass window before me.
“My pleasure to meet you,” he said, and he actually did a small turn for me. “My clan and yours work extremely well together. It’s an honor to have you aboard.”
Clan? That sounded odd. “Thanks. Your—your tech—your scales aren’t like the others?” I asked before thinking.
“Oh, I like him.” Anders chuckled, but I wasn’t sure it was a real laugh. It seemed odd. “I bet you say that to all the ladies, too, right?”
I felt my cheeks heat immediately, and Casey laughed with him.
“Anders is quite the charmer. If you ever get permission to check out his stats, he puts all his points into MP. Though I don’t think he needs any; he’s already off the scale.”
“Not just MP,” he winked at her, flexing his muscled torso. His scales glinted in the beautiful lighting of the bar. “Here is a quick flash for you!”
Identification: Anders ???
Species: Techean
Bonus: Unknown!
Mod Capacity: 24 *with mods* 94
Mod Capacity in Use: 85
Stat
Current Points
Description
Mods
Quality
Dexterity
13 = *23*
Governs agility and movement.
R&L Arm Mod: 5
Cost: 10
(+TOU 10)
R Hand Mod: 5
Cost 5
(+DEX 10)
Elite
Mental Power
12 = *62*
Governs swiftness and fortitude of the mind.
Brain Mod: 5
Cost: 5
(+TOU 5)
Elite
Perception
12 = *32*
Governs senses and connection to surroundings.
RI Mod: Class 5
Cost: 5
(+ to RI PER 10)
Elite
Eye Mod R: 5
Cost: 5
(+ to R Eye PER 10)
Elite
Strength
11 = *21*
Governs physical strength and damage dealt.
Tail Extremity: 5 *x2*
Cost: 10
(+MP 10)
Artisan
Toughness
