I didn’t waste any time diving for cover.
Rolling to my feet I noticed the inner door had been closed and was bulging slightly from the percussion of the AP grenades. Looking down I was surprised to note Rivera’s nametag had been placed in my hand.
While I put it in my pocket I looked around and started barking orders to the others. The room we were in contained pressure suits and a surface air lock. Most of the women were already putting on the pressure suits, or helping others get them on. Petty Officer Second Class Baldwin tossed me a zero-pressure adapter for my weapon and snapped one to her weapon without even watching what she was doing. However I wasn’t surprised at her ability because her service record showed that she held the rank of "War Master" in a semi-military organization know as the Blue Star Legion.
With the stress of battle and the various wounds I was enduring I hadn’t noticed as quickly as I usually do that something in the room was wrong. Then it hit me…my eyes had cataloged the room when I had entered and stored the information for processing when I had a spare second. The second caught up with me before I realized that we had two less pressure suits than we had warm bodies. Petty Officer Baldwin hadn’t missed the count and was handing me her nametag and unit patch as I started to look up. I could see from her expression that this decision was not subject to discussion, even if there was time to argue it. Which there wasn’t. The woman with the hard eyes handed me a ring and a lock of her hair. Giving me an evil grin, she hefted her weapon to make her point. This was their show and I was to get the others out.
In the airlock I started handing out extra air bottles to each on of the women and giving instructions on how to use their suit. When the light indicated zero pressure, we went out. I got us oriented and headed for the nearest friendly pressure on foot. I had been planning on stealing a ship or transport of some kind but there was nothing available. I figure the bad guys took off with them before we escaped.
Some of the women started to lag behind so I tied them together with a length of line I acquired from the airlock. Single file in pairs with belts tied together and a line running down the center. Only a couple of these women had worn or used a pressure suit before so going was slow. I setup a rear guard and kept things moving. Pacing up and down the line I managed to keep then at a regular speed without giving them a chance to get lost. The lead woman in line was one of the ones who had zero-pressure experience so I gave her a compass heading and told her to get to it. Almost half of them died due to suit failure in route and we left them on the trail. I salvage their extra air bottles and passed them around.
It took three hours of hard marching and me pushing them every step of the way, but those that made it back to friendly pressure had earned their freedom. Each one marched into that friendly airlock with her head held high. Spirit and self-respect restored.
Epilogue
Some final notes here. The bad guys who lived long enough to be tried and convicted all ended up on the penal colony outpost on Neptune or the thorium mines on Venus. The ones who were sent to Venus died of mining accidents within the first six weeks. Somehow the ones sent to Neptune managed to survive for several years, but each one suffered extreme mental trauma from the various abuses of their fellow prisoners. Only one ever made it off Neptune, and he spent the rest of his life in the isolation ward of a lunar mental hospital. He was unable to be in a room with more than one other person at a time without going into convulsions. Otherwise he just would lay curled up in a corner catatonic.
The Captain hasn’t failed me, nor any other field operative, ever. I found out later that the compounds Anti-Aircraft systems were the best available. They took out the number-two assault shuttle on approach and knocked the number one shuttle out of the sky ten clicks from the compound. The Captain lost his left arm and left leg in the crash and quick action by our Zero-Pressure medic was all that kept him alive.
All told, 28 SEALS bought the farm or a small piece it in those two shuttles. Four full boat crews. And I had been whining about a couple hundred bad guys and no strike team. My priorities obviously needed re-alignment.
Capt. Dick was removed from field command due to his injuries and placed in a teaching position. He taught unarmed combat and advanced leadership. On the average his students ended up either in command or part of the senior staff of whichever unit they went to. Capt. Dick also re-wrote the SEALS basic training course, making it even more brutal and grueling than ever before. He also re-designed the selection process, raising the minimum standards for entry. That combined with his rework of the training schedule increased the failure rate from 60% to 75%, but those who made it through were tougher and meaner than any that went before them. Service command wanted us to lower our standards, but the SEALS Commanding Admiral stated point blank. "’The more you sweat in training, the less you bleed in battle.’ SEALS do the impossible. It is in our charter. In fact when we graduate from SEALS training, we exit the base through a gate that has the order: ‘GO DO THE IMPOSSIBLE’ over it. Only graduated SEALS are allowed to use that gate. The service expects the best of us, and we give it." It turns out the Admiral was a former student of Capt. Dick.
Historical note: Captain Colleen Campbell is a direct descendant of Colonel Colin Campbell of the British Highland Regiment. She is the 15th member of her line to hold a rank equivalent to full Colonel in a combat regiment and the 12th to die in action. The members of her line have racked up more combat honors than any other military family in history. Captain Colleen Campbell is also the only officer in the history of the Federal Service to receive three Starburst’s, for heroism in action. (A medal equal to the Victoria Cross (pre-Federation Great Britain) or the Medal of Honor (pre-Federation United States.)) Captain Campbell’s Claymore is now permanently mounted in memorial hall and all persons entering must come to full attention and salute the sword.
Chief Petty Officer Legendre, had never been awarded a citation for any combat action, she refused to accept them. It turns out she had been offered every award for valor at one time or another in her career and had refused them. Her service record show that she has no award, and has a Special Addendum Page noting each award she has refused. Last award on the list is; Starburst: Posthumous.
Senior First Class Petty Officer Rivera had more combat missions than any other member of our service, and had been combat wounded while saving the life of her teammates more times than any five members of our service combined. She died in action saving me.
Petty Officer Second Class Baldwin held the rank of "War Master" in a semi-military organization known as the Blue Star Legion. A War Master has mastered the use of every modern weapon plus every edged weapon, blunt weapon, hurled weapon, and the soft weapons of the boardroom/political coatroom. A War Master has been educated to the level of PhD in at least four different educational disciplines, speaks seven languages and holds a master rating in Ko-ryu. (Ko-ryu is a martial art that was developed by a group of martial artists, scientists, and medical doctors. No one system of martial arts has ever combined so much). I personally only held a 6th black belt in Ko-ryu and didn’t expect to reach Master until I was in my eighties, assuming I lived that long.
When the (backup) strike team made it’s hit, they found almost fifty bodies in front of the barricade the two who stayed behind erected, and another twelve dead from wounds atributed to hand-to-hand combat behind the barricade. Forensic study of the scene showed that both women had died in action and had gone down fighting. Neither woman lived long enough to suffer further indignities.
Genetic analyst of the lock of hair identified the woman as Princess Xong Yun Li, third in line to the Jade Throne, and first daughter of His Imperial Majesty Xo Lon Yin, ruler of Venus. My team received a Venus Imperial Charter for giving his daughter a chance to die fighting. Xong Yun Li’s name was placed in memorial hall, and she was giving the honorary rank (posthumous) of Petty Officer Thrid Class. They both died saving others.
Most people would call my mission a failure, among SEALS the view is different, We didn’t get everyone out alive, but we did go in and make the bad guys pay cash (in blood) for every life the mission cost. All four of the captured SEALS died fighting, and they died protecting others. No one could have asked for a better death.
Them money? Well, I guess you could say that sometimes a few broken ribs pay big. As for what I did with it, that is a story for another day.
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