Chapter 357 (1/2)

TELKAN-2

One Week After the Battle for Hesstla

Brentili'ik looked at the document and sighed.

Private Kelvak, in defiance of personal danger and extensive physical injury, used his physical therapy frame and, with the help of two green mantid engineers, held the Precursor autonomous war machines at the south gate at Striker Base Boop to enable the medical evacuation of over two hundred military and civilian wounded.

Despite grave injuries, Private Kelvak fought, often alone with the exception of the Mantids 222 and 640, for nearly two hours. At the end, according to records recovered on site, Private Kelvak, with the remainder of his ad-hoc fire team, defended the landing pad against overwhelming odds. Once the last patient was evacuated Private Kelvak and his team of wounded human compatriots, despite mortal injury, continued to draw enemy fire until finally he was struck by a 52mm high velocity burst and killed.

For his valor in the face of overwhelming personal danger as well as his persistence despite mortal injury, the Telkan Marine Corps has determined that Private Kelvak's actions upheld the highest traditions and expectations of the Telkan Marine Corps, the Confederate Military Services, and the Telkan People.

It is with solemn regret that I record this.

--Signed: Admiral NGwark, Space Force, Task Force Commander, Hesstla

Another one. Hesstla had been a disaster as far as she was concerned. Out of fifteen thousand troops nearly two thousand had been killed.

She had to admit, not as dramatic and heroically as this one, many of them killed during deployment when the Task Force dropped into an ambush, but still, too many for her liking.

The fact that nearly 1/3 of the deaths were listed as ”Temporal Warfare Casualty” and some of them had apparently served aboard Space Force vessels for over sixty years before expiring of old age, just made the entire thing stranger.

Brentili'ik had spoken to Colonel Harvey, who had told her that the casualties were severe, but not unexpected for an unblooded unit facing their first deployment under fire in a surprise ambush.

She looked at the list of next of kin for Private Kelvak and nearly cried.

Two broodcarriers and four podlings nearly two years old. He had a step-mother and a step-father, as well as step siblings, but according to the records his mother, father, and siblings had all been killed during the First Telkan War.

He had been old enough to join the first class of Telkan Marines by exactly forty-two minutes when he had taken the oath.

Added was a recorded message for his next of kin.

Brentili'ik didn't want to, but she listened to it.

”When mom and dad died, when my siblings died, you made me feel like someone still loved me. I love all of you, and I'm sorry I can't come home. Podlings, take care of your broodmommies, and I love you.” played at the end.

Brentili'ik dried her tears and authorized the recording for release.

Poor kid, Brentili'ik thought. Not even a body to recover.

She tabbed the file to be printed and sent out and moved on to the next one.

Citizenship is a heavy duty, she thought to herself.

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Hesstla System

Time/Date Error In Progress

Specialist Grade-Four Thom Dunmet had been Graves Registration for several decades. The promotion point score was a tough one, but there was a high enough turnover that a being could gain rank somewhat frequently. He'd made Sergeant several times, but sooner or later he'd get drunk and get in a fight and find himself in the back of a military police car about to lose some rank.

Still, he was Graves Registration, and allowances were made.

He had to admit, this had been a rough deployment. Nagging headaches were least of it.

It was all the locals, the civvies, coming in missing the tops of their heads and their brains, that had really made it tough. The most common cause of death was 'cerebral extraction' among the civilians.

Then top it off with everyone's SUDS going on the fritz, he'd found himself checking off 'clinically deceased' less and less and 'permanently deceased' instead.

He would eject the SUDS memory cartridge and pack it up, although more and more as time went on the cartridge had error telltales blinking.

It was late, he'd switched shifts to handle night casualties after working day shift for quite some time. The morgue was dim and cool, not to mention quiet like he liked it.

The Clankers and their masters had been pushed back, giving the Terrans time to breathe and regroup. Which meant the casualties had come in thick and heavy for the last two days, leaving the morgue full of bodies.

SP4 Dunmet had finished the last autopsy, wheeling the corpse into the refrigeration unit, and had moved over to start on the paperwork. He moved over to his desk and started downloading his notes from his datapad to his console, making sure the files were loaded onto the correct casualties.

The lights flickered and Dunmet looked up, switching to a different screen.

The door slid open and black mist rolled in, pouring out of the doorway.

Dunmet moved his thumb over the icon that would summon base security.

Robed figures moved in and Dunmet heaved a sigh of relief.

Religious personnel, probably from the Chaplain's Office, he thought to himself. He went back to his paperwork, keeping one eye on the six robed figures.

They were all obviously Telkan under the robes, shuffling forward. They had black robes that seemed to shine in the dim light, matte black masks over their faces rather than the normal Telkan tan and brown, and moved slowly in a single rank of four with one to each side slowly swinging a thurible that left trails of incense smoke.

They moved up to one of the drawer doors, the lead one opening it. They pulled out the drawer, revealing a covered corpse that was only half the normal length of a Telkan. When they pulled back the sheet they revealed the ravaged body of a young male Telkan, missing below the bottom of the rib cage. The Telkan male's jaw was missing teeth, a cyber-eye was crudely jammed into an empty socket, wired led from the back of his skull, cut free a few inches from the exposed spinal column.

Dunmet watched as they stood around the dead Telkan, one holding a heavy tome marked ”The Book of Telkan” close to his chest with black gloved hands.

”This is the one we want,” one of them said, his voice low and serious.

They all nodded.

Dunmet was looking up when it happened.

The three that were not carrying items touched the dead Telkan.

There was an eruption of purplish black smoke that then sucked back in on itself.

The Telkans, including the corpse, were gone.

Dunmet hit the security icon.

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The scribe was blind, had been blind since a Precursor machine had torn out his eyes and tongue to broadcast his agony over GalNet. His delicate fingers, sensitive beyond reason after the Precursors had torn out his vestigal claws, traced over the long strip of bronze/warsteel alloy. His tools were delicate but precise as he began slowly carving another rune, a rune that burned with white fire in his mind's eye. Each tap of the hammer against the engraver made his soul sing, each curl of dark bronze metal brought the joy of vengeance to his heart.

The strip was nearly two feet long, a handspan wide, with a single column of runes engraved down the face of the inch thick metal strip.

As he finished the strip it was passed to the worker next to him, who would inlay the graven runes with molten metals that would never cool.

Around them the faint whispering could be heard.

soft podling warm podling brave podling strong one and one is two two and two is four red shape is square blue shape is round soft podling smart podling clever podling warm

None of the workers could hear the song as it was sung, they had been made deaf by the cold steel claws of the Precursors.

But they heard it in the depths of their souls.

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