Independent Salvage Ship “The Liquor Cabinet”, Doe Industries Spaceport, In orbit around Planet Pittsburgh
"Jose, if you want this weapons system to work your gonna have to rip it all out. The couplers are shot, the capacitors may as well be non existent and don't get me started on the collection manifolds." Jorzza said to Josie. She passed him a glass of scotch with two ice cubes in it. "Jor when are you gonna tell me what happened" Josie asked indicating towards Jorzza’s prosthetic arm. Jorzza took a deep drink of the scotch and savored the taste. He rubbed the area where him and the prosthetic arm joined up. "Jorzza your gonna have to tell me at some point." Josie pressed. Jorzza looked at Josie. "It was a command screw up, that's what" Jorzza said finally. Josie looked puzzled. Jorzza decided to continue. "I was aboard my bomber. Myself and a wing of bombers were doing harassment ops in New Hampshire against the Rheinland Military. We were told there would be one possible two cruisers. Instead we get an entire battle group, escorts and all. I reported the new forces and command in their divine wisdom decided four bombers would be enough to kill a battleship, three cruisers and ten gunships, not to mention the droves of fighters escorting."
Josie opened her mouth in shock "They did not.......Command....they did?" Josie said shocked. The two of them were silent for a moment. "They sent us in. No backup. It was a massacre" Jorzza said finally. "I lost 2 pilots in the first minute, myself and Rosco had to eject. We were picked up by the Rheinies. Lets just say they were not a well mannered host. Things got interesting........." RNC-Wunderbar, Transiting back to Hamburg, Jumping out of New Hampshire.
"Commander Clark, J. H. Serial Number 397051942." Jorzza said to the Rheinland Interrogator. "You will answer the question i ask you 'commander' otherwise you will die a slow painful death." the interrogator said leaning close to Jorzza's face. Jorzza headbutted the man and spoke "Commander Clark, J. H. Serial Number 397051942." "You SWINE!" the interrogator replied punching Jorzza in the face. "Coward, hows about you undo these straps. Lets see what happens." Jorzza yelled back.
The interrogator walked out the room and ordered the guards to do something. The last thing Jorzza saw was the butts of two rifles before he was knocked out. Rheinland Military Prisoner Temporary Holding Facility, Planet Hamburg, Rheinland Space
"Wake up damn it."
"Marine! On your feet!"
Jorzza's head snapped to the side, he opened his eyes just as fast. Everything looked fuzzy for him. He looked around as his eyes focused. He was in a jail cell. Jorzza looked around and he saw he was not the only person in here. "You're awake huh marine" a male voice said behind Jorzza. He turned around and looked at the person. The man looked LSF. "You LSF?" Jorzza asked. "I suppose to people like us we can tell our service pretty easily." the man replied "Commander Jorzza Clark, Primary Fleet" Jorzza spoke offering his hand. "Agent Stephen Jones. I thought you were a marine but your a squid like that guy" Stephen said cocking his head. Jorzza looked and saw Rosco laying in the corner. He rushed to his side and checked his pulse. "Damn hes barely alive" Jorzza said. "Im Primary Fleet but i'm also a Marine." "Thats explains a bit. So how did you wind up in this hell hole?" Stephen asked. "Command screw up, you?" Jorzza asked "I screwed up. So what's the plan for the escape?" Stephen continued. Jorzza stopped for a moment then checked his dog tags. Years ago he had one of them turned it a switch blade while still looking like a normal dog tag. He still had that dog tag. “Stephen, check the door” Jorzza said flipping open the knife. Stephen walked over to the door, looked around for a second then held up two fingers, two guard, two weapons to deal with but there was three of them. Even if Rosco was barely alive. Jorzza snuck over to the door and indicated to Stephen to cause a distraction. “Hey we need some help in here! This guy is bleeding out.!” Stephen yelled. A moment later a guard walked through the door. Jorzza sneaks right up to the guard and snaps the guards neck from behind. The other guard seeing that begins to level his rifle at Jorzza, but Jorzza reels around and throws his dog tag knife at the guard and it gets lodged in the guards throat. The guard tries to scream out but couldn't. Stephen rushed over to police the first guards weapons while Jorzza does the same and retrieve his tags. He wipes his tags down and puts them back on his neck. “I got four magazines for this laser rifle, two laser pistol mags for the side arms, What do you have Stephen?” Jorzza asked “Same here except the rifle is a slug thrower. Remind me not to be on the wrong side of you” Stephen replied. Jorzza walked over to Rosco who still lay there but now was trying to speak. Jorzza tried to make out what he was saying but it was hard to tell.
“I think hes been pumped full of some drug” Jorzza said indicating to Stephen to check the hallway and move the bodies. Jorzza checked Rosco’s pupils and heart rate. his eyes had green creeping in towards the pupils “Oh my god those bastards, They pumped him full of Lymphometroedicide. BASTARDS! soon the liquid in his eyes are going to become acidic, then his blood and the rest of the fluids in him. Rosco im so sorry......” Jorzza said shocked, he looked into Rosco’s eyes and something told him that Rosco wanted to die. to stop the pain. “Rosco...... forgive me” Jorzza said slowly and bringing a pistol to Rosco’s left temple. Jorzza breathed in then pulled the trigger. “Im sorry Rosco......I know it isnt much solace but i saved you from one of the most painful ways to die.” Jorzza said closing Rosco’s eyelids and taking his dog tags. Stephen stood there watching “I’m so sorry. Im he was your friend......” Stephen said quietly “We first met on the Pacifica, fighting against the Gallic. We survived 15 missions together. Damn command really screwed it up this time. A battle group doesn't slip past the scanners without them knowing. DAMN IT ALL. They give me the runaround i swear.....” Jorzza said getting up slowly. He looked at Rosco’s body one last time before walking out the room with Stephen in toe. “Lets get off this rock” Outside Rheinland Military Prisoner Temporary Holding Facility, Planet Hamburg, Rheinland Space
“How you holding up there Grunt ?” Stephen asked as they hid behind a building corner. “I’m fine, Hows about yourself?” Jorzza responded checking their six. “Surprised as hell we got out of there” Stephen replied “Its a Torture facility that uses L-P-T-C. If they are using that stuff its a classified facility. which means they don't want to raise an alarm if someone like say us escapes. Can't you figure it out for yourself mister LSF? We need to get into contact with the LSF team they keep near the spaceport.” Jorzza said. Stephen looked at Jorzza for a moment. “You're on that team weren't you?” “We were discovered. I screwed up. I got tracked back to the hideout. We were wiped out. I got captured when they fired a Cannonball into the place, I got trapped by the debris. They left me alive but killed the others. Sick freaks ain't they?” Stephen said. “We should keep moving”
They ran into a building and ran up the many flights of stairs and got off on the roof. “What are we doing up here? Making a last stand?” Stephen asked. Jorzza walked up to the edge and threw his rifle onto the building that lay a few meters across and down. “We are gonna jump across. And keep doing that until we get to the spaceport where we will steal a civilian craft and make a break for the embargo fleet.” Jorzza summarized. “Theres gotta be a hundred capital ships between there and here, They are all hostile.” Stephen exclaimed. Jorzza points towards two Roc class civilian bombers coming in for landing. “They should have some boom to them. Once we get past the blockade we broadcast a lawful code and our forces won't shoot at us. Now lets get to jumping” Jorzza said as he walked towards one end of the roof then sprinting towards the other end and jumps at the last moment. he lands on the other building in a roll. Stephen throws Jorzza his rifle and jogs to the other end of the roof. He runs towards Jorzza and jumps at the end of the roof and lands just to the side of him. Stephen keels over and tries to grab his breath. “Your crazy......seriously you're insane......not sure what’s worse......them.....or...you.” Stephen said panting. Jorzza chuckled as he checked the ground below them. “If i'm insane then i know about four dozen other grunts that are even more crazy and so far away from sanity they make me look like......well....a sane person.” Jorzza replied walking back over and getting ready for the next jump. Stephen joined him and they both in unison jumped to the next building, they continued like this for half a mile until they reached a building that was directly across from the Spaceport. They slung their rifles across a large cable and used the downward angle of the cable to guide them down on top of the roof of the Spaceport. They walked over to open roof that was situated above the landing pad, they looked over the edge and saw the five squads of Rheinland Military personnel trying to lock down the spaceport as discreetly as possible. If they jumped it would be a two story fall, it would hurt. “Okay bad news and bad news. There's about fifty of them around and its long way down. I say we start shooting the guards. We have a nice vantage point from up here. the suns to the back of us and we can see all of them.” Jorzza suggested “Well if there's that many down there, there will most likely be half a dozen at the doors so i guess your idea seems sound. You go down first, i'll cover you.” Stephen said. Jorzza nodded and shouldered his rifle and set the cross hairs on what looked like a squad leader. He switched off the safety and breathed in. Jorzza exhaled and fired the trigger at the same time. his round flew steady and hit the target in the head and a mist of blood covered the two Rheinland soldiers. Stephen opened fire while Jorzza ran around to an area that wasn't as high and climbed down as quickly as possible as shots pinged away near him. He ran to the nearest cover and started firing. Stephen quickly followed suit joining Jorzza. They made a break for two empty Roc bombers. Jorzza stopped and covered Stephen as he began got into one of the fighters and started up its engines. Suddenly Jorzza saw a fragmentation grenade fly toward the fighter Stephens captured fighter and land in the cockpit. He wasn't sure if it was him yelling or the sound of the explosion as the grenade detonated, killing Stephen instantly and ripping a hole in the bombers high output reactor which exploded the next moment sending a shock wave that covered the entirety of the spaceport and and sent shrapnel all over the place, shards of metal flew into Jorzza right leg, gut and a large piece into his right arm. Sending him down. Jorzza tried to move his right arm but couldn't, he looked and saw a large piece had lodged itself deep into his upper arm. Jorzza lay back and thought ‘Well i tried’ He looked up and saw a streak in the sky. It was too large to be a orbital drop pod, even from a C5 ‘Bison’ class Atmospheric Drop container. Then it dawned on him, It wasn't a cargo pod from a Bison, it was a Bison. He watched the Bison fire its forward thrusters as the Rheinland Military personnel surrounded him. The guards didn't know the hell that was about to rain from above. Jorzza saw 14 shimmers of light land on the edges of the open roof, then 14 well placed round hit the soldiers covering him in a mist. The shimmers of light deactivated their stealth systems and activated their jump jets and landed beside him. Jorzza saw the squad emblem painted onto the shoulder piece of their armor, The 1412th Lightning Shock Jumpers, A squad based of the [LN]-LLS-Arleigh Burke, One of the ships Jorzza commanded. Help. The Arleigh Burke came to a halt just above the Spaceport blocking out the sun and the view of the sky. One of the the main door on the port side of one of its cargo containers opened and three atmospheric dropships flew out and angled themselves towards the fighting. Jorzza rolled onto his belly and pulled out his sidearm and helped the Marines suppress the area. One of the marines crouched down next to Jorzza. “Just hang on sir.....i mean Clark. Evac will be here in thirty seconds.” The marine said as he pulled out compact stretcher. He put it down and pressed the button and it sprung open. Jorzza rolled over onto the stretcher while firing. He could see the Bison again now and he saw the Drop ships angle their engines towards the ground as they deployed their landing gear and landed. More marines spewed out from the drop ships and two marines picked up the stretcher Jorzza was on. He stopped shooting and looked around. The Marines were pulling out aboard the drop ships. None of the Marines were injured or killed. The stretcher was put down inside one of the drop ships and he felt the drop ship power up its thrusters and lift off vertically off the ground. The other drop ships followed suit and soon enough they were coming in for a hot landing towards the Arleigh Burke. Jorzza could see the Burke’s turrets firing in a suppression fire pattern. Keeping interceptors off itself and the drop ships. The Drop ships skidded to a halt in the forward cargo pod in the Bison. The container doors quickly shut and Jorzza was rushed towards the med bay. He tugged on one of the medic’s sleeves. “Not that i'm not thankful and all but how are we getting out?” Jorzza asked “I'll tell you simply, sir. The Burke has a loaned jumpdrive and its going to jump out of here and back into Liberty as soon as we break orbit and the drive is finished charging.” The Medic replied. “Did you pull anyone else out?” Jorzza continued, feeling the pain creeping in. The adrenaline of combat had worn off. “No, we didn't pull anyone else out. High Command Authority decision.” The Medic said. A million thoughts ran through Jorzza’s mind. ‘Covering up for their own mistake’ then he diverted away from the human selfish thought ‘They only pulled me out, why no one else. Was there anyone else?’ The pain in Jorzza’s arm exploded and he passed out from the pain right before the jump. Bethesda Naval Hospital, Fort Bragg, Planet Manhattan, New York System, Liberty Space.
24 Hours Later
“Commander Clark. The scans do not look good. I share the same conclusion of one Doctor Benedict, from the Arleigh Burke. The damage to your right arm is extensive. Its going to have to be amputated, as well as your lower leg. The shrapnel that was lodged in your your right leg tore up the nervous system in that region as well as the muscles. It can't hold up 10 pounds let alone a 170 marine. Your lucky we could pull all the stuff out of your gut. There's a piece of shrapnel lodged in near your heart. We will do the surgery later today. Just know that there is the chance you can die on the table but you will die if we don't remove it. We should.........." The doctor dragged on. Suddenly Josie burst through the door wearing some formal dress, tear streaming down her eyes. She rushed over to Jorzza side “Oh my god Jor...... what happened please tell me you will be okay.” Josie said quickly hugging him. A spasm pain shot through Jorzza chest as she hugged tightly. “Aaaaaaaooooooowwwww.....Josie...I’’m gonna be okay.....please remove your vice like grip so i can breathe.” Jorzza said cringing at the pain. The doctor slipped away from the room and let them two be. Josie stopped hugging Jorzza and looked blankly at him wiping the tears away from her face. Jorzza looked at what Josie was wearing “What's with the get up Jose?” Jorzza asked changing the subject. “Oh, um uhh, I was in New London when i got the call. I was in the middle of business negotiating a business deal. Dress to impress you know.” Josie said smiling weakly.
Jorzza chuckled. “I hope i didn't mess anything up for you by having you come back here.” Jorzza asked “No,no no no no no. Early negotiations. Also you know how people like you and me like to negotiate.” Josie replied. Jorzza fought through the pain of laughing. “Yes sign every document with some buckshot. I like it.” Jorzza said laughing and coughing “So Jo-Jo, when are you getting out of here?” Josie asked looking at all the bandages wrapped around Jorzza. “Well according to the Mad Men in White. i have a list of surgeries to go through. Theres some serious ones, But Josie, You need to get back to your job. i'd feel terrible if you lost your job here at my side.” Jorzza replied. Josie nodded. and lay down on Jorzza. “I'm just going to stay a while, okay? You can't stop me from doing that.” Josie said as Jorzza slowly passed out. Independent Salvage Ship “The Liquor Cabinet”, Doe Industries Spaceport, In orbit around Planet Pittsburgh
“So what are you going to do now Jo-Jo? I mean the Military was everything to you.” Josie asked “I dunno Jose, I honestly don't know. i guess this whole thing has made me fed up with Command screw ups. Good people died because of it. I think i might go travel the universe. It would be nice to visit a place where it doesn't involve me shooting or me getting shot at. But for the mean time i think i'm gonna hang around here. I’ll help you fix up this tub you call a ship” Jorzza said trying to smile. Josie hugs Jorzza and he hugs back “I don't know......”
