Chapter Eighty: Results

Chapter Eighty: Results

Kentares IV, Draconis March, Federated Suns, September 28th, 3017

This was always the part that I hated. The burial of people who were friends, those who had been with me for over a decade at this point. In this case, there were no bodies to be buried. The nuke they had intercepted had destroyed their dropship, and vaporized the people on board.

We had a closed casket funeral, and while this gunship crew didn't have much biological family, they did have a massive non biological family. Every single member of the Kentares Guard and Marksman who weren't on duty had turned up for the funeral. And the plot of land we had set aside for the tombs of our fallen brothers and sisters was filled to the brim. Hundreds of us, all in uniform and ready to give one last salute to the ones who had sacrificed their all.

There was an eerie calm as we lowered the first of the empty caskets down into its hole. The silence filled the air, and yet, it wasn't an oppressive silence, it was calm, almost accepting. Then the silence was broken as the assembled fireteams began their 21 gun salute. We had cloned old WW2 rifles specifically for this detail, so that we could maintain the tradition in the best way possible.

We did this for every single crew member of the Sting gunship Archon's favor. And then again for those who had given their lives in the taking of both Luyten and Odessa. We wanted the families of our people to know just how valued they were. And then the Marksman would be paying the families the same base salary that our men and women had during life. While we couldn't replace the people, we could honor them and their families to the best of our ability and means to do so.

September 29th, 3017

"Mr. Soto," I greeted the father of the pilot of the Archon's Favor. "The Archon awarded the Commonwealth Medal of Honor with a Diamond cluster to each of the members of the gunship." I handed him the assorted Awards." I gave a heavy sigh. "I'm deeply sorry for your loss Mr. Soto."

The older man just stood there gripping the awards and flags silently, and some tears dripped from his eyes. Setting them to the side, he shook my hand firmly and looked me in the eye. "Thank you." He said after a moment. "She was worried that she would never be able to fly again…." He wept slightly. "But you gave her that chance again, thank you."

"I just wish she were here to thank me herself." I told the man. "I'm glad to have served as her commanding officer."

After he had dried his tears and said goodbye, it was time to move onto the next family. I hated this part of the job, and I didn't do it for everyone under my command, but those who had been with me from the onset of the Marksman… Those people had earned me personally doing this.

"You good sir?" Mathis asked me as he opened the door to the armored SUV I was using.

"Yeah," I said after a minute. "I just forget how hard this part is."

"I think we all do." Mathis replied after a minute or so. "We get so caught up in the current mission and what is happening in front of us that we forget the hard things, the endless waiting, the things that make our way of life difficult." He sighed. "But then there's the good things that come afterwards too." He smiled, "Like the joy of a successful mission, or celebrating the lives that we were able to save or make better."

"Is that what makes you keep going?" I asked the slightly younger man.

"No sir." He grinned. "What keeps me going is the fun of keeping you out of trouble." He chuckled a bit. "You forget sir, I love my job, and I'll keep doing it until I am no longer physically capable of it."

September 30th, 3017

The fireplace in the main living room of the mansion crackled as I held David in a rocking chair. It was night time, and we had finally finished with all of the funerals and personal condolences. David was asleep on my chest, and I was content. The only thing missing from this moment was Natasha. And I was certain that she'd be coming home soon.

"Sometimes I forget that I'm not from around here." I told David as I moved to put him in his bed. "Because it feels like I've been here my whole life half the time." I smiled softly, stroking his back as he shifted around on his bed before settling down and snoring softly.

Moving to the office adjacent to the living room, I opened my lock box and withdrew my Iphone. I had long since backed up all of the data I had saved on there years ago, but I hadn't given the device to anyone for reverse engineering or anything like that yet. But considering that we were on a potential time crunch involving the Clans, I decided that now was probably the correct time to hand the device over to my R&D department.

The Triad, Tharkad, September 25th, 3017

"What was the damage Nondi?" Katrina asked her sister once they had settled down in her office.

"One of the Comstar built Yardships is going to need to be repaired before it's put into service." She started, "The actual orbital facility and Yards were captured relatively intact minus some attempted sabotage." Nondi consulted her notes. "They weren't working on any full Warships or squadrons in the yard currently aside from repairing two Newgrange yardships that were in different stages of repairs." She paused. "One of them had modifications being made to it, seemingly some sort of Mass accelerator or something." She scoffed. "We're going to be getting those Yardhips repaired and back into working condition."

"Good." Katrina said in response. "We're going to be working our fleets out of mothballs now that we've got a few yards we can use to maintain them."

"Katrina." Nondi said after a minute. "I personally owe the Marksman a debt, if that Gunship hadn't intercepted the nukes, I would be dead, along with the entirety of the 9th Hesperus Guards."

"I made an offer." Katrina said sadly. "I did work with them for a little while after all." She sighed. "But Paige refused, saying "We take care of our own.""

"I'm going to be paying the families of the Gunship crew a visit regardless." Nondi told her sister. "You can call it a vacation or whatever you want, but I need to thank them on a personal level."

"Take Melissa and Elsa with you." Katrina said. "They love visiting Uncle Mark after all."