Comrades in Arms Read Free Page B

of his squadmates.
    Backing deeper into the chrysalis chamber, the Deathguard worked his way in among the black casings. Rader thought their position by the door was more defensible, but then he realized that the Deathguard was making a calculated move to lure the roaches inside.
    The Deathguard turned his unreadable helmet toward Rader again, expecting him to understand. From his armored casing, he removed a thermal-impulse grenade.
    Rader’s heart froze. The cyborg had nothing to lose. Rader could have made the same calculation as the Deathguard, but he was unwilling to come to the obvious conclusion. Nevertheless, the Deathguard was going to do it.
    When all of the roach warriors charged into the chrysalis chamber and tried to corner the two remaining humans, the Deathguard lifted his grenade and depressed the activation button.
    Rader dove among the cocoon casings in an instinctive, but futile gesture. The flash of dazzling white light was the last thing he ever expected to see.
    ***
    But it wasn’t.
    The quality of light that came into focus had a harsh, sterile quality, and the surrounding brightness resolved itself into clean ceramic-plate walls—the Base’s medical center. He could hear diagnostic scanners, medical machinery, a respirator breathing for him like a gasping schoolgirl. He felt no pain … he felt nothing at all.
    Rader couldn’t move his head, only his eyes—one eye, actually—which limited his field of view. He tried to move, but could barely twitch his head … in fact, he could feel nothing but his head. The rest of his body remained numb. Maybe he’d been paralyzed. Maybe he’d lost limbs. Maybe he’d lost everything.
    A worried-looking orderly appeared in his field of view, staring down with brown, clinical eyes. Even in his condition, he didn’t consider her pretty. “You’re awake, aren’t you?” she said. “Don’t try to move. You’re not ready for that yet. We haven’t connected all the necessary pieces, still waiting for one part to be modified.” She fiddled with one of the tubes hanging at his side. “There. Give it a few seconds.”
    Tranquilizers flooded into him, and he dropped back out of consciousness.
    When Rader awoke again, a smiling man stood over him, a face that looked oddly familiar—not from personal experience, but from images on the news broadcasts. “Congratulations, soldier!”
    Rader placed him as Commissioner Sobel, the man in charge of the Earth League forces in the Fixion Belt.
    “The rest of your squadmates gave their lives to destroy the Jaxxan nesting asteroid. You fought bravely and kept yourself alive … just barely, but it was enough. Your mission isn’t over—not yet.”
    Rader tried to talk, but only croaking noises came out. He still had tubes in his throat.
    Commissioner Sobel continued, “I’m congratulating you, soldier, because you have a second chance. A chance to join an elite group. Every one of your comrades gave their lives in service to the war, but you have an opportunity to keep fighting. Don’t you want to hurt the enemy that did this to you?” He smiled. “We’re offering you a position as our newest Deathguard.”
    Propped in the med-center bed, paralyzed in place, Rader couldn’t see how much damage he had suffered from the explosion … how much of him actually remained. Once they hooked him up to the cyborg components and encased him in his permanent armor, he doubted he would ever know.
    Did it really matter?
    A little extra time to carry on the fight. At the moment, he didn’t quite see why that should be his priority; he would rather go home, say his farewells to his family, see Earth one more time. That second chance seemed more important.
    “You’re a hero and will be remembered as such, soldier. We’re declaring the mission a success, now that we’ve looked at the cost-benefit ratio in detail. We did lose your Sergeant and your entire squad, but we successfully wiped out the Jaxxan nesting base.