Chapter 21

The ride back to the Demios was not a quiet one. Soon as I leapt, our white guest freaked out. The ride up was with it on the deck, face down with my boot on its back. As soon as we were in microgravity, it was even worse. White Dragons must not do zero G training. I could feel its panic.

My slip frightened me and made me angry. How I hated what they made me feel. Fighting until the day I die I had gotten used to, mostly. I suppose it was not so much that I could read them that made me hate them. It was what I read. I had not felt one thought or feeling that was not evil or cruel come from them, ever. Part of me always knew that. I just didn't like knowing it.

Its panic only caused me to want to make it suffer as I did.

"Watch this," I said on the proximity band. Lifting my foot off its back, its flailing launched it off the deck. The thing sort of went rigid for a few tics, then tried to move like somebody who had never been in microgravity would. It couldn't get far being tethered by my sneak though.

Everybody laughed.

"Not so dangerous now is it?" Amy said to everybody.

"I don't know, LT. I'm kind of rusty with my Zero G. I might look just like that," Greggs said laughing.

I yanked it back and knocked it to the deck, rotating it so its feet were towards Amy.

"Want to secure its feet?"

"Fucking Command. What did they think we were gonna do with it once we got it?" asked LCpl Sanchez.

"They probably didn't think we would get it," said somebody else.

I noticed that the entire platoon was together. There were seven yellows but no criticals. About that time, Amy spoke up.

"You are the most badass Marines ever to wear the uniform. I'm fucking proud to be the one to have had the privilege of leading you. Fucking outstanding!"

"Oohrah!"

The pilot was surely watching us, along with the rest of the squids on the Demios, maybe even everybody in orbit.

The pilot held position near the Demios.

"We are waiting for clearance," the pilot informed us.

"And they don't know where to put it either," Greggs said.

"It can rack with you!" came Sanchez's remark.

Everybody laughed at that.

"Fuck you Sanchez!"

"I might let it rack with me. Can't be any worse than Reed," she said.

"Fuck you Sanchez," Reed said, laughing along with everybody else.

When we got the all clear, the pilot landed in much a smaller bay. This one was seldom used. It was for civilian craft and emergency use. This bay was quarantined and secure. You might think that backwards, but civilians were the security risks. Somebody trying to take over a Raider would do well to stay away from the bays we launched from.

Fleet met us as the hatch ramp lowered. They had a lev-pallet and some c-chain to secure our prisoner with. Amy and I picked it up and carried it out. We set it on its feet and, when one of the squids moved to tie it up, the thing hissed and snarled at him. I grabbed whitey by its neck and picked it up as the frightened Navy tech jumped back.

"Better give that to us, Petty Officer. I think it likes you," Amy said.

We all laughed but, still suited up, the frightened tech didn't hear us.

"Yes Sir!"

"Sometimes I wonder at them. If it's a piece of equipment, they are fucking great, but what the fuck? Even if this thing wasn't snailed up, it would tear him in two and eat the soft parts first," Sanchez said as she wound its legs, letting Amy retract her sneak. When its arms were tied, I knocked it over onto the lev-pallet. Sanchez then tied it to the pallet.

"Okay, Petty Officer, you can have it now," Amy said.

"The XO is coming Sir."

Amy took my ax off her back and handed it back to me. Reed was carrying its sword. CDR Slovak showed up a few mikes later along with what looked like egghead types.

"That's a big one," he said walking up. All of them had biosuits on and sealed. I don't know why they did. Alarms on the Osprey and our armor would have been going off if there was a biohazard present. The battlecomp network would pass on anything new it found and it would get analyzed here on the Demios in nano-seconds.

"What do we do with it Sir?" asked Amy.

"It will end up in the brig for now. After they get its snail off," he said, nodding towards the others that came in with him.

"How are they going to do that? Have they taken one off a live Dragon before?"

"Don't know. How are you going to get the snail off of it?" he asked one of the eggheads.

He didn't answer. Instead he said, "I need to message command Sir."

"Then get on it."

"Okay people. If you need medical or repairs, you're dismissed. The rest of you standby until we hear what's next," Amy ordered. Our wounded left. It would have been faster to exit the ship and walk along the hull than walk to our bay from where we were at. The squids would have been happier too. A bunch of Marines in Class V Armor covered in Lizard blood and gore walking past you in the passageway would not be a pleasant experience. I walked back on board the Osprey and loaded up slug material. Everybody was looking at me and it still bothered me. The Dragon even turned its head and tried to keep me in sight.

"You were amazing Thad," Amy said on our private channel.

"Thanks," I said.

I pulled up the Regiment and saw that they were moving again. The wounded were already on their way back to the Demios. Simmons was still critical. They had him Rip van Winkle and chilled, basically what we called 'mostly dead' with minimal brain activity, and no breathing, or heartbeat. That meant he would live most likely. Whether he would return to duty was less certain.

We ended up waiting for an hour. Evidently they were reluctant to peel the snail off with it conscious. There was no easy way to render it unconscious without damaging our unicorn. Snails protected Lizards from the environment like our armor did. It also was determined that the brig was not designed to hold something that strong. The brig would hold an unarmored Marine ora unarmored lizard, but not one snailed up...

When word came, it was less than confidence inspiring. Amy got called away for a meeting. When she got back, she told us the plan.

"It looks like we get to babysit this thing here for about twelve hours. At that point, fleet will be ready to take it. Sweeney and I get to escort it back to wherever the fuck they are taking it. They have realized that they have the tiger by the tail and know that Sweeney here is probably the only one capable of handling it without killing it as long as it's in its snail. I get to go because he is just a private and needs a babysitter himself.

"So we are going to get checked out by the Chief and get some rack time while you lucky fuckers get to stare at it until we get back. Do not touch it, poke it, tickle it, or any other fucking thing you rocks will think up as you get bored. Leave it the fuck alone or I will see you cycled through an airlock. Got it?"

"Yes Sir!"

As we left, Amy told me on the private channel, "Get cleaned up and report to my office."

"Aye Aye Sir!" I said.

It was weird being on the Demios with most everybody gone. Medicals were there recovering, but they were either in tanks or therapy.

I was clean and in Amy's office before she was. With her fellow platoon leaders dirt side, she simply locked the door. I stood up when she entered. It was habit but I would have done it anyway for her.

She simply walked up to me, pushing me back into the chair and then climbed into my lap and we both did our best to crawl inside the other.

Twelve hours later, we were on the R.A.S. Alke. It was a Hayley class frigate which meant it was fast, well-armed and armored for protecting other ships. It was half the size of a Destroyer. It had a small bay for the shuttle but no contingent of Marines. Only Raiders really had Marines permanently. There were a few squids to provide shipboard security for unruly humans. Like most ships smaller than a raider or a carrier, it was not roomy.

Master Chief Chen put a field 'shoe rack' in so we could get out of our armor and back into it quickly. He also left some spare power packs and slug packs. That was his idea but I was not about to call any attention to it. The squids on the Alke had no idea what they were anyhow.

The Unicorn was simply placed in an emptied supply hold. Anchors were welded onto the floor and we chained its ugly ass prone with carbon chains. Chen did the welds himself, saying that they might even hold my ugly ass down if I got out of line.

Amy and I had to watch our step. The hallways were just big enough to let us walk armored up. If somebody was coming the other way, we had to stand against the bulkhead and wait for them to pass. On a raider, at least in the Marine section, the passageways were larger. Even in the other parts of the ship, they were wide enough for a Marine in armor to pass by a person without anybody getting squished.