"We can't leave them Captain, please, we can't leave them behind!"
Jane didn't trust herself to respond to Missy's pleading. She continued her task, working calculations to determine the planet's rotation since they'd landed. Jackson sat next to her, doing similar calculations to determine the vectors of the orbitals around the planet. The work was going slowly since the rest of the ground team was refusing to help.
"You know that Missy is right Captain," Aimee backed up her friend, "if the positions were reversed, the others would come for us."
"They probably would," Jane's voice was hoarse, but it didn't waver, "because I'm not there to stop them. I'm with you, and later you'll realize that keeping you from rushing off is saving your life."
"Captain," Missy's voice was steady too, Jane noted with a touch of surprise, "I will knowingly risk my life if there's even the slightest chance of-"
"There isn't the slightest chance," Jane cut her off, flicking the switch to prepare the pod. The open walls around them slowly closed, switching from an open command center to an airtight spaceworthy craft. "The chance of rescue is zero, Missy. I know you don't want to hear that, and believe me, I know how much it hurts, but they're gone. They're done."
"Their beacons still show up on scanners. They're not dead."
Jane kept her back turned to the girl, adjusting the takeoff angles according to her and Jackson's calculations. It was hard to think straight, the faces of her rookies floating through her mind, but she knew she was making the right choice. She also knew, vaguely, that she should be supportive for the rookies who were still with her, but she was still too dull with shock to even begin to support someone else. Her voice came out too flat, too blunt.
"They *are* dead. They may've survived the crash, but the Terrans will get to them before we can."
"Maybe not. You said the Terrans would find us in a few hours, and they haven't attacked us yet. Maybe the Terrans just aren't coming."
"Rookie Dorson," Jane tried to throw her authority behind her voice, but it just came out tired and worn, "your squadmates have been killed in action. We will miss them, and we will mourn them, but if we do not get this pod off the ground as soon as humanly possible we will join them in death."
Some of Jane's former students had been killed in planetary runs before, of course. Enough of the Academy's Lieutenant-levels were lost that it would be a miracle if she hadn't. In theory this should've been no different, but Jane couldn't convince herself of that. Hearing about a KIA former student was different than being on the mission with them. These rookies were under her direct command, and even though there was no way the satflyer's loss of power could be her fault, she felt personally responsible for their deaths. She had been steeling herself since they had broken through the fog, knowing that according to the odds she would either lose some rookies or die herself. Even prepared, it hurt on a level so deep that she found it hard to breath. The loss was somehow so much greater with this squad...not just Marcus, but Julia, Tess, Preston and Alex. All gone. All because she had been so confident in boasting about their abilities.
"Fire it up," she said quietly to Jackson, "I'll get us in the air." She turned to the flight panel, but was stopped short by the barrel of a pistol.
"I'm sorry, Captain Appet," Missy stood a few feet away, her aim steady, "I can't leave them behind." Jane stared wearily at the pistol aimed at her chest. *At least she's not aiming for the head,* she thought, dispassionately, *not risking a miss if I suddenly dodge one way or the other. Good form, at least.* The other three rookies were watching the situation, silent and still. Jane noted that they weren't helping her, but she hardly cared. Missy was still talking.
"Jackson, power the engines down and open the panels-"
Jane moved in a smooth motion, closing the distance between them with a single step, left hand swinging up to grab Missy's gun hand, right hand stabbing forward to jab two fingers into the vulnerable tendons in the girl's wrist. Missy didn't cry out, although she did pale at what Jane knew was excruciating pain. Typically Jane would follow up with a vicious elbow to the elbow to snap the bone, or into the throat if she wanted her target incapacitated. This time she refrained, and the pistol was already clattering to the floor. Why bother? Missy would already be unable to move the fingers of her right hand for awhile. Who could even say if the girl was wrong for trying to force her to rescue the rest of the squad?
She moved on to the flight panel without a word, leaving Missy to hold her temporarily ruined wrist as the pod shuddered to life. Through the hum of the engines starting up Jane could hear her break down into tears.
"She was under duress," Aimee was standing with an arm around Missy, Li hovering nearby, "please, don't hold this against her..."
"Missy wanted to help her squadmates," Jane said, without emotion, "I can't let her throw our lives away, but I can't fault her for loyalty."
"I l-l-love him!" Missy's face had been buried in Aimee's shoulder as she cried, but she whirled to scream the words at Jane, "I love him more than anything, more than being alive! If I could trade my life for his I would do it in a heartbeat! You can't understand that kind of love! Not loyalty, love!"
Jane let the girl scream, her face blank. When Missy turned back in a fresh burst of tears, she turned to the window, looking past the surface that fell away.
***
"I swear I don't usually do this kind of thing on a first date," Rookie Jane Cripshaw panted, leaning back to break the deep kiss.
"I didn't think you did," her date said respectfully, but there was a glint of a grin in his eye.
"Patrick! I mean it!" Jane smacked him on the shoulder, a motion made more bearable by the fact that she was sitting on his lap, straddling him.
"Ooh, your boobs jiggle when you're violent, do it again," Patrick teased, leaning forward and planting a kiss between her naked breasts before she could hit him again.
"I just want to make it clear that you're lucky, that's all," Jane leaned back, letting him tease her skin and raise goosebumps along the back of her neck.
"Mmm," Patrick agreed in a muffled voice, nuzzling first one, then the other, as his hands slid along the waistband of her pants. He was taking his time, and Jane was grateful for the fact. She liked the sensations so far, but she wanted to enjoy this little adventure. When he pulled back looked up at her, his expression was so intense that she shivered again.
"So if this isn't your normal first date, what is making you behave so delightfully out-of-character then?" He asked, his tone incredibly casual as his fingers followed the curve of her back down beneath her pants.
"It's the uniform, probably, I'm a sucker for a guy in uniform" Jane grinned, lifting ever so slightly to allow his hand to cup her ass. Patrick squeezed and made a low appreciative noise in the back of his throat.
She rose from his lap, smiling at the disappointed look on his face, and took a step back.
"I guess it just seemed...like it's the right time, you know?" She gave his question more serious consideration as she shimmied out of her pants. They got caught around her ankles awkwardly, and blushing Jane stumblingly extracted herself from them as Patrick watched. She kept on talking to try to save face,
"I mean my entire life is going to be dedicated to the Academy starting tomorrow, that's the kind of thing that makes a girl think hard about what she's done with her life so far."
"Makes sense," Patrick replied thoughtfully, removing his shirt with one smooth motion, his pants with another. Jane was shocked, first by the rippling muscle that had been hiding beneath the loose clothes, then at the realization of just how easily he had slipped out of them.
"You're...really practiced at that," she stammered.
"Like you said, girls like the uniform," Patrick's grin was charming and mischievous at the same time, "it's not my first time."
"Um..." Jane took a faltering step forward, then stood in front of him, naked and awkward and uncertain. "It's….it is mine, sort of." Patrick's eyebrows shot up, and he looked her up and down again, as if he was both appreciating her nude body and also trying to discern something about her.
"Really?"
"Well, that's why I'm doing this. I don't want to go to the Academy a virgin, and you're hot and a pilot, which I really like, and we probably won't be interacting at the Academy much, so there's no risk of drama...sorry, I sound really manipulative right now..." Jane bit her lip to stop her own babbling.
Patrick reached forward suddenly and grabbed her wrist, pulling her back onto his lap where she straddled him again.
"You've put a lot of thought into this," he teased, pulling her forward even further so that her forehead rested against his.
"I probably sound pretty crazy," Jane murmured. She could feel his penis, surprisingly warm, against her thigh, and the feeling made her heart beat quicker. "You don't have to worry about it being super special or anything, I just want to know what it feels like, before my whole life is swept into chaos."
"Understandable," Patrick's voice was quiet, "and I like that you're trusting me with your first time. Believe me, doing this with you *is* special."
Jane blushed harder at his words than at the fact that she sat naked on top of him. Her hands slid across his broad chest, and she tried for a moment to forget about the warmth that was building between her legs.
"You don't have to say things like that," she whispered, "I told you, it's fine. I'm awkward and it's my first time so I'm probably going to suck at it, you don't have to pretend."
Patrick's hand was around her waist, the other sliding up and down across her stomach.
"I assure you," he replied, "there is nothing pretend about this."
His lips pressed against hers, and Jane relaxed and leaned into the kiss. His hands were so strong, and everywhere they touched seemed to light a brief fire of sensation. He barely touched her where she ached for him, instead grazing in unexpected places and somehow turning them into erogenous zones. His fingers brushed along her shoulders and made them buzz, his touch on her stomach sent tingles into her, and when he brushed his fingertips along her cheekbone and down her neck it made her toes curl. His tongue flicked over hers, and everything was too much, too mean, too intense. Jane didn't want to cum yet, but he was turning her entire body into a sex organ, and she couldn't stand it any longer. She shifted her position on Patrick's naked lap, moving so that his member pressed between her legs. He seemed surprised that she wanted him so soon, but he grinned, shifting his hips a little so that his head pressed against her opening.
Jane braced herself, but the shock of penetration didn't come. Instead he began kissing
her again, and the onslaught of sensation from his hands continued. It took her a while to realize that he was letting her proceed in her own time, giving her pleasure but letting her decide when she wanted to go ahead. Jane continued kissing, but let her kisses travel down from Patrick's lips to the side of his neck. She was wet, her pussy throbbed and with each heartbeat she was more and more aware of his hardness pressing against it. As she flicked her tongue over his neck, he made a small feral sound of approval, and the sound was enough to make up her mind. Holding tight to his shoulders, Jane slammed her hips down, impaling herself on Patrick's cock.
She let out a cry of surprise and pain. In hurt much more than she had expected it to, but it also felt so good that she wasn't quite sure how to process the feeling. Although he had grunted when she pushed down on him, Patrick held absolutely still, watching her with a small smile on his lips. Slowly the pain began to fade, but the feelings of fullness and pleasure hadn't dissipated. Jane experimentally moved her hips a little, and was rewarded with a flush of ecstasy, a rush of pure sexual pleasure. There was no hesitance after that, she began moving her hips in earnest, moving his length around inside of her body and loving every sensation. His arms were wrapped around her, making her feel safe and warm as she rode him. The sensations pulsing through her wet sex were unique and powerful, building an orgasm up faster than she would've thought possible.
It was like nothing she had felt before. He was stretching her further than her fingers, stretching her so perfectly and filling her so deep. He was warmer than a toy, with his arms around her and his chest pressed against her breasts. He was hotter than a fantasy, with his fingers continuing to stroke and caress in ways that wouldn't even occur to her to fantasize about. She rocked her hips back and forth, gasping as he hit places she hadn't discovered on her own.
Even without experience Jane could tell when he came. She was surprised at how minutely she could feel the twitches and spasms of his cock, at how sudden and hot it was when he released inside of her. She kept on riding, chasing her own orgasm as she slid up and down him, pain forgotten. Her sensitive pussy felt the second when he started to grow soft inside of her, and she whimpered. *No, not yet, I'm so close…* Patrick leaned back with a confident grin, reached down, and gently flicked her swollen clit. Jane threw her head back and sighed as she came, the unique feeling of a cock inside of her making the experience that much better. Even with him growing soft she felt full and satisfied, sitting on top of him shaking and coming, his arm around her waist. When she finally slid back, letting his spent member slide out of her slit, she wore a grin that matched his.
"So, about us not interacting at the Academy..." Patrick said.
"Well...maybe we could interact a little bit..." Jane sighed, leaning her head against his strong chest.
***
Captain Jane kept her eyes closed, even as she awoke. She made sure to listen the deep breaths, punctuated by occasional shuddering, that indicated Missy was asleep before she opened them. Li and Aimee were also asleep, Aimee's head in Li's lap, holding hands in their sleep. At the window, Jackson stood alert and attentive, looking down at the planet's surface.
"What are you doing?" Jane asked quietly.
"Marking out positional data." Jackson didn't seem startled, and his eyes never left the window as he answered, "in case the Terrans clear the satflyer away by the time we return, so we'll know where they went down."
"Jackson I already told you all, we're not-"
"Captain, with all due respect." Jackson interrupted her, turning eyes towards her that were intense, unblinking. Jane was startled at that look. *Has he always been that intense?*
"I understand why you gave the order that you did," Jackson continued, "You are bound by rules, as are we all. As an Academy trainee I understand that there are correct and incorrect ways of getting what you want. Missy's way was incorrect. When we reach the Academy I plan on forwarding an HCJ report, requesting an official rescue operation under the provisions. All HCJ reports go straight to the General, and since he reccomended our squad for this mission, he's the most likely to approve a rescue."
Jane blinked. "That's very...practical of you, Jackson," she said, unsure of how to respond to her Rookie's cool-headedness.
"Thank you, Captain."
"But there's no way the General will approve a rescue mission. And even if he did, there's no way our air team will survive long enough to be rescued."
"Either way, insubordination won't help them, and identifying how to reach them will," Jackson replied calmly, "if the official routes won't work, I'll just have to come up with another course of action."
Jane found that vaguely ominous, moreso when it was delivered in Jackson's quiet, deadpan voice.
"What exactly is it that your augments do, Jackson?" Jane asked. The only other person she knew who had a CPU in his head was Arthur, and Jackson acted very different. He wasn't charming or magnetic, he was simply…solid. Solid and quiet, always unrattled, like a stone.
"Didn't your files fill you in Captain?" Jackson didn't seem offended or worried.
"They just said that you had them, and a little bit about why," Jane admitted.
"Then I would prefer to leave it at that ma'am," Jackson turned back to the window.
"For what it's worth, I'm sorry that I got us into all of this, truly. I'm sorry I lost them."
"I don't blame you, Captain. None of us do, or at least they won't once they've calmed down. We know you care about us."
"Some would say I care about you too much," Jane half-smiled, then frowned. *Not that it matters anymore...now that Marcus…* She suddenly didn't want to talk about this subject anymore, not when the thought of Marcus felt like an emotional punch in the gut.
"People care too much about trivial things," Jackson seemed thoughtful, "it's not as if we're all children. Only busybodies think sleeping with your rookies is inappropriate."
"I suppose," Jane said briefly.
***
"Sleeping with your rookies is completely inappropriate!" Jane Cripshaw squeaked in dismay. She squeaked quietly, even though the room they were in was completely deserted, as if the walls themselves would spread rumors.
"Why is it suddenly inappropriate?" Lieutenant Patrick Appet grinned, "has something changed between now and say, a week ago?"
"I didn't know you would be my instructor a week ago!" Jane tried to lower her voice, but it still came out a squeak, "you didn't tell me, you asshole!"
"Hey, that's not fair," Patrick grew uncharacteristically serious for a moment, "they didn't even tell me I'd be teaching a rookie class until I got back to the orbital; apparently they didn't have enough free captains. And for the record, I didn't get my class roster until the evening before the ceremony. I found out a whole twenty four hours before you did."
"Oh..." a little of the righteous anger retreated from Jane, leaving her able to speak without squeaking, "...well I...retract the asshole comment then, I suppose."
"Excellent."
"But we still can't have sex!"
"Why is that? Are you a virgin?" Patrick teased, stepping forward, and Jane skittered backward, away from him.
"You're still my instructor! It's not appropriate!"
He searched her face, as if only just now realizing she was serious. When he seemed to have convinced himself, he looked a tad disappointed, but he shrugged.
"Alright then, I suppose. You're missing out," he winked, "but you're allowed your reasoning."
"I know I'm missing out," Jane said, *fuck do I know it…* "but I just wouldn't feel right about it. Not with you as my instructor."
"I won't pressure you then," Patrick reached out and chucked her under the chin affectionately, "even if you're being a naive moron."
"I'm sorry," Jane really was, "being with you is fun...a lot of fun. But right now, I'm not comfortable being anything but friends."
"I'll take friends," Patrick smiled, already opening the door of the empty room.
"And I swear," Jane added mischieviously, "the day I graduate and you're no longer my instructor, I'm hunting you down and fucking your brains out."
"I'm totally holding you to that, Rooke Cripshaw."
***
Jane barely even noticed when the pod broke through the green fog. It was the second time she had seen the windows suddenly clear, evil fog changing to beautiful stars. It was the second time she hadn't been in the mood to appreciate the sight.
***
"Ladies and gentlemen!" Center stood unsteadily, one foot on the chair, the other planted firmly in the middle of the table. His shout had garnered attention from the entire mess hall, and he drunkenly smiled at the upturned faces around him. "Today, my squad an' I have *hic*, 'scuse me, graduated to Lieutenant-level!" Even the strangers at the mess joined them in a cheer, a celebratory shout that echoed off the walls of the room. Center clearly had more to say, but his squaddies pulled him back down before he could use up the room's collective patience.
"Lieutenant Center, you are drunk," Jane laughed, grabbing his drink from him as he groped for it.
"I think we've all earned a good drunkening, Lieutenant Cripshaw ma'am," Center pulled off a perfect salute that melted into a awkward muddle at the end, sending the whole squad into laughter.
"He's got a point Lieutenant," Lily grinned, lifting her hand to indicate another round of drinks.
"This 'calling each other Lieutenant' crap is gonna get old real fast, knock it off," Patrick growled good naturedly.
"Aw c'mon Patrick," Jack-pip elbowed him, "do you know how fuckin' miserable those exams were? We worked our asses off for the right to call each other Lieutenant."
"And anyways, we're Lieutenants too now! You no longer outrack us, *squaddie*" Jane teased. The rest of the squadmates burst into laughter again, and for the rest of the meal took great delight in refusing him every time he asked for a chip or another drink. The squaddies chatted and talked long past the mess hall's normal closing hours, until one by one they wandered off towards the barracks, going to sleep early in preparation for the big day tomorrow.
"How long we known each other now, Rook?" Patrick asked thoughtfully, after Acren had left, leaving the only Jane and him alone at the table..
"Come on Patrick, when are you gonna stop calling me that?" Jane whined, "it's been two years since I was a rookie."
"I've been your teacher for those two years, I'm allowed," Patrick puffed up his chest, "I can call you whippersnappers whatever the hell I want." He grew serious again,"but listen Jane. We've gotten close, over these years, yea? It's not just me who feels it?"
"Course it's not just you," the serious tone was sobering, and she didn't like it, "what kinda question is that? You're my best friend, you know that. What's the deal with you this evening?"
"I know that. And you're the best friend I have Jane-"
"Your only friend," Jane muttered, but Patrick made an impatient motion as if brushing her smartass comment aside.
"I just think...things can be different, now that I'm your teammate instead of your instructor. Can't they?"
"Patrick," Jane rolled her eyes, "if this is about my promise to fuck you when you weren't my instructor anymore, you don't need to worry, I haven't forgotten. I mean, if you're still interested…"
"Need I remind you that *you're* the one who's been forcing us to wait this long. I would've dropped my pants for you the first day." Patrick grinned, but he still seemed hesitant.
"What?" Jane asked. She was starting to get worried, self-conscious, "you *do* still want me too, don't you? Or has getting to know me better soured your feelings about me?"
"What? No!" Patrick seemed startled, "the opposite, actually. The more I get to know you, the more I enjoy your company."
"Then what's the problem?"
"I'm just interested in more with you. More than just the fucking."
Jane blinked, trying to gauge if he was being serious.
"What do you mean...'more' like dating?"
Patrick spread his hands in response, clearly waiting to see what she thought of the idea. Jane sat stunned for a moment, hope and disbelief warring inside her. Before the academy Patrick had simply been a hot guy in a uniform, someone convenient. In the first year with him as her instructor she had developed a schoolgirl crush, one that she only resisted because, true to his word, Lieutenant Appet had never made another advance to her. In the second year, Pilot Cripshaw's crush had matured into a fierce loyalty and friendship, a relationship somewhat deeper but plagued by sexual tension. She knew he saw her as a good friend, and she was fairly sure that he looked forward to their promised fucking almost as much as she did...but that he felt the same affection about her had never crossed her mind.
"I think..." Jane said slowly, "that that would be alright." The grin that broke across his face was instant, warming her from the inside out.
"Just as an experiment, to see how it works out," she warned, "I'm sure I'll fuck it up eventually, so be prepared for that."
"Oh I'm sure you will," Patrick teased. In spite of herself, Jane grinned back at him. The warm feeling wasn't going away...there he was, her schoolgirl crush, her hero, her first, and he looked as happy about having her as she had ever seen him before. *Not to mention how fucking hot he is…* Jane mentally added. The warmth in her heart was spreading to other areas...areas that needed his attention.
"So...how about that fuck?" she cut straight to the point, not bothering with coyness or subtlety.
"Believe me when I say how much I want it," Patrick chuckled, "but we've got a planetary to run and not a lot of time to sleep for it. We've waited this long, let's give it one more night." Jane wanted to argue, but it *was* her first planetary. She would need to be at the top of her game tomorrow.
"One more night," she growled, rising from the table, "after that I'm coming for you, Appet."
"Oh you definitely will be," Patrick grinned.
Shocked that she had left him with such a clear opening, Jane turned up her nose and walked away with a sniff.
***
"Attention temp pod, this is Pilot Gammon, we are within range and ready to latch tow lines," the comm crackled. The others were awake, and Captain Appet could feel their eyes on her as she walked across the small pod to reach the comms.
"Roger that Pilot Gammon," she said without feeling, "bracing for impact."
The pod shuddered as the towlines his, and the entire room jerked as Gammon began pulling them towards the orbital. Jane held onto the desk, staring blankly at the dull lights to avoid turning and meeting the gaze of Li, Aimee, Missy and Jackson. Her four surviving rookies. Pulsing blue indicators on the dash showed that the others were technically still alive, somewhere, or at least alive enough that their bodies were still powering their subdermal computers. Jane turned her back on the display. She would rather meet the others' gaze than be watching when the lights went out. None of the rookies met her eyes. *They're never going to forgive me,* Jan realized, *hell, I can't even say that I blame them.*
***
"GET INTO THE FUCKING POD," Jane shrieked, her fingers hovering over the red button, eyes wide with horror. Lily stumbled as she ran down the hill towards the ground team's temp pod, but miraculously was able to turn the stumble into a roll. To Jane's left, Arthur was taking shots at the Terrans whenever they showed themselves from behind the trees, but the blue-haired combatants were using some kind of shielding; sending the shots wide or absorbing them. Lily lost her footing yet again, which saved her life as a gout of blue flame flew past where she had been standing a moment ago. With a final burst of speed, Lily threw herself into the pod, and Jane slammed the button down.
Arthur continued suppressive fire until the walls of the ground pod closed completely, while Jane flicked the switches to set the engines began spinning. The pod shook as it slowly rose from the ground, hammered from the outside by blue fire, but the damage wasn't enough to keep them from taking off. Jane glanced around the room, confirming that Arthur and Lily were safely inside as the pod rose slowly into the air.
"It's alright, we're all inside, we're all okay," Arthur said soothingly, reading her distress with the help of the CPU in his head. Jane slumped to the ground, shaking.
"They came so fast!" She said with a shuddering breath, "how did they find us so fast?"
"Ground team come in, are you safe?" Patrick's voice sounded strained on the comms.
"We're safe, just took off," Lily gasped, holding her side, "everyone accounted for, we'll hit the fog layer and be away in a few minutes. How about you?"
"We're...we're not doing too well."
Jane identified a tone that she had missed the first time and sprang to the window. With the rising motion of the pod, Jane had to scan the sky for a moment before she caught sight of the satflyer.
There were creatures swarming the satflyer. Though they were hard to make out at distance, Jane thought she could count about six or seven of them. They flitted back and forth, first hovering, then moving quickly in sharp, straight angles of flight. The satflyer's guns were firing off in brief but constant bursts of fire, seeming more focused on keeping the creatures at bay than at hitting them.
"Air team this is ground team," Jane could hear Lily trying to keep calm, "we're away! Get out of there!"
"Roger that ground team," even as Patrick's voice sounded over the comms, escape pods began firing out from the top of the satflyer, leaving long columns of smoke in their wake. Jane counted them as they flew up into the fog. *...two...three…*
"Everyone's out!" Lily was no longer using proper transmission protocols, but no one cared. They were all transfixed by the sight of the satflyer, and by the tiny specks that were attacking it.
"Patrick, take off! Everyone's safe!" Lily's voice had risen to a high pitch.
"We're not safe," Jane said quietly, with horror. The temporary pod had risen quite a ways before the creatures noticed it, but now they were beginning to group up into two separate swarms. Four of them continued harassing the satflyer, swooping in close and then ducking back in the air when the guns opened fire. The second group of four had swung around, and were heading towards the ground pod.
"They know we don't have weapons," Jane realized aloud. The pod had grown deathly silent. "Patrick, those...things are coming at us," Lily said, her voice grim, "they know we can't keep them away."
"Copy that, ground team. How much longer before you hit the fog?"
"...one and a half minutes."
*Too long,* Jane felt herself slipping into a strange sort of morbid calm. The creatures would reach the defenseless ground pod before they hit the fog.
The flying things were close enough that Jane could see their features now. They were naked women, or at least partly so. Their arms were warped and twisted, forming wide feathered wings. At the knee their skin became tough and leathery, ending in three-toed claws. Their mouths were a little too big to seem human, their eyes a little too wild. Although she'd never seen a Harp in person, Jane had heard enough to know what they were capable of.
"Ground team..." Patrick paused for a moment.
*He'd better finish his sentence quick,* Jane thought dully, *it won't take the Harps long to rip through the walls once they get to us.*
"...listen, Arthur, you know me better than anyone, with your chip. You know what I'd have to say."
"Don't you fucking dare," Arthur roared into the comm, but Patrick was still talking, his speech rushed now.
"Lily, that thing we talked about last week? The answer is yes, of course yes. You've always been strong enough, and I've always known that." Jane looked confusedly back and forth between her squaddies. Arthur looked furious, Lily's eyes were watering.
*Why is he bothering to tell us things like this now?* she wondered, *why does it matter when he knows we're about to die?*
"And Jane…listen," she had never heard him sound so deadly serious, which was appropriate, she supposed, "it would've worked. You weren't some experiment to me. It would've worked all the way to the end, all the way until you were Mrs. Lieutenant Appet."
The full realization of what he was about to do hit Jane just as the first shots grazed the pod. The Harps that were attacking them were caught completely off-guard; Jane could see the shocked expression on the face of one as it was blown away. The other three spun, trying to dodge and spin out of the way of the barrage that the satflyer was firing. A second Harp was blown out of the sky, and the other two broke off, spinning in quick dives towards the surface to escape. Jane's attention wasn't on them, it was on the satflyer itself. As soon as the guns had turned to assist the temp pod, the first group of Harps had swung in, using sharp claws and oversized tough teeth to rip away strips and bites of metal from its sides.
Jane couldn't cry, couldn't look away, as the specks disappeared from sight, crawling through the holes and into the satflyer. The windows of the pod were suddenly obscured, covered by roiling green fog.
"P-Patrick no," she gasped, "no no no no." Her mind seemed fractured somehow, broken into pieces that refused to carry a thought from beginning to completion.
"Patrick no," if she said it enough times, it wouldn't be true, "no, I love you, no"
The comm crackled, his voice staticky through the distortion of the fog.
"I love you too Jane."
The screams only filled the radio for a few seconds before she slammed her hand down on the switch, shutting it off. She wasn't sure when it stopped and when it was replaced with her own screaming. In one of the fractured pieces of her mind she thought his scream might never stop.
***
Captain Appet tried to ignore the ten-year-old scream, as fresh in her memory as if she had heard it a few seconds ago, as the doors of the pod hissed open. Behind her Li and Aimee stood on either side of Missy, Jackson a little ways off but still clearly supporting the group. Jane was grateful for that, at least. Knowing that the rookies would be able to lean on each other took a small portion of the weight off of her mind. She realized with a start that the door was open, and the hangar in front of them was relatively packed with people. *They don't know,* Jane realized, *none of them know yet.* It seemed perverse, that such a horrible thing had happened and these people didn't know about it.
Her eyes wandered over the assembled people for a few moments. Her old team were there, Lily, Arthur, Jake-pip and Center. Arthur was frowning, stepping forward; he had already read the entire mission on her face. There were several teams of scrub, some Captains and Lieutenants. There was a healthy portion of Rookies there as well. *Do my rooks have friends in their year?* she thought with surprised. General Auspus was directly in front of the pod, one eyebrow raised in a question. Jane cleared her throat, and spoke to the entire group. She already knew the words, Lily had spoken them when she, Arthur, and Jane returned from their last planetary run.
"There was trouble on the mission. We're the only survivors."
***
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