“You’re not going to like this.” Doctor Hirsch reported the next day.  Nathan and Doctor Hirsch, along with the science team on the planet, had all returned to The Fury after taking extensive samples and performing what tests they could on the ground, leaving behind the three squads of Marines guarding the perimeter of Misrati, along with Dareem. Now, Hawke, Nathan, and the doctor were all standing in the large medical bay of The Fury. Compared to the Black Wave, the medical bay was spacious, providing a full complement of medical facilities large enough to house several hundred individuals. Off to the side, in stasis beds, lay the bodies of Isir, Aasif, and Jawdah, the three whom Dareem had offered to the Talons to be autopsied.

 “I already don’t like it.” Hawke grumbled irritably, then asked, “What am I not going to like?” Doctor Hirsch absently held up his hand, index finger extended in a gesture that peremptorily told Hawke to wait as he stared at what he saw in the holographic microscope display a few moments longer. Then he blinked as if coming out of a trance, and shook his head. Doctor Hirsch was a good man, but when it came to his work he had a one track mind. When in the confines of his lab, he thought of his white lab coat as a bit of a cape, and he became the hero, much like Marines do on the battlefield.

 “Ah, right. Well.” Doctor Hirsch began. “Well, you see we took a lot of samples of the adobe the houses are made of, the soil, even the air.” Hawke raised an eyebrow and idly wondered how you took samples of air. He knew it made sense to those scientist types, but he could never quite get the rather humorous mental image of some scientist running around in an open field with a beaker and a stopper trying to bottle the air. In spite of himself, Hawke let slip a grin while Doctor Hirsch continued to his report. Thankfully, the good doctor was oblivious to it.

“And?” Hawke prompted.

“There’s no doubt about it. Sarin-3 was the culprit of this massacre.  Dareem was right, they were murdered.” Doctor Hirsch announced.  Hawke looked shocked, not sure what to say as his mindset was suddenly yanked from having to provide aid to plague victims to being right back in the middle of conducting his original mission.

“Are you sure?” Hawke asked, more to give him a few more moments to recover from the shock of the doctor’s announcement than out of any personal doubt as to whether or not the doctor was certain of his findings. Doctor Hirsch was among the best in his field in several scientific disciplines, including chemistry.

“Of course I’m sure.” Doctor Hirsch answered, looking offended.  Hawke nodded and turned to look at Nathan, who looked troubled.

“A weapons test?” He asked. Nathan thought for a moment, idly stroking his bearded chin, then shook his head.

“No. A test of the gas would have been conducted differently. For starters, any survivors would have been killed, not to mention that it would have occurred in an area no one cared about.” Nathan answered.

“I don’t know, Daroon is pretty remote, and of the settlements on Daroon, Misrati is probably one of the most remote ones.” Hawke said, supplying a counterpoint to Nathan’s response. It was one of the dynamics that made them such a good team.

“But there is still the matter of a survivor.” Nathan argued. Hawke had to admit that Nathan had  a point. If this was truly a weapons test, they would have had plenty of surveillance, and a survivor would have been easily detected.

“Okay, I’ll grant you that. They would have sent forces in while the gas was still airborne to kill any survivors, and then cleaned up after themselves.” Hawke allowed. “So what are we dealing with?"  Nathan shrugged, indicating he had no answer.

“A spill.” Mumbled Doctor Hirsch as he absently typed something in on his data pad and seemed to be studying whatever it was that was displayed on the screen. Hawke looked confused.

“A what?” Hawke asked. The doctor looked up and blinked a couple of times, as if he hadn’t realized he had said it out loud.

“A spill.” Doctor Hirsch repeated. “Sarin-3, in its native form, is a liquid. It allows for easier transport and distribution, but it has a low flash point, which means that in an environment like Daroon, if it leaked and formed a puddle, it would begin the vaporization shortly after sunrise. The winds would have carried that vapor quite a ways, though it would decrease in potency the further it went. It just so happened that Mistrati was the nearest town exposed to the vapor.” The doctor’s voice took on a lecturing tone, and Hawke inwardly grimaced, but endured what he was sure to be a lengthy explanation. Any information about Sarin-3 might help him figure out just what was going on. Doctor Hirsch, meanwhile, had projected the now familiar molecular structure of Sarin-3, the descendant to the original Sarin gas, now commonly called Sarin-1, developed on old earth over a thousand years ago.

“The facts are consistent.” Doctor Hirsch continued. “According to Dareem’s statement, he arrived at nearly mid day, and the villagers were already dead. Considering the fact that Daroon has a twenty-six hour solar cycle rather than earth’s standard twenty-four hour solar cycle, and also considering the fact that the wind was traveling almost in a straight north-south path…which is strange in and of itself…I’d love to study why the wind-“ The doctor began distractedly typing on his datapad, obviously caught up in another thought.

“Doctor!” Hawke interrupted. Doctor Hirsh looked up, surprised.

“What?” He said, seeming to have forgotten everything he had just said previously regarding the spill.

“The Sarin-3 spill?” Hawke prompted.

“Oh, right…the origin of the spill is about thirty two kilometers north.” The Doctor replied absently as he waved towards a simple two dimensional topographical map displayed on a screen behind him on the wall as he continued to study the planetary projection that now appeared in front of him on the holodisplay in place of the Sarin-3 molecule. “That just doesn’t…why does the wind…” Hawke sighed, realizing he had lost the doctor to the mysteries of the wind, and glanced at the map. The proposed origin of the Sarin-3 gas was actually highlighted as a circular area of three kilometers. Hawke smiled, suddenly thankful that, as part of newly completed renovations to The Fury, they had removed electronic countermeasures and electronic counter-countermeasure equipment for sensor boosters that provided higher resolution surface scans as well as multiple sensor modes. With them, they could scan the area, and perhaps provide clues that would pinpoint the production facility, especially since such a facility would likely be well guarded.

“Looks like we will need to find out where this came from.” Hawke said with a smile. Nathan nodded in agreement.

“And when we do, we blow that place to kingdom come.” Nathan added grimly as he followed Hawke out of the medical bay.

“Wait!” Doctor Hirsch called out urgently, arresting their exit, seeming to realize for the first time what Nathan and Hawke were saying. “You cannot destroy it from orbit.” Nathan looked a bit irritated.

“Why not?” asked Nathan. The doctor sighed if exaggerated patience, slightly frustrated by their lack of understanding.

“You Marines and your incessant need to blow things up!” the Doc said to the ceiling in an exasperated tone of voice, then sighed as he leveled his gaze once again on Nathan. “Sarin-3 has a low flashpoint, remember?” The Doctor reminded them. “If you just blow it up from orbit, or march your Marines in and blow the place off the planet, you may very well kill half of the people on the planet along with it as the Sarin-3 vaporized!” Hawke felt stupid. He should have realized that. Nathan looked a little sheepish as well.

“Right. Of course. So that means we’ll have to send in the Marines, avoid containment breach while simultaneously taking the production facility, and then have your science teams come down to dispose of it safely.” Hawke supplied. Doctor Hirsch nodded.

“Quite.” Doctor Hirsch said in agreement. “And make sure your Marines stay in the safety of their power armor. Since it is environmentally sealed, they are protected from any affects of Sarin-3 exposure, unless their armor gets holes in it.”  Hawke gave the doctor a strange look, then met Nathan’s equally baffled stare for a moment before turning back around to leave the lab. 

“He does know that armor tends to get holes in them, right?” Nathan asked under his breath as he followed Hawke out. Hawke just shook his head, allowing himself a silent chuckle. Leave it to the Doc to ask the impossible.

***

A few short hours later found Hawke and Nathan in the officer’s briefing room on board The Fury, joined by Captain Elena Yost of The Fury, and Major Kinny, who had come with the Marine reinforcements on The Fury. In place of seats, holoprojectors had been set up so that both Second Lieutenant Raijan Kemai, and  Lieutenant Commander James Gordon could join in on the briefing. Raijan had since replaced Commander Schultz as the commander on the ground, while Gordy was on board The Black Wave. The table in The Fury’s briefing room was oval, with an open center in which sat a holographic projector much larger larger than the small projector planted in the middle of the table on The Black Wave. Everyone’s attention was glued to the holographic image suspended in the air in front of them, which was the result of both sensor readings, scout drones, and through a process called virtualized extrapolation wherein certain parts of the structure they weren’t able to get any intel on was extrapolated based on the architectural and structural data they had managed to obtain. The floor plans on the lower floors had been entirely extrapolated because the probes were destroyed before they could complete their entire surveillance run. After a few more moments of silence, Colonel Bakore cleared his throat, drawing everyone’s attention to him.

“As you can see, the facility is larger than expected, with barracks and living quarters taking up the top floor, labs on the second floor, and production facilities taking up the third and fourth floors.” Hawke informed them. Using the touch screen in front of him, he commanded the image to zoom in on the bottom two floors, and converted the holographic image to a wireframe. The bottom floor looked to house a large central room bordered by hallways that made a square around the central room, with offices and other rooms connected to the hallway.

“We don’t know too much about these two floors, as a majority of both these floors were extrapolated, but we do know that the central area spans both floors. There’s stairs and a balcony that surrounds the upper floor of the central room, and offices and perhaps a control room that opens out onto the balcony." Moving on, Hawke pointed to the hallways on both floors.

“Both floors have a hallway that runs around the central room, with rooms that open out into the hallway. There are two elevators on the north wall, and in the northwest corner is the central stairway. The central room is where the tank farm will be. We believe that is where they are storing all of their Sarin, because there are two air locks that control access to the central room, as well as large venting mechanisms made for sucking out any contamination within the room into large tanks held in this sealed room to the south, off the hallway, accessible only by a single airlock. It is Doctor Hirsch’s belief that this is their failsafe.” Hawke explained. “Our task is to secure the production facility quickly and efficiently, and to hold it as our science team lands and begins to safely dispose of all product. Upon extraction, The Fury will destroy the facility from orbit, rendering it inoperable.”  Hawke looked around the table at each officer, briefly meeting the eyes of each who were looking at him rather than at the holographic image.

“To that end, I am open to suggestions on how to accomplish these objectives as quickly as possible, with the minimum of bloodshed.”  Hawke finished. He sat back in his chair, fingers pressed together to form a steeple in front of him as he waited. After a few moments, Nathan manipulated his own touch screen, bringing the focus to the top floor, and entrance to the subterranean structure. It showed the observed routes of perimeter patrols on the surface, as well as a guard shack sitting just outside the entrance where large trucks gain entrance to the facility.

“Well, it looks like there’s only one way to get in, and that’s through the front door. The ventilation shafts have laser grids to prevent intrusion that way. That tells me a night insertion is likely to be our best bet, since that is when the enemy is least alert and responsive, two or three hours before dawn.” Nathan said, beginning the discussion. Raijan’s holographic head nodded in agreement.

“We can perform an insertion using our hover transports. With their stealth features, we can drop the whole platoon a mere half kilometer away, perhaps closer, and they can go in from there.” Raijan suggested.  Across the table, sitting to the left of Captain Yost, Major Kinny shook his head in disagreement. He was the commander of the company of Marines aboard The Fury, and technically commanded the Marines aboard The Black Wave as he was the highest Ranking Marine between the two ships, second only to Colonel Bakore and Commander Schultz, who also held the Marine rank of Lieutenant Colonel as required by the regulations of the PMC Accord. Hawke waved a hand towards the Major to indicate that he should speak up.

“Sir, a Recon squad should insert, not the entire company. They can eliminate the perimeter guards, and take out the guard station at the entrance.” The Major said, confidence making his voice brisk. “After that, the engineering squad can plant charges, breaching the door and storming the guard office inside, neutralizing them before they know what hit them.” Hawke considered the Major’s suggestion for a moment before Gordy, who had also been looking at the data on board the officer’s briefing room on board The Black Wave, brought everyone’s attention to  the layout of the top floor inside the entrance. They could see it had three docking ports for the trucks to load and unload cargo into and out of a small warehouse section, much like truck docks. The offices near the entrance were elevated, most likely suspended from the ceiling, and overlooked the parking area. Wrapped around the offices in the docking area was a steel balcony with stairs leading up to it from the floor of the docking area. The scout drones had noted a turret emplacement on the balcony with a large flechette cannon. The holographic projection of Gordy grinned.

“Actually, I can provide special shaped charges that will raise the likelihood that debris from the breaching charges would blow upwards at an angle.  With any luck, any guards on that balcony, or manning the turret, will suffer at least a few wounds from flying shrapnel.” Gordy supplied. Captain Yost nodded in approval, suppressing a fierce grin on her face. A fiery redhead known for her rather brutal tactics in space-based combat, Captain Yost had been with the Talons for nearly five years. In each ship-to-ship engagement she fought in, she proved she was not shy about going for the enemy’s proverbial jugular. Her philosophy was that she wanted to defeat her enemy so brutally and decisively that the memory of that defeat would keep them from attacking again. So far, her philosophy, while exceedingly bloody, had worked. Secretly, Hawke was glad that she had opted not to join the rest of the Talons who were remaining with the company on their explorations. He just could not see where a brutal combat captain of a battleship would be needed in peaceful exploration. At least, he hoped that kind of person wouldn’t be needed for that kind of venture.

“Zero G breaching charges, perhaps?” Captain Yost’s suggestion almost seemed a purr. That woman liked violence entirely too much, Hawke thought. Though Gordy was a holographic projection, Hawke could swear he saw his face blanch.

“Zero G charges…that would destroy anything and everything inside such a confined area!” Gordy exclaimed. Captain Yost raised an eyebrow in Gordy’s direction and shrugged uncaringly.

“That’s the idea of a Zero G breaching charge, after all. It blows the material inward, sending shrapnel in every direction, ideally killing or maiming anyone in the vicinity. With a little modification, the breaching charge could be made more directional, shaping the blast.”  Captain Yost explained.  Gordy grimaced, and then sighed. Hawke appreciated the fact that Gordy didn’t like taking life, but he also knew that if breaching the front door was necessary, they needed to do it as quickly and as efficiently as possible.  Captain Yost’s idea, Hawke knew, would definitely do both of those things.

“Alright.” Gordy agreed. “I assume you have three Zero G charges?” Gordy asked. Captain Yost nodded.

“I’ll have them shuttled over to you immediately.” Captain Yost said, catching the eye of her aid, who nodded and executed the appropriate orders on her data pad to be carried out immediately. The Fury’s shuttle crew immediately began preparing the shuttle to launch, while elsewhere in the ship those responsible for securing Naval ordinance, including demolition charges, went about the task of retrieving the charges to bring to the shuttle as the officers continued their briefing.

“Well, I think we can use the Squad 3 of the Helljumpers from The Black Wave to secure the entrance while the rest of the platoon from The Fury secures the lower levels of the facility.” Hawke said. Nathan nodded in agreement, and then pulled up the lists for the platoon aboard The Fury.  She had brought the other two squads of Helljumpers, along with the platoon’s commanding officer, a salty Marine named Sergeant Carroway.  In addition, The Fury had brought a force recon squad from one of the units that was on standby at the Jingashi Naval Station. As was typical, a platoon is composed of three squads, which included a fire team of combat engineers, and an assault squad bearing heavy weapons, which was squad 3, already aboard The Black Wave. Other platoon assets aboard included assault shuttles, three troop carriers, one hovercraft made for stealthy insertions typically used by the recon squad, a supply of UAV’s, and more. The Fury was capable of supporting a platoon of Marines on protracted engagements. The Black Wave, being a heavy assault cruiser, was more geared towards space-based combat. As a result, it could only support a single squad of Marines, along with a Gator, a much smaller troop transport only lightly armored. To make matters more difficult, squad 3 was short a couple of Marines on The Black Wave, thanks to their recent casualties.

The discussion concerning the mission had dwindled as each pair of eyes turned towards Hawke, who in turn was staring at the holographic display in front of him. He knew they were watching him, expecting him to make the “go, no-go” decision, but as he stared at the mission profile he couldn’t help but wonder how many of his Marines would not come back. He couldn’t help but wonder if, after everything was said and done, this would really change anything. He heard his friend, Commander Nathan, clear his throat, drawing his gaze towards him. Nathan raised an eyebrow, a well-hidden concerned look on his face that only Hawke recognized. It was Nathan’s way of asking Hawke if he was okay. Taking a deep breath, Hawke blinked a couple of times and pulled his gaze away from Nathan’s inquiring eyes and looked around.  Clearing his throat, Hawke nodded.

“Alright.  Let’s do this.” Hawke decided. The reaction from his officers ran the gamut from a sort of professionalism to a general excitement for finally being able to bring the fight directly to the enemy. As they all stood to begin their preparations, Hawke’s voice arrested them, most in the middle of the very act of standing from their seats.

“Second Lieutenant Raijan will be in command of the boots on the ground.” Hawke added.  Major Kinny’s face registered surprise before covering it up. Hawke caught it though, and knew he would hear about it later. The other officers in the room just nodded, though a couple looked a little puzzled at what they saw as something out of the ordinary. Usually, Hawke exhibited a healthy respect for the chain of command, mostly because he would not have promoted or hired someone to fill an officer’s slot unless he had complete confidence that person could get the job done. By all rights, Major Kinny should have had the command.

“Major Kinny, I need you aboard The Fury to monitor things from here in case things go wrong.” Hawke offered, hoping that the slight peace offering would appease the man. From the thunderclouds Hawke saw in the Major’s eyes before he snapped a sharp salute to the Colonel and did a stiff about-face before leaving the room, he knew it had not. He grimaced inwardly knowing he would have to stop by the Major’s quarters to briefly explain his decision. It was the downside of being a business. Sure, they had a military chain of command, and were subject to the same military law as their current employer, but in the end being employed as a private military contractor was very much a decision and Hawke did not need that particular complication just now.  One by one the other officers filed out to prepare for the operation, until at last it was just Nathan and Hawke in the briefing room.

“That was a direct blow to that man’s ego.” Nathan commented. Hawke merely grunted in reply as he was staring again at the holographic image still being displayed on the holoprojector. With an exasperated sigh, Nathan smacked the flat of his large palm hard on the tabletop with a resounding crack. Hawke jerked in surprise, and glared at Nathan.

“What was that about?” Hawke demanded, irritation heavy in his voice.  Nathan returned Hawke’s glare with a stern one of his own.

“Snap out of it.” Nathan demanded sternly. Hawke’s angry glare met Nathan’s gaze for a few moments more before he sighed and rested his head in his hands.

“You’re right. I just thought…hoped, even…that we were finally done with this.” Hawke finally replied. Nathan sat down again in the seat to Hawke’s right. He understood completely what he was going through. It was something that Nathan himself felt strongly. What will be the cost this time? How many of us will die? What if we finally have done one mission too many, and what makes us human has been so sublimated under years of callousness built to protect us from the horrors of what we do, that there is no road back? Worse, what will be the cost? There was always a cost. Both He and Hawke had learned that by now.

“I did too,” Nathan replied, “but it’s too late for that now. Now, we have to focus on what we have to do, and we can pick up the pieces later. If we go into this distracted we will get people killed. You know that.”

“I know.” Hawke said. The room was silent for a few moments as they sat there, with Hawke resting his head in his hands, staring at the tabletop, while Nathan calmly waited, his eyes watching his best friend carefully. After a moment, Nathan noticed that Hawke’s slumped shoulders squared up, and with a deep breath Hawke raised his head out of his hands and favored Nathan with a stare that was full of resolve.

“Alright. Let’s go.” Hawke said, and with that both friends stood and exited the briefing room on their way to the operations room to begin monitoring the ongoing progress of the operation that was about to begin.

The operations room was something special to The Fury. When the Talons had commissioned her to be built, it was in response to Nathan having finally convinced him that they needed a Battleship that could also serve as a command ship, capable of coordinating the movements of both space based and ground based units. The result of this need was the special operations room they had built on The Fury. It was located near the center of the ship, surrounded by as much armor as they could feasibly put on her. There, the top brass could monitor any ongoing operations, adapting their tactics on the fly without putting too much additional stress on the ship’s captain, who commanded the ship from its bridge.  In a pinch, should The Fury sustain heavy damage to the bridge, the operations room had the added benefit of being able to serve as a secondary bridge, though in retrospect should such a thing become necessary, The Fury would likely be in dire straits.

Hawke was the last to arrive to the operations room, and was greeted by the quiet, but vehement arguing between Nathan and Major Kinny. Upon his arrival, the argument broke off, though Nathan’s face wore a dark expression, mirrored by the Major. They looked as if they were close to coming to blows, had he not arrived. Hawke knew he had to head this off.

“Major Kinny, the reason why I have asked Second Lieutenant Kemai to conduct planetside operations this time is because I need him to gain more experience in command beyond the small unit tactics he excels at, as he is remaining with the company once the Heaven’s Gaze is launched, and we begin our explorations. Since you have opted not to join us, I have chosen to take this opportunity for you to monitor the situation, and take command from the operations room, should the Lieutenant need assistance, or sustains injuries preventing him from continuing on in a command capacity, or is killed. I value your experience of command, which is why I specifically requested you to be assigned to this contract aboard The Fury.” Hawke explained curtly, having run out of patience with the man. Major Kinny’s expression still looked angry, but less so.

“If I need to take command, shouldn’t I be planetside?” Major asked hotly. Hawke nodded in acknowledgement. When he discussed the idea with Nathan, he had made the same argument, but in the end both had come to an agreement on the issue.

“Normally, I would say yes. However, after discussing the matter with Commander Schultz, I believe that your presence could potentially make the Second Lieutenant question his every decision. I am sure you would agree that a commander that does that could potentially make costly mistakes resulting in a greater number of Marines lost.” Hawke explained, pinning the Major to the wall with a cold glare. His expression informed the Major, in no uncertain terms, that this was not up for debate. Though the Major still seemed a little disgruntled, much of the fire had gone out of him, which made Nathan heave a silent sigh of relief that only Hawke caught out of the corner of his eye. Hawke let the tension in the room go on for a few moments more, keeping his gaze on the Major who began to look more than a little uncomfortable. Then just like that, it was over as Hawke cleared his throat and turned his attention from the Major to the large two dimensional screen built into the front wall that displayed all the squads, vehicles, supplies, and assets being deployed. In the center of the room was a large holoprojecter, larger even than the one in the officer’s briefing room, displaying a topographical map of the area of operations in real time. On the topographical map, he could already see the Marine Recon squad approaching from the West.

Next Chapter: Chapter 14