Forge and Steel by David VanDyke

Author:David VanDyke [VanDyke, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: BluA
Published: 2016-03-04T00:00:00+00:00

On the crowded shuttle ride back, some Marines slept. Others treated wounds, tended to gear or jabbered until their battle-stimmed nerves calmed. Several of the rescued shook Bull’s hand and thanked him for coming back for them. He didn’t bother trying to explain that he could probably have saved everyone if only he’d abandoned his mission orders and taken the deal the Meme offered.

“You did the right thing,” Reaper said quietly, leaning in.

Eerie. Seemed like Reaper could read his mind. “Did I? I could have traded the Meme and everyone would have lived. So what if I’d have been court-martialed. Small price to pay for so many lives.”

“You didn’t take your oath to save your life, or even Marine lives. You took your oath to uphold Earth’s constitution, to protect humanity against all enemies, and to follow all lawful orders. You feel like your mission orders were unlawful?”

He sighed. “No.”

“How many are coming back?”

Bull consulted his HUD. “Sixty-eight.”

“Better than fifty-two. Your actions saved a net sixteen lives, and you carried out the mission to capture a Meme. The fact that it’s actually a willing defector is a bonus.”

“Once the whole story comes out, nobody’s going to trust me to lead them to a whorehouse, much less on another mission.”

Reaper lifted her index finger and poked Bull in the eye.

“Ow! Shit, what the fuck?”

“That’s for being a whiny asshole. Look around you, young lieutenant. Do you see anyone glaring daggers? Blaming you? Did you think those Marines thanking you were lying?”

“No…”

“Then quit beating yourself up. You made a plan and you executed it. The worst plan, violently executed, is better than no plan at all. Everything else is up to God, fate, the competence of the enemy and the roll of the dice. You made a command decision. You completed your mission. You lost some people. Shit happens. Do the dead the courtesy of honoring their sacrifice and move on, because this sure as hell won’t be the last time people die under your command.”

Bull put his head back against the bulkhead and closed his eyes. He had no energy to argue with Reaper, and everything she said seemed to make sense while she was saying it.

Yet, he felt his heart harden within him, and he had a vision of it, like a lump of metal under the blacksmith’s hammer. Perhaps that’s what it would take to become the leader he must: a soul of iron, tempered within a hotter forge.

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