Steel Breach by Calouette Casey

Author:Calouette, Casey [Calouette, Casey]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Published: 2015-02-03T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Six

Vasilov Prime - Stargate

The armor sat just before the blank stargate and waited. Thousands of soldiers were arrayed on either side. They were bundled up like snowmen with heavy jackets, fur lined caps, and mittens. Great packs rode on their backs. The armor was covered in equipment, crates, barrels, cloth sacks, metal replacement parts, anything that would fit. One vehicle had a coil of sausage hanging off a spare wheel. They looked more like gypsy wagons than fighting vehicles.

Tomi stifled a yawn. He turned his head from side-to-side and stared at the column around him. The camera feed on the outside of the tank made it look like he was sitting on top of the tank. Distances overlaid onto other vehicles and landmarks. Diagnostics data sat on the corner of his screen, a flick of the eye would bring it all down. A map was barely visible over what he saw.

Then he looked straight ahead. The stargate stared back at him and he felt a funny twinge in his stomach. Fear. He would be the first one in. He keyed the camera view and looked directly behind Bulldog. Two of the anti-aircraft tanks waited. Their barrels floated on a slab of super-chilled graphite. They were so fast that the barrel itself was in a vacuum otherwise it would overheat just from the friction of the air around it.

A hand tapped him on the shoulder.

"What?" Tomi said.

"Hey, uh," a voice said behind him.

Tomi pulled the helmet off and set it on his lap.

The smells of the vehicle hit him, hard. Oil, propellant, gunsmoke, cooked food, pickles, body odor, piss, all mixed into the air stream and shot throughout the cabin. It was warm and the smell was not pleasant.

Private Mueller stood behind Tomi. He looked down at the floor and his hands fidgeted with something. "I, uh, I took this." He handed an ID pack to Tomi.

Tomi took it and set it on his lap. He glanced over at the little cubby hole. Empty. That was right there, he thought. "Did it fall out?"

Mueller shook his head and smiled sheepishly. "No, I stole it."

"Why?"

Mueller shrugged. "I kind of steal things. Ya know, like, a lot."

"Uh. Thanks?"

Mueller shrugged and climbed back into the crew compartment.

Tomi watched him go and stuck his credentials into the drivers suit pocket. The fabric was stiff, slightly rough, and totally fireproof. Or so they told him.

Mueller sat down between two soldiers, Hess and Wellington.

They were both compulsive gamblers. In the short few days of training time they'd managed to win, and lose, their accumulated earnings. Now they were in a stalemate and wagering future meals.

"Look at that!" a pudgy faced Private named Gous said. He waved a tablet around with a buxom blonde winking back. A totally nude blonde.

Tomi stared back at the crew and tried to suppress a smile. There were the gamblers, Hess and Wellington, Waslinski, who hadn't admitted any crime, Gous the porn addict, Mueller the kleptomaniac, Mick, Sophia, Hutch, and Puck, the drunks and brawlers and Nikov, Bosovitz and Kallio, the drug addicts.

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