Red Company: First Strike! by B. V. Larson

Author:B. V. Larson [Larson, B. V.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Iron Tower Press
Published: 2023-04-29T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 20: Mutiny!

The hint I’d let leak out of my lips about our true destination was only one word long—but it was enough to make me regret it.

I didn’t see Charlie again after that one single time, not for quite a while. But when I bothered to check the rosters, I noticed that he was still alive. He didn’t seem to be under any special punishment or duress, nor was he incarcerated or confined to one of the tiny cells down near the radioactive piles. As far as I could tell, he wasn’t mutilated, dead, asphyxiated, or otherwise abused.

That left me with a shrug of the shoulders. I guess I’d done my good deed for the day by helping him out.

Three days passed by after that, and I began to breathe easily again. This wasn’t because my circumstances had appreciably improved, but rather because I was feeling less stressed about helping Charlie. With every passing day, the odds that the leak would be traced back to me diminished.

Sure, I’d released a secret that I had sworn not to—but the information wasn’t sweeping across the ship. If it didn’t turn into an ugly rumor, how could it be traced back to me?

Maybe Charlie had passed on information to just one party who’d been interested, but then that fellow had decided to do nothing with it. Or, maybe that single word “Eris” had meant nothing to them. After all, it pretty much meant nothing to me.

Whatever the case, as each day went by, I began to believe that my fateful meeting with Charlie in the passages of the lowest decks hadn’t resulted in anything dramatic or unpleasant.

Unfortunately, my growing sense of optimism was wrong. Very, very wrong.

On the morning of the fifth day, I woke up to the sound of klaxons hammering and clanging away.

“Green Company to the lower decks!” a voice rang out. “Red Company to the upper decks, full kit! This is not a drill. Muster and move to your battle stations.”

No set of words could spur Red Company into greater action. Being a marine aboard a starship like Borag was like being a fireman in a big city. Most of the time, you spent your days responding to occasional heart attacks, brush fires, that sort of thing. But once in a while, one of those big-ass skyscrapers lit up—and that’s when you really earned your pay.

Red Company was like that. We were the final defense for the ship and her crew if everything went to hell in a big way. That was when our contribution really amounted to something. Most of the time, we trained, strutted around, and looked tough. We usually kept people from getting into trouble by looking mean and causing them to question their plans.

But now and then, that wasn’t enough. Today was such a day. In fact, the simple detail that they’d called Green Company to the lower decks and Red to the upper was an obvious giveaway.

Corporal Tench prowled into the barracks, and we hit him up for information.

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