.png){kind=link}
<<Next Chapter - Return to Story Index - Next Chapter>>
Chapter 13 - This is the Way the World Ends - Wolf Skinners (3024)[]
Wolf Skinners bivouac around WSDS Mondez's impact site
Astrokaszy
0412 Local Time
25th July, 3024
Marion Fury woke with a start. As her breathing returned to normal, she could feel the rocks through the camping pad that kept her borrowed sleeping bag off the ground. The aches those rocks were causing started to fade as she realized she was FREE. For the first time in a decade, she didn't have to worry about HIM entering her quarters at any hour. The susurrus of the others (the MANY others) in the makeshift tent was both unsettling and reassuring. Everyone here was in the same situation she was: stuck on Astrokaszy, but FREE! The emotion was overwhelming, and she was glad she didn't have to force the tears starting to flow to stop, though she stifled a sob out of courtesy rather than fear. Athena, in the next sleeping bag over, didn't even twitch while her mother was having a moment.
Wolf Skinners bivouac around WSDS Mondez's impact site
0920 Local Time
Major Skinner heaved a sigh of relief. The memorial service for the 17 dead (so far) had gone relatively smoothly. Though not particularly religious himself, he'd been a DropShip Captain long enough to know what parts of the holy texts to refer to. He'd almost lost it when he said "ashes to ashes". The six incinerated troopers had left little other than ash to bury, and the unfortunate pilot struck by the pirate laser in Fury's jeep wasn't in much better shape.
Fury had requested to say a few words about the dead man. He'd been one of her embarked pilots on the Eagle's Claw a decade ago. Lieutenant Senior Grade Barry Levenson had been liked by all the crew of that ship, and he had endured a decade of slavery in the fields of Al Mazrea without giving up, or giving in. Astrokaszy had NOT beaten him. His luck simply ran out. Fury managed not to cry, but the other pilot, still wearing an oxygen mask on Doc Ozora's orders had broken down right there. The Doc and one of his medics got the sobbing mess onto a stretcher, and the memorial concluded shortly thereafter. More than one of the Wolf Skinners was in a similar, if somewhat more controlled, state.
Skinner recognized the emotional release as necessary, even while he denied it to himself. His brother was one of the 17, after all. But he had 142 other people he was responsible for, and breaking down in front of them would do more damage to them. The math said "no". Fury had just demonstrated why she'd been selected for her own command before fate had intervened. He was glad his next meeting wasn't scheduled until 1000. He needed to clear his head, and focus. Air conditioning, food supplies, security and all the rest were on the docket today. And maybe, just maybe, sharing that family secret with a select few...