The battalion surrounded Fuentes all yelling at him, rubbing the side of his head, and laughing. “Outstanding flying, kid!” Oakes told him. “That was epic!”

Fuentes laughed and tried not to blush. “I can pull it out when I need to.”

“You did more than pull it out,” Rhinehart told him. “You destroyed those bitches.”

“What was it like in there, Rudy?” Henshaw asked.

“Dark,” Fuentes replied and the whole group exploded.

“Tell us everything,” Thackery urged.

“Tell us everything on our way back to the barracks,” Rhodes interrupted.

No one argued. The battalion left the landing bay and talked all the way back to the barracks. Rhodes hung back and didn’t get involved.

“Did you see anything in there?” Dietz asked Fuentes.

“I didn’t see a thing. I wouldn’t have been able to find the target, but Teo showed me on The Grid.”

“Who’s Teo?” Coulter asked.

“His Striker SAM, obviously,” Lauer interrupted. “I guess these SAMs come in handy now and then.”

“Teo was great,” Fuentes exclaimed. “He talked me through the whole thing. I wouldn’t have been able to do it without him.”

“What does he look like?” Henshaw asked.

“He looks like a black smudge, but he has a deep voice like my father’s. I don’t have to think. I just do what he tells me to do.”

“You sure did it,” Coulter told him. “You’re a braver man than I am flying into that hole. We thought you were a goner when you disappeared.”

“We did not,” Rhinehart countered. “It was a training session. He wouldn’t have died.”

“That’s easy for you to say,” Thackery pointed out. “Look what happened to Gannon. The Grid is just as dangerous as real life.”

“Way to kill the mood, princess,” Lauer growled.

She turned on him. “Princess? You’re calling me princess now?”

“Would you prefer it if I called you, ‘garçon’?”

“Probably, yeah.”

The others laughed and everyone entered the barracks. Rhodes used the opportunity to check his interface with all of them.

Their systems registered less stress than he’d seen before. Their brainwaves came closer to normal today than he’d ever seen them in the past. This experience really bonded them.

“Are you sure you don’t need to go into a conversion cycle to recover from your heinous ordeal?” Dietz asked Fuentes.

Fuentes flushed again. “I think I can handle it.”

“Where did you learn to fly like that?” Oakes asked. “That was some expert-level shit there.”

“I didn’t,” Fuentes replied. “I’ve never flown before.”

Everyone turned around to stare at him. “You….what?” Coulter gasped.

“I’ve never flown before. I wasn’t smart enough to pass the written test so I served on a ground support crew before this. Our crew got bombed on the Ahioli Asteroid Field. That’s how I came here.”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“How did you learn to fly like that, then?” Oakes demanded. “Trained pilots couldn’t fly like that.”

Fuentes shrugged. “Teo said it would come naturally to me and to just move the ship where I thought was best. That’s all I did.”

“Holy shit!” Lauer muttered. “Now I’ve heard everything.”

“I’ve never flown before, either,” Henshaw chimed in.

“Neither have I,” Thackery replied.

Everyone turned around to stare at the two women. Of course they’d never flown before. Thackery wasn’t a pilot and Henshaw hadn’t been in the Legion at all.

Rhodes was just trying to come up with a way to break the uncomfortable silence when General Brewster and Colonel Kraft walked in.

Rhodes had come to dread anyone walking into the barracks, especially any of the station officers or medical staff. Besides, he already had a pretty good idea what these two jokers were coming to tell him.

“That was outstanding work,” General Brewster gushed. “You’re all becoming a real battalion.”

“We aren’t a battalion,” Lauer growled. “There are only nine of us.”

“You will become a battalion when more people go through the project. We hope in time to have several battalions all operating in conjunction with the regular Legion. Anyway, that was two successful training sessions in a row with all of you executing perfectly. We’ve decided it’s time to deploy you back to the battlefield. You’ll leave tomorrow morning.”

Silence fell over the group. This couldn’t have come as a surprise to anyone, but those words cast a chill over the group’s triumph.

Brewster made a few more noises of congratulations. Kraft said nothing. His dark eyes measured everyone in the room.

Rhodes became aware of the intensity of Kraft’s gaze settling on Rhodes in particular. He didn’t say anything, either. He waited for the two men to leave.

“I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later,” Henshaw murmured.

“Finally,” Lauer muttered. “I can’t stand all this sitting around.”

“You call what we just did sitting around?” Thackery countered. “We just did deploy in battle.”

“It wasn’t real,” Lauer replied. “This will be.”

“I suppose they’ll send us back to the Emal war,” Rhinehart remarked. “Don’t you think so, Sir?”

“I’m certain they will. Colonel Kraft already told me so. They plan to deploy us against the Emal just to work out all the bugs in our systems. Then they’ll send us against some other alien invasion forces that are threatening the Treaty of Aemon Cluster in other places.”

Thackery sighed. “Then tonight is our last night at Coleridge Station.”

“Until we come back,” Oakes pointed out. “We’ll always have to come back here.”

“Unless we don’t make it,” Dietz added.

Those words threw another bucket of cold water over the group. No one said anything for a minute.

Coulter broke the silence by sitting down at the table. “Come on! Who wants to get their asses kicked by the greatest dice player of all time?”

“Lieutenant Lauer might have something to say about that,” Oakes replied.

Coulter pounded on the table. “Anyone who has anything to say about it better sit down and say it. I’m gonna keep saying I’m the best until someone comes along and stops me.”

“You’re on, Corporal.” Rhodes strode over to the table and swung his leg over the bench.

“Cage match!” Dietz hooted. “Kick his ass, Captain!”

“Captain Rhodes is too nice to kick anybody’s ass,” Rhinehart corrected.

“Mop the floor with him, Captain,” Fuentes added and more people laughed.

Coulter and Rhodes eyed each other across the table. Coulter bit back a grin.

“I can make sure you win, Captain,” Fisher told him.

“That would be cheating,” Rhodes replied. “Just watch and enjoy the show.”

“Isn’t this a test of your authority?” Fisher asked.

Rhodes burst out laughing in spite of himself. “No, pal. This is just some fun to take our minds off the fact that we’re deploying tomorrow morning.”

Coulter pushed the dice across the table to Rhodes. “You can go first, Sir, ‘cuz I’m a nice guy that way.”

“Put him in the bilge, Captain,” Rhinehart interrupted.

“Throw him over the side, Captain,” Thackery added and more people laughed.

Rhodes picked up the dice and threw. He rolled two fives, two fours, and a one.

Groans of agony went around the table. Lauer sat down. “I want in on this.”

“Me, too.” Fuentes sat down next to Coulter.

The next minute, everyone gathered around. They had to pack in shoulder to shoulder so they all fit at the same table.

Rhodes threw one of his fives, one of his fours, and the one. He got two sixes and a three.

“Bend over, chump!” Dietz told Coulter.

“Keep it civil, Sergeant,” Rhodes told him. “We’re trying to relax here.”

Fuentes picked up the dice next. Rhodes didn’t pay attention to the rest of the game. He really didn’t care about the score.

This group of people right here—they were becoming a crew—a real unit in every way that mattered.

These people at this table right here—they were all he had left in the world. Whatever happened to him, he would stand or fall with these people right here.

He would do anything to protect them from what lay ahead, but he already knew he couldn’t.

Whatever happened to them, the best he could hope for would be to witness their sacrifice and pray to Almighty God that some of them made it back alive. Even that was probably asking too much.

End of Chapter 22.