Sergeant Rebecca Sykes watched the fleet of ships above Malevelon Creek pound the surface of the planet. Metric ton upon metric ton of high explosives and advanced military hardware were fired seemingly indiscriminately at the continents below. A squadron of eagle fighters broke formation returning from the atmosphere. The starfighters would soon return to the combat zones with fresh ordnance. The flotilla of ships stretched all the way as far as she could see. They wrapped around the planet, the further ones visible only as twinkling stars, angrily flinging celestial objects from themselves into the twilight planet below.

Rebecca could just make out the name of the closest super destroyer: the SES Pride of Perseverance. Its laser cannon spooled up and lanced a beam of light through the thin cloud layer below.

The SES Harbinger of Liberty's announcement circuit chimed. "Reminder, the ship's Democracy Officer's personal sauna is off limits to all crew."

Rebecca looked aft towards the command console where Democracy Officer Grimes and Commander Andradne were discussing battle plans for the next drop. Neither of the two men paid any attention to the ship's announcement.

It was an automated message. Nobody would be dumb enough to try to access the Democracy Officer's quarters. Doing so would be undemocratic, besides the fact that Democracy Officers were all class A citizens and most of the rest of the crew were class C or lower. Class C citizens just weren't allowed to go where class A citizens belonged, sauna or not.

A bright flash caught Rebecca's attention in the viewport. It looked like the Pride of Perseverance was ... smoking? Yes, near the center of the craft it seemed as if a hole had been torn in the core of the ship. The super destroyer's core exploded, sending bits of the massive cruiser every which way.

"Um, commander? I think we just lost a ship. I've never seen anything like it." Rebecca said.

"How would that be possible? Did you see what happened Sergeant?" Commander Andradne was the first to reply while his hands worked his controls deftly to pull up their orbital position on the hologram displayed above the command console.

"I just saw a flash and then it exploded." Rebecca said.

There was nothing on the orbital display. Democracy Officer Dickerson cleared his throat and replied. "Do you really think these simpleton machines could shoot down a super destroyer? Our technology is far more advanced than they would be capable of damaging."

Commander Andradne stared at the man. Rebecca tried to pick apart his expression. Was it disbelief? The commander seemed almost to glare at the Democracy Officer.

"How would you explain there being a craft there before and not after an explosion?" Commander Andradne asked, maybe a little belligerently Rebecca thought.

"Ah yes, we deploy inflatable ships to confuse our enemies, they cannot tell the difference, being they are simpleton socialist savages." Dickerson said.

His words made sense to Rebecca in that place deep in her mind. The place trained into her by living in a free society. The metallic pieces must have been air tanks and regulating equipment, it all made so much sense to her. Everything about the inflatable was so realistic, she had thought the decoy had been real. The body of a man from the craft floated past the viewport. This must have been a valiant soldier offering himself up to pilot the decoy in service of lady liberty. Rebecca saluted him, honoring his sacrifice.

Although, nobody on the Pride of Perseverance would have agreed that their ship was an inflatable if they were asked before their reactor went critical.

Rebecca looked back to see commander Andradne staring at her. His eyes had bags upon bags underneath them. He gave her a weary look, shook his head, and went back to putting something into the command console. Rebecca just noticed the Democracy Officer looking towards the commander while keeping his head down, he must not want to have been noticed observing the other man.

***

Calvin tried not to itch the bandages that bound his back. The ship's doctors had reopened the wound to pick hardened bits of synth steel slag and burned pieces of cloth from it. Worse still was Calvin's armor was toast, he would have to use a different set and there wasn't a whole lot of that remaining on the SES Fist of Family Values.

A door opened on the surgical side of the medical bay. A medical technician came out and Calvin pounced on him.

"Is he going to be alright? Is he in one piece?" Calvin asked maybe a bit too enthusiastically. The wild look in his eye must have scared the technician as the man flinched away.

Calvin asked again, this time asking a little slower and trying to give the med-tech his space. He just wanted to know what had happened to Sergeant Jacob Bynez after Calvin had passed out on the pelican ride up after the adrenaline wore out and awoke in the medical bay a few days later.

The med tech opened his mouth to explain but then the door opened again. Sergeant Jacob Bynez himself stood there in all his glory. The two men hugged. The med-tech took his opportunity to get away.

Calvin was glad to see at least one of his friends survived. He would have to thank the pelican pilot for going out of his way to deliver them both to safety.They released their embrace.

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"Glad to see you are still in one piece Sergeant." Calvin smiled.

Jacob laughed, "almost chief". He raised his arm, the hand looked shiny.

Calvin's smile turned into a scowl.

"So you are one of THEM now, are your sure those won't turn socialist on you and betray us?" Calvin was referring to the leg and the arm that the doctors had replaced with servo motors and sensors. Most operators had an intense distrust of artificial augments after the first galactic war. Jacob Bynez was now a cyborg.

"Naw, it ain't like that Chief." These are prosthetics, no intelligence, see? Jacob unhooked his robotic arm at the elbow with his good arm. He understood the mistrust of technology that made one look like a automaton or a cyborg.

"Doc says it's perfectly safe and 100% democratic, said I'll be able to toss nades' farther too. Besides, they said this the only way I get to fight the tinnies again."

Calvin's expression softened and he put a hand on his friend's shoulder. "I hope so, we have a lot of work to do, starting with getting this ship resupplied."

The two of them walked towards the combat bridge, discussing resupply plans and honoring their fallen comrades. The turbolift opened onto the engineering veranda aft of the combat control enter. Strohmann News Network was broadcasting about the invasion of the Automatons on the western front and the movement of helldiver resources from operation Valiant Enclosure on Terminid contested worlds. This video was a rerun and had been running for a few days now.

"This is Caretta Kelley signing off." The news cast ended and the console switched to commercial. "Liberty is sweet, that's why we try to capture the democratic taste of a vote cast flawlessly on a ballot in every freedom bar. Freedom bars, sweet like liberty. Requisition yours today."

The two men walked past the tv screen - until the ship received the next Strohmann news update, there was no point in stopping to watch the TV. Even when Brasch Tactics came on they didn't need the advice. Owens had drilled in the information given by the famous general's show through the biography of the man. They had treated it as the companies' survival bible and it had gotten them through some scrapes.

Calvin and Jacob arrived on the combat bridge. They saluted Democracy Officer Gamacho, who returned their salute.

"Greetings gentlemen, let's get this out of the way shall we?

"Calvin nodded. "Yes sir."

"Space Chief Prime Calvin Crawley of the helldivers corps, in honor of your service to Super Earth and Managed Democracy, I by the authority given me by lady liberty, hereby promote you to the rank of Death Captain and append you this medal." He pinned the shiny skull on Calvin's chest. It made him swell with pride."

"I also in the light of the loss of your commanding officer, Death Captain Drax Owens, turn over the command of this vessel, the Fist of Family Values to you."

Calvin noticed that the democracy officer had misspoken Drex's name, but he said nothing. He only nodded and said "Thank you sir."

Calvin did not look forward to taking command. He felt inside like he would never stand up to what Drex was. He could never be as good a commander or a man of democracy such as him.

The Democracy officer did something similar for Jacob, pinning him with a medal and advancing his rank to master Sergeant before he called Tak the pelican pilot forward from the small entourage.

"As the new commander you must decide what punishment this pelican pilot will receive for the abandonment of his post." The Democracy Officer said to Calvin.

"Wait, what?" Calvin was bewildered by the statement. He didn't know if he had heard the Democracy officer correctly.

"Are you questioning my orders so soon after advancement Captain Crawley?" The Democracy officer asked, stoic.

"N-no, I just wanted to make sure I had heard you correctly sir." Calvin replied. He looked around at Jacob and some of the others gathered here. "What are the charges laid before this man?"

Gamacho looked irritated. When Democracy Officers spoke, their constituents listened closely. It was unusual for them to say something twice.

"This pelican pilot abandoned his vehicle in a hostile combat zone, potentially risking a total loss of a helldiver squad. The charge laid against him is dereliction of duty in the defense of managed democracy and his duties to Super Earth. As you are his commanding officer, you must decide his punishment."

Calvin only just caught himself from being completely slack jawed at the order. If Tak had not came out of the pelican, then he himself would likely not be alive right now. His mind raced looking for anything that could pardon the man, but he knew going against a Democracy Officer's orders would land him in a re-education camp... or worse.

The command console chimed - an S.O.S. priority alert.

Calvin was relieved as the Democracy Officer headed over to the console. An opening had presented itself. "I decide that his punishment should be determined through formal court-martial when we arrive back at Castor for resupply."

Tak's face darkened. The man looked completely defeated. He probably was thinking that his punishment would be more severe with a court-martial. Usually when a court-martial was declared it meant a reduction in citizenship class if not outright revoking it. These were the lighter punishments, more serious infractions often resulted in death.

"Very Well," The Democracy Officer said while reading through the emergency missive on the console.

With the drama in the bridge concluded, Calvin flexed his new authority by ordering everyone back to their stations.

"What does the missive say?"

"Emergency Evacuation required of essential scientific personnel. Code Alpha six two-two-one." The Democracy Officer recited the code attached to the S.O.S.

It was Calvin's turn to scowl. "We don't have the supplies to sustain an engagement."

The S.O.S. beacon had been lit right underneath the Super Destroyer's orbital position, miles below. It meant that a science outpost had been detected by the bots and were going to have some heat their way. The closest Super Destroyer was normally required to respond to prevent immediate loss of essential personnel.

Jacob requested permission to speak.

"We gonna go down there and rescue us some civilians, we make it quick we don't even need much fire power."

Calvin nodded, a quick engagement could work, the civilians might even have some weaponry available.

"Your call, Captain." Gamacho stated, knowing full well that with the ship's comical lacking of supplies this would be a suicide mission if even the smallest of automaton assault squads attended the party. Calvin's face fel hard like stone as he thought through the risk to life if they stayed or left. In the end he decided the potential loss of essential scientific personnel was too much a risk to democracy.

"Thaw the last sleeper, get me everything on-board that we can use on planet and for the love of all that is free and democratic sir, get us some assistance down there."

"You have my word." The Democracy Officer coded some things into the command console and the ship went to battle-stations.

The lights on the combat bridge dimmed to a red. "All hell-divers to hellpods." The ship's announcement circuit began.