[X] Sayaka and Timur are right. You must help Ulyana. To hell with the mission, family comes first!
5.
CGB COLD WEATHER TRAINING AREA GAMMA, NOVY TERRA
STRANA MECHTY, CLAN HOMEWORLDS
DEEP PERIPHERY
12 AUGUST 3040
You looked at Leonid, his steely glare reflected back at you. He knew what you were about to say, he was daring you to say it.
"No." The words made Rikke look at you sharply. You turned you eyes to her. "I will not leave her behind. Let Sayaka go, we will help Ulyana. You can go on to the rendezvous without us."
"Stravag!" Cursed Leonid. "I already told you, we do not have time for this!." He took a step towards you, his fists curled into tight balls, and arm already tensing, as his shoulder rolled back.
In a smooth, practised motion, you swung the rifle off of your shoulder and racked the bolt, loading a single cartridge from the magazine into the weapon's chamber. Leonid stopped cold, but his eyes burned with barely contained fury.
You stared back at him.
"Let her go Rikke." You ordered, without taking your eyes off of Leonid. The other girl loosened her grip for just a moment and Sayaka took the opportunity to quickly shake herself free. Rikke scrabbled to grab hold of her again, but Sayaka dodged away, stepping backwards to stand by your side.
"Traitors!" Spat Rikke, acidly.
"We are Ghost Bears." Retorted Sayaka. "We do not abandon each other. Not ever."
"The mission always comes first, you stupid little su-" Rikke began before Leonid cut her off with a raised hand.
"That is enough. We will go." He turned to look at Timur. "Come on."
Timur shook his head. "Neg, I am staying with them."
Leonid growled in frustration. "Useless! Have your way, we will not be a part of this." He turned to continue walking down the hill, and Rikke began to follow him.
"Wait!" Sayaka blurted out. "Leave us the flare gun so we can get help for Ulyana. She won't be able to walk out of here."
Leonid snorted derisively. "No. This is your folly, you can deal with it on your own."
"The tent then. We can make it into stretcher to carry her." You interjected. "Timur can swap his pack with Rikke."
The two looked at each other, before Leonid slowly nodded. "Fine, see how far that gets you."
With an expression full of resentment Rikke unclipped her pack, and shrugged the straps off of her shoulders into Leonid hands. The larger boy stomped over to you, as Rikke snatched the pack that Timur offered after taking it off his own back.
Leonid stopped just short of you, holding the bag out for you to take. You took the strap in one hand, but the other boy held his grasp tight. He leant forward and growled into your ear.
"I will enjoy watching the instructors break you down to the Labour caste for this."
You pulled hard on the strap, and after a moment of further resistance Leonid let the tent bag go. The released tension pulled into into your chest with a thump.
The exchange completed both Rikke and Leonid turned and left without another word. The three of you watched them go for a few metres, perhaps unsure whether they would change their minds, before turning to your own task.
Fortunately you did not have to walk far back up the hill, to enter the gully. Perhaps twenty metres back the slope flattened out your side enough for the three of your to get down by making careful use of rocky handholds and the occasional tree root.
Once down into the channel you picked your way over and around the debris that littered its floor as quickly as you could. As soon as you reached the tree Sayaka rushed forward, already hauling her bag with the field aid kit off her back and kneeling down beside Ulyana's stricken form.
The other girl was visibly weaker, barely able to groan in pain. Up close her injury looked even worse. Blood soaked her coat where the branch poked out between her ribs. Knowing that every moment could be the difference between life and death, the three of you immediately set to work applying all the emergency medical skills you had been taught.
Sayaka packed the wound around the jagged branch that impaled Ulyana's side with absorbent foam and gauze, whilst Timur retrieved one of the pre-measured anaesthetic patches from the kit and carefully applied it to the girl's neck. Her panicked breathing soon slowed, and her head lolled to the side, her eyes going unfocused, as she mumbled barely audible words of thanks.
Sayaka placed her ear against the achingly slow rise and all of the wounded girl's chest and listened for a moment. "I do not hear any wheezing. I think it might have missed her lung."
That was good, this far from an aid station and with only the meagre supplies your had with your, a punctured lung would probably mean Ulyana's death no matter what you did.
Now you had to figure out how to get her out of here. Had Leonid given you the flare gun, it would have been a simple matter of firing off an emergency flare into the darkening sky and waiting for help to arrive from an VTOL. Without it you were now on your own.
"We can not remove the branch. She would bleed to death." Stated Sayaka grimly.
"We can't stay here." You said. "Even if Leonid does tell the instructors where we are, it might take them a day or more to find us..." You trailed off. You all knew that she was unlikely to last that long.
"We cut it off then." Said Timur confidently.
"With what?" Countered Sayaka. "Leonid had the knife."
"This." With a flourish Timur pulled a thin metallic chain out of a pocket of the aid kit, on each link was a small flat nosed blade. It was a hand chain saw, designed too conduct field amputations if there was no other option."
You smiled at him. "Good thinking."
Working carefully around Ulyana, so as to try not to disturb the piece of tree stuck inside her, Timur bent down and looped the chain around the the branch behind her back where it was still connected to the rest of the trunk. Meanwhile both Sayaka and you helped to support the injured girl so that when she did come free she would not fall.
With a nod to show you were ready, Timur began two rock the chain blade back and forth against the wood, each pull biting away more material. Ulyana shivered and groaned from the vibration, and Sayaka squeezed her hand reassuringly.
It took ten agonizing minutes for Timur to cut all the way through the branch, and by the end the blades, designed to cut through soft bone rather than frozen wood, had been blunted to near uselessness. Timur's hands were rubbed raw with blisters from grasping onto the small handles, but he grinned in satisfaction as the chain broke through the last fibres and pulled free.
After that you all worked together to lash the poles and fabric from your tent into a stretcher, that you could use to carry Ulyana. It was actually designed with exactly this kind of secondary purpose in mind, and assembling one like it had been an activity you had practised on several of the outdoor camping excursions that the instructors took you on each year.
Lowering the injured girl onto it it was another matter. The piece of branch sticking out of her back pressed into the fabric, causing her to whimper in pain when you tried. With few other resources available, you bundled up your coat and used it to support her body, so that the spike did not touch the canvas beneath.
By the time you had finished, the last rays of the sun had long slipped below the horizon, and the inky blackness of space stretched above your heads, pierced by the twinkling stars that spread across the sky. Reaching the rendezvous on time now would be almost impossible, doubly so carrying Ulyana on a stretcher between you.
Even so you had no other choice but to try.
It took all three of you to manuever the stretcher around trees and boulders in the gulley as you followed it downhill. Pushing and pulling over every obstacle, Ulyana letting out gasps of pain in her semi-conscious state every time she was bumped against something.
Eventually the rock walls either side began to dop away, and the channel you were in began to shallow out as you reached the bottom of the hill, coming out into a thicker forest of trees that clustered along the edges of the valley floor. You took turns, with two carrying the stretcher and the third in front, picking out a clear path between the shadowed trunks. Time began to blur a little as you hiked onward though the seemingly endless trees. With only the illuminated compass dial for reassurance that your were going the right direction.
"Do you think she was right" Timur spoke up.
You had all talked sporadically along the way, keeping your spirits up with mostly meaningless and idle chatter. About other children in the creche, the instructors you disliked, or your favourite characters from Clan Spaniel. (Star Commander Rex, was yours of course.)
Anything to try and keep Ulyana awake. She had been drifting in and out of lucidity the whole way, mumbling replies to the questions you had asked he, little of which made much sense. It didn't matter, you all knew it would be really bad if she fell asleep.
Timur of course was the one to break the pattern.
"About what?" Asked Sayaka.
"That they will fail us, for not getting there in time." He replied.
"Having second thoughts?" She said sharply.
"No.. no." Timur paused, searching for the right words. "But, it is just the idea of not being a warrior. It, worries me."
"To late for worries now." She retorted with a dry laugh.
You glanced over your shoulder at them. The same thought, and Leonid's spiteful parting words, had been swirling around you head too. You knew the many warrior-cadets who did not make the cut in training ended up in the Labour and Technician castes. Some of the the other kids spoke about it in hushed tones when they thought the adults were not listening.
You had learned about the other castes of course, and even gone on field trips to see some of the vital work they did for the benefit of the clan.
But the truest and greatest service possible was always to fight in defence of others. To be a warrior standing tall against the chaos and barbarism that threatened to destroy humanity.
It was what you had been training for your entire life. The only thing you could ever remember truly wanting. Could you be anything less than that?
Tilling fields, or fixing machinery. Never to earn a bloodname?
You swallowed.
"It doesn't matter. The Clan protects it's own, that is what we have done . If it is decided that we should not be warriors, than that is what will be best for everyone." |You tried to put as much certainty into the words as you could muster.
You hoped those words were true.
You decided to break this thread of conversation.
"Timur you have been carrying for a while. Swap with me."
Timur nodded in thanks, and both he and Sayaka carefully lowered Ulyana down to the ground to allow you to take over his position. As you passed the rifle over to the other boy, and then bent down to pick up the stretcher poles, you heard Sayaka gasp.
"Ulyana! She has stopped breathing!" What felt like a shot of cold ice surged through your veins.
Timur dropped the rifle into the snow with a crunch and scrambled for the aid kit, whilst Sayaka had already started CPR compressions on the other girl's chest. A terrible part of you considered how awful it would be if she died, and you had thrown away you chance at glory for nothing. It was not fair.
Sayaka's arms got tired and you took over compressions. Mechanically pumping up and down, to the rhythm of a song that the Med-tech instructor had taught you during one of the training classes. Interspersing each set with breaths into her pale lips. Trickles of blood seeped out of the bandages stuffed around the broken off branch every time she pushed down her hands, It stained your hands red.
"Roland!"
You kept pumping up and down, trying not to flinch each time you heard an awful crunching sound as her ribs were depressed.
"Roland!" Sayaka yelled again.
You shook your head, and kept going. You had to keep going. You wouldn't give up.
Not ever.
A light swept across your face, and strong hands lifted you away from Ulyana. You tried to fight them off and get back to her. Gently, but firmly they set you down and held you still.
"That is enough boy. You did your part." Instructor Gustav's low voice echoed in your ears.
Around you the instructors and med-techs gathered around the stricken girl, speaking to each other quickly and calmly. Timur and Sayaka stood off to one side, each with their own chaperones.
In the distance you could hear the loud, steady whine of an approaching VTOL's engines.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Senior Instructor Star Captain Gabrielle Kabrinski stood ramrod straight in front of you. Her graying hair was tied up into a braid that circled the top of her head like the crowns of ancient queens you had seen in some historical reference books.
Toweringly impossibly tall over you, with broad shoulders and well muscled arms, the Star Captain had been an Elemental before ageing out of front line service, and opted to command a training creche rather than transfer to a Solahma infantry unit.
For most of your time in the creche she had been a distant impossibly stern figure of ultimate authority. The person to which only the most serious of infractions were reported. Standing before you in person for the first time, she was no less intimidating.
The rest of your squad, not just Sayaka, and Timur, but Rikke and Leonid too, stood beside you in rigid positions of attention. Nobody daring to even move a muscle as the Star Captain regarded with searching eyes.
After what seemed like an hour she finally spoke.
"Training Creche 14 Beta Squad 2. I am disappointed. The independent navigation and survival exercise was meant to be the culmination of the tests before your entrance into the Sibko. An opportunity not only for you to demonstrate the skills you have learned so far, but also your ability to work together as a unit.
That this cohesion was broken, even in the face of exceptional circumstances is deeply troubling. You are Ghost bears, not a squabbling pack of Fire Mandrills! You are expected to uphold and defend the unity of our family.
I have reviewed the situation, and I do not believe that the Clan would be best served by the loss of four more potential warriors. The loss of a whole squad in a single exercise is heavy enough for this creche, another would be too much. But make no mistake, there are others who would see all of you relegated from the warrior caste for what has occurred."
Your mouth was dry. The whole of Squad 5; Isobel, Marian, Ivan, Dirk, and of course Ulyana had been conspicuously absent from the crechehall since your return from the Training area. Abandoning their team mate had obviously been seen as a total failure in the eyes of instructor staff. The Star Captain's words only confirmed it.
"I see the merit in each of your actions, and in light of that I have decided that you will not be ejected from the warrior caste, and that your training will continue. The official report will read that Leonid split the squad to ensure help was sought for Ulyana, whilst Roland lead another group in providing immediate aid for her. Unity was m,maintained, and the best outcome achieved given the circumstances. None of you shall say any different, quaiff?
"Aff Star Captain!" You all yelled in reply.
"Good." She murmured. "This is the decision that should have been made, and it is by the Founder's providence alone that in your quarrelling you arrived at it anyway. You shall all count yourselves fortunate."
"Leonid, Rikke. Your actions were in concordance with the strictest interpretation military regulations. The mission does come first, and it is likely that as warriors you may one day face a situation where members of the Clan must be sacrificed for the greater good. However that was not the case in this instance. A cadet training exercise is not a campaign
Whilst I will not find fault with your judgement as Squad leader Leonid, I will encourage you both to attend supplementary sessions with Oathkeeper Harold. The Way of the Ghost Bear encompasses far more than regulations, he will help you understand that more fully.
You may go."
"Aff Star Captain!" The both yelled.
They left. Though not without shooting dagger like glares at each of you as they walked past. Leonid reserving his full displeasure for you.
The Star Captain waited patiently for them to exit the room before turning her eyes back to you.
"As for you. You upheld the spirit of our Clan in stopping at nothing to save Ulyana. I have received a commendation on your behalf from not only Instructor Gustav, but also Senior Med-tech Loren, that without your actions Ulyana would almost certainly have died.
That commitment to each other is what sets us Ghost Bears apart from the other clans. Nevertheless are some in our Can, and many without, who will view what you did as an act of weakness. Eyes will be on you now, and your performance from this point onwards must exceed exceptions to remove any doubt of your capabilities.
Disobeying an order from your superior is a serious infraction. Despite your intentions, your actions must have consequences. Therefore your punishment will be to...
[] Repeat your final Creche Assessment- This will be recorded on your Codex, and will be viewed negatively by any future superiors.
[] Join a Labour work detail- You will have to work several set hours every week with the labour caste. Negative stigma associated with this, and will reduces your free time. Not recorded in the codex.
[] Perform an act of Surkai for Leonid- You will make a formal oathbound apology, at some point Leonid will ask you to do something and you cannot refuse.
"You will carry this out without complaint, am I understood?"
"Aff Star Captain!" All three of you shouted in unison.
She brought her hands together and nodded. "Very well. You are dismissed cadets."
All three of your turned to leave the Star Captain's office, but Sayaka hesitated, and stopped.
"Permission to speak Star Captain?"
"Granted." There was a warning edge to her tone.
"What about Ulyana? Will she be okay? Where is she?"
The woman's eyes softened.
"Thanks to you three the med-techs were able to save her life, though not without issue. She is stable for now at a special recovery facility at Katyusha city. I am afraid that her injuries were severe enough that she will not be able to continue in the Sibko program. But she will no doubt find fulfilling service in another caste once her recovery is complete.
Go now children, I have work to do."
AN: Writer's block sucks...
