After the Fact

[GSgt Mike Hefner 0]

A low rumble echoed in a distant mountain valley followed by the ground rolling arrhythmically beneath Mike Hefner's bunk. Yet another aftershock had hit that area of Avaros, but the tent had seen much worse and Mike had no doubt it would stand anything short of the ground opening to swallow it. But if that happened he figured he'd not have anything to worry about. He'd be dead.

 

So back to the task at hand, picking through the pile in front of him that used to be the mainstay of his combat gear. His weapons were cleaned, checked, and recharged. His back and arms were patched up better than some of the buildings around ever would be. But his PSDU probably would have to be replaced and his BD was pretty much shot.

 

"You'd think it could've taken a hit worse than that," Rocky muttered as he put the final touches on his phaser rifle. PFC Steve "Rocky" Petros had been with Mike and Matthews during the warehouse incident. Though he never got into the warehouse, the explosion created enough chaos for ten teams and threw enough dust, debris, and chemicals into the atmosphere so every piece of equipment needed to be stripped and cleaned. Rocky was making good progress. Mike couldn't get his mind past the gear he had taken for granted for so many years and was now rendered useless

 

"Yeah, but it's seen more action than it's supposed to," countered Mike.

 

"Damn," he muttered, holding the charred remains of a fatigue shirt in his hands. Attached to the forearm was a playing-card sized pliable screen that used to be a BioSign Detector – BSD – but was now not much more than a piece of scarred, withered plasticon. After peeling it off the sleeve he pressed the activation cell. Nothing. Not a blink. Now he only had one left, but hell – he'd take the life of the XO over his BS any day. He logged its time and place of death in his field book hoping the next batch of gear to reach Agincourt would have replacements.

 

The next and probably the most important piece of gear was a body suit, his PSDU – Proximity Sensor Dermal Unit – what Recon Omega called a Combat Skin. This light-weight, thin, microsensor loaded leotard sensed objects in close proximity and transmitted the information to Mike's epidermal neural receptors. It let him know about things like falling objects in burning warehouses well before his natural body sensed it and gave him an extra measure of reaction time. It probably allowed him to get to the Commander and Lieutenant before they were buried in debris, smothered in smoke, or burned to death. That one was going to be harder to replace. It was left over from his recon mission on Melkas III and since it was recon gear he'd be at the bottom of the list. He was a field medic now, not recon.

 

The signal to gear up curtailed his thoughts. Mike tucked the remains of his combat skin beneath the bunk, shouldered his equipment and joined the team for another go at Looter Central. Hopefully this time it wouldn't end in search and rescue, at least not the way the last trip did.