Fade to Black
Martin Guiterrez
The Roughnecks arrived on Guadalcanal, their entry point into the queen's lair. Over 150 troopers were preparing marauders for the final infiltration.
Lieutenant Johnnie Rico noticed a taciturn, lightly tanned sergeant standing watch with two other troopers.
Barton saluted Rico and he said, "At ease, Sergeant."
"Congratulations on your promotion, sir." Barton said.
"Leonard, we're off duty." said Rico.
"Yes sir." Barton said.
Barton joined Rico and Flores at a table in the mess hall. "I see you two have gotten together." Barton said, a trace of sadness on his voice, as he remembered his own lonely state.
Sensing this, Dizzy said, "I know you're upset about Melissa, but keep in mind, not everything works out the way you want. Keep your chin up Lenny."
"Thanks Diz." Barton said.
Rico took Dizzy's hand, "With a little prompting from Carl, we got together." he said.
"Are you sure it wasn't the result of a cerebral push?" Barton said, with a small grin, "After all, Jenkins is a psychic."
"Who knows." Rico shrugged.
"Good luck you guys." Barton replied.
"Same to you, Lenny." said Rico.
Rico and Dizzy left, hand in hand, and Barton found himself feeling dejected and a little jealous of Rico. He took out Melissa's picture and gazed longingly at it. He knew she didn't love him and that she loved Alan and it hurt.
The Marauders were on the move and Lieutenant Starles called his men forth, "Alright, this is it troopers, the final battle. We're to serve as a distraction to the bugs here on Guadalcanal so that our friends in the garbage cans can get belowdecks, find the queen's chamber, and exterminate her."
Starles' squad and another squad, the one lead by Lieutenant Kohl, was embarking on this mission. They attacked a strangely lightly defended colony of warriors and were enroute to their second objective when they heard bug screeches all around them.
"Fife, radio SICON, tell them that..." said Starles.
"LT, the transmitter, our communications are being jammed." said Fife, "Some sort of anomaly."
"Go find out how it's happening, today." said Starles, "Arturo, Trigger, go with Fife."
"I'll go with them Lieutenant." Barton replied.
Starles nodded and Barton lead the other three men to the source where Fife reported the anomaly. There was a rippler smashing the relay station. Trigger gunned it down, but the rippler fired it's sharp thorns and struck Trigger in the stomach. Arturo grabbed Trigger, and dragged him to safety.
More screeches. Through the jungle canopy more ripplers appeared. From below, warriors tunneled into the fray. From the river came water tigers. From the trees, spiders.
"Someone's got to warn the LT." Barton said. They were hidden in a bamboo thicket, around the river bend from the arachnid horde.
"Who?" said Fife.
"Arturo." Barton said, "Run and warn the squad."
"Sarge, if I could pose a suggestion, Fife can run faster. He can warn the squad. I'll take Trigger and meet him there." Arturo replied.
"Right. You stay here, until you hear shooting. Then you take off running, following the river, and warn them." Barton said.
"Yes sir." said Arturo.
"Fife, go now." Barton said.
"Yes Sarge." said Fife.
Barton ran out and fired his Morita, downing several bugs. The warriors surged in an arachnid tide toward him and he kept firing and turned and fled at the last moment.
Barton ran through the jungle, the warrior bugs on his heels. He turned, firing more shots, killing more, but for every one he killed, more replaced it.
At the squad's position, Fife arrived with Arturo and Trigger in tow. DiStefano turned and said, "Fife, where's Barton."
Fife didn't say anything, his pale blue eyes were liquid, unblinking, his expression wooden.
"Fife?" said DiStefano.
Barton kept running until he reached a field of tall grasses. From the field came a mob of Imposter Bugs. He drew his shotgun and fired rounds into them.
The Imposter charged forward, and stuck it's talon into Barton's throat.
Leonard Barton remembered the time he had spent swimming among the Melanesian children of Guadalcanal, near the coral reef. He remembered the sense of peace, of calm, a break from his troubled life. His pain regarding Melissa faded to black in that idyllic setting.
Leonard Barton pitched backward, his helmet falling from his head, to the ground. The Imposter wiped it's talons clean of blood, like a praying mantis. To it, Barton was just another kill rather than a human being.
Barton's squad mates found him and gave him a proper burial. "You're finally at peace my friend." said DiStefano as he tied Barton's dogtags around the trigger guard of his Morita pushed into the ground muzzle first.
The queen had been defeated at a vast cost. Starles recalled this as the mop up operation which finished. There was Anthony Mazzola, the lover who died fighting; Leonard Barton, who had given his life for theirs; Heinrich Wenzl, whom in death was reunited with his wife; Sergeant Welsh, the man who died on Tophet, doing his job.
The sun set over the sea of white crosses, the graves of those killed in the South Pacific as the survivors marched to the skimmers, victorious, but feeling the pangs of loss.
The End?
