Urban Renewal One

Dylan had his dropships land on the southern edge of the city and after the mass drivers had been deployed mustered the troops. Fifth platoon would be in the vanguard, accompanied by Trance, Rommie, Dr. Jackson and himself, then the Gremlins towing the trailers of flat-rats and finally fourth platoon bringing up the rear. Their objectives were to secure the cities civic center and then move to the water treatment plant and get water flowing once again. First, second and third platoons, led by Sergeant Major Beltran were to first secure the cities police headquarters then to repair the cities power distribution substations. Dylan had been in a quandary as to who should command the first second and third platoons Tyr would have been the obvious choice but he was on Arzawa III, a mistake on his part, he should have insisted that Tyr stay with the Lancers. Rommie was a possible choice but she was by nature a follower rather than a leader. She might hesitate at a critical moment. Hesitation was never one of Beka's problems but she had never led troops in combat before. Trance was out of the question so that left the Sergeant Major. Actually Beltran was a good choice; he had more combat experience than the majority of his Lancers had years. He was accustomed to giving orders and the men were used to obeying them. Also he was a Umbrite and the police headquarters was located in a Umbrite enclave. It might give the locals some confidence to see one of their own kind in command of the troops.

From the minute they stepped out of the dropship, it was apparent that the information obtained from the surveillance drone had underestimated the extent of the situation. Dylan's chronometer showed that it was nearly noon local time yet there was so much smoke in the air the sun was blotted out and it was as gloomy as late twilight. Ash was falling from the sky as if it was snow and from where he was standing he could not see a single undamaged building. Within minutes the rescue party was coughing as the smoke filled air assaulted their lungs.

When they entered the city proper they were able to see just how bad things had gotten. There were corpses lying in the street covered with clouds of buzzing green flies. A dog slunk out from an alleyway and began to dine on one the bodies; it growled as they passed but held it's ground. A smell of rotting meat now accompanied the smell of the smoke. A few people were visible wandering about aimlessly; they said nothing and simply stared at the passing troops, apparently too traumatized to care that help had arrived. A young boy about ten years old, either braver or more desperate than the other inhabitants, darted out from the shell of a building and approached Rommie. Dylan raised his hand and ordered the column to stop then retrieved a package of flat-rats from the trailer of one of the Gremlins. He opened took out one of the ration bars and took a bite to demonstrate that it was edible then offered the package to the boy. Wordlessly, the child snatched the package from Dylan's hand and retreated back into the building he had emerged from.

"Dylan," said Trance "this is bad, very bad. If these corpses aren't disposed of soon disease will break out and it will undoubtedly kill far more people than the riots have."

I know that Trance but we are just going to hope that things get settled on III quickly and we get extra troops here soon. We don't have enough manpower to make a dent in the clean up so the best we can do is restore order and get services working again and pray that the inhabitants come out of their shock and start helping themselves."

They hadn't gone more than a few blocks further into the heart of the city when Trance suddenly stopped. She appeared to be listening to something.

"This way," she said. "Someone needs help."

Dylan passed the word for the column to stop and then ordered the first squad of Fifth platoon to accompany him as he, Rommie and Dr Jackson started after Trance.

Trance led them up a side street and from the side street down a trash filled alley. The alley was a dead end alley ending up against the wall of another building. At the end of the alley was a woman; she was naked, sitting with her back to the wall knees drawn up to her chest and her arms wrapped around her knees. Her fists were tightly clinched and she was rocking back and forth making small whimpering noises.

Dylan started forward intending to go to her aid, as he did so he stepped on a piece of the strewn about rubbish there was a loud crunching sound as his foot crushed the trash. The noise must have caught the attention of the woman for she raised her head turning it towards the source of the noise. When her eyes focused on Dylan, her whimpering grew louder and she began to scoot backwards as if she was trying to somehow pass through the wall behind her. He felt a hand clamp firmly on his shoulder stopping his movement. Turning he saw the hand belonged to Dr Jackson.

"No" he said. "You'll only make things worse Captain. Let Trance and Rommie handle this."

The two women were already moving. They slowly approached the woman speaking softly "It's all right. No ones going to hurt you" The kind of noises a person might make when approaching an injured and frightened animal. When they got to the cringing woman Trance and Rommie squatted down beside her, still talking trying to calm her fears. After a few moments she stopped cowering and began to respond. The three women were talking too quietly for Dylan to follow their conversation but he was able to observe the woman hand Rommie something and Rommie go rigid for a moment.

Trance reached into her medical kit and extracted a small, square silver colored object. She shook it and it unfolded into a blanket-sized sheet of paper-thin metallic foil, it was an emergency thermal blanket. Trance helped the woman get to her feet and wrapped the blanket around her. As she did so Dylan and Dr. Jackson noticed several deep burns on her torso, something metallic gleamed through the burns. Apparently they had rescued an android not an organic woman.

Rommie turned towards the group waiting at the mouth of the alley calling out "McGrady" A short dark haired woman stepped forth. Lancer First Class McGrady was two inches shorter than the minimum height required to join the Lancers and looked about as dangerous as a child's doll, however she routinely scored perfect scores on her quarterly marksmanship tests and was the Andromeda Ascendant's unarmed combat instructor. She was unquestionably the deadliest woman in Andromeda's Lancer unit and arguably the most dangerous woman on the ship.

Rommie spoke briefly to her and then gently pushed the blanket-clad android in her direction. McGrady put an arm around the woman and began to walk with her back to the mouth of the alley. As they walked past Dylan and Dr. Jackson the injured android flinched and tried to open the distance between her and them. The Lancer gave the two men a contemptuous look and continued on with her charge, towards the Gremlins now parked in the street.

Rommie and Trance returned to the mouth of the alley. Trance looking shaken and Rommie looking as grim as Captain Hunt had ever seen her. She stopped in front of the two men and began to speak. There was coldness in her voice unlike anything Dylan could remember hearing before. "The man leading the gang that savaged her told her he was going to help her earn her emancipation fee. He made each man that used her pay her a sol." She held out her hand and opened it so that the two men could see what was in it. In the palm of her hand was over a score of the small and nearly worthless coins.