"Hey Chief," a trooper greeted when the metal door slid open.
Douglas Peters flipped his welding mask up and exchanged a high five with the approaching soldier. "Hey Gossard," he said. "You keeping the peace again?"
The trooper nodded. "We got the L.T. volunteering us to do the rounds while everyone's in stasis. It was an easy sell," he replied.
The Deck Chief eyed the trooper curiously. "You people passed up rest?"
"We passed up stasis," Gossard corrected."I don't know about the rest of them, but for me, it's like a coffin. I'll sleep on my bunk, thanks," he said, eying the wires sticking out of the marauder.
"Yeah, well, I'm just saying we gearheads down here would be thankful for some time off," Peters said. "But no. Marauders are down. The jets need fixing. The tubes need adjusting or one of you troopers would blow up on a drop..."
"I know. I know," Gossard sighed. "We Roughnecks don't complain, Doug"
"Doesn't mean the other squads don't. And don't get me going about the fleet officers," the Chief snorted. "Now correct me if I'm wrong- aren't you supposed to be going around on these rounds, Jeff?"
The trooper shrugged. "Everyone's on stasis. The only pilots around are either with Marlowe or flying the air patrol... Who's there to regulate?" he pointed out. "Rico's not exactly strict with the posts. As long as everything gets done... Figured I can be a gearhead for the night. Of course, that is, if you let me-"
"Get up on the cockpit," the Chief instructed quickly before the trooper changes his mind. He watched the man grin before grabbing a few tools from his station and climbing up the marauder.
Douglas wasn't about to refuse help, especially not from someone like Jeff Gossard. They went to the same school after all. He was only Gossard's senior in university by a year but even then he knew that the guy didn't just study engineering. He actually had the talent for fixing things- an asset that's kept the Roughnecks alive on several occasions.
In fact, the Chief always found it odd that Gossard ended up to be a gun hand not a gear head.
As expected, it only took moments for Jeff to stick his head back out the cockpit looking absolutely mystified. "Who's marauder is this?" he asked.
"Tigers," the Chief replied.
"Huh. It looks like it's been mauled by one," Gossard shot back. "Amazing that they got back in one piece. They were one wire short of blasting this thing to smithereens."
Douglas cocked his head to one side. "Smithereens? That a technical term?"
"You know what I mean," came the dry reply before disappearing back into the cockpit.
Chief Peters chuckled before returning his attention back on the panel he was welding. Yes, he knew what he meant. Of course he did. He had the same reaction.
"Screw the hex on its place. Right top, left down, left top, right down. Make the gears all one face. Oil the plates so they go round," he heard one of the nearby specialists recite as she reassembled a part- a rhyme that originated from another Roughneck that came down on occasion.
Which reminded him- "Hey Jeff," he called out. "Where's the new kid?"
"Who? Andy? Cleaning the moritas," Gossard answered. "Why?"
"It's nothing. Last time she was here, she kinda said something about her friends promising to send her the new Electrostatic Hearts album... Care packages was yesterday and..." he shrugged.
"OH! My bad." The trooper pulled out a small card from his pocket and reaching down to hand it to him. "You audiophiles need to stick together."
"I'm surprised she knows the band at all. What was she when Electrostatic Hearts came out- fourteen?" Doug replied putting the card carefully into his pocket.
"You do know that the only song I know from that band is the song they have that was released to the fleet the other week," Jeff said before ducking back inside the marauder.
The Chief of the Deck rolled his eyes but smiled. Everyone has their favourite squads. His were the Roughnecks. Actually, if he had to take a poll amongst the gearheads, he was sure that the vast majority of them prefer Alpha squad. And it wasn't because a few of them came down from time to time to help. It helped, but it wasn't the reason.
Most of them found that the Roughnecks generally didn't have an ego.
Or at least, had remarkably less of it compared to other squads and fleet officers.
The members of Alpha squad went around being as amicable to everyone. They didn't boss people around even if their record was better than most. They didn't brag as much as the others even if they had the right to. They actually listen to what people like them had to say about how abused their machines come back and about life in general in this boat, as evidenced by the album he now has in his pocket.
Most squad leaders would come in demanding their gear be fixed first- The last time Rico came down, he said " You know, when you get around to it. As long as it's fixed by the next deployment, we're good."
The first time Chief Peters heard that from Rico, he was sure he had imagined things.
There was a loud ramming sound that caught his attention away from the marauder repair. Peters looked around at the noisy bay. Nothing looked out of the norm- his people were going around busy- but something didn't sit well. The noise that he heard wasn't anything he had ever heard inside the repair bay...
"You heard it too?" Gossard asked, sticking his head out of the cockpit with a frown. "This is not good." His frown deepened as he got out of the cockpit and headed straight for the door quicker than the chief thought was necessary.
He trailed behind the trooper curiously. "What's going on? Bugs?"
"No. Worse," the trooper answered, morita already at the ready when the door slid open. "There's a reason why we patrol even if there are no bugs."
As soon as he saw the corridor, Chief Peters knew something was terribly wrong. Max Brutto was shoved a fleet officer away. Behind him was one of mechanics, on the floor, looking absolutely shell shocked and trying to keep her partially unzipped suit closed with her clasped hands.
"Maria?" Peters called out watching the girl's eyes very slowly move to focus on him. But she didn't say a word.
"Ha! You're in trouble, trooper. See the pins?" the fleet pilot spat out pointing at the insignia on his shoulder. "I'm a Major. I outrank you, you idiot. Striking a superior officer- that gets you court marshalled."
"Brutto?" Gossard eyed his squadmate for clarification lowering his morita very slowly.
"The lady said no," the younger trooper growled. "And all the Major I see is a Major pain in the ass."
"Sir?" The corporal prompted.
"Never laid hands on her. Your boy saw wrong, Corporal," the officer replied.
Chief Douglas saw his friend take a small glance back at him and his mechanic before he said, "I'm not so sure about that Major-"
"Whatever," the officer interrupted. "If you report this, it's your word against mine," he said coolly. "I'm going to my bunk."
"Gossard," Brutto pretty much hissed in protest as the Major started down the corridor. "He can't get away with this."
"He's not. Write the incident report," Gossard instructed. "And let's get this gearhead checked out at sickbay."
"You troopers are wasting your time," the man sang as he went down the hall.
"Maria, I'm taking you to the doctor," the Chief finally said, going down in one knee. But when he touched the girl's shoulder, she flinched and scampered a few feet away. He looked up at the two troopers, both eyeing the officer with disdain.
"You know, it's officers like you that make the fleet look bad," a voice said at the other end. "You're under arrest, sir. Until Marlowe knows what to do with you."
The Chief saw the young lieutenant Rico walk forward with another Roughneck beside him.
"You don't have anything lieutenant. And you're not totally impartial because this is your squad," the officer said.
"Yeah, but you're forgetting something about my squad," Rico replied breezily. "We have Higgins."
The trooper to his right raised his hand and on his hand was a small camera. "And I have the assault on tape...before I got Rico."
Chief Peters knew where he was but for some reason, things started to play in slow motion. He saw the officer shake his head, then suddenly moved to attack a terrified looking Private Higgins. Rico pushed the younger trooper away from his attacker. Brutto and Gossard both started running forward, presumably to stop the fleet officer from doing anymore damage.
And then he heard a shot fired from behind.
Chief Peters saw the Major fall before he looked behind to see two more Roughnecks standing at the opposite end of the corridor.
"Andy!" Rico barked out in disbelief.
"Holy... Nice shot Anderson!" Brutto nudged the officer's arm with his foot.
"I really thought he was going to rip my head off..." Higgins said weakly.
"Andy, we're going to have a talk about the definition of TRIGGER HAPPY...," Gossard commented wryly.
"Andy," Rico prompted, "Seriously?"
The girl shrugged. "It's Flores' idea." She pointed to the red head already walking forward. "And I thought it was legit. We heard you from ways away. The guy's flying high on something. "
Rico gaped- an expression the chief rarely sees on an officer. "Andy, he might have a few screws loose but when is it ever 'legit' to shoot a person?"
"Johnny. The guy just assaulted this poor girl, threatened dishonourably discharge Brutto, and was about to attack you," Dizzy Flores reminded. "He's lucky Anderson had half the mind to set her rifle to shoot tranquillisers. This might not be the best way to handle things but it was by far the fastest. And as you can see, it's handled."
"Someone shoot me," Lieutenant Rico sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Fine, I get your point. Not like we can do anything now anyway," he acquiesced. "Higgins, give the tape to Brutto. Brutto, send in the tape with your incident report and file formal charges. Goss, you and I are bringing this guy to the infirmary then when he wakes up, take him to the brig. Diz and Andy, take the girl to a medic," he instructed. "Sounds good? Because we all might just buy the farm on this."
Doug heard a round of agreement as the squad sprang into action. "Have I ever told you my squad is crazy?" Gossard told him proudly before he went to help Rico out with the Major.
More than once, Chief Peters thought as he trailed the two girls accompanying his mechanic.
It's why the Roughnecks were his favourite squad