Chapter 17
Jack/Drac
Jack stared at the transmit for a moment. He remembered his days in M.E.R.C, back when he was known as Drac, and when his lover Dog had been alive.
Dog fell silently, blood pouring from a wound in her chest as the energy sword was ripped from the hand of the Sangheili by Drac who died second, as he jumped over the Semi-melted sandbags which had been protecting him, running towards Dogs fleeing Murderer.
Jack, or Drac as he used to be known shook his head, a wave of memories flooded his brain, memories of being Drac.
"How did they know" He asked himself, glancing from the Screen of his PDA to the distant hanger bay to take the Short-Sword he had been allocated back two years ago when he was a member of Green-Boar.
He remembered how he didn't die, although he wished he had.
Drac lay on the ground. His shoulder was burning. And he couldn't move. He watched as the other M.E.R.C's destroyed a wraith and moved to their next rally point, abandoning him and Dog, Dog was coughing up blood, and it was obvious she was dying. Dog died silently, in a quiet little corner of the galaxy as was the duty of all marines. He looked back to the M.E.R.C's as they slid into the distance.
They thought he and Dog were dead. They were only half right.
Gradually, an hour after he had been shot, his body started to heal its self, the augmentations given to him on the first day as a M.E.R.C doing their work.
Another hour passed and it became dark. He was strong enough to stand, but he couldn't anyway.
"What's the point" he asked himself out loud.
A medic came sliding over to him holding a med pack in her hands. In the darkness he mistook her for Dog, and answered her questions without second thought, then slid into unconsciousness.
When he woke again he was in an infirmary, back on the ship Maracaiboin deep orbit around the planet he had almost died on.
From there he changed his name to Jack, because it was similar to his nick name and easy to remember, and asked to be forgotten as A M.E.R.C when the organisation was disbanded.
He caught hold of himself from his daydreams when he walked into the door. His Short Sword had been kept in a separate hanger in the Maracaibosince the incident.
He punched in his access code and entered into the dark hanger bay. As he entered the lights fizzed back into life.
And he stared at his Shortie, remembering how much he had loved that ship.
He continued to stare at it for quite some time, until he said, with heartfelt passion "And thus it comes full circle."
Almost two weeks had passed on the planet; Roger was the unofficial leader of the combined groups. It turned out that the H.U.N.T.E.R unit had the same mission as them, to find the corporal and his Neural Lace. When they found the M.E.R.C ship they fired on it because it was classified a stolen vessel.
Everyone was in the right place at the wrong time, and now they were all stranded here on the Class D planet with the faint hope that help would arrive.
Sarah and Jackal were practicing with her blades, Sorrung-Yaan was talking to Roger and Roman, Ziizika was on patrol with Alexia.
Sarah's blade came down then in the swiftest of motions came back up, while her foot lashed out, knocking Jackal onto the ground.
"SHIT" he exclaimed, as Sarah held a hand out to the fallen muscle man, she glared at him and withdrew her hand, letting him get back up on his own.
"No need to be rude" she said, sheathing her blade.
"No… I just realised we lost two million dollars when that Alien blew up our Sword" Jackal said, Sarah turned to him and laughed.
"Let's go find Roman, last I checked he found a few crates of Jim Bean stashed somewhere" Sarah said, motioning to the three figures sitting in the middle of the camp.
"Good morning sunshine, the world say's hello" an annoying voice said, as its owner tapped on the glass of the Cryostasis Tube in which Jack was currently residing.
"Wake up Mr. Sleepy head, welcome to your worst nightmare" The annoying voice continued, and Jack almost would have hit the guy had it not been for the glass in front of him, and doing so would probably get him court martialled.
"Bugger off, I'm trying to get some sleep" he replied to the person trying to wake him up.
"Is that any way to talk to your superiors?" the annoying voice replied,
"Bugger off, sir… I'm trying to get some sleep" said Jack as he finally got up, he watched as the 6 ft 6 man in the High classed Marine uniform began to chuckle.
He looks Normal someone said as Jacks cold feet touched the ground, he cracked his neck and relieved the whiplash he was still getting over.
everything checks out, your good to go
Jack flexed his muscles and asked how long he'd been out
"Only a couple of days follow me" the reply came as the High classed Marine led Jack out of the Shortie and into the military docking yard.
All around him were the vibrant colours of the cityscape, the sounds of vehicles driving to and fro, people talking and other daily activities could be heard from the tarmac of the old runway which was lined with hundreds of Long-swords, Short-Swords, Hornets, and all manors of military aircraft that spanned as far as the eye could see. And he knew then that something big was going to happen, and that he would be smack bang in the middle of it again.
"Now before you get your upgraded armaments here in Chi-Ceti4-" Superior said, moving around Drac and placing his hand on Drac's shoulder then continuing his sentence,
"-There's some paperwork I need you to sign for me…" Jack/Drac looked at him blankly and said three words that spelled the exact opposite of what he was feeling,
"Sounds like fun…"