He held the rope tightly , his hands clasped around them like vises and took the first step out. His left foot dangled for a moment before he picked his right foot off the ground. With his legs wrapped around the the rope, he slowly climbed down.
As he climbed down, he could feel the heat draw out of his body, the fleeting warmth leaving as quickly as they arrived. The dark ,cold void sucked the remenants of the blazing fire from his arms and the intersection between his skin and the unforgiving environment a layer of cold sweat formed. His body quickly cooled and the sudden changed attacked his body with blunt force. Coughing, sneezing and a sinus pain that was beyond anything he felt before.
He quickly lost the strength to hold on. As his hands slipped, he wondered if he would die instantly or slowly freeze to death once he hit the ground. He landed on his back after falling a few feet. Stinging pain jammed between his ribs while a searing heat seemed to light his back on fire.
Not enough strength in his arms or legs to pick himself up. Dizzying headaches crumpled his body and his limbs burned as if hot knives speared his flesh. He tossed himself onto his belly. The ribs sprung in red hot agony . Moving his arms made his chest spasm. Huffing and coughing, he placed one hand under him and propped himself on his elbow. He began crawling, one elbow at a time, dragging his legs with him.
It only seemed like a few minutes before he lost consciousness as the red hot pokers of agony overtook him. His last thought was one of deprecation. What's the point in doing any of this? Death was the one surety in everything he did.
He felt hands grabbing him. Perhaps Death's agents had come to ferry him to oblivion. Perhaps Life, in her uncaring gaze, thought nothing of his plight. It would be odd then that Death was franticly carrying him, all his attention cast onto a failed soldier that Lady Life had tossed aside like a cheap bottle of liquor.
They were aggressive, those hands. Roughing him up, slapping his face and tearing at his clothing. Valhala had shunned him, sending his body and soul to Hel, to be forever shamed. A hot liquid splashed into his face, seeped into his eyes and forced them open. Shadowy figures stood beside him ,their forms warped by the water in his eyes. Dull sounds struck his skull like tiny hammers.
Then he heard his name. Someone calling him, from far voice too faded to discern any specific words other than his name. It came closer, growing sharper and clearer. It repeated his name, again and again but still he couldn't understand what it was asking. Each time it spoke, his head swelled. The maddening sensation of his brain being slowly crushed grew stronger with every shout of his name. The shadows were torturing him. It was the Crimson Falcons. They caught him. Damn bastards nearly killed his entire team on New Europa in the Kepler system. Insurgents, blood thirsty but even worse they were desperate. In their fight for freedom and contraband they had stumbled upon his recon team's platoon of tactical frames. Though to the untrained, the frames would look menacing, to those who had seen and fought them before the tactical frames were merely oversized soldiers. The Europa First insurgents did not fear them but were envious of their machines. At night, while his team slept in their jungle camp, the Europans attacked. They were ill prepared and lost handily but not without striking a critical blow. In Ryuki's haste to secure the frames and the secrets they held, he had let one of his own be captured. No doubt, he was tortured before dying. And now they were back from him. Those menacing shadows won't gain anything without a fight.
He was mumbling. Delirium had set in. The delusions were awfully strong. Both Barry and Ross had difficulty keeping him down. He shot his hand up into the air, his hand gripping an invisible gun. The trigger finger spasmed, as if unloading the entire magazine of the hallucinatory gun.
Now he yelled , garbled and enraged. Swinging his arm as he slowly regained control of his body. In that space between waking and dreaming, he was having a down right brutal battle. His hallucinations assaulted him and he fought back with kicks and punches. One punch landed on Barry's neck , a kick knocked over the tub of hot water simmering near his cot.
Gnashed teeth bared, like a wounded animal preparing its death stroke. Karin rushed in to the tent with a set of straps to restrain him. As they fought the supernaturally strong captain, Karin weaved the straps around his arms and legs, finally securing them to floor with heavy posts drilled into the ground.
Once consciousness began to return, the captain regained a modicum of self awareness. His punches weakened and the foam in his mouth fizzled. His eyes finally flickered on. He moaned in pain , his body aching from hypothermia and welts from falling back first. Dehydration had withered his brain , making the headache worse. His parched lips could only say "water".
He tried to stand up but the straps kept him firmly in place. The faces still blurry but he could tell they were friendly. "Can I stand up ?" he asked. They quickly undid the straps and brought him a canteen of water. The cold water seemed to burn his dry tongue. The water made his belly felt terrible but soon his body temperature warmed up enough to make the ice cubes in his stomach to melt.
"When did you find me" he asked his team. Barry stepped forward,and sat on the cot next to the captain. "Sir, its been 5 hours since you went in. After 30 minutes we headed back to the camp. We posted a sentry just in case you came back. It wasn't until we started tracking sound of machinery that we found you. The bay doors were grinding gears loud enough to hear it from a few kilometers away. When we got to the source of sound we found you lying crumpled on the ground. You were going into shock and in this kind of temperature that would have a death sentence.
"Did you see it?" he asked.
"The bay door? Yeah. I think we can pry it open with the winch on the Thunderhammer. We found something else though while you were gone. We pointed our thermal imagers straight down into the ground to see if we can spot some of those ice seals, or whatever they are. We found a source of heat, deep really deep in the ground. Considering the ship next to us, we could only guess that the engines are on. Sir, someone is in there. And I think they're trying to get this thing off the ground".
"Just great, its gotta be those damn robo-parasites that we found earlier. Whatever the hell they intend to do, I want to make sure they die trying it. If we aren't getting out of here, they aren't either. Alright, suit up and head..." he couldn't finish. Dehydration. Consciousness evaded him once he stood up. Too quick, his body wasn't prepared for the change in blood pressure. Coupled with his weakened state, the blood flow was too little to supply his hungry mind. His body went limp but was caught before hitting the ground. "Sir, you're going to need to lie down for awhile. You won't be doing anything", Barry said. He lifted the captains body onto the cot and unfurled a solar blanket over him. "Fine, prep the Thunderhammer for action. You don't need me to do that right?" he asked weakly.
It was nearly 30 meters tall and 50 meters long. Four giant legs, two on each side of the Thunderhammer's body. Each leg was made of three segments, with the lowest segment featuring oversized tank treads for high mobility while the upper segment attached to the body through gimbal joints. What would be its head was a giant double barrelled railgun turret. On its back was a crane and a giant 200 millimeter Groundthumper cannon, suitable for razing small cities. On a smaler turret on the forward section was a missile launcher with two missile racks of 20 Marauder cluster missiles each. Luckily the Thunderhammer featured missile magazines,filled with 200 more missiles to make up for the small initial payload.
Nearly 10 minutes was required for the reactor to power up from a cold start. On a normal day, dozens of pages of instructions would be followed to bring the beast online. Even before arming the main weapons, fuel lines had to be checked and anti-static reservoirs needed to be discharged. Today though only the necessities were done. Once the red light on the Master Arm switch lit up, it was was combat ready.
The sealed heatsinks it used to contain the scorching heat of all its weapon systems and reactor needed to be released every once in awhile to prevent premature combustion. These large black blocks rose up from the back of the Thunderhammer, arrayed like stegosaur spikes. Steam rose from them as the air drew up the heat that they held.
"All clear" Dizzy called out through the read. Wasp pressed forward on the throttle , easing it to speed. Its slow turn rate meant that nearly half the time it would take to reach the bay door would be taken up by maneuvering.
Ryuki still labored in pain while the others were off on their mission. The cold had wrought permanent damage , his hands and feet felt less responsive and heavy. Still he felt his duties outweighed whatever pain he may have. Sitting up was hard, his back still ached. Breathing was just as hard as his bruised ribs seemed to dig into his lungs with every breath.
Putting on his shoes required dexterity that had not returned to his hands yet. For once he appreciated the near-stupid simplicity of the design of his shoes. Often he found the dumbing down of equipment to be an affront to his intelligence. Now he realized why simplicity was necessary. Thank the Republic Corps of Engineers.
Exhaustion had set in , making his attempts at walking even more difficult. His legs felt heavy and his muscles worn. The lactic acid still chewed through the myofibril ,weakening his already reduced strength. It was no good. Months of therapy would be necessary to repair the damage. He needed a better way to move about.
"Karin, I need one of your spare power-frames" he radioed.
Once she arrived with the equipment the questions began. "Cap, what do you think you're going to do with this? You are aware that you've been relieved of duty right? Get back to bed, rest. We can take care of this", she said.
"No, Im not going to wait for death to snatch me in my sleep" he whispered. She didn't hear him. Her scowl still wracked her face. " Im not going to be idle during all this. Survival is our main objective right now, so we need every available person working on this. Give me the frame and let me do my job" he spoke louder.
"Alright sir. The frame is all yours. Just remember, you need bed rest no matter how much you think you can take. You aren't a robot that we could just replace worn parts. If something goes wrong down here, thats it, sir" she said as she stepped out of the tent.
Here it was, his chance to get back. His body burned, his head ached and his blood ran cold through his veins. Doing nothing had just as much a chance of failure as doing anything. He would not let his team take those chances without him. He pulled his hurting body into the frame. The armor plates clamped down ,encasing him in armor. Frosty steam rose from the frame as the power flowed through.
