Ioborne: Chapter Five
#5 of Ioborne
Ioborne Chapter Five
Harrison and Rockstead spent more time with Gunner after their daily duties. Gunner had always figured that the bigger quieter newfoundland was the one who wore the pants in the relationship, but was proven wrong. It was probably for the best that Duke didn't try to stuff his massive meat tool into anyone, it was painful for Gunner to even think about it.
Gunner had explored his body, finding he enjoyed being somewhere in the middle of the two. Both were attentive and experienced.
It was two days until they'd land. Bridge woke Gunner in the middle of the night. Duke was still fast asleep, James was on duty.
"There's an emergency, Staff Sergeant."
"What is it?"
"We've recieved some sporadic messages, and I've managed to piece the information back together. It seems the Luna colony has revolted against the Terran Authority. They've bombarded off several coastal continents causing tsunamis, and have even bombarded parts of Africa and South America.
"Death count is upwards of two-billion and climbing," the AI dramatically paused, "The military has mobilized."
"What does that all mean to us? We're six months away."
"It means our mission is scrubbed, temporarily. While our company goes to war. It may take three to four years for Terra to reclaim Luna based on estimates I have on Luna's armament. Then it would take them a minimum of two years to recover the resources to fund the mssion out here."
It became hard for Gunner to focus on what he was being told. If their company arrived in five years, it would still take years to build a space port. The soonest he could return home is a decade.
Something churned in his insides.
"Staff Sergeant, please try to calm down, your condition is beginning to act up."
The latrine was much further than he remembered, but Gunner managed to hold the vomit back long enough to make it to the toilet. The nausea passed nearly an hour later.
"What was that?" he asked Bridge.
"I do not know. We need to focus on acquiring the nanobots so we can get to the bottom of it."
"Sarge?" Someone came into the bathroom, It was Private Diaz, the chihuahua looked quite shaken up. Then again, he always looked like that. "I think we have a problem."
He was called out to the observation deck. Gunner could see Io, but it was on the otherside of a cloud. "What is that?"
James was the first to speak, "It's parts of Europa that have yet to settle."
"Can we go around?" Gunner asked.
"No can do Sarge, we change our trajectory and we can end up falling into Jupiter or fly through space until the day after forever."
"Well how bad is the stuff in the belt?"
"They range anywhere between golf sized to the size of a dumptruck."
"Can we slow down so it doesn't smash through the hull?"
"Nope. Not unless we actually want to fall into Jupiter."
"Sounds like we don't have very many options."
Bridge came to, "We're going to have to put as many people in engineroom, seal off the compartments, and we can put the mining lasers to use."
"What about the mining lasers?" Gunner asked.
"Already one step ahead of you Sarge," Harrison reported, "The both of them prepped and ready."
"Do we know who can use them?"
"Diaz and yours truly, trained him myself. But, there wouldn't be much time to train anyone else."
Bridge warned Gunner, "The operators of the mining lasers have a zero percent chance of survival. The hull will be able to withstand some of the impacts, but this observation deck is the only portal to everything outside the ship. It's the least protected, it will only take several blows before cracking and shattering."
James made eye contact with Gunner, in a look, the malamute told him that he knew what the odds were. "It has to be done," he said, "We have to do this, Sarge. So that the mission suceeds."
He didn't know about what happened back home.
"We don't have time Sarge, you have to make sure that everyone evacuates to the back of the boat."
Harrison escorted everyone out of the observation deck, leaving Diaz to start getting some practice shots.
"Please take care of Duke, he's not as strong as he thinks he is." James left Gunner with a kiss, sealing the door between them.
***
Gunner was the last one into the engineroom. His squad leaders provided him with a list of people who had elected to do damage control and try to patch holes as they started to form. They'd do their best to maintain the integrity of the vessel. There were two out of first squad, Harrison and Diaz out of second, three from third. Where was the fourth squad leader?
Corporal Duncan, the fourth squad leader was missing, Gunner found his second in command. PFC Rockstead. Rockstead was intent on staring at the deckplates in the engineroom.
"Sorry Sarge, Duncan said he wouldn't let me stay on the damage control team. I'm the best wielder we have," his voice cracked, his stoicism crumbling away with every breathe, "and he said I'm needed when we finally hit Io."
The tears began to fall, "What am I without him?"
The room fell to silence as the sound of rain filled the ship. They knew that it wasn't rain. Gunner could hear everyone start to whisper when the first jolt struck the ship. Gunner couldn't stop thinking about whether or not Harrison and Diaz were still alive and firing. Maybe they just missed some? How big was one that just struck was there going to be bigger ones on the way?
Larger chunks started to strike at the hull, the reverberations rung through the hollow vessel. It was only getting worse. The pelting continued, harder and faster. The inertia dampeners must have failed, or Harrison and Diaz failed. Then as quick as the flip of a switch, nothing. Everyone looked at one another.
Then everything started to spin, the gravity plates couldn't keep up, people started to float.
Bridge, give everyone orders to hold onto something! Was the last thing that Gunner remembered doing when suddenly everything went black.