Sotina was tired, so very tired. It was a bone weary kind of tired that shamed the exhaustion she had known on her home planet. Dukenau IV did that to people, especially to Terrans. The atmosphere had less oxygen, so she was always panting for air. The high G planet also made just moving a chore. She was only five foot three and barely weighed 100 pounds on earth, but here she weighted nearly 175 and her muscles ached by the end of the day. Even her bio-enhanced body felt the strain.
Dukenau IV was just marginally habitable, but it was mineral rich. The majority of the population were transient miners. A few administrators, accountants, and other professionals handled all of the white-collar work of running the planet. They stayed in a self-sustaining complex with artificially induced gravity and air. A cottage industry had sprung up catering to the miners in the few "cities" on the planet. Brothels, bars, and flophouses outnumbered regular buildings, with most of the workers living in prefab hovels.
Sotina was one of the thirty colonial marines on planet. Dukenau was well within the terran sphere, so their duties were more constabulary than defensive. She was the lone woman in the company and Dukenau provided hardships other than just physical for her. Unlike her fellow marines she couldn't go out on leave and enjoy the limited diversions the main city of Tharp had to offer. On a world like this there were only two kinds of women, those who did it for money and those who were "good" women. The good women category included a few entrepreneurs, the wives and daughters of the administrators and the occasional Sky pilot. "Good" women were never found out in bars and thus any female who was in such environs was assumed to be fair game.
She could of course wear her uniform, but that defeated the purpose of going out, nothing ever happened when a Marine was around. Even the toughest miners had learned in the school of hard knocks to avoid the Marines. Combat trained and bio-enhanced a single Marine was more than enough to keep a city like Tharp in line. In her combat armor and carrying her Mk 7001 assault cannon she was more than a match for the whole population of the planet. Diversion could be had with the members of her company of course, but Sotina avoided that. She had seen too many instances where personal ties to fellow marines had ended up costing both dearly. She had also cultivated something of an Ice queen reputation that discouraged replacements from pressing a suit.
She had been on patrol at the Caravack mines for most of the day and now sat on a bench in the barracks locker room. She was too tired to even begin the complicated process of removing her armor. Corporal Tasker and Private Runyard had already changed into street clothes and left so she had the place to herself.
She was still sitting there when she heard raised voices coming from the duty station. The argument escalated and she was actually beginning to get curious when the door opened and the young Navy Captain stormed in.
"Excuse me Gunny," he said, looking embarrassed.
"No sweat," she replied.
"Do you happen to know who's on right now?"
She depressed the stud in her left gauntlet that unlocked the small repeater housed on her forearm and then punched in a series of codes with her other hand.
"Marks is over at the mines and Dayton is on patrol in Tharp. Why?"
"The planetary governor is out front raising hell."
"What's he want?"
"A marine detachment."
She laughed then. The young officer was staring at her, but then he too broke out in a grin.
"Civilians."
"Yeah. But this one is at least nominally my superior and he's being a bigger ass than usual."
"I'll deal with him for you," she said, rising and putting her helmet back on.
"Thanks gunny," he said.
"No problem," she replied, her voice now sounding deep and menacing, piped through a distortion matrix for just that effect.
She walked through the doors, into the small adjoining anteroom, where a few desks and a bench were set up to handle visitors and complaints. This was Navy territory, not her problem, but the Captain was a good kid and she didn't see any reason for him to catch shit if the governor was asking after Marines.
He was a gaunt man, with thin lips. Sotina never really noticed more about him. She just remembered how those lips could go from obsequious smile to sneer depending on whom he was addressing.
"There you are," he said imperiously, "Call out your men and report to my chambers."
"Have you declared martial law?" she asked.
"What? No, of course not!"
"Then I don't take orders from you," she said, turning on her heels.
"Captain! I order you to have this insubordinate trash thrown in irons!" the gaunt man demanded.
"I don't have any authority over the Marine detachment here," he stated flatly.
"You there, come back this instant, I didn't dismiss you!"
She sighed heavily and turned, walking up to him and grabbing the front of his expensively tailored robes. With little effort she hoisted him up and off the floor.
"Understand this. I don't care who you were blowing or who you had your old lady putting out for to get where you are. It cuts no ice with me. Your fancy robes, your tokens of office and the rest of the crap. Makes me no never mind. The imperial Marine detachment on this jerkwater planet is my responsibility and I answer to no one other than the Regional military command on Solstice. The only way you give me orders is if you declare a state of emergency. Otherwise, you ask like everyone else who thinks their problem is the empire's. You got it?"
When he didn't respond she shook him for emphasis.
"I...Can't...Hear...YOU!"
"I'm sorry," he said, almost choking on his pride as he did so.
She lowered him to the floor and stepped back. Hers was an autonomous command, but she didn't want to push the issue too far. Part of the reason she even had it was because she was judicious in the use of force and more or less careful in exerting her authority. Command would back her one hundred percent on refusing to surrender her authority to a planetary official, but they would bar-b-que her ass for causing problems if his complaint were legit.
"Now, what do you need from His majesty's forces?" she asked reasonably.
"I need a detachment to provide protection for a very important visitor," he said, trying to regain his dignity as he straightened his robes.
"If I provided even a man to every person who visits here who thinks they deserve protection I wouldn't have a command. Planetary bodyguards are the navy's responsibility."
"I offered to send some men," the Captain added.
"And I want marines," he said, regaining some of his earlier arrogance.
"Want in one hand, shit in the other, see which gets full first."
"You really are an insufferable man," the governor said.
"Said the pot to the kettle."
"I haven't time for this. Will you, Please, send some men?"
He sounded desperate and while she could see it pained him, that please had seemed sincere.
"When is this VIP arriving?"
"In thirty minutes."
"Half an hour? You've got solid brass balls."
"Spare me. Will you send some men or not?"
"There are thirty Marines on this planet your lordship," she said as sarcastically as she could through the transmitter, "twenty are in Tharp, getting high, getting drunk, getting laid, getting into a fight or some combination thereof. Five are stationed on the other side of the planet at Carbon Dale, one's on duty at the mines, one's on duty in Tharp, two are AWOL, again, and if I knew where to find those two shit birds I'd already be kicking their asses. And I'm off duty. The next time you plan on asking us to do something for you, I suggest a week's notice at the least so I can adjust the duty roster."
"Will you come then?"
"Fuck," she said and heaved a big sigh.
The best thing to do would be tell him to fuck off. On the other hand, if some corporate big wig got snuffed, it'd be her ass. Never mind that security wasn't her responsibility. They'd roast her over a slow fire and she knew it.
"Give me a minute to load up," she said at last.
Sotina walked back into the squad bay and opened the weapons locker. She took down her autocannon and shrugged into the heavy ammo backpack the big gun used. She effortlessly made the connections. She checked her load, full 10,000 rounds, checked her power supply, 89%, checked the auto feed and auto jam clearing mechanism.
She put four high explosive 40mm grenades in her arm launcher, replacing the tear gas crowd control load she usually carried and made her way back to the anteroom.
***
Sotina stood on the raised landing pad within the biosphere and fought back a yawn. The view from the top of the Governor's palace was impressive, several skyscrapers loomed and the edges of the sphere were tinted blue to close out the bleak landscape outside.
The VIP, a beautiful woman in her early twenties was standing at the foot of the ramp to her ship, while the Governor continued his oratory. She was tall, willowy, with blonde hair and sparkling blue eyes. She was also leggy and trim. Sotina was more interested in her ship than the VIP though.
It was sleek, black, and boasted dual Roxxoco 850s. She knew those engines, the Marine's light transport landing ship used them and the power they delivered was far beyond anything a civilian liner would ever need. That little ship could out run all but the fastest interceptors.
Or it could fight. She recognized the apertures in the nose and wings. They were covered to give it the appearance of an unarmed transport. She had the hunch though, that it was armed to the teeth and she hadn't failed to notice the small clear dome on the dorsal fin either. Shield generator or she was a doggie.
The governor seemed to like to hear the sound of his own voice and the girl was beginning to show signs of loosing her patience. The security folks were fidgeting and pacing. Sotina noticed a shuttle moving across the sky and was watching it when it suddenly skewed towards the pad. No one else seemed to notice, but as she watched she realized it was coming in dead on and would crash full broadside into the sleek black ship.
She was moving before she knew it, grabbing the governor by the back of his robe, she literally threw him back towards the blast sealed entrance to the palace. The girl only had a moment to protest, before Sotina flung her like a rag doll over her shoulder and bolted for the safety of a low, armored retaining wall. None of the other security had even reacted when the small shuttle plowed headlong into the transport.
Metal screamed, deformed and snapped. Sparks flew as both the shuttle and the transport scraped along the concrete of the pad. The transport's delicate landing gear gave and the body crashed to the tarmac. Sotina was thrown to the deck as the huge support struts on the pad buckled. As suddenly as it had started the sound stopped. An eerie quiet settled and the marine stood to survey the damage.
The shuttle had cut the transport in half and as she watched the bow door cycled open and twenty armed men rushed out.
The girl was on her stomach behind Sotina and just starting to rise. Sotina touched the stud in her gauntlet that started the small motor rotating the six barrels of her auto cannon. She then sent 200 rounds into the mob of men with a carefully controlled burst. The cannon's ripping scream eclipsing the bark and pop of their assorted weapons.
