"John
Darro clutched his small carry-on bag as the military shuttle fell
toward the vast white of the planet's surface, whispering curses as
turbulence shook the vessel. John couldn't see very far from the
shuttle as it descended through what looked like the beginning of a
massive snow storm, but as the craft cleared the lower clouds, the
outline of an extensive fortress system became evident.
Battle
armor bunkers, turrets and towers dotted the landscape around the
small landing area beneath the approaching transport. Half a dozen
other such bases were spread across the planet, enough living space
and services to support every single active marine, simultaneously.
The trip from
Gregorov had taken the Republican frigate less than two Gregorovian
standard days at full speed, making maximum velocity jumps into 3
systems. The frigate hadn't been much larger than the courier that
had delivered him to the Gregorov system. It had whisked John Darro
from the Space Station Forge to the frozen world of Semper,
far from the core of Human civilization, but at least he'd been
provided with proper quarters and a bed. And the translations between
systems had gotten less painful as well. Each jump seemed to get
successively easier for John to handle, a fact that most of the naval
officers took for granted.
And
the pilots had the audacity to arrive so very early in the morning.
“Mister Darro,”
a Marine Second Lieutenant with long blonde hair was waiting at the
bottom of the landing ramp, waving him off of the transport. The
Viking-11 star had not yet risen and the lieutenant was bundled up in
a vast duster, complete with a full fur liner. Faux-fur most likely,
but still much warmer than the blazer John wore. “This way, we’re
expecting a snow storm any minute, and dressed like that you won’t
last five seconds.
John shook with cold
as he hurried after the marine, his luggage in tow on anti-grav carts
provided by the base. They were running toward a small hatch in the
side of a concrete shelter and John wondered just what the
Lieutenant’s ass would look like if she weren’t wearing the
insulated coat."
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