While good men die (865 hits)
Category: Quotes & StoriesRating: 1.78 on 16 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by Hookhand (View user info) at 2007-04-22 04:30:36 EDT
"I fucking hope this works!" Jenkins said, firing his hand-held boltdriver, securing the casing of the triton bomb to the floor of the cave.
Troy said nothing as he watched Jenkins stow the boltdriver in its plastic case and zip the case up in his ruck. He helped Jenkins put the ruck on his back and the two of them joined the detachment of 30 Marines guarding the mouth of the cave.
Troy had attempted to explain the science behind using a Tritium bomb in concert with white phosphorous as Jenkins had been working steadily to secure the bomb to the ground to no avail. Jenkins was 29 years old; too old to learn anything now. He had enlisted on his 18th birthday and never looked back, leaving for basic training with just 3 weeks left in his last year of school. Troy now realized the folly of trying to explain the finer points of nuclear weaponry to a high school dropout.
As it had been explained to him, the swarm's mucus-covered skin was permeable to Helium 3, which would complex with the blood that allowed the creatures to survive the often sub zero temperatures deep in the caves and make them less hardy in the cold. Decaying Tritons would form Helium3. A quick scan on his wrist-mounted datalab showed the half-life of Tritium at 12 years; 11 years longer than Troy wanted to stick around to see the plan through. Dispersing the phosphorous was a 2-fold gambit; the eggheads back home wanted to see if fire would harm the creatures if it burned hotter than the standard-issue tracer rounds, and also if the Tritons (Radiactive Tritium nucleii) would result in successful phosphorescent reactions making the creatures more visible inside the caves.
Troy had been a Chemistry teacher back on earth, though his students were all Jenkins' age by now. Most of them had enlisted soon after their 18th birthday since the government promised less than 16 years of duty (14 of it travel to and from the planet) to anyone who enlisted as opposed to the life-time enlistment imposed on anyone selected by lottery before they enlisted. Most lottery-selected citizens were conscientious objectors and committed suicide when their number was drawn. Troy had seen a generation of young men go off to fight on a planet from which it took news 7 years to filter back. When Congress allowed anyone from 18-55 to be selected, Troy had enlisted. 2 years later, anyone under 65 who could walk was eligible for conscription.
Project Talon, the Phosphor-Tritium bomb, was almost certain to fail. It would be 7 years before earth was notified of the failure. The eggheads would dick around for a few years and Congress would delay things a bit more. The money for a new project would trickle in, it would take 7 years to get the equipment and instructions to Troy's team and the cycle would begin again. Project Pegasus (Who the FUCK came up with these names, Troy wondered, smiling when he imagined the 6 months it probably took a Congressional sub-commitee to vote on it) hsd been a dismal failure. Pegasus had introduced the same CFCs banned on earth in an attempt to erode the planet's ozone and kill the cave-dwelling life forms with cosmic radiation. All it had done was sap the planet's thermal insulation and lower the temperature on the planet to 5 degrees above freezing (During the day) and much colder at night. The damn swarm was much better-suited to the cold than the men.
"We're too slow to adapt." Troy mused out loud, causing a few Marines to turn to face him in the back on the Rover. They turned back to stare off into space when they realized he hadn't been addressing them. "They fight over what to call their next colossal failure and wait 7 years while good men die." Somewhere in the back of the Rover, a man Troy couldn't see began sobbing and continued unabated as the first report of the exploding Tritium mine shook the Rover, jarring its passengers.
No one needed to say what was on everyone's mind. They would only have one shot at winning this thing in any of their lifetimes. If Project Talon was a bust, one way or another, none of these men would see home again.
User Reviews
Submitted by precision (user info) at 2007-04-23 16:49:00 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by JonnyX (user info) at 2007-04-23 15:50:09 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Starship Troopers, Junior Edition
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I was thinking the same thing
Submitted by JonnyX (user info) at 2007-04-23 15:50:09 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Starship Troopers, Junior Edition
Submitted by ChaosJester (user info) at 2007-04-23 11:00:28 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
meh...upon looking back, I think I rated this a little lower than it deserved.
So...
+2 for you to average it out.
Submitted by ICO (user info) at 2007-04-23 10:59:15 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by ChaosJester (user info) at 2007-04-23 10:08:54 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
You're marines sound like gaping vaginas who've got the collective brainpower of a flacid carrot. Most marines I've met thrive on shit like this and are (usually) of above-average intelligence.
________
And somehow you manage to place your own IQ right next to theirs within the first six characters you typed. +2 for that review alone, even though the story warrants another.
Submitted by DirtyHarry (user info) at 2007-04-23 10:49:30 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Awesome. I hope there is more to this.
Submitted by ChaosJester (user info) at 2007-04-23 10:08:54 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
You're marines sound like gaping vaginas who've got the collective brainpower of a flacid carrot. Most marines I've met thrive on shit like this and are (usually) of above-average intelligence.
Where's a damn atomic incinerator when you need one...
Submitted by CaptainThorns (user info) at 2007-04-23 09:28:54 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by czwij (user info) at 2007-04-23 08:56:45 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
cant help but think of starship troopers
Submitted by JoeyG (user info) at 2007-04-23 06:37:12 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
more please.
Submitted by Snare (user info) at 2007-04-23 00:39:27 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Have a plus2 from an old sci-fi nut.
Submitted by TheUniter (user info) at 2007-04-22 13:17:54 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by darko (user info) at 2007-04-22 11:44:51 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Be funny, damn it!
Submitted by Bubba2341 (user info) at 2007-04-22 10:56:12 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by frankthebear (user info) at 2007-04-22 06:48:27 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I'm getting a Metroid vibe from this story
any more to it?
Submitted by particle_man58 (user info) at 2007-04-22 05:00:03 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
This is really creepy.
Submitted by messmind (user info) at 2007-04-22 04:47:41 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2