Read Online Salvage Marines (Necrospace Book 1) by Sean-Michael Argo - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Sean-Michael Argo
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sector having been classified as necrospace, the corporate protocol demanded that Reaper elements sweep, clear, and salvage it as part of an overall reconnaissance mission to support the hive fleet.
Those orders had come down nine months ago and since then Samuel and the salvage marines had been marching through the dead system. For the most part the missions planetside had been general sweep and clear engagements met with little resistance beyond the occasional squatter community.
Most of the time the various facilities and factory outposts were completely abandoned. The salvage marines were free to chop the scrap and haul it to the tug ship without firing a single shot. Samuel, like the rest of the recruits, had become quite expert at operating forklifts, gravity cranes, and hand welders.
Tuck, a marine from Squad Ulanti, had taken to calling the hand welder the true symbol of the salvage marine, not the death’s head image that was etched into their ships, weapons, and armor.
There had been a handful of violent encounters over the past months, though none as savage as the campaign on M5597. Red List ships made regular runs through the sector. It was a convenient shortcut between various corporate held territories for those ships and individuals who sought to remain outside said corporate notice or attention. Due to the traffic flow, a number of squatter communities had sprung up as the otherwise nomadic space folk who lived on the fringes of human society claimed the abandoned buildings as their own.
While most ships and communities scattered and fled at the approach of the Reaper fleet, some of the squatters rejected the notion of “corporate salvage rights”. Those few squatters who chose to fight were quickly routed by the salvage marines, and generally after the initial firefight, most would lay down arms. One void battle with the Reaper frigates that destroyed several Red List ships was all it took to send a clear message to everyone in the sector to vacate or be destroyed.
It had sickened Samuel to drive people out of their homes, more so when he had to shoot squatters, which he had done on three separate occasions. Though as time passed, Samuel found that the continued soldier wages and hazard duty bonuses stacked up higher than his compassion for strangers, so, for the sake of his family, he hardened his heart. As Ben had begun to say, there were only two kinds of people in the universe, those behind the gun and those in front of it.
Samuel’s thoughts were grim as he recalled Ben’s words. Watching his friend take notes, he found that he begrudgingly agreed. He wondered if Sura could see the world in such stark contrast, and smiled to himself as he acknowledged that, of course, she couldn’t. Her unassailable optimism was like a beam of light that seemed to be able to touch him in his darkest moments while in the depths of necrospace. For her, and for his son, he could be a soldier and a provider, even if that meant other people, like the squatters, had to be pushed out of his way.
With the hazard pay and soldier wages he’d earned in the last year he had paid off half of Orion’s life-bond. He would have already paid it completely if he had not been required to make minimum payments on his own life-bond. Now that Sura was nursing a newborn at home they’d decided that she should leave the workforce, so Samuel was covering her minimum payment as well. It tore him up to have only seen his wife once in the last year since joining the marines. His son was in his third month of life and Samuel had never physically seen him, but it felt good every time a pay cycle would hit.
A new photo was illuminated on the shift manager’s display and Samuel looked away from Ben’s notes to see a wide-angle shot of the full space hulk. He’d always heard of their legendary size, had even seen photos, but seeing one that he knew he was about to assault was awe inspiring.
Hulks were colossal conglomerates of
Those orders had come down nine months ago and since then Samuel and the salvage marines had been marching through the dead system. For the most part the missions planetside had been general sweep and clear engagements met with little resistance beyond the occasional squatter community.
Most of the time the various facilities and factory outposts were completely abandoned. The salvage marines were free to chop the scrap and haul it to the tug ship without firing a single shot. Samuel, like the rest of the recruits, had become quite expert at operating forklifts, gravity cranes, and hand welders.
Tuck, a marine from Squad Ulanti, had taken to calling the hand welder the true symbol of the salvage marine, not the death’s head image that was etched into their ships, weapons, and armor.
There had been a handful of violent encounters over the past months, though none as savage as the campaign on M5597. Red List ships made regular runs through the sector. It was a convenient shortcut between various corporate held territories for those ships and individuals who sought to remain outside said corporate notice or attention. Due to the traffic flow, a number of squatter communities had sprung up as the otherwise nomadic space folk who lived on the fringes of human society claimed the abandoned buildings as their own.
While most ships and communities scattered and fled at the approach of the Reaper fleet, some of the squatters rejected the notion of “corporate salvage rights”. Those few squatters who chose to fight were quickly routed by the salvage marines, and generally after the initial firefight, most would lay down arms. One void battle with the Reaper frigates that destroyed several Red List ships was all it took to send a clear message to everyone in the sector to vacate or be destroyed.
It had sickened Samuel to drive people out of their homes, more so when he had to shoot squatters, which he had done on three separate occasions. Though as time passed, Samuel found that the continued soldier wages and hazard duty bonuses stacked up higher than his compassion for strangers, so, for the sake of his family, he hardened his heart. As Ben had begun to say, there were only two kinds of people in the universe, those behind the gun and those in front of it.
Samuel’s thoughts were grim as he recalled Ben’s words. Watching his friend take notes, he found that he begrudgingly agreed. He wondered if Sura could see the world in such stark contrast, and smiled to himself as he acknowledged that, of course, she couldn’t. Her unassailable optimism was like a beam of light that seemed to be able to touch him in his darkest moments while in the depths of necrospace. For her, and for his son, he could be a soldier and a provider, even if that meant other people, like the squatters, had to be pushed out of his way.
With the hazard pay and soldier wages he’d earned in the last year he had paid off half of Orion’s life-bond. He would have already paid it completely if he had not been required to make minimum payments on his own life-bond. Now that Sura was nursing a newborn at home they’d decided that she should leave the workforce, so Samuel was covering her minimum payment as well. It tore him up to have only seen his wife once in the last year since joining the marines. His son was in his third month of life and Samuel had never physically seen him, but it felt good every time a pay cycle would hit.
A new photo was illuminated on the shift manager’s display and Samuel looked away from Ben’s notes to see a wide-angle shot of the full space hulk. He’d always heard of their legendary size, had even seen photos, but seeing one that he knew he was about to assault was awe inspiring.
Hulks were colossal conglomerates of
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