A SPARTAN'S WAR

Tina groaned and reached for her head, her helmet almost coming apart when she touched it. Her eyes began to focus and she saw the shattered glass of her side cockpit window where her head impacted. Her helmet had saved her life.

"Ben?" She called weakly, hearing the strain on the Raptor's engines, and the alarms blaring all throughout the cockpit. She turned her head slowly seeing Ben's bloody hand on the throttles. As her eyes followed his arm up they grew wider, "Ben… oh my god Ben!" Tina began fighting with her straps to unfasten herself from her seat.

"Stay there!" Ben's voice stopped her.

His helmet was shattered, his face a mass of blood and cuts where the cockpit had imploded. His left hand was gripping the control stick tightly, the left side of his body also cut and bleeding profusely.

"Ben you're hurt bad!" Tina barked, still trying to get her straps unfastened.

"Stay there!" Ben snapped, blood spraying from his lips. "I got her steady right now! I need a damage report Tina and fast!"

"Ben!" Endith's voice screamed, "By the Gods no!" She sprang up from the deck, a nasty cut on the side of her head leaking blood. "It's my fault! Ben I'm sorry!"

"It's not your fault!" Ben spoke as firmly as he could. "Countermeasures would have been for shit! The missile was locked on us the second it cleared the launcher! Forget it! Endith… I can barely see!"

Endith looked around for a cloth or something, and finding nothing she ripped off her combat vest and body armor to tear a piece from her uniform. She leaned over in front of Ben and gasped at the sight.

Ben smiled. "It looks worse than it is." He said. "My eyes, wipe my eyes."

Endith did as he told her, dabbing gently around his eyes soaking up the blood from his eye lashes and eyebrows. When she pulled away the blood soaked rag, his blue eyes were almost clear. He looked at her and even through the pain he forced a grin and winked.

"See… no problem." He told her. "Check the back."

Endith nodded and touched his cheek gently before moving for the door into the rear of the Raptor. She stopped at the door, her eyes wide in horror. The entire rear section of the Raptor was gone, and she could see jagged edges of where the ramp and doors used to be. She could just barely make out the tops of the trees far below them. The bodies of elf and genome were scattered all over, bracing against the wind whipping through the ship. Her eyes found Tarifa near the front, her arms wrapped around the body of the Wood Elves Queen. Martin was closest to her, pulling Walter into the command seat and strapping him in. Endith turned back to the front of the cockpit.

"Ben… the… the entire back of the ship is gone." She said in disbelief.

Ben grunted from his chair, "Figures." He commented. "That explains the play in the pedals. There's nothing there."

"One engine is gone!" Tina reported. "The other is holding at sixty percent power! I got no instruments Ben! None! The entire electrical system is fried! Even the fucking compass is gone!"

"What about the radio?" Ben asked.

"It's wasted." Tina replied.

Tina turned as Martin scrambled into the cockpit from the rear of the Raptor. His face was cut is several places, with a deep laceration on his shoulder. He stopped when he saw the condition of the cockpit, the blood splattered over the instruments and Ben trying to keep them flying.

"Fuck!" He swore turning into the rear. "Anja get up here fast!" He screamed.

He looked at Endith, who was very pale, and squatting behind Ben, using a blood soaked cloth to keep his eyes clear.

"Ah Ben… I don't know if you are aware… but I should probably tell you we are missing the last two feet of the ship." Martin spoke.

Ben chuckled. "Yeah… we got a hole in us as big as my ex-wife's ass!"

Anja scrambled in behind Martin, her arm and shoulder cut up, but not bad. She took one look at the blood and moved immediately to the space between the seats. She looked at Ben as she began pulling items from her bag. "How are you doing Ben?" She asked.

"You know me doc! Got to do everything the hard way." Ben answered.

"Anything feel broken?" She asked.

Ben shook his head slowly. "My left shoulder hurts like a bitch, but I still got all my fingers and toes."

Anja motioned Endith out of the way with her head and moved to the back of his chair. She reached up over the jagged edges of the side of the cockpit and looked at his blood soaked shoulder. Slowly and carefully she pulled aside the sliced flight suit and winced.

"Bad uhu," Ben asked hearing her soft intake of breath.

"It's pretty deep. I won't lie to you." Anja said, "Any numbness?"

Ben shook his head. "Feels like I got a piece of metal stuck in there though. Pinching a nerve maybe."

"I can't see anything Ben. And if I go poking around and there is something in there, you could lose the use of your arm while we're still in the air." Anja told him.

"Well shit that wouldn't be good! Pack it with bandages and we'll go from there." Ben spoke.

"I can stick you for the pain." Anja said.

Ben nodded slowly, "Not too much though, just enough to take the edge off."

Martin's ear piece crackled on the command channel. "Raptor One! Go!"

"Skipper, you guys took a bad one there! What's your damage?" The voice of the pilot from Raptor Three asked.

"Bad. What's your status?"

"Minor damage to one wing, but we are losing fuel pretty quick." The pilot replied.

Ben shook his head as he heard the pilot's report. "Kenny, we're crippled and flying blind!" Ben spoke now. "We got no instruments and no ass end to our ship. I'm barely keeping her up as it is. How much fuel you got?"

"Enough to stay with you for another forty minutes at this speed Ben." The pilot replied. "I'm only leaking below three hundred knots."

"No good Kenny. You won't make it back unless you leave now." Ben said.

"We can't just leave you boss." The pilot spoke.

"Yes you can." Ben told him. "Once you clear our wake, contact the encampment and have another bird take off and head our way. What's my heading?"

"You're heading southeast boss; away from the elves' city. On your current heading and speed you'll cross into Nebraska in about fifteen minutes."

"It can't be helped." Ben spoke. "If I try to turn her, I might lose her. I'll keep her as straight and level as I can and I'll try to stay above a thousand feet. They should be able to pick me up pretty easily once they are up. My radar cross section has to be as big as a jumbo fucking jet by now." Ben said.

They heard Kenny chuckled from his cockpit. "That it is Ben. What are your casualties?"

Ben looked at Anja who shook her head. "Some cuts and scrapes… but we didn't lose anyone thank god." Ben spoke. "Start heading back Kenny. Once they link up with me, I'll set down and they can pick us up immediately. I'll see you soon."

"Kicking it Ben," The pilot replied. "Stay loose."

They saw the second Raptor pull up alongside them and then speed ahead. They watched it until they could no longer see the flame from its engines as Kenny turned and headed back to Mountain City.

Anja pulled the injector from Ben's neck. "That should dull the pain to a throb Ben." She spoke.

"Good." Ben said. "Tina… cut all non-essential power and route it to the engine. Use the back up generators to go through the shut down procedures."

Tina looked at him. "Ben if I do that, we'll go dark."

Ben nodded. "We're already lighting up any radar scope within six hundred miles." He said. "If we don't reduce our cross section… we're going to have company real soon." He looked out what remained of his cockpit window. "What's our fuel?"

Tina looked at Endith. "The right gauge on the engineer's panel Endith. What does it say?"

Endith turned and looked at the panel. Her eyes narrowed and she turned back to Tina, "Two thousand pounds."

"Fuck!" Ben barked. "Get me a mirror or something metallic!"

Endith looked on the deck and found the shiny piece of metal that had once formed the inner shell of the cockpit. "Here." She said.

"Endith… ease it out the side here real slow." Ben told her, motioning with his head.

Endith eased over alongside him and did as he instructed, fighting the push of the wind. Ben squint his eyes as he tried to see the left side of his aircraft.

"Sonofabitch," He swore. "The entire fuselage and engine housing is gone. The missile not only ripped off our engine, but it took half the wing and all the fuel in that tank."

"What does that mean Ben?" Martin asked.

"It means Skipper that we got about another twenty minutes of flying time at the rate we're burning fuel." Ben answered him.

Endith looked at Martin, her eyes wide. "That will put us inside The Wastes." She gasped.

"Ah fuck!" Martin barked. "Can this night get any better?"

"Look on the bright side Skipper!" Ben said with a laugh. "We could be back there with the uglies."

Martin reached forward and touched Ben's right shoulder. "Can you set us down?" He asked.

Ben nodded. "I'll get us down in one piece Martin." He spoke. "There won't be much left, but I'll get us down in one piece."

Martin nodded. "Good enough." He turned and headed into the back, Anja on his heels.

Endith moved between the two seats and looked at Ben, feeling responsible for his injuries and their entire predicament. Her eyes began to tear up just as Ben looked at her.

"Hey! This isn't your fault." Ben spoke.

"I wasn't fast enough." Endith spoke, her voice shaky.

Tina looked at her. "There's no way we could have beaten that missile Endith." She told her. "This is not your fault."

"We're going to need your help to land this heap." Ben spoke smiling at her. "Besides… we've been in tighter spots haven't we Tina? Remember Iraq?"

"I try not to." Tina answered, her eyes glued to the ground below them. Palina greeted her husband at the base of the ramp when Raptor Three landed on the platform and Kenny killed the engines. Standing with her were two dozen more Dragoons and the officer from Tareif's Division that he had promised Tarifa too. Telan stood at attention next to his wife who wore a worried expression on her face, her eyes searching for Tarifa.

"Tareif what happen? Where is Tarifa?" Palina asked.

"The Assassins had missiles." Tareif replied. "One of them struck her craft and did heavy damage. Our pilot had to return or we would have run out of fuel as well. Another craft is meeting us here and we are going back."

As if on cue, another Raptor roared out of the night sky and started its approach to another platform.

"I will come with you." Palina spoke.

Tareif looked at Telan. "You were not due here until tomorrow Senior Captain." He spoke.

"The Queen is my future mate War Master, and your daughter. It is my duty to be here." The young officer answered.

Tareif caught the look from his wife out of the corner of his eye, but said nothing. He nodded at Telan. "As soon as their craft lands have the men board Captain."

"Shall I have the half breeds arrested War Master?" Telan asked arrogantly.

Tareif looked at him, as did the five Dragoons that had exited the Raptor with their War Master. They had fought beside the half breed Genomes on the ground, shoulder to shoulder and been accepted as members of their team. The Genomes had even taken orders from Tareif himself when he had split their forces and conducted a small counterattack. "Arrested for what?" He asked.

"Chief Minister Raloa is saying the mission was a failure because the half breed Genome Hunter commanded the mission and not yourself." Telan told him.

Tareif turned as the Raptor lowered to the platform and its ramp came down. "Get the men on board Senior Captain. And you will do nothing unless I order it."

Telan nodded, "As you order War Master."

Palina waited until the young elf was out of ear shot before turning to face her husband. "You promised our daughter to that fool?" She hissed at him.

"He is a fine officer!" Tareif hissed back at her.

"He is a pompous fool Tareif! Just like his parents and his entire family!" Palina barked. "They are all pompous fools who crave nothing but power. And this is the man you wish to be your daughter's mate?"

"Palina… you must understand I did…"

"What you did was wrong husband!" Palina told him. "I thought we had decided long ago to never direct our children's fates. We agreed on that Tareif did we not? We promised each other we would not meddle in our children's lives or their decisions. Tarifa will not allow you to do this."

"She will do as I tell her." He said.

"You would force her?" Palina asked her eyes wide. "How… how could you do such a thing?"

"Palina…"

"You lied to me husband." Palina said. "You lied to me."

Tareif watched her turn away from him and she marched towards the Raptor, its engines at full power and screaming for release.

War Master Tareif of the High Elves was in for a very long night.