"A soldier does not speak until spoken to by a superior officer." "A soldier shows no mercy." "Mercy is weakness." "Weakness is death." "The Forces are his family." "He is most happy when following orders." "A soldier lives to kill." "A soldier needs no friend or family." "War is his friend." "The Forces are his family." "Sir, Colonel Mekum has his new batch unpacked." "I think he wants to show them off." "Well..." " They're pretty." " What's so hot about them?" "They're very much improved, captain." "Colonel Mekum from HQ." "He's their commanding officer." "Sir." ""Improved." How?" "In every way possible." "You see, your old ones, they're selected at birth." "With my new ones, we're talking recombination." "They're practically manufactured, using DNA profiles and some manipulation." "More endurance, quicker responses better hand-eye improved technical training." "It's a whole different standard." "My daddy was in maintenance and he had a saying." "He used to say:" ""If it ain't broke, don't fix it."" "Maintenance." "I'm afraid I don't get your point." "The veterans you see standing before you here have been through all kinds of heavy shit." "They've always got the job done." "Your new soldiers, these hotshots, how much action have they seen?" "And are they battle-tested?" "How about a few tests, just to get you on board?" "Make you a believer." "Ninety-nine percent." "That's very good." "Seen enough, captain?" "What about endurance?" "Caine 607, forward." "Sir!" "Fifteen miles, 607, on the run." "You've got 60 minutes." "Go." "My man left exactly 20 minutes after yours." "Make a note of that." "Age is a factor." "But the real factor is the training program." "Especially the psychological." "The mind controls the body, after all." "And we're doing such wonderful things with the mind." "Sir!" "At ease, soldier." "What is the price of all that speed?" "Is your soldier tired?" "Tired?" "Todd ran the pace he's been taught to run and he's still strong." "Send him up the chain, Rube." "Soldier!" "Up the chain!" "Sir!" "607, on the double, up the chain." "Sir!" "What about spirit?" "I believe you mean AQ, captain." "Aggressive qualities." "Much higher." "Much better." "What if they fought?" "You mean up there?" "Go ahead, Rube." "Tell Todd to take him." "No." "No?" "Not fair." "No contest." "Send two more of your old ones up." "Romero, Goines, up the chain!" "Get him, men!" "Get down here." "Get down here!" "Get your ass down here on the double!" "Come on, double up!" "Down, down!" "Sir!" "Look at you." "Do you know how much it cost to breed you, you big moron?" "To train you?" "To feed you?" "What good is this man now?" "He's got no depth perception!" "All he can do is walk, point, and take the first hit." " What about the bodies?" " Waste disposal." "Fall in." "Sir!" "Todd was our best man." "You still don't get it, do you, captain?" "Your men are obsolete." "You'll write this up as a training accident and you'll make sure these bodies get dumped a long way from here." "We don't want any unnecessary questions." "Someone, please let the rest of us know what's going on!" "Hawkins!" "Give us something!" "Anything!" "Quiet, please!" "Quiet!" "How many of them are there?" "There is one man unarmed." "How could there only be one?" "How could he get here?" "He was unconscious when we found him." "We couldn't ask him anything." "Hang on." "Jimmy's back!" "There's nothing out there." "I couldn't see nobody." "Couldn't see no vehicles, no ship, nothing." "Plus the wind's up again real strong." "Everybody, calm down." "We have an injured man among us." "We all want to do the decent thing." "The decent thing is to help him." "Sandra, Mace's wife, is looking after him now." "Now, I'd like a vote of support from all of you." "You keep an eye on him, Mace." "Watch him." "There are words on his shoulder." "Tannhauser Gate Argentine Sector Shanghai 2012." "Sandra, the Tannhauser Gate was a battle." "He's a soldier." "Where's Nathan?" "Nathan." "Nathan!" "It's a tiger!" "Nathan, there's another tiger." "Help, help, help." "We're sorry if we woke you." "Just playing with the boy." "Sergeant I made something for you." "It's to help you walk, you see?" "Isn't it?" "Like this." "See?" "Here you go." "I don't see how you cannot remember how you got here, sergeant." "You're not a deserter, are you, sergeant?" "No, sir." "Then how come you're not with your unit?" "Come on, Slade, let the man eat." "It's not an unreasonable question." "How about it, sergeant?" "I was replaced." "Replaced?" "By a better soldier, sir." "When we left Earth 12 years ago, we never thought we'd end up here." "When we crashed, a lot of people died." "A few years later, when the dumpers started coming and dropping stuff people tried to get their attention with fires and explosions." "But it didn't work." "They must be unmanned or maybe they just don't care." "So we had to forget about a better life on the Trinity Moons." "One good thing, though." "Nobody bothers us." "Who'd fight for a godforsaken place like this?" "But I guess you like the fighting." "You must." "You're a soldier." "The biannual security sweep." "We'll be patrolling the Arcadia system." "We're going to set up unmanned monitoring stations here here, here, here." "Now, we send the new soldiers out on patrol." "Routine stuff as you say, captain, but good experience and I'll have a chance to see them in a non-training environment." "You're coming?" "Yes, captain." "I want to observe these men at close hand." "Well, what about opposition?" "It's all deserted." "We're just confirming that." "But say we do encounter activity." "Miners, refugees of some sort?" "Well, we won't." "If we do, they'll be officially classifiable as hostiles." "Just by being there?" "We don't want paperwork, and we certainly don't want passengers." "Understood?" "You have to watch out for those." "They probably wouldn't kill someone your size." "But someone smaller, like me or Nathan..." "He was bitten once and he almost died." "He was sick for a long time." "That's why he can't speak." "Here." "You try one." "Here." "Everything we own, sergeant, everything in the entire village we've had to salvage from out here." " You're all set, Jimmy." " Back in a minute." "Whatever looks useful, if we can get a chain to it we're gonna go for it." "You hear that?" "That means she's really close." "Jimmy, she's gonna blow!" "On my way!" "Line up!" "Come on, Jimmy!" "Jimmy, come on!" "Come on!" "Hurry up!" "Let's go!" " Mace!" " Give me your hand!" " Too strong!" " Stretch!" "Reach, Jimmy!" "Mace, I can't reach!" "Help!" "Pull!" "Mace!" "Help!" "Pull!" "All right, we got him!" "You were almost bacon on that one." "Thank you." "They're dumpers." "They come every 20 or 30 days." "Sergeant, the gun." "Please." "Whoo!" "Thanks, partner." "Them no-goods would've let me blow away." "Sergeant Todd what's it like?" "What's it like being a soldier?" "What do you think about?" "You must think about something." "What about feelings, then?" "You must feel something." "Fear." "Fear?" "Fear and discipline." "Now?" "Always." "Oh, my God." "Merry Christmas!" "Merry Christmas." "Ho, ho, ho!" "Merry Christmas, sergeant!" "I was gonna give this scarf to him last night, but he disappeared." "It's beautiful, Jimmy." "He'll love it." "Well, he saved my life out there." "I guess Mace told you." "You should give it to him yourself." "He's in the meeting room." "He's doing exercises." "Children..." "You're supposed to be doing your lessons." "Scarf." "People are upset about him." "There's going to be a meeting." "He's not fully recovered." "That's what scares people." "He gets stronger every day." "Are you scared of him, Mace?" "Yes." "I've never been afraid of anyone before." "Not like this." "I feel he could break me in half with no real effort and no real feeling." "He is most happy when following orders." "A soldier shows no mercy." "Mercy is weakness." "Weakness is death." "A soldier needs no friend or family." "War is his friend." "The Forces are his family." "Todd, what the hell do you think you're doing?" "You could have killed him." "No one here has any animosity towards you, sergeant." "None of us here is your enemy." "Furthermore, we respect your qualities." "We have no doubt that you are a very, very good soldier." "But because of your training we don't think you'll ever be able to function in a group like this a community of families of children where the ability to fight is not the sole purpose of existence." "You're different from us, sergeant." "We don't hate you for that." "But we have agreed that to try to include you would pose an intolerable risk to the community itself." "We'll give you any tools you need:" "Some warm clothing, some boots, a good knife." "Sergeant, you're our friend." "It's just..." "If you need us, you can ask us for help." "Command, we are on course for Arcadia 234." " How will you find him?" " He'll have stayed close to the wire." "What'll I tell the council?" " We all voted." " We voted wrong." "Todd!" "Todd..." "We were wrong." "We made a mistake." "We're sorry." "It's some kind of landing party." "Hey!" "Over here!" "Stay with me, sir." "All units stand by for Arcadia 234 security sweep." "Any trespassers will be considered hostile." "Wait!" "What's going on?" "Somebody's landing." "Jimmy Pig spotted a ship." "Two hostiles at 12:00." "Hostiles eliminated." "It's no good." "I've lost too much blood." "Why?" "Was it a mistake?" "Oh, God, no." "Not Sandra." "Please not Nathan." "Please..." "People!" "They spotted people." "Two civilians, unarmed." "They killed both of them." "They spotted smoke from some sort of camp." "Jesus Christ." "A camp?" "Excellent." "This'll be very good experience for the men." "Let's see how they do." "Civilians need to be protected." "Whoever they are, they don't belong there." "Officially, they're hostiles." "Three-man fire team only." "Prepare to deploy." "Everybody!" "Calm down!" "Calm down." "I'm going to go out and talk to them." "Those of you with weapons, prepare to defend us." "God help us." "Three-man fire team in position." "Crawler to fire team." "Engage." "Everything under control." " Is there resistance?" " Ineffectual." "Three men are going in to clean them out." "Caine's ordered the rest to hold back." "Sounds reckless." "Three against 50." "I can tell these men have no combat experience." "The old ones, the veterans they would've called for support, just in case." "Speaking of the old ones why don't we have Riley and his crew put up the monitoring unit?" "Atten-hut!" "Sir." "Riley?" " Will we be issued weapons, sir?" " No, Riley." "Only soldiers get weapons." "Yes, sir." "You don't even have to salute anymore, Riley." "Now!" "You need any help, partner?" "Okay." "Riley and team deploying monitor unit." "Don't panic!" "Up the stairs." "Come on." "Will, take him." "Go, go!" "Get inside the bedroom!" "Come in, Unit 703." "Unit 703, do you copy?" "A growl?" "He heard a growl?" "Well he didn't say the word "growl." He said, "a throat noise."" "But I asked him to imitate it, and it sounded like a growl to me." "We're obviously up against a significant military presence here." "Well, let's send in the rest of the men." "Absolutely not." "Those bastards are just waiting for us in there." "No." "We don't fall for an ambush." "Colonel my daddy always said:" ""When you want to insert a nail into a piece of wood you don't do anything fancy or glamorous." "Just take the damn hammer and hit the son of a bitch till it's in."" "What exactly does that crap mean in English, captain?" "Withdraw your men." "Load them up with heavy artillery." "At night, they'll go back and pound that place with mortars, rockets, cannons everything we got from a safe distance." "It ain't fancy but it will sure take care of your hostile military force." "All right, do it." "Withdraw the men." "Push really hard, okay?" "Hard." "Nathan." "They killed him, didn't they?" "How do you know they'll be back?" "Because they're soldiers, sir, like me." " Why are they doing this?" " They're obeying orders, sir." "It's their duty." "Do you know how many they'll be?" "Seventeen more, sir." "You can't fight 17 on your own." "You have to organize us." "We're not cowards." "We'll do as you tell us." " We'll fight." " No." "Why not?" "Soldiers deserve soldiers, sir." "But one soldier against 17?" "What are you gonna do?" "I'm going to kill them all, sir." "Crawlers 1 and 2 proceed to settlement and commence bombardment." "Crawler 1, we are red." "We are red." "Crawler 2 to Crawler 1." " Report." " Crawler 2, we are two down." "Responding to sniper activity." "Crawlers 1 and 2, split up." "Crawler 1, locate and neutralize the sniper." "Caine 607 proceed to the settlement and commence bombardment." "Roger, 1." "We're proceeding to target." "Crawler 1, deploying ground forces." "All units report." "438, negative." "515, negative." "523, negative." "Squad 1, to your 9." "Squad 2, stand by with covering fire." "Enemy sniper at 12:00." "Sniper located." " Ambush!" " Retreat." "I think we have to assume that the missing men are down." "Maybe you should've made them smart instead of fast." "Squad 1, do you copy?" "Squad 2, do you copy?" "Squad 3, do you copy?" "607 to Command." "1.5 clicks from settlement." "Will engage enemy in approximately two minutes." "Roger, 607." "Crawler 1 to Command." "We have lost radio contact with all ground units." "We are still searching for the sniper." "Crawler 2 to Crawler 1." "Come in, 1." "One." "Two to 1." "Take your port to our 9:00 and commence firing." "Affirmative, 2." "Port to 9 and commence firing." "Crawler 2 to Crawler 1." "Again, proceed to port 9." "Affirmative." "Proceed to port 9." "Where's my father?" "Two to 1." "You're still on 12:00." "Correct, 9." "Affirmative, 2." "Crawler 1." "You're on a collision course with me." "Affirmative, 2." "Crawler 1, do you copy?" "Crawler 2, do you copy?" "Are any of you men out there?" "Can any of you men hear me?" "Your men are obsolete." "Try Number 1." "I tried Number 1." "I can't get either." "This is bad." "We don't know what we're up against." "How many?" "They couldn't get figures on enemy troops." "We're sitting ducks." "There could be a few divisions out there." "We don't even have the weapons to arm the old soldiers." "Is that a recrimination?" "Because if it is, I will have you court-martialed." "No, sir." "All right, don't panic." "Don't panic." "I am not panicking." " Captain." " Sir." "You must have some of those new DX-57s on board." "Planet killers, you mean." "We carry 15." "One's enough." "We set it on a short fuse and we get out of here." "Boom." "We win." "Brave." "It means that even when you're scared you control your emotions." "You make the fear be really small and tiny." " Oh, no." " Shh." "We should go, sir." "Take him." "Go back." "Go back!" "Go back!" "Right horizontal." "Roger." "Right horizontal checks green." "What are we waiting for?" "Give us a go." "We'll give Riley and his men seven more minutes." " Fuck them." "Let's just go." " Abandon them?" "I'll pretend I didn't hear that." "I'm the captain..." "I'm your superior officer." "It's my mission, my call." "I say go." "Losing men in combat is one thing, abandoning them..." "I'm not gonna die because of your pompous bullshit." "This is a direct order." "Understand?" "Take off now." "Don't walk away from me, you sniveling, West Point piece of..." "Take the helm, Sloan." "Let's launch this thing." "Come on!" "On the double!" "Let's go!" "Close up the lower hatch." "Punch up your port power cluster." " What was that?" " What was what?" " What do you think you're doing?" " Get off of me!" "Fucking morons!" "Get your hands off me!" "Ten minutes to go, understand?" "You're killing yourselves by doing this." "What are you doing?" "You?" "Please." "Please." " No." " No!" "No, don't leave us!" "We gotta get out of here." "Colonel!" "It's getting ready to detonate." "We've gotta stop it." "Fourteen seconds!" "Hurry!" "I can't remember if it's 6-7 or 7-6!" " Get out of the way." " No, you don't know what you're doing." "Hurry, hurry." "There." "Aye-aye, sir." "Setting course for the Trinity Moons." "SUB BY Pritam Anand Singh"