The Drone Wars

Victory's Wake

The wild boar with long tusks was turning on a makeshift spit with a big bonfire under it, all the hair long licked off by the flickering orange flames. Despite regulations against hunting, one of the soldiers had killed the rare animal and Lieutenant Clairvaux hadn't said anything. Probably he wanted to keep morale up and a fresh, delicious ham would do something for that. He'd probably let them sleep in late too.

Pig looked meditatively up into the inky black sky. He wasn't waiting for the boar, he'd eaten his cold MRE long ago.  The sky was vast, clear dome, diamond-studded with stars. Light pollution was never a problem over here in rural Nigera and getting to be less and less of a problem back in the States.  After the Carrington II coronal mass ejection back in 2038, the electrical grid had been patched back together but electricity had never been reliable again.  Electricity prices had marched upwards at a disconcertingly rapid clip along with the prices for natural gas and coal, solar was intermittent and most homes and businesses lacked the money for home battery packs.  Pigs eyes shifted over to the milky way, a beautiful band across the sky.

"Hey Pig," said Mitch as she approached the log that he was sitting on.  "Props on the tortoise this afternoon.  That took some amazing marksmanship to hit it in the eye like that."  She sat down beside him.

"So sad about Rodriguez." Pig said.  "One minute he was there, saving me, the next minute gone."

"That's the way it is," Mitch replied with steely eyed resignation.  "War's just the way Clarivaux says: 'Loss, more loss, and more agony.'  Our squad has lost over five men since I got here."

"He have family?"

"A girlfriend.  A kid.  Girl, I think," she replied with an exhalation that wasn't quite a sigh.

"Are we going to send a card back for them?"

"I don't think so.  It's up to Park and Clairvaux." Mitch put her head down slightly and then brought it back up.  "From what I've seen though, the best thing a man ever does for his family is die."  She paused as the faintest smile passed over her eyes, but not her mouth.  "More often than not.  As long as he leaves a boat load of insurance money."

"That's awful harsh," Pig said quietly as he thought of the grieving widow and the child who would grow up without a father, just like he did.

"Want a beer?"  She offered one of the two cans she'd been holding.

"Would I ever," Pig replied with unsuppressed eagerness.

Just then Patrick came by with a beer of his own.  "I'm not interrupting anything, am I?"

"No," said Mitch, "I was just leaving."  She got up and straightened her pants.

"She's a looker isn't she," said Patrick once she had walked away.

"You know I'm single by choice, don't you?" said Pig with a deadpan face.

"Oh?" said Patrick.

Pig nodded, seriously.

"Really?"  Patrick was incredulous.  "I saw the way you were looking at her."

"Really," replied Pig.  "I am single by choice.  It's just not my choice."

Patrick laughed.  "You always get me!"

For a minute Patrick stared up at the stars silently with Pig as they both drank their beers.

"I need a piss," said Patrick as he got up.  "They stuck me with a Nigerian guy now.  Can't even piss without him."

"Azikiwe?" Pig asked.

"No, the other one."

There were only two Nigerians in the platoon.  Pig didn't know the name of the other.  "I'm going to bed," he said.  "It's been a long day."  The day was long and he was exhausted but he really didn't know if he was going to sleep.  Now that he'd seen real combat, he realized he'd underestimated the emotional toll it would take on him.