Free A Deep Sleep (Valhalla Book 1) by Tyler Totten

moving. He turned to the SAW team that had entered this trench.
    “Get that thing up and firing. We need that covering fire.” Danford moved along the trench and advanced through a roughly transverse cross trench. Broken armor, its dead occupants still trapped inside, were strewn everywhere he looked. Behind him he heard the SAW start firing, raking the enemy position wherever they could be found.
     
     

Chapter III
     
    Captain Danford popped his helmet seal as he stepped into the heavy-lift cargo transport shuttle, which had been converted into a makeshift armorer and maintenance unit. The heavy had taken a light hit from one of the enemy’s last AA vehicles on its way in. Luckily it hadn’t been heavily loaded, but until a maintenance crew could be brought down and space opened up for a replacement engine, she wasn’t getting back to orbit. Luckily the pilots had put the ungainly heavy shuttle down gently. Danford walked a few meters inside the shuttle and approached the chief armorer.
    “Master Chief, I seem to have banged up my suit a little.” Danford grinned at the old Master Chief as he gestured to his left leg. The leg was covered in the sealant foam and had two different patches covering some of it. The foam was also covered in dirt and a little blood, tinging the foam brown and red.
    “Seems that you did, sir. Also seems like you may have taken a hit along with the armor.” The master chief, dressed in a simple set of grey duty coveralls, bent down to examine the leg. He turned and yelled at one of his work crews. “Get one of the mobile racks over here and let’s get the Captain out of this thing. C’mon, move your asses!”
    “Much appreciated Chief. Any chance I could have this ready by morning?” Danford watched the crew spring into action, a mobile rack already rolling his direction and crews pulling out various tools to open his suit. He popped the seals on his torso and arms, but the final disconnects would have to wait for the work crews. He could release them himself, but the armor panels would fall to the deck, potentially damaging the internal connections. A warm breeze blew through the shuttle, still cold on his sweaty skin. He’d been in the suit for two days now, not the longest he’d been in one, but still a considerable period of time.
    “Well,” The Chief mulled it over. “I could probably get it at least better patched. Your ankle joint is okay but the knee is gone. I can put some hard patches to give you back suit integrity, but not brand new. If you want it fully repaired I need at least 12 hours.” He glanced at his watch. “So that’d be around noon tomorrow sir.”
    “Noon it is. We’re rotated out for a while and I suspect that once I get over to medical they’re going to try and keep me locked up for at least a day.” Danford grinned again. An enemy combat blade had sliced into his leg from behind and bit into the calf muscle. It hadn’t been too deep, Danford had removed the offender’s head with a quick burst from his rifle before he even finished his stroke, but the damage had been done. Then later he’d taken a mortar fragment, maybe even from one of his own mortar teams, to the kneecap. That had probably cut up his leg a bit more but the suit stopped most of it.
    The team had attached the rack to his back at this point and additional rotating arms were attached to the various independent parts of his armor. The team worked quickly and efficiently, clearly well practiced at this. It helped that Danford’s suit, other than the leg, wasn’t badly mangled. Those usually came off with a torch, a dicey proposition for all involved at the best of times, particularly for the occupant. As the chest panel came away and the legs were forced into the open position, Danford disconnected the plumbing and dropped out of his suit. The breeze chilled his entire naked body and he shivered slightly as he stood there to allow the on-call medic to bind his leg, listening to