Thomas Rico has been in the mobile infantry for three years now. What will he think when he hears his little brother Johnny has decided to follow in his footsteps much to their parent's dismay.
Zander enters the officer quarters, watching Carmen dress. She hums as she checks herself in the mirror, she touches the scar above her eye, smiling.
Zander: "Where are you going?"
Carmen: "A funeral."
Zander: "That guy who died on the way up.... his friend?"
Carmen: "Yeah."
Zander: "How do you feel about him now?"
Carmen: "I don't know, Zander."
Zander: "I do."
Carmen enters as Johnny speaks. Ace is laid out in his dress grays. The surviving roughnecks have gathered to pay their final respects. Thomas stands side by side with Dizzy.
Johnny: "Ace bought the farm. He was my good friend, and friends are the best luck anyone gets...But in war, we must go on without our friends. We take with us their memory, and we are left to wonder if there is meaning in their death. Let me tell you what it is: Ace bought the farm so we can keep on fighting."
Several Intelligence Officers march into the bay.
Thomas: "Officer on deck!"
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Everyone snaps to attention. Colonel Carl Jenkins strides into the room. His eyes hollow, and he looks grim. He returns Thomas's salute, nodding to Carmen, Dizzy and Johnny.
Johnny: "Ace wouldn't want our tears. He'd want us to remember him...with a vengeance. So go out and kill a bug for Ace. Kill as many as you can. You are his revenge, and every bug you kill honors his death."
Thomas nods to the Gunnery crew. They load Ace's body into a tube. Thomas salutes first then everyone follows his lead.
Thomas: "Womb to tomb, cap trooper!"
Roughnecks: "Womb to tomb!"
The crew chief fires the tube. Out the viewports, a pulse of light disperses into space. The roughnecks file out. Carl approaches. Carmen takes Johnny and Carl by the hand.
Carmen: "Well, look at this. The three of us back together again."
Johnny: "How are you, Carl?"
Carl: "Johnny, I'm sorry it had to be your unit on Planet P. That mission had a very low survival probability..."
Johnny: "Bugs laid a trap, didn't they?"
Carl: "Elegant proof of intelligence, isn't it? We thought there might be a brain on P."
