We made it back to the station with 14 troopers plus Mitchell and our team of six. It might have seemed like a risk that was too high to take to get back a hand full of people when the battle that lasted less than an hour cost over 2,000 lives on both sides, but there is a tradition in the fighting services going back hundreds of years; No man left behind. We can't always live up to that creed, but most of us would die trying.
As we landed back on Station D-102 and the ramp lowered onto the deck, several medics ran aboard to collect the wounded. Two of them gently pulled Mitchell out of my arms and placed her on a stretcher. I then tried to stand and felt a sharp pain in my back. Apparently, I hadn't been hit just once in the back, but three times with bolts from a laser rifle. M
