[HARD CONTACT] Chapter 4: Niner's grief

|| Republic Commando: Hard Contact || 2004 || Book series || Military, Sci-Fi || 18+ for violence and harrowing themes || 


· · ────── Niner doesn't have time for grief  ────── · ·

 

The previous chapter ended with Darman disobeying Niner's order to jump out of the dirt-crate, but not only that: Darman pushed Niner straight out of the ship so that he could pick up the equipments in peace. We see the first section of this chapter from Niner's point of view, but in this entry, what I want to highlight the most is how Niner experiences the perceived or possibly real loss of Darman. First of all: fast. Niner is a professional and knows that he has to move on, he can't stop mourning.

 

In the first chapter, we got to know the kind of grief where the emotions got the best of them (Darman threatening the duros, Niner being hostile to Fi) and bear the whites of their teeth, but this is the situation where Niner has to get over the thought of possibly losing his comrade, otherwise he will fall apart and considering that he is in charge of this squad, this is something he cannot afford to do right now. 

 

He started with the responsibility shifting, although this wasn't a situation where either of them were truly responsible. Niner wanted to get his men safety FIRST and trusted Darman that he will obey. But Darman didn't trust Niner that he will let him get the explosives. 

 

•───────•°•❀•°•───────•

 

Even though he knew it was coming, his heart sank. Darman probably hadn’t made it. He’d disobeyed his order. He hadn’t jumped when he told him to.

So maybe you’ve lost a brother. Maybe not. Either way, you’ll lose two more if you don’t get your act together fast.

 

•───────•°•❀•°•───────•

 

· · ────── Niner tries to distract himself from the loss ────── · ·

 

Based on the chapter, I have the impression that Niner likes to huff-and-puff to himself. Simply because he likes to organize things, he likes to have order around him, but despite this, if things don't go as they should, he doesn't panic. Then comes the reorganizing, rearranging, coming up with new plans. And if he is busy with problems of this magnitude of the present, he doesn't think about falling apart from problems he can't solve. After Geonosis, he was busy with his equipment, and we can see that he is immediately reaching for practical and solvable things that he has control over now as well. Instead of sinking into self-blame for what happened, he starts "shittalking" about the procurement for giving them white armor. He begins to think about what equipment to bring with them on other missions in the future. He thinks about his training sergeant, Skirata. Everything, but Darman. 

 

But when the Gdans come out, all he can think about is that Darman would surely find these little creatures intriguing. And not only that. Overall, Niner thought of Darman as a possible good comrade, even though they had never worked together. He liked him.

 

•───────•°•❀•°•───────•

 

It was a pity to lose him. He had all the makings of a good comrade.

 

•───────•°•❀•°•───────•

 

· · ────── Bitter Reunion with the squad ────── · ·

 

What immediately caught my attention about Omega Squad is that they have a hard time functioning with each other in the beginning. Their dynamic in Hard Contact is that those distant colleagues who have been assigned to each other but do not like each other, because they are not their old usual squad, and they do not know how to cope with this situation, but they try to keep each other and themselves alive. They need to learn to adjust to each other. And this leads to a lot of clashes.

 

Niner already had a dislike for Atin in the previous chapter, but this is now starting to really come to its peak when it comes to Darman and his missing. I was very struck by the part where Niner felt - as so he put it - that he was explaining to the others about what had happened. They are all survivors of a team, Niner loses someone for the third time and feels responsible, but at the same time he wants to assure the others that it was not his fault.

 

However, there is also a bit of a dissonance here. Because he doesn't get the reactions from his comrades that he expects. Atin is not angry with him. Atin is apparently (seemingly?) not interested in Darman, and Niner is perhaps even more upset about this than if Atin had actually started blaming him. Why is he alone with this sorrow? Why is equipment more important than the life of your comrade? Why was it more important to Darman?

 

We, the readers, don't see what's going on in Atin, but we can see that Niner is angry with him, and even Fi is upset because Atin is so pragmatic. 

 

Niner gives out the order that they will proceed according to a standard procedure: they will go through the designated meeting points towards the target, which are designed in case they have separated for some reason, but cannot reach each other over the comms.

 

•───────•°•❀•°•───────•

 

“I saw the blast. He was last off.”

“You saw him jump, then.”

“No. He was grabbing as much gear and ordnance as he could salvage.” Niner felt he needed to explain.

“He shoved me out the hatch first. I shouldn’t have let that happen. But I didn’t abandon him.”

Atin shrugged. “So what have we got, then?”

“We’ve got a brother missing.”

“I meant by way of resources. He had most of the demolition ordnance.”

“I know you meant that, and I don’t want to hear it.” If he could feel concern—even sorrow—for Darman, then why couldn’t Atin? But it was no time to start a fight. They had to stick together now. A four-man mission with three men: their chances of succeeding had plummeted already. “We’re a squad now. Get used to it.”

 

•───────•°•❀•°•───────•

 

“You’d want us to search if it was you missing,” Fi said to Atin. “He can’t call in. Not at this range. Too risky.”

“I wouldn’t expect you to compromise the mission for me,” Atin said, distinctly acid.

“He’s alone, for fierfek’s sake. Alone.”

 

•───────•°•❀•°•───────•

 

“But there has to be a point where we consider him dead.”

“Without a body, that’ll be when Geonosis freezes over,” Niner said, still angry and not knowing why. “Until then, we’re going to sweat our guts out to find him, provided it doesn’t blow the mission.
(...)
If Darman was out there, Niner wasn’t planning on abandoning him.

 

•───────•°•❀•°•───────•

Yeah, I know I should write some kind of conclusion but overall I am just a mad scientist watching blorbos doing stuff behind a glass wall and taking notes. I find their emotional reactions fascinating. 

I love everything about this. Niner's grief and anger and how the it was Darman's fault turns into Darman simply cannot be dead until they find him. I love this fiery sergeant. It really reminds me of a certain another sergeant. :3

[HARD CONTACT] Chapter 4: Gdans

|| Republic Commando: Hard Contact || 2004 || Book series || Military, Sci-Fi || 18+ for violence and harrowing themes || 

The Gdans were mentioned in the previous chapter, the little rodents resting underground in their tunnels during the the day, but at night they come out of their burrows to hunt, and in large numbers they are dangerous and spread germs, and now Niner also runs into them. I especially liked how this part was written in the Hungarian translation, mostly because how chill the way Niner handled a little rodents nibbling on his boots. :D Niner be like like: OK. 

I remember reading this part first time and I cackled so hard. 

•───────•°•❀•°•───────•

All but one of the gdans gave him up as inedible within a minute and disappeared into the waist-high crop. The remaining creature worried away at his left boot, a tribute to its tenacity, if not its intelligence. Those boots were specced to withstand every assault from hard vacuum to acid and molten metal. The little animal clearly believed in aiming high.

Darman would have found it fascinating, he was sure.

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