29 September 2026, Freewriters Community Daily Writing Prompt Day 3241: The Miner
This post was inspired by today's 5-minute writing prompt in the Freewriters Community - MY CRUTCH
Enjoy !
It only took one bullet. A random round, one of thousands being sprayed around by a pissy militia during a pissy peacekeeping operation in some shit-hole failed state somewhere too hot and too humid.
I lay in the fetid jungle for three days while drones and bullets buzzed overhead. Eventually a Valkyrie unit spotted me and pulled me out. By then it was too late. The bullet had gone through my knee, and spending three days in bug-infested mud had left me with gangrene and septicaemia.
"Too much infection, lad. Sorry, the leg's going to have to come off." the doctor said, trying to fake sympathy. He'd probably seen a hundred other cases like me, the so-called peacekeeping operation was turning into a regular bush war, and we weren't winning.
So I left hospital two months later and half a leg shorter. Hobbling along on a crutch that was just an inch too long. It was all the budget would stretch to, apparently.
Back home, I was given a meagre disability stipend. It wasn't a declared war, so I didn't get a veteran's pension. I just scraped along from month to month, just making ends meet. The only benefit was free enrollment in education courses. Most were useless, but one caught my eye and I followed it.
The tutor was good, and had contacts. Now, I don't need my crutch. Missing half a leg is no impediment in zero gravity. And that, friends, is how I became an asteroid miner.