The sergeant walked back into the barrack. Their thirty minutes were up. One look at the sergeant’s hardened, pockmarked face told Voss all he needed to know. There would be no mercy for the recruits today. He carefully buttoned his overall back up. The recruits had placed as much tape as they could around each other’s bandages. Hoping they’d stick throughout the day and prevent chafing and bleeding.

‘Anyone who's not in the mess within five minutes doesn’t eat.’ The sergeant yelled at them. Voss didn’t feel hungry after what happened last night, but he knew he’d pay the price later in the day if he didn’t eat now. He tied his boots and walked towards the mess as fast as he could. Normally he would have ran, but running caused too much pain to his back. He wasn’t alone in this. None of the recruits ran. Pained faces were all around him. At least their misery would be a shared one. This made the situation much more bearable than if he'd had to get through this on his own.

Breakfast was atrocious. Brown gooey slop that tasted like cardboard. Voss wanted to pour himself a cup of coffee from one of the steel vats, but even the otherwise completely laconic, disinterested kitchen staff warned him against doing so. He chose to heed their advice and got a glass of water instead. Hoog either hadn’t gotten the same warning or he had stubbornly insisted on his cup of morning coffee, because he had to make a run for the bathroom shortly after taking a sip. Voss decided against asking him what had happened in there. The recruits learned soon after that the breakfast coffee was colloquially known as black laxative. Only drank by those who suffered from constipation. A surprisingly common malady aboard space stations and vessels.

Voss sat down at a table where Dane, Wago and Jabs were already sitting. ‘I just don’t get it.’ Wago said in between shoving down his breakfast slop as quickly as possible, trying to avoid its taste as much as he could. ‘That murder was so… pointless. We’re forty thousand kilometers away from the nearest slum. Nobody down there even knows we’re here. Why commit gang murder?’

‘You don’t get it because you’re not from the deep south.’ Dane grunted at him. ‘None of you are from the deep south; I can tell.’

‘Care to enlighten us?’ Wago asked.

‘Derk was Black Harbor Union. His murderer was a member of a rival gang. Probably Mocc Mill Elite. Those two don’t mix.’

‘It still doesn’t make sense though.’ Voss chimed in. ‘This is a fresh start. A life away from slums and gangs. Like Wago said, nobody even knows we’re up here. Why ruin your new life with irrelevant, old life feuds?’.

Dane spooned down the last of his brown slop and spoke to them with his mouth still full. ‘Like I said. None of you are deep south. You can leave the deep south, but the deep south doesn’t leave you.’. Dane gave the others a stern look. ‘Do you know how I know none of you are deep south? It’s because you’re all trying to think this murder through rationally. That’s not how it works in the deep south. There it’s all about tribe, power and survival. The killer found out about Derks Black Harbor affiliation and killed him the first chance he got. Derk would have done the same thing to him if he had found out about his Mocc Mill Elite membership first.’

Wago and Jabs looked at Dane incredulously. Voss had heard about the deep south and how bad it could get out there. He never expected it to be so ruthless either.

Dane continued. ‘Where these men come from, there is only one law: Might is right. You either kill or be killed. Everybody got their own turf and any intrusion means war. That’s the only thing they knew and understood.’

‘How do you know these things? Are you one of them?’ Wago asked Dane with a wary suspicion. ‘Are you going to get murderous over minor slights?’.

Dane gave them a painful look. ‘I’ve got a big gash on my back that’s reminding me to never tell you things about my past. I believe you got one too. How about we let the past be the past and focus on our futures instead?’.

‘Wise words from recruit Dane. You would do well to heed them.’

They turned around. It was the captain, who had entered the mess unnoticed. The recruits quickly got up and saluted him.

‘I gave you these lashes, not because I’m a sadist, but because you all needed a reminder that these three rules are a matter of life and death. Without them, the Fifth would disintegrate into the same chaos you knew down in the slums.

I don’t think I’m making some grand revelation here when I tell you that you’re not surrounded by Fosfat’s finest out here. Many of the Fifth’s non-citizen recruits are scum. All of you have done bad things. Things that got you imprisoned and given the choice. A choice that was often between joining the Fifth or death. We take in murderers, rapists, thieves, gang members, every sort of filth. The only thing that separates us from the slums you come from are discipline, dedication and those three rules.’

The captain seemed to be in no rush to finish his story. He walked over to the tray line and poured himself a cup of coffee from the steel vats. None of the recruits had the guts to warn the captain. He calmly took a few sips before continuing his story. ‘You may think that training is about us weeding out the unfit; And you would be right. However, it’s about more than that. We are also testing your ability to let go of the past. We test you to see whether you can leave behind whatever it was that brought you here. You all have the physical and mental prowess to make the cut, I have little doubt about that.’

He walked around the room, staring intently at the students. More than the captain’s strong gaze, Voss was impressed by his strong stomach. He had finished most of his coffee by now and showed no signs of stomach or bowel issues.

The captain now put more power behind his voice. ‘But are you willing to change? Are you willing to learn? To adapt? Are you willing to serve and follow orders? These are the things we really test you on. Make no mistake; the Fifth offers you a second chance, your final chance. Will you embrace it? Or will you end up like the two recruits whose names shall henceforth never be mentioned? Forget them both. Focus on your own future, for there will be no leniency given to any who break one of these rules.’.

The captain looked around the room to see if his words had made the intended impact. He saw that they did and then finished off by saying: ‘Now you’ll have to excuse me, gentlemen, for I have a very important meeting to attend to.’. He walked out of the mess and gave the sergeant a nod on his way out, as if to say ‘take it from here, sergeant.’. The sergeant nodded back at the captain and turned to the room.

‘Alright, breakfast is over. Hand in your trays and form an orderly line.’

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They were guided through another set of rusted steel corridors, ramshackle half-open elevators and overhead passages that overlooked dimly lit cargo bays that seemed to have no end. Voss got a sense that half their training consisted purely out of walking for hours through an endless labyrinth. By now, he had no clue where he was anymore. None of them did. Nor did they know what time, or even what day, it was. They had been stripped of all connection with reality. Not knowing where they were or when they lived. It put a strain on all of them. The pain on their backs didn’t help to alleviate the situation either. Voss wondered if this was done on purpose by the Fifth. Take away any form of grounding the recruits may have and watch if they can withstand the stress it causes. Perfect preparation for a life in the void.

They were brought to a smaller, secluded dock. It was mostly empty apart from a few crates and barrels stashed in the far side corner.. Down below, in the middle of the dock stood a man in a grey uniform with a large plastic crate next to him. ‘Another lieutenant to yell at us.’ Voss sighed to himself. Wago overheard him. He gave Voss a knowing smirk but said nothing. They were led down a set of metal ladders and told to stand in line, facing the lieutenant.

The lieutenant spoke. ‘I’m lieutenant Ida of the third Void Marines regiment. I’ll be your instructor for today. Welcome to my dock. In your new roles you may have to make repairs to the outside of your ship’s or station’s hull. Some of you may even have to venture further into the void. Today, I will teach you the basics of void walking and void repairs.’

Lieutenant Ida pulled the lid of the crate next to him and pulled out a tightly wrapped bundle of cloth. He held it up high and let it unfold. ‘This is the mark III-TCN, short for technician, spacesuit. It’s been the staple suit for the technical corps for well over a hundred years. It’s simple, reliable and easy to use. One month from now, you must be able to put one on and get to airtight and oxygen fed in under a minute. Every man in the corps, Void Marines or the Fifth, needs to be able to do this. It’s a must-have skill in an environment as hostile as ours. Sergeant, please demonstrate to the men how to put one on.’.

‘Yes, lieutenant.’ The sergeant stepped forward and took the suit from the lieutenant. He walked over to the front of the crate and pulled out two boots from it.

The sergeant slowly put on the suit. Emphasizing each step he was doing and how to do them. The lieutenant narrated what was happening for the recruits. ‘There are five parts to the mark III. The inner suit, the outer suit, the boots, the helmet and the gloves. You put them on in the order mentioned. Put these five parts of the suit on properly and you reach airtight. As you can see, the sergeant is now airtight, but he’s not oxygen fed yet. There’s a respirator inside the helmet that can switch between taking in outside air and using an oxygen tank. There’s an inbuilt mechanism that uses air pressure, that will ensure your suit doesn’t switch to outside air when you’re in the void or low pressure environments. Keep in mind that there’s no automatic safety against bad air. If you ever find yourself working in toxic environments that have air pressure, you have to manually override the respirator like so.’ The sergeant demonstrated how to lock out outside air by pulling and turning a small lever.

‘Now look at the wall behind you. There is a row of equipment points there. Each point has a full suit, an oxygen backpack with four hours worth of oxygen, and a standard issue void-toolbelt. Let’s head over there and the sergeant will demonstrate to you how these stations work and how to get to oxygen fed.

Voss looked at the sergeant and noticed he had already taken off and folded his space suit within the time that it took for the lieutenant to tell them those four sentences. An impressive display of speed and coordination.

The lieutenant and sergeant walked to the stations. The recruits followed them like a group of well-behaved school kids. The mixture of three lashes and the excitement of learning how to voidwalk, had turned them all docile and eager to listen. There wasn’t much to see at the stations. It was a simple concrete wall that had around twenty sets of hazard stripes in the form of thin doors on it. The lieutenant nudged at the sergeant. The sergeant stepped forwards and smashed a big red button next to one of the stations. The station pushed forward out of the wall.

‘The sergeant will now repeat the process of putting on the suit. He will get to airtight and will then show you how to get oxygen fed. First he puts on the inner suit, then the outer suit, then his boots, then his helmet and only then does he put on his gloves. He is now airtight. The sergeant will now grab the hose of his oxygen backpack and he’ll attach it to either side of his helmet. Which side doesn’t matter much and is mostly a matter of personal preference unless you’re sharing a large oxygen tank with others.

Now pay attention because we now get to the part where the most common rookie mistake happens. Once you are oxygen fed, do not. I repeat, do not fix your oxygen backpack to your suit. This isn’t done until the very last step of the process. First you put on your toolbelt and add anything special you think you might need. The basic equipment is already in your belt, but anything special like the big plasma cutter or the big welder, you have to add it manually. Only after you have done this, you put on your oxygen backpack. The reason you do it in this order is because otherwise your backpack gets in the way when you put on your toolbelt.’ The sergeant demonstrated how inconvenient it was to put on a toolbelt whilst already wearing your backpack.

It was quite comical to watch the sergeant struggle, but Voss knew it probably wouldn’t be so comical if it was you struggling like that after a piece of space debris had punctured a large hole into the side of your vessel. All of this wasn't that new to him. Many of the big plants he had worked at as an engineer had a similar set up. Only instead of void suits, they were fire suits. Build to resist scorcing hot flames rather than the icy coldness of the void. Voss knew how the suits worked. He had gone through many fire safety drills and once had to deal with a real life fire. An old, poorly maintained pump had caught fire when one of his colleagues was welding it. The clean up crew before him had missed some of the oil and grease spills underneath the pump and the welder's sparks had set the oil on fire. Voss was amongst the first in full fire gear, giving it all to put out the flames. The colleague welding the pump didn't make it. She died in hospital a few days later.

‘As you can see, each station is neatly organized and optimized for rapid dressing up. Each station comes with one copy of everything you need. The suits are one size fits all. They are flexible and can unfold themselves up to two and a half meters. So don’t worry about finding the right one for you. Suit stations are always placed on the side of the room that’s furthest removed from the void. You can recognize this side of the room by the yellow stripe running down the wall. This is a standardized imperial decree. That means that no matter what vessel you’re on, get to the yellow line. Remember this in case you ever find yourself caught inside a room with a fire raging.' Voss had noticed a lot of walls on the ship had stripes on them, but hadn't really paid much attention to it. It was impossible to discern what they meant anyhow when you didn't even know where you were.

The lieutenant continued: 'Talking about fires, it is standard protocol with fires to contain them by sucking out all the air out of the room in which the fire is raging. Usually there will be no more than five minutes between the fire alarm going off, and the captain giving the order to vacuum the room. If the captain gives no such order, the automatic fire safety system will do so anyhow after ten minutes.

This means two things. One, as soon as a fire breaks out, run to the yellow line and get your ass in a void suit asap. Two, you need to be hooked into the station, or else you might get sucked into the vacuum shaft. That’s why these suits come with an attached hook with four meters of cable inside a suspensor system. Each station comes with a steel handlebar. In case of fire or hull breach, you must fasten your safety cable as soon as you’ve put on your outer suit. You do this even before you put on your boots and helmet.

I know this is a lot to process in one go, so safety guides will be provided to you at the end of today’s session. Study them well. Your life may depend on it, and your final exam results will definitely depend on it.

Now then, with all of that out of the way. Time to get training, gentlemen. Find yourselves a station and get practicing. I want all of you to go through the entire process at least twenty five times before this training session is over.

The recruits’ faces turned weary. Getting dressed and undressed twenty five times? Getting dressed up just once this morning had been painful enough. There was no way their bandages would hold through twenty five training rounds. This was going to be a painful and bloody session…