He was surprised at how modern and well maintained the med bay was. Everything was state of the art and brand new. The med bay had a large critical care unit and plenty of rooms to perform surgery in. He recognized several machines that were built after some of his father’s designs. ‘Fitting’ he thought to himself. ‘They’ll execute you in public and benefit from your work in private’. The recruits had been separated based on the severity of their injuries. Some of the heaviest hit recruits were still in intensive care units. Voss and most of the other recruits were put in recovery ward two. Voss’ forehead was bandaged up and his leg put in a cast. Both were itching badly from the rapid regeneration therapy that was being fed to him intravenously. The gash on his forehead was almost healed already and his leg would be too within a day or two. The ringing in his ears would take longer to heal, the doctors had said. Something about damaged neural paths. He didn’t mind too much. The worst of the ringing was gone already and he could hear properly again.

He had been the second one in the recovery ward, so they placed him at the far end of the room opposite Hiyo. ‘You’re like a cockroach, Hiyo. That bloody thing went off right next to you and you’re the first one out of the emergency care. There’s no getting rid of you, is there?’

‘Hah I knew something was fishy when you gave me that box. You taking on more work to help someone else out was a dead giveaway. You tried to take me out, didn’t you? Jealous of my good looks and great skills.’

Voss laughed. ‘You caught me red handed. I figured I’d get bigger portions in the mess if I got rid of you.’

‘Man, don’t remind me of that slop, you make me regret giving that box of grenades to Tact.’ They had a good, cynical laugh together.

‘So you gave the box to Tact, huh? Poor soul. If only we had known about that bloody charged up, damaged battery pack. What a mess we are in now.’

‘Yeah man, It’s been running through my head ever since it happened. It should have been me, man. I should have never given him that box. Poor guy.’

‘Don’t say that. It’s not your fault. I gave you that box as much as you gave it to Tact. If there’s anyone to blame, it’s the damned fool who put a half charged battery in a cleaning container. If I ever find out who that was, I’m shoving a battery pack down their throats.’

Four nurses cut their conversation short when they rolled Emil, Tick and then Jabs into the room in their hospital beds.

‘How are you lads doing?’ Hiyo asked them.

‘Been worse, could have been worse.’ Jabs replied. ‘I overheard two of the doctors saying they managed to save Hoog and Dane. Dice didn’t make it. Something about severe internal trauma.’

‘Damn, that’s two down.’ Emil replied

‘I didn’t even notice what happened to Dice.’ Voss said. ‘Dane and Hoog I saw, but I didn’t know Dice was hit badly too.’

‘Yeah I don’t know the details.’ Jabs said. ‘I saw him lying hunched over but so were half a dozen of the others. I had no idea he got hit worse than the others.’

‘He got hit in the stomach by Tact’s battery box.’ Tick chimed in. ‘Bloody box flew right past my eyes. Five centimeters to the right and it would have bashed my skull open.’

‘Yeah well you know what they say. Luck favors the foolish.’ Emil quipped.

‘If I’m a fool, then why do you keep losing to me in Assault Team?’ Tick bit back.

‘Ah come on. Can you two talk about nothing other than Assault Team?’ Jabs sighed. ‘Even with your heads blown off, you two would still be babbling about using the blue captain to ambush the red team’s rear guard or something.’

‘You clearly haven’t been paying attention, Jabs. You should never use your captain to ambush. Leaves such a critical unit exposed to counter strikes. If you want I can teach you how to play the game properly though.’ Emil said with an evil grin.

The same nurses entered the room again. This time they had Wago with them.

‘Good morning, gentlemen. Glad you are here. I have a nasty burn on my ass that the doctor’s said to put burn lotion on three times a day. Which one of you fine men wants to volunteer?’

‘I’d rather jump an exploding battery pack.’ Jabs replied.

‘Hairy business, isn’t it? Poor Tact and Dice. Hoog wasn’t looking too swell either when they moved him out of the operating room.’

‘How about you?’ Hiyo asked. ‘Did you sustain any heavy injuries?’

‘I don’t remember much of the whole thing. Got knocked out before I knew what was going on. Broke my left wrist somehow, got some pretty bad burns on my back and ass and there’s some lapses in yesterday’s memories, but other than that, I’m fine. No brain damage according to the doctors.’

‘Not that much to damage anyhow.’ Jabs interjected.

‘Careful, little man. You’re just the right height to reach the burns on my ass.’ Wago threw back at him.

Wago and Jabs entered into one of their regular battle of wits, where both tried to outsmart the other by throwing out just the right quip. These battles always ended up becoming very childish and penis focused. It was one of those things where it became more annoying each time they did it.

Normally Voss would have told them to cut the crap, but he understood that the childish banter was their way of dealing with such a traumatizing event. Considering the circumstances, having to hear their incessant quips about asses, penises and lack of brains was very much preferable to having to deal with a bunch of sad, broken recruits.

Throughout the day, more of the recruits were rolled into the recovery ward. East was covered in bandages and didn't say much when they rolled him in; but then again, he never really did. He seemed alright though. Stoic and reserved as usual. East mostly kept to himself during the sparse free time the recruits had during means and before lights out. He always seemed to be a bit on guard. Dane had once suggested East may be from the northern outlands. A place with limited resources. Unfit for industrial mining or agriculture. The citizen government cared little for the outlands. A cold and unforgiving place, the outlands shaped those who lived in it. Proud and hardy folk that saw themselves as free men and women. They preferred to be left alone and rarely did an outlander venture towards governed lands. Voss had no idea if East really was an outlander, but it would explain why he usually kept a distance from the group. As an outlander, the experience of being aboard a claustrophobic spaceport, surrounded by slum dwellers must feel uncanny. If it had been anyone else behaving the way East did, Voss would have been wary of them. However, with East, the behavior fitted with who he was. There wasn’t anything suspicious about him. Nothing to indicate he’d betray them or leave them hanging during a mission. If anything, East was highly capable. Able to handle himself in pretty much any scenario and deeply loyal to whatever crew he was working with. He’d never leave a recruit behind, even if it cost him. It was just that as soon as the mission was done, and the need to interact with others disappeared, he preferred to be alone.

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Atis was also silent when they brought him in. This was a little more concerning. Atis usually wasn’t one to be so quiet. He had a bit of a thousand yard stare to him as well. Hiyo, who still felt responsible for this debacle, tried to strike a conversation with Atis. Voss didn’t know what Hiyo hoped to achieve with this, Atis was obviously still in a state of shock. It was better to leave him alone and see if he’d recover from this state. If he didn’t within the next few hours, they’d probably pull him from the program. Either way, it didn’t bode well for Atis’ chances in the Fifth if he couldn’t handle stressful situations like these. Voss took a mental note to keep his eye on him during future high stress situations. If there was one thing he had learned from working in hazardous conditions back down in Saltpetersburg, it was that weak links like Atis were one of the most dangerous parts of the job. Anyone that folded when you most needed them was a danger to all.

Finally the sergeant came in. ‘Quite a day you’ve all had, huh? I’ve discussed things with the captain and all of you are getting another twenty-four hours of rest. The accelerated healing protocols should have all of you back at a hundred percent within twelve hours, so that’s a free twelve hours you’re getting from us. Unfortunately I don’t just have good news for you. We lost Tact and we lost dice. Dane is in a special care unit for observation. They expect him to fully recover in three days. Hoog’s arm got damaged beyond repair so they’ve put him in stasis to grow him a new one. He should be up and running within a week. You’re all on a lighter program until Hoog gets back. We’ll be going over the basics again and there will be some physical exercises as well as some added theory. Stuff that’s not in the usual program but that could be useful in the future.' It was the first time the recruits had ever seen him act mild and with a friendly demeanor. No yelling, no insults. This was a completely different side of the sergeant that they had never seen before. One that almost made him look human.

I know many of you may think you’re just expendable tools. Forced labor to be used for forty years and then discarded. However, I want you all to know that we in the Fifth take care of our own. Yes, the work we do is often dangerous and ungrateful, but any man that makes it past the final exam will be treated as a brother. Let today’s treatment be a foretaste of that. It was most unfortunate what happened and none of you can be blamed for it. Use the next twenty four hours to recuperate and use the time you have until Hoog’s return to work on your weak spots. The silver lining to this most unfortunate mishap is that you now all have some breathing space from the usual fast pace of the training program. Don't get complacent though. Know that things will go back to normal as soon as Hoog returns and that this incident will offer you no respite in case of future failures or transgressions. For now I wish you gentlemen a good night and a swift recovery.’ With those parting words, the sergeant exited the room.

‘The officers are being uncannily nice about this whole ordeal.' Voss said. 'Who would have thought that a bunch of slum dwellers and outlanders like ourselves would ever be given accelerated recovery treatment, or even stasis chamber limb regeneration?’

‘I don’t know, I don’t like it.’ Hiyo replied.

‘You don’t like accelerated healing? Would you rather have us be in hospital for weeks and have Hoog crippled? Jabs said incredibly.

‘Don’t be so simple, Jabs. Think about it. We’re all being given state of the art, highly expensive treatment. Why? Like Voss said: We’re slum dwellers and outlanders. We’ve never had much value to them and we could still easily be replaced. We cost them more money today than what all of our training combined up to this point cost.’

‘Hiyo’s right.’ Voss chimed in. ‘Something doesn’t add up. Why not just let us recover the old fashioned way? All of us would be back on our feet in less than two months.’

‘Exactly!’ Hiyo exclaimed. ‘And let’s be honest, Hoog ain’t special enough to warrant an extremely expensive arm regeneration treatment. Why not just get a fresh batch of recruits instead? There’s billions of slum dwellers they can pick from. What makes us so special?’

East grunted. The others all shut up and looked at him. East only spoke when he had something important to say, so they all paid attention. ‘Sometimes money is important. Sometimes time is more important.’

‘East is right.’ Voss said. ‘The reason they’re spending so much on us instead of replacing us, is that they need us urgently. It’s not just us either. I don’t know if any of you guys noticed, but the Fifth’s recruitment and training seems to be on overdrive.’

Hiyo nodded. He had noticed too. The others hadn’t. ‘Care to elaborate?’ Emil asked.

‘I don’t have hard proof, but the signs are there. Sergeant Radklif’s class felt overcrowded. Back then I thought that was just standard practice. Now, I’m not so sure.’

‘Some proof you have there, detective.’ Jabs quipped at him.

‘Shut up and let me finish, you idiot.’ There was probably a little more anger in Voss’ voice than should have been there, but now was not the time for jokes or snark. ‘Remember that Minoutar flight that got us to the spaceport? How they separated us based on what state we were in when we exited the ship? Quite a crude and inefficient way of selecting who’s qualified right? Almost as if they had to rush through that part of training and selection.’

‘Makes sense, please continue.’ Wago said with an unusually serious tone. Nobody was in a joking mood anymore.

‘It’s a lot of little things like that. For instance, have you guys noticed how the chairs in the mess always feel warm? Like someone just sat on them mere minutes before us. Or how the kitchen staff is always busy making their next batch of food when we’re using our allowed ten minutes to eat? Or how we’re always on such a tight schedule with every training session we have? There’s never room to stay just ten minutes longer at the cargo bay to go over a few extra details with void suit practice. Our training schedule itself also makes no sense. We’ll have four hours of void suit repair simulations, then we’ll have three days of completely unrelated training and then suddenly it’s back to the repair simulations. It makes no sense from a training perspective and only makes sense if you look at it from a scheduling issues perspective. Everything is being used the full twenty seven hours a day. There are just too many recruits for the available facilities right now. I’ve had something similar happen in my life before the fifth. I can’t go into too many details of course, but something happened that caused us to be seriously understaffed. The planning department had my crew go haphazardly from one job to the next and then back again. They were desperately trying to fill up any empty spot they could find with jobs that had to be done. They did everything they could to utilize us one hundred percent back then, and they’re doing the same with the training facilities now.’

‘That sounds plausible, but it’s still quite circumstantial evidence.’ Emil said. ‘I don’t think it’s enough to reach any real conclusions.’

‘We do have one piece of direct evidence though.’ Hiyo responded. ‘Remember when we were being flogged?’ He asked rhetorically. ‘The size of the crowd watching us? I observed the crowd when it was my turn up on the stands. I did so in a futile attempt to distract myself from those lashes. A large part of that crowd was made up out of recruits. There were recruits from all specialized branches. Pilots, void marines, gun crews, navigators, you name it. They were all there in large numbers. East is right. They’re spending a lot of money on us and others, because they have more money to spend than time. They’re scaling up as fast as they can and willing to pay a premium to do so. Something big is afoot; Something they’re not telling us about.’