He was rudely awoken by a cabal of noise and light. The alarm bell inside the barrack was blaring. The emergency lights were flashing. The sergeant stood in the middle of the barrack screaming ‘All of you lazy dogs get up and get a move on, now!’. Voss scrambled to get his shirt, overalls and boots on. The sergeant was already upon him before he could finish tying his laces. “Get up and get moving, now!”. Voss was forced to limp after the sergeant with his left boot still untied. He wasn’t alone. Most recruits hadn’t been able to get fully dressed. Hoog still had his boots in hand, running over the steel grated floors in his socks. A painful expression covered his face. These weren’t the kind of floors you wanted to run across barefooted. Dane had been wiser than them. Opting to tie his boots before putting his shirt on and pulling his overalls up. He held up his overalls by his waist with his left hand as he ran right behind the sergeant.
The remarkable parade of half-dressed, half-limping recruits ended when they reached an elevator. The short elevator ride granted the men the respite they needed to finish dressing up. When the elevator opened, Voss saw they had reached a level that had several launch bays. Was this then finally the big day? The sergeant led them to a launch bay that had a Ciklops ready for launch in its center.
The sergeant pointed at the wall with all the void suit stations and yelled: ‘I want each man on board of that Ciklops, airtight and oxygen fed in under two minutes. Go!’. Two minutes would have been a luxury if it wasn’t for the fact that they had to go down a ladder and then dash fifty meters to get to the void suit stations and then another fifty to get to the Ciklops boarding ramp.
Voss and the others scrambled to shoot down the ladder in rapid succession and then made a mad dash for the void suit stations. Luckily the recruits were tuned into each other by this point in their training. The men that went down the ladder first also ran towards the furthest void suit stations. Nobody had told them to do this, they just did. This way each man had approximately the same time to put on their suit before making another dash for the Ciklops.
They heard the sergeant yell at them from a distance. ‘Sixty seconds remaining. Any man not oxygen fed by then goes into the void as is.’. All those suiting drills finally came to good use. Voss was fifth to arrive at the stations and grabbed one in the middle. He kicked off his boots and went through all the steps to get to airtight within record speed.
‘Twenty seconds remaining!’ The sergeant shouted at them. Voss grabbed his oxygen tank and tool belt and ran with both in hand to the Ciklops. The sergeant had somehow managed to put on his own void suit in between shouting at the recruits to hurry up and was now standing in the entry hatch of the Ship with his helmet in hand. Voss managed to get his oxygen tank attached to his back mid run and popped in the tank’s oxygen nozzle as he ran up the ramp and into the ship. He was third to arrive at the Ciklops with mere seconds to spare. Several other recruits were right behind him, with two laggards trying to catch up. It was hard to tell who was who with their void suits and helmets on, but he recognized Wago’s large posture in one of the two laggards.
The sergeant gave the order to close the hatch as soon as time was up and both Wago and the other laggard had to jump through the closing hatch to make it on board in time. Everything had been so hectic and rushed, that Voss had barely even noticed that the men weren’t wearing their usual mark three mechanic suits. Rather, they were wearing the modern, mark four combat models. The mark four suits were sleeker, their helmets more advanced and their oxygen tanks superior to the mark threes. Today’s mission had to be important for them to be given such equipment.
Voss put his toolbelt on and took a seat. He could tell that the launch bay was already being pulled into a vacuum. They weren’t wasting any time today it seemed. Also the fact that the sergeant began closing the hatch as soon as time was up, instead of just scolding the laggards… They had meant it when they said the final exam was ruthless and unforgiving. Voss knew he had to give it his all today or there might not be a tomorrow for him or his fellow recruits. The Fifth was willing to lose men today.
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When every recruit was seated, the sergeant signalled to the pilot that they were ready for lift off. The sergeant stood out because his void suit was red, where everyone else’s was a camouflage pattern consisting of grays and blacks. The sergeant still wasn’t wearing his helmet. Preferring to speech to the recruits directly, without the use of his intercom. ‘Alright you slumdogs. This is it: the day you’ve all been training for. Today it’s for real. There will be no mercy, no second chances. Today, you either successfully complete the mission, or die trying.’
The pilot interrupted the sergeant’s speech to announce their launch would commence in thirty seconds. The sergeant made a quick round inspecting if every man was properly suited and properly seated, before putting his own helmet on, taking his seat buckling in.
The pilot spoke over the intercom. ‘Three, two, one, launch.’. Ten G slammed down on them for about two seconds. A force that stopped as soon as it had started. They were now weightless again in the eerie quiet of the void.
‘As I was saying.’ The sergeant continued, now via their intercoms. ‘Today is not an exercise. You will not be told what to expect or which skills to use. Danger could come from anywhere at any time. Your training will be put to the test today. Apply what you’ve learned. Rely on your talents and cooperate as a team. It’s your best chance of making it back to this ship alive.’
The passenger bay’s red light began flashing and the ship’s engines turned on. A sense of weight returned as the ship accelerated. It was going well over standard gravity. They were going to go fast and travel far
‘Your mission today is to investigate why we lost contact with a remote military observation post. You will be divided into two squads. Blue squad will consist of Hoog, Jabs, Tick and Voss; with Dane as squad leader. You will check the outside of the station and test if the station’s relay towers are operational. Check for damage and make repairs where needed.
Wago, East, Atis you are red squad. Emil is red leader. You are to enter the station and see if the station’s crew is alright. As you may have noticed, there are two crates located at the front of the passenger bay. One with a red line and one with a blue line. Go to your color coded crate and take from them what you think you’ll need. You will also find copies of the station’s schematics and personnel records in there. Arrival at the station is estimated to be in about twelve hours.
Squad leaders will take it from here. From this point onwards I am merely an observer. Good luck to you all and remember. This isn’t some silly exercise. This is for real. Your lives are on the line today so stay focused and stay professional.
Voss mulled over the sergeant’s words. If the sergeant meant what he had said about their lives being on the line, then it was unlikely they were going in for a simple repair mission. Besides, if the only problem was with the communications antennas, the station’s crew members would have fixed it themselves. There were going to be hostile operatives on board that station. He was certain about it. They had to focus on weaponry when selecting their load outs.
The team selection also worried him. There were only three good marksmen in their group. Dane, Jabs and himself. All three had been put in the same squad. The outside repair team. The boarding squad were all poor shots except for Emil, who was an average shot. Voss frowned. He had the suspicion that everyone had carefully been placed at just the wrong spot. The Fifth was setting them up to create the most difficult circumstances possible. Today wouldn’t just be about their strengths. They would be tested on their weaknesses.
This mission smelled like a trap to him, but there wasn’t much he could do. If they didn’t follow orders and do the outside repairs, they’d be written up for insubordination. Tricky business. He had to find a way to warn Dane. He couldn’t use the intercom because the sergeant would be able to listen in on them. Hell, that bloody captain was probably piloting their ship again and listening in on everything they said. He couldn’t be heard spoiling their carefully planned out mission. At best they’d probably make last minute changes to increase the mission’s difficulty for the recruits.
The sergeant gave them the green light and each man unbuckled himself before proceeding to the crates. The ship’s acceleration pulled them towards the back of the ship. This meant they had to climb upwards to get to the crates. No mean feat when the ship was accelerating well above one G. Any slip or loss of grip would come with a high price.
Dane had climbed on top of the blue crate and had taken out the station’s schematics and personnel records to study. Emil had gotten on top of the red crate and had done the same. Both squad leaders handed out numbered patches to their team members. Voss made sure to notice the details of every man’s suit so that he could better hold them apart. He wasn’t going to forget who was who, not this time. Every detail mattered today. Success, and even survival, would require each man to be at his best.
Voss looked inside the blue crate and saw that it was filled with way more than they could take with them. Choices would have to be made. Choices with big potential consequences. Voss knew he had to warn Dane before the equipment was handed out. Guns were going to be at least as important today as having the right tools.