Throwing back her drink with a scrunched face Sergeant Ro spluttered “So you think there’ll be no wars huh!?“
Over the last week I had gotten to know Sergeant Ro and some of her Miltech squad a little more. Frequently catching them at the imitation dive bar during their off time. In my mind Miltech were an uncertain force. They seemed like a mixed bag of personalities and definitely had their fair share of loose cannons so I was happy to make inroads with some of them. One thing I learned though was that they all shared a common thought, that war was coming.
“Let’s enlighten Carter shall we guys,” Ro said while she pulled me off the barstool which was met with laughter and cheers from the squad.
We made our way to a Miltech section nearby and Sgt Ro quickly whisked me into a small room. It was filled with lockers and on the wall at the far end was all sorts of gear, including weapons, neatly packed on racks.
Ro stopped, turned, and flung open her locker with a force that bluntly filled the room. I awkwardly averted my eyes as she lifted her top over her head and quickly unbuckled her belt, followed by the top button of her pants, and pushed them down around her ankles, flicking them off.
“Relax, I’m not going to jump you. Yet” she laughed as she quickly opened another locker and threw me a spare Miltech suit. “Here put these on.”
I quickly chucked on the suit while Ro grabbed a couple of helmets and small arms off the back wall before she called me over to the doorway next to her. It led into a hallway that plunged us into a deep red lighting with dark shadows lining the hidden recesses. The clangs from our boots echoed as we walked down the grated walkway. About ten metres in, we reached an airlock with a small fluorescent backed sign next to it that read ‘SR-22’. Ro punched a code on the access pad that sent a tingling sensation down my spine as the airlock hissed, that was mainly due to Ro giving up no hints as to what we were about to do.
The entryway was confined and dark as I followed Ro’s lead inside. After a few steps in, it opened up slightly where Ro stepped off to the left and jumped into a chair, swivelling it around and triggering the lights to illuminate the space.
“Jump in” Ro gestured to a seat that was to the right of hers but slightly behind it.
As soon as I sat down I heard a winding and my suit started to feel like it was getting tighter.
“Uhm is-“
“The seats strapping you in via the locking mechanism on the back of your suit”
“The wha—“ A jolting click now at the back of my head.
“Annnd that’s the oxygen supply” Ro said with a chuckle before giving me a crash course on what exactly we were sitting in.
We were sitting in a special assigned Miltech fighter craft with the ID of SR-22 (Sergeant Ro - Craft 22). The inside of which was quite small though filled with a heap of screens and compartments. Even with the lighting it was hard to make out what was what inside as it seemed completely blacked out from floor to ceiling.
Just as I started to think that she was going a long way to prove a point, two bay doors opened up to dark open space and a glare hit across my visor before the craft windows started to adjust the tint. Loud clunking and the sound of multiple machines winding up started to rattle my helmet.
The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
“You Ready?” Ro quickly announced.
“WHAT!? N—“
A Sudden onset of noise and G’s forced my eyes closed which only lasted a a few seconds before we were flung out into the silent darkness of space. Only a soft hum from the craft and Ro’s composed breathing could be heard.
The windows gave a 180 wide by 90 degree high view, and in only a short time we had moved far enough away to view the full scope of Salvation - an absolutely jaw dropping sight.
She zipped the craft back over top of the transporter, using it as a reference point to show how fast we were actually travelling before continuing on and not turning back.
It had been several minutes of silence until a crackle comes through our voice-link.
“Unknown craft this is Transporter effugium, we’re unable to lock you. Please state your craft name and current home dock”.
Ro ignored the call, shifting her head to look the direction of our turn. The force increased with a rapid thrust of acceleration.
“See the screen to your right, hit the green button and flip the visor down on your helmet” said Ro with a tinge of urgency in her voice.
Quickly doing as she asked I hit the green button and flipped the additional visor down. For a brief moment it felt like wearing sunglasses inside before the visor adjusted. Suddenly the space outside became clearer than the naked eye and I noticed pixels popping up in my vision, rapidly going from one side of my visor to the other.
Ro jerked the controls seemingly in the direction of one of the pixels before it reached the edge of my vision, where it slowly was brought back to the middle. The pixel began expanding out to a circle, then to a crosshair. Before I fully understood what I was looking at or what was going on, I heard a static type noise followed by a thump and a tingling feeling wrapped around my body.
In a matter of seconds we narrowly passed by the object in front of us. ‘What the hell just happened, did we just take them out?’ I thought as a red arrow appeared at the bottom of my visor…and then another, and another. All beginning to flash in rapid succession.
“Uhh Ro, what’s with all these flashing—“
“I got it” she cut in as multiple metallic ‘whumphs’ could be heard.
The red arrows vanished one by one, each time celebrated by a chuckle from Ro and the operating hum of the ship descended. As quickly as it had even begun we started the short journey back to our Transporter, the trip was silent and I had the feeling Ro was going through an adrenaline comedown, possibly unsure of the consequences from her random provocation of another transporter.
Docking back into the transporter was smooth with hardly a shake. Ro calmly unhooked herself before helping me and hardly saying a word, however all she needed to do was give me a quick look for me to understood something was about to happen.
Sure enough as the airlock hissed our arrival, waiting on the other side was Jeremy, who I had started to be less surprised by now. Without a word he started walking. Motioning me to join, Ro followed behind.
The walk was painfully long, going down Miltech service elevators to one of their dedicated decks and weaving around the many hallways. It was like a massive office building - a more mundane side of Miltech but nevertheless still nerve wracking.
We finally arrived at a large glassed private office with the name ‘SecMajor Lori Henderson’ written across the door. A fiery looking women with Auburn hair smirked before standing and walking to the door before Jeremy could knock.
“Major Lewis you wait outside. You two come in” she said in her commanding tone.
Once inside she got straight to the point, instantly reprimanding Sergeant Ro, giving her Brig duties until further notice. The look cast over her face, I could tell it was a severe punishment enough in her eyes. Henderson then threw her hand outwards showing Ro the door, while waving Jeremy inside.
“Carter” she began, the use of my surname a good reminder of why I should have been worried.
“I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt that you’re just a stupid boy with a tongue wagging from your mouth. That along with Major Lewis’ words that you’re more use to me than just another body down in the brig to feed.
"Major Lewis here is in charge of all Miltech combat units attached to this Transporter and is now your superior. Your fuckups will now be his fuckups and ultimately it’s me who decides punishments here.”
Hendersons stare was cold and disarming as she ended her little speech, then, opening her eyes to a glare, she included the cherry on top…
“Now get the fuck out of my office”.