They figured out how to order takeout, deciding to keep it simple with burgers and fries, which mercifully arrived quickly. Once they re-emerged, the hungry Rangers wolfed down the food in minutes, and passed the newcomers a couple of beers.

“That’s Lyna,” Ash said. “This is Bibi, and then there’s Tian, Yak, and Ray. Kes is your squad leader. You will refer to her as Corporal Rudaski until we decide otherwise.”

“I’m Thandi, this is Kayla.”

Ash smiled. “Tina and Kate, got it. Don’t panic, you’ve got a long way to go yet. Where’re you from?”

Kayla felt a nudge from Thandi under the tabletop. Maybe she was being too shy? “Caldera,” she said.

“Colonist?” Ash asked.

Kayla nodded and couldn’t stop herself from tensing. The year she had spent in training with the other new Rangers had made her more comfortable about her background, but the expectation of snobbery never left.

“Oh cool, you might actually be useful then. And you?”

“Intaba,” Thandi said.

“What were you doing when the Organization picked you up?”

“I was boxing.”

Ash sat up, with an expression of interest. “Pro or Amateur?”

“I was teen fly-weight champion.”

Kes chuckled. “Ash, is it possible that we have actually been sent two interesting human beings?”

“I dunno Kes, beauty is only skin deep.” Ash nodded to Kayla. “Any idea where you want to specialize?”

“Special Mission Unit, probably,” Kayla admitted, and felt foolish. In this company she might as well have said that she wanted to be a billionaire, or a planet’s president.

Thandi shrugged. “Probably the same.”

Ash raised an eyebrow. “And what do you two newbies know about tier one?”

“We hung out with Urtiga a bit,” Kayla said.

“Kes, these bitches are cooler than we are!” complained Ash.

Kayla bit her tongue and wished she could take it back. She hadn’t realized it with Eliane, but she was so nervous she was name dropping for credibility. How would Urtiga react if she found out? She was dimly aware that she was making a relatively good impression on the squad, but the constant storm of anxiety only made her fixate on every mistake she made.

Kes was not impressed. “Hmm… we’ll see about that. This is a warrior squad, girls. No one cares who your friends are—we expect you to work for a living.”

The Ranger named Ray yowled like a big cat, while the others laughed.

“So we expect a lot from you,” Kes continued. “Work hard, pay attention, and we’ll get along just fine. See all the mud we brought into the hallway? I want that cleaned up by the morning. Then we’ll head down to supply and get you kitted out.”

“You need to do suit orientation too,” Ash interjected.

“Yeah—on top of the other crap I have to do.” Kes nodded to Kayla and Thandi. “See to it that we don’t have to waste time showing you anything twice.”

“Kes, I can do the suits, I have time,” offered Ray.

Kes smiled appreciatively. “Cool, thanks Ray. That sure makes my life easier. Alright—I’m completely drained—I’m heading to bed. Any questions, you two?”

“Where do you keep the broom?” Kayla asked.

“Good girl.”

The next day, Kayla was woken by a knock on her door at zero-seven-hundred. Wiping sleep out of her eyes, she joined Thandi and followed the corporal to the Armory, to be issued an assault rifle and pistol. They spent an hour zeroing their sights and practicing at the range, until Kayla’s fingers were stiff, and her shoulder numb.

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Kes said nothing about their accuracy, and delivered only a brief pep talk. “Battalion’s shooting standard is five hundred rifle rounds a week, and a hundred pistol rounds. But I expect you both to show me three hundred rounds a day on your range logs.”

She gave them a sharp look. “And don’t think I’m going to tolerate box-tickers either. If you want to do the minimum while you wait for a re-assignment to the Collective, you can request a transfer to Forest Rangers. My squad doesn’t need paperweights.”

Kayla nodded enthusiastically. Who the hell didn’t want to spend all day shooting?

After they were finished with the weapons, they found Ray in their apartment’s common area running through paperwork from the field exercise. “Just finishing,” she said, “be with you in a moment.”

“It’s Ashna Rai Bharath, actually,” she explained a few minutes later, as she led them to the battalion stores building. “And as you probably guessed, ‘Ash’ was already taken. Whatever—there are too many Ashes in the world.”

“Everyone seems nice,” Kayla offered, struggling to make small talk as her mind reeled with all the information she was expected to retain.

“It’s a bit of good cop, bad cop,” Ray explained. “I’m the good cop because I like people. Hey, Eliane!” She whirled around as the lance corporal passed them. “How’s your nephew?”

“Never seeing you again!” Eliane snapped. “His fiancé was devastated!” She turned up her nose and walked away.

Ray grinned and turned back to Kayla and Thandi. “As I said, I like people. But, in my defense, he didn’t tell me he was engaged.”

“Uh…” Kayla searched her mind for something cool to say. “Men, huh?” she finished, lamely.

“I didn’t ask either,” Ray said with a shrug. “But it wasn’t my problem to worry about.”

Thandi frowned. “The battalion seems quite strict. I imagine they prefer to maintain high standards.”

“Yeah, welcome to the Vipers,” Ray said. “This company is one of the toughest, most storied units in the whole organization. We have a hard-ass lieutenant, who you’ll meet later at the daily briefing. She wants us to win all the Ranger competitions so she can hang the trophies on her wall. Kes is into all that stuff too.”

She turned to them with a straight face. “You weren’t assigned here at random. Somebody obviously thinks you will be an asset to this company, but don’t let that go to your heads. Your Ranger School training amounts to almost nothing. It will be at least a year until you have learned enough to really support the squad. Frankly, it never ends—Viper respect has to be earned from scratch every day.”

Kayla nodded enthusiastically, as Thandi’s sour expression faded.

When they arrived at the battalion stores, they saw rows of combat suits in all sizes, and in a variety of camouflage colors.

“This is only static camo unfortunately,” Ray explained, as she pulled out an example. “Not like the adaptive suits the Tier One operators get. Those change color to match the surrounding terrain—they just go invisible.” She shook her head wistfully.

“But anyway,” she continued, “the EVHA Mark 3 or Extra Vehicular anti Hazard Assault suit, is a temperature regulated composite layered suit with Kraylon weave. It will protect you from acidic compounds, and hazardous environmental conditions. It will stop a knife and a glancing hit from many small calibers. As you probably deduced, the suit is rated for… wait for it… extra-vehicular activity—or space walking, if you’re not a nerd—and it’s got an internal heater and cooler.”

“It’s kind of boxy,” observed Kayla as she checked out one of the hanging suits.

“That’s by design—the suit hides your figure to make you look like you could be male. Sometimes we can be open about being women, sometimes we can’t. It can draw a lot of unwanted attention, or trouble.”

“Trouble that super soldiers can’t sort out?” asked Thandi.

Ray shook her head. “Sorry to burst your bubble honey, but you can’t go around beating up everyone that disagrees with you.”

Kayla nodded sympathetically. That made perfect sense, though she couldn’t help feeling a little disappointment.

“Sometimes we operate in and around human settlements,” Ray explained, “and some cultures just can’t deal with taking orders from women. So, we pop the helmets on, activate the voice scrambler, and we’re good to go. It’s great fun, because people take you for a robot death machine and that really freaks them out.”

Kayla couldn’t repress a sudden smile.

“I thought Valkyrie was supposed to be secretive?” said Thandi.

Ray shrugged. “Public interaction is rare, but a small colonist community doesn’t know better if we say we’re troops from a distant government they don’t even think about, much less interact with. Okay, let’s size you both up.”

First, they were fitted for their Alpha suits—a tight formfitting type of body sock to wear inside the main suit, Ray explained. As well as being flame retardant, it provided mechanical counter-pressure to prevent the body inflating like a balloon in a low-pressure environment. In the event the main suit was damaged, the Alpha suit would keep them comfortable in the void of space—provided the helmet was intact. It was also resistant to the chemical and biological agents they might encounter.

“Okay,” Ray finished. “Why don’t you undress, slip into these, and I’ll find your size of combat suits.”

Kayla looked around. “Where are the changing rooms?” she asked.

Ray scoffed. “Girl, you can’t be embarrassed about getting naked when you’re on a tightly packed ship getting ready for a combat drop.”

Kayla shrugged and started pulling off her clothes as Ray headed off down an aisle. Thandi did the same.

“Hey, you two!” the stores Quartermaster yelled as she caught sight of them from across the room. “Stop exhibiting yourselves and go into the changing cabins. You’re not making a damn porno in my shop!”

“It’s the new generation Pip,” Ray’s voice called. “No moral standards—bunch of perverts!” She cackled raucously.

Kayla and Thandi grabbed their clothes and ducked out of sight behind the hanging suits.