Buses pulled into the Mountain Rangers’ parade ground outside their headquarters on Tyr, Valkyrie’s hidden base of operations. The day was still early, and over the surrounding mountain peaks that rose above the glass and steel buildings, the moon’s gas giant glowed a warm red against the sky.

Kayla picked her large backpack out of the bus’s storage bay, and followed the crowd towards the Bravo company buildings. She glanced up at the statue that stood in front of the main office—a group of polished bronze Rangers climbing up on a metal boulder—and suppressed a shudder. Her mind’s eye saw grey boulders littering the floor of a cold valley, and she didn’t like to return to those memories.

She was behind Kes as they ascended the stairs to their squad apartment. The Mountain Rangers didn’t use elevators. When they pushed through the front door, Kayla followed the corporal towards the kitchen, where cold beers would wait, and she could forget about the one room that would not greet a returning occupant.

Entering the lounge, she stopped. A young woman in pressed and clean khakis was sat on the couch, trying not to look nervous and failing miserably. Kayla stared at her for a moment, then turned back towards her room. Maybe she didn’t need a drink straight away. First, she could drop her things off and tidy them away.

She pushed her door open and stared glumly at the closet doors hanging open, and the clothes strewn across the floor. They had deployed in a rush, but that had only left the place slightly cleaner. In theory, she could program a cleaning drone to put the place back in shape, though it would earn her a rebuke from the platoon sergeant.

Yak would probably tease her about laziness too, and Kayla would respond with a joke. But she was gone today. If her recovery took a long time, she might never be part of the squad again. Only the closed door across the hall replaced the joy Kayla was missing.

She dropped her bag and sank onto her bed, stared at the waiting mess, then decided her time would be better spent checking the news. As she browsed, heat filled her cheeks as a story about the terrorist attack on Ambrosia popped up. The Helvets were blaming the bombing on Calderan separatists. Of course they would lie about it. They lied about everything.

She checked the comments, arguing with them in her head until she thought she couldn’t control her temper. Then she moved to other stories, pretending to read them whilst continuing her imaginary argument with an ignorant Rackeye college student.

Voices drifted in from the common area as her squad mates asked the new girl about herself. Kayla felt restless, so she stood in front of the mirror. She took in her dark brown eyes, and black ponytail, greasy from a day of work and travel. As her gaze wandered—

“Kayla, what are you doing?” Thandi’s voice snapped from the doorway.

Guilt and surprise startled Kayla out of her reverie. “Uh…” she scrambled for an excuse, because ‘trying to avoid doing my job’ would fetch her a real and unpleasant punishment.

“Are you checking yourself out in the mirror?” Thandi’s expression turned sour. “That’s a little narcissistic, don’t you think?”

“No, no, I was just—”

“Come on, get out here. Be sociable.”

Kayla followed her friend into the lounge and cringed as the squad’s eyes turned from the new girl to her. They smiled like hyenas.

“What’s up?” Kes asked Thandi.

Thandi shrugged, too expressively. “Nothing. Kayla was just busy admiring herself in the mirror.”

“Oh, that’s gross,” Kes said. “That’s some poor leadership behavior right there. Setting a bad example, Lance Corporal Barnes.”

Kayla smiled tightly and nodded. There would be a beating, and it would continue until morale improved. She grabbed a beer from the fridge, and gingerly took a seat opposite the wide-eyed new private.

“I tell her all the time,” Thandi went on, “Pride goeth before the fall. It’s a sin.”

“No, totally,” Kes nodded vigorously. “Like, I’m not a Christian, but I can still appreciate the strong moral compass that pushes back on bad behavior.”

“I just don’t want her to go to hell. God does not approve of willful bad habits.”

“Definitely going to hell,” Lyna said with a smirk in her direction. “I always said she was a bad sort.”

“It’s all that attention that’s getting to her,” Kes said. “Celebrity corrupts even the most noble of us.”

Kayla took a deep swallow from her bottle, eager to feel the sweet release of intoxication.

“Can I just say, as a woman, and a feminist,” Ray said, with tears in her eyes. “That the biggest thing holding back our gender is the objectification of our bodies.”

“Yes, yes, thank you so much Ray,” Tian added. “I applaud your bravery.”

The others cheered.

Ray returned Kayla’s narrow-eyed glare with a look of heartbroken pity “To see you, of all women,” she continued, “my mentor, maybe even my idol… reducing yourself to a sex object. It’s a tragedy. Just a tragedy.”

The Rangers, with one exception, murmured extensive words of agreement, as they looked upon Kayla with a mixture of sadness and disappointment. The sentiment on display barely hid their naked glee at the opportunity gifted to them.

Kes pulled out her tablet. “You know, I was just thinking about going over her performance review. It would be remiss of me not to mention this kind of failure in her character.”

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Lyna looked thoughtful. “Possible narcissistic or sociopathic tendencies?” she suggested.

“Yep, that sounds about right.” Kes tapped at the screen. “Extreme self-absorption during the indoctrination of new team members.”

Kayla took another swig, and smiled at the new girl. Beneath her perfectly bobbed hair and pristine uniform, she wore an expression of confused fright, and was probably arguing with herself whether she should try and laugh along, stay silent, or just run from the building.

“We’ll be with you in just a moment,” Kayla said, and got a brave smile in response.

“It’s really neglect of squad-essential duties,” Thandi added, while Kes made more notes.

“Or even platoon-essential,” Kes said. “I mean, what is a platoon without a cohesive squad?”

“What is the company, without the platoon?” Tian added, now grinning openly.

Kes nodded. “When you put it like that, we could be looking at the total failure of the battalion and the organization itself.”

“Resulting in war across the galaxy and billions dead,” Lyna said, throwing a sickly sweet smile in Kayla’s direction. “Could any punishment be too severe for such grotesque irresponsibility?”

A heavy silence fell as the Rangers contemplated the possibility of a satisfying punishment.

“The parade ground will need a sweep after our arrival,” Ray suggested. “I think Alpha is on the roster, but you know they always appreciate volunteers.”

Kes’ lips twisted into an evil smile. “That’s a great suggestion, thanks Ray. Lance Corporal Barnes you will report for sweeping duty to the parade ground at oh-six-hundred tomorrow morning.”

Kayla raised her beer. “Oh-six-hundred, roger that,” she said listlessly. The job would take her a few hours, because the battalion liked a spotlessly clean parade ground. They would almost certainly send out an officer to inspect her work before she finished. Said officer would have spent a few minutes stamping around in the muddy field at the back of the building, resulting in a significant addition of dirt to Kayla’s task. They would undoubtedly be accompanied by an orderly, whose footwear would be similarly filthy, and who would feel the need to closely observe the distant corners of the wide tarmac square. Also in attendance would be her squad, her platoon, and anyone else Kes managed to get the word to.

Such was Kayla’s punishment for leaving her squad on Ambrosia. Any hope of it being forgotten had been delusional, and the crime seemed to have grown worse in their minds with her growing notoriety.

But as the buzz of alcohol took hold, not all her worries melted away. Her fingers clenched around the bottle as she saw Yak, her skin, muscle and bone fragments blasting out of her back. Then there was Rose, white as a sheet as her blood flowed away through a dead valley. Once again, the Valkyrie had failed, and Rayker was still on the loose. How many of them would die to finally bring her to justice?

Kayla glanced again at the nervous young face across from her. She knew what was behind the façade. Anxiety, without a doubt, but also hope, and the ignorant eagerness of a new recruit. After a year of training, the girl believed in Valkyrie’s mission, and she would run into gunfire, even if she had no idea what she was doing.

Heat radiated through Kayla’s blood. Rose had fought to the death, alone, with no-one to help her. Should a rookie risk the same fate because her appointed mentor couldn’t deal with her own problems?

She swallowed rising tears. Kes had made her the Ranger she always dreamed she could be. And someone, many years ago, had done the same for Kes. Their unbroken chain stretched back—Kayla had no doubt—to the first time a human learned how to swing a heavy stick, and taught the technique to a fascinated youth. Probably even further than that. It was not simply sacred; it was the only thing that had brought them all out of the darkness of a universe eager to destroy them.

Kayla set her jaw. She was a lance corporal. Her doubts and fears were irrelevant. Her squad needed a second in command, and she would, by the heavens, stop being a selfish idiot and start doing her job properly. Somewhere in her psychic mailbox, she had no doubt, a message from Rose was waiting, unopened, that said exactly that.

“What’s your name?” she asked when the squad’s teasing had run its course.

“Um… Jess—Private Jessica Hernandez,” the Ranger said.

“JessprivateJessica is a pretty name,” Tian said with a smirk.

“I am Lance Corporal Kayla Barnes, and I am your fire team leader. Which camp did you go to?”

“Um… White,” Jess said.

“Same. Susaki still there?”

“Yeah.”

Kayla put her beer down. “I really hated that woman.”

“We went through together two years ago,” Thandi explained.

“That was when boot camp was really tough,” Kayla added. “They’ve made it much easier since then.”

Thandi grinned. “Right. If you check the graduation rates, ours was actually the hardest one ever.”

“Definitely harder than Tian’s,” Kayla said, with a wink at the woman.

Jess chuckled nervously. Thandi asked her more questions, but Kayla noticed the girl kept glancing back at her.

“Have you picked up any martial arts yet?” she asked.

“Oh… well I like Muay Thai. I um—” Jess looked like she was going to say more, but hesitated. “I’m sorry if I’m nervous. I didn’t think they’d put me here.”

Kayla’s brow furrowed. “What do you mean? In Mountain Rangers?”

“With… um… you. This squad, I mean.” Jess suddenly appeared to find part of her uniform fascinating.

Thandi caught Kayla’s eye, but she also looked confused.

“What, do we have a bad reputation with the instructors?” Kayla asked, and felt a touch of pride at the thought.

“Oh, it’s all anyone talks about in Ranger school… the battle on Caldera I mean.” Jess fixed her eyes back down on the thread she was pulling on her shirt. She looked like she wanted to crawl away and hide. “Is it true you beat up Allana Rayker?” she asked suddenly, showing a piece of the reckless confidence Valkyrie had selected her for.

Total silence filled the apartment, and Kayla felt another lash of pain as the memory of that day returned. She pressed her chilled bottle against her forehead and counted to five. Then she pushed forward.

“Do you want me to tell you why they sent you here, Private Hernandez?” Kayla spoke sternly, now that she understood the work that needed to be done.

“Okay.”

“Because an experienced, capable and amazing friend of ours was nearly shot to death in a foreseeable failure of communication and planning.”

Jess swallowed, but said nothing.

“They sent you here because, out of everyone in your graduating class, they thought you were the best. Well, you’re not nearly good enough. Nothing personal—no matter how dedicated you were, you’re still a rookie. Maybe, in a year, if you work hard, and listen to everything you are told by the rest of this squad, you might start to look like a decent Ranger.”

Kayla leaned forward. “But we are very likely to be going back out after Rayker within a month.”

The silence was broken by Ray cracking a bottle open. “Yeah, thanks for lightning the mood, darling.”

Jess’s eyes remained fixed on Kayla, and she nodded slightly.

“Do you want to hear dumb stories, or do you want to get to work?” Kayla demanded.

“I want to work,” Jess said.

“Good. Unfortunately, my uh… schedule appears to be fully booked tomorrow morning, so Ray will take you for a weapon and suit orientation. In the afternoon I’ll take you to our climbing gym and we’ll start on some techniques for vertical movement.”

Jess’s backpack pinged and she looked around in surprise.

“Just sent a document to your tablet,” Kes announced. “It contains everything you need to know about the integrated mapping functions of your helmet’s computer. I expect you to become an expert on chapter one tonight. I will test you at breakfast. It’ll be nice to have someone who won’t screw up like the last asshole who was in charge of our navigation.”

“Questions?” Kayla asked.

“Um, no Lance-Corporal,” Jess said as she started fumbling for her things.

“Then start thinking of some.”