Eloana Twiddles was giggling in her little room as She tried to use her hud, but the prisoner transport ship was always blocking access to it. She sighed, but it quickly vanished as she thought about how much time she had been sitting in this room by now.

“Mmm, I bet my cute little bumpkin with all her hopes and silly dreams has had her final exam. Now that, I am not there to show that little bumpkin the true path she should have taken. But that means she has spent time in the real world and that means my dearest daddy has received my message about my little bumpkins solar system and I have no doubt he has already found it and declared it a combat zone. Oh, it brings me such great joy to know her stupid little system will be picked clean until there is nothing left by the sensible Twiddle clan and those happy little fun-loving guilds. I have no doubt they have already selected the carrier for the job, and the guilds are rushing to buy up guild hall space on board. Hahaha, hurry up, little bumpkin, and graduate so you can feel my wrath! But, but, but, best of all you silly little bumpkin, once the combat zone has been declared there is no way for it to be undone. Haha, you are screwed, you and your little dirt planet. Haha… although there is one way… but you will never be able to afford it so it doesn't matter hahaha bye bye little bumpkin, you should have taken the out I so graciously had offered you instead of showing off in front of me.

*******

On a carrier over a blue, grey planet stood a squad as they loaded into a pod. A lieutenant was standing in front of the pods giving orders to this squad.

“Steel Hellians, you will be inserted by drop pod! When you hit the ground you are to regroup and then charge the mountain indicated on your maps, it is the known position of the enemy’s power station for this section of orbital defences, when you blow it up we will finally be able to start sending drop-ships down, securing us a place to start the invasion. I need you to get this done!”

“Don't worry, Lieutenant Cilterian, we will get it done. That training you sent us on was hell but very effective. Relax and get ready for us to look cute for the photo op of your squad in their sexy armour.”

There were a few laughs before the drop pod doors closed, sealing them in.

“Yea, yea, I am clearly sending a squad of comedians to blow up a power plant.”

The pods vanished from in front of him as he let out a sigh. He turned away as he brought up a deployment map so he could see where all his clan assets highlighted in a glowing green were in the known space and where other clans assets in their own colours were. He was about to declare the drop mission had begun when he noticed four carriers of the same colour making a beeline for a certain solar system that was quickly changing colour to indicate it had gone from a neutral protected zone to a combat zone. Something about the zone scratched at the back of his mind like he should know it, but he couldn't remember why. He slowly rolled his shoulders as he pushed the feeling out of his mind and clicked on one of his own clan carriers and slid it across to the new combat zone it was closer than the four heading that way and would get their first allowing him to take ownership of the zone, and he could then figure out what was bugging him about it later. He decided to attach additional orders to the one he had given the carrier moments ago.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“GFA1193 I am ordering you to the solar system listed as MWOA254, some Celestial Count is sending four of his carriers there, and I can't think of any possible reason such a small solar system needs so many carriers to conquer it, therefore I am attaching these additional orders on to you. Go to MWOA254 and set up a parameter, declare the entire solar system property of the Celestial Duke Cilterian clan, and then investigate and find out why so many carriers were ordered to that solar system. Report your findings back before you do anything else. We might be looking at a protected species that is about to be harvested illegally through legal channels and if that is the case then I want to know so we can put a stop to it! However, if your findings are above board and there are no illegal preventions stopping you from harvesting the solar system yourself, then I give you the green light to begin harvesting it. Lieutenant Wilter Cilterian over and out!”

He turned his attention back to the drop pods and clicked the button to indicate they were on their way to the planet before closing the map and walking out of the room. He couldn't help but let out another sigh.

“If that uppity Celestial Count is hunting something illegal, I'm going to have so much fun after requesting permission to start hunting his estate.”

*******

Sergeant Jones led us up to a stage that had hundreds of chairs on the field in front of it, and we stood there with half of the recruits that had started boot camp with us, it seemed that they had been washing out of the other programs as well. And at the same rate we had been losing our own. I could see on their uniforms that not all of them had been passing all of their promotion exams, but their program seemed to be more forgiving. As the marines had one sergeant, two corporals and the rest were private first class. The engineers were a mix between Sergeant and Staff Sergeant.

“Atten-Hut!” yelled Lieutenant Oostarn

We all moved quickly on reflex, standing at attention as we faced out towards the fields. The chairs suddenly were not empty but filled with people in uniforms, none of them below the rank of Lieutenant.

“Congratulations on graduating boot camp! Now the sea of officers you see in front of you are currently assessing the last four weeks of your service with the Galactic Federation Alliance and will be choosing whether they would like you to join their squads or platoons. Good luck!”

She turned away and stood on the edge of the stage staring out at the sea of officers with us for over an hour, silently waiting. Until finally the last officer vanished from his seat. She then turned back to us and smiled.

“Congratulations you have all been chosen, you will receive your orders in four weeks. In the meantime, you will be enjoying rest and relaxation on your home world. Then the real fun begins. Serve well and honour this boot camp when you go out into the game! Dismissed!”

‘You have been disconnected’ appeared across my vision.