Emily sat beside Val’s rolling chair munching on a hot dog watching Bubbles try to get Rags into a dance-off. A mech pilot was talking Emily’s ear off about what it takes to be a Mech Pilot. She had made the mistake of asking a few questions to the guy. Val invited the Mech pilots to the cookout but Emily just wished that she hadn’t invited this one guy. She didn’t want to be elitist because Brutes who did not become Class A supers became Mech pilots in the Navy but this guy was driving her up the wall. “Besides, I’m not a Brute.” Emily chastised herself.

“Mech are short of mechanized suits.” The mech pilot said to her. “The suits started out as just bulletproof armor then they added an exoskeleton for weapon systems. Now they have added tank tracks to the legs so when we kneel down we can get up to … well, the speed is classified but they can go really fast.”

Emily tried not to roll her eyes but it was hard. She saw David and smile. “Hey sorry to run on you like this but I have to go see my team leader. Enjoy the cookout.” Emily said to the pilot and trying to look like she was walking and not running towards David.

“Hey David, what's up?” Emily asked as she came alongside him.

“Hey, Emily. I ah mean Never. What's up.”

“Emily is fine.” She told him smiling. “Just wondering if you need any help.”

“With the cookout? I am not really doing anything really. It’s all Val’s thing.” David said shrugging.

“Well since your not doing anything right at this minute why don’t we get some food,” Emily said smiling up at David.

“Ok, I was heading that way anyway.” He said shrugging. Emily smiled and covertly threw her hog dog away.

“So I heard this theory about the war from this old lady in this village,” Emily said later that night. David and she were sitting next to each other on the tarmac a little bit away from the hanger looking up at the stars. “She told me that this war is about new and old ideas. We’re the new ideas and the OCS is the old idea's. She thinks neither side is good or bad just different.”

“Hmm sounds interesting. Personally, I think we're are both babies having a temper tantrum. The OCS is like a big baby that wants to control the playground and is telling everybody what to do. We are the new baby on the playground that says no, screw you.” David said laughing his eyes focused upwards towards the stars.

Emily laughed. “Nice I like that one. So the OCS is the big bully on the playground?”

“Kind of. Think of it as everyone has been playing their own game for a long time fighting with each other for room to play. Then we come in with our new toys wanting to play. Some are cool with it others not so much. There’s not enough room on the playground for all the games everyone wants to play and so we fight.” David said looking down at Emily.

“So it is a war over what game we are playing,” Emily said looking into his eyes.

“Heh maybe, I don’t know. All I know is that we are all a bunch of babies who want our own way.” David said shaking his head and sighing looking back up at the stars.

The conversations change a bit after that with David asking her about where grew up. She told him about growing up with her grandmother after her mother died from cancer. When he asked about her dad she told him that he left when she was really young. Not wanting to talk about it anymore she changed the subject.

“...And so this guy died in the pool.” Emily said explaining what happened at super school.

“No, he didn’t,” David said turning to look at her.

“Yes, he did. I was there. They were doing CPR on him.” She said getting angry.

“Has no one told…. No, I supposed they didn’t.” David said laying on his side propping his head upon his hand. “A lot of what you see at super school is fake. The guy who died was a plant. They plant one person in every platoon to pretend to die. They do it to increase the tension. It makes you feel like everything is life or death. In reality, you couldn’t be more wrong. There are a bunch of divers at the bottom of the pool to make sure everyone makes it out alive. It’s why the bottom of the pool is always so dark.”

Emily cursed as she thought over everything she had gone through in the school. “The grenades?” She asked.

“They make you go through in two lines because they have water cannons under water. They don't want you to accidentally trip on one. It’s all about the fear of death. They have to scare you so bad that you think you're going to die. It’s one of the few ways to awaken someone. Well, that and anger. It’s why the wall on the obstacle course is so slippery.” David said smiling.

“How do you know about this stuff?” She asked him frowning.

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“Another Main I was working with laid it all out a long time ago. He explained everything as I am explaining it to you. It’s kinda like a tradition for one of us to explain what's what to the new supers. You’ll explain it to some new super some day. How long do you have left on your enlistment?” He asked her.

“Eight years plus a few months.” She told him.

David chuckled and shook his head. “The first-time enlistment always sucks. The bonus for reenlistment is awesome though.”

“Yeh.” She said sarcastically.

“Look this stuff is confendical. If you tell anyone and the news gets out then you're hurting the new recruits their chance to awaken. You got to keep quiet about this. You can’t tell anyone who’s not a super and you need to make darn sure even then that they will keep their mouth shut.” He said looking into her eyes.

“Ok. One question though. Why do the instructors don’t name any name tags in school.” She asked him.

David leaned back to lay on his back again before he spoke. “According to what I heard there have been a few time in the past that people have come back and killed an instructor after graduation. They try to keep the instructors as anonymous as possible and you can only become an instructor right before you retire. I’ll probably end there someday.” David said looking up into the sky. He sounded sad. Talk after that drifted to happier topics.

The next day they all went to breakfast together then split up to get used to their individual teams. Emily’s was assigned to a two-man sniper team with a four-man SK team. The lead Marine sniper was an older guy maybe in his early thirties going bald. His partner was a thin Filipino guy who tried to look intimation but to Emil,y he failed pretty bad. According to the lead sniper, there would be two other sniper teams teamed up with SK teams throughout the area doing overwatch coverage.

Emily ate lunch with her new team while the lead sniper went on and on about what they were expected to do while in the nest. It all boiled down to don't let the enemy see you. Ignore what the snipers were doing and watch the rear in case the enemy tries to hit them from behind. At lastly do what you're told. Emily had learned sniper support in Ranger school but the Marine SK team looked a little green. The team meeting broke up around four in the afternoon with plans to meet up at three in the morning. The team would sneak into the city soon after and head to a building that the snipers had picked out for a nest.

“The Army eat better than the Marines.” Emily thought to herself as she finished her dinner of cold ham and cheese. She headed back to the hanger to see if any of the others were around and found David with his shirt off fighting with Val. David was armed with a black metal staff spear thing that was just shorter than he was and Val had her a mini sledgehammer that she was holding with one hand.

Emily watched the shirtless David as he attacked Val. He had some amazing muscles and rock hard abs. He was glowing slightly from sweat as he moved to circle Val. Val for her part was good. Really really good. Even though she was being attacked by what Emily thought was a superior weapon she was easily able to move her hammer fast enough to defend herself. Emily was impressed. Val struck the left end of Davids staff as he attacked her then moving incredibly fast was able to hit the other end as David tried to hit her in the side of her stomach. Back and forth no matter how fast or where David tried to strike Val she was right there hitting the ends of his staff.

Val ended up winning the fight when David tried to stab her in the stomach with the end of his staff. Val dodged by turning sideways and spinning bringing her hammer up and around to strike David in the back. He stumbled forward and fell face first to the ground. Val stood over him and lightly tapped him on the head.

“Killing blow.” She told him in a quiet voice.

“Yea I'm dead.” He said with a sigh. “You sure you want to retire after this tour?”

“Seven completed tours in the suck and this one make eight. Yea I am done. I'm gonna join one of those west coast Super Hero teams and coast into my old age.” Val said grabbing David's hand and helping him stand up. “But enough about me, your girlfriend is here.”

Emily blushed hard and tried to look surprised. “I am not his…,” Emily said trailing off as Val started to laugh.

“Never, you can't be more obvious if you tried. It's so cute that you're so awkward.” Val said shaking her head smiling. “I am out. See you guys after this OP. Be safe and remember we're not immortal.”

“Thanks, Val. Be safe.” David said nodding to her.

Emily was caught up watching David dry off with an old gray towel as Val walked by. She gave Emily a smile and clapped her on the should on her way by and whispered. “Don't worry he likes you. Good luck.”

Emily blushed harder and turned to look somewhere else instead of gawking at David like a teenager. “Its ok I'm decent,” David said with a laugh.

“I not. I mean I was just ah looking over there.” Emily said pointing randomly at the side of the hanger.

“My dear Emily, would you like to go for a sunset walk on the flight line?” David said holding out his elbow for her to take.

“Well, at least I am not the only idiot.” Emily thought to herself taking his arm. She looked over at him and saw his rank. “He got an anchor with two stars just like Senior Chief in super school. He has to be at least a First Sergeant maybe even a Sergeant Major. Is that cool that I want to date him. Whoa, wait who said anything about dating. He's a nice guy. A really good looking nice guy. Ah hell who am I kidding? He's so friggin gorgeous.”

They walked the flight line as the sun was setting talking. He was an easy person to talk with and while his joke was nerdy they made her laugh. She was surprised to learn that he plays online games. Mostly console games but she let that one slide even if he described himself as a gamer. They found a small bolder and sat down to watch the last of the sunset. Emily leaned in and he put his arm around her. It was nice.

They stayed there late into the night with David occasionally pointing out constellation out to her. He even made up a few making her laugh. “That one's the toilet bowl.” He said pointing up into the night sky. She snuggled deeper into his arms chuckling. “I hate to do this but I think it's time we head back. We got an OP tomorrow so we should get a good night's sleep.”

“Yea,” Emily said sadly but didn't move.

“Yea,” David said holding her tighter.

David walked her back to her tent and gave her a goodnight kiss that left her whole body tingling. Emily finally got to bed just after eleven. Three and a half hours later her alarm went off and she got ready for the OP.