He rushed to the bathroom stall in the quarter that the squad all shared. There, he stared intensely at his reflection and sighed.
He brushed his teeth and splashed water on his face freshening himself up and spoke words of affirmation.
"Let's do this."
From his compartment, he pulled his suit and began wearing the boots and pants one by one. He felt the boots were firm and conformable, and when he stomped on the metal floor, the boots seemed to ground him.
He looked up, Lara had gone out and he was alone in the room. He grabbed the belt and refitted it in, it was firm and fit him well. He put the top part of the suit on, it slid in perfectly.
The suit felt like a second skin— designed to allow for maximum flexibility and protection. He stretched to get a better feel of his new skin, it was great and his movements were unhindered.
"Hey rookie!" called Lara, she was already done and appeared at the door to find Wein also almost done.
"Coming."
Wein grabbed his helmet, the rest of the gear he would get later and followed Lara, who appeared to be impatient.
Behind in his compartment left neatly stacked with his uniform was the pin that distinguished Wein Serin as a Trooper of House Voss.
****
From a minor jog, the two arrived at the Troopers' locker room. They had happened across other Troopers on the way who like them seemed to be in a hurry to their stations.
The locker room was like any other, there were benches and lockers stacked around for the Troopers. The room itself was beautiful and neat, it was spacious and on the side was a big wide glass window that stared out into the stars and the cold space.
Wein followed Lara who led him to his locker. It was similar to all the other lockers in the room, plain locking and with a biometric lock that allowed entry to the owner only.
Near Wein saw the other members of the squad, they were all more or less ready and in the suits.
The group was clustered together in one position in the room which gave Wein the thought that each squad had lockers closer to each other.
"There you are rookie" spoke Derek, his eyes went to Lara, he wanted to know why they were late.
"Found him still sleeping" she replied.
"Come on guys he must be tired, besides he might not get a moment's sleep for days through this mission" interjected Sienna who noticed the disappointment in Derek.
"Anyway, your gear is in the locker get ready."
Wein nodded as he opened his locker.
Inside was a backpack at the bottom placed perfectly, grey in colour. Over it was an Energy Rifle/Laser Rifle big enough to be held firmly with both hands.
The colour was black, and its design was simple yet futuristic, its functioning was simple: simply pull a trigger, and off it goes.
The kind that Wein saw was the MA-25 , he knew it as soon as he saw it because he had seen and used it before. Back at training camp, he had used that model during training in both simulations and weapons training. It was a good model and the most popular rifle in House Voss's forces.
He picked it up and inspected it, it was exactly like the one he used in training, and he checked the functionality of it.
The MA-25 was good, it could fire powerful and sustained energy blasts that could tear through or burn opponents with one shot. The energy came from the magazine clip that could be refitted and replaced quickly and easily.
Upon further inspection, Wein saw that within the locker, there were replacement or extra clips and tools laid out. He put the rifle back in and focused on the handgun stacked nearby.
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Alike the rifle was grey in colour and more futuristic in build, Wein also recognised the handgun as the Ceres-Blaster.
It was a big handgun, unlike the traditional handgun with a free handle, the handle of the Ceres-Blaster was connected to the slide like a circular loop that slightly extended. It was slower at firing than the rifle, but it was strong and light.
The locker had other tools and essentials but before that Wein got distracted, he could tell that the ship was about to Hyperdrive.
The air in the room was thick with anticipation as all voices descended to silence, and the low hum of the ship's systems filled the room.
Everyone knew what Hyperdrive meant, the ability to do that was in itself an exciting and horrifying fact. Everyone's eyes were fixated on the space outside the glass window.
Outside, the vast expanse of space seemed strangely still, as if the stars themselves were holding their breath waiting for what was to come.
Wein abandoned what he was doing and walked over to the glass as the other Troopers were still and also watching.
His boots felt strangely heavy as he took steps closer and closer to the window, as he went further, he distinguished himself as the only trooper to walk out to the window.
While the others were stationary quiet and observing he was the only one who appeared intrigued about what was going to happen.
His heart pounded fast until he stopped midway.
Wein had undergone Hyperdrive before, but at that time he was more or less unconscious so to experience his first Hyperdrive was an exciting situation.
Before them, the massive Orion Sett was preparing to initiate its jump into Hyperdrive.
"Beginning Pre-Hyperdrive Initialisation" rang a voice on the comms spreading across the whole ship.
As soon as that system spoke, everyone could sense that the Orion Sett had begun moving. The movement was slow, but it was accelerating just that it was unobservable.
The speed increased more and more until the passengers could notice that it was moving at a greater speed.
From the locker room, the view was first stationary stars that were simply watching them, then the stars moved slightly.
Then little by little it appeared as though the stars were sent falling back until only white streaks of light remained in the glass to show they were from the stars.
The Orion Sett was now moving at dangerous speeds.
The vibrations beneath the ship intensified as the engines surged to life, propelling it to greater speeds. They weren't at light speed yet, but the acceleration pulling the ship was enough to make them believe that.
The stars and space outside the viewpoint began to blur together and merge as the Orion Sett gathered enough speed, that would rapture and create faster-than-light travel.
"Entering Hyperdrive in three… two… "echoed the voice once more, its cold voice sending chills to all who heard it.
!!!...
The air went electric. For a split-second, time seemed to stretch.
An indescribable colour appeared surrounding the whole of the ship and almost like it did not exist despite the great speed it was moving the Orion Sett disappeared into thin air.
Before that point, the ship appeared to have momentarily stopped despite the speed for a milli second resulting in sparks from the remnants of the indiscernible light to remain in the position it disappeared from.
They flickered there for a few seconds and were gone.
…
Inside the ship what Wein and the others witnessed was the glass window radiating a bright light and before they could cover their eyes, they felt a strange sensation as if something was going out of their bodies.
It was for a split second and before they noticed they witnessed the ship go into Hyperdrive.
The ship surged forward with everything it had, outside everything was pure darkness and nothingness. The fabric of reality seemed to have been erased, and they had entered into the dark cold abyss called the void.
There was nothing but pure black, no colour of stars passing by at great speed or at a distance, no colour of anything just nothingness.
The Troopers around Wein who had remained silent began to loosen up, it was over, and they had jumped through the fabric of space safely.
"So, this is what it looks like" muttered Wein to himself so no one would hear him. He was watching the darkness of the abyss and wondered what was beyond there.
The ship itself was just moving forward, lights could not penetrate the darkness nor emerge out, so it was as if the ship were blindly moving forward without direction.
…
"Hey newbie, get yourself ready" spoke Mark jolting Wein up from his amazement. He walked back to his locker and checked his gear.
It did not take him much time until he was fully equipped, his backpack hung full of resources on his back. His belt filled with all the extra clips he would need along with some supplements for later.
On the side, his army blade was shining in its strap and on the opposite side, his handgun was firm in its holster.
Wein was ready, his MA-25 was staring at him as he calmed his last nerves. On top of the locker was his helmet and with that, he would be ready.
At that, he felt the ship vibrate just a little and he realised, they were about to arrive at their destination.
"Exiting Hyperdrive in three…two…" rang the cold voice.
Weins eyes went for the window and the previously black void was replaced by the unfamiliar light from before and in an instant the Orion Sett disappeared just as it did when entering Hyperdrive.
…
Upon emerging from the void, the Orion Sett came to an immediate stop as if it were forced.
"Hyperdrive jump success. Welcome to the Bolj star system" rang the voice to all over the Orion Sett. "Entering camouflage mode!"
Almost instantly the ship merged with the space as if it were never there, blending into the space around it.
"All Troopers for deployment assemble!" the comms went out all over the locker room like a drill.
"Come on we are up," said Derek, he took the first step. The rest of the squad followed closely behind all holding their own MA-25 with both hands and wearing their helmets, jogging in unison behind him ready for battle.
Wein took his MA-25 from his locker and locked it, grabbing his helmet he was also ready, and he followed behind the line.