Mark “Coop” Cooper

Location: New Lancashire, United Commonwealth of Colonies

Over the last few months, Coop had learned something very important about himself: he would much rather be stationed on a planet than on a ship. In terms of career progressions, it wasn’t the best feeling to have, but he didn’t really give a shit. Being stationed at a base on a planet gave you good chow, real booze, and a good selection of women. Being stationed on a ship meant the same shitty recycled food day after day – no matter how good the cooks were – booze that was distilled in some backdoor engineering compartment, and the only women around were other Infantry or Fleet. In Coop’s personal experience, the risk was greater than the reward when it came to getting into someone else’s CMUs. He’d only managed it once, but it had been one hell of a ride.

When he stepped off the shuttle and onto the Abe’s flight deck he frowned. He was wearing his newly-broken-in LACS V2 armor, so no one could see his face, but he probably would have gotten chewed out for how he was looking at people.

He was here for the five grand and to continue to cultivate a relationship that was already paying dividends. It wasn’t a bad idea to have a good officer or two in your corner when he inevitably stepped in some shit. Coop knew himself pretty well by now, and he’d eventually have to call in some favors.

People moved aside as Coop took the passages toward the gunboat bays. The few Infantry guys he passed gave the suit a not-too-friendly frown. That was because it was brand spanking new without any scratches or dents in it. That meant he was either some asshole walking around in HI armor when he didn’t need to, which equaled asshole, or he was lucky enough to get new equipment, which equaled lucky asshole. Either way, the infantry grunts Coop passed weren’t the friendliest bunch. Not that he cared. He had other shit to do.

Argo was docked at the ass end of the carrier back near the engines. She would be the last ship to launch in case of an emergency, and it had that untouched look that showed it hadn’t seen much of anything in the last few months. Argo was bigger than he thought she would be. She seemed squeezed into the bay, but other than that she was a good-looking ship.

A small team was walking around the hull doing a visual inspection when he walked up. One was a fit, cute woman with the platinum stripe of an LT. He headed toward her for obvious reasons, but was cut off by a SGT.

“Private Cooper?”

Coop had checked, and before he left the BN commander hadn’t signed off on his promotion yet.

“Yes, Sergeant.” With a quick sideways glance at the LT he turned his attention on the marine.

“Welcome aboard. I’m Sergeant O’Neil, the ship’s contingent NCOIC. We’ve got a couple of other squads aboard for the mission so it’s going to be tight quarters. Head in and stow your gear. You’re the only HI we have, so the bunk by the charging rack is all yours. We’re having a briefing at 1100, and then the skipper will address everyone at 1300.”

“Roger that.” Coop had the SGT opened up in a small side window while the majority of the HUD was showing what his rear sensors were seeing.

The LT was still leading the inspection team, and she was bending down to check something low. It seemed Coop’s morning quickie with Sandy hadn’t quite satisfied him.

Coop started moving after that because the SGT had stopped talking and moved away. It looked downright strange for him to just be standing there in the bay by himself, so he moved toward the outer hatch. He took a left when he entered the gunboat. There was just enough clearance for him in his armor, but when he moved from section to section he had to duck down. Being HI on this tiny ship was going to be a bit of a pain in the ass. The bright side was that he had a little more room than the other grunts. His bunk next to the charging rack was bigger, and had about a quarter-meter extra space for him to plop his shit in. From the looks the lounging PVTs gave him, they’d hoped no HI was going to show up, and they’d be able to grab the bunk later.

Coop stowed the LACS in the charger and did a proper diagnostic as he shut down. It was still a new suit and he wanted to catch any bugs if he could. He hadn’t been in the armor long enough to trust it completely, but he was still glad he wasn’t in a V1 antiquated piece of shit.

With nothing left to do until 1100 he decided to tour the ship. It was small enough that he was probably going to be able to get through all of it in half an hour. The grunt country was pretty standard. There were a few VR spots to do training – enough for a squad – but not enough for the two dozen guys he’d seen camping out on the makeshift cots. There was a common area next to the bunks with a holo-screen and some pre-recorded programs on the system, but that was pretty standard on a warship. A few of the other infantrymen were sitting around the holo watching some sort of comedy. Forward of the grunt country was Fleet territory and the bridge. He didn’t want to go there quite yet, so he headed to the stern where engineering and the engines were located.

Coop had learned there was nothing quite like a good mechanic, and being friends with them, especially on a ship, was always a good idea. They usually produced the moonshine that ship-board poker games used as currency if the people were short on cash. He didn’t have to go far to find a group of marines surrounding one engineer.

There were three of them – all sporting PVT or PFC ranking – and they circled the lone engineer on three sides. Coop could see why. She was pretty hot, Asian – which equaled exotic – and had her CMUs pulled down to her waist. She had on a sports bra of some sort, and was covered in grease and other mechanical fluids, but it was still bare skin and perky breasts. The marines were like moths to the flame.

“Oh yeah,” she replied to a question. She was leaning casually against a bulkhead, so nothing had gone over any lines, but she was prepared if they did. She had a large wrench in her hand that was just as capable of breaking skulls as fixing machinery.

“You better believe it.” The marine was grinning like he’d just scored a game winning basket.

“I am a trust-but-verify kind of girl, so let me see it.”

“What?” The young marine was clearly surprised at her comment.

“Yeah.” She continued to smile. “You said you’ve got a big snake in your pants, so let me see it.”

“Here?”

“Yeah,” she frowned. “Are you scared?”

Coop would have just whipped it out, but he didn’t have much shame. These kids clearly had some self-respect left.

“Hey.” Coop cut into the conversation.

He only had PFC rank on his shoulder, but he was at least half a meter taller and thicker than the biggest marine present.

“Hey,” they called back tentatively.

“I guess we’re meeting up at 1100 but the Sergeant is going to do a surprise inspection before then.”

“How do you know?” They were understandingly suspicious of the new HI trooper trying to talk them away from an exotic engineer who’d just admitted she wanted a guy to whip his dick out.

Coop tapped his ear and smiled. “I’ve got better hearing than you. I’d hurry up if I were you. He’s coming by soon.”

He didn’t know how long the other marines had been on the ship, but apparently it was enough time to have made a mess. They hurried off with a sense of urgency, and left coop along with the half-dressed engineer.

“So,” Coop smiled and mirrored her casual lean against the bulkhead. “I’m Coop. I like your look.”

“Really,” she smiled, but still held the wrench in her hand. “That’s your best line.”

“Not a line, just the truth,” Coop kept up the smile. He’d played this game before. “It’s nice to meet you…”

This was the test to see if it went any further or if she blew him off.

“Spacer Aiko Lee, I’m the engineering apprentice, and you, Coop, are a very big boy.”

“I’m the heavy infantry trooper assigned for this mission.” Coop smiled confidently.

“Are you proportional?”

“Want to see?” Things were on the very edge of getting hot and heavy. Coop might even like the next few days on the ship.

“Cooper! Glad you made it.”

Coop kept the irritation off his face as he turned to face the familiar voice.

“Thank you, Sir. I was properly motivated.” Coop braced to attention as Ben Gold entered the corridor.

“Lee,” the LCDR turned to the engineer. “Has that stabilizer been double checked yet?” Unlike every other guy so far, his eyes didn’t gravitate toward her partially-bare upper body.

“On it, Sir.” Her face was serious again.

“Re-read 670-1 while you’re at it.” The LCDR quoted the military dress regulation as a subtle way of not condoning her appearance.

The look Lee shot Coop as she left said that they weren’t finished here, and he took that as a good sign as he followed the LCDR.

“I double checked your readiness status as of five minutes ago and you’re all green.” Ben smiled, but didn’t ask for details. The less he knew the better.

Ben led the way up to the forward portions of the ship. He showed Coop the Fleet spaces, the bridge, and they ended up in the skipper’s office.

“This is for you.”

There was a ding on Coop’s PAD and it revealed a new deposit into his bank account.

“Don’t worry about it being red-flagged. My financial people know the financial security regulations better than anyone. Those are all coming from legitimate sources that are within war department guidance.”

True enough, Coop checked the deposit and it came from a casino. Gambling was a common past-time of the soldier, and as long as it wasn’t done on duty it was ok. Even if it happened on duty, a blind eye was likely going to be turned; especially if it was a friendly game between soldiers.

“Thank you, sir.”

“Hopefully we won’t have any problems during our mission, but if we do that is why you’re here. Our armory is fully stocked with everything you armor will need. You’ll report to SGT O’Neil since I have you slotted as part of the ship’s marine contingent, and he’s been instructed to ensure you are good to go. Do you have any questions for me before we get started with this mission?”

Coop knew why the LCDR wanted him in here. Coop had literally saved the guy’s ass, and despite his brief dip into the world of a ground-pounder, Ben Gold was still a pretty-boy, rich-kid, Fleet jockey. He wanted to feel safe, and if Coop was the way he was going to do that then the HI trooper was cool with it. He had five-thousand reasons to be happy.

“No, Sir. I’m good.”

“Excellent. Report back to SGT O’Neil. You’ve got a briefing coming up soon, and I’ll address everyone else before we hit Alcubierre.”

Coop stood and gave the LCDR a sharp salute before doing an about face and heading back to grunt country. The guy was paying him good money. The least he could do was show him respect. Plus, if this went well, there would be other opportunities for extra income while they were stationed in the same AO.

Coop’s good mood took a bit of a hit while he sat through the SGT’s briefing. They were headed to a system in the middle of nowhere to clear some half-finished asteroid storage areas of possible illegal activity. It all smelled a little too much like what happened back at Cobalt. Even worse, they still had no idea how the pirates had gotten those modern weapons. That shit wasn’t supposed to happen, and Coop didn’t want to walk into a clusterfuck a second time.

Part of the brief was a heads-up on their supply situation. No environmentally-friendly rounds this time. This wasn’t some corporate run station they had to treat with kid gloves. They were going in hot. Everyone there was a hostile, and Coop was looking forward to some real 3mm boom-boom this time.

Despite the uneasy feeling in his gut, there wasn’t anything else for Coop to complain about as Argo slid out of Abe and headed for the Alcubierre Launcher. It was a quick couple of days’ work for a big paycheck, and now he had Lee to look forward to. When he had a free moment he’d find the engineering apprentice and play “I’ll show you mine if you show me yours”.