Mark “Coop” Cooper

Location: CWS Argo, New Lancashire, United Commonwealth of Colonies

“Like this, Corporal?”

“No!” Coop reached out and snagged the PVT by his boot before he floated away into the void. “Fucking numbnuts!” He yanked hard until the PVT’s magnetic boots adhered back to Argo.

“Report, Cooper.” LT Wentworth’s voice crackled over TACCOM.

“Um…nothing, Ma’am, just a demonstration.” He squeezed the PVT’s arm hard to let the dumbshit know how pissed he was. “Continuing with mission.”

Coop and his four-man team – it was still hard to believe someone thought giving him command of three other people was a good idea – were conducting boarding operations along Argo’s 125 meter hull. It was good space to make it feel like the real thing without having to run for hundreds of meters on any of the other ship classifications.

It sounded easy enough when he got the OPORD: move from Point A to Point B along the hull, simulate planning breeching charges, breech the ship, and engage the opposition force. Then, he’d been introduced to his team: Nickelbaucher, Goldsmith, and Stern. They sounded like a fucking law firm, not a group of soldiers.

To make matters even worse, LT Wentworth then informed him that he would be in permanent command of the three other soldiers. They were going to be designated as a mobile mop-up team. Coop would hit targets designated by the LT or the Battalion Fire Directions Officer (FDO), and then the four-man team would move through and confirm the targets had been eliminated, gather intelligence, send up reports to higher, or just in general do whatever the brass wanted after a fire mission.

Now, not only did Coop have to do his job as HI, but he needed to babysit three rugrats too.

Rugrats might have been a strong term since they were all born in the same year, but in terms of experience there was a five-year gap at least.

Of the four, Nickelbaucher was actually the oldest and second most experienced. He was a PFC and had graduated Basic around the same time as Coop. He was an average guy with an average personality. Nickelbaucher was the de-facto second in command and in charge of the team if Coop was off doing HI shit. He was going to be up for CPL in the next few months, so a good fitness report from Coop would get him the bump in rank, which was probably why he was doing everything Coop asked with minimal bitching. Coop liked that.

Goldsmith was the bitcher of the group. He reminded Coop a little of Davenport, minus being a creepy rapist. Everything Coop ordered, Goldsmith whined about once Coop turned his back. Nickelbaucher was good enough to keep an eye on it, and he let Coop know if it got out of hand. Coop had already had to smack down Goldsmith once, and the PVT at least expected that.

From the little digging Coop did into the PVT’s record, he only signed on for a four-year service obligation, and he was already two years into it. Two years and still a PVT was a red flag, but after spending a few hours in his presence, Coop understood why the Battalion Commander denied the guy’s promotion. Thankfully, when shit hit the fan, Goldsmith shut his trap.

Last but not least there was PVT Stern, and Coop kind of felt bad for the guy. He was patriotic, a bit too idealistic for Coop’s taste, but the guy’s heart was in the right place. He tried hard, he worked himself to the bone, but the poor guy didn’t have an ounce of natural talent. He was constantly fucking up, and he just couldn’t get anything right. He was the PVT that Coop had to grab from tumbling out into deep space.

The CMU’s on their combat setting with a heavy kit were designed to allow a soldier to operate in the freezing cold of space. That didn’t mean it was great at it. Coop was nice and toasty in his environmentally-contained LACS, but the soldiers were definitely freezing their balls off, and Coop had to stop and explain stuff to Stern every few meters.

“Stern,” Coop clapped his hand on the PVT’s shoulder and established a direct link over TACCOM. The Lt would be able to listen to the call if she checked the armor, but it was as private as it was going to get. “I ain’t your momma. I can’t teach you how to walk.” Exasperation filled Coop’s tone. “You only pick up a foot when the other is secured to the hull. Don’t move too fast. It’s better to be slow than dead.”

“Yes, Corporal.”

Coop could just imagine the determined look on the PVT’s face, and knew the guy was going to jack something up in the next few minutes.

“Ok, Goldsmith, you’re on point. I’ll cover our six with Stern.”

“Sure, have me be the first one to take a bullet…”

“Goldsmith, you left your channel open.” Coop just wanted to kill everyone as the other PVT awkwardly closed the channel and started hustling down the hull.

It was only a fifty-meter walk, but it took nearly ten minutes. Coop had to trust Nickelbaucher to plant the charges because he had to babysit Stern. Being behind the time hack was better than losing a guy on a training mission.

Also, Coop didn’t want to draw any more attention to himself then absolutely necessary because he had more than one mission to accomplish. In one of his armor’s compartments there was nearly seventeen thousand bucks in chips. It was Aiko’s share of the cash they’d had to bury back at the hotel after Coop put a burning hole in her now ex-husband. The thought of taking the money and running had crossed Coop’s mind, but he shut it down. Aiko was his link to the local underworld. Without her, he wouldn’t be able to fence anymore liberated goods from his travels. Plus, after what she’d shown him between the sheets, he wasn’t willing to quit that just yet.

He’d been trying to get some alone time with the flexible physical therapist since he got back from his last mission. He’d found there was a direct correlation between his lack of luck with Sandy and his increase in blue balls.

“Everyone set,” he pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind. “Breech in three…two…one…BREECH!”

They didn’t actually blow anything open, but the simulated breech caused the exterior hatch to pop open. Coop fought the vertigo as he led the way into Argo. Going from zero gravity to earth-normal gravity was always tricky. Things had to be taken into consideration like the positing of the ship, any rotation, and all of that on top of tactical doctrine.

This one ended up being a tricky one. The gravity of the ship was opposite their entry, so Coop had to swing himself around and fight the head rush. Nickelbaucher came next and executed the move perfectly. They spread out to cover the door for two different angles. Goldsmith came in, and Coop saw the telltale body and head jerks of someone puking. Some people just couldn’t handle the changes. Last, Stern brought up the rear, caught his boot on a handhold, and face planted. Thankfully, he only fell a meter or so.

“You good, Stern?”

“Yes, Corporal.”

“Ok, seal the hatch and prepare to move.” They sealed the external hatch and the room began to pressurize.

In an actual boarding op there might not be any pressurization. In that case the soldiers needed to prepare for a violent ejection into the ship, but that was too much risk for a simple training mission, so Argo’s crew was making things easier.

“Three…two…one…” Nothing happened.

Coop extended his hand and Nickelbaucher handed him the bumper.

Coop secured it to the panel and waited. Fake code went back and forth between the devices and the hatched popped open. Coop quickly tossed out a grenade and manually pulled the hatch closed. He waited until the count of three, his sensors picked up the flash bang going off, and he led the team into the breech.

Nickelbaucher covered right while Coop went left. Coop saw movement and fired simulated sounds from his Buss. One plasma-tipped round clipped whoever was moving around and they went down missing a good chunk of an arm.

“Stern, get up beside me.” Coop ordered the PVT to move his ass while Nickelbaucher covered right and Goldsmith covered the way they’d come. You’d think they wouldn’t have to think about someone sneaking up on them from outside the ship, and you’d be wrong.

“Moving.” Coop led the way with Stern only a half a step behind him covering the opposite side of the corner. “Left turn.” He let everyone know what was coming before they got there. Unlike the rest of company that had to study the blueprints of the ship, Coop knew it all from firsthand experience, which also meant he knew where the hiding places were.

He peeked around the corner with his Buss’ camera. It was clear, but he knew there was a nook halfway down the corridor on the left. There would probably be somebody hiding there. He followed procedure and used his millimeter wave radar to confirm it. He got a positive hit and ordered Stern forward. He had the PVT stop hallway down and take some shots at the nook to draw the defender out. One of the ship’s marines poked his nose out and Coop shot him in the face.

“Fuck, Cooper.” The marine cursed as his suit’s sensors told him that his brain matter would have been painting the wall behind him if this was real. Instead, he just popped a squat and watched the advance.

That’s how the operation went. Coop’s team wasn’t the only one assaulting the ship. There were four other squads. LT Wentworth had worked up the battle plan to have multiple teams strike and secure critical sections of the ship. Coop’s responsibility was engineering while others secured the bridge, armory, living quarters, and forward energy cannon. The last could be operated exclusive from the bridge, and it had to be seized to clear the way for the simulated Spyder that would take them off the ship after the assault was complete.

This was the fifth iteration of the day – each team had seized each target during a different iteration – and this was the one that mattered for Coop’s side mission. Being the fifth iteration probably helped. Aiko and the rest of the engineering department clearly weren’t into it anymore. They ran Coop’s team half-heartedly with large wrenches, and the Specialist went casually for a pistol on his desk. Coop drilled the guy center of mass with two rounds, while the rest of his team took down the others.

“Oh no, you got me.” The Specialist yawned and pulled out his PAD.

“Clear,” Coop called out as he approached the Specialist.

“Specialist, my guys need to practice checking prisoners for intel, so how about you get down on the ground and play nice, and I’ll keep them away from a certain part of this room you’d rather not have them poking around in.” The meaning was clear, and the Specialist quickly nodded.

He got down on the ground and played dead.

“Stern, check this guy. Nickelbaucher you cover the hallway, Goldsmith start with those two guys over there. I’ll do a sweep and then check her.” Aiko was lying up against some piece of machinery. She winked at him.

Coop did a quick sweep and declared it clear. Select people had been holding pieces of intel through the exercises, so he needed to find that.

“Hey there, beautiful.” Aiko couldn’t see his smile through his helmet, but he let his hands do the talking for him.

“You might be looking for this.” She pointed to her back pocket where Coop found some data chips.

“Thanks, and this is for you.” He took the much larger and thicker stack of chips gave it to her. He shoved it in her back pocket and gave it a good smack.

“I’ll let you know when I’m in town.” She whispered as he straightened up. She couldn’t return the slap. It would just be awkward hitting armor like that.

“I’ve got some intel, looks like data chips.” Coop announced as Aiko sat back down and discretely shoved the chips under the machinery behind her.

“Me too, Corporal.” Stern look psyched he’d found something.

Normally they’d take PADs, but not this time. With everything secure Coop pulled his team back along the route he’d come in on. He made them stay alert, and a good thing he did, because he found another marine lying in wait. Stern’s clumsiness saved him. He tripped over his own feet, and ended up taking a glancing blow off the shoulder instead of center mass. The simulation deemed his armor worked as advertised, while Nickelbaucher gunned down the marine.

They exfiled the way they’d come in, and were back on the Spyder hard-docked with Argo for the purpose of this exercise. All of the teams gathered for an AAR with Lt Wentworth and presented the intel they’d gathered. Coop only half paid attention as he shot a message to Sandy from his PAD. The thought of a night with Aiko might be exhilarating, but he needed something to hold him over in the meantime.