I had sat up on the bed. I could put weight on my leg now, whatever medicine the humans had given me worked well. I was testing my weight when the door opened, without knocking this time. A man walked in, a fairly short man. He had a different uniform I hadn’t seen yet.

“Sergeant Gerrick requests your presence in the hangar bay. We’re prepping fighters in case we get attacked again.”

I was about to respond but he left before I could. I noticed that my uniform was folded on a desk in the corner of the room. Upon closer inspection, it had been mended where the shrapnel had torn through it. I’d have to thank whoever did that.

I could walk fairly normally now with a slight limp. I was actually happy that the man had left without showing me the way to the hangar bay, now I could explore a little in the name of finding it. Maybe not though, everything was clearly labeled on the floors in red letters. I already was seeing arrows pointing me where to go to find the hangar. Curious though, there were two. Hangar A and Hangar B, no doubt the sides of the ship. He did not say which one to go to. I’d try B first, as it was closer.

There was a long, wide hallway with smaller vehicles like I had seen in the armory earlier lining the walls. There were shelves and crates as well. Humans, some in combat gear, and some wearing bright orange were milling about. One was particularly interesting. They were inside of a metal exoskeleton, and they were picking up large crates and moving them. The crates looked very heavy. I wondered if they had used these exoskeletons in a combat role.

I walked through a large door into Hangar B. It must be so large to accommodate the tanks in the corridor separating the two hangars. I can’t imagine why they’d need to be able to go in the hangar though. Or at least I couldn’t imagine why until I saw what must be the ships that transport them. They were huge.

They were heavily armed too. Giant transport ships lined the interior side of the hangar, with visible maneuvering thrusters on the back and wings. It had a large kinetic weapon on the nose, and what looked to be other weapons on the wings I hadn’t seen yet. They looked like miniature versions of the nuclear missiles I had seen while doing research. It was definitely large enough to move a tank, but also had an interior lined with seats, likely used to move soldiers.

None of these looked like what I’d consider a fighter. One vehicle sitting with others in the middle of the hangar was particularly interesting. It was smaller and sleeker than the transport ships. It looked to be both for atmosphere and space use, as it had two sets of wings, a long set in the front, and a smaller set in the back. It had two large, circular thrusters in between the two sets of wings. On the nose, it had some sort of cannon, circular with multiple barrels. The wings were lined on the bottom with cylindrical pointed objects that again looked like the giant missiles I had seen..

Evidently, I had picked the wrong hangar. All these vehicles looked to be in the transport or bomber category. The fighters must be in Hangar A. It was a familiar feeling walking over to Hangar A, as occasionally a human would stop and look at me. New species were funny like that, always fascinated by other species. It was understandable but still humorous.

I realized something looking at the soldiers walking past. They were all carrying firearms, yes, but something else. They were wearing gloves with hard material on the knuckles of their fingers. Additionally, they all carried melee weapons. Large and sharp with a handle. It fits into some kind of holster on their hip or chest. This suggested that humans were also adept at melee combat, despite their lack of natural weapons. I had yet to see any examples of it, but it was interesting to think about.

I was right about Hangar A being for fighters. Or I thought I was, as Sergeant Gerrick was standing inside of it, talking to a human in the bright orange clothes. He hadn’t noticed me yet, so I decided to look at the fighters closer. These were the ones I had briefly seen when I entered the cruiser for the first time.

They looked more like what I would consider a fighter. Smaller, it looked like it could only hold two humans. Most of the thrusters were on the back, as with all other human ship designs. Every ship I had seen so far has dominant thrusters on one end. Not only that but just like other human ships, lots of firepower. It had at least three forward-facing kinetic weapons. I wanted to inspect it further but Gerrick saw me. Hard to think it took him that long, I kind of stand out, to say the least.

“Ozis! Over here!”

I walked over, the human Gerrick was with walked away.

“Well, I know your specialty is hand weapons, but as long as you’re here there’s not much else to do. I thought I’d give you more of a tour.”

“Gerrick, I’m just curious, why were you assigned to help me? You’re just a soldier, correct?”

“Well, more or less. They assigned me this job because I’m the only one on this ship with any previous experience communicating with aliens in person. None of which were your species but, I suppose it’s better than nothing.”

“Don’t get me wrong, I’ve appreciated your company, I just wondered why I wasn’t met by a diplomat or something similar.

“A diplomat wouldn’t have any experience with weapons or combat.”

“I suppose that’s true. So are these your fighters?”

“Yes. Production model, F-1000 Fury fighters to be exact. Atmosphere and vacuum capable.”

“Are they FTL capable?”

“Heavens, no. They’re strike craft we carry on the larger FTL capable ships. They only leave the cruiser when something relatively close needs to be engaged.”

This might be the area we have the humans outclassed. Just looking at them filled me with doubt about their capabilities. Although I had the same thought when seeing their kinetic hand weapons, so I tried to keep an open mind. They were clearly manned fighters. We had been using fighter drones for a very long time and they generally were superior to conventional fighters.

“You don’t use drones?”

“Oh no, we do. The benefits just haven’t made them worth the extra cost for fighters yet. Plus, drones can be hacked or taken out of commission by communications jammers. We make use of drone craft for reconnaissance and occasionally bombing.”

I had no idea how drones could be considered not worth it. It must just be personal bias. Either I am biased to drones, or Gerrick is biased to manned craft.

“What are their base armaments?”

“Well, stock models come with one 30mm nose cannon, and two 12.7mm secondary machine guns. Missiles are stored in pods on the sides.”

“Missiles? Like nuclear missiles?”

“Sort of. Chemical propellant explosives, some tracking, some not.”

“What sort of explosive yield do you get from them that small?”

“Well, it depends on the type. They are much smaller than the Ironhead missiles this cruiser carries. These are generally normal chemical propellant, with a small warhead. However, they can be nuclear, or even antimatter.”

“You have weaponized antimatter?”