USD: 11 Days after the Arrival to MIL-1A

Location: Van Biesbroeck’s star, Meltisar, Brisbane Elevator, Descending

Alex stretched and yawned in her seat inside the space elevator’s passenger compartment. The elevator itself was massive, over 100 meters tall, and was carrying a huge load of materials from orbit back to the ground. It also had seating for over a thousand passengers, and she had lucked out with the opportunity to purchase a window seat.

This time it was an actual window, although the port was a thick pane of material with a small viewing area. It allowed a neat view of the horizon as the elevator slowly descended from orbit. That took almost an entire day, and Alex had dozed off more than once between reading sessions.

The intra-flight dinner service was extremely light, and she’d had to go purchase some snacks from the all-service bar in the compartment.

Most of the other passengers were military personnel, and she wondered if there were any other recruits like her on the way down. Probably not, since she was already cutting it close with the timing. If she had waited another day, she would have missed onboarding.

At the bottom of the elevator was a massive super-structure in the center of Brisbane city. It was the third largest city on the planet. It had grown up as the primary hub of industrialization that served the military and civilian sectors in the system.

As the elevator neared its landing point, Alex could see a sea of towers rising in all directions. The reported number of inhabitants hadn’t really sunk in. Seeing the sprawling urban towerscapes just drove in that there were billions of people who called the city home.

It was only another hour before they reached their stopping point. They were still far above ground level, the disembarkment area on the tower over one hundred stories above the ground. Alex collected her bag and hurried out of the elevator.

An exit gate had helpful digital signs pointing directions to different transit hubs overhead, and she looked at the map she had pulled up of the elevator station. She hurried through a winding maze of escalators and automated walkways that finally brought her to gate MIL-NAV-12-OUT.

A crowd of other recruits was already standing milling about the waiting area. She noticed that there were several flashing displays over several gangways, and a quick look at her folio confirmed that one of them matched her designation.

Alex weaved her way over toward that gate to wait.

The hum of the crowd buzzed, and she could hear a sense of excitement and anticipation among the chatter of the other recruits. She felt a bit out of place and nervous. Other than a crowded tram, she hadn’t really been around so many people before.

The space filled with more people as they waited. Alex moved to a wall and opened her datapad and tried to read some more about what to expect, but she couldn’t focus on it. Instead, she watched everyone else.

Maybe she should try to talk to someone? She glanced around, but before settling on anything, four naval personnel stepped out and directed them to the gangways.

Being near the front, Alex ended up near the back of a long line of seats. The shuttle was much smaller than any she had seen or been on before, but it still had ten rows of two seats that would fit two people each. With forty recruits on board, the pilot at the front began a flight check.

“Hi,” Alex mumbled to her seatmate, a female with long blonde hair.

“Hello, I’m Sarah.” The woman said.

Alex fidgeted nervously with her seat strap. “Alex.”

“Are you in C-1, too?” The girl asked.

Alex looked at her folio, although she knew she wasn’t.

“S-1.” Alex replied.

“Oh, you’re a genie?” Sarah asked.

“Among other things.” Alex hedged.

The shuttle sealed up and then took off. Alex slid her bag between her legs and grabbed a drink of water from the one she had brought. The flight stayed low, and Alex looked out over the city from the window.

Lines of flying traffic spread out below them, winding between buildings on the automated routes. They passed over tens of thousands of the vehicles as they flew over New Brisbane. The city stretched on and on, although as they flew further away from the central elevator, the massive towers began to lower in height.

The suburbs comprised towering high-rises as well, but there was more and more evidence of greenery present as parks and some waterways. There were even what looked like curated forests between large swaths of housing.

By the time Alex broke out of her inner thoughts, Sarah had already put in some ear buds and was listening to something with her eyes closed. Not wanting to bother the other girl, Alex went back to window gazing.

The shuttle came in for landing just as the landscape outside turned to a thick endless taiga. White snow dusted the conifer tree tops and Alex realized it was going to be quite cold when they landed.

As they descended, a man stood up and walked to the middle of the aisle.

“Everyone listen up! Hold up your datapads. Hold them up.”

Surprised, Alex pulled her pad out of her pocket. Other recruits did the same.

“Turn them off and put them in your bag. Do it now.”

As Alex did so, the man continued.

“I am Drill Sergeant Fabien. You will know who Drill Sergeants are by the hat that I am currently wearing. You will refer to us as Drill Sergeant. You will answer questions with ‘Yes Drill Sergeant!’ or ‘No Drill Sergeant!’ Do you understand?”

A chorus of ‘Yes Drill Sergeant!’ echoed through the shuttle, but a few recruits mumbled or weren’t clear as they were still focusing on putting their datapads in their bags.

“Yes or No Drill Sergeant?” Fabien repeated loudly.

“Yes, Drill Sergeant!” was repeated, this time by all the recruits.

“On behalf of Battalion Commander Rosson, I welcome you to Fort Glisson. You will exit the craft momentarily. When you do so, you will form TWO groups. Females on the left, and males on the right. You will have your bag in your right hand and your folios in your left hand.”

Alex sorted her bag between her legs in preparation for getting off the bus, but thankfully she’d packed light and had taken nothing out during the flight.

“There will be orange lines on the ground, you will stand directly on your line, you will put your heels together. You will not deviate from this line unless instructed. Do you understand?”

“Yes, Drill Sergeant!” came the reply, much stronger this time than the first.

“Bag in your right hand, folios in your left hand. Females on the left, and males on the right. Stand directly on the orange line!” Drill Sergeant repeated. The ramp at the front of the shuttle arrived and the hatch’s hydraulics hissed as it opened.

“Get off MY shuttle, now. You have 2 minutes, hustle.” Fabien said before turning and exiting via the ramp.

Alex stood up, along with everyone else. She was literally at the very back of the line, and the slow shuffle was going to take way more than 2 minutes, she realized.

As the line shuffled forward and it was finally her turn to move down the aisle she could hear yelling outside the shuttle. The ramp down gave her an excellent view of what was going on.

“Females on the left, and males on the right!”

Three Drill Sergeants were yelling at recruits to hurry and six lines had already formed. The Drill Sergeant at the bottom of the ramp was shouting at the ones reaching the bottom to move faster.

“Look straight ahead. Don’t be slow on the top!”

The recruits bolted to whatever line needed filling, and Alex didn’t need any prompting to go faster, being the very last one in line.

There was only one spot on the left for her to move to and she mentally checked that her bag and folio were in the correct hands as she touched her heels together on the line as instructed.

The Drill Sergeants went up and down the line, yelling at any recruit they singled out as making a mistake, and Alex focused on keeping her posture and heels together, determined not to be noticed.

No one talked or chatted like they had on the bus, everyone remaining silent except the Drill Sergeants.

Drill Sergeant Fabien moved to the front of the lines and held up a watch in the air. “If you’re wearing jewelry, earrings, body piercings, or a watch, take it off and put it in your bag.”

Alex reached up and removed a clip-on earring she had been wearing then bent over and slipped it inside her bag’s main compartment. Other recruits moved to do the same, while some having so much that they fumbled with it. One Drill Sergeant homed in on one girl and started berating her to hurry.

Alex realized the girl was Rachel! A surge of excitement filled her but was suddenly destroyed when Sergeant Fabien showed up in her face.

“Face FORWARD recruit! Do not look at others or talk to them! Do you understand?”

“Yes, Drill Sergeant!” Alex shouted. Seemingly satisfied, Fabien moved on to look for someone else to single out and she felt relief.

“If you are wearing any type of outerwear, you will place it inside your bag. Do it now!”

Alex moved quickly and unzipped her hoody jacket and wadded it up, putting it in her bag. Almost everyone had at least something to remove. A weak breeze from the chilly air made her want to shiver. It was possible for her to modify her body temperature if she focused, but she wasn’t used to doing something like that without her ANUF system doing it automatically.

She especially wasn’t too used to being outside of a climate-controlled environment, and she quickly wished she’d practiced her thermal control a bit before arriving as she suppressed a shiver.

“If you are wearing jeans, cargo pants, or anything other than athletic pants, leggings, shorts, swimming trunks or a skirt, you will tuck in your shirt! When you do this, you will not unbutton. You will not unzip or undo your belt. You will tuck in your shirt, ensuring you will not show any skin. Do it now!”

Not revealing any skin was easy; she was wearing a skinsuit underneath her trousers and shirt. She tucked it in quickly, but several Drill Sergeants nearby picked up in the velocity of their yelling as several recruits fumbled or even messed up entirely.

“Do not tuck that in, recruit! You are wearing athletic pants! Attention to detail! Pay attention to what we tell you!”

Another recruit was slow, and a Drill Sergeant homed in on him as well. “And you will do it quickly, recruit! Do it faster! Tuck that shirt in now!”

Drill Sergeant Fabien moved to the front of all the lines. “Listen up. You have all already failed your first task. The only task that I gave you.”

Alex bit her lip and he explained.

“It took you far too long to exit the shuttle. I gave you two minutes, and it took you ten. I saw at least half of you moving slowly and hesitating to follow instruction. Only one in six of you was moving with any real purpose.”

Alex could feel the tension in all the surrounding recruits.

“All of you will place your bags in front of you now. You will then place your folio on top of your bag. You will then turn to your left and put your heels together on the orange line. Do it now.”

Everyone complied quickly, although several had trouble getting their folios not to fall off their bag.

One recruit was still trying to sort their bag when he was singled out and berated by the fury of two of the Drill Sergeants.

Drill Sergeant Fabien continued to explain everything they had done wrong and expand on how important it was to pay attention to detail when following orders.

“Now, all of you will assume the push-up position.”

Everyone moved quickly to comply except the girl beside her. She had an issue with her skirt and quickly did her best to fix it, but knocked over her bag and folio sending some stuff scattering.

One of the Drill Sergeants jumped on her quickly and Alex had to do her best to listen to Drill Sergeant Fabien over the man’s yelling.

“This is the front leaning rest position! When you are ordered to front rest, this is the position you will assume! You will prepare to assume the position when you hear ‘front rest’, and you will execute when you hear the command HO! If you do not pay attention to detail, if you try to do your own thing, you will get very used to this position! Start doing push-ups!”

All the recruits moved, some doing push-ups rapidly like they could finish them all quickly. Others struggled after only a few repetitions. Most were somewhere in the middle.

Alex had no trouble with them, but she didn’t want to bring any attention to herself, so she maintained her form and pushed herself up and down steadily and confidently.

Very quickly, the Drill Sergeants homed in on the recruits that were having difficulty. One boy was having a difficult struggle to push himself up after a rapid burst had burnt him out.

Fabien continued to lecture them. Alex listened calmly, doing her best to memorize everything he told them but kept getting distracted by the Drill Sergeants. Not picking up everything he said made her feel a nervousness she’d never experienced before.

“That’s enough.” Fabien announced. “On your feet! Stand on the orange line and heels together!”

Alex stood quickly, and like several other recruits, dusted off her hands before assuming what she hoped was a passable at attention stance.

“So, dusting off your hands and attempting to fix your paperwork?” Drill Sergeant Fabien commented. “You will do exactly what we say, exactly when we tell you to do it. If I wanted you to dust off your hands I would have told you to do it. Front leaning rest. Ho!”

Everyone jumped into the push-up position and started putting them out. Drill Sergeant Fabien continued to lecture all of them. The recruits who were having a hard time were having doubly so now, and more and more recruits joined their ranks. Alex felt a bit of sympathy for them.

“On your feet, recruits, turn to your right and face ahead!”

Everyone jumped up and complied in a hurry.

“You will now pick up your orders folio and read the top line and you will see that there is a company designation. You will be A-1, A-2, B-1, B-2, etc. Your number will determine what company you belong to. Note the buses in front of you.”

Alex could see seven large buses in two staggered lines. Her eyes fell onto the one at the rear labeled S-1 almost immediately.

“You will walk quickly to your designated bus. The Drill Sergeant will be in front of the bus to confirm your orders. You will then board the bus and be taken to your company sections. By Ertan, you do not want to be the recruit that goes to the wrong bus. You have two minutes! Move out!”

They didn’t quite run, but no one was caught moving at anything but as brisk a pace as they could manage while still walking.