USD: 62 Days after arrival at Fort Glisson

Location: Van Biesbroeck’s star, Meltisar, Fort Glisson, Company S, 1st Cadre

Snow fell as lazy flakes in the nearly still air. Alex’s fur-lined parka insulated her from the cold, but she’d been idle for an hour and she was a white blob against the snow covered forest floor. Only her head and rifle poked out of her cover as she covered one sector, looking for any sign of the incoming hostiles.

Tia was beside her in the same hole covering the other side of the hemisphere, their foxhole covered, both girls watching in nearly unbroken silence other than the sometimes static call on their earpieces.

Their instructors had called in a platoon of experienced professional infantry to do adversarial training with them. Each platoon would go a round with them, with the recruits slated to play the role of insurgences in a dug out position in the forest. Cadre S was put up first, and it was just their luck that they were being snowed on for the 6 hours of setup and dig in time they’d been granted.

Instructor Hills gave them all the same stun rifles they had become accustomed to, and Alex hated with an unusual vehemence. After her trick on the field, the DIs had brought her a special mesh vest to wear.

It had a special name, did some fancy other things, but more importantly to Alex: it caused any hit by a stun bolt to shock the living shit out of her until it was impossible for her to do anything but fall to the ground screaming.

“Contact, 1000 meters, 6-man squad.” Tia said.

Alex suppressed the desire to turn and look at the other girl. As insurgents, they hadn’t been given any surveillance or other gear to help them, and she didn’t believe that Tia could hear them from a kilometer away!

There was no way she could see them through all the trees, either. Visibility from their position was limited to just a couple hundred meters at best.

What Alex could hear were small drones flying about, although the type of fan blades made them sound strange compared to the ones the recruits had been training with. Instead of high pitched and easy to locate the drones, the infantry team had emitted a muffled warbling sound that diffused into a wide area. It made it very difficult to tell where they were.

She didn’t know whether those drones had IR or just optical cameras, but she was betting they were fully kitted out and that their cover was probably useless. They’d be two big hot spots in the snow.

“Alex, if you can’t camouflage yourself, go under the snow.”

Now she did look over at Tia. “What?”

“You’re going to give us away. Go under the snow. I’ll tell you when they are in range.”

Alex wanted to demand how Tia wasn’t going to give them away, or even how she was tracking them, but then decided to just comply. One thing that she knew for sure was that Tia wasn’t a liar, and she liked to win.

Alex liked to win, too. Scooting deeper into the snow, she used her arms to pile up the snow over her rifle and cover her head, leaving a small pocket for breathing. Her SNO2 gauge popped up on her HUD, showing that she’d have limited air eventually, but it would not be a concern for how long they’d be there. Hopefully.

It didn’t take long for the drones to get closer and buzz past their position. Only a few minutes longer than that before, Tia’s voice popped into her ear on the radio.

“Targets acquired, three right, three left. Prepare for contact on my mark.”

Alex tightened her grip on her rifle, mentally preparing herself.

“Go!” Tia said.

Alex popped up. Tia already had opened fire on the ones on the right. She sighted the three on her side that were already moving to cover and took aim. Two went down before they could duck behind the nearest tree, but the third found cover.

“Two down, one in cover.” Alex called out.”

“Three down. I’ll flank left, you flank right.” Tia answered.

Alex nodded and the two girls worked their way around, taking turns to provide cover fire while the other moved. Eventually, they worked their way around the infantryman to where they had an open shot, and Alex took it.

“Six for six, where are the rest?” Alex asked.

“Charlie team reports they repulsed a wave. Bravo team is reporting heavy resistance and requests support.” Tia said after a brief delay on her ear comm.

Bravo team had all their secondary heavy hitters: Tasha, Hikari, and Rachel. They’d expected that the Charlie team would probably get wiped out, so it was surprising to Alex that they’d held while Bravo team was struggling. Maybe the specialists had only sent a half team after Charlie?

“We’ll flank them while letting Charlie catch up?” Alex asked.

Tia nodded and called out on the comm that they were en route.

Alex heard the fire fight before she could see it. Bravo team was contained in a circular holdout and the six-man team had surrounded them and were dropping stun grenades on their position.

That would have been the end, but Hikari and Rachel were fast enough to actually throw half of those back at the attackers. Alex was shocked when she saw what Tasha did with the other half. The large girl threw her pack on them and sat on it; a muffled burst erupted black clouds of smoke as the stun charges ignited underneath the heavy weight.

Alex could see that bravo team was clearly stalling the attack on their position, but they were struggling. She and Tia quickly challenged that equation. Rolling up on the attackers, they pinned half the encirclement in a pincer movement and a quick call for fire support from bravo put half the enemy squad out of commission.

The other half fell back, and the recruits formed a line to chase after them.

Alex felt a bit of excitement. They were about to win, and they had been informed there was no way that’d happen. The winning platoon would be the one who managed to inflict the most casualties, Instructor Hills had said.

And that’s when it all went to heck. Alex was shoved to the ground by Tia, a shouted warning on her lips freezing as a sniper configuration stun bolt smashed into the silver-haired girl’s chest. Alex rolled into cover to scan their rear and felt their victory flying away.

She spotted at least 8 incoming infantrymen, all equipped with power armor. Flying drones crisscrossed the area in front of them; all shining lasers at the recruits’ positions. Alex moved out of the way just before a concentrated burst of fire slammed into the ground at her position.

The assault team moved in with precise, coordinated movements, preventing Alex from getting a chance to come out of cover. They worked with the remaining members of the other squad to pressure the dugout with team bravo in it, and then they rolled them up from multiple angles.

By the time Alex had recovered from the toe curling experience of having the shit shocked out of her, everyone had settled in for a debrief from the instructors.

They no longer got bitched at for screwing up, rather a calm and clinical dissection of their tactics and execution was their new normal. This time the fuck up had been Charlie team, who’d been wiped out nearly instantly by stun grenades of the assault team.

Then they’d used a radio spoofer and voice synthesizer to inform the rest of the recruits that they were just fine. That seemed like a dirty trick to Alex. Rather than complain, she wondered if they’d be able to do something similar the next time.

Despite the defeat, their platoon ranked first, and it was with a bit of enthusiasm they went for meal time.

It was chicken, mashed potatoes, and gravy day. The heap that ended up on Alex’s bowl still drew glances from just about everyone since she had built up a volcano that was filled with meat and gravy. As she planned her strategic attack on the top of her food mountain, she glanced over at Rachel.

“Did you get an update on your MOS selection?”

A small smile appeared on the other girl’s face. “Actually, yes. OCS ATSC.”

Tia made an annoyed puff. Alex just smiled and congratulated her. “Hey! That’s great. I guess you really pushed through your scores, huh?”

“Some people make it easy.”

Tasha sat down and was quickly followed by Hikari. The big girl shook her head, “Three starship birds then? That’s a lot for one group, actually.”

“I got my choice too, MPSS.” Hikari said, a smile appearing on her face.

Alex tilted your head. “You wanted to be a bodyguard? But why?”

“You get to be around all the big-wigs, and if one likes me, maybe I’ll marry them and retire rich.”

“You idiot, if you get handsy with your principal, you’ll get A15ed.” Tia said shaking her head.

Hikari stuck her tongue out at her. “So serious. No, I’m joking. But you get to meet important people and networking is good.”

Alex looked at Tasha. “Tash?”

“Infantry, Ranger.”

Hikari looked surprised, but then she shook her head. “Well, that fits.”

“Why? Because I’m big and dumb?”

“Your scores are higher than mine!” Hikari objected.

A smirk appeared on Tasha’s face. “Yeah.”

Alex smiled at the chatter and focused on disappearing her food while she still had time. Social interactions still made her self-conscious, but she felt like that had gotten much better during her time in basic. At least she knew she wasn’t the weirdest oddball anymore.

Classes lasted for the rest of the day but they were more of a mental exercise than a physical one, and they were excused from evening PT. Everyone had met and exceeded the physical fitness test in their group. Not that it got them out of morning cardio every day, but it was nice.

It certainly gave her more time to spend in her bunk sleeping or looking up things on the net. She’d contracted a private investigator to go find the Iron Horse and take photos for her. Not exactly a cheap job, considering it was moored on a military shipyard, but since it wasn’t technically part of the Meltisar Navy, it wasn’t stepping the line into espionage…

Relaxing in her bunk and browsing on her datapad, Alex was happy to see that the ship was being worked on steadily. Outer hull plates were in various stages of removal and replacement. She doubted they’d be able to do much for the age of the ship, but making it structurally sound again was possible.

If she ever got her computronics back, fixing it up would be super easy and probably quadruple the value.

She frowned as she thought about it. That would make the ship illegal to take out of the inner systems, though, essentially grounding it.

Blowing a tuft of hair out of her eyes in frustration, she mentally put an X on the box of Iron Horse repair. Although…

Maybe she could just fix it up but not do any visible changes?

Lost in thought, she didn’t notice Rachel came into the dorm room until she closed the door. “Oh, hey.” Alex mumbled.

Her thoughts about how they would be traveling through Solarian space to get back to 92 Pegasi came to a halt as Rachel sat down on the edge of her bunk. Alex looked up from her datapad.

“Rachel?” Alex said, taking in an expression she had never seen on the other girl before.

“Alex… I like you. I’ve not been able to figure out… well… I’ve thought… I wanted to know. Do you like me?” Rachel asked.

Alex blinked, feeling confused, but the way Rachel stared at her like the entire world depended on the answer prompted her answer, “Yes? For sure.”

It seemed like a silly question to Alex. Of course she liked her. They had gone through basic together and been through so many hardships and traumas that she couldn’t remember them all. They’d won, lost, laughed, and cried together. More than any other recruit in the Cadre, Alex felt most at ease with her, not fearing that she’d be singled out for being a weirdo for not knowing some basic thing that everyone took for granted.

Rachel leaned into the bunk, straddling her before leaning forward causing Alex to freeze, eyes wide with shock. The smell of the Rachel’s shampoo filled her sense of smell and her heart started pounding in her chest as Rachel hovered inches away from her face. Rachel's hands came up to cup her cheeks.

“I like you too. I'm sorry if it took me a while to notice.” Rachel said, as if that explained anything.

The gears in Alex's brain failed to output more than a confused and paralyzed, “Huh?”

The question died on Alex’s lips as Rachel moved in and kissed her.