Chapter 1: Shore-Up
Lance’s boots clicked as he walked down the polished halls of his new post. His dark
uniform accented with crimson was pristinely pressed. A brass hexagonal medal that sported an
eagle with a shield, holding three arrows, gently clanked against bronze star that sported a
smaller, silver star in its center.
A group of six marines, led by a seventh, rounded one of the corners. They saluted Lance,
he motioned back. The S4 squad leader noticed two of the fresher-faced recruits stared at him,
their eyes wide and an awe-filled smile spread over their faces.
Several Space Force “air-men” made their ways from one room to the other. Lance rubbed
his right eye. He hated his annual glaucoma test. Reaching the end of the sterile corridor, he
pressed a button to summon the elevator. Seconds later, it dinged, and the doors slid open. Lance
stepped in. Justin stood in the corner, his hands folded in front of him as he sported his flight
suit.
“Glaucoma test?” Justin asked with an arched brow.
“Yeah,” Lance replied as he rubbed his right eye. “We’re a space-faring species that’s
created genetic engineering, crafts that can safely shuttle tens of thousands of men and women
through the void, AND have armor that turns us pretty much super-human, and we can’t figure
out a way not to shoot a puff of air into the eye!”
“I mean, in their defense, they have to make at least one or two things uncomfortable to
ward away those who just want to get all those perks,” Justin said as he stepped forward and
pressed the door close button. “I have to say, it’s weird not being on the Manifest Destiny
anymore.”
“I know, but this beauty is a brand new WASP top of the line, Galio levels of artificial
gravity,” Lance said as he jokingly bounced in the elevator. “Where are you headed?”
“Admiral Cortez says there’s a new major he wants to introduce me to,” Justin said before
scratching the back of his nearly shaved head.
“I was ordered to the bridge as well,” Lance said before looking at the message sent to his
multi-tool. “The entire Hrafn squad was summoned.”
“Getting new command is always fun,” Justin muttered, his tone dripping with sarcasm.
“Eh, you never know, just because Price ended up discharged and narrowly escaping a jail
sentence for the other crap he pulled doesn’t mean our next one’s going to be bad,” Lance
replied, a flutter of hope dancing within him.
“I guess you’re right,” Justin muttered. “I’ve just preferred being under Cadence directly
for the past three years.”
The elevator stopped in the center of the ship. With a ding, its doors slid open.
“Yeah, well that was before they sent us that message last week and our borders started
getting probed by Galio scout battle vessels,” Lance said as they stepped out into another
hallway, making their way further into the heart of the ship. “I’m honestly surprised it took them
this long to declare war.”
“What’d you expect to happen?” Justin asked as they ignored the armed, uniformed
guards that lined the narrow hallway. “Your insistence on releasing the Galio prisoners after we
got information out of them likely bought us at least SOME goodwill.”
“Here’s hoping,” Lance replied as they approached the main door for the bridge.
Mattias, Michael, and Dexter stood against the wall to the right of the door. They were in
their uniforms as well. Each sported the blue “S4” logo stitched to their left shoulder. Lance
groaned to himself. He still hadn’t had a chance to get his patch put on, technically making him
out of uniform.
“Sir!” Dexter shouted before saluting.
The other two followed suit. Lance motioned back before pointing at the door.
“No one wanted to meet our new major first?” he asked.
“Not without you,” Michael replied.
“I’m not risking laps around the hangar alone,” Dexter added.
“He’s the new major of this vessel,” Lance countered. “I doubt he’d make us run laps just
for meeting us.”
“Then why, out of the twelve hundred Marines stationed on this boat did he ask to see just
us five?” Mattias asked.
“Because we’re S4,” Lance replied before approaching the door.
As he stepped forward, his squad fell in line behind him. The large metal doors slid open
as they approached. A soft, rhythmic hum emanated from Michael behind them. Mattias elbowed
the engineer.
“We’re not storm troopers. Stop humming the imperial march!” he muttered before letting
out a whistle.
The command center stretched out before them in a sphere. Terminals lined its outer edge
with dozens of men and women speaking over one another to people across the ship, planet
below, and even the solar system.
The dome around them spread to a blanket of black. Lights in the floor activated, flooding
the room with an eerie blue glow. Stars flickered to life around the dome as the doors slid shut
behind them. Lance watched in awe as the floor shifted as well. Below them sat Mars, peacefully
floating in the void. Phobos and Deimos were visible on either horizon. Several escort vessels
floated a few kilometers off either side of the craft.
“You like what you see?” a voice called out from the center of the room.
It was the traditional military sternness, but it sported delicate features. The question
pulled Lance’s attention to the center of the room. A solitary chair sat on a small pedestal. It was
wide enough to hide the source of the voice and block a decent portion of the stars in front of
them.
“It’s very impressive, Admiral,” Lance replied. “I didn’t know we had technology this
advanced just yet.”
“We didn’t,” the admiral replied. “Not until two years ago when Michael risked his career
to smuggle Galio information off their ship.”
Lance turned to his electronic engineer, shooting him a cold glare.
“What?” Michael asked with a shrug. “You think just because you delete the information
means it’s gone from the hard drives? Stephanie was able to get the information off your multi-
tool while you were getting your DNA harvested.”
Lance took a deep breath. The old anger within him tried to resurface. He was able to
quell it. A low hum pulled his attention back toward the chair. It slowly rotated to face them. A
woman with dark skin, almost black eyes, and a bob cut that sported a salt and pepper look sat
perfectly straight with her arms sitting on either armrest.
“What’s done is done,” Admiral Cortez said. “And to be honest, if it wasn’t for him, the
Galio would’ve pushed even further into our solar system than they already have. It’s a blend of
their technology with ours that you’re not off balance right now, that we have interfacing
displays allowing a full view of our surroundings from the heart of the ship and we were able to
finally fix the compensation issues with the O.R.C.C.s.”
Lance straightened himself as the Admiral revealed herself. He straightened his palm and
brought his fingertips just above his right eyebrow. Admiral Cortez stood up. She saluted them
back. The first lieutenant lowered his arm. He paused for a moment as he replayed the Admiral’s
statement in his head one more time.
“Wait, what do you mean even further into our solar system?” Lance asked, tilting his
head to the side. “I don’t remember seeing any briefing updates showing they’d invaded any
planets.”
“That’s because we don’t want to incite a panic,” Cortez replied. “Word gets out Galio
war assets are in the solar system, then we have billions, if not almost all one trillion of us,
fleeing from our colonies, moons, and mining residences, and trying to get back to Earth. With
all that traffic, it’ll be impossible to defend ourselves if the Galio attack.”
“Then where are they?” Dexter questioned. “Can’t be anywhere too populated; otherwise,
it would’ve been posted all over the solar-net by now.”
Cortez turned her attention to her multi-tool. She pressed a few images before swiping to
her right. On the side of the command center’s wall appeared an image of the entire solar system.
The Admiral zoomed in to the outer edges of the system, past the Kupier Belt beyond Pluto.
“You’ll get in-depth details during your briefing, but the research station on Eris went
dark three months ago,” Cortez said as she stopped at the image of the dwarf planet. “We’ve sent
probe drones for recon and all evidence suggests it’s destroyed. Something that far out, we need
to be careful with our investigation.”
“Eris is right around the corner compared to P.O.S.,” Mattias chimed in. “Why all the
secrecy? We’ve travelled a LOT further out than that.”
“Did you do any reading in O.C.S.? It took two hundred years for the Perseus Observatory
to get into location. Generational ships escorted it and mapped a VERY detailed ‘galactic
highway’,” Michael said as he offered air quotes. “That allow us to jump there quickly and
safely. We’re still working on mapping every possible safe route through our solar system, we’ve
rarely gone past the Kupier belt, and one in five ships usually goes missing once they pass that
barrier.”
“A bookworm,” Cortez mused with an arch of her salt and peppered eyebrow. “Those are
always good to keep around; they tend to know more useful information than everyone else
combined. And yes, he’s right, it also doesn’t help that Ceres, Haumea, and Makemake were the
first footholds the Reeves made as they fled our solar system. We’ve recently discovered a small
contingent still remain but don’t pose any real threat, and with them outside of our orbital
repellant crater creator’s effective range.”
“That’s a terrible name,” Justin muttered.
“Take it up with the boys in research and development,” Cortez replied as she turned back
to the image of the dwarf planet. “They play too much Dungeons and Dragons for my taste.”
“There’s nothing wrong with that,” Dexter whispered so softly, Lance hardly heard it.
He turned to his squad’s tank. His brow knitted together before tilting his head to the side.
“Really?” Lance asked in a hushed tone.
“Yeah, I like playing a stout halfling bard,” Dexter replied with a shrug. “So what?”
“I just didn’t see you as that kind of gamer is all,” Lance replied before turning back to
Cortez. “I know you didn’t call us up here just to talk about Eris, ma’am.”
“I did,” Cortez replied as she turned her attention back to her multi-tool.
With a few more swipes of her fingers and a quick flick of the wrist, her projected image
vanished, replaced by the image of endless space. Looking at the stars, Lance found one slightly
brighter than the others, the source of light for all of the Sol system.
“Now that you’re stationed on this WASP for the next three years, I feel it’s important for
each Marine on this craft to meet the new major of this boat’s Marine Expeditionary Unit,”
Cortez said before pressing the intercom glyph on her multi-tool. “Major, permission to board
the bridge.”
The door behind them hissed as it opened. A chill ran down Lance’s spine. He could
already feel the major’s eyes burrowing into the back of his skull. Butterflies fluttered in his
stomach as he noticed Dexter turn out of the corner of his eye.
“Oh crap,” Dexter muttered.
“Glad I’m not you guys,” Justin sneered.
“I’ll be!” a booming voice bellowed from behind the first lieutenant.
The hair on the back of his neck stood on end. There was a familiarity to that voice. A
commanding presence attributed to the most physically painful and mentally agonizing part of
Lance’s life. He took a sharp breath as he continued to stand at attention. His brain screamed at
him to turn, but his body refused to, wishing that if he didn’t see the major, then he didn’t exist.
“If it ain’t Bright Eyes and his merry band of miscreants!” the major added.
Lance took a quarter step back and pivoted on the ball of his foot. His eyes landed on his
new major. He saluted the superior officer.
“Major Foltur, it’s good to see you again, sir!” Lance belted as if he were back at O.C.S. ...
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