"Shipping Out" by Scott burt

The light snapped on at the same time the barracks door clanged into the wall. My eyes popped open and I sprang out of my bunk, at attention, my wings sat folded down my back. Glancing down to the end of the building I saw our drill instructor, sergeant Damian Grim, an unpleasant name for an unpleasant man. But I wouldn't have to put up with him anymore, basic was over, a year of gruelling training under Grim's "You can always do it better" attitude.

"Well it seems my little Grunts don't need me anymore. I have each and every one of you little punks first assignment orders right here", slapping a stack of envelopes against one hand. A small smile crept over my face. "I will give each of you your orders, you will promptly read them, pack your gear and get out of my barracks! You will find transports waiting for you in Sector 9B to take you to your assignment. Maxwell, Jameson!" Grim read each name as he proceeded down the barracks, handing each soldier their orders.

"Jared, Kalde", I tensed up as Grim called my name and planted his booted feat in front of me, I drew myself up to a perfect attention stance, the tips of my wings poking over my shoulders. Grim slapped an envelope into my waiting hand, I almost forgot to salute him, my anticipation was overwhelming. I tore open the seal and unfolded the single piece of paper inside:

Kalde, Jared 78421

Assignment: 13^th Recon

Commanding Officer: Gerrins, Veronica

Assginment Date: 10 - 01- 2031

Transport: Fire Falcon

The 13^th Recon, holy cow. The 13^th had a reputation for getting into and out of some of the toughest Worm-Head infested spots on the planet. Veronica Gerrins was known to be one of the toughest sergeants in the CLM. I was bewildered for a moment but Grim's shout of "You know how to read don't you Kalde? What's got you staring like your brain just popped into the next dimension!?" He looked at my paper, "Heh, Good luck grunt, the survival rate for that unit is about three months. Now pack your gear and get your sorry self OUT OF MY BARRACKS!!", I packed my gear and left as fast as I could.

I made my way to sector 9B of the base. Dozens of newly graduated soldiers like me were moving about, finding their transports and shipping out to their assignments. I looked around for my ride, the Fire Falcon. Took me awhile, the Fire Falcon, for all the majestic nature the name implies, turned out to be a beat up hover craft that had definitely seen it's share of combat. It was parked off in one corner, it's pilot leaning on the side, fire blackened letters read "37XT - Fire Falcon" on the side. The pilot was of South American decent, his grean and brown camouflage skin stood out against the grey metal surface of the Fire Falcon.

I walked up to him, saluted and held out my orders, "Jared Kalde reporting for duty". The pilot snatched the piece of paper from my hand looked it over, then held out his hand.

"Gary Stuler, Pilot", I took his hand and shook it, "Hope you last longer then our other flyer".

"So do I", I said with only a little bit of a tremble in my voice. Gary Smiled.

"Hatch is open, store your gear, we've still got another body to pick up.", I took my orders back from him and walked around to the back of the Fire Falcon and inside. The interior was simple. Seats along the walls and storage above and below. A small holo projector for displaying orders and maps during flights into enemy territory ran down the middle. Ahead I saw the pilots seat, surrounded by control panels. I stored my gear in one of the compartments and went back outside to wait.

Gary was just greeting our other recruit, a plain looking guy, probably about the same age as me, 21 or so. His skin was normal, no wings, not Asian, maybe a desert origin? I walked over to them.

"Hi, I'm Jared", offering my hand to him, he took it giving a soft shake

"Tyler Grant, Magic Core, call me Ty"

"Ah, so are you of English origin?"

"Yeah, Chronomancer, a flyer huh? Nice meeting you, hopefully we'll see each other for years to come"

I let out a chuckle, "yeah, the survival rate for our unit is pretty low I hear"

"I've heard the same thing"

"Well as much as I'd love to sit here and get acquainted with you two but we have to get moving, you two need to meet your new commander.", Gary said with a little sarcastic joy in his voice. "Get inside and we'll take off immediately"

Me and Ty moved into the back of the ship while Gary went through the pilots hatch. Ty stored his gear and took a seat across from me. Gary climbed into the pilots seat and we all strapped in. Gary radioed security and then powered up the fans, lifting the craft about a metre off the ground. We sped out of the compound and into the forest, a few hours later we were skimming across the surface of the Carribean Sea, headed for an outpost on the southern tip of Florida.

A few hours into the trip Ty held up a small flat disc, "Want to play air hockey?" I looked at him with one of those "you're kidding right?" expressions on my face.

"Um, don't we need a table?"

"Nope", and with that he held the disk out horizontal in the air and let go of it, it hovered there, he knocked it with his hand in my direction.

"Neat trick", Ty smiled. We played for a couple hours to pass the time. Ty won.

The Fire Falcon kicked up a cloud of sand as it hit the beach. Obscuring everything I could see out the small Plasteel window, giving everything a ghostly, half there appearance. The outpost Ty and I had been assigned to was nothing more then a collection of a half dozen buildings with four guard towers and a couple anti-air cannons. The Fire Falcon set down outside a hanger, a couple jungle bikes occupied it at the moment, a mechanic was working on one of them, sitting on a stool beside it and tinkering with the engine. Me and Ty unpacked our gear and stepped out of the back hatch, Gary came around from the front.

"You'll probably find Sgt. Gerrins over there," he pointed to a building in the centre of the compound with a few antennas poking out it's roof, "that's the command building. Over there are the barracks," he pointed to a pair of longer buildings half sunk into the ground, "Munitions," a small building which most likely went underground, "these are the hangers," pointing his thumb over his shoulder. There was the one we were parked out side and another beside it. I could see power armour suits lined up in bays along the walls. "The other two buildings are general storage," he was referring to two more buildings each about the size of a hanger, these two though, would hold food, spare parts and other non-explosive materials.

"Thanks Gary", me and Ty saluted him before turning around and heading for the command building.

The command building spanned two stories and a third underground level. The two floors aboveground were not important, merely there for convenience. A couple Briefing rooms, commanders offices and other non-essential things. The only important equipment was some communications equipment that had to be on the roof. The real nerve centre was below ground a series of rooms equipped with campaign planning equipment, intelligence data and other vital military resources. Ty and I headed down the stairs past two armed guards who checked our names and ID codes. We came out at the bottom on the concrete stairwell into a room lit mostly by data monitors and a large holographic projection platform. A large table about knee-high that could project a three dimensional, realistic image of any terrain map in it's database. Leaning over the table was a muscular woman, chestnut hair tied back in a braid down her back. She was dressed in military fatigues decorated by the ring and three star insignia of a sergeant. She clicked a few keys on the keyboard of the holo projector and the terrain image shifted to display a swamp area covered in trees. Co-ordinates blazed to life above the image, 209N, 156E. I wasn't sure where that was but I knew what it meant, the image was of the terrain 209 km north and 156 km east of this out post's position. Before she could do anything else I stepped forward and introduced myself.

"Ma'am, private Jared Kalde reporting for duty", I held out the orders sheet I received before shipping out.

"Private Tyler Grant reporting for duty", Ty followed my lead. The woman looked up from the display and walked three steps over to us. She took the papers out of our hands, glanced over them and handed them back to us.

"So you're my two new lucky recruits. I'm sgt. Veronica Gerrins, call me Ronny. Now listen up. You gotta be sharp in this unit, it's how you survive. Keep an eye out for trouble and an eye on your team mates 'cause they're the ones that'll pull your butt out of a tight spot, and I expect you to return the favour, if you don't, then don't expect to be in my unit for long. Now, there's a meeting in briefing room A in two hours, you'll meet Dan, our fourth man, now go see the quartermaster and get outfitted." She pulled a disc out of a pocket in her pants and inserted it into the computer, clicked a few keys and the holo image reformed itself using the new data. The image showed a small Chagram base in the area, "We gotta go squish some worms".