Published: 2 Oct 2017

Neil moved into the motor pool noting the sun was well into the sky, but there was a pretty bad dust storm so the sky was a nasty grey and the sun was a barely visible orb in the sky. Even as he hoped Trofin had purchased extra cleaning equipment, he paused as he realized there were a total of four vehicles of the same type as Anson had given the fledgling Q Sabers, but had varied paint jobs and different weapons in the turrets. This told him a couple of things very quickly. First, the design which he first thought was a makeshift one, wasn’t. Instead it was a common mercenary transport on this moon, and probably the New Brunswick system. He actually took some comfort in this, since it meant parts would be easier to come by than he originally expected. The second thing it told him was the turrets weren’t fixed weapon systems; instead, like many armored platforms and all frames, the turret was equipped to handle hard points for quick changeovers.

Before he could do more than eye each one, his radio crackled, “Corporal Lockley, this is Motor Pool Control. Your Moon Runners and other armor are already in the pre-departure area. Please proceed through Gate Echo. Once clear of AIM Grey Sands gates, we will clear your computer locks on your weapon systems and they will be free. However, anything within five klicks of AIM Grey Sands is under our jurisdiction. Use of weapons other than stunners and rubber rounds is prohibited unless you get AIM authorization.

“At this time we have had reports of scattered raider and bandit activity between here and the spaceport. This should pose minimal risk to a unit of your size, but we advise keeping eyes open and guns manned. Any combat outside of the five klick zone is at your own risk and salvage can be collected. Within the five klick zone, all salvage is the property of AIM Grey Sands. AIM Grey Sands, out.”

Neil shook his head as he realized this moon really was a near lawless pile of mineral rich rock and as bad as anyplace the Grenadiers had ever been to. Hearing the AIM transmission told him just how pathetic the New Brunswick system government was. Most systems would have military presence on such a mineral rich semi-inhabitable world or moon. The words also told him the Grenadiers’ security mission would be even rougher than first expected. New Brunswick simply didn’t care or didn’t have the money, or resources to protect private complexes, so it left protection of mines and installations to the companies. This meant they were tempting targets to others. However, he knew from experience there was a reason companies came to places like New Brunswick. Little to no security meant tax rates were extremely low.

Part of Neil wanted to radio a warning back to Captain Tanner and the major to warn them. After a few moments, however, he realized both men probably had it figured out well before now. They knew what to expect and would be ready for whatever would show up. He moved up to the back of the second Moon Runner, as the hatch was lowered. He moved in quickly, but still noted the large Q Saber painted on the side with slash of the Q a lightning bolt. This got a bit of a grin out of him. At least the Q looked cool.

He moved through the blower unit slowly, hoping the hard blast of air would blow most of the dust off his frame and out the back before stepping all the way in. He gave it another couple of seconds and even turned to the sides before stepping in and motioning for Vadim to pull the lever to button up the vehicle. He took note of five new Patrol frames. He shook his head, realizing Brave Humanities had given out yet more frames, and may have been the main reason Zane and Jasha were allowed to join. The real question was why was Brave Humanities so invested in them? It didn’t make any sense. On the other hand, he couldn’t allow himself to care too much. The frames were right on par with the Legionnaire Neil was in and gave the Q Sabers far more firepower than a bunch of Bandit frames. He also noted Zane had parked his Striker in the front, and secured it with an extra locked bar, marking it as a spare.

The other frames in the back of the Moon Runner included two Bandits, a Raider, a Riot, and a massive Artillery frame. He could tell just by first glance the Artillery needed lots of help.

He piloted over to the last remaining empty frame securing slot, powered down, and climbed out. He quickly grabbed a rag and started to wipe the rest of the dust off, only to find Kylem moving to his side.

The eleven-year-old looked up, “Can I help, Finn?”

Neil’s eyes narrowed and his posture hardened. “Kylem, what are you doing here?”

Kylem looked really hurt, “I just wanted to help.”

It took everything Neil could muster within himself to not tell the kid to get lost and go home. He probably would have had it not been for the welling of tears in the hazel eyes looking at him combined with the knowledge the boy had a little hero worship going on. “Kylem, even a wipe-down on a frame can be dangerous. You need to be shown the right way to do it so you don’t get cut or accidently hit the wrong thing and have the back panel shift. I have seen kids lose fingers when wiping down an open frame. You need to start on a closed up frame first. But you aren’t even supposed to be here!”

Lucya moved up and put a hand on Kylem’s shoulder even as the boy looked both scared and sad at the answer and the tone. “Finn, it’s not his fault. Lieutenant Polzin kept him and the other three.”

“But they were all supposed to be freed!”

Wiles moved to stand in the hatch between the frame section and the crew compartment and spoke up, “To go where and do what, Finn?”

Neil glanced over, with anger and confusion, “What do you mean, go where? Back to Iron Horn and your families!”

Vadim moved up to Wiles to give the kid some support. “Finn, Iron Horn only offered two-fifty each for them and Lieutenant Polzin figured they are worth way more. He says he tried to get a family ransom, but didn’t hear back. They have until we leave the big spaceport to contact us or he is keeping them.”

“And New Brunswick isn’t stopping him?”

Wiles spoke with a shake of his head, “I don’t know how it works anywhere else, but here, if Iron Horn pays our ransom, we’d have to work it off at whatever rate they set. We could be stuck working for them for months with little to no wage as we work off the ransom debt. They would charge us room and board at a really high cost, so who knows, it may even take a year. If our parents are alive, they are using what money they have to pay off their ransoms, so they don’t get stuck in the same situation. More likely, though, they don’t have anything because our camp and everything we own is gone. Plus, since the whole station was destroyed, Iron Horn will have to rebuild it first. We would be useless there, so we would be sent to another mine and chances are not even be with our folks. It was get sent back to Iron Horn as indentured laborers, go to a NB youth farm, or not go back at all. All things considered, I’m glad he kept us.

“For Ky and Coryn, it is even worse, since they aren’t fourteen. This means they would have to get work permits paid for by Iron Horn which is expensive and would be added to the repayment costs. Or worse, they might be sent to a youth farm where labor permits are not needed for farm workers over the age of ten. Ky’s parents aren’t super skilled and we know Coryn’s dad was killed. This means Iron Horn has no real reason in keeping surviving parents happy, so to Iron Horn it doesn’t really matter what happens to us. Chances are about even Iron Horn would sell Ky’s and Coryn’s debts off to one of the farms to cover the ransom and tack on extra. Debt would have to be repaid by work and would include extra for room and board. Then, after a year or two, money earned would be put into an account until you age out, but if it more than thirty or forty a month I’d be surprised. The other thing is, once in a youth farm, you are stuck until you are sixteen and we’ve all heard horror stories about what those farms are like.”

“But what about other family? How much is Lieutenant Polzin asking?”

“Doesn’t really matter, Finn.” Wiles spoke with a resigned sigh. “Average monthly wage here in the New Brunswick system is just over five hundred Mining Federation Credits, about four hundred fifty AIM Credits. Even if he just wants a couple grand, my aunt and uncle couldn’t come up with it without really hurting them. Besides, if I go live with them, it wouldn’t be much better than being stuck in a youth farm. They’d have rights to make me work off the debt and I’d be there until I am sixteen. Tending fields for the next twenty-one months would be way worse than working at the mine and working a mine has to be worse than being with you all!”

“You know nothing about fighting or being a merc, though!” Neil grumbled. “There is no reason to keep you. I am going to go talk to Lieutenant Polzin!”

“Please Finn, don’t.” Wiles all but begged while moving to stand right in front of the hatch to prevent easy passage.

Neil cocked his head to the side, “First off, you really don’t want to try to stop me and I really don’t want to hurt you. But if you don’t get out of my way, like thirty seconds ago, I am going to wipe the floor with you.”

Wiles gulped and stepped to the side, “Please, just let us stick with you all.”

Neil moved to stand only centimeters from Wiles and stared right into the boy’s eyes, “Kid you’re no merc. You’re older and slightly bigger than me, but wouldn’t last ten minutes in some of the places I dealt with before I was ten. Besides, give me one good reason not to get rid of you, just one.”

Wiles looked down, “I’m telling you straight up, if I do go to a farm, any farm, I’ll jump at the first chance to do something else, which would mean enlisting in the planetary militia and try to get a permanent slot in the military. Option two is doing exactly what is happening to me. Becoming a mercenary was already something I was considering. As a matter of fact, I was about to put in paperwork in to go through planetary militia training as soon as I got back planetside, so I could get a free AIM ID. Dad was super pissed at me, so even if he is OK and has money, there is no chance he is going to pay a ransom for me cause he knows I don’t want to be a miner and no way am I farming the rest of my life.”

Wiles pointed to the frame, “Tell us what to do and we’ll do it. You want us to do something else, anything else, then tell us. Your lieutenant got us all AIM recruit cards and said we were gofers and labor for you all. He’s paying us as trainees at a hundred credits a month plus twenty-five for each year over ten, so I am getting two hundred, and Ky is getting one twenty-five, which is more than I ever got at Iron Horn and Ky was too young to make anything.”

Vadim adjusted what was left of his Q VII cadet jacket as he spoke up, “Finn, I’ll give you a real reason if they won’t or can’t.”

Neil turned away from Wiles and sent a withering glare at his former fellow cadet. “It better be a good one.”

Vadim cringed and looked away with fear in his eyes, but still answered softly, “You owe them for covering for you. Without them, the adults would know you weren’t part of the mine to start with.”

Neil muttered something under his breath and growled, “OK, I’ll give you that.” Neil hung his head, and clenched and unclenched his fist a half dozen times. As he regained control of his anger he looked over at Kylem. “How about you? Do you want to stay in this unit knowing chances are good you will get shot at and might not live to see your next birthday?”

Kylem’s upper lip trembled, “I want to see some of what you told us about. Please don’t send me to a farm. I’ll do anything you want.”

Neil shook his head as he moved back and knelt in front of Kylem, only to see tears roll down the boy’s cheeks as he looked away. “Hey, look at me.”

Kylem gulped but reluctantly made eye contact. It helped that he was looking down not up.

Neil reached up and wiped the tears, “Kylem, I just don’t want you or your friends to get hurt and I know what you all are going to have to deal with.”

“Like what?” Kylem asked with a quivering voice while showing an even greater admiration toward Neil.

Neil ran his hair through his hair, then wiped a couple more tears out of the corners of Kylem’s eyes, “Aw, crap… I guess it is my turn to give the speech Robin and Luna normally give to new Grenadiers. Lucya, do me a favor and go get the other two and while you’re at it grab Antone, Jasha, and that Zy kid. I figure I need to give you all a rundown, especially since you are all under me.”

Ten minutes later, with Kylem sitting next to Neil while resting his head on Neil’s shoulder, Neil looked around the back of the Moon Runner. Not only were the five kids under him there along with the four from the mining station, but so were three others. Borya Afonin, wearing Senior Sergeant pins came in with two others. The first was a very strong looking female. Neil had only met the woman briefly, but had been told she had been in command of the armor side of the unit. It was pretty clear Trofin trusted her, since she now wore ensign pins. The last man to come in had healed burns on his face and side of his neck. He had had senior warrant officer pins on and came in wiping grease off his hands. The guy looked familiar to Neil, but he couldn’t place from where. Seeing Zane give him a slashing motion, was enough to let Neil know the guy was on their side and not to let his eyes linger. This only caused Neil to want to look more, but he forced himself not to.

Instead of looking at the burned guy, Neil focused on the female officer, nudged Kylem, and jumped up. “Officer in the cabin!”

The woman gave a hands up gesture to prevent everyone from standing, “Actually I am now the unit XO. For those who have not met me yet, I am Ensign LaRose, former Senior Sergeant of the Quaker VII Armor Training Brigade. You’ll also note Lieutenant Polzin promoted former Corporal Afonin. He is now a Senior Sergeant, and finally this is Senior Warrant Officer Gregoran. He was a frame repair instructor back in the Quaker VII academy and survived the miss-fold. Lieutenant Polzin found him in the AIM recruiting hall and offered him a spot as our lead tech and to keep you kids moving forward with schooling. As an instructor, he will be able to keep you all current on studies, and yes, Lieutenant Polzin wants all of you to continue to work toward a full education certificate.”

Seeing all the kids look less than happy she smirked, “We don’t want uneducated brats in this unit, so deal with it. However, schooling takes a back seat to keeping up with contracts and unit duties. At this point, because we now have Senior Warrant Officer Gregoran, it leaves you, Corporal Lockley, as our number two frame tech since you two are the only ones in this outfit with Advanced Frame Repair Certs. Senior Private Zyden O’Sullivan, according to your AIM files you took the test back on Quaker VII but the results got lost when the capital fell. As soon as we get some extra cash we will pay for you to retake. At least AIM is only going to charge us for used materials, since they do show you paid and the test was lost.”

Zane shook his head, “Aw, man, that was ten hours a day for three days! I know I passed the stupid thing!”

“Sorry, Zyden.” Senior Warrant Officer Gregoran shrugged. “On the plus side, Lieutenant Polzin said he’ll bump you up to specialist if you pass and I will take you through a couple of mock-ups so you pass with no problem.”

“OK, well, it still sucks.”

“Can’t really argue with you there,” Ensign LaRose stated with a great deal of understanding in her voice. “I know what the Advanced Armor Platform test was like, but at least you didn’t have to do a two day basic and follow it up with three twelve hour days; one for wheeled, tracked and hover respectively.” Seeing Zane cringe she shot him a smirk. “See you frame jocks get it easy and you don’t even know it half the time!”

“Whatever, ma’am. But you don’t have to go head first into the legs of your equipment to hook up hydraulics and it’s way easier for you all to scratch your butts while sitting down on a cushioned chair. We have to pull our arm out of the arm unit, deflate sizing bags, and wiggle our hands back to get rid of an itch!” Zane responded, getting some giggles and snorts from a few of the others.

Ensign LaRose couldn’t help but laugh even as she turned her focus squarely on Neil, “OK, Finn, I hear you wanted to tell these kids what they should expect. I also understand you have grown up as a merc, so I’d like to hear your take as well.”

“OK…” Neil didn’t really want to spit it out with adults present since he was trying to convince the Iron Horn kids to beg to stay behind. However, from what he had seen of Q VII military, they really didn’t get what they were in for either, so it would probably do them all some good.

Neil looked around the frame area for a second as he ran down a mental checklist of things those in the compartment with him would soon have to deal with as normal. “Well, I guess I will give a rundown of things most of you have never thought of, and some of you have never even heard of. So I will start out with what I know given what I have been told about the contract.” He looked over to the ensign, “Ma’am if I get anything wrong, please feel free to correct me.”

“You heard pretty much the same as I did, Finn. I am like you, waiting to see more details.”

“Ma’am, from now on, you should be part of any contract talks. If we lose Lieutenant Polzin, you will need to be able to jump in with full knowledge of the mission and contract terms, so you can make decisions based on both.”

This caused the woman to raise her eyebrows. “Good point, Corporal. I will keep it in mind and relay your concerns to our CO as soon as I see him again.”

Neil really wanted to slap his forehead. This unit was so green, he wasn’t sure green was the proper word. With a sigh he moved to the hatch leading to the front and turned so he could see everyone. “So here is the basics, guys. From what I hear, we are going to be headed to at least two different systems before we come back here. It will take months. Most will be boring time spent in space, but if you are under me every one of you will train with me daily and we will go over frames until you all know them backwards and forwards. From what it sounds like to me, we’ll be spending most of our time in zero-G. You will need to get bone shots to keep from losing bone density. They go into the pelvic bone and there is no shame in crying the first dozen or more times. I bet everyone in this compartment will, with the exception of me and possibly Zyden. I have seen some of the toughest framers in this galaxy squeal like five-year-old girls during and after their first few bone shots.

“This leads me to my next concern. Zero-G ops ain’t easy and is learned with lots of hard knocks. You will hit you head on bulkheads, smack you elbows, hands, feet and knees on walls, ceilings and floors. I would expect a couple of broken bones in this group within the first week or so of constant zero-G. As part of zero-G ops, floating items need to be snagged up immediately. Floating stuff is dangerous. If we have to get into combat, the ship is going to buck and roll and hits to the hull will jar the ship, meaning you will find objects coming at you dangerously fast; this includes the bulkheads. If worse comes to worse, tuck yourself into a ball and cover your heads. You will probably break bones, but will come out alive and relatively intact.

“I hear Zyden knows zero-G, and he has a good left hook swung from the body with power instead of relying on solid footing, so I’m betting he does. Anyway, I expect each of you to get with one, or both of us in the first couple of days, to learn some basic tricks to prevent us from finding you with your skull split wide open.

“The next part of zero-G is you will have to learn how to sleep in a zero-G hammock. The first couple of days, to possibly weeks, you won’t sleep much. As you get more tired, zero-G ops gets harder. I would expect each and everyone in this room who has little to no zero-G ops time to have some scheduled downtimes for naps.” Getting looks and raised eyebrows he focused in on Ensign LaRose, “Ma’am, if you want healthy and combat ready people you need to figure out a way to schedule extra downtime. You’ll see in short order who is getting the hang of sleeping in zero-G. Then you can start adjusting schedules.”

“Noted, and not something I even considered. It’s been over a decade since I had any serious space time, and even then, it wasn’t anything real long term. Since then, I have only taken short trips and haven’t had to sleep in zero-G but a couple of days, and you are right. I didn’t sleep worth a crap.”

“No one does at first unless you happen to be like me. I was born into a merc unit so I learned zero-G ops at the same time I was learning to walk. Zyden says he was born into a unit too, so while we have both seen what happens to others, we didn’t have to deal with it in the same way. I know I broke my arm at age one and a half, and my wrist right about my second birthday, but I don’t remember either one.”

“You had to get bone shots as a baby?” Senior Sergeant Afonin asked with wide eyes.

Zane answered, “I know I did. And guess what, they still hurt. But for me, it causes a cringe. Finn is right, by the way. I have seen men with arms bigger around than my legs cry like a two-year-old with scraped to crap knees during and after the first few bone shots.”

Noting all the kids and even Afonin looking worried, Neil figured the point had been driven home enough. “No need to dwell on shots. We’ll all get one within three days of being in zero-G. The next thing you all have to focus on is water. Ship tanks are all the water we have and until we know water content of the worlds we are going to; water may be too expensive to purchase. This means while in space all the showers you take will have to be vacuum or sonic, and vacuum showers have to be super fast. The last commercial ship I was on allowed one three-minute water shower ever seventy-two hours as long as water was over fifty percent, ninety-six hours for those who were non-combat and they only got two minutes. Some ships we book on will not allow any water showers unless we are on the ground hooked into a water system at a spaceport. Even then, water still costs money, so there may be an extra charge or, at the very least, a time limit.”

Seeing the eyes of all the kids, including the former Q VII cadets, getting wider he decided to push a little harder on what else they would have to deal with. “Keep in mind, water is needed to keep humidity levels safe on the ship and for drinking. Water is life, but it isn’t the only requirement. Eating is going to be much different for you all as well. I bet most of you are used to serving lines with pre-packed decent meals, even on the Wagon or other spacecraft. We are not going to get anything fancy. First off, you all need to get used to military rations, and from what I’ve seen, it’s hard to get used to. Military space rations are even harder to deal with, since most of your food will be in squishy packets you have to suck the stuff out of. I don’t know what we have for food stores either, but I bet Lieutenant Polzin had to go cheap. This means near tasteless goo high in protein, vitamins, and calories is going to be the meals for the foreseeable future. Worse yet, you will still feel hungry even though you get enough calories. Then, when we get to a planet and eat, you will find it hard to be able to eat enough because your stomach will not be able to hold as much food as you are used to. Then the cycle repeats each and every long space trip.

“One other point about military rations…” Neil took a deep breath, “We are cash poor, so when we get back into gravity, meals will almost certainly be dried and preserved stuff. If you are smart, you will save some of your pay to buy spices and flavor enhancers. AIM stations offer several sets, and I can tell you I already bought what I need for the next few months. You all should do the same when you get the chance. However, as part of eating dried rations I am only going to warn you about this once. Don’t drink then eat the dried foodstuffs or even worse, eat dried food then drink! I don’t care if it tastes worse hydrated, reconstitute it!”

Kylem cocked his head to the side with confusion written on his face, “Why, Finn?”

Zane responded with an evil glint in his eyes, “Jasha, toss me one of my dried berry bricks out of my pack. Back right upper pocket.”

Jasha did as instructed and took a step back. He could already tell Zane was about to do something real mean and he wanted no part of it.

Zane pulled out a packet of grape. It was a twenty by fifteen by ten centimeter block of pressed together lightweight greenish mass with the texture of cardboard. He pulled out his knife and cut it into ten sections, handing four to the Iron Horn kids, three to the Quaker VII kids, two to the adults and offering one to Jasha. Seeing Jasha eying the small cube skeptically, Zane smiled, “This little bit won’t be a problem, and I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like AIM freeze dried grapes.”

After a few tentative sniffs and nibbles, all ten pieces quickly vanished with most of the kids licking their lips.

Zane shot Jasha a warning look as he held up several more packets of different flavors. “Anyone want a full one? I have orange, two apple, a blackberry, Tandif Prime wildberry, Black Jungle vine pear, Bordello V honey fruit, Vonaple Prime raisins, and a couple more grapes in this collection. The nice thing is AIM berry bricks are varied, but all have at least two grape and most have three or four.”

Seeing most of the kids move up to grab one of the packs, Neil cringed even as he slid forward and put a hand on Kylem’s shoulder, “Don’t. I’ll give you some of mine later, OK?”

“But they are real good!”

“I know, and so does Zylem. In ten minutes you will be real happy I stopped you.”

“OK…”

“Now just keep quiet and watch.”

Jasha also passed, while looking at both Zane and Neil with a questioning look. The only other person not to take one was Ensign LaRose, who clearly didn’t know what Zane was up to, but looks alone told those paying attention, she knew it wasn’t going to be good.

Zane simply sent Jasha a smirk and waited until all six packets had been consumed. “If anyone is thirsty grab something to drink so Finn can continue.”

At this point all those who had eaten a full pack moved to grab some water except Vadim, who looked around with a perplexed look, “Um, guys, we were just told not to drink after we ate one of those!”

“Yeah, but it made me thirsty,” Wiles stated as he gulped down a full glass of water and went to refill it. “But man, those are really good!”

“They are,” Zane agreed. “And they are only fifteen AIM credits for a brick of twelve. These and the spice packets which are between five and ten credits are life savers for mercs on a budget.” He looked over to Neil, “Thanks for fronting me a couple hundred.”

“Same here,” Jasha nodded, “but without Zyden, I wouldn’t have known to buy them.”

“You’ll be super happy you did,” Neil stated, “and you don’t have to pay me back.”

Zane looked shocked, “Seriously?”

“Yeah, once I found out what type of mission we were going on I bought everyone in my squad two hundred worth of AIM staples. Since I spent over a grand, they gave me a five percent discount. I’ll see if I can’t get an order over for those conscripted from Iron Horn before we leave, too.”

“Damn, I’ve never come close to spending a grand on anything!”

“Between the flash mission, my bet on myself, and the salvage I did pretty good. And, you are welcome.”

“Yes, thank you Comrade!” Jasha stated. “Are you sure we cannot pay you back?”

“Don’t worry about it. Consider it a squad bonus for signing on under me.”

Off to the side Ensign LaRose cleared her throat, “OK, guys, get over here and let’s continue.”

Neil gave everyone a minute to sit down before he continued as if expecting nothing, “The next thing I want to cover is exercise. There are twice daily workouts you should all do to keep muscles in shape. There is no resistance in zero-G, so you will have to do push-ups, pull-ups, sit-ups, squats and other basics with heavy resistance bands hooked onto floors, walls and ceilings. Don’t do it alone. It takes several resistance bands to do it right and if you get turned around you could end up strangling yourself. My unit had it happen to a thirteen-year-old who just joined the unit with his dad a week prior. We found him almost dead and he suffered permanent brain damage because he got one of the resistance cords tangled around his neck.”

Neil had to fight a smirk as he saw everyone but Zane cringe and Senior Sergeant Afonin even rubbed his neck. “Glad to see you all are listening. One good exercise you can do without bands is to put a pad on the edge of a doorframe and push as hard as you can, for as long as you can with arms, put your back against one side and push with your feet, or hook your feet to a mounted desk and pull on the doorframe with your arms, then your legs. Again, do it as hard as you can, as long as you can. It all helps. If you don’t do anything, you will be a worthless blob for the first few days in gravity and then you will have to rebuild your stamina and strength all over again. Also keep in mind, if we go to a gravity heavy world, things like running and jumping can be super hard, and even walking can be a strain at first. You end up on one of these worlds without working out before arrival, you will be out of breath from a simple walk of a few hundred meters.

“All of those, bone shots, water, and eating are the daily parts of being in a traveling merc unit. Like it or not, you will get used to all of them. What worries me even more with most of you is the times of combat. What you always have to keep in the front of your mind is this is a merc unit. We will get shot at and we will shoot back. It’s what we are paid to do! You will see people you start to care about get hurt or killed. And yes, no matter how good or lucky we are, we will lose people. You Iron Horn kids lived through an attack on your camp and I am sure lost someone close to you, so you have an idea, but for a merc, it’s a way of life.

“This leads me right into the next thing I want you to all think over. Fighting is the job and survival requires we fight hard. This means you will have to learn how to fight. Not just shoot, but fight. You all need to know how to fight with hands, knives, pipes, screwdrivers, pliers, keys, sticks, stones, forks, pencils, laser pointers… Hell, even a drink straw can kill if used right and you will need to understand how and what to look out for.

“Like it or not, at some point soon, very soon, you will have to square off against me in practice and I will put you in holds, give you bruises, blacken your eyes, give you fat lips, and make you cry. Take a look at my lip and Zyden’s face if you don’t believe me. These are love taps compared to what we will eventually do to you. I can guarantee each and every one of you will get mad at me, hate me, and I will do it all over again in days or even hours. Not because I want to hurt you, but because I know if I don’t, you will get hurt worse. I would prefer to give you two black eyes and a cracked rib to prevent you from dying because you don’t know how to drive on and fight through pain. By the time I am done with those in my squad, you will be able to see weapons all over the place and how to use them to kill.

“Unfortunately, this leads me into my next warning. I have been snagged as a captive three times in my life, and each time it was me or someone with me who found something to use as a weapon and escape with. Only wusses and morons sit around and do nothing. It gives captors more time to better secure you.”

Wiles frowned deeply, “So you are saying we should have escaped on our own?”

Zane shot Neil a nasty look even as he jumped in, “No, I don’t think Finn means it like it came out!”

Neil rolled his eyes, since he really was hoping at least one of the kids from the mining camp would get really mad at him and possible come at him. But since Zane didn’t quite see what he was trying to do, he reluctantly backtracked. “You all escape, no; you had no training and didn’t realize you had chances. Even when Lily and me tried to tell you we were going to get most of you out, you didn’t believe us. You didn’t know and still don’t know what to look for or how to deal with the pressure of being a hostage or prisoner. As you now know Lily did and I was going to try… but as you all saw, things changed midstream and like it or not, I got most of you out anyway. But as long as I get to work with you, by the time we get back here you will have the skills to see dozens of chances for escape from situations like where you were.”

“Oh, you’ll be working with them all a lot Corporal,” Ensign LaRose stated. “If even half of what I am hearing is true, you’ll be working with all of us.”

Neil couldn’t help but smirk, “I’d sure hate to make you adults look bad and you all go crying to our CO.”

“Boy,” Senior Sergeant Afonin stated with warning in his voice, “you best put some ice in them britches and cool your butt down. Many of us are a half a meter taller and have thirty kilos on you easy.”

At this Zane jumped back in, “Means nothing in zero-G, Sergeant. If you don’t know zero-G ops, I can guarantee you, I can kick the snot out of you up there. If I can, I know he can. He about put me down with one punch and most adults can’t even come close.”

“We’ll see, but I don’t want you bawling when I wrap you in a headlock and choke you little ass out.”

Neil stared straight at the man, “When you and me spar I want it on vid. I’d hate to leave you tapping out and not have something to remember me by when I leave to head back to my unit once this stint is up. Besides, I know your buddy held back on the punch he gave me, but I still owe you all for knocking the air out of me back at the Iron Horn camp.”

Ensign LaRose snickered, “Oh, I’ll be only too happy to vid it, no matter which way it goes it will provide some good entertainment and possibly even make a good instruction vid. But we digress. Anything else you want to mention Corporal?”

“Yeah, one,” Neil nodded. He then paused as he saw Wiles lean way forward and try to burp. “Make that two things, ma’am.”

Neil shot Zane a grin as he spoke up, “Problem, Wiles?”

Wiles held his stomach and let out half a dozen tiny burps, “I… uh… oh…”

Seconds later Coryn started doing the same thing. “My… tummy…”

Zane started whistling a happy tune as the two cadets from Q VII’s eyes went wide and Antone pushed on his belly causing a dark purple ooze to dribble down the corner of his mouth. He tried to swallow, then tried to throw up, but could do neither. All it got him was another few dribbles of wildberry to run out of the corner of his mouth.

Within a minute Senior Sergeant Afonin and Senior Warrant Officer Gregoran were leaning forward looking pale and Sekrena fell out of her chair and grabbed her gut.

Off to the side Jasha shook his head, “I know I should feel sorry for all of you, but, Comrades, our corporal warned you it was bad to eat it dry and drink.”

Vadim watched with a worried cringe, “Um, Corporal, how long do I need to wait before I can drink? I am getting real thirsty…”

Zane paused his whistling, “At least an hour.” He then happily resumed his little tune.

“Your tongue will be a bit dry, but your mouth will start making extra saliva pretty soon, so it will pass,” Neil informed Vadim, “but word of warning, never ever eat more than two dry, even if you are super hungry. Give it at least an hour after eating two, preferably closer to an hour and a half.”

Senior Sergeant Afonin let out a string of tiny burps while rocking forward in obvious pain, “Why is it doing this?”

“It’s freeze dried, Sergeant,” Zane stated with a snicker, “you ate it and drank, so instead of swelling up in the package, it is doing so inside your gut… Oh, and there is not a damned thing you can do about it until it is done. Even if you try to throw up all you are going to get is some juice since it is swelling inside you.”

“I am going to kill you… kid…”

Neil couldn’t help it any longer. He started laughing, “Hey, I warned you, Sergeant, this is all on you. Oh, and if you think this is bad, you haven’t even gotten to the worst part yet. By tomorrow you will want to take a dump super bad but it will be like crapping out a rock. If you had waited a bit it would have naturally started to digest as it moved through into your intestines, but now… your stomach is going to force some of it deeper before stomach acid can do anything with it. So just be ready to push real hard for real long!”

Ensign LaRose rested her head on her right fist and chuckled, “If this doesn’t convince you all to listen to these boys, I sure in the hell don’t know what will. Now while you endure this… discomfort…”

Both Neil and Zane busted up, while Jasha snickered, as a couple of those holding their stomachs flipped the ensign off. Even Kylem grinned at the looks on the faces as most moved off of chairs and laid down hoping to relieve the cramps by stretching out. It was clear it didn’t work as a couple of the quickly curled up into a ball and groaned.

“Oh, this is pathetic!” Ensign LaRose sighed. “Corporal, how long will this continue?”

Zane’s smile grew wider “Up to an hour, but most only fifteen to twenty minutes, then they will start burping real bad and at least one will totally upchuck.” He then grinned even wider, “If I had given them two, it would have been hours.”

Ensign LaRose tried to hold back a laugh but badly failed, “The hell with it, you are now a specialist and Jasha, I am bumping you to senior private simply because I can tell all of us have a great deal to learn from all three of you.” She then moved up and smacked Zane in the back of the head, “And that is because you are an impossible little IMP!”

Zane rubbed the back of his head even as his smile grew, “Why, thank you, ma’am!”

Ensign LaRose tossed up hear hands, “OK, let’s take twenty. I am going to let Lieutenant Polzin know of the promotions and of this little display. I want to get permission for you to do this to the others before word spreads so you three come with me. But first, any words of advice to those suffering?”

“Yeah,” Zane grinned widely, “don’t drink anything else for a while. It will only make the swelling happen faster and it will really hurt to take a dump sometime tomorrow!”

Thirty minutes later, with many of those in the other vehicles in major gastrointestinal distress, Neil reassembled those in the first group. Most still looked a little queasy, but only Wiles was still in serious pain.

Neil couldn’t help but smile at the glares he was getting. “At this point I am willing to bet you all have figured out what I am telling you all isn’t just talk. If you want other demonstrations, I am sure Zyden will be more than happy to help me set a few up.”

“Screw that,” Senior Sergeant Afonin grumbled, then let out a long juicy burp and swallowed some of it with a cringe. “We’re listening and you have our full attention, but I will get even.”

Neil laughed, “Give it your best shot, but there are way more and sneakier tricks than freeze dried dehydrated food packs we can come up with.”

Seeing the man hold up both hands in at least temporary surrender Neil smiled widely before turning totally serious again, “The last thing I really want to cover is what it’s like to be away from home and family for long periods of time. It’s hard. You are going to miss your mom and dad; you are going to miss home. You are going to get homesick at some point. The worlds will have different smells, different terrains, different plants and the food will be wildly different on many planets.

“I spent four months in the New Israel system when I was like eight and one of the biggest treats kids there had was roasted Deca-scorpion. Before you ask, a Deca-scorpion is a large ten-legged spider-like thing with a poisonous stinger on its tail. Kids there would catch them and cook them over a fire, crack the shells and suck out the meat. If that wasn’t bad enough, it turns out the poison in the tail becomes non-poisonous once it is boiled so the kids suck it out of the tail stinger. We all got made fun of and teased constantly until we ate one, and let me tell you, why it is a treat I still haven’t figured out!”

The description and his final point got a contrast of cringes and giggles. He couldn’t help but grin. “As far as other food I have had to deal with, well each planet seems to have something so common you will be forced to eat it at some point. There is a very nasty tempered killer rat on New Bravaria we ate just to survive. It’s super greasy, but real filling and there is a gliding rodent on Nile XIV which is real cute, but man, it tastes good. The point is, you will have to learn how to eat stuff you have no desire to. The moment we are headed to the SFC you all need to forget about home. There is no turning around and no going back. Your lives change the second we lift off in the PLC.

“Furthermore, you will be seen as mercs first and kids or regular people second or even third. Many will hate you, others will fear you, and few will care if you are eleven or fifty. You are mercs in the eyes of everyone and sympathy for mercs is very limited. This means family is what we have right here. We are brothers and sisters. We take care of each other because no one else will. If we get shot to hell and what is left of us is stuck on some world while we rebuild, the planetary government will not be likely to come to our aid. If things really go bad, make your way to the nearest AIM station and put your name on the recruitment board.”

At this Zane spoke up. “If you do end up in an AIM hiring hall, don’t jump at the first offer. Ask around. Find out what you can and look to see if you can sign on with a unit you are comfortable with. There are some very bad merc units out there.”

Neil took a deep breath, “Bad is a massive understatement. There are some units out there who hire, fully expecting to send the new guys out to get slaughtered while they sit back and chuckle about it. I can tell you from experience this isn’t one of those, but we are green and we will be tested because we don’t have any kind of rep. This means other merc units won’t care if they wipe us out or not. Once a unit has a rep, there is more leeway given. It’s just the nature of the beast you are about to join. I have seen just how hard the transition from non-merc to merc is on new kids to a merc unit and it will even be harder on you all since you have no family coming in with you. To this end, I will offer to pay 2500 to Lieutenant Polzin to release you at the spaceport if those of you from Iron Horn don’t really want to do this. I got enough on the AIM mission to buy all four of you your freedom.”

Sekrena looked over, and even though she was still a little sick, this clearly stunned her, “Even if I wanted to bale, I’d never be able to pay off a debt of that size, Finn.”

“I’m not asking you to pay me back. Between me and Lily, we should have been able to get all of you out. We were hired as security and failed you all. It’s the least I can do to try to make it right.”

Kylem looked over, “I want to stay with you, Finn.”

“I kind of figured, Kylem.” Neil responded cautiously, “But remember, I am only going to be with the Q Sabers for about six months…”

Ensign LaRose held up a hand. “I’m sure we can let him go with you back to your old unit if he wants to stick with you when your contract is up with us, Corporal. By then we should have enough cash to hire some new grunts and gophers.” She then paused and looked at the other three. “This is a hell of generous offer, kids. One I will accept on behalf of the Q Sabers right now if any of you want to stay here.”

Wiles shook his head fiercely even as he tried to force another burp and failed, “Thanks, Finn, but I’m staying. Not only do I really want to kick your butt for this, but…” He lowered his head and took a few deep breaths as another wave of cramps rolled across his midsection. “The only other outs for me would be to go back to Iron Horn and see if they will give me a low job at some mine or go planetside and join the militia in hopes of making the grade and going military. Otherwise I am going to go merc and at least in this group I have a good idea of who I am with… And I know you will teach us… Oh, I so want to puke!”

Sekrena let out a long breath even as she reached over and patted Wiles on the back. “If my folks or grandparents haven’t responded by the time we get to the spaceport, I have nowhere to go but another mine of a farm. No thanks. I’ll take my chances here.”

“I’m sticking with Sekrena.” Coryn responded softly after a few seconds. “I know my dad was killed and I don’t want to go live with my uncle. He’s a mean drunk. I’ll never tell him I’m free, no way.”

Ensign LaRose moved over and sat next to Coryn, “I am sorry to hear about your dad. I know Lieutenant Polzin really didn’t want to kill any of the workers. We’ll take good care of you.”

Neil gritted his teeth to prevent himself from cussing. He was trying to get the kids out of what he knew was a horrible unit before things went bad. He was certain he and Zane would be OK, and they would make sure Jasha was as well, all the while doing their best to protect the other three Quaker VII cadets. However, he figured the four Iron Horn kids probably didn’t even know how to shoot straight. Actually, Neil bet none of the four had shot a single firearm. He also bet when the crap really hit, the vast majority of the unit would disintegrate. Most were desk jockeys or were spoiled Q VII military. Some of those holding their guts in the other vehicles and cursing him and Zane under their breaths were already mumbling about not being sure about being a merc unit just over a stupid prank. It didn’t bode well at all. Neil could tell Ensign LaRose at least had a clue, but guessed it was only a clue. Trying to take care of the four Iron Horn kids under such conditions was going to be a royal nightmare.

Ensign LaRose gave Coryn a light squeeze and stood. “We will be at the Dark Ridge Starport in about fourteen hours and we are pretty sure transport will be waiting for us. If any of you from the mine change your minds let me know.” She then stood and led the other adults back to the bunking section. “You all get some rest. Corporal, I want you to finish your talk with the others once they have a chance to recover some.”

Neil waited until the hatch between the sections closed before he moved back over to his frame and grabbed the cloth. “OK, guys, one last chance. Think it over and remember, you all are here because they attacked your camp and kept you. Most merc units don’t take mass hostages and ransom them back, at least not most good ones. This unit is new and needs the cash, which may be the reason our CO did this, and will probably do so again. But being conscripted means you are expected to work. At least you are going to get paid. I know of units who conscript and don’t pay until enough skill is gathered to be considered useful. However, if you are really going to stay, work starts now. No more free time unless I say you can take some.

“But hey, you all claim you want to be mercs, it’s time to start learning how to be one. As the highest ranking person back here, you do what I say, how I say. First thing is you all grab a cleaning cloth, and no Wiles, you can’t get out of it because you are sick. Deal with it. Half of you get with Zane… um, Zyden, and the other half with me. You all learn the proper and safe way to wipe down and clean the outside of a closed frame before we eat, and no one gets to sleep until every frame back here is free of dust and the insides are totally free of moisture and sweat.

“You all from Iron Horn, this will be a daily duty; and when we hit combat, it will be something you will do multiple times a day. I also will expect and demand each of you to learn how to do other things such as care for our personal rifles, sidearms, and blades. Also, until you are combat ready, you all will cook, do dishes, and take care of laundry for those who can fight. Your main concern though, needs to stay focused on frame maintenance. It is a huge deal, and these machines are what is going to keep us all alive and making money. I’ll tell you right now, having you all cleaning them while the pilots get some combat rest is a huge deal. Zyden and I both did it and let me tell you we are only too happy to teach you so we don’t have to do it anymore!”

Wiles let out a long breath, followed by a nasty burp. He finally went to his knees and threw up. With a sigh of relief over purging his stomach of much of what had been churning inside him, he looked up even as he wiped his mouth with his shirt sleeve. When he spoke it was clear he felt a great deal better, “Are you trying to drive us out or what?”

Zane responded as he tossed Wiles a towel to clean up the chunky mess. “He’s trying to keep you alive, kid. If you come with or stay behind is up to you until the loading doors on our PLC close up. Then you are either with us, or standing in the observation lounge watching us take off. If you are with us, you are under us. And just in case you haven’t all figured this out, Neil and I go way back. Also, for the record, Jasha is my stepbrother and I hate to say it like this, but you’ll find out we tend to be blunt. So let me get you all used to it right now. If things go bad Jasha and Neil come before you all. If things go super bad, stick as close to us as you can and we will try to get you out, but if it comes down to me saving Jasha or Neil or one of you mining kids, there is going to be no decision. It will be Jasha or Neil. Then comes the other three from Q VII, then the four of you. You don’t like what I am telling you, take Neil up on his offer.

“Also remember something else, Neil is in charge of me and Jasha, we are in charge of the other QVII framers and you are under all of us. Shit in any merc unit runs downhill, and you all are at the very bottom. On the other hand, if we all survive the next six months then you will have everything you need to jump in with another merc unit and if you really show us something, we can get you a slot with us.

“I don’t think I need to mention if any of you blab about this you will find it difficult to ever talk again, and chewing is damned hard without teeth.”

Jasha moved up and pulled his lip back showing off the titanium tooth, “As I found out the hard way. This is complements of my stepbrother!”

Seeing the four kids from the mining station looking at the metal tooth with wide eyes, Neil snickered, “Keep in mind, this is what we tend to do when someone close to our age mouths off to us, and Jasha was already a cadet and knew a little about fighting. With this in mind, guys, I am only going to make this offer once more. I’ll even go one better and kick each of you an extra two hundred credits of your very own. You have AIM cards and can hook up with another unit over the next year. It will give you time to find a unit who will give you more guidance and time to really learn. But I’m not going to lie to you either. Zane, Zyden to all of you, is correct. Most good merc units will want some experience and some kind of certification before they hire a kid. You stick with us and we survive to get back here, you will have both.”

Wiles took a deep breath, “I’m staying.”

“I want to, too,” Kylem spoke in a barely audible whisper. “I don’t want to go to a youth farm….”

“Depends on if my parents or grandparents respond to the message. If not, I’m pretty much with Wiles,” Sekrena stated. “This has to be better than staying on this moon.”

“My bet is you will disagree within a week but it will be too late,” Neil warned.

“I hear you, but I’m pretty sure you are going to be stuck with me.”

Coryn hung her head, “I got nowhere or no one, but I hate these people! They killed my dad…”

“Do you know who?” Zane asked, while glancing over at Neil. Getting a nod, Zane got an evil glint in his eyes, “If so, we can make sure he doesn’t do it again.”

“You would kill someone in your own unit?” Antone asked with wide eyes.

“No way in hell.” Zane stated sharply, “As Neil said earlier, a merc unit is a family, and problems need to be handled from within. Killing a family member isn’t one of them, but we have way of sending messages to make it abundantly clear some things are not acceptable. Whoever it is will know where we stand without anyone getting too badly hurt.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Sekrena responded. “It was the… um… woman in charge who did it. She punched him with her frame…”

“Why?” Zane demanded to know. “What did he do?”

“From what I saw, nothing really,” Wiles answered. “He just pushed a couple of older teens behind him and the next thing we knew he fell to the ground with a hole in his chest and the knuckles on the frame dripping blood.”

“Makes me even happier Val killed the wench.” Neil growled, then shook his head and let out a sigh. “Coryn, if you are the only one who doesn’t go or even if only two of you stay behind, I could give you some extra cash.”

“I… I don’t know…”

“Well you have some time to make up your mind, but once we hit the spaceport I need to know. And seriously, if you don’t want to come, and at least two of you do, I could transfer thirty-five hundred over to your AIM card. It would be enough for you to pay for two months of AIM training, so you could get basic infantry certified and pay for another month and get a low level repair cert, which would be more than enough for some other unit to pick you up right off the merc hiring boards on this piss poor moon. Those three months would be with room and board included, but would be a brutal three months. On the plus side, you would still have five hundred to live on while you find a unit after you got done with training.”

Zane looked over, “Damn, dude, how much cash do you have?”

Neil shot Zane a smirk. “Not as much as I thought I would after the AIM mission, but even after outfitting my frames and buying myself extra ammo, I got enough… at least for now.”

Robin and Luna stood next to Major O’Connell and watched the small convoy move out of the main gate of AIM Grey Sands while shaking their heads. Luna was first to speak up, “Major, we can’t let Neil go with those losers!”

Major O’Connell put his arm over Luna’s shoulders, “What’s rule one of being a Grenadier, Luna?”

Luna sighed, “Fulfilling the contract.”

“Exactly. Neil got his combat certs thanks to Blood’s Honor giving you all a combat cert test on Blood’s Honor’s dime. I wish they would have told me they were on the books for you all with AIM, but what is done is done. However, we are in a system where his age, combined with passing his combat cert, made him legally able to sign a binding contract. Also, as you all know, the passing of a combat cert took Neil off of auxiliary status with us. When the two combined, it allowed him to do what he wanted. He signed on with them of his own free will.

“Now I know he did it to try to free some of your fellow cadets, but what is done is done. He is under contract with them and he can’t ever be a one of us again if he breaks it. It’s six months, maybe less. Zane passed his test with flying colors and Jasha eked out a seventy-one, and only because the little shit can really shoot, but still passed. So, like Neil, both were free to join and they wanted to be the ones to help Neil. Thanks to Brave Humanities, we also got one of the Quaker VII instructors slid into the unit, also for six months, give or take one. I don’t think he will do Neil and Zane much good, but Brave Humanities wanted an adult in, so I let them send the guy.

“Me, I have my doubts the bunch of jerk-offs will last three months, but Neil probably knows this as well and he did pretty well for himself. He has an AIM mission under his belt and cash to get back to us from just about anywhere in the MF, FPA, or even NFC and ABR. I also slid some emergency funds over to Jasha under the condition he doesn’t tell Zane or Neil until it is absolutely needed. I want it back if possible.”

Robin busted up laughing while Luna let out a humor-filled roar.

Major O’Connell snickered, ignoring those around him who were all looking at him and the two young teens. “I’m pretty sure Jasha is too scared about having to pay it back to use it unless absolutely necessary. He seems like a real good kid and hearing about the fight between him and Zane, tells me he just needs some rougher edges and some piloting skills to be one of us. Besides, while I love you all, there is no way I am turning over thirty grand to Zane! God only knows what he would do with it, but I’m positive it would be nothing good.”

“Good call, sir!” Robin managed to get out through another burst of laughter.

Luna had to catch her breath from laughing so hard, “I gather we aren’t allowed to ever tell Zane or Neil if they don’t use it?”

“You do: I will make your lives beyond miserable. Knowing I am being deadly serious, I leave it up to the two of you to say something or not.”

Robin’s whole body quaked, “No way! I remember what you did to Hawk when he didn’t keep his mouth shut!”

“Cleaning and sanitizing the Grey Stallion‘s water tanks from the inside pretty much got my message across, huh?”

“Oh yeah!” Luna responded. “I can still remember how wiped he was and how he smelled like disinfectant for like a week after!”

“Longer,” Robin stated with a cringe. “Mom wouldn’t let him into the room. He had to sleep in the breakroom cleaning closet for almost two weeks!”

“Yeah, sonic showers don’t seem to take care of it for some reason and with empty tanks because we had to let them dry, all we had was sonic showers.”

Luna looked up as it suddenly dawned on her, “And you knew it going in, didn’t you sir?”

The corners of Major O’Connell’s mouth turned upward, “Oh, I may have heard something about a certain brand of disinfectant or rumors thereof somewhere along the line. You know, I have heard of other rumors too…”

“I never heard nothing about Jasha getting a thing,” Robin stated emphatically.

Luna held up both hands, “Me neither!”

“Somehow, I kind of guessed as much. So shall we go talk to this AIM Unit Specialist?”

Robin let out a long breath, “Yeah, sure.”

“Huh, you don’t sound as certain as you did when I first brought up the idea.”

“Oh, we’re certain, sir!” Luna jumped in. “But do we really have to take those sergeants from BH as advisors and that Rockland kid as an XO?”

“First off, you are also going to have Caleb’s mom, so you will have one Grenadier advisor. However, even though she is fixed up, thanks to a regen by Brave Humanities, she will need lots of time to get back full movement. Some of those nerves in her back are new and will not work right for quite some time. You need others who can go out into the field with you. Besides, both men were instructors at BHJMA and one of them is a medic. It’s a great fit.”

“Sure, maybe for you,” Robin grumbled, “but they are going to make us keep stunners on our frames!”

“It is a requirement at Blood’s Honor academy too, and last time I checked you both want to go there so bad you can taste it.” Major O’Connell reminded Robin.

Robin gave a begrudging nod, “OK, yeah, but… oh, forget it. We’ll keep the stupid stunners! But I still want Luna as my XO not some Brave Humanities fighter pilot!”

“I know you do, but Luna will still be an officer and having Rockland as your XO serves a dual purpose. First, he turns sixteen in a couple of days. He’ll be an adult, and AIM wants an adult officer in the unit, not just an advisor. I don’t know how Blood’s Honor does their cohort thing, but it was made real clear to me when I approached AIM, they want a senior level officer of an adult age. Rockland gives you one. Second, a serious part of your unit is air and spacecraft. Neither of you know squat about them, and as astonished as I am at Kay’s skills behind an IPSC, he is not even in space fold range of being able to lead yet. Note, I did say yet. You really include him with the other Double D’s and get him some confidence, he very well may make an outstanding leader. But not anytime soon. Giving him a warrant officer rank, would be my recommendation, this gives Kay a decent rank he will be proud of while keeping him out of the main chain of command.”

Major O’Connell waited until both nodded before continuing, “Just as importantly for you all, however, is Rockland has certs to fly a ferry-sized craft. Thanks to Kay’s recruiting and a few adults willing to take in some aero kids, you do have a trio who have basic certs for the larger craft and we moved over some of the Q VII cadet techs we picked up thanks to the two of you. However, you need someone who knows leadership in all aspects of Aero, and Vlad is quite simply just a small craft guy. But kids, don’t take my words and twist them. I spent several hours with Vlad and think he is a hell of a kid. He is a great person to lead your fighter side for sure. I would recommend putting Kay directly under him, since Kay not only trusts him, but likes him as well. Between what the Double D’s can teach Kay and what Vlad will instill, there is a good chance we will see Kay with real officer rank on his shoulders at some point. And honestly, before this all went down, how many would have ever thought it possible?”

“No one,” Luna stated, “including his dad.”

“Pretty much what we all thought,” Major O’Connell agreed, “but in this case it was nice to be totally wrong.”

Seeing both kids grin caused a smile to creep across Major O’Connell’s lips. “Alright let’s go, and remember my part in this is to help get you organized and assure AIM this isn’t a joke and you will all be attached to me, even though you have an independent command. It is up to you to prove me right and the first impression is always the biggest. The same will be said when it comes time to grab your first contract or five. Reputation will then start to take over, either good or bad.”

Major O’Connell stopped in front of the door to the meeting room and looked down at Robin and Luna. His face was one of the most serious either child had seen. “Kids, one more time before this door opens. You do realize once you do this you are going to lose some of your friends. It’s going to happen. Can you really do this knowing Glen, Val, Dante, Kay, Jared, or Kerri may be coming back to the Grey Stallion in a body bag because of orders one or both of you give? Can you go to Cody’s dad, mom, and younger siblings and tell them Cody isn’t coming home? And Robin, I have never seen you get as close to a non-Grenadier as you have with Jessie. Can you order him into a spot where he may not come back if it means saving the rest of your unit?”

“Sir we’ve already talked it over…”

“I know you talked with some of the parents, but listen to me Robin. Really listen.”

Robin gulped and nodded.

“OK, now focus in on this scenario. You are taking heavy fire from behind a ridgeline. You are all pinned and running out of ammo. Jessie has managed to work himself into a spot where he has a clean shot at their ammo and fuel storage. It is close enough to the bulk of their forces to where it will take out a huge chunk of their forces, but the second he opens up all hell will descend down on him. Those who survive the blast will not be interested in taking prisoners nor are they likely to stop shooting once red smoke comes out of Jessie’s frame. If he takes the shot, he will die. If he doesn’t fire a huge chunk of your unit will fall and your whole command may be wiped out. It is your call. Do you have him take the shot? Now as you think this over, I don’t want you putting some other voice coming over your radio. It’s Jessie’s. He is telling you he has the shot and wants to know what your orders are, and no, you can’t leave it up to him. It is your call. What order do you give?”

Robin actually found he had to wipe a couple of tears away as he answered, “I’d have to tell him to take the shot, then I’d probably have to turn command over to someone else for a few minutes as I did everything I could to get to him and pull him back.”

Major O’Connell ruffled Robin’s hair. “Once you gave such an order I would expect no less. I can also tell by your expression and tone you realize just such a situation may happen and you are logically prepared, even if you are not emotionally. Now, with just such a possibility looming over you, it is up to you to open this door or not. Once open, there really isn’t any turning back. You will be a merc unit in the next forty-eight hours or so and will need to go after a contract quickly. Once you have your first contract, rule one takes over.”

Robin glanced over to Luna, got a nod, and reached for the door.

Neil jumped out of the side door of the Moon Runner he had been assigned to and made the rounds with Senior Sergeant Afonin who was in command of the second Moon Runner. There were two others with them.

First was the female pilot of the Moon Runner, a former Q VII armor training brigade sergeant who Trofin promoted. Senior Sergeant Larisa Vinogradova was all business. She said little, but stood and watched every move made by the Husky Class PLC crew as they locked the Moon Runner down in preparation for liftoff. She then checked each clamp and all the securing straps.

The other person to accompany Neil was one Sergeant Ilik Zakharovich, a former Q VII trainer in the military training brigade and the pilot of the Artillery frame. Sergeant Zak as he liked to be called, was a mountain of a man, standing just over 2.2 meters and weighing in at somewhere around 135 kilos. Very few frames could accommodate such a huge guy, but the Artillery frame was one of them.

Sergeant Zak seemed happy to get out of the Moon Runner. He took a few seconds to roll his shoulders and neck before doing some stretches with the aid of the Moon Runner’s left front tire. After a couple of minutes Sergeant Zak made his way over to Neil. “So, I hear you are a certified tech?”

“I am, Sergeant.” Neil stated while trying not to show he was intimidated by the man’s size and bodybuilder sculpted muscles. “Is there something on your Artillery you need worked on?”

The man made a massive snorting sound. “The shorter list would be asking me what doesn’t.”

The way the man spoke only confirmed what Neil guessed from a first glance. The frame was in horrible shape. “We should have a couple of weeks of transport time. I will give it my full attention when not working with the others in my squad.”

Sergeant Zac patted Neil on the back, physically pushing him forward with each tap even though it was obvious the guy was not putting any real power behind the good-natured gesture. “I did manage to buy a refit kit from Brave Humanities with what cash I had left. Pretty much broke me, so I won’t be able to buy much else for a bit.”

“A refit kit will probably take care of most of the problems and give me a few spare parts to tuck away. If there is something else the frame needs, I’ll do a patch job until we take out an Artillery and I scrap it for parts for your frame.”

“You get my beast up and running well, I’ll owe you, Corporal. And for the record, I am happy you are with us. Your combat test run was phenomenal!”

Neil shot the man a smile, “Just hope I can do as good when we all go into combat the first time.”

“Well, I’ll tell you, some of us may have doubts, but your AIM mission right after pretty much speaks for itself. You ain’t one to back down from combat and you fight as hard as you test. Right now you have the second best AIM combat record in this whole unit.”

“Someone else was a merc?”

“Yeah, Ensign LaRose was for a couple of years before she joined the Quaker VII ATB.”

“Nice, but she really doesn’t seem like a merc to me.”

“It was like twenty years ago, from what I hear. She was like a senior private when her unit was wiped out by Earth Core.”

“How’d she end up on Q VII?”

Sergeant Zac shrugged, “No idea. From what I’ve heard she doesn’t really talk about her past much. Everything I know is rumors. But once we found out Earth Core was behind Quaker VI, she got really mad and we all heard her say Earth Core took her unit and now her adopted home and she really wants to pay them back.

“I hear you fought Earth Core, so she may talk to you about it if you ask.”

Neil shook his head, “I’d prefer to stay as far away from EC as possible. What those bastards did… no, I never want to have to deal with something like that again, ever. I still have nightmares and talking would probably bring back the real bad ones, so no, no thanks.”

“Sounds bad, and I don’t even know what happened.”

“Bad is seeing someone you know get killed in combat. Horrible is seeing someone you love fall. Terrible is seeing several you know and love get taken out. What EC did to our camp… No, there is no words, and even knowing the EC flag ship was taken down and the knowing commanding Field Marshal was killed along with everyone in his base doesn’t even come close to enough justice. What they did, what they were going to do, what we went through… there can never be anything to balance those scales. It’s the whole reason I tried to get those four Iron Horn Kids to say behind. None of them have a clue what they are in for, and I just wanted to… to…” Neil threw up his hands, “I don’t even know what, but I didn’t want them to have to deal with it.”

“Too late now,” Senior Sergeant Vinogradova stated as he poked her head under the back bumper and pulled on the loading ramp to verify it was fully secured. “Oh, and for the record, like Sergeant Zac, you can both call me Sergeant Dova. It’s easier and faster in combat. Actually you two can call me Larisa, since you are NCO’s. But the lower enlisted, best stick to Sergeant Dova.”

“I’ll let my squad know, Sergeant.” Neil stated seriously.

“I’m sure you will. So let’s get the command meeting out of the way so we can check out our bunking situation. I have never been on a Husky before.”

Neil pointed to the hatch opposite the loading doors. Even as he continued to speak, he moved toward the middle of the ship. “Everything is through there and during liftoff, landing and combat those doors will stay locked since these bays only have the hull between us and space. From what I’ve been told, it’s pretty common for the outside bays to get breached during combat. The nice thing is, there is a lot of room between here and the billeting section, and hull damage can normally be repaired from the inside.”

Sergeant Zac looked down, “So you have been on one of these, huh?”

“This will be my fifth one, well third, but fifth time in one. I took the same one three times when being shuffled around on New Bravaria while most of those with me were stuck in hospitals, many of them in rejuv chambers. I got lucky. Most didn’t.”

Senior Sergeant Afonin moved to catch up while joining the conversation. “Who shuttled you around in one of these?”

“Blood’s Honor.”

All three sergeants stopped cold.

Neil paused and looked back, “What?”

Sergeant Zac was first to find his voice, “So you didn’t just get a Blood’s Honor AIM number, you spent serious time with them?”

“Weeks, almost five. It took them over three just to find and bring together what was left of my unit and another two weeks while the surviving adults were awarded salvage, equipment patched up, and for a water run contract to get approved so we could have some time to unwind and rebuild. It’s when General Scott and Colonel Price sat down with us kids and decided what awards and certs we were due. It’s also when I got my Platform Heavy Gunnery Combat Cert and they tested me and certified me for Tracked and Wheeled Pilot and I picked up Platform Turret Ops, Ballistic, and Laser. They also had their instructors test me in frame so I got my basic AIM certs in frame on NB as well.”

Seeing them all continuing to stare at him, Neil cocked his head to the side. “Hey, I blew the crap out of a couple EC armor with the heavy cannon on our Schwarzkopf while Blood’s Honor frame cadets were fighting beside us. It’s all in my AIM file because one or more of their cadets got it on vid. Pretty sure it was Gabe, but it doesn’t really matter. All I know is when the platform we were in took a direct hit, most of the others got tossed around, broke bones, and were all messed up.

“It left me as the only one really able to continue to fight. I managed to load and take out one more EC platform before like a full frame force of Blood’s Honor dropped on our position and kicked the living crap out of anything and everything EC. All I ended up with was a bloody nose and they had to stick me in a rejuv for an hour to fix my ear, since my right eardrum got blown out. Most of the others with me spent days, one more than a week, in hospital.”

Senior Sergeant Afonin shook his head, “So some of what I heard you tell Kylem… you weren’t telling him the whole thing?”

“No. I still have nightmares. I didn’t want to give him any! Hell, I don’t even want him to be with us and I am still really pissed off you all kept him and the others.”

“Lieutenant’s choice, not yours, not ours,” Senior Sergeant Dova stated coldly. “Also, I heard you gave them an out. They didn’t take it, so it’s now on them and them alone. But I have to side with the lieutenant on this. We need some gophers.”

“Then Lieutenant Polzin should have posted it on the AIM hiring board and recruited kids with some kind of merc background or at least kids who know how to shoot and throw a punch. I’ll place bets on Wiles having poop in his shorts the first time we take fire and I don’t want to have to smell it!”

The three adults couldn’t help but snicker as they followed Neil into the inner compartments.

As soon as Neil opened the door, a member of the Star Slider’s ship security detail looked down with a slight frown and a raise of an eyebrow. “All firing weapons owned by your unit are restricted to this level, Corporal. Main meeting room is down at the end of the hall second door from the end on your left.”

Neil thanked the woman and moved down and entered the room followed by the others. He noted as he entered the room, a table with fresh fruit, pitches of water, and a meat and cheese platter was set up on the far side, while the main oval table was set with water glasses and the pitchers on the table had something with a lemon-like smell in them.

Lieutenant Polzin was in the room with four other men, all four of which had oriental features and skin tone, and one fair-skinned woman who had her arm locked to her side with a body sling. The male with the lightest skin and least oriental eyes was a man in a officer’s uniform showing his rank as a captain. But it wasn’t his looks that captivated Neil. Instead the man’s hand kept Neil’s full attention. It had a normal thumb and forefinger but the last three digits were all robotic. He also noted the metal fingers were fairly new since there were bandages around where the robotic parts went into the skin at the knuckles and the bandages showed some seepage.

While Neil had caught a glance of bionic replacements at a distance, this was the first time he had seen then up close. It also told him a couple of things. First the man was very well connected. Robotic replacements were very high tech and doctors to graft them in were super hard to find. Second, it told him the guy had more money than should legally be allowed. Fully usable body grafted robotic replacements ran hundreds of thousands of credits, and seeing them move like normal finger meant what Neil was looking at was probably into the million credit range.

Lieutenant Polzin motioned for Neil and those with him to sit even as he made a quick round of introductions. He then gestured to the man with the metal fingers, “This is Captain Lomo, commander of the Death Warriors. He is the one paying us to get him to some ships and then escort him to pick up a supply cache. With him is his XO, Lieutenant Boudicea.” He nodded in the direction of the woman. “The other three are all part of Captain Lomo’s command ground. Lieutenant Horri, Ensign Miwa, and Master Sergeant Shoda. They have six others who are techs and large aerospace pilots. They not really considered combatants and you will have limited contact with them.”

Before more could be said Ensign LaRose came in with eight others from the Q Sabers. Lieutenant Polzin gave another round of introductions. Once done he looked over to Captain Lomo, “This is the bulk of our officers and NCOs. We have two warrant officers. One is our senior tech and the other our primary medic. Both are needed in their respective positions. I will be happy to introduce you to them later.”

Captain Lomo gave a single hard nod and spoke with a strong cut-glass accent, “Thank you, Lieutenant. Please, all of you procure some nourishment and drink. This is an informal meeting and a fundamental briefing for your unit’s influential members. It is my belief it is imperative for those in authoritative positions to have a firm a grasp of the operations at hand.”

As the man spoke Neil’s brow crinkled. The man’s voice seemed familiar. Even as he moved to grab a very healthy portion of salami and cheese, he made it a point to look at the man’s face. The problem was, each time he did, he found the man doing almost the exact same thing to him. This made really studying Captain Lomo’s features difficult, but the more he looked, the more he was certain he had both seen and heard the man somewhere before. Even more troubling, the voice caused serious internal alarm bells to go off. Something was beyond wrong, but even as he bit into the meat and savored the flavor, he could not, for the life of him, place the guy.

Unfortunately, Captain Lomo turned the meeting over to Lieutenant Horri and Master Sergeant Shoda, so Neil was not able to hear more to jog his memory while he was still focused on it.

Master Sergeant Shoda moved to the back of the room and took control of the holographic projector while Lieutenant Horri did most of the talking. Even as the man stepped behind the podium, Neil was certain the Death Warriors’ Operations officer was dangerous, extremely dangerous. First the guy moved like a predatory cat. His footfalls on the metal floor were soundless, and he moved with a grace only those way up in the martial arts were capable, like Luna’s mom and Zane’s dad. Next the man’s eyes scanned the surroundings in a way only a skilled observer would or could do. The eyes always moved, yet didn’t dart around. They also stayed on just long enough to grasp details without lingering too long. If there was anyone to be scared of in this group, it was Lieutenant Horri.

To the man’s credit, he realized Neil had him pegged and even gave Neil a slight knowing nod as he made eye contact before moving on to the next person at the table.

Before Neil could figure out what this all meant, the lights dimmed and the holographic projector lit up showing a star system and seventeen planets and over ninety moons. Lieutenant Horri let everyone look it over for just under a minute before he spoke. “This is our first destination. The Tarvos system sits in contested space between Earth Core and the Free Planets Association. We are three folds from Tarvos and transport time to the SFC will be about six days and transport down to our target another four. We will be transferring fold ships, so as long as everything is on schedule, we will be doing fast folds. This still means over four weeks of space time before we get there. If you have equipment you want help with, we have excellent techs with us with very little to do and we want and need you combat ready from the moment we get there.

“Our destination is Tarvos XIV.” The projector zoomed into a desolate looking world with only two large bodies of water and massive expanses of drab grey. “As you can see this is a not so inviting world. The vast majority of it is granite rock and sand and is extremely arid. EM fields are weak, so light E-suits need to be worn if you are going to spend more than a few minutes outside to prevent starburn. Oxygen levels are about point nine optimal, but still plenty to support life. Breathing will be slightly above normal labored during exertion. There is native plant life, only about ten percent edible, and you should have already been given a chip on the system and each world in it. There are over one hundred hazardous creatures on Tarvos XIV alone, most of which are around the two seas, but there are nineteen deep desert dwellers, and you need to know them all.

“Our target is an old and all but discarded Earth Core ship boneyard dating from the third Earth Core War. However, it was used for a short time at the end of the Earth Core – Brave Humanities dust up.” Again the projector zoomed in on a huge crater with hundreds of small to medium sized ships in it, many of which looked partially skeletonized, but several looked totally intact. “It is the newer ships, intermixed with the hulks of the Third Galactic War, we have our eyes set on. Part of your unit will need to neutralize the communications and gain control of the ship drive storehouses on the north side of the crater while the other part guards our techs while we piece a couple of ships together.”

Neil couldn’t hold his tongue, “You want us to hit a EC shipyard?”

Captain Lomo spoke, “While your supposition is based in reality, your terminology is lacking. What you are observing is a briefing pertaining to an Earth Core inactivation station. I must also make appeal towards you to eliminate further inquiries until the cessation of the briefing.”

Neil had to blink a couple of times to fully comprehend what the captain had just said. At the same time the man’s voice sent another shiver down Neil’s spine. The other problem was he could see he was getting a withering stare from Lieutenant Polzin, so he swallowed hard and spoke softly, “Sorry, sir.”

“Apology accepted. Lieutenant Horri, proceed.”

Lieutenant Horri gave a half nod, half bow, even as the holographic display zoomed in even closer focusing on a set of bunkers guarding a blast door built right into the face of the rock wall of the crater. “Here are the doors to the ship drive storage and the location of the guard for this ship boneyard. As of one hundred and forty-seven days ago, the detachment was at sixteen frames, four tracked platforms, six wheeled platforms and eighteen hover platforms. The tracked platforms are large haulers with cranes and salvage equipment armed with a manned gun shield with two heavy machineguns. The wheeled are all Decanus personnel carriers and have turrets on top. They are hard pointed and gunners change out systems based on desire, but they only handle four hard points with a max weapon size of two hard points. They are fusion powered, though, so they oftentimes have energy weapons.

“The hovers are fast patrol Venationes often referred to as…”

“…Hunters,” Neil finished the sentence for the lieutenant with an angry, yet soft, snarl.

Lieutenant Horri paused and glanced over, “The young man is either gifted in Latin or has some experience. His voice tells me it is experience. One way or the other, he is correct…”

Seeing everyone looking at him, Neil clenched his fist, “I killed several of them in New Bravaria. They killed far more of us, at least until losses got so high they pulled them out of our sector. Then we had to go find them instead of them trying to kill us.” He stopped, but quickly realized everyone was waiting on him to continue, so he took a deep breath and stood. His posture told everyone he was fighting inner demons as he spoke and his voice lost much of its boyish tone. “Hunters are death machines designed by the warped minds within EC. They are two man very small and fast hovers. Most come with a pulse or even a turbo laser in a super fast rotating turret. They are meant for one thing, finding and killing light armor and infantry. Actually, they don’t normally kill, they put spears of lasers into fleeing people and leave their burning and blistered bodies to die, oftentimes as they go right over their victims.

“Like most EC high tech crap, they have a weak point, though. An explosion under them, even a grenade-sized one, is enough to rip apart their hover engines. Once it goes down it overheats and shuts down, thus killing power to the turret and the laser. Its armor everywhere else is surprisingly thick. I watched them stand up to large laser and quark rifle hits without breaching. I am sure a second one in the same location would breach, but they are so fast and maneuverable, getting two hits in the same location is all but impossible. Hell, getting one is way more about luck than skill.”

Lieutenant Miwa’s left eyebrow went up, “If it is so hard, how did you take multiple ones?”

Neil sat down, “Lots of mud, grenades, wire and a pile of plastic bags.”

Even though he was clearly aggravated at the interruption, Captain Lomo made a sweeping gesture with his partially robotic hand, “I must divulge I am intrigued. You have the floor young Corporal.”

Neil nervously stood again, “Sir, if I am going to tell you all how to take them out, I need to know how you got this intel.”

While Lieutenant Polzin cringed, Captain Lomo actually stood, gave Neil a bow, and applauded a trio of times. “I see you are not only intelligent, but cautious and inquisitive. All beneficial traits when on the path of a paid warrior. I must commend you.

“Lieutenant Boudicea, my judgment informs me it has become necessary to enlighten these men and women of your heritage and abandoned birthright.”

The woman officer noticeably cringed as she moved to stand. She then limped up to the front of the room even as she nodded for Lieutenant Horri to move to the side. As she took over the podium, she let out a sigh. She spoke in a tired sounding voice. “The information you are getting, along with all the actual footage, came from me. Actually, it came from Earth Core. It was part of the official briefing given to all those who have to spend time guarding the hell that is Earth Core Station T-XIV-II. I was assigned there as XO for eighteen months as security officer for a perceived failure before being disgraced a second time on Andar and declared Ronin.”

“EC scum,” Neil muttered as he plopped back down on the chair.

The woman sent a hate-filled piercing stare at Neil. “Your detest of Earth Core drips off of you, Corporal. While I must agree there are certain elements within Earth Core of a less than scrupulous nature, without Earth, none of us would exist.”

Neil stood again and gripped the edge of the table as he stared right back at the woman, “And since I have been alive, EC as tried very hard to make sure most real humans don’t survive except under EC’s boot. Its military murdered friends and unit members. They have slaughtered people and taken others to God only knows where. They have targeted civilian and medical areas, and massacred little kids in schools. So don’t you dare try to tell me there is a damned thing worth admiring anywhere in the EC cesspool!”

The woman’s whole demeanor hardened, “When I am healed, I am going to make you…”

“LIEUTENANT!” Captain Lomo shouted, “ENOUGH!”

Lieutenant Boudicea’s face lost a great deal of color, “My apologies, Captain.”

“Your apologies need not be directed toward me!”

Neil continued to stare at the woman, not caring in the slightest his own CO was mortified and looked like he wanted to kill him. “I need no apology, but as soon as you are healed up, Lieutenant, I’ll be happy to accept your challenge since I can tell you still see something worth more than a steaming pile of crap about EC. No one else would dare to champion what can’t be defended.”

Off to the side Lieutenant Horri’s face showed its first signs of emotion, “I believe I see what Blood’s Honor saw in this youth and why they let him take a Blood’s Honor AIM number. I must also provide my intuition to this fundamental disagreement we are witnessing, Lieutenant Boudicea. Should you decide to take this child up on his challenge, I would place a considerable amount of credits to your being back in medical care for an extended period of time.”

Lieutenant Horri then made firm eye contact with Neil, “You will not be without injury either, Corporal.”

Neil shrugged, “It would be worth it.”

At this Master Sergeant Shoda snickered. “I must admit, I find myself admiring the boy more by the minute.”

The back and forth prevented Lieutenant Polzin from an outburst of monumental proportions, but he still pointed at Neil, “Corporal, you will not be assaulting an officer from another unit!”

“I’ll take off my rank if she does!” Neil fired right back.

“Oh, I will. Give me a month…”

“I’ll give you as long as you want… ma’am.” The last word dripped with contempt.

Captain Lomo motioned for Neil to sit. “Your disdain for Earth Core has irrevocably been established, young Corporal. Considering your overwhelming loathing of Earth Core, a mission targeting an Earth Core installation should warm your blood.”

Neil sat while still glaring at Lieutenant Boudicea, “Killing more EC isn’t the problem, trusting this bi…” Neil held up his hand as he bit back what he wanted to call the woman, “briefing, is the real problem.”

“The information in accurate,” Master Sergeant Shoda stated. “We have confirmed it through another trusted source. However, I feel you should be aware, Lieutenant Boudicea was discharged from Earth Core and her family stripped of benefits of having a military officer and were shipped to a work colony.”

“I’d be lying if I say I’m sorry.”

Ensign Miwa let out a forced-sounding chuckle. “Honesty is an admirable trait. However, your hatred of Earth Core is clouding your judgment, young man. Lieutenant Boudicea has a reason to get back at Earth Core, for her son and daughter were also placed in the work colony and their futures are limited since neither will be allowed to join the Earth Core military and are nothing more than freemen laborers. Also, consider they will never be allowed to see their mother again since she is now Ronin.”

Neil frowned, even as some of the edge came off his voice. “Better than whatever they wanted to turn me into, but for the record. I’m sorry. No one should have to live under an EC boot, especially little kids.”

Captain Lomo let out a long breath, “With the unpleasantries receding, I am sure I am not alone in the desire to be informed of your extensive knowledge of the vehicle commonly referred to as a Hunter. Take in some liquid and nourishment if needed, then proceed, young Corporal.”

Neil took a long drink, rolled his shoulders, and took several calming breaths. When he started speaking, he purposefully ignored Lieutenant Boudicea while continuing to make eye contacts with the others. “To understand how to deal with Hunters you need to know a few things about them. Hunters use IR, so fresh mud keeps infantry cool enough to escape easy notice. This is doubly true since Hunters move fast and pilot and gunner don’t have a whole lot of time to find targets since speed is what really keeps them safe. “They have small fusion plants and need to be cooled with a lot of air. The front end of them are in essence air funnels. The faster it moves, the hotter it gets but the more air the funnels take in. Blockages are cleared as soon as they are detected by a laser grid, however the grid is in the back end of the funnel and rapidly moves forward each time a blockage is detected. This clears the blockages quickly. However, because they are taking in so much air, a small plastic bag gets sucked up into the funnel super easily. The laser grid quickly burns it away, but it is already deep inside the funnel when this happens.

“This means by tying a thin wire to a grenade pin and hooking the bag to the other end, the bag is yanked in while the grenade is too heavy to get picked up. The bag is yanked in the funnel, the grenade is pulled under the Hunter, and the pin is pulled. If you pull out the grenade timer and set it for instant detonation, it blows up under the Hunter, takes out the lift blades, and down it goes. The super hot fusion plant overheats, starts to burn, and the pilot and gunner jump out.” A truly malicious grin spread across Neil’s face as he added, “Then the hunters become the hunted.”

Ensign Miwa cocked his head to the side, “And how many of these vehicles have you killed?”

“Me, personally?”

“Yes.”

“Fourteen. Only three kids in my unit had more.”

Captain Lomo’s head jerked, “Fourteen, you eliminated fourteen Venationes and your success was not the greatest number of purges?”

“Yeah, I personally took out fourteen of the bastards and I wasn’t even in the star system of being close to our best.”

“And your best?” Lieutenant Polzin asked with wide eyes as he lost all his anger toward Neil and found it replaced by a combination of astonishment tinged with fear.

A satisfied grin spread over Neil’s face. “Maybe my test run didn’t show you I come from a group of well taught thrill-seekers, Lieutenant. But no, I didn’t even come close. Our best more than doubled our second best with forty-seven confirmed Hunter kills, thirty-one on vid and sixteen others with multiple witnesses, since other merc units started paying our unit with salvage to allow us kids to go with them well outside our zone just so we could take the bastards down. Then they would happily pick off the Hunter pilots and gunners for us and give our unit anything salvageable. Normally it wasn’t much, but we occasionally got parts and about a third of the time the pulse or turbo laser. Most were damaged, but we scavenged parts from some and repaired several. We even managed to get enough salvage to have two Hunters of our own, but we just use them to teach others how to take the bastards down. But, anyway, we all know our top Hunter killer had more than forty-seven. He went out on his own a few times and we still don’t know how he figured it out.”

Seeing every face except Captain Lomo and Lieutenant Boudicea looked at him in disbelief, Neil cracked his knuckles, “So yeah, forty-seven has to be way low. He’s the one who figured it out and showed us, so he had like maybe three or four before any of us had one, then he showed us a couple of times before the rest of us started making it into a contest between all of us. It wasn’t until then we started viding and keeping track of number of kills. By the time Blood’s Honor showed up in system there weren’t many left. Rumor had it they had been pulled from most areas and there were none in the New Rothenberg sector where we were. We either killed them all or they pulled the few we didn’t get to.”

Captain Lomo let out a long breath, “Any possibility of you providing us with a name associated with this young maniac?”

Neil giggled, “Calling him a maniac would be a huge compliment for him, but until I really feel I can trust you I’ll just give you a first name. Oh, and in exchange, I want to be part of the attack on the communications and ship drive storage, too. I don’t want to be a stupid guard.”

Lieutenant Polzin started to say something, only to get a partial metal hand held up in his face. Captain Lomo spoke up, “I will institute a bonus clause in your contract of a hundred thousand under the condition your young corporal and his squad partakes in the attack under the stipulation I am permitted to observe and, should it become necessary, assist in the assault.”

Lieutenant Polzin blinked a couple of times, “A hundred grand extra?” Seeing a nod, Lieutenant Polzin held up both hands, “OK, then. Corporal your Moon Runner gets to take the comm and main base. Mine will keep an eye out, take out patrols, and protect the tech crews. You will have to take the good captain here with you, so we will have to store your spare frame in the track.”

Captain Lomo gave a satisfied smile and turned his full attention back to Neil, “I procured the mission you desired, Corporal. Now if you would indulge us with the name of this Venationes annihilator?”

Neil grinned, “Since I get to kill some more EC jack-wads, I’ll be happy to tell you this much. He’s got a huge trophy case of EC rank pins from Hunter crew kills in his cabin and our armory has a stockpile of EC rifles and sidearms thanks to him. I also know he has a huge wad of EC credits and like five grenade ammo cans full of EC coins somewhere in his cabin. He is my best friend and his name is Zane.”

Robin’s head hit the table, “If we had Neil, Zane and Jasha, we wouldn’t have three empty slots to fill! I don’t see what the big deal is, we’re fine with who we have.”

Luna yawned, “Yeah, this is stupid…”

Master Sergeant Ryder looked over at the two kids with a shake of his head. “Guys, you two are the ones who set your structure as having two full sixteen frame units, a CO, an XO and a combo aerospace tech unit. You have to show your roster to AIM before you can make the final application or you start from scratch with the paperwork, saying you are short three frames. What’s it going to be?”

Luna looked up with aggravation, “I don’t see the big deal. We’ll probably be down a few frames after our first combat. What difference does three stupid frames make?”

“It’s more about who is going to hire you than you all,” Senior Sergeant Nire stated as he poured himself a cup of coffee. “Keep in mind, once you get all this approved, you will need to find a contract. You are already a group of mostly underage framers. Having full units instead of partial, changes perceptions. It tells those you are going to negotiate with you have a full organization instead of a piecemeal group of kids trying to make a credit or two.”

Former Brave Humanities aerospace cadet Gavin Rockland glanced over at Robin, “I bet I could find a couple more BH cadets and fill in those slots with aero support units, but we’d have to spend some money on getting them something to fly since the promised IPSC’s for the others haven’t gotten here yet…”

Robin shook his head, “Nice idea, but I’d have no idea how to use them and we are on a 250,000 credit budget loan from the major. I bet I could get some more from him, but paying back 250 K is already more than I can really grasp.”

Luna quickly agreed, “Yeah, and even worse, our payroll for the whole organization is 40,220 a month, including AIM fees and we need to put three months in AIM for guaranteed pay for everyone or they won’t sign off on us becoming a unit. We are down to 129,000 and haven’t even finalized our roster. We can’t afford anymore!”

Newly promoted Lieutenant Rockland, kind of tossed up his hands while focusing in on Robin, “I really don’t see any other options, Captain. We can complain all we want, but we know AIM made it clear they want to see full rosters. We are three short and Brave Humanities and the surviving instructors of Q VII academy aren’t going to let the other cadets join you.”

“Bunch of spoiled wimps. After all we did for them, they owe us.” Luna complained.

“You saved them, and they are grateful, Luna,” Master Sergeant Ryder stated calmly, “but they aren’t mercs. They are cadets.”

“So are the kids we brought into the unit!” Luna argued.

“No,” Senior Sergeant Nire stated. “They are now Grenadiers and are thus mercs. They are green, but they are mercs. Those still in the academy are cadets. You all are lucky Master Sergeant O’Sullivan agreed to take in the Kipling boys and Captain Tanner green-lighted them to be good enough to join you all. I did everything I could to keep those two kids out of this. They aren’t ready.”

“They passed their Basic Frame Pilot cert along with Laser and Standard Ballistic,” Lieutenant Rockland countered. “AIM says they are good.”

“What AIM says and what is real isn’t always the same: Sam passed his runs with a 68, 69, and 66 percent respectively and Peter got straight 67’s. While it is a passing grade, it is the lowest two scores you have for Basic Frame certs by a wide margin.”

Robin didn’t seem as concerned. “I put Peter under Cody and Sam under Jared. They’ll keep an eye on them and make sure they don’t get a hard assignment. They won’t let anything bad happen to them.”

“I hope you are right. Up till two…” Master Sergeant Ryder paused as he looked up at the wall, “Strike that, three days ago now, they were miner station boys. You are really tossing them into a meat grinder.”

“When Zane’s dad has a chance he will work with both of them,” Luna responded. “They’ll get better out of desperation with Master Sergeant O’Sullivan as their new dad.”

“He’s kind of scary, for sure.” Lieutenant Rockland chimed in with a smile. “But we are rehashing old junk at this point. We still need to find three more framers and we only have thirty-two more hours to turn in our roster or we have to reapply and spend another five grand with AIM!”

Luna looked over the roster and clenched her fist in frustration, “I could beat the crap out of Neil for leaving us. He doesn’t even know how bad he is screwing us, especially by taking Zane and Jasha with him. This sucks. I have no idea what we are supposed to do!”

Robin shoved his computer pad to the center of the table, “I guess we are going to have to go back to the major and see if we can get three more Q VII kids brought into the unit who are also willing to join…”

Caleb’s mom stood with a mask of pain etched on her face. This didn’t stop her from moving up behind both Luna and Robin, grabbing them by the back of their heads and pushing them down hard onto the table. “Knock off with the whining and don’t you dare go back to the major for help! You wanted a merc unit to run, so this baby is all yours now! Figure it out or so help me I’ll dent this damned table with your heads the next time, no matter how much it hurts me!”

Even as Master Sergeant Ryder and Senior Sergeant Nire turned to look at her with wide eyes, Senior Sergeant Jorgan’s hand lashed out and smacked Rockland’s right ear hard enough to get a yelp and make it instantly glow red, “And you! You jumped at the chance to be brought in to help run this unit and give it an adult so start acting like one, before I decide to treat you like the little kid you are acting like!

“The three of you are mercs! Worse, two of you are born and bred Grenadiers! Mercs don’t pout, whine and go running back to old commanders and there ain’t no way in hell a Grenadier is going to while I am supervising!”

She then glared at the two Brave Humanities sergeants, “You two best wise up and learn how to handle these kids! They don’t need babysitters! They are about to form a merc unit and you need to treat them as such or I’ll be going after the two of you next! This is pathetic!”

Even as she shook in pain, she grabbed Robin by the back of the neck, dug her fingers in, and yanked him to his feet. “Now, Captain, walk your little ass out this door, go to the merc board and recruit three more framers!” She shoved him hard toward the door. “And you best thank every star you can see I can’t kick you in the ass instead of just shove you! Now get moving!”

Senior Sergeant Jorgan then yanked up her arm and all but clotheslined Luna, “Where the hell do you think you are going, Lieutenant?”

“To help…”

“The hell you are! Robin is your CO; it’s his job to recruit! It is your job to get with your people, pull together your salvage and get three frames up and running so you have something to put whoever your CO finds into. You are the ops officer and so help me you need to start helping run this operation before I make you wish you were still in the small kids’ section on the Grey Stallion!”

Breathing hard and with a hiss of pain she sat back down and glared at Gavin Rockland, “Lieutenant, what the hell are you doing sitting here? You need to coordinate between your CO and your ops officer to make sure you have frames to fit who is being recruited!

“The three of you have until I see a glow on the horizon to have your last three framers or I am going to make you take the name Captain Tanner recommended for you!”

Robin’s eyes went wide from the door, “What name? We haven’t even talked about a name yet.”

“Then you have until the sky lights up to finalize your roster or I will make you take the name Rugrat Renegades!”

“Oh, HELL NO!” Robin shouted.

“We’ll never get a contract with it!” Gavin stated in absolute horror.

Luna turned pale, “I’ll… I’ll…”

Senior Sergeant Jorgan glanced at the wall, “You have about six and a half hours before you’ll be a Rugrat Renegade, is what you’ll be and by God, I’ll get with Warrant Officer Osop to draw the patch and you will wear it.”

Robin gulped knowing, while Osop wasn’t allowed to be around the kids, he was a fantastic artist with a filthy mind. He figured the patch would be every bit as degrading as the name. With his heart pounding in his chest, Robin turned, “Luna, get with Jared and get one of those Aggressors we took down up and the Riot I took down should be an easy fix. I will start with pilots who can fit into them. Gavin, as soon as you know what other frame or frames we can get up, let me know. I will recruit in those size ranges!”

Caleb’s mom watched the three kids sprint out of the room before turning her attention back to the Brave Humanities sergeants. “Men, you two need to stop this B.S. right now. You treat them like kids they will act like kids and we will be scraping them off the field of combat. You treat them like young men and women, they will act like them and we’ll be bringing the vast majority back in one piece. Most of these young men and women are like my own children, one of them is my child, and if you end up getting them killed by being too soft, I will pound you both into puddles!” Her eyes narrowed to mere slits as she sent them both deadly serious and threatening stares, “Are we clear?”

The two men exchanged glances before both turned and nodded.

Major O’Connell glanced over at Captain Tanner as Kipper Limited’s security chief moved up to shake their hands. The guy was in his early twenties, carried his side arm in a quick release holster worn loosely on his left hip, and didn’t even have the flack vest buttoned up. Those behind the security leader were equally unprofessional. Even worse, over half had belts so heavy with multiple sets of shock restraints, batons, stun pistols, extra ammo, riot grenades, and even crowd control spray bottles, there was no way they could be combat effective.

Captain Tanner accepted the man’s handshake even as he forced himself to cough so it would hide the snicker. As he decided to test the man’s grip, only to see the man wince, Capt Tanner found it hard to keep his face serious. Another glance at the lead security man of the company, he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt at least six of the Grenadier Double D’s could easily grab the pistol and shoot the guy in the chest without any risk of injury to themselves. It made taking the young man seriously all but impossible.

Fortunately Major O’Connell took over, “Station Security Chief Wortz, it is a pleasure to meet you. We thank you for your quick response and grabbing us so many available mercs off the AIM boards.”

“Wasn’t a big deal, Major. Believe me, it will be money well spent if it gets you ready to fully secure this facility. My men are more geared toward simple security and crowd dispersal than taking on any kind of serious attack. We will be pulling back to handle internal security once you are fully deployed.”

Chief Wortz tried to hide the apprehension in his voice, but failed as it came out at a slightly higher pitch, “Um, any idea when you can start to deploy and secure the outer perimeter?”

“We have people offloading from the Triton Freighter Brave Humanities loaned us while they are patching our ship. We also have others checking out the camp you all built for us. We should be organized enough by starset to have the fenced perimeter of the main complex fully secured by us and we will start moving the boundary out by midday tomorrow. We are going to need to know what buildings Kipper feels takes priority and the order of them before we can really finalize a defensive strategy, however.”

Captain Tanner jumped in, “We also were told there would be a school and children area for our younger ones. I didn’t see it on the VTOL ride over here.”

“School is forty kilometers to the north in the township of Whispering Wheat. It will take all your kids up to tenth grade. It is the only school in this province to take kids up to the senior levels of standard education, since most provincial schooling is only provided up to grade six for free in the New Brunswick system. We have arranged transports and we can either pay security or give you some extra to cover their transport security. At this time, we have not even heard of school transports getting hit and the route they will take is a common convoy route for planetary militia and there is almost always units bivouacking in camps along the roadside. It is one of the safest areas in this province. It is this very reason we would like you to really focus on the hills to the south and west.”

Seeing Captain Tanner frown, Major O’Connell gave Chief Wortz a frown, “I think you can provide basic escort as long as the road is really that secure. However, what my XO is more concerned about is billeting and recreation for our kids. We’d also like to know if you have a hangar our older ones can base out of as they play around with the idea of forming a semi-independent merc unit.”

“I heard you all were in talks with AIM to make some kind of attached kiddie unit, but helping them is not in the contract…”

“I know and I am not really asking for any help for them. Instead, think of it this way; if they can get an old building or two to base out of while we are here, they will provide security above and beyond the Grenadiers, and you won’t have to pay them. Actually, I would be quite happy if you would charge them for utilities.”

The man rubbed his chin in thought, “Well, Kipper’s first attempt at plasma mining was a bust, um, more of a meltdown. The rock melted but so did the platform supports of the plasma unit and the whole thing went up in smoke. It totally burned down the first plasma tower and did enough damage to the lab they abandoned the first site. The melting rock finally all cooled, and there is no hole but the heat radiated outward all the way to the tap well. So a new well would have to be drilled. It’s in the northeast corner of the property and hasn’t been touched since I was brought in by my father over nine months ago to take over security, so other than sending some of my guys out there once in a while to keep lowlifes out, it just sits there. It’s got a small airfield, but the far end is buckled from the plasma accident, so shuttle sized craft or VTOL craft are all you can land there. The rest of the site includes a VTOL hangar, a vehicle bay and one of the billeting units didn’t burn down, but is a constant hive for poor and homeless. There are solar power units, but I think Kipper took the battery storage units. We don’t even patrol it regularly.”

“So my kids could use it but they would have to pay for a new well and pump, plus batteries for the solar arrays?”

“I’m sure there would need to be some repairs to the buildings and getting rid of wildlife, but there is nothing too dangerous in these parts… well, nothing wild. The squatters might give them some attitude, though. We normally stun any who give us grief and drag them down to the main road. Your kids will need to set up some security to keep others out and from what I’ve seen and heard, the raiders will take notice and at the very least probe it.”

Major O’Connell chuckled. “Sounding better by the moment!”

“I agree,” Captain Tanner stated with a smirk. “It would be good for them to have to figure out base security and if they do get probed they will have a chance at salvage to pay us back.” He glanced back at Security Chief Wortz, “Any problem adding it into our contract then?”

Security Chief Wortz shrugged, “I don’t see why not. If you all agree to leave the well up and running when you leave it may be useful to Kipper in the future. I’ll verify with the board of directors, but I see no reason for them to say no. Even then, my dad still has veto power and I’ll throw in a good word for you all. I mean, if anything, it will mean my guys won’t have to worry about rousting homeless every few weeks while you are here.”

“And our younger kids?” Captain Tanner asked with some concern.

“We have some recreation equipment in two of the storage containers just outside your billeting area. You all will have to put it together. There is also an old rec center with an indoor pool we are loaning you. It sits on the road between the old camp and yours, so your older aspiring mercs could use it as well. The new one is slated to open in a few days, so I doubt we will even bother to maintain it once we feel we are safe from raiders. You may want to replace the water filters and will have to pay for upkeep of the pool and chemicals to keep it usable. It gets hot and we have some bugs that will give you fits if you don’t properly circulate, filter and treat the water.”

Major O’Connell put on a tight smile, “I gather there is a company we can hire for this?”

“Yeah, I’ll get you a list.”

“Sounds good. Now how about a briefing of what you all are concerned about?”

Security Chief Wortz gestured with his arm to a side hall, “Right this way.”

Major O’Connell entered a small conference room with a plastic model of the Kipper installation and surrounding area. The scale of the model was so small it had limited use, but it included a good amount of area around the main base including the location of the first plasma tower failure. One thing the major noticed right off was it had been hand painted and some of the buildings were still being worked on. Seeing the young security chief eye it with pride, he knew right off who had made it. “You the one who set up this and painted it?”

The young security officer smiled widely, “Sure am! My first love is art, so this is a hobby of mine. Still working on the buildings, though.”

“Pretty darned good,” Major O’Connell stated with more praise than was due since it had limited security worth. Still, it was a good model and the surrounding area was as accurate as the scale would allow. Also, as with all contracts maintaining a good report was extremely important.

Captain Tanner pointed to the southwest section of the model, “This canyon is or isn’t in your territory?”

“It is, and it’s where we just tangled with some raiders three days ago.”

“So you’ve been hit already?” Major O’Connell asked with a great deal of concern.

“Probed is more like it. When we found out you were going to be delayed we hired out the Rum Runners, a fourteen frame unit, to give us added security. They were hit hard somewhere just northeast of the canyon, but drove back the attack. They lost two framers and five other frames were damaged before they fell back to our inner perimeter. We moved up with armed wheeled patrol vehicles and exchanged a few shots with two Partisans and a pair of Resistance frames.

“They fell back, but the Rum Runner’s commander didn’t go after them, since he said they were trying to draw them back out. Instead he sent two of his heavy frames around to the side and took out all four from the side. I think it spooked them because we haven’t been touched since.”

“Any captives?”

“No, the Rum Runners didn’t exactly hold back. There was not much left of the four frames and even less of the pilots. They headed out and took out a couple more and got one of their frames back, but they couldn’t find the other. Their scout said he lost the trail going up the valley and decided to turn back.”

Major O’Connell studied the model for a few seconds, “Petty remote area from what we looked at. What else has been hit?”

“Almost two dozen smaller stations and mining operations,” Security Chief Wortz responded. “This whole rough bluff area is full of nickel, copper, and zinc, and even some silver, but so far no one has found the motherlode. Lots of folks are looking though, so there are scores of smaller companies with plots spanning from just southeast of us, all the way to Grape Run, over six hundred kilometers away on the far side of the bluffs to the west, up to Corn Creek, seven hundred kilometers to the north. The mining operations in this area also extends down to Sour Berry, nine hundred kilometers to the south, with all of us hoping to strike a main vein. Thus far nothing, but over the past five months we know of nine operations being wiped out and as of last report, fourteen others have been hit hard enough to close up operations. There are probably others, but were totally wiped out and haven’t been missed since their operations were so small.”

O’Connell and Tanner exchanged glances before Captain Tanner spoke up, “Where is the planetary militia on this?”

“This is a farm world. It makes its money on food, not metal. Mining is a much more popular raiding target, too, so New Brunswick doesn’t encourage its development. However, the government really doesn’t discourage it either. They just make it clear mine protection is not a priority. My father thinks there are some who are hoping to change the status quo, but until a lucrative enough mine comes on line on one of the main planets, there is not enough traction for this to happen. They make good money from a couple of the moons without providing a thing, so the attitude has been the same should apply on the main worlds as well. On the other hand, the planetary system offers great terms and as long as we do nothing to damage cropland or aquifers, they really don’t care what we do up here. In addition, taxes, permits, land leasing, and extra labor are all dirt cheap.

“The problem for us is we are experimental and we are just starting to mine enough the conventional way to keep investors happy. New Brunswick is also the perfect place for this experimental station. If we can get the plasma drill to work, we will liquefy large areas, use melting points to separate the metals and pour the molten rock back in, all but filling in the holes. Since there is so many different types of metals in decent quantities below us, it is the perfect test ground. Also, we can make some mistakes and no one really cares. This is not farmable land, and they set a buffer zone so contaminates will be cleaned by the environment before leaching into streams and rivers below us.”

Security Chief Wortz pointed to four small clusters of buildings on the outskirts of the model. “These other four installations on this model all chipped in to hire you with us footing the brunt of your fees. This is why we sent you the area we need you to defend instead just our facilities. It’s also why we hired a unit your size. We need this whole area defended if possible, but our three main sites must take priority. However, if you can’t save the other four, evacuation of their people and whatever equipment you can should be a priority. You can bring them to site one.” Security Chief Wortz pointed to a cluster of low buildings and one tall tower.

“If worse comes to worse, the drilling towers at site one and three are extremely valuable, but above anything is the research station here at site two. Kipper’s entire future rests on what is being developed in the four buildings right behind this one.”

Major O’Connell nodded in understanding, “So in a worse case scenario, mission success for us is to keep the buildings here up and running and preferably the large towers, correct?”

“Yes, but… well we would prefer the four smaller operations and all three of our sites stay running.”

“Oh, trust me, we are in total agreement. You hired the Grenadiers to protect your entire infrastructure and we will do everything in our power to do so, but knowing what to assign priorities to is key should we end up in some kind of large scale assault.”

Security Chief Wortz let out a humor-filled snort, “Like anyone would assault a farm world!”

Robin looked up at the merc board with a shake of his head. There were only forty-three framers listed as being for hire, by far the fewest he had ever seen on any merc board anywhere, including on New Bravaria once Earth Core had been driven back and every merc unit in the system had been all but begging for members to fill in holes. The lack of framers told Robin two things. First, Kipper Limited had pulled anyone and everyone off the boards only days prior and sent them to reinforce the battered and bloodied Grenadiers. Second, the lack of framers spoke volumes as to how few were in system to begin with. He ran down the basic stats on the names and cringed. The youngest was twenty-seven and the oldest was over sixty. He highly doubted any would be willing to jump in a kid controlled unit at an extremely low rank, and if they did, it would show a level of desperation Robin really didn’t want to deal with.

Making matters worse, he had no idea what he was going to do with adults while kids attended classes, since the one thing Major O’Connell had done was hire two of the former Q VII instructors to travel with them and keep them current during missions. While not on missions they would be attending the school with the other kids from the unit. The last thing Robin wanted was to have to go to some thirty-something private he was over and say, “Hey, I have to go to school now…” It just… nope, there was no way he was going to do it.

Robin looked at his comm unit and seriously thought about contacting Major O’Connell for advice, but just as quickly dismissed the idea. The last thing he wanted was for Kay’s mom to find out. He was certain, Robin being commander or not, the woman would beat him near bloody and far worse, she would force them to take the name Rugrat Renegades. He rubbed his hands down his face before pulling up the comm unit and changing over to his unit’s command frequency, “OK, who’s on?”

Glen’s voice came over first, “Go ahead Robin.”

“I’m on as well,” Dante answered. “I can get Jessie or Cody if you want. Both were still up as of about fifteen minutes ago.”

“No,” Robin sighed, “I need real mercs at the moment.”

“Oh, sounds fun!” Glen snickered. “What do you need done to who?”

This caused a slight smile to cross Robin’s tired features, “I only wish it was so simple Glen. What I need is far harder. I need three framers to fill out our roster or Kay’s mom is going to stick us with horrible unit name and I only got three hours left before star-rise before she makes it official.”

“I heard,” Dante snorted. “Kay and I came up with a few alternates to get under her skin for even suggesting Rugrat Renegades.”

“Oh, oh, oh!” Glen stated frantically, “No way in hell am I going to be part of a unit with THAT name!”

“Me neither!” Robin responded. “But I am out of options. As it is, the two Brave Humanities sergeants are ticked at Captain Tanner and Zane’s dad for letting us take the Kipling kids and the two framer tech kids they found aboard the SFC.”

Glen’s voice took on a tone showing his befuddlement, “Why? The Kipling kids both passed Basic Frame certs and the two from the SFC have Combat certs and their own frames!”

“Because the BH guys don’t think the Kipling’s did good enough and let’s face it, they only passed because Zane’s dad and Luna’s mom spent a couple hours with them and give them pointers they needed to scrape by and pass their runs. As for the two from the SFC, they got their Combat certs out of the Persia Prime Military Academy, and according to both the major and Brave Humanities it has an awful rep for cutting corners or something. But at least we have them. The problem is we are still three short and Senior Sergeant Jorgan made it super clear I couldn’t go to the major for help. She sent me to the hiring hall, but I’m at a dead end.”

“No mercs on the board?” Dante asked in clear surprise.

“Oh, there are… as a matter of fact I am looking at the files here at AIM hiring hall right now. There is not a single framer on this board I am willing to approach and even if I did, I’m certain I’d be laughed at! These guys and gals are like ancient! I think Kipper sent all the young ones to fill out the Grenadiers.”

There were a few seconds of silence before Dante spoke up, “What about the planetary militia?”

“What? You want me to contact them and try to steal some of their framers?”

“Not steal them, see if they have any washouts or troublemakers you could take off their hands. According to the system welcome vids, kids can request to sign up for basic militia training at age twelve with a parent signing off and a medical waver, at age thirteen with a parent signing off, and fourteen without one. Some probably get shunted into frame training since the vid says placement is by ability or something like that. The vid also says only the best make it into the military. The rest are reserve or some crap. Maybe you can find some they want to get rid of or at least a list of washouts.”

“And stick us with a bunch of losers?”

Glen spoke up, “If it fills out the roster and keeps Kay’s mom happy, who cares? We can get rid of them later.”

“Pretty much what I was thinking,” Dante snickered. “But who knows? Maybe there are a few hard-headed brats like us mixed in with the morons and riffraff.”

Glen couldn’t help but laugh, “Actually, I like Dante’s idea, Robin. Riffraff may be exactly what we are looking for. They will be better at handling merc life than some idiot farm kids. You could even hire a few extra so we could then put them through the ringer and wash out the worst.”

Robin rubbed his chin, “So are you two willing to take the lead on this and find us three good ones mixed in with what will probably be the biggest group genetic pool rejects this side of Earth Core?”

“Sounds kind of fun to me,” Dante snickered.

“If you’re asking me if I’m OK getting paid to screw with a bunch of militia reject urchins, I’m with Dante, I’m all in!”

Robin rolled his eyes as he responded with a humor-filled voice. “OK, but remember we are on a tight budget. Payroll needs to be kept down at the moment.”

“Oh, I bet between me and Dante we will have half of what you find running away in tears before the ink dries on the AIM documents making us a merc unit!” Glen teased.

Robin could help but laugh, “Just make sure to hang onto at least three, but also keep in mind hiring a few extra at recruit level isn’t a bad idea. It will give us back-ups to stick into slots if or when someone goes down. And Dante, looking at the local militia is a real good idea. We really had no idea what we were missing by not including you and Kay in the Double Digit meetings.”

“I’m just happy the A-Hole tossed all my stuff out of his room, said I should join this group, and told me he didn’t want me to come back when we fail. I don’t know who did what to him, or said what, but I am thrilled not to have to live with him ever again. Whatever you all did means I owe you all big time.”

“What was done should have been done a long time ago, Dante.” Glen responded with a hint of remorse in his voice. “We’re sorry we didn’t have someone send the message sooner. As for him saying we are going to fail, well, he can kiss my ass!”

“I hear you there. Not that we would have failed without him saying something, but hearing him say it only makes me want to help any way I can so I can give him the big middle finger when we kick ass and take names!”

“You are making a good start.” Robin praised the younger boy. “The problem is for me to recruit more than three I will need frames to stick them in. Right now we have the three we need to fill out our AIM roster. I know I have one Aggressor and two Riots Luna was able to get up with some help, but if I recruit more, I will need frames for them. So while I try to find someone in the militia, I need the two of you to get over to our salvage and get me up a few more frames so I have something to put extras into if this works. As you get them up and running, contact me. Also see if Val will let us borrow the Aggressor she took. We can put one of the stand-bys in it so it doesn’t see combat, but would give us a frame to stick someone in.”

“I can get both the frames I took down up in a couple of hours if I can buy a few parts,” Dante stated with certainty. “But you’ll have to give me the OK to dig into a few boxes we procured along the way so I can get the funds.”

“Do it, but keep track so we know how much the unit has to pay back to each of us.”

“They’re our frames.” Dante fired back. “If I fix them we can eventually sell them and split the cash for way more than I spend on parts.”

“It might be a while before we get enough salvage to get extra frames, Dante.”

“Who cares? We’ll treat them like Val’s Aggressor. Back-up frames not to be put into combat unless we have to. It will give you a couple of frames I know for certain will be up and running before mid-day.”

Glen jumped back in, “While Dante gets those two working, I’ll talk to Val and see if I can roust a couple of others. I bet we can pull enough out of the rest of the salvage to get a couple of others up and running.”

“Hey Robin,” Caleb entered the conversation with a yawn as he grabbed the comm from Dante, “I heard what you all were talking about. What about the Blades the major gave to us to fix up?”

“Damn,” Glen grunted, “I totally forgot about them. “The major gave them to us. They should be ours and would be perfect for a bunch of dropouts and flunkies to play with until we see what they got.”

“Great idea Kay!” Robin agreed. “Since you thought of it, check with him or Captain Tanner and make sure we can use them.”

“I’ll have Dante ask the captain. He’ll say yes to Dante.”

“If you think Dante is better than you, OK,” Robin replied. “But you have a bit of a rep and probably more pull than you are giving yourself credit for Kay.”

Dante spoke up again, “Yeah Caleb, ask him. If he balks, I’ll jump in. But I bet Robin is right. If you ask after the dogfight you were in and the kill ribbons you have, he’ll probably say yes to you.”

“Let me know as soon as you get a yes or no,” Robin demanded. “In the meantime I am going to see who I can find to talk to in the militia.”

Neil shook his head in disgust as Wiles came after Zane by pushing off the wall with his feet. He almost warned the older kid, but decided it was time for a lesson coupled with pain. He was not disappointed. Zane let the kid get close before he hooked his foot on a doorframe, pulled himself out of the way, then as Wiles got close, reached out, grabbed the kid’s right foot and pulled him downward hard.

With nothing to brace on and floating outside of the range of anything to grab onto, there was basically nothing he could do other than protect himself, and he was too startled to even do the basics of covering his face with his hands. Moments later a pained howl escaped Wiles’ throat as his entire face met the lip of the doorframe.

Had Zane not yanked back sooner, there would have been a great deal more damage other than a bloody nose, teeth punctured lips, and a cut chin. However, Zane did pull back, all but tossing the helpless kid back into the training room. Even as he did so he called out, “Cover the back of your head with your hands before your skull hits the back bulkhead!”

The warning fell on deaf ears, mostly because Wiles was too busy holding his hands up to his bloody face. A second later the boy’s head hit the metal wall and totally stunned him, while giving him a good-sized cut on the upper part of the back of his head. Wiles bounced off the wall with his head rolling around and his eyes unfocused.

Off to the side Sekrena held onto to a blood-soaked bandage over her right elbow, while Coryn kept a cold compress on a hyperextended knee with her left hand, since her right was bandaged. Across the room, Kylem nursed a badly scraped shoulder and upper arm, while holding up a cold pad to a badly blackened eye.

The three from Q VII were little better. All had facial bruises, and Lucya’s wrist was in a brace from being badly hyperextended when she stuck out her hand to try to stop herself from slamming into the ceiling when Neil put her into a spin.

All the kids cringed even as Jasha quickly made his way over to Wiles, steadied him, put a hand over the cut on the back of the boy’s head and looked back at Zane with a little bit of anger, “You all but knocked him out!”

“No, he knocked himself out,” Neil corrected Jasha.

Neil took a deep breath as Zane moved over to help Jasha bandage the teen and then waited until Wiles stopped seeing stars so he could at least listen even as he bawled. “What part of don’t put yourself into a spot where you give someone else complete control is so hard about this? We are three hours into this and Wiles put himself right in the middle of the room trying to play the ‘I can fly’ game I used to play when I was maybe five, if not younger. This isn’t a damned game. If this had been real combat Wiles would be dead!”

Seeing Wiles shrink back from the hard glare Neil was giving him, Zane sighed, “Let’s get him patched up and into a hammock. Everyone take four hours, then we will go over proper frame cleaning again before one of you cuts her hand again…” Zane shot Coryn a nasty glare.

Wiles reluctantly allowed Jasha to strip him down to his undershorts and put him into a hammock, even as Zane pinched the wound on the back of the head closed and used a fast coagulant out of a first aid tube. He slapped Wiles’ hands a pair of times hard. “Leave it alone. It will be fine by morning, but you’ll still have a hell of a headache for the next couple of days and may even have a light concussion. You go nowhere, even to the waste unit without help until one of the medics clears you. And the next time someone tells you to cover your head, do it.”

Zane then helped Jasha and Neil maneuver others into hammocks before following the other two out into the ship corridor, “Day three is tomorrow… Bone shots… After this I don’t even what to be on the same level as those seven when they get them!”

Jasha took a deep breath, “I will cry again. I did the first two I got…”

“Crying is not the problem, Jasha.” Neil patted his new friend on the shoulders and then steadied him as the boy was put into a slight zero-G spin. “We fully expect you to cry. But right now we have a squad of six with only three real members, and we are all standing right here.”

“Yeah, and Wiles is ten steps the wrong side of being useless to this whole unit,” Zane stated in disgust. “I am amazed he made it through the Iron Horn assault alive.”

“I am not much better in zero-G, Comrades.”

“You are ten time better than all the others combined and infinitely better than Wiles.” Neil stated. “Besides, you are with us and you will be getting all sorts of extra practice. You’ll be able to do all sorts of stuff and look good doing it before we ever hit atmosphere again. But Zane’s right. We will be lucky if Wiles is alive to see atmosphere again.

“If we have to go to any kind of alert I want you both to help me get all of the others into hammocks. It will be the safest place for them. In the meantime, I need you two to help me with something.”

“What?” both Zane and Jasha asked all but simultaneously.

“I need you two to find a way to talk to the guy in charge, the one paying the Q Sabers.”

“OK, but why don’t you?”

“Because I have seen him somewhere before and he knows he has seen me as well. I just can’t figure out from where. But don’t be too sneaky. There is a guy under Captain Lomo, a Lieutenant Horri. Zane, verify for me, but I bet Horri is his on par with your dad and Luna’s mom. Probably a multi-art black belt and extras.”

Zane raised an eyebrow, “You think he is really on par with my dad?”

“Yeah, so don’t screw with him no matter how tempted you are to let your normal self shine!”

Kyle is a bit different than most of our other Authors. He wants feedback on his stories, but what he really wants is a critique of the story and chapter. What did he do right but more importantly, what did he do wrong? You may email him at: LeeColo at Gmail dot Com

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