Zero Drift
Copyright© 2026 by Charlie Foxtrot
Chapter 5
Camden’s recycle was a paperwork item. Its impact on her was the second surprise of the morning. The third was finding her name on the roster of the squad she had killed the day before.
Everything’s a test.
Camden failing was a genuine surprise. She thought she had done enough to help keep his head in the game. She’d grown to like the fidgety young man. She hoped he would excel in a regular squad. She compartmentalized her feelings. She could examine them later.
Sierra Squad was not happy to see her go, but everyone knew her rotation with them was up. Veraine wished her well. Sera gave her a hug and a whispered, “Maybe we’ll get assigned together after graduation.” Nara thought she’d like that.
She was to report to Staff Sergeant Muir. He was responsible for a full four-fireteam squad, twenty-four riflemen was approaching platoon size. Platoons were what graduated from basic.
“Recruit Tholren, reporting as ordered, Staff Sergeant,” she said after knocking on the door of the head of the new squad. She had spent a single night in her old bunk with Sierra Squad. She’d been warned not to unpack.
The dark-skinned man wearing starched coveralls with chevron tabs on his shoulders looked up from his desk. He had shocking blue eyes and significant gray-white highlights in his close-cropped hair. No shaved head tradition in this unit. He looked her up and down. The look was the kind senior NCOs perfected over years, assessment delivered as appraisal, with no doubt left that she was being weighed.
“Ah, our infamous sniper from Sierra Squad. You didn’t make any friends here the other day down on Varex, recruit.”
“I did my job, Staff Sergeant, to the same level of quality you can expect me to operate at here.”
“I’ll hold you to that, recruit.”
He tapped his handheld. “You’ll be on Fireteam Oboe. You’ll know Monitor Cutter. He finished with the special assessment folks and was assigned to us last rotation as we consolidate squads. Go find him for bunk assignment. Dismissed.”
She found Whiskey Squad, Fireteam Oboe’s berthing area by the expedient method of reading the neat labels stenciled above the doorways opening onto the training floor. Based on the harried look of two other recruits, she was not the only newcomer in the squad.
“Monitor Cutter, Recruit Tholren reporting as ordered.”
Cutter looked her over, noticing something, but she wasn’t certain what. “Good to see you again, Nara. Take bunk thirteen.” His head jerked in the direction of the room. “You’ll be with Ressa Kallin, Darin Vosk, and Zarev Marr. We’ll muster and review assignments at 1000, so you’ve got until then to get settled.”
Nara nodded and cleared out. Her locker was numbered, so she immediately began stowing her gear.
“Look,” a mocking woman’s voice said from bunk eleven. “It’s our new teammate who likes shooting people in the back.”
Two others stuck their heads out to see her. One was a teenager, still sporting pimples and a shaved head like hers. No dark stubble and light, almost white eyebrows. His brown eyes, at least, were friendly. The other was dark-skinned, with smooth skin, white teeth and thick lips. His smile was infectious.
“Don’t let Ressa raz you,” the dark-skinned man said. “I’m Vosk, Darin.”
“Nara,” she replied automatically.
“I’m Zarev,” the pimple-faced kid said. “Looks like we’re the misfits sent to flesh out this fireteam.”
Ressa dropped from her top bunk to join the conversation. “Not all misfits. Some of us were doing just fine until smarty-pants here shot us in the back and got the rear-guard fireteam split up.”
Nara shrugged. “It was my job to make sure you didn’t ambush my former fireteam. It wasn’t personal.”
The blonde-haired woman was taller than Nara. She leaned in, looking down at Nara with her dark eyes. She stared, as if waiting for Nara to blink.
“Such a petulant child.”
It would be her mother’s assessment of Ressa. Nara had heard the same comment frequently growing up.
Ressa blinked. “Okay, Nara, I guess it’s better you covering us than you shooting us.” She extended her hand.
Nara shook it. “How’s Cutter?” she asked to change the topic.
“Don’t know yet,” Darin said. “This fireteam is new. Ressa and Zarev were in the squad last rotation. This set is shaken up and expanded.”
“Cutter seems alright,” Ressa added. “I heard he was on some special training before rotating in with us.”
Nara kept her mouth shut.
“Yeah,” Zarev added. “I heard he was on a fireteam that triggered a Flux Rift, lucky bastards.”
“Lucky?” Nara had never considered a rift to be lucky.
“Sure. Survive a rift, get some points and maybe a designation,” Zarev said. “I knew some kids in school that went into a rift, survived, and got attribute bumps as well as points to allocate. It’s a fast track to designation.”
“If you survive,” Ressa replied. “Scuttlebutt is they didn’t all make it out.”
Nara wondered if Camden had been with him, then closed that compartment in her mind.
“MEC brass aren’t going to talk about that. Probably write it up as a training accident.”
All three nodded, as if they had knowledge rather than speculation. Nara filed it. One data point, not a trend or actionable yet.
“We’ve got until 1000 to get settled. I’d better get my kit put away.”
The others watched, then went to their own lockers and sorted their gear. Nara knew Cutter. A locker inspection was not out of the question.
At 1000, he called Fireteam Oboe to the training room. Two other fireteams were in the far corners. One of them was Arv’s.
“Gather around,” Cutter said as they approached.
“Take a knee, if you want.”
Cutter had not raised his voice since the muster began. The recruits adjusted their posture without his calling them on it. His movements were economical, not flashy, the kind of professional baseline she had read in Veraine without ever being told what to call it. For Cutter, Nara filed it as approachable.
“You all know we’re a new fireteam in the squad, along with Fireteam George. In the field, a platoon is typically five fireteams, so thirty personnel with a small staff all under a lieutenant. We don’t get quite that large in training. With only a few rotations left, you all need to get a feel for larger teams coordinating. That’s what we’re here for. Questions?”
He looked at each recruit in turn. No one asked anything.
“Good. Our fireteam has special tasking. As you know, Tholren is a sniper. She’ll need a spotter and back-watch. That’s you, Kallin.” He passed, looking at Ressa until she acknowledged with a nod. “Good. Vosk and Marr, you’ll be heavy riflemen. You’ll act as an assault element for the team. We’ll have one other person attached on most missions, either a medic or a hammer.”
Nara raised her hand. Cutter nodded to her. “What’s a hammer?”
Ressa snorted.
“A hammer is someone specializing in entry tactics. They may use a breaching charge or just brute force an entry. In the field, it’s usually a high-Frame individual who had advantages a normal rifleman won’t have.”
He looked at them all once more.
“We’ll spend the rest of the day working through ship or station-borne assault formations. Nara, there aren’t many sniper opportunities on a station or ship, so you and Ressa will be a second assault element. Any questions?”
“No, Monitor,” they said in unison.
“Then let’s get to work. We’ve got three days up here to become a unit, then three more down on Varex. After that, you’ll learn how to integrate into a larger force.”
They were a unit. This time, by someone else’s measure too. Six days of hard training together proved that to them as well as Staff Sergeant Muir. They had beaten other fireteams through a combination of rapid station assault led by Vosk and Marr and overwatch by Nara with Ressa at her back. Cutter praised with a nod and chastised with a frown, but was all nods by the fifth day of training.
Six days total, then a day of rest. Varex wasn’t much of an R&R location, but down-time was still welcome. Their camp was near the shore, so the fireteam spent some time together swimming in the cold, blue waters of the moon before field stripping their weapons and preparing their gear for the coming exercises. The next evolution would be at an operational site. Training was progressing to live field experience.
“Fireteam Oboe, fall in!” The command was unexpected, but they hurried to comply, forming two ranks of two outside Monitor Cutter’s tent. A trooper, not a recruit, was standing with Cutter, his single chevron was barely noticeable, but the electronic pack on his back was obvious. He also had a strange-shaped tab on his left shoulder. It was two intersecting eight-pointed stars with a circle superimposed on the intersection. She had not seen anything similar during training.
“This is Trooper Dray. He is assigned to us for our upcoming exercise. He’s a Technician, and will provide augmented field sensor intel for the op. He outranks you all, but is not in your chain of command. Act accordingly. He’ll be in our spare tent. Dismissed.”
The trooper nodded, then walked to the fireteam. “Call me Maseko, or Mase.”
Nara liked him right away. He was focused and carried himself with an ease that screamed competence to her. She felt he would be a good addition to the team. They all introduced themselves and helped him get settled.
The next visitor was Arv, but he was here to see Cutter, not check up on her. Nara watched him from in front of her tent. The shoulder badge she had noticed on the first day was now obvious. Two chevrons with a circular pip below them, the badge of a Monitor. Seeing him, she wondered how a ranked member of MEC ended up on Vassal-7 as a survey guard.
Arv glanced her way when he finished, nodded, and then walked away. She thought about following him, but resisted the urge. She’d learn what she needed to know as soon as Monitor Cutter decided she did have a need to know.
Morning formation was that time.
“Fallout, then gather around,” Cutter said after the morning administrative announcements were completed.
“We’re joining Fireteam George today. We’ll get a mission brief on site. We head to the shuttle field in thirty minutes, so get your gear and saddle up.”
Nara was the first ready to go, which seemed to surprise Mase. “You must keep your kit packed and ready,” he said as he joined her at their normal assembly point.
“I pack fast. Besides, keeping everything in position all the time makes me ready on short notice. Cutter can be exacting about that during locker inspections.”
“I don’t miss those surprises. The nicest thing about graduation is there’s seldom a surprise inspection. We put them on the notice board and weekly training plan. Other days, do as you please with your gear.”
Nara considered that. Having a place for everything, and keeping everything in its place made logical operational sense to her. On survey work, where things went had mattered as much as which things you brought. She kept that habit.
Everyone was ready before the departure time. Cutter jogged them down the road to the shuttle field, where Arv’s Fireteam George was assembled.
Cutter stood next to Arv, who surveyed the two fireteams. He addressed the group without preamble, clearly in charge of both teams.
“Attention to orders. Fireteams George and Oboe of Whiskey Squad will provide perimeter patrol and overwatch for Meridian Mining survey team on Varex as they survey and extract core samples at Point Elroy on the Varex Island designated Hotel-Echo-Zero-Three. They will work in conjunction with the remainder of Whiskey Squad to establish a perimeter of no less than three klicks around the survey operation. Opposition forces may be patrolling on the island and there have been reported signs of non-Meridian activity.”
Nara thought back to her own survey experience. This was a mineral survey most likely, active drilling, not just passive observation.
“Concept of operations,” Arv continued. “Establish an observation post on Hill 267 in the op area. Patrol two klicks out of OP and four klicks north between the two shorelines. Maintain overwatch and patrol activities until relieved or recalled.”