Chapter 4

Border of the PX2458 uncharted star system, Year 456 of the Unified Alliance.

I sighed in my command chair; I hate long hauls like this one. Patting the breast pocket of my uniform, I sought my comm-link tablet which was vibrating. Looking at the caller ID, I sighed more heavily. Dio Quatro, one of the super soldiers charged with training the other super soldiers of the mercenary company.

“It’s me, Dio.” He had the bad habit of speaking self importantly.

“I know it’s you,” I said.

“Commander, I’m calling about Corporal Ell Evan. She did it again!”

Sighing once more, I asked “Did she beat the simulations again and you’re unable to accept it?”

Ell Evan was the perfect soldier. On paper. The operative, space combat and survival simulations were a piece of cake to her. Unfortunately, she was unable to perform in the field, because she was a lazy young woman. She was often punished for her eccentricity by pulling double guard duty, cleaning or other chores no one want to do.

“Commander! It’s not about that, she’s fighting with Corporal Anderson! She listens to you, please do something!”

“Of course, I will do what I can,” I responded amiably.

I cut the call and brought to mind the operation in this system that we had just received from the main HQ. Two big clients had paid for the capture or elimination of a target that had been raiding and destroying their assets for two decades. They wished for it to stop, to give them a chance to rebuild.

But my gut was telling me that something was fishy.

Getting out of the leather command chair on the bridge of the ship, I entered the elevator which led to the service corridor of the ship. She was an old design, dating back to the war of the first contact with the Saryan race, Which had been just a misunderstanding. A misunderstanding that cost millions of live before the Alliance intervened. The ship was one of the first destroyer scouts of the Earth Federation, retrofitted to be able to pound medium sized vessels into oblivion and also act as a drop ship for troops. It married elegant curves and squares in its elongated form, and had additional modules for operations and deep space maneuvers. The weapons system was upgraded to what the federation currently used on its ship, laser beam banks, rail guns and sub-light missile launchers. I envied those who could order weapon packs from VICE Industries, their ships were another beast entirely; they had technology the earth federation tried relentlessly steals from them ... but that was wishful thinking. The technology was locked and would self-destruct if you tried to even look at the code of its programming.

Arriving into the simulation bay, the sliding doors opened for me and I was immediately struck by the number of people surrounding one of the simulators. It was one of those blocky grey ones mimicking the cockpit of a heavy fighter, with an AI which would take you through simulated space and guide you through different scenarios. Remembering the pattern of an earlier incident which happened not so long ago, I advanced toward the little gathering. One of the super soldiers saw me arriving and saluted me on the spot, the rest of them were too focused on the fight between a female and male soldier. The female soldier was a curvy young woman of medium height. Her face was distinctive due to her Asian features and dark blond hair crowning her head. She was the obvious result of a genetic engineering program given the preternatural speed with which she avoided kicks and punch. Corporal Ell Evan, super soldier B-58 of Asian strand sold to ARES mercenary when she was 8 years old. A genius compared to other super soldiers sold in the same batch as hers, but a lack of stimulation and hard missions had caused her to become rather “lazy.”

Ell deftly avoided a punch from the buff young man, catching his arm as it swung wide, and finally landed a powerful blow to his chin with enough force to lift the man off his feet. We all saw him hit the deck of the simulation room like a bag of potatoes.

“Can’t beat me in simulation, or in the real world. I’m better than you, dickhead,” she declared triumphant.

“Attention!” I yelled with my command voice.

All the soldiers turned toward me, snapping rigidly to attention. Most of them wore a sloppy version of my own dark uniform or were just in undershirts, pants, belts and boots with their sidearms. Some wore accessories, quantum jewels, bracelets or their dog tags. Their ID tattoos were showing on their neck due to their nervousness. The super soldier tattoos are made with invisible ink that only showed if said soldiers had elevated body temperatures or under a certain light-spectrum.