Chapter 2

"Marquez you're falling behind. Get back in formation!" Inaja said over the helmet communication net.

It took Marquez less than a moment to bring up his position on helmet display as he hopped down from one hill to another with his jump jets. The mech suit he was wearing encased his body in heavy armor made to make him a walk or in this case "jumping" tank.

As the information was fed to him Marquez was able to readjust his heading in midair, firing a second burst to put himself back in position and a third more continued burst to catch back up. Landing on the slope of a hill he found the rest of his training squad waiting for him.

"It's about time Marquez. Because of you we almost missed our rendezvous. Now we will have to head out on the hop just to keep up with the other squads. Do you need to go through a refresher course on your suit or can you actually manage to keep up this time?" Inaja an old war veteran said.

Ikanu were notoriously hard to distinguish when it came to judging their exact age. None had had any wrinkles, and gray hairs were unheard of among them. The only way you could tell was by their mannerism and how they treated others.

In Inaja's case Marquez and his squad mates, some male some female were like a group of young pups that needed looking after. While no other instructor was allowed to discipline his men Inaja had no problem bringing the rod down.

As taskmasters went he was hard but fair. Marquez knew he had screwed up, and did not argue because Inaja the Ikanu Equivalent of a Master Sergeant was right. Marquez's squad he had taken personal command of: seeing it as one of his problem squads.

Marquez had figured out long ago that his mind could process both human basic and Ikanu without being able to tell the difference. In fact the only time he ever did was when a word didn't translate directly, and even then he was at least given a basic image of what someone meant.

The Ikanu had been quite thorough in their training of his mind even before he woke up. The entirety of their language had been downloaded into though they had trouble putting anything else in.

"I'm sorry sir it won't happen again." Marquez replied.

"See that it doesn't Marquez. Now let's move on the double people. We have wasted enough time here. I want to meet up with squad three before the night exercises begin." Inaja said and with that no more was said.

Focusing on the task at hand and taking things step by step as his training had taught him Marquez managed to keep his word. By nightfall they joined up with Jenega's squad: she was a female vet who had served with Inaja.

Her squad had been waiting patiently for them to arrive and she greeted her old comrade at arms with her usual cold nod. While Inaja could be fiery and intense when he got mad Jenega was the exact opposite.