You know you should really tell Terra about the little cat in your bag. This is the first step into your new future and you’re making it with deception. Something stops you though. Maybe it’s fear of punishment. Maybe it’s some remaining desire for rebellion. Either way, you head toward the transport pad without another word to Terra, and your little secret remains in your pack, weighing you down imperceptibly.

Boris and Sarah are already inside the heli-chopter. It’s called that because it chops the air with its heliblades which are located at the North, East, West and South of the craft. You’re not all that keen on flying, but what kind of special, special operative is afraid of flying? You sling your bag into the hold with the others and climb in opposite Boris and Sarah. Terra is next and last to get in. She sits next to you, making you feel a bit safer as she buckles in.

The pilot is located behind your row of seats. Terra gives her the order to take off, and the chopter blades begin to rotate in short order. It’s a deafening sound on the ground, but as you rise into the air it becomes quieter.

You notice that Sarah is studiously avoiding looking at Terra. The energy in the transport is sort of strange, actually. None of you really know what’s happening.

It occurs to you that you’re a very odd bunch. You’ve known Boris for a long time. He’s not anything special. He’s not particularly stupid, or inept, but he’s not any kind of super soldier either. Sarah probably is, but she’s almost certainly a criminal of some kind. As for you, you have untapped potential, probably, but there were better cadets in almost all your classes. There’s something going on here. And you’re starting to think it might not be something good.

Sarah is checked out of what’s going on entirely. Boris is looking at her, and then at you. His eyes meet yours and you have something of a silent conversation, the sort of exchange only people who have known one another for a long time can have. He doesn’t seem entirely comfortable either as you rise over the academy and begin to head out over great expanses of green and gold plains, deep into wild mountain county.

If it was anyone besides Terra next to you, you’d be panicking about now. As it is, you’re just incredibly nervous.

“So, uh, ma’am, why did you pick the three of us?” Boris asks the question that’s been on your mind.

“We’re disposable.” It’s Sarah who answers him. “I’m a dead woman walking, and judging by your accents, you two are from remote colonies nobody has ever heard of. Whatever we’re doing, we stand a good chance of not surviving it.”

You look at Terra. Sarah’s answer makes a disturbing amount of sense.

“This is a training unit,” she says.

“A training unit of disposable soldiers,” Sarah repeats.

Terra’s silence concerns you.

“Is she right?” You find your voice. “Are we here because we’re… disposable?”

“Everybody is disposable one way or another,” Terra answers, far too vaguely for your liking. “But,” she adds, her eyes like blue lasers on Sarah. “I intend to make sure you all survive the training.”

“The training,” Sarah points out, relentlessly. “Then we find out what suicide mission we’ve been sent on. I’ve done this before. I wasn’t meant to survive what I saw. I bet this time command figures out a way to ensure I don’t.”

“Your unit was lost,” Terra says. “True. That was a tragedy. But it was not meant to be a suicide mission, and what you did afterward was unacceptable.”

“What did you do afterward?” You ask the question of Sarah.

“Enough!” Terra snaps. “There will be no more discussion until we land.”

“Don’t want the sacrificial lambs getting out of the pen before their time is due,” Sarah smirks. She clearly doesn’t give a damn what Terra says. You and Boris exchange another set of silent, concerned looks.

 Loading ...