Standish

by Donald B McFarlane

  Standish nodded. “Good. Not too loud.” She replied.

  Tyree tapped the side of the helmet again. “Just make sure that you confirm all the hearing settings are correct before your first outing with the kit. You need to make sure that the system is set properly for all factors.”

  “Understood.” Standish replied. She was well aware that the helmet had various settings that ensured she would be able to detect whispers, and other very low-level noises on operations, while at the same time ensuring that any weapons fire or explosions didn’t injure her ears.

  Eventually, a light blue transparent screen popped up half an inch in front of her nose, and just in front of the transparent glass facing of the helmet. This was the set-up for all the HUD systems, and this was the process that Standish disliked the most. It would take some time.

  A mechanical voice came over the helmet’s intercom, “Lower blast shield.” It instructed.

  Standish brought up her gloved right hand and pulled the blast shield down. Once the shield was down and locked in place, the voice returned, and as slowly and painfully as the process was, and took her through the optical alignment set-up. It was times like this that she wished neural up-links were still legal.

  Almost an hour later, Standish pulled off the helmet to find herself alone, and staring at a small floating drone.

  “Where did the quartermaster and Cryne go?” She asked, but the drone made no movements or sounds.

  Turning around, Standish checked the little reception, but it was empty. Shaking her head, Standish picked the helmet back up, slipped it back on, and flipped up the blast shield. She then took the pistol and attached it to her right hip, and then picked up the rifle, and without bothering for anyone to return, walked out of the office, and towards the closest stairwell.

  Inside the stairwell, Standish looked down towards the lower levels of the base, then upwards. She knew which stairwell she was in and on what level thanks to the identifying markings on the walls, but that didn’t help her with getting to where she needed to be, which was the team rooms where she was to have the armour and her weapons stored. The other issue was that while she was fit, the armour was unpowered, and it wasn’t light.

  She chose up. Standish was confident that the lower levels of the base contained all the storage units, plus the indoor weapons ranges. The hangars were on higher levels, and she knew that the team rooms were near those. Starting up the stairs, Standish knew that she would need to find her destination before she was exhausted.

  At each level, Standish went to the hatch, opened it, and gave each adjacent space a look and a ponder. Of the five levels she had checked so far, none of them looked like they offered what she was looking for.

  Finally, after climbing several levels, she encountered a startled mechanic in the stairwell and asked for directions. She was informed that she was in the wrong staircase to start with and that she needed to find stairway Bravo. That would lead her up two more levels to the D-O team rooms.

  Thanking the young mechanic, Standish walked down the few steps to the last hatch she has passed, pushed it open, and stepped onto a nearly featureless hallway that had a series of doors leading off it. Leaving the stairwell, Standish looked up and down the hall, her gaze stopping on the door in front of her. It didn’t have any markings, and without much more to go off, she walked up to it and pushed it open.

  The moment the door was opened, steam billowed out, and Standish stepped inside. With her helmet now out of the power that Tyree had supplied it with earlier, she had to rely on her own eyes to figure out where she was, and after the first naked figure walked past her armoured figure, Standish realised that she was in either a washroom or a steam room. Either way, it was not the place to be in a suit of armour.

  Not knowing the room or the level, or the base she was in very well, Standish started walking away from the door she had just passed through which must have been either an emergency passageway or a service passageway that connected the stairwell.

  It was impossible for her to blend in with the scantily covered figures walking around the room, and she hadn’t made it two metres before an angry-looking female stepped in front of her, dressed only in a small towel. She firmly placed her hand on the chest of the armour.

  “Are you lost?” The female shook her head. “You people are always up to no good.”

  Before Standish could reply with either an apology or an excuse, the female had grabbed Standish by her wrist and was tugging her through the room. After ten metres she spotted a transparent door, which the female brought her to.

  “Get out!” The female pointed at the door with an extended arm.

  Standish didn’t need to be told twice. She quickly pushed the door open and exited onto a well-lit corridor that had pink accents to it. Looking to her left, she saw a stand with a droid behind it. Perhaps that machine could offer her some help. Moving towards the droid, Standish was starting to notice how heavy her armour was.

  “I’m lost.” She said to the droid.

  The machine looked at her blankly. “This is the senior officer’s recreation facility. Fitness and wellbeing are the primary concerns of this facility.”

  Standish shook her head. “Which way to stairwell Bravo?”

  “I am not familiar with that.” The machine responded.

  Standish took a step back and pondered her next move. It was evident that she had no idea of where she was going, or where she was in the mammoth compound that someone had decided to carve into a mountain and fill with the base however many years ago.

  Looking to her right, she spotted two large droids walking towards her, and when they got within a few metres, she knew she was in trouble.

  “Dynamic Operator Grade One Val Standish. You are not authorised to be on this level, and the wearing of armour and carrying of weapons other than your fighting knife inside this base is not permitted without approval from senior base personnel.” One of the droids said.

  Damn. That was all Standish could think.

  Fifteen minutes later, she was standing inside the head of base security’s office, her armour and weapons had been taken from her and sent on to the team room. That left her dressed only in her undergarments, which didn’t leave anything to the imagination of anyone looking at her.

  “When did you arrive on post?”

  Standish knew that the head of security already knew the answer to this question, he just wanted to hear the response from Standish.

  “Two days ago.”

  He nodded from behind his large desk. “And you’re already standing in my office.” He looked a data-pad in his hand, then back up to Standish. “But you’re not the first new D-O personnel to end up in my office upon their arrival. It’s always the rookies that get caught.” He shook his head. “Never the veterans.” He put the data-pad down and waved his arm towards the door. “Follow that drone to your team room.”

  Standish looked out of the door and spotted a small green coloured wheeled drone on the ground with a single sensor suite which was pointed at Standish. Turning, Standish walked out of the room and started to follow the small drone as it began rolling away.

  It took about two minutes to reach the lift, and along the way, Standish and her near-naked figure were met with a few stares from the administrative personnel that were in that section of the base. She even got a small data stick handed to her by a short blonde female as she walked by. Standish was flattered, but she wasn’t in the mood for a romantic liaison anytime soon.

  When Standish and the drone exited the lift, she was met by a hallway ten metres wide, and about one hundred long with large openings every ten metres. The floor and the walls of the chamber were grey concrete that hadn’t been painted, but each room she walked past had their team designation painted next to the entrance. Inside Standish could see various operators going about random tasks.

  The hallway was busy. Operators in various states of attire were moving up and down the chamber. Some in fitness gear,
others in full armour which had already been coloured into different patterns and schemes. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to the colour schemes that some teams were using, and some of them were quite wild and unorthodox, and evidently without any tactical value.

  When the drone finally stopped, Standish looked at the image on the wall next to the hatch. There was a large B, with the numeral 1 on either side of it. Looking into the room, Standish could hear two people talking, and without any further hesitation, she strode in to find Jun and Cryne sat at a table talking.

  “Thanks for leaving me down there.” Standish said, hands on her hips.

  Jun and Cryne both stopped talking and stared at Standish for a moment before Cryne broke the silence.

  “I told you it was a pretty good trick.” There was a mischievous grin on his face.

  “Very.” Jun nodded, then pointed to a locker along the back wall of the space with Standish’s name on it. “Your clothing, armour, weapons; everything is in there.”

  Standish looked at the locker. It was almost two metres wide and navy in colour with a distinctive floral pattern on the front. Walking up to the cabinet, Standish tried to open it, but it didn’t open.

  “Give it a second. It is bio-coded for you. They always take time when you first access it.” Jun said.

  Standish let go of the handle and waited until a green light became visible, then pulled the large front all the way open revealing a rather deep locker that had all the components of her armour on the left side, then her weapons, and finally several shelves on the right side, with all her clothing neatly folded on them. Getting dressed, Standish looked over to Jun and Cryne.

  “Where are the power cells for the armour?”

  “Kept with the energy cells and rounds for all the weapons on the base, in a secured weapons locker.” Cryne replied.

  “Why?” She asked.

  Jun adjusted his position in his chair and rocked his head from side to side. “Base commander doesn’t want anyone going crazy and getting access to a powered suit.” He looked over at Cryne and smiled. “A single figure in a power suit would need a combat droid to stop them if they went on a rampage.”

  Standish nodded and closed the locker. She looked up at her name which had been stencilled above the locker in both Universal and Nadolo text.

  “Did they spell that right?” Cryne asked. “Stupid protocol droid that did it wasn’t sure.”

  Standish ran her hand over the lettering with a smile on her face. “Yes. Perfectly.”

  “Come join us.” Jun instructed, waving her over.

  There was a spare seat at the table, which Standish took.

  “Sorry about being a little stiff earlier.” Jun said. “A lot of people come into D-O thinking we’re a bunch of jokers, rogues and bad elements. Leaving you alone in the quartermaster’s area was just a little joke.” He added.

  “I’m sure the head of base security is getting sick of it by now.” Cryne added.

  Standish smiled. “Thank you.”

  Jun dropped his hand onto the table. “But let’s talk about something real.” He looked over to Cryne, then to Standish. “You’re going to have time tomorrow to zero your weapons on the firing range, then you’ll be put through a full function test of your armour. Make sure it’s not biting somewhere.” Jun looked at Cryne.

  “Like the boss said, we need to get you and your kit ready tomorrow, because for the next several days we are going to be going over some basic ground combat standard operating procedures for the team before we have to qualify to become mission ready.” Cryne said dryly. “Our operational rotation is coming up, along with a third of the teams assigned to this installation, and we can probably expect to be deployed to a forward location not long after that.”

  “Forward location?” Standish asked.

  Cryne nodded and leaned forward. “Teams are often deployed aboard ships, or to forward out-posts to respond faster where needed.”

  “Teams are also seconded to fleet intelligence for missions.” Jun added. “Then again, we could stay here on Killious for our entire rotation. We never know.”

  Standish nodded.

  “When we start doing our pre-deployment training, you’ll get a better handle on things. We don’t do anything radically different from what you learned on Guhr 8-Nine, but as the Beta One-One team, we are expected to do it better than other Beta teams.” Jun added.

  “I understand.”

  “Here.” Cryne handed Standish a small data-pad. “Map of the entire base. Use it until you get the lay of the land.”

  Standish took the device and gave it a quick look. “Thank you.” She said.

  “The hangar officer who received you normally gives freshly arrived personnel one.” Cryne smiled. “Part of our little gag.”

  Standish smiled. “It's not actually the first time I’ve been here.” She replied.

  Jun looked at Cryne, then back to Standish. “Your file didn’t mention that you were stationed here.”

  Standish shook her head. “I wasn’t. I was on a ship that crashed here.”

  “No better planet to crash on.” Cryne said. “The only problem is freezing to death if you manage to survive the crash.”

  “What was the ship?” Jun asked.

  “The Laakari. It was a medical ship.”

  Jun nodded his head slowly, then looked over at Cryne. “That disaster at Qera.” He said solemnly.

  Cryne looked at Standish. “You were lucky to survive that clusterfuck.” He said. “What a waste.”

  Jun nodded. “I’m sure it’s not the last time someone plans something stupid like that again.”

  “Yeah.” Cryne said, his eyes locked on Standish. “I was on Rakkaus at the time. Those first days of the war were mad.”

  The next few days went like they were scripted. Standish was given as much time as she required to familiarise herself with her armour, and more importantly, the rear-facing camera on her helmet. She was even taken into orbit to work in a zero-gravity environment, and to get a better idea of how the mini-thrusters on the suit would function in space. It was all very relaxed, just like it had been at D-O school. Once she was happy with the armour, she went through the qualifications tests and passed without any trouble. It probably helped that every job she had had since joining the fleet involved wearing armour of some sort. It was almost a second skin for her.

  Weapons qualifications also went by without incident. Standish qualified on her issued weapons, along with a host of other systems that were in the D-O arsenal, and several different weapon types that she could expect to encounter in the service.

  There were daily fitness programs that she attended with the rest of her team, and in those first two weeks, she was finally getting a better understanding of how the base was laid out, and she was also starting to understand how the different teams worked, and how the relations were with other members of the fleet. There might have been twenty-five teams on Killious, which represented four percent of the entire base staff, and that didn’t include the large numbers of ships and other assets scattered around the fleet's area of operations.

  Hours were spent conducting combat drills with the team in preparation for their upcoming operational status. The massive indoor combat training area on one of the lowest levels of the base was the location of countless hours of training. Everything from practising patrolling to hostage rescue. Training even took them outside the massive compound into the snowy wastelands of Killious, and also back into space. It was all leading to the one thing that Standish had wanted since the day the recruiters had come to Nadolo Prime, to be on an operational Dynamic Operations team. After all the years of waiting, the reality was starting to set in, and it was something that was a rude awakening for her during the final rotation through the base’s medical facility as part of the pre-deployment training. The broken and twisted bodies that were brought in from all over the sector were the harsh reminders that this was war, and she was about to be at the tip of t
he spear.

  48

  The Present

  Fury System

  The interior of the freighter smelled as bad as the crew. The place probably hadn’t been cleaned or had a proper maintenance scrub since it had fallen into the hands of the current owners.

  “You pay us tax.”

  Standish couldn’t tell which was the one in charge, but the duo were both armed and wearing basic body armour.

  “You’ll let me go if I pay you?”

  They nodded at the same time.

  “And what happens after that?” She looked at them with a sense of disgust. “What happens the next time one of your ships stops me?”

  “You pay them tax too.”

  Standish smiled. Pirate scum. “You take credits?”

  “Whose credits?”

  “Alliance.”

  They shook their heads. “We look at your ship. We find something. That is the tax.”

  She put her hands up. No need for violence. Yet.

  49

  The Past

  Killious

  “Where?” Jun asked, looking down at the datapad in his hand.

  The entire Beta One-One team had been at the head of a long line of units all being activated at the same time, formed up outside the commander of Dynamic Operations for 5th Fleets office. When they had finally gone inside for their assignment, there was a feeling of excitement in the air, but it was clear to everyone on the team that their task might not be as glorious as they would all hope.

  “AB 79.” Everall repeated.

  Jun continued to look at the datapad, while the rest of the team were in a neat row behind him, all stood straight and silent. Jun lowered the pad and shook his head. “Never heard of it.”

  Everall nodded. “It’s an unpopulated system, in the Core.”

  That got everyone’s attention. Anything to do with the Core was a high priority and would bring with it glory and honour.