Imperial Hilt (Imperial War Saga Book 2)

by Celinda Labrousse

  “Yes, Drill Sergeant!”

  “Line up!” The platoon broke off into their normal groups. Miranda fell behind Farmer as they ran up the hill. They heard choking and coughing sounds coming from the opposite side of the building.

  “That’s a good sign,” Miner said, elbowing the guy behind him. It was Miner’s new battle buddy, Sneezy Farmer. He was across from Miranda in line so she was able to hear the comment. It was a good thing Sergeant Dan was busy instructing the next group to go, or Miner and Sneezy Farmer might have been doing push ups for the crack.

  “Squad F, on the markers!” Sergeant Wing was directing the group.

  “Yes, Drill Sergeant!” Miranda shifted forward onto the red marked zone.

  “When your light turns yellow, grab your mask and put it on. Then face forward. When your light turns green, run into the shack, and follow the orders you were given. Understand?”

  “Yes, Drill Sergeant!” they shouted.

  “Move!” The lights turned from red to yellow. Miranda reached forward and retrieved a mask from the rack. She fitted it over her head like they’d been trained, making sure to press the button for the self-sealing gel to snap into place.

  Everything went quiet. All the noise of the outside world dimmed as the noise canceling function of the helmet kicked in. She watched for the green light as she shuffled into the cramped room. Everything was black.

  “Testing, testing one two three. If you can hear me raise your right hand.” Miranda raised her right hand.

  “Your other right, Recruit Miner.” Miranda’s mask switched to Night Vision mode just in time to see the recruit across from her switch hands.

  “Good. Now take a deep breath,” the voice said. Miranda took in a deep breath.

  “Let it out.” Miranda let it out with a puff.

  “Do the same thing again.” Miranda complied, tension rising. She knew at some point they were going to order her to take the mask off. She knew it. Had seen it in training videos. Hadn’t Sergeant Dan just told her as much minutes ago? Yet with each breath she took, she couldn’t help feeling like it would be her last.

  “Helmets off! Move it!”

  “Sir, yes sir!” Miranda took one last deep breath. Then she yanked her helmet off. There was a loud pop sound as she broke the seal on the helmet. Then she heard it. People had already started the pledge. Miranda joined in.

  Her nose dripped. Her head ached. After the second verse, she could hardly get the words out. She was on her second breath of the toxic, but not lethal, air. Her lungs burned with her need to fill them with oxygen. All thought outside of the need for the green light to appear left her. Getting electrified on the obstacle course was preferable to this.

  Finally the green light shined from the back door. It couldn’t have been more than a couple of minutes, but it felt like an eternity. She ran, tears flowing freely, snot streaming from her nose.

  “Flap those arms,” she heard Sergeant Wing command. Miranda obeyed, flapping her arms up and down. The sand swirled around them. Miranda couldn’t tell if it was really the sand or her own shaking feet.

  Sick Farmer was sick all over the corner. Farmer's face shone green. His brown eyes swam. Tears streamed from all their faces in an unstoppable torrent.

  Miner started throwing up as soon as he saw Sick Farmer doing it. He was back from med bay, having only experienced minor wounds from his tumble in the geyser. Miranda struggled to get down large gulps of air. She didn’t care if the wind had picked up and filled that same air with sand. It felt too good to breathe.

  “Attention!” Miranda obeyed, even though her body protested. It wasn’t done breathing.

  “Run to the base of the hill, then march to the cook hall.”

  “Yes, Drill Sergeant!”

  “Move!” Off they went, in breathable God blessed air. They stayed like that, flapping their arms like a flock of birds, while they waited for the effects of the gas to wear off; for their eyes to stop streaming, their noses, and mouths to stop burning.

  “This was for you,” Drill Sergeant Wing yelled at them.

  “Confidence in your gear is key,” someone said as they marched on their merry way. Miranda wished she could see who it was so she could punch them in the balls, if they had any. If only the tears would clear.

  “Without experiencing it first-hand, you would not know if your mask would protect you.” Drill Sergeant Dan caught up to them. “You will be traveling off planet, in space, on terraformed worlds, on old terraformed worlds, star cruisers, and everything in-between. The only thing between you and space will be that mask. Now you know it will protect you.” Miranda tried to listen. She really did. But it was hard to care about all the places she’d go when her nose was pouring snot, as if that was all it was good for.

  She looked like a mess with a side of gross. If they didn’t give them showers after this, she was going to track down the emperor himself and demand better treatment of his soldiers.

  “Let me hear you say it!” Drill Sergeant Dan demanded.

  “Sir, yes sir,” they squeaked out. Most of them hadn’t gotten their voices back yet. But that's okay, because this was the one time they had a valid excuse.

  “Move out!” Sergeant Dan ordered. They continued down the hill, away from the dreaded gas chamber, lucky to be breathing.

  By the end of dinner all Miranda wanted to do was pass out. Every bone in her body screamed from the effort of staying awake. She nearly fell into her bed until she realized it was occupied.

  Adrenaline raced through her. Who was in her bed, and why? She pulled back her blanket to reveal Sneezy Farmer’s body. He was lying still as a corpse, his shaved head white and lifeless. His lips were blue. She reached out and felt clammy skin. A chill went up her arm.

  Miranda looked across her bunk at her battle buddy.

  “I think he’s dead.”

  “Call a medic!” Farmer cried. Miranda looked down at Sneezy, tears clouding her sight. The mysterious saboteur had claimed another one.

  Chapter 16

  “I bet it was the gas chamber,” Miner said. Miranda nodded her head. It had to be. His lips were blue. Wasn’t that a sign of asphyxiation?

  “If they got him in the gas chamber, then we’re all going to die!” Sick Farmer screamed. Everyone around them started whispering.

  “There’s no way that he’s dead,” Farmer scoffed.

  “How does the killer get to any of us?” Miranda said, pacing as they waited for a medic. “We’re never alone. We’re always with a battle buddy.” She said it more for her own benefit. Her brain was so wrapped up in her own thoughts, the crowd wrapped up in their whispers, that no one noticed the twitch from the dead guy on the bed.

  Sneezy Famer sat up, barely missing hitting his head against the top bunk. His arms outstretched, as if to grab Miranda. A long ‘rarrr’ rang out. She jumped a foot back, banging her head on the bunk behind her. She rubbed the quickly forming knot.

  “Are they turning us into zombies now?” Farmer said through choked laughter. He wasn’t the only one. The whole barracks erupted into belly shaking laughs.

  “I got you good,” Sneezy Farmer cried. He pointed a finger in her direction. Tears streamed from his eyes, smearing his white makeup.

  “Yeah, you got her,” Farmer confirmed.

  “You got the Queen of the Dead.”

  A clap started and rose until everyone applauded Sneezy Farmer’s prank. Miranda’s cheeks burned. Is this how they saw her? It was hard to wrap her head around the fact that they were praising her for all the people dying around her. In her mind it was sick, but maybe she just wasn’t seeing it the way her so called teammates were seeing it. Queen of the Dead, hmm? It reminded her of necromancy. Not that that was a thing. Controlling dead bodies was for the holos. It wasn’t a real life thing. All those people had been spaced because of her, and here her fellow soldiers were making fun of her and them. That’s what it felt like to her, anyway. What kind of a nickname was that? This was t
he empire. There hadn’t been a queen in over four thousand years. All the would-be empresses were an honorary title, reaching back just as long. There was an old prophecy that the empire would fall if there was ever a female heir.

  She shook her head. All of this was nonsense. Anyone with half a brain could see that she had nothing to do with this. That she couldn’t kill a spider, let alone a fellow recruit. She wasn’t going to make a good soldier at this rate, either. Maybe Eric had been telling the truth. That someone was making it look like she was the sociopath responsible for all of this. And maybe her fellows were buying it hook, line, and blue lips.

  She pushed the thought from her mind and forced a smile to her face.

  “Haha, haha, you got me,” she said. She gave him a good slap on the arm as a show of comradery.

  “Can I please get to my bed before Sergeant Dan has us standing up all night for this?”

  “What a wonderful idea, Farmer,” Sergeant Dan’s voice rang out down the barracks. The whole group froze.

  “Attention!” Sergeant Wing ordered. Everyone jumped to the end of their bunks, their feet sliding naturally into the attention position. Ten cycles in and they were already acting like real soldiers. Sneezy Farmer had to run over to his bunk. He was the last to get into position. They all watched Sergeant Dan with their eyes, unwilling to move an inch.

  “It seems that since you all got a good laugh out of this, you all should have a good time thinking about what it takes to call in a medic at this hour. In fact, you can stand at attention until relieved doing just that.”

  Silence reigned. If this had been the first week, there would have been an audible groan. The lack of muttering and stares were proof that they were well on their way to becoming real soldiers. That made Miranda want to smile. Sure, they’d be spending most of the night falling asleep on their feet. Sure, they probably would be relieved with only enough time to touch their heads to their pillows before being awoken for morning exercise. Sure, they would be dead on their feet. But the prank had been a good one, even if it had been played on her. Miranda couldn’t fault it on Sneezy. And her squad was becoming a unit. That they took their punishment together without complaint. That made her proud.

  “Okay platoon, if F Squad has time to joke, then you all have time to march. Fall out.”

  Boots hit the ground as the whole of Platoon 8 met on the parade field.

  “Attention!” The echo of boots slapping together rang across the sand. Sergeant Dan had everyone on their feet. Her steel eyes stared them all down.

  “One week,” she said. “One week before graduation, and Farmers keep dropping like flies.” She threw up her hands in aggravation. “We haven’t had a single fatality in four years, then we go and have five in one class!”

  Miranda stood there, taking it. Sergeant Dan’s wrath wasn’t much worse than the yelling tests she’d put them through. At some point Miranda had become numb to it. Like the thing that the drill instructors broke had healed stronger. Or maybe she was just going deaf from all the yelling.

  “People leave basic all the time,” Sergeant Dan continued. “We have our fair share of mishaps and accidents.”

  Miranda felt it in her legs. She alternated between locking them to hold her weight, and sitting into them to keep the blood flowing. It was a trick you had to learn or you’ld fall out in drill practice.

  “Tanks and feet don’t mix. Not every recruit learns that from the slides. But a live round finding its way into a holo exercise? Unheard of!”

  “We’re on Slide 52, I wonder what the enemy is doing?” Oscar beeped at her. Miranda suppressed a giggle by biting her lip. She kept her face forward and her eyes as humorless as possible. Sergeant Dan was so into her speech she didn’t catch the infraction.

  “Sure, we’ve had a death or two in a class before. Real stupid reasons, but five? Five?!” She spit the last ‘five’ at them.

  Her anger reached its boiling point. Her tone went flat. The words spoken barely above a whisper.

  “Never in all my years, all my mama’s years, all my gran’s years, has there ever been five soldiers spaced during a single class.” A chill ran down Miranda’s spine. She had just been told that this wasn’t normal. That someone was out to get Farmers and she was on the hit list.

  “Farmers, front and center.” Miranda tripped over herself to get to the front of the Platoon.

  “You four are the only Farmers left in F Squad, in all of 8 Platoon!'' Sergeant Dan said.

  Miranda fought the urge to look to her left. She knew that Sneezy and Sick were the last buddies, apart from her and Farmer. She thought about that. If whoever this was, was really targeting Farmers, the brass were making them easy targets.

  “So we have decided that you will remain battle buddies, and to bring on a new instructor to finish out your last week of training.” Sergeant Dan decreed. Miranda didn't know if it was better or worse that they were keeping them together as battle buddies. True, it made them a bigger target, but it also meant she could keep track of what Farmer was doing. Miranda knew her nanos were keeping her alive. She wondered what was keeping Farmer alive. Not that she had any power to change it, if she even knew what it was. Where had that thought even come from? Farmer was a jerk, sure, but he was a fellow soldier and her battle buddy. They needed to be in this thing together.

  “Today is a very special day for you snowflakes.” Sergeant Dan moved onto a more important topic.

  “Today is the first day of Green Phase. It is a prestigious time for you to show us that what you’ve learned stuck.” Miranda kept her eyes forward, but inside she was jumping with nervous energy.

  “At the end of this week, you will be added to the ranks of the Imperial military. If you pass.” Dan stopped pacing and looked straight down the ranks. The wind pulled at their uniforms, but nothing else moved. Satisfied Sergeant Dan continued.

  “Some of you were caught trying to bounce the planet last night.” Miranda suppressed her groan. It was tradition for some of the recruits to hop an enlisted transport up to the orbiting station for an antigravity run, but Miranda wanted no part of it. With all the deaths, she wasn’t sure her team wouldn’t space her. Or the saboteur wouldn’t use the chance to do the same thing.

  “So we’ve got a special mission for you.” There was a long pause as she let the words sink in.

  “You will be kept as a single unit. We will be marching on a patrol around the base of the Pulares mountains. All other information is on a need to know basis. What you need to know is one: every time you have even a minor infraction, you will be issued one of these.” She held up a large holo disc the size of Farmer’s head.

  “These are toys. They feel like holo mines, they look like holo mines, but they are hard grade isomer made that way. You cannot set them off.” She put it down on the ground in front of her. First she put a boot on it, leaning with all her weight. Then she jumped up and down on it as proof it was a fake. “So don't even try.” She gave them all an ‘or you're an idiot and I will punish you’ stare.

  “Two: the march will last as long as there are infractions. That means anyone caught will be punished with one of these.” She lifted a holo mine into the air with one hand. Everyone looked impressed. That took some strength. Holo mines, even the fake kind, ran between 40 and 50 cubits; the planet’s gravity made them more like 500 cubits, if you asked any of the soldiers that were dumb enough to have to lug them around as punishment.

  “It will also increase the time you are out on patrol.”

  There was another long pause to let her words sink in to even the hardest of skulls in the ranks. Miranda caught Dan sharing a look with Sergeant Wing. Now that there were only the two of them, testing the whole platoon would take their combined efforts. Dan led squads D and F. Wing originally led Squad C. He also used to help with all the squads on certain activities. But since Striker’s murder, he’d been the one to lead Squads A and B.

  “And third, you will be tested. We are doing this mis
sion to see if you are ready to join the ranks of the Imperial Army. Do I make myself clear?”

  “Yes, Drill Sergeant!”

  “In front of you are three ration packs. One for breakfast. One for lunch. One for dinner.” She stopped behind them, gauging if someone was going to step a toe out of line so she could issue the first infraction notice.

  “You will not be receiving another ration pack until you are released from patrol. Out there in the Universe you can be cut off from your supply chain, left with only what’s on your back on an unterraformed planet, with no knowledge of when you might be picked up or what you might face as retaliation. So use your training and your rations wisely.” It was a long speech. But not the longest Miranda had had to stand at attention. She wished they’d ordered them into parade rest, but this was probably part of the testing. She just needed to endure it a little longer.

  “When I say go, pick up your day of rations, put them safe in your pack, and then line up on that line to begin marching. Understand?”

  “Yes, Drill Sergeant!”

  “Go!” Everyone filled forward. Miranda took one last look at the parade field.

  “Recruit Farmer, you did not pack your rations properly,” Sergeant Dan said.

  “Grab a holo disc, repack, and move out!”

  “Sir yes sir!” she said. Sergeant Dan moved down the line. Miranda packed fast, but with more care. She couldn’t afford a second holo. She got to her feet and jogged to catch up to the rest of her platoon. As she passed the training field she gave it one last goodbye.

  “I’ll see you soon,” she lied. The flag poll waved back, taunting her as she marched to her doom. The flag flew in an unfelt breeze. ‘You won’t see me again,’ it teased. She hoped that it was wrong. If not, the next time she put a boot on this parade field, she would be dead.

  Chapter 17

  Eighteen hours later they were on their second circle around the base. The first wasn’t a true circle. The whole perimeter was a two-day walk. But Miranda didn’t know that. All she knew was they were headed back to the armory again.