Chapter 17 - Missing out

  “You are exempt from our first assignment.” Cook paced around the empty barracks with only Lisa sitting on her bed, “Now why would that be?”

  “I have no idea Steve.” Lisa snarled, “Please enlighten me.”

  “Watch your tone bitch,” he shot back. “Well if you don’t know then I assume it's because of your tumble as you left the bridge. Orders from the Colonel are that you will remain here and complete a medical check and submit the last week of suit telemetry for review.”

  “A medical check.” Lisa instinctively brought a hand to her mouth before quickly bringing it back to her side, luckily Cook had his back to her and missed the motion.

  “Yes, you will wait inside the barracks for an android to fetch you. I believe that once your task is complete you will watch over the captive until we return.”

  “The captive?” Lisa scanned her memory until she remembered the Lizardman creature. “You don’t mean that monster right.” Her eyes squinted and scanned Cook's stern face to see if he was joking. With his expression not changing and him donning his black helmet Lisa knew he wasn't. “Do I still have to go to the mission brief?” she added after a short silence.

  “No you don’t. Wait here until you are collected. At 12:00 you are to start your work at the cages.” Cook answered her question and left her on her own in the cramped room.

  Joe waited at ease in his spot in the formation, his mind was drifting off thinking about the sky. Apart from the heavy smoke clouds billowing out of the powerplant, the soft blue sky grew ever softer with towering, cascading clouds slowly drifting on the small breeze that swayed the tree tops. Joe appreciated nature and was, in all honestly, awed by it. He had spent the time between picking up his rifle and now just staring at the sky above. He recalled back to his childhood, then his teen years, his young adult life and his years training; not a day he could remember had a sky as beautiful as this. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, the air that filled his lungs was heavily filtered and mixed with the air brought with him; it reminded him of home. A thought started to creep into his mind as the wind rustled his baggy secondary layer, “What does this air taste like? Acidic? Heavy? Dry? Or maybe clean.” The thought was cut short by the barking of Cook.

  “Right, we are heading to a small briefing about our first assignment on X-01. Pay close attention, our squad ranking is still present and we need to keep a high spot.” Cook yet again commanded the platoon to march with him, their weapons equipped and ready for combat. Joe noticed Lisa missing but couldn't ask why yet, he promised himself to send her a message once he had a minute though. The platoon traversed the camp along its temporary paths, however some major routes seem to be in the process of getting upgrades as a few construction androids lay the foundations. The group did not travel far as the meeting area was near the central building housing the Troy Loft bridge. Around the back of the powerplant a large stretch of land was just concrete with an elevated stage near an accompanying building. Moving to a painted white box labelled IZ-213 the platoon eased up, while of course being the only ones waiting.

  Joe returned to his daydreaming. He dreamed of flying a Swift, a light, two seater scout jet, though those ever fluffy clouds, with the roar of the engine quieting down as he climbed higher and higher. Until he could see the stars above, the clouds stretching forever into the horizon and hopefully an expansive field of green below. He sighed sadly as his dream became more and more unrealistic with each hope he added on. He could pilot a Swift, he had the training to operate most common vehicles but had he ever seen one, No, no he hadn't.

  “Why would they need to bring a jet to a world destined to be harvested, the inhabitants have just been able to use stones so there was no threat from them.” Joe shot himself down while bringing himself back to reality to see the groups slowly marching in.

  “Thirty fucking minuits early.” he grumbled to himself, “Fucking dick.” he tried to burn the figure of Steve with a stare with the childish notion that if he concentrated hard enough lasers would shoot out of them. Alas nothing came from Joe staring but the last of the squads shuffled to their spots and what looks like three quarters of the platoons were present. As the time struck eight thirty the scarred older colonel proudly approached the center stage from the conjoined building. He wore a suit different to the black three layered armour every other soldier there wore. Instead the baggy undersuit resembled a dark green trench coat with the armored plates painted a glossy slightly brighter green over the top. Complimenting the shades of green, his eight ribbons holding gold medals hung with reds, purples and blues over his breast. Golden rope kept his coat closed and his shoulders were embossed with the same gold patterns as his formal suit. Sealed shut, his head was encased in a blank grey helmet. Its inbuilt green beret contrasted the wide red visor.

  “I will keep this short,” he began, his voice augmented “your platoons have been selected to be the protective force for the major explorative mission to secure the nearby river. Your job is as simple as it gets, protect the engineers, scientists and construction androids. They will be setting up the permanent nuclear fusion reactors. Although primitive, we have already lost a life due to natives of the planet, thus there is a shoot on sight order for any fauna persisting or approaching within radius of your suits scanners. We believe that, following old world records, most animals will flee as we approach and set up a perimeter unless they are territorial, curious or sentient. We authorise that termination is acceptable in these instances.” the colonel tapped his left arm and a hologram of a screen appeared. “Current reports indicate that it will take a week until the perimeter is secured and a further week for the reactors to be built. During that time a road will be laid out and pathed linking the two camps. Once we reach the target location we will split the squads into three groups: River North, River South and Road patrol. The responsibilities of your role will be explained to you once you have been selected for your group. DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR.” his voice raised into a yell.

  His call for a response was answered with an instant and disciplined, “YES COLONEL!” from every soldier present. In tandem with their response the thump of hundreds of robotic boots slammed the ground with the raising of weapons to a salute.

  “We move out in 5.” he left the saluting soldiers to enter the conjoining room, his robotic feet hissing at each step.

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

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  Lisa waited on her bed, she didn't risk breaking it so she rested on the very hard and uncomfortable metal frame. If it wasn't for the fact that the beds were built into the ground she would have feared it would have toppled over due to her sheer weight. In the quiet of the room she didn't think much, surprising her. She thought her head would be running with thoughts but no.

  “Maybe my brain has yet to catch up.” she wondered. What she did think about in her solitude was the number she was told constantly during training, 23.59%. Her life might have been over already, as the first few days of deployment were always the most bloody yet she wasn't. It was luck that kept her alive, she felt.

  “If I was on Anox base or Kaylob base she could be dead. Or bleeding out in the mud at the very least.” she wryly chuckled to herself. “Guess luck was on my side that Izlathis was chosen.” what she felt was not relief however it was more like a pit in her stomach. It was anticipation. The feeling stuck with her as she tried to clear her mind but like the miasma it stuck. What felt like a bodily response she chuckled nervously. Her eyes darted around while she tried to sort out the mess of thoughts yet the mess was too entrenched, as she delved deeper and deeper remembering recent events and traumatic moments brought about from training her eyes furrowed more and more confused yet her mouth was smiling.

  “Elite Grim, you are ordered to visit the medical building.” a robotic voice of a medical assistant droid spoke up, completely snapping her out of her spiral.

  “Yeah… Yes, of course. Are you taking me there then?” she said, wiping the grin off of her face.

  “Affirmative.”, the android moved into the room and with its towering body, stared down at her. Getting the hint she donned her helmet and walked to the airlock where the robot took the lead. Following the path the robot took Lisa walked near the large gathering lot that had many painted on boxes labelled different platoon names, which was barren.

  Passing it and moving further towards the center a white tent with a green medical symbol on its roof stood separate from the other buildings. A quick scan of the foundations actively being worked on by the construction androids indicated that the medical room would instead be a medical facility, rivaling the size of the central bridge containment building. Before the robot could lead her into the tent however it stopped.

  “Mission objective changed: Wait with Miss. Grim until transfer” It blurted out fast enough for Lisa to almost mishear what the assistant said.

  “What? What do you mean wait? And transfer to where?” She asked the machine that didn't answer her questions.

  Arriving from the main building and approaching the two only figures near the tent, a combat android stopped and stared at Lisa. Instead of the standard issue rocket silo on their shoulders this one had a snake like camera that slithered down to her eye level.

  “Miss. Grim, you have been requested to speak with the Director. Please follow me.” the combat android cleared up any confusion on what was happening, this did however pose another question; why?

  Changing who she was following, Lisa cautiously followed the bulky robot which led her inside the main building through a corridor to approach a connected tower that was actively being built. As the combat android walked unburdened by the construction machines as they instinctively parted, Lisa had to weave in and out as they returned to their original positions. The sound of welding and construction tools ended abruptly as the android and Lisa stepped into an elevator and the doors closed. While the elevator was plain and the ceiling still had wires unbunched, it was relatively clean. A small screen displaying five different options of floors the two could travel to: Lower levels - Key required, Ground floor, 1st Floor, 2nd Floor, 3rd floor - Key required. Catching Lisa's eye, the snakelike attachment of the combat android that slithered down to insert a needle into a port next to the screen. A couple seconds ticked by in the corner of her vision until the text of the third floor changed to green. The snake then retracted from the port and used the needle pressed on the now green text. The magnets suspending the elevator hummed to life and the two figures accelerated upwards.

  The climb up the floors took less than a minute and the elevator slowed to a stop. As the doors opened Lisa was presented with a secretary’s office, it had a quite temporary looking table with tablets placed all around and surprisingly paper. Taking the hint to leave as the android started to force her out, the lift the doors closed behind her leaving the android inside. With sealed transport boxes stacked to one side and a large door on the other the room was very barren, even the table had no chair.

  “Miss. Grim, please come in.” A soft and caring voice echoed into the space. The closed door then slightly shifted towards her, revolving out of the doorway. Cautiously she approached the door and pulled it open.

  A blank room with little decoration was before her, the far wall was glass and to the sides different counters with ornaments or bottles lined them. In the center two sofas faced each other with a small glass table between them. Near the back stood an impressive desk where a suited man leaned on it.

  “Please take a seat Miss. Grim and you can take off that helmet. Although I do have the neural chip to decipher your helmet's encryption, like you all do, it's just nicer talking face to face.” The white suited man with a golden half mask, came out of the light and gestured an arm at the left most sofa while he moved to the bottles on a countertop. “Do you drink at all? If you do, I have just come into possession of a whiskey from 2101 and I've been dying to have an excuse to open it.”

  Lisa was taken aback, she was nervous. No doubt because she was meeting one of the ten people in charge of the Falling Mountains, a company who had been the only constant throughout her life. She had put the whole meeting to the back of her mind on the quick tangent there, mainly because she was overcome with confusion more than anything. But his attitude was certainly not what she expected of one of the wealthiest people in history.

  “Are you alright?” The Director asked an eyebrow raised as he walked to the sofa with an old bottle and two glasses. Lisa hadn't moved a muscle since opening the door. Panicking slightly she took a step inside, actively reducing the force applied to each step.

  “I am sorry Sir, I am fine. To answer your previous question, I have never drunk before.” she nervously tiptoed into the room

  “Oh…” he said, taken aback, “Well this is my favourite drink, a new distillery though.” He sat on the black sofa and poured a double shot in each glass, the ice in the glass bobbed with the brass liquid. Raising his glass in one hand he ran the other alongside the top of the sofa and stared out of the windowed wall on his right.

  “What a beautiful view.” he spoke with a hint of awe. His golden mask hid his mouth but with his tone Lisa could tell he was smiling. Carefully sitting on the sofa, fearing her weight could snap it in two and removing her helmet; she breathed the air of the room. It smelt expensive, with heavy emphasis on natural smells that Lisa had smelt imitations of, however he believed with full confidence that those were not synthetic smells.

  Moving to pick up the glass the director turned to her with curiosity in his eyes. Lisa almost recoiled as her nose scrunched due to the smell and heavy, what she assumed was, alcohol burning her nose. Not to turn down a challenge she quickly gulped the liquid down. It burned her throat and mouth, falling into a coughing fit and growing red due to the director chuckling. As she recovered the director smiled with his eyes.

  “Maybe that was a poor first drink, my apologies. However I must admire your attitude, gulping down one of my most expensive beverages was quite the surprise.” His voice was joking but Lisa's heart dropped.

  “Most expensive?” she muttered just before she caught herself.

  “Not an apology first?” his voice didn't change a tone but Lisa caught a glint in his eye, not a mechanical one but a human one. “Don't worry it's not like you drank the whole bottle now is it?” letting out a sigh and becoming slightly more serious but still surprisingly casual, he continued “Now, let's get onto why you are here.”