The Terran Alliance by J R Robertson

Author:J R Robertson [Robertson, J R]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-08-04T00:00:00+00:00

19

Fashionably Early

“All hands, stand by for FTL transition.”

Ben queried his APEX armor for the status of his suit’s environment seals one last time. He was decked out head to toe in his full combat kit, just like the chief and all 129 Pathfinders from Bravo Company, 155th Pathfinder Regiment, while they counted down the seconds until Indomitable arrived in the Alarian home system.

They sat ordered by platoon in an auditorium just off Indomitable’s flight deck. As Ben and the Pathfinders were passengers aboard the big cruiser, they didn’t have assigned stations. So the brass had decided to cram 130 combat grunts, in full gear, into an auditorium that was designed to seat 150 people in their everyday CDUs with no armor or equipment.

“Well, this is nice and cozy,” Dominguez said. Second Platoon was seated just in front of Ben and Kravczyk, and Ben was glad for the banter; it helped take the edge off the tension they were all feeling. Sure, they’d been invited to meet with the Alarians, but the last time Terran and Alarian warships had been in close proximity, they’d been trying their damnedest to kill each other. Nobody wanted to admit it, but they were all worried this whole thing might be a trap.

“Not sure ‘cozy’ is the word I would choose, Dominguez,” another marine piped up.

“I get that the brass are worried about some nefarious scheme here,” Ben chimed in. “But do you really think the Alarians would go to this much work just to knock out a single ship?”

“Nah,” Dominguez said over his shoulder. “We’re not crammed in here like sardines because the brass are worried about an attack—that’s just the cover story they’re giving us. What’s really going on here is that they wanted to try out a new team bonding exercise. When we go into combat, we have battle buddies that we stick with, right? Well, now they want us to try out the new ‘snuggle buddy’ system. I hear it’s supposed to increase the sharing of feelings by sixty-three percent.”

There was some low chuckling that rippled through the marines before Sergeant Rees went in for the kill. “Don’t listen to him, Hutchins. The only feelings Dominguez ever shares are with himself in the—”

The ship shuddered slightly as the warp fields collapsed and Indomitable exited FTL. All chatter stopped as every ear strained in anticipation of the first piercing note of the combat action alarm. Despite the pre-transition banter declaring the opposite, every single person in this auditorium considered an ambush to at least be a possibility. But as the seconds ticked by with no new alerts, the tension in the room began to fade.

Dominguez broke the silence. “Phew. Glad that’s over. Can we go dump our kit now? I’ve already missed the first fifteen minutes of nap time.”

The marines all resumed their idle banter and shifted around in their seats to release some built-up tension. Ben rolled his neck around a few times while they waited for the transition, then nudged Kravczyk with his elbow.

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