“Space... is big and fucking dull.” Josh muttered, her breath fogging the visor of her helmet slightly.
Over two hours ago, Wraith squad had been deployed to take down a Boskonian coms relay built into an old mining facility in the asteroid belt. According to the intell, it had been abandoned as soon as hostilities had flared up and it was deep enough into the belt to make it a pain for anyone to get at.
Anyone but a Spartan.
Josh and her squad leader had hooked onto a small asteroid each. The idea was that two small impacts on the larger rock would go unnoticed as they then would bring down the sensor net to park their ship.
A great idea, well... it was her idea, so it was okay and a lot better then being fired at the base in a ODST pod.
But sadly, before they deployed, she had forgot to charge her e-reader and smart phone.
The batteries had died on both in the first fifteen minutes.
Setting a proximity alarm on her H.U.D. She let her mind drift back to day when she enlisted with the Spartan Corps
* * *
Seven Months Ago.
Mars.
Josh shivered in the cool morning as she made it into the assembly hall, looking at the ninety nine other hopefuls. Somewhere bio modded super soldiers, others where people with a fancy suits of armour while a handful had a mix of both.
Only two months before hand, she had been a he, a gangly he with bad eating habits and scruffy hair.
Then he hopped in an untested suit of Spartan armour, went face first through some jars of handwavium, a shed wall, a fence and then stopped by digging a five meter long crater in the road.
The doctors said if it wasn't for all the wavium he had took to the face, they probably would have had to give him a guacamole bath due to how messed up he was.
And now he gained a foot in height, had the body of a super soldier and was and elfin woman.
Oddly the woman part was the least of his worries at the time.
But that was then, now here she was, trying to become a Spartan.
She had passed the preliminary exams, simple psych and physical tests. Nothing overly fancy, but she still couldn't shake the impression that there was something missing, this all seemed too easy.
“ATENSHUN!” Bellowed a voice from the far end of the hall as one hundred people snapped to full attention, a squat man that seemed to sum up every singles drill Sergeant stereotypy in one short man, scared old man. “Alright ladies, my name is Sergeant Avery Dillon, but you will call me Sir!”
His gaze seemed to scythe through the assembled crowd as he continued. “Now only a few of you will get to be Spartans, plain and simple fact. My job along with a handful of trained experts is to spend the next five months breaking the weak and find which one of you maggots are worthy of being a Spartan, we don't care if you have the suit, the body or both! We want those that have the spark, the potential to be amongst the most deadly SoB's this side of the known verse.”
Josh only just suppressed a shiver, but her ears betrayed her nerves and the Sergeant swung his head to her, like a shark sniffing blood in the water. “You!” he yelled and pointed a finger at her. “What makes you think you deserve to be a Spartan?”
Swallowing she took a step forward. “Simple Sir. I wanted to help in the war and the only options were this or join the sailor scouts and I look stupid in a dress.”
There was a round of nervous laughter as the Sergeant scowled. “Looks like we got a comedian. Well excuse me Princess if I ain't laughing! Now drop and give me 50 for the smart ass comment, Princess!”
Cursing herself, she dropped down to the ground and started doing push ups, the Sergeant barking again. “And proper ones, no using those big old pillows of yours to cheat!”
This was was going to be a long five months.
* * *
Present.
There was a beep as her proximity alarm went off, jerking out of her trip down memory lane, she looked up and saw the target. The asteroid base hung in the night sky like a borgafied potato, airlocks and docking clamps covering its surface like a sprinkling of herbs.
Great, not only did I forget to charge my e-reader and phone, I must of skipped lunch in the haste. go me. She mused to herself.
As her makeshift ride drifted closer, she unhooked a line of high tensile wire from her belt and pulled the large gun off her back, smiling at the memory of how she got it...
* * *
Six Months ago.
Mars
Noctis Labyrinthus
Spartan Training facility Alpha seven.
“Princes, what the hell do you think you are doing?” Sargent Dillon’s voice echoed over the sound of gunfire on the firing range.
Josh felt the eyes of the other recruits on her as they turned to watch. They always seemed to enjoy watching the Sarge rip her a new one. She knew about the betting pool on when she would wash out. So she had made it her job to buckle down and put up with what ever was throw her way.
The Sarge stood a few feet from her, his narrow eyes glaring up as her. “That is an assault rifle in your hands Princess, not a fire hose, so why in the nine hells are you using it like one?”
This was one part of the training hadn't been looking forward to. She had learnt early on that one of her quirks made it near impossible to hit with nearly any gun she was given. Now it looked like she had to come clean about it.
“Sorry Sir, I think one of my quirks gave me stormtrooper accuracy.” Her ears folded nervously against her head.
“The why the hell didn't you grab a gun you can use?”
She blinked. “Pardon me sir?”
The Sarg pointed back to the range master. “Go and grab a gun you can use Princess, then get your pale ass back here and give me one reason why I shouldn't boot your ass out of here!”
Hanging her head, she put the safety back on the riffle and ejected the clip before heading back to the range master and looking over his range of guns. Her heart sinking as she saw sniper rifles, pistols and other weapons that required some level of skill or accuracy.
The Rangemaster, a rail thin man with a slight tan and five o'clock shadow saw her reaction and chuckled. “Maybe I can help ya miss.”
“How?” she tried hard to keep the disappointment out of her voice.
The rangemaster reached under the counter and hefted up a large case, popping the clasps, her opened and turned it to face her. Inside the shape foam laid something that looked like the bastard offspring of a pump action shotgun and an anti tank weapon.
“What the hell is that?” Josh whispered, looking at the weapon, taking in the shape and tooling.
“I call it Jorgmander. It's a hell of a beast, but near impossible for a normal person to use... Though you look like a big girl, so I think ya won't have a problem.” He placed a large box on the counter. “Here's the shells for it, see how well ya go.”
Pulling the shotgun free, she grabbed the shells and made it back to the firing range, feeling the eyes of the other recruits on her. Stepping up to the stall, she started loading the gun, aware that the Sarge was only a few feet away. Ignoring all the attention, she lifted the gun up, resting the stock against her shoulder, aiming at the nearest target, she took a breath and fired.
The first thing she was aware of was the noise, followed by the force of the gun jerking back into her shoulder.
The next thing she realised was that the target down the range was gone, only a few splinters remaining of the wooden cut out.
The Sarge coughed slightly. “Nice work princess, but next time, you think you could leave something for us to identify... or at least grade you on?”
A second target popped up, a cut out of a zombie. Aiming, she pulled the trigger and smiled as the legs vanished, causing the cut out to face plant.
“Well, seems Princess, you finally got a weapon that you can use. Hit the next five targets where I say and you will pass.”
Grinning like a loon, she lined up Jorgmander and pulled the trigger.
* * *
Present.
After loading a special round into Jorgmander, she rested the giant gun on the rock in front of her and fired. The recoil almost knocked her backwards, but she gave a silent cheer as she saw the grapple round impact on the asteroid. Waiting till the last second, she leapt free of the smaller rock, watching as it smashed into the asteroid before bouncing off into space.
Pulling on the line, she started to drag herself towards the base, digging her fingers into the rocky surface as her H.U.D. Pointed towards the nearest airlock. Slowly, not wanting to loose her grip and go spiralling off into space, she shuffled till she was pointing in the right direction and started to crawl forward.
Breathing slowly, she saw a second blip appear on her H.U.D. Freezing she pulled out a pen light and pointed it in the direction, quickly flashing out a message in Morse code.
After a tense few seconds there was a flash of a reply.
Olly Olly Oxen Free!
She flashed the message back and started forward, moving towards the airlock and her squad leader, possibly one of the most oddest Spartans she had ever met.
And possibly the most fun.
* * *
Three months ago
Mars
Noctis Labyrinthus
Spartan Training facility Alpha seven.
The rules had been simple, the fifty remaining recruits had been dumped in the maze of a canyon along that had been sealed off under a dome as part of the training facility, allowing recruits and Spartans to train with out worrying about carrying breathing equipment. They had been dropped off along with a handful of cargo pods containing supplies and armed with a variety of paint weapons.
When there was only twenty left, they would be taken onto the next level of training.
That had been two weeks ago.
Apparently Sarge was starting to lose his temper, as only fifteen recruits had been tagged as “out” so he had changed the rules.
Now there were ten Spartans let loose to help thin the numbers, with an incentive. if a recruit could drop a Spartan, that was an automatic pass. His words where “If you can pull a fast one on one of my Spartans, then there aint a damn thing left ta teach ya.”
Josh sat in the cave she had found, watching the blip of an incoming Spartan. In the first day, she stumbled upon a cargo pod full of food and flash bangs, she had only managed to take out two other recruits when Sarge changed the rules, so she had spent a day and a half filling the valley around her will simple trip wire traps.
Her H.U.D. Showed the other person was moving forward as a snails pace, probably disarming every tip wire they saw as not to get flash banged, meaning that she most likely had a Spartan after her.
Pulling back deeper into the cave, she grinned hoping like hell that her plan would work.
Eventually she saw the silhouette for a armoured figure enter the cave, she could just make out what sounded like swearing as they knelt by the entrance of the cave and started removing the traps, waiting till they were halfway up the tunnel, Josh stepped out from her hiding spot and tapped them on the head with Jorgmander. “I win.” she chuckled in her helmet.
She wasn't sure how it happened, but next thing she knew, her gun was spiralling though the air and her right arm was hanging limply at her side, her should screaming in pain as it was dislocated. The Spartan jumping back and shaking their head. “Nope, you Lose.” a feminine voice responded.
Right, this was going to hell fast.
Gritting her teeth, she slammed her arm against the cave wall, almost screaming as she brute forced her shoulder back into place before spinning on one foot and snapping a high kick at her opponent's head, the other woman staggering back to avoid the blow.
“Fucking hell, not one to give up easy, are you?” She commented, sounding slightly shocked.
“I busted my ass to get where I am, I'm not letting anything stop me.” Josh growled as she lashed out with another kick and a quick jab at the other woman’s crow like helmet.
“Heee, got guts, I'll give you that, but you don't get to be a Spartan on guts alone.” The woman ducked under the punch and delivered a teeth rattling palm strike to Josh's chin, the force of the blow tearing the neck seals and sending her helmet bouncing down the cave.
Shaking her head, Josh leapt forward again, watching her her opponent’s feet on the sandy floor of the cave. “True, you need to be able to out think your enemy.”
The woman laughed. “Yeah, you talk the talk, but can you walk the walk sexy?” she asked, delivering a painful snap kick to her side.
Josh's brain almost came to a crashing halt, but not from the kick.
Did the other Spartan just call her sexy? Shaking her head she pushed the thought away, she was just trying to distract her.
Yeah, that was it.
But distraction or no, she could feel herself starting to tire, her right arm was still screaming bloody murder and she could feel that at least one of her ribs were busted. Looking back to the ground she grinned and stomped her foot down, screwing up her eyes as she set off one of the flash bang traps.
“What th- AHHHH YOU FOOL!” The other woman screamed, and crashed to the ground clawing at her visor as Josh threw herself in her direction, even with her eyes closed she was still seeing spots.
Straddling the other woman’s waist as she thrashed, Josh garbed a grenade from her belt, showing it under the other woman’s breast plate and rolling to one side as she pulled the pin.
There was a noise that could only be described as “splort” as the paint grenade went off, making the Spartan as dead in a neon shade of pink. Panting, Josh slid against the wall. “See.... I... win.” she wheezed, feeling her broken ribs press against her lung, the adrenalin of the fight draining away to leave behind pain.
The Other woman sat up and looked down at herself, now Josh had a chance to look properly, she say the other Spartans armour was a mix of parts, ranging from a scout model helmet to those bulky E.O.D shoulder pads, it's once light brown colouring marred with red dust and pink paint.
Swearing the other woman pulled off her helmet, coppery red hair tied in a lose pigtail falling out as blinked her green eyes furiously to get rid of the after effects of the flash bang. “Pink.... you made my armour friken pink?” she muttered.
“Technically.... with all the dust... it's lightish red.” Josh replied between pained gasps.
The other woman grumbled and walked over. “You okay down there?” she asked, nudging her foot.
“Don't think so... ribs maybe busted... short of breath.... need to redo arm.... I'ma gona pass out now.” Josh closed her eyes, falling down and slipping into painless realm of unconsciousness.
* * *
The first thing she was aware of when she woke back up as she didn't hurt as much as she did when she blacked out.
The second was she was a little cold and she could hear water off in the distance.
Sitting up she winced as her entire right side throbbed in pain, the cold air on her skin helping to alleviate the pain a little.
Wait... cold air on skin? Josh looked down to see someone had pulled off her armour and removed the under suit to bandage her up and had been unable to pull the undersuit back on, so they left her topless.
Letting out a startled squeak, she looked around for something to cover herself up when she heard a laugh. Turning around, she saw the other Spartan sitting next to the supply crate, in the light of a nearby lamp, she could see her freckled face and the large scar that ran over the bridge of her nose as the woman chewed on a MRE. “Relax princess, we're both girls here, nothing I haven’t seen before.” The woman walked over and threw a blanket at her. “Well, not in that size and all natural, but still.”
Grabbing the blanket and quickly wrapping it around herself, Josh tried to ignore the feeling of a blush creeping over her. “So... I won, right?” She asked, getting unsteadily to her feet and looking at the supply crate for a snack.
“Yep, pulled a cheaty ass trick to do so, but I was “dead” before you passed out. So grats.”
Josh's face broke into a massive grin as she pulled out a MRE reading beef curry and sat down. “I actually did it... wow...” as the information sunk in, she sat down,.
“Yep, so what’s the name?” The woman asked. “Heard the Sagre call you Princess a lot and I'm pretty sure half the names I could think up of would only piss you off... or make you do that cute blush again.” she laughed as Josh on cue, started to blush.
“I'm Josh, Joshua Greenway.” She muttered, cursing at how easy this woman was getting under her skin.
“Linda Sawyers.” The woman replied.” Wait.... Josh.... ooooooh. Biomodded?” She nodded as Linda lent back looked her up and down. “Wow, you really hit the jackpot then, all I got was the stranded “random super soldier” mods, but you...” Linda let out a low whistle.
“Wait... are you checking me out?”
Linda taped her chin for a few seconds. “Can you blame me?”
Now Josh's brain froze. “um... er...” Her mind quickly latched onto another topic of conversation. “If I won, why are we still here then?” she squeaks out, her ears flattening against her head.
“Because I have to wait for someone to pick us up after sending a beacon off and that’s going to be a while because the damn valley outside is flooded. Someone must of thought it would have been a bright idea to turn the rain in the dome on or something.”
“So we're stuck?”
Linda nodded. “For an hour or so, but on the upside, we no longer show up on anyone’s H.U.D.s so kick back and relax.”
Shivering, Josh started to pull the under suit back on, but had to stop when the tight material pressed against her ribs. “So... what are we going to do till then?”
“Well, what lead ya to join the fen's up here in space?”
Josh got comfortable and started telling her story, from her wavium accident, to coming to space, hearing about the war and eventually signing on to join the Spartans. “So that's it pretty much, nothing overly wow. How bout you?”
Linda shrugged. “Lived in England, got waved, joined the Spartans back when we were just search and rescue. War broke out and we were reassigned to search and destroy, hunt down hidden installations out in the belt cleaning them out.”
“That’s it?”
“That’s all you're getting with out a nice dinner.” The Spartan smirked.
“There is no stopping you, is there?” Josh laughed and shook her head.
“I like to think of it as one of my charms.” Linda stood up and stretchered. “I'll wait for pick up, feel free to nap or something till then.”
Nodding, Josh pulled the blanket closer around her and closed her eyes, drifting off to the sound of artificial rain.
* * *
Present.
Josh watched as Linda climbed into the airlock, her armoured form near filling it as she got to work on the control panel, humming over the short wave radio. Josh leaned over and tapped her shoulder. “Care to hurry it up? We have only four hours of air and it's starting to get ripe in here.”
“You can't rush this, the door hasn't been used in a while. If I screw up, there's a chance it will lock down and I don't want to waste what air we got finding a new door. So sit back and just enjoy the view.” There was a smirk in her voice as she wiggled her rear.
Shaking her head, Josh just laid back and watched the star scape. The giant rocks of the asteroid belt twisting and turning as they drifted through space, a line from Dr Who coming to mind.
“We're fallin' through space, you and me.” She muttered, holding a gauntleted hand to the back expanse, fingers spread. “Clinging to the skin of this tiny little world, and if we let go...”
She was brought back as Linda tapped on her visor. “Door's open, come on.”
Rolling over, she followed Linda into the airlock, luckily it was a double door affair, meaning they didn't have to worry about the sudden drop of air pressure alerting the Boskonians to their arrival.
While normally big enough for several people, the two fully armoured Spartans had to squeeze a bit as the outer door closed and the room pressurised.
“Linda?”
“Yes Josh?”
“Why are you molesting my ass?”
The other Spartan paused. “I thought it was the control panel?”
“No, that is my butt.”
Silence passed as the room pressurised,a small beep, the inner door opened and the two of them practically fell out,causing a loud clatter as they kicked up dust and struggled to their feet.
Josh looked around and saw they’re in what looked like a small antechamber, old boxes and duffel bags piled haphazardly everywhere. Walking over she peered into an open box to find it full of books, another clothes. “I'm guessing this airlock used to have a transport or something docked on it?” She asked, still poking around.
“Yeah, some mining operations can’t afford to strap fancy escape pods to the facility, so they buy old transports and have them docked at an airlock instead. Doesn’t always work though.” Linda made her way to what looked like a control console, wiping the dust off it and tapping some of the keys.
“Wait.” Josh pulled her helmet off and shook out her hair, taking a deep breath. “Linda, this place was said to be evacuated... so why is this shit still here?” She kicked a box slightly.
Linda looked up shrugging. “According to this, the escaped shuttle left without the civilians... maybe they took another one?”
“Then why leave all this stuff?”
“We can worry about that after I blind the sensor relay and the Ebon Shade has docked and we get some of my heavy gear off it, okay?”
Josh just gave a slight nod and wandered to the airlock, looking through the porthole and wondering which sparkling star was their ship.
* * *
Two Months ago
Mars
Mos Eisley Spaceport
Josh squinted into the harsh desert light as she wheeled the luggage trolley to the dock address Linda had given her, wishing ever so badly she hadn't drank so much last night at the party. Out of the original hundred or so, only ten recruits had graduated to full Spartans, the rest sent on their way and effectively told better luck next time.
It had been a surprise that after all the balls bustlingly hard training, the corps itself was rather relaxed. She remembered what one of the older Spartans had said. “It's simple, you don't give any old idiot a drivers license or a gun license, you only give it to those that prove they can do it safely, same applies to us. So now you're in, sit back and relax, you earned it.”
So she had, which lead to the discovery this morning that apparently super soldier boosts did not prevent one from getting stupidly drunk, it just took longer than normal. Meaning the hangover was hit a lot harder.
Pausing to get her bearings, she winced as the sleeve of her shirt moved against her fresh tattoo, the other reminder of last night's drunken festivities. Rolling the cloth up, she looked at the fresh ink on her right bicep. The Spartan corps insignia she had no problem with, it actually looked kind of bad ass... her problem was that below it was the kanji for princess.
“Gleah... never again.” She groaned as she let out a sigh and sat on the trolley, rolling her neck. “Where the fuck is docking bay thirty two anyway?” she tried to make out the numbers on the nearest building when a cheerful cry came from further down the street.
Looking up she saw Linda waving from a door she could of sworn wasn't there a few seconds ago, before heading over to her. “Ready to go?” she asked, a large grin on her face.
Letting out a sigh, Josh stood back up and gave the trolley a shove as she followed to the docking bay, mildly curious as to what sort of ship she would be on. She had heard the Spartans tend to use ships they salvaged and refitted themselves, so it could have been anything.
So it was an extremely present surprised when she entered the hanger to see what looked like a firefly class transport, it looked heavily modified, a nice layer of armour and a slightly more smooth hull, but the shape was recognisable by damn near any geek.
Linda grinned as she watched Josh's expression. “Say hello to the Ebon Shade, Ya like princess?”
All she could do in response was give a slight nod, her jaw slack as she moved towards it, running her eyes along the hull. When she eventually found her voice, a hundred questions popped out. “So how did you get it? What are the Quirks like? Is it modded? How show accurate is the interior?”
Holding her hands up, Linda laughed. “Whoa, settle down there girl, you’re almost as bad as Mackie.”
“Who's Mackie?”
“I be Mackie.” A voice came from the boarding ramp.
Turning Josh saw a tall paled skinned woman in a simple pair of grease stained overalls and an equally stained T-shirt that’s original colour was possibly lost to the mists of times. As she walked over, Josh could see that while she her self was an Amazonian build and Linda was more closer to traditional Spartans build, Mackie had almost a wiry build to her and moved like a great cat.
Holding out a hand, Josh gave it a quick shake as she spoke a hint of Scottish in her voice. “So you be the new gal Linda be going on about?”
Linda nodded. “Mackie is our other Spartan and grease monkey, Mackie? You give her the grand tour and get her set up while I see if the pilot is still pissed about the new quaters, kay?”
Taking her hand, Mackie led Josh into the belly of the ship. “First stop, the cargo bay, when we original got this ship, it was retro fitted as a luxury vessel... no idea why you make a Firefly class a personal space yacht, but who knows how thems with money think at times.”
Looking around, it was all Josh could do to keep her jaw from hitting the ground. She could see where the original crew had tried to make the ship look more formal, then she could see where the Spartans had pulled out anything that would have been a waste of space. “Does she have shuttles?” she asked, running a hand over a bulkhead.”
“Sadly no, they where pulled out, one fer a private lounge with view window, the other fer a water tank.”
Josh paused. “A water tank?”
“It be fer the shower and baths, there was a jacuzzi, but it was a bitch ta deal with so we ripped it out and added a billiards table.”
Before Josh could ask her about that, Makie half lead, half dragged her across the cargo bay and into the... she was never quite sure what is was meant to be on the TV show, there was the small med-bay, with the lounge out side and some quarters nearby. “Med-bay, had ta completely over haul it for our needs, off ta one side we have some extra quarters, but we just use them ta store junk. This way.”
Josh followed mutely, walking as if in a dream as she was shown the engine room, then galley. Pointing to the corridor that lead to the bridge, Mackie pointed out four doors. “Thats is were ya be sleeping and that, yer room be next ta Linda... so ye might want ta sound proof it.”
“Why do I need sound proofing?”
She gave her a grin. “Well, the rooms are a bit bigger than normal, so the walls are a tad thin.”
“Meaning?”
“Linda can get a wee bit loud when she is dealing with an “itch” if ya be getting my meaning.”
Josh's Ears stood straight out, a blush creeping over her face. “Oh.... oh my.”
Mackie droped down into a chair laughing as Linda entered followed by a mechanoid that was roughly human size, his body a simple two toned Blue and silver with some gold trimming, his head was a plain helm with faceplate and visor, but as a Transformer fan Josh knew who it was right away.
Before Linda could introduce the bot, Josh walked over offered a hand to the mech and smiled. “You’re Eject, right?”
The optics behind the bots visor dimmed as he blinked and laughed. “Wow, got it in one miss.” he shook her hand. “I am indeed Eject, pilot of this fine vessel and sports nut.”
“Sports nut?”
Mackie spoke up. “When fly boy aint doing his job, he's busy downloading any sporting even he can get his didgets on.”
Eject made a noise akin to clearing his throat. “Yeah yeah, I'm the sports then you are the gear freak.”
Linda raised a hand to indicate quite. “So, now you seen everything, what do you think?”
Josh Slowly turned around, then gave a grin that threatened to split her head in two. “So, how long to move all my stuff in?”
* * *
Present.
With a dull thunk, the Ebon Shade docked, a few seconds later the airlock opening as Mackie came out in full armour carrying a pair of P90's. “So, what’s the news?” he voice crackled over her helmet com.
Over two hours ago, Wraith squad had been deployed to take down a Boskonian coms relay built into an old mining facility in the asteroid belt. According to the intell, it had been abandoned as soon as hostilities had flared up and it was deep enough into the belt to make it a pain for anyone to get at.
Anyone but a Spartan.
Josh and her squad leader had hooked onto a small asteroid each. The idea was that two small impacts on the larger rock would go unnoticed as they then would bring down the sensor net to park their ship.
A great idea, well... it was her idea, so it was okay and a lot better then being fired at the base in a ODST pod.
But sadly, before they deployed, she had forgot to charge her e-reader and smart phone.
The batteries had died on both in the first fifteen minutes.
Setting a proximity alarm on her H.U.D. She let her mind drift back to day when she enlisted with the Spartan Corps
* * *
Seven Months Ago.
Mars.
Josh shivered in the cool morning as she made it into the assembly hall, looking at the ninety nine other hopefuls. Somewhere bio modded super soldiers, others where people with a fancy suits of armour while a handful had a mix of both.
Only two months before hand, she had been a he, a gangly he with bad eating habits and scruffy hair.
Then he hopped in an untested suit of Spartan armour, went face first through some jars of handwavium, a shed wall, a fence and then stopped by digging a five meter long crater in the road.
The doctors said if it wasn't for all the wavium he had took to the face, they probably would have had to give him a guacamole bath due to how messed up he was.
And now he gained a foot in height, had the body of a super soldier and was and elfin woman.
Oddly the woman part was the least of his worries at the time.
But that was then, now here she was, trying to become a Spartan.
She had passed the preliminary exams, simple psych and physical tests. Nothing overly fancy, but she still couldn't shake the impression that there was something missing, this all seemed too easy.
“ATENSHUN!” Bellowed a voice from the far end of the hall as one hundred people snapped to full attention, a squat man that seemed to sum up every singles drill Sergeant stereotypy in one short man, scared old man. “Alright ladies, my name is Sergeant Avery Dillon, but you will call me Sir!”
His gaze seemed to scythe through the assembled crowd as he continued. “Now only a few of you will get to be Spartans, plain and simple fact. My job along with a handful of trained experts is to spend the next five months breaking the weak and find which one of you maggots are worthy of being a Spartan, we don't care if you have the suit, the body or both! We want those that have the spark, the potential to be amongst the most deadly SoB's this side of the known verse.”
Josh only just suppressed a shiver, but her ears betrayed her nerves and the Sergeant swung his head to her, like a shark sniffing blood in the water. “You!” he yelled and pointed a finger at her. “What makes you think you deserve to be a Spartan?”
Swallowing she took a step forward. “Simple Sir. I wanted to help in the war and the only options were this or join the sailor scouts and I look stupid in a dress.”
There was a round of nervous laughter as the Sergeant scowled. “Looks like we got a comedian. Well excuse me Princess if I ain't laughing! Now drop and give me 50 for the smart ass comment, Princess!”
Cursing herself, she dropped down to the ground and started doing push ups, the Sergeant barking again. “And proper ones, no using those big old pillows of yours to cheat!”
This was was going to be a long five months.
* * *
Present.
There was a beep as her proximity alarm went off, jerking out of her trip down memory lane, she looked up and saw the target. The asteroid base hung in the night sky like a borgafied potato, airlocks and docking clamps covering its surface like a sprinkling of herbs.
Great, not only did I forget to charge my e-reader and phone, I must of skipped lunch in the haste. go me. She mused to herself.
As her makeshift ride drifted closer, she unhooked a line of high tensile wire from her belt and pulled the large gun off her back, smiling at the memory of how she got it...
* * *
Six Months ago.
Mars
Noctis Labyrinthus
Spartan Training facility Alpha seven.
“Princes, what the hell do you think you are doing?” Sargent Dillon’s voice echoed over the sound of gunfire on the firing range.
Josh felt the eyes of the other recruits on her as they turned to watch. They always seemed to enjoy watching the Sarge rip her a new one. She knew about the betting pool on when she would wash out. So she had made it her job to buckle down and put up with what ever was throw her way.
The Sarge stood a few feet from her, his narrow eyes glaring up as her. “That is an assault rifle in your hands Princess, not a fire hose, so why in the nine hells are you using it like one?”
This was one part of the training hadn't been looking forward to. She had learnt early on that one of her quirks made it near impossible to hit with nearly any gun she was given. Now it looked like she had to come clean about it.
“Sorry Sir, I think one of my quirks gave me stormtrooper accuracy.” Her ears folded nervously against her head.
“The why the hell didn't you grab a gun you can use?”
She blinked. “Pardon me sir?”
The Sarg pointed back to the range master. “Go and grab a gun you can use Princess, then get your pale ass back here and give me one reason why I shouldn't boot your ass out of here!”
Hanging her head, she put the safety back on the riffle and ejected the clip before heading back to the range master and looking over his range of guns. Her heart sinking as she saw sniper rifles, pistols and other weapons that required some level of skill or accuracy.
The Rangemaster, a rail thin man with a slight tan and five o'clock shadow saw her reaction and chuckled. “Maybe I can help ya miss.”
“How?” she tried hard to keep the disappointment out of her voice.
The rangemaster reached under the counter and hefted up a large case, popping the clasps, her opened and turned it to face her. Inside the shape foam laid something that looked like the bastard offspring of a pump action shotgun and an anti tank weapon.
“What the hell is that?” Josh whispered, looking at the weapon, taking in the shape and tooling.
“I call it Jorgmander. It's a hell of a beast, but near impossible for a normal person to use... Though you look like a big girl, so I think ya won't have a problem.” He placed a large box on the counter. “Here's the shells for it, see how well ya go.”
Pulling the shotgun free, she grabbed the shells and made it back to the firing range, feeling the eyes of the other recruits on her. Stepping up to the stall, she started loading the gun, aware that the Sarge was only a few feet away. Ignoring all the attention, she lifted the gun up, resting the stock against her shoulder, aiming at the nearest target, she took a breath and fired.
The first thing she was aware of was the noise, followed by the force of the gun jerking back into her shoulder.
The next thing she realised was that the target down the range was gone, only a few splinters remaining of the wooden cut out.
The Sarge coughed slightly. “Nice work princess, but next time, you think you could leave something for us to identify... or at least grade you on?”
A second target popped up, a cut out of a zombie. Aiming, she pulled the trigger and smiled as the legs vanished, causing the cut out to face plant.
“Well, seems Princess, you finally got a weapon that you can use. Hit the next five targets where I say and you will pass.”
Grinning like a loon, she lined up Jorgmander and pulled the trigger.
* * *
Present.
After loading a special round into Jorgmander, she rested the giant gun on the rock in front of her and fired. The recoil almost knocked her backwards, but she gave a silent cheer as she saw the grapple round impact on the asteroid. Waiting till the last second, she leapt free of the smaller rock, watching as it smashed into the asteroid before bouncing off into space.
Pulling on the line, she started to drag herself towards the base, digging her fingers into the rocky surface as her H.U.D. Pointed towards the nearest airlock. Slowly, not wanting to loose her grip and go spiralling off into space, she shuffled till she was pointing in the right direction and started to crawl forward.
Breathing slowly, she saw a second blip appear on her H.U.D. Freezing she pulled out a pen light and pointed it in the direction, quickly flashing out a message in Morse code.
After a tense few seconds there was a flash of a reply.
Olly Olly Oxen Free!
She flashed the message back and started forward, moving towards the airlock and her squad leader, possibly one of the most oddest Spartans she had ever met.
And possibly the most fun.
* * *
Three months ago
Mars
Noctis Labyrinthus
Spartan Training facility Alpha seven.
The rules had been simple, the fifty remaining recruits had been dumped in the maze of a canyon along that had been sealed off under a dome as part of the training facility, allowing recruits and Spartans to train with out worrying about carrying breathing equipment. They had been dropped off along with a handful of cargo pods containing supplies and armed with a variety of paint weapons.
When there was only twenty left, they would be taken onto the next level of training.
That had been two weeks ago.
Apparently Sarge was starting to lose his temper, as only fifteen recruits had been tagged as “out” so he had changed the rules.
Now there were ten Spartans let loose to help thin the numbers, with an incentive. if a recruit could drop a Spartan, that was an automatic pass. His words where “If you can pull a fast one on one of my Spartans, then there aint a damn thing left ta teach ya.”
Josh sat in the cave she had found, watching the blip of an incoming Spartan. In the first day, she stumbled upon a cargo pod full of food and flash bangs, she had only managed to take out two other recruits when Sarge changed the rules, so she had spent a day and a half filling the valley around her will simple trip wire traps.
Her H.U.D. Showed the other person was moving forward as a snails pace, probably disarming every tip wire they saw as not to get flash banged, meaning that she most likely had a Spartan after her.
Pulling back deeper into the cave, she grinned hoping like hell that her plan would work.
Eventually she saw the silhouette for a armoured figure enter the cave, she could just make out what sounded like swearing as they knelt by the entrance of the cave and started removing the traps, waiting till they were halfway up the tunnel, Josh stepped out from her hiding spot and tapped them on the head with Jorgmander. “I win.” she chuckled in her helmet.
She wasn't sure how it happened, but next thing she knew, her gun was spiralling though the air and her right arm was hanging limply at her side, her should screaming in pain as it was dislocated. The Spartan jumping back and shaking their head. “Nope, you Lose.” a feminine voice responded.
Right, this was going to hell fast.
Gritting her teeth, she slammed her arm against the cave wall, almost screaming as she brute forced her shoulder back into place before spinning on one foot and snapping a high kick at her opponent's head, the other woman staggering back to avoid the blow.
“Fucking hell, not one to give up easy, are you?” She commented, sounding slightly shocked.
“I busted my ass to get where I am, I'm not letting anything stop me.” Josh growled as she lashed out with another kick and a quick jab at the other woman’s crow like helmet.
“Heee, got guts, I'll give you that, but you don't get to be a Spartan on guts alone.” The woman ducked under the punch and delivered a teeth rattling palm strike to Josh's chin, the force of the blow tearing the neck seals and sending her helmet bouncing down the cave.
Shaking her head, Josh leapt forward again, watching her her opponent’s feet on the sandy floor of the cave. “True, you need to be able to out think your enemy.”
The woman laughed. “Yeah, you talk the talk, but can you walk the walk sexy?” she asked, delivering a painful snap kick to her side.
Josh's brain almost came to a crashing halt, but not from the kick.
Did the other Spartan just call her sexy? Shaking her head she pushed the thought away, she was just trying to distract her.
Yeah, that was it.
But distraction or no, she could feel herself starting to tire, her right arm was still screaming bloody murder and she could feel that at least one of her ribs were busted. Looking back to the ground she grinned and stomped her foot down, screwing up her eyes as she set off one of the flash bang traps.
“What th- AHHHH YOU FOOL!” The other woman screamed, and crashed to the ground clawing at her visor as Josh threw herself in her direction, even with her eyes closed she was still seeing spots.
Straddling the other woman’s waist as she thrashed, Josh garbed a grenade from her belt, showing it under the other woman’s breast plate and rolling to one side as she pulled the pin.
There was a noise that could only be described as “splort” as the paint grenade went off, making the Spartan as dead in a neon shade of pink. Panting, Josh slid against the wall. “See.... I... win.” she wheezed, feeling her broken ribs press against her lung, the adrenalin of the fight draining away to leave behind pain.
The Other woman sat up and looked down at herself, now Josh had a chance to look properly, she say the other Spartans armour was a mix of parts, ranging from a scout model helmet to those bulky E.O.D shoulder pads, it's once light brown colouring marred with red dust and pink paint.
Swearing the other woman pulled off her helmet, coppery red hair tied in a lose pigtail falling out as blinked her green eyes furiously to get rid of the after effects of the flash bang. “Pink.... you made my armour friken pink?” she muttered.
“Technically.... with all the dust... it's lightish red.” Josh replied between pained gasps.
The other woman grumbled and walked over. “You okay down there?” she asked, nudging her foot.
“Don't think so... ribs maybe busted... short of breath.... need to redo arm.... I'ma gona pass out now.” Josh closed her eyes, falling down and slipping into painless realm of unconsciousness.
* * *
The first thing she was aware of when she woke back up as she didn't hurt as much as she did when she blacked out.
The second was she was a little cold and she could hear water off in the distance.
Sitting up she winced as her entire right side throbbed in pain, the cold air on her skin helping to alleviate the pain a little.
Wait... cold air on skin? Josh looked down to see someone had pulled off her armour and removed the under suit to bandage her up and had been unable to pull the undersuit back on, so they left her topless.
Letting out a startled squeak, she looked around for something to cover herself up when she heard a laugh. Turning around, she saw the other Spartan sitting next to the supply crate, in the light of a nearby lamp, she could see her freckled face and the large scar that ran over the bridge of her nose as the woman chewed on a MRE. “Relax princess, we're both girls here, nothing I haven’t seen before.” The woman walked over and threw a blanket at her. “Well, not in that size and all natural, but still.”
Grabbing the blanket and quickly wrapping it around herself, Josh tried to ignore the feeling of a blush creeping over her. “So... I won, right?” She asked, getting unsteadily to her feet and looking at the supply crate for a snack.
“Yep, pulled a cheaty ass trick to do so, but I was “dead” before you passed out. So grats.”
Josh's face broke into a massive grin as she pulled out a MRE reading beef curry and sat down. “I actually did it... wow...” as the information sunk in, she sat down,.
“Yep, so what’s the name?” The woman asked. “Heard the Sagre call you Princess a lot and I'm pretty sure half the names I could think up of would only piss you off... or make you do that cute blush again.” she laughed as Josh on cue, started to blush.
“I'm Josh, Joshua Greenway.” She muttered, cursing at how easy this woman was getting under her skin.
“Linda Sawyers.” The woman replied.” Wait.... Josh.... ooooooh. Biomodded?” She nodded as Linda lent back looked her up and down. “Wow, you really hit the jackpot then, all I got was the stranded “random super soldier” mods, but you...” Linda let out a low whistle.
“Wait... are you checking me out?”
Linda taped her chin for a few seconds. “Can you blame me?”
Now Josh's brain froze. “um... er...” Her mind quickly latched onto another topic of conversation. “If I won, why are we still here then?” she squeaks out, her ears flattening against her head.
“Because I have to wait for someone to pick us up after sending a beacon off and that’s going to be a while because the damn valley outside is flooded. Someone must of thought it would have been a bright idea to turn the rain in the dome on or something.”
“So we're stuck?”
Linda nodded. “For an hour or so, but on the upside, we no longer show up on anyone’s H.U.D.s so kick back and relax.”
Shivering, Josh started to pull the under suit back on, but had to stop when the tight material pressed against her ribs. “So... what are we going to do till then?”
“Well, what lead ya to join the fen's up here in space?”
Josh got comfortable and started telling her story, from her wavium accident, to coming to space, hearing about the war and eventually signing on to join the Spartans. “So that's it pretty much, nothing overly wow. How bout you?”
Linda shrugged. “Lived in England, got waved, joined the Spartans back when we were just search and rescue. War broke out and we were reassigned to search and destroy, hunt down hidden installations out in the belt cleaning them out.”
“That’s it?”
“That’s all you're getting with out a nice dinner.” The Spartan smirked.
“There is no stopping you, is there?” Josh laughed and shook her head.
“I like to think of it as one of my charms.” Linda stood up and stretchered. “I'll wait for pick up, feel free to nap or something till then.”
Nodding, Josh pulled the blanket closer around her and closed her eyes, drifting off to the sound of artificial rain.
* * *
Present.
Josh watched as Linda climbed into the airlock, her armoured form near filling it as she got to work on the control panel, humming over the short wave radio. Josh leaned over and tapped her shoulder. “Care to hurry it up? We have only four hours of air and it's starting to get ripe in here.”
“You can't rush this, the door hasn't been used in a while. If I screw up, there's a chance it will lock down and I don't want to waste what air we got finding a new door. So sit back and just enjoy the view.” There was a smirk in her voice as she wiggled her rear.
Shaking her head, Josh just laid back and watched the star scape. The giant rocks of the asteroid belt twisting and turning as they drifted through space, a line from Dr Who coming to mind.
“We're fallin' through space, you and me.” She muttered, holding a gauntleted hand to the back expanse, fingers spread. “Clinging to the skin of this tiny little world, and if we let go...”
She was brought back as Linda tapped on her visor. “Door's open, come on.”
Rolling over, she followed Linda into the airlock, luckily it was a double door affair, meaning they didn't have to worry about the sudden drop of air pressure alerting the Boskonians to their arrival.
While normally big enough for several people, the two fully armoured Spartans had to squeeze a bit as the outer door closed and the room pressurised.
“Linda?”
“Yes Josh?”
“Why are you molesting my ass?”
The other Spartan paused. “I thought it was the control panel?”
“No, that is my butt.”
Silence passed as the room pressurised,a small beep, the inner door opened and the two of them practically fell out,causing a loud clatter as they kicked up dust and struggled to their feet.
Josh looked around and saw they’re in what looked like a small antechamber, old boxes and duffel bags piled haphazardly everywhere. Walking over she peered into an open box to find it full of books, another clothes. “I'm guessing this airlock used to have a transport or something docked on it?” She asked, still poking around.
“Yeah, some mining operations can’t afford to strap fancy escape pods to the facility, so they buy old transports and have them docked at an airlock instead. Doesn’t always work though.” Linda made her way to what looked like a control console, wiping the dust off it and tapping some of the keys.
“Wait.” Josh pulled her helmet off and shook out her hair, taking a deep breath. “Linda, this place was said to be evacuated... so why is this shit still here?” She kicked a box slightly.
Linda looked up shrugging. “According to this, the escaped shuttle left without the civilians... maybe they took another one?”
“Then why leave all this stuff?”
“We can worry about that after I blind the sensor relay and the Ebon Shade has docked and we get some of my heavy gear off it, okay?”
Josh just gave a slight nod and wandered to the airlock, looking through the porthole and wondering which sparkling star was their ship.
* * *
Two Months ago
Mars
Mos Eisley Spaceport
Josh squinted into the harsh desert light as she wheeled the luggage trolley to the dock address Linda had given her, wishing ever so badly she hadn't drank so much last night at the party. Out of the original hundred or so, only ten recruits had graduated to full Spartans, the rest sent on their way and effectively told better luck next time.
It had been a surprise that after all the balls bustlingly hard training, the corps itself was rather relaxed. She remembered what one of the older Spartans had said. “It's simple, you don't give any old idiot a drivers license or a gun license, you only give it to those that prove they can do it safely, same applies to us. So now you're in, sit back and relax, you earned it.”
So she had, which lead to the discovery this morning that apparently super soldier boosts did not prevent one from getting stupidly drunk, it just took longer than normal. Meaning the hangover was hit a lot harder.
Pausing to get her bearings, she winced as the sleeve of her shirt moved against her fresh tattoo, the other reminder of last night's drunken festivities. Rolling the cloth up, she looked at the fresh ink on her right bicep. The Spartan corps insignia she had no problem with, it actually looked kind of bad ass... her problem was that below it was the kanji for princess.
“Gleah... never again.” She groaned as she let out a sigh and sat on the trolley, rolling her neck. “Where the fuck is docking bay thirty two anyway?” she tried to make out the numbers on the nearest building when a cheerful cry came from further down the street.
Looking up she saw Linda waving from a door she could of sworn wasn't there a few seconds ago, before heading over to her. “Ready to go?” she asked, a large grin on her face.
Letting out a sigh, Josh stood back up and gave the trolley a shove as she followed to the docking bay, mildly curious as to what sort of ship she would be on. She had heard the Spartans tend to use ships they salvaged and refitted themselves, so it could have been anything.
So it was an extremely present surprised when she entered the hanger to see what looked like a firefly class transport, it looked heavily modified, a nice layer of armour and a slightly more smooth hull, but the shape was recognisable by damn near any geek.
Linda grinned as she watched Josh's expression. “Say hello to the Ebon Shade, Ya like princess?”
All she could do in response was give a slight nod, her jaw slack as she moved towards it, running her eyes along the hull. When she eventually found her voice, a hundred questions popped out. “So how did you get it? What are the Quirks like? Is it modded? How show accurate is the interior?”
Holding her hands up, Linda laughed. “Whoa, settle down there girl, you’re almost as bad as Mackie.”
“Who's Mackie?”
“I be Mackie.” A voice came from the boarding ramp.
Turning Josh saw a tall paled skinned woman in a simple pair of grease stained overalls and an equally stained T-shirt that’s original colour was possibly lost to the mists of times. As she walked over, Josh could see that while she her self was an Amazonian build and Linda was more closer to traditional Spartans build, Mackie had almost a wiry build to her and moved like a great cat.
Holding out a hand, Josh gave it a quick shake as she spoke a hint of Scottish in her voice. “So you be the new gal Linda be going on about?”
Linda nodded. “Mackie is our other Spartan and grease monkey, Mackie? You give her the grand tour and get her set up while I see if the pilot is still pissed about the new quaters, kay?”
Taking her hand, Mackie led Josh into the belly of the ship. “First stop, the cargo bay, when we original got this ship, it was retro fitted as a luxury vessel... no idea why you make a Firefly class a personal space yacht, but who knows how thems with money think at times.”
Looking around, it was all Josh could do to keep her jaw from hitting the ground. She could see where the original crew had tried to make the ship look more formal, then she could see where the Spartans had pulled out anything that would have been a waste of space. “Does she have shuttles?” she asked, running a hand over a bulkhead.”
“Sadly no, they where pulled out, one fer a private lounge with view window, the other fer a water tank.”
Josh paused. “A water tank?”
“It be fer the shower and baths, there was a jacuzzi, but it was a bitch ta deal with so we ripped it out and added a billiards table.”
Before Josh could ask her about that, Makie half lead, half dragged her across the cargo bay and into the... she was never quite sure what is was meant to be on the TV show, there was the small med-bay, with the lounge out side and some quarters nearby. “Med-bay, had ta completely over haul it for our needs, off ta one side we have some extra quarters, but we just use them ta store junk. This way.”
Josh followed mutely, walking as if in a dream as she was shown the engine room, then galley. Pointing to the corridor that lead to the bridge, Mackie pointed out four doors. “Thats is were ya be sleeping and that, yer room be next ta Linda... so ye might want ta sound proof it.”
“Why do I need sound proofing?”
She gave her a grin. “Well, the rooms are a bit bigger than normal, so the walls are a tad thin.”
“Meaning?”
“Linda can get a wee bit loud when she is dealing with an “itch” if ya be getting my meaning.”
Josh's Ears stood straight out, a blush creeping over her face. “Oh.... oh my.”
Mackie droped down into a chair laughing as Linda entered followed by a mechanoid that was roughly human size, his body a simple two toned Blue and silver with some gold trimming, his head was a plain helm with faceplate and visor, but as a Transformer fan Josh knew who it was right away.
Before Linda could introduce the bot, Josh walked over offered a hand to the mech and smiled. “You’re Eject, right?”
The optics behind the bots visor dimmed as he blinked and laughed. “Wow, got it in one miss.” he shook her hand. “I am indeed Eject, pilot of this fine vessel and sports nut.”
“Sports nut?”
Mackie spoke up. “When fly boy aint doing his job, he's busy downloading any sporting even he can get his didgets on.”
Eject made a noise akin to clearing his throat. “Yeah yeah, I'm the sports then you are the gear freak.”
Linda raised a hand to indicate quite. “So, now you seen everything, what do you think?”
Josh Slowly turned around, then gave a grin that threatened to split her head in two. “So, how long to move all my stuff in?”
* * *
Present.
With a dull thunk, the Ebon Shade docked, a few seconds later the airlock opening as Mackie came out in full armour carrying a pair of P90's. “So, what’s the news?” he voice crackled over her helmet com.
Neph: I wanna fight!