An HFY Tale: Drop Pod Green

Rhidi had to try very, very hard to not look down her nose at Sergeant Flores.

It wasn't that Rhidi thought less of the Human woman, but she was just so short.

Sergeant Flores was perhaps just over five foot one, barely, but had a face that radiated pure, unfiltered hate. She was a stung-Human, but she was completely normal save for her eyes; Being of middle American descent, Sergeant Flores had honey colored skin and dark black hair that was tied up into a tidy bun, but her eyes…

Her eyes shone with a yellow the color of the burning Sol sun, rippling with oranges that threatened to set Rhidi on fire if she kept looking down at her. The Human must have been compensating for her height via strength training, as Rhidi had never seen a female Human with biceps like that before.

"What are you staring at, Private Rhidi?" Sergeant Flores growled out, snapping Rhidi from her mental reverie.

Rhidi blinked her eyes, then made the mistake of bending over slightly to look down at Sergeant Flores. "Er… nothing, Ser-"

"Invert!" Sergeant Flores bellowed, pointing at a space on the wall. "Invert yourself!"

Rhidi looked around in a panic, though Alias and Shasta looked as confused as she was. "I-Invert?!"

"Invert, Sergeant!" Sergeant Flores howled, rearing up a heavy combat boot and slamming it against Rhidi's stomach. "You like looking down at me so much, now you can look up at me!"

The shearling jacket took a lot of the brunt out of the kick, but Rhidi still let out a "Oomf!" of air being forced from her lungs, and stumbled backwards.

"Invert yourself!" Sergeant Flores screamed again, then pointed to Alias. "What are you looking at?!"

"Nothing, Drill Sergeant!" Alias barked out, then squeezed his eyes shut as he heard Sergeant Flores inhale in rage.

"Drill Sergeant?" Sergeant Flores hissed as her eyes flared even brighter, a vein bulging and crawling across her neck. "Drill Sergeant?! Invert with the Kafya, now!"

Rhidi, letting out a small wheeze, still didn't know what to do, but "invert" usually meant to flip around, so…

She went ass to the wall, kicked up her feet, and started doing a handstand.

"The Kafya did it before the Pwah!" Sergeant Flores shouted in mock elation and surprise. "And here I thought you spelves were the smart ones! Invert yourself!"

Alias, trying to avoid catching a kick of his own, scrambled over to Rhidi and followed suit, running his boots up along the bulkhead until he was standing on his hands as well.

"I don't like her…" Alias muttered to Rhidi under his breath, his arms already shaking from the awkward position.

Rhidi heard a titter from within the large office, and Sergeant Flores spun around like a hunting dog scenting new prey.

"Who fucking did that?!" Sergeant Flores bawled, stomping over to where she had heard the quiet sound of humor. "Someone in this fucking office think something is funny?!"

Avlov, her face set, subtly raised a finger and pointed at Inthur.

Rhidi grinned at the Human; They had first met while… well. They had been using the same latrine one morning during training, and was the only Human she had ever seen eat while using an outdoor shittery.

To Sergeant Flores's delight, Inthur was tall.

"Invert yourself, big tits!" Sergeant Flores screeched, pointing to the wall behind Inthur. "I hope those fucking things suffocate you!"

Inthur's joy at seeing Rhidi punished turned to panic and pain as she had to figure out how to properly invert herself, and ended up coming out at a hard angle, more akin to an elevated plank.

"In-vert!" Sergeant Flores aggressively hissed down at Inthur, bending over at the waist and looking down at the blue furred Kafya while placing her boot on Inthur's head, shoving her back towards the wall. "Get that fat ass in the air, I want to look through it like a window!"

Rhidi found herself feeling a pang of pity for Inthur, watching as the heavy combat boot completely fucked up her braided hair. Only one phrase felt accurate, one she had learned from the other recruits.

"Gatdamn." Rhidi hushed out in a whisper, watching as Sergeant Flores shoved Inthur flat to the wall.

"Spread your legs and open the window!" Sergeant Flores barked down at Inthur. "I want to feel a nice breeze!"

Inthur, exhaling out in shuddering, pouting pants, spread her legs in a Y as best as she could, her thighs trembling as her tail hung awkwardly above her. This in turn caused her rather generous badonk to wobble a little, something that was causing Pobilo to almost laugh.

"Close the window!" Sergeant Flores yelled down at Inthur, and the Kafya obeyed with a few shakey jerks of her legs, bringing her feet together.

"Open the window!"

Inthur let out a quiet, embarrassed whine, slowly opening her legs with faltering movements. As soon as she had them fully spread again, the voice from on high sounded down at her once again.

"Close the window! Open it! Close! Open!"

The blue Kafya was sweating from the effort, keeping her eyes locked forward and biting at her lip to stay quiet. Imridit, beside her, was having to exhaust the same effort not to cry, as Sergeant Flores scared the ever loving hell out of her.

Rhidi heard a door open from the other side of the office, where their Platoon Sergeant and Platoon Officer shared a large work space.

Sergeant First Class Bloodmourne and Lieutenant Brightberry came out of their office to see one of their Sergeants berating their new Privates, the other NCOs standing back against the wall and idly sharing a pack of chips as they watched.

"They must have bent their knees or something." Lieutenant Brightberry said with a soft smile, his voice so light that Rhidi actually looked over to see who it belonged to.

Lieutenant Brightberry was a thin man with a smart haircut, keeping his brown hair cut close with a little bit of length on top. He was obviously a scholar of some sort, as his hands lacked the usual abrasions that came with hard work, and his blue eyes were as soft as his voice.

"I would wager they fell for her classic trap." Sergeant First Class Bloodmourne mused, his voice far lower and grumblier. "She always waits for someone to fuck up and ask her what 'invert' means."

Sergeant First Class Bloodmourne looked every bit the bear he sounded like, with black hair and brown eyes that were as hard as his stature.

Rhidi thought that she could likely fit two Lieutenant Brightberrys side by side behind the man, and she would only see their boots poking out.

Lieutenant Brightberry cleared his throat, and Sergeant Flores spun around, coming to attention in front of the struggling Inthur. "Sir! All new personnel are accounted for."

"Thank you, Sergeant." Lieutenant Brightberry said, with an air of 'Why are you like this?' lingering on the words. He turned to the room, looking at the equally struggling Rhidi and Alias. "Recover, Privates."

Inthur fell face first into the carpet of the deck, her legs spreading further with an uncomfortable pang of stretched muscles. Rhidi and Alias were spared the same fate by the timely arrival of Shasta's hands, helping them both to their feet.

The rattle of Shasta's soda tab string caught Lieutenant Brightberry's attention, and he squinted his eyes at the Lilgara.

"Private Shasta… what is that?" Lieutenant Brightberry asked, pointing to the long, long string of soda pull tabs.

Shasta went to attention, closed fists to his sides. "They are… I don't quite know sssir, my Drill Sergeants made me wear them!"

"Why would they make you wear a long loop of soda tabs?" Lieutenant Brightberry asked again, more confused by the answer than how he began.

Sergeant First Class Bloodmourne leaned a few inches towards his commanding officer, clearing his throat softly. "Sir, Shasta is a brand of classic soda currently being produced by the same companies that make old fashion soda brands, Nichols, Moxie and the like. They sell them at gas stations, feed stores, et cetera."

"Ah." Lieutenant Brightberry said, his eyes flaring with understanding. "My apologies Private, I don't really shop at those kinds of stores."

Sergeant First Class Bloodmourne raised his eyebrows in a "I bet" kind of gesture, while the other NCOs closed their eyes in silent humor.

"Well…" Lieutenant Brightberry said, gesturing lightly at Shasta. "Do you… like your soda tabs?"

Shasta had to think for a moment; He didn't exactly like them, but he carried the damn things the entire way through basic training.

"I like them, sssir." Shasta replied with a nod.

Lieutenant Brightberry blinked, then shrugged. "Awrighty then. Well, I'd like to welcome you all to 1st Company's 2nd Platoon. You've met Sergeant Flores already."

Sergeant Flores bared her teeth at them all, and no one matched her gaze.

"She commands 1st Pod Section. Our 2nd Pod Section is overseen by Sergeant Armadi, 3rd by Sergeant Grin, and 4th is commanded by Staff Sergeant Polish. We are of course the 2nd Platoon of eight, your new training Company filling in the spots we needed. We are under the command of Drop Officer Duluth, a fine man with an expansive combat record, and First Sergeant Lower." Lieutenant Brightberry said to them all politely, his smile easy and friendly. "This is quite new to us all, as we were usually stationed inside heavy cruisers. As you may have been told, this is a Murphy Class assault corvette, and we are… well. How would you put it, Sergeant First Class?"

Sergeant First Class Bloodmourne shrugged his shoulders. "We are a parasite ship designed solely around the deployment and support of heavy onslaught infantry."

"Accurate statement my good man." Lieutenant Brightberry said in a delighted tone, wiggling the other man's elbow to annoy him. "You may have been told otherwise, but we will be working in tandem with two other assault corvettes, two infantry carriers, three heavy cruisers, the Moose, and one patrol carrier. The infantry carriers will be carting around a Division each, with the patrol carrier holding a standard amount of fighters, bombers, and other such strike craft. We will stay stuck to the Moose until we are called upon, in which we will then deploy. The Wild Hunt is to be your home, and should be treated as such with respect. All your armor is on board, as well as your weapons, and you are allowed to stay in civilian attire unless we are alerted to a combat footing. If such an alert goes out, you will not wear your garrison uniform, you will only wear that if you leave The Wild Hunt. Instead, you will wear your IB suit. When we get orders to drop, you will then get armored and prepare for the signal to get in your pods."

"You may be confused by the lack of a garrison uniform while on board." Sergeant First Class Bloodmourne said, taking advantage of the pause Lieutenant Brightberry left him. "This is due to our duty. We will be dropping into the enemy, and despite our armor there is still a high fatality rate in comparison to our duty numbers. This has caused high command to allow only heavy onslaught infantry the allowance of being on duty in civilian clothing. However, if you leave the ship for any reason, you are to wear a garrison uniform so you can be identified while off ship."

Lieutenant Brightberry nodded. "That is, on other military vessels. If we arrive at a station, you may wear civilian clothing if you are off duty and not required to be onboard The Wild Hunt. We have our own Marines and Void Navy personnel, and they will treat you differently. Perhaps with more respect than the others." He gestured beyond the door of their Platoon office. "We have a PX on board with most staples, a large DFAC where you will eat four times a day, and you will always train in the gym every day we are on board. There is a small range on this ship so you may practice, an entertainment area, a small movie theatre, and our own little cafe."

"The cafe is staffed by civilians, same as the PX and a few other areas on board, so treat them with respect." Sergeant First Class Bloodmourne said as he folded his arms. "The library will be used with the same respect, as we have printed books there for you to read if you get to that level of boredom."

"Sergeants, take command of your Pod Sections and show them around. Tomorrow we will meet at 0700hrs for a small morning meeting for head count, then you will fall into the routine." Lieutenant Brightberry said. "Morning meetings, head count, physical training, morning chow, and so on. Dismissed."

Rhidi, having very little time to take it all in, did notice a few key elements; All of the non-NCOs in this Platoon were from her training Company, something she took heart in, and all the NCOs were obvious combat veterans judging by their demeanor.

Before she could notice much else, Sergeant Flores snapped her fingers.

"Let's go! Into the alleyway!" She shouted, then clapped her hands together. "Out you go now! Out! Rhodil, Rhidi, Imridit, Avlov, Anfilid, Troy, Oin, Angel, Alias, Marides, Acici, Shasta, Woods, LeBlanc, Inthur, and Wheeler! Out!"

Rhidi piled out of the office with the rest of her Pod Section, and they had little time to get acquainted, or reacquainted for that matter, before Sergeant Flores started snapping her fingers again.

"Down the alleyway!" She shouted, shoving Shasta forward with a boot to the rump. "Tour time!"

Rhidi and the others were herded down the passageway, and she looked around as quickly as she could; Each Platoon had an office just like hers, all numbered accordingly, and something loud was going on in 6th Platoon's office.

She heard Dimili say something in Kafya-hi through the door, and knew it was nothing good.

She saw the office of Drop Officer Duluth and First Sergeant Lower, but could barely peek past the cracked doors before she was ushered down the passageway. They came out into a large Company area, a huge expanse of chairs, couches, desks, and tables.

"This is our relaxation area." Sergeant Flores called out in a bored tone, flicking her hand around. "All our rooms are small, so unless you are swapping bodily fluids you're going to be hanging out here to do anything worth doing."

Rhidi looked around as fast as she could; Small groups of Humans were watching movies around Qua-quid displays, others were watching odd little cartoons, while some were just snoozing on ground cushions. Very few of the Humans were wearing civilian clothing, and she reckoned those were veteran drop troopers. Around a few of the taller tables, Humans were locked in deep concentration, holding long, colored rods and looking down at what looked like a small, miniaturized town.

Very little else, besides another weird looking table with tiny people controlled by rods, caught her attention before she was ushered through the next alleyway, moving towards other areas of The Wild Hunt.

"These are all engineering and mechanical rooms, none of which are your concern, and you are not trained in them, so stay the fuck out of them." Sergeant Flores said briskly, then slapped down Alias's hand as he went to raise it. "No! Stay out of them, I don't care how smart you are."

Alias glowered at the short Human, rubbing his hand with his unwounded one.

They did a full circuit of the ship, with Sergeant Flores telling them to stay out of nearly ninety percent of it; Hangar? Off limits. Gun deck? Off limits. Flight deck? Off limits. On and on they went, with invisible barriers going up nearly every twenty feet.

"PX!" Sergeant Flores called out, pointing to the brightly lit shopping area that was like a gas station without walls. Sitting beside it was the small, open air cafe called 'The Dark Wood'. "You can go here after I dismiss you. They'll have data-displays for your rooms, movies, recordings, music, junk food, all that nasty shit you dumb Privates like to buy."

Rhidi saw with delight that a large rack of advanced data-displays were made for gaming, and perked her ears up at them.

"Why is she so mean?!" Anfilid hissed up at Rhidi, having been hiding behind the yellow Kafya with pinned ears. "Can't she just use a normal tone? She's talking to us like we're prisoners!"

Rhidi just reached behind her back and ruffled Anfilid's brown ears, soothing the Kafya with the touch of her Kholihl.

"Galley!" Sergeant Flores called out again as they entered a huge eating area, adorned with dozens of long tables with built in stools. "You will eat here four times a day, no exceptions! Your meals are tracked, and if you miss a meal I will know."

The kitchen was huge, state of the art with towering kettles, ovens, broilers, and flat tops. At the current moment the Void Navy cooks were all preparing their lunch, moving around in orderly chaos.

They moved past the galley into their own section, the main area of operations for the drop infantry on the other side of the offices; They were doing a big circle, afterall.

"This is our armory." Sergeant Flores said in a more normal tone, now that she was out of the icky Navy section. "State of the art and top of the line. These racks can armor four joes at a time."

Detecting drop infantry, the arms within the dozens of racks lowered their appendages, the grasping claws perking up and following the troopers like eager fingers.

"When the call comes you'll rush into these to get armored up, after which you will run down the reinforced center gangway." Sergeant Flores called out, pointing to the heavy duty aisle lane that had far thicker decking. "We run all the way down this to our pods. To get ahead of your future confusion, your armor and the pods have been painted drop pod green. The more you fight, the more scratches you'll have, the more evidence you'll have of your veterancy."

Rhidi and the rest of her Pod Section popped out to see the sealed pod bay, their pristine chariots sitting snug in their launchers. They were all painted in a slightly darker olive drab green, their edgings painted in black and blue.

"In the case of us getting ambushed, you will have to be quick with getting into your IB suits." Sergeant Flores said, turning right to make her way towards another door. "We will do drills from time to time in this room here."

They all came into the "Ready Room", a locker present for each drop trooper that held their IB suits.

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"You must be fast, you must be agile, and you must to be able to shed whatever the fuck you are wearing in record time." Sergeant Flores said loudly, gesturing around her. "If we get caught out, there are going to be tits and dicks flapping around here like a flock of startled birds."

Rhidi let out a chuckle, thankfully as everyone else did, and Sergeant Flores seemed to appreciate this one.

"Like that eh? Just thought of it." She said, then gestured past the Ready Room. "In here are the showers. Our showers. Drop infantry don't shower with Regs or Navy personnel. Beyond there is a drying room should you furry fucks need it. Questions?"

Everyone, including Rhidi, shook their heads.

"Good, be ready in the Platoon office by 0650hrs tomorrow morning." Sergeant Flores said with finality, then snapped her fingers again when no one moved. "Well go on then, fuck off!"

Rhidi and everyone else bustled out of the Ready Room via whatever door they could find, scattering out into the ship at large.

Rhidi found herself panting next to Acici, a Lilgaran female she had camped with during their first field training exercise. She was wearing pajama joggers, and a clean white t-shirt with little frills.

"Ssshe is such a pill!" Acici panted out, flaring her hood angrily. "I would have thought the Sergeants would be nicer once we were out of basic training!"

Rhidi let out an airy laugh as she fluffed out her jacket. "I would have thought so too, but we keep forgetting what military we joined."

"I guesss." Acici grumped, folding her arms across her heavy chest as Rhidi let out a hot breath, closing her eyes and looking up at the ceiling. Acici flicked her tongue out in frustration, then smoothed down her flared reptilian hood with a click of her tongue. "Do you want to go look at the PX?"

"Yeah." Rhidi replied, slipping her hands into her jean pockets. "May as well."

Rhidi and Acici started making their way back around towards the PX, nodding to other Void Navy personnel that were their same rank, greeting their NCOs, and saluting when the rank called for it.

They managed to get all the way back around to the PX with little harassment, though it did seem like the Void Navymen gave them a lot of… room. Rhidi glanced around from time to time, and saw that a lot of the other drop infantry were given the same kind of buffer zone.

Acici and Rhidi came back into the PX around the corner of the galley, the smells rather nice as they drifted out of the kitchens, but the two had something else in mind as they looked around the little shopping area. It was extremely tight work moving between the shelves and racks, only made worse by tails.

"I asssume you saw the plug-ins for a data-display?" Acici asked Rhidi, the Lilgara curling her tail around her leg to avoid it bumping into things.

Rhidi nodded, her own tail tucked between her legs. "I did. I assume with so much downtime, we should invest in a good one."

"It does make me wonder if we'll have accesss to any of the information data-bases, via connection I mean." Acici wondered, both of them coming before a large shelf riddled with different kinds of displays. "We'll be way out in space, after all."

Rhidi shrugged. "We have to download stuff when we can. I think the Humans have relays all over to bounce signals across."

Acici hummed to herself as she looked across all the data-displays with Rhidi; These were thicker and sported more hardware, the base being around four inches thick and a square foot. They had more components and more processing power than data-slates, as well as bigger screens. These came bundled with an external input board, as well as a "finger mouse", a sensor worn on the index finger that allowed a user to scroll or tap without touching the actual display itself.

"These play gamesss, right?" Acici asked, tilting her hooded head at one of the medium range ones. "I think the bigger ones support interlink play."

Rhidi snorted. "No way I am letting those bands wrap around my head. Humans may enjoy those games, but others who experience it call it 'dreaming while awake'. Sure it's… cool and all that, but honestly, what if it shuts off and you are still linked up to the game?"

"Humans have already thought about that." Acici mused, wafting her hands towards the data-displays. "Even before the Pactlesss invasion, they had made many animations about such things. Warnings and prophecy of a mind locked in simulation".

"You watched the old anime?"

Acici and Rhidi turned on their heels, looking around to a Human who was looking at a pair of boots nearby. He was clean shaven and wearing a pair of old fashioned aviator glasses, despite being inside an assault corvette, and his hair was hidden by a rather large, fluffy hat with ear flaps. Rhidi focused in on his skin tone, guessing he was either another middle American or middle Asianic.

He must have been off duty, as he was clearly part of the Void Navy judging by the kind of boots he was looking at.

"I watched them all on my data-ssslate when we graduated." Acici responded politely, smiling to herself as she took in the male Human.

"Did you ever get around to watching Dot Hack?" He asked, picking up a box of boots.

They were a size ten, Rhidi finding that quite surprising judging by his frame.

Acici raised her scaled brow ridges. "Dot hack? I don't believe I have… all I was able to really watch was Logged Horizon and Ssswordart Online."

"Ugh." He said, his face wrinkling. "Swordart was trash. Yeah sure the first few episodes were good, but it just petered off into inane bullshit after awhile."

Acici brightened at this. "Thisss is true! I did find the storytelling took a… how do you Humans say… a bit of a dive, yesss?"

Rhidi slowly turned back around, rolling her eyes; She had thought the cartoons were stupid, and she didn't see that changing anytime soon.

"You know, we do watch parties in one of the unused classrooms on Tuesdays." He said, tucking the box of boots up on his hip. "It would be pretty awesome if you could come! We haven't had any non-Humans on this boat yet, not like the Moose anyway."

Acici smiled, reaching out with a clawed hand. "That sssounds rather nice, actually. I'm Acici."

"I'm November." He said, reaching out and taking her hand with a broad smile.

Rhidi turned back around, yellow brows furrowed. "Like the month?"

"Yeah?" November replied.

Rhidi cocked one brow a little higher. "Did they name your siblings December and January?"

"Be nice." Acici giggled out, nudging Rhidi with her elbow.

"Man, Kafya are mean." November muttered, but started walking backwards towards the checkout desk. "Office 13CV, we start at 1900!"

Acici waved goodbye to him, grinning widely. "Alright! I'll sssee about it!"

"Are you done flirting?" Rhidi asked gruffly, picking up an advanced Edition 5 data-display. "You're as bad as Inthur."

Acici bickered at Rhidi for a bit as they chose their displays; Rhidi settled with the Edition 5, while Acici picked up an Edition 4. The only difference was the screen size, but Rhidi always liked seeing things better.

The checkout counter worker was kind enough to remind them that their rooms had a small fridge hidden in the wall near their beds, so both Acici and Rhidi gathered a small collection of drinks and snacks. With multiple sacks in hand and boxes under arms, Acici and Rhidi beat feet back to their rooms.

Rhidi still didn't have time to actually unpack, only having time to shove her ice cream and drinks into the fridge slots under her bed; She had just slipped the last can into its holder when the ship-speakers came on with a shrill whistle, followed by the sound of a triangle being struck twice.

Rhidi, ears perked, had no idea what the hell that noise meant, but figured it must have meant lunch… hopefully.

With her stomach grumbling and gnashing at her spine, Rhidi left her room once again and made her way back to the galley.

Rhidi had never seen a DFAC this lively before, the Void Navy cooks calling out cheerily and making open chatter with their sailors. Rhidi slipped into line, making sure there was another person in civilian clothing ahead of her.

He looked like a veteran, and she didn't recognize him either.

"Rather lively place." Alias said from behind her, and she turned to lean down and side hug the Pwah happily.

"Being on a ship again is so exciting! It's kinda weird being able to walk around though." Rhidi replied, waving at Shasta who was further down the line.

"I keep looking around for the handrails." Alias said in a bored tone as he tucked his hands in his pockets. "It's gonna be nice being able to sleep normally, Pwah ships use a sleeping cocoon to keep you from floating away."

Rhidi nodded in agreement. "Same with the Kafya. Felt like I was going to wake up with wings every time I managed to complete a REM cycle. Used to get super angry when someone wouldn't tie their tether correctly and end up bumping-"

Rhidi's ears perked up fully, as she picked up that everyone was saying a word before getting their tray.

"Space squid."

"Space squid."

"Space squid."

"Why are they saying 'space squid'?" Rhidi asked down to Alias, standing on her booted toes to try and see around the shoulders of the taller Humans.

Alias twitched a brow, looking up at Rhidi. "Space squid? What is that, some kind of code word?"

"They're all saying it before they get a tray…" Rhidi murmured, watching intently for the man in civilian clothing to finally get his own tray.

She had to strain her ears, but she heard him say a single word: "Dropper."

"Dropper?" Rhidi whispered out, then felt a tug on her jacket. She looked down and saw Alias looking at her expectantly, so she came down off her toes and leaned to the side towards the Pwah. "He said he was a dropper. When he got his tray."

"Guess we do the same." Alias said with another lame shrug, currently too tired to really give a damn about anything at the moment.

Rhidi, her nose being teased by the smells coming out of the galley, was nearly vibrating when she got to the first portion of the line, consisting of a cook doing headcount behind the trays.

He looked up at Rhidi with his finger poised over his data-slate, eyes bored and waiting.

"Dropper." Rhidi said proudly, reaching forward to take her tray.

The cook looked at her, confused, then his eyes alighted with understanding. "Oh! You're one of the new ones, fresh out of training right?"

"That's us!" Rhidi chirped. "Whole Company is up here!"

"Wild." He said, sticking a red piece of tape onto her tray. "You too, Pwah?"

Alias dragged out the word, giving the Human two waving thumbs up. "Drrropperrr."

The Human laughed, and stuck a piece of red tape on Alias's tray as well.

Rhidi started side stepping down the line, and there was a curious interaction with the cooks; They were a friendly sort, asking her how she was liking the ship and what she thought of her quarters, but they were serving her differently.

The regular Void Navy sailors were getting half a roast chicken.

She got a whole chicken.

Rhidi looked to her left, and Alias had gotten a whole chicken as well, though the Void Navyman behind him got a half chicken.

She started paying attention more when they started coming into the side options; The Void Navymen got one scoop of broccoli, she and the other droppers got two. Rhidi also got double the savory beans, greens, and two large hunks of freshly baked bread. This was compounded by a large bowl of fruit, a fiber bar, a bowl of skyr yogurt, a small scoop of butter, and a piece of pineapple upside down cake to round it all off.

"Stardust and rays…" Alias muttered from beside her as he was given his cake as well. "Why the hell are they feeding us so much?!"

A large male Human behind them, getting his drinks, chuckled, turning around to look at the two. "Because you need the calories. You're going to be strength training every day on this boat, and they don't want you losing any mass. You the new flesh?"

Rhidi and Alias nodded; The man was a towering six foot four, and Rhidi could have hidden two of herselves behind him. He had short black hair and black eyes that shone against pale skin, as if the world had stolen his colors and replaced them with the void and starlight.

"I'm Specialist Fredrick, veteran." Fredrick said, nodding his head sideways towards a table. "Come eat with the rest of us, the squids tend to get a little jealous."

Rhidi quickly stepped off after Fredrick, Alias right beside her as she tried to make her voice heard over the loud waves of voices and clattering from the galley. "Why do you call them squids?"

"Because it's tradition, of course." Fredrick said as he set down his cups. "Though they like to call themselves 'space squids'. We're specialized Army up here with them, and we tend to stick to our own."

A small collection of rough looking Humans at the table looked up, though their eyes became more curious than threatening.

"Well I'll be damned, it's one of our Dog Soldiers." A female Human said, her eyes of bitter amber and hair the color of fresh oakwood stain.

Rhidi couldn't help but let her face fall a few levels at the mention of such a name. "Dog soldiers? But… we did all the same training!"

The female Human chuckled. "No no hun, not dog soldier, Dog Soldier, like the movie!" She looked from Rhidi to Alias, her smile faltering slightly. "You… you have seen the movie, right? With the werewolves?"

"I thought we discussed only making those references after the second day, Uli." Fredrick said with a shake of his head. "I swear, it's in one ear and out the other since Mathis II."

Uli narrowed her eyebrows, her face outraged. "It was a bomb! A whole ass bomb! We all knew I was going to be forgetful afterwards!"

"This is Specialist Uli." Fredrick said, gesturing with a hand towards the fuming woman. "Then there is Specialist Wowan, Specialist Prake, Specialist Antilon, and Specialist Kruit. We were sent here along with your command to help and teach your Company."

Alias sat down heavily, leaning backwards with a sigh. "More to learn? I thought we learned enough down on Earth!"

"Not book work, how to operate within the field." Uli replied, taking a sip of her juice. "We're like guiding hands, here to see who else is Specialist material."

Rhidi had begun to not listen to Alias as he quipped back, instead focussing in on these Humans.

Wowan was just as massive as Fredrick, his hair bright blonde and eyes of dark blue. His arms were littered with spiraling tattoos that didn't make any sense to Rhidi, but she did see an otter playing around in the scroll work.

Prake was a pale Human as well, though her red hair was shaved short all the way around her skull except for a long tuft on the top, which fell over the right side of her head. Her face was heavily scarred, one of her green eyes a little duller than the other due to a long scar that ran across her eyebrow and nose, and Rhidi noticed she had quite a few metal teeth as she chewed her meal.

Antilon was a darker skinned male Human, maybe from along the equator since his skin was the same color as caramel, and had shiny black hair tied back into a short bun. His eyes were the same shade as his skin, and he seemed cordial enough as he smiled at Rhidi and gave her a small wave.

Kruit… looked like a rogue, or some kind of grizzled void pirate. He was lean on the muscle compared to the other two males, but had a kind of inner ferocity to him that shown out of his gray eyes. His dark brown hair was short in the usual military style, and the man had a few scattered scalp scars that presented boldly along his skull. He seemed to not pay Rhidi or Alias much attention, instead focussing on his food.

"Go get your drinks." Fredrick said with a wave of his hand. "And make sure the other droppers come over here with you."

Rhidi, knowing that the E-4 outranked her, nodded and set off to fetch her drinks. Like any other DFAC, this galley had a soda bubbler, though she had no idea what "RC" was. She pressed a cup under it to see what came out, and it ended up being some kind of cola.

She gave it a light sniff while waving at the other drop infantry in line, pointing to the table before filling up the rest of her glass, then filling the other with water. Rhidi sat down alongside Alias again, Shasta quickly jogging over to not be left out, and Fredrick looked up at them while tearing his bread in half.

"Surprised about the portions, I'm sure." He said, gesturing to their full roasted chickens.

Shasta shrugged as he sat down quickly, already ripping off a hunk of steaming chicken flesh and skin. "Ssseems fine to me!"

Specialist Wowan, Prake, Antilon, Uli, and Kruit chuckled, though Fredrick reached out and tapped at Shasta's tray.

"We get double protein and carb rations, unlike the squids." He said, taking a bite of his bread and gesturing with the rest of it. "Plus more butter. They'll just give you a hunk of butter no matter what we're eating, and you are expected to eat it. Your bodies are going to need the fat."

Prake sniffed after fully chewing through the mass of chicken skin she had shoved into her mouth, then snapped her greasy fingers to get the attention of the slowly growing mass of Privates at the table.

"You aren't going to get away easy with Drop Officer Duluth and First Sergeant Lower being on the same boat, along with their entire NCO staff." Prake said, ripping off a chunk of chicken flesh and smearing along her butter. "Those two brought their entire NCO command staff along with us to make sure all eight Platoons are run by combat veterans. You'll be training like us, which means you are going to be constantly hungry."

Fredrick chuckled. "They want their droppers strong, so unlike some of the other corvettes, we're going to be working out five times a week. Drop Officer Duluth and First Sergeant Lower like us to work out for an hour and a half in the mornings, then an hour and a half in the evenings. You'll workout before breakfast, eat, rest, have lunch, rest, work out, eat supper, rest, and then have your dropper-meal round ten at night so your stomach doesn't chew its way free of your body."

He continued to educate them on the usual daily routine, which involved a lot of time in the gym. When they weren't in the gym, they of course had the rest of the day to themselves, as there wasn't much else to do on the boat except eat, work out, and play video games. When they wanted to, they could visit the range and practice with their rifles, making sure their riflework was still up to snuff. They all cleaned their weapons and armor together on Fridays, which was also their Company movie night.

Prake appeared to be their workout leader, as she briefed them all on the more advanced workouts they would be doing; Landmine presses, lumberjack squats, it was full body workout after full body workout, and Rhidi could already feel herself getting tired.

"And I feel a need to mention it again," Fredrick said, picking up after Prake stopped and went to gnaw on her chicken carcass, "We are not Navy. We do not intermingle with the Marines or Void Navymen outside of casual contact during downtime. We don't go to their parties, we don't go to their scheduled unit events, and they don't come to ours. We are elite, and they are not."

Alias seemed confused at this, raising his hand a little to get the Human's attention. "Why is that, exactly? Why we don't mix."

"Squids only work out twice a week." Prake began, spitting out a chunk of tendon down onto her tray. "They have minimal weapons training, had no field training exercises, and never leave the ship. All they do is maintain systems and jerk off in the showers."

The Specialists all chuckled to themselves, even Kruit.

Fredrick took a drink from his cup, then set it down before looking to Alias. "They are worse than Army Regs, and are fussy creatures. The Marines are alright, and we'll be working out together, but they only see combat if the ship is boarded, or if the ship needs to board something. We stay out of their way. Our job, after all, is to drop down and clear out issues for the Regs, they clear out issues for the squids. Now all of you eat, we're running low on time."

Rhidi went back to her meal with a quickness, and while it was a lot of food, she took it down with relative ease. The RC drink was interesting, a dark cola that had a hard bite to it, and it went down easy.

As they were all preparing to leave, Fredrick tapped the table twice with his empty glass to get their attention.

"You'll have the rest of the day to yourselves, but we're going to be skipping out of here in about 30 minutes. I would advise heading to your rooms and getting in bed so you can go to sleep when we're done. How long was it going to be, Kruit?"

Kruit looked skywards for a moment as he searched for the memory, then nodded. "We're matching the skip speed of the Moose, so we'll be skipping for roughly four hours before we need to stop and let the engines cool. Should be a day-long cooldown before we can skip again, arriving at our first point of reference after a week or so."

"I still don't even understand how that shit works." Prake muttered, finishing her small mug of coffee. "Even now it all seems like a bunch of hooey-witchcraft."

Marides let out a small chuckle, catching the attention of Prake and the rest of the Specialists.

"It's not hooey-witchcraft." Marides began, pulling out a pad of paper. "You just tear a hole in spacetime using the Dedorik Effect."

Prake, her eyes hard, tapped a finger on her ceramic coffee mug. "Well now, doesn't that just answer everything."

"Let the spelf finish." Kruit grumbled, still drinking his own mug of coffee.

Marides smiled at Kruit, and continued on while marking down on her paper. "To make a long story short, the Kojynn star-watcher named Dedorik Lorika was trying, along with all of us, to find out how we could go near or faster than light. The skip engines could keep us all together and protected, but it was the getting there that was causing the problems."

"Then he did the 'oopsy'." Alias said, smiling up at Rhidi and Shasta.

Marides nodded. "He did, in fact, accidently turn on a piece of equipment normally used to excite atoms for experiments. Unknowingly, he had the laser set to an extremely fine setting that wouldn't really bother atoms much, but he had the laser pointed at something we had never known to exist before."

"The remnant nodes." Alias perked up, but Marides turned and slapped him across the shoulder with her patrol cap.

"Let me tell the damn story!" Marides barked at him, the light laughter of everyone else making her smile as Alias rubbed at his shoulder, annoyed. "He found the remnant nodes, yes. Small particles of energy that were not of our dimension. When he fired that very acutely tuned laser, it managed to hit a random remnant node, causing a split to rip open within spacetime and open our dimension to another. When we turn on our skip engines, we are also turning on a far more refined laser that rips the opening apart, allowing us to hit the rip."

Marides drew out a pair of lines, dipping along the paper like a rock skipping across water. "The first time we hit this rip, as in our ship actually entering it, we are sent screeching across space at hundreds of times the speed of light, squeezed between our dimension and the other. We plan out our route of course, to make sure we don't hit anything, and we are scanning the entire time while skipping. When we are moving, our skip-engines are keeping us in one piece. This generates a lot of heat however, as we are being slammed with friction on all sides. When we start to slow down and enter our dimension, we fire the laser again, hit the next rip, and take off again like a rock across water. We are not cold anymore, and are in fact quite warm, which affects how well we skip. While our first skip was, say, three hundred aaand… four, times the speed of light, the next skip is maybe two hundred and fifteen times the speed of light. When we start to slow down again, we make a new rip, and pcheow! We're off again, gradually slowing down as we become hotter and hotter. Most large military ships like the Moose can handle two to three hours of skipping, while more specialized craft can handle ten hours of skipping. I'd reckon that this corvette could handle six hours of skipping, but we are limited by our big battleship."

"... But what are we hitting?" Prake asked, still as confused as when the whole explanation began. "Remnant… nodes? Where do those even come from? Is this thing always going the same speed, or?"

Marides shrugged. "No idea. We just know that we can create the rip, and whatever is on the other side is hauling ass. I think the highest recorded skip was seven hundred times the speed of light, and that ship nearly got thrown through a planet."

Prake stared at Marides for a long moment, then turned to Alias. "So we're just skipping along another dimension like a rock being bounced across the water?"

"More or less." Alias said with a shrug. "It's quite safe and refined, as collisions have been reduced to near zero thanks to far more advanced scanners and arrays."

"Swell." Prake muttered. "I think I was better off not knowing any of this…"

Fredrick tapped at the table a little bit as he thought to himself, then turned to Marides. "So just how far are we going, then? In those four hours."

"Approximately…" Marides squinted for a second, doing the math in her head. "... I dunno, trillions of miles?"

Wowan snorted, pulling a beer can out from his pocket and cracking it open. "Well. Sure as hell beats walking."