Heavy Construct Brooklynn Chapter 4: Date

Nat awoke with a splitting headache, exacerbated by the harsh blue light forcing its way into her apartment. She remembered only having one drink last night, but her hangover clearly signalled more. She shielded her eyes from the painful light, turning her head as far away from the window as possible. In doing so she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. Her usual regulation short haircut was replaced by shoulder length black hair, the way it rested on her face sent her heart aflutter. She quickly looked down, blushing. She was still in her dress. Her mind froze; her window was wide open. Unthinkingly, she teared off her clothes and ran to the washroom, nearly tripping over her couch in the rush.

There, she prepared a shower. Nat didn’t even get to the shampoo stage. She stood unblinking letting cold water wash over her. Her mind blank. The ceremonial click when her seven minutes of water was up startled her. She stayed in place for a few minutes longer, wondering if anything was worth the head pain she was experiencing. She finally willed the courage to slump out of the shower and then stood, sink supporting her, staring in the mirror as she brushed her teeth. After that was done she did something she had never dared to do before, she walked to her safe, still unlocked from last night, and pulled out a stick of lip chap. Not only were her lips terribly dry from all the artificial, moistureless air of the Eridus, but this had a hint of red that nearly matched her natural lip colour. She gently applied the chap, erring on the side of too little rather than too much.

She was finally beginning to feel human when she approached her closet. She stood there paralyzed with fear. She had never been on a date before. That is what Rose had called it, a date. Her mind raced with all sorts of possibilities. Did she like Rose that way? What would happen if they hit it off? Did she want to fuck Rose or be Rose with her perfect eyes and large breasts? Is she lying to Rose by not telling her? She had never allowed herself to think these thoughts before. Her mind always a jumble of trying to stay alive, not get caught, and figure out how the hell she was going to become who she wanted to be. But Rose uttered the word date and suddenly her mind was ablaze with possibility. She forced herself out of this mind space by grabbing the nearest t-shirt she saw, it was plane and white. She figured it would be a good enough base and used it as a starting point. She then picked out a red patterned button up, she always liked herself in red and needed the confidence boost. She then moved over to her wardrobe and pulled out a pair of black denim pants. Satisfied once every thing was on, she double checked that everything was in her locked safe, she then left her apartment and began walking.

The coffee shop was in a prime location just beside checkpoint 4 into the middle zone. Its proximity to the middle zone meant that the shop was frequented by the people who worked in the upper class district while living outside. This influx of slightly more cash meant that the place could afford slightly better ingredients. They were able to keep costs low as occupation was listed on every bank card by republic policy. This allowed the shop to charge more for people who worked higher paying jobs which subsidized the restaurant for poorer customers. Nat had found the prices absurd when she first visited, but once the waitress explained this to her, she was happy to frequent the shop. The coffee was excellent and she enjoyed listening in on the conversations of other patrons. She had been warned however, to keep her job in the republic military quiet, there was a large streak of the clients who made their dislike of the republic clear.

Rose’s outfit stunned Nat. Her long red hair, usually tucked tightly in bun and hidden by a hardhat was flowing down in two large puffy pigtails. Seeing Rose in a dress was even more shocking. Its black colour suited her well and the small number of red polka-dots made her shine. Nat focused intently on Rose’s shoulders, the dress’s thin straps made them visible and Nat was instantly jealous. They housed a clear strength in them from her work as mechanic and yet the femininity of them caused Nat to yearn. Rose’s smile as she turned to face Nat was large and genuine. Rose made a big show of waving and bounced up to Nat.

“Hey! Who knew you actually had a bit of style sense in you” Rose bent down at the waist as she looked Nat up and down.

Nat chuckled as she returned fire “And who knew you had so much hair on your head, that must be hell to fit into a hardhat. I could not do that every day, though I wish I was allowed longer hair”

“Yeah, never understood that rule, its not like the rebels don’t board our ships or anything, so why are HC pilots special? But enough work talk, we do that enough, where’s the good stuff? You always tell me this place has good stuff”

Nat was slightly taken aback by the speed of her speech. “Pretty much everything, just don’t get the dark roast, you’ll hate how bitter it is.”

“Got it boss, no dark roasts, oh that iced coffee sounds good!” Her excitement brought a smile to Nat’s face.

Nat guided her to the register and before even opening his mouth the barista let out gruff, “I assume its a large dark roast for the toy soldier, but he brought a friend today, that’s unexpected, she’s cute, what’ll she have?”

Rose was taken aback by the tone of the barista’s voice and matter of fact style, “I’ll...uh...have the iced coffee. Large please”

“Okay, that’ll be 24 celestii”

“I’ve got it” Nat said as he brushed past Rose, attempting to look away from her shocked face.

Rose tried her best to appear civil in the shop but a small “You fucking better have it” left her lips.

Once they collected their drinks, they found a quiet place in the corner of the store where Rose was better able to articulate her anger.

“24 celestii for 2 drinks? This thing better get me off for how much you spent. Why do you come here so much they know your order when they clearly hate you?”

“Coffee’s good and I get to hear what real people think of us. Sorry i forgot to warn you about the prices, i wasn’t expecting her to announce it to you. There’s a bit of a...premium paid by republic military personnel” Nat was becoming smaller in the face of Rose’s onslaught. “But, take a sip, its worth it, I promise”

Rose looked indignant as she took a sip but the instant the drink hit her lips her face changed. “Okay this is in fact the best iced coffee i have ever drank, I’ll give you that, not worth what it cost though”

She smiled as she continued, “But why the sudden invite to here? You always seemed so reluctant to tell anyone about it before”

“Well” Nat paused and took a deep breath, “I think almost dying had something to do with it, I’ll be honest. I felt...like I should get to know you better in case anything happened. I think...you’re really cool and fun to be around, and...I would hate to not know your better” Rose struggled to hide the shock on her face, staying silent for several moments.

“Sorry, I guess I shouldn’t have said that, I’m not really good at this, I haven’t exactly had many friends” Nat was slumped over as she said it, her hand reaching of the back of her head.

“No! Its fine! Its just I wasn’t expecting it from you is all. You’re so solitary, even with me, that I wasn’t expecting something so...direct from you” Rose’s expression softened “I’d like to get to know you better too, you are the coolest person I know. So, how’d they get your poor ass in a pilot suit?”

A smile shot through Nat’s face. “I’ve always liked machines, wanted to be a mining construct pilot when I grew up as kid. When the officers came to my house and took me, HC pilot was really the only thing that spoke to me. Especially because the only other option they presented me was with infantry. And if I’m gunna be shot at, may as well be behind a bunch of metal. How’d you end up, what is it you guys call it, turning wrenches?”

“My dad was a mechanic, though just cars and motorcycles and stuff, I usually helped him around the shop and stuff and it seems they did their research before taking me because the only options they presented me were mechanic positions, I chose HC because I may as well see the galaxy while toiling my seven years away” Rose leaned back in her chair, taking a large sip of her drink. Nat couldn’t help but focus on her large chest.

“Oh my god, were you checking me out just now? Well two can play at that game. You’re lips looks redder than usual, do anything different?” She forcefully leaned forward, head sticking out.

“Uh what? No nothings different! maybe they’re a little redder from the moisture in the air!” Nat tried to act cool, it did not work, worry shot through her face.

“Relax Nat, its always surprising what gets you going.” Her statement was cut through with the beeping of both their pagers. Nat instinctively looked down and say the crawling message.

“ALL PILOTS REPORT TO ERIDUS BRIEFING ROOM IMMEDIATELY FOR EMERGENCY MEETING”

“Well shit, I wonder what’s going on” Rose said as she rose from her seat. “Can’t be good if they want an emergency check on all four HCs. So much for our day off” The two quickly exited from the coffee shop and made their way to where the Eridus was docked. They were shocked by the appearance of a larger white ship with an angular bridge rising out the back and a strange singular cannon sicking out the middle.

Nat briskly entered the briefing room, which was much more full that she had previously anticipated. On top of the Hunter Fishers and the captain, there was another two teams of heavy construct pilots, two unknown officers, as well as 6 people wearing nonstandard uniforms, the usual grey with black accents replaced with red with white accents. Nat began feeling unsettled. It was unusual for two ships to form up, three plus this mystery team would be unprecedented.

One of the red uniformed people arose from his chair and with gusto spoke. “Greetings all, for those of you who are unaware, my name is Commander Sleuce, I am combat coordinator for the RSS Falcion, a Sagittarius attack ship. I will be in charge of planning the next few months of your life. You’re all gathered here today as we will be launching an assault in order to dislodge the rebels from this area and establish a starhead to attack rebel held territory.” His gaze ran over the entire room sizing up the gathered people.

“As you are aware, rebel activity has increased dramatically in this section, especially with the destruction of a freighter and the subsequent engagement between an unknown HC type and the Eridus. I have taken the data from these various rebel raids and determined that they are centred in an area around here”

The man circled an area on the map behind him, it was quite a ways from the location of Gervin, Nat thought.

“The enemy has typically stayed far to the east of this location, preferring a defence in depth strategy to our one ship raids of their territory, but the attack on the Wilkan which led to the death of Lt. Aps and the rebels ranging far to the west has changed things. They’re planning something big for this area. We’re going to flood in and stop them. All four ships will enter the target sector in five days, attacking from differing angles. Our goal will be large former asteroid city that was abandoned after the rebellion. That is most likely their staging ground for these attacks”

The man’s boisterous nature was beginning to bore Nat, the rest was standard military tactics discussed in the most over dramatic way. The Eridus would enter the sector from the north and push south-east until it rendezvoused with the other ships right in front of the asteroid base eigth days after launch. What surprised Nat was when Captain Trihel was introduced and she got up to the lectern.

“With this operation, the Eridus and the Wilkan will have some personnel changes. Lt. Ranks is being transferred to take command of the Silver Hawks of the Wilkan. He will be replaced as commanding officer of the Hunter Fishers by Nathan Welks, who is being promoted to lieutenant in recognition of his quick thinking and command during the skirmish with the unknown HC. The Eridus would also like to welcome Ensign Williams to the Hunter Fishers.”

Nat was stunned. She hadn’t even gotten the kill in the skirmish, that was all Zira. Nat had trouble focusing on the rest of the briefing after that. Her head a spin of emotions. She was moving up in the military but what did that mean? She was never going to make the military a career like Trihel, she was in this for her seven years then she wanted to go pilot heavy machinery for construction, or mining, or really anything that wasn’t death. She purposely avoided her men on the way out of the briefing, her splitting headache returned to her. It wasn’t until she ran into Ranks that she was able to come back to reality.

“Welks, congratulations on the promotion, I know you’ll do well and keep them in fighting order. The Hunter Fishers are yours now.” He extended a hand, Nat shook it.

“Thank you, sir, I’ll do my best to keep them safe. Good luck on the Wilkan”

“Thanks Welks, its going to be an adjustment but I’ll manage, now I have to go oversee an HC transfer and get to know my men, see you out there”

Nat reflexively saluted her goodbye before finally joining the three men that were now her squad.

“Congratulations Sir!” Both Zira and Sime did extremely over the top salutes while smiling. They stood there, grinning like fools. Nat purposely waited a few extra moments before freeing them with a simple, “At ease”. The two then burst out laughing while a few chuckles left Nat’s lips. This small bit of revelry was broken up by a small high pitched voice.

“Wow, I can believe my first assignment is working with a Sagittarius attack ship, have any of you guys worked with them?”

“Nope, never even seen one until today” Zira answered for the rest of the squad. For outer galaxy citizens like Zira, Sime, and Nat, the Sagittarius forces were more myth than anything. Even if their fighting prowess was to be believed, it was more so due to equipment that belonged on the harsh outer sphere rather than protecting the high class in the centre galaxy.

Nat sized up Williams, this new team member. He seemed young, very young. Even in the draft military, heavy construct pilots were those who were drafted over the age of 20 and had some sort of experience with machinery.

“Hey kid, where you from?” The words surprised Nat as they left her lips.

“Bruslex, my dad is upper management at a republic wide shipping company. He knew joining the Sagittarius forces is my dream but I failed out of the selection exam. Just barely though. He talked to a friend in the forces who was able to get me assigned here, a place the selections branch is looking into pretty heavily I guess. I wasn’t expecting the first assignment to be with them though”

Nat, Zira, and Sime all looked at each other with dread. They were about to go fight possibly the biggest battle of their career with a silver spooned kid who had no idea what he was doing. Silence over took them, it wasn’t until both Zira and Sime looked knowingly at Nat that she realized she had better say something.

“Okay, well... We’re all old hat at this now so please rely on our knowledge. I can’t guarantee it’ll get you selected, but hopefully it’ll keep you alive. That said, we’ve got a big mission in a few days so we’re going to be spending the transit time drilling like mad to get everyone on the same page, we’ll take the day before we enter the target zone off to give maintenance the time they need to ensure our HCs are operational. Now go get some rest, we start simulator practice in three hours.”

“Yes Sir!” The three affirmed the command in unison and went to their rooms. Nat began walking to hers when she ran into Rose.

“Hey, I heard you have a new job! Why don’t you seem more excited” Roses’ smile was as warm as the sun.

“Its just all of a sudden and i am very stressed about it. The new kid seems like a handful and I don’t know if I’m ready” Nat’s speech was quick and she could feel the stress rolling inside her. She was looking down until she felt hands on both her shoulders.

“Relax, you got this. It’ll be hard but at least Zira and Sime know you and know you’re good at this. I believe in you. Now sorry, i gotta run, removing Ranks HC and bringing in Williams is an all hands on deck task” She winked at Nat, then quickly disappeared down the hallway towards the hanger bay.

Nat breathed deeply, hoping somehow they would all get out of this alive.