There were three things Vera wished for her thirteenth birthday.
The first thing was a horse. One of those proud, magnificient animals galloping on the plains and fields near Coock City and her farm, sometimes letting some of the children ride them. Once Vera herself had had the chance to sit on one of those animals, and she had been instantly excited. But her father decided strongly against it. He said a horse was too expensive in acquisition and sustentation, whatever the meaning of that was. He explained that he wasn't going to spend a fortune on something Vera would lose interested in as soon as she fell off and broke a leg.
Second was a dog. She had seen these loyal companions all over Geshtachius Prime and how they stood by their owners. She loved the fur of these beings, and how smart and adaptable they were. Her wish was to train such a dog to follow and protect here anywhere. But this time her mother objected to it, and with good reason: Vera was allergic to dogs and could not be near one without getting sniffles and breathing problems.
Third and last was a weapon.
Thinking about that later Vera wasn't even sure why she had made this wish. To annoy her parents, perhaps. But there was more to it than that, and Vera realized it more and more every time she joined her father at the mercenary academy and helped with the training. Indeed, she was the youngest person working there, and she saw herself as member of the merc team. But it didn't feel like it. That's what she came to realize more and more while she got prepared for the next assignment by her grown-up friend Tammy. While everybody else was running around with big, intimidating laser weapons and having firefights with the ones being examined by Bodderias, what kind of equipment did Vera receive?
"Now, come on!" Tammy reasoned with her. "You play an important part in that mission. The most important part, in fact. And you get the most dangerous equipment this mission has to offer." Saying that she put the vest on Vera, the one with four flash grenades dangling at the front, being connected to detonators and other mean devices. Of course those were completely harmless for Vera - even the first time when she had worn it, they had explained to her that the grenades detonated to the outside, so nothing but a moderately bright flash and maybe a somewhat louder bang would come to her. The first time Vera had had mixed feelings about it. But since then there had been loads of opportunities to test that. Almost every mercenary group taking on this mission had failed, and almost every time the vest had detonated. Vera didn't even find it unpleasant anymore - just annoying.
"But that's not the same" she countered while Tammy armed the vest. "I'm not even allowed to use this thing. I'm not allowed to fight. Instead I'm always the one who needs to be rescued."
"You should consider yourself lucky" Tammy appealed to her conscience. "Really, be glad that you don't have to fight out there! Some of those mercs are outright brutal, don't know remorse or regret. Even when all that we use here is stun weapons, that's nothing a little kid should get into."
"Whom do you call little?" Vera's reaction was hardly more than a reflex. She was already twelve years old, grew up as a mercenary's daughter and earned her own payment with this nonsense. But every time she heard comments about her age and size, and every time she gave a snippy answer to that, a little bit of significance vanished. Deep inside of her she knew that one day it would be different - that these people who still saw her as a child would one day treat her with the respect she deserved.
Even Tammy realized that Vera didn't like to hear those things. "Sorry" she mumbled. "I'm just saying, should you still wish to go out there and be pelted and knocked out by laser blasts, then you should know first that none of us like that part of the job."
"Instead I get frequently blown up" Vera grumbled. "How come all these mercenaries are such losers?"
"Better mercenaries wouldn't need to come here for training" Tammy answered. "Anyway, it seems like we've got a completely different group for your rescue today. The Unicorn Riders"
Having her one eyebrow raised to show her scepsis Vera reminded Tammy suspiciously of her father. "Are they any good?"
"Depends" Tammy stated. "At least they are the kind of group that doesn't shoot first to solve problems. Who knows, you might even survive this time." One last work step later the bomb vest was active. Vera knew perfectly well: If she opened one of the fasteners or pulled out one of the wires, the whole thing would go off like the devil. Sometimes she had played with the idea of deliberately setting off the bomb when she couldn't stand the mercenary group coming to save her. Or when someone hurt her dad who would always belong to the counter group and accompanied Vera on her way to the meeting point. But before she even managed to think this through, she saw Tammys index finger before her, raised in an exhorting manner. "Remember..." Tammy started, but Vera cut her off:
"Don't fiddle around with the bomb! I know. You've told me a thousand times already."
"I just don't want you to forget it" Tammy clarified and giving her another wary look before turning to the shelf next to her and reaching out for an item.
Vera had a feeling what would come next. "Could you leave my hands untied this time?" she pleaded. She hated being tied up. After all she had learned and memorized all the tricks to escape these new-fashioned hand bindings, and she felt really stupid when she didn't.
Tammy granted her yet another wary look. "If I can rely on you not doing anything stupid..."
"You can!" Vera hastily cried. "I promise. On my honour!" She performed a few hand gestures to show her cincerity, which did just look awkward to Tammy. At last Vera spread her index finger and the little finger, clenching the other ones to a fist before putting this hand on her chest.
"Where did you learn this gesture?" Tammy asked in amazement.
Vera shrug. "That was this Metalian three weeks ago who did the exam with the Dark Wolves. He showed me."
"You're not supposed to
talk to strange mercenaries, Vera, you should know that" Tammy put Vera
in her place and shook her head. "All right, come with me! Let's see
what the Unicorn Riders are made of."
Two hours later Vera returned to the headquarters. "Dad, they screwed up again" she proclaimed.
It was not like she hadn't expected something like that to happen. But this time Vera got seriously disappointed. They had been off to such a good start. The "Unicorn Riders", like Tammy had foreseen, had not startet blasting their way through, like many other groups had done before them. Instead they went with careful planning, even including their nice leader of the group trying to negotiate her release. Vera felt a little sorry for her getting a shot in the leg for her troubles and still nursing a hobble on the way to debriefing.
But even in the moment of escalation and the start of the firefight it had been few, but precise shots that had come from the "Unicorn Riders". One of them had Vera deeply impressed - the shock wave blast that had neutralized her dad and the other merc. Afterwards the nice leader had tried to disarm the vest. She had almost accomplished it. But she had made the mistake every third group made on this mission, she fell for the old trick with the booby-trapped fastener. And sure as rain the vest had blown up in her face.
Hence the long faces of the mercenaries behaving like bad losers - even their leader lost it for a second, yelled at her dad and called Vera "little". When everything had cooked down again and the mercenaries had left for their debriefing Vera picked up the vest she had heedlessly thrown into the next corner and carried it over to the armory. Tammy was already waiting for her.
She couldn't get the strange weapon of the "Unicorn Riders" out of her mind, and her wish for a weapon of her own grew stronger. It didn't have to be a lethal laser weapon - one of those stun weapons Bodderias equipped his people with would suffice. Maybe one that was small enough for Vera to use with one hand without being to heavy or unbalanced. There were certainly some types made for smaller mercenaries. Meaning smaller built mercenaries, not children.
In the armory the stun pistols used in the mission were already put onto their charging stations. Vera let her eyes stroll along the shelves and the diverse weapon systems stored on them, waiting for customers. Most of them were bulky and made for muscular, mean mercenaries who chose firepower over intellect. She contemplatively brushed with her finger along the shelves while she gazed at the weapons on them. Tammy in the meantime was taking care of the vest by equipping it with new flash grenades and a new detonator.
"Tammy?" Vera asked after a while, turning her view from the shelves to her grown-up friend. "How old were you when you became a mercenary?"
Tammy looked up from her task and blew some fine fair streaks out of her face. "Older than you, Vera. Considerably."
"Have you fought back then already?"
"Sure" Tammy answered. "Among other things. I treated wounded people, took care of our gear - whatever came up."
With big eyes full of curiousity Vera glanced at her. "What is it like? Is it exciting?"
Tammy regarded Vera with a frown. She didn't like the turn this conversation was taking. "You could call it exciting. Although I'd rather say unsettling. Not like a thrill ride in an amusement park, like you might imagine. Being out there in a fight with other mercenaries where the only options left are to kill or to die... that is everything but good."
Vera took a moment to think about these words and finally nodded. "So I don't understand why so many mercenaries do this."
"For many reasons" Tammy explained. "Some of them have no other means of earning money. Good mercs are paid extremely well. Other got used to the conflict so much that they can't imagine living a different kind of life. The real nasty guys are the ones fighting and killing for the fun of it. There are a lot of those, too."
"And what kind does Dad belong to?" Vera inquired sceptically. She couldn't imagine him being the bloodthirsty type, but who knew?
Tammy let off a sigh. "Your father is a special case. A long time ago, before you were born, he was captaining transport ships fpr the Centralius gouvernment. During the second Comm war his ship was shot down, and he survived badly injured while everybode else around him died. After the wars ended he became a mercenary. Some said he was out for revenge. But I believe that he just wanted to protect people."
A short signal sounded through the corridors of the academy. Vera knew the meaning of that. "Got to go! See you!" she called, waving her friend goodbye. Barely three seconds later she was out of the door.
Maybe that was what drove her. Maybe it was the desire to be able to do what her father did - protecting people by fighting bad guys. It could have to do with the fact that without this job at the academy her dad would still be out there - and each of his travels could possibly be his last. Vera wasn't sure if she could bear it, should he ever return to this way of life.
But if she were standing by his side... Vera swore to herself that one day she would prove she was capable of doing so. But first she had to go home.
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