Lieutenant Sawyer and Rodriguez were getting a beer. “Man, that test of yours was fun to watch.”

“Heh. I would have loved to have been able to read Jule's mind when Kev flipped her. That was just awesome.”

The lieutenant in question tapped her on the shoulder. “Oh, I was pretty much, 'WHAT?'. You just don't flip a powered armor suit. You just don't see that, much less experience it.”

Rodriguez grinned. “I'll bet. I did get some pretty impressive numbers from the two of them, however.”

Lieutenant Sawyer took a swig. “Yeah; we definitely need to recruit Douglas at any cost. He would be a valuable asset in the field. Also, if he could find others of his kind he could help train them.”

The sergeant nodded his head. “I'll see if I can talk to HHS about assigning us some inhabited areas. I know we've been avoiding them unless they had resources to offer, but given what we're looking for it may be interesting to see what they can give us.”

“Sounds good. Were you able to figure out how to build us a rail cannon?”

“I had some circuitry issues, so I ran them by a friend a couple of buildings over. She may have a fix for me by the end of the week.”

“Sounds even better. If we can get those problems worked out then the demons may be less of a problem.”

"I may have so----”

Lieutenant Prowse placed herself between the two of them. “And that's the last we'll hear of work for the rest of the evening. Tonight we're Mel, Jule, and...and...what is your first name? Do you even have a first name?”

“It's Enrique..”

“Okay, so it's Mel, Jule, and Enrique. I have a pitcher of mojitos coming this way, and we shall enjoy them. We are ignoring rank for the next few hours. That's my order, and disobey under threat of severe penalties.”

Both gave a heartfelt, “Yes, sir!” The mojitos arrived forthwith and the three enjoyed the rest of the night. They did take a turn at karaoke, resulting in some of the worst singing ever (not from Enrique, who had a great bass voice, but the girls obviously never had a lesson). They didn't end the night together, however; once the pitcher ran out Jule grabbed the attention of a newly-minted butter bar and decided to show him some of the ropes. Enrique found another sergeant from one of the security companies and the two of them ended up dancing for the rest of the evening. When they finally separated she had wrangled his calling code from him and was threatening to use it.

Mel, however, decided to spend some time around the arcade. She had some steam to blow off and blowing up poor unfortunate NPCs who couldn't run out of her way fast enough was fine with her. She fell into the zone quickly enough and started racking up some impressive scores. She eventually decided to select the group mode and unleashed her anger onto the local grid. The game barely kept up with her, and so she managed to grab a lot of new kills by the end of the evening. When she had finally spent her anger, she logged out and went to grab a large drink of preferably unknown recipe as long as it had a lot of alcohol in it.

When she was ordering her something she heard another woman crying at the bar and she had to ask how she was doing. She regretted it as quickly as she did it. The woman had been dumped by her boyfriend and needed some attention. This of course meant that she would keep an eye on the woman, who turned out to be a captain, for a little while.

"He was a total jerk-face. I can't believe that I fell for him!”

"Some guys are not meant to date women.”

“This was definitely one of those men. If I knew then what I know now....” She fell out of her chair.

Mel helped her up and back into the chair. “Maybe we should walk you back to your room?”

“I just need a few more drinks.” She saw a couple of young officers. “And maybe some of that!”

Mel shook her head. “Not just yet. Let's go walk this off.” Mel forced her off her chair. “Which barracks is yours?”

“I am the great Captain Barbara Dorab! Do I look like enlisted?”

Mel's mind quickly recalled who she was. She was a pilot, one that had faced several flying demons and was one of the few heroes of the base. She also had a reputation for her long string of romances that never seemed to work out. But she had looked so normal!

"Nope. But I'm sure if you told me where your billet was I could help you there.”

"Fine. No men here, anyway!”

The two left. After a couple of missteps and one “mission” into a snack bar, Mel finally got her to her billet. She hoped this was the last time she would hear from her. She swore that she would never go to that bar again!

* * * * *

The next day began at dawn. Since the squad was not assigned to a mission outside the fort, today would start as a regular day. This meant an hour of exercise in the morning. Fortunately, it was a light day for the squad, consisting of little more than push-ups and sit-ups followed by a short two-mile run.

Well, easy unless you were Douglas. Not only did he have to borrow a pair of shorts, but The PT session used all sorts of muscles he was not used to using, making him sore all over. By the time they hit the showers he was ready to run, er...walk, er...crawl very slowly but deliberately to the mountains from whence he came. This was definitely one for the negatives column.

After a quick shower and a long breakfast, they began cleaning all of their equipment. This was not a mere field cleaning meant to eliminate the larger obstructions from the weapons but a thorough scrubbing. The guys had already done their laundry the night before so at least that was out of the way, but their weapons and vehicles were a different story. The vehicles were first, and there was a quick dispute over who would get the last car rack, but some quick talking from Samuels got them on it.

Scrubbing down the large weapons was a little more fun. Normally the armory would take them on, but the limited number of troops forced them to rely on the individual squads to clean the weapons. The cannons required a lift to clean properly, as well as a specialized cleaning kit. It also took both privates and Douglas to clean them. Between the morning exercise and the thorough vehicle and equipment cleaning, Douglas was in sorry shape by lunch. He was barely able to stay awake through lunch. Samuels and Walker smiled as they took turns poking him to ensure that he was alive.

Sergeant Rodriguez caught up with his troops. He walked up to the two enlisted and the nearly dead wizard and sat down. “I have a special mission for you guys, and it takes you into some scary territory.” The two looked at each as their combined brainpower put together four details (Rodriguez using his official voice, coming into the mess without grabbing food, the words “special”, and “scary”) and that resulted in a wary look at their platoon sergeant. The corporal decided to speak first.

“Not the quartermaster. Sergeant....!”

Rodriguez smiled. “Yes, Samuels, the quartermaster. That very special moment in a boy's life when he gets his first loadout from the quartermaster and gets a 'treat it carefully' speech second only to a very concerned father.” He handed him a two-page requisition. “It has been decided to make sure he has access to all of the equipment he will need. As he doesn't have his own weapon YET he can use the time you two are cleaning your weapons to clean his new equipment.”

He handed him a small rectangular piece of plastic and another piece of paper. “You are also to take him to the PX and obtain for him the items on the list. Even if he decided to cut and run by the end of the week, the lieutenant wants him to at least look like a soldier for a day or two. The items on the list will help in that particular disguise. Also, PFC Walker, you will be overjoyed to learn that includes PT gear as well.” Walker smiled. “However, should we find that anything has been purchased that was not on our list, you will pay dearly for it. Am I clear?”

"Crystal, sergeant.”

“Outstanding, gentlemen. Have a good day.” Rodriguez left to go get his own lunch. The two finished up their lunch and virtually dragged their charge out of the mess as they started their mission.