All That Was Lost Read online

Tiberius felt fear and admiration for the duo as he looked over the Fleet Admiral and who he could only assume was his Executive Officer, his second-in-command.

  The Fleet Admiral was over six feet tall and broad shouldered. He wore his hair high and tight like the rest of them, but his was colored salt and pepper from his age, and he wore a grim countenance that made Tiberius shiver. This was a man who’d seen many men die, and it didn’t look like it bothered him in the least.

  “You are all here to begin your duties as a fully enlisted cadet, until such time as we make it back to Terra. Now normally it takes a week to return there, but we have to stop for the rest of your battle brothers in orbit around Jupiter, so during such time as we return to Terra you will be expected to due your duties without any backtalk or tardiness, so set those alarms fifteen minutes early so you’re on time, because if you aren’t early then you’re late.” He shifted to his other boot and continued. “Once we return home you’ll have your two weeks liberty and then return here for your duties. We will be exiting Saturn’s orbit in two hours and shifting to void-space following so get your gear stowed and report to your squad leaders for duties.” He stepped back a step as the woman stepped forward.

  “My name is Erika Doyle, you can simply call me sir or XO. Now I”m sending all of your information to your tablets, follow the directions to get to your bunks and meet up with your leaders. Dismissed.”

  She and Admiral Harcourt turned on their heels and left the hangar, leaving the cadets wondering just where they’d all be stationed.

  Tiberius looked at his tablet and smiled a little, it really did have everything he would need; directions, profiles on his squad leader and his other mates, it even had their projected course back to Old Terra outlined, including their stop at Neo Victoria.

  He read the names of everyone in his squad before looking at Quintus and smiling, “I guess we can head to our bunks then, fifth squad is about to get fun.”

  “Let’s go get the lay of the land.”

  With that they were off, walking past a few squadrons of Sparrowhawks, the navy’s main fighter type. And a dozen modified Black Hawks that hadn’t seen an upgrade since the old wars on Terra, back when they didn’t have heat resistant plating for atmospheric entry.

  The hangar walls all had that polished steel look, the same as the walls of the corridor they walked down to make it to their bunk. It took the better part of twenty minutes to find their room, even with the directions available to them. Tiberius was the first into their quarters and saw it was set up for four troopers, while the others weren’t there, they could still get their things set up.

  Grabbing two bunks that weren’t being used, easy enough to tell from the look of the bunks themselves, the two friends took the time to get their gear stowed away and look up where their squad leader was on their tablets.

  The bunks were set up in a way so that two beds were on one wall, and the other two were opposite, about fifteen feet of empty floor space separated them, and a pair of sinks were at the end of the room, off to one side was a toilet, the other held a basic shower with a drain in the floor and a cloth curtain for privacy. On the wall on either side of the beds were two lockers that were separated, the bottom half went to the bottom bunk, the top half to the top.

  From the profiles Tiberius knew the other two were from the colony on Venus, Hyperion, and that their leader was from Terra. But he hadn’t read the rest of the profiles yet to know where they were from or even their names yet. “According to this it looks like she’s supposed to be in the gym.”

  “Well, you do need a workout so let’s go.”

  Tiberius led the way again as they snaked their way trough the corridors, passing other recruits trying to find their new homes, and other enlisted men and women. He never saw such a mix, there were people who grew up on Terra, some from Venus, hell he even saw one with the longer body that showed she grew up in the asteroid belt because of how long her body thanks to the difference in gravity. And then there were others that he couldn’t be sure where they’d come from because he’d never visited other worlds like Uranus and the moons of Jupiter.

  It was such a mixed group of culture he was truly enjoying himself.

  Back on Terra he got to see a bunch of different cultures based on where the person was from, his father, just like his mother, was an ambassador. As such he was well versed in over twenty cultures and could passably speak eight languages, and speak three fluently. It was one class he hated, but saw the wisdom when he learned he could swear in Venusian or Jupiteri, and he had a fifty-fifty shot his parents wouldn’t know the word because they only focused on the core of the languages, not the nuances and slang.

  One of the other recruits stopped them and asked, “Where are you two headed?” the patch on his uniform told them his name was Bowen, and one of their squad.

  “We’re heading to the gym to find Squad Leader Sidonia.” Quintus replied.

  Bowen nodded and smiled, “Ah, you’re a part of my squad then, I’ll tag along and we can meet her together.”

  Together the three of them found the mess before the gym and the growling they heard from their stomachs told them it would be wise to eat soon, but wiser still was to wait until they’d seen their leader since that was their primary task.

  Continuing along they marveled at how large the ship itself was. It was easily six miles wide and triple that, at least, lengthwise. The ship was not only large, but imposing as well. With all of the weaponry aboard, including the Talon fighters for their fast attack ships, the Integrity could easily turn the tide of any battle they might encounter with the terrorist group that’d been popping up. It may just be more than enough, like a rail gun being used to kill a squirrel.

  “Hiya!”

  The sound caught them all off guard and they rushed around the corner looking for who was being attacked. Rounding the corner, they were greeted with the sight of a full-frown man being thrown against the wall and a woman standing up and bouncing on the balls of her feet. She kept her hands up in a guard and caught the next punch thrown at her, turned it into a Judo throw and tossed this man off of the blue mat they stood on.

  “Is that Sidonia?” Bowen asked.

  “Red hair and pale skin, also looks like she has a nasty temper so I’m going to assume so.” Was all Tiberius could say before she pinned him and the other two with a stare that froze them in place.

  “Get your asses on the mat, your first sparring session begins now!”

  All three of them were shocked to hear the rage in her voice, she sounded like a savage and certainly looked like one. Her tone was totally different from any other instructor they’d had during training. She stood glaring at them, with her hair braided and up in a bun, her gloves were fingerless, and she wore a pair of fatigue pants and a tank top, it had been white at some point but discolored from sweat as she continued bouncing up and down.

  While the other two looked around as if they were trying to figure out where to change into sparring clothes Tiberius walked right into the circle on the mat and put his hands up, “Any rules?” he asked her.

  She barely kept her face neutral, normally the new cadets were terrified of sparring with her, and this one was just jumping in the ring like it was no big deal, she’d have to fix that. “There’s no rules in war, but how about a wager? If you can put me on my back you get an extra helping of dessert, if not you lose dessert.”

  He delivered a feint kick to her lift side, as she brought her arm down to protect her ribs and trap his leg he launched a jab square at her face. He was rewarded with her being knocked back a step along with the whooping and hollering of the crowd. Tiberius jumped back a step and waited for her return, he knew it was going to be vicious, she was their leader after all so she had the most experience. But he had to show he was worth something before she treated him like an everyday grunt.

  She brushed it off and looked him in the eye, Sidonia knew he was going to be a pain in her ass after that hit, and so
she launched a flurry of strikes, open and closed hand, that drove him backwards trying to both dodge and block her hands. Each hit was filled with energy, she struck like a soldier possessed by something otherworldly, he was hard pressed to keep up with her.

  But when she struck him with a spinning backhand to the cheek he flew to the mat and placed a hand to his face. Fuck, she hits like a truck. He thought to himself as he stared up at her. His round was over, and he’d lost his dessert for the night.

  “How about making this interesting,” she said as she turned to face the other new faces. “You can both charge me at the same time and if you manage to get me on the mat you’ll get extra dessert.”

  Both Bowen and Quintus looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders, what did they really have to lose? They charged at her together, and as Bowen tried to throw a haymaker Sidonia caught his arm and sent him flying with a Judo throw that left him rubbing his tailbone. Quintus came at her with a heavy right hand to her left shoulder that knocked her back a few steps and an uppercut that she barely backed away from, she could feel the air from his massive fist.

  She reached out and grabbed his hand, pressed her fingers into the pressure points that would make his fist unclench and twisted his wrist to the point it nearly dislocated. The big man was on his knees trying to keep himself from crying out in pain, but she didn’t relent until he finally tapped out, then he was able to rub his wrist and think about what the hell he’d gotten himself into.

  “So, no dessert for you lot. When you eat tonight you’ll be giving me that ration. Now class, what did we learn?” she looked to the others and waited, some were standing, others were sitting on the floor, and still more were doing warm up exercises waiting for their turn, because they all knew how she ran her squad. She waited for someone, anyone to respond and when it became apparent no one would she hung her head and said, “We learned that it doesn’t matter your size or gender, there’s always someone who can kick your ass. And we learned not to bet on the new kids kicking my ass.”

  Everyone chuckled at that and some of the soldiers passed tokens back and forth, Tiberius assumed they were some sort of currency here, like how cigs used to be jail house money. And then he felt bad that some had bet on him taking down their Captain and the backhand to his face didn’t feel as bad anymore.

  All in all there had to be four squads there between those using the machines and those watching the spectacle, he wondered which squads they were, but didn’t get a chance to voice his question.

  Their squad leader walked over to him as Quintus and Bowen helped him up. “You’ve been in some fights before, eh kid?” he nodded as she took a bottle of water and gulped half of it down in one go. “I read your file, grew up on Old Terra, in New Lascuta.”

  He nodded, his hometown was famous for being the first town founded once His Majesty, Emperor Augustine XV rose up and united the New World with the New Holy Imperium three hundred years ago.

  It’s time you learn some real fighting skills, you new recruits are going to be running drills with me every morning until your liberty starts. We start at oh-seven hundred sharp and run drills for two hours.” She began walking towards the door before calling back, “You may want to have a light breakfast so you don’t puke it up.”

  “Well isn’t she just full of fun and good cheer.” Bowen said once she was out of earshot.

  “She didn’t become squad leader for lack of skill, and having great leadership qualities doesn’t necessarily mean being the nicest person out there.” Tiberius said, for some reason he felt as if he had to defend her. She’s my commanding officer now, I need to find out what makes her tick and then try to incorporate that into myself.

  “Either way we need to head out for dinner before there’s nothing left.” Quintus said as he tried to lead them towards the open build. Where Tiberius had an athletic build, Quintus was husky. Yes, he ate a good deal, but he also burned almost as many calories as he took in, and never seemed to gain or lose any weight, much to his dismay. Quintus also had another thing that Tiberius did not, speed.

  For as large as he was Quintus could out strike anyone in their company back at the academy, he was just that quick. Some of the boys called him “Quint as lightning” trying to make fun of him, but he took it in stride and when they sparred next he showed them how quick he was. One boy he’d faced had a broken orbital socket after just one punch, but they didn’t see the blood until five more strikes landed.

  Walking into the mess hall was an experience. It wasn’t like the mess back on Titan where everyone was polite and kept the noise down. No, this was a full-on mess hall where men shouted to another table just to talk, the line for food seemed like it was never-ending, and the tables weren’t separated into only men and only women. There were some of both at each table, and he noticed that there were no high-ranking officers present.

  Back on Titan the officers didn’t have a separate mess, they ate with the rank and file. However they were also training those who would one day become officers like themselves so the rules were different there.

  “Get in line and get some grub, you’ll need the energy for later.” Someone said as they pushed their way past the three men and headed for the grub line.

  “What’s after dinner?” Tiberius tried to ask him, but he was already in line and working his way towards the front in a very rude way. “C’mon lets go get some food, and maybe this will all make sense soon enough.

  Chapter 3

  After dinner the squad met up in the gym and Captain Sidonia assembled them all while she stood on the mat, “You lot are going to be put through your paces tomorrow. Tonight, being that it’s your first night, you get a pass. I don’t agree with that but that’s what the brass decided.”

  There was a collective groan from all twelve members of their squad. She pinned them all with a glare that stopped all but one man, Alton Bullock, a cadet from the colony around Jupiter, from continuing to groan.

  “You think this is funny Bollocks?” she asked him smugly.

  The man’s face changed, angered at the crude name calling and shifted from one foot to the other.

  “Get your ass on the mat since you seem to think this is such a joke.” She stood in the center of the ring and invited him to join her, with her hands up. But this time, the gloves were off.

  He walked onto the mat and popped his knuckles, threw his hands up in a boxers guard and waited. From how he circled the captain it was evident he was well versed in hand to hand fighting, almost assuredly it was from fighting in one of the gangs on the colony. Whether his experience was enough against Captain Sidonia was left to be seen.

  She threw a left hook at his jaw which he deflected with ease. He grinned and sent a trio of punches aimed at her face and chest that she turned away and returned with a kick to the side of his left knee. Throwing another left hook, intending to follow it with a straight jab to knock the boy out cold. Alton caught her fist and trapped her arm against his side.

  He threw a haymaker with his left that caught her square in the jaw and her head rocked back as he smiled, loosening his grip slightly. But it was enough for her to yank backwards and pull him off balance. As they went tumbling down to the mat, she adjusted her grip and wrapped herself around him until she had his arm and head trapped in a guillotine choke.

  As he tried to pull out of the choke, she aid “Tap and I won’t make you pass out in front of your new friends.”

  His arrogance and pride held him by the balls and he would not let up, he grabbed a fistful of her red hair and yanked, trying to make her break the hold by any means necessary.

  She let loose a string of curses in her native tongue and punched him square in the eye as she tightened her legs around his neck until he began choking. Everyone held their breath as she squeezed tighter and punched him again in the face, he went limp and laid against her as she unhooked her legs letting him fall tot he mat. Standing up she looked at the rest of the recruits and said “If any of y
our break the rules after today, especially when sparring, I will not be as easy on you as I’m being on Bollocks here.” She turned and kicked him in the stomach hard enough to make him throw up his last meal, which was not a fun thing to see.

  “You two, wake him up and get him a mop from the closet over there, he can clean up his own mess.” She pointed to Bowen and someone Tiberius hadn’t met yet, and they hopped to it before she could step off the mat.

  “Oh shit, she got her claws into the fresh meat already.” The voice came from an ensign standing in the doorway with two other men.

  “Shut it Torrance. Don’t you have some officer’s ass to kiss so you can get another promotion?” the venom in her voice made the recruits cringe and when the ensign flipped her the bird she gave him an even nastier gesture that made the ensign blush before he and his cronies walked away.

  She took a few moments to calm down before she looked at the cadets close to her, “You boys and girls better get some beauty sleep, we’ll be at it bright and early tomorrow.”

  Everyone groaned and as she left, they all filed out of the room. “I’m not ready for that early of a morning.” Quintus commented as they walked back to their bunk, he and Tiberius were early and the other two hadn’t shown yet. Each squad had three of the four bunk alcoves that were linked together so the squad leader could move through the rooms at will.

  It was different then on Titan, that was for sure. At the academy none of the instructors was willing to invade their privacy as the captain most likely would. As they stood at their bunks debating whether or not to wait for the others a voice called out, “Move your asses cadets!”

  They turned as one and saw the voice belonged to one of their missing bunkmates, Norman Ortiz, and he came bumbling through the room to land in the bathroom with the door slamming shut behind him and a sigh of relief.

  As soon as the door was shut they could hear laughing coming from the hallway, turning the pair saw three more of their unit as they laughed like hyenas at the man who was now crying out in the head, presumably from a very painful bowel movement.