Elin
The aide found her on the range, where she always was.
“Major Mara!”
Ignoring the call, she pulled the M-16ZR Advanced Infantry Weapon into her shoulder, sighted it, and stroked the trigger gently, sending bursts of triple rounds downrange as fast as she could reset from the recoil. Eventually the magazine clicked empty, forcing her to finally acknowledge the calls that had grown in volume. Safetying the weapon and setting it down on the flat surface in front of her, she turned at last.
“Yes, Lieutenant?” she ground out, unhappy about being interrupted.
“Ma’am, I apologize for the interruption, but the colonel has requested your presence in his office immediately.”
Mentally she sighed, keeping her outward look neutral and unexpressive. “Thank you, Lieutenant, I’ll head on over.”
The aide handed her an envelope. She took it, then returned the offered salute with precision before cleaning up her weapon and returning it to the locker. It wasn’t her personal weapon. Major Elin Mara didn’t have a personal weapon, besides the pistol on her belt. Only the combat teams were issued assault weapons, and only a very certain subset of those had been issued the brand new ZR variant. There were, to her knowledge, only three of them on the base at all, strictly for training purposes.
Which was good, she thought. With what was coming, they were going to need all the training they could get.
Striding across the grounds toward the base commander’s office, she wondered just what it was he wanted to see her about. The two of them had a professional relationship. The base was small, and along with one other major they were the only ranking officers present. Opening the envelope, her eyes went wide at the contents. The first thing she noticed was the big black stamp that read TOP SECRET – MAJOR MARA’S EYES ONLY. There was a lot of mumbo jumbo military jargon, lettering and the like that followed. But she skipped over that until her eyes settled on the one sentence that mattered.
Major Elin Mara is hereby reassigned effectively immediately. She is to depart Fort Potts within the day for Fort Stark using civilian transportation.
There were vouchers within the paper to cover the cost of transportation, accommodation, and food. Wherever it was the military was sending her, they thought it somewhat important. A sliver of hope ran through her. Could they finally be sending her to a combat post? She’d never heard of Fort Stark before, though that didn’t mean a whole lot. The military had bases all across the world. She couldn’t be expected to know each and every one of them. Especially if they were classified for some reason.
Which most combat bases were!
Feeling giddy, she increased her stride, covering the distance as fast as she could without looking like she was in a hurry. While the idea of combat was terrifying, the ideal of helping to protect her fellow citizens was what had pushed her to sign up in the first place. But year after year, despite working her hardest, she’d always been shuffled off to rear-echelon locations. The military had turned her into a paper pusher against her most stringent objections.
Elin had seen the video. She knew what was going on out there, even if the government wasn’t sharing with the civilians. Oh sure, a few conspiracy theorists had noted that the “training” exercises that had occurred in the mountains nearly eight months earlier near the northern border had been far more realistic than they had any right to. But other than that, the general populace was in the dark about the horrors found deep within the mine. She wasn’t, however, and Elin wanted to do her part. Maybe she was finally getting her chance.
She rapped on the door to Colonel Afer’s office and was swiftly admitted in.
“Major Mara reporting as ordered sir,” she said, coming to attention.
“At ease, Major,” the colonel said with a wave before pointing at a chair. “Sit.”
It wasn’t an offer. She sat.
“You’re being reassigned.”
“Yes sir. To Fort—”
“Don’t finish that sentence, Major,” the colonel’s voice whipped out, cutting her off instantly.
Elin frowned. “Colonel?”
“Whatever that paper says, it was for your eyes, and your eyes only. I was given very strict instructions to that point. All I know is that you’re being reassigned. Here are the rest of the orders; they came in after the fact.” The colonel stared down at the next envelope, which had her name scrawled across it. “Whatever’s going on, they want you on the move, and quickly.”
She took the next envelope, her curiosity piquing. What could be so urgent they would send out two sets of orders so quickly? Opening them in silence, she read through it.
Major Mara,
You are hereby ordered to relinquish your post at Fort Potts immediately, and travel with all speed to Fort Stark whereby you will take up the position as base commander.
Her jaw dropped open. They wanted her as a base commander? What the hell? She was years away from that sort of position. What the hell was going on? Forcing herself to focus, she continued reading.
Your mission will be outlined to you in full detail upon arrival. The contents of this envelope will serve to give you a brief overview of the mission.
She flipped through the papers, her spirits sinking. Boot camp. They were sending her to boot camp? Everything spoke about training, about bringing the new recruits up to speed as fast as she could, and ensuring that they were both ready and willing to fight on the side of humanity when the war resumed.
Well duh, of course they would fight. They were soldiers in the army, were they not? It’s not like they would be given an option. Some of the language was weird, making her wonder just who the new recruits were, but it was so vague that she couldn’t piece it together.
“Sir,” she said at last, folding the papers up and setting them back into her lap. “This is classified Black.”
“I’m aware of that, Major,” he said grumpily, obviously not happy about being kept out of the loop.
“Are we sure this isn’t a mistake? I’ve never been issued a security clearance level this high. I…obviously don’t want to say what’s on the orders sir, but I didn’t even know that the level they’ve included existed. This must be a mistake. I requested a combat posting, sir.”
“I’m aware of that, Mara,” Afer said, this time in a gentler tone. “But I suppose you’re still atoning for whatever sins you committed in a previous life.”
He meant it as a joke, but Elin felt her insides wrap themselves into knots. Or just a previous rank. It was another dead-end assignment. She just knew it. Security clearance be damned, she was going to train new recruits. That was all it was. The classification was just to get rid of her, to put her somewhere they didn’t have to deal with her anymore, which they’d been trying to do ever since…since…before. But Major Elin Mara hadn’t been willing to let them do that. So she’d worked her ass off at every posting, proving that they needed to give her more responsibility, and slowly but surely she’d worked her way up the ranks.
Now they had finally found a way to “lose” her in the system, by assigning her somewhere so secret that she probably would be denied any sort of transfer out. It was endgame.
“Everything okay, Major?”
She looked up sharply. The colonel was not the most perceptive of men when it came to emotions, so for him to ask that sort of question meant that the mask had slipped from her face. “Yes, of course, sir,” she said, staring into his dull green eyes and forcing a smile onto her round face. “Just sad that I’ll be leaving here,” she lied.
“Well, we’ll miss you too, Major. But I’m supposed to get you out of here ASAP, so you’d better get packed and move on out. Your new post awaits you, wherever it may be.”
She smiled weakly and rose with him, shaking his hand firmly. “Of course. With your leave?”
“Dismissed.”
Elin left the office, still reeling from the fact that the army was sending her back to boot camp.
She’d endured a lot in her time in the military, including the incident that had set this all off. But she’d never been so dejected before. They wanted her out of the service. That much was clear to her. Maybe she should take them up on the offer. Just quit, walk away and go find a job where her superiors weren’t out to get her for doing the right thing! It would be so easy…
Even as the thought entered her brain, she straightened her spine in defiance. Fuck those assholes. They could mistreat her all they wanted, she was going to show them. She would become the best drill instructor they’d ever had. Her recruits would be the best of the best, and they would be forced to send her elsewhere, once again acknowledging that she’d bested them, even if they weren’t willing to admit it.
Fuck the assholes. She didn’t back down. Not back when she was a staff sergeant, and most certainly not now.