The Expanse's Call

Terra Borealis

'Squad Lima Bravo,' blares the tannoy. 'I repeat, Squad Lima Bravo to briefing room 3!'

'Damn,' I say to myself, rubbing my eyes. I guess being ready for anything means being ready for early mornings. I flick on the dormitory lights, and yell, 'Guys! C'mon get up!'

As I pull my combat shirt on, I hear a few groans from my dorm-mates. Having got dressed, I step out into the hallway and bang loudly on the other dorm across from us. 'Briefing!' I shout. Immediately I heard the rustling of a half-dozen other kids rushing to get out of bed.

As I start down the hallway towards the briefing room, I hear 'Emiliah, wait!'

'I'm going down.'

'Just wait, okay! Wait for the rest of us. If you go down now, they'll say we're late.'

'Yeah, and how is that my fault? I'm not gonna get myself in trouble 'cos you can't get up on time. I'm gonna go.'

Briefing room 3 means one of two things. One: everyone else is busy, which I doubt, or two: an important mission. To be honest, I'm fed up of being stuck in this damn base. I'd even help train some 13-year-old cadets if it meant spending a few hours out of here. I'm hoping it's option 2.

I'm the first person to get to the briefing, which is not particularly unusual. 

'Advance Scout Lukis.'

'Sir.'

'Always in the right place at the right time, dependable, a very capable individual. That was written in your most recent assessment report, correct?'

'I believe so, sir.'

'Well Lukis, I have a solo mission that might just have your name on it.'

'Thank you, sir.'

'This mission requires you have completed training in hard border scouting protocol, the physical test, the biological test, contact protocol, I assume you're okay with all of that.'

'Yes, sir.'

'You must report back upon reaching the hard border, and on completion of the tests, then finally with the full observation, then return.'

'Understood.'

'I will give you more details about the location when I brief the rest of your squad'.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After a day of walking with my squad, it's good to finally get some sleep.

God, spending a night in a frontier barracks really changes your perspective on what 'stuck' means. I feel like I've gone from a shark in a small aquarium to a shark in a fishbowl. At least by this time tomorrow, I'll still be in another fish bowl, but without 11 other fish in there as well.

This is all stupid, it's just so stupid. They could've driven us here, but no, we had to make a day's walk. And I have a proper backpack stuffed with all sorts of kit 'cos I'm going off on my own. It's been a day.

I have to be up early tomorrow morning. It's gonna be another day's walk to another forgotten outpost. I don't know how the others are gonna cope without me. Who'll get them out of bed at the right time? They'll have to take responsibility for themselves! How will they manage?

I wake up, get out of my, well, bed is a strong word for it. Hammock is closer. Whatever it is, I climb out, and everything was quiet. No squealing of speakers, no footsteps in the corridor. Just the rustling of me grabbing my backpack.

The morning air is cold, like getting out of a stuffy truck. The nice kind of cold, I suppose. I pull out my map to get a view of where I'm going. There's a small, allied village to the north, NNE to be specific. Beyond the village lie a few hills, then, well, nobody really knows. It's marked out as 'Terra Borealis', unexplored land north of my part of the territory. I guess nobody really wanted to explore much before the war. Now, any new land could hold resources. So, that's why I'm going up here on my own.

There are a few soft borders en route. Simple stuff. They're hard to notice at first. The first one I came across was subtle. The local gravitational field strength was much weaker, but it only lessened gradually, so much so that I must have gone at least 50m into the transitional zone before feeling any lighter. Though through some observations I could have realised the change before actually entering the transitional zone from the relative heights of the trees. That would've been smarter. 

If I just walked through a hard border like that without making observations first, well, who knows what could've happened. Really, that was stupid of me. I know it was safe, this area is all charted so far, but it's bad practice.

The weaker gravity is comforting. My backpack is suddenly lighter, which is a massive relief to be honest. It's quite dark due to the tree cover. Some of them must be about a kilometre tall. I decide to take a rest here. After all, once I come out of this area, the normal gravity will likely feel a lot worse, like how you feel cold after getting out of a hot shower despite it being the same temperature as before you got in.

After around half an hour, I decide to continue on. As the gravity became stronger again, I could feel the effects a lot faster. The atmosphere almost felt thick, like I was wading through mud. I think it was a mistake to take a rest, as it accustomed me to the lighter gravity. Anyway, the only thing I can do now is continue on.

Having walked for about five kilometres, I came out of the forest and saw the hills, on the other side of which should be the allied village. The first hill doesn't look too steep. The second hill is steeper, but on the other side is my destination, then over another hill is the hard border. I'll go there first thing tomorrow morning, then report back to my CO.