Space crusaders

Chapter 4: Operation Trojan Tank

Chapter 4: Operation Trojan Tank

"Ok, guys and gals, listen up!" Sarge began to explain in the calm tone the woman used when she wanted to silence all doubts.

"The name Trojan Tank comes from an old legend from the Machine Wars period."

"So did the Machine Wars really happen?" one of the battle brothers interjected

"Don't interrupt the sergeant." Stan cut him off.

The short period of 'interregnum' during which Stan Levinsky 1070, due to his seniority in service, acted as commander, fortunately ended with the arrival of Warprincess Atava.

'The First' as her crusaders called her, was more than a leader; she was their family. The biggest of sisters.

The ship on which they docked was Warmistress's Battlebarge 'Righteous Fury', the largest ship that the inhabitants of Earth (undoubtedly with the help of some borrowings from Feymen technology) managed to build in known times. Of course, there were legends that battles were fought in distant space centuries ago, but no one today has any idea when or how.

Tens of thousands of people actually served, worked, and lived on board the 'Righteous Fury', and in the near future, it was to be hundreds of thousands. This also meant that there probably wouldn't be enough people (or, as they were now called, Warmen) left in the solar system to ever build another such ship.

Stan was only glad that his role was to be a space crusader and not someone responsible for some kind of repopulation, because his contacts with representatives of the opposite sex still left much to be desired - to put it mildly.

Therefore, Stan was one of the group of battle brothers and sisters who accepted with some relief the Warprincess's decree that crusaders should maintain full combat readiness at all times and, unless absolutely necessary, should not even take off their power armor after receiving it.

It was much easier to collaborate, exercise, or even talk to your battle sisters if her appearance didn't constantly remind your brain that she was a girl!

Thanks to numerous implants, Mark I Crusader Armor was like a second skin for them; it was a shell in which a battle brother or sister could live.

Stan even preferred not to take off his helmet, but of course, most of the girls liked to show off their beautiful faces.

Well, even Stan had to admit that no matter how badass their helmets looked, the girls' faces were hotter.

"Ehh..."

However, before the battle brothers and sisters could move into their power armors, they still had to undergo training.

Although the 'Righteous Fury' was bustling with life and personnel, the deck where the recruits had docked was completely empty.

"This is the crusaders' deck. Here, you will learn everything about your equipment and yourself. When you finally leave this level of the ship and meet the other crew members, they will see in you not some overgrown teenagers but the knights of the crusade! Make no mistake, a lot was sacrificed to make you, to create us. Make it count!" Warprincess explained.

Any prior training that had taken place on the lunar base quickly became laughable in comparison.

The intensity of Atava's regime undermined everything that was physically possible.

Weights were counted in hundreds of pounds, and there were no dumbbells or plates lighter than one hundred pounds.

And when someone thought something was impossible to lift or do, Atava herself came and showed that this person was wrong.