The Ensigns - The officers 2

Chapter 16 - Time away from your mate stinks

Once they had returned from the training mission Mila and Holcum had as much tossed at them as they had at the Academy. For Mila, it was further training to be part of S2 and how to act as liaison between the Navy and Marine detachments. For Holcum it was aimed at getting training for being a drop troop. He was slated to go to the training in a week. For this he was going to be away from Mila for two weeks. She was being sent to further training as well. Unfortunately, the commands were widely separate. Sometimes it happened and they would deal with it.

He was reporting to a training ship designed specifically for drop troop training. Mila was reporting back to the Academy for the Intelligence course. They were leaving at the same time and would be back about the same time thankfully. Neither liked the idea but it was part of life and they would deal. It wasn't much different than when Leo had been deployed away from Raven. You lived and survived to get back to your mate.

The night before they were to depart had been a long and exhausting night. They had spent a good portion of the evening and night making love to each other. It would have been nice if they could have shifted to their mid-forms but that wasn't going to happen. They would damn near need one of the holds for that and nobody was going to get videos of that. If anyone did, they would be shredded once discovered.

Thankfully their proper armor had arrived. It had been ordered before they had left the Academy though they hadn't realized it. That had really sucked in a way since they had worked hard for three days to get it ready. Since the armor was designed for Were's there were extra steps they had to take. Once they had the armor setup for their normal form they had to carefully change to their mid-form. Then the process started all over again. One advantage to the armor, it was built buy a company owned by the Fae. There were traces of magic which allowed the armor to grow and shift with them. The final step was configuring it for their animal form. By the night before the flight they were done and beat. Mila didn't need hers and it would remain in the morgue. Holcum's was packaged up along with his weapons.

If there was one drawback to armor made by the Fae, they were incapable of making plain armor. His armor had traces of Lapis Lazuli and a deep ruby red. Mila's had complimentary colors as well. Both sets also had the double cats head on the chest as well. They could be muted when needed but his standing next to the other sets of armor stuck out like a sore thumb. It did indicate he was a supernatural but he would have preferred to be a plain set which looked like the others.

The next morning, they had what was required packed up and after a good solid kiss left their quarters. They checked out at the quarter deck before leaving the ship. Both had their TAD orders on them and after a quick hug separated to head towards their separate shuttles. The academy was on one side of the planet while the training ship was nearby.

When Holcum reported to the ship's shuttle he presented his orders and reported for TAD. After his orders had been verified he checked, "My armor and gear has arrived and been loaded correct?" Once you were issued a set of armor it followed you through each duty station. The only time you would get a new set would be if your set was damaged beyond repair. He watched as the Officer of the Deck, OOD, checked and indicated it had been, "Thank you." Many times, the OOD wasn't actually an officer and in this case she was an enlisted. For a shuttle that was especially true. Now that he was checked in he walked onto the shuttle and found a seat. Several others were already aboard and he called out to them.

The others turned and they started chatting as they were waiting for the balance of the students to arrive. The shuttle was designed to hold about thirty people since the rest of it was designed for cargo. The Armor suits weren't light and or small. Even for the smallest person allowed into the Marine branch the basic armor was over six feet tall and closer to six and a half feet. When Holcum was in his mid-form, his armor was right at ten feet tall. He had seen images of Were's in armor and it was very impressive.