Sigma/Star

Chapter 15: The Beginning Of An End

Grimsley sat in a small chair on its felt cushion. His butt was starting to ache as the minutes grew into hours and they kept stretching on and on. It had started as a little tingle as his lower back fell asleep before building into an irritating itch, and now it almost seemed like a rash was forming. Good thing he had already done the physical for the military enrolment office, lest he reveal an embarrassing rash.

He was the last recruit left in the building, all others having been seen, and his nervousness was growing over whether or not he would even be drafted. There had also been discussions of what to do with his tank, which was technically an unlisted weapon that should have still been in the service of the army if it was functioning. The way things were looking, he wasn't going to join the army and his father's tank would be taken away.

"Grimsley?"

He looked up at the door to see the officer poking his head out and staring at the young potential recruit. "Yes, I'm here." The man motioned for Grimsley to enter and he complied, finding a very sparsely decorated office of ageing metal chairs and a small desk stacked with papers.

The recruiter eyed Grimsley up and down for awhile while he looked over some papers, mumbling to himself and giving out the odd "Mhmm" sound. Grimsley had to keep his teeth from chattering and his hands shaking with nervousness as the pain in his butt continued to grow from sitting so much.

"How long have you owned the tank?" The sudden speaking in the otherwise quiet room shocked Grimsley a bit and jarred him from his focus on his own pains.

"I can't remember. My father left it for me when he died at war. It just sat in a barn for a long time."

"Fully functioning?" The officer raised an eyebrow above the papers.

"No it didn't start to work until recently, when my sister fixed it up."

"Your sister?" The officer seemed mildly bored by the conversation and took a sip from a coffee mug on his desk.

"Yes, my sister Gretta. She's fifteen."

The recruiter spat the coffee back out all over the papers and furniture, and some ended up on Grimsley's pants. "Fifteen? She fixed a tank? At fifteen?!"

"Yes?" Grimsley cocked his head to the side like a confused dog. Why was this such a shock? Gretta had been doing things like this for quite some time now, it wasn't that impressive. His tank driving skills were clearly better than his sister's mechanical prowess. All things considered though, he decided not to mention how Gretta was now up at an academy working on Goliaths.

"And so you drove this fixed tank in the defence of Easley and shot an enemy field commander?"

As Grimsley heard the story back to himself he started to realize just how outrageous it sounded, especially for a young man who had only been trained as a minuteman in the local militia to do such things. "Umm, yes. I did."

The officer just stared at Grimsley over the coffee-soaked papers then looked back down at them before finally setting them on the desk and folding his hands. "Look, I'm not sure about any of that really, true or not. All I know for sure here is that you're a member of the Easley militia and that you own and drive an unregistered tank." Grimsley's heart sank down to his stomach and it too dropped down a few feet. "However, you do pass our physical, and your basic military training gives you a better edge in combat. On those merits you have been drafted and are going to be sent on to the capital for training." Grimsley nearly leaped out of his chair but somehow contained his excitement momentarily as he sat and listened.

"In regards to the weapon, we would normally confiscate it immediately but for some reason I have this letter I received before you arrived with the Kaiser's seal on it. It says that if someone named Grimsley shows up here with an old tank that I am to let him keep it and bring it with him for training." He held up the little sheet he was talking about and shook his head. "A bizarre case. Never seen anything like it. But you're moving on then. Good luck soldier." He stood up and shook Grimsley's hand before the two exchanged salutes and Grimsley marched out the door and straight into his vehicle, firing up the engine with a cheer and driving down the road, wondering if his sister was having fun up in St. Maurius...