Lancer

Intro

The prometheus headgear initiated its auditory visual survey making sure my hearing was good and my eyesight was still within the acceptable bounds. A series of lights panned over my eyes and several tones of sound played through the earpieces. In my line of work, they say it's fine if your sensory makeup isn't 100% because of all the retinal and audio boosting implants, but if you want to be the best, you have to be born with everything intact.

"Audio retinal scan complete. Welcome back lancer Maven." The second I got on, I checked my scoreboard as fast as I could get to it. A flood of excitement and pride immediately welled up when I looked at the top. Written in the standard bold uniform lettering was my name with a golden hammer next to it.

"Lancer Maven Tarick [prestige]" If I hadn't been sitting in my pilot's chair I would have jumped and screamed but I took a deep breath and did my best to return to my normal air of professionalism. Just then, I got a direct link from my corporal. Clicking accept, corporal Cardoza flashed onto my livestream in her stark blue and grey camo uniform and barrett flashing a slight grin [which meant a lot coming from her]. "Absolutely outstanding lancer, I couldn't be more proud. It's my privilege to be the first one to welcome you to the Valkyries." Quickly nodding and smiling uncontrollably, I barraged the woman with a long strung out series of thank you's for taking a chance on me and for teaching me as much as she had. When I was done, the woman laughed for a moment before returning to her usual kurt and formal attitude. "I'm looking forward to meeting you in person when you arrive tomorrow along with your teammates. In fact I hear colonel Slater wants to welcome you and your team at the brig. Says he planned something special." A sudden panic gripped my chest at the thought of meeting Slater in person. Not because I feared him in any way, but because of the overwhelming amount of respect I had for him.

"It would be an honor mam but I don't have anything nice to wear for such an occasion."

"Not to worry love. The quartermaster will be giving you all your uniforms when you arrive aboard the nexus tomorrow. We soldiers aren't about looking good. It's all about kicking ass and living long enough to collect your pay. Don't forget it." After giving a quiet but understanding nod, the middle aged woman gave me a salute and logged off. The moment her viewer closed, I could see a flood of private messages from various teammates and several mentors congratulating me, but I ignored these and called my mother straight away. When I spoke, I practically vomited out the words and they went at a thousand miles a minute, but with my mother, she understood every word of it and let out a victorious scream once I had finished relaying the news.

"I just can't believe it." She said almost crying.

"I'm glad you didn't inherit my awful eyesight. I'm so happy you got in. Your father would have been so proud of you darling." Once our conversation died back down to a relatively calm tone, my mother asked me a few questions.

"So you're leaving out of Alderin city tonight?" She asked in a concerned tone of voice.

"Yeah. The flight will take a few hours from jump so we have to leave pretty early. Our corporal says we should be getting there first thing in the morning. My mother murmured over the tone. [a clear sign she was nervous.]

"Listen mom it's going to be fine. Our course runs straight along the interstellar trade route and we'll be with hundreds of other lancers onboard the Nexus. Nothing's going to happen." Once I filled her in on every scrutinous detail I could think of, she relaxed and quickly changed the subject.

"So have they paired you with a Promethean yet?" The question took me by surprise. To tell the truth, I hadn't thought to check. Swiping a large load out of the matching page onto my screen, I could see that my name still had a small rotating circle on it which meant that it was still cross referencing me with a compatible soldier.