The Stormwatch Chronicle

Shadows and Sunlight

Relaxing in a hammock outside the officers mess is a fairly common in the army. What isn't common is having your officers mess fifty feet away from one of the most picturesque hot springs in the world. Usually something out of the ordinary in the army was looked upon with contempt and more than a little fear. The army likes everything in nice orderly rows. I guess it is no surprise then, that I ended up here. I mean beyond the fact that every male citizen of the Republic must serve three years required military service, and beyond the fact that I was so poor that unlike most of the other students I had graduated with a year before, I had to go into the military in order to pay for my schooling before I could further my education with a graduate degree. I say it makes sense that I ended up in the military at 22 with a near useless joint major in Philosophy and History because my whole life had been neat and orderly.

I grew up on a farm outside the capital city of the Republic, I grew up shooting varmints in the fields and putting in back breaking hours of labor to cultivate two harvests a year. This is possibly the most mundane existence imagineable, but I was, for the most part, content with it. Eventually I won an academic scholarship which took me into the capital to one of the finest educational institutes the Republic has to offer. I was never the brightest kid, but I was never the dumbest either. Most of my teachers agreed if I had ever gotten it trough my head to apply myself I could have done wonderful things.

Instead I went to a mediocre college I couldn't afford, partied and studied in near equal proportions for four years, realized I had no way to pay for any of it and passed up on renewing my ¨stay of required service¨ and was pulled into the army as a Lieutenant.

I went to basic and in two months time I was stuck in a relaxing communications base nestled at the base of the storm-wall mountains. There for the past year I had slowly grown close to my commanding officer, Major Heritz, his second in command Captain Lewell and an assortment of the tiny post's personnel.

It was a supremely lucky post to be assigned, without almost any real risk of combat I had already been doing near nothing but sitting in this same hammock day in and day out for a year and I was supposed to do it for two more. I always believed that military service would be exciting, adventurous. The kind of things you read in story books. This was the exact opposite, boring to the point of tedium the post's only saving grace was its hot springs that you could melt into during the cold nights that came with being close to the mountains.

A shadow falls across my face disturbing my late afternoon musing.

¨You look rather comfortable don't you Mason?¨ Captain Lewell said grinning down at me, ¨Too bad the Major wants to see you in his office.¨

I groan inwardly, if this was about my discussing transfer with some of the other personnel, it could get ugly fast. The major was known for seeing his base as one big happy family. When someone wanted out of that big happy family, well that just doesn't look good.

¨Did he say exactly when he wants me in his office?¨ I ask, making no move to relinquish my hard won hammock unless absolutely necessary.

"Funny that you should mention it. I think he was expecting you about five minutes ago." Lewell glanced down at his watch to emphasize his point.

Groaning outwardly now I grudgingly slip out of the hammock's comfortable embrace. The minute I am clear Lewell has already laid down and proceeds to squirm in a manner only hammocks can induce to find the perfect spot. Seeming to finally find it Lewell lets out a contented sigh and pulls out a stack of fresh reports. The bain of a communications officer. Being stuck with analog duty was the worst. It meant you had to go through every written missive our post had received and make sure that it was logged on the correct date alongside the thousands of other electronic missives that traveled through our relays every day. I felt slightly less bad about not having a hammock, it had a worthy new owner.