Stormtrooper

1

"Cadet 245!"

I snap to attention, eyes staring straight ahead. The drill sergeant marches up to me, I already know what he's going to say.

"What is that?" He points at my chest plate, which, by the way, is squeaky clean.

"I don't know what you're talking about, sir."

The drill sergeant glares at me. "Say that again?"

"I didn't know you were so hard of hearing, sir."

The drill sergeant looks fit to explode, and I smile inwardly. He steps away from me, probably to punish us.

"All of you, on the ground!" Me and my squad drop down to a push up position. "Thanks to your buddy 245 here, you're not leaving until you do 100 push ups! One!"

I sigh. Our drill sergeant is so predictable. Step out of line, a hundred push ups. Tardy, a hundred push ups. Honestly. Its been almost two whole years, nothing has changed. He isn't a very creative man.

Oh well. At least we'll be out of this hell hole by next month.

One way or another.

************

"Rift, knock it off, will you?"

I turn around to meet the angry gaze of my squadmates. Not sure how I earned the nickname 'Rift' but okay. I can roll with that.

The guy who spoke is Chaffy, he's a good tactician and the overall 'nice guy'. Leads the team in combat sims and keeps us in line. At least, most of us.

Unfortunately for me, he doesn't look very 'nice' at the moment.

"I am sick and tired of you mouthing off and landing us all in trouble. Would it hurt so much just to shut up?"

I clear my throat loudly. "First off, I'm not mouthing off. If the DS wants to look for a fight, then I'll be damn sure to give him one. Besides, a couple of extra push ups would do certain individuals some good." I don't even bother masking my glance towards Hertz, who, to put it delicately, is rather round.

"Hey!"

I chuckle lightly before turning back towards Chaffy. "Second, no, it wouldn't. But where I come from, we have a certain thing called dignity. Heard of it?"

With that, I slam my locker door and head out. I can hear Chaffy sighing behind me. He's trying, I'll give him that. But you can't force people to change.

I enter the dormitories and switch on the lights. A faint groan confirms my suspicions.

"Man, you really love your sleep, don't you." Jamie's eyes peek out from under his blanket. I walk over to his bunk and sit down, sighing.

"Chaffy come at you again?" He asks knowingly. I pull off his blanket.

"Hey! What did you do that for?" I grin. "You sleep way too much, buddy."

Jamie glares at me and snatches his blanket back. "Shut up. And stop avoiding the question."

My grin fades. Jamie knows me too well. "Yeah. He did."

Jamie and me have been besties ever since we could talk. It's kinda lucky that we made into the same squad. He's typically a peacemaker, and has put up with my bs for a long time.

"You know, maybe you could try and fit in a bit better." I look at him and snort. "Sure. No thanks, bud."

Jamie looks me straight in the eyes. "You're not as bad as you make yourself out to be, Rift. Just try. Trust me."

"So now you're calling me Rift too, huh." Jamie winks. "It sounds good, so, yeah. Night, Rift."

With that, Jamie dives back under the covers. I sigh and stand up. My bunk is across the room.

As I walk towards it, the door creaks open and my other squadmates walk in. The tension in the air is palpable.

Speaking of, I haven't properly introduced them. Besides Chaffy, Hertz, Jamie and me, there are Kale, Jean, Zero and Doc.

Kale is our sniper, and a straightforward man. He doesn't take any nonsense, gets straight to the point.

Jean is the only female in our squad. She's a good fighter, and works twice as hard as the rest of us. Get on her bad side, she'll give you the beating of a lifetime.

Zero is the crazier side of our squad. He's a good guy, maybe a bit touched on the brain, but alright.

Last is Doc, I reckon it's pretty obvious what he does. Medic of the squad, he takes things very seriously.

"Rift, uh, here." I turn to find Chaffy holding out my locker keys. His face is sincere, so I take it, muttering a quick "thanks".

The silence is heavy with things left unsaid, and I leave it that way. Maybe... maybe we can work it out. Maybe we can salvage whatever this is, and build something better.

Slowly, my mind clears and darkness descends. Maybe... but we can do that in the morning.