The next year of Eva's life seemed to melt into one endless cycle of torturous days and painful nights of recovery. True to his word, Commander Stranger had kept a close eye on her progress and always made sure she had the best gear, the freshest food and first choice in the few things the recruits were allowed to choose. The other side of this coin however meant that she was expected to train harder and longer than the other recruits.

 

She was assigned specialist trainers in every discipline. A marksman in firearms, an expert in hand to hand combat, an elite athlete, genuine ace pilots. Every day she was pushed to exhaustion and there was not one night that she didn't go to bed sporting a series of fresh bruises. As she slipped into her bunk each night she would find a parcel under her pillow containing field meds to inject into her bruises to heal them faster, ointments to rub into her skin to take the edge off minor scrapes and cuts, and supliments to swallow to build her strength as she slept so that she could go through the punishment all over again the next day.

 

It was not all bad though. She did love the special issue toys she was granted access to. Such as the prototype of a portable railgun rifle, which was one of her favorites. Every week there was a new revision of it waiting for her to use at the firing range. The first time the group went to the firing range she was pulled aside for a special safety briefing while the other recruits were issued their laser pistols, stood in a line and started firing downrange at the targets. It was some time later that Eva was allowed out onto the range.

 

As instructed she squared her shoulders and put the butt of the rifle firmly into the crook of her right shoulder. She eyed down the sights of the rifle and flicked the safety off with her thumb. The rifle seemed to 'spin up' in some way, a soft faint whine increasing in pitch as the internal capacitors charged. Once charged, a green light lit up in the bottom of the sights. She pulled the trigger and, with a loud hum of electromatnets coming to life, the rifle launched a projectile down the range at blistering speed, shattering the target and sending up a large ploom of dust behind it. Everyone stopped and stared at her with gaping mouths. She was standing still, frozen in place at the carnage in front of her. Slowly the stunned expression on Eva's face was replaced with a huge grin and she couldn't help but let out a loud laugh, "Oh, I have GOT to get one of these!"

 

She also looked forward to simulator time where she got to test her reflexes against scenarios that got more difficult every week. After a few months they started performing drills in real aircraft with instructors in Avengers but after a few flights Eva was granted leave to fly the drills solo in a Hornet.

 

Moments of excitement like this were often overshadowed though. Hand to hand combat proved to be the greatest source of Eva's woes. Every day she was subjected to an onslaught of abuse at the hands of a specialist who taught her various forms of martial arts and wrestling tactics. They taught her the human body's weak spots - usually by demonstrating them on her, and gave her theoretical knowledge of the anatomy of known alien races and where similar weak points existed on them.

 

As time went on Eva's mental state deteriorated day by day as they blurred into a seeming never-ending stream of pain, exhaustion and fitful sleep. At four months in she had yet to land even one blow onto her combat trainers and had thought seriously about giving up more than a few times. These were the thoughts in her head as she lay in her bunk just before lights out. Half of the recruits had been taken out for a night time drill leaving Eva about a dozen other recruits in the barracks.

 

Suddenly her world went dark as a sack was put over her head and she was dragged off the bunk, hitting the floor hard. Something struck her left temple making lights flare in her vision and the world seemed to start spinning. She was grabbed roughly by the shoulders and dragged out into the cool night air. After a handful of minutes she was shoved to the ground, landing in cold mud. She tore off the hood and scrambled to her feet, immediately sorry that she did as pain stabbed through her head making her wince.

 

Composing herself, she glanced around. She had been dragged to the training grounds behind the barracks and was surrounded by four recruits in the dim light, one of which was walking in circles around her.

 

"For the life of me," the circling recruit spoke, "I can't see what's so special about you. Maybe the old man likes redheads and gives you special treatment for a little special treatment in return hmmm?" Eva recognised the voice as Bridges immediately. "Well, teacher's pet. Let's find out just how special you are."

 

The other three cracked chemlights and threw them onto the ground, stepping back to make room. Bridges moved to stand in front of Eva, a baton in each hand. "I don't suppose one of those is for me, or are you stacking the odds in your favor. I should have guessed you'd never try to take me on in a fair fight. It's not really your style, is it?"

 

Bridges sneered at Eva and lunged, swinging a baton at her head. Eva ducked back out of the way, her mind still a little clouded but clearing up quickly. The first baton missed, but Bridges turned and slammed her second baton into Eva's left forearm heavily causing Eva to grunt in pain and take a step back.

 

"Fine..." Eva said, "Let's see what you can do." She rolled her shoulders and widened her feet a little, drawing herself into a defensive stance as she had been taught. Bridges came at her again, all swinging batons and fancy footwork, and Eva ducked, stepped and spun out of her way without being struck during this barrage.

 

To Eva's surprise, as her head cleared, she was able to follow Bridges's movements easily enough. Fast and ferocious as she was in her attacks, Eva was used to trying to defend herself against veteran specialists. In comparison these attacks were slow and even seemed a little clumbsy.

 

Eva lifted her face towards Bridges and smiled, looking down her nose at the other woman the way Bridges often looked down at others. She extended her left hand out towards Bridges and made a beckoning motion with her fingertips, taunting Bridges to have another go.

 

Bridges almost snarled at her and launched into the attack, swinging a feint at Eva's ribcage and then swinging the real blow at her head. Eva saw the motion of the feint and knew instinctively that Bridges wasn't putting in enough effort to make that into a serious blow. She palmed it away easily with her hand and ducked the second attack aimed for her head, slamming her palm into the back of Bridges's elbow as the attack sailed past her, sending the woman off balance.

 

Before Bridges could catch her footing Eva stepped in close, positioning herself inside of the effective swinging arcs of the batons, and drove her elbow hard into Bridges's ribcage just under her right arm. As bridges recoiled back Eva turned her footing and ducked low again, coming up under the other woman's guard and driving her fist into her stomach knocking the wind out of her. Bridges staggered and Eva stepped to the side, turned again and extended her right hand. fingers outstretched to chop at the front of her throat causing Bridges to gag and choke sickeningly.

 

To add insult to injury, Eva finished her assault by kicking Bridges as hard as she could in the backside, sending the other woman sprawling face first into the mud. Eva bent down, retrieved the batons and whirled on the other three recruits.

 

"She's got two broken ribs and a ruptured trachea. You could get her to the medics and save her life or you can try your luck with me and let her drown in her own blood." She shrugged, as if their choice meant little to her, "What will it be?"

 

The three glanced at each other and then down at Bridges before bending down to pick her up, dragging her in the direction of the medical building. "It would be wise to forget this ever happened!" Eva called after them, the reply coming in a quick ackowledging wave.

 

The incident had two main impacts on Eva's life. Firstly, she realised that her training really was paying off and she focused on it with new vigor finding renewed enjoyment in the challenges it presented with confidence that she was in fact improving all the time.

 

Secondly it put Bridges in the infirmary for four weeks removing her poison from the squad long enough to dull her influence. No one ever told the military police just how Bridges got her injuries, and the three who had assisted Bridges in the assault seemed to have changed alliances having gained respect for Eva from the way she had dealt with them on the night, not to mention the knowledge that the red headed girl could likely do the same to all of them without breaking a sweat.

 

When Bridges returned to the squad she found herself practically alone, isolated from the group because of her own actions. She withdrew into herself and Eva often caught her glaring from afar with dark brooding eyes. Eva tried to ignore the woman and focused on her own training.

 

The following months passed with no real incident. Weaker recruits dropped off on an almost fortnightly basis leaving only a dozen left of the original fifty by the last month of this year of hell.

 

Pilots wings earned and proper handles assigned, the last exercise was a live fire shp boarding exercise. The recruits were split into two groups of six, each one given a mock up of a military transport ship to defend. To Eva's dismay, Bridges was in her's. Jenkins stood before the two teams barking out the parameters of the exercise.

 

"If you fail your role as pilots, you may be boarded by the enemy who will be intent on hijacking your vessel or stealing sensitive information either from the ship or to torture it out of you. Your role will be two fold. Firstly, you must repell the boarding party and execute the invading group. If you also find yourself unable to achieve this, then your final role will be to destroy sensitive systems and die an honorable death"

 

"The boarding party will cosist of combat training bots armed with stun pistols. They will not kill you, but they will hurt so much you will wish you did die. You will be armed with standard issue Navy laser sidearms. These are fully live and ready to kill, people. Be careful. Group one will be led by Manic, group two will be led by Valkyrie. Do not disappoint me!"

 

Eva looked over at Manic and hold her fist out towards him. He reached over and bumped his fist against her's. They grinned at each other and Eva said, "Kick some ass, Manic" before turning and heading over to armory table. Laying on the table were five laser pistols laid out neatly, and a case labelled 'Valkyrie'. Opening the case Valkyrie lifted out a pulse rifle, it's weight slight and balance near perfect. She slid her hand over the smooth curved surfaced with a smile, hefted into the crock of her arm for a moment, testing how it felt. Nodding, she turned to her team.

 

"Alright people. We've been through hell and back together. We just need to get through this last test and we can get off this rock and start making a difference out there. We will set up defensive positions in the front operations area. Watch each other's blind spots and cover each other's asses, and we might just get through this without convulsing on the ground choking on our own drool. Alright, let's do this!"

 

The team filed into the mockup of the transport, Bridges bringing up the rear. Eva stepped in front of her causing the other woman to pull up short. "I need you focused through this. Are we good?"

 

"Yeah whatever." Bridges muttered back and shoved past Eva, bumping shoulders heavily with her on the way past. Eva rolled her eyes and turned to followed the team inside.

 

Inside was under simulated emergency lighting. Red lights illuminated the edges of the ceiling and floor, and there were two lines of red flashing lights indicating the isle down the centre of the craft. Eva positioned the team in defensive positions at the back of the cockpit, using what little cover the various partitions offered. Eva positioned herself at the front of the formation, closest to the back of the craft, and levelled her rifle at the entrance way.

 

"Weapons hot!" she called to the crew, who all flicked off their weapon safety switches and waited. After what seemed forever Eva saw movement on the far side of the cargo area, "Here they come...." she said just barely loudly enough for her team to hear. She eyed down the sights of the rifle and rested her finger on the trigger and at the next sign of movement, send an energy round sailing down the ship to spark glance off the shoulder of a robot.

 

Taking this as a queue to fire, the rest of the team started firing, shards of laser fire zipping through the air. Eva squeezed single rounds out of the pulse rifle as she saw movement but each round that sunk into a robot's body or the walls caused a puff of smoke to spit into the narrow entry making it impossible to see.

 

"Hold fire!" Eva called and the firing stopped, "Wait until you see something to shoot, and shoot true.." she said more quietly.

 

For what seemed like an eternity nothing happened. The smoke at in front slowly dissipated revealing a few deactivated robots laying on the floor. A few seconds later, stun blasts erupted from what was left of the smoke zipping up through the structure sending two of the recruits flailing to the ground in convulsing pain. Eva opened fire again with her rifle, holding the trigger down for a burst of fire each time. As robots stepped into view that were quickly dispached by concentrated fire but after six destroyed bots there were more coming.

 

"Cover me." Eva called back, knowing that if she is to end this onslaught before she loses the rest of her team she will need to get to the back of the ship and close seal the doors. Her order was answered by a surge of laser fire from her team and she broke cover, rolling across the floor to duck behind a chair. She then stepped out again planning to run closer to the back of the room when an intense hot pain lanced into her left shoulder.

 

It was like no other pain she'd ever felt, a deep pain that drilled into her flesh and radiated down her arm and through her chest. She screamed in pain and arched her back and, as she stumbled and reeled from the pain, glanced up in time to see a bot step through the smoke and fire a stun round into her stomach before her vision went blank.

 

Eva suddenly jerked awake and tried to sit up, but pain lanced through her shoulder again and she cried out and laid back into a firm pillow. She rubbed her eyes with her good hand and looked around. She was in the infirmary, her shoulder bound in bandages. A nurse looked up at her outburst and came over to her and checked her vitals without saying a word. She tapped on her MobiGlas and touched an earpiece with her fingertips, "Sir, you wanted to be notified when Valkyrie woke up? Yes Sir, that's correct. Very well."

 

She looked down at Eva and made some adjustments to her medication, "Commander Stranger will be here momentarily to speak with you." With that she turned and left leaving Eva alone in the room. About ten minutes later, Stranger opened the door and stepped inside.

 

"Miss Hawkins, it's good to see you awake."

 

Eva rubbed her head and tried to sit up again, but more slowly this time. She managed to get to a reclined half sitting position, wincing at the pain. Stranger motioned to the bandages, "Bridges shot you. She tried to claim that you were hit by a random unlucky shot as you tried to run under cover, but footage of the exercise showed her pistol clearly tracking you as you moved. She has been stripped of all UEE standings and has been grounded indefinitely. She will be dishonorably discharged from the UEE and disallowed clearance to pilot anything bigger than a hangar buggy for a very long time."

 

"I'm guessing we failed the mission, Sir?"

 

"On the contrary. Higgins saw what Bridges did and pistol whipped her. He stepped up and took command. He noticed what you were trying to achieve and managed to lead the other two down the length of the ship to seal the rear door. They used the time that bought them to destroy systems in the cockpit before the bots breached the seal again. They then held a brave last stand until they were taken down. Your team passed with phase two credentials with the loss of half of their team and with an internal traitor. I call that a success any day."

 

He continued, "We have you booked in for surgery to graft that laser blast to prevent scarring later this evening..." he started but Eva cut him off.

 

"Sir, with respect.... I'd like to keep the scar. It will remind me to trust my instincts more than people's loyalty claims in the future. But if you could do what you can to get me the hell out of this bed, I would appreciate it. I have to congratulate some people on a job well done."

 

NEXT ENTRY: Deployment