De Luce et Tenebris Umbra

Komprometiruyushchie Situatsii

A Compromising Situation

Note that titles will range in a variety of languages depending on recommendations and mood.

Please note that a single word or name that is in italics means that there has been a change in point of view. May be accompanied by a short description.

‘Elizer’s Night’

Low orbit around Cherok IV

0640

Ghost

Pin backing, firing pin, trigger spring, the three pieces fit together with repetitive smoothness. Slide on the bolt, push down, compress, and add rear bolt lock. The rest of the pieces of my rifle’s bolt made small clinking noises as they came together. Holding down the trigger I replaced the bolt and moved it through its paces. It slid quickly and locked into place, then reset and relocked.

Ping

The old rifle’s light ping let me know that the firing pin hit the dummy round solidly. I allowed myself a small smile. The new rifles had very few moving parts and didn’t allow for this kind of meticulous work, but these ancient ones were made to last.
It couldn’t compare to the fire rate and accuracy of the newest sniper rifles, or the penetration power, but it still had one hell of a kick when it hit you.

I slipped on the composite titanium bayonet, and went through the motions of close range hand-to-hand combat. I finished up with a lunge towards the foam target that was hanging by the door.

Hisssss

The door opened and the newest member of my team, Charise, or “Char”, walked in.

“Col…”

She froze at the small flash produced by the bayonet stabbing into the target not 2 feet from her head. Her eyes flew open so wide that I was temporarily worried that they would fall out of her head.

I thought about apologizing, but noticed that she was still frozen in place. So instead I chose to yell at her for her inaction.

“Sergeant!”

She jumped and unfroze, immediately leaping back from the embedded blade, and her eyes jumped to me.

“S…sir?” she whimpered.

I narrowed my eyes slightly. ‘Whimpering? Freezing from the sight of an approaching weapon? Just what kind of new squad mate did command send to me?’ She was young, granted, but she acted like she was straight out of ‘boot’, not the SF Academy like the rest of my squad.

“What the hell are you doing! 2 ft. farther to the left and you would have been impaled!”

She started shaking, and stared at me as I pulled out the blade. Then I noticed that her eyes were not fixated on me, but rather the bayonet. I noticed one of the classic symptoms of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). I thought back to her record and recommendations.

{--------------------------------------}

Charise Wilkenson

Age: 24

Height: 5’ 7’

Weight: 160 lbs

Firearms: 98/100

CQC: 95/100

Strategic Planning: 99/100

Explosives: 90/100

Seems to have a special interest in pyrotechnics.

CS: 99/100

Fitness: 95/100

Cov.Op: 90/100

*Advisory Warning: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder caused by the systematic execution of most known relatives in the Vercrumb Colony Massacre.*

Post Mortem autopsies of bodies recovered by the rescue forces suggest that most were tortured slowly with sharp, blade-like objects. All major arteries were avoided during the torture.

Death by public execution: the severing of both the Jugular and Corroded Arteries, with said objects.

Subject in question was, according to recovered video records of street cameras, present in most of the executions. Forced to watch.

Enlisted in the military soon afterward. Quick advancements through regular service.

Recommended for Orion Colony SF Academy: Age 22.

Symptoms of PTSD caused by exposure to sharp, thin objects.

Subject reacts in two ways.

Frozen in fear: has received several reprimands for its obstruction during training.

Uncontrolled Rage: 3 trainers sent to emergency medical wards for broken limbs and Sharp Force Trauma.

{----------------------------------------------}

‘Oh shit!’

I quickly pulled off the bayonet and placed it in its sheath at my waist. As I walked over to the table where I had left the case for the rifle, I heard slow movement behind me. Turning my head slightly I just caught sight of Char’ leaving the room, a dazed look on her face.

“Sergeant!”

“Sir?”

I waved her back and pointed to a bench near the door.

“Sit.”

“Bu…”

“That’s an order.” My tone quickly became serious. I would have to rectify the situation quickly, or else risk having a major liability in the upcoming mission.

I finished packing away the rifle and wiped off the excess grease from my hands with an old rag. Char’ sat down slowly on the bench, her eyes flickering back between me and the floor. The look on her face told me all that I needed to know. It wasn’t good, but would help me with what I was planning to do.

“I know about what happened 4 years ago.” I said calmly.

Her head shot up, a frightened look on her face. She was taking a gamble on where I was going with this.

“You…you’re not going to dro…drop me from the mission are you sir?”

I shook my head, lowering myself into a crouch in front of her.

“I won’t drop you unless this becomes a problem. Will it?”

Relief flooded her face, and she let a breath that she was holding.

“No sir!”

“Good,” I sighed, giving her a small smile, “Look, your file had that as an additive, a warning so to speak.”

“Bu…”

I interrupted her raising my hand as my face became serious once again.

“As long as you keep it in check I won’t say anything,” I put my hand on her shoulder, and gave it a slight squeeze, “But let this be my warning to you. These things can’t be held in forever, so if you need someone to talk to I’ll be here,” her face tinged slightly red as she looked away. ‘That was odd,’ I hope she isn’t catching anything, then I’ll really have to bench her. “But if I’m not available, you can also have a chat with Alex.”

This time the flush disappeared and confusion laced her features.

“Pick… why?”

“Cause you’re sorta like him in a way. Only you’re more outgoing than he was at the time. He was a shut in anytime we weren’t on a mission, except for the few times that he’d come into the mess hall.”

Now the confusion disappeared and astonishment covered her face. Lifting an eyebrow she asked, “Was he really like that?”

I nodded before standing up and taking a seat next to her. Leaning against the wall I closed my eyes and began to recount Alex’s journey from being a shut in, to the constantly lively, joking, and pranking, guy that he usually is. He was practically the living soul of the team now.

Char’ laughed as I retold the story of the party and Dan and I threw for Alex’s birthday, but she started yelling at me when I said that the major joke was when we put a hidden, inflatable punching glove in the cake, and the resounding mess that it created.

“You bastards wasted a CAKE!? Just for a prank?”

She gave me a shove and I tumbled off the bench laughing at the images that were flashing through my head. His face covered in cake, the laughing and joking at the present crew, his eventual giggles that transformed into full-blown laughing as he started throwing icing at us. It turned into a mini food fight that ended in us having to clean the mess hall.

At the time, no one had liked the fact that Dan had wanted to waste a cake for a joke, but when I revealed that we had enough spares for everyone, there were smiles and shaking heads all around.

“Do you know how hard it is to just get the supplies to make one cake?” Char’ kept on yelling at me as she chased me around the room. I didn’t care, I kept on laughing as I ran, I hadn’t expected it to be this easy to break her out of her mood.

Then she jumped on me and got me into a headlock before I could escape.

“Oi! We had just saved a colony from the ‘Van and they wouldn’t take no for an answer. We weren’t even supposed to be in that system, we disobeyed orders and risked our lives to lend a hand. Once we were done, instead of command court marshaling us, they gave us medals, took the credit for sending us, and creating a false mission to cover up the fact that we had gone AWOL.”

She let me out of the headlock as she ran that through her head.

“So you guys went AWOL, saved a colony, nearly got court-marshaled, and you got cake?!”

“No,” I coughed. “We got the supplies to make the cakes.”

“But… the ship couldn’t have possibly have had the cooking tech needed to bake it.”

I shrugged, “It didn’t matter, Dan got the crazy idea to make a small airtight chamber and use a flamethrower as a makeshift oven.”

She shook her head smiling, “You really are crazy and bipolar at the same time. First you’re barking orders and won’t take any shit from anyone, and now you’re trying to cheer me up?”

I froze, damn how did she know?

She looked at my face and gave me a small mischievous smile.

“I know what you’re thinking, ‘How do I know this?’.”

I nodded slowly.

“Well… it’s because that’s what my older brothers used to do whenever they came across someone who was depressed… especially me.” She sat back and scratched her head.

I sat down slowly and wearily.

“That’s it?”

She nodded, “That’s it.”

“So you’re not going to hit me for wasting cake?”

“Nope. Even though the last guy I caught wasting food, I beat to a pulp.”

Crap.

I don’t know what possessed me, but my mind wandered back a month to an after mission break when Dan had planned something he dubbed, ‘History Night’. We watched an ancient recording of a comedian from several centuries ago, and I remembered one part and response that would fit perfectly in this situation.

I raised the pitch of my voice and said, “Why?”

I hoped to whatever supreme being that was out there, that she wouldn’t give the same response. But… low and behold my chances with fate… she did.

“Because he couldn’t make me laugh.”

I sat there stunned and sighed with relief that I had avoided a pre-mission injury.

I froze when her smile widened.

“That reminds me…”

Oh shit…

“Even though I won’t beat you to a pulp…”

Oh no, no, no, no…

“You guys still wasted a cake,” her smile grew even wider as she raised herself into a crouch.

Holy mother of…

“I had you in a headlock right?”

My last thought before she leaped at me was, ‘Dear God someone help me!’

{-----------------------------------------------------------------------}

Meanwhile…

The rest of the members of Alpha and Bravo teams were getting their equipment ready for the upcoming mission.

Rex, Dan, and Alex were loading a Dillo’ with their weapons when Alex suddenly stopped.

“What's wrong,” asked Dan.

Alex twitched and licked his lips.

“Sweet… almost like frosting,” he mumbled.

Dan and Rex looked at each other and shrugged. They moved back to lift a crate when Dan suddenly twitched. He felt shivers going up his spine.

Rex paused, “What’s wrong?”

“Don’t know,” replied Dan, “Felt like someone was insulting me.”

Rex raised an eyebrow and turned back to move the crate when he sneezed.

Alex and Dan looked at him.

Rex just looked at them and said, “Felt like that time when you two were going to start fighting in the exercise room.”

Wait a sec’.

It didn’t take them long to piece everything together.

Sweet taste, almost like frosting… Cake!

Insulting Dan… the only things to insult him about were his cooking and his collection of ancient video recordings.

And a fight in the exercise room.

They all came to the same conclusion at once. There was only one other person on the ship that would insult Dan’s collection, talk about Alex’s birthday, and fight in the Ex. Room all in one go.

“Ghost,” they all said in unison before sprinting off.

{--------------------------------------------}

Can’t… breathe… need… air!

Char’ had me in a choke hold that pinned my arms at the same time.

I started to tap out when the door burst open and Alex, Dan, and Rex rushed in.

They all immediately froze at the sight of Char’ having me in a choke hold.

“Well I’ll be damned.”

Char’ and I simply looked up at them, and our still scene was interrupted by the crackling of the PA system.

“All teams make final preparations for launch in 45 minutes.”

I twisted out of the choke hold and jumped to my feet.

“You heard the order, now get going!”

Rex and Dan bolted out the door to finish loading the 'Dillo, but Alex stayed behind as well as Char'. He was giving me a look that said that he wanted to find out what had happened.

I motioned Char' out of the room with a wave of my hand.

"You need to finish up checking on your gear, the comms were still a bit faulty last time we checked."

She just nodded and marched off, her face stoic even though the red tinge had returned.

I turned back to Alex to see him with an eyebrow raised and a small smile adorning his face.

"I never expected you of all people to be beat in Hand-to-Hand, especially by her."

I laughed, "She's a lot better than you think."

I started to walk out when he caught my shoulder.

"Soooo..." He started in a teasing voice.

"What did you do to make her jump on you like that?"

I flinched.

"It was nothing like what you're thinking."

"Oh yeah?" He started accusingly leaning forward arms crossed, "Then why was she blushing when we caught the two of you sparring like that?"

'Was that what that was?' I thought, 'I'd better fix that as soon as I can.'

"Again, nothing like that," I told him giving a slight shove, "If you must know I damn near caused her to have a PTSD attack."

Alex stood there, his joking attitude wiped off his face to be replaced by worry.

"You helped her out of it though?"

"Yeah," I sighed, "I told her about when Dan and I first got you to laugh."

He froze.

"What else did you tell her?"

"That talking sometimes helps, so I offered to listen if she wanted to talk, but if I wasn't available, then for her to come talk to you."

Alex sighed, "So she knows then?"

"Yeah."

"Hmph!"

"Ah... don't worry," I laughed giving him a slight shove, "Now you can have that little talk with her that you've been wanting since she dropped in."

"I...what...how?"

"Don't worry 'bout how 'ah know, just worry 'bout what your goin' ta' say," I continued with a slight accent as I led him out the door.

"If we don't hurry then Rex 'll get a pick of the gear before we can... Race ya'."

Alex's old demeanor returned, giving me a sidelong glance he said, "You're on."