Even at the late hour, with October’s first chill setting in, the streets were still abuzz with activity. He spotted Aoife and Habib playing football against two members of a different squad. They’d set up four metal buckets as goals in the cramped space between two dormitory buildings. The ball made an almighty crashing sound as it bounced off the thin metal sheets of the corrugated walls. Noah, wanting to get to his destination in haste, waved while jogging by. This prompted a confused glance from Habib.
“Apparently I’m needed at the Headshed,” Noah shouted over, picking up his pace.
He took a moment to compose himself before turning the final corner. Words from his uncle echoed in his mind:Leadership is thirty percent talent, seventy percent performance.He took the final few steps, taking a deep breath and straightening his spine, before nodding to the two guards stationed outside HQ.
The building, three stories of gleaming glass, was easily the most imposing on the site. Being mostly composed of carbon sheet steel—built hastily, ten years ago—the dormitory blocks looked like slums in comparison. Noah took the stairs two at a time to reach Murphy’s personal office, then knocked twice.
“Enter.”
Noah immediately saluted the older woman, dressed in her navy-blue uniform. Golden rank pins adorned the black band on her right shoulder like constellations. Like usual, Noah’s eyes naturally came to rest on her chin, but he forced his head up to meet her gaze when he said, “Captain.”
Captain Murphy gave a tiny nod of her head, indicating that he should relax and sit down in front of the vast oak desk that dominated the room. The captain gave him a tight-lipped smile across the expanse of space between them.
He couldn’t help but glance down at the built-in screen that encompassed most of the desk, which displayed multiple open documents. A few were personnel files with unsmiling ID photographs. Behind the captain, a wall was alive with animated maps of areas with red dots, and a collection of schedules and rotas. His eye was drawn to the bottom left, where photographs of typeBs, all lying dead in grotesque inhuman positions, encircled a small line of text that read—
Captain Murphy powered down the displays with a click of her finger. Noah’s eyes shot straight back at her, focussing on a few strands of greying blonde hair that had escaped the woman’s usually flawlessly tight bun.
“Lieutenant Forrest. How have you been?” she said.
Noah opened his mouth to reply—
“How was Samuel Jackson’s service? I heard the fireworks earlier.”
Sixteen small fireworks. One for every year of his life. And like his life, the display was over in a heartbeat.
“I’m well, ma’am.”
“Jackson was a good soldier. I know you thought highly of him.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Murphy tapped her fingers restlessly on the desk. “Some of the other lieutenants have mentioned they are concerned about you, Noah.” Noah squirmed at the use of his first name. It had not gone unnoticed among his comrades that Noah often seemed to get preferential treatment from the captain. “You understand that Jackson’s death was unavoidable, and that Squad E could have done nothing differently?”
Noah closed his eyes to hide the tears that threatened to fall. He replayed the moments that had tormented him over the last thirty hours: Sam’s eyelids fluttering closed, Meredith trying to stifle her quiet sobs on the drive home, Splat punching the wall so hard he split his knuckle.
“Yes, ma’am,” he finally replied, exhaling a slow, shaky breath.But I might have got there quicker if I wasn’t too busy staring at a typeB that reminded me of my dead boyfriend.
“It may not seem like it, but youaredoing well, Noah. I was saying this to your uncle the other day. You’ve only been leading Squad E for a short time, but look how far you’ve come. I know the other lieutenants don’t go easy on you. They likely feel threatened that you’ve made it so far at such a young age. But what is most clear is that you’ve won the respect of your team.” Respect was a strong word. They liked him, certainly. Trusted him to lead them to success? Doubtful.
“Thank you, ma’am.” When would this be over?
“Actually, the reason I’ve called you here today is because you have two new members joining you tonight. There was some sort of incident earlier that delayed the collection team, so they’re getting dropped off around one dark thirty this morning. You’ll need to meet them at the gate to support check in.”
He felt himself tense and wrestled for composure. “Tonight? Two of them?” They lost Sam only a day ago and now they were to add more green fodder to the mix?
“Your squad needed to be topped up. Don’t worry, I’ve marked you out of active duty for two months of basic training.” Noah inwardly groaned. His squad wouldnotbe happy about that. “You’ll need to send half of Squad E to border patrol every day.”Even worse. “The extra training time will be beneficial for the rest of your squad as well.” This was standard Murphy. Praising in one breath, then suggesting incompetence with the other.
“Understood, ma’am.”
“Right. Off you go then, Forrest. I’ll share the documents of the new recruits with you shortly.” She paused for a moment, seeming to choose her words carefully. “Intel says that at least one of them could be… fairly resistant to joining us. They’re conscripts. It would serve you well to make a solid impression of your leadership to them. It is always easier to do that with new people.”
Noah read between the lines of her words and fought against the heat burning on his cheeks. The current Squad E formed from an amalgamation of people he’d known in some capacity for years. They would always respect his leadership to his face. However, he was younger than lots of them, and he’d known most of them as friends beforehand. It made for a far less than traditional dynamic between them all.
“Your uncle sends his regards, by the way. He said he would stop by and check in,” the captain continued.
Noah forced himself to smile as he nodded and left the building. His uncle, Chief of Defence for all the regiments currently serving across the city, often made empty promises to see him. That suited Noah perfectly. Their shared surname had only caused him grief so far.
Checking his wristband, he headed straight to the gate to await the new members of Squad E.Please, no more teenagers.As the entire military force haemorrhaged casualties, more and more ill-suited new recruits popped up in the barracks. Years ago, a captain requesting that new recruits were operation-ready within two months would have been ludicrous, but now it was standard procedure.
