Chapter Eight
Squad Bay, TSS Vella Gulf, Dark Side of the Moon, May 2
“This is the squad bay,” said the leader of the ‘Ground Force,’ Staff Sergeant Jim ‘Shuteye’ Chang, leading a new person into the large open room. The man was wearing a camouflage uniform with a dragon insignia and looked as hard as any of the others currently taking off their gear. Shuteye indicated the men and women stowing their gear. “This is Squad ‘A,’ the ‘Space Force,’ which is just getting back from a mission where they kicked ass and took names.” Several calls of the platoon’s motto, “Gluck ab!” were heard from around the room.
“This room is similar to the locker room of a major sports team,” Shuteye continued, “in that everyone has a locker.” The newbie could see lockers ringing the walls of the room, with benches next to them. The lockers looked much larger and different than any sports team’s lockers he had seen. In addition to a clothes tree on which the Alpha Squad members were hanging their space suits, there were also clips for harnesses and other apparel, a rack for stowing combat weapons and a variety of drawers to hold the squad members’ other implements of destruction. Shuteye pointed to an empty cubicle. “That one’s yours. You’ll get a suit and powered weapons; you’re also allowed to use any unpowered weapons that you want to bring.”
“This is Sergeant Alka Zoromski,” Shuteye announced to the squad. “He’s from the Polish Operational Maneuver Response Group, or GROM as you may have heard it called. Sergeant Zoromski, this is Alpha Squad.”
“Alka, huh?” asked a large man with dark hair.
“Yes,” replied Zoromski. “It means, ‘Defender of Man.’”
“Well, you’ll fit right in then,” said the man. “Welcome. I’m Master Chief Ryan O’Leary, the Space Force Leader. You can call me ‘Master Chief.’ I’m also the senior enlisted for the squad. Come see me if you need to, but use your chain of command as much as you can.” Leading him through the squad bay, Master Chief introduced all of the human members of his squad. He got to the last two members and said, “You’ve probably heard that we have a couple of extraterrestrials in the unit. This is Bob and Doug from the Epsilon Eridani system. Those aren’t their real names, but it’s a close approximation of them.”
Zoromski looked at the two aliens, who looked like five feet tall versions of the tyrannosaurus rex dinosaur model he had seen at the Museum of Evolution in Warsaw. The two lizards smiled at him, revealing rows of large, very sharp looking teeth. He was unable to keep from flinching back slightly from the sight.
“Don’t worry,” said Master Chief, “they have that affect on everyone the first time they meet them. You’ll get used to them.”
“Hi, I’m Bobellisssissolliss,” said Bob.
“I’m Dugelllisssollisssesss,” added Doug.
“Got it,” said Zoromski, “Bob and Doug.”
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