10 ABYSergeant Cedmel Lohrn got on the top turret of the Swift Assault 5 hovercraft assigned to his squad. Yeah, it was an old model, but it was packed with surveillance gear AND guns. Plus it beat the cramped A5-RX tank they used to cram themselves into.
Granted, they weren't headed into combat today. Hopefully.
No, after a couple years of front line duty, the 531st Armored Brigade was on patrol of the refugee enclaves on Ryoone. While not nominally a dangerous mission, it was telling that three months ago, his unit was pulled off the line in a hurry. They put down some organized crime outfits and a New Republic terror cell or two, and other things that the local militia had been woefully incapable of handling.
In the years since the Plague Wars and the Great Migration or whatever the holonews gits were calling it these days, he’d been a very, very busy trooper. It was his lot in life, but at least he had made the choice.
Cedmel was a rarity. He had joined the army voluntarily, without any reason other than to serve and defend his homeland. When Annaj allied itself with the Vast Empire, he requested to be in the units that merged with the greater Imperial Army. Due to his short stature, he had always been in the armored corps. This was alright as far as he was concerned. He got to roll into battle in an armored shell, plus he got to serve with the ladies, given that many females ended up in armor due to their normally smaller frames.
Case in point was his driver, Corporal Raia Sanrak. One of the first of the refugee "volunteers" she was once a mid-level technician at Gowix Computers on Corulag, prior to the decimation of said planet by one of the many plagues that had run rampant throughout the galaxy.
Luckily - if you can say being a refugee from a devastated world was lucky - she and her family made the cut and were resettled on Sump, one of the blasted worlds the Vast Empire had provided form emergency resettlement. Being the eldest child of her family, she joined the military in the hopes of earning enough points to get her family permanent resident status. The more danger she faced, the closer to being legimate citizens her folks were.
It was a crap situation, but that was the way of the galaxy these days. If nothing else, her salary was sent home to feed her family with more than the usual tasteless goo that passed for humanitarian relief meals.
Cedmel went through his checklist. Every time, without fail. He'd seen highly skilled crews vaporized due to rushing through the pre-deployment checks. Imagine going into battle without visually checking your weapons loadout. Impossible? Unfortunately, it happened. And beings died for that kind of mistake.
So he did the list. And he made the crew do it with him. That's how he stayed alive.
"Sanrak, spin this box around. Make sure that new gimbal doesn't stick like the old one did. We dive to one side and I spill my caf again, it's your ass."
The hovercraft left it’s berth in the motor pool and entered the parade grounds. It spun about smartly, then slid side to side a few times. "All systems pass the Cardan suspension test, Sarge."
Lohrn checked his turret gun and asked for follow ups with the other guns. Corporal Arden Skyng - on the conc missile launcher - replied with a quick affirmative. His sister, Corporal Jadra, gave an all clear on the blaster cannon. While not twins, the two could have passed for a set given their similar size and equally serious attitude. If anything, Cedmel’s job was to get the two to lighten up every so often. They were fuges just like Raia.
Completing the crew were the four scouts riding below. Two of them, Weke Horkin and Marnica Talilles, had been with him since the squad was formed two years ago. Horkin was from Lotaith, Talilles was another refugee, from Esseles. The “new” nuggets, Privates Wen Tarkant and Karess Leeprin, had been assigned to him here on Ryoone. Neither had seen a battlefield, just the intense house-to-house skirmishes they had engaged in here. Both, of course, had "volunteered" and were originally from Brentaal and Ruan, though Tarkant was an Epicanthix, not that anyone paid that any mind.
Right now, the quartet had nothing to do but clean weapons and play virtual pazaak on their HUDs. They liked Seven Card Comet - it was the trendy game these days - but that demanded physical cards and whatnot to be “authentic”. Whatever.
Cedmel remembered was sabacc was good enough for everyone.
Checklist complete, he called in and got authorization to depart the yard and begin his assigned patrol pattern. With any luck, they’d be back in time to grab a hot lunch for once.
