Sade sat, lounging idly on a worn wooden bench, his E-11 cradled less than lovingly in his arms. A toothpick hung out of his mouth, and, other than occasionally spitting in the dirt his eyes were the only part of him that moved as he watched the sparse traffic move past his checkpoint.  Mostly old men and rickity speeders, the cheap knock-off Incoms the locals seemed to favor.

Sade kicked some dirt around with a booted foot. Armor discipline had long ago gone out the window, all in all it was a miracle anyone even manned the checkpoint anymore. Then again, Sade was the only one who really did. Every day he could be seen, the young man with short blonde hair sat on the bench most days. He still did his duty.

The bench rocked as another man dropped himself into it next to Sade. Sade cast his eyes at the man sitting next to him, the sharp face belonged to Belfor. His friend shoved a cup at Sade, who took it and took a long drink, it was a strong grain wine the locals made, tasted watery at first, but it had a kick. Sade drank thirstily, other than some kaf in the morning it was the only thing he'd drank that day and as the sun moved across the sky towards noon the cool spring morning began turning into a warm spring afternoon.

Belfor lit a cigarette, "What's up?"

Sade shook his head, "Just another day. Another bloody day here."

"At least it's warming up." The winter had been cold and hard on the soldiers, Sade hadn't left the guard hut if he could avoid it the whole season.

"Yeah, could do without the rain though,"

"Makes a horrible mess of things," his friend said, looking through shaggy brown hair at the sky, "Won't rain today though, maybe not for a few days."

"Let some of this muck dry up," Sade said, kicking at the half-dry mud.

Belfor let out a couple controlled coughs, Sade looked at his friend, "You should at least slow down, you smoke way too much,"

Belfor shrugged, "I'm not planning on living forever,"

Belfor pulled the sling on his A280 over his head and set the weapon on the bench next to him, like most of the men he was in a mix of military fatigues and local clothing. In Belfors case he favored a red shirt of a course fabric made by the locals, it had a hood on it that was currently draped over the back of his leather vest. Belfor had gone native.

That's what they called it anyway. Almost everyone had gone native by now, Sade included. His hair might still be close to regulation, but the scraggly beard he'd grown wasn't. Didn't really matter, there was no one to tell him it was wrong. Sade looked at Belfor; the man still shaved, but even so Sade could tell he was able to grow a full beard, and a year younger to boot.

"Belf, how old are you?"

His friend looked at him for a second, thinking, "Twenty, I think." Sade laughed out loud, hitting his friend with the back of his hand, "What's so funny?"

Sade couldn't help himself, there were tears starting in his eyes, he tried to get a grip on himself managing to choke out a reply, "Back home, hah, on my world, heh heh heh, I can drink now," Sade released himself to laughter again, Belfor joined him.

Then, suddenly, Sade grew sullen, "Gawds this world sucks." He took another long pull from the cup.

"Yep." Was all Belfor said, taking a drink from his own, "Going to be here all day?"

"Yep, nothing interesting ever happens here."

"That, my friend, is all too true." Belfor stood and picked up his weapon, slinging it again, "I'll be back later. Brisko is cooking again tonight, if yer interested."

"Heh, wouldn't miss it, those steaks he made last time. . ." Sade closed his eyes and groaned in satisfaction at the mere memory, "better than sex."

"Whatever you say, man. See ya 'round,"

"Yeah, and don't forget, complacency kills."

Belfor got a chuckle from it as he walked back into the compound. Not that it was much of a compound anymore. The antennas had all fallen over or been stolen for other uses, the motorpool was empty and most of the vehicles probably didn't run anymore. The walls were a joke and Sade was manning the only checkpoint, which hadn't been closed in he didn't know how long.

A cool breeze wafted down out of the mountains and caressed his face, drawing his attention up, past the small town. The large mountains were covered in trees and vegetation of all sorts, it reminded Sade of home. He felt the urge to go into them and wander around, to go fully native. He almost got up, he knew if he got up he would walk, and keep walking until he was in those mountains. Maybe someday he would; however some small part of his training, some small fraction of him that was still a soldier wouldn't let him get up. He wouldn't leave his post, as much as he wanted to it somehow felt wrong to him; so instead he sat there at the pointless checkpoint and spent his day dreaming of wandering the mountains; maybe finding riches and women. They were just day dreams, nothing more than passing fancy, but he reveled in them.