Snowflakes drifted down over the artificial hillock at the end of the training hall. York, or Woods took a very literal approach to training for cold weather. The entire hall was blanketed with snow, packed down to ice where the Marines were still forced to conduct their daily PT. Perversley they seemed to blame the crew of the Higlander for this development despite the fact it was clear they had been shanghaied into the whole endeavor.

“Now remember, squeeze dont pull, breathe in, breathe out, breath halfway in…” The submachine gun in Taya’s hand chattered six or seven round burst. The target a holographic soldier about fifty meters away flew appart in a cloud of pixels. A wireframe of the same man appeared a few meters infront of them. Red glowing marks indicated where two rounds had struck, one in the shoulder and one in the right hip. A third glowing dot appeared over the man's head, indicating a near miss.

“Control the length of your burst,” Junebug said encouragingly, “the recoil is lifting the muzzle and making the shots go high.” Both women were laying on their chests on the hill. They were dressed in identical Terran issue combat gear, full body suits with ceramic armor plates protecting vital systems. Neither woman was wearing a helmet although they had been available, instead Junebug had insisted on simple shooters goggles to protect their eyes from the biting wind that was being pumped into the training hall.

“How do you do that,” Taya asked in exasperation, having received the same advise in various forms for the better part of an hour.

“YOu only ever tell me to breath, squeeze and control the burst.” Sayeeda chuckled and picked up her own submachine gun and checked the load. The weapons were made to simulate plasma weapons though, for the sake of the ship, they actually fired ceramic training rounds.

“Well when you start doing those things, I’ll give you more advice,” Junebug said with a grin.

“Dynamic pattern, randomize,” Junebug said and worked the slide to charge the weapon. A soldier appeared down range and she fired a three round burst. He was replaced by another and another at differing ranges and positions. Junebug continued to fire in two or three round bursts until the weapon ran dry. The figures materialized in the scoring zone, each with a two or three centimeter grouping in their center of mass, save for one which had appeared prone and sported two red dots on his forhead.

“Again.” This time Taya managed a three round burst and scored two hits one low in the groin and the other in the sternum. 

“How often do I need to do this?” Taya asked as she slipped another magazine into the weapon.

“Every chance you get, I try to do something everyday,” Junebug replied, reaching over to make a minute adjustment to the younger womans grip.

“Don’t you get tired of it?” she asked putting down two more holographic opponents with middling accuracy.

“My old CO once told me that no matter how good you are, the man who will kill you is out there and he is probably training.” Taya shook her head.

“That's a little morbid,” she said, reaching for another magazine. Junebug placed a hand on her wrist.

“That's enough for today,” she said standing up and brushing the snow from her armor. The internal temperature regulators kept her warm but her face was starting to get frost bitten. Taya duplicated the gesture, making sure the gun was on safe before slinging it over her shoulder. 

“Back again tomorrow?” Taya supposed. Junebug smiled broadly.

“Now you are getting it.”

Twenty minutes later they were out of their borrowed armor and drinking hot coffee as they head towards the gymnasium where the ships computer had pinged Neil. They passed crewmen at work at a variety of stations, some of them smiled or called greetings to Taya. The cross training she was getting bought her into closer contact with the regular crew than Neil or Junebug enjoyed. Suddenly Taya vered left where Junebug had expected her to go right. Frowning she opened her mouth to correct the youg woman but Taya merely guestured urgently. Junebug followed her down an unfamiliar access way that was devoid of crewmen.

“I’ve disconnected the surveillance feeds in this corridor,” Taya said quickly as her captain joined her. Junebug nodded indicating she had heard the statement but not amplifying it.

“I was going over the Highlander now that we are getting close and I checked on some of the Terran mods,” she went on glancing around furtively.

“I found a remote kill switch in the thrust drive controller,” Taya said urgently. Junebug frowned. The Terrans had installed some significant upgrades in the last few weeks, mostly to the sensor suites and the communications gear, bringing it up to fleet standards so that the freigheter could keep in touch with the November Sky with encrypted comms.

“What did you do?” Junebug asked her face stoic. Taya shrugged her shoulders.
“I pulled one of the leads and left it there, and I asked Lonny to run some diagnostics on the down low, but where there is one….”

“There are bound to be more,” Sayeeda finished. It was logical that the Terrans would install some safeguards against them making a run for it before they fulfilled their end of the deal but the idea of the Highlander being filled with remote access hardware didn’t fill her with confidence.

“Have you told Neil yet?” Junebug asked. Taya shook her head.


“No time, I only learned how to disconnect things here because of the surveillance tech lessons they have been giving me.”

“Let him know as soon as you can, but don’t do anything obvious about it, maybe he and Loney can come up with a way to scrub the ship in a hurry.” They emerged back into a familiar corridor and they both fell silent. They should be arriving within the next few days, and it seemed there was alot they still needed to do.

---

“I guess you will just have to promise to take it easy on me,” Woods said, rolling her eyes.

Without preamble Woods lashed out driving a palm into the top of Neil sternum and sending the pilot sprawling backwards. She was stripped down to gym shorts and a brown pt shirt that was already clinging to her. The tattoos on her arms shifted and rippled beneath her lean taught muscles as she sprang forward cat like, sweeping Neil’s legs out from under him with a well placed kick. Neil fell flat on his back and Woods pounced but he rolled aside before she could land on top of him. He shoved her sideways and used the momentum to spring back to his feet. Woods tucked into a roll and came up like a cobra arms spread in an unfamiliar fighting stance.

“Not bad,” Woods conceded in a mildly amused tone.

“Thank you for noticing,” Neil replied feinting to the right before aiming a round house blow at the Terran Commandos midsection. Woods pivoted with the punch robbing it of most of its force before driving her elbow into Neils chest sending him stagger back once more. She grinned, her expression wolfish and not to dissimilar to how Junebug looked right before she was about to kill someone.

There were a half dozen other soldiers in the gymnasium, some were lifting weights but most had stopped to watch the sparring match. Woods was relaxed her shoulders slightly slouched, looking almost feline in her graceful movement.

“So I had a question to ask you,” she said. Neil leaped forward driving a fist at her. She swatted the blow aside with her forearm and lashed out with a kick but Neil, anticipating the move danced backwards and grabbed her ankle, twisting and throwing Woods of balance.  She went down and he dived after her landing on top of the soldier and pinning her to the floor. There was a round of applause from the onlookers. As the soldiers began calling encouragement and placing bets.

“What question?” he asked, raising a cocky eyebrow. She hit him hard in the kidney driving the air from his lungs as she rolled atop of him. A thin sheen of sweat running over her pale skin.

“Are you and Cykali together or what?”
[@POOHEAD189]