Nostr' Alma Mater

What day is it anymore? Dad doesn't talk to me, Ravi is catatonic and Deacon vanished. Grendel has been insanely stressed out about him and Verdi is a psychological mess because Ravi doesn't respond to touch, sound, food, water, nothing.

Ravi spends all her time in a medbed now to keep her food and hydration up while Grendel is off in the woods and she isn't responding to comms. We're over seven-hundred kilometers away from the nearest bit of civilization in the middle of nowhere, I just hope she's okay.

"Callie, what's going on and what happened to the team? What the fuck happened recently?" Arcantha says with her head on my shoulder as we lay in bed. I don't respond, I don't know how.

She whispers something under her breath that I couldn't catch and drifts off to sleep, and I still have no clue what day it is anymore.

The super-cryptid that hit my Mobi hasn't said anything since, and the first payment hasn't hit my account yet so it has to have been less than a month or I've been screwed over. I carefully slide out from under Arcantha and slide a pillow under her head then crawl out of bed. I throw on some canvas shoes and step out into the looming autumn weather in sweatpants and a hoodie, take a deep breath while realizing everything is about to get cold.

My mobi rings with that horrible default ringtone and I answer to see none other than Commander Bennington, now Grand Admiral.

"Calliope Arnold, the UEE-" He says before anger steps in.

"Just Calliope, or Callie, Cal, Spacemom, whatever. Leave that new last name out. Sir." I growl.

He stares at me with angered admiration, a civvie just told him what's up and I think I need to work on my "political talk".

"Calliope, the UEE is requesting your presence at Cascom in the Castra system. I do not have details as to why or when, but they need to see you and I am to provide escort there. Failure to comply will come with desertion and prison time."

Lovely.

"why am I being arrested?" I ask coldly.

"You are not under arrest."

"How am I desserting if I'm not an active service member? Haven't been since I was a kid."

"Please report to the NS Hephaestus as soon as possible."

I grumble and he seems to mutually agree. "My team isn't exactly ready to mobilize, we're all in disarray and not exactly up to par."

"Only your presence is required, We are stationed at the Hadrian Gateway and waiting for your arrival. Unsure of dress but please be respectful."

Dad would have loved that response. I let the guy know I'll be there within an hour or two and he snaps off the call without a word. I have something that I had been working on for a while. Kinda like a Navy dress uniform for the org complete with the pink, blue and white stripes along with our medical emblem on the lapel.

The stars are out, not sure if it's late at night or early in the morning...

All the ships in the verse, and now I have too many Anvil ships at my disposal. I end up grabbing an Avenger Titan with a specialty blackout stealth paint and stealth components because I wanna get out of here without a sound. Plus, this ship's owner isn't really around anymore.

The pad comes up slowly and as I'm walking along the path in total darkness I feel arms wrap around me and something resting against my back. Just below the shoulder blades, oblong and soft.

"Hey Ravi, good to see you moving around again." I whisper. "Where's Verdi?"

"Where go?" She says softly, scared, sounding like a child. "Please no leave."

I heart broke in two. I can't deal with this right now and I'm so worried about her.

"The Navy needs me, honey. I have to go for a little bit but I promise to be back!" I say like a loving mother, my natural tone.

"Please no die..."

I turn around and hold her tight, I don't know what awaits me but I'm scared for her more than anything. She runs her hands through my short white hair and smiles. "come back, momma. We love you!"

That flight out of home was the longest of my life, the girls back home, one who's boyfriend is MIA, another who is traumatized about a super-cryptid and my fiance, my everything.

I record my daily message to myself, send it to the servers and rest as best I can until quantum wakes me up.

Thud, and I scream awake. Nightmares about the kids I grew up with, the dissenters we murdered and never knew...I need a new head.

Dad...I love you wherever you are.

"Stealth vehicle intercepted, identify yourself!"

"Calliope of Spacemoms, I was requested to land here per High Admiral Bennington."

A long pause, broken by orders to land at pad two.

I set the ghost down, walk out the back and see armed security waiting for me when the ramp drops.

"Miss me, boys?" I snark with anxiety.

The one female muscle here snorts at my joke, which instantly lets me relax.

One of the officers loads me up in an all-black PTV and we coast down the length of the ship, stopping at the elevator headed up to the bridge and we step off at the ops center.

A wide room with a holo console dead and center, looking at some asteroids and several officers walking around with their mobis open.

"Calliope, Grand Admiral Bennington." The old guy says with his hand extended. "It's ben a while, hasn't it?"

I shake his hand for a dude his age he is STRONG! Ow..."Oh it's Grand Admiral? I haven't slept much lately so I'm sorry about that. Only a few months, to be honest. But it has been a long summer. Have you been doing well since the attack on the gate?"

He doesn't waste time and cuts to the point.

"I can't say who, mostly because I don't know who sent it because they are lightyears above me, have requested your specific expertise."

Fucking cryptids again I bet...

"We've had an inside agent trying to figure out where the Xenothreat terrorists are stationed out of, where they keep bringing new equipment in, and more specifically how they got a god damned Polaris from and from who." He says with duty in his voice.

He turns to the holo table and I follow, it zooms in on one of the asteroids.

"Here in the Nul system, on the edge of Vanduul space is what we've identified to be a shipyard and they seem to be building capital ships here. We don't know if they're preparing for an assult or if they're hoarding ships. Regardless you have been specifically requested to take the place out." Bennington says.

"This is suicide, sir. All due respect I'm walking in but I'm not walking out. Hell I'm not even floating away either, how the hell do I get out even IF I make it out?"

The map zooms in on a hatch on the side of the asteroid separate from the others.

"Here, commandeer a ship and you will make a jump to either Idris through Centauri, or if you find a small enough and capable craft jump straight to Croshaw."

The map is moving around the system, showing each point to head to.

"We prefer you get to Idris but we have crew at Croshaw just in case."

I'm staring at the map and Caliban being right there scares the fuck out of me.

"I'm on the edge of Vanduul space like you said. Aren't you guys worried about catching their attention and another war breaking out?" I say nervously.

"I've been assured you won't cause issues. They specifically requested your services for the sake of discretion and quality of your work."

Fuck this so much. I hate everything about this. I hate it so much. This has bad time written all over it.

"I'm guessing that I don't have a choice? Especially since I'm already here?" I say nervously.

His shoulders drop and head dips, my butthole clenches hard enough to crush diamonds.

"So why the Hadrian gate? Why are YOU here?" I say with caution ready to become anger.

"We are to drop you at Castra for outfitting. I wasn't given specifics but we are to drop you at the back door of Sherman and they will take things from there."

The back door. We heard about this as kids, but this was where ALL the shady shit the UEEN did happened and the funniest thing was it was an extremely populated port entrance. If everybody there is too busy to notice, how can they stop you?

Thud under my feet, we just jumped.

"Well, I guess I have no choice to get this done. We just hit the gate." I say terrified for my life.

He never knew about my insane ability to navigate purely on feel, probably weirded out as hell right now.

Another officer takes me and leads me to a bunk where I lay down and do my damned best to fall asleep, and never could.

Sherman has its own strange beauty. They broke the planet with rapid terraforming but honestly if I wanted to pick another place to live, this would have been it. Maybe once I get this shit over with I can.

We dock, board and walk through the bustling streets and districts. The officer who took me to the bunks is now in plain clothes and we walk into the UEE unemployment office and fuck if that wasn't funny enough on it's own.

Two more doors, three LONG hallways and two double doors with an elevator at the back.

Did you know the navy has undersuits with shield generators on them? Helmets with built-in nightvision and ungodly advanced HUDs?

Or an Idris with a railgun modified to fire entire ships out of it? Magnets are weird.