Chapter 1

"Mornin' sunshine."

Above me, a stern faced general Koi frowns down on me. Quickly, I shove myself upright and look around at the gathered cadets here to watch my humiliation. The time shows that I have in fact overslept and will now pay for it.

"Sixty. Now." Koi purses his lips and stands back to give me room. As I drop down to the ground to do the one armed push-ups, my audience snickers and counts under their breaths.

twenty...twenty one...twenty two...god this is great...twenty four...

"Sleepy cadets make pretty useless ones," Koi bellows and more snickering from my own goddamn friends. "As for the rest of you children, get dressed and move out! You've got thirty minutes to suit up for your first mission. The first honor that a cadet could have and GLASS here overslept on it."

"Sorry sir," I'm up panting like a dog, finding Koi's hard green eyes glaring holes into my skull. He scoffs at the scum that stands before him and stomps off to go yell at some other sleeping fool.

"Damn Cece, you done screwed up!" Behind me, Kaid looks up from yanking on a boot and grins. "Koi'll hold a grudge forevah eh?'"

I smirk at his heavy norwegian accent and pull off the thin white tee from my sweaty back. Kaid yells as if seeing something he shouldn't and I throw the shirt at him. "Ah shut the hell up Kaid." Rooting around for my uniform and boots he comes over and sits on my bed.

"Honestly though, you scared of goin' into space?" He rubs the back of his neck and hands me the sock I dropped.

Taking the sock and pulling it and the other on my feet, I give him a shrug and grab my boots. "It doesn't sound terrible, I've been looking forward to this my whole life. Going into space was my dream since I was five and my dad went up there." I avert my eyes downward and tie laces with a little more force than necessary.

"He nevah came back, yeah you told me Cece. I ain't that dumb," Kaid flicks me in the forehead. "You better hurry, Koi'll be back to eat your ankles"

"I'm shorter than him, if anything I'm doing the ankle eating" With a smirk, I finish dressing and we head to stand in line. With heels clicked together, standing ramrod straight we hold our hands to our heads in salute as the general trudges through the lines. Koi inspects everyone's gear and whistles.

"Took you lovely ladies long enough," he laughs. I can see Kaid fighting back a smart ass comment and train my eyes on the back of Koi's thin graying hair. "Now before we head out, remember what you trained for. If you can pass the Gray Wall without pissing your pants or falling apart at the joints then you're in space." Koi turns back and looks at us with an eerie glint in his eyes. "From there you will be ordered by Commander Halfling, which might I remind you is of the highest order. So I'd keep my goddamn trap shut if I were you," he looks to Kaid who breaks into a grin. With a shake of his head he rubs his jaw, "some of you I might miss, others... see you in hell. Off you go cadets, try not to fuck it up."