Ten Thousand Fleets Chapter 11: 11. Xenobiology

Read chapter 11 of Ten Thousand Fleets by DavidNiemitz on NovelPedia.

11. Xenobiology Academy Hill, Vidako Imperium Stellarum August 17, 2847 Every morning when Arc woke, he couldn’t keep his eyes from drifting to the empty bunk where Delvan Beck had slept. He kept expecting that one evening he would walk in after eating in the dining hall to find that there’d been some sort of mistake, and that, having talked things over with the commandant, perhaps, Beck was back, and ready to join them in the morning. At other times, though he knew it was uncharitable, Arc silently wondered why it couldn’t have been Cal Madine who threw a fit and quit the academy. He hadn’t known Beck long, but given the choice, Arc would have roomed with him over Madine in a heartbeat. Not that Cal had yelled at him since the day he’d arrived, not really, but he also hadn’t exactly been friendly. The absence was even more obvious during meals, when Arc and his friends all deliberately avoided looking at the empty chair where Delvan Beck used to sit. The conversation would lag, suddenly and at unpredictable times, like some engine or machine trying to turn despite the absence of a missing part. “I have a cousin,” Pika said, into one such silence, on the second day after Beck had left. “Graduated the academy five imperial years ago. He said they lost twelve cadets during Hard Burn.” “Is that normal?” Vee asked, around a mouthful of some kind of fried insect which reminded Arc of a cricket or grasshopper. “Between fifteen and twenty percent during Hard Burn is the average,” Cassie said, with a quiet certainty which spoke of just how much time she’d spent learning about the academy before ever stepping foot on Vidako. “Classes would have been a maximum of sixty-one five years ago, so twelve is on the high end, but yes. Within the bounds of normal. Vee’s crest drooped for a minute, and then she perked up. “Well, there’s six of us. Or there were. So we’ve already lost sixteen percent. We paid our toll! No more wash outs, right?” Arc wasn’t so certain, though he kept his thoughts to himself. He tried to keep what Cadet Iyer had said to him in mind—to just keep going, just do the next thing, and not think about what would come after. But he didn’t think that he’d ever been so tired in his life, and he knew for certain that he couldn’t go on for four years like this. It was better to be learning, rather than simply pushed until they collapsed, and he comforted himself with that. The morning after that particular conversation, they were brought to an outdoor range, where Arc found himself learning how to strip, clean, re-assemble and fire the Broadleaf Arms .50 flechette rifle which was standard issue to all imperial marines. “Before any of you mole-rats gets the bright idea of asking why a mech pilot needs to know how to fire a rifle,” Lieutenant Kekoa said, while they all sat around him on the grass, unloaded weapons on their laps, “I will tell you. First, you will almost certainly spend time attached to a fleet carrier. In the unlikely event that your ship is boarded, you may be required to take a weapon from the armory and help repel said boarding party. Now, if everything goes correctly, you will never be in that situation—but the first lesson you need to learn about plans is that they all go to shit the moment a soldier makes contact with the enemy.” “Secondly,” Kekoa said, “Once you actually get into a cockpit, you will find that there is an emergency kit stored in each and every imperial mech. It has plenty of goodies that might keep you alive, and one of the things packed away is—you guessed it—a standard issue rifle like this. In the event that you are forced to eject, perhaps behind enemy lines or on some unexplored death-world, this piece of weaponry in your lap may save your life.” Kekoa reached into his pocket, retrieved a bullet that looked to be at least ten centimeters long, and held it up. “I’m going to pass this around so that everyone can get a good look,” he said. “But for the moment just keep your eyes up here. I