CHAPTER 4
0630 HOURS, JULY 12 2519 (MILITARY CALENDAR) EPSILION ERIDANI SYSTEM, REACH MILITARY WILDNERNESS TRAINING PRESERVE, PLANET REACH.
2 YEARS LATER
Margaret pressed herself tight as the heavy Albatross dropship accelerated over the snow capped mountains, the sun rose over the mountainscape and sent a hue of burning orange and cool pink on the white snow.The children muttered amongst themselves, some even liked the idea of a snowball fight. She turned to Roma."I agree. I would be a great place for a snowball fight, maybe a snowman?""Nah, Snowball fights are more fun" Margaret smirkedOtto and Victor mostly looked through the dropship deployment door viewport, Otto had never seen much snow in his life, born in the Gold Desert on Mars. Victor simply admired it, he likely was trying to find a good hiding spot to ambush others in a massive snowball fight.
Mendez stood out from the dropship and into the massive cargo bay the children all sat in. "Trainees! Todays mission will be simpler for a change!" his tone, though softer, drowned the roar of the Dropships Engines. The line of grey in his hair had increased, but age had made him tougher, and stronger. He gave trainee Kelly a set of pieces of paper, that has been ripped into dozens of pieces, "pass these out recruit" he said,
Kelly saluted and shouted "Sir!" and did so, giving each the recruits a piece of paper to each of the children in the squad."These are portions of maps of the local region. You will set down by yourselves. You will then navigate to a marked extraction point and we will pick you up there"Margaret noticed that it was not a map, but rather a piece of it, now confused to how she would navigate, with only part of the map. There was no reference point either, however, she had been given the "X spot" piece, the one with the extraction site marked. It, however was useless without the whole or most of the map. Then again, it must have been one of Mendez's "twists" to his exercises. Of which included snipers armed with Paint Guns during parade drills, as well as stun mines on obstacle courses. Margaret herself had been many times unlucky with the Snipers during the Parade drills.Wrapped in a parka and the thermal padded slacks, like the rest of the children. "One more thing, the last trainee to make it to the extraction point will be left behind. And it is a very long walk back" Mendez said, glancing out at the cold snowy night.Margaret didn't one to lose, as she sure was not going to be left all alone out in the cold. "Trainee 117, your up first.""Sir! Yes, Sir!" John said, snapping to attentionMargaret glanced outwards towards the jagged, snow-capped mountain line. There was a lake, and a treeline...there was surely some bushes, prehaps with some berries."Trainee 117: Front and Center!" Mendez barked. Kelly turned to Margaret "see the lake, Mag?"
"Yeah? What about it?" She responded
"That's our reference point. Pass it on down"
She turned to Otto, Roma and Victor and repeated what Kelly had just said to her, before hopping into the cold wildnerness below, John turned to the rest of the children, Margaret gave him a nod, like the others. Out of all the trainees. John had become one of the best leaders, and a good and caring friend to them all.
It eventually came down to her, the last one on the dropship, "Trainee 53! Mendez barked again "your up front!" Even with all the other children out of the dropship, he still raised his voice as if they were still there as an announcement to them all, "Yes Sir!" she saluted and snapped off into the cold night, dissappearing from view like a phantom. The Dropship shot up and into the snowy night sky. Margaret set herself down on a log and looked over her part of the map, which was stuffed into her front pocket on her parka, while she made her way to the Lake, she took the time to strip berries from the nearby bushes, she placed two of them in her mouth and began to chew, it was the first time she had been able to think in months. She thought about his home and his parents, but as time passed, it became a distant dream, she missed them. But she had began to feel that this is what she wanted. To serve a purpose greater than herself. Margaret herself had been able to do things like cutting a trip line, firing a rifle, and being mentally strong.With friends who were ever close to her in the program.
She never knew what she even wanted to do before she grew up, aside from being good at things like math. She kept playing pretend. Maybe a Police Officer, a firefighter...or a office worker. Now, every day o her was an adventure, learning about hundreds of battles of famous kings and queens. Or a new challenge on the obstacle course.She placed her berries in the opposite pocket of the one she had put her part of the map in, so as not to spoil it. Cold air brushed her face as she moved further through the cold wildnerness.Now, this new challenge, Mendez had said the last one to make it at the Extraction Point on the pieces of map was to be left behind. She certainly did not want to be that person. She made it to the lake, but no one was there. She wondered if they were either hiding, or left her, until a snowball flattened against her Parka "Otto!" she giggled, "Greetings" Otto peaked from the side of the tree. Impersonating the voice and demeanour of a typical english medivial king.
"I'm King Otto of Snowballs now-" He said, before Margaret had thrown her own snowball at him, which hit him in the head, he laughed some more as he fell down."You got any of those berries? The blue ones?"
"Yeah, got a whole bushful" She gave him a handful of the plump, bulbous berries she had picked from the bushes. They sat by the lake, considering if they had the time to build a snowman, arguing on what to use for the eyes. Margaret giggled as Otto's lips were now blue from the berries. John and a few others found them.
"Hey! come on!" he said.John had not left them behind, and Kelly had going around the lake to collect to all the map pieces, he had made sure that everyone was present, not leaving anyone behind. "Let's get the map pieces all together" Kelly had said, "good idea" John repliedthe children all gathered around the north point of the lake, they all placed their map pieces together. Sam, Fhajad, James and Linda went ahead and scouted the surrounding area for any of Chief Mendez's "Surprises".John knelt down and viewed the map with Kelly, Margaret and Linda beneath a thousand year old cedar tree.
"Some of these don't belong with the map, some are just copies" Kelly began reconfigurating the pieces of the map, toying with the edges and the pieces of it to fit, "Yes...here's an edge...got it! This is the lake, the river, and here!" She pointed to what was Margaret's piece, "the extraction point"."If the legend of this map is right, it's a full days hike" John said "We better get started."John whistled, a moment later, from the wild bushes out came Sam and his scouts."Let's move out" John said, as he turned towards Kelly who everyone fell behind as Margaret followed suit, as she navigated through the wilderness.