Kaminski worked hard to maintain his false image – ever the wiseass. His vitals danced across my HUD: his autonomics told of a professional. Kaminski spoke with practised indifference but I knew that it was only skin deep. Voice heavily accented with the Martian burr that Standard seemed to have developed on the red world. “Didn’t you read the briefing?” Mason asked in disbelief. He was chewing gum inside his helmet I wasn’t sure how he’d managed to smuggle food into the dormant sim before we’d made transition. That lay preserved in a simulator-tank, safely ensconced in the operations centre aboard the UAS Mallard. It was bigger, stronger, just better than my real body. Felt the renewed vigour of transition into a simulant body.
Each unit was being transported in a Wildcat APS, like us, and was approaching the designated landing zone. Uplinks from the commanding officers of the other teams scrolled across my HUD: each confirming successful transition, chirping intel on the approach. While my new rank felt unnatural, Jenkins had adopted hers without hesitation. Jenkins’ grin broadened so that it filled her face. “I have eyes on the other squads,” Jenkins added. I’d been a captain for so long that being called by a different title felt wrong. I was still getting used to the new rank and I wasn’t entirely comfortable with being addressed as major. “We have another successful transition, Major,” Jenkins said, nodding enthusiastically inside her helmet. The name NEW GIRL had been printed onto her chest but she had no other battle honours, rank badges or insignia. “Affirmative,” came the last, and newest, member of the unit: Private Dejah Mason. He clutched a cheap plastic rosary, the beads woven between armoured fingers. Callsign CALIFORNIA the name stencilled onto the chest-plate of her combat-suit. Reminded of who I was fighting for, I moved on to the mission.įour simulant faces stared back at me through the dark: underlit by green safety bulbs inside tactical helmets. The tiny icon was tacked to the bottom right of my face-plate.
My first act in the new body was to activate the holo-photo inside my helmet: Elena on Azure. I was inside a Wildcat armoured personnel shuttle. I made transition in orbit around Maru Prime a burning hellhole of a planet somewhere in the Quarantine Zone.
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