Here's a very rough draft that comes right after that year-old post:
It was a beautiful sunny day in the high desert, and Milena Zukova was nervous. She was riding in a 44-passenger bus with eight men, all of whom she had just met. The extra room on the bus was partially filled with rucksacks, sea bags, and rifle cases. Her mood was doubtlessly shared by the six other recruits, although they were considerably more chatty with each other.
There were also two CIA handlers on board. The one driving had introduced himself as Chance Richter. He was a man in his early thirties, with high cheekbones and an intense stare. He had the build of a military man, and carried himself just like the others on board. Milena knew the other men were soldiers even before any introductions, that much was obvious. Only one recruit stood out as being a little bit different, and he was subsequently identified as a Navy surgeon. Milena’s own bearing was much like his, evidence of different training priorities for those not primarily concerned with ground combat.
The other handler sat directly behind the driver. He had introduced himself as John Scherer, mission commander. He had longer hair than the other men, and a softer expression. He had spent most of the bus ride staring out of the window. Milena wondered if he was worried about the recruit who was a no-show, or something more pressing. The total secrecy of the mission so far made it impossible to tell.
The entire recruitment process seemed unusual, but without any real knowledge of the CIA’s standard operating procedures, Milly could only take it at face value. The requirements were pretty straightforward, and just a little bit of small talk confirmed they had been the same for all of them. Top secret clearance, a special forces background or a highly desired skill set, the ability to travel for long periods, and the ability to remain out of contact with friends and family for an extended period. The packing list required both civilian and military clothing, a laptop computer, and a PDA/smartphone of current manufacture. Optional items included an individual first aid kit, field gear, combat gear, and a pistol and/or rifle of choice. Since it also said that weapons would be provided otherwise, Milly hadn’t brought any. The other recruits obviously had.
All together, the recruits had made a rather impressive sight at the airport. They had been told to tell anyone who cared to ask, such as TSA officers, that they were attending a rifle course at the nearby Gunsight Academy. Apparently such students were a common sight at Flagstaff Pulliam Airport, as none of them experienced any problems. Richter and Scherer had shown up with the bus, and with a rather grave warning from the latter man that this was their last chance to decline the mission, they’d loaded up and departed.
Richter pulled the bus off of the hardtop and onto a dirt road. The vehicle rumbled across another five miles of empty desert before they stopped. A group of people were waiting for them, just standing out in the middle of nowhere. Milly counted four men, four women, and a German shepherd. She only recognized one of them, a woman by the name of Veronice, who had been present at her interview.
“Last stop, everybody off!” said Richter.
There was a flurry of activity as everybody jumped off the bus and unloaded their gear. Richter and Scherer joined the other group and waited for everyone to gather around. Milly only had one bag, so she overheard a brief exchange.
“Where’s the eighth guy?” asked Veronice.
“He never showed up,” Richter replied softly. “Let’s not stick around any longer than we have to.”
Once all the recruits were standing there expectantly, Scherer addressed them.
“Gentlemen and lady, you’ve already met Richter and I. Some of you have also met Lieutenant Veronice.” The woman nodded. She was attractive, with shoulder-length black hair and green eyes, though she looked like she’d been through hell and back recently. Scherer continued. “Let me introduce the rest of our team, then we can finally reveal the mission. This is Ray Bailey, Dana Andrews, Seth Aldebaran, Miriam Colchester, Cassie Lyra, Reveki Kitsune, and Kyrie Devonai. Oh, and the dog’s name is Tycho.”
Milly couldn’t remember the last time she’d heard such an unusual collection of names. Each of the team members stepped forward when their names were mentioned. Now that they were together, she noticed that Colchester and Kitsune couldn’t have been a day over 18 years old. Either that or she was starting to lose perspective. On the other end of the spectrum was Devonai, who looked like he was in his fifties. Everyone else fell somewhere between 30 and 40. There was something different about Aldebaran and Lyra, but Milly couldn’t put her finger on it at the moment. All in all it was a very strange combination of people, and nothing like the nearly homogenous group of recruits.
“We’ll get into our individual duties later,” said Richter, seeming to anticipate the reaction. “Now I’d like each of you to briefly introduce yourself, including your relevant experience.”
Milly found Richter looking at her first, so she cleared her throat. “Hi, I’m Milena Zukova. I just finished up ten years with the United States Air Force. Most of that time I was an F-35 pilot out of Elgin.”
She looked to her left, and the rest of the recruits went down the line.
“Jim Penrose, I was a cardiovascular surgeon for the United States Navy out of Bethesda.”
“Marc Sparrow, United States Army, detachment Delta.”
“James Fitzer, also with Delta.”
“Tom Wilkinson, USAF Pararescue, formerly with the 563rd out of David-Monthan.”
“Grayson Hawkes, Navy SEAL, most recently I was with the cadre on Coronado.”
“Andrew Kosciuszko, Marine Force Recon out of Alameda.”
Richter nodded. “Okay, thank you. As you can see this team brings a lot of very valuable combat operations experience to the mission. Penrose, don’t feel left out, your skills will almost doubtlessly be needed as well. And Zukova, you’re about to find out why we recruited a pilot.”
Scherer smiled. “Christie, we’re ready out here.”
A building materialized out of nothing in front of them. Milly’s brain struggled to catch up to what her eyes were showing her. She quickly realized it wasn’t a building, but some kind of vehicle. It was a least ten meters in height, and about thirty-five meters long. It strongly resembled the fuselage of a C-5 Galaxy, but without the nose cone, wings or tail section. It had a front ramp that was lowered to the ground, but the rest of the fuselage appeared to float a couple of meters above the ground. There was no rear ramp; instead the aft section was squared off with two sections jutting out slightly on either side. Above the ramp, just like the C-5, was a flight deck of some kind. Just below that, the unmistakable business end of a GAU 8/A 30mm cannon protruded from the hull. There were also top and bottom gun turrets midway down, each mounting a yet-unidentified weapon system. Along the hull, mostly on the top deck, were hourglass-shaped windows. Just below the flight deck, there was a striking painting of a blindfolded woman firing an arrow. Milly looked at the others in shock, which was obviously the universal reaction. Sparrow eventually broke their silence, and said what they were all thinking.
“It’s a God damned space ship,” he said.
“May I introduce to you the Reckless Faith,” began Scherer, “the first Earth spacecraft to leave the solar system. And before you think that your government has been lying to you all these years, it was built with a combination of Earth and alien technology by a private organization. The agreement was to build the ship and help liberate that alien world from an invasion force, which, I’m proud to say, we did. In fact, this ship has seen several major combat actions, and most of her crew are veterans of battles you can hardly even imagine. It turns out, to the surprise of nobody, that the galaxy is a very dangerous place. We have already eliminated one alien threat to Earth, but one more remains. That’s why we brought you here. This threat could range from a mere annoyance to an extremely grave problem. Unfortunately, we just don’t have enough information right now, only that the threat exists. However, our experience has taught us to prepare for the worst. Our mission is to build a companion ship, larger and with better support capability, before venturing back out to locate and further identify the threat. You’ve been brought on to augment our existing personnel. But be warned! You may die in the black void of space, or be gunned down on some God-forsaken rock by hideous alien soldiers. So, anybody want to back out?”
“I have a million questions,” began Wilkinson, “as I’m sure we all do. Let me start with this one: You said the ship was built by a private organization. How did the CIA come into possession of it?”
Fitzer shook his head and spoke up. “Look around you, man, and think about it for a minute. These people aren’t with the government.”
“I apologize for misleading you,” replied Scherer. “But it was the only way we could possibly interview potential recruits. You would have dismissed us as lunatics long before we could prove ourselves. And if this ship isn’t proof enough, how’d you like to get an up-close look at Saturn? We can be there in five minutes.”
“This is the opportunity we’re offering you,” began Richter. “Take a tour of the ship. Accompany us on a quick tour of the solar system if you want. If you decide it’s too much for you, or you’re deeply offended that we lied about being with the CIA, then we’ll drop you off and you’ll never see us again. Or, take your leave now. The keys are still in the bus.”
The recruits looked at each other, and stared at the ship. No one said a word for almost a full minute.
“Well, *expletive deleted*it,” said Hawkes. “At the very least I’ve gotta see the inside of the ship.”
Scherer smiled again. “Grab your gear, load it up. I guarantee none of you are going to want to go home after this.”
Twenty minutes later, Milly stood on the bridge of the Reckless Faith, staring at the rings of Saturn from less than five hundred miles away. The other recruits were crowded around her. It was all so overwhelming for her, almost to the point of physical collapse. She hadn’t felt that way since her first solo flight in an F-35 eight years ago. Scherer sat in the pilot seat, and let his guests gaze at the incredible vista.
They had toured the entire ship before the flight, and received more background information about the ship’s previous exploits as well as the upcoming mission. They were even further surprised to find out that the ship’s computer contained the consciousness of a crewmember whose body had died, but whose mind was saved. Her name was Christie Tolliver, and she seemed nice enough considering she was a disembodied voice being piped in over the intercom system. She was capable of piloting the ship herself, but had deferred to Scherer’s manual control.
The ship itself had been designed primarily by Scherer, though certain aspects of it were subconsciously introduced to him by the extraterrestrial entity they’d first encountered. That entity now resided inside the body of Seth Aldebaran, who turned out to be, along with Cassie Lyra and Reveki Kitsune, aliens. Milly had noticed minor physical differences but wouldn’t have guessed they weren’t human. They, along with the rest of the original crew, were simply staying out of the way during the tour of the ship, so she hadn’t had much of an opportunity to talk to them. What was very clear after the tour was that a second ship was going to be necessary if for no other reason than the size of the crew; the Faith could only accommodate six to eight crewmembers comfortably. With the addition of the noobs, there were seventeen bodies, not counting the dog or the cat named Friday that Milly had just met. Scherer told them they’d be racking out on cots in the cargo bay and the cargo hold until the new ship was constructed.
The Faith had a relatively simple layout, but contained incredible technology. As Scherer had indicated, its design was of rather conventional aircraft architecture but enhanced with essential alien hardware. The stardrive worked on cold fusion, though no elaboration was initially offered, and could provide a maximum speed of 1.5 million times the velocity of light, or c. Milly couldn’t do the math in her head during the orientation, but she was sure it made the local galactic neighborhood well within range. That speed, however, was only practical in extreme emergencies due to the effects of time dilation: the faster they went, the more time would pass for the rest of the galaxy. Peak engine efficiency was at 900 c, with far less deleterious effects, and was used for most operations. Other features that were mentioned during the tour included anti-gravity plating, an energy-negating hull, non-organic matter replication and transportation, and, of course, the formerly human entity inside the main computer. Scherer had saved the topic of most interest to the newcomers until they’d arrived back on the bridge. He activated an elaborate heads-up-display on the forward window, which was visible from anywhere on the bridge.
“The Faith is very well armed,” he began. “Many of you no doubt noticed the GAU 8/A 30mm up front. We also have plasma cannons mounted fore and aft. For offensive operations, the combination of the 30mm munitions and the plasma bursts have proven to be very effective. We originally had a GAU 8 facing the rear, but it was removed to make room for the aft plasma cannon. Our articulated defensive weapons are a pair of GAU 19/A fifty-caliber guns in the dorsal and ventral positions, and a pair of high-yield lasers along the port and starboard. The lasers are not very powerful by themselves, and are generally only effective against lightly-armored targets and electrical components. Their efficacy is improved if the target is also hit with the fifties, though hitting anything with both simultaneously is a challenge. It almost goes without saying that all of our weapons systems are extremely effective against ground targets. For the new ship, an additional GAU 8 will be installed in the forward position, and the Nineteens will be replaced with four 20mm M61 Vulcans, forward and aft both dorsal and ventral.
“How much soundproofing do you have between the bridge and the Avenger?” asked Milly.
“Not much, and we’re actually going to add more. Touching off a burst of thirty-mil isn’t exactly a serene experience up here at the moment. You’ll all get a chance to hear it soon enough. Anyway, all of our weapons systems can be controlled from the bridge or from the dorsal and ventral stations I showed you. We usually have those positions manned, because while the 30mm can be reloaded in situ, the fifty-cals must be reloaded manually.”
“How do the conventional weapons perform in space?” asked Hawkes.
“There’s no bullet drop or air resistance, so the rounds will travel straight to the target. There is no maximum effective range per se, but if you touch off a burst from too far away the enemy ship can simply maneuver out of the line of fire. We’ll also be beating up on some poor defenseless asteroids as part of our training. As I said before, we can simply replicate more ammo, so you’ll all get a chance to play with this stuff. You’re going to love it, trust me.”
“How does she handle?” asked Milly.
“Compared to what you normally fly? I don’t know. She’s nimble, though a bit slow through the Z-axis. She can roll 360 in less than a second.”
“Most of you are going to puke the first time we put her through her paces, especially in atmosphere.” said Bailey.
“Enough with the sales pitch,” said Wilkinson, “let’s see what this baby can do."
