DT 2023: Pax River Sendoff

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Zach inspected his duffel bag on the sidewalk one more time, making for two total checks. The second time was a trained behavior more than self-doubt. “Don’t be certain of your certainty, better cautious than certain,” training officer Dellend at Camp Ambrose once told him. An approximation of photographic memory seemed among the superpowers provided by Spartan augmentation. Perfection was not among said superpowers.
 
The digital inventory counter already confirmed his contents, but Zach was beginning to see the limitations of the creature comfort. After his short three-month “holiday” produced by a significant cyber intrusion into the UNSC Doctrine and Training Department and Naval Logistics Command – electronics seemed less trustworthy. They could be tampered with, manipulated to display, and report fiction as fact.
 
Someone, maybe Insurrectionists, managed to insert mistake-laden school instruction to a premier cadet academy and who knows how many other installations. ONI Section One and Two had their work cut out in the weeks ahead. Either way, his adventure at the Pax River Cadet Academy was over.
 
“So, this is finally goodbye then?”
 
Zach looked to the side where green eyes met green eyes, and a freckled face sandwiched in a bob of brown hair. Cadet Folasade, Nicole, or Nicoline – pronounced like a metal. His “girlfriend” everyone seemed to call her. They were never the sort. Though when Andra and Merlin joined the cadets in teasing Zach, he wondered about his certainty.
 
“Hey Folasade. Yeah, off to my next thing. Best day to do so too. Sky is clear, blue, and not a cloud in sight.” Zach chuckled at his own remark at the weather. It was a beautiful day, add the breeze off the Chesapeake Bay and the balanced heat of a northeastern American summer.
 
“I don’t suppose you can delay a day? Wolfpack were looking at going down to the beach.” Nicole asked softly, leaning into Zach’s personal space.
 
Zach whispered back, “I would love to. But you know better that I can’t. You’re a part of our world again.”
 
Nicole shook her head. “There’s still so much I don’t know. And stuff I don’t remember. How do I get that back?”
 
Zach shrugged. “I don’t know how amnestic policy works. Maybe you could check with your local ONI branch office, there’s one in Boston that Andra told me about.”
 
Nicole scratched her head with a frown. “You think they would even talk to me?”
 
“You have a letter of recommendation in your jacket from me. Signed off by a flag officer. Your path is set.”
 
The girl gave him a sudden bump to the shoulder with her own. Zach huffed at the action, shouldering her back gently.
 
“Ow. Fuck your titanium bones.” Nicole rubbed her arm where the skin quickly turned red.
 
“Well, they’re not really titanium.”
 
“Could’ve fooled me. Show me how to look at the letter again. This whole “hidden” Waypoint file system is a confusing mess.”
 
Zach looked around, “We’re in too much of a public place.”
 
“Will a corner do?” Nicole asked, pointing to a spot behind some escalators and in the shade of the Pax River’s bullet train mini-terminal. Zach shrugged and nodded.
 
The pair slunk away into the dark, Zach hefting his three duffel bags as if they were paperweights because to him, they were. He remembered to add a slouch in his back to not appear totally effortless. He set them down before continuing, “Do you have your AR glasses?”
 
Nicole nodded, fishing them free from her cadet day uniform, a white jacket and jumper pants with an excess number of zippers to dislodge ambidextrously if needed. Zach slipped on his own and flicked up a Waypoint virtual terminal.
 
“You’ll want to go to the Department of Doctrine and Training net site. Use the contractor portal login. The site AI will scan your proximity for people and systems without clearance enable. Until you’re in a secure location, the directory won’t open.”
 
“So, I would have to get off campus and go somewhere to open this up on my own time?”
 
“Do it when you visit an ONI site, should be good enough.”
 
“I’m not ONI, you know? I don’t visit an ONI site every weekend.”
 
“Make the time. You’re Delta Company just like me. They won’t turn you away. They might make you disappear more likely.”
 
Nicole gave a light slap to Zach’s cheek. Zach barely felt it, as this time she was gentle. She learned her lesson, considering the new bruise hidden by her jacket’s short sleeve.
 
“Don’t joke like that.”
 
“I kid,” Zach offered, without mentioning it was something ONI could always do. She would learn in her own time, but her safety was in no danger. She was a bright and loyal cadet. She had the heart to be a Spartan-III child soldier. It meant she was ready to be a Spartan-IV, since the door closed on the prior program. “You’ll be fine.”
 
“Well before you leave, read me what you wrote for me.”
 
Zach’s cheeks felt warm. A flush. He tilted his head away from his friend, trying to cool the momentary embarrassment of the request.
 
“I get this feeling you’re going to miss me with requests like these.”
 
Nicole offered a teasing smile, leaning back against the wall behind a pair of escalators. “You know I will, Wayland.”
 
“For the record. My name is Zachariah Weaver. Zach-D111.”
 
“Yeah, but your nametag says Cadet Zach Wayland, so we’ll work with that.”
 
Zach surrendered, opening the hologram document before the pair. “Alright, I’ll read it.”
 
He paused and began, “Chief of Staff.
 
I write this letter of recommendation for Cadet Nicoline Folasade, ahead of her expected graduation from PRAMS and an expected attendance at Lunar OCS.
 
During my extended retreat at Patuxent River Academy of Military Science, I have met brave and talented young men and women at the early cadet school, and with my cadet host unit: Whiskey-Two, Wolfpack Company. I hope many can become Spartans in their future careers should they pursue it as from my own experience in the Spartan-III program, I believe they would rise to meet and succeed under those training standards.
 
I request on behalf of Cadet Folasade receive acceptance into the Spartan-IV program at the earliest convenience. Prior to the handling of the program by Rear Admiral Jazmine Utah, she was a candidate for the Spartan-III program, and Delta Company. Cadet Folasade was cut from the program but has continued to seek the Spartans, displaying unmatched determination and initiative among Whiskey-Two and PRAMS. Her classroom and physical aptitude are in keeping with top academy records and comparable to upper quartiles at Lunar OCS as a teenager. She still carries the qualities the ONI recruiters looked for in Spartan-IIIs years before and—”
 
Zach looked up and the article vanished from their view.
 
“Why did you stop reading?” Nicole gasped, looking a little red with a quirky mix of a smile and frown on her face.
 
“Someone’s coming.”
 
“Hey lovebirds!”
 
The pair glanced up and attempted to hide their gasps as a squad-sized element of cadets rolled down the escalators.
 
“What you two putting your head together for? You know PDA is against school etiquette. Don’t want to get any infractions just before the weekend!”
 
Nicole growled at the bushy-eyebrowed squad leader Cadet Si-Yun. “You know we were not.”
 
“Then what were we seeing? Looking at something embarrassing?”
 
Nicole turned a slight pinkish color. “No!”
 
Zach was quick on the uptake, “Sorry to disappoint, just an AR-capture to remember each other by before I head out.”
 
Si-Yun gave a dramatic gasp. “I’m offended,” he glanced behind him at his fellow cadets. “We’re offended! You leave us out?”
 
Zach smirked, shaking his head. “Not on my life, but I’m short on time. She got here first. Get down here. Let’s do this.”
 
Wolfpack Company, Squad Four stomped, almost ran and trampled each other, down the escalators to join Nicole and Zach in the shady corner.
 
“We’re all accounted for. You know, we’re going down to the beach in a little bit? You should join us, Wayland. Just an hour!”
 
Zach shrugged to Cadet George who made the second beach invite. “My train leaves in six minutes. No time.”
 
Si-Yun looked at the rest of the group, making sure their AR glasses were in place. “Alright we’re all in, can you link the AR lobby?”
 
Zach connected his former squadmates into a quick scene reminiscent of the PRAMS beach.
 
“Oh, you bastard! That’s cheating!” George called out.
 
“Six minute and counting!”
 
“Fine, fine. At least it will look like you joined us.”
 
The Waypoint AI fulfilled the AR capture at Zach’s request and he was quick to airdrop the image to the twelve people crowding him in. Being squashed under the teenagers, Zach didn’t notice until he escaped their gaggle and laughter at examining the photo that he spotted his left hand clutched in Nicole’s, just behind Cadet Petrie’s head. He glanced to the girl in question who immediately met his eyes with a slight smirk and a little redness in the eyes. She knew what he knew, this was the end for a time.
 
Nicole looked away to speak to George when Si-Yun snuck up on Zach. “So where to next, buddy?”
 
“Boston first. Got to talk over my scholarship with the 117 Institute.”
 
Si-Yun frowned. “Why do that?”
 
Zach shook his head. “I… Don’t think I’ll be completing my training.”
 
“So that’s why Folasade was all miserable this last week. You’re leaving us for good, huh?”
 
“We’ll encounter each other again someday, Si-Yun.”
 
Si-Yun grimaced, “You sure about that?”
 
Zach looked away towards his train car. “Got some family to look up. Turns out some survived.”
 
It was a lie. These missions always were.
 
“You could’ve mentioned it.”
 
“I didn’t want to disappoint anyone.”
 
“Man…” Si-Yun muttered. “Alright, but don’t be a stranger.”
 
Zach turned around, picking up his duffel bags once more. He offered out a hand, “It was nice learning under you, Squad Leader.”
 
Si-Yun smirked. “You were a tank; I think I learned more from you honestly.”
 
Zach shrugged. “Well, I feel like I learned more from this unit than anything else. Thanks for hosting me.”
 
“You going to run into Andra or Merlin again?”
 
“I don’t know. I recall they went back to Mars.”
 
Si-Yun nodded. “Well, I’ll look them up later. You stay safe yourself.”
 
The final sendoffs were a blur, much of it unplanned but straightforward by Zach’s recount. There was something he wish he could tell his squadmates, or at least Nicole before he left, but could not. Saying goodbye taught him something.
 
Zach mumbled to himself a bittersweet recognition. “Life is a series of greetings and goodbyes. They are happy and sad, but when done right they are always well-meaning. As a Spartan, you have a billion allies, but few friends. If we meet again, I will call you friend.”
 
On command, he eased his breath and closed his eyes into a shallow slumber. Soon, he was off to the next adventure.