AN:Born of another night of strange sleep and a mind of weirdness about 40k(I've been reading the Saint Omnibus quite a lot, so pardon me for this) here comes yet another whacky, but meaningfully serious story about the Grim Darkness of the 41st Millennium, as seen through the eyes of the most hyper and beautiful badass of the Tankery World... And her Sherman-loving Compatriots. Behold!
My Armor is Contempt
Book 1:The Fall
Chapter 1:Home, Sweet Fortress
"The object of our wars is not to die for the Emperor! Not before we make the Chaos-spawned bastards die first!"
-General G. S. Pattern. Saunders 3rd Regiment, Heavy Armor "The Saint's Adamantine"
Kay shifted in her sleep, feeling something flat and hard below her face, like a plank of wood. Had she fallen asleep mid-class again? Nah, she went on a bit of a bender last night with Alisa and Naomi, but that was about it. Her bed should've been as soft as feathers, considering the mattress she'd bought out of her own pocket money. Her folks were kind enough to toss her spending money every so often, but she was otherwise kinda alone. That job at Maccy D's paid off really well, though, compared to the US. Gah, she loved her homeland.
She shifted again, grunting. Yeah, something hard. Had Alisa pranked her in the night and replaced her freakin' pillow with a plank? Ali was a bit cuckoo, but even she knew when pranks were appropriate, alcohol down the gullet be damned. She heard a voice call out to her, in whisper at first, followed by a bark that caused her to twitch ever so slightly. She murmured a slurred 'five more minutes' before turning her head to the right.
Yet again, another voice barked. It felt freakin' familiar to her, but her ears were ringing. She'd just now noticed her ears were actually ringing like she had tinnitus. The voices of the people around her were muffled by both that and the sleep she felt as she grew half-awake. Blinking as her eyes opened, slowly adjusting to the light of a projector, she could see blurbs, faint shapes of her classmates sitting beside her. Heck, she recognized Naomi's hair through the blurb. She smiled sheepishly at the girl as if to let her know everything was okay, that Teach was usually chill. She must've fallen asleep in the history class, where the scent of some kind of incense filled her nostrils.
"CADET KAY!" barked that female voice, the teacher's.
Nope!
The hard thwack of a leather riding crop against the hard wood of her desk caused Kay to startle awake, now ramrod straight and with eyes wide as saucers. She blinked the cloudiness of her still-sleep-filled eyes away, rubbing them as her hearing grew clearer. Teach Nagase was calling to her. The woman barked, her voice rougher than usual, "Cadet Lieutenant Kay, what the hell's gotten into you!?"
She blinked, looking up at her teacher, only to see a disfigured, wounded face, what was once pure natural beauty, with one normal, human right eye and a mechanical scarlet one, both blinking at her. She yelped, staggering and almost falling ass-first out of her plastic seat. Raising her still-human brow at the her, Teach, or... Whoever this was... Stated simply, "You seem in need of punishment, Cadet Lieutenant..."
"Uh... Sorry ,Teach, it's been a bit of a night..." She chuckled awkwardly, garnering the gazes of her entire class, including a spooked Naomi and a pants-shitting-scared Alisa. She wanted to ask what, but a quick backhand woke her up good and proper, sending her tumbling out of her chair. The woman, whom Kay now noticed as she rubbed her red cheek, wore a very strangely-modified United States Tanker's uniform and jacket that bore both the Saunders star in gold and a strange, two-headed eagle gold badge below it, as well as a leather holster that had a gold skull with wings on its flap. Said flap sat ominously over a live handgun.
Kay swallowed as her heart thumped out of her chest. The teacher before them, clearly not the same old miss Nagase, had rank pins on the collar of her uniform, plated gold. Leaves from some strange tree she didn't know, pinned to her collars as markings of her officer's grade, as well as the appropriate epaulettes. The woman also wore bog-standard combat boots from the tank corps...
Anyways, clothes weren't important right now!
"Ouch..." She murmured, rubbing her cheek.
"On your feet, Cadet Lieutenant." The woman, a Major, ordered with venom in her voice. Kay scrambled to her feet, unwilling to invoke the even worse tidbits of the officer's wrath. She stood ramrod straight, at attention, suppressing the tears she felt at the corners of her eyes. She stared like a scared deer in the headlights of a Stuart at the woman, who sighed, then shook her head disapprovingly. She stated simply, "By the God-Emperor, Cadet Kay, if you weren't such a promising student, I'd have had you kicked out of my program long ago." as she slid the riding crop under her arm, "Alas, you've disrespected rank... Your punishment will be simple, for now... A mere warning and scrubbing of the latrines in the barracks for the rest of the solar week... Sit down."
Kay nodded, before promptly planting her behind back into the plastic chair in the 30-strong classroom. The Major departed from the side of her bench, leaving the girl still reeling, her cheek stinging after the hit. A few girls chuckled, but Alisa and Naomi simply stared at the shocked girl with empathy, though she wouldn't know. The woman had mentioned the 'God-Emperor' during her little tirade.
Where was she? Architectural changes were the most bloody obvious thing she noticed. Instead of the modern, standardized and usually boring look of the classroom from back on the Carrier, the place was an architectural style resembling the stuff you'd see coming out of middle-ages Europe. A Gothic style with archways high, vaulted ceilings and checkerboard patterns on the floor, as well as incense and candles lining the walls, more tightly packed around what seemed to be the portrait of God himself. Above the chalkboard on which the strange projector showed images, there was that same symbol as on the woman's coat breast, the two-headed eagle crest, with one head having its eye open and looking back and another looking forth, its eyes closed.
She looked forward at the projected images, to see them as tank specifications. Specifications for incredibly over-armored, but ancient-looking designs that, if she was reading the lines right, they were going to be using. The Major sighed from the head teacher's desk, then said "Anyways, girls, as we were saying before Cadet Kay had so thoughtfully given all of us a short break..."
A few of the girls turned to Kay, smiling, before focusing back on the chalkboard and projections while the teacher continued, "Our main object of warfare will be the Mars-pattern Leman Russ Battle Tank. This is the workhorse of our people and of the Guard. She is the versatile machine that has won and will faithfully win us every war we are to ever be thrown in by the Arch-Enemy or those vile Xenos that dare tread on the Emperor's hallowed grounds. Now, while the Leman Russ, as versatile a machine she is thanks to the Omnissiah and the Tech-Priesthood over in the Adeptus Mechanicus, she is nothing without her Crews. This is why you are here."
The Major then scanned the entire classroom, stopping only at Kay, Alisa and Naomi for a second, before looking to the others as she explained, "You, fine ladies, warrior princesses elected from among the population of our planet after the Great Ravage, will be the Commanders of these beasts of armor and faith. You are soon to be our Officers, our Command Cadre... The Saunders Armor School within our very own Schola Progenium shall see to that. Now, a question from the Doctrine Militant of the Tank-masters of Saunders... For what do we fight?"
Naomi raised a hand and the Major nodded, "Cadet, please."
"For the safety and continuation of our people, ma'am," Naomi stated plainly.
"Very good. Why must we fight for this?" She asked next. Alisa lifted her hand and the Major gave her the word.
"Because of the Great Ravage, because of the near-death of our people." The girl stated rather proudly, smiling.
"Indeed... The Great Ravage was the Arch-Enemy's vilest attempt at the lives of our people, one that still scars us to this day. A Plague that wiped much of our population out... And the attempt to encroach us in the End War. Our people narrowly avoided the enemy's vile attempts almost six millennia ago, thanks to Saint Beati Sabbat of Hagia, blessed be Her name and that of the Emperor." The Major spoke solemnly.
The entire classroom chorused the last few words from the Major. And just as solemnly, to Kay's surprise. Her heart chattered like an M2 Browning in her chest. Beat just as hard against her thorax as well as she scanned the room. She recognized many of the girls around and her heart damn-near skip a beat when she saw Alisa and Naomi to her right. The two smiled at Kay, Naomi with her usual demeanor, her smile a small one, while Alisa seemed all the more glad to see her up. She smiled back, weakly, feeling her feet and hands grow cold as she looked down at the notebook she had on the desk, as well as the chewed-through pencils, a nasty habit she'd have to ditch at some point.
... Still better than the chewing gum or Alisa's obsessive cleaning, she thought to herself, looking up as the Major ended that moment of solemn silence, continuing, "Of course, some of you may not make the ranks necessary for the command of Battle Tanks. Those of you who have also elected higher, perhaps non-combat roles such as expedition and driving of supplies across the field of battle are just as big a part of this well-oiled machine. They are the ones who will keep you fed and armed and fueled. Don't disregard those in the Supply Corps, lest you find yourself without grub." She smirked. A few girls chuckled. Kay did so, nervously.
The Major seemed to have singled her out, asking "Cadet Lieutenant, what is the biggest tactical strength that Saunders prides itself in?"
She fell short of breath for a moment, catching her heart as it skipped twice, before saying "U-Uh, Major! The Doctrine of Superior Firepower! Overwhelm the enemy! For every one of theirs there'll be ten of ours and for every shell of theirs, a hundred of ours!"
"Hooah!" Hollered the entire classroom of young officers, the Major smiling.
"I see that even asleep, you can recite our favored addition to the Tactica Imperialis. Very good, Cadet Lieutenant. You have not been found wanting today." The woman stated with concealed pride. A loud horn echoed and the Major called out, "That is all for this class, ladies! Tomorrow we will go into the mustering of a Recon Spear out of the Regiment's tanks and infantry transports and the uses of such a tactic in the midst of warfare! You are all dismissed!"
Kay stood to her feet, then looked to herself in the reflection of an archway window that showed the outside where the sun had barely poked over the horizon. Check that... The Two Suns... What?
Beautiful, flat fields of emerald grass, rolling hills laden brimming with flowers and life and tall, white-peaked mountains spread out past the meter-tall walls of the military school complex she found herself in. Below, in the courtyard, she saw female soldiers clad in 1940s GI Uniforms and wielding wood-stocked rifles and weapons resembling of Garands and World War 2 firearms belonging to the US Armed Forces. Everything from the M2 Steel Helmets to the webbing, boots and weapons reeked of US Army... But the armor they wore on top was weird.
On top of the bastion wall, she saw the Stars and Stripes, or better said, the stars, stripes and the two-headed eagle. Said eagle held in its claws a circlet of eighteen white stars, linked together by what looked to be two crossed weapons square in the center of the circle. The girl finally managed to get a good look at herself in the window. She wore a standard garrison sideways cap with a star pin on it. On her collars, she saw bronze bars, showing the rank of First Lieutenant, presumably Cadet.
She felt a hand fall on her shoulder and almost jumped out of her skin. She turned back, seeing that only Alisa and Naomi had stayed in the class. Looking around the room, to confirm that she and the girls were alone, she pulled the two into a tight hug and cried "I'm never going on another bender with you two again! What the hell kind of prank are you trying to pull!?"
"K-Kay..." Alisa struggled to speak and patted her on the shoulder. The girl was squeezing her Trachea quite well. Her muscles weren't lacking.
"Are you okay?" Naomi asked almost absentmindedly.
Kay took a step back from the two girls, eyes wide. She spoke angrily, seeming almost abject to the idea, "Girls! Please, I get it! If this is some kinda sick joke for me to quit drinking, I got it! I'll be good, I'll go to an AA meeting, for fuck's sake, even if I have no reason to, but, just tell me! How the hell did you get the entire school to go with it!? The redecoration, the projectors, the tanks... Everything!"
"Kay, settle down." Naomi said, eyes afraid of her friend, "We aren't pulling any sort of prank... You seemed a bit confused when you woke up and we wanted to check up on you."
"CONFUSED DOESN'T FUCKING COVER IT, NAE!" The girl shouted in her friend's face, staggering her, gritting her teeth as she felt her heartrate skyrocket, "What the hell is going on...?" She grabbed her head as she felt it thumping.
"Hey, El-Tee." Alisa looked to her, a smile on her face and concern in her eyes, "It'll all be okay. We'll go talk to the Major and she'll get you a head doc or something... Major's training is way rougher and that she rides your ass a lot more than the rest of us, but, y'know, whatever you may say, you're her star pupil an' all... Things could definitely be way worse than a little slap and some latrine duty."
She almost wanted to punch the diminutive redhead she'd called one of her two closest friends, but she managed to restrain herself. Breathing in and out, Kay tried to take stock of the situation. These two didn't seem disingenuous in the least, but they were awfully calmer than she was about the situation. Whatever in the seven circles of hell had happened was either one of the most screwed pranks that have ever been pulled, or...
... Yes! Yes! That was it! This was just an alcohol-induced fever dream! Goddamn Tequila, last time she'd let Ali convince her to drink the stuff.
She was gonna wake up in a moment, back in her soft bed at home, probably with these two idiots sprawled across her floor and couch. Well, she may as well play along until she wakes up, she thought jovially. She chuckled, rubbing her arm, then apologized, wearing one of her smiles "Sorry, girls... It's... I've had a bit of a rough night's sleep and my brain isn't fully functioning..."
"You sure you're alright?" Alisa asked, while Naomi let out a single sigh of relief. Kay nodded, before Alisa pointed out, "You're all kinds of pale, though... Maybe we should get ya some water."
Her throat was really sore now. Sleeping combined with screaming did that.
"I'd appreciate it..." She smiled brightly, "Let's go."
The three girls left the classroom about 10 minutes after everyone. Funny, to Kay, her little tantrum felt like a whole-ass hour. The trio of officer cadets passed by a few squads of girls returning from training, sweat draping them from head to toe, large stains leaving marks under the arms of their strange armored vest and on the BDU's themselves. Kay had also just noticed, to her surprise, that the 'weapons' these other Cadets were carrying were wooden replicas. Blunt and meant to fake the looks of real guns, they also had bayonets made out of some sorta foam attached to them. The group chatted among themselves, even as they marched in a perfect three-by-ten formation, with only the officer, color sergeant and the banner bearer at the front. Once again, the Stars, Stripes and the Eagle on a regiment's flag.
The leader of the squad of cadets tipped her M2 helmet, which bore the same skull and wings insignia as her cap and the Major's clothes. A black-haired girl that Kay had seen around the bend in their school before, she was more of a brawler than anybody else. Her picked nickname, or name, was Amy, if she recalled correctly. Kay smiled back, despite herself. Like she'd said to herself just now, this was nothing but a crazy fucking dream. She'd find Amy tomorrow in the morning back in the Saunders gym, throwing fists at a sandbag.
Alisa and Naomi stopped by a very strangely-designed water fountain and Alisa motioned to Kay to go ahead. The girl leaned forward, pressed the button on the top of the item and fresh, ice-cold water sprayed into her mouth and onto her face, a refreshing awakening that, she hoped, would be mirrored by Alisa throwing a water bucket on her face in the morning.
She shook off the droplets, her throat feeling much better than when she'd awoken first. She smacked her lips, then smiled as the color returned to her face. Alisa smirked, then smacked Kay on the back, saying "You already look better, El-Tee! C'mon, Barracks's probably waiting for us! We gotta study for that test about the Sabbat Worlds history."
"Thank the Emperor the library is not that far from our bunks." Naomi said, leaning back against the wall and pulling a strange item out of her pocket. At first, Kay thought it was chewing gum, but then she noticed the blackness. The acrid stench of the cheap chewing tobacco assaulted her nostrils like a Calliope. She covered her nose, her mind wandering off asking about who the 'Emperor' was and to this.
"By the Almighty, Naomi, since when!?" Kay asked, her voice nasal as she held the nostrils shut.
"Uh...?" The tomboy of the group raised a brow. She pointed at the box of munitorum-standard chewing tobacco and shook it, rattling the balls of compressed opioid inside. Kay nodded rapidly, to which Naomi said with a rather surprised look on her face, "Since you've known me, Kay? The thing helps me calm down and it's a hell of a lot better than cigarettes."
Another quirk of the dream, Kay thought. She hummed, then nodded and chuckled, "Sorry!"
"Wow, sleepless nights are a bitch." Alisa remarked, smirking.
Kay sighed, "You don't know the half of it, Ali. C'mon, let's get to our bunks."
Even the halls themselves bore that same architecture. Archways and columns of marble rose, holding high a vaulted ceiling like the one you'd see in basilicas, including the frescoes and paintings to tell stories. Chief among the images of angels and cherubs painted above, two were most brightly shown. A man clad in golden armor, with a sword of fire and claws of an eagle, his long black hair waving in the wind as he stared to the side. Following him, a frail, young woman wearing an armor of a deep azure tint and bearing a shimmering sword. Both slayed some kind of vile monstrosities, some Demons one would say. Both had halos of burning gold around their heads, like saints.
Below the images of the man in gold armor lay the words 'Ave Imperator, Ave Terra' in gothic alphabet. Huh, so the big guy must've been the Emperor, then? Below the young woman, the words 'Beati Sabbat Hagio, eterna victoria'. Saint Sabbat, she presumed, smiling at the figure. As she turned her eyes away, she could swear she saw her smile back. She gasped, looking up at the fresco depicting the last battle and Nine Wounds of the Saint.
Why'd she know about the Nine Wounds...?
She shook it off, feeling a chill shoot up her spine. Dream, dream, dream. Really detailed, quirky dream. Noticing she had slightly lagged behind, she quickened her pace to meet the girls. Within the massive barracks, the girls found their own bunk area. Bunk 9, third level. Kay leaned over the railing at the side of the door, looking down. The place descended at least another hundred feet, a steep drop to the darkness below.
"Wanna go explore the bunker areas?" Alisa suggested mischievously.
"We have to study, Ali." Naomi hummed, "You said it yourself."
"Oh, come off it, Nae, what's a short detour?" She smirked, then looked to Kay and said "Hey, El-Tee, back me up here!"
Kay looked back, then smiled "Nae's right, Ali. Much as I'd like to go hunker down in a bunker nearby, I kinda don't wanna get yelled at by anyone right now."
Alisa slumped, "Y'all are no fun..."
The blonde chuckled, "Sure, sure. C'mon, open the door."
She strode inside with the girls, to the sight of two-dozen bunks sat against the walls. Young women much like herself were changing clothing. Some turned to smile at Kay, while others were caught in a convo, drying their short hair after a shower, presumably also after a spar or some training course. Two were having an arm-wrestling competition. Kay noticed their muscular, toned bodies. Each of them had the physique of well-trained athletes, with the wits and temperament to match from the looks of things.
She, herself, wasn't anything to scoff at. Taking a peek under her shirt, she found her belly way more toned than usual, more muscular. She felt her arms and, under the thick BDU jacket, she actually felt some muscle. A grin crossed her lips. Man, she wanted to get lean and muscular since day one and thought Tankery would help with that. Turned out, it really did... At least in this whacky dream.
She went to her bunk, plopping herself down on what felt like a fucking brick wall. She winced, feeling her spine almost fold in on itself, then kicked her feet up and leaned against the wall, watching the girls around doing their thing. One of them, a ginger in only a tank top and bearing a tattoo of that two-headed eagle on her shoulder, yelled "Hey, Lieutenant!"
"Hmm?" Kay raised a brow.
"It true you fell asleep in Major Rosa's class?" She smirked.
"By mistake, yep." Nodded the girl.
"Well, shit..." The Cadets around the girl chuckled. The one who asked her remarked, "I wish I had the balls to be tired in that place. Half-expecting the Major to actually give ya an ass-kickin' if you do it again."
"Don't plan on it." She shrugged, twiddling her thumbs. The girl, the ginger that had talked to her, she remembered as one Penny, from her own picked name. No, not that Penny. She smiled at the girl, who nodded, before standing up and going into the bathroom attached to their bunk. Kay caught a peek inside, finding it to be a common bathroom and shower with a dozen johns and shower heads, as well as sinks.
To their left, she saw a massive terminal, its screens glowing an eerie green and keyboard shimmering with strange runes. Must've been the Platoon terminal to connect to the rest of the base's network. Man, the place was really freaking detailed, wasn't it? Every ounce of the dream so far had been an incredible sight to behold in how detailed it was. Usually, her dreams were really blurry, screwy and/or all kinds-a-weird.
"C'mon." Naomi stretched, "The Library's a five minute walk from here."
Both Ali and Kay jumped to their feet, with Kay undoing the zipper of her jacket to let herself 'air out' a bit. She noticed she was wearing a black tank top bearing the two-headed eagle on it. This dream really loved that symbol, didn't it? Where the hell had she seen it before to warrant it appearing so much? Eh, didn't matter. Dream. She'd wake up before it mattered anyways.
The trio bid goodbye to Penny and the other fellow officer-cadets around. She felt something swinging around in her tank top, then looked down. Tugging at a golden chainlet, she found that same symbol attached to it, also made of gold. She hummed, slid the thing back down the tank-top and pulled at another, silver chain, to reveal a pair of Dog Tags. Her blood type, her... Nickname?
'Kay. Cad. 1st Lt. Class 9. ID:51201.'
... Huh.
She ignored it, dipping the 'tags back into the tank top too, before picking up the pace. Her spine grew chilly as her mind began to race. The girls strode into the library with Kay trailing behind, then approached the front desk. Kay froze, her eyes wide with disbelief and her stomach churning. A gruesome amalgamation of human flesh and technology sat behind the desk, writing on a piece of ancient scroll. Its muzzled face turned to the girls, revealing to machine eyes, milky-white, stuck into the skull and attached at the seams of what once was the thing's wrinkled, ancient eyelids. Two mechanical arms extended from its back, with two more, spindly human ones reinforced by metal, holding a quill and ink.
Kay blinked at the robed man-machine sat behind the counters and desk of the Library, watching as Naomi and Alisa talked to it like it was nothing. It raised a bony finger, pointing out toward the third row of bookcases, leftmost of them. So weirded out she had been by the man-thing that she had had no time to look at the massive spire that was the library. It rose into the sky at almost two hundred meters, three levels of bookcases filled to the brim with old tomes. The floor as marble with fine, red carpets made of silk.
Alisa grabbed Kay by the wrist, dragging her forward. Among the bookshelves, she saw quiet areas with couches where girls sat and read the thick, leather-bound tomes and books and novels around. One such spot was occupied by three tall beauties clad in nuns' robes. Going by the faint markings that the girl could see on the books' leather covers, the damn things were medical journals of some kind.
Nun nurses? Huh. Cool.
"The Sororitas seem busy." Remarked Naomi, a faint smile on her lips.
"Looks like Hospitaliers." Alisa said. The terms confused Kay for a bit, but still. She was gonna be fine. Wake-up soon, she recalled, trying to calm herself. The girls arrived at the intended destination and Naomi picked out three rather thin books, handing them out to the girls. The blonde of the group read the name in her thoughts. 'The History of the Sabbat Worlds:The Annals of The Life and Conquests of Sabbat Beati'.
There was a picture of a short-haired young woman in relief, wielding the sword and armor. Same as in the Fresco. Kay hummed, running her fingers over the bumps in the book's ancient leather cover, before flipping it open. The girls had found their own small cot to study in, near the massive stained-glass windows through which faint light filtered, painting the grounds in the colors of the Saint and the Emperor.
To say Kay was enamored by what she read would be an understatement. Her eyes read through every passage of the book, looked at every picture drawn in color and in black and white on its ancient paper and devoured the information. From Hagia, to Harkalon and back home after her martyrdom. Again, this dream brought forth the incredible in Kay's eyes. Such a being, an angel in human form, brought the Sabbat Worlds under thrall of the greater Imperium. Kay had also devoured whatever information on the Imperium she could find while reading through the Volume.
By the time the girls were done and the twin suns of the system slowly began to descent, Kay had in her mind thoughts of the Saint, of the Imperium at large. She'd asked Alisa and Naomi to go back to the bunks absentmindedly, going for the closest Book on the Imperial Cult that she could find. Every second, every bit of history she could read up on, she did with fervent joy.
The dream was cool. It was awesome, she had to give it that.
"Ahem." She almost jumped out of her skin again, letting out a yelp.
Looking up, she saw an elderly woman, her hair silver and old, her face wrinkled, but warm and her robes old, tattered, standing before her. Kay noticed the Fleur-De-Lis symbol on the woman's right cheek and immediately stood up, her hands instinctively forming together into the sign of the Holy Aquila. The elderly Sister smiled warmly at the girl, then said "Calm yourself, Cadet Lieutenant. The Emperor Protects."
She parroted the last three words, her mind still wandering between the Saint and the information about the Emperor. This place felt more like a wholly developed Science-Fantasy world than a fucking dream at this point, but she still stuck to the hope that she'd wake up with something cool to look up on the internet. The Sister spoke again, "I see you are hard at work. Those tomes are ancient, but they bear much Faith within them."
"That they do, Sister..." Kay smiled back.
"I had seen you studying with your comrades before you switched to this. Reinforcing your beliefs through lecture is good, Cadet... I'll send a commendation to your officer." The Sister spoke, then looked to see the book on the history of Saint Sabbat and her sector, "I see you are also interested in the somewhat more recent history of our Sector. May I?"
Kay handed the book over and the woman parsed through a few passages. She hummed, then said "I'd also recommend her Scriptures as lecture, if you wish to reinforce your faith even further." as she looked over an ancient pocket watch. She sighed, then said "Sadly, there seems to be little time for that now... Meet me tomorrow, after your classwork, if you wish."
"I will... Thanks, sister." Kay gave a respectful bow to the woman, who smiled again, warm like her gram-gram. Sure, the dream had its rough moments up to now, but, she'd manage if she ever dreamt this again. She was let free, dashing out of the place and toward where she remembered the room was. Entering the barracks, the girl looked to see Naomi and Alisa chatting. She'd ignored them for most of the day, hadn't she? Poor girls must've been feeling left alone... In this whacky dream world.
The girls talked the night away, Kay slowly realizing that they were also on a different freaking planet in this insane dream of hers while laughing with the girls and chatting about the Major, quipping about her whip and dominatrixes and other such jokes. She'd fallen fast asleep on her own bunk after a while, as the adrenaline high she didn't know she sported finally faded and the crash came. Never in her life had Kay been so tired in her life. She'd hopefully wake up at home.
The next day, First Call and Reveille rang throughout the halls, played over the Public Announcement System. Hundreds of Speakers, all in the corners of rooms or hallways, all at maximum volume. Kay woke with a startle at the First Call, her heart damn near jumping out of her chest. As the last note of the Reveille was sung, the voice of another female officer spoke over, her voice loud, mean and angry, "ALL CADETS, ON YOUR FEET!"
As Assembly was then called over the PA through the favored use of Brass, Kay looked around the room. Her heart stuck in her throat as she saw the same architecture. Her classmates and comrades milled about, donning their BDUs and caps for the early morning routine. To her left, she saw Naomi and Alisa quickly making their beds and moving on to put clean uniforms on from their footlockers. Alisa told her to do the same.
She wanted to scream, but didn't find the voice to do so.