My Armor is Contempt

Book 1:The Fall

Chapter 2:Adapting

"To each of us falls a task. All the Emperor requires of us Guardsmen is that we stand the line and die fighting... "

-General Sturnn, Cadian 412th Regiment, Imperial Guard, to an Ultramarines Chaplain during the Lorn V Campaign

Almost a Solar Week later

Schola Progenium Saunders shooting range No. 12

Planet Saunders, Navadis System, Sabbat Worlds Eastern Reaches

Kay lay, sprawled across the field in the early morning dew, the beams of the twin suns of the Navadis system beating down on her back. She was laying on a shooting mat, her legs spread in a Y-pattern to compensate for whatever recoil the weapon in her hand would have. Blades of grass tickled her chin and her nostrils as she looked down the iron sights of a Saunders-pattern M48 Lasgun. Shaped like a familiar weapon from her own world, only with a mighty thicker barrel, the Saunders M48 was, as far as she'd gotten with her lectures and her own sights of the laser-arm, a laser weapon shaped like an M1 Garand, sans the partially-plastic stock and other mods, and loaded just like a Garand. Took the charge battery from the top, somehow.

She looked down the round rear aperture of the irons, toward the Spitz front post as she steadied her breath. Her face was impassive as her mind thought of the week's tribulations. First, she'd gone on a bit of a bender, somehow, with her friends. They were underage, but being the American stereotype school, they'd managed to get fake IDs from a friend to go buy Sake and Beers at the convenience store. And Alisa pulled a bottle of actual proper Tequila from... Her ass, she assumed. And after falling asleep, she woke up dead in the middle of the most fucked-up bait'n'switch the Universe thought funny to throw at her.

She squinted as the blurring started to fade and her eyes began to equalize the focus on both the distant target and the front sight, steadying her breathing as per what their rifle instructor was barking from the lectern to their left. About 300 yards down-range from them sat around 30 targets, all hidden behind varying amounts of cover, or with none at all. Human-shaped, of course, for ease of shooting. The instructor, a mean woman in her mid-forties with greying blood-red hair, skin as pale as bone, a voice of sandpaper and a gash across her face, barked.

Kay breathed out.

Her heart beat, slow.

She squeezed, all actions within the span of a second. A beam of angry scarlet lanced down perfectly straight, charring bits of grass thanks to her position, low to the ground. The weapon kicked up lightly as the heat sinks installed about a third of the way from the barrel's business-end blew hot steam. The las-bolt slashed the target's midsection, a few inches from being dead center. Alisa, to her immediate right, had had similar luck in shooting.

She smiled as she saw Naomi's lance of fire strike dead center. The girl was a perfect shot with any weapon she used. She had been Saunders's... Her... Saunders's team sniper, after all. It was thank to her they even got a Firefly to boot. Stuff was supposed to go to St. Gloriana's, but her father, an American serviceman much like Kay's, managed to snag the thing at an auction for Saunders, threw himself in debt too, for it. 'It's an American tank!' he prided himself 'no matter what the Limeys did to it, it's still a Yankee Tank!'

Kay chuckled, remembering the man's thick southern accent, then sighed with melancholy, shaking her head. It'd been a week. This was clearly no dream anymore and she didn't know how to feel about it. Their instructor barked, "STAND UP! ATTEN-HUT!" and all thirty-plus girls clambered to their feet, holding their rifles by the fore of the stock and pointed up and away from one another in a present-arms maneuver, their left hands behind their backs and bent into an L.

The Instructor climbed off of the Lectern, her augmetic leg throwing the standard fit it had thrown the last two days as well as she went to inspect the fruits of their Marksmanship. After a few minutes, the woman, bearing the two linked, silver prongs of a Captain on her collar, smiled and said "Well, some of you shitheads are getting better at aiming, at least! Cadet Lieutenant Naomi over here, meanwhile, heh, her aim's as dead-on as ever."

Right, Kay nearly forgot that Naomi got to her rank after she passed the test with flying colors. The Captain stepped in front of Kay and said "You, Cadet Lieutenant Kay. You cheating or something?" with a smirk. Ah, implying cheating to this woman was like a compliment.

"No, captain, ma'am." Kay replied almost mechanically, stifling a smile and maintaining her stone-hard facade. She'd gotten used to the common NCO and Drill Sergeant of the place screaming in her face that she'd developed the standard dead-face as it was called among the cadets and recruits. Captain Neema was one such person that Kay had gotten used to having the spit of on her face. From all the yelling this old hag did.

"Then, Emperor help me, you are actually getting better at shooting." She actually, openly complimented her, causing the blonde's cheeks to flush red for but a moment before she suppressed them.

"Thanks, ma'am," She replied, her voice slightly cracking, much to the joy of some of the other gals, who chuckled. The woman passed by her and started chewing out Alisa for some Emperor-forsaken reason. Girl never could catch a break, even back at Saunders Proper. She chuckled, realizing her thoughts drifted to the Emperor for a moment there. All her lectures with the Sister Hospitalier must've caught up. Still... She couldn't see the Emperor as a proper god. The man was supposed to be the Imperium's ruler and the history she read implied, at least between the lines, something entirely different about Him than a desire for Godhood.

Eh, she shook it off. If she said anything about the Emperor that wasn't open praise of His godhood, she was pretty sure she'd get lynched by the entire school. Plus, the guy really did bring the Imperium together and helped keep it sane for however long He could before the Horus Heresy. Who the hell would betray their dad like that, especially after He sought them out! Gah, she couldn't see herself doing something like that to her own dad.

She saw the Captain stop at the front of the 30 girls standing in line. She spoke, "Now, I'm sure I don't need to repeat my old ass about why you girls, the Tank Corps, have to learn how to use Lasguns and bog standard weaponry, but I will do it anyway until I'm sure it's drilled into your thick-ass skulls. If your tank gets shafted by an enemy who came out of nowhere, or you run out of ammo, but you're somehow still alive, it's better to have a gun to defend yourselves with. The Arch-Enemy won't be pleased with just knocking your tank out of action. They'll try to clamber on top, open the hatch and kill you with it. That's what the M48 and its Carbine form, the M48A1 are for."

The M48A1 Saunders-pattern was a stubby little Carbine that loaded, much like the M1 Carbine variant, with a standard charge cell at the bottom. It also had reduced, compact size and a folding stock for ease of use in armored fighting vehicles. The Captain continued her explanations. She was a footslogger, an infantrywoman asked to teach the tankers to shoot proper. Unsurprising as it was, Kay had heard murmurs from comrades about the idea that the woman personally disliked training 'Tankies' or 'Tin-Dwellers' as she'd referred to them several times. Kay didn't think so. Woman just loved her job as Infantry.

"... Anyways, enough tirades about you tin-dwellers. At ease, dismissed. I gotta go check the Mechanized infantry." She ordered, before pulling a cigarette out of an engraved cig case and sliding it between her lips. The Cadet class mobilized, entering the school after they retrieved all their gear and safely unloaded the Lasguns. After entering the building, the girls had left the weapons in their special lockers, alongside the half-spent charge cells and the shooting mats.

Alisa approached Kay as the girls were finished with the stuff, then asked "How're ya holding up?"

Kay rolled her eyes, then smiled "I'm okay, Ali..."

"Y'sure? I mean... After last week's little... Incident..." The ginger shortie winced, taking a slight step back and feeling her back.

"I swear, I'm fine." The blonde said, a hint of exhasperation in her voice, "I just had a really bad dream."

She'd had an outburst...

A really BAD outburst...

In her bunk, seven days ago, Kay had felt her breath hitch in her throat once more. This was not a dream, this was not even a horrid nightmare that she'd wake up from. It was reality and that reality hit her like a hammer hit a nail. She clawed at her throat, trying to breathe. First to notice was Naomi, who went to help her paling comrade as she thrashed in her bed. The other girls screamed for a Medic(medicae?) while her friends struggled with her.

Alisa joined soon after, holding the girl down as best as she could and struggling severely. Kay was a musclebound girl, fit as fit can be. So strong she was that she basically managed to throw Alisa into the wall with one hand and nearly clawed Naomi's eye out, had the girl not dodged and managed to elbow her square in the sternum that released her breath. Her lungs empty and with the ability to breathe again restored, Kay had been looked over and deemed fit by the female medic who came in to check on her.

She'd, of course, had to go see a shrink and a Sister after that, having lied about having a 'nightmare' that'd managed to cause shortness of breath like that. Alisa sighed, staring with compassion at her blonde friend, "Alright... 'Till proven otherwise, I'll believe ya." She remarked, then patted her on the shoulder. Naomi approached too, giving an approving nod to the pair. Alisa stretched, then said "C'mon, let's go get some grub."

The girl led the way out of the armory and into the massive halls of the Schola, where friends were joined together, chatting and smiling, finding their ways to their next classes or just scouting out a place to lay low for the rest of the day and catch some Zs between classes. The girls passed by the well-dressed, gold-laden Commissariat cadets, saluting the ten-twenty girls that belonged to them with respect. The Schola trained them to be soulless commanders that led from the front and killed any who'd dare run. Still, they were human and they were their allies. No point in a feud with them.

The mess hall was a cavernous area where over a thousand students could fit. Tables of metal, plastic and some-times wood, that could seat twelve on their attached benches, sat, evenly set across the room. Between some sat the support columns that held the vaulted ceiling up. Square in the center of the room, sat the kitchen and the buffet that delivered the usual slob they ate here.

Sat in the line with their aluminum food trays, the girls exchanged small-talk.

"Did you hear? Apparently, word 'round the classes is that we'll get a chance to train with the battle tanks. The Major wants us to begin our training now that it's the second half of the year. I got that from Monika, though, so..." Naomi stated calmly as a ladle-full of some sort of greyish goop made out of potatoes was slammed down onto her tray, followed by the wednesday's special, a mystery meat of some kind.

Alisa grinned, then exclaimed "Hell yeah!" with a raised first. Kay smirked, watching as the lunchlady poured the food into her tray. The girl thanked the woman with a curt nod, before the trio went for the table where half of their class was sat. Taking their three reserved seats, the girls went on to tell the rumor of the battle-tank training coming up to the rest of the group.

Penny, meanwhile, looked over to Kay as the girl pushed the unappetizing grey mash from side to side with her plastic fork. She raised a brow, then asked "Everything alright there, Kay?"

"Yup..." She nodded. That was both true and a lie. All was as okay as it could be, truthfully, but the girl still hadn't properly figured her place in this mess of a world.

She'd gotten bits and pieces of info about the 'Arch-Enemy' of mankind. Chaos was a strange series of entities and madmen that coalesced and formed ramshackle armies to fight against the Imperium, to sow insanity, terror and what else but Chaos among the ranks of mankind. She'd also read more on the Imperium at large... With several million worlds under its thrall and a population in the many trillions, Kay's mind couldn't wrap around all of it. Hell, it couldn't wrap around a fraction of it! She was an insignificant speck in this mess!

What'd even dragged her all the way out here, in this mess of time and space that was the 41st Millennium?

She sighed, then started her food. Alisa called to her, "Hey, El-Tee!" to which she jerked her head toward the girl with a 'hmm?', the fork hanging out of her mouth. Alisa smirked, "Ain't you excited? We're gonna get our asses in actual tanks soon!"

Kay smirked, "If it's gonna be a gunnery duel, we both know Nae's gonna leave our behinds in the dust, right?"

The gunnery gal blushed, while the rest of the girls cheered. Kay chuckled, then said "Oh, relax, Nae. It's just simple fact you're our best shot!" with a prideful smirk. She patted the gunner on the back, before continuing to dig into her food. The other officers continued to talk, while the three star pupils ate on. Whilst they did so, the PA echoed overhead... And the Major's voice came.

"Attention, all Tank Officer Cadets, report to the class room as soon as you are finished with lunch. We've much to talk of, girls." The woman spoke, a hint of joviality in her words. As soon as lunch had finished, the team of officers filed out of the cafeteria, all wearing smiles on their faces. They'd shined their rank pins quickly, marching in-step and together as a whole-ass unit. Thirty girls humming the March of the Adamantine.

They then filed neatly into the class, each at the seat they'd been sat on since the start of school, humming the war songs of their people still as the Major strode inside, marching to the beat of the latest song, 'Over There!' with a smirk. She leaned against her chair, not seating herself down on it as she began to sing, her voice angelic to Kay after they heard her yell at them all the damn time. "Over there! Over There! Send the word, send the word Over There! For the Armor's coming, the Armor's coming, the rumble of treads roars there!"

The squadron clapped proudly, Kay herself included. A single swipe of the woman's right hand and the girls quietened down. 30 right feet fell onto the marble tile floor with a resounding crack. Hands were raised in salute and the Major called "AT EASE! Be seated, ladies!" only to hear the thirty-odd chairs in the room scraping the floor as the girls plopped their asses down onto them. Sitting herself down in her own leather-bound chair, the woman said rather pragmatically, "I think we all know why we're here, ladies. Rumors have been floating around the Tanker barracks about the beginning of the next major phase of training."

As the air grew loud with murmurs of excitement and joy, the Major exclaimed, a smile on her face "Well, I'm here to assuage any fears that those rumors may be false. The Forge World of Sabbatine Primaris has started the shipment of over a thousand newly-built Leman Russ tanks of varying loadouts. They've subcontracted the help of their brethren from Ryza for a very special subtype of the good tanks and even got Forge World Tigrus to produce some Vanquishers for us! As I said, ladies," She stood up, leaning against her desk and smiling broadly, "The Rumors you have heard through Cadet Lieutenant Monika are true! The next phase of your training and the training of your fellow operators and crews will be with active, capable Battle Tanks!"

The joyful cheers and battle cries of the thirty officers filled the room and filtered out into the hallways. Kay smiled just as broadly as the Major at the news of their AFVs coming in, but within her, her heart felt like it sank. She was afraid of what that may mean for them as a wholesale unit. Instead of worrying for now, she looked to Naomi and stated with what little excitement she could muster, "Looks like you're getting a Vanquisher!"

Naomi chuckled, "Looks so, boss."

"We're the same rank, Cadet Lieutenant." Kay elbowed her in the shoulder.

The Major had had to put up a fake, a facade of joy for the girls to not discourage them. Truth be told, she alone knew why this sudden arrival of armor and weaponry had happened so promptly. Warmaster Slaydo, the man leading the Liberation of the Sabbat Worlds, had requested another Armored Regiment be mustered and prepared for battle. To that extent, the Munitorum tossed the request to them. These girls were going to need to be ready, even though much of the theory of Armored Warfare was going to be studied aboard the vehicles themselves, through combat training and gunnery.

She sighed, sitting down at her desk and nursing a glass of hard Amasec from one of the newly-liberated worlds, she didn't know its name. The hardy, clear liquor burned her throat and stomach like a fucking promethium-laced bolt of plasma, but it was a good burn. Helped soothe the jitters of fear she felt, having to send what would practically be an untrained regiment out to battle. Still, she trusted Slaydo. The man was a believer in Saint Sabbat and the Imperial Creed to the bone. She'd requested one year for the training of new forces to be complete, more so she wouldn't feel like she would send a Regiment of their finest Armor out to die without at least a little bit of preparatory training.

One year would be enough for the Regiment to coalesce into a semi-cohesive unit, but they'd need to accelerate from theory to hands-on very quickly. The rest would have to be learned mid-combat, in the hell that was the campaigns of the Sabbat Worlds. Saint Sabbat protect her, she did not like it one damn bit. Thank the Emperor she was alone in the class.

A knock on the door took her out of her thoughts. Sitting in the doorway, she was Kay. The girl had gotten her footing back after the sleeping event. She asked, "You wanted to see me after class, ma'am?" as she saluted. The Major saluted back and nodded, to show her to turn at ease.

Ah, yes. She'd called Kay over for that. Offering a quick nod, the woman motioned to the closest desk to her own. Kay sat herself down. The Major motioned to the bottle of hard liquor on her left, knowing full-well Kay was barely in her eighteenth ear of life. The girl denied it with a wave of her hand. Weird, Kay usually adored any kind of alcohol. Sure, she'd never drunk herself silly, not in class at least, but... Kay was a party girl. Even the Major knew her as such. What'd changed?

The Major sighed, then said "Kay, I'm going to be frank with you," and saw the hair on the girl's neck stand on-end, although you wouldn't know it from her demeanor. A straight posture, a very good poker face and steady hands laid and interlaced on the desk as she leaned forward. The Major continued, "I'm happy to see you recovering after the two incidents from last week. I had half-thought I'd lost my best Cadet to stress."

"No, ma'am," Kay shook her head, "I wasn't gonna let some sleep deprivation screw me over," And she forced a smile.

"There's something more with you, though." The Major observed, leaning her face onto one hand as she played with the glass of clear alcohol in the other, "You've been hesitant. Quiet. Unlike I or any of your comrades know you. Cadet Sergeant Penny even complained. Not to mention Amelia... And Alisa and Naomi. Those poor girls seem to think the Warp's come to you... Confidentially and off-the-books, from a veteran to a newbie and from a woman who's seen her fair share of shit to a woman who's yet to see anything major... What's wrong, Kay? You can talk to me. I may not be your mother or your father, but I'm still here for all my Cadets, harshness of training notwithstanding."

"It's..." The girl shifted in her seat, averting her gaze from the Major's augmetic eye and human one. She started fiddling with her thumbs, a nervous habit Kay had had since she was first brought into Saunders's Schola at six years old. The girl murmured, "It's not easy to talk about..."

"I understand," Rosa hummed, taking a short sip of her glass before setting it down to the side and straightening up, "The Sister you've spoken to last week told me you aren't particularly at ease around her either. She also told me what you were studying aside from the things meant for the examination. Did you feel the need for spiritual guidance? We have Priests for that... And the Convent of Sisters itself. They're all in the campus of the Schola."

"I know, ma'am... I just..."

"It's like you're re-learning things." The Major observed, causing Kay to pale. The woman quirked a brow at the Cadet, then stated, "That is it, isn't it?"

"... In a way..." Kay almost confessed. Clearly, something must've gone awry for the girl at some point.

Rosa sighed, "If you don't wish to fully disclose it, that's fine. Better I know less for now, after all. Anyways, your change in behavior isn't the only reason I called you up, Kay," then she stood up and pulled a box out of one of the drawers in her desk. Kay looked up, raising both brows in a sign of surprise. The Major smirked, then showed Kay to stand up. The Cadet stood, as ordered, ramrod straight, while Rosa leaned forward and removed the Lieutenant markings on her collar. She spoke solemnly, "Cadet Kay, of Class Nine, due to your exemplary performance in classes and during training, you are being promoted to the rank of Cadet Captain and, officially, are being assigned in command of Class Number Nine, Tank Command."

Kay's eyes grew wide, her heart beating fast as the Major set the bronze Captain's pins into place on both her collars and her garrison cap. She gave a crisp, quick salute, to which Kay saluted back promptly, a faint smile on her face. Command felt natural to her. It was why she'd been elected as Saunders Team Captain back at home. Maybe she could ease herself back into it... Back into a sense of semi-normalcy in the grand life of the 41st Millennium.

"Ma'am...?" She smiled, genuinely and brightly.

"Thirty-odd girls and their crews to wrangle, Cadet Captain." The Major smiled back, giving her a light, but friendly slap on the cheek, "The Regiment's gonna have some of the best damn officers if I can help it, starting with you, Naomi and Alisa."

"Yes, ma'am." Kay nodded, saluting, "We'll make ya proud when we start training."

"Glad to hear it. Now, go get to your little course with the Sister 'fore the Suns set. If you lost a bit of your memory in that sleep, you need to regain it. Faith is the ultimate weapon of Mankind." She smirked, "But a big cannon never hurt either."

"Hoorah." Kay smirked. She was still mired in her own thoughts, but at least the Major managed to rekindle that little spark the blonde Cadet had always had. Dismissing her with a nod, the woman turned back to her own desk, nursing her drink just as a member of her Staff came with another set of Dataslates. She sighed, taking the first and drinking deep of the burning alcohol as she read through.

Kay strode down the hallway, a hint more jovial than when she first came to talk to the Major. She hummed a song she'd somehow remembered as the Armor Company's March, entering the library within a few minutes. She was still spooked by the fuckin'... They called it a Servitor. A basic human, either a clone or a freaking criminal as a worst case scenario, lobotomized and strapped with all manner of cybernetics, but left with barely enough sentience to be able to interact with students and point them where they needed to go. There was a myriad ways a Servitor could be made, an uncountable more uses for their existence.

Still, she felt awful. Had a nightmare or two after Naomi explained it to her in full.

Finding the spot where she'd been that fateful Wednesday where she met the Sister, she saw the elderly woman sitting there. It was exactly 4 o'clock in the afternoon, their elected meeting time in the 27-hour day of Saunders. The elderly sister looked up, then smiled while Kay approached. Kay greeted, "Hey, Sister. Sorry it took me so long... Major Rosa had a thing to talk to me about."

Eyeing the bronze Captain's bars on her collar, the Sister's smile grew, "So I see. A promotion without fanfare?"

"Guess she figured it's best to have a chat alone." Kay shrugged, sitting herself down on the couch. The Sister held three more books on the Imperial Faith in her hand. One was about Saint Sabbat's life proper, with all the gold and stuff that the Volume's leather-bound cover could hold. Sabbat Beati was an important figure, of course, all across the Sector. Even to Kay, the young woman who reunified the hundreds of worlds and systems in the Sector was awe-inspiring. If she ever truly saw combat, she wanted to be as good as the Saint.

"You seem in better spirits." The woman noted as she laid the books out on the ornate table ahead, alongside two cups of freshly-brewed coffee.

"Major's little morale boost." Kay tapped the insignia on her collar proudly. "Guess it's all it took."

"And I did not help?" The woman feigned sadness. Kay stuttered, blushing out of embarrassment, to which the elderly Sister chuckled, "I kid, Kay. I'm happy that you seem to be reacclimatizing to things. I do not know what caused your issues in the first place, but it is not of me to ask or try to resolve them. I and your comrades can only be of assistance to you as you do so yourself."

From Kay's mouth escaped a chuckle after she'd managed to calm herself. The Sister was right. She needed to find her own place here, in the vast ranks of the Imperium. For better or for worse, she was stuck in the Galaxy and she was also stuck as an active member of the Staff of Saunders's next big Armored Regiment. She may as well enjoy the training and the bits of time she had for herself when off-duty. She smiled at the Sister and said "Thanks... The Emperor Protects."

"The Emperor Protects." The Sister bowed, "Now, shall we?"

"Heck yeah!" Kay smirked. They'd studied, from multiple source books that pretty much all said the same things, the Horus Heresy and its wider effect on the Imperium at large. From the battles of the Istvaan system, to the treason proper of the grand Warmaster and son of the Emperor and all the way to the end of the Heresy. The Sister had thought fit to share with Kay the story of a simple human, a simple soul, at the end of the lesson. A man named Ollanius Pius. Not too many historical records remained of the man the Sister had called 'The Patron Saint of the Imperial Guard', but information they managed to find, as well as word of mouth, pointed to Pius having been the man who threw himself in front of Horus to defend the Emperor.

'When I fall, ten more shall take my place! And one hundred each of them! So strike me down! I am the Harbinger!' Were Pius's words to Horus as he stood face-to-face with the monster, the abomination fueled by the powers of Chaos.

The man had been obliterated in one fell swipe. Horus had barely broken a sweat, clearly, when having to kill one single measly human soldier, unaltered and basic, unlike the Adeptus Astartes, the Emperors Angels of Death(A whole other matter entirely to Kay, the Emperor's warriors) or the Adeptus Custodes, His Loyal Guardians and, now, caretakers. Pius was a simple man, a human that had seen the insurmountable odds before him and decided 'Fuck it, I'll have a go if it means victory in any way!'. He was the epitome of the Service Kay had been selected for. To fight against the odds, no matter how insurmountable.

Heh. Pius and Saint Sabbat would be tough acts to follow, Kay figured. Especially for a girl that was gonna be fighting encased in an armored box with a cannon that could level bunkers. Still, it'd hit her she would have to be fighting. Their Regiment was gonna get deployed after it was Founded. Hell, they'd probably join the Sabbat Worlds Crusade when they were ready.

That was still a ways away, though. She returned to the barracks for the night.

The rush of hot water over her bare form relaxed Kay, as did the sounds of the high-pressure showers and the thick fog of steam wafting from floor to about their waists. Showers were the one time she could actually think clearly and enjoy a sense of normalcy that was not military life, even with eleven other chicks in the place. She chuckled to herself, looking around at her comrades as he washed her back. She quipped, "How'd you girls even figure out I got promoted? I was just about to come back and tell you about it."

"Oh, come off it, Kay." Alisa smirked, cleaning her hair, "You think we don't remember how major Rosa does stuff? We just had the experience with Naomi not too long ago."

"Right, right." The Blonde laughed boisterously, then quipped "Well, thanks for the cake, to the lot of y'all. Whatever bits of it got in my mouth were delicious! Heck, I think my hair enjoyed it too!"

"No problem, boss-lady!" Penny shouted from afar. The carrot-top was about five showers down, right near the opposite end of the bathroom. The rest of the girls there laughed too. When they settled down, Penny asked Alisa and Naomi, "Hey, the cake was chocolate-chip cookie! How the hell did you girls get access to anything like that?! Stuff's generally for the Schola's Staff and high-end alumni!"

"Who's to say we're not part of the high-end, Pen! You lowly peasants wouldn't get it!" Quipped Alisa with all the sass of a local noblewoman.

"Fuck you too, El-Tee!" Shouted Penny's friend, Mary, smirking. She was a girl with jet-black, short hair and amber eyes, a weird mutation. Another round of laughter.

"Haha! Thanks, Maria!" The girl laughed, "Nah, but for real, we pulled some strings with the cafeteria staff. You only get to celebrate the promotion to a Cadet O-3 once in your life, don't you?"

"Hope we won't get in trouble because of it, though." Naomi said rather pessimistically.

Alisa huffed, "Chill, Nae, we'll be fine. Emperor protects, remember?"

"Yes, but the fool asks for his own fate, Alisa." Naomi stated bluntly, then she smirked, "All I'm saying is I'm not going down with you if the Major asks anything about missing chocolate."

"Appreciate the friendship, Hotshot..." The shortstuff remarked sarcastically, garnering a chuckle out of Kay. Ah, the good old times of interacting with friends. She was glad she still had the time for it right now. She noticed Alisa smirking mischievously at her and raised a brow, more afraid than anything. Before Kay knew what was coming, Alisa had pounced her and called out "Hey, girls! Stack up on the Captain! She's laughing at her lowly subordinates!"

"W-Wait, wha-!?" Kay found herself thrown to the floor by about a dozen girls, all laughing. Even she laughed, but her back freaking hurt. Coming out of the shower, the girls dried themselves and donned their sleeping gear. Kay was pulling the blanket over herself before the lights went off almost automatically at exactly 10 o'clock in the evening. She hummed, then looked to Alisa and Naomi as she realized, "Hey, girls... I just remembered... I know I'm supposed to know this, but why the hell don't we have family names on our tags?"

"Great Ravage, Kay." Naomi answered, "Seriously... Thought you'd know about it by now, being the only one with an actual father out of the entire 9th Class."

"... Excuse me?" The blonde paused, raising a brow.

"Go to sleep, Cap... You can refresh your memory about it tomorrow..." Alisa voiced, then yawned and murmured something along the lines of "Seriously, girls with actually whole family units..." which dumbfounded Kay to absolutely no end. She knew about the Great Ravage and the End War only from the times that the Major had mentioned them. History class was also way past that, apparently, more focused on Saunders's recent min-Civil War. She needed to ask the Sister for the possibility of that being their next subject of study.

Come to think of it... That led to the point. Why were there no men within the Armed Forces? Why was no male training here, helping with the defenses? What the hell even happened to cause anything like this? She needed to find books, tomorrow, about this. Immediately after classes ended, she'd go for it. Get the Sister to explain everything to her as well, so she made sure she'd understand.

... Whole family units, huh?