Sahna jinked to the side, a fist almost grazing her ear, then to the to other side, deflecting the next attack with her arms. She brought them up again, intercepting a quick jab that bowed her forearms. Damn but he was strong.

She was managing to hold her ground in the middle of the mat, but she felt unable to attack. She winced as she got caught in the side and then had to block another blow going for her head.

Come on, come on. Have to get through this. I can't lose, not when I'm so close! She needed to win this, she couldn't let herself be beaten.

Her opponent then took a big swing and Sahna ducked underneath it, stepping in closer and swinging her right arm up and to the left to hit him in the side of the face. He tried to bring in his arm to block it but was just a little too slow, only managing to slightly deflect the hit and take some of the edge off, but Sahna was already working on her follow up, twisting her torso to jab at his midsection.

Her opponent, though slightly dazed, had good instincts and was able to step back to avoid it, bringing him to the edge of the mat. She rose up to try and push him off only for a kick to so send her sprawling back.

He moved in with a series of quick jabs and she felt her blood rising with her frustration. As he took another swing she feinted ducking again, forcing him to take a step back, then she unleashed a furious series of her own jabs and kicks. They were sloppily timed and imprecise, but they hit hard and gradually forced him back. He tried to counter with one last kick of his own but she caught his arm and used it to push him the last few centimetres off the mat with a short shove.

A whistle blew and the gymnasium fell into silence, save for the panting breaths of the two sparring partners.

"Not too shabby," Captain Falkner said. "You two keep that up and you'll be ready for the tournament in no time. Starburn, you've done pretty well to get caught up with the rest of the team."

Sahna flashed green in thanks. Grateful for the ability to communicate without having to speak. Her lungs heaved and ink cascaded down her back in a moss coloured stream as her body worked to cool itself, expelling hot ink from her funnel.

"But that last part was lousy. You try doing that in the tournament and you're opponent will wring you like an old dish towel. Look at you, you're exhausted and while you might have forced Kenton off the mat you you didn't really hurt him. That was a desperate move and it looked it.

"You need to be controlled in your attacks and in defence. Work on being calm and precise so you don't waste energy. Had you not forced your opponent off the mat, you'd have lost in less than a minute."

Sahna's pulsed green through her mantle, acknowledging the critique though it was hard to swallow. Falkner was right, that had been stupid. She'd been backed into a corner and she'd lashed out. She had never been the most graceful of losers.

"Oops, looks like we've run a little late today."

Sahna looked at the clock and her mantle flared orange in alarm. It was almost 20:00, curfew! Lights out was in just over an hour!

"'Fraid you'll have to hit the showers in the barracks this time, everyone. Good work today. Don't worry about the mats this time, they'll be using 'em first thing in the morning."

Sahna hurried to her bag and stuffed her towel inside. Her water bottle joined it after a few quick chugs before slinging her bag over her shoulder and hurrying out the door.

Running between the various buildings on base was generally forbidden. With few sidewalks, everyone had to walk along the streets and roads, all of which saw a fair bit of vehicle traffic and some of those vehicles were big, heavy, and had poor visibility, so it was a safety concern. She'd seen plenty of cadets getting reamed out for not following this rule, but with curfew fast approaching and a lot of ground to cover, she walked as fast as she could without breaking into a jog.

The night was rather cool, it already being autumn at this latitude. The sky was dotted with only a few clouds, and Scylla and Charybdis shone brightly above in half-moons, almost amounting to a full moon between them. She felt a pang of sadness, remembering days before the war when both moons would be dotted with the lights of the surface colonies. Now, even light side of the half moons seemed lifeless even though millions still lived there.

She worked through her mental map of the base, trying to think of a shortcut, and realized if she cut through the streets servicing the storage buildings then she'd save a lot of time. The base staff and authorities didn't like cadets going places where people couldn't keep an eye on them, but it wasn't technically forbidden for them to go there if they had sufficient reason and Sahana judged that not missing curfew was a very good reason.

Cutting down a smaller street, Sahna's thoughts were interrupted by a sound. A scream? It sounded like one, and not too far away either. Before she consciously realized it, she was running.

That scream hadn't sounded pleasant at all. It stuck in her mind too much, it nagged at her, clawing at the back of her mind. Her instructors had told her to trust her instincts and hope for forgiveness later, and she was certainly applying that instruction now.

She soon found herself among the storage buildings, searching the alleys as she passed, her otoliths on high alert for any noise. She heard what sounded like a scuffle, then she heard yelling, but with all the echo off the buildings she couldn't make out the words or identify the voices. As she drew close, she slowed and peeked around the corner of the nearest building into the alleyway.

She spotted someone lying on the ground, barely moving. Judging from the shape of their head, it was probably Deepcoast. Her face was bloody and discoloured. She'd been attacked!

Sergeant Stepner was kneeling next to her glaring up angrily at Chaser, who was standing just off to the side, stiffly at attention.

"I didn't do it, Sarge!" He insisted.

"Oh, you didn't did you? You just happened to be here when I found you, with nobody else around, with an injured marine at your feet and you with bruised fingers."

Sahna looked closely and could just barely see the light discoloration on Chaser's right hand. Now that she looked closer, Chasers arms were bruised too.

"Because some people ran by and one of 'em took a swing at me," he insisted.

"Sure they did. What were you doing around there then, Cadet? Taking inventory? Give me one good reason why you'd be out here. Don't think we haven't noticed you hanging around here when you know we discourage it."

Chaser looked stumped, trapped. His mantle was a torrid mix of distressed colours and patterns, his face pale, his eyes wide with mounting panic.

Sahna's mind lit up with excitement. He'd finally done it, he'd gone too far! Now he was finished, he was going to get what he deserved for breaking the rules, for insulting her, for being an insufferable thorn in her side since Triggerfish. He would be court-martialed, thrown out of OTS, and wouldn't be able to follow her to the Fighter Pilot Academy!

All of Sahna's thoughts suddenly stopped. If she thought about it honestly, leaving her own bitterness, and personal dislike of him aside, she couldn't picture Chaser as the sort who would attack someone like that, much less a girl. Yes, he'd always been a trouble maker and broken the rules when he thought no one was looking, but that was because he'd been the class clown, not a malcontent. Her mother wouldn't have allowed that to stand and she could almost feel her ghost glaring at her back, hands on her hips, admonishing her for such self-serving thoughts.

Her mantle pulsed a dark blue, mixed with burgundy in aggravation, and she gritted her beak behind her lips then stood, emerging from her hiding spot.

"Sergeant Stepner, he's telling the truth."

Stepner and Chaser both turned sharply to her. The sergeant looked her up and down quickly and he somehow managed to scowl more. "And what are you doing here, Cadet?"

"Team practice ran late today so I was trying to take a short cut to get back to the barracks. I realize it's frowned upon but so is missing curfew. You can confirm this with Captain Falkner."

Stepner regarded her closely, studying her like one might a crossword puzzle. "And?"

"I heard a scream as I was nearing the area. And then I saw Officer Cadet Chaser running across the street far ahead of me towards this location. If the scream was Deepcoast being attacked, then he would have already been here if he were the one responsible. I then saw a group of people running the other direction but I was too far to make out who they were in the dark or their numbers, assuming all of them went the same direction anyway."

Stepner eyed her closely then looked at Chaser, who seemed equal amounts astonished and relieved.

Almost immediately, an ambulance truck pulled up next to the alley and medics got out to begin tending to Deepcoast.

"You two ride back with them to the MIR," Stepner said, and he looked firmly at Chaser. "They'll want to record your injuries for the investigation and the MPs will want to talk to both of you."

They flashed green in acknowledgement and waited until Deepcoast was placed on a gurney then rolled into the back of the truck, before they joined her.

Inwardly, Sahna sighed, knowing she had nobody to blame but herself for getting mixed up in this. She could only hope her spotless record up to this point would count for something.

It was past 21:00. Sahna and Chaser were both standing at attention in Lieutenant-Colonel Woodweller's office, the officer in command of the Marine Officer Training School. He didn't look too pleased about being kept up late, and was even more displeased as to the reason why.

"I have been informed," he began, "that at least some of the culprits have been caught. Of course they continue to insist you were the one responsible, Officer Cadet Chaser."

Chaser didn't scoff. Perhaps he was too tense.

"They probably would, Sir. It's the only thing they'd be able to come up with and I'm the only one who got a decent look at 'em. I know they're all from Beta Platoon and I'm sure Cadet Deepcoast would be able to confirm that since she's in the same one. If they were smarter they'd have hid their identities better or hired someone else to –."

"I didn't ask for your opinions or theories, Cadet. Just be aware that if a formal investigation is launched you'll have to be prepared."

"U-understood, Sir."

"Another thing. I don't know what you were doing around those storage buildings in the first place, and I suppose I don't want to know, but I don't want to hear about it happening again, am I clear?"

"Yes, Sir!"

Then, like a battleship's guns, his eyes swivelled to Sahna and she tensed up. "And you, Cadet Starburn, should be able to keep track of time yourself. You're the one ultimately responsible for making curfew and its your responsibility to inform your superiors if you think you might not make it in time. You understand, Cadet?"

"Yes, Sir!"

"Fine then, you're both dismissed. Someone will escort you back to your barracks."

"Sir, may I speak?"

Woodweller paused and looked at her, his eyes narrowing and his mantle reddened slightly. His patience was being pushed. She knew it was generally ill-advised to ask for more of a superiors time when she'd already been dismissed and especially when he'd just finished giving them a dressing down, but she didn't retract the request.

Without taking his eyes off her, Woodweller leaned forward and rested his elbows on the top of his desk, partially hiding his face behind intertwined fingers. "Make it quick."

"Sir, I have observed, almost since the start of our training here, that Cadet Deepcoast has been isolated from the rest of her platoon. I've frequently seen her eating all by herself in the mess hall and observed her being bullied multiple times by her platoon mates. I assume that it's the same people responsible for assaulting her tonight, but whatever the case it's obvious she isn't welcome there or she'd be getting support from the other platoon members; instead, she's been hung out to dry. Respectfully, Sir, I realize that regulations do not allow discrimination against vampire squids; however, that doesn't change the reality that these prejudices persist. Cadet Deepcoast is not an Octarian, she's a marine. She went through the same things we did to get here and the way she's been treated is hardly a way to encourage loyalty. And, frankly Sir, it reflects poorly on the rest of us."

Sahna needed a second to catch her breath. She was trying to talk as fast as she could without being incomprehensible.

"If she suffered the same things at basic that she has here, then the fact she made it this far is all the more remarkable. She's made of Marine stuff, Sir, and that means she has a lot of potential. We'll get a lot more of that potential out of her if we treat her with the respect she deserves and give her the support she needs."

Woodweller's eyes bored into her. Sahna knew that she was edging towards insubordination in some areas, and might have indirectly been criticizing his command, but she stood firm.

"And what would you suggest, Cadet?"

"Sir, Cadet Chaser and I are both in the same platoon and we are among the top scorers in our intake. Our platoon is slightly under strength so I would propose transferring her into our platoon. I can guarantee you it would be a more supportive environment for her, and Chaser and I could tutor her, get her caught back up if she needs it. Doing so would also help eliminate any doubts that Chaser was responsible for what happened to her tonight."

Woodweller eyebrows lifted slightly. Perhaps he hadn't expected her to have such a well thought out response. He glanced to a slightly bemused Chaser, then back to her. "An interesting idea, Cadet. I'll take that into consideration. If there's nothing else, you're dismissed."

The officer cadets saluted in unison and promptly left the office.

Rather than be escorted, they were told to simply walk back on their own, despite the late hour. Even Sahna decided it was best not to remind them that it was technically against standard regulations.

Scylla was higher in the sky now with Charybdis lagging behind. Shana blinked her eyes tiredly. She was going to be exhausted tomorrow morning.

"Why did you do it?"

Sahna blinked again and looked sideways at Chaser. "What?"

He regarded her with a firm, almost accusing stare. "There's no way you could have seen me crossing the street from the direction you came from, not if you were going from the training gym to the barracks. You lied. Why?"

Sahna frowned at him and hesitated to answer. She could barely believe she'd done it herself.

"Because, while you may be vulgar, annoying, gross, irresponsible, and crude, you're not a bully, Chaser, and I never saw you once show or express any prejudice to anyone. You're not that insecure, nor are you particularly violent."

Chaser was speechless for a moment as he took all this in. "Uh… thanks?"

"Besides, if you'd been prosecuted it wouldn't have been right and the real people responsible might have gotten away with it, and I couldn't stand that. That wouldn't be fair to Deepcoast or you, and I know what it's like to work hard for something only to have it ripped away from you through no fault of your own."

Her mantle darkened, her mind wandering back to that awful day at the recruitment fair. It seemed so long ago now but she hadn't quite reached her goal yet.

She heard Chaser chuckle and she frowned at him, seeing that insufferable smile on his face again. "What?"

"You broke the rules. You lied. Or, isn't that perjury? That's even worse."

Sahna flushed. "What I said did happen, didn't it?"

"But you didn't actually see it."

"It's the truth. Besides, I doubt there will be a formal investigation. They'll probably come up with something quick and deal with it just as quickly. We're at war right now so I doubt they have time or patience for this kind of thing. Anyway, can we not talk about this out loud?"

"Fine, fine. So, what about Deepcoast? You really want to tutor her?"

"I do. At the very least, we can do better than her platoon. Every little bit helps our war effort and we can't afford to be prejudiced against anyone. You don't want to help?"

"I do," he said firmly, his eyes held a level of conviction she'd never seen in them before. "I can't shake the feeling that I was set up. I feel like getting her to the top of the class would be the perfect way to get back at them. Hell, I'd love it if she wound up commanding them someday, assuming they don't get thrown in prison or something."

Sahna gave him a lopsided grin. "I think so too. Between us, we'll make Deepcoast one of the best in the class, one way or the other. And I sincerely hope I get to see her platoon squirm before we graduate."

Author's Notes:

It's nice when people who normally don't get along are able to find common ground, usually that involves a common enemy.

This incident is actually partially inspired by events that took place during my time as a cadet. This sort of thing happened more than once; although, it wasn't racially motivated. I wasn't there to personally witness any of these events but everyone heard about them. The victim lived locally and unfortunately quit camp early to go home. Pretty sure they quit the program altogether after that, though that's just speculation. Though the memories are fairly vague, the incident left an impression on me, a little thing that pops up once in a blue moon to nag the bag of my mind. The scapegoat in this particular incident was, I think, cleared on all charges given that they were still there at the end, but I don't know what the actual resolution to the incident was.