Chapter 4 CS Freedom

The battleship's hallway was somewat cold with light shining off the metallic walls as Vixo walked and followed the signs to Barracks 2B. When he found it he walked in and noticed a ton of beds against the walls. One had his name on it and then he started to read the others around his.

"Corl, Cyrellus...Fortune, Leon, and...now way! Sez is here too! Sweet! This will be better than I thought." He gazed over at the footlockers, noticing Sezidan's rank. "Damn him! That bitch got Corporal 1st Class. Guess I better start workin my ass off to get past him." He put down his bag in his locker, first taking out the box he found days before, and then headed out the door. He rounded the corner only to be stopped by an upper-rank officer. It was a female Artic fox in a sky blue uniform.

"Whoa there boy. Slow down. What's the rush?" she questioned.

"Oh, sorry ma'am, I was just going to the bridge to ask the captain something."

She laughed abit. "That would be me. I'm Captain Cartivan. What do you need?"

Vixo gasped and saluted her. "Sorry ma'am, Ensign Vixo McCloud. I was wondering if you would give me permission to put something in my ship that may enhance the computer system."

"And what would that be?"

"A type of program, ma'am, or more like a new operating system. It's what I would call my little helper. It gives better combat strategy, may find ways to enhance the ship by 75, and show a much better terrain model than the original system on the ship does. I had it on my last ship. Her name is Sylvia."

Cartivan looked surprised. "It has a name?"

"Of course, ma'am. It gives off a woman's fuck voice instead of the computer beep like in the original system. So it's only right that she would have a name. Plus I made her myself. I'm great with computers."

The captain seemed satisfied. "Well, if it does what you propose, then you have my permission. However, if something goes wrong, I want it out of that ship. Understood?"

Vixo saluted again. "Ma'am, yes ma'am. Thank you ma'am."

"Oh, and would you happen to be in Barracks 2B?"

"Actually, yes, I am ma'am."

"Good. Could you tell Corporal Shardeth that I'd like to see him in the bridge please? He should be there by now."

"Yes, ma'am. I will." With that, Vixo headed back to his barracks, the captain going the other way back to the bridge. As soon as he walked in, he saw Sez goin through his locker. "You know that's invasion of privacy right?"

Sez turned around to face him. "Hey man. Just checkin out your uniform," he said, seeing Vixo looking over his as well. "Looks like your doing the same to me."

"Well Sez, I'm glad you made it through boot camp. How was it?"

"Kid it was hell and then some. Was fun though. How was yours?"

"Eh, I'll have to tell you about it some other time. The Captain wants to speak to you."

"Ok man, good seeing ya again," Sez said as he waved and left the room.

"Alright, now time to find my ship..." He walked back into the hallway and made his wat to the docks. There were way too many ship to through one by one just to find his. Then he noticed a booth to his right with another officer in it. He walked over to the officer. "Excuse me. I need to find my ship. The name is Vixo McCloud."

The officer did a search on his computer. "Here we are. Vixo McCloud. Your ship is on Dock 7, Pad 4. You can use that moving sidewalk to get there." He pointed toward a black belt moving on the floor.

"Thanks." Vixo went over to it and started walking foward on the moving sidewalk in order to get to the dock quicker. Each dock was big enough to hold four ASF-2s, one dock for each flight group. Two minutes passed until he reached Dock 7 and saw his ship along with Mel, Rev, and Marcus' ships. He stepped off the sidewalk, walked to his ship, and climbed in the pilot's seat. Next he took out the box he had and opened it, pulling out what seemed to be a hard drive. This hard drive, however, had a touch-screen and two cables coming out from the top of it. Vixo hooked the cables to two data ports on the ship console, selected a file on the touch-screen, and pressed "Upload."

The upload was done and the next thing Vixo heard was a woman's voice on the computer. "Upload complete. New computer system recognized. Ship is fully functional. All systems are green. Hello, Vixo."

Vixo smiled. "Welcome back, Sylvia."