Nathan stood at the Fleet Medusa booth and tugged at his sleeves. A collared white long sleeve, thick green coat with Fleet Medusa insignia and matching pants, and dress shoes with a half inch heel. Nathan wondered exactly when it was that he had grown so accustomed to the stiff collars, neck ties, and pressed long sleeve shirts with a coat. Joining a PMC fleet right out of school meant there wasn't much time to get used to anything else at a job, but it was hard to ignore the stress of ruining the uniform in some way. Dry cleaning when traveling somewhere was such a nightmare, that the fleet had to refit their ships to always have the capability available at a moments notice. Nathan wondered if at some point in the future, someone could invent a fiber that would solve all these problems.
Nathan took a moment to be impressed by the stadium sized auditorium the School had available for a job fair. Large banners and signs were hung through out. They proclaimed how an incredible future awaited for the students. Other posters simply held the Terra United logo and smatterings of blues and greens with the words "Stronger, Together". It was the standard scholastic fanfare that somehow every school system in the galaxy managed to say, no matter how many languages it was printed in. It was hard to ignore the nostalgia as he remembered being in very similar shoes as the students before him. It beat a combat deployment. He could never bring himself to mute his communications channels like some of the other Handlers.
Despite the Nova Caedes University starting out its life as a mobile invasion and command center from the Old War and the desolation of Earth, it had been turned into something truly incredible. Years of being built upon and renovated had turned the place into a truly pleasant place to live. It held massive open green spaces just dedicated to having entire forests for people to enjoy. Entire shopping districts existed to cater to students who had a bit of pocket money and the people who worked on the Nova Caedes University itself. There was even an entire ocean onboard with accompanying beaches and weather patterns. It was created and curated by humanity's best and brightest to help shepherd the following generations.
Nova Caedes University hung just outside of orbit of the local planet as new students from it were transferred over after having tested for their admission, or for most, paid its exorbitant admission fees. Along with those students came supplies to help the NCU keep itself running. Of course it could be self sufficient for decades at a time, but the quality of that self sufficiency was at stake. That would not do for humanity's best and brightest. As Nathan looked out at the thousands of students, he had to agree at least with the brightest parts. The students all came in a riot of different colors. Some students had gone even further, and it would seem that animal ears were trending again, though those could be a little more permanent. Nathan watched as one student swallowed a pill, and in moments, their dark hair changed into a vibrant pink.
Gene mods and the advance of technology, along with the money to spend on it, meant that each and every student was doing their best to create their own individual look. Hair, clothes, skin, and eye color didn't just run the length of the rainbow, they made it a brutal sprint. Some had reached the end of the rainbow, engaged in a battle to the death, and then ran the whole gauntlet again for fun. There was of course a uniform, but exceptions were made for those with exceptional pockets. And all of them held wide open eyes and mouths. Nathan couldn't blame them, he was once in their same position. After all, everyone loved the military.
The job fair was being held for not just for Terra United's military fleet, but also all of the corporate fleets as well. It was absolutely not a mistake that not only did the job fair extend through the last week of graduation, but also for the orientation of the new students. Students stood in awe as they gaped up at both ship interceptors with their massive jet engines, to the bipedal god-like war machines; Titans, that stood as tall as buildings. One fleet had even turned the cannon-arm on their Titan into a slide with a ball pit at the end. Nathan had to admit, it was a lot cooler and more interesting than what he got in his hometown.
Each fleet at the job fair all had similar posters, banners, and flyers for the event. There were videos and holos, and they all promised power, money, and taking charge of one's life. Men and women in powered armor looking like knights from Fleet Avalon battled against the monstrous mega-fauna of the Frontier Worlds, corporate security fleets with their cybernetics were smashing apart war-bots with their bare hands, Tri-Con Industrial Solutions piloting Titans against hordes of faceless enemies, or even in the cockpit engaging in daring dogfights against space pirates. All of them looked heroic, powerful, and more than anything, confident in their future. The fleets promised that they, and only they, could show you how to conquer yourself and be prepared for anything that life could throw at you. Nathan could tell who came from humanity's best and brightest families, besides the presence of perfect gene mods. It was the way they stood in fascination because it would be the first time they ever saw any of the advertisements. That, and they would always get first choice in an officer track.
Nathan remembered being a kid at these job fairs. He remembered collecting his own figurines, posters, and memorabilia from Fleet Avalon. As a kid he used to day dream all the time about joining the Knights of the Round and being the stalwart defenders of the weak and downtrodden. It was a bit of a joke then that his life had turned out the way it had. Fleet Medusa was a PMC fleet that boasted about all of it's active combat personnel were only women. Being a Handler, Nathan was never expected to do any actual fighting himself, despite his record being a combat pilot from his previous Fleet. "The only fleet that did not have men at arms" the advertisements said. The cameras always being focused on a bunch of tall, attractive women with guns had made Fleet Medusa very popular with viewership among the general populace of human colonized space. In fact, Fleet Medusa had some of the best advertisement that not even money could buy: popularity. Her name was Samara, and even on the last day she still had students lined up to meet her for a game of tug-a-war.
Nathan finished zoning out and looked at the scene before him. Almost 70 students on one side of the tug-a-war rope, and the other side was Samara. They looked back. Nathan adjusted his hat for the millionth time. Even after all the years since he got the gene mod after enlisting, Nathan felt a little self conscious about his short, pale blue hair under his hat and grey eyes. The colors did not quite match his green uniform, but he thought he made it work. Nathan looked over at Samara. He was not exactly short, but the top of Nathan's head barely came up to her sternum. Compared to Samara and the other Gorgons after they went through the surgery, everyone was. Samara gave Nathan an emerald eyed grin and flipped her wave of wild fiery red hair back. She made the uniform and ridiculous high heels look even better in person.
"Handler Shivers", she said, "I do believe we are ready".
"Ah, sorry everyone! I was just a little jealous of the prize here, a date with a legendary Gorgon is a rare chance!" Nathan called out. Samara merely gave a little roll of the eyes. The other Gorgons working at the booth gave similar sentiments.
"On three!" He said over the general noise of the crowds. A flag with Fleet Medusa's logo in his hand so that even if someone in the back of the line couldn't hear, they could see the start.
"One!" Nathan called. He stepped away from the center of the rope and raised the flag high. Immediately the rope lost most of its slack as both sides prepared.
"Two!" The flag was raised even higher and stood still. Nathan gave a dramatic pause as he glanced once more at both sides of the rope.
"THREE!" He yelled, the flag coming down. The flag wasn't even vertical before the rope grew taught. The prize of course, was not technically a date. If a group of students won the tug-a-war, then their names would be entered into a lottery where the winners would join a public lunch with Samara and some of the other Gorgons of Fleet Medusa. That technicality did not seem to matter when Nathan looked at the student side. Both girls and boys had teamed up get that lunch date.
It was strange that the students had already stacked as many bodies as they could get hands on that rope, the previous groups trying to take up as much space individually to lessen the chances that someone else might get chosen if the won. No one had expected all of the students to start to work together.
"Pull!" came a voice from the center of the students. It carried over the whole line. Ladies on the student's side pulled at the same time.
"Pull!" said the voice again. Nathan and the other Gorgons all looked at Samara whose eyebrows had begun to journey towards the ceiling.
"Pull!" the student yelled out.
The rope barely moved towards the student's side. Nathan's eyebrows shot up as he watched. Most of the ladies on the students side were all pulling together as one. Each wore the same determined expression, laser focused on the rope before them.
"Pull!" Came the call again. The rope moved yet again.
The other students slowly started listening and joined together with the ladies who started the process. The heat from cramming so many bodies together onto the rope started to take its toll. Some of the students had to take a moment in between each pull to wipe the sweat of their face and hands.
"Pull!" came the cry. The rope moved some more.
Almost all of the students had synchronized into following each shout. The rope had almost crossed over to a student victory. Students not in the tug-a-war had gathered around to start recording an assured victory. Despite the many, many attempts, they had yet to score a victory against the fabled Gorgon. Samara's fiery red hair bounced as she simply nodded and turned towards the now sweating and huffing students.
"Pull!" the student called out. The rope came to a tortuous halt.
An evil grin spread on Samara's face that was more akin to something seen on a shark that has spotted a particularly pitiful and helpless meal. Samara's posture changed and the synthetic muscles that were bound to her armored skeleton went into motion. The students did not stand a chance. Neither did Samara's cheap high heels. The right heel snapped after such continuous torture. The computer that resided in Samara's brain detected the fault fractions of a second before it had happened, already providing solutions even as the cheap footwear was breaking underneath her heel. Samara's augmented mind kicked into overdrive, the world's flow of time grinding to a halt. She would not lose.
Samara stomped her forward foot into the ground, crushing her unsnapped heel into ground and creating a foot shaped hole to gave her more leverage. With her momentum successfully halted, with a single pull, Samara lifted the entirety of the 70 or so students off the ground. In shock, all of the students let go of the rope and tumbled over each other to hit the ground. Except one. One stubborn girl held and flew through the air with as much grace as a rock. In one fluid motion, Samara stepped out of her very destroyed heels, caught the girl, gave a little spin to expend all of that momentum, simply held the poor girl in a princess carry.
To the augmented humans in the auditorium, if they were looking, most would have been able to follow the step by step process by which Samara put a foot sized hole in the auditorium. The poor soon-to-be graduate would not have such augmentations to her body. She had been pulling the rope, heard a loud slam as she was spun in a circle and then found herself in the arms of her idol.
Samara continued to hold the girl while the other sweaty and out of breath students picked themselves of the ground, looking jealously at their compatriot in the arms of the competition and with shock at the hole in the ground where the remains of the Samara's shoe was buried. Nathan started clapping at the display to break the awkward silence. Very quickly, everyone started to clap along in appreciation of the show of strength.
One of the other Gorgons watching, Kho, walked over to another one of the uniformed ladies, Melia, and gave a very polite cough. Melia pulled some cash from her pocket and handed it to Kho. She took it with a smile and put it in her pocket. Samara's eyes narrowed and she gave a glare at her fellow Gorgons. If looks could turn others to stone, Samara's glare would have been one of them.
"Melia, you bet against me?" Samara accused the Gorgon.
Melia shrugged her shoulders. "No one bet that you would lose, we kinda had to bet on how close it could possibly get. Besides, Nathan suggested it" she said. More money changed hands.
Samara's green eyes moved onto Nathan. "Nathan, how much money did you bet on me winning?" she asked sweetly. There was danger behind that smile.
"Why, I bet a whole week's worth on our most honored lady" Nathan said with a bow and tipping his hat with an exaggerated flourish.
Samara waited until the students had finished picking themselves off the floor and for the clapping to subside. "Which one of you went about coordinating this?" Samara asked, still holding her catch.
A voice in the crowd called out "You're, uh, holding her, mam".
Nathan looked at the girl very safely cradled in Samara's arms and against her chest. If the poor girl turned anymore red, Nathan was pretty sure she would explode. With a smile, Samara gently set the girl down amidst some jealous mutterings, and Nathan saw more than a few different students all making what he was pretty sure were signs of prayer. Nathan inwardly nodded in understanding. The student Samara held finally finished processing whatever was going on in her mind and stood tall. Impossibly, her face began to turn an even brighter shade of red, reaching super heated metal levels of red. Face burning bright, she introduced herself like a dam bursting from too much pressure.
"My name is Tori Phipps, I am graduating at the top of the Junior Core in marksmanship and battlefield theory, I have never missed a single stream since I became a subscriber". Once the words started flowing, Tori did not stop. "I work part time and own every piece of merch you have ever released, I cried when you read my message out loud on stream but never brag about it, I can recite the entire Fleet Medusa operations manual from back to front, when I am inevitably successful with my application, will you let me join your Cohort?" The raised eyebrows of some of the students behind Tori said that she did, in fact, like to mention how her message was read on stream.
Being the ranking Handler for Fleet Medusa, Nathan's part of Nathan's augmentations was related to monitoring the current physical well being of the Gorgons under his command. The program running in the background immediately sent him a warning about Samara's heightened cortisol, adrenaline and nor-epinephrine levels combined with an increased heart rate and muscle tension. Samara's smile never even wavered as her heart died just a little more. "Tori, I would be honored to have you as part of my Cohort."
Nathan grabbed a data tablet of the booth's table and opened up their recent recruitment applications. "Tori Phipps, did I hear that correctly? You're interested in serving in Fleet Medusa?" Nathan said. Tori turned and looked at him, obviously a little confused and not recognizing his face from the hours of streams she had watched. It made sense. Men would not be found in front of a camera during combat. The Gorgons were the star of the show.
"My name is Nathan Shivers, I am the Handler assigned to Sam's Cohort, could you grab a chair and we can get that application squared away?" he said, pulling out two cheap folding chairs and sitting at a table that was not covered in promotional materials. They had nearly run out of Samara's merchandise on the first day. It would turn out that limited edition figurines were more popular than even he could possibly imagine. Nathan wasn't sure if the guns the Gorgons carried could empty their magazines faster than fans trying to get their hands on merch. It had to be close.
"Hey Kho", Nathan called, "could you grab one of the staff so we can get a replacement floor panel? Have them send me to bill, I can take care of it".
Samara was having none of that.
"Absolutely not. Kho, tell them I will cover it. Nathan if you try and stop me from paying we can start a boxing competition and you will be first in line" Samara said.
"Sam..." Nathan tried.
Nathan's grey eyes met Samara's green. Samara leveraged her height and size difference with a single raised red eyebrow. The other Gorgons and students gleefully watched the bit of bullying done to a commanding officer. Nathan gave a long sigh.
"As the ranking Handler, I officially observe that the damages done by Samara Price were done outside of a sanctioned battlefield and therefore the company does not have an obligation to pay for such damages incurred" Nathan said.
"Thank you" Samara said with a winning smile. "Melia, can you hand me the spare pair we brought?".
Melia pulled out a box underneath one of the tables and handed it over to Samara who quickly replaced her destroyed heels and then flagged down a very anxious looking attendant who, after taking a look at the damage done, also failing to convince Samara that she didn't have to pay for it, was bribed into acceptance with a photo with Samara and the other Gorgons.
With the tug-a-war over, other students got in line for filling out their own application. After the first day, Nathan had to ask the School for kiosks to set up because there had been simply too many for him and the Gorgons to process in person. Sitting down in front of Tori, Nathan got a good look at her. She was small. Thin for the age listed on her recruitment application. Dark hair in a functional braid and brown eyes looked back at him, unflinching with her back straight. He looked down and scrolled through the form. Nathan almost whistled to himself. A resume like hers could get her anywhere.
"Station or dirt-side?" Nathan asked.
It was a common tactic, build a rapport with his applicant by asking about home. Get them to think about how they wouldn't really be able to go back home, all of the friends they would leave behind. He couldn't make it too obvious, people would catch on. Sometimes he ran into candidates like Tori. He didn't want to see people who obviously had options lose out on them. Her academic record certainly showed that she had an incredibly sharp mind, but he tried not to scroll through Tori's forms too intensely. He wanted to see what a person thought was more important to show off with words when interviewed, instead of academically answering a questionnaire.
"New Petrichor. It was a group of Gorgons who saved me. I was in a hab block during an attack. The damage done to my brain meant I would have never walked again" Tori answered.
Nathan froze. He looked at her application more closely and there it was under her home planet. New Petrichor. The general noise of the job fair died away. Memories came back to him. It was one of the few times he got fly for Fleet Medusa in a combat role, although they kept the cameras away from when he was in a cockpit. Every able body was needed and the fleet had to stretch the definition of able bodied towards the end. Nathan could still sometimes vaguely remember the flames that ate at his cockpit when something knocked his shuttle out of the sky. It all happened so fast. The Gorgons piled into the back and after a few seconds into the air something shook the whole bird and Nathan woke up in a gurney. At least he had got a promotion out of it, but Nathan was pretty sure he got that promotion to keep him from making noise about everything. Tori noticed his reaction. Samara was always better than him at keeping the heart off the sleeve.
"Is there anything I can say to convince you otherwise?" Nathan asked. "It wasn't just us there, there were other fleets".
"I know" Tori said. The fiercely blushing girl had completely disappeared.
"You already tested into Nova. With your grades and track record you could get anywhere. There are plenty of other careers where someone with your obvious wealth of talent can take you much farther than Fleet Medusa. You don't even have to apply as a Gorgon, we have different divisions available" Nathan said.
Tori just nodded in agreement. Nathan tried again.
"There is no guarantee that you will get a posting with Sam" he said.
Again, Tori just nodded in agreement.
Nathan went for another route. It wasn't technically breaching his contract by discussing it because the risks were readily known. If you knew where and how to look. For the most part.
"The surgeries could end up just killing you or crippling you. There is no guarantee that the augmentations will take or even just fail down the line" he said.
A third nod of agreement.
Nathan was better able to control his reaction this time. Stalling was just wasting both Tori's time and his. Tori's application would get accepted. Her records of the Junior Core made sure that someone was at least already aware of her existence and the application had been made before she even sat down at the table. Everything was already perfectly filled out. Part of Nathan hoped that Tori would wash out so that she would find a less destructive path in life after living through New Petrichor. She would make it through. He could feel it. The universe thought itself humorous in that way.
"Well then, Ms. Phipps, your application is in order and has been sent for review by the hiring division. Should you be selected to join the Gorgons, I can only await to shake your hand again to welcome you when you have earned your scales" Nathan said as he stood and shook her small hand.
"Thank you, sir" Tori replied.
Nathan replied on reflex. "Not sir, you aren't enlisted. Just Nathan is fine".
As Tori walked away, she kept her composure until she thought she was out of sight from Nathan and the Gorgons. Nathan saw her jump up and down, pumping her fist in the air with excitement. Nathan couldn't hear her shouts of joy, but judging from the other Gorgons around him, their cybernetics let them listen in just fine. Like the job demanded however, they all kept their expressions under control. Nathan felt envy at their ability to do that, but the feeling was quickly cooled by the knowledge of how the Gorgons all got there. Being on camera all the time.
The School's repair crew arrived with subdued flashing yellow lights and replacement panels to fix the crushed flooring while Nathan was going through another interview. Samara and the other Gorgons not doing interviews were having a bit of fun by posing and taking photos with the students. One of the crew gave a low whistle at the sight of torn faux wood and metal plating, but professionally, the crew cordoned off the area as they got to work. Nathan watched as Samara allowed for a rare moment of embarrassment as the crew's work showed just how much damage her stomp did. He was sure that he would see photos of her embarrassed all over the net soon after. Plating designed to cover tanks and war machines meant nothing to her foot. This information did nothing to deter the students from clamoring for another round of tug-of-war. Nathan sighed internally seeing the renewed interest, but he put on his brave face and raised the flag. After today was finished, he and the Gorgons would have a couple weeks of actual shore leave where he could try and puzzle out some of the issues facing Fleet Medusa.
"On three...! One... Two... Three!" he called out.
The priority alert screamed in his skull. The data packet downloaded in moments and dumped the information into his brain in less. The Gorgons around Nathan didn't even freeze for the briefest of seconds as their own minds processed and decrypted the message while Nathan had to work much harder to keep his expression under control.
PRIORITYALERT://EURYALE: HANDLER NATHAN SHIVERS.
PRIORITYALERT://EURYALE: RETURN.
PRIORITYALERT://EURYALE: GATHER MY GORGONS.
PRIORITYALERT://EURYALE: THERE IS A JOB FOR THEM.