"Alright people, listen up! There's one of me and about five hundred and something of you. If you want this to go quickly and have any hope of being out of here in time for dinner, please, in an orderly fashion, make a single file line. Single file, guys. SINGLE FILE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!"
The crush of bodies nearly took First Officer (Ret.(Forced back to duty)) Evan Angel off his feet. And he was six two and nearly two hundred pounds of muscle so that was no easy feat.
"Okay, you know what, that's it!" He pushed out of the crowd of soldiers waiting for their assignments, and why a bunch of soldiers could form a straight-line he didn't know, it was one of the first basic military drills they were taught and climbed onto a large crate meant to be loaded on the ship once it arrived. "Push me around now."
The soldiers crowded around the bottom of it, a mix of eager, victorious former Republicans and desperate, angry Federals.
"Man, just tell us the assignments." Someone shouted.
"Man? Do I look like your fucking man?" Evan snapped. He hadn't even started, and he was already done with this.
In the year since the civil war had ended it seemed like every soldier had lost their damn minds and their damn discipline.
He couldn't blame them really. The Republican Forces had been expecting to reign as the victorious force, never mind that they'd lost more battles than they won, and the announcement from the new government that they were being decommissioned alongside the Federal Forces had been a significant blow. Republican officers of significant stature had gotten the same quiet retirement as their Federal counterparts, though there had been fewer arrests for those whose actions had crossed significant lines.
The new government had given lip service to celebrating the Republic, but in reality, they were as wary of them as they were of the Federation. The new government wanted nothing to do with anyone who'd been involved in the war the public reviled. Unfortunately for them and the public, the war had had consumed the entirety of the human race and aside from a small political party that had claimed be pacifists and stayed neutral, there wasn't a single person that hadn't played some roll on some side.
And since they couldn't punish the entire race and leave themselves without any one to rule over, the new government was taking a forgive and forget approach to the whole thing.
It was a stupid way to handle it in Evan's opinion, but who cared about his opinion besides him?
The soldiers were still struggling to put themselves in a single line and there were a few shoving matches as they started realizing there were people from both sides present.
"How about I just stand up here until you get yourselves together, huh?" Evan snapped, a headache starting behind his eyes. "It's only four hours until COB, we can always do this again tomorrow."
The threat of being stuck waiting for another day finally spurred them into action. A few voices rose above the others, barking commands and bullying everyone into lines. It still took a solid twenty minutes, but eventually there were semi neat lines filling the bays.
"Thank god for NCOs." Evan muttered and pulled up the bunk assignments on his tablet. "Alright, A's step forward."
It took two and a half hours to get through everyone and he had to spend another hour arguing that there would be no switching rooms. The room assignments, which had a week of Evan and Finley bent over multiple tablets and personnel files, with Russo laughing in the background at their misery.
Eventually, thankfully, when he was starting to go hoarse, they began filing out with a lot more enthusiasm than they'd done anything else today. Eager to drink away their misery, he figured, but a small group remained behind.
A few he recognized as officers and NCOs from the Federation, which meant the others were most likely their counterparts from the Republic.
He plastered a bright smile on his face. "Not hungry?"
A dark haired, dark eyed man with an intense gaze that Evan didn't recognize didn't even hesitate. "The room assignments need to change."
Evan sighed. "Captain's orders. Nobody moves."
"Seriously? Do they realize that mixing forces is a bad idea?" A woman with flaming red hair snapped.
"They can't ignore each other forever. They're going to be working together." Evan stressed.
"They're not gonna show up tomorrow." A former Federal officer Evan kind of recognize shook his head.
"Then they'll be arrested. It was clear that this was a mixed crew. They knew what they were signing up for." Most of them had had a choice, even the Federals.
Some of them hadn't, but even those few had been clearly told what was going to happen. This crew was going to be the first serious attempt to merge the two forces into the new UES Space Force. If it failed, a lot of soldiers were going to be forced out and barred from re-enlisting.
"Who's this captain, then?" Someone new demanded.
"That will be announced tomorrow." Evan powered down his tablet and folded it away.
"What the hell?"
"Really?"
"That's a terrible idea. We're supposed to ship out tomorrow."
"Pretty that's why they timed it that way."
Mr. Intense with the dark eyes pinned Evan in place with his gaze. "Do you know?"
As much as Evan wanted to and could spend hours staring at a face that belonged to marble and paint, he was also a terrible liar if he had to look someone in the face.
He tried. "Nope."
Dark and Stormy didn't look convinced.
Neither did anyone else.
Thank God Evan's watch beeped with a reminder for his plans that night and he took the excuse and ran with it. He even started walking as he silenced the alarm and waved goodbye. "Well, I have an appointment so I'm gonna head out. See you guys tomorrow!"
He made it out the door before any one of them could stop him.
~ tbc