Mark “Coop” Cooper

Location: New Lancashire, United Commonwealth of Colonies

“Are you sure we’re supposed to be here?” Stern looked around the room like a doe-eyed lamb seeing the world for the first time.

“Nope!” Coop laughed as he plopped down a stack of chips worth three grand.

Coop, and his three-man team, were taking in the more respectable sights at The Pit. Without a reservation by Aiko, they had to work their way into the back room. They all looked like soldiers, and soldiers weren’t supposed to be at the Pit, so the management was naturally worried about them being cops or informants. Coop said he’d been in before, and the big bouncers in mid-eighteenth-century costumes even confirmed it, but that wasn’t enough. After a little fuming, and gambling, Coop grew to respect their vigilance and occupied his time with taking their money.

Coop was a good card player. It was a necessity in the PHA. If you didn’t have anything to eat, you played cards. If you had more than your fair share, you played cards. If you had nothing to do, you played cards. It was a cheap form of entertainment. He wasn’t smart enough to count cards, but he’d developed a feel for the game.

The dealer dealt the cards to reveal two aces, while he showed a seven. “Split.” Coop doubled the amount of money on the table.

The dealer visibly gulped as he dealt two more cards to Coop – both face cards.

“Now that’s what I’m fucking talking about.” Coop threw back the rest of his drink and waved over the cute brunette waitress. “One more, sweet cheeks.” He rattled his empty glass, tipped her a chip worth twenty bucks, and slapped her ass as she walked away.

“Corporal, I…” Nickelbaucher started.

“Take the stick out of your ass and play a round.” Coop shut his subordinate down before he could get started. The PFC’s eyes were constantly darting around the room like they were in the middle of a Blockie town about to take fire.

“We shouldn’t…”

“All work and no play makes Coop write bad evaluations,” Coop referred to himself in the third person – like a douche – but he was too drunk to care.

The dealer slid cards around the table to all the players. Everyone’s eyes got greedy when they saw the dealer’s hand. At the Pit, the dealer had to hit on a soft seventeen. Since Coop had six grand on the table he held his breath while the dealer went around the table again before dealing himself a third card.

It took Coop’s booze-filled brain a second to do the math. “HAHA!” He pumped his fists into the air. “Fuckin’ A, I love this place.” He scooped his winnings back into his considerably larger pile, and the cherry on the top of the moment was his new drink arriving.

“Here you go…” the waitress leaned over, showing off a decent amount of cleavage…and promptly spilled the drink right on Coop’s crotch.

“AH mother…” Coop jumped up as the waitress danced back. He could have sworn she had a small smile on her face, but he blinked, and all she looked was concerned.

“I’m so sorry, Sir.” She whipped out a cloth as started to dap at his wet pants.

They were quality smart-cloth, so the liquid just beaded on the surface and was easily wiped away.

“It’s fine,” her hand rubbing him alleviated a lot of his frustration. “Just get me another one.” This time he didn’t tip her.

The small commotion had drawn the attention of the Pit Boss, who was a woman nearly as big as Coop. “Sir, you’ve had an impressive night, and we’d like to invite you back to our VIP section.”

Coop’s night had been big. He’d started with a modest three grand and was now sitting on nearly twenty. Going back to the VIP section was the best way for the establishment to get him to spend his hard-won gains.

“About time.” He waved for his posse to join him, and the four of them followed the woman back to the door at the back of the room where they were immediately waved through.

They went through the antechamber where they were scanned for weapons before the door opened and they were ushered into the main attraction.

“This doesn’t suck.” Goldsmith didn’t bitch as a woman with impossibly big boobs walked by and winked at him.

“Go have fun.” Coop flipped him a hundred-dollar chip and the PVT ran off after the stripper. “Keep an eye on him will you,” Coop handed over two hundred to Nickelbaucher and pointed him after Goldsmith who was practically salivating over the woman’s chest.

“What about me, Corporal?” Stern looked around. He was clearly out of his element, and that was obvious by the way he drew in on himself.

“You’re going to have a drink with me.” Coop led the way over to an empty booth and waved over the first person he saw.

The waitress was barely one hundred and fifty centimeters tall, had silver skin, red eyelashes at least six inches long, pointed ears, a nearly-flat nose, way too big eyes, and had what looked like fairy wings spliced onto her back. All she was wearing were some deliberately placed leaves that didn’t cover much.

“How may I serve?” She curtsied and looked up at Coop and Stern through those big lashes.

“Two whiskeys, top shelf please.” Now the Coop had money he ordered nothing but the good stuff. “And could you have Melissa stop by if she’s working.” Coop asked for Aiko’s friend. He had a few questions. “There’s extra in it for you if you can find her.”

The fairy-girl might look innocent, but the greedy glint in her eye told Coop all he needed to know. She curtsied again and hurried off.

“This is really nice of you, Corporal, but…”

“Don’t call me corporal again. Coop is just fine.” Coop gave the kid a hard stare. Being referred to by his new rank was cramping his style.

“But…”

“But nothing.” Coop put his foot down on the issue. “And that’s part of the reason I wanted to have this talk.” Coop hadn’t been working up to this conversation all night, but he had been trying to find the right time. Liquored up and surrounded by half-naked women seemed to be the best time to break the news.

Stern had the deer caught in the headlights look, and Coop felt bad, but he pressed on.

“I’ve reassigning you to be my pack mule.” Coop used the less offensive term for his ammo bitch. Usually, Goldsmith did it, but Coop was tired of hearing the guy bitch about it, and when you boiled it all down, being the ammo bitch was the worst job you could have on the team.

The ammo bitch carted around the extra 125mm shells that Coop needed for his fire missions. Since that was their fire-team’s entire job – supporting and protecting the HI asset during combat operations – it was supposed to be important. It wasn’t. They brought a portable autoloader to actually load the shells, so Stern’s job was literally going to be carrying heavy things from one place to another. The one possible upside was that he got armor with a little bit of extra juice in it, but it really wasn’t worth it.

Coop knew all of this, and so did Stern. He had been tasked with Nickelbaucher on perimeter security, and this reassignment was a step backward.

“Did I do something?” Stern looked upset, which made the situation worse when Coop couldn’t hold back a laugh at the PVT’s question.

“Are you kidding me?” Coop looked the kid right in the eye. “I had to rescue you from taking a swim in deep space multiple times on those spaceborne operations. You barely qualified on your M3, and on our last VR exercise you friendly fired the headquarters squad. You didn’t even read STRATNET before you jumped the gun and lit them up. You’re lucky as shit you didn’t hit anyone.” Coop paused and took a deep breath. The last one was still a bit of a sore point with him. LT Wentworth had ripped him a new asshole for it. Apparently, when someone was under your command, it meant you were responsible for all the stupid shit they did.

“I’m sorry about that.” Stern looked a bit hurt, but Coop didn’t let up.

“You’ve got heart. I’ll give you that. More than Nickelbaucher or Goldsmith, but you keep shooting yourself in the foot. Me putting you as the pack mule eliminates the possibility of you making more mistakes. My advice to you is to fly under the radar until your service obligation is up.” Coop felt weird giving someone advice.

“I want this to be my career, Corporal.” Stern looked over at him earnestly.

Coop didn’t know what to say to that, and thankfully he was saved by the scantily-clad fairy.

“Your drinks.” She curtsied again before sliding two glasses in front of them. “Melissa is working right now but she’ll come over when she’s finished.” The fairy looked expectantly at Coop until he slid over a chip for fifty bucks.

As she turned to leave, Coop caught Stern checking out her ass, so he did what any good team leader should do. “Hey,” he stopped the fairy. “Do you do dances?”

Her wings flapped elegantly as she smiled. “Fifty a song, and I’ll do four for one-seventy-five. Anything more than that and I have to coordinate with my manager for a room.”

Coop wasn’t willing to pay for any of that, but he slid over one-seventy-five. “Take my friend here and show him a good time.”

The fairy snatched up the chips with one hand, put it beneath one of her leaves, and extended her slender hand toward Stern. He was instantly captivated, and she led him away like a lamb to the slaughter.

Coop wasn’t thinking of just his bank account.

While his good nature was somewhat motivated by easing the blow to Stern’s military career, it wasn’t his primary focus. He wanted to make sure he was alone when Melissa arrived. She strolled up two songs later with her tail twitching behind her. Her outfit was the same seductive cat-stripper as before.

“You asked for me?” She tried to plop down in his lap, but he held up a hand and gestured for her to sit opposite him. She didn’t look disappointed, in fact, she looked a little relieved.

“Business before pleasure.” Sterns forgot his drink, so Coop gestured for her to take it like he’d meant it to be for her all along. Lubricating the gears of commerce was always a good idea.

She threw back the whiskey and let out an appreciative sigh. Coop watched her chest heave with satisfaction before turning his attention back to her face. “From my last time here, it seemed that you’re a person that knows people.”

Coop knew she might not know people directly, but people in these types of places talked. She knew Aiko, Aiko knew people, and she might know other people who knew people. Even after thousands of years, the business world was still primarily built on relationships, and he needed someone to make introductions.

“Maybe.” She shrugged noncommittally.

“Well if you do, I might have a line on some good stuff. No details yet, but let’s just say I’m in an advantageous position. It’ll be low volume, but high quality. All I’m asking is for an introduction when the time is right.”

Aiko was the first person he’d gone to with this information, but he’d gotten an auto-reply to his deliberately- vague email. It was currently sitting in the central node and would update to her account when her ship returned from wherever the hell it was. Until then, that left him in a bit of a bind, and his opportunity started soon.

“I can pass the word.” Her answer was still vague, but he suspected it was the best he was going to get.

“Good. Now that business is out of the way,” He took out a stack of chips and flashed them her way, “how much?”

In response, her tail slithered its way underneath the booth and caressed his thigh. “Why don’t you come with me and we’ll talk price.”

Coop let her tail play with him a little more before getting up and extending his hand. He couldn’t stop smiling. After a rough start in this place, he finally felt like he was finding his niche. Aside from babysitting Stern and Goldsmith, everything was going as planned.