Chapter fifteen

These life forms include giant plants with hard, fibrous trunks that can grow up to 100 km long. There are also giant kilometre-long animals that feed on the abundance of drifting life.

“Ring! Ring! Ring! Crash!” The sound of an alarm clock hitting the wall rang out as a figure leapt out of the bed. He sighed when he looked at the wreckage on the floor, and started getting dressed. He would need to get a new clock before doing his exercises. He then smirked. Maybe he could combine both of those activities.

“George, you and your squad run through alarm clocks faster than you run through bullets!” Sally sighed as she looked at the pile of twisted metal on the table as well as the three men and two women standing with their heads bowed. George gave her a sheepish smile.

“Was that a compliment or a reprimand?”

“Both, you muscular twat.”

“Hey, was that meant to be an insult?” Sally snorted.

“Go figure it out yourself, but in the meantime, shoo. I need to actually do my job here.”

“Fine, fine, let’s not disturb the lady with a giant wrench.”

“That lady with a wrench will use said wrench to knock some common sense into you if you don’t scram.”

The people eating in the cafeteria were treated once again to the sight of the leader of a Spec Ops squad being chased by a woman wielding a giant wrench and trying to brain him with it. Most of them just snorted and carried on eating. After all, the comedic scene happened nearly every morning.

A pungent odour preceded George as he swaggered into the briefing room. One of the chairs swung around to reveal Charlotte pinching her nose.

“Eew, go take a shower.”

“But it’s the smell of exercise, of manliness!”

Charlotte pouted.

“Go take a shower or I’ll spray you down with the hose they use in the hangar.”

George visibly deflated as he sulked off. “Fiine, I’ll go take a shower.”

As he re-entered the briefing room, still damp, the Tannoy sounded.

“Attention all crew, I repeat, attention all crew, we will be arriving at the target system shortly. Please report to your stations. We are going to be entering the system on high alert. That is all.”

Leman nudged George. “Looks like you might finally get a taste of the action you always craved.”

“Says you, you were the one who was rearing to ‘finally use my baby’. Why are you so attached to that thing anyways?”

“Its beautiful! Don’t you dare insult my baby.”

“Chill, Mr I’m in love with an inanimate object.”

Charlotte sighed and pushed them apart. “Can you two stop behaving like a bunch of children? I fell like I’m a babysitter in a sea of fourth graders!”

They both had the decency to look ashamed before they started giggling.

“Sorry Mum.” They said in unison.

Charlotte down heavily in her chair and rubbed her temple. “Why am I surrounded by schoolchildren.” She sighed. As the two men started giggling again, the Tannoy sounded.

“We have arrived in the target system, and will be looking for any anomalies…What the hell is that!?”

As all three of them looked out the window in unison, they saw something that they’d never thought they’d ever see.

Charlotte gasped. “Is that a purple planet? Is it moving towards us?”

George spoke in a small voice. “This might be a bit too much action for me.”

Leman rubbed his chin in thought. “I’m going to need a bigger baby for this.” When he saw the others staring at him, he shrugged. “What? If something can’t be solved with a big boom, just get more boom.”

Hysterical laughter rumbled through the halls of the ship.