Mecha Corps Read Free Page B

from the Mecha division itself?
    Harper thrust the invitation back at Matt. “Go.”
    Matt took the paper with numb fingers.
    Harper nodded. “Get on the shuttle.” Then he blew out a big breath, all his anger gone. “Go save the Union.”
    “Yes, sir!” Matt said.
    “Just don’t pull any dumb shit like you did here,” Harper called after him.
    Matt shook his head. No more dumb stunts. He smiled. He was a Mecha cadet, and the Universal Union needed him.

2
    INDUCTION
    Matt’s invitation directed him down to UUS Mercury ’s Auxiliary Shuttle Bay, where a small, delta-winged craft squatted. It bore both the Union’s concentric thirty-star insignia and the logo of Advanced Mechaforms: the shadow outline of a Mecha crouched to jump.
    The pilot was a young woman with short-cropped red hair. She wore a simple gray uniform with three silver stripes embroidered into the sleeve. On the front of the uniform was a single black bar reading L. STOLL.
    Stoll scanned Matt’s e-sheet invitation and nodded at the shuttle’s hatch. Matt started when he noticed that her eyes were a bright violet color. Violet eyes were a signature of genetic modification, and genemod was widely hated in the Universal Union. It was a holdover from the Human–HuMax war 150 years ago, when the genetically engineered “superhuman” HuMax laid siege to the richest human worlds. They’d almost won, too. Only the formation of the Universal Union and the eventual eradication of every living HuMax had ended it.
    She noticed his stare. “What is it, cadet candidate?”
    “I, uh, I don’t recognize your uniform,” Matt lied. “I was trying to place it.”
    “Mecha Corps Auxiliary,” she said. Her face was unreadable, her tone all business.
    “Gotcha,” Matt said. He tried not to steal a glance back at her as he slung his duffel bag over his shoulder. Most genemods wouldn’t openly display a hallmark like violet eyes in public. Was it just an Earth thing, or did it not matter in the Mecha Corps?
    “Where is other cadet?” bellowed a voice from deep within the shuttle. “I am not wanting to miss opportunity!”
    Matt jumped. Another cadet? He hadn’t expected that. He virtually flew through the hatch.
    In the cramped interior of the shuttle, a large man slouched on one of the four bare plastic seats. A loud, shiny shirt printed with floral patterns and a pair of white pants hung loose on this thick frame. Crow’s-feet wrinkles nestled in the corners of his eyes, and his bushy beard was shot through with gray. A huge pile of matching leather luggage covered the seat next to him and spilled into the walkway.
    “I not spent ten years struggling to miss cadet chance!” the man shouted, waving his invitation at Matt. “You see date and time? Sit in seat!”
    Matt sat down and buckled himself in. “I didn’t know there was another cadet on the ship.”
    The other man ignored him, his angry eyes fixing on Sergeant Stoll as she stepped in and pulled the hatch shut.
    “HuMax pilot, you go now! Time ticking!”
    Matt felt a quick stab of anger. She certainly wasn’t HuMax, and she’d probably had her share of taunts, insults, and outright beatings growing up.
    “Hey, did you choose your genes?” Matt said, struggling to keep his voice even.
    The other man’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “I not genemod!”
    “She didn’t choose hers either. Her parents did. So why don’t you stop trying to piss off the pilot?”
    Out of the corner of his eye, Matt saw Sergeant Stoll turn to watch them. Her neutral expression didn’t change.
    “Oh, HuMax apologist, yes. They did not choose their genes either?” the bearded man said, coming off his seat, but the seat belt held him down.
    Matt clenched his fists, thinking of his father. His own stories. His own secrets. “HuMax chose what they did, and for that they are monsters.” His voice broke in anger.
    The bearded man twitched a quick little smile, apparently satisfied.
    “Some sense in you.”