The Cloudy Skulls (Cloudy Sandbox Book 1) Read Free Page B

virus to someone with a specific gene can unlock a lot of hidden potential. The side effect is that it gives you eyes as red as a victim, and a lot of people are scared of that. Most people in the world have lost someone to a victim attack and they don’t want to be reminded of it all by staring into our eyes. It was a human rights activist that went on the headlines to preach against the project, and first dubbed us as having devil eyes. The term stuck and now it’s considered extremely derogatory.
    There were a few project subjects in my group but not many, and the tall dark guy that had caught my gaze had turned back to what Parker was saying. I was too busy admiring him to do the same; the guy stood ramrod straight and held himself with such a dignified air, despite what he was going to do in the coming months. I should have been listening to Parker, though, and suddenly he was nudging my shoulder with his elbow.
    ‘Does Second Lieutenant Komatsu wish to say a few words?’
    I could tell by the terse tone of his voice and the few snickers from the audience that this wasn’t the first time he’d asked this question, I’d just been too deep in thought to hear it. There seemed to be twice as many people as before as I took a step forward and cleared my throat, feeling their gazes burning into me. My hands clasped tightly behind my back and I took a steadying breath to centre myself.
    'I’m Rin Komatsu, and I will be in command here at the base for the squadron Cloudy Skulls. The coming months will be tough, and I know that most of you would rather be anywhere but here, but I hope that together we can get through this and make a real difference to the war effort. I look forward to getting to know you all.’ Then I ran out of words as I so often do when making speeches; I’m not a sociable person by nature. ‘No point standing out here in the cold, let’s get your stuff inside, okay?’
    That got everyone moving and speaking again, my words effectively a command. My first command. I kind of wished I’d made it more official sounding, but when the officers left us tomorrow I was going to be alone with these people and I wondered what kind of relationship we’d have. It would feel weird to be too strict with them, but at the same time I didn’t want to be too friendly and get walked all over. Finding a balance was going to be tough, but I looked forward to the challenge.
    While my new soldiers went to fetch their bags I walked back to the base. Two female officers were speaking in hurried tones and one beckoned me over when she noticed me. She was a middle aged lady with greying hair pulled into a tight bun. The applets on her shoulders marked her as a Major and the name tag as Alice Cartell. I remembered her; she had been one of the project leaders in building bases in dead zones to reclaim the resources. ‘We didn’t want to disturb you while you were addressing the new soldiers, but there was a power cut,’ she said, her voice so low it was almost masculine.
    I hate it when people only give you the start of a story, and expect you to have to ask for more. The other officer, a younger woman with a blonde ponytail, picked up where she’d left off. ‘Just before the aircarrier arrived the power went out for nearly four minutes. Luckily the backup generators kicked in so we were able to guide the aircarrier in safely. Landing an airslicer without guidance is one thing, but guiding a carrier into the hangar without ground assistance would have been disastrous.’
    ‘Has anyone checked the generators? Was it a fault in the system?’ I asked, and almost sighed at their blank faces. ‘Has anyone investigated?’
    ‘We haven’t had time,’ said the woman with the bun. ‘We’ll get Keswick to look into it, fortunately the engineer survived the victim attack.’
    ‘Very fortunate,’ I said, doubting the authenticity of the engineer’s words with every minute that passed. I don’t like it when everything is