While Gunny hadn’t been completely convinced about my plan to go hiking the day afterwards, stating a lot of practical issues with it, I decided to go on with it anyway as it would be good to get him outdoors for a while to clear his mind. On top of that both Ellie, Luna and Eva helped talk him into it as well, and it’s not like he could refuse the order of a commanding officer anyway. I didn’t really like abuse of power, but in this case, I was all for it.

  So when the next day arrived in the morning I asked Ellie to plan a nice hiking trail for us by using the scans and the drone footage of the planet surface below and she came up with a route that would take us about eight hours, rest stops and breaks included.

  When I informed the crew about me going off-ship, one of the science officers took me aside for a moment. They wanted us to test out a new shoe sole they had developed and it seems that I had just provided them with the best field test they could currently ask for while not going full out with resources. Obviously I was happy to oblige, taking yet another point away from Gunny’s criticism as this trip was all about science now.

  “Are you packed with plenty of water and rations?” Luna asked during the morning break. We had decided to leave at 11 as Gunny still needed to catch up to some rest. While Luna commanded the bridge in the morning. I spent time packing and doing some administration work that I had left piling up. Luckily Ellie helped me a bit with that, for as much as she was allowed to anyway.

  “Yep, everything is ready to go.” I patted my amari khaki green camo backpack that I had rested against the seat I was sitting on. The backpack I had prepared for Gunny next to it had plenty of food too. We would be able to go out for at least a week. Definitely overprepared, but you never know what could happen. If the ship needed to go off without warning we would still be able to hike back to the settlement without us getting into rationing issues, and I prepared a couple of extras as well. “Just need to go and grab our guns out of the armory and then we can head out. Got everything covered on the bridge?”

  Luna nodded. “I allowed the crew to play some music as long as it didn’t disturb Lieutenant Zu her job. Otherwise it’s going to be a rather slow day.”

  “Huh, so everyone agreed on a music genre for once?”

  Luna looked to the side as she sipped from her drink. Clearly avoiding my question.

  I chuckled. “Ah, good thing that never changes.”

  “They were still bickering about the music choice when I left to get this little snack.”

  “Sometimes it does feel a bit like herding cats, doesn’t it?”

  “Pretty much.” Luna nodded.

  As she agreed with me, Gunny finally walked through the door of the lounge.

  I smiled. “Good, looks like I won’t have to drag you along.”

  Gunny grumbled something and then pointed at the slightly bigger bag next to me. “Is that one for me?”

  “It is.” I nodded. “Unless you want to carry mine.”

  “No, it’s fine. I’m already carrying less than usual.” Gunny took the bag and swung it on his shoulder.

  “But there’s no exoskeleton to help you carry it this time though.” I gave my girlfriend a kiss on the cheek and stood up straight next to Gunny, taking my own bag as well. “See you this evening, okay?”

  Luna smiled and returned my kiss with glee. “Stay safe.”

  “I’ll try.” I winked and then beckoned Gunny to follow me along to the armory where we equipped ourselves with some guns and where we could change into some boots that had the new sole the lab peeps had been working on. Shortly afterwards we made our way towards the hangar bay to catch a ride towards the coordinates that Ellie had provided for us, after first dropping off some other people at the colony first.

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  We exited the shuttle by means of a fastroping as we didn’t want to clear this part of the forest of its natural beauty. Once we were down the shuttle took off again to continue doing a couple more runs in between the colony and our ship. After all, while we were stationed above the planet we wanted to exchange as much information and materials as we possibly could.

  Once the shuttle had bursted off, Gunny and I looked around for a bit at our environs. The forest was quiet but not deadly quiet as there were still some sounds of small animals and the brushing of leaves in the wind to be heard.

  “You are sure there’s no dangerous wildlife around here, right?” Gunny asked with his gun at the ready.

  “The colony hasn’t encountered anything more dangerous than a deer on planet earth if that’s what you are asking.” I replied. “Are you scared?”

  “No.” He denied. “But I do feel a bit more vulnerable without the exoskeleton. This gun also doesn’t feel very… sizeable.”

  “Well, compared to what you are used to, that’s true, but it still packs a punch.” Gunny had brought along a FAL-98X, a staple battle rifle of the infantry back home. Definitely a step down from his normal heavy machine gun loadout when it comes to sheer firepower, but the rate of fire, accuracy and stopping power provided would still easily fell armored combatants, especially with the new cartridges that were developed to counter the bug threats.

  As for me, I had opted for my good old trusty P900-R, just seemed to be the best choice for going long distances through somewhat rough terrain and dense vegetation.

  Gunny grunted, not really convinced with the tool he had picked for the job, but then again, the chances of encountering anything on our route were minimal, especially since Ellie had guaranteed she’d picked a safe path. We brought the guns along, just like most of our food, in case of a contingency, nothing more.

  “So what way should we be heading?”

  “Hmm, let me check.” I flipped my wrist to look at my holo watch where an arrow pointed in the direction we should be heading. “That way.” I mimicked the direction with my arm.

  “And how far?”

  I chuckled. “Are you really going to ask already? We have just started, not quite even. This is a hike ”

  “No, but I just want to know.”

  “Well, the thing is, I don’t really know myself.”

  Gunny frowned. “What? What do you mean?”

  “I asked Ellie to just give us rudimentary directions. She told me that we would know our destination when we get there, and that she estimated it would take us about 8 hours.”

  “For fucks sake, Lauren.”

  “Don’t be like that, it’s gonna be fun. Just two pals and hiking through nature.”

  Gunny rolled his eyes and then turned towards the direction I pointed out to him earlier. “Alright then. Let’s just get moving.”

  “Right behind you.”

  Gunny and I started trudging through the forest which at points started to look more like a jungle instead, especially with this kind of heat. Luckily it was significantly cooler than yesterday, but for my Antarctic ass, it was still feeling rather tropical. At the very least, after about an hour and a half of hiking, Gunny’s mood had significantly improved already, even more so after my boot had sunk into the mud. He did find that rather funny.

  That mood quickly changed however once we arrived at the bank of a river.

  “Uh, are we supposed to follow the river?” Gunny turned around to me as I exited the last pieces of shrubbery.

  I flicked my wrist again. “No… the arrow is pointing straight across.”

  “Well, I take it that the precursor race didn’t build any bridges here either?” Gunny goes closer to the river and kicks a rock in.

  “Probably not, no.” I chuckled. “Ellie, could you please explain?”

  Instead of a direct reply from Ellie, a hololetter popped up from the projector on my watch. “Commander, Gunnery Sergeant, I hope you are having a fun time together on the route I set out for you. If you read this, you have encountered a little bit of a relationship exercise, after all, your psychological profiles tell me that you would rather enjoy such a thing. I have let one of my maintenance bots sneak something in your backpack to help you cross this river. Don’t worry about falling into the river. The current is rather weak and the temperature should be pretty comfortable too. P.S. I will only reply to you when you are in imminent danger or when communication proves to be necessary. Have fun!”

  “Goddess damn it, Ellie.” I sighed as I dismissed the message and then quickly dropped my backpack to the ground.

  “Did Ellie plan this?” Gunny asked.

  I nodded and flicked my watch towards him to share the message which he then read while I looked for the tools that Ellie had apparently provided.

  Gunny sighed as well. “That tin can…”

  “I know.” I rolled my eyes. But I had to give it to her fairly, I was quite curious to see what we were going to use to cross the river with.