"Now we will review the rules of engagement and the clauses of the UN charter," the disembodied voice of the presenter said. Another wave of groaning passed through the room, this time the XO was the only one who was laughing to himself.
_______________
"I thought that fucking video would never end," Baker groaned, walking beside Jaeger as they filed out of the mess hall along with the other personnel.
"I see why they like to show it to us," Jaeger said, dodging around a passing engineer who was hurrying off in the other direction along the cramped corridor. "ROE generally goes out the window when you're fighting Bugs. They don't surrender, they don't have anything like the Geneva Conventions, they don't shy away from using chemical and biological weapons. I guess some of the guys need a refresher, reminds them that there are supposed to be rules in war, even if they're only on paper most of the time."
"Some Bugs surrender," Baker replied with a shrug. "You hear about what happened on Jarilo?"
"Oh yeah. They caught a colony early, and the roaches gave up, right?"
"That's what I heard, yeah. Don't know the details, it's all been very hush-hush. But of course, rumor gets around."
"Well, I've never heard of a Bug giving up. A drinking buddy of mine who's in the Marines told me that when he was deployed on Kruger III, he found a Bug on the battlefield after a CAS run that had been ripped in half at the waist. The main guns on those Penguins just chew up infantry. The thing had one arm left, and it was still trying to fire at him with a plasma pistol. They're not even sentient I don't think, no more than an ant or a termite."
"So the brass really thinks we'll be meetin' aliens?" Baker asked skeptically, "I mean ... even you ain't sure what you saw out there."
"I know that I saw 'something', I'm just not sure what it was. Seems like they're serious about it though, this FCP shit is nothing to joke about, it really fucks us over. You know how fast Bugs react, sometimes the element of surprise is all you have. If you waste it scanning them, they're going to spin around and drill you a few new exhaust ports."
The carrier was cavernous, the winding corridors and packed rooms stretching for literally miles. It was like being inside a giant submarine, and as huge as it was, everything still managed to feel claustrophobic. It was large enough that the bigger aliens like the Krell and the Borealans could get around. The ceilings were high enough that they didn't have to duck too low to avoid hitting their heads on pipes, and the passageways were wide enough that they could pass one another, but only barely. The Rorke was so large, and the crew were often stationed on it for so long, that it even had its own general store where they could buy things like snacks and drinks. Jaeger made a beeline for it, turning corners and passing innumerable side rooms. Every few feet there was a pressure door, intended to seal shut in the event of a decompression to prevent the whole ship from blowing all of its atmosphere into space. There were almost no bare surfaces in sight. The deck was covered in panels that opened up to grant access to internal systems, snaking wires and pipes decorated the walls and ceiling, miscellaneous electronics clinging to every available surface.
Jaeger hated it, it was like a giant, flying coffin. Yet it was the only way to see action as a fighter pilot. He had to endure the weeks or months of boredom and claustrophobia, just for those few hours of freedom. There was nothing like it, zipping through the emptiness at speeds that only a bullet could reach in atmosphere, with only his ship and his wits to rely on.
They came to a stop beside the line that had formed outside the store, Jaeger rummaging in his pocket for his tablet computer. He turned the handheld device on and tapped at the wafer-thin screen for a few moments, checking his account. When you were a dozen light years out from any civilized planet, you couldn't exactly access your bank account, and so the crew deposited their money into a Navy credit account for use during their deployment. He still had a fair amount left, he'd have to remember to top it up again next time they were in port. It would likely be several months yet. He couldn't imagine surviving one of these tours without enough sugar and nicotine to knock out a Polar.
"So what did they talk about in that meeting they dragged you off to?" Baker asked, leaning against the bulkhead with his hands in the pockets of his jumpsuit as he made small talk. "Or is it all classified?"
"They just wanted to hear my report in person," Jaeger explained, keeping his eyes on his tablet as he thumbed through the messages. There was no internet connection on the carrier either. Even at the speed of light, a signal from the nearest inhabited planet would have taken decades to reach them this far out, but the vessel had an intranet that allowed the crew to communicate and access media.
"It's been five or six years since we made contact with the Borealans, right?" Baker continued. "And before that, it was about twenty-five years since we met the Bugs and the Krell."
"And the Brokers," Jaeger added.
"Yeah, right. So that's ... what? Four alien species in thirty years? Doesn't that seem too low? Think about all the explorin' we've done since then, we've traveled about a hundred light-years from Earth in every direction and we ain't seen shit for years. Where's everyone hidin'? Didn't the guy in the video say that there were probably tens of thousands of sentient species in the galaxy?"
"I mean, we've found life," Jaeger added with a shrug.
"Yeah, animals and moss and shit like that. Fish and bacteria, nothing smart."
"The galaxy is a big place, I guess everyone is just spaced really far apart. That or the Bugs got to them before we did. We first encountered them at Betelgeuse, but nobody knows where they really come from. They could have colonized half the Galaxy for all we know."
"Well I hope we meet some more aliens," Baker grumbled, pulling his hand out of his pocket and idly scratching his nose. "I want to be there, y'know? I was one year old when we joined the Coalition, I had only just joined the Navy when we met the mad cats. It's a once in a lifetime thing, I want to see it happen."
"Careful what you wish for," Jaeger muttered, looking up from his tablet. "There's no guarantee that they'll be friendly."
"Well they saved my ass, didn't they?"
"Yeah, but that might not be because they're on our side, they might just hate the Bugs more than they're worried about us."
"The enemy of my enemy is my friend," Baker stated confidently.
"You know that the guy who came up that saying was assassinated, right?"