A'roll spots me while I shoot using my raygun. He counts in fours. I miss all three of my shots and tell him to swap roles with me; I'll be the spotter.
"A'roll when's the mutiny?" I ask.
"Next lesson is on pilot etiquette, and the rest of our time here will be strictly combat lessons." He pauses to reload the raygun with a cartridge.
"We'll stage the mutiny the 6th week of camp; it's day 32 right now." He says, making all of his shots.
Stoutflower kneels over both of us.
"You've surely become a great soldier. Answer me this, starchild—-" A'roll interrupts Stoutflower.
"You will not call me starchild anymore, sir. You will call me A'roll, or you won't call me anything."
Stoutflower snickers, then begins to laugh.
A'roll stands up.
"Gather around! Starchild thinks he's bigger than the program yet again! Everyone regroup at the weight room in thirty minutes." Stoutflower claps his hands together.
Aedar paces around him.
"We're tired of being punished communally, sir. We believe it weakens morale between our barracks and disrupts team synergy." Aedar stands tall. He's grown approximately ten centimeters since we got here.
"Does Striver represent the rest of the barracks, or is he just talking out of his ass?" Stoutflower exclaims. The rest of the barracks drop their weapons and face the instructor.
They nod yes.
"I don't understand head movement. Which one of you dotards has the guts to actually say what you mean?"
He looks around and points to me.
"Wallflower, since nobody wants to answer me, you decide. Does he represent the barracks? Or is he talking out of his ass?" Stoutflower looks at my eyes.
They're closed, I'm smirking, kind of. The hardest part about this place is not being able to laugh. If you laugh, you're put into 'the chamber.'
A'roll was put into the chamber three times already; he claims he'll go back by the end of the week. Everyone in there helps him plan their mutiny; that's why their instructors locked them in there, of course.
"He does represent the barracks, sir," I exclaim as loudly as I can in his ear.
Stoutflower reaches to grab me, but stops himself at the last moment.
"Lucky we're outside, popsqaut. Well fine. He represents the barracks. Which means his punishment will go to the whole barrack!"
They all sigh audibly.
A'roll rushes towards Stoutflower and puts him in a chokehold. Stoutflower shakes. Aedar runs to him and elbows him in the face.
The section leader runs over here, I clothesline him, and he falls to the ground. I place his yellow wristband over my wrist.
Stoutflower tosses A'roll over his back, then kicks Aedar in the shin.
Aedar holds his leg and begins to jump up and down.
A'roll stands up, and the rest of the barracks breaks out into a fight.
Stoutflower blows his whistle right before someone shoots him in the back of his head with a ray gun. He claims to feel the metal of the barrel ignite before stopping suddenly.
Stoutflower selects A'roll, Me, and Aedar to go to his office while the section leaders fight for who's going to command the barrack while he's gone.
"I ask myself, why do I have to get the dumbest people imaginable every four months?" He kicks his feet over his table when I close the door behind me.
He's eating a Siciste dish, the Popapple. Stoutflower sets the tray down on the table and paces around the room.
"In my last thirty years of being in the military of the Federation, I've only met two people as capable as you three, Elios and a Kolagan named Telugen, whom we studied on the first expedition to Hedsa. And the three of you combined are almost 75% as capable as Elios was when he first joined. I taught him; he joined the C.S.D. The most prestigious special forces unit in the galaxy." He stands up and stretches.
"You three all want to join the Liberators, ¿ verdad?" Stoutflower places three forms on the table.
We nod our heads.
"Sign those papers, you can leave BC at anytime and go help them. Bo, Naku, and Oza need the three of you." He takes out a cup of yogurt and begins to eat it. He taps the side with a spoon.
"Oh, yeah! Aedar. We have your mother's medical records on you finally. You're immune to Anemirian poison, good for you!" Stoutflower tosses a folder on the table.
A'roll looks around.
"Are you…being nice to us to bait us, or is this the real you?" He asks.
"I get paid a million credits every four months to act like this; you're seeing the closest thing to the real me. Now, go stage that mutiny so you can let the rest of those plebs get out of my hair 3 months early." He taps on his desk.
The three of us walk out and down the hall to our barracks. We place each of the clipboards in our duffle bags, we call our parents, and Stoutflower returns for lights out.
The rest of basic training goes by without a mention of the mutiny, but we set a date in mind.
The last day of 29,979. We'll have been in training for over 15 weeks by then.
Stoutflower walks down the rows of the barracks the morning before we mark our fifteenth-week anniversary of being in basic training.
He walks down my row twice.
The Kopesh behind me taps my shoulder. I turn around, and the instructor scolds me.
"I don't know why Wallflower and Starchild get their kicks from making me angry, but I promise them that now is not the time to upset me! Tomorrow morning, those groups you applied for will be monitoring you."
Stoutflower yells.
"And in 14 days, you're out of my metaphorical hair! Does that not sound appealing?
The barracks laughs for the first time in the 15 weeks we've been here. Stoutflower allows it.
A'roll runs behind him and slams his elbow into his neck. Stoutflower ducks his attempted punch; the barracks erupts in violence. Aedar and A'roll jump on Stoutflower. Stoutflower manages to hold his own.
If we manage to knock him out or kill him, we by default succeed in our mutiny. If we fail, the entire barracks will go into 'The Chamber' for over 4 weeks.
Stoutflower attempts his signature judo flip to push A'roll to the ground. I run towards him and slam my knee into his left cheekbone. He falls to the ground, A'roll gets off of the ground and kicks him in the right ear, Stoutflower stumbles around for a bit then the three of us punch him in the chest at the same time,
He then falls down, unconscious.
The morning after, Bo picks us up in the Liberator's starship and takes us to Oza's homeworld, Celestia.