Reaper, Ram, and Rookies

When Lieutenant Vydian's new assignment, the first remotely decent in all her imperial career, fell apart, she wasn't even surprised. Nobody could blame it on her even though she bet some would. No matter how many years she broke her back to serve the Empire, her last name would still get her in trouble. The best part was that she was just good at her job, and people had to aim low to criticize her skills.

She had worked on a few miscellaneous assignments in the past weeks and had now landed on Carida to help with a field trip for some of the most brilliant academy seniors. She knew the Major had pushed for her inclusion - and she didn't know whether to be thankful or cringe at having to return there. She was grateful for her time there but she had about zero instructing bones in her, so that was going to be interesting, even for something lasting two weeks.

She didn't waste time after landing to make it to the building where she would stay for the few days on site before heading out. She knew it was an exercise in having the various specializations work together, both standard combinations and rarer ones. Hopefully the briefing would clarify a few things and she'd get to see who else was around. She was fairly curious to see whether any known names cropped up.

She was promptly directed to the appropriate aisle and floor. Once at the front desk there, she placed her - likely heavier than needed - pack onto the polished floor, and gave her identity. The novice looked through their list and frown.

"Problem, Private?"

The other imperial took a moment before answering.

"We have you as Lieutenant Virant, ma'am. And you were assigned shared quarters with your spouse"

That was new.

"Say that again, Private."

What the hell? Who drank on the job? And maybe did drugs on top of that to make this happen.

"You're to share quarters with Captain Galea Virant, Lieutenant."

"Well, damn!" The crisp, but slightly playful voice, came from behind Vydian. "At least tell me the proposal went well since I can't remember it."

An army green duffel fell beside her 'spouse'. Virant had also been selected to assist with field training and eagerly accepted the assignment. Carida was no walk in the park for anyone that enlisted but add being a woman on top of it? She had to work three times as hard to earn a modicum of respect because she was female, but her 'wife' had to work five times as hard because her parents were rebels.

They graduated same year so their paths crossed a few times and Virant thought the woman equal parts brave and nuts to serve the Empire when Imperial blood were on her parents hands.

"So ... how do we fix the data entry and get Lt. Vydian separate quarters?" she asked, casually leaning over the counter.

"Uh ..." the private scratched their head and frowned, "... guess I can file an inquiry, ma'am."

Virant narrowed her eyes and huffed. "You guess?"

"Uh, sorry Captain! I mean, I will file an inquiry but ... there's still a problem."

"And what's that, Private?" she said patiently.

"With several Core dignitaries and other special instructors like yourself, there's no other rooms." The Private eyed them both apologetically. "Everything's assigned. Even doubly so..."

"So that means we're sharing a room." With that Virant lowered her head and sighed before side-eying, Vydian.

She recognized the voice, and she knew that tone. Looking over her shoulder, she took in the sight of Galea Virant. They had crossed paths several times at the academy. Virant was brilliant and took no shit, which was needed when you were a woman in the Empire.

"Well, it was that heat of the moment after a hard-on battle and we got carried away."

This was a mess but at least they could joke about it, right?

She stared at the Private while Galea chewed them out. At least the Captain likely handled it more graciously than she would have. And then, it was confirmed they had to share the darn room. Truth be told, she was used to bunk in group quarters; but she normally didn't share a room like that with another person, unless it was some cheap motel place to blow off some steam when off-duty and away from base.

"You'll have to fill me in on how the wedding went because I'm blanking." she replied with a smirk before picking up her pack.

"After you, Captain."

The Private was confused and it clearly showed on their face because for two people who said they weren't married, they were really kind of acting like they were.

"Well, you were drunk. Probably why," she winked and lead the way.

A few strokes on the keypad brought up an official inquiry as requested by Captain Virant and as the information was typed out, the Private mainly watched the couple walk away. "They're totally married. This has gotta be some hazing shit."

Down the hall, Virant redirected the conversation. "How does it feel to be back? Marriage aside and all."

"That explains," she responded with a slight chuckle, although she didn't carry on with some additional jesting that almost rolled off of her tongue. Virant always had a good sense of humor besides being damn good at her job.

As they headed towards their room, she was still processing the whole damn thing.

"It's a bit weird. Didn't expect to be asked to join due to my name; but the Major I worked with insisted. I'm curious to see the new kids. Carida really throws you through the ringer and if I can help and make a difference, I'm happy to."

She chuckled. "I doubt they will be as happy as me, but what else is new?"

She looked at Virant and opened her mouth to say something when she saw the damn thing.

"Hell, that bed is bigger than some new generation mini tanks they've come up with."

She was about to go put her stuff on one side and then manners kicked in.

"Do you have a side preference, Captain Wifey? I don't care."

Virant nodded with agreement. "I feel the same. As rough as this place was for us, it kicked our asses to get us ready for what's out there. Of course if you're feeling vindictive, you can really mess with them out in the field."

She was toying with the idea in using high caliber paint balls to make things interesting when scouting out targets. The cadets would painfully remember to be vigilant with large welts under their gear.

Virant had a similar reaction in seeing their shared quarters and sighed. "The perks of captain pay grade. We get a better room."

She pushed the strap off her shoulder and the duffel bag hit the floor with a thud that muffled her gasp with the pet name. "Captain Wifey? Seriously?"

Snorting, she pointed to the side closest to the door. "There. So they shoot you first in case we get robbed."

"Isn't that the whole point of the field trip? If they wanted us to go easy on them, they would have just got some low-grade training droids instead of us."

Virant and her had gone through hell and back as women in imperial ranks; but it was why they were that good too. As much as Ankara would have rather climbed up higher in the ranks by now, the push-back she kept getting due to her last name had never deterred her from giving her all to the Empire.

"Well, I thought that Lieutenant perks were good. Never thought I'd see the Captain ones that early."

She burst into laughter at Virant's reaction to the pet name.

"If you can't laugh about it, it means you're dead. And I'm not giving anyone this satisfaction for a long time."

She moved her stuff, which was heavier due to the extra tools she had packed, not trusting anyone with having what was needed in case of emergency repairs. Back at the academy and then a few times on the field, some assholes had found it funny to hide shit from her or try to set her up for failure. She was prepared and haters could hate.

"Well rams generally have first row seats, so I'll smack into them while you shoot the intruders."

"Don't worry. I've brought the high caliber paint balls." She slapped her own ass before unzipping her duffel bag. "They won't be sitting for days when I'm done with them."

With a shrug, she carefully took out a box of said paint balls and set it on the nightstand, then riffled through clothing and camo. "I didn't say I couldn't laugh about it. Just it wasn't original."

She smirked. "Why not something more like ... Virant's Vixen?"

Ankara flashed a devilish grin to Virant at the mention of the high caliber pain balls. That was very much in line with the Captain and she liked it. Her eyes might have briefly traveled to the brunette's ass upon the self-slap.

"This is genius. I'm sure they're going to cry about having to shoot correctly with difficult weapons while I'm driving. I'm so not sorry."

She rolled her eyes at the new nickname. "Aaaah, that talent with words. You've always had a way with them, Virant."

Chuckling, she opened her bag and carefully extracted a bottle of vintage Zelosian rum. "I'm better at coming up with funny stories rather than good nicknames; but I still have sources for good rum."

She laughed and sat on the edge of the bed. "It's all the more hilarious if we use that to toast to our wedding, considering it sounds like we eloped on Zeltros by now."

She laughed and offered a generous bow after the compliments before working at the buttons of her jacket. "Ah what the hell."

Virant slipped off the jacket and hung it up. "Might as well have a post reception drink and acknowledge the wedding in some way."

Heading into the kitchenette, she got two glasses from over the sink. "Just baffling. The whole thing. Sure documentation can get tied up or misfiled. Hell! Even typos, but having it on official records that we're married is a new fuck up of galactic proportions."

She offered the glasses to Vydian.

Ankara removed her own uniform jacket as well, happy to relax for a bit. She chuckled at Virant's remark about the post reception drink.

"Good thing your Captainship got us a nice bed and I had high grade booze, right?"

The whole thing was beyond ridiculous and infuriating. She was glad it happened with someone like Virant but it was still bullshit.

"I thought I had seen lots of shit in my life, but that's a whole over level. If we were such big names and someone wanted to hack the system to cause some diplomatic incident, you know, it would have taken a plan. But random bureaucratic mess up? Someone should be scrubbing floors for a few months after such idiocy."

Fetching the glasses with a nod, she placed them on the counter and promptly opened the bottle, pouring generous amounts for each of them. She nudged one glass towards Virant and raised her own, with a wink.

"Is it too early to toast to our upcoming divorce?"

"Hear, hear!" Virant chanted with gusto. Captain pay grade had its perks but also a well earned rank. She wasn't granted the title of Imperial Sniper Expert for nothing.

"This fuck up's too stupid to think it was malicious. No offense intended, but this isn't the way to get under your skin," she said, lifting a hand in reference to Vydian. "I'm sure it was some dumbass that can't get their v's straight."

She grabbed the glass and huffed with amusement. "Probably since we're not actually married. Still ..." she brought her glass against Vydian's, "Cheers!"

Ankara still wanted to smack whoever had messed things up but at least it made for ridiculously good banter and will remain a fun story hopefully.

"None taken!"

She nodded along to Virant's hypothesis about how this mess happened.

"Yeah, that sounds like it. Hopefully by tomorrow morning everything will be cleared so we can go on scaring the shit out of these recruits."

She grinned at the clinking of glasses before taking a sip of her whiskey, which was as good as she expected.

"So, clerical errors aside, how are you doing these days?"

Since they were stuck together for a bit, catching up didn't hurt.