Starship Troopers: Chronicles of a Mobile Infanterist

Chapter 1

"The strongest chain is only as strong as its weakest part."

Ok. Before I start I probably should explain a few things first. My name is Henrietta "Henri" Vasquez and at the current time I was born 31 years ago in San Salvador, El Salvador as the daughter of indutrial Moguls. Ever since I was fourteen I constantly told my parents that I wanted to join the Mobile Infantry. At that time the war against the Bugs already lasted five years and had cost half a million casualties in the military. My parents told me to get my head straight and they used their relations with the federal high command to make sure that I never would be able to join the Infantry.
Shortly before my eighteenth birthday the federation started to use poorly trained conscripts in the so-called "At-the-ready Battalions" to reinforce the MI.
Two days after my birthday I signed up as a conscript. Why would I do that, you ask? Well, because if you win enough battles as a conscript and kill enough bugs on the battlefield you can join the MI. It is a little loophole my parents did not account for. After a week of intense psychic examination and endless waiting, they shipped us off to Camp Murphy. There they tought us in just two weeks how to use a gun and that we were nothing worth.
Three days after that I found myself on the federal battlecruiser Endeavour. Our quarters really shouldn't have been called so. We were twenty sleeping in a dorm made for eight people. I was not that lucky to get one of the beds. So I just slept leaning against the wall facing the door at the opposite end of the room.

My first mission was on Holt T-688, a mid-sized bug nest. We were deployed way before the Mobile Infantry. We were threehundredtwenty-thousand conscript of which, including me, only about fifteenthousand survived. I mean, what did they expect?
From my quarter only me and one other soldier returned. I could have taken one of the beds, but honestly, the wall was strangely comfortable. From this point onward I only slept with combat armour on. In the two years following that I survived a hundred planetary assaults and lost about eleventhousand comrades. During that time, at least our weaponry improved. The Tesla-Rifles we received after my first year of service allowed even the most stupid of soldiers to kill a bug then and now. Soon I knew that rifle better then my own family.
Concerning that, my parents thought I was dead. It was better this way, because then they wouldn't worry if i'd ever return.

But enough with that. Now I'll tell you of the time when I joined the Infantry.

Back then I served on the battlecruiser John A. Warden and just came from a mission on PEC-1178( Planet with earthlike conditions).

Down there everything went as usual. We were dropped of before the MI to clear the way. Back then I was a seargent and commanded a small squad. I was lost and had lost my squad and was searching for survivors between some rocks. Just as I had climbed one, I saw an Infantrist who had a malfunction with his suit. Since he was completely defenceless I took my Tesla-Rifle and aimed down the path from which I had come. I had to defend him, while he restarted his power suit. The Bugs were closing in on the two of us and when the first reached us I turned it into swiss cheese. More and more came, sonn they were too many for me alone. But luckily I had bought enough time for the Infanterist to restart his suit. In that one second I was as happy as I could have been in that moment. I thought that now I could die in peace, but fate had something else in store for me. The Infanterist grabbed me by my abdomen and activated his suits thrusters. We landed at Landing Point Charlie only Moments after he had jumped. I was kinda relieved in that moment.
Without opening his helmeted face and asked me plainly:
"Thanks for the rescue soldier! Can I ask what your name and rank are?"
I needed to pull myself together to answer properly.
"S-Seargent First Class Henri Vasquez, AtrB. soldier sir." I answered.
"Thanks for the support just then. Now go, the fight ain't over yet."
And with that I stormed towards the battlefield, my fighting spirit had been reinvigorated. Just as if I'd been reborn.

I returned to the Hangar deck of the John A. Warden covered with blood and sand. I had just taken of my helmet to clean my hair of sand when a Mobile Infanterist came walking over to me. His voice sounded like the one of the soldier I had saved.
"Do we have a seargent Henri Vasquez here?" he asked the crowd.
Everyone started to look at me. And so I raised my hand.
"Over here, sir!"
I think I was a little to energetic when I answered him.
"How may I be of assistance?" I asked him.
I felt blood rushing to my head.
"I would like to speak with you a couple of minutes.", he said, "I have an offer for you."
I knew what that meant. All the other conscripts knew what that meant. I started to follow him and he began to speak.
"What you did down there, especially you saving my life, impressed me. Ever since you came aboard this ship you are one of the few non-MI's that earned my respect. You'd be ideal for the MI. Why did enlist for the AtrB's instead?" he stopped briefly.
"Well, because " I thought for a moment if I really should tell him the truth, I did, "My parents made sure that I would never be able to enlist in the MI. That's why I chose the rocky path to maybe someday get into the Mobile Infantry. And I had actual front experience."
"That honors you, ", he continued, "I know many who would have given up, especially concerning your age. You're barely older than twenty. So that's why I want to offer you to join the MI. If you ask, I got my SO's authorisation. Of course you will lose your rank and start as a Private first class of the MI. What do you say, you take the offer?"
I was ecstatic. I was barely able to think straight and I quickly answered:
"Of course I'll take the offer."
"Very well,", he handed me a key and a badge,", then report to the Commander of the Killjoy unit."
I saluted him: "Understood sir, eh....Sir, who is the commander of the Killjoy unit?"
He turned towards me and smiled: "That would be me, Lieutenent Jonas Verhookven. Tomorrow, the early bird catches the worm, Private!"
He turned around and my smirk just would not disappear. A hand touched my shoulder and one of my squadmates said to me:
"Congratulations to you........"
I didn't hear the rest because of my euphoria and I goddamn swear to you, the cold shower never felt this good.