Furnace (Hunter-Killer #1)

Chapter 02 - Bittersweet

"I made it!" Ryke's voice went shrill with excitement when he spotted his name on the billboard outside the academy. "I'm in!"

The early morning didn't hurt the enthusiasm of Brekka's new recruits. All around him hoards of them piled in, hunting for their names, desperate to see if their application had been successful. In another time and another place people would have been horrified at the prospect of going to war, but on Rychter if you didn't learn to embrace it, life was very hard indeed.

"Nice going," Jarrko grunted from beside him, still scanning for his own name in the miasma. Their application was different. Attempting to join the regular infantry units or support corps had a high success rate. The Hunter-Killers were a different bag.

"Make a hole, crazy people!" called a playful voice from behind, and they both had to step to the side as a slender girl dove between them, springing up like a sand-jack to examine the board. In the same classes at school, Ivy Shanklin was a little taller than him, with straight, light brown hair swept back out of her eyes by a black headband, the rest of her body swamped in a set of mud-brown overalls.

He waited for a moment as she hunted unsuccessfully for her name, before leaning forward and tapping her on the shoulder, pointing.

"Ivy, you're in," he told her, smiling in amusement. "Top right of the boards."

She followed his pointing finger and her eyes lit up. "Yes. Brekka 1st Engineering Corp!"

"Somebody's gotta build the better mouse-trap," Jarrko chuckled.

"Careful, adrenaline junky," Ivy shot back, rounding on him with a dangerous smile. "If you're in the Hunter-Killers you better remember who's fixing up your robot battle-toys."

"Wouldn't have another tech head on the job." Ryke gave her a playful shove as more and more bodies piled in around them.

A shrill whoop bit hard into Ryke's ears making him wince and he looked to his left to find the source. Sure enough his suspicions were confirmed when he saw the girl with the pink hair grinning inanely having apparently found her name on the board of accepted recruits. He swallowed his annoyance, reminding himself that they'd both passed the same test.

Minutes passed – the cries of joy began to mingle with the groans of disappointment from those whose names hadn't made the list. They were transferred to other departments, based on general aptitude. Jarrko found his name eventually and then another familiar face emerged from the crowd. Brigg arrived, clapping Ryke and Jarrko on the shoulders.

"You both made it?"

"Looks like it," Ryke said, grinning. "What about you?"

"Seems like we're going to be HK jocks together, boys!" Brigg laughed, dragging the two of them into a hug. Caught up in the moment, Ryke didn't notice Kelso was still staring grimly at the board.

Eventually though, he turned round and saw the look on his brother's face and his elation slipped away. He bit his lip and disentangled himself, moving up alongside Kelso.

"You okay?"

"I guess." Kelso pointed to the top right section of the board. "I didn't make the HK list." Following the pointing finger Ryke spotted his brother's name and next to it the words: TRANSFER – COMBAT SUPPORT UNIT. He closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath.

"Sorry."

"I studied all year," Kelso grated. "I know everything there is to know about the Hunter-Killer Corps and they still bumped me to some slack support job at a desk somewhere." He shook his head and turned to leave.