Outpost 7

Lift Off

"Billy hurry up otherwise you will miss the shuttle!" shouted mum. "Don't worry I will be down in a sec" I replied. I put on the jacket I got last year for my birthday and heaved my army bag over my soldier. I left my training uniform in the cupboard after being told we will receive uniforms once we landed on the battleship. I hurried down the stairs two at a time. I saw the taxi stop at the front gate. I hugged my mum and kissed her goodbye. I got into the taxi and a few minutes later I dozed off. The taxi stopped and slowly woke up. I got out bag on my back and started walking to the security gates. "Wheres your passport?" the guy said in a bored tone. I showed him my military passport and he quickly let me through. I walked down the terminals until I found terminal 7. I went through the security gates and made my way to the hangar. There where already three other men waiting at the shuttle. Two where wearing casual and one was wearing an uniform. By the patterns on his top I assumed this is the lieutenant who will be in charged of the outpost we will be stationed at. I made my way down to the shuttle and greeted my fellow colleagues. A few minutes later the other 7 men came. The lieutenant said there was 8 other soldiers at the outpost already. I started to wonder how big this outpost is. The door started to wheeze and slowly closed. There was the sound of the airlocks securing the door and the shuttle started to hover up into the air. I started to shiver in my seat. Some of the other guys did too. I guess that we were all afraid of the jump to light speed. Suddenly there shuttle shot off into the orbit. Once we were safely in orbit it started calibrating the jump. I gripped the support handles tight. Suddenly a strong force pushed us back in our are seats as we jumped to light speed. So this is what it felt like. I felt invincible, like nothing could hit us. There was another big force hit us that signalled our arrival. I peered through the window and saw the massive battleship orbiting Acklar 5. Thousands of little lights twinkled from the ship. I sat back and relaxed as we slowly drifted to the hangar bay.