Marvin James Orphelia relaxed as he put his feet up on the replica ancient oaken desk. It's been quiet all week at the Camp. The recruits, now full-blown soldiers, needed a bit of touching up. Ill let peters reel them in... he thought as He opened a few drawers in the desk and soon found what he was looking for. A box with Maltese markings engraved on it. He clicked it open, and picked up a full syringe of Grade A Maltese Liquid Cardimine. He flicked the needle approvingly and it responded with a satisfying clink. Marvin lifted his sleeve and looked at the forearm already scared from previous injections. He smiled and uttered "Oh yeah......." as he emptied the entire needle into the vein.
Just then, Drill Seargent Jeffery Peters burst in.
"Hello, sir!"
He said, almost sounding cheerful. Unheard of in Camp Zero...
Peters looked disapprovingly at the slightly bleeding tiny circle of a wound and the emptied syringe.
"What do you want!?"
Marvin said, almost as if Peters was interupting a diplomatic meeting. The ones that usually go so well...
"Well..." Peters said, "The reports from the ... -recruits- are in. They're quite impressive, actually."
he said as he dropped a large stack of papers on the desk, nearly missing the syringe, and landing with a resounding thump.
Marvin looked eagerly at the stack of papers and started quickly skimming them as Peter's continued.
"They're performance in the field actually exceeds our records of stolen LAF trainee markings."
Peters continued.
"They're stronger, faster and better than they were a year ago." Peters finished.
"You should be proud of yourself" Marvin said, beginning to feel the intense euphoric sense of the Cardimine.
"After all," He said to Peters. "You are their CO..."
"Thank you sir, It's what you payed me for..." Peters said, almost ironically.
"I'd better reward them, hah!" Marvin said oblivious to his Seargents stares.
Marvin got up so fast that Peters could hardly move out of the lumbering giant's way in time. He slammed the door behind him.
"Line UP!" Peters screamed as he and Marvin stood arms-to-their-sides in front of the drill line. Almost instantly fifty or so soldiers streamed from the barracks and stood at attention in front of them, some noticing Marvin's wound, a quizzical look on their face.
"Well, I've got a SURPRISE for you today!" Marvin said hapilly, not his usual reserved self...
"Come, come!" He yelled and nearly tripped over his own boot as he headed for the Restricted Section 44 of Camp Zero. Off limits to even Peters.
Marvin tapped in various passwords and bypassed numerous numeric-key locks and algorithms. Peters noticed one of them was in the shape of a Pentagram.
The huge thick steel doors whined and revealed a descending tunnel, dark as the black night.
Marvin tapped a switch and the lights clunged into life, one after the other descending down the long hall. The mass of soldiers followed close behind.
At the bottom of the huge concrete tunnel, another steel door stood. They soon parted and revealed a massive, underground warehouse filled to the celings with steel shelves and boxes and boxes of items.
The group thudded through the brightly lit storeroom and soon entered a smaller door, man-sized. Marvin grabbed the necklace from around his neck and an odd shaped key-device at the end. It slid into the slot with a statisflying click.
The door swished open and revealed a room filled with odd artifacts. Gray consoles, old pictures, giant boxes floor-to-celing high labled 'DO NOT JOSTLE' and '80 MEGATONS'. Peters felt a lump grow into his throat. This is enough nuclear weapons to destroy half a damn planet. What is Marvin up to?
Marvin finally stopped at a U shaped shelf filled with different colored boxes.
"This is my personal collection." Marvin said.
"Do, Help yourself." The professional soldiers looked quizzically at Marvin then opened the boxes. Tons and Tons of various drugs. There was trauma-center level painkillers, OxyGrotin, Cardimine, and Synthetic Marijuana grown on the Marvin's old battlestar, The Dawn Under Heaven.
Holy hell Peters thought. His manic abuse isnt nearly as bad as I thought!
The soldiers happily trudged out of the storeroom and back out to the surface, as they came with armloads and clusters of Marvin's drugs. Marvin looked at the empty shelves... The effect of the Liquid Cardimine, worn off. He dropped to his knees and began to sob...