Somewhere out on the Colosian side of the no-go zone between House Colos and the Q’raj Void Protectorate, two Colosian Stosstruppen stand guard in the hangar bay of Outpost 45003. It is the “night” shift. They are the only two personnel present other than the supremely bored Ready Flight pilots, who have fallen asleep in their folding recliner chairs across from their Shark interceptors.
“So I told her that I was going to get the promotion one way or another, even if I had to take that idiot captain to the dueling circle to get it done! I mean, I *am* the son of a noble family, dammit, and I’ll be damned if I’m not going to leverage tha… hey! What was that?!”
“What was what?”
“I thought I saw something go buzzing past outside, looked like a trio of ships! Scut fighters!”
“Oh, puu-leaaase! Don’t tell me you’ve been hitting the bottle again!”
“No! I’m serious! And they didn’t look like ours at all! So why the Hell hasn’t the alert sounded?! I mean, we should wake those lazy twits up and send them out there to go after them!”
“Oh, will you just stop it!”
“But, I really did see…!”
“Shut. Up! Get a grip, man! If there was anything out there, the sensor net would have picked it up long before your sorry ass would have seen it, and you damn well know it!”
“Um. Yeah. I suppose you’re right… nothing ever does happen around here, and we both know that that will never change any time soon!”
“Ya see? You’re just fed up and bored like the rest of us. Brass are always promisin’ new this and something combat action that, and it never happens! We just gotta own it, this here tin pot we’re standing in is the absolute forgotten tin can by the road in the middle of nowhere. Those Q’rajis are too damned smart anyway to waste throwing a rock at us, let alone actually sending a fighter patrol out our way!”
“You’re right! Damn, I am sooo bored!”
“Me too! So why don’t we figure out how we’re gonna pass this shift without going barking mad! I say we prank those two spoiled brats over there! And I happen to have a brand new can of shaving creme me dear old mother sent me for such a special occasion as this!”