Author : Roi R. Czechvala, Staff Writer

Virginia “Jen” Taylor was a good soldier. She had the quiet good looks of the girl next door. She had the spirit typical of an Indiana farm girl. She could be sweet and feminine; she could mix it up with the boys. She could carry water. She was a good soldier.

I met her at Bragg. She kicked my bunk waking me from a sound sleep. “Drop your cock and grab your socks. Get a move on soldier.”

I watched her walking to the latrine, carrying her toilet bag and a towel, clad only in panties and a sports bra. I swear she must have been psychic. As if somehow sensing my admiration of her retreating backside, she spun around and barked, “Are you a staring at my ass?”

Before I could react she had closed the gap between us and I was on the floor trying to swallow my balls that she had kicked into my throat. “You still have a nice ass,” I managed to croak. She didn’t turn; she just raised her arm and flipped me off.

She wasn’t one to hold a grudge though. “Hey Newbie,” she yelled above the lifters screaming turbines, “You’re with me.”

It was just a training exercise, but it was still scary as hell. We dropped into an LZ that was hot, and I mean HOT. Plasma blasts were flying everywhere; trees fell as grenades slammed into them. The plasma was dialled down. It wouldn’t kill you; just burn your nuts off.

The lifter was barely on the ground when she turned to me and yelled, “Do you want to live forever?” She grabbed me by the strap of my LBE and yanked me out the door. With one hand she hauled me through the dense brush, with the other she kept up withering covering fire.

She flung me down behind the bole of a gigantic tree and returned deadly fire in earnest, taking out the robotic sharpshooters with apparent ease. Once the shooting had stopped and the call for “All Clear” had been given, she looked down at me huddled at the base of the tree. “Pussy,” she said, and strode off.

Over the days and weeks, we became friends. We trained together, we ate together, we…well we were friends. Then we got the orders. Combat drop. Allied territory. Venus. Very bad.

We were radar null in geosynch above our LZ. Jen’s eyes were glowing. The excitement in her was palpable. When I felt the lifter drop from the carrier, I thought I was going to shit myself. Jen seemed on the verge of explosion. The grin on her face looked carved in stone. The lifters rear door opened and the ramp dropped. Jen was on her feet in an instant.

“Do you want to live forever,” She bellowed above the howling wind. Before I could stop her she was out the hatch. I ran to the ramp and watched in horror as her flailing body disappeared from view.

“No, I don’t want to live forever,” I yelled, “But I’m going to wait until we land to get out.”

Virginia “Jen” Taylor was a good soldier. She had the quiet good looks of the girl next door. She had the spirit typical of an Indiana farm girl. She could be sweet and feminine; she could mix it up with the boys. She could carry water. She was a good soldier.

She just wasn’t too bright.