The New Recruit

“Everything about this Diver’s record makes no sense to me. How does someone like this find their way into the Helldiver Corps, let alone MY ship? Benjamin John. Class F Citizen. Am I reading this right, Marshall Firestar?" Colonel Rampart turned from the cryopod and handed a clipboard to the soldier clad in SEAF blue.
“That is correct sir.” Firestar replied.
“That would mean he is ineligible for the Helldivers. It must be a clerical error… however that is impossible.” Rampart folded his arms.
“I double checked sir, and it’s true. He’s a Class F citizen. He had a citizen score so low that he was being considered for execution, not just reeducation.” Firestar's voice betrayed his confusion at what he was reading.
“Doesn’t sound like a Helldiver to me. What changed?” Rampart looked over the frozen warrior. He was practically the size of a Super Earth tree.
“They’re not sure, his memory, or his personality at least, seems to have been altered by the Illuminate during a raid.” Firestar flipped the page on the clipboard.
“So they’re sending me a dissident and a Voteless? Great. Maybe I should just launch the cryopod out of the airlock and be done with it. Where’s he from?” Rampart rolled his eyes behind his helmet.
“Helldivers picked him up on Calypso.” Firestar stated coldly.
“Calypso… High Command never saw it coming. Why didn’t he get abducted or turned with the other billions on that planet?”
“According to the records he was being kept at Mercy Hospital, he was comatose when the squids came…and…” Firestar struggled to comprehend what he was reading.
“And?” Rampart urged him to continue.
“The Helldivers found him there alone in the hospital during the rescue operations on the planet…” he stated plainly.
“So they found him in the hospital and saved him. That still doesn’t explain why he’s here alive and on my Super Destroyer.” he replied with veiled impatience.
“Everything there was dead, besides him. No people. No voteless. Just hundreds of broken bodies.” Firestar kept reading.
“What?” The Colonel's curiosity had been piqued.
“Illuminate corpses torn to pieces like something out of a horror movie. And they found him there in the center of it all. Just him. All he had was his hospital gown and a bonesaw. They found him laying there covered in blue blood.” The scene couldn't unfold in his mind's eye. It didn't make sense to him.
“That means… Lady Liberty.” he muttered in shock.
“The Helldivers that extracted him told us they didn’t know his citizen status at the time, just that someone like that was probably important. They sent the cryopod to their superiors. I was classified where they sent him after. Now, High Command has assigned him to the 2nd Liberation Battalion for field operations.” Firestar finished the debrief.
“Well, let’s thaw him out. I want to see what this sunova bitch can do.” A smile was hidden behind his mask as the cryopod hissed and the man in question would return to life.