In Henry's opinion, calling this shop a food vendor was a stretch. But it was the only place that sold rations that weren't packed for long-duration missions.
The ones here were for more immediate consumption, and weren't grey mush, at least. Not that they tasted much better.
But Henry had been tweaking things up a little, as he had found a new friend in camp that dealt in spices. With this new friend, the rations from this store immediately became a lot less bland.
One could even say they tasted good if their palate was dead.
But he wanted a semi-decent meal before leaving on mission, especially with the mission they had this time. It would be a while before they saw anything other than grey mush after tonight, so why not treat themselves?
Walking up to the soldier on sales duty, Henry smiled at him.
"Hey, Cooke! Adequate of you to be on duty here, don't you think?" he joked.
The soldier glared at him before spitting on the ground next to him.
"What do you want, Calvert?" he asked with disdain.
"Aww, come on, man. Don't be like that. Are you still mad about last time? I told you if we got caught, I'd sell you out. I expected the same from you, too. It's only tragic that they caught you, and you decided to be loyal, really."
The man growled at Henry, looking like he was about to jump over the counter and fight him. But he calmed down, blaming himself for being too trusting.
Jhonny looked at Henry curiously, wondering what he meant, but he didn't pry. Not her, at least.
"In any case! I came here for some chow. What's on the menu today?" Henry asked, brushing the subject aside.
We have chicken with mashed potatoes and veggies. Or we have ham with the same thing. However, there is a third option today. We have some kind of spaghetti. But I don't recommend it. The sauce is bitter and leaves your taste buds feeling numb."
Henry's eyes went wide at the last option.
He hadn't eaten pasta in ages. This sounded like a delight.
As for the bland or bitter taste, he had a way of fixing that, so he couldn't care less.
"I'll grab two portions of the pasta. Do you have anything in the desserts today?"
The man looked at Henry with a weird expression before shrugging to himself.
"We have stale cookies. Don't ask me the flavour, I don't know," the soldier replied.
"Alright. I'll take two of those as well. Thanks, bud!" Henry said, smiling toothily.
The soldier rolled his eyes before grabbing the things he asked for from under the counter and scanning them.
"That'll be sixty-four credits," he blandly said, pointing at the reader on Henry's side of the counter.
"Sixty-four?! This is a daylight robbery! How can two meals be so expensive?!" Henry complained.
The soldier sighed before replying.
"It's the cookies. You wanted something sweet; you've got to pay for it. Now pay up, or get the fuck out, Calvert. I don't make the prices."
Henry clicked his tongue, slapping his wristband over the reader until it chimed and flashed green.
"Thank you for your service, dick head. Now get out."
Henry smiled at him, waving goodbye as he left the store.
Once they had left, Jhonny couldn't contain himself anymore. Curiosity was eating him alive.
"Why was that guy mad at you? Did you get into a fight or something?"
Henry looked at him, chuckling.
"No. Nothing like that. We tried smuggling shit into the camp, and we were supposed to both deny knowing the other if we got caught. But when I got caught later for being sloppy, I dumped the blame on him since he had already been accused."
Jhonny looked at him with disgust.
"Hey! Better for him to get a bit of a harsher sentence than for me to lose credits. I'm already short as it is. All this high-tech gear isn't cheap."
"So? What happened?" Jhonny asked.
He wanted to know the entire story, not just the abridged version.
"Well. Instead of getting a fine and a slap on the wrist, he took double blame. And he ended up being swapped posts from battle training to store clerk. It's only temporary, but he's still pissed. I say not losing credits is the better outcome, though," Henry said, laughing a bit.
But Jhonny was unimpressed.
If that was the man Henry was, he wondered how much of his bad habits would rub off on him with time. He was almost tempted to ask Commander Landon for a swap in instructors.
Sadly, he couldn't do that. It just wasn't an option for him.
Not with his secret.
He turned his head away from Henry, trying to look disgusted.
But Henry didn't give two shits and just laughed his heart away, anyway.
They still had a few stops to make, so he would have to talk to him even if he didn't want to.
It was his loss if that pissed the kid off.
They first went to the spice dealer, and Henry got sugar and a few dried herbs for a hefty amount of credits, which made him weep internally again.
But the good food would assuage his woes later.
Next, they went to a supply depot and pulled out the reserved stocks for their mission: MREs, ammo, battery packs for their energy weapons, and a few other necessities.
Next, they headed to the hangar to get the keys to the vehicles their mission granted them, and Henry smiled like a jubilant kid on Christmas.
Jhonny was seeing all of this and suddenly feared what their mission would be. Henry still hadn't told him.
Henry lugged his things into the back of a beige military jeep and sat in the driver's seat.
"Oh, am I going to love this mission, or what?!. This is great!" he said, almost in a squeal.
Jhonny hopped into the passenger seat, his mind suddenly becoming that of a regular kid as he looked in awe at all the buttons and switches.
"This truck is awesome…" he whispered.
"Yup. And it's all ours for this mission. I even get to drive it back home tonight. The rest of our shit will be loaded onto the ship before departure. Nifty, right?"
Jhonny nodded, still distracted by all the vehicle's functions.
"Alright! Last stop, the armoury! Time to get our gear!" he exclaimed, starting up the jeep.
The anti-grav engine whirred to life, making a soft hum as the vehicle lifted a foot off the ground. Henry caressed the steering wheel, imagining all the shit he would do with this truck once they were alone.
"You and me are going to have fun, baby…" he mumbled.
'System detects the host is talking to a machine. Shall we start a mental diagnosis?' the system asked in his mind.
'Tch! Let me have my moment, you stupid AI. You're just jealous,' Henry replied.
Silence was his answer.