[story] Fallen World, Act 1: A Dark Future

[TracerBullet]

Bailey finished getting into the rest of his armor. "Well, that's good," he thought aloud, flexing his arms, "they took out whatever was making that creaking noise...armor feels a bit more flexible...HUD seems to be functioning normally...now let's look at my weapons..."

The rifle was pretty much standard issue, but Bailey had asked for and gotten a small scope attached on top of the sights. It did result in some of his next paycheck getting docked, but he figured it would be worth it, considering he could make more headshots without having to camp in one spot like a sniper. His silenced pistol also came out of the shop, good as new. Some people kept asking him why he bothered to keep a silencer on the damn thing anyway, and he never really had an answer, other than "you never know when a silencer might come in handy." He hoped they didn't make any other changes to his weaponry that he didn't know about.

He picked up a pair of HE grenades and flashbangs each, along with some extra clips of ammo for his weaponry, and attached them in various slots in his armor. When he made sure everything was there, he ran out of the armory and ran towards the place where he would be briefed on his newest assignment.

Good thing I ate a big dinner last night, I can't stand that crap they call breakfast. It's true what they say, 'you can live on it, but it tastes like shit.'

(OOC: Anybody wanna guess where that last quote comes from?)

[Tormented_Soul]

Freak stood at ease, looking around for any one else who was to be breifed for this upcomming mission. A few other soldiers passed him by, looking at him as if he was crazy. He relized that he was toaching his face again. Something was wrong. A soldier shot his eyes away from Freak the instant he made eye contact. His eye was vibrating again. He hadn't even relized it was moving.

"What the hell is wrong with this eye? It never did this before the accident. I think."

He scratched his head quesitoning himself again inside his own mind, but then let it go. A soldier shouldn't ask qeustions he can find the answers to, himself.

[OOC] that quote is from crocadile dundee. the comanchees said it and so did Mic himself.[/OOC]

[Redkun]

"Wake up, Virgo...we're here..."

Any sense of a romantic mood was violently shattered as Virgo's hand quickly moved to punish whatever foul creature had decided to interrupt her sleep.

Fw-whap!

"Ow!"

Virgo stirred in Sean's arms, her hand falling back down to her side. Now that her consciousness was returning, she was aware of the older man's body heat flowing into her. It reminded her somewhat of the electric heater in her room, but un-naturally soft. Her eyes flickered open, and Sean swarmed back into her vision, now with two red marks on his face, but not entirely from her unthinking slaps.

"Oh. It's you." she remarked. "Hello again."

"Hi." Sean smiled charismatically, though for all his efforts he may as well have been trying to charm a brick wall once the aroma of sizzling breakfast meats hit Virgo's nose.

"Food." she said, and began to wriggle uncontrollably in Sean's grasp. The dark haired soldier was forced to put the girl down on legs that had suddenly found hopeful strength in the close proximity of the food. The stranger who had helped her was practically forgotten as Virgo began to lurch towards the serving window.

"Uh... are you going to be okay?" Sean asked, his subconscious seething about being ranked under strips of fat-encrusted cooked meat.

A bubble floated to the surface of Virgo's mind and popped, causing the girl to pause and turn around to address Sean.

"Thank you for carrying me here." she said, bowing slightly. She was smiling, but to Sean, it wasn't much of an improvement over the impassive blank stare that she had greeted him with. When Virgo smiled, it was extremely slight, barely a tugging of her face muscles. You would not notice it unless you were looking for it, and knew what you were looking for. To those who could see it, it was infinitely more endearing than any toothy grin, because you knew that what the smile lacked in substance, it made up for in the genuine happiness behind it.

Turning to the serving window, she proclaimed, "Food please!"

The cook took Virgo's ID card and swiped it through the computer which kept track of how many rations each recruit was allowed. His eyes were trained on the computer, so he didn't notice the fingers of Virgo's right hand twitch frantically under the cyber gauntlet, or the lines of code that spilled over her visor.

A few minutes later, Virgo was given a tray loaded to the brim with numerous plates and bowls, all overflowing with every kind of breakfast treat available. Humming happily to herself, she chose the nearest table, plopped down on the cold bench attached to it, and began to cram as much food into her mouth as humanly possible.

[Ayane112]

Jana turned toward the soldier that came in the room with her. She noticed the coffee cup sitting in his hands. She stared at him intently.

"I wouldn't drink that coffee. Not unless the military kills your taste buds along with the enemy."

He didn't answer but instead took a long drink of the brew. Jana smiled at him. "I guess they do kill the buds."

She threw her legs up in the air, swinging them over the edge of the couch. Simultaneously, she pushed up on the couch sitting her straight up. Leaning forward, she slung each arm over its respective knee. "I take it you're getting deployed today?"

"Yes, I am."

"Neat. So am I. Briefing time?" She raised an eyebrow.

"0830 hours."

"Well, I'm probably going to be your medic. Don't get yourself shot." She smiled again. "Not normally this chatty. First outgoing is all; that and lack of sleep. Should be fun."

This post has been edited by Ayane112 on Oct 26 2004, 05:50 PM

[P|-|34R M3]

Kim stared blankly around the empty cafeteria. She often preferred it when it was like this. So peaceful and quiet. She glanced over at the clock on top of the cafeteria entrance. It was about 1 more hour until the briefing, which was plenty of time to scarf down her coffee and breadrolls. A few seconds later, a beep sounded from the coffee machine behind her, signalling that it was ready. She grapped the coffee pot and poured its contents into a small paper cup. She then took the coffee (she prefers it black) and the breadrolls she recieved from the counter and took a seat at a nearby table and began to enjoy what would probably will be her only meal for the day.

As she ate, she began to wonder exactly why she was transferred to this unit in the first place. She recalled that her record in her previous unit had been pretty good. In fact, she was pretty confident that she was her CO's favorite among the rest of the group. She always thought of him like an older brother, who didn't follow the family tradition of becoming straight-forward lawyer or politician. But on that day when he gave her the letter stating her transferrance to a new unit, he seemed totally different. Almost like he didn't know who she was anymore. Just like that. No good byes, or good luck, not a word.

The sound of the cafe door opening snapped her attention back to reality again. She stared down at her food and noticed that she hasn't even touched her bread yet. She quickly took a few large bites of it and turned to the two people who had just entered the cafeteria.

The trying-to0-hard-to-be-cute guy was PFC Sean KC-0324. Kim remembered his face as she was introduced to the rest of the unit. Kinda hard to forget the strong soldier man with the face of a chick. The girl with the blue visor that Sean was carrying in was Specialist Virgo SH-2005. Kim had heard alot about her. She's pretty much the brilliant technician with the personality of a 10 year old. She also heard it's best not to get in between her and her machines that she simply loves to toy around with and build.

Kim just chewed her food quietly as Virgo said a few words to Sean, then walked over to the counter where the cook was. A few seconds later, she walked away carrying what seemed to be enough food to feed a small platoon. She walked over to a nearby table, not noticing Kim at all as she happily hummed by, sat down and began to voraciously devour her food.

Kim simply shrugged her shoulders and decided to go day dreaming some more. Unfortunately, the rather unpleasant eating sounds coming from the young technician near her seemed to break her concentration needed to do so. Kim sighed and glanced at the clock again. There was about 40 minutes left until the briefing. At around 0800, she should already head back to suit up in her armor and head for the parade grounds. She tried to continue eating her bread, but the sight of Virgo's rushed eating habits pretty much drained her appetite. Finally, it became too annoying for her and she decided to speak up.

"You know," she began loudly enough to break Virgo's eating rhythm. "That food ain't gonna run away from you anytime soon. You mind slowing down and chewing with your mouth closed please? For common decency and all."

[Kawaii Catboy]

"Personally, I find a girl witha healthy appetite to be more appeasing than those who would starve themselves to death, thinking they're too big." Sean spoke, sitting down in front of Virgo, grinning charmingly. He had already gotten himself his usual breakfast: Oatmeal, grapefruit half, and a glass of milk.

"Just because she's eating a quarter of her weight in food doesn't mean she's not appeasing," Sean spoke, reaching out, attempting to snatch a strip of bacon from Virgo's plate. He was rewarded by a bone-crushing grip on his hand, Virgo looking at him with a feral stare, her mouth stuffed with pastries. "Mmn," She spoke, which Sean could basically translate to, "Mine."

"Right! Sorry! Let go, please?" He whimpered, nursing his hand. It would probably bruise over. At least he didn't reach with his trigger hand...

"I would like it if she would just keep it down a little bit! I'm trying to think over here!" The soldier girl cried out, grumbling softly to herself. "I mean, it's common decency and whatnot..."

Sean was now busy staring over at Virgo, not really paying any attention to Kim. He stared softly at her face, even as she stuffed a large sausage into it, chewing noisily. She's really cute...eating and not caring how other people see her as...

"Hey! I was talking to you!"

Sean sighed, looking over, his eyes starting to sparkle and shimmer softly, as he spoke, smiling ever so slightly. "I know you were, and it was truly rude of me to go and ignore you like that. Please, forgive me. I was merely paying attentions towards my companion, here," he gestured towards Virgo, smiling a little more as he looked at her. "So please, don't feel like you've been forgotten."

Kim blinked, a soft rose color coming to her cheeks, as she turned away, placing her hands on her cheeks. His voice, his gestures...is he coming on to me? He's a little girlish, but that makes him all the more handsome, though...

As it was, Sean managed to finish his comparatively smaller meal in her interval of thinking, and proceeded to watch Virgo finish off the mountain of food she had collect, giving out a satisfactory sigh. "You have such an immense appetite, huh?" He spoke, more of a statement than a question.

[Redkun]

Now that the food had been shovelled away, and her stomach was happily digesting away, Virgo became aware of her surroundings once again, just in time to hear Sean's hypothetical question.

"You have such an immense appetite, huh?"

"I was hungry." she shrugged, removing the grease from her mouth with one wipe of her bare forearm.

"That was obvious enough." Sean grinned. "Do you eat like that often?"

"When I'm hungry." Virgo blinked, not quite understanding why Sean would have to ask a question with such an obvious answer. "Don't you?"

Before Sean could answer, he was interrupted by a grateful sigh from across the room. "Finally! Now I can get some peace and quiet!" Kim grumbled, raising her hands skyward. Her relief didn't last long, as at the sound of Kim's voice, Virgo broke away from her one-sided conversation with Sean and trotted over to plop down next to the frustrated soldier.

"Wh-What?" Kim asked as the technician stared into her face with an un-natural obsession, like she was an oddly-shaped seashell that had washed up on the beach.

"What's your name?"

With a irritated glance over at Sean, who was watching the whole scene unfold with a smile on his face, Kim turned to the girl and humoured her.

"Kim WN4937, though people like to call me the Black Rose."

There was an awkward pause while Virgo's cyber gauntlet typed on a keyboard that could only be seen through her visor, recording the information on the device. Kim was about to return to her introspective thoughts, when Virgo cut through her peace once again.

"Can I call you Kimmy?"

"No."

"Rosey?"

"No."

"Okay."

With that, Virgo stood up and half-skipped, half-trotted back to where Sean was sitting, leaving a thoroughly bewildered Kim.

"I'm going back to my room." she said, before jogging towards the door and out of the cafeteria. Was it an invitation? An excuse for leaving? Or just an off-hand comment made because of the kind of person Virgo was? As he watched her go, Sean knew he had to decide quickly if he wanted to try and chase her.

[Elcampbello]

Ian ran into the armoury, have just ran past the caffitiera. He skidded to a halt infront of the desk.

"Hey Scar-Face, you better hurry up if you want to make the parade."

Ian reached across the desk, grabed the unfortunet mans shirt and halued him over.

"Your not making me any faster." he said with a snarl, the but the man back down.

"Calm down man I'm just messing..."

The Sargent walked into the stors mumbling something about reporting Ian to the MP. Two minuets later he came back with Ians weapons.

"O.K we've got your Heavy Machiene Gun, with three magzines, combat pistol, with two magzines, and two Fragmentation Grenades."

"Thanks" said Ian as he hurriedly put the ammo in its slots, and attached the grenades to his belt. He sprinted off in the directioin of the parade ground.

[Kawaii Catboy]

"Hey! Wait up!" Sean made up his mind, he was going to follow the revitalized technician, and see what she was up to. Sprinting down the hallway, he skidded for a moment until he was at the same pace as Virgo, looking at her, smiling again.

"You have a real curious streak in you, huh?"

"I'm always curious about new things." She replied, looking at him with the same stony expression. Though, Sean did catch the tiniest tug at the corners of her mouth. Perhaps he was starting to grow on her.

"Nothing escapes my sight for a moment." Sean spoke, walking backwards, as he looked at her. "I have a hawk's eye. It's one of two reasons why I became a sniper."

"What would the other reason be?" Virgo passively asked, glancing at him again.

"Because I don't want to get personal with any of the enemy soldiers," Sean spoke, slightly solemn. "I can easily take down enemies from a distance, so I don't have to be right in the action to get them. I'd rather...not look at their faces."

"I thought the helmets the enemy wears doesn't show faces." Virgo commented.

"I know...but even so, I'd rather not hear their death cries..."

[DolceVita]

The briefing room felt to Lala like it was miles away. She ran through the halls with all the speed her sore could muster, but the pace still felt too slow. Rushing around a corner, she suddenly found herself stuck behind two older soldiers deep in conversation.

"Parade grounds, you say? Why're they assembling there?"

"Don't ask me. Looks like Captain Atkins is getting new troops though."

"Full dress and parade just for a briefing?"

"Like I said, don't ask me."

Lala froze. Parade grounds? Full dress? But...but...ARGH!

Now there was no way she'd make it in time. She sighed. Oh well, nothing like upsetting a new commanding officer on the first meeting. The girl took one more futile glance at the wristwatch quickly approaching 0830 and took off again down the hall.

The soldier manning the armory desk looked up curiously at the thudding of heavy footfalls from the corridor. The frantic pounding echoed off the walls and sent a tremor through a case of shotgun shells he sat examining.

The footfalls came closer and closer, culminating as a petite figure shrouded in unruly blonde hair tumbled into the room. The lass looked much too small to be a soldier, and he wondered how such a tiny girl could have caused such a ruckus in the hallway.

"Lala M185-A6, here for body armour and weapons," the young voice panted through great gulps of air. She brushed wisps of hair away from her damp forehead and waited for the man to retrieve her gear. One foot tapped impatiently as the girl stood leaning her elbows against the counter. She was hungry and tired, her legs were killing her, and the portly man looked to be his sweet time in finding the match to one grey armoured boot.

Her eyes slowly glanced around the room, anxious to fix their attention on anything other than the slow man and the clock hanging behind the counter. Another soldier, whom Lala remembered vaguely from the hospital as Ian, sat clasping the last pieces of his body armour into place. A sour mood settled over his features, and when he happened to look up and notice the girl's amicable smile, he didn't so much as acknowledge the gesture. Before she had a chance to say anything, the soldier sprinted out of the room presumably on his way to the parade grounds.

Lala grinned despite herself. At least she wasn't the only one running late; Mr. Grumpy would be straggling in right along with her.

[wapa]

"I have some good news for you, Private. It is an infection, but it's not Staph-22."

"...so...it won't have to be...cut off?"

Smiling, Rose drew a needle.

"Fortunately not, though you need an injection twice a day for the next few weeks."

"Oh, thank God...I mean, those borg arms...I heard they never feel right, you know?"

Injecting the antibiotic, Rose patted the woman's arm reassuringly.

"You're a lucky girl. You'll get a month off from that, but wind up good as new."

Still smiling, Rose washed her hands before showing the soldier out. She was luckier than she knew. The last batch of A-grade prosthetics had run out two days ago, with no more for at least a month. Even the b-grades were reserved for officers...

She checked the clock.

"Well, looks like my shift's up," she commented.

"How'd you pull off that?" another nurse asked.

Rose smiled ruefully.

"It's not as good as it seems, darl. I'm going out today."

"Ouch. Good luck, then."

Rose paused at the door.

"Yeah..."

"Well...goodbye, Rose. It was nice working with you."

The nurse bit her lip.

"Um...I was the one who nicked your hat that time...sorry."

One of the more depressing traditions to come out of the Billion Man War. No one could know if you'd be back. Chances are you'd be brutally injured, or assigned somewhere else. So some people just treated it as your last meeting.

"...It's okay," she answered, "I broke your Gameboy. Bye, Janice."

She closed the door, and made her way down to her locker. Of course, it was a good thing that Janice was going to be worked off her feet for the rest of the day, considering the time she had left before the briefing...

"Excuse me."

She looked down to see a rather short soldier.

"Where can I get a cup of coffee around here?"

"There's a little break room down that way," she said, pointing, "Turn up there, it'll be the second door on your right."

"Thanks."

Soon after, she had arrived at the locker room.

After dumping the paper overcoat into the incinerator, as per regulations, she washed up a second time before going to her locker. The only thing left was an old, baggy, green hat, which replaced the nurse's cap she had been wearing before. Whistling, she strolled back down the corridor.

Hmm...maybe it would be a good idea to get a little coffee before she left...

[E-l337]

"A9RH61," Harry stated simply as he approached the desk behind Lala, his bag of belongings falling to the floor beside him.

He glanced at the woman beside him a moment, who appeared to be out of breath... ah, right. He'd seen her running just a moment ago. In her condition, she could probably do a flat out run for two and a half miles in full body armor before she collapsed from the shaking... then again, he could be wrong. She might have asthma, the way she was breathing heavily...

Harry's body armor came out almost alongside hers, and he immediately accepted his and began to attach it without hesitation.

[Kreoss]

He smiled "Nice to meet you, the name's Marcus, designation D65-2G7. though I really am tired of being called by just my designation, that's all my last CO referred to me as." She laughed. "Oh, and about the coffee... It tastes a lot worse in boot camp, we ended up using 3-day old used coffee grounds on multiple occasions." Her eyes grew wide incredulous at what he just said "I'm kidding, they used fresh ground everyday.. or at least I hope they did. But the coffee there is much worse than this. So, yes apparently they do kill tastebuds."

He held the cup in both hands and he stared down into the blackened liquid. then he looked back up with a smile "And you are?" he extended one hand, she grasped it

"I'm Jana" she smiled "And they didn't kill my tastebuds"


[OOC: Ayane don't kill me if a skewered Jana's personality. /OOC]

[Gnome]

The LED blinked red 12:00's at the trooper sleeping on the bed in the dark room. Garrett was lightly dreaming about the sheep that put him to sleep earlier in the night. He awoke with a start after hitting the floor from rolling off of the bed. Peering around the room, Garrett noticed the twelve-o'clock-flasher.

"Why do they always send me the defective clock?" Garrett reached up and smacked the side of the clock. It blinked 8:02, then 8:30, then went back to flashing 12:00. "Oh, yeah, I have that briefing to go to at 8:30. They finally assigned me to a unit. Took them long enough. Now where'd I put my pants again?" Garrett stood up and stumbled toward the door through the dark room filled with foreign objects, almost tripping several times. "What was that little buddy?" He cocked his head to the side, as if listening to someone, but no one was there. "You say I left them over in the cafeteria? Why would I leave them there? Someone must have snuck in some alcohol last night. Well, I need some food anyway, but there will be people there. Too bad I don't have an extra pair lying around here... What? NO, I will NOT go commando out there! What were you thinking?" Garrett turned on the light to the room and found his shirt nearby. He tossed it on and left his room. He was a running soldier with only a shirt and boxers on when he got to the cafeteria.

Upon entering, he looked around and spotted his pants in a pile near the corner of the cafeteria. Garrett bolted over, grabbed his pants, and left the cafeteria for his room in a matter of moments.

[Redkun]

"Death cries?" Virgo asked blankly. "Why don't you want to hear these death cries?"

She spoke the last two words as if they belonged to a foreign language. Sean groaned slightly, raising his eyes to the sky. Talk about asking a Big Question. Before he could even begin to craft a response detailing his precise opinion on the topic, Virgo spared him.

"Sounds like a silly thing to think about." she mused, stretching her weary arms into the air and crossing them behind her head with a loud yawn. "Like thinking a program will stop running if you close your eyes. Everyone's so weird like that."

Sean laughed somewhat solemnly. "It's not quite as simple as that..." he began, but was interuptted once more.

"Uh huh, it is. People just think too much." she said passively, staring up at the military grey ceiling. "So silly."

For Virgo, "death" was one of those things that she was both familiar and unfamilar with. She knew that when death meant that you stopped working. But then, she could always fix her machines when they broke. Why death was such a big deal to everyone had never occured to her. It was just another thing everyone over-thought, worrying about a problem that didn't exist. People really could be so silly sometimes.

Her mind, bored of that topic, turned to the guy who was still following her like a puppy dog. He was strange. Virgo liked the fact he was soft and warm, but still, he was quite peculiar. The way he kept gazing at her was very unusual, and his hand kept trying to slide down her back. Was it because he looked like a girl? Were all girl-boys like this?

Virgo sighed, completely confused. At least she would be back in the sanity of her room in a few minutes.

[Kawaii Catboy]

Sean knew he wouldn't get to her like this. She was too much cooped up in her own world, of gizmos and gadgets, never knowing what it was like to take a life or see people die. So he tried to put it in terms she could understand.

"You can't fix a dead person. They'll never work again. Unlike a plane or any other machines, humans are fragile compartively. We could smash open our skulls, and die from bleeding. Getting shot in the head has the same effect. I..." He looked down at his hands, the ones he felt were stained too much.

"I've destroyed many lives...I wish I didn't have to do that anymore...I want this stupid war to end...if only...there was a was we could end in peace and love..."

"...Love?" Virgo asked, quizzically, blinking softly. "What is love?"

"Love is an emotion," Sean spoke, surprised that she didn't know love. "It's a feeling you have for a person or something, so that you really, really, really like that person or thing, and want to be with that thing or person for as much time as you can."

"Oh." Virgo spoke, blinking. "...So, then you love me?"

"Huh!?" Sean blinked rapidly, his cheeks flushing.

"You're spending a lot of time around me, so you must love me, then," She concluded logically, the barest tug of a smile on her face. "So then you really, really, really like me."

"Uhm...well, yeah..." Sean spoke, looking down, scuffling his feet. "I do kind of love you, then, when you put it that way..."

"Just like I love my computers," Virgo concluded as well, looking up at Sean. "Because I want to spend as much time as I can with them."

"...That's right," Sean spoke, slightly depressed. This girl didn't think much of him, he grimly surmised.

He looked at his watch, yelping loudly. "Crap! I've got to get dressed for the assembly!" He looked at her, speaking up. "You need to get ready, too. I'll see you later, Virgo!" He spoke about to run off, before remembering something.

"Oh, yeah..." He leaned back, giving Virgo a quick, one second kiss on her lips, before parting. "That's what people in love with each do to first express their love," He quickly explained. "There's lots more ways to express love, and I'll show you what you want to know afterwards. So...later!" He sprinted forward, knowing he was going to have to rush if he was going to get there in time.

...Though he licked his lips slightly, grinning as the aftertaste of Virgo's lips...

[The_Blind_Artist]

“Alright you maggots, fall into line. I don’t want to hear no belly aching.” Sergeant Earl Redman was a soldier. He had been born a soldier of soldiers, and he would die a soldier if he could help it. The dark skinned man was well into his 30th year, and had been a sergeant for almost as long. The man was more than enthusiastic in his work; both tough, strict and loveable all at once. His antics were often so stereotypical of a hardcore sergeant, that others found it difficult to contain their laughter when he was strutting around. Many were thankful for the full-face helmets they had as standard issue.

“Private Ex-tee-three-nine-ninety-five!” The dark sergeant bellowed. “Release Private Kay-One-Eighty-one-Ay-En-four immediately.” The pair of troopers stopped wrestling for a brief moment before they both shot to attention.

“Sorry sir.” The pair both responded in unison.

“Eighty-one-ay-en-four, getting beat up by a scrawny girl is not the way to impress your superiors.” The Sergeant responded.

“She ain’t so scrawny, Sarge.” The trooper responded.

“I can kick your arse, sir!” XT-3995 retorted. The tiny woman seemed to be unbelievably confident, or was it foolhardy? Either way, she as a muscular ball of energy just waiting to explode.

“Hardly private. I was kickin’ arse while you were still suckling on your momma’s tit.” The sergeant replied. “Two-Twenty-Second Platoon, fall in! Show these ladies what real men look like!” Instantly the miss-matched group of semi-armoured or under dressed and mildly sleep soldiers snapped to attention.

“Not bad Earl, I’ve seen your ‘soldiers’ do worse.” The slightly cocky voice of Sergeant Hinton drifted across the parade ground from where he stood leaning against the podium that sat at the head of the square. Their rivalry, while friendly, was infamous, and they constantly did their best to show the other up in everything they did. Now they were being sent into combat together, which was the real test. There were bets inside the platoons on whether they would be competing on who could kill more enemy soldiers than the other, or who could storm more enemy positions with nothing more than a grenade and the standard combat knife. It was believed that the two came up with that rumour on their own.

“Two-twenty platoon, fall in.” Sergeant Hinton said almost lazily, the slightly better prepared platoon, who were almost completely in full combat dress, instantly jumped to attention, thirty pairs of boots instantly clicking into position and echoing across the field.

“Not bad for little girls.” Sergeant Redman answered, dismissing the display. The other units standing around and waiting were the 221 under Sergeant Savannah Porter, one of the few female sergeants in the field, and the newly formed 219, most of which were still filtering onto the field.

Sergeant Jason Benton stood off to the side, surveying the dozen or so men from the new unit who had bothered to turn up so far, most either half asleep and half dressed or overly dressed in their full armour and weapons, ready to dive into the enemy as if they were at the walls. Jason absently rubbed at the white painted markings on the left hand breast of his armour denoting his registration and rank as he thought over what he was now in charge of. The lives of these men and women rested in his hands, and it was something he was going to take seriously, unlike his colleagues appeared to do.

“Corporal!” Sergeant Redman was laying into one of his junior officers. “Where are privates Oxley and Moon?”

“Sir, Kayla said she’d gone blind over night. Seemed to be far too much fuss for her to be faking it. Kept saying it was whatever the med centre injected her with during the physical that did it. I sent Ox off to escort her ‘cause she kept bumping into walls, sir.” The young man explained.

“If little miss prissy thinks she can get out of a war just ‘cause she can’t see, she got another think comin’.” The sergeant continued. Jason just tuned him out. The man was known for his ranting fits, and Jason had grown sick of them through boot camp. He had learnt how to ignore them there and was thankful it was paying off.

He glanced around the parade ground. There were nearly eighty soldiers standing around at the moment, waiting for the captain to arrive and relay their orders and the plan of attack. Hardly any of them were the men assigned to his platoon. He hoped they would turn up soon, and before Jade did…

[Nabeshin HT]

Dave run on to the Prade ground where 80 Soldiers are formed in to the platoons it looks like there still waiting for someone. "shit i better fall in to my platoon" dave says to him self as he moves towards his platoon. 3 sargents are talking to each other while one looks like he has other thing on his mind. Dave is now beside his new unit "private Dave Fox DF-2383 glad to make your aqantance just call me Slain". thinking to him self "What type of mission are we on that need 4 whole platoons"

[E-l337]

Harry finished the final clasp on his armor, the helmet settling into a nice resting position in the crook of his arm.

The normally heavy LED-laden machine gun was easily lifted into his hand, and locked into position on his back, so that it wouldn't encumber him. Of course, with the enhancements the suit gave, it was hard to be encumbered anyways... the suits came standard with many minute movement systems that helped to make the wearer move faster and longer without any detriments to their health.

Ah, the wonders of technology. But Harry had not time to appreciate such things, nor did he ever appreciate them.

He simply made his way to the parade grounds, helmet in one hand, and duffel bag in the other.

-----

"A9RH61, reporting for duty sir," Harry called out as he approached the parade grounds, dropping his duffel bag to salute. "I'm here to transfer to the two-nineteenth squad sir, but have no idea where I am supposed to meet them, sir."

A quick look around showed that quite a number of soldiers were gathering. Perhaps they were about to mount a massive offensive? Whatever the reason, Harry found that it was best to always answer the call of duty, for the sake of... of...

He didn't even know what he was fighting for. Nor did he care.

[Tormented_Soul]

Freak stood in military ease, as he looked around. He watched the sargent that he was asigned under, and saw that soemthing other than yelling at his new recriuts was on his mind. He looked around a little more, and noticed that almost no one else is in their full armor, and weaponry.

"Well, I feel a bit over dressed. I guess I'll never come to an other breifing in full armor again."

Freak adjusted the extra clips in teh slots of his armor, and fell back to his eased stance again. He looked to one of the other outfits, and watched two soliers have a quick, and slightly amusing wrestling match, just before it got broken up. He adjusted one of his HE grenades, and made sure it was secured completely.

"I wish I had half an hour more, I could run back to my quarters, and drop my weapons and armor. Oh well, that's my fault for being such a dumb ass, and forgeting full dress didn't mean armor too. Hope I don't get in trouble for over dressing for this date with duty."

[TracerBullet]

Bailey ran onto the parade ground, where he saw roll about to be called. Good thing I got here just in time. I don't feel like making a bad first impression.

"Sargent! Private Elijah Bailey reporting for duty, sir!"

[Kawaii Catboy]

"I'm late, I'm late, I'm late, I'm late, I'm LATE!" Sean spoek loudly, as he rushed through the hallways, entering the parade grounds, out of uniform, but there.

"...Okay, I'm not late," He stated, calming himself down, walking out into the parade grounds. Seeing Sergeant Jason, he grinned widely, walking up to him, saluting.

"Private First Class KC-0324, sir!"

"At ease," Jason spoke, looking nervously over at the girlish young boy. It was very unnerving for him, looking down at someone of his own gender who eyes spoke of yearning.

"I, uhm..." Sean looked down, wondering what he should say, now. "...Uhm, sir...I just want to say, it will be a pleasure to serve under you!"

[Redkun]

Virgo stared at Sean until he had disappeared from sight, and licked her lips curiously, tasting the remnants of strawberry lip-balm. She still found him a little strange. He babbled on about not wanting to fight (why fight at all then?), he talked about strange things (they were a little familiar, but he gave them weird names), he had a lot of feminine features even though he acted like a guy (maybe he just wasn't fully developed yet) and he tasted of strawberries (which wasn't exactly a bad thing.)

Yes, very strange.

Shaking her head, Virgo pressed her left hand against the scanner next to her door. A few moments later, there was a pleasant beep, and Virgo stepped back into her metal solitude. As the door shut behind her, sealing her inside, she took a deep breath of cold, recycled air and sighed happily. Carefully moving a stack of half-rebuilt circuit boards onto a large stack of various twisted pieces of metal hiding her workbench, she flumped down onto her bed, ready for a good twelve hours of sleep. After that, she could get back to work on some of her projects.

Just as she was about to drift off, the sleek mainframe at the far corner of the room suddenly blinked into existence, set off by the motion detectors installed in the room. A cool, synthesized male voice echoed through the room.

"Virgo, you have a new message."

The girl groaned. "Priority?" she groaned.

The systems voice recognition system took in the command, and instantly returned the perfectly toned response: "A-1. Very super important."

Virgo's eyes cracked open. A-1 priority usually meant that if she ignored it, bad things happened to her beautiful creations. It had been the only leash that the military had been able to find for her. Even though the recent upgrades to her lab's Automatic Defence Systems could stop a small army, it was best not to take any chances.

"Terrakun, patch message to my visor." she commanded, aiming her visor's infrared port at her most prized supercomputer. The message flashed up on the blue screen. It was something about a briefing that she had to attend, and a mission that promised her the chance to play around with new machines. Nothing specific, but the promise was enough to grab Virgo's attention.

Slinging her Technology Corps jacket over her shoulders, Virgo was (in her eyes) in uniform and ready to go. Before leaving the room, she picked up a few extra items: some mini-disks (both full and blank) for her visor, a couple of extra EMP grenades (she always carried some after an incident where one of her creations had had a slight bug in its behaviour codes) and an energy drink for the trip. You never knew when you needed a potent combination of sugar and caffeine in a delicious chocolate milkshake swirl. On her way out of the room, Virgo paused by Terrakun's mainframe, and after a few moments of thinking, leaned over to give the computer a quick, affectionate kiss on its metal casing.

Prepared for battle, Virgo stepped out into the corridor towards the briefing area, and then wondered where she could get strawberry lip balm, too. Turning in the opposite direction, Virgo began to blissfully amble down the corridor, on her newly found quest for un-chapped lips.

This post has been edited by Andrew I on Oct 31 2004, 06:56 AM

[The_Blind_Artist]

[ooc]: A thousand apologies. I have an excuse for neglecting this in the form of one word: NaNoWriMo. [/ooc]

One by one, soldiers had started coming onto the parade ground, to the area reserved for the 219th platoon, the new unit, formed by the fresh faced recruits, and had begun to salute Jason as he waited, some announcing themselves, others not. It all flashed by rather quickly as he paid little attention to them, giving most a half hearted salute back.

Then the pretty-boy turned up.

"Private First Class KC-0324, sir!" The young man saluted stiffly, looking over the sergeant in an odd manner.

“At ease.” Jason muttered dismissing him off-handily.

"I, uhm... ...Uhm, sir...I just want to say, it will be a pleasure to serve under you!" The private announced.

“Right.” Jason regarded him for a moment. “Just get in line.” He said simply, nodding at the gathering of troops behind the soldier. He had a feeling some of them were still missing, or running late, but there was no time to go hunting for them now because at that moment, the Captain strode out of the main building and towards the podium, her typical ‘all business’ grim expression plastered across her face.

“Ah-ten-shun!” Sergeant Redman bellowed out across the parade ground as 80 pairs of boots clacked into position. “Now that’s more like it. All yours Cap’in.” He spun around to face the steely faced captain as she looked out over the assembly.

“Thank you sergeant.” Jade responded almost emotionlessly. “Ladies and gentlemen, I will make this as brief as possible. Less than twelve hours ago, enemy activity along the north-western front picked up dramatically, following the crash landing of the battleship, Aurora. We suspect it has something to do with the sudden activation of a previously undetected lab that suddenly became active after the ship touched down. The city, C-one-two-oh-one, was not an important front previously, but this lab has been deemed as an important target by both our command and also the Northern forces.

“Our mission is to take and hold that lab, long enough for our field technicians to locate whatever data is inside and then bring it safely back to command for examination. Insertion into the city will be by hot drop approximately one mile west of the last known location of the unit that was holding the city prior to the Aurora’s crash landing. Both the one-twelfth, and one-fifteenth fight squadrons will be flying cover for the drop, and will draw the attention of any unknown AA emplacements.

“Following the drop, the two-twenty-second will begin a diversionary offensive on the Northern base in the city to draw their forces away from the lab. The Two-Twenty will accompany me into the lab, along with the field technicians, while the two-nineteen guard the lab against any forces who escape the diversion. If all goes well, once we have secured all the information in the lab, we will fall back to the pick up zone, two miles south of the lab. There is a secondary pick up zone, a former Southern military base that sits on the coastline to the south, approximately six miles south of the city.

“So that’s it people, straight forward and simple. You have two hours to prepare yourselves and be ready to lift off.” She concluded. “Good luck people. Section Commanders, I want to see you all separately in fifteen minutes. Dismissed.” With that, the Captain turned and marched off the small stage and back to the main building.

[Ayane112]

[occ] Nope doing fine. I need to pick up the pace to make the briefing, and give Wapa an opening. I’m sooo late![/occ]

“I'm Jana" she smiled "And they didn't kill my taste buds.”

Jana looked up at the clock and frowned. “I need to get my gear on. It’s almost time to go Marcus.” She smiled slyly. “We can go together if you’ll excuse me for a moment to get everything together.”

She stood up and waved at him slightly. She picked up the bag by the door with a grunt and opened the door. Down the hall was the ladies room, and she could slip into dress there. She slightly grazed another medic skipping down the hall. She did a half turn to say she was sorry but the other girl was going into the break room. Jana shrugged it off and headed into the ladies room.