Earth 2045

[Angel_Slayer_Alcatraz]

Nina grumbled, " don't believe it's early, just got off the line with my sister so I decided to make sure my m1911 was still acurate" she said while cleaning it

[napsii]

Emile's reply was a touch blunt and quite downtrodden, but Noelle felt she wanted to agree in the end. Her...creators had never been particularly callous, but she had to respect their bottom line; simple logic demanded that she did. She'd analyzed through and through reports of the war theatre, and the position for humanity had always been ailing. Wasn't a knife to the throat of a soldier worth it to win even one battle?

The thought gave her a sour taste and dulled her words. So she just nodded her head. Not in agreement, necessarily, but just in acknowledgement.

The arrival of another ASTAR operative -- oh, she recognized this man well: Vector -- stopped her from probing the subject further. She lifted her cigarette again. Emile was quick to hail him over and Noelle almost cringe; she didn't want anyone to get the wrong idea with her drinking...or with how much she gave a damn for Emile. She was prohibited from having more than certain quantity per day, for obvious reasons.

She closed her eyes, and all of a sudden she was in her room again:

...

"Do you think the idea of a man who is a machine unacceptable? I didn't read science fiction literature growing up...I had living diaramas -- like ones at the museums -- right in front of me," she puffed on her cigarette, looking fatigued as she stared into the camera. "I feel I have to thank them. The idea of harsh metal and electricity running through my veins...it made me feel grateful I was only bone and blood. But then, as I grew older, I thought: am I blessed, or cursed? Should I pity the men in metal, or should I envy them?" she seemed shaky, and tilted her head back with a stunted sigh.

"But you can't forget this: without success, you are nothing. But if you don't have success, you are something. Even if it means metal in your limbs, you must be nothing." she remained silent for a long while, and then stood up, looking down at the camera.

"Because your life is a thing of beauty...right?"

And the camera clicked off.

...

She looked down towards the table, tipping her cigarette into the ashtray, but otherwise said nothing.

[Gorbaz]

At the sound of the command centre door sliding open and then closed, Commander Forsythe looked up from a datapad he had been looking over and watched Lilly Swafford glide into the room. He liked the young girl, mostly because she was always polite to him. With a smile, he returned her salute and stood up. "At ease, miss Swafford" he said, as he put his data slate down. "..and good morning" he followed with a smile. "It's good of you to report in this early, especially today". James moved over to the holographic display and pressed some buttons, zooming in on a representation of an area around the base of several kilometers. "I believe it's time that you, and the rest of the commandos had a chance to use what you have learned, and the perfect oppotunity has presented itsself. But first..." he leaned over and pressed a button to switch on the base intercom. "All ASTAR operatives on site, this is Commander Forsythe. Please report to the command centre, on the double"

[thealchemist]

Roy looked up when heard the command in disbelief. "I'm sorry, but I have to go." He muttered, placing the apple in Meeples stable and gave one last stroke before rushing to the command center. Roy burst in through the doors and snapped into salute. "Roy at your service sir!"

[Rooiehaan #2]

Meeple hinnied as her eyes zoomed in on the apple, and quickly grabbed it with her teeth. She saw her friend leave, of which she was sad, but the gift he left her made her happy as well. She strode back to her usual patch of grass and slowly started munching on his apple, while pondering what the coming change might be. Perhaps they would let her out of this pen soon? All she had seen until now was a small farm where she was razed, the laboratory where she was enhanced, the armory where she got her metal plating and now this small patch of grass where she could roam free; if only just a little. Her purpose had yet to come and, even though this simple life was good enough for her, she sort of wanted to be set free on the world. roam it. explore it. Run all across it. Perhaps even... help conquer it?

[Luxuria]

Luna always showed a cheerful expression. That was one of the things why others labeled her as crazy... She would be out in the field, blasting mutants and covered with gore, still laughing. But who can blame her, she was just a happy girl after all. And so was she now, even after hearing her 'friend' grumble. Maybe she just had a difficult talk with her sister?, Luna though. She didn't know how it was to have sisters or a family. At least not a real one, she was created in a birthing tank in the lab. Oh, there were most likely a male and a female donor for all necessary genes... but that still wasn't the same.

Anyways, now she considered her friends, or, to be more precise the Corps, as her family. And this one seemed to be a bit sad. "Everything alright, Nina? You seem a bit grumpy", Luna said, while looking at her friend cheerfully. "No need to worry, everything will be alright! Would you like a little competition to cheer up? I promise, I will go easier on you this time!", of course Luna was far from the best markswoman in the base. She was more of the type to blast so much EX-ammo into her victim that it would consist only of unrelated pieces. She was deadly precise compared to normal humans still, those that weren't from the corps. She was just about to drag Nina to one of the boxes, as she heard the commander through the speakers.

"It seems our competition has to wait! Now the real fun seems to start!", like mentioned earlier, she was a happy, crazy girl. She stormed of, leaving Nina to stand there, before stopping for a moment. She turned around to wave her friend to follow her: "Come on, Nina! We can't let the boss wait, can't we?" Than she turned around again the hurry down the corridors towards the command center. Just before she reached the command center, she noticed a few guards laying around, holding their backs and necks, slowly getting up. Just as they tried to raise the hand to stop her, she threw them a vicious grin. The man, probably the bulkiest of them seemed to have learned his lesson and sank back against the wall, trying to get away from the girl. Luna sticked out her tongue towards the man, before entering the command center itself.

She quickly noticed the commander, his adjutant, Lily and Roy already in the room. She waved her hand in a 'hello' to everyone, still giggling a bit at the guard, before remembering where she was. "Hay!... um I mean... Good Morning, Sir. Luna Silvers reporting in!" Luna giggled a bit at herself. She always found that strict military dealings kind of silly. Of course, she didn't want to insult any of her friends, who saw that otherwise and so she kept it to herself.

[Reaver]

Emile sighss at the command and gets up. "Time to take the show on the road." he takes the bottle of rum and drinks most of it before emptying the rest into his flask. He smokes his cigar all the way to the hq and stops outside the door, looking at the K.Oed guards. "shit and I thought I was violent off duty." he puts out his cigar on one of the guard's chest, muttering it's all for the cause. Then he straightens out his clothes before entering and snapping a salute. "Emile reporting For duty and hoping to get back to drinking soon, sir." he relaxes and takes a sip of his flask before grinning and leaning against a wall.

[Icaelus]

"999.."
Mex grinned. She had broken the heck out of her previous record..might as well go as high as she could, eh? She lowered her head to the sights. A thousand perfect shots. Beat that, Noelle! And of course the announcement had to come just then, shocking her. The bullet left the chamber with a roar, drowning out most of the Commander's voice but the damage was done. Mex gaped in disbelief at the one centimeter difference between the two bullet holes. Fucking Forsythe. Couldn't he text her or something? Least those were silent!
"Fuck it."
Mex growled in annoyance as she slung her rifle over her shoulder and made her way to the command centre. She blinked at the sight on the floor, three unconscious guards. No surprise there. They probably got in Lily's way or something. Never a good idea. Oh well. Might as well do some insult to injury. Mex delivered a kick to one of the unconscious guard's ribs as she passed, instantly feeling quite a bit better. Hurting someone, always a good stress reliever!
She pushed open the doors into the command centre, going in and immediately glaring at the Commander, though she still gave him a rather shabby and lazy salute.

[napsii]

The familiar voice of Forsythe was a little grainy through the intercom, but it was loud and clear enough to split any hopes of mingling in half. Noelle was quick to pack up, sliding her rifle back over her shoulder and slipping past Emile and Vector with all grace (although she did bump into them a bit crudely) to brush off towards the command center. Contrary to what others thought of her in battle, she hated dawdling about when it came to reporting in. She just really liked to go prone when she could. Charging around a battlefield, she felt, was often exhausting and pointless. Best to just start spawncamping the mutants from 800 metres away as they emerged from the hive.

Her cigarette hung from her mouth as she walked, leaving a little thread of gray smoke behind in the air. Oh, one didn't need to worry about second hand smoke. These were the new and advanced kind which had an effect on nobody but the ones using them. Hence why she was liberal to light one up in a hospital maternity wards, trauma center operating rooms, laboratories studying neurotoxins...

And restaurants.

She approached the corridors down the command center just behind her good old pal Mex, indifferent at how she continued the pattern of abuse for the unconscious guards. She sympathized with whoever had done it. Temper tantrums were the byproduct of poor treatment and faulty engineering, she felt, and so they couldn't be held responsible.

All she needed was her hands stuffed into her pockets to complete the emo look, but her skirt had no pockets. Well, at least with her staid but downtrodden body language, she looked kinda...well, semi-respectable. She didn't slouch, at least.

She paused to the left of Mex, smelling gunsmoke drifting from the obviously still warm barrel of her rifle, but she made no comment. Instead she looked to the commander with her eyes 3 quarters of the way open, wordless.

[RavenLord]

Thurim walked among the mangled corpses of mutants. Blood seeped from their mutilated bodies, washing the ground and forming pools of red. Each of these abomoniations had fallen to his blade. Each of them, broken or dismembered. Thurim walked among their bodies, like the death incarnate. He stopped for a second, as he noticed a corpse, corpse of a human, a fellow soldier. Though not like him, in body, he was his comrade. Thurim reached for his flamethrower, tearing it from his hands, after checking its fuel he stood up and turned back at the corpses of mutants. Disgusting mutants... Thurim muttered, and pulled the trigger, unleashing the hungry flames on the corpses. Flames quickly spread, claiming bodies and eating them away. Thurim threw away the now empty flamethrower. Grabbing the corpse of soldier he started walking, dragging his corpse alone. It was long walk back to base...

[Lady Foxy]

Lily returned to a casual, but respectful stance when she was allowed to be at ease, nodding just so. But then, the Commander said that it was good for her to report early, especially today. Sounds like something's up, probably.. ''Thanks, It's my own desire to wake up early.'' She followed him with her eyes, looking over to the holographic display before he began showing a representation of a certain area around the base with several kilometers in distance.

When other A.S.T.A.R. commandos started to 'pour' into the room, she had already stepped up to the holographic display and was now analyzing what the Commander was setting up with it. ''This opportunity, what does it involve? Will we perform an attack?'' Lily asked with an honest expression on her face, looking up at the Commander with her arms crossed; although she currently was in a 'good' mood by her standards.

[Reaver]

"Calm down Sparky. There is enough missions to go around." Emile says as all of Lily's questions start killing his buzz. "Just wait until the commander is ready and until then have a drink and don't worry that brain about it." He takes another sip from his flask before shooting Lily a wink. Clearly they had to rush the A.S.T.A.R program if they produced a teenager with patience problems, which means even bigger problems for humanity if they're running out of time.

[Lady Foxy]

(Just playing my character, don't push her limited patience too much Ikechi! D:)

Lily's muscles got tense as she was called 'Sparky', offering a slow and deadly glance to the person that had been responsible for calling her such thing. ''I know there are enough missions for you to become a skeleton, but I was just asking the Commander. And I regret having to reject your idea of a drink, plus my brain is quite busy too.'' She said in a firm, provocative tone even though she had been instructed to hold back any action against her own 'fellow co-workers'.

Well, like she had followed that rule that much anyways.. ''Since when they bring drunken specimens into a Command Center? I'm curious.'' Lily asked without needing to turn around, focusing on the holographic display as focus was more important then dealing with others; less if they were showing the lack of attention anything needed. Ugh, others.

[Reaver]

(fine, ;D one more comment from Emile)
Emile takes a long sip before returning the glance with another wink. "Ever since I could beat you with one hand. And if you wanna talk about specimens, since when did they allow little, sassy, impatient, girls into the Command Center? Just be careful or I might spank you like a little child." He puts the flask away and starts examining his weapons. Starting with his his energy sword which he looks at the handle, already forgetting about the girl.

[Gorbaz]

"Alright, calm down you lot" Forsythe said as he took a step back, crossed his arms, and looked at the assembled group. They were all fresh, either recruits, specially grown, or been enhanced. But they were still truly untested. Their training scores were high, and each had their own quirks, but it would be on the battlefield where they would prove their worth. Still, he tried to be as neutral as he could with them. "I'm sure there's no point skirting around the issue, so here it is" he said. "As you are no doubt aware, it is standard procedure for all operational bases to send out a rotating signal, once every two days, to show that they are still active". He stepped forward again and pointed to the holo display. "Fort Augustine hasn't sent out a signal for a week. Now, that usually means one of two things. Either the whole base is on extended manuvers, or Mutants have gotten in. I want you to head out there and investigate the situation." He stepped away and crossed his arms behind his back, facing away from the commandoes. "As a secondary objective, recover what supplies you can from there. If our worst fears arn't realised, then I'm sure the commander won't mind in putting together a little aid package for us. Take the horse with you on this one, it may come in handy. We have two APC's ready to take you, you just need to let them know. Any questions?"

-----

REAPER

You trudge through the countryside, dead soldier in tow. The horde that was defeated was too large to be a scouting force, but it consisted of only the smaller kind of Mutants, thereby suggesting that it wasn't going to or coming from anywhere of seeming importance for them. If only your transport chopper hadn't crashed, getting back to the base would be alot easier. You also count yourself lucky that there were no larger ones, or your comrade might not be a corpse....

[thealchemist]

Roy snapped into salute once more trying to hide his grin. "Yes sir!" Roy the fell at ease and waited to be dismissed.

[Reaver]

Emile raises his hand. "Yeah I got a question before we leave. If we get stranded are we allowed to eat the horse to keep us alive?

[Lady Foxy]

Lily hadn't been beaten by him, less with one hand although his 'lovely' comments about her reminded her to get rid of him sometime; maybe wipe that cocky attitude off of him. She had been about to loose her calm and -wham- the life out of him, beginning to turn around before the Commander interrupted the useless bickering; and thanks God he did.

''So the mission would be, investigate why Fort Augustine hasn't been sending a signal and apply the necessary actions afterwards.. And recover supplies along the way, got it Commander. I'll be heading out immediately.'' She stated with a firm expression before saluting the Commander away, walking out of the Command Center -- slamming her left knee along the way into Emile's crotch, courtesy of how what he manages to speak out of his mouth -- and feeling the door slide shut behind her.

Then, to Fort Augustine it is. The A.S.T.A.R. Commando known as Lily Swofford soon was set to her personal quarters, getting her Tactical Armour and then heading over to the armory; obtaining her trusty weapons. She would then be on her way to the two APC's waiting for them, smirking as she thought about leaving that idiot behind back from the Command Center.

[napsii]

As she paid little mind to her contemporaries' futile bickering, Noelle's presence in the command center was brief. She skipped giving any thought to Emile's rampant drunkenness in favor of listening to Forsythe. She'd never quite liked the man for reasons...well, perhaps unreasonable. She'd been officially signed off to his jurisdiction, but only on lease. Her position in ASTARS could be terminated for any arbitrary reason, and thus she was never too quick to leap on trusting him.

She blew smoke out her nose, her cigarette seeming a touched bored as it hung from the corner of her mouth lazily, dripping a spot of ash onto the floor as Noelle listened. Nothing about what Forsythe ordered came to mind as unique or outstanding, but she was already drawing on her observations of missions like these to guess how many things would turn out contrary to their expectations.

The young woman supposed that, ultimately, it would boil down to the grittiness of their combat skills and not genius tactical planning. Being ambushed by mutants expecting to overwhelm them by way of numbers wasn't out of the ordinary...one would just fire and slash and hope their numbers tapered off before you ran out.

She was prompt to leave. Her gear was stowed away in her room at the dorms and so obviously that was her first stop. Wordless to the others, she'd navigated with taut steps back to her room and clicked the door shut. She sighed, butting out her cig and prying open the cabinet where her slim fitting recon armor was. She strapped it on tightly after stripping out of her civ clothes pulling on her slim, fingerless black gloves and sliding on the fancy black circumaural headset -- both hearing protection and a communication device -- onto her head, the little mic tucked out of the way.

Along with ammo, sidearm and her Thermal Blade (strapped as usual over her back, the handle poking out above her left shoulder) she had little else to take, except an ancient MP3 player she slid into her vest. From there, it was off to the APCs, rifle and blade over her back and handgun strapped to a holster on her right thigh. She was fully decked with ammo, but looking downtrodden as ever as she'd lit up another cigarette to twirl around her fingers just as she approached whoever was standing ready and waiting by the APCs. No opinion on the mission, apparently.

[Reaver]

Emile grunts and almost fell to the ground when Lily kneed him in the balls. He leaned there for a couple of second recovering while drinking a little rum to dull the pain. When the pain passed he got up and went to his room and started getting ready for the mission. He donned his Mark IV tactical armor complete with the EVA helmet with the built-in comm before loading his assault rifle and his pistol. Straping them in their magnetic strips he picks up his energy sword igniting it and swinging it around before sheathing it. He grabs and couple more cigars and rums bottles for the road while muttering "I hope that bitch tries kicking me in the nuts again. I'll fuck the shit out of her before giving her to the mutants." Then he turns the lights off and leaves his room, heading for the APCs.