Project Freelancer

The large, white room was filled with only a small ground of people, less than half of the original candidates remained. South Dakota stood stiff, her breathing slightly heavy as her heart pumped. They were facing a one-way mirror and she knew that on the other side there were even higher ups watching them, talking about them, judging. How she’d gotten this far she’d never know.

“Hello agents.” The feminine robotic voice broke the silence of the room and South jumped slightly, gasping in shock. She felt something brush against her hand and she dared a glance to the side to see North Dakota beside her, his hand beside hers, touching, but not holding, just reminding her he was there to comfort her. “Congratulations on making it past the preliminary elimination rounds. I am the Freelancer Integrated Logistics and Security System. You may call me F.I.L.S.S. It is a pleasure to meet you. Secondary testing rounds will be beginning shortly. These tests are designed to evaluate your abilities in a variety of skills you will need to survive. Please feel free to take a seat and wait until your name is called. Thank you.”

South let out this breath she had been unconsciously holding and moved to sit on the most nearby seat almost immediately, North following along and sitting beside her, placing a hand momentarily on her back. “You okay kiddo?” South looked up at him and nodded slightly. “You’re doing fine.” He assured her. “You made it this far, didn’t you?”

“Somehow.” The girl grumbled, looking back to the floor. “I heard we’re going to be ranked by our results in the next round. I guess we’ll find out how ‘fine’ I’m really doing then.” Beneath her helmet, despite her words, she gave him a smile and it reflected very slightly in her voice.

“You just do things your way.” North advised her quietly. “They’ll throw you into a lot of situations you’re not comfortable with and that are going to try to overwhelm you. But use that big brain of yours and think your way around the problem. Approach it from a different angle-”

The voice of F.I.L.S.S rang out throughout the room, calling the first agent to a testing room. Silence followed as one of them turned and left the room without a word.About ten minutes later another agent was called though there seemed to be no order to it at all. His name followed after another wait and he stood, resting a hand on South’s shoulder. “I’ll see you at the end of this okay?” He said softly, leaving the room as she watched him worriedly.

Carolina sighed, he had just finished reassembling his assault rifle and cleaning it when he heard the voice call his name standing up slowly he walked towards the door. He stepped in looked at the glass above and spoke letting the spooks and higher ups know he was ready. "Agent North Carolina is ready to begin." With that they began the test, starting with the obstacle course he clocked in his best time to date then grabbed a sniper rifle and hit the range, he wasn't the best marksman but he was good, landing close to 85 percent of all his shots, damn he was on fire today. After a few more tests at which he he managed to stay above average on all of them.

He re-entered the room and sat down near some of the other agents, he was tired but he wouldn't let that slow him down taking off his helmet he yawn and leaned back a couple minutes of sleep would do him some good. Well unless the other agents wanted to talk, he could at least oblige them that. He placed his hands behind his head running through his short cut red hair as he looked around at the others. He stayed calm, the other seemed tense and worried however, he shrugged and shut his eyes, round three would start soon and whether or not he was in it he was going to be ready.

“Firearms accuracy test assessment stage one- begin.”

Raising the training gun, which fired an infrared laser, at F.I.L.S.S’s command North waited as green holographic targets began firing, the targets flashing red once they had been successfully hit. The aim was to hit all the targets as quickly as possible. North felt more confident than he had in all the other tests he’d been issued with so far and completed the stage one in what F.I.L.S.S deemed an ‘impressive time. As stage two began, which was similarly structured however differed in that this time holographic soldiers were being created and were running at him, firing off weapons of their own, so if you were hit you were out.

Despite the fact that he needed to concentrate on the tasks at hand North couldn’t help think about South and how she was doing with her trials. He quickly ducked out of the way of another laser and fired off three quick rounds, ridding himself of the attacker as two more spawned and he fired off before they moved into their attack sequence. Now breathing slightly heavily he waited for the next wave, however they never came.

“Simulation complete. Thank you Agent North. Please take a moment to rest and prepare yourself for the next simulation.”

Moving over to the bench he leant against it, shaking his head slightly. He needed to concentrate, there were a few moments there were he could have done better if he hadn't been worrying about South. A few things began being moved into the room, the movement distracting him from his thoughts and he pushed himself off the wall, observing them curiously.

In the end he did probably better that he’d expected to do on nearly everything, only slipping up on a couple of the tests that were things he naturally struggled with. Walking back into the waiting room he looked around but didn’t see South anywhere, so took a seat on his own and waited for her.

***

Slamming her back into the crate South sank closer to the ground, breathing heavily. This was impossible. There was no way this could be done. She moved just an inch to look around one of the large crates that was acting as a shield between her and the turret however bullets began zipping past her. Rubber bullets of course, this was a training exercise after all. The aim was ‘simple’ as F.I.L.S.S put it; take out the shooter, don’t get shot. However she couldn’t get a clear shot at it. Every time she moved to line up a shot they began firing at her.

She knew what North would do; he’d angle it and perform some amazing ricochet shot off the wall. Her aim wasn’t bad, but she’d never be able to pull off that shot. Leaning against the wall she looked up at the ceiling. Approach it from a different angle. Suddenly North’s words rang in her mind and she had an idea. It was crazy, but it might work. They couldn’t shoot what they couldn’t see. Pointing her gun up at the ceiling she shot out the lights and the room was plunged into darkness. Despite the fact that it was dark she engaged her Active Camouflage and the strobe light, placing it just near the corner of the crate before running forwards, firing off more rounds than necessary until suddenly an alarm started sounding.

“Simulation Complete. Thank you Agent South Dakota.” Back-up lights bathed the room in red and she moved to wait by the corner as men removed the training materials.

“She’s performing unexpectedly well.” One of the observers commented to another. Both were standing off in a small room, full of computer screens that displayed the different agents at different stages of the testing.

“Perhaps.” The man commented, absently. “Then again her issue was never training. It’s her never when faced with human opponents…” He trailed off for a moment. “F.I.L.S.S what’s her next assessment?”

“Field skills, Director.”

“Change that to hand-to-hand combat.” The man commented in almost a bored tone. “And… put her up against agent California.”

In California’s mind she was doing fine. And she was. Her scores compared to any normal soldier were impressive. However the level of the other freelancer agents was a step up from those she was used to and whilst she may have been the best back where she came from, here her scores were falling below the average.

“Hand to hand combat trails will begin shortly.”

She had thought the robotic voice would annoy her eventually, but it actually proved to be a nice, soothing voice that gave her an odd sense of calm. She moved over and took a drink of water from the bench, turning as she heard the door to the room open and a very unsure South Dakota ushered in. for a moment she paused and then looked up at the security camera that had been recording her results. “What is this?” She demanded angrily. “Seriously? The fuck is this?!”

“Your hand to hand combat opponent, Agent California.” F.I.L.S.S replied.

“I thought all the tests were supposed to be simulations? We weren’t supposed to fight actual opponents!” It wasn’t that she was worried about actually fighting the other girl, she’d seen her in the preliminary rounds, fighting wasn’t her strength. It was more she felt bad about the fact she was going to have to fight her, it didn’t seem fair and it meant she had been misled.

“We are the ones who make the rules here, California. Just approach this like any other sparring match.” That voice wasn’t F.I.L.S.S, rather someone she didn’t recognise. One of the higher ups no doubt.

Groaning California turned to look at South, it was so hard to tell what people were thinking; feeling when you wouldn’t see their faces. Still, she wasn’t going to let her score drop because of this. Moving forward she waited for the signal and once given the go-ahead quickly engaged on agent South.

Pennsylvania had tried to strike up conversation with several of the other agents, but none of them had taken him up on the offer. Shame, it would have helped sooth the nerves, focusing on something other than the testing. He always had nerves giving him trouble, especially before any sort of work. These tests didn't give it to him bad at all, but however, that didn't mean he didn't acknowledge them. They would not dictate his actions, only warn him to be prepared, even more so then he already was. It didn't take too long for them to call up his codename, and he rose, stretching as he double checked, and he had lost track of how many times he had, his armor as he walked through the doors. First test seemed right up his alley. Weapons testing, simple enough, not quite his spot of tea, but far from something he had a problem with. He scored well enough, above average, and near perfect in weapons similar to his specialty, the dummy rockets, grenades, and such. Anything that would normally make a boom.

After that was a series of strength, endurance, speed, agility, the usual stuff folks tested for in physical categories. Nothing too unusual there either, which Pennsylvania found odd. Probably in follow up tests, for those that passed the general stuff. It was all rather underwhelming to the man, he was waiting for the bombshell, metaphorically or literally speaking. He always found that men in positions of power liked to try and wrangle out ways to surprise and stun the test subjects, in this case him and the others, just for their own little notebooks and dossiers and such. Never had much fondness for it, he reminded himself on a down time between tests, far too much could be stolen from those. Much harder to steal that kind of info from a good, reliable brain. But he snapped himself out of the thinking as this FLISS thing announced the next test was Acquisition and Evasion, otherwise known as capture the flag with a twist. The man sighed, and went into the next chamber, getting underway with planning how to ghost whatever the big wigs had planned this time. He never did like the quiet approach, far too much mucking about and too much could go wrong, but if its what they wanted, he would comply.

North looked up as the door opened and the next group of those who’d finished their stage 2 assessments came shambling in. He stood slightly, trying to catch sight of South amongst them, it was hard because everyone here was taller than her, but he did see her coming up amongst the last of the group. Smiling, even beneath his helmet he quickly waved her over to him. “So? How’d you go?” He asked, unable to hide the excitement in his voice.

She shrugged in response. “Okay I suppose… It’s hard to tell though, you have no idea how everyone else did. Got my butt kicked at hand-to-hand but that’s nothing new.” She shrugged and then winced, rolling her shoulder gingerly. “That California has a real good punch, she knocked me flat in like a minute or something.”

North looked at her in surprise, looking up at the other girl in question and then back to South. “Wait… what? You had to fight another one of us? I just got some training hologamy thing.”

South shrugged in response. “She seemed surprised about it too. It doesn’t matter though, it was never going to be something I did well at anyway.”

Still, that fact that they’d altered the training didn’t sit right with North. He was about to go over and say something to the other girl when F.I.L.S.S’s voice came over the speakers. “Attention agents, thank you for your cooperation with today’s assessments. That concludes the testing for today, stage three will begin tomorrow at 06:00 and agents are expected not to be late. It is recommended you have a good night sleep before then. Thank you.”

Deciding to let it go for now the two moved to the locker-room and stored their amour, both peeling back helmets to reveal platinum blonde hair and bright blue eyes. “I don’t know about you, but I’m starving.” North commented absently as he put his helmet away. “Coming?” He asked as he moved off towards the mess hall, South following happily in tow, both on them smiling happily at each other.

Carolina got up when they finally told him the test's were over. He stopped however, looking at the twins shrugging he decide now was as good a time as any. "Hey you two wait up!" He jogged up beside them. "I'm Carolina, you two must be North and South, the twins. I heard you guys are some of the favorites for this. I don't think I'll make the cut personally. I don't even know why I'm here, how did you two get picked for this dog and pony show?" He yawned and stretched, there was no way someone could be this relaxed with all this stress and pressure to do well yet here was Carolina calm almost looking bored.

As he spoke you could see a shift, if just for a moment, his eyes dart examining others as they passed, learning everything about the room. From the way his eyes moved it was clear his brain was moving at a million miles an hour. He looked like he knew how to take care of the entire of the room before he sighed and the relax carefree attitude flowed back he smiled shutting his eyes. You get the feeling this guy is a hell of a lot better than he seems. "You mind if I join you two in the mess, after this I'm hitting the training room then down to vehicle bay then maybe a nap." He yawned as he walked alongside them, he seemed to be joining whether you wanted his company or not.

In his mind however he had just seen most of his competition, half the room thinks they have failed, another third thinks they just took top slot and the remaining are to damn good for me to tell. Still gives me a idea of who really is good and whose more than likely out of it, I guess tomorrow will tell us more. Still I know there to start eliminating people soon I mean not all of us can stay, I know I'm in the top half but I'm not top mark... Now seeing the rest of them I know in better shape than I thought, still I need to know whose on top of all this. That way I get a idea of how things descend from there.

After the training, in the locker-room once she had removed her amour, revelling short, pixie brown hair and green eyes California looked around, trying to locate South Dakota. Despite the fact that it had been orders, she still felt annoyed about being forced to fight her. It hadn't been fair. It was a lot harder to recognise people out of amour, but she suspected the pair of blondies walking away were a good bet since a lot of people were speculating that they were some kind of pair or something. However before she was able to move she saw Carolina running up to them and a brief look of disappointment crossed her face before she turned and walked away.

Clearly it wasn’t something that was going to happen, at least for now. Sometimes she was a little too proud for her own good and she would prefer to do things like apologising when there wasn’t an audience. Following at a distance she moved off to sit on her own at another table, deciding a meal wasn’t the worst idea to get something to eat before she went to bed. Once she was done she quickly rose and left, trying to draw as little attention to herself as possible.

Iowa was pleased that he had passed the first stage. Once he had assembled his battle rifle he heard his name being called. He entered the ‘arena’ and announced his presence; “Agent Iowa present and ready” with that the test began, the obstacle course was harder than he had expected but He managed it in an above average time. He moved to shooting range grabbing the battle rifle. He had obviously had a good day when the voice told him he had reached 75% accuracy. The next test called was hand to hand combat, He was one of the lucky ones that I could spa against some simulations. He managed a fantastic 87% pass He was extremely pleased with himself after that.

It had been some time since Iowa had been in a high end simulation like this one but he was it was soon going to end.
“Agent Iowa Round three is based on your specialty which for you is medical work. You will be given a wounded soldier your objective is to eliminate the enemies and keep your patient from bleeding out whilst under heavy fire, Good hunting agent.”

After F.I.L.I.S had stopped speaking the room came to life again. Blocks rose from the ground to make High and low cover. He moved over to the patient and the simulation started. He immediately popped up his field projector and moved his patient to heavy cover. He looked up and spotted the turrets on either side Iowa knew the moment he popped up he would get ploughed down. He knew that he had to create a distraction.

He could guess that the turrets are heat seeking so he grabbed his ‘EVAC’ flare and threw it in furthest corner of the room. Whilst the turrets were distracted he used his DMR and took out two of the three turrets. Time was counting down until his patient bled out, he knew he couldn't leave him, which would be an instant mission failure. All of a sudden his wrist beeped with a message: ‘Cleared for equipment usage’ He threw down his field and ran knowing that it would protect the patient from incoming fire. He moved from cover to cover and found the last turret. His wrist buzzed and read a message: 'armor energy now at 10%'. He didn't have time for this. He waited in cover to calibrate his armor, he was now without a HUD and a motion tracker. Iowa had to move fast now he was sure that he only had a couple more seconds until his patient bled out, he was pretty sure that the patient wasn't just a dummy. He popped around his cover and emptied his mag the turret was down but he had taken a few hits, thank good they were just rubber. Once it was disabled the room changed back to normal. and the so called 'Dummy' was dragged off by staff. All of a sudden F.I.L.S.S came back on the speaker.
“Thank you Agent Iowa on that round you ranked in at a percentage of 65% efficiency Congratulations that is your best score to date. You may proceed back into return to your fellow combatants.”

"Bull shit No way my equipment drained that much energy" He muttered to him self walking back to the room where he had been waiting

During the waiting time Iowa was studying the agents. They were certainly an odd bunch. He moved to his locker and took off his Armour revealing his buzz cut blonde hair and crystal blue eyes and then moved to the canteen, he thought he was on his own until he caught someone at the door of the canteen. He approached her, he knew the chances of her being in his group were minimal but he might as well take it, he introduced himself “Hello, I could be mistaken but I believe you were in my group,” I extended my hand “My name is Agent Iowa and if I'm correct You’re Agent California.”

“Too bad Pennsylvania is a boy.” South said, out of the blue as they walked.

North looked at her with a bit of surprise, the comment out of the blue for even her. The words themselves even more cryptic. Still, he couldn’t resist and had to ask. “And why is that?”

“I could have nicknamed her Penny.” South replied curtly.

North simply groaned in response, shaking his head. “I will never get your obsession with these nicknames.” He replied, giving her a sceptical look.

“No, no, no!” South insisted. “Look, calling people these state names is weird to me okay? It feels like they’re trying to… dehumanise us or something. Turn us into objects instead of people. I think that’s the idea behind it anyway. So the nicknames are kind of my way or keeping people… people?” She sounded confused, even to herself. “But a lot of them are hard because the names I’m coming up with are girl’s names… I’ve got Kali for California; so far Pennsylvania is Penny for lack of a better name.” She continued to lost off names, stopping as someone called out to them.

North chuckled to himself. “And what about that guy?”

“Carolina? Well… if he were a girl I could have called him Carol… Lina sounds shit… um… give me a minute on this one.” As the man caught up to them the girl continued to mumble to herself as North spoke back to the man.

“I don’t know where you heard that from…” North responded, the idea that him and South were favourites putting him on edge. If that was what people were already saying then it meant they may have targets on their backs. The look, fleeting as it was, in this guy’s eyes was already starting to prove his fears. He seemed friendly enough, but the way he was looking at everyone else put him on edge, like he was sizing them up or something. Then again there were obviously some taking this a lot more serious than he and South. It also indicated that maybe he was purposely trying to mislead them to get information.

“…can’t call him North, because North’s North, we could call him North if we called North Dakota, but Dakota is a girl’s name too and then people may start associating me with Carolina…”

As South continued to talk to herself, North chuckled again for a moment, shaking his head as he continued to talk to Carolina. “And we’re not twins, though it’s a common misconception. We were actually born four years apart. As for ending up in this mess… who knows? We were picked just like everyone else, out of the blue for no reason. I guess they liked my sister’s big brain here…”

“…Car… Arol… Roli… Oli…Lina…Ina…”

“…Which she is using for a very noble cause right now.” He chuckled again, trying to relax. He hoped he was just being paranoid, that his protective nature was just getting the best of him and he was seeing things where there wasn’t any. “And we’re kind of a package deal… maybe they liked the way we worked together…” He had other theories, but he wasn’t about to go proclaiming to the world that South was afraid to kill people.

As they moved to sit down South finally seemed to emerge from her little think tank, though the annoyed groan indicated that it was a less than successful venture. “I don’t know!” She declared loudly. “It would be so much easier if you were a girl. Then you could just be Carol. But no. So now all I’ve got is Carl or Ollie.” She didn’t seem happy with these outcomes and sat down, letting her head drop to the table.

Carolina laughed, South was very funny and North seemed like a good guy, definitely the stronger of the two. "Well if your trying to think of a nickname my old squad used to call me captain loud mouth. But Ollie is good, but you find a better one and you can use that. Anyway I'm more in South boat's I guess, I'm to smart for my own good, I used to be a infantry officer then spent a few rotation with the Admiralty on black ops missions. I've just got a gift when it comes to people and knowing what they plan on doing." He pointed to a one of the crew, a guy who looked like he was hitting on a female agent. "In three seconds she's going to punch him in the nose, kick him in the shin, and give him a knee to the forehead for the stupid pick up line he just used."

Like magic, the women's fist connected with the guys nose, a sickening crack then a howl of pain from him as she struck his shin bone lastly as his head came done wrapping his hands around his legs her knee met his forehead, the sound metal hitting bone was not pleasant. He smiled at the site his prediction spot on as a group medical officers rushed in most of the room barely noticing. "Now just cause I see this stuff doesn't make me good, I can tell what your going to do. Doesn't mean I have the skill to stop it, normally I just avoid it or remove myself from a situation that looks bad. If your wondering how I know all this, I can read lips, I have a masters degree in science of lying and body language as well PHD in psychology. I'm not a great soldier I just know people better than they know themselves and it helps me solve problems."

He smiled like a man holding a 21 at the start of a game at black jack. "Relax, I'm trying to make friends here, get the feeling that with a project like this they will want to get rid of us at some point down the road, might as well go ahead and start having friend and allies for when the day comes." He seemed more scientist than soldier, yet with all that training and ability you get the feeling he could really be one of the top slots in live combat perhaps not as good in training sessions though. "What are your specialties around here?"

California stopped at the strange outburst from South Dakota, looking over at the girl she shook her head before turning away, about to move on when suddenly a guy appeared in front of her. Funny, he looked like he could be related to North and South, maybe he was. She doubted it; otherwise he’d probably be over there with them instead of here with her. That and the Dakota’s thing seemed to be blue, but she was pretty sure this guy had been in red and black amour. Either way she took an unconscious step backwards at the extended hand and, after a suspicious glance, she reached out and shook it.

She wasn’t in this to make friends, but she wasn’t going to go out of her way to be rude either. “You would be correct.” She confirmed, though honestly had no idea what to say next. Casual chit-chat had never really been her thing. “You’ll um… have to forgive me… I don’t remember you at all.” Whilst a lot of the other agents had been sizing up the competition, studying them, she had been focusing solely on herself. Knowing how good the others were was not going to get her any more points in this game.

Once again the look on the man’s face put North on edge. This time he knew he had seen anything and, subconsciously he cast a protective glace at South, who seemed oblivious to what he was seeing, however as if sensing his gaze on her the girl did look over at him. It was weird how used to the amour he was, how it hid so much emotion from the outside world. His words weren’t any more comforting. “I’m guessing the amour makes a lot of what you do difficult though.” South Suddenly spoke up, turning her gaze back to the other man. “I mean so much of body langue is small things in the face, which you wouldn’t be able to see when they’re wearing amour. You’d only have body movement to go off; it’d also eliminate the possibility of lip reading.”

North wasn’t surprised by this at all, it hadn't been something he’d thought about himself but it made sense. “I’m a sharp shooter.” He quickly interrupted, trying to steer the conversation away from the previous topic. He thought it was rather bold of the guy to be talking so openly about it, surely this place had ears everywhere. “Not really much to explain… I take shots and most of the time I hit things. I’m a lot more proficient with long range weapons, the sniper probably being my favourite for obvious reasons. But I’m still fine at close range with firearms.” It didn’t translate to hand to hand combat very well, but once again this small piece of information he kept to himself.

“Information technology… for lack of a better word I guess.” South shrugged casually. It was obvious she was a lot more at ease than her brother was. “Never met a computer problem I couldn’t solve yet.” She seemed entirely confident in her abilities and cast the slightest glace sideways at North for a moment, smiling in a seemingly innocent matter before turning back to Ollie. “Locks and classified information are my personal favourite. People get so creative when they’re trying to protect stuff.”

"I'm aware of that, lets just say I know couple others methods for the time being." He smiled at North, he could tell the man really didn't like him, no one liked him I mean a guy who could tell what you thought was just not attractive to have as a friend. South on the other was much smarter than her brother, she refused to allow her subconscious to show how she felt about him or she didn't really care, he liked both answers. He nodded listening as they explained there skills sets, North was just a damn good shot, a talented individual, born with a gifted eye and more than likely had training to make it better. South on the other hand looked like the kind person who got where she was thanks to a little talents and a lot of work.

Carolina sighed and run a hand through his hair looking at South. "Yes human try to protect things with so much security and caution, but the more you look something in the more reason you give to want it." He nodded, he was sure he and South could get along, intellectual respect and all that. "So lets change the subject shall we? Hobbies what do you like to do in your spare time." He decided to get away from the topic of work. It would be a much better topic than work, his was vehicles having heritage among moonshiners, formula 1 drivers, and pilot who broke the speed of sound. His true love was working with vehicles, his mother had run auto shop on there colony and he had helped from a young age. Nothing made him feel more alive than when he was behind the wheel of a mean machine.

Pennsylvania had been waylaid by additional tests and reruns of some things, barely getting out of his phase of testing by the time it was announced that they were done for the day, and he stretched with a satisfied sound, akin to the wind down after a workout. He treated the tests seriously, certainly, but he used it to drill himself as well. Might as well get something out of them, after all. He walked into the conversation on nicknames and kept his peace for now, pulling off his helmet so he could go about the rest of the days events, eating and relaxing before tomorrow's tests, more easily. He chuckled a bit at the thought of South Dakota coming up with so many nicknames, stretching and crossing his arms for lack of a better place to put them, throwing his two cents in as he wandered over. "Well, you could always use Penn, which is certainly a valid name. Considering if you break the name of the state up, Pennsylvania is simply Penn's Woods."

Pennsylvania had not been giving the other operators much thought, it wasn't in his business, but he placed names to armor. North and South Dakota were easy enough, figured that there was a Carolina and California present as well, to the group he had wandered into after the tests, and kept an easy stance, which was far more noticeable without the his bulky armor on. However, he would remain in pace with the others unless specifically told he was unwelcome, as he had little planned for the rest of the day anyways, he saw no reason not to go and interact with other agents who where present right now. Besides, might as well interact with the ones that had already mentioned his codename at least.

‘Well, it’s just my luck to meet the awkward one of our group’ he thinks to himself. He tries to be as courteous as he possibly can be but he knows that he’s not going to get any more out of agent California tonight.

“It’s alright, you’ve probably been focusing more on yourself than the competition, but anyway you’ve already eaten by the looks of things and I’m starving so I’ll catch you around. Look for the black and red armour, you’ll see me.”

Iowa notices the others are heading this way and decides it would be best to wait, after all he didn’t want to intrude on their conversation. He grabbed some grub and sat on a table with his data pad, he his body language open in case they would want to sit down near him, whilst he waited he turned on his data pad to watch the rest of the Griff-ball match he had missed, after all it was his favourite sport.

South scoffed lightly at the question, shaking her heads slightly. “What’s a hobby?” She replied, looking over to North who nodded in agreement.

“Yeah... pretty much ever since we got into this whole Freelancer project I don’t remember having a whole lot of free time. Then again a lot of that is probably our own fault. We took a lot of those extra classes and training regiments they offered early on.”

As Pennsylvania walked over and spoke South looked up at him, smiling slightly. “See? This guy gets it. I like him.” As she finished off her sentence she let out a big yawn and sank slightly into her chair as North stood up.

“Okay kiddo, I think that does us for the day.” In truth he wanted to converse with South about the other agents, see what she thought. She was more analytical than she let on and he found her friendly and approachable and naive nature tended to lull others into a sense of security that allowed them to talk more freely with her and she remembered a lot. Not that she would ever use the information in any sinister way; she was too nice for that. But it was always interesting to hear what she thought.

As the girl got to her feet North began ushering her away. “Gentleman, I bid thee goodnight, if night were in fact possible here... though since we’re in space there isn’t really a chance for days or nights to pass...” She trailed off very slightly as she began walking away, glancing over and seeing Iowa sitting over on his own, eating. “Later Doc!” She called, waving to him as she and her brother left the room.

“I still have no clue how the heck you remember everyone both in and out of amour. I had no clue who we were talking to back there until they introduced themselves.”

“I just... remember things.” She shrugged slightly as they began walking down a hall towards the sleeping quarters. “That and I may have taken a look at the agent files on the ride over here.”

“Is that allowed?”

“What do you think?” South replied with an eye roll.

Pennsylvania shrugged in a good natured way when South mentioned him getting it. "Not too terribly odd a concept, really. Especially if we end up working together to any degree, some codenames are a bit, how you say, unwieldy to be yelling?"

His own codename was probably the most guilty of that little crime, trying to yell that for any reason didn't seem to work well in his mind's eye. But, it was neither here nor there, as North and South took their leave of the small group, and he inclined his head to the two as they went to leave. "Get some good rest, I reckon tomorrow is going to be interesting, one way or another."

Pennsylvania had heard rumors, about some of the testing today, and what might be coming up in the future. But those were, after all, only rumors, and one could only put so much faith in a rumor. But he ate light, as he always chose to do, his smaller frame out of armor didn't need a lot to sustain it at optimal levels. Which probably might strike people odd, if they really wanted to think about it hard, which most probably didn't want to. But he finished eating quickly, rising from the table and nodding to those still there, making his last statement before retiring for the night. "I shall be making an early night of it as well, I suspect we shall need the energy for tomorrow. Rest well, and best of luck to each of you."

Carolina nodded and finished the meal, he decided work could wait and headed for his bunk, he figured if everyone else was doing it why not. He hummed and walked his way back to his room. He crashed back on to his bed letting his mind wander. This project, it was definitely strange, perhaps he could find out more or maybe he should just go along with. What ever it was he had time, pulling out a copy of the latest issue of Top Gear to see what new rides were out. He drifted off to sleep about an hour later, thoughts of conspiracy's and evil military men danced in his head, also a few stray thoughts of working on a Warthog (Puma).

Iowa had finished his meal, and boy had he enjoyed watching the match, He tried to watch some more but he just kept losing interest due to his new environment, he hadn’t been on a cruiser like this in at least a decade. After losing interest one last time he stood up and left the canteen, he didn’t realise that he was the last one to go but he was sure he would be fine. He went to his room

he needed some R&R after that training session. But he didn’t know what else he could do all of a sudden he remembered his time out on the training field and how his field went down he understood that if he was to do any better the next day he needed to work on his ability. He moved from his door and sneaked over to the locker room. Took his chip from the back of his helmet and sneaked back to his room he clipped in the chip to his data pad and ran some calibrations he was pretty sure he had been up until late until him finally he collapsed on his bed with his data pad in his hand.