Recruit Brine Sharp

Coffee had been a bad idea! I was already stressing myself out over the aptitude evaluation, which was stupid because all it was for was squad placement. I couldn't help it, I always did this after a test. I was anxious to find out who my squad mates would be and what kind of assets and skills they would have. It had been almost four hours since we had been dismissed from the testing room and told to wait in these observation rooms, this was probably part of the evaluation, the military does love it's mind games after all.

I stand, through my now empty coffee cup in the trash and stretch, then walking to the wall I do a hand stand and leaning on the wall start doing inverted push ups. After fifty of those I do one hundred sit ups, then as I'm finishing those the instructor from the exam steps in, Sargent Jonson was his name, and after I jump to attention he says. "Recruit Sharp, you are hereby assigned the rank of ensign and placed in tango squad. Everything else you need to know is in this folder, report to your squad leader asap." Then after laying the folder on the table he walked out and I grabbed thumbed through it until I found my squad roster, squad lead was a Warrant officer named Raymond Marksman, there were four others but he was who I needed to find right now.

Warrant Officer Marksman:

Right. Left. Duck. Swing. Repeat. It was all starting to become so predictable.

I ran the tip of my tongue over my drying lips. With a sigh, I exhaled slowly through my nostrils, releasing the small cloud of smoke that I'd been holding in. I was currently sitting in an observation compartment, cigarette in hand with a polycarbonate window the only thing separating me from the next room over -the gymnasium- and studyig the small group of trainees inside. I could single out one in particular had probably never gotten into a fight before stepping foot into the system. While I most certainly was not required to be here, I felt the experience would be enlightening, entertaining even if I was lucky enough. But time passed and I'd soon found myself bored, yet also uninterested with the other options of activities to select from. So I decided to waste time away with a light. With another half hour to kill on my hands, why not? I sucked in another puff from the cigarette.

Recruit Brine Sharp

I had been to almost every corner of the base and still had not found my squad leader, everyone I asked either didn't know or gave me bad information. Finally I talked to a rather pretty Lieutenant who said that she had seen him in one of the observation rooms so, after getting her number, I headed that way and started checking them out. I found him in the fifth one I checked smoking and watching some of the recruits in the gymnasium. "Ensign Sharp reporting as ordered, Sir!" I said after snapping to attention. He didn't seem like he was long in the service himself but he was a Warrant Officer so he was qualified to lead a squad through anything they would throw at us in training.

Warrant Officer Marksman:

First word to come to mind upon looking at the ensign before me: fobit. Obedient and obsequious, they may have good intentions at heart but all of them always manage to get on my nerves one way or another. Pausing from my cigarette, I take a moment to really look at the man and study his appearance while keeping my jumped-to conclusion in mind. No, I take that back. He's sweating along his forehead and then there's the faint odor of coffee radiating off him. Young and new but probably neither inexperienced nor uptight... "You're early." I push up from my seat and begin to encircle Sharp at a tortuously slow pace. He's taller than me but I'd guess we're still in the same weight class, a shave wouldn't hurt but besides that looks kempt, and even with the distance between us I can still here him breathing -was he running to find me? After pacing around him a couple time, I finally stop in front of the soldier and release a billow of smoke. "At ease. So, what's your name?" I asked. The files containing all required information on my subordinates were provided to me earlier this week, but I felt it would be more benefiting get to know my people in person.

Ensign Brine Sharp

As he walks around me I can't help but feel like I'm being scrutinized like a piece of equipment that he's checking for faults or flaws before using, not that I was insulted or put off by it on the contrary I believed it to be a sound practice. As a matter fact I was trying to the same to him but he was hard to read, though he did seem to possess a wisdom beyond his years and his eyes shone with a hardness that spoke of hard times. "Ensign Brine Miller Sharp, Sir." I said as I took the 'at ease' stance then offered my hand, he seemed like the type to appreciate a good old fashioned handshake. I knew he only wanted my name but my rank was as much a part of me as my name, I had worked hard to get it and i was proud of it. Hopefully he would understand that and not just think I was dense in the head but with the way he was studying me I doubted he would misjudge my intentions.