[IC] Freelancer Program

[Mista Slaya]

The Councilor looked at his data tablet, reading the message the Director had just sent. It held the details of a mission for a selection of candidates to undertake, with a high risk, as usual. With a small sigh to himself, he got up from his table and walked to the intercom located in his room in the Paris-Class UNSC Frigate Mother of Invention. He sent out a message to the Freelancers on the ship instead of telling the entire ship. "Agents Colorado, Nevada, Virginia, Georgia, California, and Alabama, please report to Training Room C. I will be there shortly to brief you. Councilor out." He turned and looked through the small viewport in his room. The view of a nebula undergoing a plasma storm dominated the space outside. Humming a tune quietly to himself, he looked over the mission objective once more, considering a few different options. However, the mission could be put off for a few days, so maybe he could let the Freelancers train up a bit before they were sent out. Either way, they were already en route to the training room, so it was time to oversee the exercise. The Councilor left his room, sealed his door, and began heading down to Training Room C.

[nanodragon626]

Georgia was sitting in the armory, his hand was tracing the scaring across his face. He still couldn't look in the mirror even though it had been so long since then. That was when he heard the announcement and sighed, he had only just taken the armor off for the first time in days but at least he managed to have a shower and get the suit cleaned up. He quickly put it on it felt natural to him now like a second skin. He grabbed his favorite DMR of the rack, trying not to notice the nearby sniper rifles and headed for the training room. Of course he didn't take any live ammo after all it was just training and they had practise rounds on site."God I hope it's not the stuff that locks up your armor again that sucks real bad."

Along the way Georgia observed the the non-operatives and wondered what they were doing. He would ask but as far as he knew no one around here seemed to speak sign language. This bugged him to no end, he had after all gone to all the effort to learn it to regain his voice but it just reminded him of his lack of one. It didn't help that people made sure to stay out of his way. This was mainly due to his lack of speaking but being 6ft,3inches didn't help. Thinking about it he realised the armor just made it worse but then again his face was worse than the helmet and no armor no helmet. He walked into Training room C and was surprised to see that he was alone. He shrugged and sat down, waiting for the others.

[TheMusketMan]

Alabama looked up from his book when the announcement emitted from his helmet. He was in full armor, in case of emergency. He was in his dorm, he snapped the book shut and put it under his bunk and started for the training room. He got a couple feet out of the door before he realized he would probably need a gun. He walked towards the armory instead, one of the maintenance guys shouted to him "Alabama, did you see the Grifball game the other day?" Alabama grinned and turned around walking backwards as he shouted "Sure did Tyrone and I want my 5 bucks by Wendsday." the other man laughed and walked into a room with some tools. Alabama swiped an assault rifle from the armory then hustled over to Training room 3.

When he entered he saw Georgia sitting down, apparently the first one there. "Hey Georgia." Alabama said nonchalantly, Alabama was fully aware that Georgia made people nervous, but it took a lot for someone to make him nervous. So Alabama sat down right next to Georgia, propping his Assault rifle between his legs. He also knew that Georgia wasn't much of a talker and that was fine, but it wouldn't stop him from talking. "Hope today's training doesn't take too long, I got to a really good chapter in this book I'm reading. It's called Harry Potter, something or other, it's pretty old but a damn good read. You should give it a try sometime." Alabama then leaned back and closed his eye, and waited for the rest of the team.

[Ispep]

Arik was in Training Room A, working up a sweat from pounding on punching bags that he had asked F.I.L.S.S. to pop up randomly. He wore a loose fitting pair of jeans and a belt, but other than that he was unclothed. His armor lay on a bench near the door, placed there by Arik before he had started his training. Through with his warm up, he changed out of his jeans and into his armor, shifting uncomfortably as his helmet plugged into the back of his skull. It might have been a bit of a drastic procedure, but it gave him much more control over his suit than the other freelancers had. He diverted all power from his shields and into his movement, then stepped back onto the training floor.

"F.I.L.S.S., another round of random pop ups."

"Right away, Agent California. Round commencing in three... two... one... round start."

The first punching bag to pop up was right behind Arik, but that posed no problem for him. As soon as he saw the dot on his motion trackers, he turned around and slammed his fist into the punching bag, using the additional force of his turn to hit even harder, knocking the bag off its post and across the room. The next popped up behind him again, and instead of turning, he merely struck the back with a forceful kick. Two popped up on his sides, the one on his left being taken care of with another kick, which Arik used to propel himself towards the bag on his right, throwing a punch and hitting with the additional force provided by the kick. The next bag was halfway out of the floor when an announcement came over the intercom, halting the session.

"This isn't over, F.I.L.S.S., I'll be back."

"I know you will be, Agent California."

He laughed to himself as he walked out of the room he was in and down the hall towards Training Room C. With a tap on the door controls he entered the room, leaning against the wall next to the two, Alabama and Georgia, it would seem, that were already sitting. Georgia was a big man, but Arik was larger, standing approximately sixteen centimeters over the man and likely weighing a good deal more as well. It seemed some were either afraid or just avoidant of him, though Arik didn't understand why. If anything, he believed himself to be the most physically imposing of the freelancers, and the only thing crew members avoided with him was getting into a fight. Arik gave them both a nod of acknowledgement, then stared off into the training room as he waited.

[Mista Slaya]

Nevada sat in the mess hall, chatting it up with a few of the ship's engine crew. He had just enjoyed a meal of regulation steak which tasted like cardboard and vegetables that just tasted horrible. He heard a ping from his helmet and placed it on his head. Once sensing it's owner had put it on, the helmet transmitted the message. Nevada sighed and took his helmet back off. "Well everyone, it looks like I'm needed elsewhere. Try not to die of boredom without me." He stood up, slung his helmet under his arm, and headed out of the mess. On his way to the Training Room, he stopped by the armory and picked up an SMG. Then he headed into the room and saw Georgia, California, and Alabama. Nevada walked over to Alabama and clapped him on the shoulder. "Hey Allie, how's it goin?"

[TheMusketMan]

Alabama's eye snapped open when Nevada clapped him on the shoulder, he looked over at Nevada. "Hey Nevada, just waitin' for the Councilor. Someone is already in the training room, California I think. Think I'm gonna head in there mehself." Alabama stood up and stretched, his joints got sore when he was out of action for too long due to his age. Alabama was one of the shorter Freelancers and by far the oldest, but he had the most battle experience and the only Freelancer capable of advanced field medicine. Georgia and California were about 4-5 inches taller than him and Nevada was was still an inch or so taller. But Alabama Learned a long time ago that size isn't everything. He swiped up his Assault rifle and headed into the training area.

[Sep]

Colorado was running through simulations. He always had to be doing something, there was always another puzzle he had to solve. He had long ago figured out how to hack into the Mother of Inventions systems ages ago, though he naturally had to rewrite some protocols to delete the encounter from F.I.L.S.S' memory. He stood up when he heard the call to go to the training room and sighed. Probably something not all that exciting, more drills. It was better than the class they had to take on A.I. theory for whatever reason. He had tried to find out why but those were files he could not access no matter how hard he tried. It nagged at him, it was a puzzle that he couldn't solve and thus it nagged at him, constantly. He didn't bother pulling on his helmet and walked through the halls., He briefly glimpsed Alabama walking into the room closely followed by Nevada and he sighed inwardly. He was hoping that this would be a private session instead of having too deal with everyone else, however it seemed he had to.

He stayed standing in the room, eyeing all the exits as per usual to find a way out if he needed it. He merely nodded at his fellow Freelancers. He didn't see need to say anything while he waited.

[Revans Exile]

Virginia was constantly honing her skills as an infiltration expert. If she was traveling from one room on a ship to another she didn't use the halls and corridors she used the duct work. She watched the Freelancers mingle about like rats waiting for their cheese. One of them, Colorado she thought was standing still almost under the vent, she ran through several scenarios in her head about the numerous ways she could kill him. She grabbed hold of the vent cover and extremely slowly moved it so that the motion trackers wouldn't pick her up. She then pulled out a Type-2 Antipersonnel Fragmentation grenade aka Spike Grenade used in training simulations from the small of her back. She 'armed' it and tossed it exactly between his shoulder blades, a spot that Colorado couldn't reach to remove it by himself.

[Sep]

He had heard the fidgeting at the latch of the vent. That was his first clue, he usually had to watch his own back while picking locks or hacking systems but he had to give her she was quiet. Had there been large amounts of conversation or really any other form of noise he wouldn't have been able to notice. When he heard the tell tale "click" of a grenade activating he gave it a good 3 count before diving to the side, the grenade catching on his left arm. He had been too slow without his helmet on and access to his motion trackers. He yanked the grenade that required a good deal amount of effort before tossing it back towards the vent and diving off into a corner. picking up his helmet on the way and throwing it on.

"Not funny Virginia. You know that when we get called in we stop playing Cat and Mouse. If I had known you didn't want to comply I would have cranked down the heating a bit before I came here, or started a biohazard alert on this level." Though in all honesty the Director and Counciller had gotten fed up of the little "games." It didn't help that they were both technically infiltration experts. The difference was Virginia had to get herself in while he had to get the team in. "I mean, using a training grenade as well was just plain mean."

[Revans Exile]

Virginia dropped from the vent wearing nothing but standard issue military fatigues. She grabbed her grenade on the way down. "The cold reminds me of home." Her accent was thick and Russian. "That and vodka. As for playing cat and mouse, whose playing? I also I wouldn't try playing with the biohazzard settings I tried that once, Fillis has a really wicked sense of payback."

[Sep]

"She may have a wicked sense of comeback but then again you don't have the skills to make her forget who did it. I actually convinced her for a day that the Councillor had a deadly and highly contagious disease. He wasn't very happy when he finally traced it back to me. I'm still not sure how as searching her memory F.I.L.S.S had no idea. Unless they had a backup system..." He paused as he let his mind drift. "Anyway the point is we all know you're into me. Just ask me out, I'll probably say yes. You don't have to do this whole sneaking around trying to get my attention. You're an attractive woman. Though now that that is settled. Anybody know why we're all here? We haven't had a joined training mission like this for ages, if it is an op though it has to be a big one and heavily encrypted as on my regular skulking around the computer systems I've found nothing." He paused for a second.

"I'll have to remember when I do my skulking around to look around the restricted sections a bit more. That way I won't be as surprised." He flashed a coy grin at Virginia. "Impressed yet?" He didn't really want her to be, though he enjoyed winding her up.

[Mista Slaya]

Nevada walked over and clapped Colorado on the back. "Yes, we're all impressed Cal." Nevada had a thing for calling all the agents by shortened versions of their names, even though the others probably found it annoying. "You're probably right about it being a big op though. I wonder what it could be." He tapped his thigh in thought for a few seconds. "Well, I'm gonna go throw myself into the driving simulator for a bit. Let me know when the Councilor gets here, would ya?" Without waiting for an answer, Nevada turned and walked into the training room.

[Revans Exile]

"Impressed? Hardly. Ask you out? I would never stoop so low as to ask a man or you out. Women are far superior lovers. The Councillor nor Fillis figured it out, I flat out told the Councilor. I had something I needed to discuss with him that day that was time sensitive and you screwed it up. Only one person on this boat is juvenile and capable of doing what you did, anyone with half a brain knows that. I don't sneak around to get anyone's attention I sneak around because that is how I chose to travel plus you get the juiciest gossip when people think no one is listening. Like your last date, she was commenting on how endowed you were. She didn't say but she used her hands to simulate the length." Virginia then repeats the hand gesture. "Extremely small, no? Almost child size if you ask me." With a sarcastic wave of the hand she walked into driving simulator to play a little game of roller dirby Warthog edition. She turned around the last second before entering. "I am not attractive, I am gorgeous. Ask the last girlfriend who dumped you she told me so herself last night." She backed through the door way.

[Sep]

Colorado clapped as Virginia went out. "And that ladies and gentlemen. Is why I like her. It really is." He was grinning at this point, where was the fun without some playful banter between co-workers. Freelancers often missed out on all of the fun. He moved back to lean against the wall as the door closed behind Virginia. "I swear to god, if she was straight I would marry that girl. I really would." He pulled his tablet off his belt and powered it up before accessing the ships systems. "Juvenile." He laughed a little bit. "Hey, F.I.L.S.S""Yes Agent Colorado?""I do not believe that it is Virginias turn to use the simulator.""You are correct." He smirked as he rewrote a couple of lines and a hatch on the door turned locking it, there was as usual a vent but the schematics didn't show it having an exit until several doors down. So he sealed those ones as well, it wouldn't stop her when she figured out she was locked in but it would slow her down.

He looked at the mission list of scenarios. He flicked through them. "Let me see, let us chose..." He finally came across one. "Central Australian outback in the desert, mid summer. Warmest day of the year with no air conditioning." He thought of Nevada who called him Cal, when technically it was Col. Whatever worked. With that he didn't input the training program. Though it was punishment enough for her, being stuck in a room with a man. Until she found the concealed vent, of course she would he had no doubts there. He just wondered whether or not he should have given Nevada backup or not. He looked at the other three freelancers in the room, Georgia the intimidating one. He himself could use sign, he could read it better than speak in it though it was important he could speak to anyone. Alabama was also there, the friendly face and of course their resident train-aholic California who probably wouldn't see the joke.

He took out his wallet. "Anyone want to bet how long it is before she kills him? Or do you think if I crank the heat up she'll go straight and get with him?"

[nanodragon626]

Georgia had quite enjoyed this almost routine banter between Colorado & Virginia. Well until he realised it was routine, he could easily guess what the other two would do and in that picture he was in the background. Well not today, He stood up with his DMR and grabbed 3 armor-lock mags fitting one into the gun. Hearing a solid click assured him everything was fine with his weapon. He took out 10 bucks and slid it over to Colorado.

He then selected the standard Triangle map( A map designed for a 3 man free for all. It has 15 10ft pillars evenly spaced out in the shape of a equilateral triangle.) with a timer of 5 min and pointed to himself, trying to indicate he was betting on himself. He suddenly realised that Maine wasn't here yet, oh well don't have time to think about it now it's go time. He picked up 2 more DMRs, loading them with the two mags for his opponents and waited for the door to open.

[TheMusketMan]

Alabama shrugged at the bet offer, he wasn't much for gambling and didn't like the idea of Nevada stuck in there with Virginia. "I think if you crank the heat, she'll kill Nevada and come after you." He saw Georgia give Colorado some money, obviously betting on himself with the new map in place and loading two guns. Obviously California would jump at the opportunity to show Georgia up and if he accepted the challenge he could probably wait for those two to fight it out and then take out the victor. Unless Colorado wanted in, he turned toward Colorado. "You wanna take this or should I?"

[Ispep]

Arik sighed and shook his head while Colorado and Virginia went back and forth, almost relieved that Virginia ended up walking away. Of course, Colorado had to lock the doors just to spite her. Scuffing his boot against the floor, Arik adjusted his position against the wall behind him as Colorado offered a bet and asked if he should blast the heat. Georgia stood and placed a bet on himself, for what exactly, Arik was unsure, but when he spotted the M392 Designated Marksman Rifle, he knew he wanted no part in it. When it came to guns, Arik was only proficient at nigh point blank ranges, otherwise he was liable to miss almost all of his shots. While his ego told him to try and challenge Georgia anyway, Arik knew that hurting his pride would be worse than not participating.

"You shouldn't be messing around with ship functions you know, Colorado. One of these days the Director is gonna get fed up with your shit and throw you out the airlock. Mark my words." Expecting some sort of retaliation from the man, Arik disabled all wireless functions of his suit, making sure Colorado would have no point of access no matter how hard he tried. Of course, even if he could gain access, Arik was more than confident that he could fight off any system attacks through the use of his neural interface. There was no way some old world tablet could be more powerful than his mind. After all, the human brain was the best processor in the world. These precautions wouldn't prevent any verbal or physical retaliations of course, but those he could easily handle without resorting to any kind of tricks.

"In any case, the councilor better get here soon. Calling us in here only to show up late? It's a waste of all of our time if you ask me. He could've called us from the intercom in here when he arrived, and I would've been able to finish my practice rounds.Instead we're forced to wait and bicker. I don't know, maybe I'm just itching to get back out in the field. Been too long since my last op if you ask me." Too long for Arik was in fact a very short amount of time. His last operation was only two days prior, though to him it couldn't have felt further away. "It's just unprofessional to keep your soldiers waiting like this. Completely inefficient."

[Sep]

Colorado opened the door for Georgia after taking the money and nodding before sealing it again. He also pushed Georgia into the training program. He hadn't really paid much attention to the scenario what was going on beyond the heat level, he considered changing it for a second to something with longer range but then the current occupants would know that someone was meddling it as the door didn't visibly lock being a bulkhead. If he started messing with it Virginia would notice something was going on. All he was doing was making sure F.I.L.S.S allowed other players to join the field in the objectivity of fairness and allowing everyone to have something to do. As it was starting to be a little odd the Councillor not being here before them. Something bigger was going on, his last op had been a while ago. A week at most, there hadn't been need for any hacking recently and he wasn't nearly as good at sneaking around as Virginia was so she always got those jobs. Being a hacker gave him less jobs than he thought he would get, at least he had the consolation that there would always be a need to hack at some point and sometimes he wouldn't even need to leave the ship, he had more recent jobs from aboard the ship but he never really classed it as an op unless he got to shoot or was shot at.

Then California came in and ruined things. "I doubt the Director will throw me out on my ass for it, I need to practice somehow. Training simulations with F.I.L.S.S hardly prepare me. He's actually commended me for initiative once. I mean locking the Councillor in his room got me in a bit of bother but at the end of the day I'm a valuable asset to the team. So lighten up hotshot, anyone can punch someone else. Takes finessé to do what I do." Something pinged up on his tablet. "Oh, scared that I'm going to try and hack your suit? No point in locking it down, nothing interesting you can do with someones suit really. Change in temperature, lack of oxygen, maybe seize up the joints? Basic protocols that are introduced through F.I.L.S.S and the suits programming always lets F.I.L.S.S in due to the security protocols." He smirked as he pulled his helmet on, the Councillor couldn't be far away now.

"Though you are right about one thing, waiting for this long is starting to become part of a piss take."

[Revans Exile]

Virginia jumpd into a Warthog as soon as she entered the simulator. She started driving around at speeds most people would consider reckless maybe even suicidal. She loved the feel of the wind in her hair. The simulated humans and animals were noothung but tiny, insignificant obstacles to run over as if they were bugs.

When she found Nevada she nearly ran him off the road. "It's time for Vehicle training. We are gonna play a little game the objective is to run someone off the road, or make them crash, or make their vehicle explode. I have been playing since I was fourteen. Never lost." She winked at him. "I'll let you chase me first."

[Mista Slaya]

Nevada recorrected enough to keep from losing control and to stay on the 'road', which was nothing more than a dirt track in the simulated countryside town. He gripped the steering wheel and leaned back into the seat as far as he could. Most of the others called this the "Drive Zone", when Nevada would block out everything except his vehicle, the objective, and whatever was between him and the target. "You're on." Virginia shot ahead and Nevada pushed the vehicle to the same speed. He was slowly managing to catch up and, once close enough, switched his SMG to semi-auto and began shooting at Virginia's tires. Nevada grinned, thinking he had won this round. He also wondered when the Councilor would show up, he had called them all to the training room almost fifteen minutes ago, and it wasn't like the Councilor to keep them waiting.