[IC] Valkyria Chronicles: Lions of the South

[BytheSpleen]

Emmaline Muller

@Lennon79

After returning the terse, but curt nod, Emmaline walked to the window and took a peek at the smoldering battleground outside.

"...got any orders for us right now, sir? I could help with the mines...or the wounded, if there are any."

She wasn't sure what to quite make of it, considering she had just stumbled upon what might've been an extremely terrifying battle. Sure, they won, but she forgot to keep her eyes open for any injured or dead troops.

That, and there were still piles of rubble in the plenty. Undoubtedly, there would be a corpse or an unconscious soldier underneath. With the current effort and quietness, though, she wasn't sure if they could spare the time before...perhaps another Imp attack would drive in?

Could they have even relayed the battle results that quickly? Sure, they had radios, but in the thick of things...

[Zarkun]

PFC James Hunt|Le Haye Sainte

James spoke up quickly when the racist gearhead ran in and waved vaguely for introductions. "PFC James Hunt, attache from the Gallian Army." One of the new people went to speak and Jame shook his head. "Don't ask, it's not much of a story." He wasn't about to confirm the suspicions of the other squad mates that he'd pissed off someone with pull, he actually enjoyed the thought that they wondered why he was actually there. Still, best he neither confirmed nor denied. So with that settled, he dug into his stew, only eating about half of what the Sarge had given him before standing and offering the Sarge the rest of his. "Not too hungry, Sarge, but it was a good stew. I'll go walk the perimeter." Turning, he limped over to his rifle and the damaged sniper rifle, putting his pack against the latter to mark it as his, then headed for the door with his scout rifle in hand when another new arrival asked what they could do.

"How about you join me on the perimeter? Some of the Imps got away last night, so there's a chance we got Imps marching this way now." He didn't openly say it, but he did look at Glaive from the corner of his eye. Bull shit she didn't have a shot, she just didn't take it. And now we're compromised. Wonder if she thought of that... It wasn't worth overthinking on, chasing them would have been a waste of time and probably would have cost them the lives of two squad mates, especially since every one seemed OK with leaving Lilly pinned to the wall like she was. "Well, ya comin'?"

[Slypheed]

Celeste

Celeste still wasn't fully awake when Carn spoke up, causing her to visibly jump in her seat. Luckily though, she hadn't dropped her food or drink. Though now she looked more awake now, and she looked over the new members. A albino female, a tall female darcsen, a walking shield, and a male who seemed a bit nervous. Guess the militia is just a dice roll, never know who you're going to get. Celeste observed the newbies, occasionally eating the breakfast that the Sergeant had prepared.

She looked over at Harald. "Sergeant, did you check Jatmoore and Sykora yet?" asking before she put a spoonful of food in her mouth. Curious to their conditions, as she didn't see or hear them moving around. She knew ragnaid could even heal up Lilly's wound with relative ease, but it would be comforting to know their conditions.

Skye

Skye seemed to go along with the remark the albino girl made. "Ha! Yeah, it's a damn shame the Imps couldn't aim for shit. One got close though, if that makes you happy." She said, making direct eye contact with the girl. Skye felt quite happy she'd be able to have some fun with the unit, even if her definition of fun wasn't the same as theirs.

But she turned her attention to the shy boy. His remark about his shooting was a bit hilarious, and it got her to smile faintly. Though the execution of it's innuendo was very crude.

-+-+-

Once they arrived, Skye took a look around. Not much about this place, but it seemed like it had seen better days. Especially that destroyed tank in the road. But the large man guided them to the only building that was still standing. Inside was, presumably, the rest of squad 4. A good amount of the interior was saved as well. Owners must have been in a hurry to leave, and doesn't look like the Imps took much when they were here either. Once in the kitchen, they were introduced to the Sergeant. Though it even took her by surprise that a Darcsen had such a rank. "Well. Pleased to meet ya Sergeant! Names Skye." She stuck her hand out for a handshake.

[Engel]

Private Elise Louque

“Border guarding…?” The man who’d asked them if they’d seen any action clearly didn’t understand what Elise had meant. “Uh no, more like invasion of other’s territory, and liberation of captive women.” She laughed, doubting he would understand what she meant with that.

Elise got the feeling that the Lancer was the most experienced of the four of them that were new. The man repulsed her with his macho bragging and crude innuendo, but it wasn’t much of a surprise. She almost made another comment about what a shame it was some people were still alive, but in his direction instead of the darcsen’s. Doing so might get her a reputation for wishing her comrades dead though, so instead she made a disgusted face. If anyone asked she’d blame it on the APC, not that motion sickness bothered her. Elise didn’t back down when the Darcsen stared into her eyes. What a cocky darcsen, she thought as a scornful grin appeared across her lips, someone needs to humble you. Her response felt like a direct challenge to Elise, but for now she’d do nothing.

Elise wasn’t sure what to think of the speech the man that had recruited her did. It was inspirational and did make her want to kill the imperials, but at the same time she feared he might accidentally hit or land on her if the APC moved too much. She didn’t have any question at that time, not any she wanted to voice anyway.

The day got worse when she was introduced to her new sergeant, another damn darcsen. Was this some kind of family meeting for their kind? How many more darcsens would there be in this squad? She really regretted not sneaking away back at the base now, even if she would have ended up in trouble for disobeying orders. The worst part was when her new sergeant said that the man who had recruited her was just a PFC. That wasn’t high enough to order her around, was it!? Unfortunately, Sergeant probably was.

Elise didn’t know what to do. She stood motionless for a moment, trying to gather her thoughts. It would be quite a walk to get back to base. “Is there any other snipers around?” She finally asked, not bothering with pleasantries on darcsens. “Would you mind if I scouted the nearby area for any good vantage points?” It would give her time alone, hopefully, so she could make up her mind and no one would wonder about her whereabouts for a while.

[Zarkun]

PFC James Hunt|Le Haye Sainte

James wouldn't have said anything even though it was pretty obvious she held the typical strong racist opinion against Darcsens. Hell, he was glad to see they finally had some proper support until he himself could get his training as a Sniper done. But she had to go and ask if she could go off alone. And if there was one thing he'd learned in the regular army, it was you never went anywhere alone. "OK, miss high and mighty, let's get two things straight. First, you don't just pretend you weren't introduced to your squad and not give your name. That's just disrespectful. Second, you don't go anywhere alone, especially in the valk damned field. You're just begging to get killed then and none of us would be the wiser. I swear, did you even pay attention when the militia was training you? Cause if not, you and I aren't going to get along very well."

[Engel]

Private Elise Louque

Elise turned to look at the man, raising an eyebrow. Was this another private with no understanding of who should and shouldn’t give orders in the army? After being recruited by a PFC, it wouldn’t surprise her in the slightest. What kind of squad had she been thrown into?

“Your bad hearing is not my problem.” She finally said, addressing his second issue. “I’d suggest you get it checked out though. I never said I’d go alone. In fact, I specifically asked for other snipers. Nor did I mention leaving the building. Besides, I’m a sniper. I’m not sure if you’ve ever heard of the concept before, but we do get specialized training.”

The poor man had probably been too close to one explosion too many, or taken a hit to the head he shouldn’t have. She didn’t want to make fun of him in front of his squad, but he’d started it. They definitely would have a problem with each other from now on though, his decision, because she wasn’t one to forgive.

“Sorry, my bad.” Elise said, ignoring the man and turning to her sergeant to offer her hand. “My name is Elise Louque. It’s my first time in the field, so this is all a bit overwhelming for me.” It was hopefully a good enough excuse that they’d believe her.

[Ashifili]

Welll…that speech the recruiter dude gave out was certainly a loud one. Zeal was actually pretty inspired by that man’s boisterous speech, and applauded at the end of the spirited performance…before realizing that he was probably one of those old-fashioned types whose only strategy consisted of tossing soldiers into the machine gun meat grinder for a glorious frontal charge. Damn.

He spent the rest of the trip praying that the recruiter wasn’t also the person in charge of planning things out, and, after the recruits were lead to the barracks of Squad 4, Zeal was pleased to see that the man in charge was a Darcsen, one by the name of Harald. The ash-haired youth breathed a sigh of relief at that, before watching the introductions unfold. It looked like the albino with the nice ass was also rather pissy, already managing to anger one of the older members of Squad 4 by violating the buddy system or whatever. Didn’t they already have this place secured?

Well, actually, they probably didn’t, seeing how mines still had to be laid down and such…

At least it was nice to hear that the food was good?

“And I’m Private Zeal Ashart,” he interjected, rather awkwardly, “Used to be a Scout, before I was retrained as a Shocktrooper since there’s a shortage or whatever. And yeah, he sorta did kidnap us. Wonder if he thought I was a girl or something...”

He didn't offer a handshake, mainly because it was going to be awkward if the Sergeant had to shake two hands at once, and instead, settled for the usual.

"Anything I can help out with?"

[Lennon79]

Sergeant Harald, Gallian Militia

Harald found himself somewhat embarrassed when Stichler mentioned the wounded; he had checked on Durandal before preparing breakfast, but had blithely assumed that the other two were in good care with the others. 'Not yet. Could you check on them for me? Give me a shout if they don't look any better. I'd hate to have to send them home too, but If they need proper medical care, we may not have a choice.' Surely they would recover, right? Durandal took a heavy blow to the head, possibly Sykora too, but those kinds of injuries just needed to be slept off, right..? On second though, maybe not. '... Scratch that Corporal, I'll check on them in a sec.' He turned back to the new squad members with a worried smile, wondering if any of them would be on a stretcher soon. The first didn't seem much bothered by introductions, something which in any other circumstances Harald would not have been bothered by. But naturally he couldn't just go around calling his squad mates 'Oi, you'. At least she had a rank chevron. 'I'm gonna need a name, PFC. Same with everyone.' Hunt pre-empted his order, but it was a good idea anyway. Harald had been mildly surprised (and relieved) that the Imps hadn't counter-attacked in the night. 'Sounds good, Hunt. Look mainly northward; other teams are sweeping our flanks anyway.'

Turning his attention back to the others, Harald took proper stock of them for the first time. Another lancer would be handy for morale, especially with last night's surprise tank so fresh in everyone's minds. And more shocktroopers could only be a good thing; Harald was starting to worry that he had been put in charge of a rifle section in an age of machine-guns... And last but not least, a trained sniper. A Valk's-send, especially with the open terrain perfectly suited to Imp MG nests. One of the shock troopers stepped forward to introduce herself and Harald was pleasantly surprised to find himself shaking hands with another of his folk. 'Pleased to meet you Skye. I was starting to feel like the only darkhair in the village.' His wide grin faded away as he turned to the sniper and recognised the tell-tale scowl of a typical darcsen hater. 'Not yet Private, I-' Before he could give a cold rebuke, Hunt jumped in with typical hot-headedness. The two exchanged jabs as the Sergeant held his face in one hand, suppressing a deep sigh. It wasn't like Hunt was wrong per se, but his delivery needed work. Also circumventing the chain of command could have gotten him busted to Private with a less easy-going NCO. 'Calm down now, Hunt. And welcome to the squad, Louque. You'll settle in soon enough. It's all just long periods of boredom with the odd flash of terror. Like training, only worse.' He shook her hand, wondering rather cynically if she would feel the need to rub it clean afterwards. A sadistic thought occurred to him, a way to kill two birds with one stone. 'Now then. You two are gonna be my marksmen, or markspeople if you'd prefer. Spotter and shooter.' He privately suspected that Hunt was angling for a promotion and while the lad had the potential and additional training, he lacked perspective. Working alongside someone with superior training would do him good. As for Louque, she would need a spotter and the benefit of a buddy with field experience. 'First order of business, perimeter. 90 degree arc to the north please and inform me of any movement. Don't worry about the other angles, I'll detail someone for that. Jump to, people.'

Silences reigned for a few awkward moments until another one of the recruits piped up. He wasn't quite what Harald expected of a shocktrooper, but given his background that made sense. A multi-skilled SMG user could be handy though... 'I'm not going to ask how Carn managed that. Leave the man his mysteries.' He paused for a moment, wondering what task he could give the man. There was plenty to do, especially since they hadn't properly swept the area last night. 'Well, a few things. First off, hey Glaive. Did you manage to police the bodies last night?' Carn and Bons had already left, but Glaive had hung back; luckily for her, that meant he could give her less backbreaking duties after all the work she had done the night before. Valk knew how she had summoned the energy to to it, but she had asked for permission. One person digging a mass grave was pretty ridiculous, so he suspected she burnt the corpses. 'Take Ashart here and finish it up. Collect any working weapons or equipment and load them onto the APC. No rush though, we've got a few hours until the engineers are done; just stay on alert.' And that left only a few more bodies spare to keep watch. 'And... Stichler, organise a patrol group with the leftovers. Focus on the flanks and rear, just be ready to move north in case the the sniper sees something.' There was still one more recruit who hadn't introduced herself, so Harald gave her a chance to speak before leaving. He really wanted to go check on the wounded, maybe wake them up and get them some food. Might be worth taking the lancer, since she offered to help.

Private Bons, Gallian Militia

Meanwhile, as the sergeant got to know his new lackeys, Alonso was hauling what felt like a metric ton of landmines across from the APC to the road. There should have been no reason for a simple mine to be that damn big, but for some reason the Gallian Army issue anti-tank mines held enough explosives to level a house. Digging deep enough holes for all thirty was gonna be a chore...

[Zarkun]

PFC James Hunt|Le Haye Sainte

The only good thing that had just come from the Sarge's orders was that he could just go back to the house he'd spent the night in and keep a watch that way without being exposed. The down side is that he had to deal with Miss Snarky, and that wasn't necessarily a good idea. Still, he wouldn't say anything unless she decided a Darcsen wasn't good enough to be giving the orders. Well, we'll see how that flies with him if it comes to that. For the time being... Sighing quietly, James beckoned out the door. "Come on, I already have a good spot, spent the night there."

[BytheSpleen]

PFC Emmaline Muller

@Lennon79

"PFC Emmaline Muller, Anti-Personnel..." Emmaline announced, though she wasn't too keen on the shouting and sparkling enthusiasm as most other fresh recruits were. Sure, she could click heels and tap the temple at a moment's notice, but her eyes kept on trailing off to outside the window...where the bodies and injured would be. "...Lancer, sir."

Her hand re-adjusted its grip on the lance. Its tip wasn't sharply pointed, if that was a cause for concern. As opposed to the usual Anti-Tank warhead, Muller was armed with a rounder, mortar-like load. It was more than likely that the loads weren't AP, considering they were much smaller than the norm.

Not a common sight, even among Federation, Imperial, or even Gallian militaries. If she could hit a radiator or let loose a shot down the hatch of a tank, sure, she could clear out an entire crew, but no way in hell was she going to take anything bigger than a Light Imperial Tank head-on.

Then again, with the lack of Lancers, re-outfitting her for anti-vehicular combat shouldn't be an issue. She'd just have to do a little baptism by fire to get the experience.

Could they spare danger, though?

[Raven_Operative]

Evan's Post

Evan whistled a merry little tune as he carried a pair of shovels and picks towards where Alonso was headed with the landmines. He would have offered to carry the mines himself, but the kid had just shown so much spirit that Evan didn't feel like interrupting him. "Yeah, just set 'em down off to the side there, Bons. Carefull... carefull.... don't drop them!" The redheaded mechanic was well aware that simply dropping an AT mine wouldn't be enough to set it off, but he couldn't help it when the opportunity to tease presented itself. Dropping the tools beside the small pile of landmines, Evan pointed out the spots on the road where they would lay them. "Eh... We'll probably need to double layer 'em. Wedge formation, ya know, in case theres more than one tank or it charges in at full speed. Or maybe..." He scratched the back of his neck, deep in thought. Evan had been taught about mines and how to avoid them in the armour school, but hadn't ever gotten shown how a mine field was supposed to be setup. Maybe it would be best to just let the kid handle this one. Snapping his fingers, he spoke up again. "WELL! You're the engineer, you probably know a lot more about this than me. I'll go grab the rest of the mines while you put yer diggin' skills to work."

After clapping the boy on the shoulder, Evan wandered back to the APC to fish some more mines out of it. By the time he was fully 'loaded', he had enough to finish the side him and Bons were about to start on. They'd need to take another trip to get the rest later on, but this was a good start. After he set his pile of mines down, Evan grabbed a pick and headed over to where Bons was digging away. "Heads up, boy. Let me have a crack at this!" Swinging his pick overhead, he brought it down on the earth with a loud thud. The two continued like this for some time, Bons shoveling and Evan breaking up the dirt. This was going to take a while...

[Engel]

Private Elise Louque

Elise wasn’t sure whether she should begin by telling the darcsen to sod off with his inane orders, or if she should point out that she doubted this Hunt character could spot a wall if it was in front of him. She’d joined the army to do a job though, even if this wasn’t anything like she’d imagined it would be she was still here to do her job. She bit her tongue. It wasn’t a good idea to continue to antagonize everyone she ran into, regardless of whether she was having the worst day in a long time. Elise would simply have to use her discipline to focus on her job, and disregard the darcsens and other annoyances. “Fine, lead the way.” She said to Hunt with a cold tone. Elise would go along with them for now, but it didn’t mean she had to like it. Maybe she should send a letter to HQ asking to be transferred to another squad.

[Zarkun]

PFC James Hunt|Le Haye Sainte

The walk was short, since it was just across from the only remaining house in the village, and James took up his position he had the previous night, aiming out of the whole he'd mostly found and partially set up, but scooted over so Miss Stick up Her Ass had a spot to aim out of as well.

[Slypheed]

Celeste

"Alright.." She answered while scratching the back of her neck. The order the sergeant had given her made her a bit unsure of her abilities. Celeste moved towards her lance and rifle, slinging her rifle over her back and picking up the lance. Turning her attention back to those that were still here. "Well, you heard the man, anyone who doesn't have any orders come with me. Meet at the destroyed tank in the crossroad, and we'll move from there."

After all the stragglers had joined up at the destroyed tank, she looked at the west road, then the east. "Alright, so here's how we'll do this. We're going to move west, and circle around the south and come back in from the east. And we'll continue this cycle until the Sergeant gives a new order. Or if the marksman team spots something north." She tapped her chin "We'll move in a wedge out in the fields...assuming everyone knows what that is. But we'll stay in a column when passing through the by here." Celeste let her lance rest against her "And we'll probably double time it through here as well, so our eyes don't stay off the rest of the fields for long. Everyone got that?"

[Little_ninja]

Private First Class Cecilia Rousseau

Le Haye Sainte

"Urghh...." Ceclia groaned, as he right hand moved towards her head. "Ah .... my head ..." Holding her head with one hand, and slowly, but surely, getting up, she found herself .... somewhere she had never been before. "This ... isn't the base .... where am I?" Cecilia muttered. She was still feeling the alcohol in her. Her head was splitting, she was hung over. Now ... how did this happen?

---

Last night
Base

A group of PFCs had gathered during the night, having a minor celebration over some recent victories for some squads. Some of these PFCs had gone to assist some of those squads, including Cecilia, so there she was, drinking with some of the others. "WOOO!!"
"YEAH!"
"And then we ..."
Stories and cheers were coming around in this party, and Cecilia enjoyed the mood, happily chugging her a drink. Although the quality wasn't the best, it was still something to enjoy at least.

After a few hours of drinking, Cecilia needed to get some sleep. She was pissed drunk, and there was no way she would get into her barracks without some sort of consequence. Her dad, did say something once, about his time during training. Most of the vehicles at the base rarely ran, so some people who got drunk occasionally would sleep in the vehicle to avoid getting caught drunk. Remembering this nice bit of information, she decided it would be better to get some sleep in one of the vehicles. It was dark, and a number of vehicles were around. One was unlocked so she got in somewhere and fell asleep ...

---

Present
Le Haye Sainte

"Well, you've gotta be shitting me. I got myself recruited while I was asleep, and drunk? Without my gear? Probably someone didn't check the vehicle properly." Cecilia continued to mutter to herself. She was well aware, her headache was not gonna go away any time soon. Getting out of the APC, she only realized that it was an Imp APC that had been repainted. I must of been real drunk to not notice it was an APC she thought to herself.

Scanning the area, she noticed it had been a battlefield, one that probably was one only recently but needed new recruits. Most of the buildings had been destroyed, except one. It seemed the others of the squad were eating breakfast. Please, let them be quiet eaters. she hoped, as she made her way to the building.

It was bustling, and her head was splitting and hurting even more. This really sucked for Cecilia. All she could do was manage a sigh as she held her head with one hand, massaging it a little. With her eyes barely open, she looked at everyone's uniforms, more specifically their rank. Private, private, PFC, Oh a Sergeant The Sergeant was a man with black-blue hair and a thin beard. From this, she thought it was likely he was a darcsen, although, it was entirely possible that he might not be, like herself. Although her hair was dark, she was not a darcsen, proof being that she still held a surname from her parents who weren't darcsens. She has often, though, been mistaken as a darcsen, this lead to her not developing the same bias as others to darcsens.

Walking up to the Sergeant, she gave a weak salute. "Private First Class Cecilia Rosseau, Sir. Reporting for duty." Her voice was soft and a little weak. "Sorry Sergeant, but I have a request. You see ... I was drunk at the base and suddenly I wound up here. So there are two things here, I have no gear and I have a hangover. So can I at least get some sleep and then get my gear from base before actually being properly recruited into this squad?" Cecilia asked, as her salute changed at some point to rubbing her head.

[Lennon79]

Sergeant Harald, Gallian Militia

'Muller, then. Good to make your acquaintance.' Another mortar lance, interestingly enough. Durandal had helped considerably last night with hers and with the prospect of further urban combat ahead, Harald was quite glad to have the firepower. 'Go with Corporal Stichler for the moment, she'll show you about.' He turned his attention to the last new addition, one eyebrow rising as he took note of her dishevelled appearance. Well... Good morning Rosseau, I guess.' How the hell CArn had managed to recruit a fucking drunkard was beyond him, but the Sergeant had to work with what he had. 'No-go Private, sorry. We're hours away from any established bases and we've got limited kit on hand. Tell you what though, there's a spare SMG in the APC-' Kyo's SMG at least... '- so go get that and scrounge up and kit we have lying around. Might be a few bits of Imperial webbing left over from last night, if you need it.' He paused for a long moment, wondering if he should just let the girl sleep; she did look pretty shattered... But no. 'Sorry Stichler, but this one's your responsibility for the moment. Kit her up, then sober her up.'

With that, he let the Corporal lead them from the room but snagged one at the last moment. 'Skye, was it? You're with me. I need a hand with a few of the wounded.' The two of them trudged upstairs to where the injured had been left overnight. Luckily he had had the foresight to move Durandal in with the other two when he awoke, leaving the three of them packed together on a pair of beds. 'Durandal there is another one of our lancers; I think she hit her head during the fight. Looked alright this morning, but I don't want to take chances. Could you give her a once over for me?' In the meantime he knelt between the two beds to check on the last two remaining members of the original squad from Rinneheim. Sykora's pale skin was nothing new, she always looked like she would be better off indoors. Harald propped her up gently against a pillow, lightly tapping her cheek to wake her up. 'Oi... Oi, come on now, up you get. Oversleeping's a court martial-able offence, y'know?' He tried to cover his concern with a bit of humour, well aware that either of them could be more seriously injured than anticipated. Casting a glance over his shoulder at Jatmoore's sleeping form, he was glad to see that most of the cuts and bruises had healed over; thank the Valks for ragnaid. 'You too, Private. Breakfast's ready and the guys are worried.' If it had been one of the guys (like for example Hunt, or definitely Carn), he would have just dumped a pale of cold water on their heads. But these two just seemed too... delicate for that. It worried him immensely.

[Raven_Operative]

Lilly's Post

Lilly sat under a tree by the river, relaxing and simply enjoying the view. A light, warm breeze gently blew, causing her hair and summer dress to billow and flow. After she patted it down, she leaned back against the wood of the tree and smiled. The war was finally over, and everyone had made it through unharmed. For the first time in what seemed like decades, she felt truly at peace. Just being able to relax without the threat of being killed hanging over her was an immense blessing.

"...too, Priva... -fast's ready ... guys are worried."

From somewhere off across the river, a dull voice echoed. Who was that? She couldn't quite make out the words. A moment later, the whole world began to shake. What was going on?! An earthqua...

***

"Oi, come on now."

...ke? As Lilly arrived back in the land of the conscious, she was greeted by the sight of a wooden ceiling above her, soreness and queasiness emanating from her stomach, and a certain Darcsen sergeant gently shaking her shoulder. What was going on?! Why was she back here?! The war had already... ... oh... Lilly's memories tumbled back to her as she recalled the final moments in yesterday's battle. The fighting, the shooting, her smoke grenade... the explosion that buried and impaled her... "Where... where are we? Lilly's confused expression remained on her face as she slowly sat up (clutching blanket to her chest as she did) and looked around. The second floor of... what seemed like a farm house. I guess we're still at the crossroads. When she got a reply confirming her conclusion, her heart sank. The mission was still on, and they had yet more fighting to do... "...Very well, Sergeant." Lilly slowly shifted and swung her legs over the side of the bed so that she faced away from Harald, Sykora and Skye before hunching over and wiping the tears that were starting to form from her eyes. She was still in the war fighting for her life, and her stomach was occasionally giving her sharp pains and waves of nausea. She didn't know if that was from the after effects of the ragnaid or if there were still splinters stuck inside her, but one thing was for certain: her current situation was a far cry from the happiness and peace she had experienced in her dream. There was still a long way to go.

After she wiped her eyes, Lilly spotted her shredded uniform top hanging from a chair and her battered armor and remainder of uniform piled in a corner. That wouldn't do... despite her fragile mental state, Lilly's obsession with cleanliness still remained. Though she was dirty and dusty, and would probably not get to wash for the next several days, she at least demanded that she wear some clean and non-torn clothes. She had some spare clothes in her pack, the question was were did they put it... a brief search found that it had been stashed under the bed.

Once she had retrieved the shirt, she slowly stood up (not bothering to hold the blanket that was covering her in place), and began to dress. Shirt... first button, second button, third button... Pants... belt... socks... boots... armour... smallpack... Her single minded focus (brought on by the shock of recent events) prevented her from caring much about anything aside from the task immediately set in front of her, namely, if anyone was watching her dress herself. Once she had finished and was back in the uniform of a soldier, she turned and slowly walked towards the stairs. Sergeant Harald had said breakfast was ready. She should probably go downstairs to get some...

It didn't occur to her to check up with Harald or Skye before attempting to leave. Instead of acknowledging them, she just sort of trudged by, a mostly blank expression on her face.

[Slypheed]

Celeste

A last second addition before they set off. Except she was apparently drunk and had no weapon or kit. The sergeant had given the drunk mess an order to take Kyo's SMG, and scrounge up a kit from the dead Imps. But sobering her up? Celeste could only hope the patrol would do the trick. As she hadn't had the chance to grind up what coffee beans she had brought. "Well, you're going to be sobering up with a patrol. No arguments here, place ain't safe for you to take a nap. Not during the day anyway." Celeste placed a hand on her hip, looking at the woman, waiting for anything she had to say, along with responses from others. She still needed to know if the others assigned to her knew what a wedge was.

Brenna

The vista was beautiful. It was shame she hadn't brought a sketchpad. But oh well, she'd enjoy this little picnic for one. A few birds chirped from the nearby tree. And Brenna could see a family of ducks relaxing in a nearby pond. She also could have swore she saw a fawn in the distance.

A nice mid-day picnic by herself. She was happy. The sounds of war couldn't reach this place. She didn't know where this place was, but it was great. But she did wonder if she'd ever see Lilly or the others at some point. Admittedly, she did miss them.

"Huh? That's odd." Brenna looked up at the sky, it looked like a crack had spread all across the sky. She also noticed the birds had gone quiet. Everything about the world had been silenced for no reason. The crack suddenly started to widen. A hellish red sky seen through the crack. Scared, she looked around quickly, the ducks were gone, in fact, all life besides her had disappeared. Trees were dead, and the crack had quickly opened, turning the sky a hellish red. The ground mimicked the colors, along with fires in a distant forest. "Why? Valks why?!"

Then everything crashed, and she sprung awake in a cold sweat. Brenna looked terrified, and stared at a wall for a few seconds before realizing where she was. Turning her gaze to see the Sergeant and a new Darcsen in a room with her, and also saw Lilly leave the room.

Skye

Skye was getting ready to go with the patrol when the sergeant pulled her off to the side and asked for her help. Not arguing with his decision, she went with him. They had some injured it seemed, and arriving in the room, it seemed like the ragnaid had helped with any major injuries. But the order to check on one of the injured was new one for her. She apparently got a nasty hit on the head at some point during the fight. She knelt in front of the woman, and placed the back of her hand on Durandal's forehead, felt about normal. Though it was hard to tell how the brain inside was fairing. She snapped her fingers a couple of times near her face to wake her, knowing that slapping her face and shaking her would be no better, if not, worse than the hit she received.

[Ashifili]

Well, apparently, he was supposed to help one of the other female soldiers (geez, the Sergeant must be swimming in pussy), but she had already finished up with most of everything, pretty much invalidating Harald’s orders. With a shrug, Zeal complied with the other set of orders instead, that of simply…patrolling. Patrolling with yet another female, a lancer by the name of Celeste, apparently, as well as YET ANOTHER FEMALE, who had came in drunk with no equipment. Lots of pretty names, all things considered, and he was quite a fan of the dark-haired beauty thing that both of them had going on.

Of course, the stench of alcohol from Cecilia was less than endearing, but at least she was a fellow shocktrooper! She looked like the tough sort, so if any Imps do pop out of the woodwork, hopefully this Cecilia would be drunk enough to cover up for Zeal’s own inadequacies. Ah, he really wasn’t looking forward to a firefight this early on, and hopefully it won’t be a thing at all.

Following the two of them to the tank (probably destroyed by Celestine and her big, thick rocket lance, Zeal paid close attention as she detailed the route of the patrol, not even disappointed at how repetitive she made it sound. He’d have plenty of time for sightseeing anyways. Probably ask some questions concerning the establishments and all that. Get nice and chummy with the blue-eyed Lancer. Maybe score a few hits on the drunk shocktrooper as well.

“Well then,” Zeal said, his Mags MXX slung over his chest, “Mind giving a tour of the place during the patrol, Coporal? I’ve only been here for five minutes and all, so it’d be nice if you could point to me where everything is during our walk.”

"And you have any specific ideas on how we'll position ourselves wedgely? Or is it fine just to get into that shape?"

[Kitsune]

Alex Glaive

"Footsteps... Harald and the others"

Alex muttered out a few words as she awoke from her slumber, her keen senses having picked up on the fact that her fellow troopers were now awake as well. With a groan she gripped the edges of the rather comfy chair she had discovered in the rooms and shifted herself up a little to peer out of the window. She had set up the chair in such a way that she would have been ready the moment that something happened but luckly it was really unneeded, no counter attack or anything.

"New people?"

She questioned as she heard some unfamiliar steps from down below, it was both worrying and happy that they may have gained some backup. Reaching up to the roots of her hair she flowed a strained of her hair down in front of her face, it had started to lose the color of the black white and return to its platinum blonde roots, this would be bothersome on the battlefield where she would be unable to redye it. Grabbing her cap she placed it on her head to hide her imperial features before standing up from the chair, making sure to grab her rifle on the way to the door.

Food is what she craved for right now and that is what she would hunt, or just go downstairs where someone was sure done cooking by this point. On the way she encountered Harald and Skye, she made sure to give a greeting before she continued on "Sergeant." After arriving downstairs she noticed one of their number was a little more dazed than normal, though not many were not morning people she was sure that this was something more? "Lilly, are you ok?" Shifting from behind the girl she made her way to one of the chairs as she awaited a answer.