RP: Fort Ready Class 3 - Another Beginning

The five minutes had passed quickly and the stragglers outside were pushed inside. They were motioned to numerous chairs, where one of the instructors waited on stage to begin. "Maybe now we can get some answers," Kazuma said to himself.

“Oh pardon my impertinence. It was all too fast for me. I’m Yumiko Madoka.” Yumiko tried to make a nice smile on her face, while introducing herself to Kuriko and looking for some free chairs to sit on, at the same time.

Maya took an empty seat at the front row while still waiting for the instructor to begin. "This better be good, what the hell is a Mishhu doing on Nataria this deep in Yamatai space?"

Paxton took a seat in the big meeting hall. The seats were filling up pretty quickly as everyone filed into the room. No one he recognized or knew, though he had noticed a young neko walk into the door on her way in here. "Poor gir" he thought. Despite his sympathy, he couldn't help but chuckle.

He was nervous and had been churning his thoughts through his head ever since the ship that brought him here took off. It was all for real now, and he couldn't help but second guess himself over the decision to come here. "No sense in that now" he said quietly to himself, catching glimpses from nearby cadets who were most likely thinking the same thing, but he still couldn't shake the feeling.

Paxton slumped back in his seat and resigned himself to whatever was going to happen next. His massive frame dwarfed the flimsy collapsible chair, and he was quite puzzled as to how the thing was holding his weight. One thing was for sure though - they certainly weren't built for comfort.

The last cadets were in the room and two soldiers closed the great big doors to the entryway. Paxton awaited patiently for what the instructor had to say...

Kuriko took a seat next to Yumiko. As she sat Kuriko remembered running through the forest as fast as she could. The fear of being chased through the underbrush by a Misshuthvaar. Luckily the misshu chasing Kuriko had been less maneuverable in the tree line than she was, so she had managed to lose it.

Kuriko sat down, and watched the instructor up on the stage. Perhaps they will know what is going on. Kuriko thought to herself as she absentmindedly played with some of her long black hair in her fingers.

The Hyper Satomi had found a seat somewhat near Kuriko and Yumiko, and sat, fidgeting, but staring intently at the instructor on stage, who soon cleared her throat and began speaking.

***

Kail Cleared her throat, looking over the mostly helpless recruits in the audience. for her, and Instructor, it was hard to keep a straight face. The recruits would hate the instructors for a few days over what they'd done. "If any of you are wondering what just went on, then wait no more. I'm here to explain everything to you. But first, I must say, Welcome to Fort Ready. I've been told this place can be five weeks of hell. Though we're trying to change that idea, we decided to start of with a bang." The instructor paced the stage as she talked, making sure to catch the eyes of as many recruits as possible, and make sure they were paying attention. "This 'Bang' we decided on was a massive simulation set up with volumetric projectors placed strategically in the forest, as a means of testing your initial skills and resolve. There was no Mishhuvurthyar invasion, simply volumetric projections, even a couple of the recruits are volumetric" Kail paused, and, suddenly, two Nekos near the front row disappeared, they were the two whom had gone to get firewood, the first to be attacked.

"This simulation was very fruitful in discovering what areas each of you need practice in, and who needs what kind of training more. For the most part, you failed, though a few of you did make attempts at doing the right thing." Another pause, as Kail gathered her thoughts. "As most of you know, Nekovalkyrja have most of their knowledge downloaded into their brains, and many wonder why they need training at all. Well, let this be a lesson that downloaded knowledge is not always a good replacement for actual experience. For those of you who are not Nekos, and never have been, know that no matter how much you may think you are ready, only the real thing can prepare you. This is what Fort Ready strives for in it's training: realism. Without realism in training, it'd be like sending you out to war as you are now, which would most likely be a disaster for whatever unlucky ship you landed on."

With that bit of wisdom, the Instructor finished her piece, but remained standing. after taking a few moments to let that information sink into the recruit's minds, she said "Now then, Any questions you would like to ask me or the other Instructor staff?" As Kail was speaking, the instructors all appeared onstage, ready for the recruits.

After hearing this revelation, Maya can't help but being a little ticked off. "I'll be damned, Yumiko was right!" Maya muttered but decided to keep any objections to herself. "Oh well girl just get over it, its over now." After that Maya raised her hand to ask a question. "Yes ummm, what exactly is the training regiment that we will be going though?"

Strelgar chuckled, he didn't even notice one of the strange females he had seen much of lately. With the animal ears, saying something to the communion. He still was mighty confused about how he got here really. The metal rolling beast, called a transport. Then the bloody retreat, he did severe some of those beasties tentacles. With his Cresnet-Knife, about the length of his forearm.

One of the strange females asked a question. He didn't pick it up but he guessed it didn't matter all that much to him. He returned to his thoughts about the battle. He grinned in his own bitter twisted way.

"So; it's an adventure. I like traveling." He muttered as he stroked his arm bracer its' cold touch relaxed the thoughts of the previous carnage. Not really caring about what was currently going on. His casual clothing still on his arm with the Yamat's insignia. His families clothing he still wore. Probably making him stand out more than the rest.


That love gathering, or small battle was deadly. He started laughing in a light cackle.

"I am going to enjoy this." Strelgar Growled. He gripped his Cresent knifes hilt with his gauntleted hand. His eyes went to a deadly raptors' gaze that couldn't be refused if you stared into them. Strelgar losing focus on what his thoughts were, he decided to make notes on his recent observations.

He kept his most prized belongings close to his heart. He pulled out the first of the three books that belonged to his mother. Specie Ratios that had notes on most of the current species, except this cat like creature. He started writing into the book with his felt pen. He poked his finger as he begun writing the notes in his own blood, doing as his mother had done while she crossed the universe. His mind fishing in the most current events.

The black haired instructor walked up to the microphone and looked across the crowd. "Your training will include many exercises including hand-to-hand combat, vehicle driving, power armor training, zero-gravity training, and basic starship operations. Also," he added with a smirk. "You never know when an exercise can become real, like the actual Mishhu attack on the last class."

Yumiko listened to the instructor with her mouth wide open. When she finished her speech, Yumiko turned to Kuriko with desperate face. “Can you believe it? They play games on us since day 1 ... eh”. It was obvious that she wanted to complete the sentence somehow, but suddenly couldn’t find the words. She knew she’s starting to blush and felt like naked, when she saw Kuriko staring at her innocently. “Ah ... excuse me once more please ... but I'm afraid I forgot your name. I’m really sorry, today is definitely not my best day”, Yumiko finally whispered.

After she heard Maya asking the question and getting the answer, Yumiko also raised her hand and asked the instructors, if there was any ideal way of dealing with the situation they were put in during the “test”.

Kuriko turned to listen to Yumiko speak. "Un, it is hard to believe that they would do that to untrained recruits, but I guess it gets their point across effectively." Kuriko responded. After a brief pause Kuriko noticed that Yumiko's face was turning a light shade of red. Is she okay? Kuriko wondered. Perhaps I said somethin.. Before Kuriko could finish that thought Yumiko spoke:

Yumiko said:

“Ah ... excuse me once more please ... but I'm afraid I forgot your name. I’m really sorry, today is definitely not my best day”

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Kuriko started to laugh, but managed to cover her mouth in time, turning her laugh into a kind of snort. "Is that what you were turning red over?" Kuriko tried to ask quietly. "Sh-Sh-Shifuda Kuriko" Kuriko replied, trying to stifle her chuckling as she spoke.

Satomi was speechless. THE HELL WAS THAT? she thought, as her only reaction. This was uncalled for, scaring the crap out of the recruits. Those dang instructors probably thought it was funny, too. Well, I'll show them! Getting us all riled up like this. They better be prepared! The blue-haired Neko fidgeted in her seat, quite a glare pointed straight at that smug instructor who revealed the plot. invisible daggers bored into that woman's face. To Satomi's mind, this meant war, war aginst the instructors.

It was a test. Paxton had figured it out by that point. Someone yelled 'run' so he ran. He was good at running. It was one of the few things he could do very well. All the running in the world didn't help him though. One minute his lungs and muscles were burning with exertion, the next minute, there were tentacles, and before he could figure out what was going on, he was being ushered onto a bus along with another handful of very confused cadets. "I guess I failed that one." Paxton chuckled to himself.

Apparently, by the expressions on many of the other cadet's faces, they weren't taking it as well as he was. He had half expected this. In all actuality, he didn't know what to expect, so he figured this sort of thing was normal. This place had a reputation as hell, so he really didn't expect them to be handing out flowers and cupcakes. "Mmmm, cupcakes." He thought musingly. "I could really go for some of those right now."

"Focus!" His brain told him. "He said something about starship operations!" He had to learn this stuff if he was ever gonna land himself a spot on one of the starships. It was hard to keep his thoughts focused though. He was tired, and hungry, and waiting for this meeting to be over so he could get himself a shower and some rest.

After seeing that no more questions would come, the black haired instructor decided that they should get some rest before early exercises tomorrow. "Listen up. You have thirty minutes to get a snack from the mess hall, clean up, and get to bed! Just follow the signs to your destination. Dismissed!" At his words, the doors swung opened up, and several volumetric arrows appeared in the hallway. One pointed left saying "Mess Hall" the other pointed right saying "Barracks, Showers."

The Mess Hall consisted of a large room filled with benches and tables. On the far end was a kitchen which was serving various fruits, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and water.

The path to the barracks was a cobblestone-lined sidewalk which led to the large metal doors of the large stone barracks building. Inside, there was a lobby area with an empty desk, and stairs on either side, leading up and down to the other levels. The floors were made of polished white marble.

Up the stairs, there were two sets of ten bunk beds, enough to accommodate forty recruits. The was also a bathroom at the end of the hall, as well as a door marked "Staff Only." The plain-looking bunk beds had white sheets and light gray blankets, with white pillows. At the foot of each bed were two large black foot lockers.

After the orientation was over, Maya got up and decided to have a stop at the mess hall for a quick bite after a long hellish day with nothing to eat. When she got there all they had were PB&J sandwiches, assorted fruit, and bottles of drinking water. "Some selection, oh well, beggars can't be choosers." She took two sandwiches, an apple, and water then took a seat at one of the tables and chowed down. "I wish they some milk instead, water doesn't really go well with PB&J sandwiches."

As soon as she was done she ran for barracks and this time checked the doors so as not to have another "accident". As soon as she got to class three's assigned sleeping area she headed strait for the shower and when she got there she looked at herself in a nearby mirror. Oh boy, all that running sure did a number on her, she was absolutely filthy from the head and down. She turned around and immediately noticed that her SPINE interface was completely caked in dirt, leaves, and what-not. "Oh great, I hope this thing is under warranty."

That was when she stripped out of her jumpsuit and took a quick shower, paying special attention to her SPINE interface. Exiting the shower with nothing but her skivvies on, she walked towards the nearest bunk and tossed the dirty jumpsuit in a nearby footlocker. She then got under the covers of the lower bunk and was getting ready for a long nights sleep. "Goodnight everybody."

Strelgar did enjoy the look on the communions faces, he might have allies if he ever got into real trouble. He followed the group to the mess hall, not even tired, he was still full of contorted anxiety. He took his dagger out as he spun it around his fingers effortlessly. In his left gauntleted hand eating one of the ten apples he took, he never did like anything processed.

He did notice though the base was terribly limiting. "No matter, I'll just have to discover my surroundings tonight." Strelgar didn't pass by the showers or even head to the rooms he still had is equipment and, is going to train in the out doors.

Finding his way out was a bit difficult but, it did help him pen out the layout of the base in the second diary of his mothers. Out side it was pitch black thanks to the cloud cover. "Perfect, I like this weather it matches just how I feel right now." He chuckled at the irony of the emotion in the sky.

He pulled out his own blade me made from ruby dust. It shone a Ebony in the night, tears of crimson specs shimmered with the small amount of light coming from the base. An adamant edged sword with cold touch and sharp edge. He started to swing his weapon with everything he learned in the last twenty years.

It would have been strange but to mention the contention he felt at that very moment sparked his curiousity. Was that whole incident real or was it fake like they said? I should go investigate, Yes I'll go see if it was all a lie. He sheathed his short sword, checking for his Katana that sat vertically on his back. "Lets go mother." He headed to one of the walls.

As Paxton made his way into the mess hall, he couldn't help but wonder why the instructor had ignored the black haired neko's question. Maybe he hadn't heard her? Maybe he had wanted the students to figure it out on their own? Maybe the answer was coming. "Great," he thought to himself. "An instructor with a flair for drama. Ugg."

He was half expecting there to be cupcakes, but he knew that it was just his stomach talking. As he reached for one of the sandwiches, some blond haired neko snatched it right up, depriving him of the peanut-buttery gooey goodness that his stomach craved. His temper flashed a little until it dawned on him that that wasn't the only sandwich on the table, so he grabbed another one and gave himself a good mental kick in the butt. He snatched up a bottle of water and started on his way towards the barracks.

It was dark out, but the arrows had lit up the pathway quite nicely. Despite that, he managed to stumble a few times on the cobbled paving. Off in the distance a little ways he noticed one of the students had wandered off the path to get some exersize or something. He couldn't tell from here, but saw the occasional flicker of a reflected light coming from that direction. He decided to continue on his way towards the barracks. It was time for a nice hot shower and some well earned sleep.

The arrows took him right up to the barracks. They were quite nice. Good architecture, solid construction materials. It looked as if they had previously served as officer housing, or administration, or something similar, but had long since outlived that purpose. He passed through the solid looking metal doors that adorned the facade of the building and was impressed to find a marble floor that shone like it was brand new.

"Crap. That means we're gonna be doing a lot of floor polishing" he thought to himself. "I guess it could be worse"

Paxton climbed the stairs and made his way into the bunk room. The room was very plain. A couple of cadets had already made their way here. There was a rostering clipboard that hung on the wall that contained bunk assignments. He was on a bottom bunk. "They really didn't think that one out, did they?" He mumbled at the clipboard. "Stick the biggest guy into a tiny bunk."

Out of the corner of his eye, something caught his eye. It took him only a moment to figure out what it was, but it immediately grabbed his undivided attention. The blond haired neko was now walking around with most of her clothes off. He could feel his face begin to turn flush and almost gagged on his sandwich as his throat swelled.

He hadn't expected that, but then again, he didn't see any separation in the dorms, so he assumed that it was something he was going to have to get used to. A frantic effort to collect himself proved all but futile as he made his way to his bunk. The sandwich that was in his hand had dissappeared. "Shoulda grabbed another one." He muttered.

He stripped out of his clothes, very conscious of the neko ladies in the room, and hurried his way into the showers. When he turned the hot water on, a stout yelp escaped his lips before he could catch it. It was ice cold. "That damned neko used up all the hot water!" He seethed. Now he knew why she was in such a hurry out of the mess hall.

Maya can't help but stir awake after hearing someone scream. "Great, people are trying to sleep here and already someone decided to throw a party!" She yawned and rubbed the sleep from her eyes then got up and walked to the showers still wearing nothing but her skivvies.

Inside her jaw dropped when she saw what was probably the biggest Yamataian she'd ever seen taking a cold shower. Composing herself, she walked up behind the big guy and gave him a quick tap on the shoulder. "Is everything all right in here because I heard a scream?"

Paxton felt a tapping on his shoulder. It almost gave him another start, but he had managed to compose himself a bit after the shock of the icy water.

"Is everything alright in here because I heard a scream?"

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It was the blond haired neko. She hadn't acquired any new garmentry that he could tell. Quite perplexed and more than a little distraught, Paxton's mind had drawn a blank.

"I uhh...it was...uhh. The water was cold." Paxton managed to stammer out, pointing at the shower head, as if the neko didn't know where the water was coming from. "You...uhh...used up all the...uhh...hot water."

Yumiko felt so embarrassed while Kuriko spoke about her turning red that she managed only answer her a quick and quiet “Yes”. She was red all over her cheeks and better didn’t say anything more and listened to the instructor answering her question.

After he finished, Yumiko quickly whispered to Kuriko: “I’ll better hurry to the showers and to my bed. See you later Kuriko Shifuda”. Then she walked with the crowd to the mess hall, grabbed an apple and a bottle of water and followed the volumetric arrows all the way to the barracks. She felt too tired to inspect it closer, so she just wanted to take a hot shower.

She was walking up the stairs while she heard someone yelling something about the damned nekos and cold water. When she got to the showers she saw a giant Yamataian taking the shower. Behind him there was Maya, standing almost naked, her hand on his shoulder.

“Ooops, I definitely shouldn’t be here right now”, though Yumiko as she saw the scene. She was to leave the showers as quiet as possible.