RP: Fort Ready Class 6

Grabbing his duffel bag from the seat next to him, Jairen joined the shuffle of bodies as it moved to the front of the bus and exited. He paused for a moment as he stepped out into the sun again, shielding his eyes against the glare with his hand until they adjusted to the natural light. The group of trainees had already begun assembling in front of a solitary figure that stood near the bus, and he hurried over.

An instructor, here to orientate us, he concluded as he fell in line next to the nekos, setting his duffel on the ground. His face had dropped back into the neutral, non-expressive mask he usually wore; his eyes watched the figure expectantly, as he waited for the speech and orders he was certain was coming. Well, I guess this is it. No turning back now. Welcome to your new life...I hope it was the right choice.

Daniela followed the others off of the bus after just a moment, her indecision (or whatever it was) obviously done. The delay earned her a little glare from the bus driver though, who obviously wasn't overly fond of his job.

~~~~

As the recruits filed off of the bus, the instructor stood in front of them, waiting. She was an overly small, almost childlike, Yamataian woman, with long silvery hair, and deep azure eyes. She waited until all 15 of the recruits on the bus were lined up, then looked at each of them in turn, taking a moment to study them, noting that almost every one of them was taller, and they were almost certainly heavier then her. She then proceeded to speak quietly. "I am acting Ittô Hei Toushan, I will be your primary instructor while you're here. I'm not a very loud person, so you should be quiet while I'm speaking, because I won't repeat instructions if you didn't hear me just because you were being loud. First off, we're going to head over to your barracks, where the last member of your group is waiting, and you will settle in quickly. Any questions thus far?"

Makoto kept quiet. Simple and straight-forward enough. He wondered, though, why there was someone who had gotten here ahead of them. Every one of them had been on the same flight. Whoever it was, he or she had to have some really special reason.

Shizuko's eyebrows twitched briefly upward as she noted the instructor's appearance. The Ittô Hei looked as young as Shizuko did, but in a different way. It was more of an impression she got as Toushan launched into a welcome-to-boot speech and Shizuko did her best to pay attention. After the intro was over, the trainee made no motion to ask a question, as she had none. What was there to ask? Instead, she mentally compared herself with the instructor.

Three inches shorter and four pounds heavier, Shizuko's hair was lighter (though dyed at the current time), her eye color was darker, her features more rounded...it was almost as if they were opposing waves. Heavier/lighter, slimer/stockier (or was it "stick/twig"? Shizuko knew she wasn't fat by any means, but Toushan-san was impossibly thinner...), shorter/taller, paler/darker, darker/paler...interesting. Blinking slowly as she waited for her fellow trainees to offer up any inquiries they might have, Shizuko put her little compare/contrast aside. It was ultimately useless anyway; an attempt to see patterns in chance.

But still interesting.

Shifting her bag's strap over her shoulder, Shizuko glanced around at the ten or so other recruits. None of them were truly interesting or she would have noticed them earlier. The ones she had noticed made themselves interesting, if only momentarily. And now she was bored, so everything was interesting.

Freyja was also looking around at the other trainees as if suddenly realising they were there “Woah, it's as if they strung from the woodwork.” she thought to herself mentally, before simply shrugging it off and returning her attention to their instructor.

Jairen could only respond with silence to the instructor's query, knowing that the few questions he did have would be answered during the orientation. "No point in wasting time," he thought, reaching down to pick up his duffel bag. A momentary wave of fatigue rippled through him mid-reach, blurring his vision. His face blanched and he wobbled unsteadily before shifting his balance, placing the burden of load-bearing on his right leg for the moment while he shook his head.

"What the h..." The realization of why he felt fatigued came to him a second later, and he cursed himself for his lack of foresight. While the increase in planetary gravity was not great, only 29% more than home, the difference was enough to affect his circulatory system. His time at the university had apparently made him a little less resilient. Raising his heart rate to compensate for it was necessary while he was stationed here. "Come on," he chided himself, "you aren't going to faint on the first day. Breathe."

Taking a few deep breaths to re-oxygenate his blood, he focused his attention to his heartbeat, willing it to greater action. It was a simple enough trick to mentally trigger the fight-or-flight response which would fool his body into releasing adrenaline; he could already feel the rush of fresh oxygen coursing through his arteries, wiping the fatigue from mind and body as his heart rate slowly climbed. Stabilizing his breathing until it was evenly measured, he made a mental note to start exercising more while on base, then reached down again and finished picking up his bag, ready to follow Instructor Toushan to the barracks.

Freyja turned to look at Jairen looking like he was about to keel over, eyebrow raising in confusion. “Uh-oh! Jairen-San is about to hurl!” she shouted in warning, voice sounding louder in the largely quiet area.

Shaking her head, Daniela snapped herself out of her trance-like state and took her place at the end of the line, blinking in the bright sunlight as she regarded the Ittô Hei with interest.

Hardly the big scary screaming instructor Clancy wrote me about.. She thought with a faint smile.I bet she's twice as tough though..

As she listened to the instructor speak she adjusted her shoulder straps, uncomfortable under the weight of her bag in the heavy gravity and then glanced down the line in concern as Freyja called out.

After a quick look at Jairen her eyes flicked back to the front, interested to see how the Ittô Hei reacted.

"Looks like food poisoning. Nothing we can do except let it run its course," Makoto said, walking past the man. What a way for him to start the training.

Times like that, one just had to suffer through the pain and tough it out. Still, it sucked seeing anyone having to grin and bear it.

Jairen's wobbling had caught Shizuko's attention, and she watched him out of the corner of her vision while Toushan wrapped up giving out her orders. She wasn't surprised that Freyja announced the poor guy's state to the world. In the process of looking over at her fellow neko, Shizuko noticed that the Nepleslian had decided to join the group. So she wasn't going to back out, then? If Daniela was going to be that inattentive, ignoring or losing track of what was happening around her, Shizuko didn't give her much chance of lasting very long.

By that time, Jairen seemed to have caught on to what he needed to do and was regaining color (as much as he had before, at least). As she thought, he just needed to adapt to the gravity. Shizuko nodded to herself and resumed keeping pace with the group.

Itsuki more or less ignored the one recruit's condition, moving on rapidly. "As you have noticed already, this location has higher gravity then standard. This is both to help your bodies finish preparing for active service, and to make your life harder for the last part of your training. The difference is about 1.25 times the average, which means everything you've been carrying until you got here just increased in weight, your body increased in weight, and you will burn energy much faster when taking part in any physical activies. From where you are now, look to your right. Your barracks will be that building down that road, across the small fountain and courtyard from where you are now. Directly behind you are two other buildings. The one closer to your barracks is where I will be staying for the duration of this class if you need me, the other L shaped building is your local medical station if any of you mess up and get hurt."

She turned to face the barracks, and her eyes flicked up, as though checking something in her head. "Starting now, you have 27 minutes to get your things, get to the barracks, and meet me back here, where you will form up, four deep. Where you sleep, and who you deal with is up to you, but if anyone is back late, all of you will be running. I recommend passing the message along to your last squadmate when you get there."

“Top bunk!” Freyja shouted excitedly and tore off towards the barracks to claim the choicest bed.

Maintaining her position, Shizuko following after the group. She was fine with whatever bunk was left, but when she got through the door there were several still trying to make up their minds, so she picked one of the few that had yet to be claimed, a lower bunk. Although there were tactical advantages to having an upper bunk, Shizuko preferred to be nearer the ground. It felt better.

Stowing her stuff in the footlocker was easy; she didn't have much to stow. Her books remained in her bag, which was folded and placed in a corner of the footlocker. Checking her uniform, Shizuko took the remaining time to look around before heading back out to form up with the rest of the trainees.

Daniela shouldered her gear and started making her way towards the barracks.

As Freyja went tearing off at full tilt Daniela smiled in amusement and fell into step beside Jairen, looking him over again before she asked "Are you good now? Need a hand with your gear?"

Jairen glanced over at the Nepleslian girl, his face an impartial mask once more. "No, I'm okay, thanks." He took another deep breath, inhaling nasally and exhaling slowly through his mouth. "It's just been a while since I set foot on a higher-grav world." Sliding the duffel bag's carry strap onto his shoulder, he continued walking towards the barracks with her.

The barracks was alive with activity when they arrived, the other recruits hurriedly unpacking to meet the Ittô Hei's deadline. Jairen selected a bottom bunk from the remaining unclaimed ones, letting his bag slide off his shoulder to the floor. Kneeling, he unzipped the duffel and began organizing his kit into his footlocker. The shelves had to be adjusted first, so he pulled them out and remounted them to the right side, with the middle shelf six inches from the bottom and the top shelf at half the remainder. Outerwear on the bottom, pants on the left, shirts on the right. Underwear and toiletries, middle shelf; socks on the top. A small rectangular hard case came out of the bag next, which he tucked in next to his socks. Its contents removed, the duffel was rolled up tightly and tucked under the shelving in the bottom corner. Satisfied that it was arranged to his liking, he closed the lid and started to make his bunk.

A slight nagging afterthought came to him as he worked, and he paused. He had forgotten to ask the Nepleslian for her name, despite having the opportunity. You should have asked her while you walked, he thought as he stood, looking around for her distinctively freckled face. A quick scan of the room found his walking companion again, and he approached her, tentatively asking, "By the way...I was wondering, what's your name?"

Somehow the Recruits all seemed to have been so focused on one of the Instructor's orders... that they had forgotten her other order.

The last member of the Training class was indeed present- she was already in there. Rikou sat on her bunk, in conversation to a Neko that was dressed as a Ketsurui Samurai.

"Well, Hotaru-San, It seems that they've all arrived now. Didn't Toushan-Sensei say they were going to tell me something when they arrived?" The brown-haired, red-eyed young Neko asked off the Samurai, getting up from her bed and walking a bit closer to the other recruits, She Arrived at Freyja's bunk- Perhaps the excitable one would be easier to talk to.

"Hello! I'm Rikou, What's your name?" she asked the Neko, adding a kind smile into the mix, just because she could.

By this point the red-haired neko was busy flopping and body-slamming around on her chosen bed, getting it ready for future habitation. She paused to look up at Rikou from her prone position. “Hi! I'm Freyja.” not losing a bit of her constant energy “Are you the last trainee the instructor told us about?” she asked, her head turning slightly.

Makoto quietly found an empty bunk and threw his bag onto the bottom one.

Samurai. This wasn't something he wanted to involve himself with. Whoever this trainee was, she was important. So best to let the Nekos get to know each other and figure out what to think after.

He was happy to be friendly but the samurai's presence was very offsetting. It was the first time he'd ever seen one in person.

Daniela nodded in satisfaction as Jairen indicated that he had recovered, looking at him again as she said "Oh yeah, can't imagine how much fun physical training is going to be here!" with a wry grin on her face.

As she stepped into the barracks, she looked around at the almost frantic bustle of recruits moving in and thought Half an hour to get moved in and they all rush about like this? And my brother says I'm the crazy one?

With a shake of her head she selected an empty bunk and dumped her gear on it, stowing it neatly as she watched Freyja's bed-jumping antics with amusement.

With her attention occupied she didn't hear Jairen approach again and jumped in fright at the sound of his voice. With a slightly embarrassed look she turned to face him and answered "I'm Daniela. Call me Dani if it's easier!" then paused, before asking "I uh, didn't get yours either?"

"Yes, that would me me, Freyja-San." Rikou answered, amused by the girl's energy. "I was told that you recruits would have further instructions for me- I'm already all set up, so I need to know what to do now. would you happen to know what it is I need to do?" the princess asked.