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RP: 4th Fleet (NSN) [Mission 5 Side Story] Preparing for the Storm

As he was thinking, one of the ID-SOLs from Sgt. Hardman's squad approached Francis. He didn't say anything, he just seemed to be sizing Francis up. What Francis noticed first was that this particular ID-SOL stood a good foot taller than him. Then he noticed he was a P1C. The ID-SOL broke the silence.
"Hey" he said as one of his hands ran through his long beard. "Aren't ya little short for Id-Sol kid?"
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Francis replied,"Well actually I'm only half ID-SOL. My mom was a regular Nepleslian."
 
Hardman looked at the girl again and puffed out thick smoke from his cigar. "I guess you will," he said with cold voice. "Good luck with though. You might want to keep one bullet in pocket. For yourself." He then said and snickered, not in a funny way though.

"Excuse me," Ice could suddenly hear a voice. Looking away from Hardman she could see one of the Suzuki's comrades. A short jet-haired woman with bobcut. "I would like to apologise for Suzuki's actions. She lost her sense of humour on Tange." She said and bowed slightly to Ice.

__
__

Big Id-Sol laughed out loud and took Francis around his shoulders. "Yer listen to meh boy. There is nuthin like half ID-Sol. Yer are either tought or yer dead eh? Ah well, I hear yer are wet behind yer ears eh? Saw any combat yet boy?" He asked, still grinning.
 
Francis was surprised when the big ID-SOL took him by the shoulders.
"Yer listen to meh boy. There is nuthin like half ID-Sol. Yer are either tought or yer dead eh? Ah well, I hear yer are wet behind yer ears eh? Saw any combat yet boy?"
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"No, I'm straight outta boot camp. Haven't shot at anything that could shoot back yet. At least as a soldier," Francis replied calmly.
 
Ice frowned at Hardman's take on her words. But... in the end it was pretty accurate, if dark. And from the rumours she heard, it was good advice. Getting taken alive by the Squids was rarely a pleasant experience. Keeping a handy way out wasn't a bad idea. So she just nodded at the sergeant a little coldly.

She tensed up for a second as one of the women that had pulled Suzuki away came up, relaxing when she just spoke. Ice ran a hand through her hair as she considered the other woman's words.

"Yeah, well... sometimes you gotta be a bitch to take the edge off." Ice said after a second, leaving it up in the air if she was talking about herself or Suzuki. She didn't much know herself, to be honest. After a second more of hesitation, Ice added: "Look, if she wants to dust it up, tell her to let me know. We can punch up down at the gym or something. If it's going to happen, might as well get it done somewhere where we won't get thrown into the brig, right?"
 
One of the Id-Sol's eyebrows went up as Francis spoke out. He seemed to think for a while before replying. "Hmm and what before yet been a soldier boy? Got any kills then? Maybe shot some gangers?" He asked and grinned slightly.

----

The Jiyuuian girl frowned slightly at short girl before her. "You cannot sort everything with violence. And please do not try to tell that to Suzuki, unless you would like to have few broken limbs. Suzuki is very hateful woman sadly, by your bad joke you pretty much ended any chance of getting on her good side." The woman explained.

----

Sitting on the bed in his general quarters surrounded by many other marines Sergei Ibraun Isolov was playing with his DataJockey. There was still time before any action and none of the marines around him did not seem to be interested in him.

"You P3C Isolov?" He suddenly heard female voice near him. Looking up from his DataJockey, he could see a female marine corporal. She had long red hair and green eyes. The woman was no real beauty, but no one could say she was ugly too.

"You got new orders kid," she said, completely ignoring Sergei's size. "You are being transferred to 4th fleet. Pack your shit so I can take you to the rest of unlucky sods who are getting out and move your fat arse."
 
"Hmm and what before yet been a soldier boy? Got any kills then? Maybe shot some gangers?"
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Francis thought for a while how to respond to the question. After a short pause he replied,"Yeah I was in a gang back on Nepleslia Prime. I was a messenger, mostly but I did get into a few firefights. Did you notice the scars and burns on my face? Or maybe my eye? I lost those when a car blew up 2 feet from me. Took my left hand and half my left leg with it too."

As Francis talked, memories of his life before the Marines came flooding back. His gang, his house, his friends, his dad, his sister. He especially thought about his sister Annette. "I hope she's doing OK,"he thought.
 
"Violence has worked pretty well for me in the past. And if she's going to try and use violence to solve me, I ain't keen on looking over my shoulder." Ice said simply. "If she's just gonna keep looking and muttering, she can do that till the stars burn out. But I don't want to have to explain to whoever the fuck's in charge of the 4th why I nailed another marine to her bunk." Ice touched the much worn and used knife hanging from her belt. She knew her way around a fight, more than the other woman likely suspected. And she also knew that sometimes you couldn't avoid a fight.

She paused for a second, looking the raven haired Jiyuuian over. Then she stuck her hand out. "I doubt we're gonna be friends, but you got a good head on you. Ice Plainsview."
 
Sergei had just finished updating his personal AI using the advanced computing power that the marine DataJockey he had been issued, "Oh, man, you gotta love military tech. Much better than anything I can salvage back home!" He typed in a quick message into his 'Jockey, 'How's it feel BEL?'

'Pretty roomy, not nearly as much shit your computer back home. I feel like I can finally maneuver in here'

'Yeah, well, besides that, do you feel faster or slower?'

'Faster, you idiot! Can't you tell from my reaction times!? I'm operating with a 0.325% increase in efficiency. My reaction time is now 0.0824 seconds.'


Sergei fumbled a little bit as he rushed to stand-to and snap off a crisp salute, "Yes, ma'am! Right away!"

He threw open his locker and packed his clothes in his duffel bag. He put his Murr Armor into another duffel, along with his personal Auto Twelve and his HHG. Finally, he picked up his DataJockey, and typed in a few more commands before putting it on standby, BEL's final words before going to standby and carrying out Sergei's commands were, 'YOU MOTHERFUCKER, DON'T YOU DARE SHUT ME OFF! YOU CAN'T JUST GIVE ME AN ORDER AND EXPE-' Then he gently placed his DataJockey into his tool kit, slung his Duffel bags over his shoulders, picked up said tool kit, and fell in behind the red-haired Corporal.

"Alright, I'm ready to go."
 
"Car exploding did that? Hah, you pansy. You should see my brother! Exploding Render tore off both arms and his right leg and he still tried to shoot at the next squid to show its ugly face! Gotta be a MAN's MAN in the Corps! Show those Jiyuu chicks how hard we play!" the ID-SOL laughed. It was clear that he giving advice in his jovial, bearish kind of way and not trying to put down Francis.

----------

The Jiyuuian woman hesitated, looking at Ice and then Hardman behind her. "Fujisawa Marina, UOC Peacekeep... um, I mean, um... you know. Sergeant Hardman's squad."

"And speaking of Sergeant Hardman, Plainsview, I like you but let me say this. If you want a dust up with Suzuki, fine. That bitch needs to let tension out one way or another. But if you do any of that torture shit to anyone in my squad, including Suzuki, there's five of us to your one. I may hate her guts and she can hate mine but no one hurts my squad and gets away with it. Clear?" Hardman loomed over Ice.

"Sergeant, she's been trying to bury her grief with exercise and combat simulations for the last year! You try losing everyone you cared about in a day and then seeing them resurrect as NMX zombies," Marina interjected on her friend's behalf.

"Yeah? Well, I'm gonna have a long talk with her about being a bitch. Right now, in fact!" Before Ice or Marina could stop him, the large ID-SOL marched off.

Farther away, the ID-SOL with Francis whistled and shouted good luck to Hardman. "You see what I have to work with? A bull-headed Sergeant and a grieving mother of a Corporal who's probably trying to get herself killed," Marina gestured at Hardman's exit.

----------------

"Your girlfriend had better remain stuck in that datajockey. She touches Drei's servers and the big girl is gonna wipe her without a second thought. And that's not counting what the Savtech security AI will do first. I'm told nasty shit happens if the Savtech gets to work. Drei just wipes, quick and fast. The Savtech, man, it infects and it eats away at any intrusive program. Corrupts the program and then bang, overloads the circuits. Designed by that quack Cassefin Montreal on Cirrus. And 4th Fleet claims to be the most techy fleet so I hope your girlfriend likes corrupt binary codes." Red was hardly being friendly. Some shitty P3C being sent to the shitty 4th Fleet. Only thing worse was if he was a P4C. Taunting him, though, was fun. If he tried to hit her, she'd deck him and claim self-defense. Spineless greenie would probably just take it.

"You're not gonna need that crap anyway, once you get to the 4th. Lazy arses screw everything up and pretend to be a Fleet. All they do is fight one battle and run away with their arses kicked by the squids."
 
"Car exploding did that?...Show those Jiyuu chicks how hard we play!"
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"Damn, I guess I got off pretty lucky then. That was a long time ago anyways. I've put all of that behind me. Now I'm just concerned with how many squid heads I can blow off before I'm done," Francis replied, returning the big ID-SOL's jovial tone.
 
"Hey, Fujisawa." Ice said as the her fellow enlisted turned to leave to follow her sergeant. "You let Hardman know I ain't plannin' on slicing up anyone in his squad, even if she's bein' a bitch? I ain't got any plans to hunt Suzuki down. No point starting shit for no reason if you can avoid it. But if Suzuki gets it into her head to come for me in a corridor or somethin', I ain't gonna hesitate to end things then and there. So if she gets the idea she's keen to whoop my ass, let her know 'bout my offer."

She didn't think either of them would come out of that sort of encounter looking pretty. But the sort of dark, panicked brawl in a tight space that she was used to wasn't the sort of thing that both parties walked away from. And instinct, well it was an ally for a street kid too low to run with a gang. But it might not be so handy getting jumped by a fellow marine with a grudge.
 
Sergei blushed and laughed nervously, "Yeah, well, BEL isn't a hacking program, she operates my firewalls and my more mundane programming. She uses an aggressive algorithm to defend my computer. W-whenever she senses a hostile program she hacks it to pieces, storing its code away for future reference and doing a bactrace to find its source. Once she finds the source I send my own hacking program to fry the hacker's mainframe. There's uh, there's a lot more techno-babble involved, but that's the gist of it... Plus, she's someone to talk to whenever I have no one else to hang out with. Anyways, like I said, I, uh, I have a seperate AI program for hacking, and I haven't downloaded him from my home computer yet."

He knew that her comment had been meant as a personal blow, and he was a little hurt, but he knew that if he showed anger, or humiliation, he would never hear the end of it. Despite that, it was no use, he was terrible at dealing with unattractive women, let alone someone like this. She was athletic, curvaceous, it was all he could do to keep from staring at her well shaped buttocks, "A-and besides, even if she were a hacking program, I've memorized her code, and could rewrite her from memory alone in the event that she was destroyed. I-I can write you up a copy if you'd like, it wouldn't be that hard. I could even change it up a little bit if you want." Sergei smiled sheepishly at the Corporal, he doubted that his attempts at friendship would work, but he figured it was always worth it to have as many friends as possible, especially in the military. So, he figured it was worth a shot.

"Anyways, what can you tell me about who I'm going to be transferring with ma'am?"
 
"Hah, the count doesn't matter. Always more where they came from. Getting back alive, that's all that counts. Save the counting for after the war, not during it. Or if you're gonna count, count how many days till the next shore leave. Prime's not the same as Nepleslia but it sure as hell is better than any warship!" The ID-SOL laughed, dreaming of the next shore leave.

It was a strange part about being a Marine. The dream of being accepted into the fraternity of warriors switched, amongst the veterans, to dreaming of what to do in their down-time. It was recognized that those itching for combat were the ones likeliest to never have seen it. The old hands all knew it would come to them, no need to seek out the inevitable. Mother Nepleslia had many enemies and it was up to the Navy and Marines to destroy every last one.

And it was a point that Private Ben Linzer left unsaid. Either the newbie would learn the hard way or he'd be dead. No two ways about it. He had learnt from experience that even if he did try to warn them, they'd still be chomping at the bit like the overeager young colts that they were. So Linzer saved his breath on that regard.

--------------------------

"I will but I don't expect Suzuki-san to take you up on that offer. It's not how ... we do things. For us, there is only one field of honor - the battlefield. Please don't think badly of her. Her fiancee died a week before they were due to get married. She watched his armor explode as the underground shelters sealed themselves off. But, I suppose, who hasn't lost a friend or loved one in this madness, eh?" Fujisawa smiled weakly as she left. The melancholy in her voice was palpable.

From the same door, a moment later, an ID-SOL walked through looking a little unhappy. He was as tall as Hardman and every bit as well-built, if not more so. Like Fujisawa, he had short jet black hair which he kept spiked.

"Okay, who just said what? That girl just ran by me with a wet face! I'm gonna pound whoever made her cry!" he smacked a fist into his palm threateningly. "Was it you, bro?" the ID-SOL named Butch demanded of Ben Linzer. The blonde-haired ID-SOL shook his head, and replied, "Nah bro. I got nothing against Fuji, its you and the Sarge who don't like 'em. So I dunno why you wanna pound whoever made her cry."

"If I make her cry, fine! But you know what Brick says, no one outside the squad messes with the squad. If they're with us, no one messes with them!"

"Geez, calm down, bro. No one said anything bad, right you two?" Linzer asked Ice and Francis. He wasn't going to let Butch start a pointless fight. The man looked for any excuse for a brawl and, as much as Ben loved the moron, he wasn't going to let two innocent newbies get thrashed for Fujisawa's emotional distress.

------------------

"Two words. Operational security. Don't matter what you or it thinks it is or isn't. You're a greenie and its an AI. Anyone higher ranked than you says it goes, it's gone. Bring it back and you could face a firing squad. It was an AI that let the squids hit Nepleslia." While not entirely true, the fact was that the Drei system was, in some ways, suspect. A Neko had deactivated the Nepleslian capital defense grid, allowing the NMX to attack the heart of the Imperium. Savtech's security AI had resolved the security issues regarding the Drei but the damage to its reputation was done.

The promised replacement AI was already being installed on stuff back home but with the need for the fleets to grab territory, it would be wasted time trying to install and tune the new AI. But it wasn't like the boy knew this.

"I don't give a rat's ass about your girlfriend but it's going on my report that you're bringing an unsecure AI into 4th Fleet. You're 4th Fleet's problem and I hate dealing with other Fleets' problems. And keep your eyes front, not on my ass. Unless you want to lose your balls."

They passed through the doors into the armory where Francis, Ice, Ben Linzer and Butch were. And Ben had just finished telling off his squadmate when they arrived. "You're with these bastards. Now sod off and be their problem," the Corporal snarled as she left the armory.
 
Francis listned as Pvt Linzer spoke. "Ok I'll try to remember that. That's good advice. I don't feel much like dying anyway. This bloodlust will probably wear off soon, I hope," he replied.

Even as he said this, Francis couldn't help but go back to the stories his dad had told him about the Marines. Uncensored but glorious all the same. Those stories had been a big part of why Francis chose to join the NSMC in the first place. However, Francis realized, if he thought that he could do the stuff that his father had talked about he'd most likely end up with a few Impailer beams through his chest. "Just do what you're told and keep your head together and you'll be fine," Francis thought to himself.

"Geez, calm down, bro. No one said anything bad, right you two?"
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"No, I didn't say anything bad. I didn't even see what happened," responded Francis, hoping the pissed off ID-SOL Butch would leave it at that.
 
Ice looked up at the ID-SOL that stormed in, turning her lips down for a sec as he blustered around. So Fujisawa had some demons too. Well hell, who didn't? But the newest ID-SOL seemed to think that he was the only one that was allowed to dredge them up.

She knew a fight that she couldn't win, or at least couldn't win without extensive physical damage to both parties, when she saw it. So she ducked her head at the out Linzer offered and shouldered her collected equipment. "Just picking up my kit, that's all. Dunno about your mate."

Ice nodded to Linzer as she left the locker room, mindful to make sure that the angry ID-SOL was looking away when she did. It wasn't a friendly nod, because she was pretty sure that none of Hardman's squad would count her as a friendly face. But it did acknowledge that Linzer had done her a good turn. That was rare enough for it to be worth her remembering.

Escaping without any impromptu reconstructive surgery on her face, Ice made her way to their transfer point. She'd do her best to avoid Hardman's squad going forward. She hadn't intended to kick that particular hornets nest. And while she'd tussle with Suzuki if she was going to take it that far, she didn't want any more trouble with them if she could avoid it.
 
Sergei stood there blankly. He simply had no idea what to do. He had just been dropped in a group of marines that he didn't know, with no introduction to any of them. He decided the best thing to do would be to would be to sit down, be quiet, and not draw attention to himself. He found an empty ammo crate and pulled it over to himself. Upon setting his ass upon said crate, Sergei pulled out his 'Jockey once more and pulled up BEL. 'YOU MOTHERFUCKER! DON'T YOU EVER CUT ME OFF AGAIN! YOU UNDERSTAND ME!?' Plainly, she was irrate as ever.

'My bad, I had no idea I was supposed to be transferring, or else I would have waited to download you to my system.'

'Tch, damn straight, your bad... So, what's up?'

He hated when she became bipolar, 'I have no idea, the Corporal just dropped me off in the armory with this other guy, I've got no clue who he is. Do you think you can get a dossier from a picture? If I got a picture of him? Oh, and I need you to do it without hacking into the ship's servers... We're going legit for now.'

'Hmph, yeah, I can try, but I can't promise anything without access to the ship's servers'

'Yeah, well, try. I'll get you that picture.'

Sergei turned toward the stranger in the room, and got a picture.

'Alright BEL, what can you give me?'

'Tch, I can give you diddlyshit, that's what I can give you. Without access to those servers, I have no way of comparing that shitty photo you took to their dossiers stored inside.'

'Shit, well, thanks anyways BEL, 'ppreciate it'

'Yeah, you damn well better'

Sergei looked up from his 'Jockey, turned it off, packed it back up, and grabbed his bags. He sighed, "Well, shit. It looks like I'll have to actually socialize for a change... Fuck me... I haven't had to mingle since senior prom... Well, let's get this over with..."

Sergei hoisted his bags up on his shoulders and walked over to the stranger, hoping against hope to see a friendly face.
 
"Are we turning into a goddam nursery, bro? First crybabies and now, goddam straight up babies with fuckin' electronic girlfriends!" Butch had his focus squarely on Sergei. The ID-SOL was looking for a fight because that was how he passed the time. He liked punching people's faces in and watching their discomfort at his raw, physical supremacy.

Linzer couldn't really hear the parts about hacking servers but he was close enough to hear Bel and Butch. And like Butch's derogatory remark, Linzer had his concerns about the AI. But, he also knew one Universal Truth. Nothing was better than a NAM-made product. Ever. And that meant that there was no way in Hell that Drei didn't already know about the independent AI. After all, the ship's AI could interface with any datajockey wirelessly.

"Don't break too many bones, Butch," was Linzer's only reply. He had deflected Butch once. But the man was trying to get into a punch-up for fun and wouldn't be stopped a second time. A loose cannon needed to be let loose to expend its energy before being rounded up again. Ben Linzer was happy enough to let the unfortunate Sergei get thrashed instead of Francis.

-----------------------------

A Marinewas whistling as he walked down the corridor carrying a medical kit, his weapons and a duffel bag that seemed packed to the gills. "Hangar's thatways, right?" he asked Ice.
 
Sergei had been in a few fights in high school, and suffice it to say he didn't like it. That isn't to say he was a weakling, quite the contrary. In fact, his father had taught him some of the principles of marine hand-to-hand at a young age. He simply didn't like to fight. He knew how to deal with bullies though, and he knew the human brain, and this ID-SOL was just another bully who got his jollies from shaking down people weaker than him. He stopped and let his bags down, turning around slowly. He also made sure to stay well out of arms reach, to ensure that he had ample time to react should things get ugly. He looked at the ID-SOL, confused, "Look man, I'm just trying to mind my own business, I don't want a fight." Sergei didn't take an aggressive stand, but he did stand his ground, "I would very much prefer not to fight on my first day away from Nepleslia."
 
Francis listened to Butch's tirade in silence. He could only catch bits and pieces of what was said between Butch and Sergei, but Francis could assume that if he said anything, the pissed off ID-SOL would make him the target of agression. When Ben didn't try to diffuse Butch, at first Francis didn't realize what had happened, but quickly he realized that Ben might have just saved him from a fight. "Thanks, man, I owe you one," Francis whispered to Ben gratefully.
 
"Yeah." Ice said to the passing Marine, Greer from his nameplate. Glancing back into the locker room at the sounds of Butch's little crusade, Ice grimaced. It sounded like Butch was still looking for a fight, but it was all ID-SOL all the time in there right now, so they'd be able to handle a dust up. Looking back to Greer, Ice decided to pass on the word, so maybe he wouldn't have to learn with his jaw like she had. "Look out for Sergeant Hardman's squad by the way. Fuck'n time bomb on a hair trigger."
 
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