I don't own anything

I don't own anything.

Infantry

-Chapter One:

"Papers." Shinji Ikari handed his paperwork to the old sergeant sitting behind his desk and watched as the man read through them. His worn, scarred face broke into a sudden grin. "A grunt!"

"Yes sir," Shinji replied.

"Mobile Infantry!" the sergeant added. "Outstanding! My unit." He thrust out his hand. "Shake son." Shinji took the man's hand and tried to hide his pain as the old, but clearly not feeble, sergeant nearly crushed his hand. He looked around and leaned forward with a sly grin. "What'd you actually request?"

"Infantry sir," Shinji stated. The man's sly grin dropped and his eyes widened for just a moment before his grinned again.

"Don't get many requests for Infantry from these parts," he commented. "The nearest recruit depot would be. . ." he trailed off and frowned as he thought.

"Siberia," Shinji supplied. The man frowned.

"Thought there was one in China somewhere," he stated. He shrugged. "Oh well. Siberia will make a man out of you, or kill you. It's where I went through. Now get along, I'm sure you want to get home to spend you last night as a civilian having fun."

"Sure." Shinji didn't really.

"Oh, do you speak Standard English?"

"Yes sir."

"Good. Not everybody is so nice as to speak Japanese! Now go have fun!" With another crushing handshake, Shinji turned and headed for the doors leading out into the cool Tokyo-3 night. He never even saw the other man coming.

"Damn it." Shinji sat up and rubbed the back of his head.

"Sorry!" Shinji glanced up and saw the man who had slammed into him offering him a hand. Shinji took it and was dragged to his feet. "I'm really sorry. I'm just heading out to meet with my parents before I head to Siberia tomorrow."

"Siberia?" Shinji parroted.

"Yeah!" the man proclaimed, puffing out his chest. "I'm going to be Infantry, just like my dad. Say one bad thing and I'll have to smack you."

"I'm going to be Infantry too," Shinji stated. The man's face brightened.

"Cool! We'll be shipping out together than."

"Aren't you going to be later?" Shinji asked. The man's eyes nearly bugged out of his skull.

"I gotta go! See you tomorrow." Shinji watched him sprint away.

"Odd guy."

(:ii:)

"So where did you disappear to again?" Shinji glanced away from the microwave and saw his guardian standing in the doorway to the kitchen with her hands on her hips.

"He was probably out with his looser friends," Asuka Sohryu called from somewhere in the small apartment.

"That reminds me," Misato Katsuragi stated. "Kensuke called while you were out. He told me to tell you that he got R&D on Sanctuary and was shipping out today. I tried to call you, but your phone was off."

"Yeah," Shinji replied absently as the microwave's buzzer went off. He took out the cup of instant noodles and frowned as Misato snatched them out of his hand.

"Thanks!" she chirped. She snapped the disposable chopsticks and peeled the lid off. "You'd better start applying for colleges. Didn't you say you were thinking about going to Tokyo-2 University?"

"I guess," Shinji replied. In all actuality, he had told her that to get her off his back. He had no real desire to go to college. "I'm going to sleep."

"But it's still early!" Misato whined. "Let's have a party." Shinji sidestepped past her and managed to make it to his room. He turned the lock before Misato could come barging in and collapsed on his bed. He felt sick. What had he been thinking to sign up for service?

The world was so different than how it was before the Third Impact had sent it spinning into chaos. It had taken the combined efforts of veterans from all over the world to bring order and some peace back to the planet and a continued fascist regime, the Federation, to keep it that way.

Shinji rolled over and stared out his window. In the distance he could see a bright white star shoot up from the ground towards the sky like a meteorite in reverse. At least there was an upside to having an all powerful and highly organized government.

In the few short years since the Impact the scientific world had shifted into overdrive. Dwindling resources had turned the Federation's collective eye towards the heavens and almost within a year mankind had mining outposts on several planets and true colonies on Mars. The development of Cherenkov Drive had even led to a new human planet on the world of Sanctuary. By the world's best guess, the science of space travel had jumped seven generations. An almost impossible accomplishment, but one that mankind had shown precedence for. After all, mankind had gone from clumsy, barely controllable motorized gliders to hypersonic aircraft that could almost turn on a dime in less than a century.

Of course there was always a price to pay for such things. With its barely planned and reckless dash for the stars, mankind had run smack into its first interstellar enemy. No one knew what the Arachnids wanted really. All anyone really knew was that the aliens did not want to share. War was coming and Shinji had voluntarily signed up for the unit that would be fighting it. So again, what had he been thinking to sign up for service?

"Hey Shinji!" Shinji could hear Misato pawing at his door. "Everybody's coming over! Come on out and party!"

"No thanks. I'm going to sleep." The sergeant had told him to spend his last night having fun.

"Come on!" Misato whined.

"No." Not even a week in and he was already not following orders.

(:ii:)

"Hey!" Shinji turned and stared at the man he had met the night before. "You're early!"

"So are you," Shinji returned flatly. He had never been good at talking to people, let alone strangers.

"I know," the man stated. "I'm Christopher Aquil."

"Shinji Ikari," Shinji stated as he received a handshake that was almost as tight as the sergeant's.

"Well I'll be damned." Shinji turned again and saw the very sergeant he had been thinking of. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised to see you here."

"No sir." The sergeant grinned and looked around.

"Look here. Could you do me a favor?" Shinji nodded. "I need you to watch this guy." He jerked his thumb at Chris. "Sad to say he got his mother's brains, God rest her soul."

"Dad!" Chris protested. The sergeant laughed uproariously.

"Excuse me. I have a call to make." Neither father nor son took any notice as they began to argue. Shinji walked over to the row of vid-phones on one wall and fed one a few coins before punching in the number. Several rings passed before the other end picked up.

"Hello?" If Misato looked half as hung over as she sounded, it was no wonder why the phone's small video screen flashed the message 'voice only.'

"It's me," Shinji stated

"You aren't home?" she asked blearily. "Is something wrong?"

"I signed up with the Federation," Shinji stated.

"The Federation!" Misato shrieked, making Shinji wince. The screen suddenly flashed to life, showing a very ill-looking purple-haired former Lieutenant Colonel. She had never come to see the Federation as the saviors that most of the world saw them as, quite the opposite actually.

"I'm shipping out now. Goodbye." Shinji hung up the phone before she could respond. He made his way back to where Chris and his father were still arguing. Sergeant Aquil glanced up.

"Calling your family?" he asked.

"They aren't my family," Shinji stated. The man's eyes widened slightly.

"Whatever you say kiddo." He tripped Chris absently and sent him sprawling to the ground.

(:ii:)

"I am your Senior Drill Instructor!" the man in front of Shinji bellowed. "My name is Career Ship's Sergeant Zang!" The little Chinese man indeed locked like he had been in the military so long as to not have a first name. "Perfect! This is just fucking perfect!" Shinji watched out of the corner of his eye as Zang strode up and down the shivering formation. Siberia might have been warmed by two consecutive impacts, but it was still damned cold. "I guess with those fucking bugs running around killing good Cap Troopers, they'll let just about anybody in now! Know this; a hundred of you couldn't replace a single one of them." He stopped and scowled. "If you survive this you might just have what it takes to do so. Do you understand me!"

"Yes sir!" The reply was muddled and weak as the recruits were suddenly snapped out of their shivering dazes by the direct question.

"Bull shit!" Zang snapped. "This ain't the Navy. When I say something you say something louder and with the word sir on the end. Do you understand that!"

"Yes sir!" Zang sighed in disgust than his face lit up with a grin.

"You recruits are lucky, for I am the best drill instructor in the world!" he announced. "I am hard and I will do one of three things to you! I will kill you, make you quit, or I will make you into an Infantry combat soldier. Those are you choices. Look to your left and look to your right!" Shinji did as he was instructed automatically. "By the time this unit reaches the end of its training cycles, chances are, the three of you won't be here. Anybody want to try and prove me wrong?" After a moment a massive man stepped out of the line near its head. "Do we have a contender?" The man stated something in a language Shinji couldn't understand.

"He says that he will prove you wrong sir!" One of the other men at the front yelled.

"I speak Russian!" Zang snapped. He grinned as he waved the massive man over. "Do you understand Standard English?"

"Da."

"Da what?" Zand demanded.

"Da, sir," the man replied.

"Good." Zang dropped the baton he had been twirling about and than unsnapped his utility belt as well. "Have at it Ruskie."

(:ii:)

"Did you see that big guy Blue?" One of the instructor-corporals who couldn't be bothered to learn names had designated Shinji as Blue.

"I saw," Shinji stated as he forced down the food he had been given. Misato's cooking was worse, but not by much.

"He must have flown a dozen yards!" the man continued. He was laughing so hard he was crying. Shinji finished his meal and almost automatically ran his hand over his freshly shorn head.

"That won't make it grow back any faster," Chris commented. He was staring at his place and looked fairly green. He finally pushed his plate away with a sigh. "You want it?" Shinji nodded. For some reason he was ravenous. "How can you eat that stuff?"

"I've had worse," Shinji stated.

"I meant, how can you eat it after a three mile run?" Chris asked.

"It's not that bad," the man who had been laughing stated. His name was Dimitri and he was one of the oldest and loudest men in the entirety of Bravo Company. "What do you guys think so far?"

"I'm thinking I should never have signed up for this shit," Shinji stated. He was too tired and cold to care much about trying to be polite.

"Who do you think they're going to make recruit-corporal?" Dimitri pressed.

"Probably you Dim," Chris replied. "But only because you're old and loud." Shinji gagged slightly as he tried to laugh and swallow at the same time.

"There's nothing wrong with being old and loud." They turned and saw that the speaker was one of the junior drill instructors, a man named Corporal Markham. "Though there is something wrong with being a boot non-com."

"What?" Dimitri asked. "Getting more responsibility?"

"Bingo," Markham replied as he lit a cigarette. "Not only yours, but everyone else's as well."

"You guys wouldn't cause any trouble for me, right?" Dimitri demanded, his eyes narrowing.

"Not me," Shinji stated as he finished his second tray.

"Do I look like a trouble-maker?" Chris asked. Shinji gagged again and began coughing as he choked up the water he had been drinking.

"Looks like Blue's as good a judge of character as I am," Markham stated. "Maybe I'll put my lot it for him."

-End

(:ii:)

-Author's notes. Yes, it's another rewrite from yours truly. Why? Well, I wrote the original quite some time ago and decided that it needed to be brought up to speed now that I'm planning to update it. That's right folks, this one's back on the air!