Fareeha Amari stood in front of a full length mirror, running her bionic hands over the front of her suit to try and smooth out any wrinkles that could've possibly been in the white fabric. She grumbled to herself as she tried to fiddle with the golden tie once more, she already looked as clean pressed as a soldier could but she was always trying to keep on top of her appearance. Her phone buzzed on the table beside her, picking it up and turning it on she saw it was a text from her commanding officer.
Just arrived, get a move on soldier we've got a ceremony to attend.
The Egyptian looked at herself in the mirror once more, giving a quick look over before nodding and grabbing her jacket. Hastily making her way to the Jeep that was sitting idly in front of her home, she hopped into the passenger seat and received a firm clap on the shoulder. "Ready for this Amari?" The soldier rolled her eyes as she fastened her seatbelt "This is the fifth award I've gotten for my work in the Raptora, nothing too exciting about it, Sir."
With a sigh Fareeha stepped from the vehicle and flattened her suit once more, tossing her jacket over her shoulder. The sun was slowly dwindling in the sky but there was enough sunlight for her to need to flip her sunglasses down over her eyes. Her commanding officer came up beside her and nodded firmly, smiling down at her "Let's get going then."
She gave an affirmative nod and both walked into the grand dining hall that the ceremony was taking place at. There was quite a crowd there, a few of her fellow colleagues, other officers and corporals that she had never seen before, and some obvious admirers. Both her and her commanding officer approached a table that contained six other soldiers, once they got close the ones sitting down stood and gave a salute to both Fareeha and their captain.
Once that was over they laughed and greeted one another, Fareeha grasping hands in firm handshakes and giving quick hugs to one or two of them. They sat and began to joke around, talking about all their "fun" adventures in different missions. "Ay, Amari. Why don't you tell us again how you lost your left arm? You can still feel from that thing right? Vishkar tech? " The male soldier who asked this got a firm punch to the upper arm by another soldier, "Dude, you don't just ask someone how they lost their arm."
Fareeha let out a laugh and shook her head "It's alright Heinrach, nothing to it. And yes, I can still feel from it." She leaned into the table, placing her left arm on the table and lifting up her sleeve to show off the smooth metal, plastic and silicon tubing that made up her replacement arm. "So there I was, pinned down by a few hundred guys, real sleazy dudes. I think I was on a mission to retrieve some intel and it just went bad, obviously." The table let out a laugh before she continue, "Right so, I'm sitting there behind a few heavy metal boxes. Apparently one of the guys had one powerful rocket launcher and-"
The soldier was cut off by the tinney screech of a microphone, "H-Hello? Is this thing on? Check, one two..?" The mousy looking man on stage mumbled into the mesh of the microphone, anxiously glancing to the side. He nodded to whomever and cleared his throat "Right! Welcome all! We'd like to thank you for joining us in the appreciation of our own, Fareeha Amari and all her courageous work with the experimental Raptora suit!"
Once her name was stated, a bright light shown down on her. Fareeha stood and gave a quick wave to the cheering that came from the rest of the room. She sat back down and looked back up to the stage, the timid man stood in silence and waited for the room to calm back down.
"Or else no one would be able to hear the tiny man…" She thought to herself, chuckling silently before quickly wiping the smile from her face. Putting on her facade of a hardcore, honorable soldier. The man continued, "So, I know that we promised you all food and we will get to that but I want to personally thank Private Amari." With a roll of her eyes she slowly started to tune the man out, tapping one of her fingers on her cheek.
After what seemed like eternity but was probably only one or two minutes she was nudged by the soldier sitting next to her, she snapped from her thoughts and looked over to him with a sharp stare. He just smiled at her and gestured with his head to her right, "Watch out Amari, I think you've got yourself a real looker." Her brow furrowed at his statement and she turned her head slightly, trying to find what in the hell he was talking about.
Sky blue eyes was the first thing she saw, and they were staring at her with intense focus. A shiver ran down her back as she got a better look at the owner of those eyes, a woman possibly a few years older than her with platinum blonde hair. She swallowed hard and almost choked when she saw the woman give her a sultry wink, the rest of the room started clapping and that gave her an excuse to take her eyes back off the woman and return them to the man standing on stage.
He seemed flustered and his armpits seemed to be fairly damp, he reached into his pocket and grabbed a napkin. Nervously patting his glistening forehead before sweeping his arm to the side of the room where a full buffet was now set out "Alright, enough of wasting your time. Dinner is served!"
A stampede of large soldiers rushed towards the table, grabbing plates and large quantities of food. As soon as small wave of people went through the kitchen staff brought out another few tons of food. Fareeha stood at the table, laughing and prodding at her friends as she shoveled food onto her plate. Someone stepped up beside her and she gave them a quick glance out of the corner of her eye before focusing back on the plate in hand.
A pale hand crossed in front of her and a soft voice came from the person beside her "Excuse my reach." The soldier turned her head and gave a polite smile "No worries.." she trailed off once she noticed that the person standing beside her was the woman from not too long ago. She stood up straight, placing the pair of tongs she had in hand down, her smile becoming a little nervous as the shorter woman started to place food onto her own plate.
"Congratulations Ms. Amari. Working in such a dangerous piece of equipment takes real courage." The blonde spoke, her eyes still gazing over the food on the table. Fareeha cleared her throat and took a small step to the side so that the line wasn't held up before giving a chuckle "Ah um, yes. It's fairly dangerous I suppose, if you don't know the equipment." Those piercing blue eyes looked back up to her and she felt her cheeks get a little hot, now basically ignoring the mass amounts of food in front of her. "Well it's experimental, in its first stages. Aren't you the tiniest bit scared of it just, falling from the sky at one point while you're up there?"
Now she was in territory that she knew, she gave a wide grin and laughed "Oh no no, it's actually more developed than they say. They only say it's "experimental" to make it seem like I'm risking life and limb." A giggle came from the angelic woman in front of her and she felt weight run over her arm, "It seems like you've already risked one of those." Fareeha felt her cheeks get even hotter than before but she just let out a laugh, shifting away slowly from the table. "Well, I guess you got me there.."
The woman smiled and tilted her thumb back to one of the large tables, "Tell me more of your work? I've always been intrigued by the idea of war." Fareeha's brow rose but she nodded and lifted her arm, gesturing out "Lead the way Ms.." The blonde took a step forward, glancing back at the soldier, "It's Doctor, Doctor Angela Zeigler." She gave a smile before walking to an empty table, sitting herself down before pushing out another chair.
Fareeha stood dumbfounded before quickly catching up and sitting herself down, smiling and placing down her over stuffed plate in front of her. "So, tell me about your adventures in your 'not so experimental' suit." Angela lifted her hands to put air quotes as she spoke before planting her arms back on the table, leaning in slightly.
The soldier nodded and grabbed her cutlery, finally realizing the empty pit that was now her stomach and cutting into the food she had set up for herself. "Well, it's more like my babysitting adventures in my not so experimental suit." She chuckled and shoveled a forkful of food into her mouth, glancing back at the doctor sitting beside her. The woman had picked up her own fork and seemed to only push the bit of food around on her plate, "Oh? Do tell."
Fareeha swallowed her mouthful and soon began to tell the stories she had of her missions, talking about how she was used as more of a guardian over the other soldiers. Then to how she lost her arms and then their conversation soon veered towards their own lives, where they were from, what their main professions were and a few of their accomplishments.
Angela pushed her plate away from her and planted her head on top of her hand, smiling up at Fareeha. "I'm not so hungry anymore, honestly I could really go for a smoke." She stood and fixed her dress, grabbing the small purse she had brought with her. Smiling down at the soldier she spoke again "Want to join me?" The Egyptian woman stood quickly and pushed in her chair, "Of course!"
The two women walked out of the dining hall, standing off to the side from the entrance. Angela opened her purse and began to dig around in it "Oh, scheisse.. I forgot a lighter.." Fareeha quickly opened up her suit jacket and pulled out a metal lighter from an inside pocket, flipping it open with a smile "You can use mine." The blonde smiled and took a cigarette from a slim silver case, placing it between her lips and leaning forward.
Fareeha ran her thumb over the sparker and the flame leapt up from the lighter, she pulled it back with a snap once the cigarette was lit and placed it back into her pocket. Angela took a small drag before removing the cigarette and blowing out the smoke slowly, she nodded towards the dark skinned woman with her head "Did you want one as well?" The soldier smiled before shrugging and giving a nod, "Sure, I could use one."
Angela reached into her purse and pulled out another cigarette, handing it to the other woman. Fareeha took it with a grateful nod and placed it between her lips, digging back into her pocket for her lighter. She brought the lighter up and lit her own cigarette, tossing the lighter back into her pocket before taking a small drag of the cigarette.
As she let the smoke slowly roll from her mouth she glanced over to see Angela was staring at her once more, she let out a laugh and leaned against a low wall. Holding the cigarette in her fingers as she rolled her head so she could look at the doctor, "So, Angela. I've been wondering all night." The blonde tilted her head and leaned towards Fareeha, "I'm just a regular soldier, I don't understand why such a highly decorated doctor would be here. Tell me, why did you come?"
A grin slowly broke out over the doctor's face, she took a drag of her cigarette and locked eyes with the soldier. Blowing the smoke out harshly before answering, "I haven't.. Yet. Maybe you could fix that." Fareeha was in mid drag as the blonde spoke, she sucked in a sharp breath of air causing her to take in too much cigarette smoke.
She coughed hard, thumping her chest with her fist. Eyes watering as she tried to take in some fresh air, she looked back up at the woman before her. Wiping at her eyes with her thumb before tossing the lit cigarette to the floor, stomping it out with a foot. She continued to cough as she spoke, "Are you.. Trying to kill me?!"
Angela laughed and pushed the lit end of her cigarette against the low wall, tossing the butt into the nearby garden. She stepped forward and took a hold of the soldier's tie, giving it a sharp tug downward, "No, I just enjoy having a little fun. And you, seem like a lot of fun." Her head tilted towards the parking lot, "You have a choice, Private Amari. You can take me home, or…" Her head tilted back towards the dining hall, "You can rejoin your friends for your fifth award, and listen to that tiny little man squeak over the microphone."
She leaned up and kissed the other woman's cheek before letting go of her and pulling her purse up on her shoulder, she started to walk off. Turning her head back to look at the soldier, winking before heading back off into the parking lot.
Now, Fareeha Amari is a very honorable woman. She knows she's supposed to go back into that dining hall, accept her award for working so hard, for being one of the few to work in the Raptora. She takes a step forward, she knows that as a soldier she's supposed to sit through the boring speeches and loud people.
Which is why she followed the alluring woman known as Doctor Angela Ziegler.