Chapter One
I smiled to myself as my opponents, Montana and Oregon, walked ahead of me, talking between themselves. While they are a decent team, Montana's never really at her best without her best friend, giving me an advantage I can use. Someone came over my radio,
"Make sure they suffer!" Said my best friend, and resident pyromaniac, Iowa.
Sure, I will. I thought sarcastically. The fact that I'm cocky and sarcastic are really my only two problems. That and the fact that I enjoy risking my life every day I'm on the field. I have none combat-related hobbies, however: I'm a fantastic archer, I ride motorbikes, and I play the guitar fairly well, and, well, fight.
"You're meant to be here too," I said," Why aren't you down here?"
"I thought you'd like a challenge." Iowa reasoned, and I chuckled.
"Very true." I said," Next time I want an actual challenge, then."
"Me versus you?"
"Yeah."
"Awesome." Iowa finished, just as the match began.
After the match, I was nursing my right eye. Even though I won, I was punched right in my eye, so I'm sure it will be a black eye. I tripped over something, or more likely, someone.
"What the hell, Iowa!" I exclaimed.
"What? It's funny!" She reasoned at my angry glare.
"It isn't." I mumbled as I stood up and began to walk down the corridor. When I left for the café, I saw Iowa following me.
"What do you want?"
"To eat." Iowa laughed.
"Oh, sorry." I said.
Iowa grabbed our food, and I sat down next to Alaska, who had the balls to sneak some booze into the café. It is normally hidden in our dorms, but I guessed he just wanted a beer at lunchtime. I'd call him weird, but all of us are fairly odd, so I'd let it pass. Iowa walked back to our table, carrying 2 coffees, some fruit, and some greyish meat for Alaska, who asked for her to grab him a burger. If you could call it that, anyway. Iowa passed me a coffee, and I sighed in relief as I took a sip.
Iowa and I are addicted to the stuff. I know that a caffeine addiction is bad, but it's better that alcoholism, or an addiction to cigarettes, which I used to have as well. Still do, to a degree, but the cigarettes are significantly harder to get. At least the coffee doesn't hurt me. The cigarettes do, but I can only really smoke on missions.
After eating and sipping down my coffee, I stood back up. At least now I had a free hour, to do whatever I wanted. And I usually chose physical labour with our pilot, Ash. I don't know why, but she amuses me and I like helping people. Plus, she supplies us with contraband substances. Namely, my cigarettes and everyone else's booze. I like a beer too, but maybe not as much as Iowa or Alaska. Michigan refuses to drink, and I like that, simply because otherwise we'd all have been found out ages ago. It's a problem when all of your closest friends are insane and like a drink.
I walked into the hangar, where I knew Ash was. She's either there, eating in a nearby room, or sleeping in her dorm.
"Bored?" My pilot asked me, brushing her ginger hair out of her face. Ash has ginger hair, brown eyes, and surprisingly few scars. Considering how long she'd worked with us. My scar count was probably in the forty's, maybe fifty's. Iowa's was similar, but we've basically been through the same shit as the other, considering how similar our lives were. Both of us were UNSC, and ODST, meaning that we dropped down into the battlefield using special pods, and both of us were Freelancers. We were even trained by the same man and in the same squad when we were Helljumpers (ODST), so we see each other as almost sisters. Oregon was in our squad, also, and was also trained by our mentor.
"Yeah, and I doubted you'd refuse my help, considering the idiots you work with."
"You're very right, just curious." Ash said, then leant in towards me. "I've got the resupply. It's in the back room." She finished in a whisper. She meant the beer that she always managed to sneak in.
"You're awesome." I said and she directed me to some crates to put on a ship. "Easy as pie."
When I'd finished, and taken Ash's resupply away, I went to relax in my dorm, given that I'd had about an hour before dinner. Iowa was in there also, and raised an eyebrow when I brought in a brown package.
"Ash got us a resupply." I told her. Iowa grinned at me.
"How much?" She inquired.
"A bottle of vodka and 3 six packs of beer." I told her.
"Pass me a beer." Iowa ordered, and I threw the can at her. She chuckled and opened it, before taking a rather huge swig.
"You're not having more than that today." I ordered,
"Why?" Iowa asked as I hid away the beer and cigarettes.
"The last time you drank alone you dislocated my shoulder." I said.
"At least it doesn't hurt anymore."
"That's because you crushed it under a ship." I snapped, remembering the night.
The entire team was drunk out of their minds, except for Michigan, who oddly, made himself scarce. Maybe it's because he didn't want to be associated with the incident. I don't know why, but we decided to take apart a ship and rebuild it, and yet when Ash left, Oregon decided to fit a wing. Someone's grip slipped on the right side, so my left corner side fell down… and crushed my left arm.
"Oh. Sorry." Iowa apologised.
"Not your fault." I told her, and glanced at my clock. 6:25, we'd be able to eat dinner in five minutes. I decided to set off early. Maybe get a coffee for myself and some decent food. There is decent meat, but it's always gone before I get to it. I actually got the decent meat, and was eating it as Michigan and Oregon walked in. Those two seem to have a mutual agreement not to mock us. Alaska doesn't care, and gets repeatedly tackled by Iowa for it. It'd really funny to watch him try to escape the sociopath.
"Hey, Nev." Michigan said as he sat down. "Nice match earlier. Glad to see you got off perfectly." I scowled at him.
"I am sorry about that." Oregon said.
"Not your fault. Shit happens." I told him, and Oregon sighed in relief.
"Thank. God." He whispered to himself. I laughed.
"So… What're we gonna do for a few hours?" Michigan asked us, as we'd eaten in silence after Oregon's apology.
"I don't know, 'cause I'm not gonna train, and you hate booze." Oregon said.
"Why don't we see if there's a mission we can do tomorrow? There normally is something, even if it is just recon." I suggested.
"Good move." Michigan said.
"Yeah. It'll be fun!" Oregon exclaimed.
Hopefully, I thought.
The next morning, after breakfast, I was summoned to planning room 2. We have about 50 in the ship, but the director never uses most of them. I guess that it's in case we get more missions and freelancers, but at this point, one's holding an emergency stock of alcohol for us. When I reached the planning room, Iowa, Ash, Oregon, and Michigan were there.
"Where are the others?" I whispered to Iowa.
"Not coming." Iowa whispered back.
"Your mission is an odd one that is fairly complex. I need you to visit 4 insurrection bases, and steal from them. Agents Iowa, Nevada and Oregon will be running groundwork and will be the ones to obtain the , Agent Michigan will be your sniper, and Ash will be your pilot. You will be reaching the ground via ODST pods, and after that, you will be allowed to use new technology in the field." The director said.
"Sir, why can't we use the technology now?" Michigan asked.
"We need the to finalize the calculations for the technology." The director said, "Dismissed."