Italicised words represent thoughts
"Primarch, I am telling you, I do not need a replacement operative. I am perfectly capable of handling myself and my team so… (Sighs) I am sorry for raising my voice Primarch but I really am in no need… Very well, I'll accept this arrangement for now. But I will not be responsible for anything because it was your idea to post him to this unit… But in all honesty Primarch, this is bullshit." With that the pink haired lady slammed the phone back onto its receiver. The lady's hair just barely reached her shoulders; she was dressed in a plain navy blue collared shirt, a pair of black pants and a pair of military boots. She slammed her fist onto her hazelnut wood desk before flinging a stack of papers on her desk at her office's door. She was about to fling her coffee mug at the nearby metal cabinet but when she saw the photo frame that rested on her desk, she simply put down the mug and let out a deep sigh.
There were three females in the picture, all of them smiling elegantly; two of them were young girls who were kneeling down and in front of a lady. The lady placed her hands on the heads of the girls in front of her; she was dressed in a simple white dress, had pink hair and sapphire blue eyes just like the two girls in front of her. The girl on the right side of the lady wore a pair of pink spectacles and had shoulder length pink hair just like the lady behind her; she wore a blue blouse, a khaki-coloured skirt. The girl on the left side wore the exact same thing as the girl beside her, the only difference was that her skirt was white and her hair was tied into two pigtails at the side of her head.
"Mum, Serah… I miss you both so much…" The pink haired lady whispered to herself as she lifted the photo frame, she wiped away the single tear that rolled down her left cheek as she whispered a silent prayer to the goddess Etro to be granted the opportunity to meet her loved ones again.
"Colonel Lightning! The new enlistee has arrived." A familiar voice called out to her, with that Lightning snapped out of her reminiscing. She placed the frame back on her desk and stuffed the papers she flung into the dust bin before walking towards the door of her office and opening it. She was greeted by the face of her vehicle specialist, Master Sergeant Sazh Katzroy who was wearing an olive pilot jumpsuit along with a pair of boots. He had black afro-hair along with a moustache and beard; completely against military regulations but since he had proven himself to be an invaluable asset to Unit Odin's operational team, she decided to cut him some slack. "Master Sergeant Sazh! Where is the enlistee?" Lightning barked out.
"Ma'am! The enlistee is waiting for you at the holding bay! Ma'am! He's brought one suitcase of clothes and several contraband items which I confiscated." Sazh replied as he saluted Lightning, his salute was then reciprocated by Lightning after which he dropped the salute and remained at attention. "What the hell did he bring Master Sergeant?!" Lightning asked as she gestured to Sazh to follow her to the holding bay.
As the two of them walked down the hallway towards the holding bay Sazh answered, "He brought two porno magazines and four bottles of whiskey; I placed them in the holding cell safe. When I asked why he had this in his bag he said he would share them with me if I didn't say anything about the contraband." Lightning scoffed when she heard the excuse, she heard some really stupid excuses throughout her time serving in Unit Odin. Her favourite one by far was the one when she asked the corporal why he needed 3 weeks of leave and he said his grandmother died, she then presented to him the various leave applications he had during his time with the Guardian Corps. All fifteen of his applications stated that the reason was that his grandmother died, and along with it came fifteen different death certificates. The corporal never asked for leave ever again. On the other hand, this new enlistee to Unit Odin would seem to have no creativity or whatsoever in explaining why he was carrying contraband. And he even had the nerve to try and bribe her trusted Warrant Officer!
Well, at least she now would have a valid reason.
When she reached the end of the hallway, Sazh promptly opened the door for his superior officer to enter first. In the room they entered, there were two giant computer screens at both left and right sides of the room and they each had keyboards that were connected not just to the computer screens but also to the large table that was located in the centre of the room. The table's frame was entirely black and its surface was made of glass and at the corner of the table there were various port holes meant for plugging in different kinds of data storage devices and at the centre of the table there was a holographic image of the Eidolon, Odin. The presence of the Eidolon acted as a reminder to her entire team about the purpose and modus operandi of Unit Odin.
"Nice job in keeping the analysis room clean Master Sergeant it couldn't have been easy for one person to do all that cleaning." Lightning remarked, silently pleased that despite the fact that her team was deactivated for 6 months, the analysis room was still in presentable condition. Sazh nodded and smiled in appreciation of his superior's compliment, Lightning was not one of the easiest commissioned officers he had ever worked with as she was always meticulous over everything from operation planning to extraction and even something as mundane as cleaning. She would accept nothing but the best and when she received anything short of whatever she wanted, well then woe would befall that poor bastard.
"Just like that new enlistee. Boy, I sure feel sorry for the poor kid."
When Lightning and Sazh entered the holding bay, they were both utterly shocked by what they saw. The enlistee was lying down on the floor with his brown beret covering his face and the man was just snoozing away!
"Attention Soldier!"
"Attention Soldier!"
"I SAID ATTENT…"
Before Sazh could continue his sentence, Lightning looked at Sazh and placed her finger on his lips; he took that as a sign to shut up and leave it to her. "Oh boy, kid's gonna get it now." Lightning strolled over to the sleeping figure on the ground and all she did a quick uniform inspection. "The uniform is primarily brown so he most likely belongs to the infantry side of the Guardian Corps. The coffee stain on his pants is worth at least 3 weeks of washing the toilet, shoes aren't shiny enough and his hair is damn untidy. Humph, stupid Primarch why she would send people like this to me is beyond me." After completing her inspection,Lightning then went to pinch the soldier's nose. Seconds later, the soldier's eyes opened and as he sat up, he started gasping for air.
"God damn it! When I find who did this to me I am going to…" Before the soldier could continue his sentence, Lightning whispered as gently as she could into his ear, "What are you going to do to me soldier?" Shutting his mouth, the soldier turned around and saw the pink haired colonel smiling angelically at him, the man gulped in a ball of air before taking his beret off the floor. He wore it, stood at attention before shouting out, "Third Sergeant Zachariah Lee reporting for duty Colonel!"
"At ease soldier," Lightning remarked and the instant she saw the soldier relax, she grabbed him by the collar and pulled him till their faces were merely centimetres away. She whispered into his ear, "I don't know who you think you are or where you got your training from but if you try anything like that ever again you can expect to spend the rest of your pathetic 5 years with me cleaning the toilet with a toothbrush. Am I clear?"
"Yes Ma'am" the soldier replied, clearly shaken by Lightning's actions. Outwardly Lightning was cold and distant but inwardly she was smirking.
"This is going to be too easy."