Author's rambling:
Yosh! New story, new luck… or so I hope n.n
This story contains spoilers for some speech bubbles in chapter 74… so its probably pretty unspoilerish to read on!
Now have fun and r&r!
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"Hawkeye…"
He paused mid-sentence to take a haste breath, sweat trickling down his face despite the freezing temperatures. He came to an abrupt halt behind his 1st Lieutenant, right when she lifted her faithful weapon, pointing the barrel at the huge bear towering threateningly above a whimpering Kain Fuery.
"Why was there no memo?"
A gloved index finger pressed the trigger and a metal bullet whizzed out of the gun, piercing the air and flying right past the furry ear of the beast. The predator looked around bewildered, totally oblivious to the man crawling away from him.
"There was, Colonel."
-.-.-.-.-.-
5 days earlier
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Colonel Roy Mustang, Flame Alchemist and womanizer had a secret list hidden under a stack of uninteresting, totally unimportant love letters directed at him from uncountable women strewn all across Eastern HQ.
Nobody knew of said list. No-one!
This list contained his very own personal "top ten of things/people I hate and want to obliterate".
'Why did he have such a top ten?', one may think, but because nobody –not even his faithful subordinates- knew of its existence, nobody had ever come to ask and basically, no one actually cared for the reason why the Colonel sometimes dug through his drawer, looking for "That god dammed thing!" instead of doing his paperwork. Except for Lieutenant Havoc, who believed that the "God dammed something" was actually a list of single women. He would give his right hand to get a closer look!
The very secret sheet of white paper had several names and various things written in a drawl on it. Among which where Führer King Bradley, Maes Hughes, Edward Elric, standard military uniforms unisex-style and rain.
Right now, one eyebrow twitching in annoyance, Roy was holding another three reasons of constant stomachache in his -for once- ungloved hands.
A memo containing the word maneuver and the name Major General Armstrong.
A groan escaped his lips and he sunk deeper into his leather chair, trying to hide his despair behind the stacks of unfinished paperwork covering his desk like a mountain chain. But the damn memo from hell seemed to possess the power to part the stacks like a curtain and so he gazed right into the stern eyes of his beloved aide.
"Sir." She simply stated, turning around in her chair to face her superior completely. He looked like he wanted the sheet of innocent paper to combust spontaneously in his hands, but thanks to some miracle (military orders not to wear ignition gloves at work… there had been that accident once) he wasn't in possession of his favorite weapon right then and the memo remained in one un-scorched piece.
"They can't order us to do this, Hawkeye."
The whining tone in the Colonel's voice had the desired effect and all his male subordinates turned away from their work to see what had caused their CO to almost cry. What monster had turned this epitome of manliness into a whimpering child?
"Actually, sir, the Führer can order you."
Sighing dramatically, Roy sat up straight again and closed is eyes for a second, collecting himself for whatever mad protesting would come. After a few seconds of careful preparations of the mind and body, he stood up and faced his bewildered subordinates.
"Gentlemen, Lieutenant." He addressed them all, his eyes flickering towards Hawkeye, who had to suppress a shake of her head at the way he had said her title with the slightest hint of hurt and accusation. As if it was her fault!
Mustang's hands were folded behind his back as he walked out from behind his desk solemnly, a melodramatic sigh audible as he made eye contact with Havoc, Breda, Fuery and Falman.
"Under the orders of Führer King Bradley, the next troop maneuver of our unit will be held in the Briggs mountains in four days from now. We are to infiltrate the Fort within five days. No restrains. No rules." He paused for effects, gaining a few groans and curses from the male part of his unit and a stony face from the only woman.
"Make preparations, we'll ship out in three days! I will hear no complaints!"
His gaze flickered to his 1st Lieutenant, hoping to find at least a tiny little speck of regret and irritation at the prospect of spending five days in the snowy, devastatingly cold mountains with a bunch of immature soldiers (her words).
But to his overly dismay, he only found the back of her head facing him. She had already resumed working on her last few sheets of paperwork… which meant, she would soon come over to relieve him of some of his own.
This time, he wouldn't feel sorry for not having worked harder!
-.-.-.-.-.-
"Sir?"
His lips were pressed together into a thin line as he stared ahead into… whiteness.
"Sir?!"
Nothing but snow, snow and ice. The rocky surface of the Briggs Mountains was covered in at least two meters of hard snow and a dark grey storm bellowed its way down the slide they were standing on, slowly covering their boots up to their ankles in white flakes and ice.
"Sir!!"
Turning around slowly, Roy eyed the men gathered behind him with a grimace that told them all they needed to know about his mental state. The Colonel wanted to go back… well, he actually didn't care exactly where, just out of this white hell, where the only exciting thing was the howl of the wind and the question how long it would take until he had turned into a shock frosted snowman.
"Yes, Havoc?" Roy finally asked in a tone that conveyed his heavy mood just brilliantly. If his voice had lacked any more motivation, one may have actually come to the conclusion, that the Flame Alchemist was standing out in the nowhere against his will…
"What's the plan, boss?" The loaded question hit Mustang like a snowball and within an eye's blink he had turned back (somewhat) into his normal self. With an aura of self-consciousness and dignity (despite the dripping nose), he plodded through the thick blanket of snow towards his ever faithful men… and had to frown when he actually found only men standing there.
He was tempted to count his subordinates, when he felt the presence of someone right behind him.
"The sight is bad, if not miserable, sir." Hawkeye's voice erupted and Roy found himself forced to turn around once again, abandoning his first intention to order his soldiers back to the road they had left some ten minutes ago. His attention solely focused on the 1st Lieutenant, he frowned at her appearance.
A thick coat, snow goggles and lined knee-high boots made her look like the legendary ice monster that was said to live up here in the mountains. Well, a monster she was… and with that rifle slung across her shoulder and the numerous guns hidden somewhere inside the folds of her fuzzy outfit, she was probably at least twice as deadly.
"I was able to make out an outcrop about one hundred and fifty meters to the south, but I couldn't see farther than that. According to the blueprints, there should be an old emergency tunnel in that area." She finished her report, pulling the binoculars out from one of the many pockets and handing it back to a trembling Falman.
"Good." Roy began, thanking whatever higher being had had mercy with him in the past and had blessed him with an independently thinking, good looking 2IC. "That's real good, Lieutenant." And with that he swiveled back around, finding slightly blue men waiting for his orders.
"After careful consideration, I decided to head south! Strap your backpacks tight and follow me! We'll bring that General – I mean, that Fort down!"
If he had hoped for a cheerful tune of 'Yessir's ,Roy had been sorely mistaken. Instead, some bowed heads started to walk towards him, trudging through the deep snow and leaving sad imprints of military boots behind.
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FINIS?!
Weeeell.
This is obviously a tag story to chapter 74 when Riza talked about their maneuver in the Briggs Mountains. I instantly had this idea, but only recently (yesterday) found the time to start writing… -.-'
If you think this fic has potential, or if you want to tell me how much I suck (I'll probably start crying or something T.T), please feel free to drop a few lines! Next chapter (did you actually think this madness was over? Ha!) already in work, so gimme some motivation, folks!