A word from the Author: By the way, if anyone is wondering if the platform is made out of Necrodermis, you are correct.
Hovering in perfect geosynchronous orbit over a particular continent belonging to the world of Chimera, there was a platform. Measuring a hundred feet in length on all sides, this flat, square shaped surface floating weightlessly in space was comprised of a solid black-metal that Corporal Rylar Catachatun could not identify (though she did easily imagine the techs and metallurgists back home jumping in glee at the chance to study and analyze it). She did however sense some sort of…lingering presence in the metal. Some latent, living energy signature that held an eerie resemblance to the Void, albeit far more…malevolent in the inherent sense.
She continued to wonder about the metal when she heard Private Gohelm Windfel Psionically whistle before kicking a small rock that was somehow "attracted" to the platform much like the squad was, and watching as the planet's gravitational pull immediately acted, forcing the rock downwards into the upper atmosphere where it was immediately surrounded by intense flame and suffered the same fate most meteorites do when passing into that medium from Space's vacuum.
"Well, if we fall off, at least we won't have to wait too long before reaching the surface." The Private said.
"IF we can even land without ending up like that old pet "dweller" you had back on the plains that got charred to Cinders by old man Yenkin's drake and was summarily stomped on by its tail." Said his brother, Private Yodel Windfel, walking up alongside him.
"Wait, what!" Gohelm explained, turning his pressurized helmet around to face his sibling, "You, Father, AND Mother told me that Mr. Fluffylaferrus ran away into the nearest River so he could make it back to the sea!"
"Yeah, well, a really large fire-spewing reptile snuck into our Beastarium one night and decided that it really wanted biochemical sustenance in the form of fried and crushed cephalopod. We just felt bad about it and decided to tell you some flight of fancy about how it crawled out of its pool because it had grown too large and as heading for the ocean." Yodel said with the Psionic equivalent of what his Terran ancestors would refer to as a "shit-eating grin."
Gohelm looked back towards the planet, his Spirits lowering dramatically when another voice joined in.
"Don't tell me your falling for that Wyrn-fodder again Gohelm." Said Private First Class Nel Rock-Crusher, approaching Gohelm's other side with Private Hapua Kalkalani close behind. "For Mengsk's sake! Your brother is not some smooth talking void-sensitive who could somehow manage to bare false-testimony in the presence of the Queen and succeed…no offense Corporal-" She finished, turning her head towards Rylar, who non-chalantly said:
"Non taken."
"Oh please Nel. You're just venting your anger towards me because despite the fact that you're PFC, I still have a higher kill to expended rounds ratio than you ever achieved! Which is nothing to say about my accuracy rating Ms. Broadside-of-Mount-Malice."
PFC Nel's armored fists clenched at her sides.
"Private Kalakalani!" She mentally shouted.
"Yes mam!" The Private said, saluting without hesitation.
"Add this to the list of things to pay back Private Yodel for some day soon." She said in a low, but non the less threatening tone.
"Mam yes man!" He said saluting again, adding Yodel's action to one of his armor's computer's logs.
"Pffffff." Scoffed Yodel, arms crossed over his chest. "Like you're ever going to make good on those threats of yours. I'm still waiting for the "retribution" you said was heading my way after I created a wind-current that caused that practice grenade to blow up in your face and made you go rolling down that hill before crashing into the Drill Sergeant's office. Granted, he himself dealt with me with his own form of disciplinary action, but you never did give me your own." He finished, cheekily.
Beneath the face-plate of her Power Armor and beneath the head encapsulating helmet she wore beneath that, Nel's eye-brows furrowed even more if such a thing was possible. Any telepath worth his or her weight in Protossium could feel the Irateness flowing from her mind like rain from the steep Mountain-Tops of Northern Earius or Central Aiwai during the wet-season and could accurately predict what was likely to occur next.
Corporal Catachatun was about to verbally (and if the need arose, "physically") put an end to the spat between the Regular Private and Private First Class when someone unexpectedly accomplished that task for her.
"What in the Fram-berry hill is going on here!" Shouted Sargent Ernor Shivala, slowly pushing himself up to his feet from his position dead-center on the platform.
As fast as they could, which was inhumanly so, the other five troopers turned around to face their CO and saluted him.
"Sergeant Shivala!" Said the Corporal. "You're awake sir!"
"You sound shocked Corporal Catachatun. Why is that?" He said, stretching out his ligaments as he walked towards the rest of his squad.
"Because sir, according to your brain-wave pattern, you were in really deep REM, the kind that make a person sleep about a day or so, We didn't expect for you to wake up so soon."
The Sargent stopped abruptly, a foot in front of his team-mates (Rylar in particular). He stared at her with what she could feel was an intense gaze beneath his layers of head protection before moving along the rest of the line and doing the same to the others. After walking past Yodel, he Sargent swiveled around with his hands clasped behind his back.
"Can the rest of your confirm this?"
A unanimous reply of "Yes we can sir!" came from the Windfels, Rock-Crusher, and Kalkalani.
The Sergeant remained as stock still as those under his command for a few moments before swiveling back around to face them and saying:
"Very well then. At ease."
The five before him immediately brought their hands down from their foreheads, their stances slackening and relaxing only slightly.
"Now I wasn't exactly completely conscious when I noticed PFC Rock-Crusher and Regular Private Windfel here were squabbling like children of the citizenry over jerky."
Ernor began alternating his head between Nel's and Yodel's face-plates.
"Would you two care to explain to me what in particular you two yokels were squabbling about!" He said with a far more authoritative and decibel laden tone.
Within the confides of their armor, the two struggles not to quake at the Sergeant sudden shift into anger (though Nel was able to stand more resolutely and recover from her fears far more swiftly). The PFC was first to speak.
"It was the usual sir." She said. "Yodel here was picking on his brother again, and when I told him how full of fecal material he was, he kept blabbering more and more until I was just about ready to deck him."
The Sergeant turned his head to regard Hapua.
"Private Kalkalani! Is it true that PFC Rock-Crusher was about to deck Private Windfel?"
"Like my Great Auntie Caleo's right hook, sir!" The Private responded with a surprising lack of humor in his voice.
The Sergeant broke out into a fit of chuckling.
"That badm huh?" He asked, subconsciously rubbing his head as though remembering some great pain there from long ago.
Hapua nodded, a small Psionic smile coming from his mind. The Sargeant turned towards his XO.
"And how long, exactly, was the argument Corporal?"
"About a minute sir." Said Rylar. "However, I was about to intervene just before you first spoke here, sir."
Ernor's eye narrowed upon Rylar.
"Did I hear you right Corporal?"
The Sargent scanned through the visors of the other members of his team.
"Did I hear the Corporal right people? Did she just say that she was ABOUT to stop the squabblin' goin' on BEFORE I got up!"
"Sir, yes sir!"
"Did I hear that it took PFC Rock-Crusher preparing to come to blows with Private Windfel before Corporal Catachatun decided it would be prudent to intervene despite first-hand knowledge about how arguments between the two aforementioned parties typically transgressed!"
"Sir, yes sir!"
The Sergent turned back towards the Corporal, whose eyes were threatening to bulge out of their sockets they were so wide.
"Sergeant-I-"
"We're not in our first year anymore Corporal Catachatun. You should have stopped their little spat prior to it even escalating to that point. We're graduates, and if I was drilly Sergeant Arley, I'd probably use that as an excuse to make you take the physical portion of the Final Exam again, except alone this time and without a cloak."
The Corporal looked through her mind, trying to come up with a defense or rebuttal that would work in her favor. Finding that there were none in this situation (unless you counted shifting the blame on the two Privates who had perpetrated the incident, which she herself did not), she remained as silent as the graves of her ancestors.
"Furthermore-" Continued Ernor, "I do believe we have ourselves a monumental task ahead of us, given by someone with a far greater power than any creature of Mortality, even the queen herself. I'm assuming that you are all aware of this?"
"Sir yes sir!"
"Good! Then all you know why we've been brought here." He said, before moving towards the other end of the platform and looking down towards the planet below. "Right below our feet, on this world whose name escapes me, lies an unknown number of adversary's from an unknown number of alternate plains of reality. The Mercar himself has selected the entirety of Diavi squad to see how we compare to these unknown soldiers."
Swiftly, he turned around to face his men yet again.
"Now I do not claim to know the workings of the Mercar. I do not claim to know whether whatever lies on this world we're hovering over will be a pleasant dream or an eldritch nightmare to us. I do not claim to know that we can stand resolute and victorious over the hostiles inhabiting this planet."
Slowly, he began walking towards his men.
"But I can tell you this much! We're going to show our enemy, whoever they may be, what we are capable of accomplishing as a single, solitary unit! We're going to show them what the Troopers of our caste, of the Tritoss, who have been training for combat since we were adorable little 30 year old munchkins can do with all those 120 years we spent training ourselves to the extreme. We are to do everything we can to honor the Academy of Prair, and with any luck, we just might be able to honor the Mercar as well!"
Abruptly, Ernor came to a halt, once again standing at the same spot he had been earlier to walking towards the other side of the platform.
"So when I say that you all better bring you're A-game, that you all better stop bickering with each other and perform your duties to the best of your abilities-" He said, that last part directed towards the Corporal if his face's position was any indication, "-do I mean it when I say you will be summarily and suitably reprimanded!"
"Yes you mean it, sir!"
The Sergeant nodded in approval.
"You are all correct! Now-"
Ernor moved back towards the platform's other side, once again looking downwards.
"-from the looks of things, we are over one of the planet's Continents. Since I cannot identify any other noticeable land-mass, that's our best bet of landing on solid-ground-and I don't know about you all, but I do not want to go for a swim"
Ernor swiveled his head around to his assembled team, a Psionic smile forming on his mind.
"So, who here feels like playing a nice game of "Tornado Diving" taken to an ever higher extreme?"
"We do sir!"
Ernor chuckled.
"Somehow I knew you'd say something like that."
