She leaned against the wall as she waited for the reinforced metal door to the war room to open, tapping a rhythm lightly against the SMG given to her by the soldiers in the armoury. She let out a yawn and didn't bother to cover her mouth with the helmet covering it easily for her.

It's way too early in the morning for this...Cerri's mind soon drifted off to yesterday evening, when Felix had escorted her to her own quarters and gave her a quick lesson on some of the functions of the technology provided for them with just a hint of his snark, of course. Not like she could remember it all frame by frame, only vague fixed moments that stuck in her mind like a broken record. The memories were stored deep into her subconscious waiting to be used for later, however right now her conscious mind was clouded and repeating the brief conversation she had with Kimball the previous day.

Seriously, an analyst? She breathed a faint sigh, thank God I learned to bullshit over the years, but this? I'm pushing it…

The doubts and fears that she had before slowly began to creep up into her mind to contribute to the jumbled mess, reminding her for the billionth time that she was only a university student. She had nothing really significant that she could possibly contribute to this cause.

The door to the war room opened up and Cerri pushed herself off the wall and stood straight, turning to the door so she could meet whoever was going to step out.

Relax, The young woman took a deep breath as Felix stepped out to retrieve her, just stay calm and keep a levelled head. You got this...I think.

"It's show time, Babe. Try not to choke on your words." He remarked with a light smirk playing on his lips, causing her to roll her eyes and step in.

"Gee thanks…" Once the orange and grey mercenary had reentered the room with her, the door had closed behind them with an audible yet subtle stomp of clashing metal, the other visors in the room-with the exception of the guards-were now on her. Instinctively, she gave a quick salute to address them and her tone seemed to immediately change to fit the atmosphere of the room.

General Kimball stood there with another soldier at her side who sported bleach white accents on her uniform unlike the other standard privates, they both saluted in return and Cerri stepped further into the room.

"General Kimball, pleasure to see you again." She greeted with a slight nod, being careful that her stance wasn't slacking as she directed her attention to the other person with them.

Kimball replied, acknowledging the soldier's greeting, "Captain Vane." She followed her line of attention and didn't waste another second, "I'd like to introduce you to Lieutenant Valdis, she is one of our military tacticians. I had her excused from this morning's training so she could join us."

Said Lieutenant saluted once again to only Cerri, "Lieutenant Amina Valdis, Ma'am. I'd like to thank you for supporting us in this war, albeit we don't exactly have the best position at the moment." Cerri became very confused when Valdis spoke, her voice was much higher pitched than she pictured and not to mention softer.

She sounds younger than me...She thought to herself, quickly, she dismissed the thought and returned the greeting, "I'm happy to help, Lieutenant." Her gaze went back to Kimball, "I assume the other tacticians are stuck in training?"

"Yes," The General replied, walking over to the terminal near them, "I thought it'd be best to just have one come to this briefing."

"We didn't want to overwhelm you," Felix spoke up from afar as he approached the terminal as well, "I've already got some intel that might catch you by surprise."

Cerri didn't respond to his subtle mockery and stayed silent, watching him pull up various files and skimming over them herself as each one popped up. One showed up briefly that caught her eye.

"Supply inventory?"

"Each base reports their overall stock and supplies back to the Capital, so they can get whatever they need restocked. Reports go weekly." Valdis went through the brief explanation without even averting her eyes from the screen, Cerri nodded understanding.

"I'm guessing you can't get information from any of the bases closer to the Capital? You hit more...bordering bases?"

Valdis nodded and looked in Cerri's direction, "Of course, it's Felix who mostly runs the special ops for intel, hit and runs. He'd take one or two fire teams with him but, I personally prefer he did it on his own rather than our own soldiers."

"Oh really?" Her brow raised along with her curiosity as she posed the inquiry, "Better to lose the one man squadron rather than a literal squadron?"

Valdis smiled slightly for a second but agreed with her superior's remark, "Exactly."

"I hope you two ladies are done talking about my potential demise," The merc cut in with an annoyed tone to his otherwise already haughty voice, "FYI, not happening anytime soon."

"It could still happen, Scout." The sudden smirk on Cerri's lips seemed to challenge the orange striped man full of mettle, they stared each other down for a moment before Kimball broke off the interaction.

"Could we focus on the intel, please?"

Felix stepped back and returned his attention to the database, "Anyways, on my last recon mission I wasn't able to pick up much but I was able to snag their latest report on their shipments of equipment."

"Hold on," Cerri cut in once again, "if Chorus is lost to the UNSC. Where's the new equipment coming from? Even if they had manufacturers on the planet it couldn't possibly take that long for such a large shipment to get to the Capital, considering the conditions they'd need it all quickly and in short time."

"You are right about that, however, like us the FEDs have a mercenary that supplies them with everything they need…" Valdis cleared her throat as she stepped up to the terminal, sifting through the files before opening one. "I'm sure you're familiar." When it was opened the profile brought a painful reminder to the Captain's side and she winced underneath her helmet.

"Locus," She hissed subtly as she attempted ignored the lingering pain from her injury, "yeah I remember. Remind me to shoot him back next chance I get."

And to stop by the medical bay for some pain killers...

"I'll be sure to." Valdis said as she quickly reviewed his profile, Kimball assisted in the overview and explanation as Cerri's sharp eyes tried to catch as much info as possible.

"He, just like Felix, has been a part of this war for a long time."

"Huh…" She threw up her eyebrows for a mere second as a heavy breath left her lungs, "ominous. Aside from the obvious information, is there anything else I should know?"

The steamy water ran rapidly, it had drenched Rose in seconds and had slowly relaxed her stressed out muscles. She breathed a sigh and savoured the warmth that ran passed her fair skin, golden blonde tresses saturating and sticking to her back as she leaned forward. Her arms supporting the shifted body weight as her hazel eyes stared down the drain, the last hour or so running through her mind. However, as the final slivers of soap were washed away, these critical thoughts had begun to wander as she took glances at the other girls present in the showers with her.

They chatted with one another lively, having light conversations about their first official training with the Reds and Blues. They held a certain type of air that was quite familiar to Rose, a faint smile whisked past her lips as she pushed off the wall and turned away to leave the showers. She grabbed a towel and began to dry herself, checking the time as she did so.

Shower hours are almost over…

Luckily, she had thought ahead and had taken her new change of clothes with her, slipping into them so that she could hastily preserve the warmth that she had gained from the shower. The sweater and sweat pants she wore were a bit thin but would suffice for the time being, at least until she could get warmed up in the mess hall. She stared absentmindedly at the large ink black letters printed onto the cotton fabric, feeling a slight sense of nostalgia that was quickly slipping through her fingers.

"UNSC…" It stuck in her mind, repeating itself like a drowned out mantra, "Why is that so…?" Her words slipped out of her mouth as she tried to grasp anything significant, focusing as hard as she could with only the result of that devilish girl with vivid powdery blue hair.

A ponderous sigh was released as she muttered the all too familiar name to herself, "Diamond Bear…" But it meant something more to her than just a simple nightmare that used to cling to her dreams, this feeling of...struggle to recollect the fragmented memories grasping at the seams. Unraveling these scattered shards even more than before.

"Captain?" A voice called to her right, Rose looked past her steel locker door saw one of her newly appointed Lieutenants, she had held onto the damp white towel slung around her neck as she leaned on the weight of her right leg.

She wasn't that much younger than Rose herself, possibly eighteen. Twenty at most. She had an incredibly light tan complexion similar to the gentle tone of sand that reminded the blonde of the beaches back home, her eyes were a caffeine brown that complimented her rusted red and choppy hair. The bangs that would have swept over her sight like drawn back curtains were held back by a single silver hair clip. She wore the same standard raven black sweatpants and grey scooped neckline shirt.

She's seriously skinny…Rose thought initially as she scanned over the young adult's slim form, a slight glint of envy that washed away seconds after. It was a recurring thought that used to show up much more in her years of adolescence, or at least near the start, always something concerning her weight. She'd find it was never actually a problem, she was just as healthy as the next person and could do just the same.

That never meant those thoughts wouldn't resurface in different forms, like in rare times when she would see herself in the mirror.

Rose returned her attention to her Lieutenant's face and answered her call, "Yeah, Hana?" A quick smile appeared on the Korean soldier's soft rose lips as she leaned against the lockers.

"Why do you address me by my first name, Captain?"

Rose blinked in confusion, not quite understanding until it finally realized what she had said. She shook her head with dusty pink cheeks, clearing the sudden jumble, and spoke again.

"I-I'm sorry, Lieutenant Yeong. I-Is there something you need?"

"No, nothing it's just…" She paused, trying to find the right words as if to be delicate, "you seem off. Is everything okay?" The hazel eyed woman grabbed her shoes and closed her locker, sitting on the bench and putting them on. Yeong watched her silently, clearly catching onto her Captain's behaviour but refused to address it directly.

"Yeah, I-I'm fine." The blonde did her best to keep the stuttering to a minimum as she stared down at her boots, grabbing the laces and beginning their intricate weaved dance. Yeong continued to observe, noticing the light blush on her Captain's cheeks were slowly receding.

Is she really with Reds and Blues? That had been a thought that kept returning ever since she had laid eyes on Rose this morning, not to say she didn't seem up to par with the rest. Quite the opposite. Captain Tucker was okay, in her opinion. Nothing really special about him except for his unrelenting flirting towards a majority of Yeong's fellow sisters-in-arms. Captain Caboose was probably the most oblivious, optimistic and cheerful entity on the entire planet, however his physical strength and endurance seemed to match the output of his expression of excitement evenly, if not exceeding it. Now, Captain Simmons was a bit of a stuttering mess who couldn't get much of a clear sentence in with any of the female soldiers, but aside from that, his apparent cybernetic enhancements let him keep up with the all those training earlier that morning. Then came Captain Grif…

Yeong sighed to herself in disappointment at the thought of the rather slothful orange man, there wasn't much to say about him other than that he was a pessimist, unmotivated and rather bitchy for lack of a better word.

Rose caught the sigh that left the young Korean girl along with the slight frown on her lips, "Hana?" Her dark brown eyes blinked up to look at her commanding officer.

"Yes?"

"You okay?" She inquired as she finished up her shoes and got off the creaky bench, her second-in-command nodded in response, "Yeah, I'm fine. Just starving." She gave a gentle smile which Rose returned with just a hint of nervousness as she walked off.

"Alright then, come on before everyone gets to the rations first."

Yeong stood there for a bit, staring after the rather short woman before following behind.

Then there's Captain Rose Kent, a woman she had never heard of when Felix had described the Reds and Blues. Neither had she heard of Captain Vane, but here they were. As if they were just added into the picture yet fit like a glove. She was clearly shy, and just as much of a stuttering mess as Simmons, she couldn't even introduce herself alongside the others or look the soldiers in the visor. She was just as lost as the rest but did her best, they all did. She was second behind Caboose in terms of physical endurance and stamina, at the same level as Tucker most definitely.

Yeong smiled slightly as she entered the mess hall, seeing Rose join said newly appointed Captains, They're weird.

"Hana!" She heard her name being called by an all too familiar voice and turned around to see Valdis walking over with who she assumed was Cerri Vane, she looked quite familiar. With a bright smile she approached them with a light wave.

"There's my favourite girl, we missed you at training this morning. Did you finally have the guts to skip out?" The redhead elbowed the tanned girl in the side lightly with a Cheshire grin before placing an arm over her shoulders, Valdis smiled slightly in return.

"No, actually, I was in a briefing with Kimball and the Captain here."

When the ravenette was addressed, she gives a mock salute and greeted Yeong herself, "Hey, I'm Cerri. But I guess you knew that."

"Yeah, the whole base does," Yeong smiled as she looked directly at Cerri, "Hana. But I guess you didn't know that." A light smirk appeared on the woman's face as she placed a hand on her hip.

"Well now I do, nice to meet you. You part of Tucker's squadron?"

"No, Kents's. I'm one of her Lieutenants actually but…" The thin browed soldier dropped her grin for a contemplating stare as she concentrated on Cerri's face, "I swear I've seen you somewhere before."

"Hm?" Cerri's facial expression had been slightly altered to one of interest, curious as to how the foot soldier recognized her at all.

"Weren't you the one who bum rushed out of the infirmary, in just your underwear?"

"Oh," It immediately clicked in her head as she nodded, "yeah, that was me."

Hana smirked as she pointed leisurely at her higher up, "I knew I recognized you. You had some pretty weird underwear now that I think about it."

"Weird?" She inquired in a flash," How so?" The woman in black was rather intrigued on how her undergarments looked weird to the young woman in front of her, considering it was centuries ahead of her own time she was curious about the differences.

"I dunno, they looked like…" Yeong couldn't find the right word, thinking back to when she saw Cerri speeding down the corridor in just strappy light beige garments, "bandages or something."

"Huh." Was the only sound that left her lips, as if Yeong had just made something click in the Afrrican woman's mind. The look of intrigue left her face and was replaced with a solid one of thought, "Weird...I gotta go, see you guys later."

Valdis smiles, not noticing the sudden change at all. as she walks off with Yeong to join their friends at a table across the room, Cerri went to join her fellow Captain's at their table and plopped down between Rose and Tucker with a heavy sigh.

"So, how'd training go?" She looked up at the others who seemed rather exhausted physically just as she was mentally, Grif was the first to contribute his complaints as he picked at his food like an infant.

"My everything is fucking killing me, the whole training sucked ass." Cerri smirked slightly when she followed his disgusted glare directed to the jumble of vegetables in the corner of his tray, with an aggravated sigh he dropped his fork and exclaimed in frustration, "and what the hell is with the food here! Don't they have any hotdogs or burgers?"

Rose stared at the overweight man unimpressed, "Grif, it's a rebel military. They're lucky they can be supplied with enough food at all."

"Yeah, where the hell do they get all this stuff?" Tucker inquired as he took a bite out of his mashed potatoes, Cerri hadn't even bothered to get a tray yet and stared at the others.

"Well, typically when there isn't hot food prepared standard military rations or MRE's, meaning "Meals Ready to Eat" are given." Simmons didn't eat much of his own rations, having his fork at the side of his own tray as he answered Tucker, the woman right next to said blue soldier nodded in agreement.

"They didn't have much and would have to raid FED bases to get enough rations for the rebels, it's rare for them to ever have hot meals. Even with Felix bringing in the necessities."

"Whatever. All I'm saying, is that there should be more than shitty old carrots…"

Simmons rolled his eyes and glanced at Cerri who had soon begun to stare off into the distance, the passive aggressive expression on her face frightened the cyborg ever so slightly. He tapped Tucker's shoulder to gain his attention and leaned into whisper, "Is something wrong with Cerri?"

"Huh?" His brow raised as he glanced at the dark toned woman next to him, who continued to stare off into the distance. Rose had left her side to go get food for herself.

They looked like bandages...That simple comment kept circling back as she tried to think back to when she was running out of the infirmary yesterday, she didn't really think about what she was wearing at the time. Considering she had just woken up in unknown territory and the pain of her injury had jolted her awake.

Better kickstarter than coffee, that's for sure...

Cerri sighed as she got up and walked off to get her own tray of rations as well, "I'll be back…" The others watched as she trudged slightly, getting further away and into line for food. Rose walked back with her tray in hand and sat back in her seat.

"What's up with her?" Grif asked in a blunt tone, wasting no time trying to satisfy his sudden curiosity. The blonde was a bit confused by the question, taking a moment to steal a glance at Cerri before looking back to Grif.

"What are you talking about? She's perfectly fine." She paused for a second before correcting herself, "Okay, maybe not completely fine but this is normal behaviour for her. She just needs time to think and have some private time with her own thoughts. Otherwise she'll get seriously crabby."

"Right…"

The rest of their time in the mess hall was simply filled by meaningless chatter, while Cerri stayed silent and thought over the past few days since they had woken up in the middle of that boxed canyon, surrounded by the red and blue soldiers she once believed to be fictional. At first she wished it was a dream when they were being hunted down briefly, but at the bottom of her heart it felt as if she was sent to a safe haven. That is until the true gravity of the situation was revealed, regardless, it felt as though she had escaped something that loomed over her back...latching onto her and sucking her dry like a leech.

But now she was here, stuck in the training grounds with the one and only Merc with A Silver Tongue.

Because Merc with A Mouth is reserved exclusively for Deadpool, She sighed internally as she teetered on her own two feet, lost in her thoughts again, I want to watch the movie so badly now…

She blinked out of her inner conversation when fair skinned digits snapped in front of her eye sight, "Hey, Princess," His tone was one of impatience and annoyance as she finally acknowledged the brunette's presence, "pay attention will you? This training is for you, so if you get your ass kicked on the battlefield, because you didn't pay attention, don't go blaming me." He took a step back and waited for the young women to respond, but she continued to stare at him with a glare of judgement.

"You're scrawnier than your armour leads to believe."

This seemed to hit a weak point in Felix's apparent ego as he began to glower at the woman facing off with him, an aura radiating off of him that he expected would come off as intimidating to her, but to no avail, "Excuse me?"

"What?" She retorted, unsuspecting of his growing annoyance but was aware she hit close to home. She stayed in her relaxed stance, a face void of any emotion with exception of illusionary anger as usual.

"I am not scrawny."

"Dude, you're as skinny as my former female high school classmates. That's saying something."

Felix retained the scowl on his face as he did his best to dismiss her blunt comment and continued on with what was asked of him, "I am going to ignore that for now, and get back to what we're supposed to be doing." He approached her began circling her, looking her over to make a quick assessment. Cerri followed him with her eyes, getting the unspoken note not to move while he did his assessment.

"So, you never done any exercise?" The Captain shook her head as she replied to his quick questions, "Strength training? Endurance, flexibility, balance?" She continued to answer in the negatives causing him to be a bit surprised.

"Maybe I did a bit of yoga but then I got bored of it and moved on,"

"Wow, you weren't kidding…" The mercenary walked a small distance away as he pondered, Cerri had crossed her arm with a roll of her eyes.

"I spent a majority of my time during high school PE hiding in the change rooms, avoided as much physical fitness training as possible, the only thing I would tolerate was physical labour." She paused for a moment, a related thought occurring to her, "Now that I think about it, Rose used to box with her mom after school for fun. She tried to drag me with her once but I got out of it."

"My god, you're almost like the nerdy girls back in high school, and surprisingly not the hot ones."

A thick brow quirked as her lips pursed, "I was in fact one of the nerdy girls, but I didn't realize there were legitimate categories in terms of looks." Felix turned to look at her as she walked forward challengingly, they seemed to be close to the same height. Standing off like they did the day before.

"Then I guess you're one of the honourable nerds, aren't you?" A mischievous smirk appeared on his lips as they stubbornly stayed in their places and stared unblinking, a light smirk slipped onto her own as she shrugged and tilted her head slightly to the side.

"You make it sound so lame when you say it like that, Scout."

"Well, I'd say it's fair game if you're going to attack me like you did."

Her smirk stretched a bit as she took a step forward, "What? You disappointed that I don't find you as attractive as you do yourself, when looking in the mirror?" Felix played along with this little game starting and had placed a hand over his heart with a mockingly hurt expression.

"Ouch, the nerd's got some bite to her barking. That stings, Moxie."

"Moxie?" She scoffed lightly, placing her hands on her hips as she continued to match the intensity of his stare, "Is that my nickname instead of Princess now?"

"Like I said, fair game." A grin finally formed on her face as she gave one last comment.

"Well then you can go fuck yourself, I was definitely one of the hot nerds."

With a wink, Cerri's feet suddenly slipped out from under her and she dropped to the rough earth beneath with a heavy thud. She let out a loud grunt followed by a groan of pain, her back flaring and head pounding slightly but she felt lucky that wind wasn't knocked out of her. The painkillers she had taken earlier had luckily concealed the pain that her side wound would have expressed. Her eyes were closed but she felt Felix lower himself to loom over her in his chilling shadow.

"Right back at you…" He responded in his usual cocky tone that she had forgotten even existed, but this trickery gave her a painful reminder.

"Ugh…I'm still wounded…" A hand reached out to help her up, patiently waiting for her to respond as she opened her eyes ever so slightly to take a look at his now Cheshire grin.

"Now, ready to start your training? Or do you wanna just lie around, Moxie?"

With a huff, she reached out to grab his hand but went the extra mile and grabbed him by the wrist, raising her foot to hook it behind his leg and make him lose his own footing for only a moment. He was about to step back and let go, but she pulled him down with her own weight and speedily knocked him off to the side so that she could roll on top of him.

It all happened so fast that they both shared a moment of shock, Cerri had no idea how the last few seconds even transpired. A flash occurred in her mind, the entire ordeal taking her by surprise and her body had done the rest for her out of pure instinctual defense...At least, that's what she conjured up in her mind on such short notice.

"You don't have to get so feisty, Moxie, I was only joking around." Felix broke the silence with his little quip, causing Cerri to release a sigh and get up.

"You're an ass," She turned her back to him, letting the merc help himself up. She took this time to take deep breaths and make sure the bindings of her side had not gone undone, not even noticing that her heart was pounding rather quickly until she rose from her place on top of Felix. She shook her head ever so gently to dismiss the sudden turned tables and looked back to Felix, "so...are we gonna train or not?"