Hi, everyone!

Firstly, thank you so much for reading my story so far! I always wanted to do this ever since I first played the first game. I have so much I wanted to say and do, but for now, I will stay with the story I have and finish it till completion before I decide to go back to my post-LR stuff.

Vianna Orchidia and Twilight AngelDemon, your feedback has been awesome. I'm really glad to have you reading this one.

I wanted to clear up a few things before I post anything else.

In Lightning's dream of the past (chapter 13) as hinted of by the end of chapter 12, Lightning is a Sergeant Major. In the U.S., this is termed an E-9. This is the highest enlisted rank possible. Compared to her current rank as a Warrant Officer, deemed as W-1, which is just above enlisted ranks (E-#) but below commissioned officers (OF-#), in her dream she is of lower rank than that of a Warrant Officer. This means the events of her dream are a flashback to an experience she had when she was just an enlisted soldier. I also implemented Serah's mention of Hope's sixteenth birthday. This had to of taken place before Hope enlisted in the GC when he was eighteen, the age he is now.

Now, Hope and Merral are the first grade of Corpsman (E-4, Corpsman Third Class), both with field experience. They are the first and lowest rank of Corpsman which is just above a hospitalman (E-3). Their E-4 standing is equivalent to that of a Specialist or Corporal. Some usages throughout NATO bonify a specialist as a Lance Corporal depending on their function. A Corpsman or Hospitalman may be a called a Corpsman for sake of convenience even if they are below an E-4 or if they are within a military organization that utilizes Lance Corporal rankings for Corpsman/Specialists. The U.S. terms this usage to their naval medics, but other countries and services recognize the function universally.

Bottom Line? Hope and Merral are the same rank and carry little to no combat authority as their rank is dependent on their skills as Corpsman.

Wikipedia has an article on U.S. service grades. I see most readers are from the U.S. so please peruse through their article if you would like.

search: U.S._uniformed_services_pay_grades

I know the military jumble isn't easily understood (especially since them pompous wankers in NATO and the UK, maybe U.S. too, keep changing their system every five bloody seconds) so I probably shouldn't have leaned on it as a basis of time frame, assuming the ranks and service grades I used still mean the same thing as they did when I first wrote this story.

I hope this helps!

Please keep reading! All will be revealed in due time :)

KEEP CALM

and

SHIP HOPURAI

Cheers.