I don't own anything
I don't own anything.
Infantry
-Chapter Eight:
To Shinji's surprise, Recon School wasn't the hardest thing that had ever happened to him; after all, he had managed to survive puberty as an Eva pilot. Physically, it dwarfed even his time in Siberia. In a strange counterpoint, the instructors treated each and every man as a fellow trooper, even as they pushed the students harder than ever before.
Oddly enough, most of the training didn't even take place in armor. The class spent two solid months crawling around in the rainforests of South America learning to track and survive. In true MI fashion, the trooper was the most important element. When the armor was added, it only served to strengthen the trooper.
As the youngest member of the class, Shinji managed to thrive. He knew enough to keep his mouth shut and listen when anyone, instructor or student, spoke and didn't know enough to not ask questions for fear of looking foolish. Some of the sergeants seemed to have a problem with that, refusing to admit that they didn't know something.
Upon their return from the jungle, Shinji had found three things awaiting him. The first and most important was a long letter from Melissa Klackiewicz. It really wasn't much, just a letter about how high school was going and other everyday life tidbits. Something so simple, yet it meant so much to Shinji. She had taken him up on his offer of someone to talk to. Maybe it just felt like some small redemption that he was helping Klack's sister in some small way.
The second was the Wounded Lion medal with apologies from the newly promoted First Lieutenant Ford. He had forgotten to file it and the award had only been authorized when the Doctor on Sanctuary had filed Shinji's prosthesis.
Finally, all the scouts from the War Dogs received the Sky Marshal Unit Citation medal. Turned out that the Sky Marshal himself had caught word of the War Dogs' exploits on Klendathu, it had just taken him a little while to get around to passing out awards. In keeping with MI tradition, the party after the awards ceremony had been completely beyond what was called for and classes had to be canceled the next day.
With a grand total of four months gone, Shinji had found himself graduating second of his class, conceding first place to Corporal Yazzie and the generations of hunting and scouting the man represented. The honor had brought along a nice plaque and a Meritorious Mass that all in attendance agreed was fairly useless, though a nice gesture. After all, plaques and certificates weren't shiny enough to interest women.
(:ii:)
"Blue!"
"Chris!" Shinji dropped his seabag and grabbed his adopted brother in a tight hug. "Damn good to see you!"
"Same to you," Chris stated. "Damn, you loose some weight?" Shinji frowned and glanced down at himself. Prodigious amounts of exercise just hadn't been able to make up for three good meals a day. He had stumbled out of the jungle a full fifty pounds lighter than before.
"A little," Shinji conceded.
"Of thank Christ!" Shinji turned and saluted. Ford returned the gesture and grabbed Shinji by both shoulders. "You are never allowed to leave again, Blue! You have no idea what it was like being stuck in the armory alone again! With all this damn training and breaking of my suits and paperwork, I haven't had any free time."
"Couldn't you have just gotten a new O&A sergeant, sir?" Shinji asked.
"Fleet's been stealing all the good buck sergeants at repple-depple," Ford growled. "Those bastards. I've been trying to train a new assistant, but he just ain't as good as you."
"He's fresh from Arthur Currie and not strong enough to smack things hard enough to get them working again," Chris stated in a stage whisper. "And the Lieutenant has no idea how to fix things otherwise."
"Damn right he isn't!" Ford announced. "And I'll have you know that the way I fix things is the best way to fix things. Only wet behind the ears O&A techs try to fix everything by breaking them open and fiddling around."
"Here's the paperwork, sir," Yazzie stated, managing to appear from nowhere and make them all jump.
"Thanks Yaz," Ford replied as he took the papers and leafed through them. "You have fun pretending to be your ancestors?"
"I'm Navajo, not jungle rat," Yazzie returned. "Been having fun with the commission?"
"Hell no," Ford stated. "I tried to ditch the bars and go with my stripes again, but I would have still had to do the same amount of paperwork, just at half the pay."
"Them's the breaks," Yazzie stated. "If you don't mind, I'm going to need all my scouts together for a meeting tomorrow afternoon."
"Ah, but I was going to stick Blue in the armory and make him fix everything while I finally get to be a real officer and take a nap," Ford whined.
"You know real officers don't actually sleep," Yazzie returned.
"Ain't that the truth?" Ford asked. "No problem, just kick all the kids out when you find where you want to meet."
"Thank you sir." Yazzie saluted and disappeared into the White Feather's interior.
"A word Blue?" Ford asked, glancing pointedly at Chris.
"Let me take your bags to your state room, Lance Corporal," Chris stated with a mocking bow. Ford led Shinji aside as the rest of the new scouts strolled in, saluting and requesting permission to board from Rotuno.
"We had a little snafu with your paperwork, Blue," Ford said simply.
"What kind of snafu sir?" Shinji asked. The Federation certainly seemed to fuck up paperwork with a flourish despite the fact that there was almost no paper involved.
"That medal I forgot was awarded to Lance Corporal Ikari," Ford stated. "Sorry about that by the way."
"No problem sir," Shinji replied. "But, is that bad?"
"Kind of," Ford stated. "If I made you a PFC again and most of us bought it on the next drop, it would look bad at your new unit and possibly on your record."
"Couldn't you just make a note about it sir?" Shinji asked.
"That's the problem with back alley deals, Blue," Ford stated, "you can't exactly take note of them on official paperwork."
"What does this mean sir?" Shinji asked.
"You're stuck with Lance Coolie," Ford stated. "Very clever young man."
"Wasn't this whole thing your idea, sir?" Shinji asked.
"Blue, I'm an officer now," Ford said with great dignity. "That means that I don't make mistakes. My minions make mistakes and right now, you're my chief minion."
"Wouldn't that be Sergeant Rotuno?" Shinji asked.
"No," Rotuno replied as he walked over to stand with them. "He knows that if he calls me a minion, I'm going to take those bars and stick them in some very uncomfortable places."
"I won't argued with that," Ford stated. "By the way, did you finish up those O&A technician correspondence courses?"
"Yes sir."
"Good, I'm going to have to ask you to take over as ship's O&A tech," Ford stated. "I really don't have time now that we're at full complement, but I'll help when I can." Shinji stared at the man. Ford wanted him to be the O&A sergeant? That was a lot of responsibility for a lance corporal, especially one who was really just a PFC in disguise.
"Alright sir."
"Great!" Ford exclaimed. "God, I wish I had a staff."
"You mean, one that wasn't stronger than you?" Rotuno was with a grin. "You've still got your scribe you can beat up, don't you?"
"Mo keeps forgetting to write his notes in Standard English," Ford grumbled. "I don't know about you, but I can't read squiggles."
"Arabic," Rotuno corrected.
"Squiggles," Ford stated.
"Arabic."
"Squiggles."
"Run along Blue," Rotuno ordered. "Me and the Lieutenant are going to go have a discussion somewhere."
"Right away Sergeant," Shinji replied, chuckling at their antics. It was good to see that friendship could survive commission, though neither Shinji nor Chris planned on trying.
(:ii:)
Shinji stared at the armory in horror. "What the hell?"
"Training was hard sir," Shinji's assistant stated.
"Stop calling me sir!" Shinji groused. "Come on, how could you guys break this many suits, Gil?"
"Training was very hard, Lance Corporal," Gilbert repeated. "Five other new guys were removed for medical reasons and one died."
"New guys can get themselves killed sitting around with nothing to do," Shinji stated. Not a single one of the sergeants and corporals in Shinji's BRC had been seriously injured, though not from lack of trying. "What the hell is that racket?"
"Sorry sir," Gilbert stated as he shut off his boom box. "I've just been playing it while nobody else was in here."
"Turn it back on," Shinji ordered. "It's fine and stop calling me sir! Now, how many of these suits require the wearer to be serviced?"
"Three," Gilbert replied. "All of them are new guys."
"At least the guys who've been around a little while managed to only slightly break theirs," Shinji replied. The door opened and Ford leaned in. "You're about to ruin my day, aren't you, sir?" Shinji asked.
"Probably," Ford replied. "The regimental commander is coming to inspect the very first platoon in his new First Cavalry Regiment." Shinji stared at his commanding officer.
"Wait, we're cavalry now?"
"Guess it sounded cooler than quick reaction regiment," Ford replied with a shrug. "We're the test bed. Every division will have a cavalry regiment if the Sky Marshal likes what he sees with us."
"Does that mean we're going to wear cowboy hats?" Ford laughed before pausing suddenly and scratching his chin with a thoughtful look. "That was a joke sir."
"I like that idea," Ford commented. Shinji sighed and reached down for his tool box and pulled out his new Louisville Slugger. "Baseball bat?"
"This'll work better than your sledge hammer," Shinji stated. "At least it won't scratch the paint. So, how much time do I have?"
"One week," Ford stated, "and I have to get all my paperwork in order."
"One week," Shinji repeated. "Gil, go get me those FNGs."
"Maybe you shouldn't be wielding a baseball bat when they arrive," Gilbert commented.
"Why not?" Shinji asked. "I remember the Lieutenant doing worse."
"You know I was working when those FNGs came in," Ford protested. "Not my fault they came in when I was carrying a sledge hammer. I'll make an announcement for you to get those guys. Nobody will argue if I'm making the call."
"Thank you sir," Shinji replied. Ford nodded and disappeared. "My first week back and I'm going to get fired." He grabbed a couple of chains dangling from one of the trolleys on the ceiling rails and brought one of the suits that didn't need a wearer to one of the four maintenance tables. "What do you say Gil, ready to be the next O&A guy?"
"Hell no." Shinji grinned. At least he hadn't called him lance corporal or sir.
(:ii:)
"Have you guys heard about the O&A Sergeant?" Pegg asked.
"I heard he wasn't a sergeant," Frost commented. "He's a lance corporal."
"So where the hell was this guy?" Taylor wondered.
"BRC," Frost stated. "I was asking Aquil about him. He's supposed to be this major league lady's guy. Aquil was telling me that they went to a party together and he walked out with two girls in a couple of minutes."
"Wow." The door to the armory opened and their fellow FNG looked around.
"Hey guys."
"Hey Gil, how's the armory treating you?"
"Pretty good," Gilbert stated, "though the new O&A tech is just as odd as the CO."
"Stop trying to scare them!" a deep, rough voice demanded from inside. "I am nowhere near that odd. Now, get in here!" Pegg and the rest ran inside and stood at attention. "Chill the fuck out!" The man wasn't as tall as Pegg had heard, but he was broad. He was wearing a set of green coveralls with the top pulled down and the sleeves tied around his waist. The sleeves of his T-shirt had been torn off to reveal his muscular, tattooed right arm and artificial left arm. "Who's Pegg?"
"I am sir," Pegg stated.
"I'm Blue," the man stated. "You can call me that." He turned to Pegg. "You were saying that you're having trouble with the right shoulder?"
"It gives me a bad blister after about an hour or two," Pegg reported. "I was told to have it looked at." Blue glanced up at his defensive tone.
"Hey, if it's giving you a blister, it isn't fitting right," he stated. "That's a serious problem in a suit that's supposed to fit almost perfectly."
(:ii:)
Ford pushed the door to the armory open and frowned. It was well past midnight and the lights were still burning bright. "You're going to need to sleep sometime Blue."
"After the regimental commander's inspection sir," Shinji replied. "We got done the suits that needed the wearers and we've finished two of the other suits. That leaves seven more plus routine checks. Just going on hours, it's doable, but it'll be tight and then there are the problems that always seem to pop up."
"Where's your assistant?" Ford asked.
"Taking a nap, sir," Shinji replied, gesturing to the other side of the armory. "He needs some sleep. My current record is five days strait and that was running around the jungle on minimum food."
"Don't forget, Blue. If you get sloppy and miss something here, it can kill a trooper," Ford commented as he stepped up to the opened suits on the first operating table. "Looks good."
"You can go over all the suits when I get done, sir," Shinji offered.
"I'm not going to spy on you Blue," Ford stated. "You're the ship's O&A tech. I'll check if you want, but I'm not going to go behind your back."
"Thank you, sir," Shinji stated.
"Unless you screw this inspection up," Ford added. "Fuck this up and I'm going to kick your ass."
"Better do it before I get back in the gym and start lifting," Shinji commented.
"Yeah." Ford sighed. "Don't worry. General Wheeler is a great guy. He understands that the manual isn't always right and he's willing to look the other way and plug his ears if it's the way to get things done. He was in my platoon at boot camp."
"Sounds like someone worked a lot harder than certain other people," Shinji commented.
"He was a naval officer," Ford stated. "The man's gunning for Sky Marshal and we'd be well off to have him there."
"Wow. I heard it's harder for naval officers going through boot than grunts going Navy OCS. Is that true, sir?"
"A lot harder," Ford stated. "A grunt going through navy OCS just has to learn to keep his pinky out and not crash the billion dollar space ship whilst trying to make it do barrel roles. The navy officer going through boot has to learn how to be a trained animal ready to leap on a target and smash it to a pulp with his fists at a single order. It takes a pair of steel ones for one of those gentlemen to make it through boot. The best Sky Marshals start off navy and end up grunt."
"That's something, sir."
"Want to take a crack at it Blue?" Ford asked. "Go be a teetotaler and shoot for the top?"
"I like this better," Shinji replied. Ford nodded and glanced around.
"Ever consider career?" Shinji paused and sat down. Career? Him? "Usually, guys wait until they've had a few more drops before they decided," Ford stated, "but you've given more then most already."
"I'll have to think about it, sir," Shinji stated. "What about you, sir? You're already half way there."
"Pfft," Ford snorted. "Look at me, Blue. I ain't ever going to make it past captain in the MI. How the hell would I succeed in the navy?"
"Learn some manners?" Shinji suggested.
"Better people than the navy have tried and it failed to take," Ford stated.
"You're going to have to start acting like an officer eventually," Shinji pointed out.
"I'll have you know that there are many command styles," Ford stated. "The Lieutenant was an OCS grad and had the slightly aloft manner of a man polished by other OCS grads and God bless him because there is no way in hell I could coordinate a battalion drop. Me? I'm the unpolished blade that still cuts shit up right. I'm a field promote and I'll be one till the day I die. They only way they'll get me to be a gentleman is to hypnotize me and I'm way too good to get caught that easily."
"You know," Shinji began, "I'd check the hypno-speakers in my rack before I go making declarations like that." Ford's face turned serious for a moment and he nodded thoughtfully before brightening suddenly.
"Oh, speaking of invasions of privacy, there's a letter waiting for you if you haven't checked your e-mail yet."
"Who's it from, sir?" Shinji asked.
"R. Akagi." Shinji's eyebrows shot up.
"The blond?"
"The blond from the party?" Ford asked. Shinji nodded. "Huh. Guess I should have forwarded you that one like I did with Klack's sister. I just saw the NERV address and figured it could wait. How is Klack's sister, anyway?"
"She's fine," Shinji replied absently as he pondered what Ritsuko's letter could be about. "She graduates high school in a few months and ships for the navy's OCS."
"Gonna be a pilot, eh?" Ford asked. Shinji nodded. "Must be pretty damn smart, just like her brother. He had a master's degree in advanced math shit."
"What was he doing in the grunts, sir?" Shinji asked.
"Satisfying his male urge to smash shit and cause general chaos," Ford replied happily. "Pretty much the same as the rest of us."
"Ah," Shinji stated. "Are we still the War Dogs sir?"
"The platoon wanted to switch to Ford's Fighters, but they stopped talking about it when I told them that Ford's Fuckheads was a better descriptive," Ford stated. "Besides, what would we do with our tattoos? Cross them out and get a new one?"
"I guess sir." Ford had to laugh at that one.
-End
(:ii:)
-Author's notes. Been a little while since I did a chapter for Infantry. I just wasn't sure how to handle Shinji's recon school. In the end I pretty much used the same manner in which I handled his boot camp. They rest of the chapter was just getting him situated back in the platoon. I'm planning on introducing more of the original cast in a few chapters.
So, was the reader response to the last chapter of Angel Eyes your way of telling me to cut the shit and get back to action and comedy or was it really that everybody kept getting directed to the other Angel Eyes?
I'll admit, I don't have a single romantic bone in my body. My current relationship status of zilch will attest to that. My record also backs it up; after all, two of my exes really did start off as such nice, normal girls. Maybe three. No. My mistake. She was ape shit from the start. Anyway, I'm stuck with AE again so look forward to more of this, Company of Wolves, and possibly a rewrite to an old story that I put on hiatus quite some time ago and still haven't heard the end of the bitching about it.
If anyone figures out what that one is and leaves another review of it telling me to get off my ass and hurry, I might just do it.
Now, I don't beg for reviews, but they are kind of fun to get. Plus there's the whole weenie wagging contests between authors about who's got the most reviews. I got to tell you guys, it's really kind of funny. I was going through the reviews for some of my older stories and I realized that some of you guys have been hanging around with me for a while. I mean, I've been writing for what, about six years now I guess and some of you guys have stuck with me all this time. That's really cool and I'm lucky to have so many loyal readers. So thanks to you guys for sticking with me through thick and thin. Or would that be crazy and crazier? Perhaps bloody and bloodier. You get the idea.
Of course I could also blame you assholes for driving me to newer and odder directions of crazy and violent. Meh. I guess I would have ended up here on my own anyway, just not quite so soon.
And another thing! Nobody I read is updating again! So, in utter boredom I went on over to the Naruto section again. Yeah. I almost clawed my eyes out. The show is somewhat cool because everybody's a ninja. How do those idiot authors plan to make it cooler? They stick all the characters in high school! What the fuck? I lived through high school. It was no where near as cool as being a ninja. Or being drunk for that matter. Which I am right now. Can you tell? I talk (type) a lot while intoxicated. By the way, my liver says hey, and would like to remind everyone that mercy killing is not murder.