Okay guys, sorry its been awhile. I've been busy with work and life in general. Overall things are going well.
I will warn you against one thing. The latest resident evil movie 'Welcome to raccoon city.' DON'T WATCH IT. Not only do they completely butcher Leon's character, but they basically shit all over RE1 and RE2. Even though the original resident evil movies with Milla Jovovich weren't necessarily good, they were still fun. WTRC was just shitty overall.
Anyways, hope you all had a good Christmas.
Winter was confused. Jem had been coming home late the last few weeks. He must have found a new hobby in Mantle, because he went there a few times a week rather than just sticking around Atlas. It wasn't an issue at all, it was just weird that they came home at the same time rather than her waiting for him like a house husband. She giggled a bit at that, for a bit Jem had been hanging out with Nala while she was at work, but now ever since he made his trips into Vale, his hours seemed to coincide with hers. Nala didn't mind at all, since Jem still spent plenty of time with her, and she had plenty of toys, games, and things to do around the house.
To say that Nala was spoiled was an understatement.
But neither one minded as long as she didn't start acting like a pompous spoiled rich girl. Jem said it was highly unlikely that was going to happen because of her poverty stricken upbringing. So Nala was good at staying humble because she remembered what it was like to be broke. It sucked. Jem knew what it was like to be broke, but he was thankful he had never been THAT broke.
Jem told her stories about how he and his buddies regularly ran out of money in the army.
One time one of his buddies went to go buy a cheap cigar, and his card got declined.
"Man what is taking him so long?" Jem thought as he turned to see his buddy Luther coming out.
He was hanging his head low in shame.
"Whats wrong dude?" He asked as Luther looked up at him.
"My card got declined..."
"...You don't have $1.75 on your card?"
Winter couldn't help but laugh at that story. It was sad but it was funny. Seriously how wrong did your life go that you couldn't even pay for a dollar store cigar?
She saw the door open to her house and saw Jem walk in.
"Hi Honey, I'm home." He said as they gave each other a hug and small kiss.
"How was your day?" He asked her as he got ready to cook.
"Decent, did I tell you that your Grandpa Reggie is here?" Winter asked as Jem looked at her incredulously.
"No...wait how long has he been here?" Jem couldn't believe it.
"About three weeks now." She said as Jem's eyes went wide.
"He's been here for three weeks and I'm only just finding out?" That didn't seem right.
"To be fair, he's been too busy with Ironwood, the general believes his knowledge in warfare and tactics could be useful for our troops." Winter said as Jem made a 'ah' face and shrugged his shoulders.
"Understatement of the year there, that man showed me how to cook a goat's stomach when I was ten." He said as Winter couldn't help but be disgusted at that.
"Be that as it may, the general has been really impressed with his performance at his age, so much that he's even considered unlocking his aura." He said as Jem couldn't help but chuckle at that.
"Shit, he's already a tough bastard for his age, I can't help but be scared at how scary he would be if he got a steroid boost right now."
Jem could remember Reggie telling him stories of his time as a Selous Scout in Rhodesia. He didn't originally start off that way. He originally was just regular RLI taking part in numerous fireforce missions. It wasn't until later he became a Selous Scout. Either way, the man knew what he was doing. And he carried out missions with outdated helicopters and with very little equipment. He could only imagine how lethal a Rhodesian Style army would be if they had access to Atlas's technology.
It was both terrifying but also kind of bad ass.
"Anyways, Nala how was your day?" He asked as Nala was currently reading a book.
"Hm? Oh I napped for most of the day." She said as both Jem and Winter looked confused.
"The whole day?"
"I pulled an all nighter trying to beat this game." He said as Jem sighed.
"Nala, you know it isn't healthy to do that." He lightly lectured.
"I know, but it was really annoying! I thought I was going to get some treasure, but the chest came to life and killed me!" Nala said as Jem took a second to mull over what she just said.
"Oh you got to be kidding me! Dark souls exists here too?" Seemed that sadistic game existed across the multiverse.
Jem just shook his head. Seems like that was the one thing that was constant in life. Death. Taxes. And Dark Souls.
KNOCK KNOCK
"Who's at the door?" He asked as he walked over.
Only to see Elm at the door.
"Hey guys!" She said in a friendly tone as Jem and Nala smiled.
And Winter tried not to go all 'Bitch, stay away from my man.'
"Oh hey Elm! What brings you here?" Jem was in a relationship now, and he was faithful.
But holy hell, how did Elm's abs appear through her shirt? He could grind cheese on those things!
No no Jem!
You already have Winter's abs to look at.
You don't need the big woman.
"I actually came to get Winter, General Ironwood is requesting you and the Ace ops." Elm said as Winter stood up and sighed.
"Well duty calls." She said as Jem ran over with a thermos and a small bag.
"Here, I filled in with your favorite decaf coffee, and the bag has some jerky and some other snacks." He said as he kissed her on the cheek.
"You're acting like I'm going to my first day of pre school." Winter couldn't help but let out a light laugh.
Jem literally packed her a snack like she was a five year old getting on the bus to go to school.
"Nah, I just remember times when I got called back into company it would have been nice to have a drink and a snack." He said as he was doing this out of personal experience.
Nothing sucked more than being hungry and having the First Sergeant yell at you because somebody got drunk and picked a fight with the MPs.
Jem waved goodbye as she and Elm departed the house.
"He's so thoughtful." Elm said as she smiled at the closed door.
"Yes he is." Winter agreed.
"Shame he's taken." Elm muttered under her breath sadly.
"What was that?"
"Nothing!"
Later at Ironwood's office
"Alright General, we're all assembled, whats up?" Clover asked as the general sighed.
"Well, normally I wouldn't waste time with this, but the council is being a pain about it." He said as he handed them a file.
"The council is concerned about a possible uprising in Mantle." Ironwood said as everyone looked stunned.
"What? Why? If we're going off of what we saw on Earth, then we're still months away from the people getting fed up with the way things are run." Marrow couldn't believe it.
Why would the people be planning anything against Atlas now? They had no reason to!
"Thats why this is only a concern." He said as he pulled up a holographic display.
"At first there wasn't any cause for alarm, as you all know, everyday citizens can buy weapons with no restrictions across the kingdoms, normally this would be swept under the rug." He said as he pulled out some surveillance photos.
"However, there was cause for concern when we saw this." He said as he pulled up some photos.
They saw photos from one of the local gun ranges in Mantle. Each range had 50 stalls. And every single one of them was occupied with others waiting to take their turn. All filled with people armed with at least one rifle and one sidearm.
"Gun ranges and gun sales have increased dramatically in the past three weeks, we don't know why, but the council is concerned that due to past history of tensions between Mantle and Atlas that someone may be planning an insurrection." Ironwood said as Winter was confused.
"So why are we involved? We're military, we can't get involved with civilian law enforcement investigations." She said as Atlas did have a similar act to Posse Comitatus, so unless shit had really hit the fan, they couldn't interfere.
"We're not investigating anything, while this small movement has grown significantly in the past few weeks, theres no official creed or anything that suggests they're a terrorist organization, but whenever a large group of people starts to gather arms, governments get scared." He said as he was just briefing them on this to get the council off his ass.
"So what are we doing?" Winter asked as Ironwood sighed.
"Well from what we can tell, these are not private groups, anyone is free to join, I want you all to go down to Mantle and observe them and see if they're anything to worry about." He said as Elm raised a hand.
"Sir, no offense, but wouldn't that raise suspicion? We're all VERY recognizable, and wouldn't military personnel raise suspicion amongst these people if they were anti government? IF the councils fears were justified and they did plan on starting a coup against them, wouldn't sending us just justify these people's concern?" She asked as Ironwood nodded.
"I know, I don't like this anymore than you do, but sadly this is out of my hands." Ironwood rubbed the bridge of his nose.
As much as he hated to compare Atlas's military to what he heard about Jem's time in service, he would admit one thing was constant in all branches of service from every continent to every world. Politicians got a visit from the 'good idea fairy' and fucked up military doctrine for years to come.
"Look, you're all specially trained in combat as well as survival, amongst that is being able to blend in with the population. See if you can find one of these 'militia' meetings and see if they're any danger." Ironwood was skeptical about this whole thing.
"Alright, we'll do it." Winter for some reason had a funny feeling about this.