(Untitled)

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Out of Milliways:

"Star Paladin Cross, what does the Brotherhood of Steel believeThe door opens on concrete dust and swirling wind. It's nasty out there in the ruins of Washington DC just now. This is probably why Ellen is in such a hurry to get into the Bar

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[luckyspartan]

Ellen hears the voice before she sees anyone.

"Let me help you with that."

John reaches down and takes the massive weapon off of Ellen's hands. He came from slightly to the side and behind her, so she didn't see him approach. Spartans are quiet for their size.

Though he's not in his power armor, he's strong enough to hold the gun with one hand without effort. "You want this somewhere specific?" he asks.

[luckyspartan]

The soldier nods. "I'll be outside."

He heads out to look for a suitable sparring location. After a few minutes, he comes to a level, grassy area by the lake. Some might say somewhere indoors with a mat would be better. John, though, is practical - in the field, people didn't fight on throw mats. Why train on one?

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

When Ellen comes outside, sans dog, she's wearing her armored Vault jumpsuit- the reinforced one she got from Moira Brown. The way she sees it, if she doesn't have access to her guns, she's probably in an awful lot of trouble anyway and shouldn't count on having armor to save her skin. As far as the idea of a mat goes, she would probably just look blankly at anyone who suggested it. There were Initiates being trained in the Citadel courtyard when she and Cross left, and Paladin Gunny didn't put anything on the ground for them unless it was meant to clean up blood after a particularly impressive fall, so... yeah.

"All right," she says when she arrives. "Ready when you are."

[luckyspartan]

"We'll start with stance," John begins. "Your balance and the balance of your opponent are two major factors when you're unarmed. If you make your opponent lose his balance, chances are nine to one that you can kill him with your next move." The Spartan assumes a combat stance. "Spread your feet a shoulders width apart, with your right foot a foot ahead of your left. Always keep your knees bent, and lean forward slightly. Good. Now let's go over the human body's natural weapons

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Knees are a privilege," Ellen murmursn but adjusts her stance properly as John starts on his explanation in earnest.

What follows is physically probably the roughest four hours of her life to date, with the possible exception of entering Old Olney and then escaping from the Deathclaw-ridden ruins in an unfamiliar, un-fitted suit of two hubndred year old power armor. Still, you don't last long on the surface without some improvements to your stamina and strength. At John's comment, she nods. "I had the same thing happen when I was first trying to escape the Vault- the holding back, I mean," she says. "I had to incapacitate some of the security guards with a baseball bat. I had a hard time really bringing it down on them even though they were chasing me with batons and guns. It's different now, but- I'll have to remember not to hold back during practice."

[luckyspartan]

"That's if you're practicing with me. If you train with someone less durable, my advice is that you don't kill them," John suggests. "A long time ago, when I was recovering from my Spartan-II augmentation procedures, I accidentally killed two soldiers and crippled a third in a sparring exercise."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"... wow," says Ellen after a moment's stunned silence. "Squire Maxson winged Sentinel Lyons on one of his training missions and they confined him to the Citadel for retraining for I don't know how long. What, um..."

It occurs to her that she really has no idea what real soldiers' training is like other than what she's seen in her brief stint in the Citadel, or what the consequences are for them not getting it right.

[luckyspartan]

"Command said it never happened. I suspect they arranged for the five ODSTs to be in the recovery gym during my time slot. Hell jumpers have never on good terms with Spartans, so it wasn't long before they started trying to pick a fight with me. An officer came in and told us to take it to the ring. It was easy to hold off the soldier that climbed in. But when his friends climbed in to give him a hand, I stopped holding back. I was... a lot stronger and faster than I was before." John pauses. "Two dead, one crippled. I assume the other two recovered, but I'm not sure. I didn't give it much thought at the time; I was fourteen and still in basic. I walked into a fight with fellow soldiers and was the only one to walk out of it. No punishment. No reprimand. Command wanted to see what a Spartan could do, and I let them see it."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

When I was fourteen I was still sneaking down to the reactor level to plink radroaches with my BB gun, thinks Ellen. Aloud, slowly, she says, "They must... they must really have needed you."

That or they must've held the lives of the hell jumpers insanely cheap. Which doesn't seem like the right answer.

[luckyspartan]

"Spartans were made to protect Earth and her colonies," John agrees. "That's what my team is for."

Not that that John has a team anymore, or that Earth has any colonies left to protect.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen nods. "I've been into space once," she says, "but it wasn't to any kind of colony or anything- just a ship in orbit. That and the old Captain Cosmos vids are probably the closest anything I've ever seen gets to anything like your situation. It all just sounds so... huge. Wide-scale, I mean."

[luckyspartan]

"It is. It's easy to get lost. If you go through my door, you'll come out on part of a ship that's dead in deep space. No one will even know where it is for years."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

That gets a wince. "That's further out than I can really process," she admits. "I still have trouble with the concept of miles sometimes. Comes from growing up in a space the size of Vault 101, I guess."

[luckyspartan]

"I'd rather stay on the ground," John says, looking out over the lake. "I can take control of the situation if I'm on the ground."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"The space trip wasn't my idea," Ellen says. "Believe me, if it was up to me, I'd stay on the ground for as long as humanly possible. Or under it, for preference. I don't mind tunnels or caverns or cramped quarters, I know some people do."

[luckyspartan]

"Anywhere I can do something. I don't like to be cargo."