Base Camp: Day Onean_alpha_wolfAugust 24 2012, 02:22:26 UTC
When all was said and done, newly allied Wolves and Siberian guerillas were ordered to get a few hours rest before action in the morning. Lookouts and patrols were set up.
The Wolves slept close to their mechs and elemental armor in the cold hangars, often together under large blankets for warmth, elementals like hibernating bears, aerospace pilots like burrowing little snow-weasels that hogged more than their share of the covers. Some where still up, sitting around a heater with some of the locals. Elite, vat-bred Warriors chewed the fat and passed around vodka with hard bitten Russian hillbillies. Later, social tensions would undoubtedly emerge but for that moment things seemed to be going just fine.
Used to a generally docile populace, noone had been assigned to keep public order, save for announcements that the Railway stores were open and they could take any non-military items they wanted.
He sat on an unoccupied cinder block on the other side, watching the way the firelight played over her.
"None taken. The hangar is cold and has no fire and I have seen nothing but the other Fourth Wolf Guards for the past two weeks while we got ready for this." He looked at the others around the fire. More hard bitten men, from a hard bitten place. He could have grown to like it there himself. "Tomorrow, I need your help..." He waited for assent or just to be told to go on. "Let it be known that the Railway's stores are now open and to be distributed equally." That anyone might not distribute the goods fairly didn't even occur to him. "All military items are ours. Everything else is yours. Except the liquor." He grinned and reached over the fire to take the bottle from Adette, down a shot and pass it. "On that we must insist on an even split." He grinned.
Nine, then, would be the one Able and Bravo star had been assigned to take. He hoped they were staying in their mechs and battle armor tonight, grateful populace or no
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Truthfully, he wanted to see the house, to pick up the chipped cups and scavenged toys that had been with her from child to woman.
"You cannot know if you do not try. You cannot feed your guilt every opportunity that comes your way. I went down that road. It leads precisely nowhere." He stood too. The light was warm and flattered his features, making him look less gruff, less bitten by experience. But his eyes narrowed. "Jin Yasuba will beg you. I beg noone." His pride had finally caught up with him, and besideswhich he had not understood her offer. Later he might crawl in with her or allow her to crawl in with him. But tonight he'd sleep on an inflatable mattress with someone's elbow in his eye, or in his mech's cockpit
( ... )
He walked away rather mechanically, maniacally focused on not looking back, climbed the wall and was gone into the night. Noone seemed inclined to want to pursue him.
That night, he watched the inhabitants of the hangar from inside his mech's cockpit, willing himself back to the state of cold, ambitious indifference he'd been in six months ago. If she does not deserve it, then neither do you, sibkin-slayer. Perhaps your genechildren will erase the stain on your honor, but not you, and not her.
He slept there, a position guaranteed to cause cramps to the back, knees and neck. As he did, he saw her framed by the firelight again, and even more beautiful for it, burning a piece of paper in her hand. Then with horror he realized her hand was a mech's fist, bloody and covered in glasstic shards...
The Wolves slept close to their mechs and elemental armor in the cold hangars, often together under large blankets for warmth, elementals like hibernating bears, aerospace pilots like burrowing little snow-weasels that hogged more than their share of the covers. Some where still up, sitting around a heater with some of the locals. Elite, vat-bred Warriors chewed the fat and passed around vodka with hard bitten Russian hillbillies. Later, social tensions would undoubtedly emerge but for that moment things seemed to be going just fine.
Used to a generally docile populace, noone had been assigned to keep public order, save for announcements that the Railway stores were open and they could take any non-military items they wanted.
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"None taken. The hangar is cold and has no fire and I have seen nothing but the other Fourth Wolf Guards for the past two weeks while we got ready for this." He looked at the others around the fire. More hard bitten men, from a hard bitten place. He could have grown to like it there himself. "Tomorrow, I need your help..." He waited for assent or just to be told to go on. "Let it be known that the Railway's stores are now open and to be distributed equally." That anyone might not distribute the goods fairly didn't even occur to him. "All military items are ours. Everything else is yours. Except the liquor." He grinned and reached over the fire to take the bottle from Adette, down a shot and pass it. "On that we must insist on an even split." He grinned.
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"You cannot know if you do not try. You cannot feed your guilt every opportunity that comes your way. I went down that road. It leads precisely nowhere." He stood too. The light was warm and flattered his features, making him look less gruff, less bitten by experience. But his eyes narrowed. "Jin Yasuba will beg you. I beg noone." His pride had finally caught up with him, and besideswhich he had not understood her offer. Later he might crawl in with her or allow her to crawl in with him. But tonight he'd sleep on an inflatable mattress with someone's elbow in his eye, or in his mech's cockpit ( ... )
Reply
( ... )
Reply
That night, he watched the inhabitants of the hangar from inside his mech's cockpit, willing himself back to the state of cold, ambitious indifference he'd been in six months ago. If she does not deserve it, then neither do you, sibkin-slayer. Perhaps your genechildren will erase the stain on your honor, but not you, and not her.
He slept there, a position guaranteed to cause cramps to the back, knees and neck. As he did, he saw her framed by the firelight again, and even more beautiful for it, burning a piece of paper in her hand. Then with horror he realized her hand was a mech's fist, bloody and covered in glasstic shards...
Reply
( ... )
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