All Guns Blazing pt. V
Zoosmell
Blind Idiot Arcana
- Location
- Kansas
[><]Wait until you get to Midway
Ultimately, you decide not to bother with breakfast in Melbourne and instead lunch in Midway. If you're going to give yourself a brutal case of ley lag, may as well get to your destination and deal with it there. At the very least, the sooner you get to Midway, perhaps the sooner you can leave it. You don't imagine you'll much like the heat of Calcutta, but at least it won't be in the middle of nowhere.
You quickly finish your tea, then walk out the door the unnamed colonel walked out of. The secretary is there, but the colonel himself is almost halfway across the next room, which ends in another large elevator. You enter a slight jog to follow him, and reach the door of the Melbourne base's massive ley room elevator (you assume) at about the same time he does.
He seems slightly impressed by your eagerness, you think, but raises an eyebrow all the same. "You sure you want to ley shift so soon after your last one?"
"I've done it before," you say, with confidence you don't quite feel. It's true, you have, mostly to acclimatize yourself to it. It's not really pleasant, nor is it healthy, but much like smoking the first time is always twice as bad as the second, and so on. You leave that part out. You also leave out the part that the distance of that journey was less than half the distance you are about to cover.
The process of getting to the portal, and starting up, is the same as before. Getting to Midway is likewise similar. The opening, this time, is within sight of the radio station on Sand Island, in a field of close-cut grass.
You don't see as many truly odd sights, not like the ones you saw passing over Europe and Asia, but diving deep into the Pacific reminds you why most mages preferred to take ships across deep water.
And then you arrive. You stumble forward from the portal's opening like a newborn calf, taking a few steps, stumbling, and then faceplanting into the dirt, clutching your stomach with a groan. Bile rises in your throat, and you force it down. It's a lot easier now, than it was the last time - the first time, but you still feel like there's a bubbling brew of acid in your gut and a cannonball in your intestines. Your foot locker flops across the Pacific behind you, landing on one of its ends before the closing of the portal knocks it completely over.
A number of naval enlisted men armed with submachine guns stand near the other side, along with a smaller number of Air Corps ground crew and an Air Corps lieutenant colonel. They're a ways off from the opening and not facing it, at first, but they quickly turn to you. The lieutenant colonel seems a lot friendlier than the nameless colonel, judging by the smile and the way he approaches. You push yourself up to attention and snap off a salute, still a little wobbly.
"Lieutenant Saitou-Williams?" he asks, holding out his hand. His accent is distinctly Appalachian. You shake his hand, nodding.
"I'm Lieutenant-Colonel Walter Sweeney, Jr. I'll be your commanding officer for the duration of your stay 'till you get out on the Enterprise. Once there, you'll be under Admiral Spruance."
He walks and talks, just like the full colonel, heading towards one of the quote-unquote roads on Sand Island - not straight at the radio station but in its general direction, towards where the barracks are.
"You're probably wondering why you were sent all the way out here for a test of your 'loyalty'," he says. "Well, as it turns out, Nimitz and his bean counters have figured out that the Japanese fleet is headed here. They want Midway, and they also want to smash the rest of our carriers. The Brits say you're good at killing Krauts, and that's good enough for me to let you fly if they arrive early. What Nimitz wants to know, and what Spruance wants to know, is if you're any good at fighting your own kind." He stops, turning his head slightly. "Er, no offense."
You let the comment pass you buy without any more response than a shrug. "I just call 'em 'Imps', sir."
"Right. Well, until then, you're to stay with the other witches here on Sand Island. Grounded, but you otherwise have the same amount of free rein of the base as anyone else of your rank, gender, and clearance would. You'll get further orders once you're on board the Enterprise. You would've gotten 'em here, but it was hard enough convincing the people who organized this whole 'test' of yours to let you come here at all."
"You'll arm up on land, though - anti-air, but if you think you can carry anything anti-ship in the air for a few hours' worth of fighting, I won't stop you. Beyond that?" He holds out his hands. "You're dismissed. Navy served chow at noon, so you missed anything fresh, but there're plenty of C-rats from the Army quartermaster, and that Navy 'chow', too. Get your food, pick out your gear, and head to the barracks."
[ ] C-rations
[ ] Dehydrated USN food (Keep in mind, you've never eaten either before, only having eaten British rations)
[ ] Try and find a chuckwagon with B-rations
[ ] Loadout?
I probably should put some kind of warning in the Quest's header/boilerplate/whatever it's called, if only because I'm still not 100% sold on paying cash money just to make a sticky post. Post would be longer, but my home's internet is being upgraded and I wanted this update today.
Ultimately, you decide not to bother with breakfast in Melbourne and instead lunch in Midway. If you're going to give yourself a brutal case of ley lag, may as well get to your destination and deal with it there. At the very least, the sooner you get to Midway, perhaps the sooner you can leave it. You don't imagine you'll much like the heat of Calcutta, but at least it won't be in the middle of nowhere.
You quickly finish your tea, then walk out the door the unnamed colonel walked out of. The secretary is there, but the colonel himself is almost halfway across the next room, which ends in another large elevator. You enter a slight jog to follow him, and reach the door of the Melbourne base's massive ley room elevator (you assume) at about the same time he does.
He seems slightly impressed by your eagerness, you think, but raises an eyebrow all the same. "You sure you want to ley shift so soon after your last one?"
"I've done it before," you say, with confidence you don't quite feel. It's true, you have, mostly to acclimatize yourself to it. It's not really pleasant, nor is it healthy, but much like smoking the first time is always twice as bad as the second, and so on. You leave that part out. You also leave out the part that the distance of that journey was less than half the distance you are about to cover.
The process of getting to the portal, and starting up, is the same as before. Getting to Midway is likewise similar. The opening, this time, is within sight of the radio station on Sand Island, in a field of close-cut grass.
You don't see as many truly odd sights, not like the ones you saw passing over Europe and Asia, but diving deep into the Pacific reminds you why most mages preferred to take ships across deep water.
And then you arrive. You stumble forward from the portal's opening like a newborn calf, taking a few steps, stumbling, and then faceplanting into the dirt, clutching your stomach with a groan. Bile rises in your throat, and you force it down. It's a lot easier now, than it was the last time - the first time, but you still feel like there's a bubbling brew of acid in your gut and a cannonball in your intestines. Your foot locker flops across the Pacific behind you, landing on one of its ends before the closing of the portal knocks it completely over.
A number of naval enlisted men armed with submachine guns stand near the other side, along with a smaller number of Air Corps ground crew and an Air Corps lieutenant colonel. They're a ways off from the opening and not facing it, at first, but they quickly turn to you. The lieutenant colonel seems a lot friendlier than the nameless colonel, judging by the smile and the way he approaches. You push yourself up to attention and snap off a salute, still a little wobbly.
"Lieutenant Saitou-Williams?" he asks, holding out his hand. His accent is distinctly Appalachian. You shake his hand, nodding.
"I'm Lieutenant-Colonel Walter Sweeney, Jr. I'll be your commanding officer for the duration of your stay 'till you get out on the Enterprise. Once there, you'll be under Admiral Spruance."
He walks and talks, just like the full colonel, heading towards one of the quote-unquote roads on Sand Island - not straight at the radio station but in its general direction, towards where the barracks are.
"You're probably wondering why you were sent all the way out here for a test of your 'loyalty'," he says. "Well, as it turns out, Nimitz and his bean counters have figured out that the Japanese fleet is headed here. They want Midway, and they also want to smash the rest of our carriers. The Brits say you're good at killing Krauts, and that's good enough for me to let you fly if they arrive early. What Nimitz wants to know, and what Spruance wants to know, is if you're any good at fighting your own kind." He stops, turning his head slightly. "Er, no offense."
You let the comment pass you buy without any more response than a shrug. "I just call 'em 'Imps', sir."
"Right. Well, until then, you're to stay with the other witches here on Sand Island. Grounded, but you otherwise have the same amount of free rein of the base as anyone else of your rank, gender, and clearance would. You'll get further orders once you're on board the Enterprise. You would've gotten 'em here, but it was hard enough convincing the people who organized this whole 'test' of yours to let you come here at all."
"You'll arm up on land, though - anti-air, but if you think you can carry anything anti-ship in the air for a few hours' worth of fighting, I won't stop you. Beyond that?" He holds out his hands. "You're dismissed. Navy served chow at noon, so you missed anything fresh, but there're plenty of C-rats from the Army quartermaster, and that Navy 'chow', too. Get your food, pick out your gear, and head to the barracks."
[ ] C-rations
[ ] Dehydrated USN food (Keep in mind, you've never eaten either before, only having eaten British rations)
[ ] Try and find a chuckwagon with B-rations
[ ] Loadout?
I probably should put some kind of warning in the Quest's header/boilerplate/whatever it's called, if only because I'm still not 100% sold on paying cash money just to make a sticky post. Post would be longer, but my home's internet is being upgraded and I wanted this update today.
