You eventually manage to ask Daiyu about the training trip, and after a lengthy conversation with her sister, she gives you an agreement. You stay for a while longer, letting the sisters finish their meal, some sort of broth. When they are done, Daiyu hugs her sister before moving to follow you. When you leave the room, you look down to your sister, who was currently sticking as close to you as she could. You couldn't find it in yourself to make her stay, so you let her come with you.
Her smile was practically blinding.
/LINE BREAK\
The car ride was long, giving you the perfect opportunity to spark up conversation with Daiyu. You fumble with the choice of topics for a while, before settling on something simple. "Hey Daiyu?" She turns her head away from the window to look at you. "What do you do when you aren't training?"
She perks at as Una begins listening intently. "I practice with sword, or read books." She nods before stopping, nodding even faster. "I found book on living magic legends! There are many spectacular beasts, Temple Monks were right about many." She vibrates a little in her seat. "Wish to see one, think time could be made to?"
You scratch your arm as you think about it, you were planning on taking her with you when you went back to that
place tomorrow, but after that you didn't have anything planned. "I think we could probably arrange something, maybe Morgan knows one we can visit?"
She beams at you and goes back to staring out the window, humming a little tune under hear breath.
An excruciatingly long car ride later and you were waved through the gate, soldiers sending your blacked out windows a curious glance before going back to what they were doing.Una was practically bouncing in her seat as she frantically try to look at
everything. Daiyu was a little more restrained, but you could still see her eyes practically glowing as you pass a Jet moving along the runway. Your car pulls to a stop near a building, it is smaller than the enormous hangers around you, but it is still gigantic.
When you all step out, the people around you give you strange looks, but are apparently disciplined enough not to make a scene. The door to the large building opens and a large man steps out, he quickly walks over to the three of you, nodding at you before speaking. "Thank you for coming, if you would please follow me this way, a training room has been set aside for you." He waits for you to nod back before spinning on the spot and walking back towards the building.
When you enter you look around, it is mostly bare, but the paint looks new. Actually, the entire building looks new. You pull Una's hand away from a particularly shiny metal thingy sitting on the wall, moving through two more corridors, before you enter into a large room.
There are several groups of people waiting for you, they all quickly shuffle into a line as you enter and salute your guide. He gives them a curt nod before turning to you. "These are going to be your partners for today, the Lieutenant here." A shorter tanned man steps forwards. "Is going to be in charge for the duration of your visit. You may direct any questions to him, and while you are not required to follow orders, it would be for the best if you could comply with any guidelines he discusses with you." He steps back, the soldiers relaxing from their salute. "Any questions?"
You cut off your sister with a hand over her mouth before she can begin spouting every question under the sun, and shake your head. "No, I have no disagreements with anything you have said." The man nods and quickly leaves the room, the door closing behind him with a quiet thud. You turn to look at the Lieutenant as he steps forwards, dipping his head to you in greeting.
"Hello Miss, my name is Oliver Sadana, I will be the PT leader today." He steps back and waves a hand behind him. "For the duration of today, the identities of the twelve people behind me will be designated Knight one to Knight twelve. The numbers each designate a specific job. Knight one to six are riflemen carrying a standard loadout, Knight seven will be carrying a machine gun, Knight eight will be carrying engineering and Anti-Air or Anti-Armour gear. Knight nine and ten are both medics, carrying a standard loadout. Knight eleven and twelve are a sniper and their spotter."
You are slightly impressed he managed to get that out all in one breath, but you make sure to mentally note the roles.
Knight 1-6 - Riflemen
Knight 7 - Machine Gun
Knight 8 - Engineer & Anti-Air/Armour
Knight 9-10 - Medics
Knight 11-12 - Sniper and Spotter
He continues speaking after giving you the time to take it in. "For today, we will be running basic exercises and if they go well, manoeuvrers. Do you have any questions?"
You speak again before your sister can. "Firstly, my sister will not be taking part." You give her a long look until she backs down. "Secondly, would you please elaborate on what exactly we are doing."
He nods. "Basic exercises will be done to see how fit you are, manoeuvrers are the entire squad moving through a course as a team. We will not be using live rounds during any exercises, but they are designed for you to be... transformed." He stumbles a little when he mentions your transformation, but his recovery is excellent, you can barely even catch a hint of doubt on his face, or the soldiers behind him.
Well, we can't have that now can we?
You share a look with Daiyu and you both flare your magic in Sync, armour flaring into existence around the two of you.
The soldiers flinch, reaching for non existent weapons before they calm down, staring at the lingering lines of flame running along your armour. You let the fire fade a moment later and satisfied that they are convinced, your armour dispersing into a gentle cloud of fire.
You give the Lieutenant a moment to gather his wits as he clears his throat, nodding at you as he steps back. "Right then. We'll just uh, start with basic exercises now then."
/LINE BREAK\
You sit down, panting slightly, Daiyu a lot more than you. The soldiers had put you through the grinder, but it wasn't
much worse than your daily torture in the Gym. Daiyu hadn't had the time to acclimatise like you had, the wincing she was making was well deserved. The soldiers were also looking a little tired, but also fairly used to it, which made sense.
When you had gathered your breath, you made your way to your feet as the Lieutenant writes something down. "Next thing is manoeuvrers then?"
He looks up, nodding at your words and calling back to the other soldiers. "All right you lot, get your gear loaded, we're going out to Course 8." They silently go about collecting the few things they had on hand, walking out of the door as the Lieutenant guides you after them. Once you arrive, you enter a large domed area, where a massive space awaits. There is literally a
street in here, a road, buildings and even cars.
You chat quietly to Daiyu as you see people going through the street, inspecting things. "Impressive yeah?"
She nods, starting to regain a little of her exited bounciness as she speaks. "Yes! Is very impressive course, expensive."
You smile, but your conversation is interrupted by the Lieutenant coming back to you and nodding. "Everything is set up, this scenario is a sweep and clear. You enter the street from here and move through it, clearing out any targets you find." He hold up a picture, showing a man wearing camo and armour different to your allies. "Your targets will look like this, any questions?"
His answers are awfully lacking in detail, but you feel that there is probably a reason for that, some sort of test to how well you work with your team maybe?
Whatever. You send Daiyu a look and she nods. You gently ruffle Una's hair as you go down the steps of your overlooking platform, the group of soldiers waiting for you at the bottom. They move behind you, so that the two of you are at the head of the group and you transform.
You look around, not seeing anything further in as you begin walking. Daiyu shifts slightly in front of you as you go, until suddenly there is a
deafening bang of a gun and you see a paintball
bounce off of her chestplate. You quickly jump to the side, rolling behind a small wall as Daiyu follows.
The soldiers behind you scatter, taking cover wherever they can and raise their weapons to fire at the building the shot had come from.
You stay crouched there, sharing a look with Daiyu before a thought comes to mind.
Why am I hiding. I am bulletproof, and these are paintballs. No clue why it didn't burst though. You stand up, Daiyu following your lead as you gently float above the combat zone. Her flight was shaky enough that you gave her a hand, dragging her up with you faster. You float there, looking over the battlefield before a shot dinks off of your shoulder harmlessly.
Still no clue why they aren't popping. Still, you catch a glimpse of the attacker and form a spear of ice, making sure your team can see it before you fire it at the wall.
You let it punch into the wall, being
very careful not to hit the man inside, or the two people behind him. Honestly, you were trying to do this without cheating with your thermal sense, but it just made it so
easy to find everyone.
Fuck it, it's not cheating if you use what you've got right? You gently float down next to what the tag on his chest identifies as Knight 1, probably the leader. "Hey." He looks up at you, standing out in the open spotless, a little incredulously.
"I know where they all are, can you co-ordinate to get them?" He nods quickly and waits for you to speak. "Three guys on the second floor there, one on the roof behind us, five in the garage over there and two guys in the house to your right." You move over and tear an enormous hole in the wall with your bare hands, a quick pulse of reinforcement letting you punch through the weak plaster to grab the two inside. You make sure not to hurt them as you pull them through the wall, leaving them dangling from your arms as Knight 1 looks up at you even
more confused.
He quickly gets over his shock and speaks through the radio on his head, the other soldiers quickly focusing down the buildings you had specified. Paint splattered enemies dropping to the ground, fake dead, while the Machine Gun roars loudly next to you.
How is that so loud with paintballs? Do they have some sort of special attachment that does that?
You and Daiyu kind of just stand there and watch the last man frantically hunker down behind his cover. It lasts until someone throws a grenade, a brief flash of heat spraying him with paint head to toe. He drops to the ground, playing dead until a voice comes out over an intercom. "Alright, that's everything clear, well done."
/LINE BREAK\
You ran through the course twice more, each going much the same as the first because you immediately pointed out where everyone was. You didn't break any more walls, but you didn't actually get to
do much. All of your spells were lethal or would demolish the entire street, and everyone on it.
I need to create some way of non-lethally fighting, this is a little stupid. You mostly just stood there in the open, idly chatting with Daiyu as the occasional paintball bounces harmlessly off of you.
Need to figure that out too.
You parted with the team when the sun started setting, waving once to them before you left.
/LINE BREAK\
You drop from the plane, Daiyu falling alongside you as you stare down at the dark countryside beneath you. You fall quickly, reaching terminal velocity in seconds. When you get close, you slow yourself down, lending Daiyu a hand as the two of your float quietly over the camp.
You frown as you stretch out your sense.
Nothing at all, not even rodents... You close your eyes with a sigh, reluctantly turning to look at Daiyu. "They are still here."
[] Battle Plan?
Commonwealth Military: +1
