Warnings: Ok, so this chapter is a little darker, but...We all know how I lie about these things.o_o;; Rated PG-13 for the usual language, eventual violence, and potentially offensive ideas. Have fun! ^_^
Summary: Come on, if you've read this far, then you already know what this story is about.
Blankface Babble: I'm baaaaaaaaack! ^_^Well, I think my muse got held up in the airport customs on her vacation to the Bahamas (why couldn't she have taken me?). But have no fear, for she is back and ready to inspire me! (I wanted to go to the Bahamas, too! T.T) -
Part 1: Teams of Individuals
Ch. 3
Location: Rigan
Tagnet Territory 713
"Was the entire camp destroyed, soldier?" asked a cold and emotionless voice asked lazily, almost as if the speaker was bored with the tagnet soldier trying not to tremble as he knelt upon both knees before his superior.
"Yes sir, b-but-," the tagnet stammered under the white lights beating upon his head.
"But WHAT, soldier?" the imposing figure pressed on from the shadows beyond the light.
"But the Idarian Ground Forces Unit had come ahead of schedule and missed the present given to Territory 425, Conductor Sindur, Sir. We got them afterwards, but because of the detour the destruction of the Ground Forces Unit of 419 has been delayed, Sir."
Sindur was quiet for a few moments with his thick fingers folded in his lap. When he spoke again, his voice was integrated with a calm deadliness. "I hope that you're not telling me that GF 419 is functioning, soldier, because if you are, I could have you executed for failing to obey orders."
The soldier swallowed a particularly large lump that had accumulated in his throat, and tried to regain his failing composure. When he tried to speak, however, his voice caught somewhere between his throat and mouth and no words came out. The soldier's eyes darted frantically about the room, almost as if to search for his voice. The irises danced with fear as the soldier locked onto Conductor Sindur's calm stare, opening his mouth and closing it again as if he were gasping for air. Without warning, the man collapsed in front of Sindur and began wailing piteously into the floor. "Please don't have me executed Sir! We can still take out 419, but it will just take a little bit longer than expected! Please don't kill me Sir! Have mercy!"
Sindur rolled his eyes at the spectacle before him and barked, "Silence! Are you not a soldier of the Tagnet Military? Are you not proud to be a tagnet? You will cease this blubbering right now if you have any shred of dignity left within your being!"
The soldier's wails stopped abruptly and he resumed his humble position, sitting back with both knees on the floor and his four fingered hands flat in his lap.
"If I may, I beg forgiveness for my outburst sir," the soldier said in a flat voice after having regained his breath. He looked at the ground with dark brown eyes enveloped in the heavy shadow of the typical tagnet brow-bone. "It's possible that we can set up an ambush for GF 419 when they move from their current position. And our scouts have relayed that by the looks of it, the ground forces will travel again within the week," he continued.
Sindur pondered this for a moment, and scratched the coarse fur beneath his chin. "Your plan has many holes in it, soldier. The more time that you give and enemy, the more of a chance that they will retaliate effectively. The GF will be on their utmost guard due to the fact that the destruction on 425. And these are only a couple of possible flaws," he leaned forward in his chair to the tagnet still before him. Light reflected against the metal floors and into his hooded eyes, giving a hungry gleam to them. Along his right eyes, extending from his forehead to his chin, was a long pale scar severing the cream colored fur. "What makes you think that you and your men will be able to carry this plan out?"
The tagnet on the floor lifted his head so suddenly that his limp ears flopped against his head. "Conductor Sindur, sir, we will be successful because we have the will and the intelligence unlike those idarian scum! The tagnets shall prevail!" The soldier's eyes were filled with a passionate fury, but he quickly bowed his head once again to show respect for the Conductor.
Silence filled the small metal room, and then a crooked smile appeared on Sindur's lips. He sat back in his chair and flicked his hand. The soldier on the floor promptly stood up and saluted the Conductor, the thumb of his left hand in the crook of his right arm, which was pinned to his side. "That's the kind of attitude that I want to see from you and all of your men, soldier," Sindur said. The soldier nodded, turned around, and headed out of the sliding doors that marked the entrance. When he was gone, Sindur's eyes closed with tranquility. There would be no more failure from that soldier.
-
Location: Seka
Idarian Territory 419
"Hey, Nykyt!" Nepharity pulled the covers off of the young girl, "Wake up!" Instead of waking, the girl merely rolled onto her side and tried to pull the covers over her head. Nepharity was getting quite irked by the Nykyt's behavior as of late and so she grabbed the girl's blankets and ripped them from her grasp. "I said wake up!" the woman yelled.
The girl awoke with a gasp and sat up in her bed. She had been having a dream, a very odd one at that. For some odd reason, she had been trying to blow up a structure of some sort, but had been caught and reprimanded heavily for it. As punishment, she had been sentenced to the careful eye of another at all times. Nykyt rubbed her head and looked up at the miffed Nepharity.
"Come on," Nepharity said, "you're well enough now that you should be able to move around a bit more. Besides, the Ground Forces General has some information for you that may jog that scattered memory of yours. But in order to obtain the information, you have to get out of bed first."
Nykyt stood with a wince and looked up to Nepharity. Her body was still in pain, but her eyes were full of hope. "Really Neph? They might be able to tell me who I am?" she asked.
Nepharity nodded and tossed some clothes on the now empty bed. "Yes," she said. "And even though you're not a true soldier, I'm giving you a uniform. After all, we can't have you seeing the general in a nightgown! " She laughed and exited the tent to leave Nykyt to her devices.
Nykyt stared at the idarian military uniform lying on the bed. She had seen enough of Nepharity's uniform to know what piece goes where, but it was still difficult to sort it out by herself. The body was a two piece outfit with zippers on both garments. The shirt was metallic black with a zipper in the back and the pants were a dark blue with another zipper on the outside of the left leg. She put both on, but was unsure of what to do with the last two zippers. There was a half on the bottom hem of the shirt and another on the waist of the pants. Putting two and two together, Nykyt zipped the pant and shirt to each other. She next shoved her foot into the boots that she had been give, laced them up, and then looked at the armor scattered on the bed. She took the gauntlets. There was a hinge on the outside and a crease on the inside, almost as if it could come apart. She pulled it open at the seam, and laid her wrist inside. When she clicked it again, the gauntlet looked quite intimidating. It extended from her wrist up to the crook of her arm with a wicked looking blade enveloping the elbow. There was also a small triangle that went up on the topside of her hand. She couldn't make out the material that was used to make the armor, but she imagined that it was some sort of metal. The gauntlet was also, like the rest of the armor, a deep red, almost the same color as the serrated leaves of the Yonshai tree.
She looked up with a start, puzzled as to how she could make that connection. Nykyt tried to ferret the information from her brain, but to no avail. Disappointed, she realized that she couldn't even answer her own question. With her stomach sinking below its proper location once again, she put on the other gauntlet and began working with the shin guards. They were long slates that covered the shin and extended past the knee. After the knee, however, the armor tapered to a point to the top of her thigh. After securing the shin guard with the thick straps on the back of the calves, she ran her index finger along the edges, but quickly pulled away again to nurse the bleeding finger in her mouth. Her stomach did a twist as she realized that it was a blade. A gigantic blade extending from her leg. Wondering what kind of people put weapons on their own armor, she put on the other shin guard and grabbed the chest plate from the bed.
The chest plate was very different from the simple pieces that she had put on thus far. She ran her fingers over the engravings on the front of the armor. She couldn't read it, but there were words and designs decorating the surface. There was also picture of some sort of animal, a graceful looking thing that was skewered on a sword. A shiver ran up her spine at the barbaric scene. She tore her eyes from it and brought the plate over her head. It obviously went over the shoulders, and then connected underneath the armpits with another thick strap made of the same material as the body of the uniform. The shoulders extended at least another collarbone length past the shoulder on each side, and tapered into another bladed point.
Finally came the veil. It was a long piece of lightweight material that went around her waist. It draped down between her legs in the front and back. Upon further inspection, she found dozens of loops and clips on the inside of the material. Nykyt then remembered that Nepharity had once pulled a knife from her veil so then, Nykyt concluded, the loops were for holding weapons.
After quickly running her fingers through her hair and re-braiding again, a thing she had been practicing in her spare time since Nepharity suggested it, she stepped away from the bed and to the flap covering the entrance to the tent. Nykyt took a deep breath, and then stepped out into the open air. She gasped as her senses were suddenly bombarded with hundreds of new scents and scenes throughout the camp. There were two dozen other tents lined up in a circle around the area and there was a central fire in the middle. Several idarian men were walking about, sitting in relaxation, or were busy in different tasks. As impossible as it seemed to Nykyt, each man was taller than herself or Nepharity. The men all looked alike too, with the same style of hair: two long bangs in the front and the rest of the hair cropped close to the head. All of the idarians wore the same type of uniform as Nykyt's, making it almost impossible to tell people apart by appearance alone.
Trembling a bit from both excitement and nerves, she took another tentative step from the tent like an infant Cauri parting from its shelter for the first time. Nykyt lifted her head and inhaled deeply through her nose, taking in every scent and savoring it as if it were an enchanted gift. She closed her eyes in an attempt to capture the moment further, but was disrupted by a rough shove and landed hard on the ground, uttering a cry of protest. Wincing a bit, she massaged her side and glared up at the cause. A male carrying an armful of boxes had bumped into her and was already walking away. He looked over his shoulder and glared at Nykyt with disdain, obviously disgusted that a creature such as a female was allowed in a military camp. Forcing back the burning desire to shout at the man, Nykyt instead rose from the ground with a bit of difficulty from the weight of her armor, and dusted herself off. She looked at the spot where she had fallen in the matted blue grass, wrinkling her nose at the treatment she had just received. But then again, she was a guest in this strange place, so she had to bear through the insult.
A familiar scent hit Nykyt's nose as a hand fell on her shoulder. She breathed a soft sigh of relief, now accompanied by Nepharity once again.
"Did you see what that man did to me Neph? He knocked me down and then gave me the most awful stare," Nykyt inquired in a small voice, still reeling from the shock.
Nepharity sighed and squeezed Nykyt's shoulder lightly. "Well, most of the males are like that. They believe that a female has no place in the military, as if we can't stand up to the tasks that they endure. But in the time that I've been hanging around this place, I've learned that there are a select few males who've at least treated me like person and not like an animal."
" ?" Nykyt asked, turning to look at her friend. "Why do they do that?"
The woman shrugged. "I'm not sure. But that's not important right now. Remember, we still have to see one of my superiors about your past."
Lowering her eyes to the ground, Nykyt stared at her boots. "Will he treat me the same way as most males, then?"
"He's usually does well with tolerating me, so I'm sure that he'll give you the same treatment," Nepharity told the girl reassuringly. "Now let's go. It's not polite to keep people waiting."
With a slightly nod, Nykyt looked back up to see Nepharity walking towards the opposite side of the camp. She walked after the woman's back, knowing nothing else but to follow her to a stranger with answers. -
Blankface Babble: Me ish incredibly sorry for the delay in updates. *Cringes in fear from all the people that probably want to kill her now* But I have a life! *Cries* T.T o_o;; Uh...another bad comp kinda erased a good chunk of Hero's Ballad, so I have to go rewrite it now. o_o;; ILOVEYOUALLDON'TKILLME! ._.;; *runs away screaming in fear*