Real Loyalty

A

Apro

Guest
Original poster
The High Risk Operations Unit, a place where only the most experienced are chosen to be a part of. This is the story of a young Vakirian called Ark as he is transferred to the HROU under the command of Lieutenant Fate, and how their time in the military led to their working together on the Running Rabbit.
 
Fate sat in her office reviewing the paper work that need to be signed. She had made her way through nearly all of it when one of the members of her team walked in and informed her that the new transfer was here. The young Lieutenant sat her pen down, stood up, and then followed the soldier out of the room. It took a few moments for the two to reach their destination. She now stood in front of the newest member of her unit, a man by the name of Ark if his file was anything to go by. Her unit had recently lost its only technical analyst during a mission, so she had requested a replacement to be transferred in. Of the files given to her by the higher ups for potential recruits, his was the only one that stood out.

“It is a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Turlik.” She said as she extended her hand out to him. “I hope you enjoy your time a member of the HROU.”
 
He was sitting in a room that looked like an amalgam of an armory and a server room, his first day on this new team. Ark was only 18 but the signs of guilt and loss were evident in his eyes. It showed even when he tried to hide it as he stood at attention to his new CO, to his surprise it wasn't a hulk of a man but a young woman. His confusion showed when he saluted her after shaking her hand, saying, "Yes sir, err.... Ma'am! I hope my experiences in this unit will be.....better, than my last mission." he finished, his eys almost screaming with guilt over the fate of his deceased squad mates. His dossier had a full report of the incident retaking the New Dawn, and he remembered it too well, losing all of his teammates because he was too focused on keeping the ships fusion cores from overloading. It was the right thing to do, but he felt like he'd made an unforgiveable mistake. "Uhm, Ma'am, what type of games do the HROU play?" He was asking about the missions they typically got, wanting to know when duty was gonna call, "Also, I errrr, I wanted to know why I was chosen to join this unit, given the incident with the New Dawn."
 
Fate offered him a small smile as she saw the emotions he was going through. “Well, the HROU typically deal with high risk missions, such as the name implies, that normally include the infiltration, rescue, and, upon occasion, assassination operations. We also perform as reinforcements for the normal units if the need arises.” She then took a deep breath as she pondered how to answer his second question. She knew to the incident he was speaking about, there were few of the higher ranks who didn’t know what had happened on the New Dawn and his file had merely served as a way to fill in the facts that she didn’t already know. Years of training had enabled her to be able to read body language at a mere glance and signals she was getting from him said that he thought he had done something wrong with his actions on the New Dawn. “What happened on the New Dawn was a tragic incident in which many good people died; however, it was in no way your fault. You were doing your job and if you had left your post to help your fellow crew to end result would have been the same. The cores would have overloaded causing an explosion that would have killed everyone, including yourself, if you hadn’t been there.” She explained to him. “Now as to why I requested your transfer, your file speaks for itself. You are exceptionally skilled in your field and your accomplishments set you apart from the others. Anymore questions?”
 
He returned her smile, a somber smile forming on his lips. "I can't help but feel guilt ma'am, I lost more than a fair share of friends, and there were no survivors but myself." He knew she was trying to reassure him he did the right thing, but it was going to take more time for him to move on. "No, ma'am, no more questions, however, there are some things I'd like to bring to your attention, your servers are obsolete, and your firewalls to prevent the hacking of your mainframe are in the best of terms, a joke, seeing that error, I....may have taken an illegal liberty by making a test hack. It only took me 2.143 seconds to breach your security mainframe." he started, unintentionally showing the skills that got him here already. "I also have taken the liberty of writing a new firewall program that without arrogance in saying this would take a team of Vakirian hackers 3 months to breach, the problem is, the program is incompatible with your current server network, meaning the network would need to be replaced before my upgrades to your mainframe could be installed and activated. Your weaponry also lack basic efficiency modules, ie: thermal buffer channeling, barrel rifling and emission neutralizers as well as other safety and efficiency modifications, with all due respect ma'am, I will stick to using my own pistol when field duty arises." he finished, his voice sounding like an organic computer accented by the Vakirian tongue's use of English and their famous intellect. His eyes went wide and his eyebrows jumped slightly as he spoke again, "I almost forgot, a few of the science department I've seen here, their PT units are also outdated, the Duranda 8.3 is fine for civilians but for this unit I'd personally rather have the Marathon A223 alpha, I've made a list of upgrades and replacements that should improve overall performance of the unit by 34.89641% if you'd like me to transfer it to you, ma'am."
 
Fate blinked as she attempted to understand what Ark had just said. While she may have been smarter than the average person, what he had just said was far beyond her level of comprehension at the moment. After a few seconds she was able to get the gist of what he was saying. “Well then we will have to do something about that.” She then turned to the soldier who had gotten her earlier. “I need you to go to HQ and tell the budget department that we require updated equipment. If they refuse, tell them that they still owe us for that mission we did last month.” The soldier saluted before quickly leaving. The young Lieutenant turned back towards Ark. “If all goes well the new equipment should be here within a week and when it does I would like to perform the necessary set up along with anything else you will think is necessary.” She then grabbed a few pieces of paper from the folder she had just been handed by another member of the unit and gave them to Ark. “This is a map of the compound with the location of your room on it along with a basic schedule of the units basic actives when we do not have a mission to complete. The rest of the papers are merely standard forms that each new recruit must fill out after joining the HROC. You can turn them into my office once you have finished. Now if you will excuse me, I myself have some paperwork to finish. If you have any more questions you may stop by my office or ask another member of the unit. It was a pleasure meeting, now if you will excuse me.” She then turn around and headed back towards her office, silently hating her job because of all of the paperwork she had to fill out.
 
He nodded grabbing the packet, opening it to the map and immediately saluted, "Pleasure meeting you as well, ma'am, if I'm needed I'll be in my quarters, good day ma'am, sao kilani." he ended with a Vakirian phrase that literally translated to great hours, however to the Vakirians meant "walk in the shadows of the time keeper" with that he glanced at the map for only a moment as it was committed to memory. He moved with quickness as he meandered his way through the halls passing other soldiers ignoring their verbal hazing of the fresh meat before he entered his room, changing out of his heavily damaged combat armor that he still wore having only been days since the New Dawn incident, his transfer was quick.

He now wore simple fatigues, the shoes untouched as he preferred bare feet to having them stuffed in unnecessary footwear. Ark sat at a small desk picking up a pen as he started blazing through the paperwork, his eyes, mind and hand working at a speed known to genesians and Vakirians alone, genesians having the trait due to humans using the Vakirian DNA in combination with their own and others. In minutes, he had finished it, and set it to the side as he rearranged the room along with stuff from his personal effects, his own private terminal replacing the given one, diagnostic equipment, fabrication equipment, and a stereo. He then reviewed the map in his mind, immediately leaving his quarters headed toward the mess hall.
 
Fate slumped back in her chair as she took a deep breath. It had taken her awhile, but she had finally finished all of her paperwork for the day. She looked over at the clock that was on the wall to her right and noticed that it was nearly seven o’clock. Sighing, she stood up, grabbed her jacket that was resting on the back of her chair, and exited the room. After which she made her way to the mess hall, the occasional person saluting her as she walked by them. Upon reaching the mess hall, she quickly got her food and sat down at the table that sat further away from where the other where eating. She rarely had to worry about needing to find a table since the table she sat a currently was always empty, since the rest of the unit considered it to be her table and everyone else tended to avoid her for reasons she knew not, so she always ate alone. She quietly ate her dinner while mentally reviewing the mission requests that she had received that day. She was pulled from her thoughts as she noted that Ark had entered the mess hall, however, less than a second later she was once again reviewing the requests.
 
As he got his food, his vision caught the lieutenant, going over the requests he'd made and eating alone. Ark sat across from her, noticing a couple of the others staring at him, seemingly shocked that he sat with her. "Why do eat alone? Your men intimidated by you?" he asked before shoveling an odd looking chunk of a purplish brown meat into his mouth. Vakirian food had a weird color to it. "Ma'am I can't help but notice, you're a Genesian correct? Natural born or not? I see whichever you happen to be had a Vakirian gene cocktail spliced in. The hair kinda gives it away." It was clear he had no issue eating with Fate nor talking to her like a person instead of only a commanding officer, "So, what are the power cells like for this complex? You think they could handle the drain from the upgrades I requested?" another question, he seemed to be full of them.
 
Fate was brought out from her thoughts a seconded time as she Ark sat down in front of her. She blinked a few times, trying to get over the shock of someone actually sitting with her. Once she was finally got over her shock, she realized he had asked her a question. “To tell the truth, I do not know as to why anyone sits with me. Although when I think about it, it may have something to do with how I act on missions.” She paused for a moment to think this over. A few seconds later she shook her head and continued, “I’m actually an artificial Genesian. Since recruitment rates were far lower back then, the military decided to take the mater into their own hands and as a result I was born.” She explained. “As for your last question, the power cells are indeed capable of dealing with the upgrades we will be receiving. While our equipment may be out of date, they are not.” Fate took a bite of her food before asking the question that had been on her mind for a while, “May I ask as to why you are sitting here and not with the others?”
 
He smiled and nodded at her answers but tilted his head at her question, and thought for a moment, "You don't intimidate me, I suppose that's why your other subordinates won't sit with you. I'm sure in a fight you're a force to be afraid of, but that doesn't mean you should alone. Oh I got a message on my terminal about an induction mission? What's that mean?" he said a bit of confusion laced into his accented voice. He then stuck another chunk of the purplish meat with his fork and ate it, downing a bit of green fluid afterward.

(sorry for the short reply I be tired)
 
Fate smiled at his response to her question. “Well, the induction mission is something that each new recruit must complete. It normally encompasses the recruit having to perform a mock infiltration mission. The task one has to perform once the recruit has successfully infiltrated the area in which the mission is being performed depends on the skills of the recruit. Based on your file, your mission is most likely to infiltrate and obtain encrypted data while dodging security measures that have been put in place. That is all I can tell you though, the rest is classified.” She paused for a moment as she ate another bite of her food. “Any more questions that you would like to ask?”
 
Ark shook his head slowly, finishing off the last bit of meat before moving on to a weird assortment of green blue yellow even pink vegetables covered in a purple-blue sauce. "Oh! Erm, could I ask what happened to your last tech specialist? I heard she was killed in action but the details were lacking. You know unless that's a classified thing." He asked suddenly, tech specialists aren't known usually for their infantry capabilities, but they usually avoided death. "I also noticed some plasma scoring in and around my quarters, was this place attacked recently?"
 
Fate sighed loudly as she thought of what to say next. She should have known that he would have asked her or one of the other members some time. “The mission itself is classified; however, I can tell you the basics. Our last tech specialist, along with two other members of the unit, was sent on a mission to infiltrate and obtain information on a certain group that shall remain unsaid. Unfortunately though, the information we received was false, which resulted in her death along with deaths of her team mates. As for the scorch marks around your room, well that is an interesting story.” She said, giving a small sigh as she remembered the incident. “One of the newer members, and the previous occupant of your room, thought it would be fun to fiddle around with one of the plasma rifles, though we still do not know as to why he was doing so. The resulting explosion resulted in him having to go to the medical wing and after that he was removed from the unit, which is why you now have his room. Does that answer your questions?"
 
He nodded with a somber look on his face, "I'm sorry to hear about your tech team. Plasma rifle modification is extremely difficult, and even the most experienced still sometimes get blown up." he shivered a bit his hand running over a faint scar over his shoulder, apple rearing to be a burned slash mark. Finishing his food, he stood up and saluted, "I err...I better get showered and get some rest, the message said I was scheduled to report to your VR deck in the Morning, thank you....for putting up with my near constant inquisition. Good evening lieutenant." with that he took his tray and put it on a collecting cart before exiting the mess hall, recalling an area marked "Smoking Area" on the map as he returned to his quarters, grabbing a lighter and a pack of cigarettes along with a towel. Again he exited his quarters ignoring the other soldiers as they again taunted him as being fresh meat. Soon enough he reached the smoking area a glass room over looking a massive planet, he wasn't sure what planet or even what system he was in now, secrecy...

He quietly lit up a cigarette and took a long drag blowing out a puff of smoke and he sat there repeating this action as he finished his cigarette, throwing the butt into a hole in the only metal side that said "please dump your butts here." He exited now heading towards the showers, dreading having to see the scars he gained, dreading the memories they brought with them as he stepped into a stall pulling off his fatigues revealing a canvas detailing the art of war.
 
Fate nodded her head as the newest member of her unit left the mess hall. Quietly she stood up and followed his example before heading towards her room. Unlike the rest of her team she had to get up much earlier due to her rank and the work that came with it. She quickly made it to her room where she proceeded to change into her night wear, set her alarm, and then get into bed.

She woke up at five o’clock, groggily searching for her alarm clock. Finding it, she slammed her hand down, which promptly shut it up. Groaning, she slowly got up, grabbed her training cloths from her closet, changed, and then began to make her way to the training room since mornings were the only time she had the chance to train. Upon arriving she headed towards her weapons locker. From there she grabbed her katana and began running through her forms. While she did so, she mentally planed out which members of her unit she would be assigning to perform missions that day. She paused every once and awhile as a few others entered the room as well, but quickly resumed afterwards, ignoring the fact that they all seemed to stay as far away from her as possible.
 
5:30am, and his eyes shot open, Ark got out of bed quickly and grabbed his training fatigues and his hand cannon pistol. After getting dresses he grabbed an extra thermal sink clip and headed down to the training room, he needed to prepare for his induction mission today. Upon entering he saw the lieutenant practicing with a sword as he loaded his pistol and headed further into the room a firing range in front of him. "You're pretty good with that thing." he said, setting his sights right before pushing the start button letting targets appear which he quickly shot, putting a round through the core and head areas of each one as they popped up. It seemed like child's play to him to see him cut through the targets like a hot knife through butter.

He took another round of targets down before putting his pistol down to move to a combat dummy, setting it to hand to hand mode. He then preceded to take his stance, a strange stance that looked uncomfortable, twisted and contorted in the legs as he spun around into a quick yet powerful kick that sent the dummy flying into the wall behind it. As the dummy recovered and got closer again, Ark flipped backwards onto his hands and spun again allowing his legs to dip down and then round their ways up into a double kick that crashed the dummy into the ceiling, taking the dummy's recovery and third advance into a quick flurry of torsion punches and a flipping knee stomp, deactivating the dummy. " I really thought it could handle more than that."
 
Fate raised her eyebrow at the sight she had just witnessed out of the corner of her eye. Sheathing her sword, she made her way towards her newest recruit. “It would appear, unlike our previous tech analysts, you can actually handle yourself in a fight. Every one of the previous analysts that have been placed into my unit was barely able to reload their gun properly. It is very pleasant to have one that can take care of their self in a fight.” She said with a small smile on her face. “I’m also glad to see that you have taken the initiative to train, unlike some of the others who seem to avoid it. Anyways, if you will excuse me, I must go change. I’ll meet you at the VR deck when you are done training.” She then left the room.

Half-an-hour later, after showering and changing into her uniform, she stood in the control room of the VR deck, going through possible simulation missions for Ark. Finding the one that fit the information from his file, she leaned back in the chair she was sitting and waited for him to arrive.
 
Ark smiled at her words, picking up his pistol, "I had to learn to fight, martial arts are standard training for Vakirians where I grew up, and using the pistol comes almost like second nature now. I also like to keep my skills honed, never know when you'll need them." he said right before the lieutenant excused herself and walked out. He walked back to his quarters and slipped on his armor, even though it had been badly damaged, it still functioned somewhat, and took a break in the smoking room before meeting Fate at the VR Deck.

"I'm ready ma'am, is this going to be a solo exercise or team exercise?" He asked, loading the thermal clip into his hand cannon, the helmet of his armor sliding out and morphing, conforming to the shape of his head and solidifying though a few sparks fluttered from the armored suit where the plating was fractured.
 
“For this exercise it will be a solo mission. I’ll probably have you perform in another exercise next week that will involve you working with a team; however, I wish to see how well you perform on your own.” Fate replied. “The basics of your mission are to make your way through the course while avoiding a variety of obstacles and to retrieve encrypted data from a terminal; however, there are a multitude of them throughout the course so finding the correct terminal will be rather difficult. You also only have twenty minutes to complete the mission.” She paused a moment to press a button on the console next to her. “I’ve sent a more detailed mission briefing to your suit to view once the mission has started. Now proceed to the VR chamber so that we can begin.”