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Hey, got a new part in. After some emotional difficulties and graduating school, I'm somewhat back in action with writing, and hopefully I'll pump out more in the near future.
Time lost meaning as the words sunk into my cracked mind.
"Or you could be put to sleep then quickly shot in the head..."
Never believe someone when they say they which choice they would choose in a situation similar to this. The true answer only comes when they face it. And I had to make my choice. Getting myself into some kind of servitude, or a quick, clean, and painless death. No one knows how they really will react.
The other man sighed. "I'll put it plain, kid. It's not the easiest decision. It may not look it, but we do good work here. We keep people safe from nasty things that aren't human. You've seen it yourself. Such beings aren't merciful. They'll rip you a new one if you so much as look the other way. We make sure the population never has to deal with them. It's our job and livelihood."
He stopped mid thought, his eyes drifting toward mine. I was blind to his face and words though, with a single scene playing through my mind, on an endless loop.
Her blood spurting out such a rich and deep crimson, the green eye's looking at me with such sorrow. Beady reddened eyes glared from behind her head, staring at both of us with such anger. Only one thing crossed my mind.
"I lost everything I had built again..."
I pulled my head up from where it was hanging, and looked at the older man across from me with as much conviction as I could muster. "I'll join."
He glanced at me with a curious look. "Are you sure? This isn't something to be-"
"If you keep talking I might change my mind. Please." I put my head on the table, curling my arms in front of it as my forehead absorbed the coolness of the metal.
I couldn't see the man, nor hear him as quiet as he was. I didn't want to see him anyway. I fought to keep my mind blank as I waited for the man to make his move, not wanted to suddenly lose the burst of idiocy that came over me.
"Finally, he sighed and stood up, scooting his chair noisily back as he did so. "If it's what you want. Come with me, might as well see if you'll be useful." The man didn't even wait for me to get up before he was at the hidden door, with my scrambling behind in an effort to catch up.
As the door slid open and we passed through it, I took immediate stock of the relaxing slightly when it turned up to be a standard looking military hallway, concrete with metal bracing periodically along the walls. I stepped out of the hidden doorway quickly, the side of the door on this side printed with large letters 'DANGER: LETHAL LEVEL DETAINEE INTERROGATION'.
It must have been obvious what was on my mind then, because the aged man said, "Being able to take down an imp without training in cqc, and having no recorded past makes you a high threat to us. We still have no idea what you are capable of. So even now you are to be under strict and unrelenting watch at all times."
The comment made me glance about the hallway as we passed a t junction, although I couldn't make out anything that would be considered a camera. Likely it was hidden so no one could tell. The man seemed to ignore my glancing about, continuing on his talk turned speech to me, "We're an organization known as DARS, or Demonic Assault Recon Squadron. The officially released name is Dynamic instead of demonic. Keeps the citizens oblivious to us. We divide up into four mean teams that are known as DARTs. Of course we use the basic organization of alpha, bravo, charlie, delta, all the way down to omega. The system officially says that alpha is the best team and omega is the worst, but in reality alpha is just full of pedigree slayers. Omega, my own team, gets all the down and dirty jobs that are actually difficult."
We passed a hall with doors lining the walls, each with the alpha through omega designation, the man slowing his pace a little bit. "This is the barracks here, you'd get chocked into one of these eventually. Until then you'd be just sleeping where there is a vacancy. However, we do need to test you on some things, so our next destination is the firing range. See if you are good or just good with reflexes." He bustled away a bit faster, with me matching pace moments after.
After going through a double door, I was greeted by a sight when the harsh light stopped blinding me. A large dirt field stood in front of me, with high, concrete walls surrounding it. There was a sunken metal and concrete building on the far side, with several varying vehicles around the dip toward it. In the corner next to it was a slightly surprising sight, a small nuclear smokestack, although much smaller than the ones you would normally see, it was still unmistakable. Sitting between those though were was a firing range, targets lined up near the wall, firing lines set up along trench work and open ground. The man set his brisk walk toward the range, but I couldn't help but ask a question.
"Is that-"
"Yes, it is an actual nuclear reactor, if a bit miniaturized." he said, responding before I could even ask, dust puffing up from the dry ground beneath our feet as we walked. "It keeps our power completely independent of other sources, so we don't need to rely on them, along with keeping us from being affected by a sabotage of power lines. Other than food and water we are self sufficient."
He stopped talking we got closer to the field, several men already on the line and practicing with a wide variety of rifles, machineguns, or sniper rifles. The man walked me over to the area, through the dusty ground and sparse, needle like tufts of grass growing about. He walked me over to one of the left most firing bunkers, which already had two occupants.
One of them was a somewhat bulky man, shoulders wide, with a good sixed head placed between them, a deep chestnut hair topping his olive skin, the figure giving a bit of an intimidating feel. The other was the exact opposite, I bit lean and lanky, although anyone could see he was well toned and trained, even with his paled face, the dirty blonde of his cropped hair seeming to match well with it. They both snapped to attention when they noticed the man who was leading me approaching.
"I thought I told you two to stuff it with formalities when no one official is around," the man said, passing between the two and cuffing each on the head, "this isn't some official I'm dragging about, it's someone who got recruited."
The paler one gave me a long look over, his eyes seeming to be doing some kind of x-ray scan as they browsed over me, making me mentally shiver.
"So what is he here for then, Kariskin?" The burlier of the bunch asked, noting that the man who brought me here reacted to that name as he started pulling out various rifles from a gun cabinet.
"Well he has a little bit of selective amnesia, so I want to run him through everything to see what he can use. He needs a total combat eval. And if you really want to, yes you can do a physical, AFTER we see if he can shoot, Darus."
The lighter skinned guy snickered, getting Darus' glare set on him, although it didn't stop him from doing so. I didn't get any other time to read into the characters as I was waved over by Kariskin.
He hefted up a rifle to offer it, my mind racing over its self as I grabbed hold of it. "Now this is an-"
"AR-21, single action standard issue military rifle, effective up to 400 meters, and uses the standard NATO 7.62 round, allowing for it's well earned lethal punch." I said almost mechanically, surprising even myself when I finished. Kariskin just cocked an eyebrow, motioning for me to fire at the range. I settled down at the firing wall, and shouldered the rifle.
I automatically set my eyes down range, moved the rifle up ever so slightly, and fired within a second of laying down. second shot followed a split second alter, then a third, fourth, fifth. My finger ran on auto, pulling the trigger when my arms absorbed the recoil from the rifle, a dozen more shots firing off before my finger didn't pull the trigger again.
I snapped out of the reverie, and looked properly at the target, or in this case, what was left of it. The middle and what seemed to be an area of one or two inches around it was shredded with holes. No one seemed to speak for a minute, the shock of such accuracy from a range evident from the lack of any nearby sound. I broke the silence by shifting, getting up off my back and into a crouch, putting the gun to the side.
"Down."
I turned my head to see Kariskin staring solemnly at me, his eyes drilling into my skull with some kind of feral ferocity. I immediately responded, not wanting to incur his wrath, as terrible as I could imagine it to me. I head some shifting around, wondering what was going on until an alien looking rifle was set down in front of me. It's manufacture wasn't really clear, having a more curved and sloping angles, drastically unlike normal angular and efficient UCS manufacture. I looked over the oddly familiar looking structure, the extremely long design, the end being somewhat open with two bars held in with three points along the frame, the slight hmm coming from bars making me believe it would be wise to not touch those. The closer end was a bit more rifle like, slightly angled like the standard, making me think it may be repurposed hardware. I poked at the odd dual clip, one in front and one in a bull-pup, the whole thing itching the back of my mind.
"Fire it." Came a gruff voice to break the odd nostalgic feeling.
I put the butt to my shoulder, and took the grip into my hand, resting my finger in the trigger. I took a deep breath, in, out. In, out. In...
"Keep that straight! God damn you're the most useless kid I've met."
I cringed, and instinctively gripped the rifle steady with my other hand, as if it knew exactly where to hold it.
Now, turn that switch on to power it up, unless you want it to fire like you, not at all."
I flipped a hidden switch near my forward hand, the hum coming front the rifle growing louder with a few crackles.
"Now remember to load the pellet in, or it'll be a dry fire."
I pulled back on a small bolt, and a distantly faded memory registered that a pellet was loaded into the chamber.
"Now aim the rifle, just do it PERFECTLY straight at your target, there's no drop so even you can't miss it."
I leveled the gun out, at the most distant target, what seemed to be a small-ish speck way back over the dusty ground.
"now hit that other switch near your hand, to charge the shot. That's it, least you're getting it."
I flipped another switch, and the hum increased in pitch, the cracking seeming to permeate the air as it built up.
"Now... fire."
My finger pulled the trigger, and nothing happened for a split second. Then a sudden crack, louder than any lightning emitted from the rifle as a streak of electrified air cracked out from the barrel, a small explosion coming from far downrange as a massive dust could puffed it's self into existence instantly.
"God dammit boy, you know better than to miss!"
I cringed reflexively, curling into a ball in the dirt.
"You know what happens when you do such a thing."
My eyes welled up with tears, feeling imagined heavy hands gripping me. "No, no... I didn't mean to. I didn't mean to miss, let me go please..."
The shouts and yelling in my ear from the real world has no effect, I was locked in a nightmare I didn't even know. I felt my shaking form be placed on something soft, and be carried away, but only after I caught a glimpse through the dust cloud, nearly crystal clear.
The target had been hit dead center, or what was left of it in the three foot wide line left my the impacting shot, reaching all the way to the wall, even making a large, cracked dent in it.
ALso sorry for a little confusion, FA doesn't properly do italics so some of this might be a bit... off. I love using italics for mental dialog, so if you want to be unconfused best to download it.
Time lost meaning as the words sunk into my cracked mind.
"Or you could be put to sleep then quickly shot in the head..."
Never believe someone when they say they which choice they would choose in a situation similar to this. The true answer only comes when they face it. And I had to make my choice. Getting myself into some kind of servitude, or a quick, clean, and painless death. No one knows how they really will react.
The other man sighed. "I'll put it plain, kid. It's not the easiest decision. It may not look it, but we do good work here. We keep people safe from nasty things that aren't human. You've seen it yourself. Such beings aren't merciful. They'll rip you a new one if you so much as look the other way. We make sure the population never has to deal with them. It's our job and livelihood."
He stopped mid thought, his eyes drifting toward mine. I was blind to his face and words though, with a single scene playing through my mind, on an endless loop.
Her blood spurting out such a rich and deep crimson, the green eye's looking at me with such sorrow. Beady reddened eyes glared from behind her head, staring at both of us with such anger. Only one thing crossed my mind.
"I lost everything I had built again..."
I pulled my head up from where it was hanging, and looked at the older man across from me with as much conviction as I could muster. "I'll join."
He glanced at me with a curious look. "Are you sure? This isn't something to be-"
"If you keep talking I might change my mind. Please." I put my head on the table, curling my arms in front of it as my forehead absorbed the coolness of the metal.
I couldn't see the man, nor hear him as quiet as he was. I didn't want to see him anyway. I fought to keep my mind blank as I waited for the man to make his move, not wanted to suddenly lose the burst of idiocy that came over me.
"Finally, he sighed and stood up, scooting his chair noisily back as he did so. "If it's what you want. Come with me, might as well see if you'll be useful." The man didn't even wait for me to get up before he was at the hidden door, with my scrambling behind in an effort to catch up.
As the door slid open and we passed through it, I took immediate stock of the relaxing slightly when it turned up to be a standard looking military hallway, concrete with metal bracing periodically along the walls. I stepped out of the hidden doorway quickly, the side of the door on this side printed with large letters 'DANGER: LETHAL LEVEL DETAINEE INTERROGATION'.
It must have been obvious what was on my mind then, because the aged man said, "Being able to take down an imp without training in cqc, and having no recorded past makes you a high threat to us. We still have no idea what you are capable of. So even now you are to be under strict and unrelenting watch at all times."
The comment made me glance about the hallway as we passed a t junction, although I couldn't make out anything that would be considered a camera. Likely it was hidden so no one could tell. The man seemed to ignore my glancing about, continuing on his talk turned speech to me, "We're an organization known as DARS, or Demonic Assault Recon Squadron. The officially released name is Dynamic instead of demonic. Keeps the citizens oblivious to us. We divide up into four mean teams that are known as DARTs. Of course we use the basic organization of alpha, bravo, charlie, delta, all the way down to omega. The system officially says that alpha is the best team and omega is the worst, but in reality alpha is just full of pedigree slayers. Omega, my own team, gets all the down and dirty jobs that are actually difficult."
We passed a hall with doors lining the walls, each with the alpha through omega designation, the man slowing his pace a little bit. "This is the barracks here, you'd get chocked into one of these eventually. Until then you'd be just sleeping where there is a vacancy. However, we do need to test you on some things, so our next destination is the firing range. See if you are good or just good with reflexes." He bustled away a bit faster, with me matching pace moments after.
After going through a double door, I was greeted by a sight when the harsh light stopped blinding me. A large dirt field stood in front of me, with high, concrete walls surrounding it. There was a sunken metal and concrete building on the far side, with several varying vehicles around the dip toward it. In the corner next to it was a slightly surprising sight, a small nuclear smokestack, although much smaller than the ones you would normally see, it was still unmistakable. Sitting between those though were was a firing range, targets lined up near the wall, firing lines set up along trench work and open ground. The man set his brisk walk toward the range, but I couldn't help but ask a question.
"Is that-"
"Yes, it is an actual nuclear reactor, if a bit miniaturized." he said, responding before I could even ask, dust puffing up from the dry ground beneath our feet as we walked. "It keeps our power completely independent of other sources, so we don't need to rely on them, along with keeping us from being affected by a sabotage of power lines. Other than food and water we are self sufficient."
He stopped talking we got closer to the field, several men already on the line and practicing with a wide variety of rifles, machineguns, or sniper rifles. The man walked me over to the area, through the dusty ground and sparse, needle like tufts of grass growing about. He walked me over to one of the left most firing bunkers, which already had two occupants.
One of them was a somewhat bulky man, shoulders wide, with a good sixed head placed between them, a deep chestnut hair topping his olive skin, the figure giving a bit of an intimidating feel. The other was the exact opposite, I bit lean and lanky, although anyone could see he was well toned and trained, even with his paled face, the dirty blonde of his cropped hair seeming to match well with it. They both snapped to attention when they noticed the man who was leading me approaching.
"I thought I told you two to stuff it with formalities when no one official is around," the man said, passing between the two and cuffing each on the head, "this isn't some official I'm dragging about, it's someone who got recruited."
The paler one gave me a long look over, his eyes seeming to be doing some kind of x-ray scan as they browsed over me, making me mentally shiver.
"So what is he here for then, Kariskin?" The burlier of the bunch asked, noting that the man who brought me here reacted to that name as he started pulling out various rifles from a gun cabinet.
"Well he has a little bit of selective amnesia, so I want to run him through everything to see what he can use. He needs a total combat eval. And if you really want to, yes you can do a physical, AFTER we see if he can shoot, Darus."
The lighter skinned guy snickered, getting Darus' glare set on him, although it didn't stop him from doing so. I didn't get any other time to read into the characters as I was waved over by Kariskin.
He hefted up a rifle to offer it, my mind racing over its self as I grabbed hold of it. "Now this is an-"
"AR-21, single action standard issue military rifle, effective up to 400 meters, and uses the standard NATO 7.62 round, allowing for it's well earned lethal punch." I said almost mechanically, surprising even myself when I finished. Kariskin just cocked an eyebrow, motioning for me to fire at the range. I settled down at the firing wall, and shouldered the rifle.
I automatically set my eyes down range, moved the rifle up ever so slightly, and fired within a second of laying down. second shot followed a split second alter, then a third, fourth, fifth. My finger ran on auto, pulling the trigger when my arms absorbed the recoil from the rifle, a dozen more shots firing off before my finger didn't pull the trigger again.
I snapped out of the reverie, and looked properly at the target, or in this case, what was left of it. The middle and what seemed to be an area of one or two inches around it was shredded with holes. No one seemed to speak for a minute, the shock of such accuracy from a range evident from the lack of any nearby sound. I broke the silence by shifting, getting up off my back and into a crouch, putting the gun to the side.
"Down."
I turned my head to see Kariskin staring solemnly at me, his eyes drilling into my skull with some kind of feral ferocity. I immediately responded, not wanting to incur his wrath, as terrible as I could imagine it to me. I head some shifting around, wondering what was going on until an alien looking rifle was set down in front of me. It's manufacture wasn't really clear, having a more curved and sloping angles, drastically unlike normal angular and efficient UCS manufacture. I looked over the oddly familiar looking structure, the extremely long design, the end being somewhat open with two bars held in with three points along the frame, the slight hmm coming from bars making me believe it would be wise to not touch those. The closer end was a bit more rifle like, slightly angled like the standard, making me think it may be repurposed hardware. I poked at the odd dual clip, one in front and one in a bull-pup, the whole thing itching the back of my mind.
"Fire it." Came a gruff voice to break the odd nostalgic feeling.
I put the butt to my shoulder, and took the grip into my hand, resting my finger in the trigger. I took a deep breath, in, out. In, out. In...
"Keep that straight! God damn you're the most useless kid I've met."
I cringed, and instinctively gripped the rifle steady with my other hand, as if it knew exactly where to hold it.
Now, turn that switch on to power it up, unless you want it to fire like you, not at all."
I flipped a hidden switch near my forward hand, the hum coming front the rifle growing louder with a few crackles.
"Now remember to load the pellet in, or it'll be a dry fire."
I pulled back on a small bolt, and a distantly faded memory registered that a pellet was loaded into the chamber.
"Now aim the rifle, just do it PERFECTLY straight at your target, there's no drop so even you can't miss it."
I leveled the gun out, at the most distant target, what seemed to be a small-ish speck way back over the dusty ground.
"now hit that other switch near your hand, to charge the shot. That's it, least you're getting it."
I flipped another switch, and the hum increased in pitch, the cracking seeming to permeate the air as it built up.
"Now... fire."
My finger pulled the trigger, and nothing happened for a split second. Then a sudden crack, louder than any lightning emitted from the rifle as a streak of electrified air cracked out from the barrel, a small explosion coming from far downrange as a massive dust could puffed it's self into existence instantly.
"God dammit boy, you know better than to miss!"
I cringed reflexively, curling into a ball in the dirt.
"You know what happens when you do such a thing."
My eyes welled up with tears, feeling imagined heavy hands gripping me. "No, no... I didn't mean to. I didn't mean to miss, let me go please..."
The shouts and yelling in my ear from the real world has no effect, I was locked in a nightmare I didn't even know. I felt my shaking form be placed on something soft, and be carried away, but only after I caught a glimpse through the dust cloud, nearly crystal clear.
The target had been hit dead center, or what was left of it in the three foot wide line left my the impacting shot, reaching all the way to the wall, even making a large, cracked dent in it.
ALso sorry for a little confusion, FA doesn't properly do italics so some of this might be a bit... off. I love using italics for mental dialog, so if you want to be unconfused best to download it.
Category Story / All
Species Unspecified / Any
Size 50 x 50px
File Size 17.6 kB
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