NationStates Jolt Archive

The bar was rotten, sludge dripped from every corner of the building, health inspectors had obviously never visited this forsaken place. A neon light, broken of course, flashed outside the entrance. The crowd didn't look like the type to care about any of this. Burly men filled this bar, truckers, thugs, bounty hunters, you know the sort. Various pistols adroned these men. Only a single woman was on the premises. She was young, looked to be about twenty seven. A pretty face with two mismatched eyes adorned with silver hair on her head. One eye was silver, the other green. A look of gloom and contempt covered her face, an unpleasant camper in this world of death, destruction, dismay, and pain.

The men of the bar usually would have already hauled any female and scarred her life. Attempts at talking to this one had resulted in pain. The last guy to talk to her was still laying on the floor, his arm broken in three different places, and his face a bloody pulp. He was a large man, 300+ lbs, and he had nearly been killed by a 120 lbs woman. She had grabbed the arm that had rested on her shoulder and pulled, cracked it into the bar twice. Her other hand gripped the man by the back of his head and slammed it into her whiskey glass, which rested on the bar. The man screamed as glass stuck into his face, but conciousness was short lived. His fall from the bar had broke his arm once more. After that spectacle it became apparent that this woman was far more dangerous then her outward appearance let off.

She threw some money at the bartender, and stood up. The door was her destination, but people were mad that their buddy had been damaged. Four men were determined to make sure she paid for her crimes. None were as large as the initial man, but they were still not small men. They surrounded her, and she could only let out a little smile. They carried improvised weapons, beer bottles, table legs, the sort. The first made his move, and she closed her eyes. Another moved at almost the exact same time. The first was pushed aside, his own strength his weakness. The third swung his piece of wood. The second man was nearly in contact with her when she grabbed his arm, pulling him into her fist. She came in perfect contact with the center of his chest. The man coughed up some blood, and fell into a heap on the floor. The piece of wood nearly caught her in the face as she leaned away from it. However, the beer bottle landed square on her face, shattering. Glass fell to the floor and stuck in her face at the same time. A laugh escaped her lips as her palm shot up and hit the fourth mans nose, shattering parts of his skull. Blood streamed down her face, and a manical smile was all that her face said, her eyes still closed. Her hand darted to her shoulder, and now a knife lay sticking out of the number one mans forehead. She charged the man with the table leg. She grabbed the stick, wretched it out of his hands, and pressed it into his throat. Blood sprayed the nearer patrons, and a puddle of blood grows below the man. She pulled the knife out of the mans head, and continued on her way out of the bar.

Once out of the bar she never looked back, not fearing anything that would be thrown at her. The station would be just fine, even though it wasn't in any better shape than the bar. This station was nothing more than a truck stop to her final destination. She made her way back to her ship, changing out of her civilian clothes and into her suit. No stops between here and there meant it was time to get ready, even though she would be put into deep sleep while the ship traveled. The finishing touches were made on her battlesuit (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v650/deathwitharifle/Battlesuit.jpg). The helmet was affixed on her head, along with the mask, a full face mask with a gas mask and voice changer. She could walk back into the bar and not be recognized by a soul. She set her ship up to it's destination, and placed her weapons right next to her pod before stepping in.

With the final step, the dreams started.....

((OOC: Open to comments. I actually kinda want to know if people are reading this, and if they are then what they think.))

"LIGHTS LIGHTS LIGHTS!!!!" Screamed the ever familiar voice of Monroe 483.

The little girl was out of her rack and her feet were on the floor standing at attention before he even finished the last word. She was not more than five with two green eyes and silver hair. She stood in this line, she dared not disobey the loud man, or his underlings. He crossed her line of vision, and she dare not blink, not even breath. Monroe was a large muscle bound man, and he dwarfed the little girl as she stood motionless. He stopped, and turned to her. He bent over, and examined the girls face.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT," He screamed at her.

"Sir, I don't know, sir," yelled the little girl as loud as she could.

His fist became planted in her stomach, an audible crack could be heard as one of her ribs broke.

"I CAN'T HEAR YOU!"

She paused and tried to reply once more, she couldn't. She started gasping for air, and bent over a little. Suddenly his attention was averted to a child who had started crying. "I'll come back to you," he snarled as he ran over to the boy who was crying.

"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU CRYING ABOUT YOU LITTLE SHIT!" He screamed, getting right in the boys face. This caused the child to erupt into an even worse fit of crying. "I'LL GIVE YOU SOMETHING TO CRY ABOUT YOU LITTLE BITCH," he screamed as he picked up the childs footlocker. The metal box had all the boys worldly possesions, a razor to keep his head shaved, a second sweatsuit, a towel, toothbrush and toothpaste, boots, two more toothbrushes, and some soap. Monroe hit the child in the head with the box before throwing against the wall behind him, effectivly scattering everthing the child owned everywhere. The child fell to the floor bleeding from the head.

"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING YOU LITTLE PIECE OF SHIT, BLEEDING ON MY GODDAMNED FLOOR! GET YOUR SCRAWNEY ASS UP OFF OF MY FLOOR AND PICK THIS SHIT UP AND CLEAN MY GODDAMNED FLOOR!" He screamed at the child again, and the child shot up to attention again, still sniffling. After Monroe finished his screaming bout he went back to the girl, who had corrected her mistake, and was back at attention. Monroe moved on as the boy hurredly pick his stuff up again, and shoved it in his foot locker.

"OK YOU LITTLE FAGGOTS, I WANT EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU TO GRAB YOUR FOOT LOCKERS. We're going on a little run."

Each and every child picked their foot locker up and followed Monroe. The pace he set was cruel, it was at least seven miles an hour. Every so often he would smack one upside the head, it was their cue to start running laps around the formation until he chose a new one to do the torturous event. They ran for three hours, somewhere close to twenty one miles, and it wasn't even six in the morning. They stepped back into the the bay where they had slept.

"YOU LITTLE SHITS HAVE TWO GODDAMNED MINUTES TO SHOWER SO YOU LITTLE FUCKERS CAN EAT. IF ANY OF YOU COME TO THE CHOW HALL UNSHOWERED YOU WILL NOT EAT ALL DAY!"

The sounds of little feet stomping filled the hall as they all dropped their lockers at the foot of their bed. Each and every one of them had almost already stripped to nothing, grabbed a towel and soap and ran for the showers. They showered as quickly as possible, each of them sharing a shower with four of five other students. Monroe stood at the head of the bay and was counting down in thrity second increments. All of the sweat suits they wore previously were placed in a pile as they ran back to their rack to change into the uniform of black military utility uniforms, that were hanging in the upright lockers by their rack.

Monroe hit two minutes and all but one of the students was showered and ready. This time it was a little girl, she had short red hair that was still wet.

Monroe ran over and started screaming at her.

"WHY THE FUCK AREN'T YOU READY?" He screamed at her, She was wearing the black trousers and the white undershirt, but was lacking her black blouse. She cowered a little resulting in him picking her up by the neck with one hand.

"DO I MAKE YOU NERVOUS?"

She couldn't respond, hell, she couldn't even breath. He threw her to the ground, hitting her head on the corner of her rack.

The white haired girl was this girls rackmate, and couldn't help but see the beating this girl was recieving. Still she didn't dare flinch, for fear that the same would happen to her. Suddenly it hit her, she was the only student in this class with a name tag on her uniform. At this time she didn't understand the signifigance of her name. She would barely even have to think about the name Nickel Seven for another four years, when she graduated from this hell called school.

Nickel had graduated the top of her class. After graduating primary school, she spent another four years in an in depth school, one that would improve on the training she had already acquired. This secondary school would be less grueling and fear driven, and much more driven on instilling neccesary knowledge into soldiers. All the soldiers had already acquired the discipline to exceed in the past six years of school. She would be thirteen when she was ready for combat. At thirteen she showed great promise on the battle field, even against vetran troops. At sixteen she was entrusted with highly important tasks, and leading soldiers on highly sensative operations.

At this tender age, she had already killed hundereds of people. She was cold and methodical, mapping out hundereds of possible actions by possible threats. At this age, the green eyed girl would have her first meeting with failure.

The night was cold and windy, there was a slight snow cover on the ground. Regardless there was no moon out. The four man squad moved cautiously through the snow, making sure to cover their tracks completly. The building was a stone's throw away.

"Commence operation. Remember, meet at the location of the target," Nickel said in a hushed voice.

The three responses she got were nothing more than nods.

She watched the men go their seperate ways. Before making her way to the wall of the building. She scaled the rock surface with ease, she had packed light amounts of equipment, making it easier to climb the wall. She quickly reached the third floor, and entered the targets room through the window. She unlocked the door, and in came her three comrades, all of them undetected.

"Two of you, drug him, and take him out the window, making high hell to the extraction point, the other one and I have unfinished business here."

Once again she recieved three nods. Two of them did as she said, the other followed her out the door. They hadn't even gotten twenty feet away from the door, and the alarms started screaming. One of the soldiers kidnapping the man had accidently triggered an alarm.

The hall filled with men who much more heavily armed then her. She had only packed a pistol and one extra clip. The hallway filled with the sounds of gunfire as she ducked into another room. The soldier following her had almost made it into the room, but took three shots. He stumbled a little, and fell over a railing. The soldier fell two stories before breaking his neck on the ground below. She could see his brains starting to ooze out on the marble below. She looked to either side only to see she was on a small balcony. The hall was not an option, and falling that far would injure her too much. She looked over the edge, to see a second balcony below her, she jumped onto it.

Her pistol was out the second she landed, and she heard the sounds of footsteps on the balcony abover her. She darted into the door that would lead into a hall. She took a shot right in the leg after she exited inot the hallway. A three round burst and the offender was lying in a puddle of his own blood. This was a bad thing, for a little bit at least she would leave a trail of blood. She went into the room across the hall, only to watch one of her fellow soldiers fall along the window. After his body was past, a trail of blood could be seen on the window from where his body dragged against it. She would make fort in here for a minute while her wound healed.

As she sat there a man burst through the door, only to be met with three bullets. The hall was sprayed with his blood. She clanced at her leg. It was healed enough to stop bleeding. Internal damage would take longer, but waiting another five minutes was not an option. She exited the room, and was met with a wall of bullets. Pure luck brought her through that with only one bullet lodging itself in her stomach. She leveled her pistol, and pulled the trigger three times, releasing nine bullets. Three more dead bodies lay on the ground. She sprinted for where the stairs should be, glad to find the plans she had found were accurate. The stairs caused her to exit into the great hall where her comrades dead body lay. She made a break for the main exit, but was floored as a rather large caliber bullet slammed into her shoulder, right below the joint. She layed on her back as eight men surrounded her, her pistol was kicked too far away to reach.

She wrapped her legs around the nearest one, then twisted her body, bringing the man face first into the ground. She was up in a flash, and her fingers jabbed the next man in the throat, collapsing his trachea.

The bullet had ripped a huge hole in her shirt, and as she brushed against the next man, the blood was wiped away, revealing the external wound was no more. She wrapped her arm around his neck, putting him in a blood choke. The next eight seconds the felt incredible pain in his head as the blood stopped flowing in his brain. After eight seconds he would become unconcious, after twleve he would die.

While she held this man, her free arm fishhooked the next closest man, throwing him to the ground. The first man she brought down was now getting up, a kick to the face and he sprawled backwards again, his face now nothing more than a bloody pulp. Mr. Fishhook made a grab for her leg, and she pivoted, throwing the man she held to the ground with her knee in his back, effectivly breaking it. It's a pity he didn't last the eight seconds to become unconcious. With all fours on the ground, she donkey kicked another man, knocking him back a bit. Her knees came back to the ground, and she moved so that she was turned over onto her back, bringing her foot down on the man who had much less of a face then when this ordeal started. This cracked his skull into the marble once more, breaking it.

She did the same flip, this time stopping halfway, and pushing herself onto her feet. Two had made a rush for her this time. She pecked one of them with her fingers, taking his eye out of it's socket. The other recieved a trachea shot at the same time. They both fell to the ground. The seventh man was already on top of her, she quickly wrapped her leg around his, and brought him to the ground, her on top of him. She pressed hard on his skull as she brought him down, right into the marble. A loud crack echoed off of the walls of the large entrance hall.

The man she fishhooked had gotten up, and was now standing over her, about to attack. He was met with a fist in the solar plexus, he would have trouble breathing for a few minutes now, especially with the ever so deadly trachea shot that followed.

The man who she had donkey kicked had just lost his eye, he was in a panic, crawling around on the floor, trying to find his precious lost organ. She jumped, and brought a knee down straight on his back, yielding a loud crunching sound.

The final man was not going to mess around, he was already swiping at her with a knife as she recovered from her previous attack. He got her right across the face, and destroyed her eye. She couldn't win this fight now. She had already been drained of alot of her energy by regenerating those serious wounds from before. The loss of one of her eyes was never going to heal. She brushed off of this man, landing herself between her attacker and the exit. She ran for it. She made it outside, where speed was her only friend. She glanced back at the window she had used to entered the building. She saw the third member of her squad hanging by the rope he was going to use to rappel down the wall. His foot had gotten wrapped around the rope, slamming his head into the outside wall.

She ran for about a mile, before she found a cave. She ran to the entrance, and stopped. She then started walking to the side, very carefully, making sure to remove her footprints from the snow, not that it mattered now that the snow had picked up. She did this for about fifty feet before she started running again, this time for the extraction point.

The drop ship was waiting for her, and expected to see a full squad. She fell into the back and layed there panting, the pilot started coming back to question her, before he noticed that alot of motion was brewing around the location. He decided that the questions could wait.

After Nickel had made her way back home, they patched up her eye, this time replacing it entirely with a synthetic one. It would function exactly as a normal eye, until she fiddled with some controls. After she activated the controls she was allowed to see in several different types of vision. Nightvision, Infrared, and for short amounts of time X-ray.

OOC: mind If I join? This is my kind of RP.

((OOC: Only under very specific circumstances. One, VERY high quality posts. Two, your character is one of my nation, you can create him/her yourself, but they have to be of Nofian blood. Three, they can be a special forces soldier, meaning he can have genetic modifications, the catch to that is he cannot have the same modifications as Nickel Seven. No heightened senses or rapid regeneration of wounds. Four, if you choose to go special forces, modifications must be approved by me. Five, I hold the right to reject you at any time for any reason from this RP.

After that it's free game. I haven't specified her being alone in the ship, so you could show up in deep sleep. Try to do a dream sequence of the past, on your character if you do it that way.))

It was time to graduate from primary school, six years at that hell had made her ready for anything. Nerves of steel had been impressed into her very soul. The only thing that stood in the way of her graduation was a test. She wasn't surprised, but it was the first she had ever heard of it. They even kept the details secret from the students, they wouldn't know until moments before they were to take the test.

The class of thirty waited with their DI, Monroe 483. They were outside, nothing was out of the ordinary, with the exception that Monroe was not yelling at any of them.

"This will be the first part of your test. You must survive in the woods for twenty four hours. After twenty four hours smoke markers will be made at a spot in the woods, and you must find them, and wait in the indicated area for extraction. Two hours after the markers have been made, those not there will immediatly be failed. You will be released one at a time every twenty minutes. Immediatly after the test you will go to the second part of the exam. First student."

A random student was volunteered and she ran into the woods. Five minutes later the sounds of gunfire filled the air, followed by a scream, and punctuated by a large explosion.

"One more thing, there will be hostile patrols going through the area. They will shoot to kill on sight."

Nickel had survived this task, and only ran into one patrol. She had hidden herself, and was passed by. The rest of the test was still a challenge. A Nofian forest is something to fear. Not only are there tons of poisonous snakes, and deadly creatures, they are all set up with booby traps.

When she first ran into the forest, she had seen the little girl from earlier. She was still alive, but wouldn't last long. She was full of bullet holes, and she was missing most of her body from the waist down. Blood dripped from her mouth as she uttered the words "Help me." Half of her face was nothing but burns. When she was being fired upon, she had accidently set off a booby trap, which had thrown her little body roughly fifty feet away. She was tossed into the middle of a clearing, which was now sprayed with her blood.

Nickel had taken this as a warning, not only were the hostile patrols serious, they were using the terrain to their advantage. She dared not touch the girl for fear that she might be set up with explosives, or even worse, a sniper was using her as bait. Nickel decided to conceal herself near the clearing to try and figure out what was going on, and take cover in case she was already spotted. The moans of the girl only worsened as time went on. Before too long another student happened upon the clearing, and mindlessly wandered into it. He froze when the girl saw her, and let out a little moan.

A sharp muffled thump filled air around Nickel, and the boy fell to the ground, clutching his leg. Nickel and the sniper had failed to notice each other, yet they were only a few feet from each other. Her heart skipped a beat when she realized this. She watched as the limber man emerged from the foilage, and moved to a different position, carefully, almost impossible to see.

Nickel decided it was time to move one, only very carefully. Fast is careless, careless is dead, careful is speed, speed is alive. She remebered this saying from her training, and now more than ever realized it's meaning. She carefully moved on, taking to heart the snipers motions, as the screams in the background grew distant.

Before to long she found what seemed like a trail, it was obviously traveled, but not well traveled. Moving along it would provide quicker movement, but she realized that traps would be more likely to be set on this trail. She decided to avoid it. She stepped to the other side of the trail, and suddenly found herself in the air, hanging from one leg.

"Fuck," she thought, "I'll be dead if I don't get out of this fast."

She was unarmed, so cutting the rope was not an option. She reached up, and grabbed the rope, and climbed up it. It dawned on her that she would have been unable to do this if Monroe hadn't made them get in such great physical shape. Suddenly it all made sense to her, he wasn't just cruel and sadistic, he was forcing them to become better. The better a job he did, the more of the students would survive in similar situations. Being yelled at made them keep their calm under tense situations, it allowed them to think outside the box at all times. Beatings allowed them keep going after they had been injured. He wasn't just trying to make their lives miserable, he was trying to make them be the best.

She sat on the branch of the tree, and untied the rope as a four man patrol passed below. They noticed the trap was sprung, but had no prey. Nickel had used her small body to press up against the tree. It was small enough to be hard to notice from the ground. Three of the men below took a defensive perimiter around the tree, while the fourth climbed. At the same time Nickel went down. Once at the bottom, she found a hole in the base of the tree and climbed in it. Once the patrol left she climbed out and moved away from the the area, doing her best to avoid detection.

She traveled the forest, not keeping in one spot for too long, making sure her tracks were covered, and she kept confrontation at a minimum. After several hours she saw a smoke screen billowing in the distance, and she made her way to it. Half way there she was attacked by a cougar. She had protected her vital jugular vein at the last moment, and only having her hand crushed by the cats jaw. With her free hand she grabbed a rock and brought it down on the cats skull. The cougar let out a sharp roar and took off.

Nickel's hand was in bad shape, and had multiple bones broken. She grabbed her hand almost at the wrist, and pulled towards her fingers. She heard many popping sounds as the bones set. It had hurt far more than anything she had ever felt before. She snapped for a second with this new found pain. She wanted more, it made her feel alive. She yelled as her mind filled with images she had never seen before.

A blonde woman was walking through the forest, and a gunshot filled the air. She takes cover and makes her way to the source of the sound.

Nickel Seven came to her senses, and quickly realized she had announced her location to everyone near by. Quickly she made a break for it. Not to far from where she was she tripped, and heard the sounds of gunfire. It was a little girl being shot about thirty feet from where Nickel was. Nickel stayed on her stomache and crawled for the area where the smoke was.

She was the last one to arrive. The twenty second of thirty students. A minute later and the extraction would have happened. She climbed into the helicopter, and it took off, leaving the forest behind it.

Nickel was tired, she hadn't eaten anything in three days, and since her hand was healed by the internal processes of her body already, her body was sapped of energy. She tried to think about what had happened out there, and the fact that she should be dead. She was attacked by a cat that outweighed her by a fair few pounds, and her own screams had drawn hostiles, but it was another girl who was nearby who was killed.

Wait, that woman she had seen, who was she. She looked familiar but Nickel couldn't place who she was. Oh well, it wasn't important. She had to worry about what she was going to do for the next portion of the test. She hadn't a clue what she was up against, but she hoped it wouldn't be anything incredibly physical.

The helicopter landed and the students piled out. They entered a roped off area that led into a large building. The building had rows of seats, all filled except for a little section that seated thirty. In the center of this was a large arena that had blood stains spraying the walls. Monroe 483 stood in the middle of the arena's dirt floor and watched the students pile into their seats.

"I see only twenty two of you made it this year, what an unusually high number. The patrols must have been very lax this time. Regardless, no more than eleven will walk away from this task. You will be paired off and you will have a fight to the death. The only rule is that only one student walks away from the fight. First off, PDU 353 and Nickel Seven."

Nickel was exauhsted, and was sure she would fail against this student. He had obviously had no problems with the previous task. She went into the ring, and was immediatly tackled by the boy. He grabbed her throat, and pressed his thumbs into her trachea. She immediatly grabbed his ear and yanked. Blood started streaming down his face as he pressed harder.

Despite the imminent death she was facing, she was surprisingly calm. his ear was still in her hand, so she shoved it in his face. Once he realized that his ear was missing he released his iron grip, and started freaking out. She punched him in the solar plexus, and while he was bent over, she grabbed the top of his head, and brought her knee into his face. He fell face first, but started getting up immediatly. He was met with her body weight on his back. She grabbed his arm, as he started raising himself off the ground, with her still on his back. She intentionally rolled off the side of him, and dislocated his shoulder. Despite his injury he was up in a flash, and saw his moment, she was laying on the ground. He stomped his foot on her face, and several loud cracks could be heard. She grabbed his ankle, and twisted, causing him to lose his balance. She brought her leg off the ground and brought it down on his throat, crushing his trachea.

He stood up once more, visibly not able to breath, he started a charge, but was quickly fading. Nickel's face was a bloody pulp as she brought the boy to the ground, putting her knee into his back. A loud crunch was heard echoing through out the arena, as the boy's back broke.

"Nickel Seven, step back into the stands. You are the victor, and have officially passed all the qualifications to become a legal citizen in the Mercenary State of Nation of Fortune. The ceremony will be held after all the graduates have passed their final exam."

She said nothing, and the only response she gave was the cracking as she set her nose. She walked back to the seat she had been sitting in for less than thirty seconds. Once she sat back down she started setting the rest of the bones in her face as best she could. If she didn't hurry, they would heal that way.

"PDU 234 and PDU 696 step up to the arena," came the call of Monroe 483.

The two young boys stepped down into the arena, the body of the dead boy was left in the dirt.

Almost immediatly they ran at each other, 696 reached down, and threw some of the loose fill dirt into the other boys face, this caused him to stop and curse for a second. 696 was on top him, and threw a rabbit punch at the other boy's kidney. An elbow met 234's head, and he fell into the dirt, face down. Both of the boys arms were grabbed, yanked, and dislocated. Stepping back for a second, 696 was sure he would win without any hassle. 234's legs wrapped around 696, and brought him to the ground. A head butt was brought down on 696's forehead, but suddenly a sharp rock was imbedded into 234's side. 696 must have picked used it as a knife during the previous section of the test. As 234 slumped over, bleeding to death, his neck was met with the boot of his enemy. The boy died instantly.

Nickel fell asleep after this fight, she was dead tired.

Nickel awoke to catch the finishing details of the final fight. A male student a female student were fighting. She had already missed the very beginning of the fight, but as it stood they were both on opposite sides of the arena, the boy's eye was hanging out of it's socket, and he was trying to put in back in while staying as far from the girl as possible. The girl had a deep laceration on her face that had cut into her uniform top. Nickel looked closer and saw she was holding what appeared to be a broken bone. She scanned the arena, and Nickel saw that one of the dead bodies was missing an arm, quite possibly the boy she had killed. Blood was sprayed every where, and puddles of the red substance pock marked the saw dust.

The boy had just succeded in putting his eye back in, although it was quickly swelling shut. He made his move for the girl, and she quickly stepped to the side, tripping him and sticking the bone in his back at the same time. The bone was driven deep in his lung, and the boy coughed up a little blood. The girl stepped on the bone, driving it entirely through his body, if the ground had been a harder pack of dirt, he would have been pinned there. He spun his feet around, knocking her to the ground. He was ontop of her in a flash, he started pounding her face with his fists, halfway through his beating he stopped to have a major coughing fit. She took advantage of this, and threw her fist into his face as hard as she could, he choked on some of the blood he was spitting up. The lack of oxygen was getting to him, and he couldn't keep up this amount of activity. He fell to the ground, and curled up in a ball, coughing. The girl was up, and had just set the cartalidge in her nose, helping her breath a bit better. She stood there, letting the boy suffocate and choke on his own blood. After several minutes he stopped moving, she smiled a bit, half happy that she had graduated, half happy that she had killed someone.

"FDU 000, you are the winner of the final fight. The eleven of you have proven your worthiness of being a Nofian soldier. You will exit this arena and follow me," Monroe bellowed.

The people who had been watching the fights all stood up, and marched out of the building. When the students had all gathered, they left the building. Upon their exit they saw that their path was clearly marked by the soldiers standing at perfect attention on either side. They waited a minute for Monroe to show up.

"Lets go, the path is clearly marked," Nickel Seven said after a minute.

The other students followed her. Monroe chose this time to exit the building, he was clapping.

"Good job, Nickel Seven, you've lived up to all the standards you were expected to meet. Hell, you even stepped above and beyond the expectations, taking charge when it was apparent I wasn't coming. You will go far little girl. Now lead them to where they need to go," Monroe said, not a hint of malice in his tone, something the students had never seen.

They walked along the path. The soldiers were all clad in the same standard Nofian battlesuit. They all looked like black statues, until the students passed. As they passed the soldiers brought their weapons to present arms, creating a ripple effect. The students finally came upon a building. Before they entered, the soldiers that were standing on either side of the door reached their arm out, touching the soldier next to them, this continued until it reached the beginning of the line of soldiers. Then the first soldier in each line took two steps foreward, turned the way the students had passed. Once these soldiers passed the next soldier in line he did the same thing they did, always maintaining a uniform distance between each soldier. They marched in perfect cadence until they reached the students. Then the first two soldiers in line bellowed in unison, "Permission to enter the building has been granted to the graduates!"

The students entered the building, only to be followed by the ever increasing line of soldiers. The soldiers filled the room, leaving what could best be described as a T.

"Step foreward graduates," came a strong voice from the front of the building.

The eleven students stepped forward to see Manthren, the nations commandant.

"You all have been granted a great honor, you have become Nofian warriors. You have received the most elite training in the univese. You have suffered through the toughest initial training anywhere. Now, you hold the proud title of Nofian Mercenary. You may be deployed anywhere, for any reason. It may be a land you've never heard of, it may be a place you dislike, it may be for reasons you dissagree with. This is why we dissassociate with politics. Holding bias for one side of a war will only grant you death. Your primary purpose is to follow the orders of the ones who have hired you. Although, before you are ready for battle, we must grant you with even more training. Your time spent here, was mainly meant to teach you discipline as well as how to be a warrior. The next session of training you go to will train you for your primary job. If you all will step forward now."

They each stepped forward as the commandant had wished.

"I give you this armor, it will protect you from the rain of enemy bullets."

At this point several soldiers stepped forward, and handed each of the graduates a battlesuit of their own.

"These tattoo's will signify the blood you have shed, and the blood you share with every one in this room."

The same soldiers stepped forward, each had their knife drawn. They ripped the shirts of the students all in unison, and cut the identification number of the students they had killed in their backs. They pressed a black powder into the skin as soon as it was cut. This method of tattooing would not stay on Nickel Seven, due to the fact that her skin healed too fast for the powder to take effect.

"Now young soldiers, take your battlesuits and wear them proudly," Manthren said after the tattooing was done.

The graduates put the suits on, and then turned to face the soldiers in the building.

"THIS IS MY RIFLE, THERE ARE MANY LIKE IT BUT THIS ONE IS MINE. IT IS MY LIFE, I MUST MASTER IT AS I MUST MASTER MY LIFE. WITHOUT ME MY RIFLE IS USELESS, WITHOUT MY RIFLE I AM USELESS. I MUST FIRE MY RIFLE TRUE, I MUST SHOOT STRAIGHTER THAN MY ENEMY, WHO IS TRYING TO KILL ME. I MUST SHOOT HIM BEFORE HE SHOOTS ME. I WILL. MY RIFLE AND I KNOW THAT WHAT COUNTS IN WAR IS NOT THE ROUNDS WE FIRE, THE NOISE OF OUR BURST, OR THE SMOKE WE MAKE. WE KNOW IT IS THE HITS THAT COUNT. WE WILL HIT," yelled the soldiers in unison.

"This is the first verse of the Rifleman's creed. Take to heart the words these soldiers yelled, as you must learn them, you must live by them. Take to heart not only the words, but the meaning."

"MY RIFLE IS HUMAN, EVEN AS I AM HUMAN, BECAUSE IT IS MY LIFE. THUS I WILL LEARN IT AS A BROTHER. I WILL LEARN IT'S WEAKNESSES, IT'S STRENGTHS, IT'S PARTS, IT'S ACCESSORIES, IT'S SIGHTS, AND IT'S BARREL. I WILL KEEP MY RIFLE CLEAN AND READY, EVEN AS I AM CLEAN AND READY. WE WILL BECOME PART OF EACH OTHER."

"This is the second verse. These words will guide you through battle. As the creed says you are equal with your weapon. You are only as powerful as it will allow you to be, and it is only as deadly as you allow it to be."

"BEFORE GOD I SWEAR THIS CREED. MY RIFLE AND I ARE DEFENDERS OF COUNTRIES. WE ARE THE MASTERS OF OUR ENEMY. WE ARE THE SAVIORS OF MY LIFE. SO BE IT, UNTIL VICTORY IS OUR'S AND THERE IS NO ENEMY, BUT PEACE."

"You will defend against all enemies, and you will destroy them. Memorize this creed, and you will be indestructable."

Ten of the eleven soldiers who had stepped up earlier stepped up once more. All of them, except Nickel, had a soldier come up to them and hand them the weapon they carried.

The Commandant then stepped up to Nickel.

"You don't get one of these weapons, I have a special one for you," Manthren said as he reached behind the podium.

He pulled out an antique weapon, it was an M240.

"This weapon holds a special meaning to the nation, and you are the one to receive it. Within time you will learn what is so special about this weapon, I shall let you discover that on your own."

Manthren raised his voice so every one could hear.

"DISMISSED!"

"POG MO THON," came the response of all the soldiers in the room.

Nickel held onto her knife. It was sticking out of a mans body, and currently was the only thing keeping the corpse from falling to the ground.

"Knock it off Nickel, he's dead," PDU 696 said, keeping a watchful eye on the hall.

The sounds of battle ravaged around the building they were in, and every crunch caused a stur amongst the people in the room.

"I know," she pulled the knife out from the side of his colar bone. She had penetrated his heart with the razor sharp blade, "I would know this far better than you. I did go to special forces school, while you went to infantry school."

The far larger man did not like these comments, but he knew this woman could kill him before he could blink.

"I know, I heard you almost didn't pass because they couldn't kill you like they kill everyone else," under the standard helmet of his battle suit a smirk formed.

"True, it's hard to bring someone back to life when they can't die."

She drew a second, much smaller blade, it was out in an instant. With pinpoint accuarcy she placed the blade in between his kidney and spleen. While the armor was designed to deflect gunfire, it was less apt to protect against something moving at such a slower speed. It used the kinetic energy of the bullet to deflect it, sometimes a straight on shot could penetrate the armor.

He grunted at the feel of the knife entering his body and he instinctivly reached for it.

"I wouldn't suggest pulling that out, at least until you can find a trained medic who is willing to quickly stop the bleeding."

His hand quickly stopped. A field medic wasn't going to waste supplies, or time, on something so trivial. It would have to stay in there until he got back to base. Suddenly he spotted an enemy. He raised his rifle to his shoulder and started squeezing the trigger. A loud pop followed, and the target fell to the ground. The area where he had came from suddenly erupted into gunfire.

Nickel stalked down the hall, and spotted the entrance hall. She grabbed a white phosphourous grenade, and tossed it into the entry hall. It exploded on contact. The area filled with screams as soldiers ran by on flames. Suddenly the rounds they carried cooked off, and the area became pure hell as several hundered rounds went flying in every direction.

Nickel felt four rounds deflect off of her armor, they had came through the corner at her back. This caused her to lose her balance, she knew she would be more covered on the ground anyway, she went with it and hit the floor. The ravages of war had only weakened the structure of the building, and the floor gave way under the weight of her fall.

She lay in the basement until the rounds finished their angry revenge. She stood and found something curious.

"696, get your ass down here, I think I found where our target dissapeared to."

The large man jumped down the hole, without hesitation.

"I think he went through this tunnel."

She entered the hole, followed by the large man.