Chapter Two

A Chapter by Lady of the Ring

The doors flew off their hinges and hurtled across the room. The wall they struck cracked. “So,” Strom said calmly, “Care to explain these orders?”

Ifri turned her eyes from her paperwork and maps that were flung everywhere, “You know that doors have these wonderful things called hinges.”

Strom looked at the doors slumped against the far wall, “Oops.”

Diz poked his head around Strom, “MY HINGES!!!”

He planted his face in his palm as Strom looked back and forth, “Oops.”

“Why must everyone break my things? Well looks like I’ll have to repair it.” He pressed a button on his hand

Ifri stood up and told Diz, “Don’t bother. I didn’t like it anyway.”

“So, there not your handiwork” the doors flung back into place hitting Strom on the way.

Both Ifri and Strom glared at Diz. “Would you mind?” Ifri said gesturing toward the door.

Strom grinned evilly. Grabbing the door, he ripped it off and smashed it against Diz. “Oops,” he muttered, grinning even more. Diz got up and pressed two button on his wrist, the door rematerialized and flung back onto its opening, then Strom’s augmented arm punched him repeatedly.

Fed up with the shenanigans that the two were making in her office she got in between the two of them. “Stop. As your commanding officer I am ordering you (Strom snorted at this). Diz, I want that door off the hinges, as well as the doors on all the other ranking officers’ offices. Strom, park your a*s in that chair. NOW!”

“Ok” Diz replied hitting a button on his wrist again, the doors then proceeded to fall on Strom’s head.

Strom smiled at Diz, “Nice.” He turned to the desk and stared at the ‘chair’ she mentioned. “Got anything for big kids?”

“Please Strom, that’s an insult to big kids everywhere.”

“I meant it. We have a mission in two days that our troops are nowhere near ready for,” Ifri said, “I don’t know what you’ve been told, so I’m going to start at the beginning and I need you two to stop flirting.”

Strom laughed.

“Don’t make me bruise your testicles again today.”

Again the laugh, “That love tap? I thought you were flirting.”

Ifri chuckled.

“Aw are you cheating on me Lieutenant” Diz smiled.

“Can you blame him?”

“Yes.”

“Let’s get started,” Ifri said, as she looked at the two, hoping for some cooperation.

“What’s on your mind captain?” Diz replied.

“You asked me yesterday why I got assigned here, and the answer is simple. They want me gone because I have gotten too ‘insubordinate’ for their tastes-”

“Welcome to the club. Seriously, we have shirts. And they sell official mugs at the bar.”

Ifri raised her eyebrows and continued, “I disobeyed a direct order to kill the Regem. My superiors are trying to stage a coup.”

Strom shook his head, “Why would you do something so stupid? Why would you not kill someone?”

“Why are you still alive?”

Ifri smiled for the first time in what felt like ages, “I’m just too good for them to actually kill.”

“Textbook narcissism” Diz sighed.

“Well,” Strom started, “Those idiots couldn’t kill themselves out of a paper bag.”

Ifri gestured for the two of them to look at the maps on her desk, “I have been told that they are sending a deployment order in two days. There is a pack of Ziege surrounding the supply line for the Temples. They want us to get rid of them, but they are expecting ill-trained and uncooperative troops to go in and only a handful to come out. If they get their way, I won’t be coming out.”

“Why haven’t the Monito taken any action?” Diz asked.

“The Monito have sufficient food to live for years on their own. The Mai thinks that the ziege will lose interest before they run out of food. The only reason that we are being deployed is to try to get rid of Strom and I. The Council sees us as a threat and wants us gone before they implement their ‘new world’ plan.”

Strom held his hand to his mouth and gave a shrill whistle. One of his troops ran in and saluted; Strom ignored her as he spoke to the soldier, “Get everyone together. We’re going hunting.” The soldier ran off as Strom rose and headed for the door.

“I didn’t dismiss you Lieutenant.” He left without looking back, “Well I did.” Strom strode confidently away. Until he ran into the now rematerialized door. He looked back at Diz, who removed his finger from the button on his wrist, smiling serenely, “Now Lieutenant, don’t be rude.”

She quickly rolled up a map and said to Strom, “Jackass!” As he turned, she threw the map to him, “You’ll need this.” Snatching the roll from the air, Strom saluted Diz with it. Diz simply waved goodbye.

“I want you to make sure that every soldier is equipped with explosives. That shouldn’t be too hard. And I want each and every one of them in to see you for their augments, make sure that they are functioning properly,” Ifri said to Diz as she looked back down at her remaining maps.

“No problem captain, though I was hoping for a bit of a nicer greeting from an old friend,” Diz yawned.

Rubbing her head, she sighed, “With all that is going on, I forgot how to be one.”

“Ha always so serious, you really should visit the bar more.”

“I was thinking the same thing. Another thing, I want you to upgrade Strom’s augment.”

“You and I both know he won’t like that.”

“I don’t think that he will mind what I was thinking. I want him to have a grenade launcher installed. With the amount of Ziege we will be going up against, we will need all the help we can get.”

“Captain you do realize he blames me for almost blowing him up the other day yes?”

“Yes. When you tell him, he’ll point out that he won’t be far enough away from the main fighting and point out every Tom, Dick and Harry in this battalion that would be willing to have the augment installed,” Ifri smirked.

“Fine I'll bust his balls for you, I also have a few more inventions to show you that may help.”

“Install them.”

“I meant things that weren’t augments captain.”

“I said install them.”

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© 2014 Lady of the Ring

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The Lone Wolf Prose

Very interesting story thus far. I am very intrigued and would love to see the character progression in this book. I think there are some simple editorial things that need to be worked on just to make the reading a bit more clear to read. I found a couple of times I wasn't exactly sure who was speaking and I think some of the speakers' genders got mixed up with the dialogue. Just check over to make sure it is absolutely clear who is speaking. I liked the kind of experience that we as readers were also kind of thrown into this battalion as rejects as well with the introduction of each character.

I know its hard to truly map out the structure of the writing on this website and what it would look like say if it was published in a book, but try to use that to your advantage in this form as possible. Like I said just to make it a bit clearer with the dialogue.

I will definitely continue to follow this work and if ever you need someone to edit and bounce ideas off for things feel free to message me.

Keep up the good work and look forward to more
LW