goddamngrenades | RP Open Post

"Mhmm. Just getting started. Eeenie, meenie, miney, ha, got you cocksucker." Three strands of code to the left and another little nodule of fragments. He'll get back to the transport but this? An incomplete inventory of munitions. Now THAT is what he was looking for. "Up to date till they moved on but this is promising. It'd go faster if I had d but you got eyes on our six, right?"

Too fucking competent by half. This might mean they have to move things around. They need to keep the fighting going, not end it.

"Now that is useful. Kimball will love you for this. And yeah, I got our six. It's all clear so far as I can tell. I'll keep an eye on it."

"Shotgun rounds, 9mm, plasma coils, sticky grenades- fuck'n grenades, man." he mutters, transferring the file over to his suit. Doubles back and picks at the node with the motorpool list again till he gets a vehicle registry. It's bits and pieces- nothing complete, nothing classified, but it's a good start for them having not been here.

And then he finds a file that's more a personal memo than anything else.

"...this guy was a fucking idiot. Wash- someone listed their comms frequencies and encryption key." Now THERE is a break. Not a big one but every crack can get widened till you wiggle on through.

"I would love some grenades," Wash replies. "They're great."

Good way to get rid of incriminating evidence if you don't mind causing massive damage.

Oh- He leans over York's shoulder, staring at the message. "Oh damn, seriously? What a moron I mean, they might have changed it since but... you are a goddam genius. We might actually win this thing."

They need to get York out of here, off this planet, soon.

"Backwater colonies have old tech. I was playing with this shit in highschool, man." Not for weapons or encryption keys but, damn. Good to know that his juvenile delinquency is going to be of use for once.

Well not for once it's been pretty damn useful his whole career.

"The rest of it is just inventory. Armor, transport, fuel, mess. But with these numbers we can get an idea of how many people were at this base and maybe where they were going." He copies over the last of it and shuts the system down.

"Of course it was cutting edge top of the line tech back then," Wash teases. "This stuff was ancient history when I was in high school."

If he keeps it light, friendly, they might get out of here without too many mishaps. "It at least gives us a better idea of their power than we had before. They always seem to have a new base set up somewhere."

"Now that is a little curious. These buildings aren't prefab and they aren't new. They've been around for awhile so obviously this place used to have a standing military. Honestly? This looks like a training base." He unplugs from the console and turns, resting his hip on the counter. "That and all the alien tech lying around- I wanna say they're probably hopping through bases established leading up to and during the war. Not a lot of use after till this conflict popped up. Which means there should be a public record of them somewhere."

And where there are public records, there are maps.

"Where's the nearest city?"

"I guess," Wash replies, looking around at what he can see of the base. "This place saw some action during the war I think, although I didn't really read up on the history before I came here."

He shrugs. "The capital, Armonia. It's a fair distance though. Couple of days drive if you don't hit bad patches on the road. There are a lot of those. It's Fed territory. We don't tend to go that close to it."

"No other towns? Suburbs? Public libraries?" Somewhere with a network that's not the base. Last thing he wants to do is try this from there and get noticed.

Wash thinks for a few moments. "There's a couple of villages closer by. Been abandoned for a while. I think everyone moved into Armonia when the civil war got going but... we could check it out. They seemed to be pretty well stocked with services." That should be safe, right?

"We can do recon on one in a few days. They aren't going anywhere and the kids need consistency." Speaking of, he checks his hud. "Gonna have to rush on the way back or I'll be late for my own drills."

"They are adults. Most of them," Wash replies, amused despite everything. "I'm sure they'll be super keen to do more laps of the compound."

"They're adults but I'm teaching them how to be soldiers. They're kids, wash. none of them signed up for this- to fight? Sure. What that actually means? No. No one ever does." He pushes away from the counter and starts back the way they came. It's gonna be a long week, he can already feel it. "you mind helping me demo the hand to hand stuff later today?"

"Yeah, the military would be pretty understaffed if they were honest about the nightmares and PTSD and watching your friends die." That it would turn you into someone who couldn't function in normal society.

"I can do that. It'll be like old times."

"Dunno what the recruiter told you, but I actually got that memo. Didn't believe him. I really, really should have." He doesn't regret all of it. Just. Most of it.

"It was all... serve your planet! Honour humanity! Be a hero stuff. And I was a stupid enough kid to believe them." Starry eyed and desperate to be someone important. To do something worthwhile with his life.

"My parents were already in the military. That wasn't really gonna fly with me." Out of the compound and back down to the caves. it's a quick enough path.

Under other circumstances, Wash thinks that he could like Chorus. It's kind of beautiful. Crystal cities and forests. Great for hiking.

"It was a way for me to get away from home, I guess," Wash says nonchalantly. "Set out on my own."

"Well. You sure managed that much. We all did. I haven't been back to earth since..." Since he shipped out the first time. "...I actually fought on the rings. Up till the project. Kinda trippy."

Never met a Spartan but they seemed solid. just as fucked up as the rest of them.

"Yeah? Heard about that. Difficult not to. I haven't been back to Earth in... since before the Project. Honestly for a while it was weird just to spend so much time on one planet."

When he gets paid for this job, when Charon lets go of his chain, he's going to go back to Earth. He is going to buy a house near the beach and not leave it for a year.

"This place, though. It ain't half bad. I don't think I'll mind sticking around to make sure the win sticks." Like they've actually got a chance. Like it's not a death sentence. "They got beaches here? Been forever since I've gone surfing."

"Yeah, they have beaches," Wash says quietly. "It's really pretty. Seen a decent bit of it recently. They've got auroras, you know that? Big floaty blue and green swirls in the sky. It's a shame they're at war."

"Not for much longer. We'll get this knocked out. Broker some kind of treaty because honestly the 'kill 'em all' mode of winning a war is historically bullshit." He actually did pay attention in school. Sometimes. "Give them back their home. Then you can fuck off with your alien whatever and I'll do the heavy lifting of getting society set back up. I wonder if I'll get a statue out of it."

Wash pauses when he says that, let York get a few steps ahead of him and stares at back of his head. "You're really serious about this aren't you?" he says and he can't quite believe it. "You'll stay here until the bitter end. After it even. To help some people you don't even know rebuild their homes."

He doesn't know if York had always been like this. He thinks perhaps he had been. Was wonders if he'd been like that back then too. That optimistic.

"You're making me feel like a real asshole."

"I got a lot to make up for." He couldn't save his team. He couldn't stop what happened to the Alpha. Couldn't keep Delta safe. But this? This he can do. This he WILL do. "This is what I signed on for back at the beginning. What I was TOLD I was joining the project to do. I got these skills...I got them to help people."

Not a crazy bastard. He can't imagine how many of the mooks he shot down back then had no idea what they were doing or why it was happening. Not a one.

"So that's what I'm gonna do. And you? You'll do what you do." Before he'd claim a no judgement zone. Pat Wash on the back and say it was okay, they all get to be assholes. But now? Now he's judging. A lot. "Maybe because you kind of are being an asshole."

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