"We all know the bengalaas is the most noble beast in existance!"
-Johnny_Vegas
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| The Emerald Legion - Part One: The Introduction | | | Author: | | | IP: | nr11-216XXXX | | Date: | 07/21/02 11:07 | | Game Type: | Other | | Labels: | none | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 1, Max: 6, Min: 6
Lifetime Rating for EldritchEvil: 8.5111 |  | NOTE: You'll have to live with black-on-white.
General Dante was just a soldier. He was living the easy life, a general in the Armed Forces of the EU. The Emerald Legion - a group of Special-Ops soldiers - was despised by him. But then, something will happen that will change his life. Forever.
General Dante T. Perlis, or "Percy" (And sometimes behind his back, "Pissly") was reflecting. It was a general's duty to reflect on recent happenings, recent battles, sending the good things they did in the report and not the mistakes. But, as Dante approached his 40th birthday, his mind wandered furthur and furthur down the corridors of his mind. Back to when he had been made a private - in what, back in 2019 - had been known as the Army. Dante was brilliant, there was no question. He made lieutenant in 6 months. He became a general at 30. Now, it was 2037. He had just seen to the new soldiers to go under his command. Pawns, all of them. He had known from the first that anyone who entered the Armed Forces (Which is now the combined Navy, Army, Air Force and all the special ops groups) as a soldier was a pawn to be moved on the worlds' chessboard. Dante was also a great chess player.
Indeed, back in 2029, it was the Armed Forces' glory days. There was no "Emerald Legion" back then. Dante was ripped from his memories by a knock on his door. "General?" Dante recognized the voice. Lieutenant Calvin F. Waterson. Dante knew all of his officers by name. Waterson was the son of a rich family, and had been pressed into the Armed Forces by his father. A good officer, brilliant mind, but a little naive and under-confident. "Yes, Waterson?" The Lieutenant opened the door into Dante's office.
"The Admiral asked me to come get you. He wants to talk to you about the F/A 66s."
Damn. It figures that Erik would ask me. Admiral Erik J. Sanders was a man with a high, nasal voice. The kind that would be perfect for torturing someone by droning on about the F/A 66's faulty wiring or some such trivial matter that could be handled by engineering.
"Fine. Tell him I'll be right down."
"Yessir."
Waterson closed the door. I tilted his head back and I basked in my memories for another minute for standing up, stretching and walking for Regional Command. Erik was ready to greet me.
"Your late!"
"Oh, shut up, Erik."
"We can't tolerate this kind of care-free attitude around here, Percy! What kind of example are we setting for our troops?"
"I don't know about me, but you seem to be setting the kind of attitude that increases tension."
"And YOU are setting an example of lazy, ne'er-do-well attitude that will get the armed forces shut down!"
"Shut down? Ha."
"They will! The-"
"I know what your about to say, and I don't want to hear it. The Emerald Legion may be good, but they don't stand against the Armed Forces."
Erik glowered. I was right and he knew it. The EU would be a sitting duck, a fat, defenseless merchant ship, full of prizes and advanced technology for the taking, moving slow in the calm before the storm, on the waters of world politics.
"Now, about the 66s..."
"What about them?"
"They aren't up to our quality standards. Our AS (Air Supremacy) division would be flooded with cheap, shoddy, frail aircraft if we let these take to the skies."
"So get Engineering to handle it, why did you have to get me over here?"
"I can't authorize this alone!"
What was he talking about? Unless he was talking about a complete design overhaul, one top-level officer can authorize a few design changes.
"Why, what are you thinking of doing?"
"Changing the whole design. We need to keep on top! The 66s were late in production, and there's new technology on the line. We need to update them."
"Erik, if the human race had pulled aircraft off the production line because new technology was availible, we would have never gotten planes off the ground. Just make a few changes, we don't need to make a whole new aircraft."
Erik sighed, and gave me that exasperated look he had perfected.
"But we HAVE. And to CONTINUE improving our air supremacy, we need to continue to IMPROVE our aircraft!"
"And we ARE, dammit! We have the best aircraft in the world! We don't need to continue to strive for perfection."
Another thing that aggrivated me and Erik, was that he was an over-achiver. I don't mind over-achivers (indeed, I was one... Ten years ago.), but he was also a perfectionist. A bad combination, to me.
"Ah, but we do. You know what's going on in the world right now."
"Yes, I do. But I also know that no other nation has the guts to attack the EU."
Erik glared at me, shocked that I had been so up-front and stated my opinion instead of using infuriating subitles. I waved his next argument off.
"I'm not going to spend hours here debating this with you. Get another top officer to authorize it."
I walked away, back to my office.
*
"Not again, surely?"
"Yes, sir. He is setting a bad example for the men, and he refuses to take his work seriously."
"He's the best general we've ever had."
"Yes, but he has to go, Senator."
"Go where?"
"I have an idea..."
*
Knock, knock.
"Mmmfph?"
"Sir? I have a letter for you."
"Hmmfphmm."
"I'll... Just, uh, slip it under the door for you."
"Mmph."
About 15 minutes later, I staggered, gunshot victem style, over to my door. I picked up the letter, flicked on my lamp and read:
"To General Dante T. Perlis"
After opening the letter, I read:
"Dear General Perlis,
It has come to our attention that you are slacking in your work. This has been noted several times, and it has been deemed intolerable. You are being relocated to the Emerald Legion, as a starting officer.
Regards,
Senator Hans
Senator Waterson
Senator Craig
Senator Collins
Admiral Sanders
General Pol
General Anderson
Damn.
A week later...
"Shape up, men. You're in the Legion now."
Uppity old windbag.
"I'm sure you know what the legion is. But I'll explain anyway, it's standard procedure."
Yawn.
"The Legion is a group of a hundred or so soldiers, officers and technicians. We have access to the best of technology and men. We are the elite."
This damn green jumpsuit itchs.
"You have been chosen," the old officer looked in Dante's direction, "or, in some cases, moved, to this group of experts."
Yeah, yeah, pour the salt into the wound. I'm sure that's "standard procedure" as well.
"I expect you to put your best forward, to never give an inch, to use your wits, more than your brawn. To think, to devise, to brainstorm. You are the best of the best."
Sure.
"And now... You will follow me."
The old officer turned around, and started to walk twords the old, battered hangar.
Bah. Their base is here? They must have been using hyperbole to scare the Armed Forces when they described this group.
Closer, closer...
Probably still using M-16 Mk.IIs.
The group reaches the door. The old officer opens it.
Good god.
The first thing that hit me was the noise. Whirring, grinding, the shriek of metal-on-metal. Shouted commands, direct, military style.
The second was the level of sophistication. The entire thing we saw was a huge factory. About 8 men and over a hundred machines, making parts for things we could not understand.
"You alright, Paski?"
"I'm fine, Zachary."
A big, burly man in a large green jumpsuit - everyone seemed to be wearing green jumpsuits here - walked up to the old officer, who, apparently, was named Paski.
"Good. These the new recruits?"
"Indeed."
The big man grinned at us.
"Fresh meat. Hey! Guys! We've got live ones here!"
The men's laughter was audible even over the noise of the machines.
"Right. I'll get Fernando. He'll be taking them induvidually."
"Fine."
After 5 minutes of being exposed to mosh-pit style voulume of noise, Frenando and Zachary came. Frenando was a small, lithe man, with a cool, calming voice and an aura of skill and intellegence. He also had a very direct, very sharp way of speaking.
"These are the new recruits?"
"Yes."
"Good. Dante, come with me."
Suprised he knew my name, I followed without protest. I guess I was too awed by the factory.
We entered a small, enclosed elevator-style tube, the kind I would have expected to see in a science-fiction movie. We moved down at about 20 KPH, fast enough to get my stomach in a knot. We passed about two floors, which I did not get a look at, before stopping abruptly. We walked, no, that isn't correct. He walked. I sort of half-walked-half-staggered, my legs kind of shaky from the ride down. We enterd a small, enclosed room. No noise. He sat down across from me, at a desk, and motioned for me to sit at a chair against the wall. The door closed by itself.
"I should start by informing you that everyone knows eachother by there first name here."
"I kne-"
"I don't need to hear what you did, can, or can not do. All of that is irrevelant now."
I sat, mouth half open, stunned. No one had ever spoken to me like that before.
"I hope you do not judge us by the Factory workers up two levels. They really aren't part of our group."
I blinked, and was about to answer when Fernando spoke again.
"Do not speak while I inform you of what we do here. Whatever you have heard about the Emerald Legion, it is not true. The old maxim 'Truth is stranger than fiction' applies here. Not even the Staff know what goes on in this building. But I have forgotten to introduce myself. I am Fernando Jenski, and I handle recruit relations. You may ask two questions."
I blinked again.
"Was I brought here because they thought I was setting a bad example, or because they knew I would be an invaluable asset to you?" I asked, thinking I was showing him that I could not be messed with, that I was a truly smart, brilliant officer.
"Don't be foolish. Are you truly so full of yourself that you think you are more than a tool to us?"
I gasped. "I am! I am the most brilliant general the armed forces has ever had!"
"Exactly. The armed forces. The Armed Forces are like bread to a starving man - he will eat it because he needs it. But when you are no longer hungry, you will not choose to eat merely bread, you will feast upon true sustenance. Your second question."
I gulped. Fine. If I was going to be here, I'm going to do it right.
"When do I start?"
To be continued...
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