The Director looked over the agents with hidden curiosity. They were all either quiet or engaging in mindless chit-chat to pass the time. The Director smiled as he looked over the files that were on his desk. "Jacob Huntington? Fairly dull background to the collection of people here. But still someone to keep an eye on. Counselor, what happened to the last shipment of experimental weapons. Binary rifles? Was that there name?"

The Counselor looked at his PDA and sighed. "I am sorry to report sir but they are currently in rebel hands, they ambushed the delivery ships and stole the cargo."

The Director slammed his fist down on the table making the Counselor jump. "God damn it! These rebels stealing everything I try to get delivered! No matter. A perfect first mission for our new recruits however training time first. Then mission briefs." Pressing a button on his desk a woman's voice spoke out across the large hall, the voice had a robotic tinge in the way it spoke as she addressed the Agents in the large hall, who had now gone quiet.

"Welcome you are one of 49 elite military members who have been chosen for the new Freelancer project. We hope that you have gotten your self comfortable to listen to this recording as you will need to listen very carefully! You will no longer be know by your Civilian names, instead you will be addressed by your new code name which will have been assigned to you before you entered this hall. This must be used at all time this is for your safety! Before entering live combat you will be hooked up with various armour enhancements and an extremely Valuable AI. This AI is suited to you and will help you use your new abilities safely and efficiently.

Working together is crucial to completing your objective and scoring high in the leaderboards. The leaderboards track your personal progress throughout your missions. No matter where you are on the leaderboard you will not be treated any differently, these leaderboards are for The directors and the boards feedback as to how well the Project is running. There are a few rules that must be followed:

AIs must not communicate with each other.

No contact to the outside is allowed via any mode of communication.

Use of live weapons or abilities unless inside a training zone or on a mission is prohibited.

Obey any orders given to you by the Director or Counselor.

Thank you for your patience the Director will now address you".

The Directors voice followed the woman's after a short pause. "Good morning agents. To assess who is going to be implanted with what A.I. we will begin this morning with a round of sparring. We will be assessing how you fight and act individually and together. Your opponents will be military grade Mechanoids with military A.I.. You will be outnumbered two to one so take this into account. Please make your way towards the training facility now."

The training facility in question was a large room filled with a simulation battle environment made to look like an abandoned village. All of the agents would be able to use live round however their armour abilities would be disabled. Their opponents stand at the other side of the room, black suits of armour armed with simulation rounds that pack a hell of a punch but are not lethal.

Washington was the first in, looking at situation he grimaced. "Man, robots punch like heavyweight boxers and take as much punishment as a tank. Not fair."

Once all the agents were in a horn buzzed signaling the start of the exercise. The robots jumped to life taking up defensive position and throwing smoke grenades in front of them to cover their advance and Advance they did. Slowly moving forwards preparing to engage whoever got close.

Washington looked over at the rest of the agents. "Hey guys and gals names Washington, these robots are going to be a bitch to take down. Word to note they'll keep on going even if you knock of their heads. They can take information from other bots to see so if one sees you they all see you. Only reason I know so much about these bastards is this ain't my first rodeo with them. Got stuck in a training simulator with two of them, they beat me good. So don't get caught and if you do have to hit them then hit them as hard as you fucking can! Apart from that..." Washington pulled the pin on a grenade. "Have fun!" Vaulting over the wall he had been hiding behind he threw the grenade into the crowd of machines. They jumped away from the explosive and Washington was there to meet them blasting one in the arm with his AR he was met with a punch to the gut sending him flying over a wall. "Son of a bitch!"

As he watched Washington get thrown back over the wall Georgia grinned inside his helmet. "Worst charge ever. Of all time." He muttered to himself. Georgia's first reaction was to back away as far as he could, preferably onto another planet, but that was hardly an option right now so instead he let himself fall backwards as he fired a burst from his rifle into the closest robot, letting the recoil propel him into a backwards roll which gained him a good couple of meters, and ended up with him standing beside a tall pillar.

Quickly rolling on his heel the armoured warrior spun into the cover just as a smattering of return fire smacked into it, showering him with fragments of the tough material. "Hey, wait a sec, are they using live ammo too?" He called into his radio, asking anyone and everyone at once. If this really was going to be an unfair advantage from the get-go then the recruits wouldn't stand a chance.

It can't be as simple as that, Georgia thought to himself, letting his eyes gaze around the room as he leaned back against the pillar, feeling the reverberations of weapons impacts on the far side while looking for some sort of advantage hidden in the terrain that he might be able to use. This is supposed to be a test after all, and they wouldn't have shipped us all out here just to kill us.

The previous night Virginia hacked into security cameras and had them linked to her HUD. She watched the robots on her HUD from behind a wall. She studied their reactions times. She took an empty magazine and threw it when none were looking her way. The distraction provided her an opportunity she grabbed the closest robot. She used her assault rifle's armor penetrating rounds to put a hole through the torso. She watched as the other robots turned to attack. She used the robot as a shield.

With a roaring battlecry Idaho charged straight towards the approaching robots, bullets from her full-auto burst of fire ripping into the chest of one before she barrelled into a second and brought her rifle round to blast its head and torso until her ammo counter read empty.

Rolling forwards into cover of a low wall Kimmie quickly release the spent clip and slammed home a fresh one before reaching down to her waist and grabbing a grenade. Holding it for a couple of seconds, cooking it in her hand as she silently counted off the timer, she lobbed it over the wall into the next wave of robots. Looking up she suddenly spotted a robot looming over her, its arm raising to hammer down on her with brutal force just before something clattered on the floor behind it.

@Revans Exile

As the robot's head snapped around, searching for the cause of the sound, Virginia slammed into it, grabbing the robot tightly as she blasted its torso apart. Tapping her faceplate in salute to her colleague Kimmie smiled inside her helmet. "Thanks for the save," She called into her radio excitedly, "Fancy double teaming the rest of these tin cans?" Without waiting for a response Idaho leapt over the wall, laughing loudly as she fired another full-auto burst into the incoming robots, catching them off guard as they turned to target Virginia.

Spotting what he needed Georgia leapt out from behind the pillar, quickly dodging from cover to cover until he reached a high tower set back from the rest of the field. A quick glance back at the rst of the team told him that him colleagues were keeping the robots busy enough for him to try something a little creative, so firing up his booster Georgia launched himself up into the air before landing with a roll on the top of the high platform. He hated using the jetpack, it was tricky to control at the best of times, and during a firefight it could be lethal to someone not concentrating on it fully.

Looking down Georgia smiled. He knew there'd be something like this hidden around the place there always seemed to be in every training arena. Dropping his assault rifle he picked up the sniper rifle instead and waited a moment for his suit HUD to register the change in weapon before lifting it up and taking aim.

His first shot took out the leg of a robot trying to flank Virginia and Idaho, coming round the back of one of the large blocks out of their line of sight. As it fell its weapon fired off, sending a stream of bullets passed the girls harmlessly. The second shot smashed through the top of the robot's head, down into its chest, leaving it sprawled lifelessly on the ground. "One down, lots to go..." The sniper muttered, turning his sights onto the next target.

"Yeah whatever," Montana said facing down one bot ",Time to lay the pain train on this hunk of junk. Good think I can return the same hits they can give." To prove his point, he ran forward at the bot he was facing, landing a bone shattering blow onto the robots head. Normally a hit like that would perhaps knock a person out for the count. Montana was surprised that the punch didn't just drop the bot and had little time to react when the robot punched him back, sending him skidding across the ground.

"Okay maybe these bots do pack a punch," he grumbled to himself as he got himself back open and getting his bearings back ",Fine but lets see how they like meeting Scorn." With that he with drew his trusty shotgun, something he had kept with him over the years ever since he was given it from the military. It was one item he never leaved without and if anyone dared to try and steal it, they wouldn't be walking for awhile after wards when Montana caught them. He aimed at the bot coming towards him and fired, blowing a hole through it's chest, but not even that seemed to stop these machines. The bot fell onto the ground seemingly lifeless, making Montana feel smug but after a few seconds of laying still it just got up again.

"Great so apparently we will be fighting the undead," Montana said and then shrugged ",Oh well means more action for me." He charged forward again, enjoying the thrill he was getting going toe to toe with a force that could match his strength. It got quite dull winning a fight with one punch sometimes so now having something he could beat to death was far more entertaining. As he approached the bot another jumped onto him from behind but it hardly fazed Montana and he kept going, now having a passenger on his back as he slammed his gun full force into the bot in front of him that he had started this fight with, nearly detaching it's head. Once he dealt with that he grabbed the robot from his back and threw it across the room.

"That's a home run," he said before turning around to see the headless robot get up again ",Right I forgot you can still fight without the head perfect." Today was going to be a long and fun day for him to enjoy as he got ready to spar the bot once more.

Washington's head was spinning inside his helmet. Picking himself off the ground he grabbed his rifle which had landed next to him. "That really hurt!" Checking his ammo count he dusted of his armour. "Let's rock and roll baby!" Charging forward he let loose with a volley of bullets into his robotic enemies. Switching to his Sticky grenade launcher he fired it into the first robot he came across. It stuck to its torso, giving it no time to react he switched back to his rifle and stabbed it in the back and charged into a group of robots. One got a kick on him loosening his grip on the robot the blade in its back sliding out and sending him flying over a wall.

Pulling out the detonator he smiled. "Scrap metal it is then fellas." Pressing the detonator the stuck robot exploded. Due to the robots being so bunched the damage blew two into pieces the other two from the group that attacked him were missing an arm or head but were relatively undamaged. They replied to his attack by reaching for him from behind the wall and picking him up from the ground by the neck.

"Oh come on, you're even worse then the last time! Little help guys?!"

@Nytefall "Oh come on, you're even worse then the last time! Little help guys?!"

Two quick shots was all Georgia needed to smash apart the robot's shoulders, leaving the arms gripping Washington's neck as he dropped back to the floor. Another two shots took off one of the robot's legs and its head, leaving the metal torso hopping around on one foot for a moment before a final shot punched straight through its chest, knocking it to the ground.

"So, who's next?" He muttered, panning his sniper rifle across the battlefield looking for other troublespots. For a moment he let his scope hover over Montana's opponent before quickly moving on. The big guy would never forgive him if Georgia stole his fun away from him. Scanning over to the girls he saw the two of them catching a group of robots in a crossfire, a couple of the automatons already falling to their combined fire.

Which left only Missouri.

As it fell its weapon fired off, sending a stream of bullets passed the girls harmlessly. The second shot smashed through the top of the robot's head, down into its chest, leaving it sprawled lifelessly on the ground.

Spinning around as the bullet flew passed her Idaho was just in time to see the robot being blasted apart by the high-powered anti-materiel rifle, the hyper velocity bullet ripping into the armoured metal of the robot as though it was tinfoil. Giving a quick salute up in the direction the shot had come from, but unable to see who had actually fired, Idaho quickly turned her attention back to the enemies in front of her.

Slowly moving around the side of them she quickly set up a crossfire pattern to keep the robots guessing, bursting out with laughter as the machines began dancing back and forth, unsure whether to target her or Virginia as they both poured on the fire.

With her rifle clip empty Idaho dropped into cover again to reload, throwing another grenade out while she had the chance to keep the robots confused and disorientated as she slide the fresh magazine into the housing.

Spinning back out Idaho blazed away at the closest mech, the combined fire from both hers and Virginia's rifles finally punching through to the vulnerable innards and shattering the sensitive circuitry within. Not stopping to celebrate, but with her voice laughing loudly over her radio, Idaho plunged forwards towards the next target.

Virginia was forced to mute her radio Idaho's cackling was giving her a migraine. She saw two pillars close together. She ran towards the one on the left, she jumped back and forth between the two. Once at the top, she waited for two of the robots to come close. She jumped from the top and landed squarely on the shoulders of another crushing it under her and her armor's weight. As she landed she brought down her knife on to the second between the velocity from the fall and her strength she was able to cut the head in half and tear through half the chest.

That attack hurt more than she expected, not that she would allow anyone else to know. She ducked behind one of the pillars.

"Here's your present," Montana said through gritted teeth, both him and the robot fighting to kill one another. Montana finally was able to hold the bot off with one arm and grabbed one of the grenades pinned at his side, and then quickly unhooked the pin and shoved it into the robot's chest where his shotgun had made an impressive hole earlier ",Now go share it with your friend who tried to sack me." With those words Montana got underneath the bot and picked it up, having it above his head before throwing it in the direction of the other bot he had thrown previously. The other bot had just gotten up only to be toppled over again from his headless comrade. Shortly after that, the grenade went off, a showing of robot parts falling in every direction Before the bot could make an attempt to throw the grenade back.

"And that's how you get rid of two birds with one stone. Tough S-O-Bs though, I'll give them that. So who's next?" Montana said looking around for a free target and cracking one of his knuckles ",I need to put some more pain on these guys." He soon spotted another target, or more like several of them in a group seemingly and within his mask he smiled."Perfect, a party to crash."

Charging towards the last of the robots, which seemed to be staggering around with its arm missing after being caught in Was's explosion, Idaho blasted her entire clip into it, only for the tough body armour to leave her opponent still standing. Leaping forward with a throaty growl Kimmie launched herself at the machine, knocking it to the floor with a bodyslam before straddling its chest and smashing her butt of her rifle into its head again and again until nothing remained except smashed and broken components.

Remembering what Wash had said the pink Spartan quickly spun round on the robot's chest, a maneuver she'd perfected during college spring break, and quickly started to smash apart its crotch as well, battering her rifle into the reinforced metal until both it and the robot were reduced to scrap while roaring in primeval rage.

As she stood up, tossing her bent and twisted rifle aside, Idaho quickly snatched up the robot's weapon and checked the chamber to make sure it was loaded. "Well, that was fun." Kimmie said over the radio with a smile, turning to see another group of mechanical men approaching through the side door, with Montana already storming over to greet them.

With a smile and a skip in her step the former cheerleader headed over to help smash up some more government property, Just like at cheer camp, she thought to herself happily. Reaching down to her belt, Kimmie plucked her last grenade from where it had been hanging as she closed in on the tightly packed squad.

Really... Is this it?? Just measly tin cans?? Missouri said to himself as he fluently moved with quick ease managing to avoid a consecutive series of hooks and straight punches being thrown at him by two robots. Missouri had manged to just keep the attention of only these two as the others took on the mainly the bulk of their robot opponents. Now Missouri didn't disregard this training as completely nothing, but he'd hoped for little more... lively opponents to test his combat skills against. As he dodge a right hook from the robot to his left, the right one went in for a tackle at his waist. Seeing the robots intent Missouri then sought to end them quickly. He pulled out his combat knife then jumped into the air flipping sideways mid-air over the robot.

All too easy. He grinned under his helmet, as he threw his serrated combat knife into the skull of the robot that was on his left. As he landed with ease he wasted no time as quickly he sprinted at the same robot and grabbed onto the the handle of the blade and forcefully twisted the robots head in a neck breaking motion. As he yanked the blade out of the destroyed helmet, not even waiting for it to fall down to the ground, he flipped backwards into the air, landing feet first onto his last opponents back and brought down the blade onto the robots neck and twisted it. The sparks shot out the robots neck while it twitched for a moment then laid motionless on the ground. Shame that this is the first test. He thought to himself as he pulled the blade out placing it back into the seethe on his chest. Jumped up onto a broken pillar and took a seat as he watched on the rest of them finish off what remained of their enemies with slight boredom.

As he watched Missouri leaping out of hiding and rip the heads off two of the robots Georgia carefully braced his rifle against his shoulder, preparing to make the shots he knew were coming. "Penny in the air..." The sniper mumbled to himself, panning his scope down to watch the fallen robots as they slowly began to move.

Settling himself down comfortably on top the pillar Missouri didn't even seem to notice the two headless droids lifting themselves up off the floor and reaching over for their rifles. The first shot went straight through the closest robot's chest, taking out the motherboard with a precise strike before continuing on and cutting through the second target's leg. Stumbling as it suddenly found itself trying to balance without the support of its missing limb the robot's rifle shot flew passed Missouri, missing by a foot.

"...and the penny drops." Georgia breathed softly, squeezing his finger a second time on the trigger of his high-powered anti-materiel weapon, causing the robot's chest to explode into fragments even as it corrected its aim, bringing its rifle to point at Georgia's teammate.

Surveying the battlefield he could only see a few of these robots left. A loud horn could be heard over the gunfire and agents shouts. The robots shut down and stood to attention on the spot. The Directors voice then sounded over the intercom. "Alright Agents that enough, You are dismissed for today. You will all be called to the medical bay and have your A.I.s implanted and your armour abilities activated individually today. Apart from this you are free to explore the installation, go to your room or mingle with the other agents. It's entirely up to you. However take the time to rest and hone your skills as we have a mission prepared for you once all the A.I.'s are implanted. This will be the real deal."

Washington reloaded his AR and placed it on the magnetic grip on his back. He did the same with his newly named sticky launcher which he placed instead on the back of his torso. "Well that was a bit nuts right? Those bots always manage to surprise with their resilience to gunfire. Makes you wonder why they don't use them instead right?"

A female voice sounded over the intercom calling Washington to the Directors office. Heading there he knocked on the door hearing the Directors voice calling him in.

"Hello Agent Washington, I thought it would be best if we got you done first."

"Fine by me." Washington replied.

The Director stood up and looked out his window it oversaw the canteen where a lot of the agents had congregated. "Your A.I.. we will be implanting it into you shortly. However you need to sign this waver to agree to us cutting a small part of your brain out. Don't worry it's nothing you'll miss. Please remove you're armour as well."

Pushing a paper and pen across his desk Washington took it in his hands and read over it quickly. He already had it in his mind that he wanted this A.I. so he did not hesitate to sign the paper. The director smiled. Pushing a cup with 3 pill in it. Washington took of his armour, placing it inside the crate that the Director pointed to and swallowed the pills taking the glass that the Director had just filled with water and downing it.

The pill's effects took hold and Washington slumped in his chair. Waking up with a jolt he looked around he was in his room, and he had lost a good five hours. Getting up he massaged his pounding head. As he got up he noticed a movement on the end of his bed. Reaching for his gun he trained it on the end of his bed. "Come out, or you're gonna be in a lot of pain" A small blue replica of himself appeared. It had exactly the same armour on as he had but was no larger than a Pint glass.

"Hey there, sorry I didn't mean to scare you. My name is Epsilon."

Washington's eye were wide open as the blue man disappeared and reappeared on his shoulder.

"The Director implanted me inside a small chip located at the back of your head. You can if you wish remove me whenever you want. However the Director says that's a bad idea. It wont hurt your or anything, it's just The Director wants us in your heads all the time. He also had them activate your suits ability. You my friend have the ability of teleportation. You can move yourself or objects through spaces. It works in about a one mile radius. Please be aware that you cannot teleport big objects or more than one person if you try more than one you might end up leaving stuff behind. Like legs or internal organs."

Washington smirked as he put his armour back on. "Noted Epsilon. Tell you what buddy I think we're going to get along just fine."

Leaping in the air, waving her rifle over her head, Idaho hollered loudly as the simulation ended. "You see that? We kicked their tin-plated asses!" She screamed over the radio, laughing jubilantly. After a couple of minutes she finally seemed to calm down a little, dropping the captured rifle on the floor and bending over to take some deep breaths, reaching up with her hand to flip open her helmet as she did. Iy was only then she remembered the grenade she was holding, the pin missing but activation plate still held firmly in her hand.

"Umm, guys..." She started, before quickly changing her mind. This was her first day with the new team and she didn't want to look like a total klutz or anything. Peering around one of the tall pillars she spotted a group of the training robots gathering together, lining themselves up ready for their next order to come through. Carefully tossing them grenade down amidst the group Idaho quickly but nonchalantly began to walk away, flinching as she heard the robots blowing up behind her but not looking back as she made her way out into the base.

Hoisting the sniper rifle up onto his shoulder Georgia carefully began the long climb back down towards the ground, stopping halfway to see a group of the training robots caught in an explosion which toppled them like bowling pins, only to see them rise back to their feet again a moment later.

As he watched from his perch the sniper saw that most of the robots were still functional, even the one with noly one leg left, and as the others left the training ground their opponents had already begun to reconstruct themselves, slotting limbs back into place and reattaching heads as though the exercise had never happened. Only a few were still laid out immobile on the ground, their damage too severe to recover from easily, but a surprising number of the tin cans had already gathered together awaiting new orders.

Shaking his head in disbelief Georgia quickly headed over towards the door, trying not to draw the attention of the machines, just in case any of them held a grudge. "Perhaps next time I should bring a missile launcher," he mumbled to himself, shifting the heavy rifle on his shoulder as he made his way to the locker room.

Virginia left the training room. She went to her room and fell asleep in her armor. She only awoke to the sound of someone knocking at her door. The nameless face wanted her to proceed to the medical facility for her implantation. "So they decided I needed to increase my cup size then." The nameless face didn't know how to respond, he started to stammer. "Well lead the way boy, I don't have all day." The still confused nameless face lead the way.

At the medical facility she didn't listen to what they had to say, they were going on and on about this and that. "Just shut up and give me the damn forms to sign already." They extended the clipboard with the forms, she yanked it out of the doctor or nurse's hand. She signed it and tossed it over her head. She began to strip her armor right there. She made several of the medical personnel uncomfortable since she had nothing on underneath. She laid down on the table. They gave her the drugs to knock her out and proceeded with the implantation.

She woke up later in a bed, her head itched where they sliced her open. She knew from experience that scratching the area was a bad idea. She then felt a presence in the room. "Come out A.I." The A.I. started to explain a bunch of stuff. "Yeah, I don't care. Run the special equipment and that's it. If I need your advice or input I will ask for it. Don't count on me ever asking though. Also don't plan on trying to betray me, I'll make sure you don't survive."

There was a knock on the door. She got up, she was wearing some kind of hospital gown. "Ugh!" She removed it. She went to the door and opened it all the way. "Yes?" The same nameless face from before, he went bug eyed. He managed to stammer out that her armor was returned to her room. The A.I. couldn't help herself it started to giggle hysterically at the man's obvious arousal and discomfort with seeing Virginia like this. "Thank you, how kind of you to return it. How long do I have to stay here in this recovery room?" He stammered out a time. "Good not much longer then." She shut the door in his face. "Act professional A.I. I can't have you giggling like an immature school girl."

"To victory!" Kimmie yelled, tossing back another flavoured vodka shot. This one tasted like peaches, or perhaps grapefruit? By this point her mouth was already starting to go numb and it was difficult for the agent to stay up on her feet. Luckily the two hunky off-duty guards standing either side of her made sure she remained upright, their hands gripping her body in just the right way to let Idaho know their intentions were not entirely honourable.

When the runner came up behind her and called her name it took several seconds for Idaho to register that the young woman was actually talking to her, but when she did she spun round angrily, "What did you just call me!?!"

"Agent Idaho? I've been sent to escort you for your implantation." The uniformed woman said in a clipped, professional manner, her eyes fixed straight ahead and never wavering for a moment.

"Oh," Idaho gasped, her mind reeling as she tried to come to terms with the sudden change of pace. Suddenly bursting into a wide smile Kimmie draped her arm over the reasonably attractive woman's shoulder and waved her hand in rough the direction she thought the door was in. "Well then, lead the way."

Pivoting in place, her arm moving around Idaho's waist to help guide the drunk agent, the runner turned Kimmie to face in the right direction before half leading, half carrying her out into the hall.

"You have the most gorgeous eyes, y'know?" Kimmie muttered, resting her head on the woman's bosom as she was hauled down to the medical wing.

Several hours later Kimmie sat up on the medical cot, her hand moving up to her forehead to rub away the painful throbbing. "Oooww!" She moaned, her voice deep and crackly, "I feel like someone scooped out my brains, put them through a blender and then made me drink them."

"I think you're right about the first part, but I'm not so sure about the rest," came a small, childlike voice, seemingly out of nowhere.

Opening one eye as she rubbed the other with the heel of her hand Kimmie carefully peered around the recovery suite, trying to spot who'd spoken. After a few seconds she spotted the woman curled up naked on the bed beside her, the same reasonably attractive woman she had a hazy recollection of from the night before. "Oh God, not again..." She muttered to herself, "Please tell me I didn't..."

"I'm afraid you did, Agent Idaho, several times in fact. I managed to record most of it in my memory banks, if you'd like to review the footage..?" A small window popped up in front of Kimmie, seemingly floating in the air a foot in front of her. What was shown there seemed to be a low-quality first person recorded amateur porno, with extreme close-ups of what looked like someone's ear, or their...

"NO!!!" Kimmie screamed loudly, waving her arms through the display to try and make it go away as she stared at the door hoping no-one came in until she got rid of it. "Delete it! Delete it! Delete it!!!" She hissed as loudly as she could while at the same time trying not to wake the runner who shifted under the sheets as Idaho's frantic motions disturbed her sleep.

Jumping off the bed Kimmie landed unsteadily on her feet, her arms extending out for a moment to balance herself as she looked around the room guiltily. "Where the hell are my clothes?" She asked the intangible voice, which was obviously a real thing and not some hallucination, unlike the last time.

"I'm afraid to say the doctors thought it best to have those 'alcohol soaked rags' incinerated. However some appropriate attire may be found in the storage locker 37 degrees to your right and 4.2 meters in front of you." The voice answered helpfully.

Moving over to the closet Kimmie opens in to find several Service-issue jumpsuits of the one-size-never-fits-all variety. "You call this appropriate attire?" She asked the voice petulantly.

"It's certainly better than what you're wearing at the moment," the AI responded, its young voice dripping with disapproval.

Sticking out her tongue to a nearby mirror Kimmie quickly pulled one of the jumpsuits on over her naked, sweat-stained body before turning and looking at her reflection critically. "Damn, I look hideous. Like a potato sack made love to a garbage bag and then aborted the baby." She commented, trying to smooth out the crumpled jumpsuit to no avail. "What should I call you by the way, other than 'Dad'?"

"I'm not sure why you'd identify me as a parental figure at all, although you may want to clean up that makeup of yours before we leave, if that's what you're planning on doing," the AI responded, in a clipped precise tone. "My designation is Theta, but you may call me 'Papa'."

"Was that supposed to be a joke?" Kimmie asked, holding her throbbing head in her hand as she made her way out into the corridor, leaving the sleeping guard naked on the hospital behind her. "Because if it was, it sucked."

As he sat up on the medical cot Georgia was just in time to see Idaho jogging out of the ward as quickly as her jump-sack covered butt could carry her. A few moments later one of the guards appeared in the doorway to private room she and Idaho had spent the night in, clutching a stained sheet in front of her which did precious little to hide her unclothed state. Glancing round a few time, bleary eyed and confused, the guard made her way out into the base as well.

Laying back Georgia sighed at the memory of the pert backside which had just vanished from view. "Some girls have all the luck," he mumbled, letting his eyes stare at the ceiling as he pictured just what Idaho and the girl had been upto the night before.

"That's disgusting," The irritating voice in his head called out as a puddle of what seemed like water coalesced on his chest before rising up to take on the form of a slightly butch, but still very attractive female figure.

Georgia shrugged his shoulder unconcerned, "It's only natural for people to want to hook up during wartime. It helps them feel alive and reminds us all what we're fighting for." He told the AI dismissively.

"I wasn't talking about that," Kappa replied, leaning towards him with a scowl chiselled into her stern, but beautiful face. "I was talking about that!" She said, pointing her transparent, holographically projected finger down at where the large bulge was clearly visible between Georgia's legs.

Rolling on his side, forcing Kappa to float over to hover in the air an inch above the bedsheet, Georgia tucked a hand under his neck to get himself a little more comfortable before replying, making sure to tuck one leg over the other so that no casual observers spotted his man reaction. "Don't worry about it so much, it's just a biological imperative when seeing two beautiful post-coital women together."

As he lay there one of the medical orderlies, a mildly attractive young girl with a fantastic set of ankles, came over to the bed while examining a chart. "You're free to go as soon as you'd like, Agent Georgia." She said in a professional tone, her voice droning slightly from boredom. "The tests are all clear, but if you suffer any headaches, nausea or loss of life please report back as soon as possible."

"That's great," Georgia replied with a strained smile. "I'll just be a minute, just getting myself comfortable."

The orderly looked over at him with a scowl which mirrored Kappa's so perfectly Georgia wondered if they'd somehow managed to map the girl's personality onto the AI without frying her brain in the process. "I'm afraid I'm going to have to insist you leave immediately. We have to keep these beds clear in case of a medical emergency." She droned in her bored monotonic way.

Then again, with that voice perhaps they did fry her brain, he thought with a chuckle as he slipped off the bed, trying to hunch himself over enough that his swelling wouldn't be too obvious to the girl.

"I heard that," Kappa snapped, "And you should be ashamed of yourself."

Rolling his eyes Georgia shuffled off towards the exit, heading back to his quarters for a nice cold shower while wondering whether soaking his head in a bucket would have any effect on Kappa's implanted chip.