[color=silver] Not even a single smoke for his troubles. Great.

So while everyone was busy with their thoughts on their perfection, questions of morality, spiking volleys of tension and overall ruining the... joyous mood he was stuck as an afterthought. Oh well. He supposed it didn't surprise him to heavily given how young they all were and just how much that idealism sunk in.

He remembered it wasn't too long ago when he had expressed his ideals publicly. He had done so in the Federation under the assumption that the democratic powers would have allowed the free speech and splendor of unhindered opinion as he had been bragged to time and time again by locals and recruiters. He also remembered trying to leave that place when people got quite upset at how passionate he had been in his speech and was faced with dodging broken glass and threats of being fed to the law. He's thankful Cassie was there with explosives to bust out and he was thankful that the gang was hiding their identity at the time for a small job. What an idiot he was for believing that the Federation would uphold those wonderful lies at every level. Even so, it had cost him another shred of purity.

He felt his left arm with his right index, sliding his finger across in a curved motion before tapping the end as though he could see the scar there with x-ray vision. He had trailed from beginning to end as though he could relive the motions from beginning to end wrapped up in a wound that would never heal. He fixed his uniform and raised an eyebrow as he heard something drop next to his boots. He listened to the argument with a roll of the eyes after he had already ducked down to look at the noise and smiled from ear to ear. Hallard's. A sweet pack of Hallard's Brimstone Cigarettes. [color=gold]Jackpot![/color]

He put the pack back into his pocket and thanked whatever force was out there that allowed him to have this as a breather. He pushed off of the wall of the trench and sighed internally as things came to a head. Although, in all honestly, Ms. Wagner seemed to be quite the beauty and her strength only came as an attractive distraction. Even for as much as he would have liked to be kind to the man for being his stand in doctor he couldn't help but want to tell him that he deserved what he was getting for speaking out of line like that. He just hand picked her and went straight for accusations. He didn't know what to think of Archibald other than being a bit too naive for his own good and admittedly he liked the man for helping him but he knew very little of him and understood little of his faith. It would just be best to move on. He looked over to Michael who had already went his way and simply returned his attention to the two, giving Michael a wave goodbye before he went his way.

[color=#115DA8]
"We should try to have peace. Sleep even. Lets not throw away our lives before we can live them. The faster we end this war the less time we have to spend yelling at each other. Ms. Wagner, I'd like to talk to you as soon as you can manage. Thank you for the help, doctor." [/color] He spoke to Mila and Archibald respectively.

[@AtomicNut][@Letter Bee]

With that the rifleman rolled his shoulder and walked off a bit further from the rest where he pulled out a cigarette and lit it with a match. A tight suck, a soft release...

Ah...

The pain just melted away...

He felt like he could think clearly for a moment. He felt as though all they had went through had not been for nothing. Sure, some things were going to stay with him, but for now he just wanted to... relax... relax... Wait.

A thought went through his mind as he took a look at the terrain and the layout of the trench. He thought more about the battle and all that had occurred. It had mostly been bullet rain, hadn't it? Where was the artillery? Artillery... artillery... 

[quote]
[color=0AB100][b][i]"It is our duty, to the Federation and to humanity itself, to do whatever it takes to end the miserable war and cripple the bastards that identify as Imperials. Their dictatorship and outdated ideologies are to be destroyed by us, by you! Over this trench lies Hill 58, the most important sector of the Garnian Salient. For days, and weeks, on end, artillery pieces atop of this hill have shelled us relentlessly and have managed to garner the range to fire into the town this Salient aims to protect. We have been tasked by our highest commanders to go forth and take this hill out of their grasp and to secure it immediately. This is a high-priority operation, thus we will be dealing with it as such."[/i][/b] [/color]
[/quote]


His eyes wandered. The trench appeared to be empty. The field appeared to be empty. Enough artillery to bring a town to its knees yet where was it? This... this wasn't right. Franz marched back to Mila as soon as he was able, stopping her wherever she may have been.

[color=#115DA8]
"Wagner? I think we have a problem. We were told this hill was able to bombard a city and cripple it but where is all the artillery we were supposed to capture? I'm a little late because of my wound but has the order been given to fortify in case of a shelling?" [/color] He took his cigarette out of his mouth, tapping it to allow some of the build up of ashes dust off to the side.

[/color]