A World in Between

Buzzard's scarred exo suit regulated his temperature in the hot sun to make him comfortable even with this desert heat. He could feel the thermo-gel shifting throughout the skin tight underlayer to shift heated areas away to cooler areas only to circulate them back again. It was an extremely efficient method of keeping a ERF soldier from cooking or freezing on a backwater planet. Buzzard readjusted his grip on the revolver in his hand as he stared at the oasis ahead of him. It was perhaps an hours walk with all the dunes in between but easily doable.

The ERF soldier's visorless helmet instituted a series of semi passive plates which worked like a one way mirror. His heads up display clearly showed the various landmarks he could use to navigate between here and there but an anomaly in the corner of his vision caught his eye. It was as if there were a shine coming from the distance that never wavered regardless of where he looked. He thought about it for only an instant before the muscles of his leg and the TROW suit which amplified them sprang into action. Leaping from the dune, the paranoid ERF soldier got away from what he was sure was scope glint. His heavily armored body landed on the down slope of the dune and he rolled to keep his momentum going and he bounded the next dune so that he could utilize sensors on the top of his helmet to spy what it was that targeted him without making too much of a target.

The Redeye module came back with it's conclusion. There was simply too much dust and scattering for her to make a shot at this distance even if she had wanted to do so. More importantly it noted the high possibility of a dust storm kicking up soon. Amira decided she would keep watch a few moments more to gather information. The suited figure seemed to only be armed with a large pistol of some type and so there was little fear in the chance of taking fire.

About the time she had made her decision, Amira saw the suited figure leap or fall from the top of the dune before tumbling down between the slopes where she could not see him. She slowly lowers and then slings her rifle on the off chance that her scope had caused a glint that might have been seen. After a moment she begins to wonder if they were injured as they did not crest the next dune.

For the soldier, the sight of what appeared to be a someone in a strange but clearly military exosuit armed with a large rifle might have come as a surprise. Compared to his own, the suit would appear bulky and of a completely independent, but no less dangerous, design theory. Even as he watched, the large mono-eye sensor on the helmet slowly panned back and forth in a searching manner while the operator slowly slung their weapon.

The dumb AI in Buzz's exosuit analyzed the stranger's armor for a moment and declared it was similar in effectiveness to his own with some minor differences in size. This made the ERF soldier wonder where in the hell he actually landed himself and in a moment he retracted the sensors atop his helmet before sliding down the dune so that he could flank off to the right. His HUD kept a vague impression of where the figure had been visible so he could skirt around several dunes to the side in order to get a closer look. Buzz's black TROW armor and undersuit beneath radiated the heat from the desert and he knew he'd be screwed if that militant had any sort of thermal detection.

Rolling his armored shoulders, Buzz let the plates surrounding the sides of his feet span out slightly to give him a greater surface area while running upon sand and he bounded up the dune to the left of the stranger and mounted its peak while pulling a wickedly efficient looking knife from his chest plate. He held the knife in the reverse grip beneath his revolver so that it would stabilize the weight of the firearm while also providing enhanced melee capabilities should this come down to a brawl. While Buzz's helmet could use the weapon's sensor to create a cross hair in his HUD, the ERF soldier equally utilized the iron sights to train a bead on the unknown militant's torso.

Any round from this weapon was capable of piercing through the powered shields of his armor as well as much of the armor plating. Should it come down to, Buzz was confident a couple of well placed shots to the joints would sufficiently disable them enough to allow for interrogation tactics to work. Chinning a control in his helmet, external speakers crackled to life and amplified the ERF soldier's voice as he stood atop the dune in his black armor with that visorless helmet, upon which a human skull had been carved. "Easy now! Keep your weapon holstered! I don't intend to harm you. I'm merely trying to figure out where the hell I am!"

Amira was still as death. She had just been shown how severely wrong she was and and how complacent she had gotten. kneeling as she was there was little chance for her to move in any meaningful way. It was both a sobering situation yet oddly Amira felt in some way it was actually funny. Maybe she had been out in the desert too long.

Looking over towards the man, the 'eye' of her helmet panning in his direction the only indication that she had done so, she takes a good long look at his scarred armor, his weapons...and the skull carved into the helmet face. She knew it was to cause fear. In the right circumstances her own helmet design served the same purpose.

Chinning her own voice amplifier Amira speaks slowly and in a calm tone "Relax. If I had wanted to hurt you, I would have shot you on the dune." slowly she begins to stand, being careful to keep her left hand away from the heat hawk at her waist "Hell is a good name for this place. No official name for this place so we call it Dakkis. Since you just asked that question, you must be what fell out here. you're either the luckiest person alive....or the unluckiest depending on your perspective." While Amira honestly did not want to fire when he was on top of the dune, she was not going to tell him the fact that she actually couldn't at that time.

"I'm beginning to think the latter! Someone with a suit like that must have a place to maintain it which might also might double as a place where two suns aren't baking down on them. Now I'd hate to pressure you and this revolver is heavier than it looks. Do you think we could maybe hash this out in the shade?" Buzz's revolver was indeed about ten pounds of metal, a weight which his augmented muscles had become used to but still struggled to hold for long periods of time. This weapon had been designed for executing enemy militants in heavy suits of armor at close range. However, he wasn't about to tell her that beyond twenty five yards, he might as well have been trying to shoot her with a bent barrel.

Buzz lifted his off hand from the weapon and held it up in the air as he lowered his revolved and let it click into place on a magnetic patch upon his thigh. Only then did he hold both hands up and make his way down the dune only to climb his way up onto hers. It was obvious when he grew closer that the bulkiness of her armor compensated for her size. When she was able to get a better look at him, it became apparent that his armor was made in layers and would be about as difficult as hers to punch through. Scarred plates covered the vital areas of his body while a dark undersuit meshed with some sort of metal covered the rest of him. Special attention had been placed on making armored joints which could move as he did and something told her that all of that was much heavier than it looked. "So Dakkis, huh? My scans called it B18452-E before I crashed into it. It also said that this entire planet was uninhabitable.. However."

Reaching up, Buzz grabbed at his helmet and twisted until a click was heard. Only then did he pull the helmet off and view the armored woman with his own eyes. His brown hair was cut short and he had multiple scars upon his face. His eyes were a curiously silver color and it seemed as if they had larger pupils than an ordinary human might have. Breathing in deeply, the ERF soldier glanced around the arid landscape. "Someone has been feeding some wrong information into the databases."

She waited until the man had holstered his weapons before she replied again, relaxing her stance as she did "Something like that. But yeah, no one comes out at this time of day. Just about every piece of equipment begins to overheat after only a short time."

Now much closer it was at least somewhat clear that her armor was of an older design, with clear indications of various upgrades being applied over time. The newest additions being the black, unpainted chest armor and anchoring points. Compared to the sleek armor of the man, it was like a older reliable truck sitting beside a sleek modern sports car. Different design yet the base concept remained generally the same. Personally Amira did not care for the man's armor, disliking that it did not appear as capable of protection as her own, though it clearly was enough to survive the his arrival on the planet.

When the man removed his helmet and thus showing at least a modicum of trust, Amira finally moved. Turning to head back into the treeline yet in a way that allowed her too watch over the man, Amira commented "Hard to report proper information back if you never leave. This entire planet is like a ship trap. We call it Dakkis because of how soft our landing was. 'The ship and the planet....they kissed.' as the ships original engineer described it. Eventually the name Dakkis came from referring to the crash then to the planet as a whole since we had no name for it."

It would only take a few minutes to reach her outpost, now that the paths had been recut. What greets the man is small cluster of almost overgrown wooden structures, little more then shacks within eyesight of the oasis. A simple metal building at the far end was identifiable as some type of garage with a small section of some small vehicle visible. At one point the outpost had supported at least a small combat unit, though that was clearly no longer the case. Leading the way towards a building with a small radio tower, Amira waved around "Welcome to Crossroads outpost. Please hang your weapons by the door and then we can chat. You drink?"

Buzz followed the woman through the shifting sands into the tree line. Despite her bulky armor he was indeed much larger than her due to the physical augmentations to his actual body. He slipped his helmet back on due to the heat and sighed in relief as he felt atmosphere hiss into his helmet. He took a deep breath and rolled his shoulders while several of the plates along his back clacked and shifted to better distribute heat. The ERF soldier looked up at the outpost and shook his head in disbelief. Out of all the places he thought he might find on a desert planet, a bar was not one of them.

"Alcohol seems like it would definitely mix best without weapons around. Suppose we just have to deal with the fact that the two of us could dispatch entire fireteams without them." Buzz chuckled slightly and hung his revolver up as he entered the establishment. The shade immediately felt relieving as his heavy boots thudded upon the floor. "I suppose most places often have literal names. No one is ever really creative when they get stranded somewhere. I probably would have called it hell hole."

The interior of the building was extremely basic. What had once served as the communications building of the outpost had been taken over completely by it's lone occupant. Several desk had been pushed into one corner to make one long bench upon which radio equipment and various tools lay. The opposite corner held a pair of bunks, also pushed together to double the size, along with a badly beaten mini fridge, a few folding chairs and a large trunk.

Along the left wall was the most interesting site in the entire building, a pair of movable armor stands. One was occupied by what could only be called the opposite of Amira's current suit. Heavily armored, it was much more aggressively styled. But the example sitting in the stand had seen better days. The entire suit was covered in burn marks and heavy shrapnel damage consistent with close proximity to multiple large explosions. It was clearly inoperable with a hand scrawled note reading 'Send to Central. Overhaul.' stuck on it's chest.

While making a beeline straight for the empty stand Amira waves at the other suit, commenting "That's a given....unless they use a lot of explosives. That's what happened to the other one here. It tanked a door trap. Operator didn't do as well."

"I'll be out of this thing in a moment.There are a few bottles in the fridge. Grab a pair and a chair..." turning around and back up to the stand, Amira doesn't bother removing her weapons and leaves them attached to her suit. With a hiss the back half of the suit unfolds and allows it's occupant to step out of the suit before closing itself back. Stepping around the suit Amira is fully revealed, once again the opposite of her new guest. Small, tanned with rough cut hair and light green eyes.

Buzz made his way over to the mini fridge and took a moment to realize just how odd his day had been. Less than 24 hours ago, he was prepping for a mission on this very planet where it was told a rebel base existed. Of course, they scanned everything with sophisticated technology but came up with nothing. Oftentimes rebels would plant false rumors about huge forces so that FDS forces would run around and keep their numbers spread thin. This didn't very much appear like a rebel base so it was fairly easy for the ERF soldier to grab a couple beers and use the edge of an armor plate to remove the caps. Placing them on the bench, Buzz lifted his own and took a swig. He wasn't about to tell this woman that this was his first beer ever. He didn't much care for the taste but that was usually to be expected.

When she removed her armor, Buzz was even more surprised to see that she was even smaller than he imagined. Looking down at himself, the ERF soldier gave a small chuckle and gestured to her suit. "That's not a bad design, the FDS doesn't have anything like that for ground troops. Powered armor is usually only reserved for the ERF and even then its fitted to the user. Only way I'm stepping out of this is with a bunch of egg head scientists using their rigs to pull these plates off me." He gestured then towards the destroyed suit of armor. "Friend of yours?"

Leaning against the stand Amira shrugs as she taps her own suit "Frames are mostly universal. It means easy repairs on and off the field along with upgrades and the like. No fitting really needed except for size. But that's mainly in the legs and arms. Doesn't take long though."
Nodding to the other suit Amira smiles slightly "She's alive but she's stuck in a chair for a while. Maybe forever. But in a way it's for the best really. She's back in Central and safe. I'm hoping to rotate back there myself soon."

Amira was quick to pull a folding chair from her bedside and drags it over to the bench before snagging her own beer. Taking back her spot against the armor stand, she takes a long swig before pointing at the empty seats "FDS and ERF....you're one of Terra's hounds huh? Well we've been down here on this weird planet for about five years. We didn't want any part in your squabble with the colonies. Still don't." Emptying her bottle with another long swig, Amira proceeds to wag the end of the bottle at her guest "With that done...what's you're name? Mine's Amira."

Life was different for people not with the ERF. They developed relationships that transcended duty. They could love, have children, be friends, all of that would simply distract an ERF soldier. It's why they were created... Controlled. Buzz eyed the damaged suit of armor for another instant, remembering how many of those he'd seen, some with his team mates still in them, torn to shreds.

"So that's why nothing showed up in the database.. You shoot down the mapping drones. Smart.. The ERF soldiers weren't given names.. The only names we have is the ones we've earned, and even those aren't authorized. My official designation is Charlie Zero Nine Three.. But my team calls me Buzzard or buzz because I'd won most of my training bouts by using scavenged weapons." Buzz lifted his helmet off and revealed that despite his overall human appearance, he was indeed a little different, more synthetic. His eyes were larger and possessed a hue that no natural born human could have.

His features were perfectly symmetrical and aside from scars, seemed too perfect. Unlike many other exo suits which also augmented a user's height and size, his was simply built around his frame which was even larger still than her own exo suit. Overall he looked as if someone had taken their idea of a perfect soldier willing to die for whatever cause they felt like and brought it to life.

Nodding slowly as she motions towards her rifle Amira comments "Only if they get too close. We prefer to hide or spoof them so that they think nothing is there. Like I said...we don't want in on earth's fight with the colonies. Best way is to not be found by either side."

Amira shakes her head even as she stares Buzz down. It was her first good look at him without his helmet on. It didn't take a genius to realize he had been altered. Tampered with only in order to benefit the Terran elite. "I'm sorry about what they have done to all you Buzz. I'm sure this is not the kind of life you wanted....But now you have the choice to live for yourself. I-"

She's interrupted when the radio crackles to life. "Silva to Amira. Skywatch has detected more incoming debris. Please seek cover and give a status update."

Previous generations of the ERF soldiers had been created by placing genetically altered emryos in female prisoners which had been deemed unable to provide anything to society. Those generations could at least say they had mothers, even if they destroyed them while they were born. Buzz was born in a lab, floating in a tank without ever having known anything but service. Despite the circumstance, he was devoted to the FDF and his team mates. Perhaps that was ingrained in his genetics but he had never known any other desire than service. "Perhaps that's just the thing, Amira.." He stood up and grabbed his helmet while putting his drink down. "I've always been living for myself."

Buzz pulled that helmet over his head and clicked it into place, allowing atmosphere to hiss across his cheeks. His HUD lit up and displayed his vital signs and the state of his armor. Rolling his shoulders the ERF soldier made his way to the door and pushed it open only to stand silhouetted by the bright sun outside. His frame was frozen as he looked up the heavens where a large shape entered low orbit in a degrading entry. It's mass of steel and twisted frame hurtled towards Dakkis like some whale falling to the ocean floor. Turning to look back toward Amira, she wouldn't have been able to see the worry on his face. "Amira.. Does anyone live over there?" He pointed towards the general direction the mass of steel was going to fall in.

Amira slowly sets her empty bottle down on the radio bench as she stares at buzz replacing his helmet and moving to the door. Without a word she steps back around the armor stand, palming her suits entry panel. It takes but a short moment for her suit to open and for Amira to enter. She was already moving even as the suit finished closing and sealing itself around her.

Beneath her helmet her expression was one of concern. Considering his sudden movements, she was worried that he might turn hostile...and after seeing underneath the helmet, she had no desire to fight him outside her suit or at all.

Picking up the radios microphone, Amira chins her external speakers and replies "This is Amira to Silva. Understood. One survivor found. Situation developing. Currently non-hostile." Her voice was flat and pure business. She could have used her helmet radio, but doing so to let Buzz hear her as well.

When Buzz turns around and ask about anyone living in the direction north of Crossroads, she looks at him from the side with her helmet's 'eye' again "There's a small group in that direction. Not one of ours. Why?" She couldn't see his face and his voice gave little away as well. Luckily he couldn't see her own face growing even more concerned. Why would he suddenly ask that?