Ain't nobody fucking with my clique.

[hostage]

Date & Time: April 20-22, 1915
Location: The trenches of the German front near Ypres, West Flanders, Belgium
Characters: Jesse, Rin & Vanadi
Summary: Three idiots steal 5,730 cylinders of benzyl cyanide from the German army. It's a mission.
Warnings: History.

The front looks more like the end of the world than the end of the world does. Five battles will be fought here eventually. The first was back in November and the next will erupt in two days. The land has yet to even recover from the previous battle and the winter that followed, not to mention Belgian scorched earth strategies. The trees are bare and dead, the grass and crops replaced by mud that stretches across flat land for miles in every direction. What few buildings remain standing are only skeletal ruins of their former selves.

The Germans have dug their trenches to the west of a canal, with the British, French, Canadian, and Belgian troops forming a salient that juts out into the German territory so that the front looks more like a curve than a line. The particular spot our heroes land is close to the only hill in sight, Gravenstafel, where the Germans are planning to launch their first gas attack. Their trenches are a maze around this hill, with the enemy line and the town of Ypres in clear view.

Comments

[payback]

[Rin's own hologram portrays here as a young soldier with a weak chin and cheeks that have somehow retained the pudginess of youth through the deprivations of war. Currently, the aspect reflects her pinched expression, and the filth of the surrounding terrain - the man's skin might be pale to fit with his otherwise unathletic presentation, but it's hard to tell through the mud ground into the pores.]

A hotel? [She looks at Vanadi as though he's crazy.] There can't be one for miles.

[At least - it's very hard to imagine something like familiar human habitation around here.]

[hostage]

[Jesse needs a moment. He's seen photos of scenes like this one, even watched one or two specials on the History Channel, but it's way scarier being there in person. He hadn't worried about this mission a bit beforehand, sort of expecting it to go as easily as the larger missions do. But there's only three of them. And they're in the middle of this place where a lot of people have died and are going to die. He is so not qualified for this.

He swallows hard, his hand resting on his gun holster for some kind of reassurance.]

U-Um... We should probably...

[He looks all around and edges so slightly closer to the other two. The land is so flat and so nothing. They're totally exposed.]

We should probably just get down in the trenches, right? They sleep there, don't they?

[payback]

We should get out of sight. [That much she knows. A hotel. She thinks of it longingly. How come the big groups got the cushy jobs? How come the three of them get sent alone to hell?]

Vanadi - you first? How tall are those things? Let's go. [She's edging towards Jesse now, reflexively drawing into their tiny frightened knot.] Let's get out of here.

[implying]

We're not going down there. [ It sounds more horrified than any sort of actual objection. Really, if the only two people he knows here insist on it, he'll be going down there. Maybe even with minimal complaint.

He edges to the lip of the nearest trench, peering down into it. No dead bodies are immediately in sight, which is encouraging. ]

Gods, I can practically hear the rats, or centipedes, or whatever else.

[hostage]

[Jesse, at the same time, is sort of positioning himself to shield Rin from any surprise attacks that might happen to come out of the no-man's-land while her back is turned to it. It's not that he's sexist, but he's totally sexist. Anyway, it looks like Vanadi's been volunteered for diving first into the pit.]

You're seriously worried about centipedes right now? Don't be such a little bitch.

[payback]

Jesse--! [But she kind of agrees with him, honestly. Rin reaches out to take Vanadi by his nearest arm and then pulls firmly.] I'm not staying up here. Come on. We're going now.

hey did u guys know i suck

[implying]

[ It's a testament to circumstances that the guy who usually lets insults slide right off him, steps back to accidentally trod on Jesse's foot. With his heavier, metallic left foot, at that.

Sorry, Rin, looks like the babysitting gig has begun. ]

Oh, sorry. Ah, but it was very nice of you the volunteer to go first.