Grigor Linsky stepped into the mildy heated recruitment centre on Planet Volgograd, a slight grin on his face. Although only being out of the military two years, seeing the Coalition symbol made him think of better times. Before some Corsair decided to play the Xylophone with his spinal cord, leaving him unable to fight in the army sense. A pilot however, he could do. He had retired from the military two years before and had decided instead of sitting in his small house waiting to die he would get out there and continue to serve the cause as he had done all of his life.
He looked past the flag for a minute and examined where he was standing. A small room, grey tiling covering the floor and ceiling and a large arrangement of benches to each side of the room. The benches formed a path that led to a booth at the end of the room. Grigor's back began to hurt after an hour of standing up, but he had still decided to walk to the recruitment centre. Showing weakness was something he was taught not to do back in training.
He took a seat on one of empty benches near the front of the line and began thinking of the better times. He guessed about a 20 minute wait before he was at the front desk, but he wouldn't care if it was a 20 day wait. He didn't want to sit at home and rot without doing anything productive for the cause. He suddenly had a memory from his training. He had been scared back then, and although the training beat that out of him long ago before it had done so he was truely terrified. He was young, seventeen, and was standing in a line with other recruits about his age. The commander of the training facility was walking towards them. A small pistol was in his hand. Grigor knew what it meant, but the others didn't have a clue. The commander arrived, and held the gun out to one of the recruits two from Grigor's left. And then he knew. The recruit knew what the commander was going to say next, and Grigor watched him as his brain went through all the options. They were all so alike he knew exactly what he was thinking. I can't run, I can't run, they'll hunt me down and kill me. Oh I never should of come here, i've made a mistake and now i'm going to pay for it. The recruit tried to catch the eyes of his comrades. Help me! Help me! his eyes screamed, but Grigor and the rest of the recruits were blind to him. Finally, the recruit gave in. I have to do it, I can not escape so I must do it.
'Ukase,' the commander had said. An order from an absolute authority. The recruit takes the small pistol in his hand, just staring at it for a few moments. Finally he looks back at the commander and says.
'Nichevo,' he had replied. Think nothing of it. He looked at the pistol for a few seconds more, than put it in his mouth. He looked at his fellow recruits, trying to see if any of them would decide to help him. None of them did. Facing defeat, the recruit pulled the trigger.
Blood and brain matter flew upward and the poor boys body stood for a few more seconds, then collapsed into a heap on the floor. The commander had walked away then.
Grigor was knocked out of his small dream when he saw that the person before him was already at the front desk, being told to head to one room of many. Finally he saw the recruit get up and head to a door, then close it behind him. Grigor moved out of his seat and stood infront of the desk.
'Name please?' A small man behind the desk asked.
'Colonel Grigor Linsky, here to reapply for the cause.'
'Room five then please, and welcome back sir.' he replied, then pointed towards the door at the end of one of the halls marked "5". Grigor moved towards it and opened the door. He gave a very small smile as he saw it looked exactly like the one he had been in when he applied for the cause the first time, all of those years ago. A large man sat behind the desk. Grigor could see in his eyes that he had seen alot of action. And that is why Grigor instantly respected him. The man at the desk stood up and saluted. Grigor returned the salute, a little rusty but he could still do that.
'Please, sit.' the man said. 'My name is Vladimir Shumilov, I have just been going through your record.'
Grigor sat as instructed and waited patiently as Vladimir finished reading his life from a file. A few minutes later Vladimir placed the file flatly on the desk and began to speak again.
'Your record is impeccable, not a flaw I can see. Except that you were captured by the Corsairs and some sort of injury to your spine forced you to quit the army, why have you returned?'
'All being a pilot takes is sitting in a chair, and unfortunately i've become very good at that. I'm here because I don't want to spend the last years of my life sitting in a small house waiting and wanting to die.' Vladimir gave a large grin that stretched from ear to ear, then placed a small recording device infront of him.
'Name?'
'Colonel Grigor Linsky.'
'You won't be a Colonel if you get accepted, we don't have that rank in the flying division. You'll be back to square one.'
'I know that sir, better to be at the bottom then not be there at all.'
'Age?'
'Sixty-five.'
'You don't look a day over fifty.'
'I moisturize sir.'
Vladimir caught the joke and gave a loud laugh.'
'Weight?'
'One hundred and eighty pounds sir.'
'Height.'
'Five foot seven inches sir.'
'DOB?'
'Semptember twenty-seventh 752 A.S.'
'Place of birth?'
'Planet Volgograd.'
Vladimir pressed the stop button on the recorder and stood. Grigor also stood and shook Vladimir's outstretched hand.
'Thats all we need to know for the moment, we will contact you shortly.' He saluted and Grigor returned it. Then he turned around and left the room. Grigor also left the room via the door he had entered and strolled outside again. The winter chill soothed him as he returned to his house to await the response.
[17:45:39] Wolfs Ghost (Murphy): Tom, you have problems. Go kill yourself.
[19:25:12] Johnny (Jam): Tomtom, I will beat you with a spoon.
[14:22:56] Prarabdh Thakur: KILL HIM WITH A SHEEP.
[17:40:48] Eagle (Junes): Tom should be slapped with a spoon.
[11:32:18] Warspite: Thank you for being so awesome Tom. <3
[18:17:36] Metano: I love you tomtom
[20:06:24] Warspite: I will seriously give you epic head.
' Wrote:Edit: also, Tomtomrawr, fappin' like a boss.
