Cassie looked puzzled, she didn't exactly understand what he meant, and she was out of paper.
She looked about frantically, her eyes searched for more paper. She'd never been taught any sign language, and she couldn't read or write more than her own name.
She simply shrugged her shoulders, disappointed at her failure to communicate.
' Wrote:. "I think you would do well... but I want to know have you ever seen Hokkaido from 300k straight up? Or found the edge to the gas clouds? Sirius is a wonderous place... filled with the strangest things imaginable. Some of them are terrible, some are... almost surreal."
Previously.
Mikhail thought for a moment, smiling to himself. "I guess in my years, I have yet to take the time to admire space, and instead spent much of it working. I will go see these sights, comrade, and I will return to you with what I have learned." He stood and bowed slightly in respect. "Thank you, Comissar."
He stood, and turned to leave, his long strides carrying him out. He smiled at Cassie and gave her a nod before leaving.
Ben turned from the glass window and headed to a nearby Comm Unit, he would be able to solve this...Communications issue.
"Marine Delta 142, I would like to meet the recruit currently with Commissar Khan, I shall get to the heart of the matter..." He speaks calmly, receiving an"Yes Sir"in response.
A series of rapid knocks is heard upon the door of the Commissar's door and a single voice is heard.
"Commandate wishes to see one Miss 'Cassie', he has a method of communication that you seem to be having...issues with."The voice speaks, the door opening to reveal a single Marine, he was garbed in the standard Combat Armour of the Coalition's Marine Corps, gesturing for her to follow as he heads to Warner's office, just down the hall and opens the door."Commandate Warner will see you...Enter, but do not touch anything."he orders.
The Room was furnished well, a large wooden desk with many small trinkets adorned it's surface, a small Data Pad, several Artifacts that are inert, a built in computer on the right side as well as several other items, an aged Combat Pistol included, showing signs of wear and use, but still in remarkable condition for something so old.
Two plain wooden chairs sat infront of the desk while behind it sat a more cushioned chair, tall yet strange not imposing, the desk itself was infront of a 1-way Glass Window, showing the Recruitment Lobby and those who dwelt within.
The opposite wall had large shelves of books on many subjects, history, art, science, ideology, fiction, biographies...It spanned a wide range, showing a constant thirst and love of knowledge...
Ben Warner stood at the glass window, his hands clasped calmly behind his back, he was wearing a Black Uniform, with boots scuffed, showing he had at least seen some form of action. Any could see his combed brown hair, but not his eyes. When he spoke it was in a calm voice, almost friendly.
Cassie measured his words, as if searching for a hidden meaning, or as if she were simply afraid of each syllable.
She inched into the room and sat herself down on one of the two chairs facing Warner's desk. Almost defensively, she tucked her legs in, and placed her hands in her lap as if to make herself as small as possible.
Her eyes scanned every inch of the room, studying each object and detail. When she was satisfied, she turned her eyes to Ben Warner, nervously twiddling her thumbs.
Without turning around he continued to speak, relying upon his hearing to determine where she was from her footfalls. "Amazing is it not?" he asks in a slightly humored voice. "The strength of our Coalition grows with leaps and bounds, there are those like myself who have dedicated much of their lives to change, for me, it began in Liberty...Now here...In this room I shall decide if you deserve the chance I got to make a difference." he comments lightly, turning around, revealing his blue eyes which were covered in a pair of glasses.
Walking over to the desk he picks up the Data Pad and tosses it into her lap and chuckles. "I am already aware of your...Limitations, you may write upon that to better...facilitate communications...My first question is thus; Why is someone so young wanting to be an instrument of change upon Sirius?" he asks calmly, his eyes seemingly boring holes into the young lady's soul, his eyes showing an experienced combat veteran whose been hardened by the fires of war.
Cassie picked up the Data Pad, studying it with intense fascination. She tapped her fingers away, with mixed looks of confusion and understanding at the various functions of the small Data Pad.
She scrolled through menus of letters and words, of whose symbols were alien to her, until she stopped at a symbol, something to do with audio. Another few seconds passed as she found a variety of words, with matching phonetic recordings. She looked for words that would explain what she was trying to say, and pressed her ear to the speaker to listen for the sounds she wanted.
Soon enough, she had pieced together a short message for Ben Warner. She turned the screen so he could read it.
"I want to help people"
She smiled nervously, erasing her message to write another,
As he read her 'reply' he was at first silent, but than he started to very softly chuckle until he could nolonger contain a full blown laugh, shaking his head he calms himself down to mild chuckles. "Help?" He asked, chuckling as he sat down in his own seat. "Young lady, you say your superficial reason for coming here, but you have not spoken from the heart..." The Commandate comments before he leans over, folding his hands over top one another.
"So let me...rephrase the question...Why do YOU want to fight for the Coalition?" he asks. "And don't quote me slogans nor give poor excuses, I want to know your heart-felt reasoning WHY!" The last word he yells, his features turning rapidly from the friendly Commandante of the Fighter Corps and into the cold and heartless man of the old days, back before he was Coalition, this was the cold expression of a labeled Terrorist who was willing to do what it took to make his movement's point.
Cassie listened to each word, as if picking them apart in her mind.
She scrolled again through the menu of the Data Pad, settling on an icon marked Neural-Net. She opened it up and scrolled through various news items, ignoring the words and studying each picture. She picked a few stories, dragging them into a set of various tabs.
With the news items gathered, she lined them up and held them up for Warner to read.
The first story detailed the violent escapades of the Corsairs in the Omegas and Bretonia, warning the citizens of the houses of the threat they post. The second story detailed the war between Rheinland and Liberty, with death tolls and statistics. The third news item explained how workers in Rheinland were struggling to find jobs, with another recession. The fourth and last item was a picture painted by a famous Bretonian artist, of a Sabre and a Titan engaged him fiery combat.
She lowered the pad and opened up the wordpad again, writing out another crude message,
"Chaos, Cassie fights chaos"
The young girl smiled weakly again, hoping her message was understood, and with that, she displayed another,
"There are some those..." she wiped the message, and continued it with more words, "...who cannot defend themselves"
Ben read through them rapidly, many of the events familiar to him already, when she finishes with her final statement about those who cannot defend themselves he takes off his glasses and stares at her, searching for something, a twitch, a single sign of self-doubt...
chuckling he shakes his head "So you say you want to fight the Chaos people live in every day, to defend those who cannot do it for themselves..." He asks while still chuckling. "Now we are getting somewhere, but not quite there yet...There is something else...I can feel it...But we shall...Revisit that..." The Libertonian comments, getting out of his seat, he walks towards the viewport on the far side of the room, showing the area relative to the Trotsky as he folds his hands behind his back. "Young Lady...Do you have experience in Combat?" he asks, but she could tell he wasn't finished. "Have you seen for yourself the fires of war, waged throughout Sirius?" he continues before chuckling "Well Child, let me tell you that I for one have...And let me tell you, the history books, the tales of glory and bravery, all of it is lies...There is no glory in dying, no beauty, it is what it is, a dark affair that we are charged with stopping, even if it means sacrifices...My question is this...What do you think of War?" he asks calmly, not giving away even a shred of emotion...
Cassie thought on the questions, scrolling again through the many functions of the Data Pad, searching for something she could use. She picked a small piece of writing, and highlighted the title, listening to the Data Pad as it whispered phonetically to her. This was the wrong piece of writing. She scrolled through another three before she stumbled upon 'On War, and ancient work by General Carl von Clausewitz'.
She shook her head and minimized it away, returning to the writing pad.
"War is necessity" she showed him, shaking her head once more.
She erased the last word, and replaced it with a variation, "War is necessary"
Cassie wiped the message, working on a slightly larger sentence.
"Sometimes, we must fight wars. But it will be..." she tapped her fingers on the very edge of her seat, trying to work out what she must add to the message, "...But it must be for the right reasoning"
