Prologue: Artemis Company Begins
Date: The Dawn of the Revolution
Location: New Lunar Republic Recruiting Offices, The Moon
Significant events: Artemis Company is Born
It is the beginning of a new age. Just a few days ago Princess Luna had declared both secession from, and war against the Solar Empire. When the news had gotten out, everyone immediately starting picking sides and families were being torn apart. Brothers were signing up to fight brothers, and Fathers to fight their sons. Recruiting popularity was of course to the Solar Empire. Princess Luna had been once again, banished to the moon. There on the moon is where the only Recruiting Office for the New Lunar Republic is stationed. There on the moon is where Princess Luna leads her military and where her military trains their operatives. We begin our story, with the birth of the esteemed A. Company, the "A." standing for Artemis.
A young man, medium height and build, dirty blonde hair, green eyes and wearing reading glasses, steps up to the reception desk in the middle of the lobby at the call of his name, signalling him to enter the room to the receptionist's left. "A mister...Soma?" the receptionist says aloud to the lobby with a slight pause. The young man, Soma, stands from his seat by the door he entered the lobby from, picks up a manilla folder with assorted papers he had walked in with, and walks without expression to the door on the left that leads to the recruiter's office. As Soma walked to the door, he did so with a sense of pride. He carried his feet with purpose and had filled his head with thoughts of "doing the right thing" and "fighting for harmony". Before he opened the door to enter the recruiter's office, he looked about at the people in the lobby. there was a line by the reception desk that earlier that day was nearly a mile long. In the Seat opposite side of the door Soma had just been sitting near sat a group of three young men about Soma's age who were chatting and laughing quietly. One of them was tall, had bright yellow hair, and a strong jaw line accompanied by a strong masculine voice. Directly next to this man on his right was a shorter man with jet black hair, and a very tough looking build. At the end of the row of chairs, a third man, about average height with darker brown hair and a very scrappy build was chatting among them quietly as he wrote things down on a pad and paper. Soma turned from them and stepped into the recruiter's office, quietly shutting the door behind him.
The woman at the desk was of average height and of above average build, orange hair and sun kissed skin. Her office smelled strongly of apples and tobacco. The office itself was small, Indigo coloured walls with an egg shell white trim. On the wall behind the woman was a New Lunar Republic propaganda poster displaying Princess Luna sitting in an F16 painted and themed to match the colours of the New Lunar Republic's Flag. Her smile was smug and her eye's fixed on the viewer. In her arms she held a jet pilot's flight mask. In bold indigo text to the right of the F16, the words "Show us what you're made of..Join the NLR" were set in front a star filled sky. The woman spoke aloud, catching Soma's attention. "Howdy! Name's Applejack and I 'spose I'll be gettin' you signed up for the NLR huh? Please take a seat mister uh..?" Applejack said as Soma took a seat directly in front of Applejack's desk. He looked her straight on and replied "Sorry, I'm Soma. But yeah, I would be mighty happy if you would get me signed right up ma'am". "Excellent. Looks like you have already been approved by Luna herself, so we should have your things here already. If y'all would just hand me your paperwork and I'll get that sent to HQ. After that I'll be handin' ya you're Uniform and tellin' ya what you're qualified ta do based on you're results." Applejack said with overt enthusiasm. Soma hands Applejack the manilla folder and she removes the papers from inside and scans them. Afterwards, Applejack puts the papers in a shredder, and throws away the manilla folder. "Great! Now just wait here while i fetch ya a set of Class A's, Class B's, and ACU's." said Applejack cheerily as she turned and opened a door that Soma had previously not noticed, and walked into the room it led to. Soma sat and read the poster on the wall over and over until he memorized its every detail. After a few minutes, Applejack returned with three sets of clothing, a patch, and an arm band. She set them down in a neat stack into an indigo rug sack with Soma's name printed on the side. Soma pulled the rug sack closer to his chair and looked at the patch. It was shaped like an ornate shield, and was coloured indigo with a lighter stonewashed blue accenting the middle of the shield. Inside this accent, an indigo star surrounded by a larger crescent moon was displayed with the words "Vivat" and "Nocte" on either side of another smaller red star. Atop the indigo outline of the shield, the words "New Lunar Republic" were displayed proudly in white. Soma Placed it back in the rug sack and zipped it shut.
Applejack sat down in her office chair and looked over a computer screen and spoke aloud as she read the computer screen. "Well shoot, says here yall are qualified to do medical work. Also says based on your physicals and tests that you qualify for Special Operations...mighty impressive Mister Soma. You know what you wanted to do in the New Lunar Republic Infantry Divisions?" she said with a hint of a chuckle. "Yeah, I wanted to be a combat medic. And hell, if I'm good enough for Special Ops I'll do that." Soma said grinning happily. Applejack smiled back pleasantly and typed for a minute or two before speaking again. "Alrighty, Looks like you are good for Artemis Company then. Currently an empty company so naturally you will be placed in charge of A. Company since you were first to be assigned A. Company." she said turning to face Soma. Soma scooched his chair closer and replied "Awesome, what will I be doing?". "Special operations. Artemis Company is our first and so far, only Special operations group. And you're our first member. Mighty respectable. I 'spose since yall qualify and are wantin' ta be a doc, they'll be sendin' ya ta learn how to do all that doctor stuff. After that, you will be given leadership training, and placed in charge of the rest of Artemis Company. Once we're done here, a tram will be arrivin' at the Luna Line station just two blocks south o' here ta take new recruits such as yourself to base camp. Any more questions Mister Soma?" Applejack said, cheerfully lifting her voice a bit with the last question. Soma shook his head signaling a "no ma'am" and put his rug sack around his shoulder as he stood to take leave. Without further conversation, Soma turned to leave the office. As he turned the door nob to step out of the office into the lobby Applejack turned to her computer and spoke aloud again. "Best o' luck Mister Soma, and thank you for your service." She said with a smile. Soma nodded with a determined grin and stepped out the office.
out of the office to the right, opposite of Applejack's, The shorter, built man Soma had seen with the group of chatting men earlier walked out into the lobby and conversed with one of the men he had been sitting with. "Mister...Golden Lightning?" said the receptionist aloud. With that, one of the men who was sitting got up and walked to AppleJack's Office at the call of his name. He was the tall one with the bright yellow hair. On the way to the door to Applejack's office, Golden Lightning nodded respectfully to Soma, and walked into the office. The other man who had just exited the other office had finished chatting with the third man and exited the Recruiting complex. The last of the three men, the average looking one with the scrappy build, looked to Soma and stood to meet his eye level. "Hi, my name's Nightshade. Hopefully I'll be seeing you out on the field. Good luck man." the man said as he patted Soma on the shoulder. Soma smiled a weak smile and stepped out the door of the Recruiting Complex to head south to the Luna Line.
When he got to the Luna Line Station, the Shorter, tougher looking man who had exited the office opposite of Applejack's was standing there, looking off into the stars above. Soma stood a small distance away and did the same. The other man spoke up after a while. "So, you're off to basic too eh? What company are you in?" the man said, still looking off into the distance. Soma stared at his feet and replied "Oh um, I'm in Artemis Company...my name's Soma. You?" The man turned and shook Soma's hand with a smile. "Name's Tender Heart. I'm in A. Company too! They said I'm gonna be the company heavy weapons specialist. What are you gonna be doin'?" Tender Heart asked. Soma let go of his new friend's hand and stared back at the sky. "I'm going to be placed in charge of Artemis Company actually. They also said I'm gonna be the company's doc..." Soma said with a pause afterwards. Tender Heart made a gesture as if he tipped his hat respectfully and looked up to the sky again. "Well alright Doc, guess I'll see ya after basic." He said quietly. They were both silent until the tram arrived. They then boarded, sat down and talked the whole way about their families, idealisms and the usual.
When the tram stopped, they exited into a very uniform and grey looking facility with the distant sound of gunfire from the shooting range. Soma and Tender Heart were greeted by a warrant officer who took their names, and asked what they were assigned to. Afterwards they were both sent to what the warrant officer had jokingly called the "Killing House" to start their basic training off with combat survival skills.
Author's Note
I plan to Steadily continue writing this fic, and the first chapter is on the way.
