The War for Nonpo-- The Deep Breath

[Martzin]

The marines had now all gathered in the mess hall being handed out their chow, sitting in long rows of crookedly-set tables laughing and talking with one another. The scene inside was delightfully cheerful; by now everyone had forgotten the bombing that had just happened minutes ago, too focused on their comrades and their food to recall anything about it.

Dubi was sitting at one of the tables eating his food while talking to an Alpha squaddie he'd just met in the chow line.
"So you came from Ireland?"

"Yep," the man spoke with a heavy Gaelic accent.

"Why the hell would you come all the way over to America?"

"Land of opportunity, didn't wanna get stuck at Ireland farmin' fuckin' potatoes all day. I had a degree to do somethin' with."

"Yeah, you joined the Marines with it?"

The man, Healy, began coughing intensely and punched himself in the chest. "Yep--" he coughed again, cutting off his words. "--Just felt like getting away from my old life, make use of this," he punched himself once more in the chest.

Ray nodded. "I can understand that,"

On the opposite side of the table Adan sat with his old friend, Bryant. They had only recently found eachother and began talking as old friends reunited.
"This don't seem so bad, does it?" Adan spoke, sipping down a cup of cherry souto.

"Yeah mate, alone on an island just eating, talking with friends... not bad." "Mhm," Adan's voice muffled through his chewed up food.

"How do ya think things on the continent are?" Adan commented having finished his chow and reaching for a packaged Wey-Yu burger. Bryant shrugged. "Maybe a bit fucked up, but hey, there's a war we gotta win, mate."

Adan nodded while taking a bite out of his burrito. "Damn straight," he said with his cheeks full of food.

"Poor jungle commie bastards don't stand a chance against us," Bryant continued. "Bet ya we'll be over with this op in a short couple months, mate, you'll see."


Garth was sitting by enjoying some pudding included in the rations, quietly listening to his battle buddies around him talk. Vanechka had managed to print a paper from a News terminal on one of the walls, reading it to get an idea of the situation on the continent.

"Says here... shit, weather's gonna be 109 degrees tomorrow..." Sleepy mumbled through the newspaper searching for anything interesting. She spotted a caption in all caps stating BREAKING NEWS: "Ah, here we go."Car bomb explodes in Weyland Yutani bank in Poyong, killing 15 and wounding 50"...huh."

"Poyong?" Reno said, spooning some canned peaches out of it's tin. "That's the Capitol for the loyalist government."

"Yeah, figures," Vanechka snided, continuing to scan the paper. "...Uda Heiji of the National Nonpoese Front survives assassination attempt by bombing"..."United States Colonial Marines landing at Hawaru Island, expected to escalate war scene very soon.
Panechka's eyebrows raised, suddenly realizing what she just read. "Hey, we're in the newspaper."

Some of the marines sitting around Vanechka turned their heads and leaned in next to her, where she pointed at the head-line. "See guys? They knew we were coming."
"Hmm, figures," Powalski retorted, taking a sip from his grape souto.

"Great, we're gonna have some civvie journalists talking our damn ears off!" a Marine in Delta piped up. "Gonna be fun, right jarheads?"

"I don't want some fuckin' yellow-press kid asking me about my 'experiences'," Mack responded sternly, swigging a can of beer down afterwards.

"Yeah..." Dubi agreed, continuing "these guy's dont speak English anyway, right?"

Sleepy shook her head, with Harding at the same time stating "I don't think so mate,"

"What language do they speak then?" Healy asked studying Panechka as she read the newspaper. He slipped a cigarette strapped to a sweat-band he was wearing and placed it in his mouth.

"Japanese," Sleepy answered, scanning more articles on the newspaper. "That's what the symbols looked like."

"So this is a Jap installation?" Mack commented while scratching the stubble on his chin. "WY is half-Japanese..." he succeeded with a murmur before anyone else could respond.
"Yeah, that's Yutani," Digger said. "Mhm," Murdoch replied, staring at his food deeply. "Shoulda studied Jap," he continued, ogling at the burger he had in his hands before munching it down.

...
...

Carson was in the CiC, his hands formally clasped behind him as he stood over the center table. A cigar hung in his mouth as he anxiously looked over the battle plans, reading over his notes again and again...

"The Landing tracks have been prepped, Lieutenant," August swiftly stated, causing Bill to turn his heel and face her. "Hmm..."
"And the rest of the fleet ready?" Bill said. "Yes sir," August replied again, reading the Centcom updates on her clipboard. "Cargo has sufficient supplies?" August nodded and repeated the same words. "And the transport ships are on hand?" Walker once again nodded and methodically replied "Yes, sir".

Carson sighed screwing his eyebrows, completely silent for a second. "Everything is ready," he stated, turning to face the table and continuing to observe the battle map. "we're going to get boots on the ground..." he placed his hands on the table and leaned over it, studying attentively. "and get this job done as quick as possible... this is the deep breath before the dive, folks," his voice raised as it ended, before again lowering to a murmur; "The deep breath before the dive..."


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DXTzv0CTZA

[Karmac]

The suspense is killin' me!

But it just keeps getting better and better, I'm lovin' it like a mcdonalds cheeseburger. Except those are bad and that was a bad analogy.

[Kavlo]

Hey Mom look I'm on a CM story!

This chapter did feel like the calm before the storm kinda deal which is good because it helped build characters, setting and suspense.
Good job.

[Fitchace]

I hope no one gets hurt!

[Recounted]

Tooo gud

[completelynewguy]

Pretty good. Good job on the suspense building.