The Zepplien Hegemony School (IC)

[Zepplien]

(OOC/Sign-ups: http://forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=192184)

Trucks moved through the desolate wastes of the North Zepplien wasteland, the truck had a simple canvas back and was open to the elements. The chill of the air cut into the two guards flesh as they sat in thick wool coats, desperately rubbing their hands together trying.to stay warm. This were the glamorous conditions that the new students of Zepplien had to sit through on the way to their school, something that didn't seem to be a great omen for the nation. At the airport they had been strip searched by the security there, though based on snickers and conversations in Russian it seemed more for the fun of the guards than for security reasons. Afterward they had been loaded into trucks at gunpoint and forced into trucks, at around 2 AM local time. The trucks had been bouncing along for around four hours when the first glints of sunlight lit up the thick smog cover of the area, and as such it was still very dark. One of the soldiers tapped the other and said "Look comrade, smog, we are getting close to the Gulags, then past them are the schools, only a few more hours." the other nodded and said "Thank Marx." then leaned back, pulling his hat over his eyes, and tried to get some sleep.

As the trucks passed Gulag after Gulag they would be able to see the massive war factories, and mining operations that was the blood of Zepplien industry. Units of Auto-Gyro aircraft flew overhead, clearly armed enough to ensure even the largest outbreak of prisoners was squashed with 'Zepplien Efficiency' meaning lots of chlorine gas. The awake soldier glanced at the two new students and said "You are quite good looking, I would take hand to hand combat training if I was you, and lots of it, because of rising rape statistic in.our nation's schools." he looked back to the huge concrete walls of the Gulag, matched only by the smoke stacks that spewed black smog into the air at a sickening rate.

They finally arrived at the school around 10 AM, though the air around it was so thick with smog that it seemed to be night, but the cold was not quite as bitter, but still able to kill an unprepared traveler. A 17 year old student walked out to the truck, and said "Greetings, I am Oita 40072." he looked distinctly Japanese, but bore no more accent than any other Zep, whos accent seemed to be a bit of everything mixed together. He wore w well taken care of white uniform that despite the heavy smog glowed, he also wore a gas mask for protection from the smog, though he offered no such device to either of the other two who were likely choking on the dirty air. A younger girl around 12 appeared next to him holding a rifle around half as tall as her, and a smile as wide as her mouth, she wore a simple grey uniform without any metals, and only a simple 'conscript' badge om the front. She said "Hi, I'm Jane 20096, and I wanted to show you around today." her enthusiasm was met with a slap that sounded like it really hurt from Oita as he said "I am here to do that, not you you insolent sniper, now scram." he extended a baton that seemed to be charged with electricity like a cattle prod and the girl took off like a bullet, not wanting to her hit with it. Oita then said "Sorry about that, children are such a handful, she has been thrown in the mines before, doesn't help." he paused as a massive rang out from a tank which drove through their vision behind him, on fire with ordinance going off and a bunch of teens trying to put it out with fire extinguishers, there was also some terrified screams coming from the driver's hatch. He then grinned slightly and said "Welcome to the Hegemony, I will take you to your room."and then pointed with his baton to indicate that it wasn't a request, but an order.

[Gehenna Tartarus]

When Annabelle Phoebe Remmington had been told by her mother that she was being sent to the Hegemony of Zepplien to go to school, the young girl had laughed and made some sarcastic comment about the fact that she would rather go to Hell. When she arrived in Zepplien, she realised that the two were one of the same. Getting off the plane, she had fallen into a feeling of depression that she had never experienced before, even when her father had left her mother, nor the day her brother left to join the military. But standing in the airport, she thought that nothing could be any worse.

But she was wrong on that count, because the humiliation of being stripped searched had taken her misery down a few points, leaving her in desperate need of a shower and the being led at gunpoint to the truck just heaped on the feeling that she had stepped into some kind of nightmare. She even pinched herself a couple of times to make sure she was not still asleep on the plane. Unfortunately, she yelped both times which just added to her lack of good mood.

Once inside the prison truck, as she had dubbed it, she sat wide-eyed, mostly because she was afraid to go to sleep. Though she really wanted to close her eyes and forget about what was going on around her, and she might have eventually relaxed if the soldier had not kindly informed them that their chances of being raped while there was on the increase and she did not trust the people around her as far as she could throw them, at least all of them except the other person who seemed to be in the same situation as her. She had smiled in his direction a couple of times, not a happy smile, one of those sympathetic smiles that a person shares with another just before they get killed.

When the truck finally stopped at the school, Anna let out a long sigh, not of relief but of that dreadful moment when you realise that things are about to get even worse. They were greeted by a boy with a weird surname, but the young Tartarian had not realised that it was a series of numbers, more like something Fourzerozeroseventwo, without the spaces, because she was so tired her brain was not working correctly for her.

She have him a smile, or thought she had, she was no longer in control of her lips. She just wanted him to tell her where her bed was and point in the direction so she would know what way to walk.

Anna watched the exchanged between the two students and then finally felt her first sense of relief when Oita mentioned the words she had been waiting for. Gaze following the direction of the stick, she picked up her things and headed off, as ordered.

[Aleckandor]

When Jeremmi Teibyrr Staawkhet of Disdanicos, Aleckandor first stepped off the catwalk of the plane that brought him to this distant and unfamiliar land, the first thing he noticed was the smell. He thought it was just him at first, but after a few minutes of his presence, he realized that what he smelled was...that of death - something still and rotting, decomposing slowly and stealdily. The boy couldn't tell if he had entered the Asphodel Fields of the Greek Underworld or that there was a death camp nearby, but it was best if he didn't ask any of the locals about it. Which brings us to another point.

The next thing he noticed was the people. Absolutely militaristic, somewhat void of any actual human emotion - what he expected of a Communist nation, but not so much on this scale that it rather intrigued a sense of fear and caution within his mind. Robots, asinine and inhumanly submissive to superior authority. It crawled in his grey skin, thinking about this. He was searched in a rather hostile way by them, and led by armed men to transportation to be driven across the dull fields to the school. The moment Jeremmi's foot set foot on that bus, he sighed and remembered why he was here.

It was a November school morning of 2011 in the bustling downtown of Disdanicos. Something was amiss. His father - a member of the Grand Aleckandorean Naval Force's Marine Legions - was missing from the house, and oddly enough, didn't leave a note - as if he were told to leave immediately for somewhere in the middle of the night...or was dragged off completely. Jeremmi and his mother were in disbelief, but continued on with that day without trying to sort it out. The following day's evening, though, they found out everything on the 10:00 PM news. Apparently, a cabal of some psychologically messed-up military officers in all branches of the Armed Defense Forces Bureau, full of sore hatred for Aleckandor's painful public relations defeat during Jinwoyin Dove Revolutions, had conspired for months to lead an independent vengeance operation against the Grand Chainlands Of Jinwoy, with the aim of, quote on quote, 'conquering the false democracy of the bastardized Jinwoyin empire and wiping them off the face of the earth'. And Jeremmi Teibyrr's father was among those poor soldiers deceived that this was a new order from the State. Once again, public opinion shifted against this (now unsanctioned) new conflict in that country, but attempts to establish contact with the deployed forces by the Governance kept ending in failure.

By the time the soldiers in Jinwoy had began successfully receiving messages to return to overthrow their falsified commanding officers and return to the Foundersland, 10,000 troops' lives had been spent in securing the southern islands and the fortress municipals of Syntax City, it was already too late for Jeremmi; father was killed in action. Shot in the head by a hostile partisan's long range rifle. The body was buried with full military honors at the cemetery in Pandomonita, his son refusing to shed tears in utter disbelief of the situation. Meanwhile, the conspiracy's members were tried and prosecuted (if they weren't killed outright by their subordinate warriors already). Mom was absolutely traumatized by the fact that she was not able to say goodbye one last time to her husband, and convulsively broke down many times. At the funeral however, she met another man - 'Ioseff Staawkhet', Blawesome Corporatiom senior executive, and mindlessly fell for him, much to Jeremmi's quiet disapproval of him. She married him, and a series of largely ignoble events followed thereafter, leading up to the point of his forced trip to Zepplien. Perhaps Mr. Staawkhet didn't stand the sight of his teenage stepson, and wanted nothing to do with him. That was likely.

So there Jeremmi was as the rundown bus stopped in front of the frightening middle-of-nowhere institution, watching out for the Asiatic-Zep boy and his grievously menacing stature. The Aleckandorean pretended to be unphased in the midst of the iron gaze of the extremely snappy student and the vindictive coldness in the atmosphere. He also tried to ignore the other female Tartarian student, whom was a little older than he was anyhow. He did what he was instructed and followed after him to arrive at his dorm, carrying his one-bag luggage with him.

[Zepplien]

Oita lead the two new students, through a place so thick with smog it made your eyes and lungs sting just breathing the air, and though Zepplien had plenty of them only the most useful students got gas masks, and the others got used to it. The Zepplien officials knew the problems, how could they not being raised in similar schools, but it would be expensive to clean up the air, and smog was declared beneficial for the mental health of students by the Zepplien Medical Bureau. There was a group of Pyro units, 3 females and a male, and the oldest was around 16 and of Korean decent. She called out "Hey capitalist girly girl, best not to sleep tonight, lest something happen." she laughed evilly likes she was thinking of having sex with her, if she liked it or not. She got various high fives from the rest of her team, the fuel sloshing around in their flamethrowers as they moved, and it either of the two looked they would notice the flamethrowers were chained to them and locked, so they couldn't take them off.

They would pass various apartment building looking placed, and occasionally a massive coal power plant, seeming to take lots of power to run this school. The same girl from earlier seemed to be following them, ducking into various points of cover when Oita turned around. In front of a smaller building there was a girl in a black uniform and a guy in a gray uniform fist fighting, and the female seemed to oddly be winning, though the odder thing seemed to be they were both around 13 years old. A strong looking 17 year old girl walked toward them, people quickly getting out of her way, though the really strange thing is that she didn't wear a uniform, but instead a sports jersey. Oita stopped the two and said "Greetings comrade Owens, glory.to the state and Marx indeed." she nodded to him and said "Indeed comrade uh Gr- er um, Oita, that's it." she looked over both of them, checking them out, and said "Well here, new comrades, and uh, female, watch out for Gustav 50091, ok?" she handed them each a ticket to a hockey game, one of the few luxuries of the Hegemony, the date was the next day at 5 PM. She then gave them each a friendly wave and walked backwards, turning back toward her private housing, rather than the communal housing of most students.

[Gehenna Tartarus]

Anna was tired and depressed. She had not slept because well, she really had not felt safe since she stepped off the plane, and she wondered if she would ever do so again. And she felt depressed because who would not setting foot in just a dark and dreary place. Even breathing had become an effort since she got out of the truck and began working. She even coughed a few times as her throat and lungs protested about the air she was breathing in. She had not really thought that Hell existed in reality, but every step she took made her believe otherwise. If she ever got home to her mother, she was going to kill her. What kind of person would send someone to such a place?

As they walked along, her eyes flicking around her surroundings, she tried to pretend that the place was not as bad as it was. She loathed being there and if she could she would turn around and run all the way back to the airport and get on the first flight out of the place, regardless of where said plane was going. Her attention was grabbed by a female voice, calling out obviously to her. She looked over in the direction the voice had come from, her face wrinkling with disgust at the threat that she had given. It certainly added wait to the soldier’s warning back in the truck.

I hope I have a strong lock on my door,, she thought as she continued to walk behind Oita. She had been worried about such threats coming from the male students, but it seemed that all of them were to be watched with concern. She had some judo under her belt, but looking at some of the students she was going to be schooling with, she was beginning to doubt it would have any effect on them. She probably should have invested in a sledgehammer or something.

As they walked along and her mood grew ever dimmer, she was surprised when they were greeted by a young woman, without a uniform. Anna managed to break into her first smile since setting foot in Zepplien, as she took hold of the ticket and read it. She was not a big hockey fan, but the idea of doing something nice in such a hellhole gave her hope a very tiny boost.

“Thank you,” she murmured before the girl walked away and then turned to look back the way they had come, wondering if she had already met Gustav with the long surname that sounded oddly like a number. “Mr Oita, who was that?” She asked, when she turned back to face the way they were walking.

[Zepplien]

Oita glanced at Anna and casually jabbed her with his electric prod which sent 20,000 volts into her body with very little current, meaning it would hurt like Hell but it wouldn't leave burns or anything. He explained this by simply saying "Don't be so sexist comrade." referring to calling him Mr instead of something gender neutral like comrade. After he had criticized her he finally decided to answer her question "That is Owens 20084, captain of our academy's hockey team, she will probably become one of the national team captains, she is really good. Oh also before you think about anything, she is way way too good for you, even if she acts interested in you it will only be out of pity." he then pushed her forward towards one of the nearby buildings, simply saying "Bunk 16, find it yourself." then led the male farther into the complex.

While Anna was left by Oita the young 12 year old sniper with the huge rifle grabbed Anna's hand and lead her to the door "You are bunking with me comrade." in a happy and exited tone. She lead her into a hall with stairs at one end, leading to the upper levels. She quickly escorted the young woman through the hall, showing various rooms with large tables for eating, or studying, with some students doing such. The room at the end was the largest, with triple bunk beds in ten rows of four. The young girl lead her to a specific bunk she seemed to know by heart and patted the middle bunk "This is yours, you have the number 16 footlocker under the bottom bunk to put stuff in. I'm on the top bunk and on the bottom is Pyro captain Gustav, I don't remember her serial code though." there was a nearby student with a book who looked up "Bunking with Gustav? Oh boy are you in for a treat, if you are a masocist anyway." he then chuckled softly to himself and pointed up to the bunk above him and whispered "She had Gustav last, look what happened." the person above him was a burned, scared, and bruised girl who looked around 14 and typed away on a laptop oblivious to anything but her computer screen. Unlike the others she wore a green uniform, and her breastplate identifies her as 'Zepplien Cyberwarfare' rather than standard'Conscript' that most had. She also looked far weaker and less militerised than the other people there, but still considerably more strong and militerised than any girl her age would in a sane nation.

[Gehenna Tartarus]

Anna cried out when Oita was zapped by his electric prod, her hand instinctively moving to the spot he had hit. “What the..?” She muttered, not really understanding what she had done wrong and still looking confused when he began to talk about Owens, who she had no intention of chasing after, unless she was sat in a vehicle going back to the airport, because she might have happily chased that if the option ever arose.

She looked a little lost when Oita announced that she was in bunk sixteen. She was about to ask him to at least to give her a clue when the young girl from earlier reappeared, which made Anna smile. She followed her into the building and made a mental note of where they went so that she would be able to find her way back on her own. The more time she spent in the school the more it reminded her of a prison, but when she found out where she was sleeping she kind of wished she was in a prison with cell doors.

“Wait,” she said, looking around her at the room. “We don’t have separate rooms and things? Like a pit of personal space and a way of shutting other people out?” Of all the things that she had been forced to deal with so far, the idea of sleeping anywhere near Gustav without a huge door between her and the other student was the worst. “This is some kind of joke right?” She looked at the girl who had been pointed out to her. “I mean, this is how you make everyone feel welcome here, but telling them that bad stuff is going to happen and then you all laugh when I freak out. That’s what this is, new girl welcome.” The look that she gave each of them was filled with hope that they were going to shout ‘joke’ anytime soon.

[Zepplien]

The young 12 year old sniper laughed a little at Anna "Personal space comrade? What a Bourgeoisie capitalist concept. Why would anyone want to separate from their comrades?" she sounded brainwashed, and oddly naive. She then blushed slightly and added "Um well, I mean, unless you want to do, um well you know, teen things. There are rooms you can rent for around 10 private credits a day." she looked at the ground as she explained, being embarrassed by talking about it with a stranger. She only recently learned about them herself, when her boyfriend suggested going to one this year, she had beaten him to a pulp for just suggesting such a thing.

The male laughed a little bit at Anna and said "We wouldn't joke about such a thing, don't worry, we are all very serious." the girl above him continued to type away on her keyboard while informing them "Capitalist girl, don't be so shocked, you will be hurt, bullied, raped, stripped naked against you will, and dozens of other things like that. I know this because I have been it before with a Corrien girl, because we had this kinda situation about four years ago. She hung herself from the flag pole rather than stay here another day." she never took her eyes off the computer, one almost being swollen shut. Jane then slowly said "So, what do you want to study, civilian, military, or scientific government branches?" trying to lighten the mood after the tech girl.

[Gehenna Tartarus]

Anna looked at the young girl as she spoke, wondering if she was perhaps older than she had first thought her to be. “I used to have my own room back home, so I’m kind of used to having some space and privacy,” she replied, as she once more stared at her bunk, which was wedged between two others. She wondered how much it would actually be in real money to rent a room for the whole school year, because she really did not like the idea of sharing a dorm with so many people, especially as she was convinced that the room was not just for one gender, the guy in the room kind of giving that impression.

She felt her hope being erased as each of the three others in the room declared they were not teasing her and she wanted to scream when the tech girl mentioned what she could expect during her time there. Surely someone in authority should be there to stop such awful things happened to the students. As she caught sight of the girl’s face, she wanted to ask where the flag pole was. But she shook that thought out of her head, she was not going to go through such things without a fight. She wondered if it was possible to get a gun.

“I…um…not really sure,” she said, in response to the question about studies. She had expected to do the usual curriculum and maybe a couple of specialist subjects. “I’ll probably do civilian, because there would be no point doing military, because once I return home I would not be able to do anything in the military and I’m not really very scientific…although maybe learning how to make bombs and things might come in really useful here.” She laughed at her own joke, though it was not a relaxed laugh, it was more like a laugh that someone lets out when they are facing a firing squad.

[Zepplien]

The girl nodded to Anna and said "Civilian, not what a lot of people chose, like I chose military studies, and Bala there is taking science, Oita is the only one I know working for the civilians. We should be sure to get you signed up for the right classes, oh and the Zepplien Communist Pioneers Commission." the male looked at her and asked "What do you mean you wouldn't be able to use military skills in your nation?" seeming bewildered by it. He then hit the bunk above him, and the tech girl covered her head and cried out "I'm innocent I swear!" clearly having some emotional problems to simple things. After taking around a minute to calm herself she said "Capitalist, our nation integrated the military in 1864, to most of the.... grunts, the lack of female soldiers is shocking." the male just rolled his eyes at being called a grunt, but didn't disagree because it was rather true. Jane quickly disappeared while she was talking to the tech girl.

After around a quarter of an hour Jane returned with a small bundle with her. She handed it to Anna and said "Here, I got you a little welcome package of things I'm told are nessiary to Hegemony life. There is a revolver, some food, fifty private credits, your ration card, school id, 50 rounds of ammo, and small stuff like a toothbrush, some uh protection, you know?" she smiled and offered "Anyone want to go to the range?" them male nodded, but the tech girl typed away again, not responding to the outside world."

[Gehenna Tartarus]

It oddly made Anna feel a little relaxed when she found out that most of the people in the school seemed to do the other studies than the one she chose and with any luck she would have much to do with Oita, who she did not like after he jabbed her with the electric prod. Just thinking about it made the spot tingle. “Yeah, we probably should sign me up,” she replied and even nodded at the idea of joining the Communist Pioneers Commission, even though she had no idea what that was.

She looked at the male when he asked his question, her own look almost confused as his. “Well, in Tartarus, women…I mean, female comrades, or whatever you call them…are not allowed in the military,” she explained, as she threw her bag on her bunk. “Only men are permitted, which is why I’m surprised my mother sent me here in the first place. It’s not like I’m going to learn anything useful here, as in stuff I can use at home.” Even if she could join the military, she was not sure she would actually be learning anything useful, except perhaps how to fight off attackers.

Anna had not noticed Jane leaving, but when she reappeared, the Tartarian was glad to see her again. Anna found the young girl the only decent person she had met so far, probably because she was making the young woman feel welcomed, unlike everyone else. “Thank you,” she said, as she took the things that Jane gave her. She placed the things on her bunk alongside her bag, her mind on the gun that she had been given. She wished she was experienced in it, which was why she was grateful when someone mentioned going to the range. “I’d love to come, if that is alright with everyone.”

[Zepplien]

The Zep male nodded to what she said "Fascinating, absolutely fascinating, I could not picture such a world without female soldiers. I mean around 56% of our armed forces are females, and according to our esteemed tech girl up there that is only because we have more females than males." he then whispered "She is a bit of a know it all." the tech girl paused her typing and said "Wait, if you can only use men for combat, what happens when.you run out of able bodied men?" the one thing the 'know it all' didn't understand is that not everywhere went through massive and violent uprisings to get to its present day form. She added "We have many non military classes." before going back to typing away at a quick pace.

Jane nodded and said "Of course it is alright, we are all comrades after all." she then turned to Bala (tech girl) and asked "You want to come, combat engineer?" she rolled her eyes a little and said "Sure, it would give me a chance to try out my latest weapon." she pulled out a huge weapon that looked strait out of low budget steampunk, but it was simply custom designed. The male grabbed an AK-47 rifle and nodded to the rest of them then lead the way back outside.

Once outside her lead the way toward the outskirts of the school, but stopped quickly at a shop to get targets for them and stands for the targets, both were free. He led them on a 2.5 KM hike toward nearby mountains, all of them trudging along slowly in the deep dirty snow. He seemed to be looking for something and found a little hillside and took them over to it, setting out target stands at different ranges, pistol, rifle, and sniper. Bala set up her own target around 20 M from her, then started setting up her weapon muttering "Please Marx let this thing work."

[Gehenna Tartarus]

Anna listened to what everyone said, as she tried to explain why they did things differently in Tartarus and what would happen when all the men were gone, which she thought was very unlikely, so she merely shrugged, because she was a little worried about saying the wrong thing and having one of them zap her with an electric charge. “I think I will stick to the non-military stuff,” she said finally, not really wanting to push the topic and lose the possibility of having some normal people for friends. From what she had seen so far, the people she was currently talking to were about the most normal she had met and they really were not anything like the normal she was used to. If she did not know better, she would assume that she was experiencing some drug induced nightmare hallucination, but she had not done drugs so it was highly unlikely.

She grabbed the gun she had been given and the ammunition, then followed the others to the range, taking note of the way as she went, because she might need to get there again on her own. When they stopped at the shop, she assumed that they had arrived at their destination, but she was sadly mistaken. The longer she walked, the more she thought they were taking her out to the middle of nowhere to kill her and hide her body, so she lagged a little behind the group, just in case, so that she would have a hint when they turned around to shoot her.

“Um…I know this will probably surprise you all, but…” she said pausing as she looked at each of the students and the targets that they were going to be firing at. “I’ve never done this before. Can someone give me some pointers or tips?” She knew that she had to line up the gun with the target and squeeze the trigger, but she had never held a gun before, people were not allowed to own firearms.

[Zepplien]

The students looked at each other as Anna said she didn't have a clue how to handle a gun. The male burst out laughing and the little girl joined him before they both turned to their targets and started shooting, the male firing three round bursts and the girl laying on her stomach to fire her huge bolt action rifle. Only Bala seemed to take her seriously and walked over to her "Here, I can help you silly capitalist." then walked behind her and put her arms around her, directing her arms, and said "First draw the hammer back." and did so on the pistol with her thumb, then positioned her in a shooter's positioned. She then said "Raise the pistol and fire at the target. Don't bother trying to aim yet, just get used to the recoil and weight." Zep revolvers were heavy steel with no recoil suppression systems, thus they were hard to get used to for experienced shooters, but shockingly easy to learn with, because it was a bare bones pistol. Bala watched the girl shoot, seeming attempt to hide the bruised side of her face, and even trying to look more attractive, which wasn't hard if you liked the not so muscular but still slightly butch girl, however she was considered 'girly' compared to other girls. She smiled slightly and said "You are very attractive you know Anna?" seeming embarrassed.

[Gehenna Tartarus]

Anna felt like a freak when she had seen the look of the other students’ reaction to her announcement, and she did not feel much better when they all laughed at her. She turned and watched as the two turned away and showed off their shooting skills, which just made her feel even more inadequate. She was expecting Bala to follow suit and was about to just give it a go and hope she did not hurt herself or kill someone when the young woman offered to help. Anna did not meant to feel quite so relieved, but she could not hide the huge smile that came to her lips.

She even accepted the insult about her being a silly capitalist, because she actually felt like one. She relaxed her body, allowing Bala to put her into the position she needed to be in. She listened intently to the instructions, doing everything slowly so that she did it right. The last thing she needed was to make a complete fool of herself in front of the others students, because she already felt like a lemon in a bowl of apples, the last thing she needed was to keep drawing attention to how different she was.

The Tartarian managed to shoot the weapon a couple of times, a couple of times she was sure she fired not where she wanted to, but as she was not aiming at anything, it really was not that noticeable, at least to her. When she finished firing, she could not hide the huge grin on her face, as she turned back to Bala, who she vaguely noticed what trying to hide her bruise from her.

She had been expecting the tech student to comment on her gun action, so her question took the young Tartarian by surprise. “Thank you,” she said, feeling her cheeks pink a little. Compared to the other students she had seen, Anna was more like a stick with breasts, and not super huge ones at that. “You are very attractive too.” She guessed it was something polite to say to each other and she had already made one mistake by calling someone a mister, so she was not going to not reply in kind. Her comment was also pretty true, because other than the injury to her face, Bala looked like the girls she knew at home. “How did I do?”

[Zepplien]

Bala had watched the cute capitalist girl shoot with fascination, never having seen someone her age shoot so badly. She blushed brightly at what Anna said, thinking that such a cute girl like this capitalist might just be being polite, but even then made her feel good. She looked at the smoking gun and the terrible shooting skills evident by only one shot actually hitting the target, promptly saying "You are really good, are you sure you don't want to be part of our military branch? You could become the first soldier in Tartarus of your gender." she thought that she may have been a bad shot, but she might be a good Pyro, or tank commander. She looked down and picked up a clump of snow and held it to her eye to help the swelling go down a little, and get rid of some of the pain.

Bala walked over to her experimental weapon after helping Anna, knowing if she could prove it would work the Ministry of Experimental Science would take interest in her, with funding for her research and a private room. As she adjusted valves on the machine she said to Anna "You know I am single, if you, um well, um. Never mind." she quickly went back to her work after not having the guts to ask Anna out. She did what she usually did in these situations and focused on her research.

The male of the group glanced over at Anna and asked "Your nation, is it an empire? I always found the colonial powers of the late 18 early 1900s so interesting." there was a hint to his voice that he really had no idea what he just said and Jane lowered her rifle "Are you quoting Bala? She is the one with interest in all things capitalist, not you." the male rolled his eyes and said "Fine you little brat, be that way. I was, but mostly I wish to have sex with Anna here and I believe that capitalists like conversation before the act."

[Gehenna Tartarus]

Anna looked at Bala when she said that she was good and could not help breaking into soft laughter, knowing that the girl was only been kind and trying to spare her feelings, which actually meant a lot of her when she weighed it up to the other comments she had received since stepping off the plane. “As much as I appreciate your suggestion, I think it would be best for everyone if I stick to civilian studies,” she said, her voice shaking a little with the laughter that she was trying to suppress. She knew that she was not going to be getting any medals for her shooting ability, but she had had fun doing it, so she made a decision that she would work on her aim and stuff a little, perhaps her new comrades would be willing to spare her some time to help…maybe not.

She watched as Bala placed a clump of snow on her cheek and frowned a little that someone had done that to her. She looked at the young woman as she spoke and smiled sweetly, kind of flattered that she had told her that. She had never been with another girl before and she was in that stage of being more than a little willing to experiment if she felt the desire too. Granted, she had not been with a guy before either, though she had kissed and fondled one, but when they had attempted to go to the next stage it had not gone so well and she had left the room still a virgin, even if she was giggling more than she probably should have been.

“I’m single too,” she replied, not really sure why, as she was not really looking to get involved in anything more than friendship right then. She did not know anyone and well, she wanted friends more than she wanted bedfellows. Her gaze settling momentarily on Bala as she worked on her weapon, but her focus was soon taken by the only guy in the group.

As she listened to the conversation, she could not help giggling lightly and grinning hugely. Oddly, she was not surprised by the reasons behind the question. “Actually, us capitalists usually like a few dates, dinner and maybe a gift or two first,” she joked, well partly, she certainly wanted a bit of a relationship before she slept with anyone.

[Zepplien]

Bala chuckled slightly at her and said "Well then I bet we have the next High Admiral, all the capitalists allowed into our nation are smart, I'm sure you are the same." she smiled at the girl, thinking they were going to have fun with their studies, and praying that Marx would be kind to her when it came to bullies and such. She felt the oddest sensation of heat on her skin and looked up into the sun, covering her eyes. The smog had moved away momentary, after all they were on the outskirts of their settlement, so the smog usually wasn't as thick out here. Bala managed to say "What in Marx's glorious name is that?" having never seen the sun before in her life. The other two looked at it with equal fascination, neither of them ever seeing the ball of plasma their planet orbited either.

Bala blushed more at her saying that she was single too, and slowly asked "You, you, um, want to change that?" clearly embarrassed by this talk, but wanting someone to care about her. Sadly the Zeps almost always rushed into relationships, having a bit of a stigma attached to not being in a relationship if you were sexually active, which pretty much ment any teen for them. Bala had only been with a girl by choice, but it was Gustav who forced her to have sex with a guy for money, something Bala had done because she thought she loved the girl and would do anything for her. She removed the snow from her face remembering how she had 'deserved' her punishments from Gustav by not being on time for a date.

The guy let out a laugh and said "You want gifts? And my ration credits? Not at all worth it comrade, we hardly get any ration credits as it is, and like Hell if I am spending my hard earned private credits on you. I will just go find some guy to have sex with, or Zep girl if I can find one who actually cares about her partner." Jane suddenly cried "Kirov! Get down!" pointing to a titanic airship headed towards them, the front of the airship was painted like a shark, and inside the forward operating car several people milled around. It was dropping huge bombs on deer for fun, but Jane knew they might 'accidently' let one go so it dropped on their group. The male quickly pointed to a small nearby cave and ran for it, knowing the Kirov pilot would report them for being too far out if they were seen, even if they were left alive. Bala tried to pick up her experimental gun, but it was too heavy to run with.

[Gehenna Tartarus]

Anna was not stupid, but she did not imagine that she would ever be the next High Admiral, even if she was the last person in the world. She appreciated the comment, even if she did laugh at it. But before she could respond to it, Bala and the others looked up at the sky. Anna followed their gaze, expecting to see some kind of alien spacecraft or maybe even superman, but as she looked up, she could see absolutely nothing. “I don’t see anything,” she said, seeing nothing but the sun, which she had missed since all the clouds that had been resting heavily over the nation.

First she could not shot, then she could not see what everyone else had, she really was not going to fit in. “Maybe, but not right now,” she replied to Bala’s question. “You know, I’ve not even unpacked yet and I’ve not signed up for classes, so it’s probably best to get all the other stuff done before…you know, worrying about not being single.” She shrugged slightly, but still smiled.

Her smile turned into another laugh as the guy explained that she was not worth the money to have sex with. She was trying to find something funny to respond, but before she could, Jane cried out and then the guy pointed to a cave. Not really having time to comprehend what was going on, but she could tell from the others that she needed to move and she was not about to argue with them. “Leave it,” she said, as she watched Bala trying to pick up the gun. “We can get it when the trouble is gone.” She had no idea what the trouble was, because all she could see was an airship, that seemed to be doing bomb practice and she was sure they would not drop one on a designated target practice site. “What is going on?” She asked, as they reached the cave, catching her breath.

[Zepplien]

Clouds of smog quickly blanketed the sun again and Bala said "It was weird, like this yellow bright ball, like brighter than a spotlight, and warm too, even in this freezing weather." she didn't quite know how to describe the sun to Anna, but it was slightly frightening to her the idea of a huge yellow spotlight. She nodded to Anna, simply saying "Yeah I guess your right?get unpacked and everything first. You know, we could go on a date if you want, I have some private credits saved up. We could go see a movie, or a hockey game, or bribe our way onto an autogyro, or something." the autogyro thing was a joke, because she didn't have the money to bribe her way on one. She knew it would also be fun to help this girl plan her classes out, given how she seemed quite clueless.

Upon everyone arriving in the caves the male said "Kirovs bomb anything that strays under them, they have a friendly fire ratio of 1:100, meaning for every hundred enemies they kill one of our people, on average anyway. Besides this is a target range, everything from Kirovs airships to Castro Autogyros to Revolution class tanks test here. We will just wait till it passes then go back out." Bala pulled her laptop out, revealing she had strapped it to her back literally. She typed something in and pulled up a picture of a 115 foot long tank and said "I present to you the Revolution class, it has two 280mm guns on the forwards turret and one 180mm gun on the aft turret. It also packs surface to air rockets for defence from airborne threats. It is the second largest tank in our arsenal at 1,000 tons, and a crew of 20." she smiled at the picture and said "I hope to design things like this some day, for the Ministry of Experimental Science."

[Gehenna Tartarus]

Anna could not believe that the other students would make such joke with her, pretending they had never seen the sun before. She had been laughing softly at the reaction of the three of them. It was nice to know that they had a sense of humour though, because she had gotten the feeling that they had all been brought up without one. The whole sun joke was weird, but it had cheered her up and she had felt relieved that she had not missed something that they had been looking at.

“Sure, I would love to go see a movie or something,” she replied to Bala, once again surprised that they did such things, but she had been given a ticket to a sport event, so she really should have expected them to do some fun stuff. She had got the impression that fun was something that the students in the school had no idea about, but she was pleased that she had been wrong about that. “There are a lot of comedies and action movies I want to see, but we will skip any romantic comedies, because they are really kind of dull. But we should definitely go watch something with a hunky lead man in it.”

When in the cave, Anna had looked at the guy and blinked, then blinked again. “Wait, you mean to tell me that they are allowed to bomb the target practice without checking that someone else is not using it?” She asked incredulously, her voice growing a little high pitched as she spoke. “You are joking, aren’t you?” She had laughed out loud until she noticed he was not smiling. “Aren’t you?” The laughter was gone. “What kind of place is this that allows people to kill students? Are there any laws here or what? People get beaten up,” she said, pointing to Bala. “Raped and basically anything anyone wants to do to someone else, and no one does anything. This place is crazy.”

[Zepplien]

Bala smiled and said "I am glad we can see movie comrade, it is only like five private credits each, Hockey games are like 20 or 30 private credits. Gah I would love to see the one tomorrow, but it is like a week's wages to go see." she thought about movies and said "Well there is Jane Bond: Quantum of Solace, whatever that title means, it is about a sexy Zep spy who goes around the world and disrupts operations for evil organisations who plan to hurt mother Zepplien. On the other hand there is a new movie about our conquest of North Nippon, back in 1886, it is prased my the Ministry of Political Information for historical accuracy. Like apparently the woman they found to play the general is actually genetically bound to the person who did it in real life." she smiled, those were just the first two movies that came to mind, there were a few others playing at the local theater too.

The male raised an eyebrow and said "They are a Kirov, we are conscripts, they outrank us, thus it is our job to get out of the way before they bomb. We use this range at our own risk." he scoffed at her and said "Of course I'm not joking." he grabbed her and shoved her into the wall "We have scores of rules, millions if laws, we are a safe nation and you are violating our laws on free speech by talkin against the state in such a way. That is punishable by six hours of hard labour in the mines beneath the school." Bala shrugged slightly and pointed out "People like Oita are supposed to police us, but mostly it comes down to might is right, other than after dark, then the guards keep perfect law and order?outside anyway. It breeds the fighting Zep spirit, and encourages us to be strong to stand up for ourselves. It also helps us build bonds with comrades so we can protect each other."

[Gehenna Tartarus]

Anna was a little disappointed that both the movies mentioned seemed to have female leads, when she was hoping for some sexy and well-built male, but beggars cannot be choosers, so she would just have to put up with what they had, which did not seem very much. “We’ll go see the Jane Bond thing, I think,” she said, as the other one sounded like it would be good to go to sleep to, but she had no intention of paying for that favour.

She was taken by surprise by the male in the group, a little by what he had to say but more so when he grabbed her and pushed her against the wall. “I’m breaking laws about free speech by talking about the state? What the hell? I merely asked who looked out for people, to stop then getting abused.” She pushed him off of her, her face revealing her to be more than a little annoyed. “You are all crazy, do you know that?” She was getting a little tired of people grabbing her, shoving her, buzzing her. “And you know what that huge ball of light that was in the sky? That was the sun. You know, the thing in the centre of the universe. You all think that I’m stupid, but…forget it.” She walked towards the edge of the cave and looked out. She would rather dodge bombs than be talked to and treated like a piece of dirt.

[Zepplien]

The male nodded and said "Free speech laws dictate how no ill may be said of the glorious state, and how none shall oppose us in thought or speech. You comrade are implying that the state can not protect its citizens, and that we have no way to protect the people. That is high treason." he seemed to let her go and Bala said "Comrade, this is how our nation works, we own a massive sphere of influence in our region of the world, and our Hegemony spans dozens of ethic groups and half a dozen languages. We are clearly the right way to do things, you must have seen that to have come here." she frowned when she said it was the sun "Oh, so that's what that looks like, I never saw it outside of textbooks, the smog is far too thick here." she grabbed Anna's arm and yelled "Like Hell if we are going to let you kill yourself." the whine of the Kirov's eight engines was almost overhead and the duel bomb bays could easily be seen. Each was magazine fed from storage bins that were Marx knows how big within the Kirov's armoured skin. A handful of people could be seen.moving along exterior catwalks that lead to gun turrets, each seemed to be directed at the ground, capable of either spewing massive bullets or high explosive shells.

[Gehenna Tartarus]

Anna really did not care about free speech laws or any of the other crap she was hearing being spouted about Zepplien. The place was not nice, it was not even okay, it was a hellhole and none of the people around her could see it. Damn, they had never even seen the sun, was that not strange to them? What kind of people did not think that it was odd not to see the sun? It was the thing that kept the people on the planet alive and they did not know what it looked like. Show them a weapon and she was sure they would be able to tell her the year it was made, the bullet it took and how big the hole would be in her head if she tried to shoot herself. When Bala had said that the greatness of the nation was her reason for being there, she wanted to laugh and probably kill a couple of them, maybe all three, she really was not very happy.

When Bala grabbed her arm to stop her from exiting the cave, she looked at each of them. “Why not?” She asked, her gaze flicking between the three people she actually thought she might be able to call friends. “Oh…I know, I’m supposed to hang myself from a flagpole or something, so that everyone can see how pathetic I am, right?” She walked off towards the back of the cave, and with her back against the wall, she lowered herself down to the floor. She wondered how long they thought it was going to take before she killed herself and wondered if they had some kind of sweepstake, so see who got the nearest time. Well, fuck them, she was not going to be pushed to killing herself, and if she did, she would come back and haunt them all.