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| Smokerings; Sebastian Shaw, Buford Hollis | |
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| Topic Started: Nov 15 2009, 12:01 AM (267 Views) | |
| SebastianShaw(old) | Nov 15 2009, 12:01 AM Post #1 |
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Energy Absorption / Superhuman Durability
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Time of Day: 19:43 Place in the Timeline: November 7th 2009 Sebastian took a swig of his beer, looked at the bottle for a moment, and set it down as he picked up his cigar off the ash try and gave it a few more puffs. He remembered a time when all he drank was the most expensive brandies and took a different lovely young woman to bed almost nightly. Dining in the most expensive restaurants... small parties in his penthouse. He had access to most of those things now during leave, but years on Lehnsherr's front lines in the War and then again to the south after Jus Soli. He'd seen a lot of dead bodies enemy and friendly ones and it had actually made him think carefully about people and how he treated them. After all... he had several thousand in his command, and they all looked up to him and followed his orders without question. Goddamnit... the war had actually given Sebastian Shaw a heart, or at least a sense of mortality and the afterlife that followed. That didn't mean that he'd completely given up his hedonistic ways. He couldn't keep a girlfriend for more than three months before getting tired of her and cheating; he drank a good bit of alcohol though he didn't spend thousands of dollars on one single bottle. He'd maintained his taste in cigars, however, considering that one luxury he wouldn't compromise and had quite an impressive collection. Placing the cigar in the ash tray on his table, he looked over at the military officer sitting across from him. General Hollis had served under Magnus's command overtly for longer than Sebastian had been serving the man covertly before he publicly defected. He knew the President better than most, and had earned the respect of the entire military despite being hard and demanding on his subordinates. Sometimes a little tactical brilliance and the ability to get the job done actually did make up for the sharp edge the man had. Have you decided who is going to take direct command of this new Guard program? Shaw was referring to the new Jus Soli Guard... a counter-terrorism branch of police pooling the resources of military intelligence, tactical, and the normal police forces to fight the rising terrorist element growing within the mutant nation over the last few months. Apparently there were several mutants unhappy with the new rules on what was allowed during interrogation of prisoners as well as the means being employed to keep the South American guerillas away from the populace. Magnus obviously didn't want the unrest to create too much trouble inside JS and give the rest of the world the idea that not everything was okay in paradise, and despite his best efforts to calm the public, the seeds had been sown. Protesters were springing up, speeches were being made, and the internet was beginning to show signs that not everything was sunshine and butterflies in Jus Soli. Disgruntled people had always been an issue, but it's when the deaths started occurring as a result that the JSG was created. One of the greatest problems people seemed to have was a lack of actually seeing their leader. He had not made a public appearance in at least two months, and Shaw had no idea why. Perhaps if mutantkind could once more see the face of the man who had lead them to their land of milk and honey, they'd get off their damn back. Personally, Sebastian didn't have a problem with the way things were going. People were going to complain no matter who did what, but he saw the government turning into cold bureaucracy, and red tape always pissed people off, no matter what species they were. |
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| Buford Hollis | Nov 26 2009, 06:14 AM Post #2 |
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Mechanical Hyper-Competence
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There were times that Buford Hollis didn't really believe what kind of world he was living in. He retired from the US Army at age 25 as an E4, a specialist. He left and bought himself a truck, because for some reason, one far beyond his understanding, he liked him some machines. Then, he was brought into the understanding of who he was, what he was. At first, he kept himself on the road. It was a little bit of income, and he got lucky a few times, running into mutants on the road. He then wanted to contribute more to the cause. He started reading, everything he could. Military tactics, sociology, city planning. Agriculture, holy crap was it a good idea for him to learn what he could about agriculture. That was where they were screwed up. First year of Jus Soli, it was hard to find enough food to eat. International commitments didn't allow them to tear up much of the jungle that surrounded them. (Those damn international commitments. Everyone knew that if they stepped one toe out of line, the entire world would use it as cassus belli, and the war would start all over again.) Not a lot of room to grow crops. Meat was worse. They had fish, and chickens. Maybe some pigs and goats, but beef was out of the question. Hydroponic gardens and some vertical farming let them overcome that. Where were the complaints back then? Well, there weren't any. People realized that they were all in this together. Eh, it was probably unreasonable to expect all of their new residents to be as patriotic as those first settlers. Still, it rankled him. His accent had long been stamped out. "I'm going with the Moroccan, Haroun, I always forget his last name," Hollis said as he bit into his hamburger. Still a delicacy, but Buford could afford some prestige. "Colonel Al-Rashid." Like most of their army, Al-Rashid was a young kid. Battlefield promotions tend to lead to that. "Have your men reported back from Operation Sabbath Queen?" Hollis said. It was a covert operation. Hollis didn't expect a full debriefing, just a word or two if there were survivors. It wasn't something that Hollis liked, these near-suicide missions that were becoming more and more common. They were going to die a death of a million cuts. Just a nick here, just a scratch there. Hollis had a personal relation with the President, but he hadn't been able to get face time with President Lehnsherr in months. Perhaps it was time for General Hollis to order another beer. |
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| SebastianShaw(old) | Nov 29 2009, 03:20 PM Post #3 |
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Energy Absorption / Superhuman Durability
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Sebastian nodded in recognition at the name of the Colonel General Hollis planned on putting in charge of the Guard program. Al-Rashid seemed to be a good guy... had risen quickly in the ranks and had shown himself to be quite a capable leader. Shaw only hoped that he would be qualified to handle the morally ambiguous aspects of his position. After all... the Jus Soli Guard was just a fancy way of saying secret police. Only time would tell. He took another long sip of his beer, setting it back down just as a blue-skinned young lady walked by in a pair of pants that almost could have served as a second skin. Shaw felt a familiar twinge... Miri was getting boring same old position once or twice a week when he was around. He wasn't getting enough lovin at home, so it wasn't really his fault when a nice, round ass caught his attention. He would have to keep an eye out for her later. Buford's inquiry on Sabbath Queen regrettably ripped his attention away from the sapphire beauty, and he took another sip on his beer, shaking his head as he set it back down with an audible thump. I'm afraid we haven't heard anything from the team in nearly thirty hours, and they're nearly five hours overdue for a scheduled check-in. I gave our psi-team the go-ahead to find out what's happened to them, but this was a high-risk assignment anyway, so my hopes aren't really that high. Shame really... I hate sending good men off on missions where it's likely some of them won't come back, but I make it a point to make sure each one of them know exactly how difficult their missions will be. He hesitated, unsure of whether he should voice his concerns to Hollis, but decided that it would be incredibly irresponsible if he refrained. I can't say that I'm too happy about some of the last two missions. Libra was an unbelievable success, but my men weren't even allowed to check that facility for captive mutants before overloading the reactors. Now psi-division tells me that there might have actually been as many as one hundred fifty mutants there. That's one hundred fifty able-bodied men and women for the cause, nothing but collateral damage. Being so close to the top had its disadvantages, and one of them was that any complaints could easily be taken as a personal insult to the Commander in Chief, Just makes me wonder what I'm not being told. |
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| Buford Hollis | Dec 13 2009, 03:48 AM Post #4 |
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Mechanical Hyper-Competence
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Buford seemed to have deflated some from the news that his fellow general gave him. The fire team was being led Captain Jerome Beechman, who had a severe physical mutation, and who happened to have several wives. Jus Soli jurisprudence was a bit mangled. Since by constitution, any mutant, and their family, seeking refuge could enter the nation, which meant there were several conflicting civil laws that everyone expected to be enforced. Of course, it was muddled by the fact that Beechman's mutation also extended to strengthened pheromones, and he almost necessistated several wives... What Buford was trying to say is that a lot of kids were made orphans by Sabbath Queen. It wasn't something that Buford liked to see happen. Buford had to roll his eyes when he noticed Shaw's wandering eye towards to the waitress. His fellow general was known for being something of a hound. Buford tried to keep a neutral opinion of his colleague, but this was a personal failing of Shaw's that irritated General Hollis. A bit of personal integrity and honor would have done a world of good for the man. He didn't really want to say anything to Shaw about his concerns. In this day and age, with all the mutants that had enhanced senses, he was always careful about expressing any negative opinion about the President. Dangers of a free press and all. Could you believe that the newspapers were actively recruiting mutants with super-hearing as reporters? It was unethical, is what it was. Buford took two slow, long, deep breathes, and then took another bite of his hamburger before trying to answer Shaw. "I've been with Magneto for a long time; I've had my bacon saved by him on more than one occasion. I've tried to serve the man and the office faithfully and to the best of my abilities, but... I feel like the blind man trying to describe an elephant," Buford said carefully, "All these operations, I can't discern the strategic intent behind of. I'm just hoping that the big man really does have a plan, because I'm tired of saying 'rope' when what I'm dealing with is the trunk." |
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1:02 AM Jul 11