Visage

"So I had that dream again."

"Hmm? Which one?" The spartan was busy assembling his rifle, only half listening.

William frowned and continued. "Oh you know, the one involving an evil coffee conspiracy perpetrated by the devil.."

Davi looked up momentarily, a grin on his face visible even through the MJOLNIR helmet. "Oh! Now I know, the one with floating baby bits in the coffee mug right?"

"Bingo" Will replied, happy with his partners attention.

Davi continued on with his task. "Heh, yeah that one always makes me crack up. You're a fucked up dude, Will. You know that right?"

"I guess I'm just a product of my parents, Davi."

William crept closer to the edge of the ridge upon which both Spartans rested. Sliding down the binocular attachment on his helmet, he gazed down into the valley below. There was a commotion, buildings being assembled, troops moving into their formations, supplies being ferried and unloaded. All of it had an alien glow surrounding it, a mixture of purples, blues and greens that made William sick to his stomach.

"Too flashy." He thought to himself.

None of it was important at the moment, their target was yet to arrive. The other Headhunters were still moving into their respective positions. News had spread quickly about the incident at Ouran-9, too rushed and too faulty. They were taking things slowly this time around. Despite that fact, William was impatient and uneasy, hardly what a spotter needs to be. And so he filled the space, and the seconds, with conversation.

"So..." Will began, unable to conjure a topic.

Davi finished his project, assembling the remainder of the M99 Stanchion with a satisfying click. "Soo...what?" he said, now focusing on the power supply of the rifle.

"Well...spotters..spotting." Will said, shoddily beginning to form a concept.

"What about them?"

"All this fancy tech we got jammed in our buckets basically makes it pointless, yeah?" Will argued."Add in an A.I., AND the fact that we can literally hook the guns up to our neural lace, AND our uhh..'unique' training. It should make the whole deal extinct right? It's like ONI doesn't trust us to not mess this up."

Davi responded sarcastically. "Sounds like a coffee conspiracy."

"Ahh go fuck yerself" William presented two middle fingers.

Davi started the generator, and the powered section of his rifle softly hummed alive.

"There we go darlin!" Davi exclaimed happily.

Will retreated from the edge and mocked the tinkerer.

"And you say I'm fucked up. At least I don't attach romantic significance towards my gear"

"What can I say Willy-boy?" Davi said as he aimed down the rifle's sights, "Nothing gets me harder than laying in the dirt for 6 hours just to put a bullet through some split-chin sonuvabitch 5 kilos away."

Will chuckled, and began to unpack his rifle. "Actually it's 4.5 klicks pally."

"Naw, I managed to tweak this one a bit, the power output should pump it up a bit." Davi was proud of his handiwork.

Four hours had passed since their conversation.

Three hours had passed since they'd been set up, their eyes focused in on the encampment below.

A single hour had passed since Will's patience had ended.

"What the hell is taking RED so long? GRAY, BLUE, KING, and ACE are all set up, so why can't those fuckin' bomb-nuts get ready on time?"

"Well you know Sappers William..." Davi began to imitate RED-1 "Woon croossed wire, woon wayward peench ahve yadda yadda yadda ah lost me arrrrm boo hoo" Davi put an emphasis on the r rolling it around in a poor attempt at an Ayshiren accent.

"Yeah fuck that guy."