“I’d like to introduce the two, new recruits.” I hear the voice say, as I see the hologram pulse, “Thomas Lambert, please stand and introduce yourself.”

Instinctively, I stand up and salute yelling, “Petty Officer First Class, Thomas Lambert, Sir!”

“Nice enthusiasm”, one of the other people sitting in the room says sarcastically, which results in two other people sitting near him failing to hold in their chuckles. Christ, this is hell.

“Alright,” the hologram-voice says, “settle. Cohen Wheeler, please introduce yourself.”

Wheels stands up much more casually than me, then says, “Lance Corporal Cohen Wheeler, it’s a pleasure to meet you all.” And ends by offering up either a smirk or a scowl to the people who laughed at me earlier.

The hologram pulses and shines and out comes the words, “Alright, alright. Can I have everyone introduce themselves, without the drama?”

Damnit, couldn’t you have not said that?

Here comes the first one. A guy with blonde hair and olive skin stands up first.

“I’m Vinzenz, nice to meet you both, sorry for the obstruction those asshats over there made”, he says with a smirk and a slight tip of his head towards the hecklers, then sits down.

The next person to stand up is the first person who said something, a man with a bowl of neat hair on his head and an English accent.

“I’m Kenton Banks, it’s a pleasure for you to meet me”, he says in a sneering tone, does a bow, then sits back down with his leg crossed over his other.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

A Polski looking woman with decent sized breasts stands up and introduces herself with a smile.

“Nice to meet you, I’m Carla Gorecki, a friend of Vinzenz”

Next, a young Japanese man gives his greeting sitting down by merely saying his name, Honda Jiro. Still like him more than that Kenton asshole.

An even younger man, who can barely be called an adult, stands up next to Kenton, and says, “Bet you won’t last a week. Name’s Arrigo, by the way.”

With a sneer, he almost sounds like he is trying to mimic Kenton’s way of speaking.

A reserved looking woman stands up and quietly gets out the words, “My name is Konstanty, I look forward to working with you.” She is pretty cute, so, given the chance, I would probably say, “Hell yeah”.

“I’m Viktor Ohme”, says a guy who kinda looks like a Himmler with longer hair, who is sat near Konstanty.

Finally, Kenton’s last lackey stands up and announces himself, with an Irish accent, by saying “Tristan, better keep yourself clear of me.”

Yeah, yeah, yeah, like you’re going to cause me problems.

“And I’m Rosa”, a voice says from near one of the entrances of the room.

Whoops, forgot about her, but I guess it isn’t over till the flat lady sings, “I’m the Operational Captain of the platoon.”

My eyes are drawn away from Rosa because the hologram starts flashing and pulsing again.

“Alright, There are still a couple of support specialists, but you’ll meet them later. Now I’ll talk about why you two are here.”

Finally getting to the good part, I was wondering why I was sent to hell; I mean, I was a little prideful and at times wrathful, perhaps lustful even, but I didn’t think anything I did was that bad.

“Despite what you both may think, you are not in hell. You’re both still alive.”

…I’m alive? That can’t be, I remember my skin feeling like it was burning off, and yet I still have it.

Wait, I see what’s happening!

This is just another piece of hell trying to give me hope: hope that I’m free, hope that Dune’s alive, maybe even all the other soldiers I fought with, but mostly, hope that my sister could still be alive.

I could go on with the hope that my whole life was a dream; with the hope that one day I’ll just wake up and no one will be dead or hurt.

But I won’t, because this is the real world, not some figment of my imagination. I’m never going to get anyone back.

“Well, whatever, believe what you want, but you work for me now.”

Was he… talking to me? Did he read my mind?

“And what do we do for you?”, Wheels ask ignorant to what I was thinking and what our new “Boss” was saying.

“You’ll kill our enemies. It doesn’t sound very fun, I know, but I’m sure you’ll both be happy to know that our current enemies are the people who tried to kill you.”

I can almost hear his smirk, and can also almost hold back my own, but I guess I don’t have that much impulse control.

Even If I am dead, even if I’ll never see another loved one again, I think I’ll still enjoy this.

Wheels and I look at each other and we both know that these dictatorial- anarchist guys are going to go through a world of hurt, by our hands.