The vast vault of the Troop Bay echoed with the multiple sounds of the military. The sounds of laughter from the troops bunking together, the cries of "Liar!" and "Cheat!" from where the cards were being dealt and the dice being rolled, the quiet sniffles of people looking over the family they'd lost or had to leave behind. And finally, the silence, of those with nothing to lose, nothing to gain and nothing to care about.
Markem was one of the latter, he sat there, golden eyes looking out of a porthole into the depths and vastness of space. He'd never really been much at all, he'd had the capability to shine and achieve but he didn't commit himself. He never held a girlfriend, he didn't have a job before the army and he'd never really had friends. Markem had always just been 'That Guy', he was always there but never acknowledged, he didn't seem to mind all too much however. And so, he sat there, staring out into the vast blackness that was the space outside of the Archive Class Carrier Eyes of Gold. Markem himself hadn't really seen much of the ship but then again, he was only a Trooper, the lowest of the low apart from the Penal Soldiers.
Deciding that staring out into nothing was not good for his mental health, Markem stood up. He wasn't all too tall, standing only at around six foot, he wasn't particularly good looking either. White skin as all Vionix had and white hair, close cropped to a widow's peak and the same colour as his skin. Neither was he truly athletic, sure he was still strong as all male Vionix were but he was nothing special. Markem, having nothing better to do, decided he'd go for a walk. He loped off, his legs taking him further into the vessel to explore.
Passing by soldiers and the like, he wasn't even noticed. He crossed soldiers that were sitting and polishing their combat dress and weaponry or stripping the latter apart and cleaning it all. He passed Vionix that were sitting listening to music through a pair of small earphones plugged in and just nodding along to the beat as they waited for the alarms. He passed soldiers sleeping, despite the massive noise, and looking peaceful, curled up in their blankets. Markem sighed softly as he passed the sleepers, his own dreams had been clouded and dark recently. You see, Markem had never seen combat before and at the moment Eyes of Gold was filling up her tanks and getting ready to move on to a theater of war, which Markem was going to have to face. A shudder ran through the soldier's frame as he thought that soon enough he'd have to fight and die for the Vionix Empire, something not all too appealing to him. "Curse the Narrikians." He whispered, his voice hard-edged, he was one of the many Vionix that thought it was the Narrikian's fault for bringing the might of the Anrufe down upon them and as such he only grudgingly acknowledged them and more often than not just outright ignored them.
It took around ten minutes for Markem to reach the elevator. It was a basic magnet model, using opposing series of magnets to move the lift up and down. Nice and cost effective but Markem didn't care all too much for that. He walked right up to the clerk managing the elevator, a short, pretty Vionix female. He waited for a moment until noticed and even then she gasped quietly.
"Oh, sorry, didn't see you there." She said to him, her voice flavored with an Arcanis III accent, not the same as Markem's own.
"Of course you didn't." He muttered to himself, causing the clerk to take more notice of him.
She leaned in and cocked her head to the side. "Excuse me?"
"Going to the observation deck." He said louder, his own voice accented with the slow and soft vowel sounds of Arcanis VIII.
"Oh... uhm... okay!" She smiled, not knowing about the kind of person Markem was, and called the elevator down, letting him step into it before sending it off on its way. "I wonder what his problem is?" The clerk whispered to herself afterwards with a shrug.
Another two minutes of riding an elevator and then Markem reached the observation deck. It was a massive room, the roof seemingly a massive open window into space. Markem knew differently however, he knew that the roof was actually hundreds of viewing crystals put up and reflecting the view from the lenses outside of the ship. The quality was so good it was indistinguishable from the actual thing, even the snipers couldn't tell it apart. Despite the fact it wasn't real, Markem was still fascinated by it. The soldier walked over to a railing and leaned on it, staring upwards into the fake window to space. All around him the hustle and bustle of a ship going to war happened. Clerks and scribes walked past, carrying bundles of datapads and sheaves of paper. Commanders of companies and battalions strutted around, organizing battle strategies and supplies for the troops. None of this went noticed however by Markem who just stared upwards at the massive spires of metal that hovered through the sky, the massive battleships of the Vionix Empire. War, it was at hand for Markem and soon, soon, he'd be fighting for his own life.
