[Hard Contact] Chapter 1: Niner & Fi

Technical question: Does it look better if I bring the quotes in the middle? 

Okay I think I'm done with Etain's part and arrived for the last section of this chapter: the introduction of Niner and Fi. 
I remember that I was here when I got stuck at my last blogging, so I finally caught up on myself. 

Rereading again these parts just breaks my heart over and over again. How the Omega Squad started. How dysfunctional, almost hostile they started. 

•───────•°•❀•°•───────•

It was a waste, a rotten waste.

RC-1309 busied himself maintaining his boots. He cleaned out the clamps, blowing the red dust clear with a squirt of air from the pressure gun. He rinsed the liners and shook them dry. There was no point being idle while he was waiting to be chilled down.
(...)

 

“I’m Fi,” he said, and held out his hand for shaking. “So you lost your squad, too.”
“Niner,” RC-1309 said without taking the proffered hand. “So, ner vod—my brother—you’re the sole survivor?”

“Yes.”

“Did you hold back while your brothers pressed on? Or were you just lucky?”

•───────•°•❀•°•───────•

Niner could have tried to clean his armor shiny clean, cleanest of the whole GAR but he couldn't have wash down the poison that burned him inside out. He calls Fi ner vod right from the start, but without the intention of being friendly, so I assume it's from spite, sarcasm and being hurt. Niner is angry and there is Fi for outlet for this rage inside him.

Fi's answer: 

•───────•°•❀•°•───────•
“I did my job,” Fi said carefully. “And I’d rather be with them than here … ner vod.”
•───────•°•❀•°•───────•

You do realize that THIS IS THE FIRST SCENE with Fi, right? And up until True Colors we will barely see this side of him again, right? RIGHT???? 

Darman is out there alone and lost. Niner is angry and wants to blame someone for his losses. And Fi...
Fi wants to die. 

Because we see this scene from Niner's POV, we see see more of his inner thoughts, especially how he compares Fi to his lost batchmates and we get a few glimpse of Niner lore here. Actually we get a LOT OF COMMANDO LORE but I will make a separate post about that. 

•───────•°•❀•°•───────•
Fi stood there with his hands on his hips, identical to Niner in every way except that he was … different. He spoke a little differently. He smelled subtly different. He moved his hands … not like Niner’s squad did, not at all.

(...)
 

If he had been Sev, Niner would have known exactly what he was doing, even without looking. But Sev was gone.

(...)
 

He’d lost a brother before—Two-Eight—on exercise. The three survivors had welcomed the replacement, although they had always felt he was slightly different—a little distant—as if he had never quite believed he’d been accepted.

(...)

“Dry rations go on the fifth layer,” he said.

Niner always packed them farther down, between his spare rappelling line and his hygiene kit. “In your squad, maybe,” he said, and carried on.
•───────•°•❀•°•───────•

What I really loved that Niner tried to make an awkward attempt to reach out. To talk. But... he just couldn't tell Fi what he really felt. 

•───────•°•❀•°•───────•
But the commandos cared. They just kept it to themselves.
(...)
Niner wanted to say that he missed his squad, but that wasn’t something to confide in a stranger.
•───────•°•❀•°•───────•

The whole scene between them was awkward and cold until Fi started to sing the Dha Werda Verda. Rage of the Shadow Warrior. One thing Niner finally could relate to. They both knew very well. They both sang together were finally able to reach out for each other. There wasn't anger anymore. Just sorrow. 

•───────•°•❀•°•───────•

“I was up there with them, Sarge,” he said quietly. “I didn’t hang back. Not at all.”

Niner closed his eyes. He regretted hinting that Fi might have done anything less.

“I know, brother,” he said. “I know.”

•───────•°•❀•°•───────•