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Description
The young man sat opposite the three Army men, an officer, resplendent with peaked cap and moustache, a stupid moustache, the young man added mentally, and either side of the moustache sat two lower down officers with the young man identified as a corporal and a sergeant. The corporal turned on the camera mounted in front of them and the officer looked up from the papers suddenly and dramatically, the young man had to stifle a giggle, hiding it from the camera, recording his every movement. The moustache twitched as he cleared his throat, the sergeant looked from the form to the young man, “please state all facts for the camera before we proceed with the interview, Full name?”
“John William Parker,” said John William Parker, already feeling stupid about this interview.
“Date of Birth?”
“March 24th two Thousand and Nine” he said plainly and clearly, intentionally sounding the words out properly. The Sergeant looked to his form, forgetting the next category of Data, upon finding it cleared his throat with an abrupt cough and looked to John, “Date Today?” John paused,
“Tuesday April 3rd two thousand and thirty Five,” there was an awkward silence then the moustache spoke, almost completely hiding the officers mouth, “John Parker, we have been looking through your details, and looked at the results of your physical examination and so forth” John smiled and nodded at each point made “and come to the conclusion that you are best suited for the infantry” John was entirely unsure how to react, “oh, Really” another smile and nodded, mulling this thought over in his head. “Yes, you see you don’t have any actual specialities as such, no medical qualifications or engineering, yet you have signed up to the army rather than the police, fire brigade, teaching and so forth, why?”
“Well, to be honest, it comes with the most benefits, call me a state parasite if you will, but I have student loans to pay,”
“but the new Liberal Democrat government has said they will cut student fees,” the officer said with a level of sarcasm, John looked to him, “yes, for students starting this year, I graduated in 2033” John corrected him politely, “was that the only reason?” the officer asked
“And, I wanted to defend my country, see the world,” John laughed nervously, “the usual reasons” no response whatsoever, “What I mean is, it sounds cliché but I wish to defend my country, make it secure, in repayment for all the United kingdom has given me”
“You’re right,” said the officer, “it does sound cliché, still we shall not question your motives, you of course passed the background check” he said with an approving, if slightly false smile, “You’re to undergo basic training before being assigned to second battalion, Princess of Wales own regiment,”
“Excuse me, Captain, um” he paused, not sure how to address the man now “, I thought you had to be from an area to be attached to a regional regiment, I was expecting the guards or perhaps the rifles,”
“The Princess of Wales regiment is a fine established unit, I would be proud,” he said insistently before adding quietly “if I were not in recruiting”
“I wasn’t questioning that, I am just surprised is all, and I don’t have any Welsh family,”
“Neither does the princess of Wales, nor did her Uncle before her, besides, the government has made it clear to us that we should have mixed recruitment into the regional regiments, after all are we not, all British,” he said with an expecting grin, “don’t you agree,... Private” he then added, sliding forward a touch pad and stylus, upon which was John’s contract to joint he army with practiced timing.
“Indeed we are, he paused “Sir, Indeed we are.”

Recruit Private John William Parker stepped out of the army recruitment centre and into the busy city street, retracing his steps back to Waterloo station, taking some pride in finding his way on his own, rather than follow the directions given to him on his link as so many around him, many watching the small glowing screens, following directions, watching news, playing games. Several bumped into him, looking up at him from their semi-hunched positions, giving him a sneer as if to label him in the wrong. A thin smile come look of despondency appeared on John’s face as the same man walked out in front of a taxi, swearing at the driver and getting out the way before the electric vehicle whirred away, its engine emitting a quiet beeping sound so for people to notice it, apparently, not that it seemed to work.

John saw the entrance to train station and rummaged around in his suit pocket for his id card, a tiny voice inside him reminding him it was in his inside pocket, where it always was on journeys like this. Taking it out, he realised he was blocking up the entrance to the ticket barriers, he produced his id card, swiped it against the sensor and the gate recognised that John William Parker had paid for his journey, it also registered his reason for travelling and time for travel, going off to some giant government database, but he didn’t give that much more thought as he headed through the barrier, looking up at the giant plasma display as an periodic announcement chimed in over the loudspeakers, with the slightly unnerving yet natural sounding voice of a computer
“Good afternoon commuters, the time is 3:15 pm, the weather outside is hazy, but sunny with an average temperature of 26 degrees, today’s terror alert is orange and today’s lottery draw is at 6pm, Commuters are reminded to have their identity cards ready for inspection,”

The announcement continued but John ignored it, looking for his train, platform 4 to Portsmouth stopping at here, there, somewhere else and Basingstoke, which was where he was headed. As he headed off towards the underpass that lead to the other platforms he got out his link and prodded the area of the screen marked ‘addresses’ and then the one marked ‘Home’ a few rings then a familiar voice answered, “030 789128” John pondered why she answered with her phone number, no one did that any more, “Hi mum, its only me,”
“Hello, how did it go?” she replied, a smirk appeared on Johns face,
“You’d be ashamed mum; I’m officially a soldier in his Majesty’s Army,”

Description
The young man sat opposite the three Army men, an officer, resplendent with peaked cap and moustache, a stupid moustache, the young man added mentally, and either side of the moustache sat two lower down officers with the young man identified as a corporal and a sergeant. The corporal turned on the camera mounted in front of them and the officer looked up from the papers suddenly and dramatically, the young man had to stifle a giggle, hiding it from the camera, recording his every movement. The moustache twitched as he cleared his throat, the sergeant looked from the form to the young man, “please state all facts for the camera before we proceed with the interview, Full name?”
“John William Parker,” said John William Parker, already feeling stupid about this interview.
“Date of Birth?”
“March 24th two Thousand and Nine” he said plainly and clearly, intentionally sounding the words out properly. The Sergeant looked to his form, forgetting the next category of Data, upon finding it cleared his throat with an abrupt cough and looked to John, “Date Today?” John paused,
“Tuesday April 3rd two thousand and thirty Five,” there was an awkward silence then the moustache spoke, almost completely hiding the officers mouth, “John Parker, we have been looking through your details, and looked at the results of your physical examination and so forth” John smiled and nodded at each point made “and come to the conclusion that you are best suited for the infantry” John was entirely unsure how to react, “oh, Really” another smile and nodded, mulling this thought over in his head. “Yes, you see you don’t have any actual specialities as such, no medical qualifications or engineering, yet you have signed up to the army rather than the police, fire brigade, teaching and so forth, why?”
“Well, to be honest, it comes with the most benefits, call me a state parasite if you will, but I have student loans to pay,”
“but the new Liberal Democrat government has said they will cut student fees,” the officer said with a level of sarcasm, John looked to him, “yes, for students starting this year, I graduated in 2033” John corrected him politely, “was that the only reason?” the officer asked
“And, I wanted to defend my country, see the world,” John laughed nervously, “the usual reasons” no response whatsoever, “What I mean is, it sounds cliché but I wish to defend my country, make it secure, in repayment for all the United kingdom has given me”
“You’re right,” said the officer, “it does sound cliché, still we shall not question your motives, you of course passed the background check” he said with an approving, if slightly false smile, “You’re to undergo basic training before being assigned to second battalion, Princess of Wales own regiment,”
“Excuse me, Captain, um” he paused, not sure how to address the man now “, I thought you had to be from an area to be attached to a regional regiment, I was expecting the guards or perhaps the rifles,”
“The Princess of Wales regiment is a fine established unit, I would be proud,” he said insistently before adding quietly “if I were not in recruiting”
“I wasn’t questioning that, I am just surprised is all, and I don’t have any Welsh family,”
“Neither does the princess of Wales, nor did her Uncle before her, besides, the government has made it clear to us that we should have mixed recruitment into the regional regiments, after all are we not, all British,” he said with an expecting grin, “don’t you agree,... Private” he then added, sliding forward a touch pad and stylus, upon which was John’s contract to joint he army with practiced timing.
“Indeed we are, he paused “Sir, Indeed we are.”

Recruit Private John William Parker stepped out of the army recruitment centre and into the busy city street, retracing his steps back to Waterloo station, taking some pride in finding his way on his own, rather than follow the directions given to him on his link as so many around him, many watching the small glowing screens, following directions, watching news, playing games. Several bumped into him, looking up at him from their semi-hunched positions, giving him a sneer as if to label him in the wrong. A thin smile come look of despondency appeared on John’s face as the same man walked out in front of a taxi, swearing at the driver and getting out the way before the electric vehicle whirred away, its engine emitting a quiet beeping sound so for people to notice it, apparently, not that it seemed to work.

John saw the entrance to train station and rummaged around in his suit pocket for his id card, a tiny voice inside him reminding him it was in his inside pocket, where it always was on journeys like this. Taking it out, he realised he was blocking up the entrance to the ticket barriers, he produced his id card, swiped it against the sensor and the gate recognised that John William Parker had paid for his journey, it also registered his reason for travelling and time for travel, going off to some giant government database, but he didn’t give that much more thought as he headed through the barrier, looking up at the giant plasma display as an periodic announcement chimed in over the loudspeakers, with the slightly unnerving yet natural sounding voice of a computer
“Good afternoon commuters, the time is 3:15 pm, the weather outside is hazy, but sunny with an average temperature of 26 degrees, today’s terror alert is orange and today’s lottery draw is at 6pm, Commuters are reminded to have their identity cards ready for inspection,”

The announcement continued but John ignored it, looking for his train, platform 4 to Portsmouth stopping at here, there, somewhere else and Basingstoke, which was where he was headed. As he headed off towards the underpass that lead to the other platforms he got out his link and prodded the area of the screen marked ‘addresses’ and then the one marked ‘Home’ a few rings then a familiar voice answered, “030 789128” John pondered why she answered with her phone number, no one did that any more, “Hi mum, its only me,”
“Hello, how did it go?” she replied, a smirk appeared on Johns face,
“You’d be ashamed mum; I’m officially a soldier in his Majesty’s Army,”