It had caught her eye from some distance away, though at first, she hadn't really planned to give it a second look. Some metallic thing in the grass - big whoop. It was only when she saw the glint in the corner of her eye again that she had bent down to investigate it - mostly because she could swear that the light reflecting off it had changed color.
That this was the most exciting thing in her whole week was probably a sad reflection on the life of Lieutenant Jane Evans. It wasn't supposed to have turned out like this at all - if her teenage dreams had come true, then she'd have been flying one of the fighter jets that sat in the nearby hangars, going up into the air every day behind the controls of a wonder of modern engineering. Yet here she was, stuck on the ground in Air Force logistics - a glorified office drone, more or less. All those years of dreaming about flying, and when the time had come to actually get in a cockpit for her first lesson... she'd been scared shitless, too afraid of all the calamitous damage she could cause if she fucked up.
The reward for her cowardice was a boring, monotous line of work so dreary that bending down to pick up what seemed to be some lost dog tags was more exciting than anything else she'd done. Well, somebody was going to get yelled at for this, she assumed. Lifting up the tags to check the name, however, she was surprised to find... well, she didn't know what in the hell it was. Instead of the usual information printed on the stamped metal, it was just what looked like a bunch of weird foreign script, and not in any format she recognized. Or a language she recognized - and she was multilingual enough to have a good ability to assess that sort of thing, or at least, Jane thought so.
"What the hell...?" This had to be a misprint or something, or maybe a gag gift somebody had picked up and lost, or something. Huh. Well, she didn't see anybody else around, so... screw it, finder's keepers. With a shrug she stuffed it into her uniform pocket, giving it little thought as she continued walking down the street. She was forutnate, at least, to have some off-base housing in walking distance of her posting, a cozy little house just about big enough for two people... currently occupied by her and her alone. Yeah, turned out boring pencil-pushers weren't exactly a romantic magnet.
Just another element of her dreadfully uninteresting life, she supposed. The young woman sighed as she stepped inside her sparsely-decorated home, locking the door behind her and quickly throwing off her duty uniform, followed by removing her golden blonde hair from its bun and throwing her own dog tags on the counter. Jane was practically robotic as she went about her evening routine; get undressed, exercise, shower, throw something in the microwave, sit on her couch melting her brain in front of the TV until she passed out. Hardly even used the bed anymore, for sleeping or for anything more fun.
Tonight, though, was a disruption in the routine, something downright incredible given how reflexive things tended to be for her. Rather than going straight for the microwave after her shower, she happened to pass by her discarded clothing and take note of the strange dog tags from earlier. Must have fallen out of her pocket. Without really giving it much thought, she grabbed them, throwing them around her neck for a lark. They felt about the same as her usual tags, albeit cleaner - and god, they were shiny. Get a good reflection and you could blind somebody with this thing. God knows there were a few jackasses around the base who she would've liked to deny sight to.
She kept them on as she proceeded to the kitchen, grabbing some tasteless meal and nuking it in her run-down microwave before stumbling back to the living room, still completely nude. It was only after plopping on the couch that she realized the remote was out of reach - and lazy as she felt right now, there was no compulsion to get up and grab it. Her head instead turned towards the window, staring out in the direction of the base. In the distance she could hear the thunder of jet engines coming to life, and in the darkness, she could see the illuminating spots of F-35s taking off for a nighttime exercise. A nice little reminder of where she could have been, if she hadn't been such a goddamn chicken.
Mired in her shame, she let out a few muttered words. "Wish I could be up there."
Almost the moment she stopped speaking, her attention was drawn downwards, to where the dog tags rested just above her chest. It felt... warm, all of a sudden. Warmer than August already was, anyway. That wasn't as disconcerting, however, as the fact that the damn things were glowing. With a yelp her meal was tossed aside, as she stood up, grabbing the chain to try and yank the tags off. They refused to budge, as she could feel the heat spreading along with the glow, quickly beginning to envelop her whole body. Jane hadn't a clue what was even happening - she could only stand there in disbelief as she began to feel something change within her.