Julieta sat in the cafe, her gloved hands laid patiently on the vanished wood table. It felt strange not being in her uniform, even though her brown coat and black pants mirrored it's appearance it still felt alien to her. It had been Gaelio that had suggested going here before she began her first assignment from the internal regulatory bureau. It was not anything major, a routine inspection of peacekeeping forces and assisting in an anti-pirate raid.
She turned her attention to her surroundings. It was a quint place, small tables, stool like chairs and a decent atmosphere as was attested by the fact that everyone was in good spirits. This place seemed to be mostly popular with the Novi colony locals as evidenced by people dressed in causal clothing who were probably here to just enjoy a Sunday break. That being said she did recognise one or two Gjallarhorn personal here, which wasn't surprising since Gaelio had been informed of this place after speaking to another officer.
Her eyes drifted to a TV screen which displayed the news. In this case it showed the first anniversary of the human debris abolishment treaty. Julieta could not be helped but be amazed by how much had changed over the years; after the treaty schools and accommodations were built which helped Mars grow economically and socially. Schemes which allowed older human debris find work had also taken off and only furthered it's growth. This meant stability and a easier workload of Gjallarhorn.
Of course it had not been easy straight off the bat. Nobliss's untimely death was an inconvenience in the short term as Gjallarhorn had to investigate it while also keeping his role within the Fareed incident secret. Though they had ultimately used the remnants of the Dawn Horizon Corps' backers as a scapegoat. Long term it had probably helped Gjallarhorn significantly; a man like Nobliss was too ambitious, sooner or later they would have had to deal with him or his ambitions might have ended up causing more trouble than it was worth.
Julieta frowned; even though things had undoubtedly gone well for many people, she was not quite sure whether to celebrate it or not. Especially after she realised the truth behind what she had perceived as devils.
"Hey your not thinking about the past, aren't you?"
She looked up to see a man with purple hair and a goatee along with a stark white patch of skin which ran from one side of his face to another, a memento of a scar.
"It's a waste of time if you ask me." The man added as he placed the tray which he held, which carried two cups of coffee, on the table. Juiletta sighed and shook her head.
"Still frivolous even when you're out of the wheelchair, Gaelio?" She remarked as her companion took his seat at the opposite side of the table after he placed the tray on the wooden surface. Her companion simply smiled in return, answering her before he even opened his mouth.
"In a cafe, on a day like this, I think you're entitled to be a bit frivolous." Gaelio shifted his chair closer to the table before his smile dropped. "Seriously though you were thinking about it weren't you?" While Gaelio Bauldwin had regained much of his brighter side he still retained some of his more serious side he had gained in the run up to the Fareed incident. Julieta sighed in response.
"Well it's hard not to look back and think, could we have prevented it all this?" She mused as she took her cup and looked into the dark brown liquid in a somber, reflective manner.
"How many lives could we have saved?" She continued, "Would my mentor still be alive and still have his name? Would the children of Tekkadan, be living a life worth living instead of dying alone on the battlefield?"
"That's the hardest part of being a soldier." Gaelio stated, not hiding the truth. "Looking back and wondering if the future was worth stepping over the corpses of others. All we can do is learn and use what has been learned to create a better legacy for others." He brightened up a little. "Besides not everyone died."
Julieta narrowed her eyes a little; this could not have not been just a random light hearted comment. "What are you implying?"
"Just that there's a rumour that someone fiddled with the registers." Gaelio took a sip from his cup, gauging if it was cool enough to take a gulp. Immediately Juris realised what he was saying.
"Does-"
"No," Gaelio answered, predicting her question. "Elion does not want to investigate the matter. As far as he knows there's no conclusive evidence to prove that they are causing any trouble, or that any records were altered. He doesn't need to deal with anything apart from pirates and idiots who think that the old Gjallarhorn was better. For now Specialist Major Juris, let us just enjoy some good coffee."
Mars Sphere space
Amaru fought the urge to hold the Graze's controls in a death grip as he took aim at one of the Man Rodis in front of him. He knew that he was at a serious disadvantage; compared to his general purpose Graze the Rodis were much better suited to zero-gravity combat thanks to their mobility and armour. However both he and his fellow team member had better range weaponry, but even that advantage would soon go out of the window due to the fact that he had just loaded his last magazine and Edward, his teammate was nearly out of rounds as well.
Waiting for an opportunity to get a shot both pilots watched the Man Rodis carefully as they circled them like sharks that had smelt blood in the water. The Rodis must know that they were almost out of ammo, they had also fired their last SMG round and ditched the guns and had only their massive rocket powered machetes; arguably they were much more threatening. Amaru could feel sweat form on his forehead as he waited for the inevitable attack.
They had lost Harrod, their squadron leader, when they were ambushed; he did not react fast enough to get into cover behind an asteroid and was cut down in a hail of 90mm bullets. Tyler had only gotten unlucky; she had gotten a kill on one which had crippled Amaru's right arm but the enemy's fuel lines chain reacted which produced a massive purple tinged cloud which obscured her sight. Moments later the Rodi that he was currently tracking bisected her Graze. Edward had managed to disable a Rodi before but not before he made the mistake of wasting his rounds in long range combat.
He noticed that the Nano-laminate armour on the Rodi's head on his side was badly chipped. It had probably degraded and had been not been replaced over years of use and abuse, or it was second hand armour. Either ways it was a weakness and a rifle burst at close range would shatter it. Still he would need to make sure that he dodged, otherwise it would be for nothing.
Suddenly both Rodi's charged, hammer choppers raised in the hope of scoring a killing blow. Both Grazes raised their rifles took aim and fired.
Amaru fired a five shot burst aimed towards the head just in the last few seconds. As predicted the armour shattered by the 130mm rounds. While he unfortunately did not seem to damage the flat head beyond a slight dent but he did seemingly knock him off balance. The Man Rodi tumbled throw the void before smashing into Armaru's Graze, it flailed around before grasping the barrel of Amaru's rifle.
He was flipped around just in time to see the second Rodi slam it's hammer chopper into Edward's Graze's chest. He didn't need to look at his HUD to know that he was now the last Gjallarhorn pilot standing. He felt his stomach drop, pressure was on him.
The Rodi that had grabbed his rifle raised its hammer chopper, hoping to land a finishing blow like it's companion. Amaru jerked his arm upwards so that his opponent's palm was over the barrel before he pulled the trigger and emptied his magazine. He shredded the Rodi's palm before he kicked the bulky mobile suit away. Once again caught by surprise the Rodi failed to regain control in time. Just as he cast away his rifle and pulled out his axe when a double beep could be heard. He looked up to see the second Rodi with Edward's rifle. He did not know if it had any ammo left but he did know that it would take time for the Rodi to override the weapon lock and fire the gun, time which Amaru couldn't afford to give him.
He punched the thrusters up to max and charged the Man Rodi. Realising that the rifle has not going to be read to fire in the next few moments so it raised its hammer chopper and swung. Amaru jinxed left and dodged the blow before he slammed his axe into the Rodi's chest. He saw a dark liquid which was either blood or fluid, he didn't know what it was but it meant the same thing.
He kicked off the wreckage of the first Man Rodi and boosted towards the last remaining enemy. It looked towards him before muzzle flashes could be seen from its head. Most of the Vulcan shells just bounced of his armour, but one smashed into his optics, the visual from them flickered, threatening to turn to static or just black out entirely. Amaru smashed his axe into the Rodi's right arm, severing hydraulics and leaving the arm crippled before he raised his axe once again. Just as he was about to bring the axe down on its head and fully disable the mobile suit, the feed from his Mobile Suit's optics went to static.
He allowed his body to relax before the screen suddenly turned to sky blue and his Suit's readouts reset themselves. A line of text appeared on the front monitor.
"Simulation over."
Even though Amaru and his squad mates had technically achieved a victory by eliminating all Mobile suits, it had come as too steep of a price; they had lost three mobile suits and a fourth was severely damaged. This was far from a desirable outcome.
He ran a hand through his drenched brown hair as the monitor shut down. He was glad that the Major had forced them to wear their pilot gear instead of their standard uniforms, if he had to wear them he would stuck trying to get the smell of sweat out of them for a month.
Even though he had finished the simulation, he still mentally braced himself. He was either going to receive a lecture from Edward or his commanding officer, Major Shaw, probably both. He could understand if Shaw decided to chew him out, he had gotten careless and allowed his mobile suit to be heavily damaged, not to mention how all four of them allowed themselves to be spilt up and picked off by the enemy. Edward would just shout at him in the vain hope he would be turned into a scapegoat, his little rants didn't hurt him, but they did annoyed the ever living crap out of him. During the first few times he had lost his composure and punched him, now Amaru had learnt that he couldn't be picky about who was covering his back.
The Graze's cockpit hatch opened up, revealing the mobile suit hangar bay and the two other Mars Grazes which were painted dark blue with red heads, identifying them as units which were used by the Gjallarhorn Mars garrison. He could see two other pilots climb out of their machines and float towards the gantry next to the doors. One was Tyler Venox, a petite young woman with brown hair just cut short of her shoulders and hazel eyes. Harrod Quatro, a man about his age with dirty blonde hair tidied up in a ponytail who seemed to just fit into a mobile suit cockpit.
He was about push off and join them when Edward floated past, he had blue eyes and silver hair which Amaru knew that he kept immaculately clean in his spare time. He scowled disapprovingly at Amaru but said nothing; the Major had given him a chewing out after their last botched training session when Edward suddenly grabbed Amaru's collar as soon as Amaru had gotten out of the cockpit.
Amaru kicked off, allowing the lack of gravity and momentum to carry him towards the gantry and a unimpressed major Isabella Shaw.
Major Shaw was a woman approaching retirement age with pepper black hair and aged face. But her iron grey eyes clearly spoke of experience, the fact that she was once part of the Arianrhod fleet only served to confirm this. Amaru took his place next to Edward as the four pilots stood to attention.
She adjusted her cap. Amaru had noted that she often did this when she felt that she had everyone's attention. "So four enemy mobile suits destroyed at the cost of three of our own and a fourth being heavily damaged at the very least. Do you think that was a good outcome?"
"No sir!" The four pilots replied in unison before the Major continued. "Well at least you have some common sense. However Gjallarhorn does not just need common sense! It needs capable mobile suit pilots! With Pirate activity still rising steadily anti-pirate efforts need to be increased and the colonies security forces and the Martian Defence Corps won't be able to handle it on their own which is why every branch of Gjallarhorn, including the Mars branch, needs to be at the top of its game! Which is why I expect you to do better than this in training. Yes these are some of the more difficult simulation scenarios but given the fact that you have successfully completed them in the past doesn't excuse you from the mess that was today's session and yesterday's!"
The major turned her gaze to Harrod, Amaru had noticed that she would give her criticism about a pilot's performance during a training session by the order of when they were destroyed or how much damage they sustained. "Second Lieutenant Quatro, previously you have shown exemplary displays on how to fight in a three dimensional environment such as in space in the previous exercises; so I am both shocked and disappointed to see that you were the first to be eliminated because you were not paying attention to the hostile mobile suits' position. I am hoping that this is just a one off mistake that will not be repeated."
"It will not happen again Sir!" Harrod replied before the major moved her attention to Tyler. Amaru knew that bad luck and overconfidence had bit Harrod; he was skilled when it came to high mobility combat in a zero gravity environment and if he hadn't gone down in those first few seconds then the team might not have panicked and gotten themselves killed after watching their friend get cut down.
"First Lieutenant Venox, leadership skills are only useful if your alive. While you did get a good rifle kill you relied on your eyes too much and let your guard down, which in turn got you cut in half by an Rodi hiding behind his buddy's wreak. Don't forget to glance at your HUD's radar display and don't rest until the area is secure."
"Yes Sir!" Tyler responded before she looked to Edward. Tyler was the closest thing the team had to a leader, despite her small stature she had proven herself to be as skilled as the other pilots in the Mars branch 2nd squadron, her elimination not only meant that they had lost another pilot, but Edward and Amaru couldn't regroup effectively.
"Second Lieutenant Hearth-Castle. You had the right idea of using your rifle to engage the enemy, but it is a 100mm rifle, not a 300mm! Firing from long range is a waste of time as you do not have the accuracy to hit a weak point in the enemy armour, which when your fighting a heavily armoured mobile suit like the Man Rodi is very important. Otherwise you waste ammo and end up not having any when you need it."
"Sir!" The major turned to Amaru. In his opinion, Amaru thought that Edward made the greatest mistake. While dumping three magazines into a man Rodi at range might destroy it, but ultimately there are more ammo effective ways of destroying a mobile suit. That being said, he could be biased because of his dislike of Edward's behaviour towards him.
He was broken out of his thoughts by the major's clear voice. "Second Lieutenant Kamiya. You displayed excellent ranged combat and close combat skills, however you let your guard down and allowed the last Rodi to disable your main optics. Even if a mobile suit is seemingly disarmed you should not let your guard down until the hostile is fully disabled or destroyed!"
"Understood sir!" Amaru knew that the major was correct in her feedback of his performance. He had disregarded the head vulcans and end up blinded because of them. If he had lost his optics early on in the engagement he would have been close to useless. He still felt that Edward could have been better with he ammo management.
The major turned to address all of them. "I hope that you will learn from your mistakes quickly; you will be participating in your first raid soon under the watch of two inspectors and alongside of the MDC! I do not need to state why this mission is important for you as members of Gjallarhorn! For now though you are dismissed!"
Erika looked at her reflection in her mobile suit's claymore which was secured against the hangar wall. A young woman with dark skin and short dark hair stared back at her through impromptu mirror before she was broken out of her thoughts by a gruff but jovial voice.
"Oi, Lieutenant-Major Ashburn!" She looked up at one of the gantries which was next to the kneeling form of her Mobile suit; the Waltraute. A man dressed in the dark brown jacket favoured by the Martian Defence Corps smiled down at her along with head of shaggy blonde hair and a equally messy beard, Captain Gregory Kisen. "We're going to be loading the mobile suits up in a moment so that we can get them into space and onto the carrier first thing in the morning." He called down.
"Sorry, my head was on Phobes." She replied as she walked towards the ladder leading up to the gantry the captain was standing on. She could see him raise an eyebrow as she climbed to join him. "And why's that?" He asked curiously. "Nothing much, you know how I am before ops." She answered dismissively as she pulled herself onto the platform and joining the captain.
"Anyway so do you know who Gjallarhorn are sending?" She asked nonchalantly as she looked at the Waltraute; the mobile suit had a ultra-hard glass faceplate which hid the Valkyrja frame's optics and large shoulder plates which housed extra thrusters as well as offer better protection. It was painted grey with red shoulder which was a common colour scheme within the MDC; Erika's position as an ace could allow her to paint it in a more distinctive colour scheme but the Waltraute was a unique mobile suit within the MDC, there was really no point,
"They're sending the Ship Aigus along with the second mobile suit squadron from the Mars branch." Gregory stated. "Two guys from the regulation bureau are joining as well so they'll be fielding one battleship, four Grazes and either two schwalbes or two Reginlazes. With the Mons and our own mobile suit squadron, we'll have eleven mobile suits and two battleships."
"It's kind of strange how they are taking their sweet time rolling out the Reginlazes." Erika remarked. "I mean for a armed force as large as them they aren't upgrading their weapons as quickly as you would expect; the machines have only just seen action outside of the Arianrhod fleet in the colonial branches about one or two years ago."
"That's because they don't need to. Most militaries use pre-calamity war mobile suit frames, for example we mostly use the Rodi Grus, which despite being a solid mobile suit many elements are inferior to the Graze. So they don't have a reason to get in an arms race." The captain explained as he leaned against the railing. "In addition a lot of their Grazes, mostly the ones which are involved with anti-pirate raids, have been upgraded so that they can use better fire arms and have a better performance. Upgrading the existing Grazes to have better loadouts and slowly introducing the Reginlazes makes more economic sense; Gjallerhorn doesn't have limitless resources."
"Well some of them still have limitless arrogance." Erika deadpanned prompting Gregory to chuckle. "The guy who gave you Waltraute wasn't too bad." He stated. "Speaking of which we ought to load her on the transport ready for the flight to orbit. Soon we're going to have to show that the Martian Union can hold its own ground."
So this is the first chapter of my first fanfic! I've created a list some of the Mars defence Corps (MDC) Mobile suits which are on DA (note that I'll put info about original Mobile Suits and original Mobile suit variants on DA), I'll probably do some of the Gjallarhorn MSVs when they are introduced. This chapter is honestly just introducing charecters, giving a little intro into the world state, so nothing special. Please do drop a review, this is my first fanfic here so productive feedback is welcome. I know for a fact I've made some grammar/spelling errors because I have bad grammar.
Disclaimer: I only own the original characters and the original mobile suit and mobile suit variants featured.