Chapter 1

It was so cold that day. I was so hungry. Alone.

Why was I alone?

Oh right, they all died.

Every last one of them.

The sickness took them and only I lived.

No one would take in an untrained kid like me. Jobs were harder to come by than food.

I still don't know why Nadi did it.

I remember the alley I was in, cold and dirty with the stink of unwashed bodies. I was too hungry to move, my clothes hung like blankets off of my bones. I was waiting to die. Just like everyone else.

Then a large man walked by. Usually when an adult comes through they take the boys. They are supposed to be stronger, or something like that.

I remembered being confused when he stopped in front of me. I remembered his boots too: they were scuffed and marked with oil stains. They were the same as my father's boots.

I looked up at him in confusion; the CGS logo embroidered on his jacket was all I could remember seeing. What was that supposed to stand for? Oh yeah: Chryse Guard Security. I had recalled him from my father's machine shop. He would come in sometimes, he was very nice and my father liked him. My father did not like many people; I guess I took after him a little bit.

Nadi, that was the man's name.

"What are you doing here Aurora?" It had been a while since I heard my own name: I had nearly forgotten the sound of it. He crouched down in front of me. I opened my mouth to answer but nothing came out.

"It's okay, you don't need to speak. I saw your old man's place but I thought you had moved. I've been walking around all day looking for it."

Of course he had not heard. He had been away at he base for the past three months; we were supposed to have had his next shipment available a week earlier. That did not matter anymore. Nothing mattered because I was going to die.

Nadi paused, I thought he was going to leave me but he did not. Instead he brought me back to the base. I had been taught how to read and I knew some stuff about machines and first aid so I guess that was why I was not forced to have the "Whiskers" implanted into my spine. Maybe Nadi threatened to quit. The president is enough of a coward that that had probably worked.

It has been nine years since the day Nadi saved me. I have made a few friends in that time; I have also lost a few more. It is quite the story if you want to hear it.

"Aurora!"

A loud voice snapped my concentration. I had been working on one of our old mobile workers. Big machines that looked like those old tanks from the war books. They had two guns instead of one and were a lot faster and more maneuverable. This one didn't want to start up and I was figuring out why. I was up to my arms in grease when Nadi came calling.

"Have you seen Orga around? Maruba's been calling for him but I can't find him anywhere."

Nadi was a big, dark skinned man. He sported more wrinkles than the day he pulled me out of the alley, more gray hair too. Though he likes to say that I caused them. His steel shoes clanked through the hangar until he was beside the old machine.

"Any luck with this old thing?" He patted the side of the mobile worker affectionately.

I pulled my head out of the main engine, a bit of my red-brown hair had pulled free of the braid I usually kept it in. It was cold but I didn't want to risk getting even more grease on my CGS jacket. Even the tank top I wore was so stained I couldn't remember the original color.

"Haven't seen Orga all day. Mika could probably find him though. And I'm getting close with this one. I think I figured out where the bug is."

Mika, Mikazuki, was Orga's best friend. They were both around my age but it was hard to tell exactly. They came into the company together and it hadn't taken long to figure out that they treated each other like brothers, and that Mika followed Orga without question.

Orga was, well, interesting to say the least. There was something tragic about him, like an ill-fated hero in an adventure story. All of the boys around the base looked up to him and treated him like their leader. It was almost cute.

"Alright, there'll be a training run later today. Make sure the Workers are set up."

I gave him the salute I knew he'd hate, "Yes sir!"

He shook his head and sighed in exasperation at me, "Well I'll see ya."

I was back in the machine before he could turn around. One of my many talents that kept my butt here and not out on the streets was my knack for making broken down machines obey. This one was no different. There had been rust build up around some of the moving parts, I had to remove that and fix a couple connections and, in theory, the machine would be back up and working.

I jumped off of the mobile worker and looked around the hangar. The boys were busy with their various jobs. Nothing big or special that day, just the usual maintenance chores. I spotted one boy in particular, his name was Yamagi Gilmerton. He was very quiet, I've only ever heard him say "yes sir" or "yes mam", and he hid most of his face behind blonde, bowl cut hair.

"Yamagi!" I called, he looked up from the stack of tools he was reorganizing.

"I need a hand with some of the mobile workers, wanna come?"

He nodded and within minutes we were running through each of the machines. I didn't let him use the Whisker implant with the machines, it was important to learn how to use them without it. Well, that and I hated what the company did to the kids when they came in. Whenever we got a new boy in I would make sure to avoid the surgery room. Not that it could even be called a room; they usually just set up a table somewhere relatively free of work clutter and went at it.

I hadn't realized the time until Yamagi's stomach reminded me. His face turned a slight pink and I bit back a laugh.

"Go get cleaned up and eat something, I'll clear up here." He nodded and hopped out of the cockpit.

I made sure to put different paint colors in each one before I left. One of the pilots would definitely not appreciate it and I had a pretty good idea as to who it would be.

After I had the mechs lined up and the tools cleared away I dashed away to the washroom. I was technically a part of the Third Army like Tamagi and Mika so I was assigned the same quarters as them. I was also one of the few girls on the base so I got to go to the showers at a different time from the others. I didn't care so much when I was younger but the past few years I've been thankful for Nadi's foresight.

I glanced longingly at the showers but managed with the sinks. I scrubbed most of the dirt from fingernails by the time the tap water turned from tepid to freezing. Nadi always insisted that our hands be clean if we wanted to eat.

I decided there was no helping my stained shirt so I pulled my jacket on to cover it and headed out to the food pavilion. The usual gunshots and explosion of practice drills echoed through the halls. It sounded like the mechs were out and running well.

The sun was high by the time I got outside. There was a stiff breeze to, I was quite glad for my jacket.

"Aurora!" Oh great, Captain Haeda's lap dog Sasai. He had a dark look on his ugly face, his lips were drawn back from his overbite into something that could pass for a grimace. His sandy brown hair whipped around in the wind. I looked down at my uniform his was cleaner. Another way to show the First Army was superior.

Just my luck that he finds me when I'm on my own.

"What is it?" I tried to push the distaste out of my voice but he must have heard it anyway. At least I managed to keep my stare level, If I looked down or seemed insecure I knew he would target me even more than he already did. Showing weakness to a predator was as good as a death sentence.

"Is that any way to talk to a senior officer, girl?"

I kept my mouth shut; it would only get me into even more trouble. Unfortunately he took that as an insult too. He narrowed his eyes at me then, faster than I could dodge; he grabbed my left ear and twisted until I was bowed lower than him.

"Maybe I should teach you how to show proper respect to your superiors."

His fetid breath was all I could smell; I wanted to vomit at its stench and at how close I was to the nasty man. I fought to keep my face from twisting into a pained grimace.

"Is there a problem here?" Relief rushed through me when Sasai released my ear. I resisted the urge to clutch at it even though it hurt.

"There's no problem, Orga." I said quickly. He was behind me and hung his arm over my shoulder. Sasai backed down a bit, typical coward to act tough until he's outnumbered.

"Sasai was just telling me about a few of the First Army machines needing to be refueled. Right Sir?" He scowled at me then looked to Orga, he deflated a bit. How interesting.

"Yeah, make sure to pass that on to Nadi, I don't want you screwing something up."

Sasai stalked away toward one of the fields. I could see some of the kids from the Third Army on a landmine drill and prayed that he didn't take out his anger on them. I could not stand it when others paid for my actions.

When he was far enough away I swore and clutched at my ear. The pain was a little more dull but I couldn't smother my stinging pride. Orga didn't move from behind me but I'm pretty sure he watched Sasai until he was out of sight.

I bumped my hip into Orga, "Thanks, I don't know how I would've gotten out of that one."

He moved the hand that had been on my shoulder to my head, "Don't worry about it," He looked down at me, one corner of his mouth twitched into a small grin, "Instead I'd worry about Eugene when he finds you. How did you figure out which mobile worker he'd choose?"

I let a smile break out on my face, so I got it right. "He likes the one with the least sticky steering. You'd think he'd have learned by now not to get in a prank war with me."

Orga sighed, a sound that came from deep in his chest. It sounded like something more than typical Third Army antics had caused it. I glanced up at him. His red scarf fluttered a bit beneath his jacket and his usually wild white hair was even more untamable in the wind. He had a far off look in his golden eyes; beneath them were darker circles than usual.

"What's wrong?"

"Maruba gave the Third Army a high profile assignment."

"Isn't that a good thing? Unless he's setting you guys up to fail. What's the assignment?" I ducked out from under his hand and started walking to the pavilion. I hadn't eaten since sunrise, something my stomach was quite unhappy about. Orga's much longer legs brought him beside me again.

He grinned, I knew he liked that I could draw conclusions nearly as quickly as he could, "Escorting a person named Kudelia Aine Bernstein to Earth."

I stopped for a moment and narrowed my eyes at this. Bernstein. I'd heard that name before. She was one of the people involved in the Chryse liberation movement and, to a greater extent, the Mars Independence Movement. She was also the daughter of the representative of Chryse, our city-region. For president Maruba to allow the Third Army to do something like this was strange. A high profile client was usually reserved for the adults in the First Army.

"What is he thinking?"

"Well thanks for your confidence."

We'd arrived at the pavilion by then. It wasn't much, just a kitchen with benches and tables under a small roof. The noise of the Third Army kids made it more cheerful.

"Orga, you know how highly I think of your pilots. You guys don't wear down the machines like the First Army does. But Maruba doesn't think of you guys that way. We both know this."

He grabbed two bowls of mash from the counter, I snagged spoons and glasses of water. We made our way to a quieter corner of the pavilion to talk. I sat beside him of course.

When I reached for the second bowl, he looked down at me in mock confusion.

"Wait where's your food?" He joked.

"Oh please," I pushed past him and claimed the food for myself, "Maybe I'll put pink paint in your practice mech next time."

"Spare me please."

We sat in comfortable silence for a while. The breeze had died down by now, the sounds of the practice run had long faded away. I was not looking forward to de-gumming the practice Workers.

"When will you guys leave?" I asked quietly.

"So eager to be rid of us?" He raised an eyebrow at me. I gave him my best cheeky grin.

"Oh yes, leave me alone so I can be a tyrant." I ranked below him in the Third but I was still pretty high up there. When he and the other pilots were called away the role of leader usually fell to me. At least it did outside of the maintenance bays; Nadi reigned supreme in there.

"Maybe I should leave someone to make sure the power doesn't go to your head."

"Leave me Biscuit! We never finished talking about the new adventure book. The one that takes place on earth. It has things called dwarves, orcs, giant birds, and even a wizard. " Biscuit Griffon was a tubby, gentle boy from the town. He knew how to read too.

"Nah, maybe I'll leave Eugene."

I crossed my arms and pouted a bit, "But he'll still be mad about the paint and I want to win the war."

"True, you may have the whole place covered in pink paint by the time we come home." He laughed. It was a good sound to hear, Orga's laugh. I liked that he tipped his head back a bit when he did it too.

"Aurora." I froze, Eugene had called my name in a voice was that kind of gentle quiet where you know something bad is about to happen. I pretended that I didn't hear it and tried to finish my mash quickly. Orga laughed silently at me.

"You're gonna get it." He whispered.

I shot him a glare.

"Try that again when your face isn't stuffed."

Just in time Eugene arrived, Mika, and a tall boy named Shino were right behind him. I ignored the furious tall blond boy and waved at Mika and Shino. They all wore different variations of the CGS uniform: Mika's own jacket was thicker and came down past his waist, he rolled up the sleeves so his hands were free; shino kept his jacket tied up around his waist; The latter was nice but a little too girl crazy for me. Growing up around a bunch of boys had made him a little strange. Mika returned my wave with a smile.

"No Shino I will not go on a date with you."

"Aww how'd you know I was gonna ask."

I grinned, "Call it intuition."

"And you're just going to ignore me?" I glanced at Eugene, he looked positively peeved, he even had a little bit of an eyebrow twitch. Mika and Shino snickered a bit. Apparently the pink had been a hit.

"Whatever do you mean?" I put on my best innocent face but he was having none of it. Biscuit had arrived by that time, bless that guy. He Was a little on the chubby side with a kind face and scruffy brown hair that he kept mostly concealed beneath an army green cap; he wore a white scarf beneath his jacket.

"Biscuit! I was just getting up, you can take my seat."

The boy smiled at me in confusion, "Okay, thanks! Hey when do you wanna talk about the book some more?"

"Ah sometime before y'all leave okay? I have to run before that one," I pointed at a fuming Eugene, "decides to try and eat me."

"Oh gotcha, I find you later."

I gathered up everything and hurried away. While I walked I could hear Orga tell them about the details of the transport mission. I glanced back one last time, I liked when they were all smiling. It was a rare sight, it had always been.

Back in the mechanic bay I could hear the laughter from the boys. I shoved my hands into the pockets of my jacket and walked in with my best impression of Captain Haeda: grumpy like a cat out of the bath.

I stopped just long enough to see what they were laughing at: one of the boys was impersonating Eugene. He must have been pretty angry to have stomped around like an Earth ape.

"What's all of this laughter about?" They froze in place. Oh I'd never seen a bunch of boys so scared.

"Don't you know it's not right to impersonate your higher ranking peers?" they hung their heads in shame, a few of them brought their shoulders together.

I let the Haeda act drop, "You have to at least invite me to join in."

They smiled and started laughing at each other.

"Come on, we'd better get the pink ammo hidden before Eugene gets back"

"It's a good think he's such a bad shot when he's against Akihiro and Mika, otherwise we'd have pink Mobile Workers instead of patchy green ones." One of the boys admitted.

"Nah, I'd make sure that one was put with the First Army mechs." I assured them, "Only green for our pilots."

After that we got to work on the workers, the boys had managed not to get them beaten up too badly but there were a couple of low bolts to tighten. I let my mechanic crew take care of those. It was good to let them learn and get some confidence with the tools. That's what Nadi always told me. I ran through the checklist on the Ele-tablet while they worked.

After a few hours I dismissed them, they were cleaning up the tools when Nadi came to get me.

We had to go over all of the equipment the pilots would bring on the escort mission to Earth. I was not particularly looking forward to it. The five boys who would be going were the closest friends I had, they were going to be gone for at least a couple of months.

"Why the long face Ari?" Nadi's deep voice knocked me out of my thoughts. I looked up over the gun-arm of a Mobile Worker, a worries look was on his face.

"Just thinking about the escort mission, something doesn't seem right about it. I'm probably worrying about nothing though." I tried to smile but it wasn't real, and he knew it. Fortunately Nadi knew me well enough that he didn't press further. We worked in silence until the checklist was completed and everything was in prime working order.

I ran down the list once more when Orga walked through the hangar to Nadi. He nodded at me, I nodded and then returned to the list. I managed to catch their conversation though. The lady, Miss Kurdelia Aine Bernstein, was going to arrive at midday tomorrow; the crew would leave the next day. I wouldn't see any of them for five months after that. And that was if everything went right. Orga started talking about how the Third Army was often used as shields for the First and that this mission was no different. I heard nadi light a roll of tabacco.

"Those things will kill you Nadi. Secondary check is done, everything is in place for loading." I said while I walked over to them. It was an old argument between us. I knew he was never going to stop but it was a fun bicker match.

"Not before you give my old heart more than it can handle. You see how she treats me Orga? Its abuse, I should call someone about it."

Orga just smiled at us both. I half listened while they talked about the Whiskers most of the Third Army sported. The old man-machine interface system, also known as the Alaya Vijnana system, that allowed them to pilot the Mobile Workers without much training or education. It was an awful thing to do. Orga had ditched his jacket and I could see his own Whisker while they talked. I remembered when he and Mika had arrived, when they had to undergo the implant surgery.

Orga hadn't cried, I remember thinking he was being brave but now I knew better. He had been scared of what would happen if he cried, if he showed weakness in front of Mika. Didn't matter, he still got punched in the face for being "cheeky".

Nadi turned in for the night after the checks, Orga and I walked back to the bunk room in silence. It had become a nightly ritual for us ever since the men from the First began giving me trouble. That started maybe three years ago. We'd moved my bunk so that I was nearer to Mika and Biscuit, I didn't really mind but sometimes Orga would throw dirty shorts at Biscuit and I when we talked about books for too long into the night.

He also guarded me while I showered, not that I needed it but I'd learned to let the boys do what made them comfortable. I'd tried to stop them before but to no avail. Apparently having someone to protect made them feel like they had a job even when they were done for the night.

When I had gotten as clean as I would ever get, I changed into my night clothes and dragged my tired self to bed. I heard Orga go through a similar ritual, I was asleep by the time he returned to his bunk across the isle from mine.