Disclaimer: Don't own, so nobody sue!
Hiya everyone! OK, this is just a small side story to One Last Battle. Y'all remember the soldier in the mobile suit that Yzak and Athrun yelled at? Well this is a story from his PoV about that day, and what happens when he goes to find out who the two strange men were.
It hadn't started out as a good day. The early mornings always got to him...but this morning had felt wrong. Why is it when you're new everyone shouts at you? Hadn't he graduated at the top? Wasn't he an elite? What gave those slightly older soldiers the right to bully him? Damnit, it wasn't fair! At the academy, he'd been the best. In all of his training he'd come on top. Every simulated battle he'd trained in, every damn knife fight and everyone...
The wailing of the battle alarm brought him out of his thoughts. Well, that had to happen! As if his day wasn't bad enough, some bastard decided to make the day worse by sounding the battle alarm. The next thing you know, that bastard of a sergent will come through the door and yell some more, look at him like he was born yesterday, and tell him what was fucking obvious. What can you do only get your kit together, find your mobile suit and keep your mouth shut.
After he launched, He wondered why he was left out on the edge of the battle. All the action was happening somewhere else. He stood guard on the edge of the battle, guarding the retreat line back to the mothership. "Wait till you're more experienced," they said. More experience, and he was going to get that how? The sound of his radio caused him to start. Great, someone was going to yell at him again. It came as a surprise when an unfamiliar voice sounded from it.
'Did nobody read the manual before they tried to fly a mobile suit.' The voice sounded like he knew what he was doing.'Never mind arsing about taking on the suits, take out the mother ship.' Who the hell ...? He noticed the two new suits on the field, and patched into the nearest. Definitely an unfamiliar face. Not to mention an old face. 'Um, sir? Who are you?' A second voice sounded over the link. 'Listen son, I was fighting wars while you were still suckin' on your momma's titty, so don't tell me how to fight a battle!' He flinched, why did everyone have to yell at him? The man in the cockpit fixed him with an icey stare. Yet his face had softened slightly, a calm reassuring look. 'If you've any more stupid questions, save them till after the battle! Now for crissake, focus! And...tell me where the accelarator is on these new models!' Tell him where the accelarator was on these...new models? But these...weren't new models.
He looked at the old face, and realised just how old it really was. Way too old to be a soldier. But, the man was right, he needed to focus. He blushed slightly, pointed to the accelerator and shut the link.
Being in a real battle for the first time unnerved him. Yet...there didn't seem to be anything worth fearing. There was something so calming about knowing that old man had his back. It was a strange feeling. Though the battle didn't seem to be anywhere near ending, he had a strange calmness. Then, that calmness was shattered when one of the old men spun round and shouted, 'All right lads, when this is over, you can clean it up! Till then, get the hell outta the way!' Shock took hold of him as the other man accelerated towards the enemy ship. Didn't he see that was suicide? What was he thinking?
Sure enough, the suit exploded less than five minutes later. A pang shot through his chest as the wreckage rained down. The other man was already half way to the enemy ship, aiming straight for the bridge. Two explosions followed. He stared at the wreckage falling from the sky. The enemy ship was crashing to the ground, the half destroyed MS coming down right beside it. Those two old men were dead? But, they couldn't have been soldiers! Had two civilens just died because of this pointless war? Who had they been?
His fingers ghosted over the keypad, bringing up the visuals of their faces. Two aged faces, with strange eyes. A memory came to him from his childhood of being chastised by his father. In an effort to remain still while his father ranted, he remembered fixing his gaze on a photograph on the wall. It showed his father, looking very young and very proud, standing between two older men. As he stared at the two photos he'd saved, he realised what had the memory back. It was the eyes, they were the same.
But...but if these were the same men, then...then they'd had to have been over seventy. That was way to old. Hell, his father had to get up four times a night to take a piss. They should be living in some nice little retirment home, being pampered and taken care of. Not out here, fighting in these stupid machines, in a war nobody cared about. So if...if...they must have come from a retirment home. And there was only one near this base.
The young women's eyes were hazel, and her smile didn't light them up. She made him feel uncomfortable. 'So tell me, who is it your looking for? A relitive? Your grandmother? Father, maybe?' He shook his head. 'No, my...superiour officer.' 'Oh, do you have a name?' 'Er, no. But I have photographs.' He slowly took the photos out of his uniform pocket, wondering if this was really right, or if he was just being an idiot. 'Maybe you won't know them...to be honest, I feel a bit of a fool.' She took the photos from him and looked briefly at them. Her face lit up.
'Oh, that's Mr Jule and Mr Zala. Lovely people, can be a bit violent at times, don't really like rules, but they're lovely.' She paused, looking thoughtful, 'You don't know where they are, do you? They've disappeared. We've got people looking for them, but any information would be very helpful.' He sighed, looked at his shoes and said: 'You need'nt look for the anymore, they're at peace at last. And a lot of us newbies are happy that they decided to go out the way they did. Thank you for your time, I've wasted enough of it.' And with that, he turned and left, leaving a very bemused women holding two photographs.
Right, now this story line is complete. Please drop a review. Oh and by the way the title is german for "Old Comrades". It's in german because it means more in that launguege. Thanks for reading!