Refracted Past

"Former Second Lieutenant Ginko Urst. I am here as per-requested by the head of this outpost." Ginko felt odd for saluting, especially since he was a freelancer ever since the incident. A female officer came toward him, returning the salute.

"So you are Urst huh? Heard a lot about you damned messed up thing that happened to your buddies. By the way I'm Johna Zarta, I was the one that pointed at your head," She teased him by pointing at his head with her index finger, making a "Bang!" motion.

"I thought it might be a woman behind the cockpit of that unit"

"How so?"

"Only females that command respect from their troops do that, keeps the underlings in line, am I right?" Urst smiled coyly at her with his remark.

"Well, its the kind like you that we females have to keep underfoot" she returned the smile at him in counter point

"Touché, you got me there"

"Don't let it get to your head, but anyway, my room is always open if you need to talk. Why do you consider yourself a former second lieutenant Urst?"

Ginko paused for a moment. Was it for respect to his comrades? For the sides that he fought with and against? For what he lost in the incident?

"Since I lost all my squad mates at the hands of the Titans, I knew that I lost my own self since they took a part of me that made me complete."

"I know how something like that can feel but not at your level"

"I went off and joined other groups, getting my unit fixed since that attack raid. My unit is a bit unique despite it being a mass production model."

"Is that so, that mean you won't let our techs take a look at it?"

"If they wish, they can, but they might scoff at all the hotwiring I've done. What most of the equipment that I have is stolen and salvaged. The magnetic coatings that where advertised on the NT1? Those are in my unit's joints. And the panoramic display as well, I salvaged it after it was discarded. I also have a compact Psycommu system on board."

"You have all that onboard? We're lucky that we get spare parts for shields" Johna walked ahead of Urst, jaunting her head to have him follow her.

"What's with the odd hand shield placement? Are you left handed or something?"

"Well, I shoot with my right and I use my sabre with my left. I feel that I only need a burst of concentration when I block or shoot, but I need focus to be able to pilot a sabre"

"I see, I hope you don't take this to heart about how you unit looks like? It reminds me of the mass production units for the Titans."

Urst chocked slightly, then he swallowed to clear his through.

"Yes, I've been told that too many times, but people have a right to know, and sometimes it was the only way to identify me when I was with the Titans"

"YOU joined the Titans? Don't tell me you where the one that was in that colony gassing!"

"NO! I was in the mop up crew. I never killed anyone when I was with the Titans; I only disabled the units that we faced. Its why I am known for, as the..."

"Bloodless Ronin, I know."

"Yes. After the colony gassing, I left the Titans. I never liked the way they took my comrades, but a whole colony gassed was inhuman. Since then I've been fighting with factions that are against the Titans. Most of the time they would go out and just wipe out whole basses. They liked me for my fighting style because it would result in prisoners for interrogation, as well as recoverable mobile suits. I considered that it was a good way to get revenge rather than directly sabotaging from the inside. But eventually the earth forces factions I joined ended up fighting each there, and since I joined so many, it was difficult not to attain a bounty on my head. It wasn't until I heard about the AEUG. And that is how I come now to offer you my service and return to active duty"

"You do know that most people here have been tracking your movements. You're somewhat infamous and enigmatic; you're either a hero or some sort of twisted backstabber."

"I know, I just wish that I can, clear or give myself a new side"

"Well, you already know that my quarters are open" she placed a hand on his shoulder in comfort "Just don't take advantage of it" she kidded him

"Thanks Zarta"

"No last names, we bond like siblings here, first names are good here, even for superiors. Johna is fine"

"Thank you Johna" She walked off, Ginko wondering if she was really as open as he was feeling from her.

It was in the mess hall that Ginko was finally able to meet who where the other two mobile suits that held him under duress of disability when they brought him in.

"So you're Ginko Urst, I was wondering why Zarta was hammering the techs to release Minovsky particles at this time of day. By the way, I'm Klar Matheuws, 2nd command after Zarta. I was the one that was pointing at your left knee" Klar jabbed at his back with his fist.

"These here is Maxi, she doesn't have a last name, she's been with us since the beginning. She is the best Sabre artist we have, we usually send her in whenever we need security to be disabled"

Maxy was waif-like, but she had intense eyes. Her eyes softened suddenly when Klar motioned her skills at the sabre

"Klar shut up, you know I'm still only junior grade. I'm not even supposed to be able to pilot a mobile suit"

"Yeah, but who else knows how to cut a tree and prune it to make a good bat out of it?" Maxy blushed deeply as he mentioned about the bat.

"She cut down a tree once, and she was so freaked out by it that she decided to make it on to a bat so that it wouldn't just sit there. Its our silent anti intruder alarm, we usually stick her on it." Klar was jabbed by Maxy as he feigned pain as she continually punched him.

"I'm Tanya Lii, I usually do heavy weapons, and I actually was covering with an Anti-MS rifle to your units booster pack. I was that blip you kept turning to on your radar"

"I see, I could read a high power signature, but you where able to hide it"

"I was being sarcastic, you weren't supposed to see me. How did you?"

"I have a compact Psycommu in my NEMO, its able to see at least what ever a regular radar can't see, and at the same range"

"Right, Psycommu units, right" Lii went on to mumble to herself. Ginko wondered if this unit might actually be better than his previous ones, especially by the way it was such kinship.

Urst finally finished his tray and placed in revolving kitchen rack. He walked around not knowing what he should do. Looking up for a directory, he decided to look for Zarta. He boarded the lift that would take him to her quarters, He wondered why she was so open with him, and it's been if that she wanted him to come to her. But he figured out that she possibly was going to be assigning him his room.

He exited the lift and walked down the hallway, the quiet atmosphere pumps where louder down below, humming and pulsing almost in a range of the sound of a heartbeat. He walked up to her door and pressed the contact box button. He heard a small dinging noise and then heard the box crackle,

"Come in Ginko, its unlocked" He slid the door to the side and closed it behind him as he walked in. The droning pulse of the air pumps where completely silent as he heard the natural ringing in his ears. He heard a small music player musing out a small pop-tune from its speakers. Johna poked her head out to him, her hair wet and silver.

"Good to see you made it, sit down and help yourself to whatever you want, just let me get in to something decent." Ginko flustered a little bit, but found himself a can of milk tea. Popping it open he drank it slowly, the creamy cool liquid refreshed him in ways that he was glad but also saddened by.

"I actually want to talk about something things Ginko, beside your room assignment. And if you feel like do not wish to talk about them any further we can stop and talk about something else or until you are more comfortable about it later." She walked in Lycra sport shorts and a tank top, her hair still wet but tucked behind with a plastic hair clip keeping most of it off her shoulders. She smiled at him,

"Don't worry, where the only ones here, besides, if you've caught me earlier you would have caught me just about in the shower." She smiled at him and sat down behind her desk, pulling out a beer from below from a hidden mini fridge.

"Zarta why are you...?"

"Call me Jo, but not in front of the others. Ginko, I called you here mainly to discuss some things with you. First of all, I don't know how you found our base, because I think that some one sent you for one reason or another to infiltrate us"

"Za... Jo, I wouldn't do that, and besides, your base is actually well known to most of the Feddies. Your unit is seen mostly as mercenary group. But I noted that you always came when the AEUG called on you to perform strike opps and special oppps."

"So its our independence that lead you to us then? Unusual, thought that you wanted some extra money and then you would take off"

"No, what impressed me most is how you surrounded my unit, you where able to their hobble me or take my reactor out in a clean stroke. As well as the little publicized exploits of your group as well." Jo looked at him, wondering if there was any worth in keeping him around for the upcoming opp.

"I would like for you to use my quarters for the night, unfortunately the rooms that would be yours house electronic equipment and the Minovsky particle generator that keeps this base as hidden as it can be. You don't mind sharing a bed, do you? We are really stretched on supplies and the AEUG has a hard time trying to give us what it can so we can stay operational."

"No, I don't think I would mind, I understand how the situation can be in times like these." Ginko smiled and thought nothing of sleeping with a commanding officer.

"Good, take a shower, you need and don't deny it, there are some pilot drawers in there, they are unused and they are unisex so don't worry if they look funny." Ginko walked in to the shower room and looked around. Just as she said, the pair of lycra sport shorts and a tank top where right where she said they would be, in a clean un-opened plastic package. He found a towel in the rack that was clean and claimed it. He turned on the shower and closed the door to the bathroom. He pulled the curtain aside and began shampooing and scrubbing down.

It felt good, and in the longest time that he had been out, he almost forgot what a hot shower was, as the stiffness in his muscles relaxed he saw the bits of grit and slight cloud in the water swirl their way down the drain.

They blew a hole in the colony wall to get back in, the hazy yellow swirl of the poison ejected out in to space as the atmosphere was vented through it. The automated systems to the colony would start to seal it up within minutes so they had to dive through the hole quick.

He dived through the hole seeing debris that looked all too much like human bodies flying out. He saw that they all looked like they where sleeping, and they where all curled up in fetal positions. He turned away from the sight, telling himself that he would go as soon as the mission was over, as he was seeing that it was all too real what he was facing.

He looked about for the remaining survivors that where about the entire colony, which where not many, as the compliment of mobile suits to that colony where limited mainly what the Earth Forces could spare, and they where mostly old Jims along with very dilapidated gun cannons.

He found the surviving mobile suits that where strewn about, most of them thought that they where the last ones left, as they all fought for their lives. The radio silence as well as the Minovsky particle levels prevented any of the colony mobile suits from being able to organize a resistance.

He went about taking the legs and cutting the barrels of the Jims and gun-cannons. He also ct the hilts of the beam sabers from the backpacks. He really hated how some of the units did suicide charges toward him, as he took off the heads of those units. He hoped that they cooperated knowing that if they didn't it, the Titan part of his squad with think little lest of stabbing a heat hawk up their chest or a machine gun and point blank range.

A he reached the last mobile suit he saw the fear in the unit, as it meekly tried to spasm three shots toward him. Two of them hit on his shield, which he snapped up at the last moment, and the third one came close to his unit's head. He first kicked the beam rifle out off his hand, then jabbed the beam sabre on the gun to render it useless. He saw the unit try to draw the beam sabre from its hilt. Taking the beam riffle from his hard point he shot it out of the hand of the unit. He approached the unit from behind and contact linked the unit with the gun muzzle on the unit's head.

"You are not going to say anything, only hand signals. I want you to dispense your Vulcan's ammo, all of it, shoot on the ground, shoot in the air just empty it." The unit looked back at him in doubt at the orders he just gave it.

"NOW DANMIT!" He shoved the unit's head to the ground as it sporadically began to empty its ammo reserves as it was shoved to the ground. The unit finally finished and it looked back at him.

"Get out of here, I don't care wear you go, but run, get away, don't let them see you. If you don't leave, I'll kill you before they come and get you. Because I am much more merciful than what awaits you if I left you here to die." He kicked the unit hard as it stumbled off igniting its veneers as it flew toward the colony's spaceport. He smiled grimly, knowing that the pilot was smart enough to get out and find some sort of help for itself.

"Urst here, all units neutralized, there may be some combatants in their mobile suits, but they won't harm any one. One got away, but he is disarmed, let him know who did this so that every one knows how business is done"

"Good, report to the Feddy base and we'll pay you there, your services are commendable, we hope that you can work with us again" As I would ever work for you monsters again

"Ginko? Are you OK? Do you need any help?" Ginko looked up as he came back from his memory. He looked back up at the showerhead as it sprayed water back at him in response. He reached up at the knob and turned it, turning the water off. He pulled himself up with the handle at the side and he brushed the shower curtain aside.

"I'm fine Jo, it's just been a while" he pulled the towel off the rack as he dried himself off.

"Oh. Feels good huh? It must have been some time for you if you fell asleep like that" she said smiling to herself behind the door."

"I fell asleep? How long?" he asked, puzzled

"Around twenty minutes, I was listening." He finished toweling off and slipped the shorts on. They hugged him but comfortable and not confining. He slipped the tank top over his chest and pulled it down. It as well hugged him; at once it kept him warm as it reflected his body heat back at him. He walked outside and saw her already in bed reading a light novel.

"It looks good on you, guess that means we are going to have to order some more pairs for you" she smiled as she saw him. Licking her lips to remove the sour taste but also moistening them again.

"Thanks, I guess." He thanked her. "I have a personal question for you if you don't mind. Did you only sleep with lower grade officers on the way up or was it with older senior officers?" A swift wooof sound whistled close as it clocked the side of his head. She had flung the novel at him and she pulled the sheets up covering herself in embarrassment.

"No! I dated younger officers or have the same grade so that I wouldn't get in trouble. I'm saving myself for some one that I know I can give my self to. Besides, still a virgin" she smiled at him sticking her tongue out at him.

"So what am I? A warm body? A plaything? Your Uke?" he asked nonchalantly

"An Equal. I felt something about that I haven't felt in the others that I've been with until you. Unless you want to play an Uke, I can see you as that too" She smiled at him flashing him a devious grin.

"Woman's intuition?" he ventured, receiving a pillow to the face.

"Can't you even accept an invitation when you're given one?" He sat down net to her in the bed, a distanced look on his face.

"I had some one once before. I lost her right after I joined the Earth Forces. I can't even remember her name!" his face sunk in to his hands as his eyes began to water.

She crept right behind him, wrapping her shoulders under his arms and crossing them in front of him, placing each hand on an opposite shoulder. She pressed her chest against his back, rubbing on him to let him feel her vulnerability and letting him know her comfort.

"If it's too much right now, we can try some time later. I'm comfortable just comforting you" She traveled his neck with her mouth breathing slow hot air on his skin.

"I'm fine with Jo. I'm just..."

"What, just what Ginko?" She turned to see his face, and saw him sleeping. She smiled to herself and pulled his limp sleeping form next to her. She tangled her legs with his, pulling him with her hands. She kissed his chest, smiling to herself.

"I'll keep you safe, Ginko. I'll give you everything and myself. Just do what I say and I'll make sure you'll never be alone"

"So do think that she is for real about this, or does she really care about him? I mean, does she really like him?"

"Come one you know that she had you sleep with her once before Klar"

"Yeah Lii, but that was a one night stand and we did everything at once, except 'doing it' and all she did said was thanks"

"I didn't have to do that, how come she only does guys?"

"You really are one aren't you?"

"Yeah, don't care, I'm both actually, but I won't corrupt little Maxy."

"Really? I somehow doubt that"

"I helped her choose her training bra when she started"

"Right, maternal instinct kicking in?"

"You might say something" Klar and Lii where both in a room, really a broom closet, that had a close circuited television that was wired directly to a camera that was hidden in the commanders room.

"You think he's worth it?"

"I dunno, I remember our other guys only got as far as foreplay. He is in the sob story stage."

"Yeah, but she wants him, some how she wants him rather than just earning his trust."

"I know, but its just weird. You think that she will give him his own room?"

"Yeah, that was total bull about our having lack of rooms" They shut off the monitor and the camera and left the broom closet, going their separate ways.