An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind – Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, human political and spiritual leader

Always remember the three magic words; please, thank you, and back off, bitch – Anonymous Zoidian scholar

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1616 hours, Sep 9th

Unknown location

Ibrik opened her eyes. The first thought that came into her mind was – where am I? Her head hurt like hell and her eyes were still somewhat blurred as she looked around at her surroundings. The first thing she sensed was the explosions that seemed to be coming from above. The second was that she was trapped, her arms wrapped towards her chest by something obstructive. As her vision cleared, she looked down and saw that her entire upper half of her body was taped to a column. Her pilot suit had been removed and right in front of her, with his back facing towards her, a seated man, his hands apparently toying with something.

Ibrik could feel the strong sensation of pain from every part of her body, aching in agony. Her lips felt dry with caked blood, her body was soaked in perspiration and blood smears could be visible around her soiled uniform. Glancing down from her seated posture, she saw an improvised fiberglass splint around her right leg, a clear indication of a fractured limb. As she turned her eyes to the linoleum tiled floor around her, she saw cotton swabs soaked with blood, several surgical tools, open bags of clotting foam, as well as an entire aluminum box of removed glass pieces. She could even spot some of her broken teeth that had been plugged out. Ibrik slowly recalled the events that had occurred before she passed out, amazed that she had survived such an event. Clearly, this man has been busy saving my life, Ibrik thought as she brought her attention to the man before her.

He was dressed in a faded grey jacket with red highlights, clearly a Zenebas Empire uniform. Besides that, the only other features she could make out of the man was that he had grimy, blond hair and a pistol placed directly next to him. The thought finally struck her – she was a prisoner of war. Like hell, that's gonna happen, Ibrik silently thought as she tried to pull herself free from the thick adhesive tape with no success.

An explosion reverberated from above the building. The ceiling shook as dirt sparingly poured from above. Ibrik shuddered as she felt the tremors from the explosion. The Storches are still bombing – how long was I out for? Where am I…underground? She gazed down at the brown dust that had begun to gather on her shredded uniform, a bomb shelter, perhaps?

"You're awake I see? How are you doing?"

The strangely accented voice made Ibrik jerk unwillingly and she brought her neck up to her savior…or jailor. The man had turned around and approached her before bending down to her eye level. Ibrik kept her eyes steady with her Zenebas captor, despite her bruised left one. The man had fair features, white freckled skin as well as curled blond hair. Even despite the similarities between the two races, she could tell that the man was not of Zi, and was in fact, a human of Earth. The human seemed to grin somewhat when he noticed Ibrik's expression before removing from his belt a canister of water. Pouring some into its cover, he offered it to Ibrik's lips, who gratefully received it, letting the rush of water descend into her throat and wash away the blood. Even after the act of kindness though, Ibrik still kept her grim expression, somewhat worried that she might be tempted or tortured by the enemy. Why else would someone go to such lengths to keep her alive? Ibrik couldn't even think of one piece of valuable information in her head.

"Bloody Storches don't care about little people like you and me, eh, stuck-up Air Force types. No one cares when my Molga gets stuck in the ditch, you know?" the man said, pointing upwards, "Lucky these tunnels can hold us, they used to be secret passageways, for Yeilian piracy back in the day, found out from a friend of mine. Lucky it's still here too. If not, we'd both be dead by now. Well, you'd be dead a long time ago if not for me, you lucky I had my first aid kit on me or you'd be rigor mortis by now." The man chuckled darkly.

"16th SSBN, huh?" the man continued as he lifted her pilot suit, straining the bloody tears on it. Ibrik was surprised that the thing was still in one piece; the only reason why it was issued was that the manganese plates within the neck brace and its fire-retardant nylon gave the pilot a fighting chance in the event that he or she needed to abandon the Zoid or if their Zoid had been damaged. The eject option wasn't available for terrestrial Zoids, generally only aerial ones had them, "What's that stand for?"

Ibrik kept silent. The man smiled again as he sat down, facing her. Ibrik turned her eyes away, instead focusing on whatever he had been working on just now, what appeared to be a checkered black and white board with several oddly-shaped black and white pieces on it. The man followed her gaze before his eyes lit up.

"Chess?" he said, jovially straining the foreign noun, "Would you like to play some? It'll get your brain working, get those muscles pumping again." Ibrik's eyebrow rose as the man scrambled to the checkered board and pushed it towards her, the pieces on it shaking as he moved it with a screech. Bringing it to a pause right before her, the human then proceeded to sit across her, sorting out the pieces with his spider-like fingers, placing each one of them in their proper positions, black on his side, and white on Ibrik's. After completing that task, the man bent back up at Ibrik and laughed at Ibrik's confusion.

"It is a game, soldier," the man said with a chuckle, "I know you have those here on Zi."

This human is bat-shit insane, Ibrik thought to herself as the man ridiculed her lack of a response, "I know your hands are tied up at the moment, but I am sure you can still reach out for the pieces, yes? Don't worry; chess is simple, a little like your kheker too, very easy to learn." The human reached out for one of the black pieces on his side and brought it to eye level, visible enough for Ibrik to see it. It was a tall piece, taller than all the other ones on the board with a cross-like symbol on it.

"Now see, this one – this piece is the king," the man began, "This piece is the leader of all these other pieces," he then did a waving motion around the other pieces on the board, "He's the king, the leader, the mister president, this is him. He can move one space, in any direction," the human then began showing this on the board, emphasizing each move with a thump, "And he's the head. When you bring the head down, everyone else falls apart. If I bring your king down, your whole empire collapses, you lose. He's the big guy and holds the most power, but he's so powerful he doesn't do much but sit around, it's up to the rest of these guys to conquer."

"…A bit like the Emperor," the man added drily with a snort of derision. Ibrik couldn't help but find that funny too. She didn't drop her guard however. I don't know what kind of mind game he's trying to pull, but I'll just play along.

The human then reached out for another piece, with its top shaped like a chalice with a small circle on top, "Now this one here, this one's the queen. Now the queen…the queen gets stuff done, you know, the queen has the moves. You know, like…like the generals of the army, eh? Like the top dogs. The queen's that. The queen can move anywhere she want, up, down, anywhere at all on the board."

"And what about those smaller ones then, the ones with balls on their head," Ibrik asked, her voice coming out drier and weaker then she had expected it to be. Her pronunciation sounded weird too, coming out from missing gaps in her teeth. The man however, didn't even seem to flinch at the first sound of her voice.

"Lozenge?" the man abruptly offered, raising a yellow-colored piece of candy from his breast pocket. Ibrik nodded and the man popped it into her mouth. Ibrik sucked on it as the human took up one of the pieces with 'balls on their heads,' "Now these ones. These are the pawns. The soldiers. These guys go forward, never back. These guys can never go anywhere they want, they're stuck there – they can only keep going forward, and killing other pieces," the human flicked off one of Ibrik's white pawns with a finger, "They're always on the front-lines, always out in the field."

"So…if they reach the end, do they become the king?" Ibrik asked, assuming that this 'chess' operated somewhat like the Zoidian game of kheker.

"No, no, it's not exactly like kheker," the human said, shaking his head, "See the king – the king stays the king. The king never drops, not until the other side gets him. See, everything here, stays the same. Except for the pawns." The man picked up one of the pawns of brought it over to Ibrik's end of the board, "When you bring the pawn over, it gets to be queen. It gets to move up, gets…a promotion, you see? Now that it's up there, now it's got the moves."

"Getting these…pawns, to the other end, that's what makes you win?" Ibrik asked, still a little befuddled, "Promoting these pawns?"

"No, no, no. Remember, you gotta kill the king. Use common sense, you ever heard of empires winning if their whole armies are made of generals?" the man asked rhetorically before answering his own question, "No, empires win when they kill the other side's king, they win when they bite off the head of the snake. And they still need these little pawns, these little soldiers to be fodder, to weaken the enemy or die trying."

"Soldiers get killed off really quick here," the man looked at Ibrik, and Ibrik felt somewhat disturbed as the man stared at her straight in the eye and spoke, "In this game, soldiers never win."

.

.

It was nearly two hours later before Ibrik woke up from her slumber to find that her improvised 'cuffs' had been removed and the human and his belongings were nowhere to be found. Her head took some time to recall the events of the past few hours before she realized that she must have fallen asleep whilst playing that human game. The only thing that still remained was Ibrik's pocket watch (which she had kept in her suit's breast pocket after the incident with a Hammer Rock almost damaged it) and it took her five minutes to get the determination to get back on her feet and discover the exit out of the tunnels. She had not even bothered to grab her pilot suit but had dashed out in nothing but the overalls she wore under her suit. The exit out was heavy, a large vault door but Ibrik managed to open it, despite her limp and injuries - the will to survive was powerful as well as the longing to search for Joanna. Eventually, she had made her way out to where she was, out again on the streets of Yeil.

Ibrik noticed the bombings had stopped, and the town had a disconcerting cloud of hush to it with no gunfire or explosions. She then pulled the pocket-watch out of her pants' pocket; it was still in it and untouched. Ibrik peered at the time. 1800 hours, this was around the time when Republican cantonments would begin making their patrols around the periphery of local territory. Sure enough, as she pocketed the watch back in, she made out the headlights of an archaic Hidocker unit along with several others, a squad during after-action patrols. Ibrik waved her burningly tired arms in desperation, and the units immediately took note of her, beaming their shining headlights on her.

As they disembarked and verified that she was a Republican soldier, she stole a glance at the vault-like door hidden behind a cupboard that she had to pull aside when she left the tunnels. To her, it was puzzling, why an enemy had bothered the time to fix her up and capture her rather than kill her on the spot and save the trouble. Ibrik wondered where the strange human was now, and why he had defied the Zenebas creed. Kill all enemies in sight, unlike the more pacifistic Republican one, which allowed POWs. Was sympathy a human thing? Did their soft-hearted brethren have more mercy than the warring Zoidians? Ibrik was confused. Still, she did not tell one of the unit's pilots that she was saved by a Zenebas Samaritan when he had asked about how she survived.

Thank you, Ibrik wordlessly addressed him in her mind as she climbed into the Hidocker's cockpit behind one of the pilots and they set off into the night.

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1920 hours, Sep 9th

War-Room, Bivouac Hassin

"Where's Flengéle?" was the first thing that Colonel Shaddai-Av Amadeus asked as he entered the war-room, greeted by the glum faces of his subordinates, "Well?" he asked again when no one responded for a tense, awkward second. The room's dim lights only furthered the depressing atmosphere as Amadeus scanned the room's inhabitants. Wash was standing in a corner; Imprin and Mohinder were seated, whilst the human Giuseppe was bent over on the map.

"He's KIA, sir," Lt. Colonel Wash finally spilled out, "Lt. Colonel Flengéle's body was recovered from the cockpit of his Cannon Tortoise, sir."

"A Cannon Tor- why in the Moons' names was he in a Zoid? He was in-battle?" the Colonel yelled in frustration, "He's a lieutenant colonel, he's a desk job soldier! What was he doing in a Zoid?"

"It was his decision according to his battalion, sir," Wash replied, keeping his gaze lowered, "He wanted to lead the assault in Amal, sir."

"And you didn't do anything about it?"

"I was not aware until after reading his men's AARs, sir," Wash answered softly, "I've taken it to my duty to serve as temporary CO of his battalion, sir. I was going to inform you during this meeting. Sir."

The colonel sighed. Flengéle had always been one stubborn idiot, always too concerned with his pride and the winning blow than realistic goals. He was obstinate in everything he did; the lieutenant colonel had even refused to learn the human tongue until it had fully replaced the 1995-character Ancient Zoidian alphabet in most facets of Zoidian life. Flengéle had warrior blood in him, some days the colonel even wondered if he was really of the peace-loving Wind Tribe. The colonel released another sigh, "Mother o' Moons, lieutenant colonels riding Zoids….incredulous…we've already lost enough troops out there."

"Bastards got at least a third of our force, is what I'm guessing," Imprin mentioned.

Amadeus knew the amounts and ignored her, bending down and spreading his palms to smoothen out the creases on the Mercator projection-style map of Zi. The large diagram showed in detail their current location, the largest piece of land on Zi, the Central Continent Delpoi as well as the fabled Dark Continent of Nyx which was uncharted (aside from legends that the mighty King Helic himself had done so) except by satellites so only its shape was known to them. The Daras Ocean was situated between Delpoi and Nyx while the Andar Sea was south of Nyx. Below on the south of Delpoi were the twin oceans of Florecio and Zerros whilst flanking it at the east was where the Sheed Ocean and the Aleus Sea. Amadeus brought his finger back onto the Khamer River on the map.

"We'd have taken Yeil and Amal by today had it not been for the Zenebas strategic bombers," Amadeus said disappointedly, "Unfortunately, it was something that we did not expect. Air force is unable to provide support at the moment, they're still mobilizing. It'll take them days to get here. Radio interceptions did not inform us of anything of the sort and now casualties will rise if we mount another assault. But we'll have to, as planned this will occur tomorrow night under the storm as an infiltration while we hold the front tomorrow daytime. Weather reports will hopefully be consistent. The Zenebas have no doubt begun to reclaim their half of the Khamer River and we'll have to push them back, starting right now. Operation Season has not ended yet, I want all battalions to sortie reserve troops while we recuperate and I want AA Zoids to scramble as contingencies should the bombers come back. Have them at the very least be able to hold out our half of the river. Wheels up in 1930 hours."

Amadeus took one final look at his soldiers, each one of them weary with their nonstop work and slowly losing heart in the operation. It had kicked off perfectly fine and at its apex would have been more than enough to crush the Empire forces in the AOO had it not been for the sudden bombing campaign launched by the Zenebas Air Force. Amadeus had previously denounced himself for not foreseeing that sort of counterattack, despite the fact that the Zenebas forces had already attempted it two or three times before. Now, all that they had accomplished in two days was slowly crumbling and they'd have to start again from the ground up with even less troops than before. Even for Amadeus himself, he was slowly losing faith.

Nothing you can do about it but learn what you can and move on, Amadeus told himself, something that he had learnt on his first days as a commanding officer. Mistakes happened, and they couldn't mope about it, but had to keep going forward. Just keep heading forward.

"Just keep heading forward, alright?" Amadeus repeated to his soldiers, his tone somewhat softer this time. All his subordinates perked their heads up, even Wash, who generally knew more or less all the colonel's quirks, "We may have lost the battle – but not the war." Amadeus then took a breath before ending the meeting, "Dismissed."

As chairs began to be pushed out and one by one the lieutenant colonels exited the room until only Gunnery Officer Giuseppe was left, Amadeus called out to her, "Giuseppe, a word." The officer was visibly jarred by his sudden command, but she quickly came to his side. Amadeus waited patiently until everyone else had left (even managing to overhear Mohinder whisper, "Maybe the old man has gone soft" in the process) before shutting the door.

"Officer," Amadeus began as he turned back to Giuseppe, who stood perfectly still, "How are we doing on the Kreep situation? The large assault may have significantly lowered his casualties, obviously we're making it harder for him – but he's still racking up a high kill count. And the strangest thing is that in his kills…the pilots? They're missing from their cockpits. All except for the few odd ones who died gruesome deaths."

"Well, sir," Giuseppe said as opened the folder that she gripped tightly in her hands, producing a piece of paper and passing it to the colonel, "In short, not well. We still haven't been able to tag him, and he iced at least fifty plus of my Sisters. The least we got is that Kreep's decoys seemed to have doubled in the past few days. Particularly remarkable eyewitness account according to this after-action report by a…Sergeant Scylla."

"Used a red-painted Gator as a decoy? If this Kreep is a Zoid, it must be a damned good one for the Empire to even use decoys to support it," Amadeus read from the report as he put on his glasses, "This Kreep seems to be a painfully ingenious fellow. There's fear in our people, officer, and if we don't deal with it soon it'll eat us from the inside-out. As far as I know only the people in this room and your battalion are aware of this 'Kreep,' but word will spread out soon if we don't contain it now. Suspicions are already forming after today's battle, the larger battle did cover the casualties of this Kreep and significantly lower them, but people will notice eventually. How do we explain a third of your battalion vanishing for shooting at 'red blurs?'"

"We're at a larger disadvantage now, sir," Giuseppe said, folding her arms, "Now Kreep is aware that we have counter-sniper units, though none clearly able to counter-attack. If you read the report however, Colonel, this Scylla actually managed to escape from Kreep by utilizing her smoke dispensers appropriately, something rather impressive."

"I don't need your doggerel, officer," Amadeus said with a growl, "I need Kreep dead – and soon. Especially since he now knows we have snipers too, the advantage of surprise is lost." The sudden change in his attitude clearly shook Claudia a little.

"I know that, sir, but right now-"

"Right now, is the perfect time to kill Kreep!" Amadeus said with a roar, "Listen to me, Giuseppe, if you don't eliminate Kreep either in tomorrow's noonday or the night assault we might not get another chance! That bastard is costing me – us many valuable soldiers and tagging him is supposed to be your department. The rest of us can't mount an assault if you don't solve this problem now! As far as I see it, your battle-plan was a failure because not only you failed to shoot this bastard in between the eyes, Kreep also managed to break through the crossfire, supplementing at least a quarter of our total casualties! I want him dead!"

"Sir, how do I-"

"That does not matter, even if you decide to hop into a Zoid like that idiot Flengéle, I don't care how the hell you do it, just kill this KREEP!"

The colonel came to a pause from his furious outburst, taking in wheezes of heavy breathing. Giuseppe stood as still as an effigy, not moving a muscle and clearly terrified by her superior's lack of control. Amadeus shut his eyes tightly before opening them again and staring straight at the gunnery officer. He had no more energy left for another outrage and it surprised him how fast he was losing his grips. If he failed to hold the front, he could be looking at a demotion…after all he had done for his nation. Amadeus blocked all the negative thoughts out of his mind and channeled them into the next few, menacing words that came out through his teeth before he left the room in a huff.

"Just. Do. It."

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0035 hours, Sep 10th

Bivouac Hassin

Gunnery Officer Claudia Giuseppe walked along the tarmac as she smoked from a tobacco pipe, the Zoidian equivalent of a cigarette, her field boots making wet splashes on the ground. Above her another geomagnetic storm was raining, one of the many things Claudia hated about Zi. The non-stop rain and lightning irritated Claudia, and these sorts of magnetic storms also brought another whole host of problems for the military, including disrupted communications and navigation systems as well as the occasional destroyed satellite. Aside from magnetic storms, Zi was also the victim of volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, as well as floods in four-year cycles. Stupid planet, Claudia cursed in her head. She'd rather have one day back on Earth than a thousand anywhere else.

Despite the constant war and turmoil present on Earth, Claudia still loved her home planet. Whilst everything on Zi seemed metallic and barbaric, back on Earth, everything was advanced and modern. Humans were light years ahead of their Zoidian cousins in nearly every angle of civilization and Claudia had found the down-grade, the change, somewhat difficult. There was the language barrier at first, though that was cleared up in the first two years as English slowly phased out Ancient Zoidian. And then there was the animosity that she had been treated by from the many Zoidians, who thought them crazy when they said they came from 'another planet.' Not to mention the insane tribal wars and resentment between certain tribes, despite their unification under the Helic Republic.

She had tried to ease herself in, tried to absorb that she was starting a whole new life and an entirely different planet by joining the military, something that she had been familiar with since the early days of the world civil war….but it didn't quite have the effect expected. The Republican military back in the day wasn't the capable force it was now, but closely resembled a bunch of volunteers from disparate tribes with itchy trigger-fingers. Humanity only slowly began to assimilate itself after all the technologies they introduced turned the tide of war – cementing their place on Zi as a worthy race of 'warriors' in Zoidian eyes. Sure, the Zoidians had come a long way – but they still had a long way to go.

Claudia mooned, what the hell am I doing, throwing a pity party about how hard life is here. Grow up, she berated herself. Her limbs ached from the duties of an officer in her position and as she brought the pipe up to her lips, she noticed that its bowl had gone dead with the rain. Claudia swore. She stuffed the pipe back into her pocket as she continued walking, her entire uniform soaked with water as she made her way to one of the Zoid hangars of the bivouac. There would be no one in the hangars at this time of the night, as everyone else was either asleep or already deployed to hold the front so Claudia could pick and choose whatever Zoid she wanted leisurely, though she still had to ask Chief Engineer Gnogoli Bartholomediscuus, who was in charge of Zoids inventory management, for confirmation. Her meeting with the colonel had left her somewhat bothered inside at first, before she decided to take the colonel's direct 'advice' and pilot a Zoid as well. Sure she was a, as he called it 'desk-job officer,' but she wasn't rusty with Zoid controls either. It had only been a year or so that she had taken over as the commanding officer of the battalion after the death of the previous and first CO of the 16th SSBN, Officer Nina Raskova, who had been gunned down in an operation screw-up.

A spooky stillness seemed to waft around the entire base as Claudia made her way past it, around the mess halls and canteens. Aside from the constant pitter-patter of the rain, there was almost no sign of life around the place. Most of the soldiers were already packed into their quarters, resting and preparing themselves for the next day's assault aside from a few maintenance staff finishing up their rounds. Claudia made her way around a Gustav transporting dead Zoid corpses to be salvaged towards a stream that branched directly of the Khamer itself where other staff tucked safely under makeshift umbrellas washed their garbs in the ion-rich water. She then walked across a metal bridge that led to the Zoids hangar section of the bivouac, the bridge making pinging sounds as the rain trampled it. Claudia made sure not to slip on it as she entered the hangar section and made her way into one labeled 'B-13.'

The overhanging lights of the hangar were blinding, fluorescent lamps that covered the entire ceiling, making Claudia wince as she made her way through the denizens of the hangar. Countless Zoids were in it; at least a quarter of the entire brigade's soldiers had their Zoids situated in B-13, though most of them were Snakes and Godos units with the occasional Cannon Tortoise. Claudia felt somewhat small and irrelevant as she walked past them, watching the mechanical behemoths in their sleep. To her human mind, Zoids truly were amazing creatures, the perfect machines of war. Peevishly, she circled around a cyclopean Bigasaur unit before she entered the section allocated to the 16th SSBN, where all the Guysack units were.

"Which one, which one," Claudia hummed to herself as she rounded around the Guysacks to the reserve sector, where the Guysack units were new and generally untarnished. Feeling much like an inspector, she eyed each one of them carefully, wondering if they were staring back at her as well before pausing in front of one of them. This particular Guysack looked as though it was ready to mobilize, with fuel tanks and canvas sheets all strapped and ready to go. Claudia made a puzzled frown, Why'd the CEBN strap this one up, isn't this the reserve sector?

Just as Claudia was about to verify that she was in the reserve sector, she heard a rolling sound that seemed as though it was coming from underneath the scorpion-type Zoid. Claudia jumped when she heard it. Is someone under the Zoid? Claudia dropped down to her knees as she stealthily drew her sidearm. Even in the darkness of the Guysack's underbelly, she could still make out the figure of a woman lying with her back on a creeper, apparently fiddling with the Guysack's belly.

"Hello," Claudia called out, feeling somewhat uncomfortable that she was the only audible voice in the large, echoing hangar, "Who's that there?" The figure didn't respond at all. Claudia slowly thumbed the safety catch on her sidearm. She propped back up and ran to the side of the Zoid before bending down right next to the woman, sidearm in place.

"Identify yourself!"

"Shit!" the woman yelled as she saw Claudia. Claudia could make out her eyes widening as the woman jerked upwards in surprise and hit her head on the underbelly of the Zoid with a clamber, "Moons – my head," the lady swore as she dropped the tools she was working on and rolled out from under the Zoid with the creeper.

"Who the-" the woman began before pausing in shock, and then recuperating herself quickly for a response, "Officer Giuseppe! Oh. Um, apologies, ma'am, you frightened me. I didn't hear you," she said, pointing at the bandages around her ear.

Claudia was taken aback as the lady spoke; she had missing teeth in many places. There were visible bandages and stitches all across her body as she was only wearing a singlet with engineer pants and on her leg was a visible cast. One of her eyelids was bruised and she had bandages and swabs of cotton on her left ear. Sweat laced her entire being and Claudia could tell from her posture that she was physically weakened. It was not until Claudia spotted the 16th SSBN patch on the jacket she wore around her waist that she realized who the woman was.

"Are you…the uh, Sergeant Scylla?" Claudia asked, drawing the conclusion that someone who survived a bombing wouldn't look particularly stunning.

"Yes ma'am," Sergeant Scylla answered, appearing somewhat confused that Claudia knew her name.

"Wow, you looked pretty banged up, soldier." Claudia went on, doing a run-over on Scylla, "You been to the infirmary? Seen Doc Fitz yet?"

"Yes ma'am, I visited the med bay, got this cast too," the sergeant said, using her finger to indicate the silver cast that was wrapped around her leg just below the knee, "Doc says I'm good for now, long as my knee still works I can pilot a Zoid and walk – 'cept with a limp. Had to get some glass pieces out of myself too, ma'am. An hour in surgery."

"Glass? Oh yes, I read your AAR, you're a pretty lucky person too," Claudia said, suddenly recalling it. She walked around the Guysack unit, gazing at Scylla's handiwork before asking another question, "What are you doing up so late, Sergeant? Shouldn't you be resting for tomorrow?"

"Well, ma'am, if you did read my AAR, you uh, you uh should know that my spotter is MIA. Sergeant Joanna Don?"

Claudia thought she heard the sergeant's voice choke as she said her spotter's name, "Yes, Sergeant Don? My….sentiments go out to you, Sergeant."

"Thank you, Officer," Scylla said hurriedly before resuming, "Well, uh I just thought since I don't have a spotter…currently, I might as well get used to commanding a standard Guysack unit, with the AZ 30mm and all, cockpit's a little more fancy too. None of the ED guys wanted to do anything about it when I came, you know, late when I was rescued and all…so, yeah, I'm doing this for myself tomorrow and since no one seems to have seen my Guysack…well, I helped myself to this one. They um, they did help me install the 30mm beam gun though, for this reserve unit."

Claudia glanced upwards, her head barely reaching the height of the Guysack's leg. The 30mm gun was installed, but somehow visually speaking it didn't have send off the kind of powerful vibe that the 70mm sniper rifle had. The reserve model appeared to be new and well-kept though; its grey paint still glossy and all its pieces were intact. The scorpion Zoid looked formidable, with its large pincers and elongated tail. The Guysack was one of the oldest Zoids still in service, known for its simple design and mechanical reliability. It was the direct descendant of the Gargantulus, both of their wild Zoids were even related (the spider and the scorpion) and its small size and the adaptable chassis made it the ideal sniper Zoid. Claudia scrutinized the Zoid from head to toe for a second before an idea sprang into her mind and she told Scylla, "Have the ED people switch the sniper one back on."

"Ma'am?" Scylla asked, perturbed.

"Colonel wants Kreep killed, soldier," Claudia explained, "And there's a human saying that goes, you want something done right…you do it yourself."

"Uh, well, ma'am I'll inform them tomorrow." It took her another split second before she caught on to what Claudia's intent was, "Oh! Oh. I – yeah. Yeah, I got it," Scylla stammered nervously, "Uh ma'am, just to clarify…would you like to be the spotter? Or-"

"I think I'll be fine as the spotter, thank you," Claudia answered, "I want to see what you can do anyways." Claudia offered a smile and Scylla grinned back. She then bent down to peer under the Zoid and asked Scylla, "What are you doing here?"

"I'm trying to start up the engine's sub-generator, but I can't figure out what's wrong with it," Scylla clarified, displaying her grimy hands as proof, "I've tried cleaning up the internal workings but it still doesn't seem to work. Zoid's core's still beating, so no problem there."

"Let me see if there's anything I can do," Claudia proposed, stripping her jacket as she stepped over to the creeper. Scylla handed her a flashlight which Claudia accepted and held in between her teeth to see under the Zoid as she slipped beneath the Guysack's massive armature.

The smell of petroleum was strong and powerful and Claudia found herself cringing as she slipped inside, unprepared for the powerful stench. Moons, it's been awhile since I've done this, maybe I'm rustier than I thought. Claudia stretched out a hand and cried out, "Scylla, can you hand me a screwdriver, please?"

The sergeant complied, slipping in one and Claudia caught it just as it passed her. Tilting her head back on the creeper so she could see the generator, Claudia grimaced as she saw the sludge caught between the filters. Her hand scampered once more for something and when Scylla asked her what she wanted she had to mutter out 'towel' from between her teeth. Apparently she didn't bother cleaning the outer workings, Claudia noted as Scylla passed the towel to her. In a few seconds, Claudia had successfully wiped off all the black muck off the generator's vents. She skidded out of the Guysack.

"Try it now," she said as she removed the flashlight from her lips. Scylla ran over and pulled herself into the Guysack's cockpit before beginning the start-up procedure. Claudia heaved herself to a seating position as she waited for the generator to begin turning. The engine slowly hummed but the generator stubbornly refused to spin, making Claudia exhale in irritation.

"No go," Claudia said as she took in a deep breath and went under the Guysack once more. Using the screwdriver this time, she slowly plied the vent off the generator, carefully gripping the blackened piece of metal from its place and tossing it to her side. Inside, she flashed the light so she could make out the internal machinery before spitting the flashlight out and calling out to the Scylla for the final ingredient. If this didn't work, Claudia didn't know what would.

"Can you get my jacket? I've got a lighter in there. Front pocket," Claudia ordered. From her position she could make out the feet of Sergeant Scylla as she picked up Claudia's jacket a little too hard, making its contents spill out.

"Crap, oh crap," Claudia heard the sergeant say as she bent down and began stuffing the contents back into the jacket.

"We OK over there?"

"Yes ma'am, sorry, I just -" Claudia heard an audible pause before the sergeant continued, "I didn't know you were married, ma'am."

"Oh, did you find that picture – of my family, I've been looking for it for awhile now."

"What's the little child's name?"

"I-We….haven't decided one yet. I'm not sure whether to go with a human name or a Zoidian one."

Scylla curved down and tossed the lighter to Claudia, who caught it gracefully with one hand, "Shouldn't it be human, ma'am?"

"Well…true, but I just want the boy to fit in, you know?" Claudia asserted as she opened the lighter with her teeth for the saturated cloth wick of naphtha inside, "A human born on Zi…what does that make him? Human? Zoidian? Human-Zoidian?"

The sergeant's response was a light-hearted giggle, "Honestly ma'am, I don't know. If you don't mind me asking, Officer, why didn't you quit the military after you bore a child? Wouldn't it be better if you could raise him?"

With her fingers, Claudia twisted the flammable liquid out of the wick and into the engine as she tried to conceive a reasonable response, "Well…he is with an old couple, close friends of mine…helped us settle down when we arrived here on Zi," Claudia began as she finished emptying the wick's contents and slowly fitted the sub-generator's cover back on, "The army's my life…really, if I wasn't in it, I'd have nowhere else to go."

"What about your family?" Scylla asked as Claudia wheeled out, her face decorated with a few flaccid globules of the gasoline.

"Well, look at it this way, Sergeant. In a way I'm fighting for my family's future, eh? Go start up the Zoid again, please."

Scylla looked thoughtful for awhile before rising to her feet and back towards the Zoid cockpit. Claudia pushed aside the sweat on her forehead before her eyes set down on the picture of her family, held inside a red leather frame. It was an old shot; it had a near sepia tone to it and was taken with one of the few remaining cameras left from Earth. She was nineteen back then, already in the Republican Army and she had rushed a marriage with the man in the photo after she conceived his child. Her husband was Army as well, but he'd gone MIA two years ago in an operation and never came back, leaving Claudia to support the family and place her son under the care of the trusted couple back in Helic City. Claudia carefully placed the photograph back into her jacket just as Scylla called out triumphantly,

"It works, ma'am!"

"Yeah, I knew it would work – an old trick I learnt from my granddad."

Claudia got to her feet and walked over to the cockpit, lifting herself before perching herself at Scylla's side. Claudia watched as the young sergeant calibrated the Guysack's systems, her fingers tapping wildly at the keyboard. Her performance from the AAR was impressive – points for proper usage of Zoid and knowing when to bug out. Survival instincts as well – utilizing piracy tunnels as bomb tunnels. She'll be a competent Sister – well, good enough at least. I'd considered utilizing a standard Guysack as well but now it seems I don't have to. Claudia snapped out of her dissection of Sergeant Scylla when the sergeant paused her typing for a moment.

"Ma'am. The post-battle patrols? Was there anything – on my spotter? Sergeant Don?" Scylla asked, hope gleaming in her eyes.

For a moment Claudia felt almost sorry for the sergeant, she of all people knew what it was like to lose someone you really cared about. But she'd also learned that you had to be grounded in reality, emotions did little to help. It was when Claudia realized this that she stopped mulling over her husband and picked herself back up. In earnest, she did struggle without her husband, even resorting to the Moons (though she'd never admit it) before realizing what her husband would have wanted her to do. To take care of their child. There was no point in sugar-coating things; people needed realistic goals to keep their senses straight, and Scylla had to learn it eventually. Claudia kept all this in mind as she answered,

"I'm sorry, Sergeant, but I don't recall seeing a 'Don,' anywhere."

Claudia flinched slightly as she saw the hope vanish from Scylla like air whooshing out of a burst balloon. Scylla nodded and whispered thanks before returning to the Zoid's keypad, feverishly rattling the keys as she typed on them. Claudia looked on with reserved pity and wondered if perhaps offering some sort of encouragement would help. Psychologically, at least. What do I say, chin up? Maybe we'll find her – don't give up hope? Claudia wondered as she went through all the corny, sentimental lines she could think of before finally deciding to drop the subject matter.

"Well, why don't we get started on replacing the rifle? You know how Chief Barth's like, those dumb ED guys' probably won't have time anyways," Claudia interjected, trying to smoothen out the bump. Scylla wordlessly nodded and the two of them went back to their duties, each one of them dropping the conversational ball, neither one of them wanting to pick it up again.