Lurching awake in a cold sweat, Marida let out a long, high pitched scream. Having fought though two wars, there were very few things that could scare the veteran pilot. However, the nightmare had taken shape. From the foggy screams and terrifying feelings, memories arose. The ones that haunted her from her past came every night. The kind that made her need a long, cleansing shower and kept her up for the rest of the night. And that is where she found herself now, lying in bed, hyped up on coffee, hair still wet from a long shower. " Forget" she thought, " I need to forget, everything." But how? Memories, nightmares, abuse,escape those were the words that kept her up, until like tonight, she would fall asleep, quietly sobbing.
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All personal to level 2 combat stations. Prepare for partial deployment.
Yosef stepped into the briefing room and took a calming breath. Sitting in neat rows were the pilots that today, he would be leading into their first flashpoint. If they felt as nervous as him, they sure were hiding it well.
"As you all know, today the principle, Mineva Zabi will be visiting the A Baoa Qu space fortress. She hopes to meet with the current prime minister, do a Q and A with the press on the new Zeon/EF cooperation and them visit a memorial dedicated to those lost at the battle." A holographic display showed a layout of the once military base asteroid turned space colony.
"The main events will be the state dinner at the governors palace, a press conference at the state plaza, and the visitation to the memorial." The screen flashed out picture of each of the sights, pulling the pilots attention to various vulnerable point. Every pilots in the rooms mind was racing, analyzing the photos and maps, scanning for choke points, possible sniper hides, ambush sites.
"The most vulnerable point will be the memorial visitation, obviously because it's located on the outside of the asteroid."
A chorus of groan, cuss words, and general complaints fillied the room. "Who's idea was that? This is too dumb for Miveva" said Gomez, one of the Jesta pilots from Banaghers squad.
Facepalm "I talked to Miveva about that. It seems that the receiving governor demanded this" said Yosef "No choice it seems. Personally, I think that the Gov has some shady guys in his cabinet. We are on full alert at all times."
"Now, this is how the deployments will be..."
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Reception banquet
"MS team to PD, radio check, how's the food looking" chimed Yosef. Sitting in his Remus's cockpit, the 360 monitor gave him a great view of the palace's court and garden. This hunk of rock had come a long way from the old Zeon military style. The garden was like the Palace of Versailles, fountains, flowers, the whole grand thing. And sitting at the four corners of the palace were four MS, rifles locked and loaded, scanning for threats.
"You're missing out here, MS" said Robert, leader of ground team "they got caviar and shrimped wrapped in bacon." Feeling the weight of his carbine under his coat he turned to check on Miveva. Seeing her socializing with some of the other guest, he opened his comm-link.
"Principle is secure, nothing seems, out of place"
"Roger that" scanning the area again, Yosef, ran system diagnostics, checking his suits weapons. Finding them, again, to be full, he pulled his carbine from the cockpits weapon rack and did a function check.
" This is Phalanx Actual, red side is clear, all units report in."
Green Clear, White Clear, Black Clear.
Racking the weapons bolt, he checked in with the response team. " Mercury, status report"
"Ready to roll" responded Marida. A kilo away, she was sitting in a bought out warehouse with her Kshatriya and a squad of Gera Zulus. If anything were to happen at the banquet it was their job to go in fast and hard, coving the VP's extraction. However, at the moment her and the three other pilots, where waiting, eating some canned meat. If you could call it meat.
" How's the food?"
"Were outside, but PD said it sounds great" he clicked the carbine back into place. "I got a bad feeling. Like a little itch on the back of my brain."
" I know, something about this place feels wrong" She racked her handgun, checking the sights.
"Let's get just get this job over with, my blood pressure is spiking"
"Old man" she teased
"cougar" he smiled like a maniac. While that comment would have usually been followed by a long verbal joust, Robert cut in with an urgent report.
"Phalanx, we have a suspicious figure, sending photo." A new window popped up in the 360 monitor. The man photographed was in his 40's, clean shaven in a suit, yet something was off. He seemed slightly too rugged to be mixed in with all of the politicians and dignitaries.
"Da##, I just lost him."
"Mercury, standby on high alert. Phalanx, we may have a possible situation."
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In the end, nothing really happened at the party.
"Ahhhhh, my God this sucks" cried Yosef. Since his shift on MS duty had ended he was back on the Nahel, showering off in the locker room. After the suit guy had ran off, he had a white knuckle grip on his suits controls. As a result of that, his hands were cramped.
"Hand cramps?" yelled Zinner from the next shower over
"Yea, I'm trying to get it out" he said, letting the hot water run over his hands. Uh, although he loved the job, he hated the down times.
" Keep it down or you'll get arthritis later."
"Ugh, Marida's right, i will turn into an old man" He scrubbed the stink from his body. Sitting in a pilot suit for a couple hour was definitely not hygienic.
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"Alright Banagher, ill leave it to you" said Yosef. Unlike yesterday, he was sitting in the situation room of the Nahel, looking over a hologram display of the press conference. Banagher was on this shift so he and the Jesta squad was taking the MS security details. After the scare yesterday, one of the Jesta's had a full cannon pack on it. If anyone tried to fly a suit or a plane into the conference, the beam cannon, grenades and multi-launcher would tear it into paper mache. While that was great, there were still a lot of unknowns. And that is why Yosef was staring at holograms and advising Banagher when he was supposed to be resting.
"You workaholic" swiveling his chair, he saw Marida standing in the door way.
" I'm just jumpy, something about this colony rubs me wrong," swiping the display, he scrolled though the surveillance footage. Seeing that he wasn't going anywhere, Marida walked in and took a seat across from him.
"What are we looking for?" she said in her usual stone cold voice. The red haired pilot was not only a warrior but her analysis skills were second to none. It came from a long time of running and guerilla fighting. Sometimes, intel was the only advantage they had.
"Pattern, same people, if you can run some facial rec software." he said, popping files across the screen.
2 hours later
"Ahhhh, nothing" the two said in unison. Facial Rec, surveillance comparison, nothing.
"Well, i guess we should sleep. I'm on standby tomorrow." said Yosef wiping the sleeping from his eyes.
"I'll say, either we're paranoid or these guys are really good." Marida had her feet propped up on the desk. " At least the press conference went well and tomorrow we can leave.
Yosef cracked his back. "Ahhh, frick. well I'm going to get some shut eye." Looking over at her,Yosef saw that she looked haggard. " You might want to get some too. Are you ok?"
"Im fine," she lied, turning away to hide the dark spots under her eyes. "Just been having trouble sleeping."
"Well" he said standing from his chair. " Hope you sleep better. See you tomorrow"
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LT. wake up you're going to want to hear this!
"The crap?" said Yosef, rolling over in bed " I have at least 4 hours till standby."
"Things just went FUBAR, get up to the briefing room!" yelled Zinner though the intercom. The words registered in his brain, sending it into high gear.
"That bad?" puling on pants and grabbing a shirt, he rushed in to the hallway, down though the briefing room. Too his surprise, Mineva was sitting with Zinner, Marida and Banager at the table.
"What's up?"
" Those morons at the A Bao a Qu council are demanding we reduce the guard at the memorial. Some bull about MS being disrespectful to fallen." said Mineva. Dang, she was scary. This was the first time she had actually been angry and she looked liked a rudely awakened bear. Marida looked similar, just a bit more tired. The two were in synch or something because the proceeded to cuss out the council using descriptions that made Zinner blush. After about 10 minutes, they calmed down enough to talk.
"We can't stop the event" solemnly said Mineva
"What?" exclaimed Banagher "that's ridiculous! It's in space you'll be exposed!"
"No she's right" Zinner agreed " this would show weakness at a critical time."
"Mineva's protection is the highest priority." butted in Marida "We need to haul out of here, asap"
"Everyone! Shut up!" Yosef rarely shouted, but they needed one plan, not five.
"Mineva decision is the one we must follow. Each of you took an oath to protect her and that's damn well what we'll do." He took a long, calming breath.
"Miveva, are you sure you want to do this?"
" I'm sure, we can't back down now." She said, he resolve as firm as steel.
"In that case, we need to change the protection detail. All four of us are sortieing tomorrow, full load out."
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"Banagher Link, Unicorn Gundam, Launching!"
"Suberoa Zinnerman, Gera Zulu, Heading Out."
"Marida Cruz, Kshatriya, Rolling out"
" Yosef Takeru, Jesta Remus, Let's rock!"
The four suits jetted out of the Nahel's catapult deck, engines roaring as the headed for the A Bou A Qu memorial.
"Really, "let's rock" ?" said Marida. Her suit had the most firepower and was the pointman of their formation. "That's really cliche."
"Bite me, Cruz" said Yosef " Just cause you have a Justin Styles poster in you room, doesn't mean i can't enjoy rock.
Much to his surprise she suddenly got ever defensive. " H-h-ey, it perfectly normal for a girl to have those kinds of thing..." suddenly, the comms went extremely silent.
"Wait, so you do?" asked Banagher. God, if you are there, take me now, she thought. Thankfully for her, Zinnerman cut off any further chit chat.
" 10 min to memorial, cut the chatter." Today his usually lightly armed Gera, was sporting a sniper rifle and had some extra anti-armor rockets strapped to its back and legs.
"Roger that! All units, weapons ready and sensor to full power." ordered Yosef. It was time to shed the person and become the reaper.
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Authors stuff.
I apologize for making 1d/Bieber refrence.
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Actually, I don't. It's my story.
Stay Frosty,
SKAK
