Gundam-fall: Changing Fates
Episode 24: Origins part 3: Simon says
"You know what I need a few minutes to get my mind off of Serah's story." Simon put a hand to his head.
"I can understand that, we have all the time need for this." Blex allowed him to gather his thoughts.
"Thanks." Simon said as he stepped back outside the room. He knocked at the door of the other room and Cooper stepped out of it.
"What's up Simon?" Cooper asked his friend from the militia.
"You got a minute to talk?" Simon asked him sincerely.
"Sure." Cooper agreed.
"I'll be straight up with this, how did he die, your old teacher? Lastimosa and I, you could say we were close…" Simon trailed off.
"To answer your question, he went out fighting the Apex predators tooth and nail. I remember it so well to this day, I laid there in the dirt on back since I barely could feel anything at all after being knocked on my ass by an enemy Titanfall right in front of me. He and BT showed up just as I was about to get stomped, they kicked the other guy's ass and Lastimosa gave me a stim to help out, and it saved me by making knocked out and look dead. Then some the damn Apex predators showed up one by one. One of them hit him from behind and they beat the hell out of BT. When it was over, one of them walked over to me and I played dead till they were gone. Then I got up, tried to save him, only for him to give me BT, and drop dead just like that. I made sure I buried him properly, but that was after I dealt with some hostile wildlife first." Cooper remembered the beginning of the day he lost his mentor, and became a legend among the militia pilots.
"Uh yeah about that, Typhon kind of went boom after you did your whole world saving thing soooo…" Simon informed him of what happened in the aftermath.
"What, really, it did? Well shit, of course it did." Cooper deadpanned and put a hand on his face.
"I guess you both went out with a bang, but you still walk among the living friend." Simon chuckled.
"Well you learn something new every day, besides I think we've made peace with it right?" Cooper sighed and shrugged it off.
"Amen to that brother, amen." Simon agreed. He was glad to know how his buddy went down swinging.
"So, anything else to ask, or was that it?" Cooper asked Simon with his arms crossed expectantly.
"That's it, alright I'll go say what I need to say. It's not like I have anything better to do anyway, otherwise I'd be there doing it, or doing someone, oh!" Simon said lazily and cracked an innuendo.
"You do what you got to do. And hah, I see what you did there, man!" Cooper chuckled to Simon, and the simulacrum returned to the conference room to tell his own tale. He sat down at the table and the camera was positioned on him to record from here on.
SIMON:"Alright I guess it's my turn to a little story, though for very good reasons I like to keep any and all things about my previous life to myself. For one, It's Personal, and two, the only people who do know would be my close circle of friends and Sera Briggs. Third, unless you are Militia high command, I will not tell you shit as you are considered a foreign power, and any information that I have may or may not hurt the militia down the line. Last but not least, unless you find a lady for me who's willing to put ring on my metal finger and call me hubby, you won't get any info out of me from subjects 1 through 3. Now that's out of the way, let's get down to business here." Simon laid down his list of rules regarding his past and Lin gagged a bit at his last requirement out of her slight dislike of the metal man. He then put his feet on the table and nonchalantly leaned back as he explained how he joined up with the militia.
SIMON:"It all started on some backwater dust ball of a planet, I think it was called Preto 3. There I was sitting on the top hatch of my old stryder class, blasting some booming rock music, and enjoying the sight nothing but a whole bunch of rocks, and burning hot desert sand. In fact, the whole planet was a giant ball of dust that resembled the American southwest. Complete with all kinds of cactus, yucca trees, and vicious wildlife that will eat you as soon as they look at you, as well as other occasional hunting game." Simon set the scene vividly as he described the harsh yet live-able wasteland-like desert planet.
SIMON:"My strider took a beating, and lost both arms along with some of its energy management circuits that were making it spark a little. By a little, I mean I was lucky the thing didn't die on me from the power loss. After taking my break, I hopped back in and made my merry way to a battered little settlement, in the middle of the heat blasted desert, that belonged to the militia. When I reached their front doorstep, I got a less than stellar welcome by their QRF. We're talking an entire gun show's worth here pointed at me, I had to give it to 'em though. I mean I did steal an IMC titan, albeit the thing had been through all kinds of hell to get me there." Simon said as the view pans to a defensive wall lined with rifles, rockets, and two massive gun turrets. For a brief moment no one made any noise or movement whatsoever until Simon decided to make the first move. He hopped out of the titan through the top hatch and stuck his hands up.
SIMON:"Wait!" Simon shouted to the Militia defenders as they all had pointed their lasers on the hatch and cocked their guns. The sounds echoed all across the wall in a chorus of uneasiness. "You may be wondering why scarf, well that's bad guys can't see smile. That guy over has the right idea, he wore the brown pants today! Any-who, does anyone here know where I can find this group that's been all over the net, they call themselves the frontier militia, though I think rebel alliance would be a much more fitting name!" The militia grunts grumbled among themselves about who in the hell this weirdo is. "So...we gonna have a staring contest out here...in the desert? You know, where it's very hot, and I'm preeeeeetty sure that grunt who looks like he needs to lay off the fat foods gonna die of a heatstroke."
"Hey!" The out of shape grunt snapped. A moment later the base commander walked out of the command building with half of a cigar in his mouth, and cool sunglasses over his eyes. He was an older British man with a rough greying beard, and tired eyes still filled with plenty of fight. He made his way to the wall and stared down at the simulacrum with the hawkish glare of an ex-IMC elite commander. Simon just whistled a tune to himself while the silence persisted around him until he decided to speak again. "Again, are we just going to keep doing the same thing? Cause this is capital B-boring! look I'm not here to start any shit, just looking to have a friendly chat with the guy who runs this place."
"You're looking at him, now state your business or sod off!" The old man shouted bitterly to the wiseass simulacrum.
"Oh well then old geezer, I have a few things to talk to you about that you are just going to love." Simon said slyly to the old man on the wall who took off his sunglasses to give Simon a very uncomfortable thousand-yard stare.
"I'll be the judge of that, but who are you exactly? Because I won't have a stranger sitting at my front door just come into my turf without an explanation. So, start talking, or my boys here will let their guns do the preaching instead." The grizzled old soldier barked to Simon.
"STRYDER TITAN PILOT SIMON REPORTING FOR DUTY SIR! I WISH TO JOIN THE MILITIA SIR! IS HOT OUT HERE SIR!" Simon saluted to the old man who just stood for a moment, before lighting his cigar, and cracking a small smile after taking a short drag on it. He made a small puff of smoke and shook the ash off of the end.
"Yeah it's bloody hot out here alright. Though I've got to ask, what's a simulacrum doing all the way out here, and why does you titan look like it pissed off a pack of "Flyers"? The old man chuckled to the simulacrum coolly.
"About that…, well I happened to step on a nest of theirs, and woke the neighbors who weren't so happy." Simon replied.
"Heh, so then what's your deal tin man?" The old man leaned back against a metal post on the wall."
"Tadaa!" Simon shouted as he stood up, popped the forward hatch, and a man bound and gagged in rope tumbled out of the stryder's cockpit. He wore a business suit befitting an IMC executive, the commander looked down at the man in the dust and narrowed his eyes in anger. "This my militia friends, is Alfred Cunningham, one of the board members of the IMC, who personally ordered some IMC troops to "Shut down" a protest at a university. Which Resulted in the deaths of at least 20 students and faculty members, along with the unlawful arrest of 200 other innocent people." Simon said as he gestured to the businessman who was writhing on the ground in anger.
"That's the slippery bastard who got my nephew killed…" The old man growled loudly and ground his teeth. The businessman stopped moving when he heard this, and pissed his pants as he looked up at the old man.
"Then it's a special delivery! Consider it a 2 for 1, you get me to fight with ya, and this shit sack to beat the piss out of!" Simon swung his arms out with gusto. The old man cracked his knuckles and smiled sinisterly, the businessman in the dust shivered in fear. He began pleading with his muffled voice which fell on deaf and angry ears.
"Welcome to the militia pilot! Make your way over to the barracks! And someone bring that sack of horseshit on the ground to the command building for a friendly chat, and get a crowbar for good measure! Some good booze too, it's going to be a long night!" The old man barked to Simon, and then his troops before walking away like a boss, and stomping out his used-up cigar. Simon swaggered on in and a team of riflemen dragged the whining, kicking, and screaming, Mr. Cunningham to his 'friendly chat' with the commander. A few of the troops even spat on him as they carried on to their destination.
SIMON:"After that I started pulling all kinds of special ops missions, usually consisting of sabotage or outright assaults in countless stryder titans. That was until I bought my sexy metal ass a Ronin, using an IMC commander's money that I 'liberated' of course. Then persuaded a Militia tech guy who may or may not have been fooling around in places where he shouldn't be, to give me a special AI for my Ronin." Simon said as the view returned to the conference room.
SIMON:"Though I admit, the top brass may have looked the other way, since they were gonna give me one for what I've done. I sure do like to add my own style to the certain things I happen to locate from time to time. Occasionally though, I happen to sweet talk some fine-looking individuals that have a nice pair of "comfy cushions" and are really easy on the eyes, Hooah!" Simon pumped his fist after he made his lewd comment the women in the room next door just shook their heads in agreement at their dislike for Simon's womanizing. The men though (except Kamille) knew the tail chase of youth all too well.
SIMON:"Then thanks to the fact that I'm a simulacrum, death is just a word in my case. Dig this, so long as my mind is backed up somewhere, I can just reboot in a whole new body. Plus, I don't lose my memories like some other simulacrums, including a sweet piece of steel booty who did. Ash is her name, she's an ex member of the apex predators. I'm speaking from experience since I happen to get killed a lot by some of the previously mentioned individuals, who get ticked by my melodious voice." Simon explained the costly immortality of being a simulacrum and remembered his brief flame with Ash.
SIMON:"That's right Coop, you really didn't get 'em all. Of course, though she doesn't remember a thing from what I remember. That doesn't mean that our time together ended on good terms though, she threatened something about turning me into a steaming pile of scrap. But that would only happen if she found out I was still alive. Since myself and my associates are here and not there, everybody probably thinks we're dead. Or they're looking for us, either way it's moot until something happens. If I know the lazy ass writer and his partner as well as I think I do, things are going to get interesting down the road." Simon shouted to cooper and then continued on rambling until one of his chair's legs bent and he fell on his ass.
SIMON:"Oh, that's real funny man!" Simon griped as he looked to the ceiling in annoyance. Everyone just had a puzzled look for a moment before shaking it off and returning to the interview. "Anyway, I do have a policy though, no married women! Not since that one incident a while back, ugh." Simon recalled said incident, which involved a sexy sassy Spanish woman, her IMC pilot husband, a little rat called a Chihuahua that was joy riding an Atlas with him, and him being in nothing but the underwear of said woman's husband...fun times. "I swear she just keeps calling me and telling me I'm her soulmate. Up until now, I'd give her a quickie every once in a while, but now here I am." Simon remembered it all too well, and everyone's jaw hung open at the amount of mischief he's been in.
"So boss man, we done~?" Simon said lazily as he stretched his metal limbs in anticipation of his being free to go.
"I think we have everything we need Simon. You can leave the room now." Blex said as Simon moonwalked his way out the door into the hall.
-END CHAPTER-