—The skiff for Red Squadron returns and picks up the rest of Red Squadron, the pilot opens the hangar bay, and the remaining Red Squadron members dock inside the Skiff—
Frank: Where is LtMajor Riker?
Skiff operator: I have no idea, put me down!
Jordan: Frank calm down, you won't look good if you continue this in front of your men. After all that's happened, he's only MIA and there is 0 chance of him being dead even if he was the one who set off that massive explosion, the escape pod would have saved his life if he ejected before the explosion.
Sayla: No, his mobile suit is still intact that mobile suit is reinforced so it can use the beam rifle and reinforced to protect the strength of the suit and protect the pilot. Also Sarah took a hit to the arm at the shoulder, she will live and be ale to keep her arm attached but she will need at least a week in the healing nano-machine capsule. It's up to your squad to find the mobile suit, as well as Riker intact, if he's dead and you find him bring his body back, he deserves a proper send off.
Carr: He's not dead, I know it sounds absurd to just know, but he doesn't strike me as a person that would just allow himself to just die that easily.
Viper: We are going out to find him after our suits are overhauled to fix damage then deploy via skiff to the area that was below the battle zone. Chances are he is in at least a 100km radius of the battle zone.
Carr: I can go now, my transformable type can just go, since it's built for both space and surface use.
—Carr deploys to the area, and soon after his squad follows—
Carr: You know you and the rest of the team doesn't need to go with me, Wedge.
Wedge (Red 7): Doesn't matter, when our leader goes out we have to as well.
—The majority of red team consisted of ReZEL units, where as Carr has a Delta Plus, both transformable types but the Delta plus is much faster than the ReZEL units because of its long term development and the special thruster system that acts as its main engines—
Carr: Spread our and use your high sensitivity, heat Cameras, he's around here somewhere, find shapes that don't fit the environment or objects that are moving, if he's not in his mobile suit he's walking around.
—The area he landed in was near a sheer cliff that led into a crevasse that was deep and so dark that you couldn't see the bottom—
Carr: Hopefully he didn't land down there, although this would be a nice place to put a memorial for those we have lost. Also we need to find him before nightfall, otherwise we will need to retreat until tomorrow when it's warmer, if we stay till night time, our units will freeze up and the batteries will die as the chemical reaction will stop, so hurry it up we only have 3 hours of light left.
—Riker had escaped his mobile suit at that time and he was in fact at the bottom of the crevasse, he had set up camp and was conserving his heat inside the confines of his mobile suit—
Riker: Athena, (Shivers) how much heat is left in here before the backup battery freezes.
Athena: Approximately 12 hours before the backup battery freezes and you will have to make your own heat.
Riker: Hurry guys, I need help.
—Hours go by and they Can't find the crash site and Carr decides to retreat back to the base—
Carr: You better make it out of this or she won't forgive you sir.
—They return to the ship and have their units warmed up to get rid of ice build up in the joints and debrief with Gen. Jackson—
Gen. Jackson: So you can't find his body or his mobile suit? That doesn't make any sense the atmosphere here isn't thick enough to cause a suit to burn up on entry, it's too cold, Carr give me data on the area that you investigated.
Carr: Its all here ma'am.
—Carr hands her the mission recorders from all the units and realized they didn't enter the Crevasse—
Gen. Jackson: Romulus, what's the chance that they are alive at the bottom of the Crevasse?
Romulus: Highly likely, as the surrounding area has already been reconnoitered, with the energy they have left they should be able to survive for at least 9 and a half more hours without having to expose themselves to the elements.
Gen. Jackson: The sun will rise over the horizon at about 4:00 AM, you and your team are to wait on standby with other SAR units at your mobile suits, sleep in there if you can, as soon as the sun rises, I want you on the trail at first light. Romulus, I want our satellites over that area, with full optical imaging using the flir system, if the suit is in one piece hopefully he's still there, we can find him easier if he is still there. Sayla, did we equip all the suits with arctic temperature normal suits?
Sayla: Yes, it should help keep him warm for a while but if I'm right that won't increase his chances of survival.
—Carr looked at his watch, 5:00 PM correctly saying they would be practically out of time as the 12 hour limit would leave him freezing at 2:00 AM, back at Riker's crash site he is sitting in his cabin, conserving his heat as much as he can—
Riker: When is first light Athena? They won't return until sunrise, that's for sure.
Athena: Approximately, 4:00 AM is sunrise, our only hope is that they start their search before the sun rises or your chances of survival will drop to 45%. Your current chance of survival is 60%.
Riker: Hopefully nothing happens while I'm gone... Athena, what's our ration and water situation look like?
Athena: Rations are at full, water is below half, I am currently using the climate to freeze the water then reheating it using your temperature and the generator core as heat.
Riker: Ok, I have a question though, what is the other 40% for our survival rate?
Athena: Freezing, Generator failure, water freezing, rations freezing. But with me running the sub systems, the chances of that happening is only 20%.
Riker: Jesus forget I asked, is it safe for me to sleep?
Athena: For the moment yes, but if I need you to be awake, I will wake you up.
—Riker sleeps for 6 hours then awakes to see some of the suits internal systems working—
Athena: I was working on the monitors, we are being watched by Romulus, have a look.
—The suit zooms in on a satellite that is holding position directly over their position, they knew that they have been found they just need to rescue party to come and get them—
Riker: Good That will make it easier for them to find us, now where is the rescue party?
Athena: Still in the hangar, the sun has not come up yet, I recommend that we start a fire at 1 AM, mostly because it will keep you warm until they arrive, the battery will freeze up soon after you disembark.
—Another 2 hours goes by, and Riker disembarks with his survival kit and preps a fire as soon as he can in which it only takes him 5 minutes to set up and ignite the thermite heater, Thermite heaters were created when scientist found a way to safely contain the sparking of thermite but use the heat coming off of the thermite to warm up the person who has it in their survival kit—
Riker: Thankfully I packed one of these as well as extra thermite charges that I can cut apart to use as fuel.
—Back at the Olympus Mons, XO Jordan King wakes up the SAR team and from there as always Carr and Red Squadron fighters launch first as they ready up the quickest, 2:00 AM, Carr has he and his men go full throttle until they reach the crevasse not waiting for the SAR team members—
Carr: He's inside the crevasse, remember slow descent guys, he could have crashed into the wall and lodged himself pretty well in there, so keep an eye out for any marks on the wall or on the ice on the ground.
Red 8: Sir I have something here, it looks like he scraped along this wall and he headed east along the crevasse wall.
—they follow it for miles and realize that he may be buried inside a cave that was iced shut—
Carr: Tell the mothership that we need a drill, he's stuck in an ice cave, using explosives may make the place cave in and kill him, send up a flair on the location.
—3 Green flairs are fired and an hour later, the mobile suit with a drill shows up, a GM mining type which civilians use for mining and SAR units use to dig out other units or civilians that have been buried under rubble or rock—
Carr: (to himself) Please let me be right, I don't want to tell Sarah when she wakes up that her man is dead.
—They dig up a mobile suit and Riker is there, he is chilling out by the thermite fire, watching his Gundam freeze slowly, he turns around when the wall falls and is happy to see the rescue team, they drag out and warm up Gundam Burner so that it doesn't break when they carry it and Riker goes into Carr's unit who takes off in mobile suit form then transforms to fighter mode in which he gets Riker back to the ship as quickly as possible—
Riker: How is she doing?
Carr: Sarah is currently in the nano-machine pod and the doc said that she will be healed in about a week, so six days to go from now, you should rest up, we are still awaiting the report from the other systems, if they don't check in in 2 days we will assume that the system they are in was recaptured, but chances are the Dogas Gier, General Revil MK2 will take care of it, supposedly that ship is also supposed to help make the final push to ending the war. Also General Jackson would like to speak to you about the weapon of mass destruction you used to completely destroy the enemy fleet yesterday.
Riker: If she wants a copy of it in not going to give it to her, it's a one off weapon that just happened to work, it's meant to take out enemies in the pulse waves by cutting up the ships to pieces, but the goal was to pulse and destroy the ships, the explosion shouldn't have happened.
Carr: Tell her that, not me. She wants to ask what happened and why it came from your mobile suit.
Riker: Thats something that I can't tell her no matter what, like I said it's a one off ability, to keep my mobile suit as well as myself from being taken prisoner.
Carr: So it is a suicide device.
Riker: Eh, kind of, but it's not meant to make the ginormous explosion that it did.
—They remained in silence until they get back, Riker talks to the General about the device and that it was only a one time use device that required a massive amount of GN particles which was released onto the battlefield in which it is used in unison with a beam weapon to destroy the surrounding ships, and not create a huge explosion, or in other words a untested device that was only theorized once and used once, she lets him go and doesn't report that the explosion was a GN particle release but one of the enemy vessels exploding in which it destroyed the remaining ships in the armada and damaged one of the Gundams—
Riker: I'm lucky that I got off with just a scolding for being reckless, I guess I should visit Sarah in the infirmary and ask the ship doctor how she is doing.
—Riker walks the halls, thinking about what the General Revil would be coming to the front lines, normally since it's the flagship, it hangs around the solar system defending vital parts of the solar system which produces everything that gets bought, sold and used—
Riker: Hmm, I wonder, what if... nah, she would have to make some sort of speech and win the war to have a ship named after her.
—Riker finally arrives at the doctors office and looks into the room to see the monitor which gives the status of each patient—
Receptionist: Can I help you?
Riker: Looking for ex-Agent Sarah.
Receptionist: Room number 3.
—Riker proceeds to the specified room with the badge labeling him as a visitor to the hospital, in which when people look his way they salute him or greet him with thanks, Riker arrives at the room to see that she is in her capsule healing and that it shows the before and after of the damage to her body—
???: Who are you?
—Riker turns around and states his name and rank—
???: Oh, sorry LtMajor I'm used to people being where they are not supposed to but I know you belong here, before you got back during the surgery to repair the damage, she was calling for you, and by the way, I am Doctor Samuel Bryan, you can just call me Doctor Sam or Doc Bryan.
Riker: Alright Doctor Sam, can you give me a run down on what was damaged?
Doctor Bryan: Sure thing, when you sent her on the skiff, the pilot was very distraught and made us come and get her quickly, good thing they did if she lost any more blood, she may have needed a lot more transfusions than what we gave her, but the damage is around the shoulder and clavicle bone close to the neck, good thing the hit went high, any lower and it would have punctured one of her lungs, even if it did I can fix it, I've done plenty of work on the battlefield as a surgeon so I know how to fix these things.
—It's only now that he realized that Doctor Bryan was old, not old where he couldn't do things by himself but old beeping to question why he hasn't retired yet, he decided not to ask that as it would probably come off pretty rude and instead shifted the focus to something else—
Riker: I have a question, I have a pain in my lower back from the reentry into the atmosphere, I was able to slightly compensate for the landing but I got bounced around pretty good, I know I am not on your scheduled patient list but could I ask that you take a quick look at me?
Doctor Bryan: Sure thing, shirt off, I'll need to use the deep tissue scanner on you.
—Doctor Bryan scanned Riker and grunted as he might have seen something that was not good to have—
Doctor Bryan: Done, you are stressed out, at lest your body is, we have a medical facility to fix that, I'll just charge up front and take it up with the medical staff, go there now, put your shirt on, I don't think it's a good idea to be walking around the ship with your shirt off.
—Riker walks off to the facility in tow with Doctor Bryan and then he stops in front of a green pod, it is elongated and wide but by design is integrated into the floor, ceiling and wall—
Doctor Bryan: I'll set it up, just relax and lie on your stomach inside the pod.
—Riker reads the label and then sees that it's a massage station, he thought about it and wondered what something that is in fact meant for luxury is doing on a warship—
Riker: A massage machine Doctor?
Doctor Bryan: Yes, the reason for this is that some soldiers are either stressed out or have a immense strain on the body, one way that we have found to fix this is massage therapy, I was able to find out how tense you are so, it's preset for you, when you get in pants and shirt off, only in your skivvies as it uses warm water, and your clothes is best not wet than wet.
—Riker gets in after following procedure and he falls asleep to the pressure as it felt good on his lower back section, the warm water and the mask used helped his muscles loosen up and at the same time washed him all while the massage and pressure was his weak point where he fell asleep from the comfort, he wakes up an hour later from the machines droning and loud voice.
Machine: Therapy finished, opening space, please put clothes back on and exit the pod.
—Riker gets out and receives a ticket saying that he is to return for the same therapy in 2 weeks to keep his muscles in shape—
Doctor Bryan: Hey Riker good news, the machine worked better than we thought, she has regained consciousness and is asking for you.
Riker: Alright.
—Doctor Bryan goes back to the room with Riker in tow and sees Sarah, she looks at him and can tell that she is smiling even with the mask on—
Sarah: Dear, how are you?
Riker: I'm holding up, you scared me you know? Taking in that many aces at once, you crazy lady!
—Riker is tearing up and smiling, then Sayla comes in—
Sayla: Sarah, your crazy, I don't know how you survived that attack but the unit if fixable just that you may have to retune it, the electronics are damaged, when the weapon hit you it shook up all the electronics and reset the battle data, but it's nothing you can't fix, as you use that simulator obsessively.
Doctor Bryan: She won't be using it until she can stand, currently she isn't cleared for walking yet, even though she didn't damage her legs her brain had moved considerably when she took a hit so her brain moved around and we are trying to make sure that it won't affect her.
—This in total brought back joy to Red Squadron as it was all brought back together and by the time the battle for Mulungu begins she will be back on her feet, and ready to fight her suit was repaired and the pilots cabin was reinforced by using parts from other mobile suits chest pieces in which using them they increased the amount of armor on the chest but made it modular in which it can carry grenades like the ones used in the Laplace conflict used by an Ecowas pilot piloting a custom GM sniper in which the grenades burned a Neo Zeon mobile suit with fire in space, it also allowed for the attachment of machine guns on the head of the Schwalbe Graze which did not come standard with any graze type, with these modifications added the ex-agency mobile suit became a wolf, not like that of the Barbatos and it's pilot Mikazuki but a wolf that can hunt alone and dish out damage as well as take it easily—