Chapter 5 It wouldn't say much....
Earth 2238 July 1st 8:00pm
Huataco Storage Depot
Warehouse 4D
The events that happened today were all very unreal for Mia Vinosec. The argument with Kounji, the promotion, and the worse of three, the mystery of the successful assassination attempt of the mayor were new problems and situations that were all beginning to swell her mind.. She leaned back in her green padded chair and slumped down in it, her feet touching the back of the desk she was behind. Mia sighed at the fact that things were going to start getting rough in her life. She then sighed for all the things that were already uncomfortable in her life. The foremost of her discomfort was the fact that she was in the office of her predecessors. She had been in the office before; she had even sat in the same chair, but inside she felt certain silence from the room that was just not familiar to her. Its features now darker and lifeless contrary to how full of energy it was before. Even though she officially was leader, she still felt like the demons were not her group to lead. However, it would now be her responsibility to lead the once disorganized group of mercenaries turned exceptional and there wasn't much more to be said about it.
First, there were the stack of papers she had to look forward to filling out for the Demons maintenance bills, operation fees, salary and the like. Then, there was going to be the task of acquiring jobs from several of the requestors that were out there. The tasks that would now be before her as leader were certainly not going to be easy. "Why did you have to leave me such a burden, Vance" She said in her mind sighing yet again. Luckily, if she could get an executive officer for the group these could be cut in half, but who.
Mia took a break from her forms and went to the back of the Commander's Office to search through the dossier drawer for all the pilot personnel. Not only did she have to pick someone that she could get along with but she also had to pick someone that Conniver and Kensei Corporation, as a whole would like. Mia didn't exactly care for Conniver's opinion at all, let alone the corporation's but she knew that it certainly did matter. She threw the files of all the AC pilots in the Squad on her desk, sat down, and began to look at each of them has thoroughly has she could. She then separated the top two candidates' files from the rest of the files. They were labeled Amaro Satoshi, and Kounji Takagi.
The first file she looked at was Kounji's file. It listed everything from his time in the Murakumo Machine Technical School through all of the mission experience he had before. Mia laughed has she looked at the character problems written in his mental evaluation. She thought about it for a moment. To have Kounji and her together doing paper work wouldn't be that bad in this position she would have plenty of time to bring something's to light, but she would have to consider the other members who had been working just as hard. She put his folder aside for the time being and thumbed open the folder of Amaro Satoshi. Well he's the new guy and many people might resent that fact that he was ex-murakumo, he was a surving ac pilot of the final battle between Murakumo and Chrome in space and proved to be quite the pilot, better than Kounji even and more experienced ,too. One of the first graduates out of the Murakumo MT Academy, Amaro was at the top of his class, and moved on to become a lieutenant in Murakumo's top AC division The Kage. The Kage was a group that was primary deployed off the space battlecruiser Tokugawa. From what Mia remembered They were both lost in the final battle with the chrome fleet. All except Amaro ,who surrendered to a Ryuuko Kiishin the former group that Vance and Kounji's father belonged to . He later became an independent Raven working his way through the ranks until Mia's predecessor contacted him.
Mia grabbed a pen from the table and began tapping it against the edge. Amaro would be good, and I sure has heck know Conniver would respect him, even though their past might show otherwise. Then that anxiety in her gut began getting to her again. On the other hand, Kounji's been with the group longer so he has seniority. "Damn it" she yelled cursing her indecisiveness. She then pushed back against her chair. At that moment she heard someone talking outside and then, a second later, a shadow appeared behind the glass panel part of her door. Mia raised an eyebrow in query wondering who it might be. The figure knocked. "Come in" she said.
The door opened and in popped the Male AC pilot known as Amaro Satoshi. He was dressed up in his pilot suit which colors comprised of black and green. On top of that sweat was dripping from his square shaped forehead and within the droplets some of his brown hair. "Hi, Mia I just came to see how you were doing and by the looks of it you're doing quite a bit. "Amaro said. Mia straightened her chair to face him fully. She crossed her elbows and placed them and her head on the table.
"Yeah, tell me about it, like almost two hundred forms to fill out I'm just glad we weren't the one's who botched the defense on the speech with that assassination today otherwise there would be a thousand." She said. Amaro walked up to the table and planting his hands on it and smudging it with his sweaty fingers
"Yeah, that's for sure, of course that really strikes me as odd though one unit got all the way through that perimeter unchecked." Amaro said. Mia nodded in agreement. Mia sat back up in her chair.
"Most likely a security breach" She said. Amaro stood upright again. The two just stayed in their respective positions for a minute in an odd silence staring in to each other's eyes.
"So, Mia when do you think you might be done with these papers maybe." Amaro said. Mia felt like Amaro was tipping to something perhaps coming on to her but she decided to answer.
"Oh after the meeting perhaps elevenish". She blushed slightly but not too much. Although knowing me it would probably take until 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning
"Perhaps you wouldn't mind going out to get something to drink maybe coffee or alcohol your pick." Amaro said laughing slightly. Oh, so Mr serious decides he wants hang out now, he sure did pick a time after all that I'm going to be tired. Amaro continued to stare at Mia, waiting for an answer. . But maybe I should oblige him, just this once besides there I've been working to much
"Surely you're not trying to ask me out on date, Satoshi" she said laughing a little bit while intertwining her fingers.
"Well, just maybe I am trying to Vinosec." Amaro said in a foxly manner
Suddenly, Mia's whole world began to collapse around her. For a long time she was normally, the one who had to pursue every man she went after. Finally though one had came to her. Her face became a little reddened due to the flattery. She realized then that she had reacted shocked in front of Amaro who looked a bit startled about what he just said also, but nowhere near how dumbfounded she thought she must of looked. "You know Amaro relationships just don't come about that way" she said trying to put a professors spin on it. "
"I suppose they don't maybe they start the way yours and Kounji's does. Like a childish high school type of thing." Amaro said. Mia blushed a bit further realizing that what Amaro just said was semi true but only semi. Quickly, an easy snap back came to her.
"What are you jealous Amaro, that I'm not attracted to guys as terrible has you are?" Mia snapped back. She noticed Amaro's face turning a little on the reddish side, but didn't know whether what she said about him being jealous was true or if he just was caught so suddenly.
"I was just flirting Mia but apparently I found out more than I really asked from your expression." Amaro said folding his arms. "So, you do like him don't you, come on you can tell me." he continued. Mia shied away from him and began looking for a random paper to start filling out. She peeped around the paper and saw Amaro still looking at her smiling like a grown child waiting for answer. "Well, I'm waiting" he said. Mia's face reddened once again but this time in anger. If she had to she would pull rank on him, but of course her rank wasn't official to Amaro and she felt it would probably suit her best not to.
"Amaro, you're such a child, I don't need you invading my love life or trying to become a part of it" She replied. Quickly her snarling expression became more irate. "Now get out of my office and help Tech Alexandra prepare for the briefing did I make myself clear?" She continued.
"Right chief, on the way." Amaro said. Mia was happy to see that Amaro was finally leaving her office and at a fast speed at that but she had a little more icing on the cake to add. "Oh and Amaro." she said. Amaro held the door open and turned. "Next time consider asking me about my personal life when we're both out of uniform, this is a military base, not a grade school cafeteria." "Ok, boss" Amaro answered back. He then shut the door behind him. Laughter could be heard coming from the hallway outside from two maintenance workers that had listened to some of the conversation.
Mia looked at the two files once again. She looked at Amaro's basic information paper with his photo next to it. Well, lesse, Amaro would have been a perfect choice about five minutes ago. Mia looked back at Kounji's folder other than the psych records his was untarnished. Just to be fair however she went through all the rest of Demon records including Linay's. After another half hour of background checking, the commander had finally settled on someone that was sure to make herself and hopefully them glad. With that in mind she gathered up a few slides she would need for the briefing, and made her way out the office.
***
Kai Isamo walked into the briefing area dressed up her standard. She decided before taking a shower she should go and help work on the K. Her quick run over there left her stinking profusely but she hoped it wasn't enough for someone to notice her. She could see that six metal folding chairs were all set up and that there was pizza and cola set up on the right side of the room. She was glad to see that there was food because the concept of eating had also slipped her mind. Kai saw Mia talking to Alexandra next to the podium at the front of the room and pondered whether to get in the conversation. Alexandra was excited and mimicking something that looked as if she was shooting a rifle. Kai then noticed the shorter Alexandra catch Kai in her eye so she went over and joined them.
"Hi, I haven't seen you two in awhile." Kai said ecstatically. She hugged Alexandra tightly. She then moved on to Mia but much more reluctantly hugged the green haired pilot. "The Demon Sisters all back together again" she yelled. Kai felt excitement in the air from just being around friends after the recent incidents.
"Yeah, that's for sure." the cute double pony-tailed Alexandra said." Kai put herself in more of comfortable stance.
"All except Linay, is she going to be coming in Mia. "She said. Mia sighed. Kai could tell that Mia's response was probably going to be on the negative side.
"Not likely, we don't know exactly where she is." Mia responded. Kai grabbed her own arm sighing.
"Where is ol' Boy Scout at, it's not like him to be late!" Kai exclaimed.
"You mean Kounji, he went to Linay's place to see if she just wasn't picking up the phone." she said. "Of course that doesn't explain why he's late" she continued. Mia held her head down with a look at contempt enough for Kai to actually care.
"So what's wrong Mia" Kai said.
"That's kind of irresponsible of him to go off and not report back to me at all about it." She said. It was descent enough explanation one that she would have normally excepted, but this was Mia and Kai knew she cared as much about the boy scout has she did.
"Since I know him much better than you do I say he'll show up, the guy always shows up." Kai explained.
"I guess you're right Kai" she blankly said.
Just then, the door that Kai came through had opened once again. Kai turned in curiosity. This time Amaro came through the door along with someone who Kai didn't recognize. The man was very Latin in his features yet he carried a British walk with him. His hair was short and was like a patch of mini stalactites coming out of his head, which induced laughter from Kai. "Whose the rockstar Amaro?" Kai giggled. This evoked a astonished reaction from the latin pilot.
"The name of this rockstar is Shane Martinez, Miss..." The man started.
"Kai Miyasuki Isamo" Kai said. She folded her arms and stepped around Shane has if she was examining him. "How did you know my hobby Ms. Isamo" He said.
"Wild guess" she said smiling. Mia walked up right next to Kai with Alexandria in tow.
"Shane is our new hire from the core mercenary ring and he's purely from Amber Crown." Mia said.
Kai had not seen much of Amber crown, but she remembered it was a primarily European Underground City, which housed Brits, Germans, Czechs, French you name it. It wouldn't have been the ideal place for a Japanese woman such as herself to grow up in. Shane relaxed himself a bit while he was being showcased. "It's amazing the things you go through in your travels, I mean the battles, the hardships, the women, I don't know how I even got here in one piece. He raised his eyebrow at Kai , which tipped to her that she was also being checked out. "I didn't know they allowed sixteen year olds to become mercenaries. Is this an Isaac thing?" Shane said. Kai taken back by the remark, held down her temper even though she wanted to strike at him.
"For your information I'm 21 and probably a much better a fighter than you, You know you remind me of someone." Kai said. She said bending herself slightly and pointing her right finger at Shane. "Yeah he reminds me a bit of Amaro." Alexandria said putting her hands to her hips. Shane sniffed around Kai a little bit and discovered one of Kai's fears.
"Hey Kai is it, have you thought about taking a shower lately you kind of... smell. Kai, shocked at the attention this new guy had paid to her, gasped. "
"Hey unlike you I work very hard and when you work hard you smell a little bit so piss off."
"Ok, Well if you kiddies wouldn't mind sitting down you can find out how you're going to be paying the bills for the next month" Mia said.
Everyone took a respective chair Kai and Shane distancing themselves accordingly. Mia turned on a holographic projection unit near the front of the room. Then she moved over to the laptop computer she had plugged in next to the projector. Mia keyed up two pictures that displayed themselves on the projection one was slightly overlapping the other one. One of the pictures was a building and the other one with an underground passage. Mia then stepped over to the left and the hologram cleared her throat and then spoke. As you know or you should know there was an assassination attempt at exactly 12:02 this afternoon. The target was supposedly Mayor Hermann. A fanatical religious organization known as the Divine Sphere has taken credit for the attack saying that Hermann proliferated the majority of anti- religious attitude in modern society and had to be punished." Mia said before taking a small breath in between with the expertise of an accomplished speaker. "Our friends Gia Chen, Nick Kawasaki who were running perimeter defense of the area caught the assassin, but he died of mortal wounds soon afterward." Amaro raised his hand. Mia could already tell it was something stupid just by how Amaro was reaching his arm up far up towards the ceiling. She acknowledged him with a nod.
"Ok, thanks for repeating the six o' clock news but what does this have to do with us?." Amaro said. Mia smirked at the rudeness of what he asked but saw it as a descent question nonetheless.
"Little, but it is significant to our next assignment which I'll get to in a second." Mia answered back.
Mia pointed a finger at the underground passage. "Here's what the news didn't tell you, the assassin got through via an underground passage that wasn't discovered during the time that Chrome controlled Isaac City.
She then pointed to the top most pictures ok does anyone recognize this building at all. Kai then raised her hand. "Go ahead" Mia said.
"Its the Chrome HQ I remember it, because You, Kounji, and I helped Kensei capture it. I hadn't gotten to see it before we had to attack it. "Kai said.
"Correct, Kai." Mia said
Mia then went back to the laptop and had the projection zoom in on the building. "Kensei is still having his scientists probe Chrome's computer laboratories in hopes of extracting has much information about Chrome's final works from the facility has he can. Currently the Kindred, one of Kensei's other contracts had been providing the defense for this facility considering the fact that many of Kensei's MT forces are currently engaging offensive maneuvers out in the Zahm desert. Soon the Kindred will be joining them. "
Mia took a sip out of glass of water she had prepared next to the laptop. "As of next week we will completely relieve the Kindred from their defensive duties and be in charge of defending this intelligence operation." Mia said. Mia noticed Amaro get out of his chair.
"Excuse me, Mia but how can we adequately defend the Chrome HQ when we only have half the personnel and mecha that the Kindred have?" he asked.
"Well I asked Kensei over a secure line about it earlier but he said he had faith in us, but really to cut through the bs, it means we are going to be putting in some long defense shifts." Mia replied. Amaro then sat down.
"Well nothing like a baptism by fire to get the blood flowing" Shane said.
"There goes all our vacation times." Alexandria said. Kai looked over at Alexandria has if she remembered something. "Oh I forgot you techs haven't gotten any serious time off for about the last four months." Kai sincerely said. Mia then shut off the holoprojector and the adjacent computer. "Don't worry Allie, Kensei is having a group of technicians relieve your group for awhile so you guys get this operation off." Mia said. Mia saw sign of relief in her friend Alexandria's grin. "Ok well everyone you're free to go I'll have the schedule...."
Just as Mia's words had left her mouth, the door to the briefing room had opened and revealed the two pilots that had been missing, Kounji Takagi, and Linay Valione. Mia's face reddened with surprise as her heart leapt up into her chest. She was glad that her friend Linay was perfectly fine it seemed on the outside and so was Kounji, but as much as she wanted to run and hug both Linay and Kounji for, duty came first. "I want to see both of you in my office right now."
***
After Kounji entered the commander's office, Mia told him to shut the door. The two pilots Linay and Kounji stood at attention with their both of their pairs of hands to their respective sides as Mia sat at her desk."Ok, at ease" Mia said. The two relaxed themselves but not to much. "First off, Linay how come you haven't contacted any of us in the past three weeks just to tell us that you were fine." Mia said. Linay hesitated for a moment. "I had left to be by myself for a little while above ground there was this beach Vance told me about off the eastern coast of the Northern American Continent" Linay said. "There was far too much for me to think about for me to find time to call any of you." She said as sincerely as she could. Mia actually believed Linay for the time being; it wasn't beneath Linay to go off somewhere sometimes and not tell anybody. "Ok, Linay even though that is your nature, please don't do that again we thought you might have committed suicide or something." Mia said. "Don't forget like Vance always said we're all a family and we should act as such, Got that. Now is there anything else you need to tell me Linay?" Mia said politely.
"No there isn't, except thanks for sending old Boy scout to tell me about this briefing." Linay answered. Mia folded her arms while she was sitting down her pure relief although she could not believe that absolutely nothing was wrong with her but she was relived to see her friend alive and at least physically well.
"Ok. now with that out of the way, I have an announcement to make." Mia said. Kounji stood eager waiting for what she had to say while Linay just paid attention. "Mia stood up and cleared her throat. "As of today Kounji Takagi has been promoted to the rank of Lt. Commander as well as appointed the position of Demon Squadron Executive Officer." Kounji's eyes widened in shock from what he just heard. "Me, why me?" Kounji said. Mia slanted her eyes and hardened her face. "Well Kounji I think you have enough experience and also the right attitude to handle the task of XO" Mia said folding her arms once again. "Wow, I'm surprised you think that highly of me". Kounji said. Mia could hear a grumble come out of Linay's mouth behind Kounji. "Yes, you dummy" Mia thought but wanted to say. "I also thought you could actually learn something from having some type of authority." Mia said. Excited, Kounji finally settled down a bit. Mia laughed within herself at the impact she had on him.
"Ok I'm happy about Kounji getting a promotion but can I go get something eat. I spotted food just sitting there on the way in plus I need to go and tell everyone now before I explode from all this formal crap." Linay asked springing up and down. "Go on ahead Linay." Mia said. "Thank you, see you two later I'm sure you got command stuff to talk about" Linay said before opening the door and leaving the office. Kounji walked over and shut the old run down door. "Ok now Kounji I want an...."Mia began to say.
"I apologize for how screwed up I was earlier to you Mia you know how you can just get mad over something and do irrational things." Kounji explained sincerely.
"Yeah I know how mad you can get over something and do irrational things."
"Hey you must have acted irrationally at sometime."
Mia immediately thought back to her college days and parties and other types of young unruly behavior but she chose to keep those things private. "I might of at sometime Kounji but we're in the professional world now Kounji, things like that outburst you had earlier won't cut it." Mia continued.
"Understood, I'll be more careful from now on." Kounji said smiling sheepishly.
"Good boy" Mia giggled.
Mia crouched down and pushed out a box from underneath her desk that had a bunch of papers in them. She lifted her head from the crouched position she was in and saw Kounji's face turn from one of calmness to one of regret. "Guess what you get to help me with, Kounji" Mia said smiling. "If it has something to with reading and writing I want out." Kounji said. "As your first official act as my XO you get help me fill out each and everyone of these forms. Isn't that great Kounji?" Mia said reminiscent to a holo shopping network host. As Mia handed him the first paper, Kounji sighed and took it in his hands unwillingly. "Wow, where's my pen?" he said passively. Mia laughed at the dullness in Kounji's voice. "Don't worry about it you have little ol me to help you fill them out, if you don't understand something just hand it to me." Mia said.
The two commanders worked in to the night has minutes upon hours went by. The two chatted their way through signing most of the papers aware but not caring that most of the personnel had left the warehouse to turn in for the night. It was about 2:30am in the morning and the two had begun to get a little bit on the restless side. Kounji had volunteered to make some coffee while Mia decided to stay in her office. She found the hours that they spend together sorting through papers and talking with Kounji to be very enjoyable. As a result, the heat that burned for him burned even brighter that night. She knew that blood had rushed to her face reddening it once again just thinking about him and the fact that he was gone gave her a chance to reflect. Geez, I wonder if he feels the same way about me. That would be great if he did but he doesn't really act like it but then again I hide my feelings from him a bunch too what if he's doing the same, damn it.
She finished signing a document off about the Kensei Corporation Military Operational Code of Conduct and placed the paper into a file that her and Kounji started. Mia heard Kounji's footsteps coming back towards the door and continued going about her work. A few seconds later Kounji pushed open the door with two cups of hot French vanilla coffee in his hands. The smell of the coffee at this time at night was very ambrosial and appeasing. "Ok I'm back." Kounji said has he set the coffee down on the floor. "I got French vanilla, because it was all I could find in the briefing room area." Kounji said. "No that's ok, I actually like the taste of French Vanilla as long as it doesn't have too much sugar." Mia took a sip of the coffee. She felt like she was going to become hypoglycemic from the taste of sugar that danced in her mouth. The warmth of the liquid made it quickly down her throat much to her displeasement yet she didn't care it was late and not a time to be particularly picky. "What time is right now Mia?" Kounji said yawning. "It's 2:30am GST" She replied.
"When are we going to call it a night Mia" Kounji said.
"I say about three o' clock would be a good estimate I have to meet with some Kensei Transportation people tomorrow to talk about moving our AC's to the Chrome HQ." Mia said while she reading another document. " That must be fun, I'm probably going to work on the Tiger tomorrow afternoon with Allie." Kounji said. Mia found and the opening to seize an opportunity she could try to ask Kounji out for a night on the town but would he take the bait. That thought lingered in her mind has she looked at another document. Would he even be interested in going out on date and if so should I call it a date and also how should I bring it up?. After a second of lingering, she went for it. "You know Kounji filling out all these papers with you was actually kind of fun. "Mia said.
"Yeah I agree it was fun although I'm probably going to feel like crap in the morning.." Kounji said. He smiled then shifted his legs from the Indian style he was in, to just laying them out flat on the carpet.
"Hey Kounji you wouldn't happen to be doing anything this Saturday would you?" Mia asked bluntly.
"Not much I was thinking about hanging out with Kai earlier in the day because we haven't talked in awhile, why do you ask?" Kounji asked.
Mia's heart suddenly dropped with jealousy but she went through with what she had in mind. "I thought maybe we could go to this nice Italian Restaurant downtown on Saturday night maybe eat and talk a bit more." Mia said. She desperately didn't want Kounji to reject her offer and tried to display that way by having a sly look on her face in almost the same manner Amaro had done to her earlier.
"Sure I don't see why that wouldn't be a good idea we really haven't talked that much." Kounji said. "Yeah I know that's great! We could call it a date" she said excitedly. Yes, I finally got him to go out with me but is he going with me just on a friendly date or on a romantic one. She noticed Kounji blushing a little bit but didn't press him. She knew much too well about his shy personality.
The two went back to the work they had once started for the next half an hour. As soon has 3:00 came around the two parted after saying their goodbyes. As Mia made her way outside Warehouse she felt has if she was missing something. After checking her purse and her workbag, she was still stumped. She had every thing her makeup, her pads... her keys. Then it hit her like a shot from the highly accurate WA-RF/E anti mech rifle. She didn't have a car." How could I have forgotten to get a ride home with Kounji? "She said out loud. Unable to do anything about it she moved swiftly towards the personnel elevator, which wasn't too far from the vehicle elevator.
About halfway there she heard the sound of a car coming up behind her slowly. Mia glanced over her left shoulder. Immediately she recognized the familiar blue Nikoni. Thank god. She ran towards the car along the left side and matched eyes with Kounji who unlocked the passenger door. She opened the door anxiously and got in. "Hey you didn't think I was just going to leave you here,eh?" Kounji said. "No, not really you're my XO it doesn't say much about you to the others if you left me here to walk home." Mia said. She shut the door and the shoulder strap automatically pulled across her chest and locked. "I suppose you have a point but then again it doesn't say much for the highest paid demon to not even have a used car." Kounji said. He drove the car over the vehicle elevator. "Hey it's still an unofficial promotion, jackass." Mia said waving her finger at Kounji. At the click of a button, the elevator began its ascent.
Earth 2238 July 1st 8:00pm
Huataco Storage Depot
Warehouse 4D
The events that happened today were all very unreal for Mia Vinosec. The argument with Kounji, the promotion, and the worse of three, the mystery of the successful assassination attempt of the mayor were new problems and situations that were all beginning to swell her mind.. She leaned back in her green padded chair and slumped down in it, her feet touching the back of the desk she was behind. Mia sighed at the fact that things were going to start getting rough in her life. She then sighed for all the things that were already uncomfortable in her life. The foremost of her discomfort was the fact that she was in the office of her predecessors. She had been in the office before; she had even sat in the same chair, but inside she felt certain silence from the room that was just not familiar to her. Its features now darker and lifeless contrary to how full of energy it was before. Even though she officially was leader, she still felt like the demons were not her group to lead. However, it would now be her responsibility to lead the once disorganized group of mercenaries turned exceptional and there wasn't much more to be said about it.
First, there were the stack of papers she had to look forward to filling out for the Demons maintenance bills, operation fees, salary and the like. Then, there was going to be the task of acquiring jobs from several of the requestors that were out there. The tasks that would now be before her as leader were certainly not going to be easy. "Why did you have to leave me such a burden, Vance" She said in her mind sighing yet again. Luckily, if she could get an executive officer for the group these could be cut in half, but who.
Mia took a break from her forms and went to the back of the Commander's Office to search through the dossier drawer for all the pilot personnel. Not only did she have to pick someone that she could get along with but she also had to pick someone that Conniver and Kensei Corporation, as a whole would like. Mia didn't exactly care for Conniver's opinion at all, let alone the corporation's but she knew that it certainly did matter. She threw the files of all the AC pilots in the Squad on her desk, sat down, and began to look at each of them has thoroughly has she could. She then separated the top two candidates' files from the rest of the files. They were labeled Amaro Satoshi, and Kounji Takagi.
The first file she looked at was Kounji's file. It listed everything from his time in the Murakumo Machine Technical School through all of the mission experience he had before. Mia laughed has she looked at the character problems written in his mental evaluation. She thought about it for a moment. To have Kounji and her together doing paper work wouldn't be that bad in this position she would have plenty of time to bring something's to light, but she would have to consider the other members who had been working just as hard. She put his folder aside for the time being and thumbed open the folder of Amaro Satoshi. Well he's the new guy and many people might resent that fact that he was ex-murakumo, he was a surving ac pilot of the final battle between Murakumo and Chrome in space and proved to be quite the pilot, better than Kounji even and more experienced ,too. One of the first graduates out of the Murakumo MT Academy, Amaro was at the top of his class, and moved on to become a lieutenant in Murakumo's top AC division The Kage. The Kage was a group that was primary deployed off the space battlecruiser Tokugawa. From what Mia remembered They were both lost in the final battle with the chrome fleet. All except Amaro ,who surrendered to a Ryuuko Kiishin the former group that Vance and Kounji's father belonged to . He later became an independent Raven working his way through the ranks until Mia's predecessor contacted him.
Mia grabbed a pen from the table and began tapping it against the edge. Amaro would be good, and I sure has heck know Conniver would respect him, even though their past might show otherwise. Then that anxiety in her gut began getting to her again. On the other hand, Kounji's been with the group longer so he has seniority. "Damn it" she yelled cursing her indecisiveness. She then pushed back against her chair. At that moment she heard someone talking outside and then, a second later, a shadow appeared behind the glass panel part of her door. Mia raised an eyebrow in query wondering who it might be. The figure knocked. "Come in" she said.
The door opened and in popped the Male AC pilot known as Amaro Satoshi. He was dressed up in his pilot suit which colors comprised of black and green. On top of that sweat was dripping from his square shaped forehead and within the droplets some of his brown hair. "Hi, Mia I just came to see how you were doing and by the looks of it you're doing quite a bit. "Amaro said. Mia straightened her chair to face him fully. She crossed her elbows and placed them and her head on the table.
"Yeah, tell me about it, like almost two hundred forms to fill out I'm just glad we weren't the one's who botched the defense on the speech with that assassination today otherwise there would be a thousand." She said. Amaro walked up to the table and planting his hands on it and smudging it with his sweaty fingers
"Yeah, that's for sure, of course that really strikes me as odd though one unit got all the way through that perimeter unchecked." Amaro said. Mia nodded in agreement. Mia sat back up in her chair.
"Most likely a security breach" She said. Amaro stood upright again. The two just stayed in their respective positions for a minute in an odd silence staring in to each other's eyes.
"So, Mia when do you think you might be done with these papers maybe." Amaro said. Mia felt like Amaro was tipping to something perhaps coming on to her but she decided to answer.
"Oh after the meeting perhaps elevenish". She blushed slightly but not too much. Although knowing me it would probably take until 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning
"Perhaps you wouldn't mind going out to get something to drink maybe coffee or alcohol your pick." Amaro said laughing slightly. Oh, so Mr serious decides he wants hang out now, he sure did pick a time after all that I'm going to be tired. Amaro continued to stare at Mia, waiting for an answer. . But maybe I should oblige him, just this once besides there I've been working to much
"Surely you're not trying to ask me out on date, Satoshi" she said laughing a little bit while intertwining her fingers.
"Well, just maybe I am trying to Vinosec." Amaro said in a foxly manner
Suddenly, Mia's whole world began to collapse around her. For a long time she was normally, the one who had to pursue every man she went after. Finally though one had came to her. Her face became a little reddened due to the flattery. She realized then that she had reacted shocked in front of Amaro who looked a bit startled about what he just said also, but nowhere near how dumbfounded she thought she must of looked. "You know Amaro relationships just don't come about that way" she said trying to put a professors spin on it. "
"I suppose they don't maybe they start the way yours and Kounji's does. Like a childish high school type of thing." Amaro said. Mia blushed a bit further realizing that what Amaro just said was semi true but only semi. Quickly, an easy snap back came to her.
"What are you jealous Amaro, that I'm not attracted to guys as terrible has you are?" Mia snapped back. She noticed Amaro's face turning a little on the reddish side, but didn't know whether what she said about him being jealous was true or if he just was caught so suddenly.
"I was just flirting Mia but apparently I found out more than I really asked from your expression." Amaro said folding his arms. "So, you do like him don't you, come on you can tell me." he continued. Mia shied away from him and began looking for a random paper to start filling out. She peeped around the paper and saw Amaro still looking at her smiling like a grown child waiting for answer. "Well, I'm waiting" he said. Mia's face reddened once again but this time in anger. If she had to she would pull rank on him, but of course her rank wasn't official to Amaro and she felt it would probably suit her best not to.
"Amaro, you're such a child, I don't need you invading my love life or trying to become a part of it" She replied. Quickly her snarling expression became more irate. "Now get out of my office and help Tech Alexandra prepare for the briefing did I make myself clear?" She continued.
"Right chief, on the way." Amaro said. Mia was happy to see that Amaro was finally leaving her office and at a fast speed at that but she had a little more icing on the cake to add. "Oh and Amaro." she said. Amaro held the door open and turned. "Next time consider asking me about my personal life when we're both out of uniform, this is a military base, not a grade school cafeteria." "Ok, boss" Amaro answered back. He then shut the door behind him. Laughter could be heard coming from the hallway outside from two maintenance workers that had listened to some of the conversation.
Mia looked at the two files once again. She looked at Amaro's basic information paper with his photo next to it. Well, lesse, Amaro would have been a perfect choice about five minutes ago. Mia looked back at Kounji's folder other than the psych records his was untarnished. Just to be fair however she went through all the rest of Demon records including Linay's. After another half hour of background checking, the commander had finally settled on someone that was sure to make herself and hopefully them glad. With that in mind she gathered up a few slides she would need for the briefing, and made her way out the office.
***
Kai Isamo walked into the briefing area dressed up her standard. She decided before taking a shower she should go and help work on the K. Her quick run over there left her stinking profusely but she hoped it wasn't enough for someone to notice her. She could see that six metal folding chairs were all set up and that there was pizza and cola set up on the right side of the room. She was glad to see that there was food because the concept of eating had also slipped her mind. Kai saw Mia talking to Alexandra next to the podium at the front of the room and pondered whether to get in the conversation. Alexandra was excited and mimicking something that looked as if she was shooting a rifle. Kai then noticed the shorter Alexandra catch Kai in her eye so she went over and joined them.
"Hi, I haven't seen you two in awhile." Kai said ecstatically. She hugged Alexandra tightly. She then moved on to Mia but much more reluctantly hugged the green haired pilot. "The Demon Sisters all back together again" she yelled. Kai felt excitement in the air from just being around friends after the recent incidents.
"Yeah, that's for sure." the cute double pony-tailed Alexandra said." Kai put herself in more of comfortable stance.
"All except Linay, is she going to be coming in Mia. "She said. Mia sighed. Kai could tell that Mia's response was probably going to be on the negative side.
"Not likely, we don't know exactly where she is." Mia responded. Kai grabbed her own arm sighing.
"Where is ol' Boy Scout at, it's not like him to be late!" Kai exclaimed.
"You mean Kounji, he went to Linay's place to see if she just wasn't picking up the phone." she said. "Of course that doesn't explain why he's late" she continued. Mia held her head down with a look at contempt enough for Kai to actually care.
"So what's wrong Mia" Kai said.
"That's kind of irresponsible of him to go off and not report back to me at all about it." She said. It was descent enough explanation one that she would have normally excepted, but this was Mia and Kai knew she cared as much about the boy scout has she did.
"Since I know him much better than you do I say he'll show up, the guy always shows up." Kai explained.
"I guess you're right Kai" she blankly said.
Just then, the door that Kai came through had opened once again. Kai turned in curiosity. This time Amaro came through the door along with someone who Kai didn't recognize. The man was very Latin in his features yet he carried a British walk with him. His hair was short and was like a patch of mini stalactites coming out of his head, which induced laughter from Kai. "Whose the rockstar Amaro?" Kai giggled. This evoked a astonished reaction from the latin pilot.
"The name of this rockstar is Shane Martinez, Miss..." The man started.
"Kai Miyasuki Isamo" Kai said. She folded her arms and stepped around Shane has if she was examining him. "How did you know my hobby Ms. Isamo" He said.
"Wild guess" she said smiling. Mia walked up right next to Kai with Alexandria in tow.
"Shane is our new hire from the core mercenary ring and he's purely from Amber Crown." Mia said.
Kai had not seen much of Amber crown, but she remembered it was a primarily European Underground City, which housed Brits, Germans, Czechs, French you name it. It wouldn't have been the ideal place for a Japanese woman such as herself to grow up in. Shane relaxed himself a bit while he was being showcased. "It's amazing the things you go through in your travels, I mean the battles, the hardships, the women, I don't know how I even got here in one piece. He raised his eyebrow at Kai , which tipped to her that she was also being checked out. "I didn't know they allowed sixteen year olds to become mercenaries. Is this an Isaac thing?" Shane said. Kai taken back by the remark, held down her temper even though she wanted to strike at him.
"For your information I'm 21 and probably a much better a fighter than you, You know you remind me of someone." Kai said. She said bending herself slightly and pointing her right finger at Shane. "Yeah he reminds me a bit of Amaro." Alexandria said putting her hands to her hips. Shane sniffed around Kai a little bit and discovered one of Kai's fears.
"Hey Kai is it, have you thought about taking a shower lately you kind of... smell. Kai, shocked at the attention this new guy had paid to her, gasped. "
"Hey unlike you I work very hard and when you work hard you smell a little bit so piss off."
"Ok, Well if you kiddies wouldn't mind sitting down you can find out how you're going to be paying the bills for the next month" Mia said.
Everyone took a respective chair Kai and Shane distancing themselves accordingly. Mia turned on a holographic projection unit near the front of the room. Then she moved over to the laptop computer she had plugged in next to the projector. Mia keyed up two pictures that displayed themselves on the projection one was slightly overlapping the other one. One of the pictures was a building and the other one with an underground passage. Mia then stepped over to the left and the hologram cleared her throat and then spoke. As you know or you should know there was an assassination attempt at exactly 12:02 this afternoon. The target was supposedly Mayor Hermann. A fanatical religious organization known as the Divine Sphere has taken credit for the attack saying that Hermann proliferated the majority of anti- religious attitude in modern society and had to be punished." Mia said before taking a small breath in between with the expertise of an accomplished speaker. "Our friends Gia Chen, Nick Kawasaki who were running perimeter defense of the area caught the assassin, but he died of mortal wounds soon afterward." Amaro raised his hand. Mia could already tell it was something stupid just by how Amaro was reaching his arm up far up towards the ceiling. She acknowledged him with a nod.
"Ok, thanks for repeating the six o' clock news but what does this have to do with us?." Amaro said. Mia smirked at the rudeness of what he asked but saw it as a descent question nonetheless.
"Little, but it is significant to our next assignment which I'll get to in a second." Mia answered back.
Mia pointed a finger at the underground passage. "Here's what the news didn't tell you, the assassin got through via an underground passage that wasn't discovered during the time that Chrome controlled Isaac City.
She then pointed to the top most pictures ok does anyone recognize this building at all. Kai then raised her hand. "Go ahead" Mia said.
"Its the Chrome HQ I remember it, because You, Kounji, and I helped Kensei capture it. I hadn't gotten to see it before we had to attack it. "Kai said.
"Correct, Kai." Mia said
Mia then went back to the laptop and had the projection zoom in on the building. "Kensei is still having his scientists probe Chrome's computer laboratories in hopes of extracting has much information about Chrome's final works from the facility has he can. Currently the Kindred, one of Kensei's other contracts had been providing the defense for this facility considering the fact that many of Kensei's MT forces are currently engaging offensive maneuvers out in the Zahm desert. Soon the Kindred will be joining them. "
Mia took a sip out of glass of water she had prepared next to the laptop. "As of next week we will completely relieve the Kindred from their defensive duties and be in charge of defending this intelligence operation." Mia said. Mia noticed Amaro get out of his chair.
"Excuse me, Mia but how can we adequately defend the Chrome HQ when we only have half the personnel and mecha that the Kindred have?" he asked.
"Well I asked Kensei over a secure line about it earlier but he said he had faith in us, but really to cut through the bs, it means we are going to be putting in some long defense shifts." Mia replied. Amaro then sat down.
"Well nothing like a baptism by fire to get the blood flowing" Shane said.
"There goes all our vacation times." Alexandria said. Kai looked over at Alexandria has if she remembered something. "Oh I forgot you techs haven't gotten any serious time off for about the last four months." Kai sincerely said. Mia then shut off the holoprojector and the adjacent computer. "Don't worry Allie, Kensei is having a group of technicians relieve your group for awhile so you guys get this operation off." Mia said. Mia saw sign of relief in her friend Alexandria's grin. "Ok well everyone you're free to go I'll have the schedule...."
Just as Mia's words had left her mouth, the door to the briefing room had opened and revealed the two pilots that had been missing, Kounji Takagi, and Linay Valione. Mia's face reddened with surprise as her heart leapt up into her chest. She was glad that her friend Linay was perfectly fine it seemed on the outside and so was Kounji, but as much as she wanted to run and hug both Linay and Kounji for, duty came first. "I want to see both of you in my office right now."
***
After Kounji entered the commander's office, Mia told him to shut the door. The two pilots Linay and Kounji stood at attention with their both of their pairs of hands to their respective sides as Mia sat at her desk."Ok, at ease" Mia said. The two relaxed themselves but not to much. "First off, Linay how come you haven't contacted any of us in the past three weeks just to tell us that you were fine." Mia said. Linay hesitated for a moment. "I had left to be by myself for a little while above ground there was this beach Vance told me about off the eastern coast of the Northern American Continent" Linay said. "There was far too much for me to think about for me to find time to call any of you." She said as sincerely as she could. Mia actually believed Linay for the time being; it wasn't beneath Linay to go off somewhere sometimes and not tell anybody. "Ok, Linay even though that is your nature, please don't do that again we thought you might have committed suicide or something." Mia said. "Don't forget like Vance always said we're all a family and we should act as such, Got that. Now is there anything else you need to tell me Linay?" Mia said politely.
"No there isn't, except thanks for sending old Boy scout to tell me about this briefing." Linay answered. Mia folded her arms while she was sitting down her pure relief although she could not believe that absolutely nothing was wrong with her but she was relived to see her friend alive and at least physically well.
"Ok. now with that out of the way, I have an announcement to make." Mia said. Kounji stood eager waiting for what she had to say while Linay just paid attention. "Mia stood up and cleared her throat. "As of today Kounji Takagi has been promoted to the rank of Lt. Commander as well as appointed the position of Demon Squadron Executive Officer." Kounji's eyes widened in shock from what he just heard. "Me, why me?" Kounji said. Mia slanted her eyes and hardened her face. "Well Kounji I think you have enough experience and also the right attitude to handle the task of XO" Mia said folding her arms once again. "Wow, I'm surprised you think that highly of me". Kounji said. Mia could hear a grumble come out of Linay's mouth behind Kounji. "Yes, you dummy" Mia thought but wanted to say. "I also thought you could actually learn something from having some type of authority." Mia said. Excited, Kounji finally settled down a bit. Mia laughed within herself at the impact she had on him.
"Ok I'm happy about Kounji getting a promotion but can I go get something eat. I spotted food just sitting there on the way in plus I need to go and tell everyone now before I explode from all this formal crap." Linay asked springing up and down. "Go on ahead Linay." Mia said. "Thank you, see you two later I'm sure you got command stuff to talk about" Linay said before opening the door and leaving the office. Kounji walked over and shut the old run down door. "Ok now Kounji I want an...."Mia began to say.
"I apologize for how screwed up I was earlier to you Mia you know how you can just get mad over something and do irrational things." Kounji explained sincerely.
"Yeah I know how mad you can get over something and do irrational things."
"Hey you must have acted irrationally at sometime."
Mia immediately thought back to her college days and parties and other types of young unruly behavior but she chose to keep those things private. "I might of at sometime Kounji but we're in the professional world now Kounji, things like that outburst you had earlier won't cut it." Mia continued.
"Understood, I'll be more careful from now on." Kounji said smiling sheepishly.
"Good boy" Mia giggled.
Mia crouched down and pushed out a box from underneath her desk that had a bunch of papers in them. She lifted her head from the crouched position she was in and saw Kounji's face turn from one of calmness to one of regret. "Guess what you get to help me with, Kounji" Mia said smiling. "If it has something to with reading and writing I want out." Kounji said. "As your first official act as my XO you get help me fill out each and everyone of these forms. Isn't that great Kounji?" Mia said reminiscent to a holo shopping network host. As Mia handed him the first paper, Kounji sighed and took it in his hands unwillingly. "Wow, where's my pen?" he said passively. Mia laughed at the dullness in Kounji's voice. "Don't worry about it you have little ol me to help you fill them out, if you don't understand something just hand it to me." Mia said.
The two commanders worked in to the night has minutes upon hours went by. The two chatted their way through signing most of the papers aware but not caring that most of the personnel had left the warehouse to turn in for the night. It was about 2:30am in the morning and the two had begun to get a little bit on the restless side. Kounji had volunteered to make some coffee while Mia decided to stay in her office. She found the hours that they spend together sorting through papers and talking with Kounji to be very enjoyable. As a result, the heat that burned for him burned even brighter that night. She knew that blood had rushed to her face reddening it once again just thinking about him and the fact that he was gone gave her a chance to reflect. Geez, I wonder if he feels the same way about me. That would be great if he did but he doesn't really act like it but then again I hide my feelings from him a bunch too what if he's doing the same, damn it.
She finished signing a document off about the Kensei Corporation Military Operational Code of Conduct and placed the paper into a file that her and Kounji started. Mia heard Kounji's footsteps coming back towards the door and continued going about her work. A few seconds later Kounji pushed open the door with two cups of hot French vanilla coffee in his hands. The smell of the coffee at this time at night was very ambrosial and appeasing. "Ok I'm back." Kounji said has he set the coffee down on the floor. "I got French vanilla, because it was all I could find in the briefing room area." Kounji said. "No that's ok, I actually like the taste of French Vanilla as long as it doesn't have too much sugar." Mia took a sip of the coffee. She felt like she was going to become hypoglycemic from the taste of sugar that danced in her mouth. The warmth of the liquid made it quickly down her throat much to her displeasement yet she didn't care it was late and not a time to be particularly picky. "What time is right now Mia?" Kounji said yawning. "It's 2:30am GST" She replied.
"When are we going to call it a night Mia" Kounji said.
"I say about three o' clock would be a good estimate I have to meet with some Kensei Transportation people tomorrow to talk about moving our AC's to the Chrome HQ." Mia said while she reading another document. " That must be fun, I'm probably going to work on the Tiger tomorrow afternoon with Allie." Kounji said. Mia found and the opening to seize an opportunity she could try to ask Kounji out for a night on the town but would he take the bait. That thought lingered in her mind has she looked at another document. Would he even be interested in going out on date and if so should I call it a date and also how should I bring it up?. After a second of lingering, she went for it. "You know Kounji filling out all these papers with you was actually kind of fun. "Mia said.
"Yeah I agree it was fun although I'm probably going to feel like crap in the morning.." Kounji said. He smiled then shifted his legs from the Indian style he was in, to just laying them out flat on the carpet.
"Hey Kounji you wouldn't happen to be doing anything this Saturday would you?" Mia asked bluntly.
"Not much I was thinking about hanging out with Kai earlier in the day because we haven't talked in awhile, why do you ask?" Kounji asked.
Mia's heart suddenly dropped with jealousy but she went through with what she had in mind. "I thought maybe we could go to this nice Italian Restaurant downtown on Saturday night maybe eat and talk a bit more." Mia said. She desperately didn't want Kounji to reject her offer and tried to display that way by having a sly look on her face in almost the same manner Amaro had done to her earlier.
"Sure I don't see why that wouldn't be a good idea we really haven't talked that much." Kounji said. "Yeah I know that's great! We could call it a date" she said excitedly. Yes, I finally got him to go out with me but is he going with me just on a friendly date or on a romantic one. She noticed Kounji blushing a little bit but didn't press him. She knew much too well about his shy personality.
The two went back to the work they had once started for the next half an hour. As soon has 3:00 came around the two parted after saying their goodbyes. As Mia made her way outside Warehouse she felt has if she was missing something. After checking her purse and her workbag, she was still stumped. She had every thing her makeup, her pads... her keys. Then it hit her like a shot from the highly accurate WA-RF/E anti mech rifle. She didn't have a car." How could I have forgotten to get a ride home with Kounji? "She said out loud. Unable to do anything about it she moved swiftly towards the personnel elevator, which wasn't too far from the vehicle elevator.
About halfway there she heard the sound of a car coming up behind her slowly. Mia glanced over her left shoulder. Immediately she recognized the familiar blue Nikoni. Thank god. She ran towards the car along the left side and matched eyes with Kounji who unlocked the passenger door. She opened the door anxiously and got in. "Hey you didn't think I was just going to leave you here,eh?" Kounji said. "No, not really you're my XO it doesn't say much about you to the others if you left me here to walk home." Mia said. She shut the door and the shoulder strap automatically pulled across her chest and locked. "I suppose you have a point but then again it doesn't say much for the highest paid demon to not even have a used car." Kounji said. He drove the car over the vehicle elevator. "Hey it's still an unofficial promotion, jackass." Mia said waving her finger at Kounji. At the click of a button, the elevator began its ascent.