A breeze blowing in from the sea carried fresh air – fresh, clean air that cleared Hachiko's lungs with every breath and stirred up the smells of the Golden Hind Café.

"Smells much nicer, doesn't it?" Honah said.

Hachiko nodded. "It is nice to know that the magic smells of cafés is the same here as it is at home."

Honah sighed and leaned back in her seat, taking a sip of freshly brewed tea. "It's not home, but I guess Terra is okay."

"I've come to like the wind," Hachiko agreed. "It is something I will miss."

The Golden Hind was a café on the southern edge of Sapurro. Despite Honah's misgivings about entering the city, there were so many personnel from the base about that the non-octoling species hardly mattered, and Honah's mood was probably the best it had been since they arrived on Terra.

Crabs and jellies were the most prominent species of the non-octolings. They both came in a variety of sizes, colours, and shapes that Hachiko found fascinating. The city's brick architecture was also very unlike many of the structures built in the colonies, which were usually made of metal and asteroid waste material, and they were often brightly coloured, a trait actually from their former inkling rulers who liked to paint large buildings in a variety of patterns and colours. Despite the frivolity of it, Hachiko found herself liking many of the designs she saw.

The clocktower had been painted to look like a snow capped mountain, the building directly across from the café had a waving band of green between two bands of different shades of blue, creating the illusion of sea, land, and sky.

"I heard you might get another medal," Honah said suddenly.

Hachiko frowned, her thoughts on the local art disrupted. "For what?"

"For taking on those four freak tanks, of course."

She protested. "It wasn't by myself. You were there."

"Busy keeping the little tanks off of you. You went in there, with a damaged mobile suit and took out those four monsters by yourself with nothing but a couple grenades and a heat hawk. That's real skill."

"It was a lot of luck and circumstance that made it possible, and even then I just barely survived and my Zaku is out of commission for at least another few days."

"It was skill," Honah said firmly, holding Hachko's gaze. "Consider how little experience we have in ground combat, how little you knew about this new machines, but you still pulled off something like that." She grinned proudly. "You're an asset to this war, Hachiko."

Hachiko smiled politely but she really didn't see what was so remarkable. What she'd done had been an act of desperation, nothing more. She was just fortunate it worked out for the best.

The noise of a few trucks filled the street and Honah's pleasant face morphed into an ugly scowl. Frowning, Hachiko turned her head and saw a trio of trucks pass by, laden with Federation prisoners of war, looking despondent, anxious, and tired as the trucks trundled slowly through the city, many of the Octarians sneering and heckling them as they passed.

Honah turned away, focusing on her tea. Hachiko thought it best to not say anything about it. Hopefully, in a minute or two, the mood would become pleasant again.

"Mind if I join you?"

The two pilots half turned in their seats to see who had spoken to them then immediately rose to their feet. An Octarian female in a colourful, loosely fastened shirt and skirt stood a short distance away, her sunglasses and hat tucked under her arm. Despite her casual dress, they recognized her immediately.

"Commander Sheerwind!"

She waved them back down. "Please, none of that. I'm not even in uniform."

She grabbed a chair and sat with them, flagging down the sea slug waitress and ordering a coffee.

Commander Kalisha Sheerwind was known as "Kalisha The Lioness", a name she earned for her skill in hunting Federation tanks in the jungle, and being skilled at hiding her mobile suit among the massive trees further south for ambushes. She was infamous using a customized Zaku fitted with large claws to improve it's melee combat.

"What brings you to town, Commander?" Honah asked anxiously.

"Taking a break, mostly. My new machine's a prototype so it tends to need attention more than most."

Hachiko perked up with interest. "A prototype?'

Kalisha smirked. "That's right. I've been helping to develop a new mobile suit model for Terran and Lunar combat, with the possibility it may be used in colonies, depending on how the brass feels. They still haven't decided on whether or not they want to go into full production. Ah, but perhaps I've said too much."

Hachiko had to admit she did think The Lioness was being a bit careless telling them all this in a public setting. Honah, despite her earlier wariness about spies, appeared less concerned about that.

"Is it a new type of Zaku or have they finally made a whole new model?"

"Oh it's all new, mostly. True, the one I and my unit have been field testing feels more like an upgraded Zaku, but I'm told the production model will be very different. That's all I can say for now. What do you two fly?"

"Zaku II K", Honah said proudly. "I do like it's ground performance but I have been struggling to make the cannon work."

"Zaku II F," Hachiko said simply. "I'm afraid there is nothing fancy about it."

"A weapon that works is better than anything fancy," Kalisha said sagely as her coffee arrived. "That's a lesson the Federation has had to learn the very, very, hard way. Debatable if they've learned that or not."

She took a sip and sighed. "They do make it how I like it here. One of the reasons I keep coming. I see you two with the one-twenty-eighth."

Hachiko and Honah were both surprised. "Y-yes."

She laughed. "No need to be so anxious. I believe I heard of you two." She bent a finger in Hachiko's direction. "I've particularly heard of your exploit, jumping into the middle of those new mass production tank, mobile suit hybrids and taking them all our yourself. As a close combat specialist, I applaud you."

Hachiko's cheeks burned. "Why does everyone keep telling me it was amazing? I wasn't trying to be amazing, I was trying to survive. I was desperate."

"And that's a good thing. If you'd done that just because you thought you could get away with it, nobody would be giving you any compliments. I've seen plenty of mobile suit pilots underestimate the Feddies and end up going home in a bag. According to the book, what you should have done in that situation was retreat and avoid the issue altogether."

Hachiko shook her head. "Honah was pinned down. I couldn't just leave her, not when I thought I could do something. If it hadn't been for those… hybrids, I think we would have been fine."

Honah huffed. "If our own forces hadn't retreated in the face of the enemy and allowed them to charge down the hill it never would have been an issue in the first place."

Kalisha took a long, drawn out sip of her coffee and stared down into her cup. "Even I have to fall back now and again. The enemy knows who I am and they respect me as an opponent. They even go out of their way to try and bring me down, and I've encountered more than a few clever tank crews and infantry that very nearly brought me low. Sometimes, in order to move forward, you have to step back and get your bearings to keep yourself from being overwhelmed, and you can only move forward if you're still alive and I haven't stayed alive by allowing myself to be overconfident."

"I wasn't overconfident," Honah insisted. "The Federation's counter attack fell apart after hardly any time at all, and they were stupid to come and face us with those hybrids when they had no close combat abilities of their own. The fell for an easy trick."

Kalisha regarded her, levelly. "Not all Feddies fall for such 'easy tricks', Ensign. I know things seem fairly easy in space, but down here it's different. The Federation is an enemy you either respect or die from."

Honah made a disgusted face, her tentacles twisting and curling with revulsion at the very idea. "Inklings are all scum. They'll never be more than that. Octarians should never be willing to retreat in the face of scum like them, much less surrender to the likes of them."

Bearing her beak Honah looked away. "I need to use the warshroom. Please excuse me."

She got up and headed into the café, and Hachiko watched her go worriedly. Just when she thought Honah was in a good mood, it all had to come down again.

"What's her story?" Kalisha asked. "She seems to have an higher than normal level of hatred."

Hachiko sighed, deciding to give the commander a decent explanation, for Honah's sake. "She wasn't always that way. She was actually a very sweet and gentle girl, but ever since she lost her parents in the Mackdall incident, she has hated inklings, and it's only gotten worse since we joined the military."

"I see." Kalisha stared into her coffee again as if contemplating something, running her finger around the edge of the cup. "Is she the one who fired on those Federation lifeboats?"

Hachiko's eyes widened. "What? How did you know about that?"

Kalisha smiled bitterly. "Word gets around among senior officers, especially about incidents like that. Subordinates with that kind of behaviour are never pleasant to deal with and they tend to cause a lot of problems.

"Popping lifeboats, shooting down ejected pilots as they parachute; things like that will not discourage the inklings, it'll only strengthen their resolve and cause them to treat us in kind. That's not something we want. Prisoner exchanges happen all the time down here and nobody wants to compromise those."

Hachiko stared down at her lap, wringing her hands nervously. "I know that, mostly. She's been told off though and she hadn't done anything like it since."

Kalisha pointed her finger at her, a hard look in her eyes. "That doesn't mean she's learned her lesson. If she starts committing war crimes in front of the enemy, they'll identify her. Just like how we have nicknames for some of them, they do the same for us and they keep track of us as best they can. If they identify your friend as a war criminal, they'll focus on killing her and they'll be highly motivated to do so.

"From what I've heard of her and from what I've seen here today, I honestly think she's going to get herself killed, and you along with her if you're not careful."

Hachiko's frown deepened and her hands clenched. Was something being asked of her? She couldn't shake the feeling that Kalisha was trying to tell her something and have her read between the lines.

"Honah… Honah is my friend and my squadron mate. I can't abandon her."

Kalisha hummed and stared up at the sky. Clouds were staring to roll in, obscuring the bright sun.

"Your loyalty is admirable but, I think, entirely one-sided. Your 'friend' might actually end up becoming a greater enemy to you than the inklings."

Hachiko stared at her in utter disbelief, shocked that she had heard such a thing, especially from a superior officer.

"What?"

Kalisha set down her coffee and, leaving some cash, stood up. "Thanks for the company, Ensign. I hope to see you again in the future." She replaced her hat and sunglasses, then whispered to her, "remember what I said."

Hachiko watched her go, her mind a mess of conflicting emotions and thoughts.

Honah an enemy? The idea was ludicrous, a nightmare. She couldn't understand what would prompt her to say such a thing. She made it sound as if her own survival and Honah's were mutually exclusive.

Honah herself returned a few moments later, looking a little more upbeat. "Where's the Commander?"

"Huh… oh, she had to leave."

Honah frowned at her. "Are you okay?"

"Y-yes, just tired." She stood up, wiping her hands on her shorts. "We should get back to base anyway. Our pass will be up soon and I need to check on my Zaku."

Honah gave her an odd look but nodded in agreement. "Alright. Let's pay and get out of here. I think I've had all I can take of this town for one day anyway."

Hachiko agreed.

Author's Notes:

Those who have gone to foreign countries can probably imagine how strange it feels to be among a different people. Imagine how magnified that feeling would be if it were an entirely different species. Well, frankly, it probably would only feel slightly magnified, to be honest, but I'm sure you can imagine this.

Kalisha is one of my favourite characters in this story. I really got the sense that, if not for the war, she'd be living a very different life. And a character like her tends to pop up in a lot of Gundam stories, like Ramba Ral or Andrew Waltfeldt.

You won't have to wait long to find out what happens next with Sahna either. Because this chapter's so short, I'm also uploading Chapter 11 today too. I'm sure you'll enjoy that chapter too.