A/N: READ AND REVIEW! OR ELSE!
Oh, yeah. I don't own Mobile Suit Gundam, the characters within any iteration of it, etc etc etc. If I did, I sure as hell wouldn't be using subsidized student loans to pay my $16,000-a-year tuition.
A/N: A line of * means a break in time or location. Just a heads-up, as I've had to tinker with the formatting to make up for the crappiness of the Document Upload program on FFN, which somehow toys around with any and all paragraph formatting of MS Word.
Chapter Two: Preparations for Rebellion
"OK, so what do we do now?" Eledore asked, turning his head to Karen as they walked out of the makeshift infirmary in the VBDF hangar. They had listened as Midori had explained about the AEUG friends she had, but the only "plan" they had was the basic idea of defection, nothing more.
Karen looked over to him as she shut the door, wincing slightly at the pressure put on her multiple broken ribs. With any luck, the painkillers would be setting in any time now. Midori said she'd be OK, even though Karen insisted that she come and stay with the two.
Midori simply shook her head and pointed to a nearby gun storage rack, a face devoid of emotion but eyes ablaze with sadness. "I'll be fine for now."
"I'm not too sure," she replied meekly. "Sounds like Midori's AEUG buddies could ship out a few mobile suits along with us, though."
Midori's AEUG resources consisted of AEUG-sympathetic freighter pilots who shipped out the post-reclamation solid waste remains from Von Braun City. They themselves weren't "active" AEUG soldiers, but they knew who was.
"Yeah, but we'd have to take them apart, first," Eledore replied as they made their way to the jeep outside. "I've seen those freighters. Their cargo holds are big, but an assembled mobile suit would be too easy to see if a Titan inspection crew came by."
Karen nodded as she got into the passenger side. "Yeah, I guess so. Even though those Titans bastards are too stuck-up to actually do a halfway- decent inspection of solid waste containers, even something as big as a mobile suit would show up to them."
"Yeah, I suppose so," Eledore replied as they drove off home.
***********************************************************
"OK, people, let's get this thing disassembled as quickly as possible, here!" Karen shouted to the techs surrounding the old RGM-79G Command-type GM. "I want this thing in pieces by lunchtime!"
She may have been suffering from her broken ribs and other injuries for the past week, but that wasn't going to stop her from doing everything in her power to do something.
I've got to do this to the best of my ability. For Midori.
The attractive female tech still seemed very distant, but she was improving. Karen really wasn't afraid Midori would commit suicide or anything drastic like that. Despite being one of the sweetest, most soft- spoken people Karen knew, she knew full well that, if provoked in certain ways, Midori had the potential of being more frightening than anything Hell could spawn.
Won't forget the time those techs thought it'd be funny to program half the mobile suit operating systems into saying, "Tech-babe Midori's a fine piece of ass," on startup. She made sure to let them know NOT to do it again.
Karen had witnessed Midori's plotting of revenge against those techs. Her approach was extremely methodical and precise, making sure there were no mistakes in her plan. Of course the plan of revenge, through a combination of blackmail, extortion, thousands of tiny little taunts and jibes everywhere they went, and the cheery face she kept the whole time, worked flawlessly. That wasn't what had slightly scared Karen about it all.
It was the fact that nothing, absolutely nothing was in any way, shape, or form traceable back to Midori, while at the same time it seemed obvious that it was her (to those techs, anyway; anyone else was incapable of believing that Midori was the mastermind behind it all). It was as though Midori had somehow, through some series of events in her life she had never mentioned before, absolutely and utterly perfected the art of revenge.
After three weeks of her revenge, the techs profusely apologized, promising they would never, ever do anything like that to her. She had accepted their apology, but under one condition: they not only never did it to her again, but to promise they'd never do anything sexist like that again to anyone. Of course they had agreed. She had threatened them with more of her kinds of revenge if they didn't comply.
The sweet, innocent Midori could be utterly terrifying at times.
Of course, that was all in fun. It wasn't nearly as serious as rebelling against the established military branch of the world-unifying governmental body.
"Chief? Chief Joshua, you still there?" one tech asked, waving his arm and clipboard in front of her gaze.
Snapping out of her thoughts, she shook her head. "Sorry, you were saying?"
"Chief, why is it that we're taking apart these MS? Seems like it kind of defeats the purpose for a military group to take apart their most effective tools."
"I know what you mean, but with the Titans controlling the city the way they are, there's really no point in having thirty MS around when they're not going to get used," she replied as they started walking towards another mobile suit being dismantled, this one a blue RX-77D Mass-Production Guncannon. "Anyway, it'd be easier to maintain them like this. Since they're not going to be seeing any action for a while, we won't have to worry about putting them back together on the fly."
"Oh, um, OK, Chief," the tech replied, seemingly satisfied with her answer as he went over to check on how the dismantling of the upper torso area of the Guncannon was going.
Karen sighed as soon as he was out of vocal range. It wasn't a lie, really, but it wasn't the truth, either.
She was still having a hard time stomaching the idea that she'd have to abandon all these people. The people who had put their faith in her, their lives in her hands. She had been elected as chief by them, so she naturally felt bad whenever she had to be dishonest with them.
Just like when I had to watch the Commander for Captain Ryer. I had to deceive him, too, even though he invested a lot of unfounded trust in me.
Being the honest person she was, with the attitude of "don't beat around the bush", deception was something she neither enjoyed or excelled at. But if I don't deceive everyone, there'll sure to be trouble. The deadliest kind of trouble, knowing the Titans.
Snapping out of her self-imposed thought coma again, Karen ran her hand through her red mane of hair and walked across the hangar to where a halfway-dismantled RGM-79R GM II and a yet-to-be-tackled RGC-80 GM Cannon were being worked on.
***********************************************************
He was stuck in traffic. Again.
"Ah, shit." This just ain't my day, Frank thought as he scratched at the three-day stubble on his chin. He put the extremely-sizable freight truck in park and waited for traffic to clear. From the height of the cab on his truck, he could see the accident that had halted traffic. We ain't goin' anywhere for a while. What a day.
First of all, fuel prices had gone up quite a bit since the Titans had taken over Von Braun. Driving a vehicle as massive as his truck meant that would affect his pocketbook far more than the average driver. Then, Frank had gone home to find all his stuff on the lawn, with an eviction notice posted to the door of his apartment. That wasn't so bad, since he hated living there anyway. It was smaller than a college dorm, with far more less-civilized people around him. Stashing his stuff with one of his numerous cousins had somewhat solved that problem. No, all that wasn't as bad as the news he'd received earlier that day.
Midori finally wanted to defect to the AEUG, and she was bringing friends. Normally, that would be great news. Frank really thought that Midori's talents were wasted with the VBDF. No, that wasn't the problem he had.
They wanted to defect less than two weeks after the Titans had taken over Von Braun. Not only that, but they also wanted to haul out five dismantled mobile suits to take with them.
No one ever thought about how they'd pull it off. They just assumed that stashing it amongst his cargo of solid waste would work all fine and dandy. Nevermind the fact that Titans were notorious for their less-than-civil treatment of opposing forces. Nevermind the fact that he'd already pissed off several of the Titans who were in charge of inspecting his cargo when he was hauling it outbound, which meant that they'd be even worse than usual in terms of their inspections. Nevermind the fact that he, a former Titan himself who had abandoned his post after the Thirty-Bunch Incident, was known to quite a few of the Titans officials stationed at Von Braun, meaning that they would especially be on the lookout for him.
Frank sighed to himself again, smiling inwardly. Damn kids.
***********************************************************
"He's late," Eledore stated, kicking a pop can across the alley behind the hangar. He was none-too-happy about waiting, especially in 40-degree- Farenheight muggy weather at 3 AM.
Midori walked slowly up to him from behind. "He'll be here," she replied in her soft-spoken voice.
"He better. We're really risking our necks right now. You know what'll happen if some bored Titans patrol comes by and starts sticking their high- and-mighty noses in these crates?" he said, pointing behind them to the large, air-tight crates that were filled with parts from three of the five mobile suits they were planning on shipping out.
Midori refrained from answering. She knew full well what happened when someone angered Titans. She knew all too well.
Finally, after an hour of waiting, a pair of dimmed headlights made their way down the alley. The gigantic truck loomed to a halt after positioning itself with its cargo hatch facing the crates.
The driver hauled his considerable bulk out of the vehicle. It was obvious that this man was born for some kind of manual labor. He just had an aura of unspectacularness about him. Excessive stubble, thinned black hair that covered only a fraction of the top of his head, a worn-out plaid jacket over a once-white tank top, and worn-out jeans made the man look truly suited to his job of a solid-waste transporter.
"Hey, you guys ready to get this stuff outta here?" he asked in a very gruff voice.
"Quick to the point, ain't ya?" Eledore said under his breath. As unhappy as he was, though, he was relieved that they'd finally be getting underway. Turning to the five VBDF techs and pilots who were defecting along with them, he waved to the crates. "All right, guys, time to load up."
The three techs each took their motorized sled and drove them up into the cargo hold. The crates, after being unloaded, fit just fine. After the waste was dumped into the cargo hold, the crates would be completely unnoticeable. Any Titans inspection crews would have to dig through a minimum of two meters of solid human waste before hitting the airtight crates. A messy job, no matter how you did it.
After all the loading was done with, the driver and Midori walked over to the driver's side door alone.
Huh. Wonder what they're talking about. Eledore wondered.
***********************************************************
"You really sure 'bout this, Midori-chan?" Frank asked. He'd known Midori since she was a child. Frank was basically an unofficial uncle of hers, a friend of the family for many years. Although he was a basic laborer, he still went out of his way to do many things for her family. "If you get caught with all this stuff, you'll get a hell of a lot worse than your usual fine and jail time."
"I know, but I have to do something to them," she replied, her voice conveying only resolve. She hadn't told him what had happened, how she had been raped by those Titans bastards.
That's information that he really doesn't need to know, she thought.
Seeing the look in her eyes, and the absolute conviction in her voice, Frank decided to stop his questioning of her decision. "All right, kid," he replied, his voice soft and understanding as he put his hand on her shoulder. "Just know that I'll help in any way I can."
"Thank you," she replied, smiling slightly. She knew full well he was willing to do most anything for her family. Her father had saved his life during the One-Year War, so Frank had pledged his life to do what he could to repay the debt.
"Don't worry 'bout it, kid. I'm more than happy to be helpin' you fight for the good guys," he said to her, his face showing a great amount of pride as he hugged her.
Eledore approached the two from the back of the truck. "Loading's all done. We'll ship the rest out next week, same time."
Frank nodded to the long-haired musician as he let go of Midori. "Gotcha."
Eledore turned to face the massive truck. "Just be sure to have this thing ready to take on a crate of people, too. We'll be getting out of here, too."
"No problem. She'll be ready for ya." Frank turned and hauled himself up into the driver's seat. "See you next week, then," he said, waving good- bye.
"Thanks again for all your help," Eledore said, smiling to the man. He could appreciate someone who really stuck their neck out for what they believed to be right, and if someone was sticking their neck out when they didn't have to at that time, it was Frank.
"Hey, I told you earlier not to worry 'bout it. I'll manage," he casually replied, as though this sort of thing were routine for him. His gaze turned soft as he looked over to the young female tech. "Bye, Midori. I'll be waitin' for ya next week."
"Take care, Frank," she replied. Eledore was slightly surprised to find that her voice was finally showing emotion again. This time, it was full of loving and caring. Of hope that a close friend or family member would be OK.
Frank gave a cocky half-grin as he pulled the truck out of the alley and started off down the road.
Midori watched the truck's tail lights until they were no longer visible. Her face was etched with worry. Seeing this, Eledore put a reassuring hand on her shoulder.
"He'll be fine, Midori. I'm sure he knows what he's doing," he said, looking down at her.
A small smile found its way on her lips.
I hope so.
***********************************************************
"So, what's the story with this Frank guy, anyway?" Karen asked as she and Midori sat down for lunch the next day. "He an old boyfriend or something?"
Midori smiled. "No, a close friend of the family. He and my father served together in the One-Year War." With a crack, she opened up her can of pop, the kind that was mostly caffeine and sugar and only slightly anything else (A/N: the kind this fic was written on!). "They were both GM pilots in the last few space battles fought. That's how I first started to know how mobile suits worked and such. I was only fifteen at the time, but it still interested me. Anywho, Frank and my father fought together at Solomon, where my father died."
Karen winced. The Battle of Solomon had been a victory for the Federation, sure, but it had cost the lives of many, many mobile suit pilots and ship crews. GMs were especially known for their overall turnover rate.
"Frank was in a GM that was about to get destroyed by that mobile armor the Zeon deployed, the Big Zam, but my dad shoved his mobile suit out of the way with his. He took most of the force of the attack. His suit blew, and Frank's was slightly damaged." Midori's bright blue eyes showed a slight pain, but didn't show any signs of tears. This was something she'd gotten over a long time ago, but still pained her slightly, as any traumatic event would.
"After that, Frank basically made a life-debt pledge to my family." Her face brightened somewhat. "He certainly doesn't look it, but he's one of the most honorable and trustworthy people I've ever known. He even helped me through high school and most of the way through tech school after my mother was killed in a car accident."
Karen took all this in, but was soon confused about one point. "He helped you through high school and tech school? He must make more money off that freight business than his appearance lets on." she said, biting into her sandwich after verbally finishing her thought.
Midori shook her head. "No, he worked for Anaheim Electronics after the war, as a mobile suit test pilot. Made a lot of money, too. That's how he helped out. But after that colony accident thing in 0083, Anaheim cancelled a few of their projects, or something like that, which meant that he got laid off with a hundred or so techs and researchers."
Karen grunted and nodded. She remembered the news about some accident that had caused two colonies that were being moved to veer off course, one smashing into Kansas on Earth. Something about the structural integrity of one of the mirrors on each colony giving way, causing them to break off, which in turn caused the two colonies to smack into each other. The impact, according to the news, was at just enough of an angle and had just enough force to make it slingshot around the moon on its own and hit Earth. That's what happens when you clumsily move multi-million-ton pieces of equipment, I guess.
"Well, after that, he took out a few loans from a small-time bank on the 30- Bunch Colony and bought the freighter he's been using for his own hauling business. When the colony got gassed, the entire bank staff and everyone associated with it were killed, and all the paperwork on his loans hadn't been completely processed, so he was basically freed of his debts for the freighter."
"That helped."
She smiled a little, but soon turned grim. "Yeah, but his other debts still haunt him. Even now, there's debt collectors just waiting for him to mess up even a little bit, so they can take that freighter away from him to pay the debts he owes."
"Oh," Karen replied, not completely surprised, but still a little shocked. Guess that makes sense. Even in uneasy times like these, I guess some people still live their lives mostly unaffected by the problems of war, and usually they're the ones who know who owes who money.
"I just hope we don't end up messing everything up for him. His luck is bad enough as it is," Midori said, sighing to herself and sweatdropping slightly.
Karen smiled. This was the Midori she knew. She was glad that Midori wasn't letting her bad experiences get the best of her. Moving on was the last stage of coping, and she was glad to finally see it show itself.
"I'm sure he'll be fine. He seems very competent from what you've told me," she offered.
"Yeah, I'm sure he'll be fine. After all, if he can survive the One-Year War in a GM, he should be able to survive just about anything, right?" Midori replied, smiling wryly and laughing a bit.
Karen smiled. Yep, this is definitely the Midori we all know and love.
"Yeah, I guess you're right," she replied, joining in the hearty laugh.
She made sure to enjoy the rest of the day. In a week, these kinds of good times would be gone.
Possibly forever.
***********************************************************
TO BE CONTINUED.
A/N: Yeah, I know this one was shorter, but it's 4 AM. Give me a break, my creative juices are running out for today (as is the obscene amount of caffeine I've had thus far tonight/this morning). Also keep in mind that this is what I consider to be a "fluff" chapter, meaning that a whole lot of superfluous stuff is going on. Consider it a "filler" episode of this quasi-OAV.
I'm aware that the formatting of this chapter blows. Believe me, I've done what I can to fix it, but there's only so much I can do. If you've got a beef with that, tell the people who coded the document upload thing on FFN, not me. It ain't my fault their code messes around with the formatting of the fics.
A lot of people, I'm sure, will say, "Hey, 'Frank' is a name that really doesn't sound all that Gundam-ish or Japanese. What's the deal?" Sorry, people, but you can't tell me that there aren't people named Frank in that time period. Besides, "Frank" is the perfect name for your average general laborer (no offense to any Franks out there). If I gave him some Gundam- ish or Japanese name, he'd sound a lot more important to the storyline than he really is. Minor character=unspectacular. Hey, at least I didn't make him into another Kai!
Oh, yeah. I don't own Mobile Suit Gundam, the characters within any iteration of it, etc etc etc. If I did, I sure as hell wouldn't be using subsidized student loans to pay my $16,000-a-year tuition.
A/N: A line of * means a break in time or location. Just a heads-up, as I've had to tinker with the formatting to make up for the crappiness of the Document Upload program on FFN, which somehow toys around with any and all paragraph formatting of MS Word.
Chapter Two: Preparations for Rebellion
"OK, so what do we do now?" Eledore asked, turning his head to Karen as they walked out of the makeshift infirmary in the VBDF hangar. They had listened as Midori had explained about the AEUG friends she had, but the only "plan" they had was the basic idea of defection, nothing more.
Karen looked over to him as she shut the door, wincing slightly at the pressure put on her multiple broken ribs. With any luck, the painkillers would be setting in any time now. Midori said she'd be OK, even though Karen insisted that she come and stay with the two.
Midori simply shook her head and pointed to a nearby gun storage rack, a face devoid of emotion but eyes ablaze with sadness. "I'll be fine for now."
"I'm not too sure," she replied meekly. "Sounds like Midori's AEUG buddies could ship out a few mobile suits along with us, though."
Midori's AEUG resources consisted of AEUG-sympathetic freighter pilots who shipped out the post-reclamation solid waste remains from Von Braun City. They themselves weren't "active" AEUG soldiers, but they knew who was.
"Yeah, but we'd have to take them apart, first," Eledore replied as they made their way to the jeep outside. "I've seen those freighters. Their cargo holds are big, but an assembled mobile suit would be too easy to see if a Titan inspection crew came by."
Karen nodded as she got into the passenger side. "Yeah, I guess so. Even though those Titans bastards are too stuck-up to actually do a halfway- decent inspection of solid waste containers, even something as big as a mobile suit would show up to them."
"Yeah, I suppose so," Eledore replied as they drove off home.
***********************************************************
"OK, people, let's get this thing disassembled as quickly as possible, here!" Karen shouted to the techs surrounding the old RGM-79G Command-type GM. "I want this thing in pieces by lunchtime!"
She may have been suffering from her broken ribs and other injuries for the past week, but that wasn't going to stop her from doing everything in her power to do something.
I've got to do this to the best of my ability. For Midori.
The attractive female tech still seemed very distant, but she was improving. Karen really wasn't afraid Midori would commit suicide or anything drastic like that. Despite being one of the sweetest, most soft- spoken people Karen knew, she knew full well that, if provoked in certain ways, Midori had the potential of being more frightening than anything Hell could spawn.
Won't forget the time those techs thought it'd be funny to program half the mobile suit operating systems into saying, "Tech-babe Midori's a fine piece of ass," on startup. She made sure to let them know NOT to do it again.
Karen had witnessed Midori's plotting of revenge against those techs. Her approach was extremely methodical and precise, making sure there were no mistakes in her plan. Of course the plan of revenge, through a combination of blackmail, extortion, thousands of tiny little taunts and jibes everywhere they went, and the cheery face she kept the whole time, worked flawlessly. That wasn't what had slightly scared Karen about it all.
It was the fact that nothing, absolutely nothing was in any way, shape, or form traceable back to Midori, while at the same time it seemed obvious that it was her (to those techs, anyway; anyone else was incapable of believing that Midori was the mastermind behind it all). It was as though Midori had somehow, through some series of events in her life she had never mentioned before, absolutely and utterly perfected the art of revenge.
After three weeks of her revenge, the techs profusely apologized, promising they would never, ever do anything like that to her. She had accepted their apology, but under one condition: they not only never did it to her again, but to promise they'd never do anything sexist like that again to anyone. Of course they had agreed. She had threatened them with more of her kinds of revenge if they didn't comply.
The sweet, innocent Midori could be utterly terrifying at times.
Of course, that was all in fun. It wasn't nearly as serious as rebelling against the established military branch of the world-unifying governmental body.
"Chief? Chief Joshua, you still there?" one tech asked, waving his arm and clipboard in front of her gaze.
Snapping out of her thoughts, she shook her head. "Sorry, you were saying?"
"Chief, why is it that we're taking apart these MS? Seems like it kind of defeats the purpose for a military group to take apart their most effective tools."
"I know what you mean, but with the Titans controlling the city the way they are, there's really no point in having thirty MS around when they're not going to get used," she replied as they started walking towards another mobile suit being dismantled, this one a blue RX-77D Mass-Production Guncannon. "Anyway, it'd be easier to maintain them like this. Since they're not going to be seeing any action for a while, we won't have to worry about putting them back together on the fly."
"Oh, um, OK, Chief," the tech replied, seemingly satisfied with her answer as he went over to check on how the dismantling of the upper torso area of the Guncannon was going.
Karen sighed as soon as he was out of vocal range. It wasn't a lie, really, but it wasn't the truth, either.
She was still having a hard time stomaching the idea that she'd have to abandon all these people. The people who had put their faith in her, their lives in her hands. She had been elected as chief by them, so she naturally felt bad whenever she had to be dishonest with them.
Just like when I had to watch the Commander for Captain Ryer. I had to deceive him, too, even though he invested a lot of unfounded trust in me.
Being the honest person she was, with the attitude of "don't beat around the bush", deception was something she neither enjoyed or excelled at. But if I don't deceive everyone, there'll sure to be trouble. The deadliest kind of trouble, knowing the Titans.
Snapping out of her self-imposed thought coma again, Karen ran her hand through her red mane of hair and walked across the hangar to where a halfway-dismantled RGM-79R GM II and a yet-to-be-tackled RGC-80 GM Cannon were being worked on.
***********************************************************
He was stuck in traffic. Again.
"Ah, shit." This just ain't my day, Frank thought as he scratched at the three-day stubble on his chin. He put the extremely-sizable freight truck in park and waited for traffic to clear. From the height of the cab on his truck, he could see the accident that had halted traffic. We ain't goin' anywhere for a while. What a day.
First of all, fuel prices had gone up quite a bit since the Titans had taken over Von Braun. Driving a vehicle as massive as his truck meant that would affect his pocketbook far more than the average driver. Then, Frank had gone home to find all his stuff on the lawn, with an eviction notice posted to the door of his apartment. That wasn't so bad, since he hated living there anyway. It was smaller than a college dorm, with far more less-civilized people around him. Stashing his stuff with one of his numerous cousins had somewhat solved that problem. No, all that wasn't as bad as the news he'd received earlier that day.
Midori finally wanted to defect to the AEUG, and she was bringing friends. Normally, that would be great news. Frank really thought that Midori's talents were wasted with the VBDF. No, that wasn't the problem he had.
They wanted to defect less than two weeks after the Titans had taken over Von Braun. Not only that, but they also wanted to haul out five dismantled mobile suits to take with them.
No one ever thought about how they'd pull it off. They just assumed that stashing it amongst his cargo of solid waste would work all fine and dandy. Nevermind the fact that Titans were notorious for their less-than-civil treatment of opposing forces. Nevermind the fact that he'd already pissed off several of the Titans who were in charge of inspecting his cargo when he was hauling it outbound, which meant that they'd be even worse than usual in terms of their inspections. Nevermind the fact that he, a former Titan himself who had abandoned his post after the Thirty-Bunch Incident, was known to quite a few of the Titans officials stationed at Von Braun, meaning that they would especially be on the lookout for him.
Frank sighed to himself again, smiling inwardly. Damn kids.
***********************************************************
"He's late," Eledore stated, kicking a pop can across the alley behind the hangar. He was none-too-happy about waiting, especially in 40-degree- Farenheight muggy weather at 3 AM.
Midori walked slowly up to him from behind. "He'll be here," she replied in her soft-spoken voice.
"He better. We're really risking our necks right now. You know what'll happen if some bored Titans patrol comes by and starts sticking their high- and-mighty noses in these crates?" he said, pointing behind them to the large, air-tight crates that were filled with parts from three of the five mobile suits they were planning on shipping out.
Midori refrained from answering. She knew full well what happened when someone angered Titans. She knew all too well.
Finally, after an hour of waiting, a pair of dimmed headlights made their way down the alley. The gigantic truck loomed to a halt after positioning itself with its cargo hatch facing the crates.
The driver hauled his considerable bulk out of the vehicle. It was obvious that this man was born for some kind of manual labor. He just had an aura of unspectacularness about him. Excessive stubble, thinned black hair that covered only a fraction of the top of his head, a worn-out plaid jacket over a once-white tank top, and worn-out jeans made the man look truly suited to his job of a solid-waste transporter.
"Hey, you guys ready to get this stuff outta here?" he asked in a very gruff voice.
"Quick to the point, ain't ya?" Eledore said under his breath. As unhappy as he was, though, he was relieved that they'd finally be getting underway. Turning to the five VBDF techs and pilots who were defecting along with them, he waved to the crates. "All right, guys, time to load up."
The three techs each took their motorized sled and drove them up into the cargo hold. The crates, after being unloaded, fit just fine. After the waste was dumped into the cargo hold, the crates would be completely unnoticeable. Any Titans inspection crews would have to dig through a minimum of two meters of solid human waste before hitting the airtight crates. A messy job, no matter how you did it.
After all the loading was done with, the driver and Midori walked over to the driver's side door alone.
Huh. Wonder what they're talking about. Eledore wondered.
***********************************************************
"You really sure 'bout this, Midori-chan?" Frank asked. He'd known Midori since she was a child. Frank was basically an unofficial uncle of hers, a friend of the family for many years. Although he was a basic laborer, he still went out of his way to do many things for her family. "If you get caught with all this stuff, you'll get a hell of a lot worse than your usual fine and jail time."
"I know, but I have to do something to them," she replied, her voice conveying only resolve. She hadn't told him what had happened, how she had been raped by those Titans bastards.
That's information that he really doesn't need to know, she thought.
Seeing the look in her eyes, and the absolute conviction in her voice, Frank decided to stop his questioning of her decision. "All right, kid," he replied, his voice soft and understanding as he put his hand on her shoulder. "Just know that I'll help in any way I can."
"Thank you," she replied, smiling slightly. She knew full well he was willing to do most anything for her family. Her father had saved his life during the One-Year War, so Frank had pledged his life to do what he could to repay the debt.
"Don't worry 'bout it, kid. I'm more than happy to be helpin' you fight for the good guys," he said to her, his face showing a great amount of pride as he hugged her.
Eledore approached the two from the back of the truck. "Loading's all done. We'll ship the rest out next week, same time."
Frank nodded to the long-haired musician as he let go of Midori. "Gotcha."
Eledore turned to face the massive truck. "Just be sure to have this thing ready to take on a crate of people, too. We'll be getting out of here, too."
"No problem. She'll be ready for ya." Frank turned and hauled himself up into the driver's seat. "See you next week, then," he said, waving good- bye.
"Thanks again for all your help," Eledore said, smiling to the man. He could appreciate someone who really stuck their neck out for what they believed to be right, and if someone was sticking their neck out when they didn't have to at that time, it was Frank.
"Hey, I told you earlier not to worry 'bout it. I'll manage," he casually replied, as though this sort of thing were routine for him. His gaze turned soft as he looked over to the young female tech. "Bye, Midori. I'll be waitin' for ya next week."
"Take care, Frank," she replied. Eledore was slightly surprised to find that her voice was finally showing emotion again. This time, it was full of loving and caring. Of hope that a close friend or family member would be OK.
Frank gave a cocky half-grin as he pulled the truck out of the alley and started off down the road.
Midori watched the truck's tail lights until they were no longer visible. Her face was etched with worry. Seeing this, Eledore put a reassuring hand on her shoulder.
"He'll be fine, Midori. I'm sure he knows what he's doing," he said, looking down at her.
A small smile found its way on her lips.
I hope so.
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"So, what's the story with this Frank guy, anyway?" Karen asked as she and Midori sat down for lunch the next day. "He an old boyfriend or something?"
Midori smiled. "No, a close friend of the family. He and my father served together in the One-Year War." With a crack, she opened up her can of pop, the kind that was mostly caffeine and sugar and only slightly anything else (A/N: the kind this fic was written on!). "They were both GM pilots in the last few space battles fought. That's how I first started to know how mobile suits worked and such. I was only fifteen at the time, but it still interested me. Anywho, Frank and my father fought together at Solomon, where my father died."
Karen winced. The Battle of Solomon had been a victory for the Federation, sure, but it had cost the lives of many, many mobile suit pilots and ship crews. GMs were especially known for their overall turnover rate.
"Frank was in a GM that was about to get destroyed by that mobile armor the Zeon deployed, the Big Zam, but my dad shoved his mobile suit out of the way with his. He took most of the force of the attack. His suit blew, and Frank's was slightly damaged." Midori's bright blue eyes showed a slight pain, but didn't show any signs of tears. This was something she'd gotten over a long time ago, but still pained her slightly, as any traumatic event would.
"After that, Frank basically made a life-debt pledge to my family." Her face brightened somewhat. "He certainly doesn't look it, but he's one of the most honorable and trustworthy people I've ever known. He even helped me through high school and most of the way through tech school after my mother was killed in a car accident."
Karen took all this in, but was soon confused about one point. "He helped you through high school and tech school? He must make more money off that freight business than his appearance lets on." she said, biting into her sandwich after verbally finishing her thought.
Midori shook her head. "No, he worked for Anaheim Electronics after the war, as a mobile suit test pilot. Made a lot of money, too. That's how he helped out. But after that colony accident thing in 0083, Anaheim cancelled a few of their projects, or something like that, which meant that he got laid off with a hundred or so techs and researchers."
Karen grunted and nodded. She remembered the news about some accident that had caused two colonies that were being moved to veer off course, one smashing into Kansas on Earth. Something about the structural integrity of one of the mirrors on each colony giving way, causing them to break off, which in turn caused the two colonies to smack into each other. The impact, according to the news, was at just enough of an angle and had just enough force to make it slingshot around the moon on its own and hit Earth. That's what happens when you clumsily move multi-million-ton pieces of equipment, I guess.
"Well, after that, he took out a few loans from a small-time bank on the 30- Bunch Colony and bought the freighter he's been using for his own hauling business. When the colony got gassed, the entire bank staff and everyone associated with it were killed, and all the paperwork on his loans hadn't been completely processed, so he was basically freed of his debts for the freighter."
"That helped."
She smiled a little, but soon turned grim. "Yeah, but his other debts still haunt him. Even now, there's debt collectors just waiting for him to mess up even a little bit, so they can take that freighter away from him to pay the debts he owes."
"Oh," Karen replied, not completely surprised, but still a little shocked. Guess that makes sense. Even in uneasy times like these, I guess some people still live their lives mostly unaffected by the problems of war, and usually they're the ones who know who owes who money.
"I just hope we don't end up messing everything up for him. His luck is bad enough as it is," Midori said, sighing to herself and sweatdropping slightly.
Karen smiled. This was the Midori she knew. She was glad that Midori wasn't letting her bad experiences get the best of her. Moving on was the last stage of coping, and she was glad to finally see it show itself.
"I'm sure he'll be fine. He seems very competent from what you've told me," she offered.
"Yeah, I'm sure he'll be fine. After all, if he can survive the One-Year War in a GM, he should be able to survive just about anything, right?" Midori replied, smiling wryly and laughing a bit.
Karen smiled. Yep, this is definitely the Midori we all know and love.
"Yeah, I guess you're right," she replied, joining in the hearty laugh.
She made sure to enjoy the rest of the day. In a week, these kinds of good times would be gone.
Possibly forever.
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TO BE CONTINUED.
A/N: Yeah, I know this one was shorter, but it's 4 AM. Give me a break, my creative juices are running out for today (as is the obscene amount of caffeine I've had thus far tonight/this morning). Also keep in mind that this is what I consider to be a "fluff" chapter, meaning that a whole lot of superfluous stuff is going on. Consider it a "filler" episode of this quasi-OAV.
I'm aware that the formatting of this chapter blows. Believe me, I've done what I can to fix it, but there's only so much I can do. If you've got a beef with that, tell the people who coded the document upload thing on FFN, not me. It ain't my fault their code messes around with the formatting of the fics.
A lot of people, I'm sure, will say, "Hey, 'Frank' is a name that really doesn't sound all that Gundam-ish or Japanese. What's the deal?" Sorry, people, but you can't tell me that there aren't people named Frank in that time period. Besides, "Frank" is the perfect name for your average general laborer (no offense to any Franks out there). If I gave him some Gundam- ish or Japanese name, he'd sound a lot more important to the storyline than he really is. Minor character=unspectacular. Hey, at least I didn't make him into another Kai!