To paraphrase James Thurber: Little Red Riding Hood approached the bed no nearer than thirty feet when she pulled out a pistol and shot the wolf dead; for even in a cap and nightgown a wolf looks less like your grandmother than Aguile Delaz looks like the Easter Bunny. Little girls are not so easy to fool nowadays as they used to be.
- Paptimus Scirrocco

Chapter 4: Depravity

- February 5, UC 0084 -
- 0960 hours, CST -
Naomi stashed her pilot's suit in the first locker and stretched her back from side to side. As tired as she looked and felt now, there as the overwhelming satisfaction that today's fight had been an improvement over her performance in her last battle, with reaction speed peaking at 130% of a standard pilot and her hit ratio just short of 1:3. She reveled in herself today.

Lieutenant Matsui came into the locker room and slapped Naomi on the back as she came in. "Changing flight assignments, are we?"

"You and Eric are moving to First Squad, and I'm putting the newbees in second with Mike and Chase..."

The door burst open again and this time Lieutenant Izumi burst in, slammed his helmet against the locker leaving a sizeable dent in the door. He surged up to Lieutenant Wilson and grabbed her by the collar of her uniform, "What's your problem anyway?! Don't you know anything about combat?!"

Naomi peeled his hands away from her collar and counted to three. She was making a phenomenal effort to control her temper today, not wanting to start off her new pilot's first day with a savage beating. "You have to destroy your targets, Lieutenant. I don't see the conflict here..."

"I'm not a damn rookie, I know that! But you don't really expect me to believe...!"

Brian came up and held his hand up between them to interrupt. He could see her confusion on this matter, and with the mounting tension in the room he wanted to avoid dragging this out in view of the other pilots. "Lieutenant, your Gundam was armed with a beam rifle at the time, which increases the chances of a reactor detonation."

"So what?"

"You should have warned us before you destroyed that mobile suit. You forgot to do that and you put us both at risk."

Eric threw his arms up to the sky and Mike hung his head, suddenly tired of the conversation. "Anderson, we're not like the regular forces. We're not really concerned with radio discipline."

Brian could already tell that much, but it was inconsequential to the conversation. "That's not what I mean. Ryo and I each have nine kills against enemy mobile suits..."

"Ten." Ryo corrected. "Not counting today's haul."

"...And all of them were soft kills, no reactor detonations. As Ball pilots, we usually to fight at close range or close to space colonies or ships where we really can't afford to risk a reactor detonation so we have to aim to either disable them or knock out the cockpits. You understand, right? It's just a safety issue."

Though not actually part of the conversation, Lucy gave a whistle of amazement from her cockpit. "Ten kills in a Ball?"

Mike raised his head again, his interest rejoining the conversation. "How exactly did you pull that off?"

"Who cares? Kill scores aren't everything." Eric grumbled, the sting of a no-kill mission still twisting in his guts.

"Well..." Naomi was impressed, but right now it was in her best interest not to say anything about it. "Izumi, I'm sorry for the misunderstanding, but that doesn't make any difference now, does it?"

"What do you mean?"

Brian patted Ryo on the shoulder and whispered in his ear, "Gundams."

"Oh, right."

That being apparently settled, Naomi changed the subject. "Have you two been briefed on the new operation yet?"

Ryo answered back immediately. "Lieutenant Matsui filled us in when we came aboard. We just need to check out the new machines."

"Good, but there's been a slight change of plans. I'll give all of you the details at the next briefing, but basically the Tarawa's been ordered back to Earth."

All of them blinked and suddenly Alice was standing in the midst of them with her face was full of anxiety. "A-Are we really going to Earth? What for?"

Lucy did a double take, Chase closed his eyes and opened them again, Mike and Eric both looked around nervously, wondering and doubting she had been there all along, and Naomi almost jumped out of her skin. "Where the hell did YOU come from?!"

"Ummm..." She thought for a moment and tried to summarize. "I'm not sure. Something to do with a sperm cell and an egg and..."

"No, no I mean..." Naomi took a few breaths and pushed herself past it. "Whatever... what are you so worried about anyway?"

"Nothing, I just don't see any good reason to go to Earth. Ever."

"Why not?"

"The Zeon forces are in space, and that's where the Titans are fighting them. So shouldn't we stay in space? Wouldn't that make more sense?"

"Well..." She'd been asking herself that same question as of late, and the fact that the kid had come to the same conclusion indicated she had been paying attention. That, once again, would be pretty useful when the time came, more useful perhaps than anything else Ryo and Brian could offer her. "Tell you what, since you're stuck on this ship like the rest of us I'll let you attend the briefing tomorrow night with the pilots. It's important to know what's going on around you." She turned back to the newbees, "Meanwhile, the two of you need to get fully rated on those new mobile suits by the time we make orbit. You have about thirty-one hours, so I suggest you hurry."

- 1411 hours (CST) -
 The pilot's voice was ragged and tired by now, still fluttering from the waves of pain surging from his hand through his arm and the rest of his body. One of his hands was staked to the table by Monsha's field knife, the other hung useless at his side from an arm broken in four different places. Ulyana Zabi was lying inert in the corner, her head so full of drugs she could barely roll in a strait line. She knew she would regret it, but Larson needed to hear what was going on inside. She turned up the volume just a bit on the monitor screen. "What do you want from me?! I already told you everything I know!"

Monsha grabbed the knife and twisted it to one side, then to the other, then back and forth a few times. The Zeon pilot tried to block it out, but lost control after a few seconds and howled from the pain. "You've told us a load of bullshit, maybe. I know you're protecting someone, and by keeping it secret you're putting THEM in more danger!"

"Go to hell! I don't know anything!"

Monsha frowned and glanced over to one of the soldiers aiding him. "Time for the bottle."

Captain Bosque grinned at the monitor, and Larson started to wonder what he could possible find funny about this. The Zabi girl hadn't given them any relative information so far, and neither had any of the other pilots Monsha had worked over in more traditional means. This one, it seemed, had been singled out for special treatment, and somehow Bosque found that amusing. "You enjoying this, Captain?"

"Lieutenant Monsha's very creative when he wants to be."

Larson looked at the monitor again. The other soldier handed him a bottle of catalyzed acid and Monsha opened it in front of the pilot's face. "I bet I know how to change your mind."

He shuddered in anticipation. "W-wait a second...!"

"There were four mobile suits guarding your factory block. All of them had been rebuilt within the last six months. Who paid for the maintenance on those machines?"

The pilot swallowed hard and took a few deep breaths. "I'm not lying to you. I don't know exactly who they are, but..."

"Wrong answer." Monsha popped the cap off the bottle and emptied half if it onto the back of her hand. It hit the open wound around the knife and sizzled, and the pilot howled like an animal. Larson felt her heart freeze for a few seconds until she turned the volume down on the monitor. The skin on the back of the prisoner's hand blistered and started to melt away. The pain increased with every second. "Gimme a name." Monsha said again.

"Shit, my hand...!"

"A name, you goddamn spacenoid! Gimme a name!"

Even the blade of the knife started to melt away from the acid. Another few moments and it would eat through his hand straight to the bone. He did his best to keep from passing out and coughed up the last little bit he could remember, "BREX FORRA!"

Bosque chuckled lightly. "Now we're getting somewhere."

The reaction was slowing down, and Monsha tilted the bottle over his hand, "Was he alone, or were there others?"

Even now he was gasping from the pain and his entire body was trembling. By some miracle he managed to contain himself just enough to spit it out, "There were others. This old guy from Granada and some other people..."

"Who were they?"

"I don't know! Believe me, I don't know them!" Monsha started to tilt the bottle again and he flew into a panic. "Uh... S-Something about the Anti-Earth Union Group, that's all I know! Brex represented some kind of political movement and I heard someone mention A.E.U.G.!"

Larson felt like she was going to pass out, but Captain Bosque chuckled again and folded his arms. "A.E.U.G.. I should have known." He picked up the microphone and called into Monsha's radio, "That's good enough Lieutenant. We have what we're looking for."

Monsha put the bottle back on the table and stood off a little. He almost seemed disappointed. "Hell, that didn't take long at all! Told you I was good!"

"I'm satisfied with your results, Lieutenant." Bosque said, still grinning.

Monsha folded his arms smugly, basking in his own personal spotlight for the time being. After another moment his eyes fixed on young Ulyana Zabi, lying in a heap in the corner of the room. "What about the kid? You need her for anything?"

Bosque didn't give it a second thought. "Unless you can think of another use for her, not really."

Monsha looked at the one-way mirror with a perverse little grin. "Ya know, I could think of a few things." He shared a quick glance with the two other Titans soldiers, both of whom suddenly returned his mischievous grin. "I'll get my camera."

"Good call, Lieutenant." One of the soldiers nodded his way, moved towards the girl with his field knife in hand.

Bosque put his cap back on and started slowly towards the door. "Remember, Admiral Carter needs the girl alive. Project N is more important than any your recreational preferences. Do as you like, but DO NOT injure that girl."

"Yes sir," On the way out of the room, Monsha picked up the bottle again and on a whim poured the last of the liquid onto the back of the pilot's hand. It caught the prisoner by surprise, and this time he screamed even louder as the acid started to burn through bone and cartilage, some even dripping through to the table underneath. "Woops!" Monsha laughed and swaggered out of the room towards his quarters.

Larson sprang up and leapt out of the open doorway, pushing past Captain Bosque and flying on down the corridor like an escaped convict. Bosque shook his head in wonder. "Imagine that, a Zeon with a weak stomach."

She kicked a few Titans officers out of her way on her mad dash down the corridors of the ship, stopping only once at a window to confirm for herself that the ship really was still in port here in this colony. She made a beeline for the nearest airlock and flung herself into the open bay block without a thought, simply relieved to be away from this ship with all of these people. Her momentum kept her going, and she floated halfway across the dock, away from the Alexandria, away from Monsha and the interrogation room. Away from the Titans. For the first time now she wondered if she was getting more than she bargained for by making this deal with Admiral Marquis, if maybe she was playing with fire and had just seen what happens when someone gets burned.

Someone grabbed hold of her arm as she coasted on down the bay block. She looked over absently, followed the hand to the scarred, tired face of Galen Morales. "Hiya, Rugrat."

Larson stared at him blankly at first, then turned herself around and planted her feet on the ground next to him. "Galen, I think we're in trouble."

Galen nodded, apparently already knowing what she was talking about. "Rugrat, trouble doesn't even begin to describe it."

- 1420 hours (CST) -
 It stood sixty feet tall on the storage rack in the starboard hangar, a blue and white war machine built for one purpose alone. Two beam sabers, two armored coverings on the forearms for additional weapons, two vernier packs attached to the legs for even greater speed. The beam rifle and the hyper bazooka were locked against the bulkhead next to it and a slot in the deck just below could dispense spare ammo on demand. This mobile suit could be ready for combat in seconds and once in space, it would have no equal in the universe.

Ryo had never been so disappointed. He'd heard so much talk about Gundams being the ultimate mobile suits for years and years, even seen on in action himself during the One Year War, but from the specs in his hand and the look of the mobile weapon towering above him, it might as well have been a supped up ball. "There's gotta be more to it than this..." He mumbled, looking up at the gigantic machine with a desperate gleam in his eye. "What am I missing? There's gotta be something I'm not seeing here."

He looked at the Gundam for a few more moments before Kelly poked his head out of the cockpit with a laptop tucked under his arm. "We're ready up here, Ryo."

"Okay." Ryo pushed off the deck and drifted up to the hatch, looking over the mobile suit more closely as he rose to join the mechanics. What don't I know about this thing? He thought again.

Kelly grabbed his wrist and pulled him into the cockpit with the others and suddenly Ryo had a partial answer to his question. He'd never seen a cockpit like this before; it looked like a miniature I-Max theatre wrapped around a pilot's seat with a few controls in the arms and the panel. All his skepticism suddenly faded away. "What the hell is this?"

"This," Kelly gestured around in a circle, "Is a panoramic monitor cockpit. It's the latest thing in mobile suit technology, but in another year it'll be standard."

Ryo stepped inside and glanced around the sphere curiously. It was larger than a regular cockpit, perhaps big enough for three or four people to squeeze into it including the pilot. "How does it work?"

"The FLIR system in your helmet follows the movement of your head and the Gundam tracks accordingly. When you... hold on," Kelly reached for the panel on the side of the chair and tapped three buttons. The monitor crackled in static and switched on, giving them a full 360-degree view of everything around the Gundam in all directions. "When you want to zoom in, you set your target and the computer opens a separate window for you." Kelly tapped one switch on the joystick. One of the cameras in the Gundam's eye zoomed in on a single spot and the computer opened a display window in the monitor: the image of Lucy's rear end magnified forty times so it filled the front of the monitor. "That's nice aint it?"

"Very." Ryo nodded at the image. "And the system's good too."

"Uh huh. Targeting is done the same way. Keep in mind, the system can only scan or search images in your forward filed of vision, so if you want to zoom in or scan around you need to be looking in the right direction."

"Is there an override?"

Kelly frowned. "Not in these models. Lieutenant Wilson has one in hers but her system's pretty different. Theoretically, a newtype shouldn't really NEED an auto-system override so they didn't bother to install one."

Ryo sat down in the pilot's seat and practiced for a moment or two, locking on to specific objects and zooming in, targeting weapons and trajectories. It all seemed extremely easy. "How helpful is this in combat?"

"Depends on the pilot. Naomi was telling me..." Both of them saw a flash of movement in the monitor and saw something float past the Gundam. Ryo zoomed in on it and saw a human figure in a white t-shirt and short-shorts disappear around the corner of the mobile suit right in front of them.

"Wasn't that...?" Ryo pushed off the chair and slipped out of the cockpit, pushed forward to the other Gundam. He came up behind it, slipped under its arm and peaked around the corner to find Alice groping around the surface of the mobile suit for the door controls. "Alice, what are you doing here? You know this area's off limits."

"I know, I'm looking for that dipshit brother of mine."

Ryo came up next to her and guided her hand to the controls. The hatch opened when she pulled the lever and Brian poked his head out in confusion. "What's going on?"

"I'm hungry."

"Get Ryo to feed you. I'm busy right now." He slipped back into his cockpit but Alice reached out and caught his arm. "Alice..."

"I missed breakfast because of that scramble. Brian, you're responsible for me until I get used to this ship, remember?"

Brian pulled his arm free and slipped back into the cockpit. "I'll take you in a minute, right now I have to finish this."

Alice growled and sat down in the hatch opening, but in curiosity Ryo poked his head into the cockpit. "What the hell? This suit doesn't have the new cockpit system."

Brian's fingers were flying over a keyboard on the panel next to him and all his attention was on the side monitor. "So I've noticed."

"I thought the panoramic monitor was gonna be mainstream?"

Brian shrugged. "Well look at it. It's a totally different model."

Ryo backed out of the cockpit and looked over Brian's Gundam more carefully. It looked vaguely like the Alex series, but its armor was thicker in most spots, including the cockpit. It had two massive shoulder cannons on either side of the head and the legs were laden with verniers and shock absorbers around the knees. The armor covers on the arms were absent, with a single Luna-Titanium plate welded to the lengths of the forearms. Unlike his own mobile suit, Ryo could immediately see the power of this new model. "Hmmm..."

"They call it Mudrock. It's an old prototype leftover from the One Year War."

Ryo slipped back into the cockpit and sat down on Brian's front instrument panel, watching him work curiously. He looked at the monitor and the consol he was working on and suddenly realized he had no idea what Brian was doing. "It's just a mobile suit, what the hell is taking you so long?"

Brian reached over his head without looking and pulled something down from a compartment. "This little gizmo."

He handed it to Ryo and he turned it in his hands; a space helmet to a pilot's normal suit. "Fancy helmet." He put it on and turned his head from side to side. "It's a bit heavy, isn't it?"

"Do me a favor, will you?" Brian grabbed two wires from the overhead compartment and handed them off to Ryo. "Plug these in to the ports, right in the back."

Alice turned her head slightly and listened more closely.

Ryo took the wires in hand, felt around the back of the helmet for the jacks and plugged all four of them into the helmet. "Now what?"

Brian didn't answer him at all, simply reached across the cockpit and flipped a switch.

Ryo didn't feel anything different at first. He stood there looking at Brian, still expecting an explanation. "What is this thing?"

Brian tapped in a quick command on his keyboard and then chuckled. "Check this out."

"Brian, seriously, what is thi..." The sound of his own voice trailed off into the background and as he watched the entire world seemed to pull away, as if his eyes themselves were zooming all the way out. Soon his eyes were useless entirely, the world fell away into oblivion, no sound, no sight, no smells of any kind. He wondered for a moment if he had been injected with some kind of drug until, in one dramatic flash, the whole world came crashing right back into him again. He could see, he could hear, everything was exactly where it was a second before. "What the hell was that?"

"Close your eyes." Brian said smugly.

Ryo hesitated, then dropped his eyelids. It wasn't that he could see anything, but all around him seemed to be a ghost world he could physically interact with. He could sense the bulkhead next to the mobile suit, the main hatch far ahead, the catapult tracks next to the Gundam's feet and everything else that moved in the hangar. He could sense the temperature of the air, the wall, and when he looked down even his own body heat and the outlines of Alice's body on every spectrum from microwave to ultra-violet. And something else... something in his mind told him that his weapons were locked onto Alice... He opened his eyes again and the ghost world vanished, but he could see Alice framed on Brian's monitor with crosshairs lined up in the middle of her chest. "Holy shit!"

"That's wild, isn't it?" Brian shut off the monitor and flipped the switch again.

Ryo felt a sudden buzz and a short surge of disorientation, then it was back to normal again. He took the helmet off a blinked a few times to make sure the ghost world was gone. "What the hell was that?"

"It's called a Psychommu interface. They installed this new system in the Mudrock as a field test and they're hoping to get battle data from us Newtypes. Astonage says it's designed to translate sensory and system information directly into the pilot's brain, without even needing a monitor. You don't see things so much as your brain knows what's going on."

Ryo grinned. "Newtype system...?"

"The ultimate in situational awareness, makes eyesight redundant. Cuts out the middle man, ya know? You can get all the data from the mobile suit at once without even having to see it. The cockpit's configured so a bli..." He stopped himself too late and looked over Ryo's shoulder. For just an instant he began praying she hadn't overheard that, but after a moment he could tell even that one slip didn't get past her.

Ryo glanced back himself, already certain they'd said too much in the presence of someone so notoriously impulsive. "What's the catch?"

"The catch is, if the machine's not tuned properly or the data stream malfunctions, the interface will fry your brain. Astonage gave me the maintenance program and I have to check it every few days to make sure it's configured properly."

Something about the comment seemed more than a little contrived. "How do you know how to do that?"

Brian looked up at him with a grin. "I've got skills, man."

"Whatever." Ryo backed out of the cockpit once again, pulled back and put his hand on Alice's shoulder. "C'mon, let's go eat."

"And Brian?"

"You know how he is. Let's just go."

Ryo took her hand and bounded off the side of the mobile suit. Alice stayed with him, but couldn't help turning back in Brian's direction as they drifted towards the door. Her eyes saw nothing, but she could see Brian suspended in the center of that nothingness fourteen meters above the deck, crouching over a haze of something she couldn't quite make out. The only reason she could see him was for the pressure he was generating; he was trying way too hard for this to be routine maintenance. Why don't you call it a day? Astonage can take care of it until you figure it all out.

Brian wiped the sweat off his forhead and his fingers moved faster on the keyboard. Sorry Alice, but I don't like other people touching my mobile suit.

Really? What'll you do if someone ELSE pilots it?

Brian laughed to himself and shouted out from the cockpit, "I've got plenty of duct tape and this ship has plenty of walls..."

Alice jerked her arm free and spun back around, shouting up into the mobile suit, "You wouldn't DARE!"

Brian paused from the keyboard and leaned out of the cockpit to shout back. "Better yet, the Tarawa needs a hood ornament!"

"You...!" Alice saluted him with the appropriate finger, yanked her arm free of Ryo and stormed off towards the hatch. Her path was just a little bit off, and she smacked into the wall two feet to the left of the door. "Heh... I uhhh... I meant to do that."

"Yeah right." Ryo grabbed her arm and guided her back to the doorway. Alice turned at the opening and shot one last angry glance in Brian's direction. Fancy newtype system... we'll see about that.

- 1610 hours (CST) -
 Galen turned the glass in his hands and watched his reflection in the amber liquid rippling in the tiny alcoholic waves. For just a moment he imagined he was watching his own death in the bottom of the glass; it was a sign that he needed another drink. "So you joined the Zeon, huh?"

"That's right." Gwen took a sip of her own glass and leaned heavily over the counter. "Admiral Marquis made me an offer I couldn't refuse."

Galen signaled the bartender for another drink. "Believe it or not, he made the same offer to Captain Black and the rest of us. Said something about ideals and visions and future profits that would transcend just money and possessions."

"When you think about it, it doesn't sound too attractive. But really, to be independent from Earth is much more important to us than materialism, especially at a time like this."

Galen smirked at her. "You just felt the urge to make a difference before your time was up."

"That too."

Galen chuckled as the bartender set a new drink next to the half-finished first one. He emptied the old into the new and took a large sip of it. "I was just thinking, maybe you've got more time left than you think. I mean, you DO look pretty good for your age."

Larson did a double take and stopped just short of punching him. "What's that about my age?"

"How old are you anyway? Forty-five? Fifty?"

This time she abandoned restraint; she punched him in the side of the head and knocked him off the barstool. "Asshole! I'm only thirty!" She sat back down on her own stool and muttered, "...ish."

Galen struggled back to his feet and took another sip of his drink. "Thirtyish stops at thirty nine, Rugrat. Unless I'm mistaken, you're about to jump the hill like a speeding truck."

Gwen groaned, feeling the reality all too well. "Do I look that old, Galen?"

"Nah. You look like… maybe a tired twenty six."

Her cheeks turned a few shades redder. "I think that's the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me." They sat in silence for a few more minutes, both nursing glasses of scotch without thinking or needing to say anything else. Gwen's nerves were still fluttering from the memory of the interrogation room, but with the rising blood-alcohol level she was beginning to relax. "The Titans are monsters, Galen." She said absently.

"Are they really?"

"Monsters, every one of them. I just watched them butcher a guy for some meaningless scraps of information, and now that pervert Monsha's locked himself in a room with a seventeen year old girl..."

"And even before then, when they attacked the colony. Fifty-three dead, two hundred wounded, most of the colony still without power or running water. I'd like to think they at least care about the colony more than the Zabis do."

"That's why I joined Marquis. Axis is no different from the Zabi bastards they worship, and the Titans... screw the Titans. Human life is cheap to those people. They'd wipe us all out if the thought it would help them somehow."

Something about the remark rubbed Galen the wrong way. From anyone else he would have agreed, but he knew Gwen too well to take her at her word. "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone."

"Excuse me?"

"Rugrat, I suggest you go and take good hard look in the mirror before you start criticizing the Titans."

She turned in the stool, leering at him, but in a flash she saw the truth in his words and directed her attention back to her drink. "Fifteen years ago... I'm not the same person I was back then, Galen."

"Of course not. But fifteen years ago you would have joined the Titans without a second thought. Sometimes it's too easy to ignore the suffering of others, even your own family."

Gwen finished it off with one strong gulp and left her tab on the bar. "So I'm a monster myself, right Galen?"

"If you weren't, your son and your daughter would still be alive."

Gwen stepped off the stool and wandered off towards the door. "I told you, I was a cold hearted bitch. I never said I was proud of it."

- 1811 hours, (CST) -
 Somehow it seemed odd to Naomi that Alice was paying such close attention to the briefing despite the fact that she couldn't see any of the charts or displays on the screen. Eric was barely paying attention at all, Chase and Lucy were committing it all to memory, and the newbees Brian and Ryo were actually taking notes. They were already ten minutes into the briefing and none of them had even nodded off yet. That was a good sign. "We're not sure why satellites didn't notice it before, but we're aware of it now and we have the element of surprise. The facility is buried about 600 feet underground, deep in the side of the mountain in a large excavation or cavern. The terrain around it's pretty typical for Afghanistan: it sucks."

"So we're in for a bit of a hike, huh?" Eric said, his mind wandering to a vision of the long march.

"Not on your life. If we try and move in on foot with that terrain, there's a 99% chance we're going to be ambushed before we even get close. The operative plan is to drop in on them from above and try catch them off guard, and to preserve the element of surprise we'll have to drop in the mobile suits from orbit on the first pass."

"Then no support from the ship?" Lucy added anxiously.

"Not right away. The Tarawa will make one orbit after we drop the suits and re-enter at the next window about sixty minutes later. We can expect support about two hours into the operation."

"Two hours?" Lucy wrote the time index for the start of the operation on the back of her hand and wrote under it the time the Tarawa would be expected. "The mission will probably be over by then anyway."

Naomi nodded silently, though inwardly she had a few doubts. "Normally we'd leave this up to ground forces, but part of what we do is counter intelligence and it's important to make sure we don't loose valuable assets in the raid."

"What kind of assets?" Ryo said, jotting down a few notes in the little book on his knee.

"We need to capture as many prisoners as possible, and recover some of their equipment intact to trace it back to its origins. But more than that, satellites have detected sporadic heat blooms deep underground, possibly reactor spikes from a Zanzibar class vessel. If this is the case, our objective will be to encourage the Zeon forces to launch the ship and then allow it to escape. The assault carrier Trafalgar will trail the ship from a distance as it enters orbit and then follow it to wherever the crew decides to go."

Ryo jotted down another note and turned his notebook slightly. Lucy sat up with a question of her own. "And what's the enemy strength around the base?"

"At least twelve mobile suits, with perhaps two squadrons of Dopps and a few Megalla platoons."

"What's OUR ground support look like?" Brian asked.

Naomi was afraid someone would ask that. "That's the bad news. Because of the rough terrain, the Federation has essentially no presence whatsoever in this region so we won't be getting any support from them." There came a chorus of groans from around the room and Naomi held up her hand to quiet them, "The good news is we've made contact with some of the local Mujahadeen, and they seem willing to cooperate at least for this mission. They couldn't promise anything, but if nothing else we can expect artillery support from their mobile suits."

Chase sighed and slouched down in his seat. "Better than nothing, I guess..."

Alice raised her hand shyly and stood up a bit. "Question!"

Naomi smiled at her. "Yes, Alice?"

"Do you know why they haven't surrendered yet?"

"What do you mean?"

"The war's been over for four years. Do you know why these guys didn't surrender when the other Zeons retreated from the planet?"

It was an honest question, something most people took as self-explanatory. "Some of the zeeks weren't satisfied when war was over. A surprising number of them still wanted to keep fighting even after..."

"Yeah, I know all that. But listen, there's twelve mobile suits, two squadrons of fighters, some tanks, a Zanzibar class warship and probably lots of ammo sitting under their base. That's alot of firepower, but they're not using any of it."

"I don't understand your question."

"If they still wanted to fight, how come they didn't help the Delaz Fleet?"

Everyone in the room turned around and looked at her, suddenly wondering much the same thing themselves. Even Naomi had to stop and think about it for a few seconds, "Well... it's uh... it's complicated." Alice looked disappointed, but didn't sit down right away. Naomi eyed her for a few moments, then started to get impatient. "You have another question?"

"Just that... well, don't you think it's dangerous to go attacking an enemy with a huge arsenal if you don't even know what they're planning to do with it?"

Naomi scoffed at the remark. "What do you want us to do, send them a fruit basket?"

"No... but I think we should send someone in to the base to try and spy on them first. Or at least talk to them and understand what they're doing here. What if we go and kill all these people and they don't intend to attack anyone at all?"

Brian turned slowly, whispering over his shoulder, "That's enough, Alice. Sit down."

"But can't we just...?"

"SIT DOWN!"

Can't I just ask one damn question?!

Brian's response lasted just a fraction of a second, It makes no difference. Naomi doesn't make those decisions, she's under orders from our superiors. C'mon, Alice, we don't like this any more than you do, but you're not making it any easier for us. Stop being childish, you know how this works.

"Yeah, I know." Alice sighed and sat back down in her chair. "Sorry guys."

"Don't worry about it." No one else was wise to it, but Naomi could tell there was more being said than what was being heard. This was one of the more important mental notes she had taken since Alice came aboard: They must be connected somehow. I can't do anything with one of them without the other knowing about it... Even in the midst of her briefing, a plan was starting to form in her mind. As sneaky and devious as Alice seemed to be, it followed logically that even she could be manipulated into cooperating with her.

And yet, by pure coincidence, Alice was thinking exactly the same thing about her at exactly the same moment.