Chapter 12: The Teenage Fleet
"What the hell are you doing with them?!" Shiro hissed when he saw Akiko leading the prisoners into the conference room. She looked around and saw that not many of the people there were older than here.
"They're stuck here to so I suppose they have a right to know what's going on. Has anyone tried contacting Starshine since I made to announcement to gather here?" She asked pushing the prisoners into a set of chairs and handing Shiro the gun.
"No unless the people on Michael have tried recently. Why are you handing me this? You don't have your own issued yet so you should hang on to it." He tried handing it back to her but she just turned and started walking away.
"I don't know how to use it." Was all she said.
"Hey don't walk away you haven't been formally dismissed!" He shouted indignantly.
"I haven't been formally enrolled either!" She smirked and he looked at her angrily. Nisokoff busted out laughing but no one could really tell why.
"She's changed so much in this time. I wonder what Amura still sees in her." He whispered as he turned back around and looked at the prisoners.
"She's in there somewhere still." Amura answered walking up behind Shiro and patting him on the back. "I hope." He finished less confidently. Nisokoff looked him over carefully but without making it own that was what he was doing.
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"Starshine colony do you read? I Repeat, Starfire to Starshine do you read?" Akiko said into the mouthpiece on her headset as she sat at the counsel in the control room.
"Shine... to... fire. Come in..." A garbled voice responded and her eyes lit up.
"Starshine we have suffered a biological attack with massive casualties." She said slowly and clearly.
"Roger... Casualties... Blue Cosmos... Confirmed attacker... both colonies." The garbled voice responded.
"Blue Cosmos attacked both colonies?" She blurted out shocked.
"Affirmative... Heavy... Here also..." The voice responded. "Order to pull out. Battleship Michael... Meet at emergency rendezvous." The voice faded out.
"Starshine come in. Order not received! I repeat order not received!" Akiko shouted into the mouthpiece but all she got was static. "Great. Well that doesn't really help us now does it?" She started pressing keys on the console in order to access the computer mainframe and find some answers or a solution.
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"This is impossible!" One of the older officers griped to the other older officer. "These are just a bunch of kids with barely any training who just got picked up in the last few months. They're here to train to be in the Pre-emptive Strike Squadron and they haven't even been in the suits they're supposed to be piloting! How can we work with this?!"
"I know I'm 23 and I'm the oldest person left on the colony!" She responded shaking her head.
"Everyone quite down!" A strong voice boomed.
"Captain Entrada! You survived!" Shiro said a bit shocked as he saluted his Captain.
"No time for formality Kou we need to get down to business. First of all who organized all of this?"
"Akiko Aka is what she goes by Sir." Shiro responded dropping his hand. "I organized the testing to figure out just what happened and recruit Amada here helped me."
"First order of business I officially promote all of you one rank now then down to business. Tell us everything you know and we'll decide on what to do next." Captain Entrada said glancing over at the prisoners Shiro had handcuffed to their chairs. A light blinked on his head set and Shiro flipped it on.
"Shiro we have a problem. I was able to make temporary contact with with Starshine colony. All I really got from the transmission was that they had been attacked also and suffered a similar fate. They said that the order was given to pull out Michael and go to rendezvous point three. I'm not sure if that means everyone or just the Michael or where that point is. Please relay that to whoever is there of rank." Akiko explained calmly.
"All right. We were fortunate and Captain Entrada of the Michael survived so we'll get things taken care of." He replied and switched off the headset. "Well I just received some bad news Captain..."
She switched off the headset and went back to trying to access information on the mainframe. "Well let's see a lot of this I already knew I wonder what else I can find out about this place... Maps and plans. Let's see just how big this place is and what it's used for exactly." Akiko said to herself as she started accessing any and every file she could. "I see... Well that certainly is odd..."
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"Sorry we're late Captain!" Diaska said saluting as he ran in. "I'm glad to see you survived the attack! I was worried we would have to soldier through this as a bunch of kids with no leader."
"Good to see you too Diaska. Now who is this?" He wondered looking at Mori.
"Ka..." Shiro started.
"Mori Motono." Diaska replied cutting him off quickly and shooting him a glance. Shiro looked at him oddly.
"Sir here's the survivor lists you wanted." The first mate said walking up and handing Captain Entrada a stack of papers. "Ordered by age and rank as you commanded. Although there are two recruits reported without numbers yet."
"Yes, yes I know about that so tell me what does it look like?" Captain Entrada said handing him the papers back.
"Well between the colony and the ship there are 123 survivors and 48 of them are over the age of 18. The rest are 15 and up that were there to begin training in whatever they were going to specialize in. Half of them have only been here a month or less." The first mate explained warily.
"All right then divide up the people with training and pair them off with the people that need to be trained in their field. Then I want someone to figure out how to get the Briton mobile suits onto the ship for transport. Someone needs to figure out just how many of these people we can transport and how many supplies were going to have to take from the colony to do it. Then I want someone figure out where the hell this rendezvous point three is or get a hold of the Starshine and find out." He ordered looking around. "Everyone go do what you're going to and meet back here at 2000 hours so we can figure out what's going on and when we can leave."
"Yes Sir!" The first mate saluted then ran off to get things taken care of.
"Sir I believe recruit Aka is already trying to figure out the location of the rendezvous point and trying to contact Starshine. She's been trying to do so since we first learned of the incident so I don't see why she wouldn't be trying to still." Shiro pointed out respectfully.
"Was she supposed to be trained as a communication operative?" The Captain wondered with a sigh.
"No Sir she was one of the pilots of the Britons during the ZAFT attack early yesterday. It had been decided that she was supposed to replace one of those pilots." Shiro explained carefully.
"Sir if I may." Amura spoke up. "I think her talents with a computer would be better used then her skills piloting a mobile suit. No offense to her being a girl or anything but I believe that her talents are more valuable outside of conflict. Besides isn't it a man's position to protect women and child in conflict?" Shiro looked at him funny and Nisokoff simply nodded in understanding.
"Where I would never like to see a woman or child wounded in battle such beliefs that women shouldn't fight seem old-fashioned recruit Amada. However I'm not going to force her to fight if that's not what she wants to do and I won't stop her if that's what she does want to do." Shiro's headset blinked again and he flipped it on.
"Go ahead."
"I've found a dock for a mobile suit transport ship on the other side of the colony as well as another store room of mobile suits. Were you or the Captain aware of just how many mobile suits were here?" Akiko said matter of factly.
"How many mobile suits were you aware of on this colony Sir?" Shiro asked looking up at his superior with a confused look.
"Ten Britons that had been encrypted by my Father why?" He responded with equal confusion.
"Ten?" Shiro repeated.
"Try fifty." Akiko responded.
"FIFTY?! WHERE?!" Shiro exclaimed dumbfounded. "HOW?!" The captain looked at him wide-eyed.
"This base was the colony specialized for RPC mobile suit development. The ten that are currently in the launch bay are only the space models covertly called the Meteor 1's. Commonly called the Britons. There are models for sea, air, space, close ranged ground, and long ranged ground fighting. I'm not sure why exactly they were developing earth-based models for combat in space unless they were being over cautious. I left a map to the storage room up on the control monitors and right now I'm going to see if the transport is still docked outside." She said as her breath got shorter.
"Wait you haven't been given authorization to do that!" Shiro protested. "Sir recruit Aka found a storeroom for 50 mobile suits and there's five different models stored on this colony with various purposes. Right now she's going to go see if the mobile suit transport vessel she discovered is still docked here."
"Fifty?! Give her authorization to find the transport! There's no way the Michael can take all fifty out of here!" Captain Entrada ordered in slight shock.
"Recruit Aka you've been given authorization to find the transport and report on its condition. You are to report with your findings to the Captain in the main conference room at 2000 hours. Do you read?" Shiro said calmly.
"Roger Sir. I'll report back sooner if possible over and out." Akiko flipped off the headset a kept running following the directions and scrawled map on a crumpled piece of paper.
"Why on earth did they have these mobile suits and we not even know about it?" Captain Entrada wondered in confusion. "Get the communications team together I want half on the ship and half in the control room getting in contact with the Starshine! As soon as you get a connection I want to know! I want a team figuring out our supply situation and another preparing the ship for mobile suit loading. The rest of you start moving the dead down to the launch bays. We'll figure out what to do with them after I talk to Starshine." The Captain ordered over the crowd in a strong voice. "Remember to be back here at 2000 hours! Dismissed!" Everyone started scrambling around and leaving the room.