Battle Field: Earth
Chapter Four: Hi, My Name Is Gabriel
By: Sci-Fi Raptor
Disclaimer: See chapter one.
Secret Location, Africa
February 2002:
"Talon 00 to base," Gab said on the military frequency. "Mission complete, I am returning home." He activated his autopilot and looked around his canopy. He was still at a low altitude, so he could see the softly rolling savanna of the African plains. Since he had such great vision, he could also see a lioness stalking a herd of unsuspecting prey to his West. To his East were a few birds flying together playfully. A few seconds later, the sound of anti-aircraft artillery and explosions from 1000-kilo bombs dominated the landscape and ended as abruptly as it started. The birds were nowhere to be seen now; they might not even be alive…
Bravo group had successfully finished its bombing run. Most likely, however, Bravo group was also shot in the process. But Gab didn't care, his mission was over and his payment en-route.
After some time, flight group Alpha made their way to their landing strip while Gab headed for his landing zone. He had been lucky so far; no one had attacked him yet. When a Mercenary is done with a contract, no one cares where he lives or dies.
Fortunately, no one cared either way. Maybe he had just left the combat area too quickly for the enemy to acquire him with their radar, or maybe it was just his sophisticated equipment: ECM1, an IFF Jammer2, and radar absorbent paint3. It had cost him a fortune, but Gab always believed that if you had something, you should use it, his case being the not-so-small fortune he had acquired over the years. In a little over half an hour, he could see the cargo ship that was waiting his arrival. He slowed down and used his aircraft's VTOL4 abilities to land on a cleared section of its deck. He quickly got out so that the crew could cover and hide it from prying eyes in the sky.
"I see you have some back unharmed, Talon 00," the ship's captain greeted as soon as he could find Gab. In his business, you didn't have a name, only a call sign.
"Yes, Captain Mulligan," Gab said coolly.
Business-like, the captain continued, "You have received a letter from Japan. It has been left in your bunk. Of course, the air carrier charge has been added to your bill."
"Of course," Gab said bitterly and made his way back to his bunk.
Of course, the letter was already open, but fortunately its contents were still there. Gab was not naïve. He knew what people were like and prepared accordingly. The letter was in a code that was so advanced that a human had yet to break it.
He translated it then to read it to himself. It read:
TO: Agent 1
FROM: ---
Japan, Nekomi Tech.
Ram Jet. Prof. Kakuta
1400 hours.
2500 hours.
Directions attached, residence at your discretion.
Mission Termination Date: ASAP
Campaign Expiration Date: December 31, 2002
He flipped the stapled sheets and saw a bunch of symbols that looked like the artwork of a 2 year old. But the reality was that it was the encoded version of the directions that he was given.
"Might as well get started…" Gab said with a sigh. He started decoding the first few symbols: Nekomi Tech…
Nekomi, Japan
Late September 2002
Morisato Residence:
It had been three months since he left. One month since his last letter. In the beginning, he wrote everyday, then every week. And then they just never came anymore.
Skuld got the picture. What emphasized the picture was the fact that he kept on showing off about his new girlfriend like she didn't matter to him anymore.
Sentaro had obviously moved on; why hadn't she? I could just pay him a little visit… Skuld brooded. She was almost to the point where she was actually going to go through with it, but her robotic creations got hold of her first; literally. Senbei and Sigel grabbed her by the arms and dragged her outside.
"What's wrong you two," she said, squirming. "Let go!" she commanded. Sigel momentarily hesitated, but continued on.
"At least tell me where you're taking me," Skuld said angrily.
"We're taking you on a walk through the park," Sigel said.
"And why is that?" she demanded.
"Simply, you've basically been cooped up in your room making Almighty knows what, and you haven't seen the sun for weeks."
"Well, you could've just asked…" she groaned. Sigel stopped abruptly, shortly followed by Benpei.
"See, I told you we should've just asked," Sigel said accusingly. "Why did I even listen to you!" Benpei drew a tear on his face as if to say 'sorry.'
Sigel replied roughly, "Don't give me any of that-"
"That's enough!" Skuld said, finally unable to stand anymore. "Whatever. Benpei, transform to bicycle mode. Sigel, you ride with me."
"Thank you for giving me the honor," Sigel said, bowing. They both got on Benpei, but before they left, Sigel warned Benpei: "You better not get any ideas…"
Nekomi, Japan
Late September 2002
A Local Park:
Three hours later, Skuld and Sigel started walking back to the parking lot where Benpei was parked. Skuld originally wanted to walk with both of them, but whenever the two were within a meter of each other, things somehow got heated.
Since Skuld opted to actually rest that day, she decided that she would only go with one of them. She decided Sigel not because she was a girl but because she hadn't really spent much time with her and she felt that if she did talk, it would be easier with a girl (though Sigel wasn't exactly a girl, but was in somewhat of a similar situation).
Skuld and Sigel spent the day together walking around the park, eating ice cream and watching the sunset from the lake. In what felt like minutes, three hours went by and Sigel grew anxious of leaving Benpei alone for too much longer… not that she cared about it (not openly at least --).
As they approached where Benpei was parked, they saw a kid maybe one or two years older then Skuld inspecting Benpei, talking to himself. She could only see his backside, but she could tell he was about six feet tall and had light blonde hair, cut military style, which was slightly darker then his lightly colored skin.
Sigel was about to charge in and attack, but Skuld stopped her. Instead, she told Sigel to amplify the sound enough for her to hear, but no one else. She started listening in on what he was saying to himself:
"Wow… who would've thought that a gyro of that size could stabilize so much mass? The only way is if its rotational speed was over 5,200hz. Holy! This is ceramic armor. How could a civilian make something like that?"
From what Skuld heard so far, she liked the guy. At least some people have sense here, Skuld thought glumly. Then her mood became depressed as he started pointing out other things.
"This servo shouldn't have this high a gear ratio. These leg servos have too small a gear ratio. But the abdomen, at least, is just right. But then again, the abdominal cage isn't circular enough to provide structural integrity proportional to the strength of the armor! It'll just crumple up when it's hit too hard, which probably isn't much in the first place."
Sigel rose from her place and went forward to confront the person who was belittling her beloved master's work (even if it was Benpei).
"Excuse me," Sigel said impatiently when the person didn't notice her standing next to him.
"Oh, I'm sorry," he said, finally noticing her. "I didn't notice you there. Is this, by chance, yours?"
"Well, it's my master's, who created both of us. And all that stuff you said, my master fixed it all when she made me. Benpei is just a out-of-date piece of metal," she said, pointing at Benpei. "I, on the other hand, am the epitome of cybernetic genius. There is nothing in me that isn't perfect!" she said enthusiastically.
"Except you aren't equipped with breast missiles," he said out of the blue.
"What?" she said, blushing, "How did you know that?"
"I was correct in my assumption then? This creator of your thinks very similarly to how a person I used to know thought."
"And who would that be?" Skuld asked, finally joining the conversation. For some reason, there was something wrong about this person.
"A person who passed away," the guy said, sobering. He turned to her and looked at Skuld in surprise. He held his hand out. "Hi, my name is Gabriel, but most people call me Gab."
1. ECM - Electronic Counter-Measures
2. IFF (Identify Friendly Forces) Jammer – confuses an IFF transponder and makes the user of the IFF jammer appear as either neutral (civilian) or friendly. (Mechwarrior 4, Mercenaries)
3. Paint used of steal aircraft that absorbs radio frequency EMR (electromagnetic radiation).
4. VTOL – Vertical take off and landing. Aircraft like the Harrier have the ability to move directly up (like a helicopter) and then gain forward momentum (I think, but I know for fact they can go straight up or down).
I looked for "Hello Girl's" name and I saw that Skuld called her 'Sigel' in Volume 19, Chapter 118, page 177. I wrote this chapter earlier, but then I happened to stumble on this little fact, so don't go and think I'm obsessed or an otaku or whatever. It was cool when I finally discovered it since it seems that a lot of people don't even know she has a name! (When I typed this)