The new pilot was the first onto the catwalk. Dannie paused only a second to pull a small knapsack from a hidden compartment before shutting the hatch. One would have thought that the pilot was hiding a secret in the cockpit.

Howard was there to greet the new arrival. Giving him a once over, the old man raised an eyebrow questioningly.

"Don't..." Was all the pilot said.

"They'll find out sooner or later, Dannie." Howard replied with a shrug.

"Better later." Was all Dannie had time to say before Quatre came up behind Howard.

"I'm glad you're alright." The blonde said with a smile, extending his hand to the newcomer.

Dannie looked at his hand for a moment before shaking it, keeping silent.

Duo came up from the other side. "Nice entrance, tyro," he laughed, slapping Dannie on the back.

"Tyro?" Trowa asked.

"Novice?" Duo shakes his head, having expected the others to know the meaning of his banter.

Heero walked on past the little gathering on the cat walk, not caring to stay in the company of others longer than he had to. Wufei, however, was curious of the new pilot's identity. "Are you going to live in your helmet?" He asked, after taking off his own.

A tense silence passed, broken only when Howard laughed nervously. "Dannie isn't much of a talker."

"That doesn't mean you have to hide in your helmet." Duo said, poking at the visor covering Dannie's eyes.

Dannie's response was very much like what Heero's would have been. Batting away Duo's hand, a grumpy 'Hn' as the only verbal reply, the quiet pilot walked away to go find himself a quiet room.

"Bah, he'll come around." Duo said with a shrug.

"Eventually." Quatre's tone was hopeful.

At dinner, Dannie decided to make an appearance at the table. Helmet and flight suit off, he now wore a baggy gray sweat suit and a baseball cap pulled low over his eyes. He talked less than Heero as the food was being served.

Even Duo was quiet for the beginning of the meal. Everyone was thinking about the overwhelming force that had been heading towards them before they had pulled out. It had been a solid wall of soldiers in a new type of mobile suit. The odds were daunting.

"War is a terrible thing." Quatre said quietly, pushing his potatoes around on his plate.

"You get the most of what you need least." Duo replied half heartedly.

Another stretch of silence passed. This time it was broken by Dannie. "After dinner we need to meet in the briefing room."

"Which is here," Wufei told him, "once the table is cleared."

"Oh..." Lowering his head and hiding his face further, Dannie went back to his meal.

"Why?" Heero's ice blue eyes seemed almost capable of seeing through the baseball cap Dannie hid beneath.

"Enemy Tactics," was mumbled into his glass of water.

Silence reclaimed the room until the end of the meal. Dannie helped Quatre clear the table before disappearing down the hallway.

"I thought we had to discuss tactics." Duo was grumpy. He still hadn't gotten as much sleep as he would have liked.

"Maybe he went to get something." Wufei offered. Duo simply shrugged and leaned back in his chair.

A minute or so later Dannie returned from his room. Under one arm was a laptop. Held in the other hand was a disk in a paper sheath. The laptop was dropped rather unceremoniously onto the table. He seemed aggravated as he pulled the little switch that powered up the machine, and stuffed the disk into the slot. After a few moments of typing, he turned the screen around so the others could see. On the screen was a basic, three dimensional model of an area of space. Six red dots took up the center of the model. "Strategy."

"Dots..." Duo laughed. "What do the dots stand for?"

"Us." He replied curtly, reaching around to hit a key. "White is the enemy." Knowing how the sequence ran once activated, Dannie described it as it played out. "Small, straight on attack. Flanks close in on either side, above and below. A Reserve force closes in from behind."

"Leaving us trapped." Quatre said dismally.

"The strategy's been around for centuries." Duo frowned. "And something lasting that long has to work."

"When you have the numbers." Trowa shook his head.

"Any way out?" Heero posed a simple question, with an unwelcome answer.

"Avoid it." Dannie shrugged slightly, considering a second option. "Concentrated, brute force."

"Does this program have actual battle data uploaded to it, or is it just a demonstration?" Quatre was already thinking tactics, his brain wrapping around the problem of overcoming a strategy proved by centuries of use.

Dannie slid the laptop over closer to him, and handed him the slip cover of the CD. On the back was a list of shortcut keys for the program. "Keep it for a while."

Quatre nodded, looking at the screen rather than at the owner of the laptop. "Hmm...I'll get this back to you later, Dannie."

Their next encounter with the new enemy served them heavy losses. Most of all, Dannie's suit sustained massive damage. They won, barely, and were forced to limp back to ship to nurse their wounds. Quatre and Duo had made it to the catwalk first, and both waited below Dannie's suit for the others.

Dannie's hatch opened less than an inch before the gears and mechanics began to protest and strain. It closed itself before attempting to open again. Even a third try yielded no gain.

"You alright in there Dannie?" Duo called to him, somewhat concerned.

An affirmative, followed by muffled curses were heard from inside the suit before the hatch closed again. There was a tense moment while the boys waited for their fellow pilot to emerge.

Passing by, even Heero paused to see what the matter was. "Dannie's hatch is stuck" was as much of an explanation as he stayed for before walking by.

A small hatch a few feet below the cockpit opened itself, revealing a service hidey hole stuffed full of wires and electronics. Dannie literally fell out of the opening once the door was no longer there to bear his weight.

Duo was the first to react, and also closest to Dannie. Stepping forward, he caught the pilot as best he could. Duo ended up head butting him in the chest, but still managed to keep him from sustaining any injuries. "I think you need to take a trip to the infirmary."

Dannie groaned, trying to right himself and disengage from Duo's arms.. "I'm fine..." Coughing, he backed away from the others, and right into Trowa.

"Take off your helmet. It's easier to breathe that way." Before Dannie even had a chance to protest, Trowa had removed the headgear.

Everyone except for Trowa caught sight of, for the first time, the pilot's entire face. Dannie's features were harsh, but extremely feminine. Eyes the color of coal flashed wide for a moment before he turned away from everyone. Snatching the helmet from Trowa, he strode off in the direction of the infirmary. Half way to the end of the catwalk, he collapsed.

Ever present, Howard seemed to appear out of nowhere beside Dannie. "One of you boys want to help me here?" He called, kneeling down beside the fallen pilot.

Wufei had sustained the least damage, and had been the only one to finish off his breakfast. Nodding to the others, he jogged over to Howard and Dannie. "Let me help."

Heero sat in his bed, staring down at a deep gash he had received when his suit had been slammed by a missile barrage. A roll of gauze was held in the hand of his other arm, being spun around impatiently. The would was in an awkward position, and he wouldn't be able to bandage it properly without help. He hated asking for help. It was like sticking his neck out and handing his enemy a sword. It showed his weakness, and that was unacceptable.

"Hey Heero." Duo's voice broke his train of thought. "Nasty cut there. Want some help with it?"

"Hn..." Heero needed the help. Better to let the braided boy think he was just being thoughtful rather than doing something necessary. Heero tossed his roommate the gauze.

Catching it, the American sat down next to him on the bed. "There's something odd about Dannie." He said out of the blue as he began wrapping Heero's arm.

"He's different from us."

"And the Gundam. It seems so...basic, Ill equipped. Nothing but the beam sabers and a couple missiles." Duo shook his head, letting his hands fall after tying off the gauze. He didn't move from the bed though.

"There is some sort of rechargeable energy weapon embedded in the arms." Heero did wonder why it had taken the scientists so long to complete this final, yet seemingly simple, design.

"Maybe it has a different control system?" Duo was stalling now. There was something bothering him about the pilot and the gundam, but he was at a loss as to what it was.

"Possibility." Heero narrowed his eyes at the side of the other man's head. He'd been sitting unnecessarily close to begin with, and now he remained. Duo always managed to confuse Heero's sense of independence.

"I finally got to see Dannie's face today. When he got out, Trowa took off his helmet." Heero listened in silence as Duo went on. "Looks a little like you, only more girlish. A lot more girlish. That's probably the reason he's been hiding his face so much. If I had seen him for the first time in his flight suit, without the helmet, I would have thought he was a girl."

Heero shook his head, taking the gauze as he stood up. "Everyone has their reasons."

Professional soldiers are predictable; the world is full of dangerous amateurs.