Midii looked over the map of the empty new city that the leading edge of Homeguard had procured for her and sighed. It was still mostly empty; the Belterre Provisional Government had laid in all of the groundwork for a good new city, but nobody had moved in just yet. She was really only interested in one section of the "city", the part nearest the capitol building and its famous lake. Cheney Lake was positioned in the southeast, and in front of it on the western edge stood the capitol building. Flowing out from the capitol building were the six mainstreets that divided up that section of the "city" spaced at even intervals. Obviously the Provies had plans for these main roads to be then sub-divided into smaller streets when the general population moved in but for now it looked like an imense grid of flat, even, paved roads with a lot of large feilds in between them and the occasional building poking up from the ground. Her scouts had reported that the buildings were mostly museums and memorials, interspersed with the occasional park headquarters or official government office building. Fat lot of good it did them.
She had her eye on the even. squared off mainstreets in front of the capitol building, three blocks in length another three in width; at
Twohundred and twenty-seven Havens with three-hundred fifteen heads perhaven not counting the children... she thought trying to wrap her mind around it. Even though she was a mobile suit pilot, numbers had never really come easily for her, that had been more Brysons area of expertise but wasn't there. Midii quickly darted her thought back to the serious business at hand before she could grow melancholy and get distracted.
There are roughly six Havens per sector, thirty three sectors in all. That gives me one hundred ninety eight havens plus another twenty-nine extras that don't fall into the even six. Each block is ten thousand square feet; I can divide each block in half and have one half per sector, that is five thousand feet to fit six Havens. Can I crowd that many in there? Three hundred fifteen people times six Havens that's...a little over eighteen hundred people plus the cell of Homeguard attached to each sector... There's no way I'll be able to do that with only nine city blocks, I'll need at least fifteen.
She widened the area another block in either direction making it five blocks in length and three blocks in width. She had cause to be glad that the designers had been so very anal retentive. With the mathematical precision that they had measured and laid out their empty streets it made it much easier to do this work. She estimated that everyone should be able to fit, five thousand surare feet divided by six gave each haven a bit over eighthundred feet to fit about three hundred people... it should be fine even with the need for public tents and family tents and fire pits and sanitary facilities and all the rest. Plust the feilds on either side of the capitol building to fit the rest would be more than large enough she hoped. The Coordinators could worry about that bit. She just needed to know where to start building the walls and hoe much of what section of where to mark off for each sector and each Haven to make things fair for everyone.
She mapped it out on her map, dividing each block in half and marking down a sector number for that half when she was done she had one whole city block left! She planted that in the middle and declared it public space. There; done.
The city that they were all about to comandeer came into veiw... well, actually it was night out so the only way they really knew it was there was by the periodic streetlamps lighting up the empty streets. Electicity to light an empty city; what a waste! The provies really couldn't live without their comforts could they?
Comforts? she thought as he mobile suit pulled into the center of the area she had mapped out for herself and she popped opent he cockpit to get a look arouns and stretch from the long journey. I don't know if I'd be comforted by looking out at a lighted ghost town. There's nothing here! Truth to tell, it was a little creepy.
"This place gives me the creeps," Biggs said over the com unit. The other members of the mobile force quickly agreed with him.
"You said it Biggs," Midii agreed after a moment. "But creepy or not, this place has got exactly what we need; open space, roads, sanitized water and the capability to be defended with a few adjustments here and there. Let's get started on unloading the supplies and setting up for the Havens."
"Aye ma'am!" they said in ackowlefgement and she set them out to measuring off half of each block and stringing a line to divide it then she had to call all of the volunteer sub-coordinators for a meeting to give them the general layout, and where each sector was assigned. The Havens could mark off their own territories themselves as long as they were fair to each other, and she would leave the management and set up of each haven to the respective coordinators and sub-coordinators.
Most Havens had taken one hundred of their strongest civilians plus four of their subcoordinators as volunteers so that they could be easily divided up into teams to tackle the different tasks required for set up. All they really needed to know was where their allotted space was and how much of it they got to work with so that they could mark off and get started. Since Midii judged they likely had it far better in hand than she ever would, she left them to it and went to go plan out her walls with her Homeguard. She wasn't there to micromanage anybody; if they said they had it, it was likely to be true. Even as she walked off to call a meeting with Homeguard she heard each of the four sub-coordinators call their individual Haven members for a meeting of who was on first and what was on second.
Her entire Homeguard was gathered on the well-manicured lawn directly in front of the Capitol building, that was where they were making their base of operations and if the Provies didn't like it they could "blow it out they bums." According to her calculations it was going to take approximately twenty-five thousand feet of wall to surround the little section of city that she and her people were currently taking over. She was going to let the lake account for some of the room because it would mean less work, she'd just assign their two pisces model suits to cover that exit. Still, that was a lot of wall to get done in a limited amount of time, with roughly seven hundred fifty pilots to do it with (she needed her support team to continue performing their specialized functions, such as medic, com, and mechanics to integrate the defense systems). She hoped that they'd managed to bring enough sandbags for the job.
She had the mobile suit workers use their suits to start unloading the heavy bulky stuff, such as the weapons cannons for the defense system and the long, heavy metal spikes that would reinforce the walls once they were done unloading they could use their mobile suits to start pounding in the spikes. The rest of the Homeguard was to split into two teams, one team would take shovels and sacks and start filling the sand bags with loose dirt from outside the area they'd chosen, and the other team would start forming a picket line to move the heavy sand bags to the various worksites. Midii had spaced out areas around the perimeter at regular intervals; everyone at these work stations would build the walls in a clock-wise direction so that the teams would have something to work forward to. It brought back memories of when she had helped to build the Havens, but now it was a little more efficient because they used a bit different methods. Using the mobile suits to build vertically and regular workers to haul the bags into place, the work went much faster. When a section of wall was built up as high as it could go, the mobile suit pounded in another metal length of rod into place to add more reinforcement and security.
Wearily she joined one of the picket lines, hauling heavy bags of sand and dirt in a swinging motion from the person on her left to the person on her right. It was exhausting work, and hard on the muscles, so Midii just let herself go numb. And hour or so later the teams switched off and Midii was allowed the reprieve of holding open the bag while one of her Homeguard members shoveled dirt into it. She'd likely spend most of the night doing this. It had been an exhausting day, but it was still just beginning.
And no sleep the night before? Cathy's right, I'm going to work myself to a wraith.
After three hours of hard labor, Midii was too tired to see straight. She called a halt to the work, told everyone to drop their supplies and hit the sack, the fun could just wait a few hours! She took one look around her before she caught the chain to the cockpit of her suit (which she would just sleep in instead of trying to figure out how to erect a tent when she was that tired). The groundwork had been laid already! The individual Havens had marked off their territory sections with pale stones and each had about three large tents already erected. It varied place to place of course but for the most part it was like an industrious little ant colony, pure organization and efficiency. She was impressed. No wonder everyone here had survived through the wars.
I wonder what the Provies will think when they wake up, look outside their windows and see all of this camped out on their front lawn? she wondered idely as she squirmed a little bit, and tried to ignore her tender aching shoulder and rib. Her eyes closed and she fell into darkness.
Trowa wasn't going to wait around there all night while his enemy and his sister slipped farther and farther away from him. As soon as the rest of the circus stopped and set up camp in the empty middle sector Trowa unlocked one of the transports and fished his prize motorcycle out of it. He had already called in a few favors owed to him. Once he finished tracking the Raiders down he'd call his friends at the Preventors with the coordinates and he'd get whatever back-up and supplies he might need.
The trail wasn't exactly difficult to follow, the rigs that the Raiders had stolen were very heavy, and the ground had been softened by the recent rainfall so the imprints left behind were quite clear. The moon was in its three quarters phase so he had plenty of light to see by, Trowa was just worried that he'd lost too much time in accompanying the rest of Midii's little tea party along to the capitol in sector twenty-nine.
He still couldn't believe that she'd denied his request. Stuff like kidnapping couldn't wait until a better time, especially if it was his sister. Trowa never hesitated, that was for certain. And Cathy was supposed to be Midii's friend! Some friend; "sorry you've been kidnapped by ruthless brigands, could you wait until a better time next time?"
The only thing that slowed Trowa down was the fact that the engine to his bike made noise so he had to stop periodically, cut the engine and listen about him to make certain that he didn't get within earshot of the camp and warn them of his coming. That would not only be bad, but incredibly stupid. He'd never hear the end of it if that ever happened; and if Midii had to come looking for him? Oh, that didn't even bear thinking about!
He wasn't kept waiting overly long fortunately. After two hours of tracking he spied a large warm yellow glow lighting up the face of a ledge behind it. Trowa had long since cut his engine, and stowed it in the woods. He slunk closer to get a better look at the unknown party and verify that they truly were the band he was looking for. A closer look confirmed it, they were definitely Raiders. Beside the campfires, like some kind of odd dragon hoard, was a large pile of parts for the Haven's ground to air defensive system and some other odd bits and ends. Obviously the Raiders planned to sell the parts on the black market; wise of them, systems like that weren't exactly common during this period of disarmament and the parts alone would likely fetch a very good price. Trowa counted seventy-three men in ill-fitting clothing sitting around drinking or gambling, and about fifteen people huddled in a knot down at the bottom of a cliff. He snuck silently closer, sticking to the shadows; the sentinels that had been posted were no match for his skills at silent observation. Sure enough, Cathy's tired and frightened face was among the first he recognized.
That settles that, Trowa thought. He'd hang around for a few minutes to take stock of who they put on sentinel duty and where they were; it would come in useful when he came to take them out later. Once he made his call; within minutes his back-up would arrive, they'd all go in there and clean up then he could take Cathy and get the hell out of this place. Trowa for one had no intentions of even sticking around in this country, he and Cathy could meet up with the other performers on the outside of this nations border he wasn't risking his only family again in the middle of a hotspot like this place had become. Since Midii was so unappreciative of his help, she could just learn to get along without him.
She keeps popping up, he thought in annoyance. Was he really that bothered by her? He wasn't certain what precisely it was about her that caused him to react the way he did. If it had just been a matter of their past together he would have simply forgiven it and gotten on with his life; after all they both did what they had to in order to survive and as a soldier and spy against OZ he really couldn't claim any superior moral or ethical standing. The problem was that Trowa knew himself well enough to know that it wasn't just a matter of their shared past; there was something else going on in his mind and he didn't like not knowing what it was.
She should have dropped everything to help rescue Cathy, but it's understandable why she didn't, he thought with his customary mild detachment. Everything was all logic now. She had at least a thousand other civilians in need of strong leadership and she couldn't spare a transport right that second. The needs of the many outweighed the needs of the few.
That didn't mean he agreed with her decision to effectively abandon Cathy to the Raiders however temporarily, but she had been right to point out that his resources to handle the mission were greater and more versatile than hers. It still didn't mean he liked the fact that she had denied his request when she had been right there; it was her fault they had had to be put into that danger in the first place.
He was still pissed at her for insulting his piloting and mobile suit fighting abilities, and he didn't know why he was so affected by what she'd said. Anyone else he would have just shrugged, said think what you want, and walked away. After all, he had won the day by a clear margin and it was difficult to argue with success like that. But Midii was different. She just wasn't...
She wasn't impressed by him.
Trowa was brought up short by that and had to pause to take stock for a few minutes. Was that what this was all about? It couldn't be, there was no way he was that trivial. Trowa didn't care what other people thought about him, as long as he fulfilled his purpose then opinions didn't matter; therefore Midii's opinion of him good or bad didn't matter. That was the end of it.
"And everyone else in this country is just trying to live out their lives in peace!" Trowa heard Cathy's voice raise defiantly above the general murmur of the camp. Trowa turned with a sinking feeling of dismay to see his sister staring down one of the Raiders with her hands on her hips and an indignant glare on her face.
"Why can't you be like everyone else in this poor country and just get along?" she demanded of him. The man, a full head taller than her looked amused at her audacity and gamely replied
"Because these people are just barely surviving. They can hardly keep themselves fed, clothed and sheltered; the government ignores them and instead of taking the initiative and doing something about it they just continue plowing on in their helpless dirt-grubber way. No one will ever get ahead if they never take any risks."
"But what you're doing is wrong!" Cathy argued. "You said yourself that they're just barely managing to survive, why do you have to steal from their own meager resources?"
"You actually think that we're interested in their stupid crops?" the ruffian inquired, looking scornful. "Raiders steal for profit love, not for vegetables."
"Then why do you keep attacking the Havens?" Cathy demanded irately. "There's no profit in it."
"Spooky," the ruffian said cryptically.
Oddly enough there was a little jeering from within the ranks of the Raiders. There were some cries of "it's just a story" and "it doesn't exist" and no-one's ever seen it" from around the fires. The ruffian turned to face his comrades.
"It does exist!" he insisted. "I saw it with me own two eyes, well, I saw something."
There was more jeering. He stood on his feet and shouted back
"It's the truth! That suit is out there and she know's where it is!"
"What suit?" the manager asked, interested for the first time. He was sitting next to Cathy trying to calm her down.
Yeah, what suit? wondered Trowa, his mind automatically flashing to the Gundams. They were the only renegade special suits that he knew of and there had never been any reports of any others. What if Sacred Omega?-
"A few years back this country was firmly under Alliance control," the ruffian said a little condescendingly to Cathy and the rest. Obviously he was enjoying having a "captive audience" ((urgh, bad pun)).
"They had bases set up and manned with weapons, they were running what small government there was; basically the Alliance owned Belterre much the same as it owned every other country in the world and the people her were just a subjugated as they were anywhere else. There was a small resistance faction calling themselves the Homeguard but back in those times it consisted of little more than a few old men in the backs of bars prating and yapping about the good old days."
"Yeah so?" Cathy demanded. "What does this have to do with a suit?"
"Shut up!" he said. then he continued.
"Well that all changed in about AC 193. The resistance faction fell under the leadership of a guy named Antonio Kenly, or the red fox as the Alliance came to know him. Under him the Belterre Resistance began to pick up steam, and fire power, but despite their clever tactics they still didn't have enough strength or power to oust the Alliance from this country for good. Oh they were a nuisance, and a clever one, but the Alliance was prepared to take on some acceptable losses to keep this empty space as their main battleground. Strategic location and all of that."
"Oh, is this where Homeguard came in?"
"The resistance was Homeguard... or at least it became Homeguard under the leadership of that little chit-"
"Hey! She's my friend! Don't talk about Midii that way!" Cathy snapped.
"You're her friend eh? Well..." The ruffian eyed her speculatively. "We've got a use for you then."
"I don't care," Cathy shot back defiantly. "I'm not helping you."
"Doesn't matter. We don't need your cooperation," he replied.
Trowa considered leaping in then and there. That sounded a little too much like a threat to him, and he wasn't about to allow it. The guy's next words caused him to pause
"You won't be harmed, we'll just trade you in for the girl."
"Trade me in?" Cathy demanded. "What am I, a car? Why do you want to trade me in? Isn't one hostage as good as another?"
"Not in this case girlie," the ruffian negated. "Sacred Omega is willing to pay a lot of money for anyone with any information that will lead them to the mysterious suit, spooky."
"You never did explain about the suit, just a lot of useless history," Cathy grumbled.
"Well if you'd have kept quiet I'd have gotten to it," the ruffian snapped back. "As I was saying anyway... The Alliance wasn't about to release its hold on Belterre despite the growing restless population and people joining up with the resistance. Fight as hard as they might, the resistance was still no match for the Alliance's military might; their bases were too well entrenched and guarded to heavily. All that changed suddenly and mysteriously. Overnight there were three bases hit within the same area; weapons and defenses were wiped out, the barracks were destroyed and it was left vulnerable to attack by the resistance. Within a week five more bases were hit, but no-one, not even the Alliance members knew what was destroying the bases."
"Sound's like a children's ghost story," Cathy said skeptically. "How do you know it was a suit if they didn't know what was attacking them?"
"A few of the resistance members scoping out the Alliance bases hoping to catch a glimpse of the renegade suit said they saw the outline of a silver mobile suit with a design like no-one had ever seen before, and it was blinking in and out of existence like some kind of genie teleporting here and there."
The mans comrades started jeering at him again. The guy turned back to his comrades with an angry look and said
"I'm telling you I seen it! It was there, in a great burst of light like some kind of supernova going off it just annihilated everything. None of the other suits could touch it, not even with their beam sabers and any firepower they threw at it got thrown right back at them with the force increased a hundredfold. A silver suit that appeared in a flash of blue lightning and then disappeared after the base was destroyed!"
There was more jeering, calls of "where's your proof" and "you've had too much old man" from the others around the fires.
"So what happened to the suit?" Cathy asked after most of the other Raiders had gone back to their drinks.
"No-one knows," the ruffian replied. "It just stopped attacking after all of the Alliance's bases were destroyed and they pulled out after the resistance got too tough for them to conquer easily. I suppose they must have had bigger fish to fry."
"When was that?" Cathy asked. "What year I mean."
"195 I think," the ruffian said with a shrug. "The important thing is that no-one knows what happened to it. That means that its probably still hidden somewhere, waiting to be found and used; and that girl... the Homeguard girl must know where it is."
Trowa would have shaken his head if he hadn't been undercover. The Raider sounded like some kind of pirate going on about buried treasure. One thing was sure, it wasn't one of the Gundams. There were only five of them that had descended from outer space during operation meteor... AC 193 was two years before operation meteor and there wasn't a silver Gundam.
"Why do you think Midii knows where it is?" Cathy said dubiously.
"Gut instinct," the Raider replied. "She was the faithful second of the red fox, his pet spy as a matter of fact. When he got killed in the line of battle she took over the reigns of power and led the resistance in his place. I think the suit belonged to the old man and when he died there was no-one left to pilot it but he entrusted the secret of the suit to his faithful pet."
"That's a pretty big leap in logic, how do you know that spooky and the resistance are even related?" Cathy pointed out.
Cath, you'd be able to get along with the devil himself if you thought you might be able to change him, Trowa thought. She was having a conversation with her kidnappers. He just hoped it wasn't the beginning of Stockholm Syndrome.
"Spooky destroyed every last Alliance base in Belterre, and after every attack the resistance was there to mop up the mess, of course they have to be working together."
Cathy didn't say anything else about the suit but instead asked
"How are you going to trade me in for Midii, and what about the others?"
"They don't interest me, I'll either kill 'em or let 'em go," said the Raider negligently. "Since we're in the middle of Belterre and Homeguard territory I'd have to bury them or hide the bodies to keep that little bint form coming after me and slaughtering us all wholesale. She does that if ya piss 'er off. They can find the little wench and tell her I want to trade you for her with no tricks."
"Last I checked Homeguard outnumbered you losers by about three to one and didn't you guys just get done fighting each other with heavy losses on your side? Even if you do trade me for her, her people will only come after her," Cathy pointed out.
"Not if we have the right backing they won't," the Raider said smugly.
"What's that mean?" Cathy asked.
Mental note; whenever I need information just send Cathy in to get it, Trowa thought. The Raider was singing like a cage full of canaries and he didn't even know it.
"Sacred Omega's the one what wants her," said the Raider. "Sacred Omega's willing to offer us protection and a fair sum of money in order to get her. We get her, we get paid and we get out of this place. Simple as that."
"It won't happen," Cathy said. "She's too important to her people, they'll never hand her over."
"It's not up to them, it's up to the girl, and the little chit's always been a sucker for her precious civilians. She'll come to us as soon as she hears one of her little friends are in trouble and nobly exchange her freedom for yours cause she's stupid like that."
"She's not stupid!" Cathy snapped. "She's just a better person that you are with more honor that you'll ever have!"
"Honor, idiocy, it's the same thing if you ask me. What's the point in stringing up alongside your friends when you can be out spending your cut and theirs too?"
"You're despicable," Cathy spat.
"yeah yeah..." he yawned. "I'll be despicable with a lot of money and a house in the islands while Sacred Omega's wringing the information they want out of your friend."
The ruffian got up from where he sat talking with Cathy, sauntered over to the rest of the hostages and ordered them to their feet. He gave each of them a note to give to the leader of Homeguard (provided they could track her down) with the information that they had Catherine and they wished to make an exchange of prisoners; her for Cathy. They would wait at such and so coordinates for asuch and so an amount of time and that if Midii wasn't there by then... they'd kill the girl.
The seven circus members captured by accident along with Catherine were set free and told to hurry to where the Homeguard was if they wanted to see their knife-thrower alive and safe in a few days.
At least he didn't shoot them, Trowa thought with a mental shrug. He'd just intercept the manager and the others on their way back, arrange for transport out of the country and then come back for Cathy. The meeting was in a weeks time anyway, he'd have more than enough time.
"Hssst!" Trowa hissed, once the small party of circus members was out of eye and earshot of the Raider camp. He stepped out of the woods and a few of them started in surprise. When they recognized it was him, noises of relief followed but when they would have expressed surprise and delight at seeing him there he motioned that they should keep silent and follow him. Trowa had found a place about a mile away that would make a good place to land a helicopter; the enemy wouldn't hear it from that distance and it could just fly dark.
A half hour later he had them assembled at the spot and called Wufei and Sally who were standing by to come and pick up the seven captives and take them to the spaceport in Demar while he went back for his sister and wrapped up the few loose ends left over. Wufei and Sally acknowledged him and said they'd be in the air in five minutes, and also that Lady Une was coming to meet with the girl in the morning. Trowa told the rest to wait for the rescue that would be along in a while. He walked back into the relative darkness to go and bring his only family away from harm.
Sneaking back up to the perimeter of the camp was as easy as before, easier in fact for many of the sentinels had fallen into a drunken stupor or passed out where they stood. Catherine was unharmed, guarded actually by the ruffian who had conversed with her earlier. Trowa was under no illusions that he was guarding her out of concern for her well-being; the man was the ruthless type and he'd kill her in an instant if it suited his purposes, no, he was merely protecting an investment. Catherine was nothing more to him than collateral for the future. Trowa was working out in his head the best way to infiltrate the camp and quietly get his sister out of harms way when he heard the sound of an aries engine approaching rapidly.
I didn't ask for an aries suit, he thought, puzzled for a moment. It had come up near the eastern perimeter of the camp and set down on top of the ledge that the Raiders were camped beside. Trowa noted the sign of infinity inside the omega symbol... Sacred Omega.
"Do you have her yet?" the person inside the suit demanded. He sounded impatient.
"Not yet, but we will soon!" the ruffian who had been speaking with Cathy earlier said. Trowa recognized a slight edge of desperation in his voice, that of a coward trying to deal with the real power from a position of disadvantge. No doubt the man in the suit heard it as well.
"I grow weary of your incompetence Anderson," the suit said. "You said you would have her the last time we met. The loan of ten mobile suits as a down payment is not cheaply made. You have yet to deliver on your part of the bargain. I hate liars. Do you know what I do to liars?"
"No... not really," Anderson replied with what was very obviously false bravado.
"I get creative," the suit said. "You don't want me to get creative do you?"
"It's not a lie! We're going to have her soon," the Raider said.
"You've said that the last two times we've met and you have yet to produce the prize or any sign of this local myth of yours."
"We have her friend, she'll come to us to get her back. All we have to do is wait."
"Show me," the suit demanded.
Oh...crap, Trowa thought in sudden dread. He pulled back from the perimeter searching for a way, any way to reach his sister before she was brought over to the mobile suit. He had to get her out of there, now, before things got really really ugly.
Too late. Cathy was brought forward and a cable suddenly shot out of the suit and snatched her up. She dangled for a bit while it reeled itself in. The gunports on the suit opened.
"We'll take the girl and arrange our own rendezvous. Now for your reward."
The Raider didn't even have time to turn all the way around much less run before the suit opened fire. It was a massacre. A pure and simple massacre. None of them could attempt to fight back and they were slaughtered like cattle, blood splattered everywhere as the bullets ripped through their flesh gouging out great chunks of their bodies leaving what was left of them to fall limply to the blood-soaked ground like marionettes with their strings cut. Within moments all was still. Catherine was too shocked and horrified to do anything but close her eyes, whimpering and crying. The aries suit took of from its position with its precious cargo secured. It was headed directly east, toward the Sacred Omega stronghold.
Shit, Trowa thought. This had not been his night. He knew why the Raiders had been attacking the borders now, they'd been working for Sacred Omega and trying to find this urban-legend suit of theirs. That didn't help him any; it didn't get his sister back. The only way to get his sister back would be to trade Midii for Catherine. Midii might go along with it... Lady Une was another matter. The Preventors did not negotiate with terrorists. That was the rule. Giving them what they wanted; especially getting someone who was by Preventors definition a civilian involved, was not an option for them. The preventors didn't currently have the firepower necessary to deal with a problem like Sacred Omega.
The only way to get Cathy out of that compound would be to arrange an exchange of prisoners. That meant he'd have to get the girl out of the middle of her people and do it without the knowledge of his superior. Midii for Cathy? It seemed like a fair exchange to him; Catherine couldn't defend herself, Midii had proved herself an able soldier. Cathy would be in constant danger, Midii could probably outwit them. She'd be fine. It would all be fine.
I don't think anyone else would go along with this however, he thought as he relocated his bike and sped off back in the direction of the capitol. Her people would try to stop me, that's for certain. Lady Une would take me off commission if she knew I was even thinking about what I'm going to do. But none of them know what it's like to loose everything; I have to get Cathy safe, that's all that matters now.
He knew what he had to do and he was seeing things very clearly. Midii still owed him and it was time he collected on that debt.
It was late morning when she awoke in the dim interior of her mobile suit cockpit. She was stiff from sleeping in an unnatural position on a hard surface despite the fact that her body was accustomed to it; and she was sore from the heavy labor she'd put in the night before. it had been quite some time since she'd odne sandbag work and her body wasn't accustomed to it so her muscles were complaining at her every time she moved them the wrong way.
She popped open the door and stepped out to stretch her legs. A lot of the camp was still asleep too; yesterday and last night had been very long for everyone involved so sleeping in was the only way to get any adequate sleep for the tasks that needed to be accomplished that day. Midii noted with some pride that a lot had been accomplished already in the few hours they had been there. Homeguard had twenty-one workplaces where the walls had started going up all around their big haven that would gather all of the other havens. In each of the blocks there were two main tents erected, each on one side of a divider. Around these main tents were the preliminary starters of the fire pits, just as in a real Haven; albeit much more tightly packed together. It was likely going to be a bit of a squeeze but everyone should be able to fit... she hoped.
It was one of those mornings where Midii awoke dreading the rest of the day. This day would be spent by Homeguard getting in a full days work on erecting the sandbag walls and the volunteers would be getting their respective Haven blocks ready to receive the next wave. In the Havens the civilians would be finishing up their packing, dismantling their tents and stowing their gear in preparation for the long trip the next day; many of them would in fact leave that night so as to allow not only for cover, but for a travel route that wouldn't be congested by too many people traveling on it at once. Most of the sectors in the south and east would be traveling up the river in man-made river barges. In the north along the coastline there would be massive rappeling down the cliffsides to a floating dock and from there they would board shallow draft sailing ships that would travel southward to the mouth of the river during the night and then flow upriver to teh north and east during the day. The river that most of the civilians would be traveling upriver on was fed by a spring there in the hills, the very same spring that the Capitol was located facing. Midii would have her Homeguard on hand that evening to assist with the unloading, plus the four coordinators and their hundred volunteers would be there to keep things running smoothly as possible by shouting out "people from this sector are assigned here!" and so forth.
There was a lot of work to be done before then however.
Midii amped up the volume on her suit to "loudspeaker" and pressed the prerecorded button for "wake-up call." The military horns soon echoed through the mostly unbroken stillness with the resounding amplitude of a thunderclap. It was nine in the morning, and they'd all gotten a good eight hours; that was more than enough time and everyone had a lot of work to do. Up and at 'em people. it took a few minutes but the camp slowly started to stir into life, mostly with a lot of black looks and rude comments in her direction.
"What is the meaning of this!" an unfamiliar voice shrieked from behind and far below her. Midii scrambled up onto the shoulder of her suit to peek behind her.
Oh. It's just them, she thought, unimpressed. There was a tall skinny man with an oiled mustache having an apoplectic fit on the steps of the capitol building. At his back were five other politiciany-looking fellows in various states of dress. Those were the leaders of the provisional government of Belterre; they certainly didn't look like much. So they had at last made their appearance, lazy chits.
"Good morning gentlemen, this is your wake-up call," Midii informed them cheerfully.
"Who are you?" the one in front demanded.
"I'm Midii Une, but I'm sure you know me as Number One of Homeguard," she replied. "Bet you're wondering just who we all are that have suddenly become camped out on your front lawn like some kind of massive woodstock festival. I'll tell you who we are. We are your constituents, you know... the little people. The ones you constantly ignore in favor of doing whatever the hell it is you're doing over here. We're taking over."
"You can't do that!" the politician protested.
"I've got a ninety-round gatling cannon in my weapons array that says otherwise," Midii replied. Her voice and manner was the kind of sanguine that only came with holding all of the cards.
"I'll have you arrested for this!" the skinny little politician shouted up at her. "This is treason!"
"It's only treason if I'm overthrowing the established order, but since my order is the established order everywhere else but in this little ghost-town of yours I'd prefer to call this... cementing my authority."
All the rest of the suits and fighters of Homeguard trained what weapons they had on the capitol building and with the seventy plus suits that had come with the first wave that was a lot of massive firepower.
"And as for the arresting part... any time you can find civilian in this country who's willing to take up arms against me, you're welcome to try it."
"The Preventors will hear of this you renegade terrorist!"
Midii didn't reply to this, but of course she didn't have to. The civilian forces of the Havens had gathered to witness this meeting between their protector and the Provisional Government that hadn't been doing the job it was supposed to. When they heard the name calling on the part of the useless pansy Provies they had a few things of their own to say. They didn't throw rotten fruit or anything; why waste food? They did however jeer loudly and tell them where to stick it in so many words. Midii let it go on for a few minutes to get the lesson to sink in... the Provisional Government might be the "official" government to the rest of the world, but they were not the government of the people. That meant that their so called constituents did not have to listen to them and could do whatever the hell they wanted to wherever the hell they wanted to and nothing the provies said or threatened was going to make them obey.
Midii watched with interest as the realization dawned on their faces. Midii couldn't help rubbing it in just a little, after all they deserved some rubbing for all of the times that they had ignored their people and refused aid to the Havens.
"That's right," she said, a little gleefully. The obnoxious look she'd perfected when she was younger was out in full force on her face. "We're tired of being ignored by you. You're supposed to be helping us and you do nothing but while away your time inside these stupid little dream castles of yours. Well it's time you woke up and paid attention. There's a real threat out there and it's a threat to all of us and if you won't do anything about it, then we will."
"But you can't just-"
"We can. And we're going to," she promised him.
The small group of seven men standing on the steps of the capitol building they had built in the middle of an empty capitol for a populace that was too scattered just trying to survive to ever see or appreciate it stared up at the young woman standing on the shoulder of the mobile suit with all the commanding presence of a queen on her throne. They stared and the speculated. Could she be the puppet ruler they needed to unite the people under them? Then they looked around at the forces spread out at her back, and the civilians who just as clearly looked to her for leadership and guidance and decided that whatever else she was capable of, being molded and ruled by them wasn't among them; she was far too strong-willed and likely intelligent to make a good puppet. She would have to be to command the attention and respect of the people in this sad beleaguered country.
"Now that that's taken care of," Midii said, turning back to face her people. "Let's get started on the real work. Havens, you know what you need to do; Homeguard, to the wall!" With that the assembled people snapped into sudden action. Like an army of industrious ants unleashed to build a colony.
The picket lines from the sand-bag-fillers to the wall builders were quickly formed and the teams manning the walls and slinging the sacks with practiced precision proceeded to build up the ten-foot high walls with alacrity. The mechanics from the Homeguard support teams were in the empty public center trying to organize their jumbles of parts into cohesive defense systems to be mounted on top of the walls when they were finished.
The rest of the civilians were busy digging latrines, erecting sanitary water facilities and showering tents set up at four corners around the central cook and mess tent/meeting tent, and planning out how to get every family around each fire-pit to fit in the amount of space they had. The layout for the capitol haven-groups would by necessity have to be different since the extra space between fire pits couldn't be spared. It was generally agreed that a form of long-house would best suit the occasion, with each family unit getting an allotted amount of space based on size and divided by makeshift curtains. They could set up the basic structure that day and build it with the supplies arriving that evening and the next day. Generally there were fifteen fire-pits in a haven and about twenty-one adults per fire pit or roughly five families in their tents ringed around the central pit. The long-house would take away the five or so feet of extra space between tents in a single fire group and between fire groups, but they were going to be difficult to heat since no fires were allowed inside a longhouse. They'd probably worry about that when winter got a little closer. Right now it was simply a matter of staying alive that long.
The Havens could take care of their own well enough, Midii bent herself to the task of swinging heavy bags of dirt from one persons arms to the next persons. She had more than enough problems of her own without borrowing from someone elses mess of trouble. If they had a real problem they couldn't solve, they'd no doubt bring it to her attention, until then it was their affair and not hers.
Lady Une looked around her with slightly raised eyebrows. Despite the warning that everyone was going to be moving very quickly, seeing this kind of industry in action was rather impressive. It was one thing to take a well-trained military force and make them mobile in a matter of days; it was quite another thing when there were a lot of civilians involved. As a general rule civilians were nervous, argumentative and inclined to panic; getting them to do anything that involved their rapid and wholesale displacement form their own surroundings even if it was for their own good was usually next to impossible. They'd generally stand there and argue with you about it for days trying to find another way, or simply fly off into a panic instead of listening to reason and from there the pandemonium spread.
These civilians took the young woman at her word that there was danger, reviewed the schedule she'd made for them and instead of arguing with her about it had found a way to make it work and were...making it work. They were all working together. Walls were being erected, small structures were being prepared, facilities were being organized and set up, camps were being made into orderly bivouacs. No one was running around in a panic, there was a lot of rushing but it was orderly, everyone had a job to do as quickly as possible and they were doing it; but there was a clear aura of control about the place, a sure knowledge that if there was trouble or a disagreement on something that there was someone with authority to settle it nearby and the matter would be attended to.
"I see it, but I almost don't believe it," Une muttered. "If someone had told me you could get civilians to act with this level of efficiency on something like this most military commanders including myself would have told you that you were crazy."
"These aren't normal civilians," Sally replied. She and Wufei had accompanied her on the meeting that the young leader had requested via Trowa earlier.
"How so?" Une asked.
"They're war refugees," Sally replied. "They're used to having to pack up all of their belongings and the essentials for survival and move at a moments notice to keep out of the way of advancing armies. They've been living sedentary in those Havens but I dare say that's what's made them so ready to work together; they know they have to if they're going to survive. "
"Most normal refugees don't care about each other," Une pointed out. "I've been through some refugee camps before once or twice. They don't usually care what happens to each other as long as they and their families survive."
"Maybe the difference is Homeguard then," Sally mused out loud. "The refugees in other countries usually come from everywhere, there is nothing that unites them and they live in fear; fear of the armies behind them and of each other who could prove to be an equal threat to their safety. These people are all from this country for the most part, and they all have a group of people that tries to protect them; that in turn tells them they're worth saving and protecting. Maybe Homeguard for all of these poor people does more than just the obvious."
"You're saying that Homeguard in this place is more than just an armed force set up to stop hostiles from invading their people," Wufei said, looking around him. "To a people who have nothing, any symbol of strength and hope is worth believing in. To a people with no where to go, anyone who will risk their lives to protect what little place they can call home is worth sheltering. It unites them all, no matter their background. Homeguard does more than provide aid and protection; it provides a common bond for everyone who suffers; a sign of rebellion, of saying that no matter how powerful the force that oppresses them there is still someone willing to stand up and fight for what's right. I wonder if she knows this."
"Perhaps," Sally said. "And perhaps not. It looks like you have something in common with Homeguard Wufei."
"As do you Sally," he replied.
They walked into the camp proper through one of the enormous gaps in the sandbag-walls that were still being erected and turned to the first person they saw that wasn't walking somewhere.
"Do you know where we can find Miss Une?" Lady Une inquired.
"Ummm..." the young woman said indecisively. "Last I knew she was helping to create a floating dock to make landing the people coming later tonight a little easier. Check over by the shore of the lake on the western edge."
"Thank-you," Une said and continued walking. They had come in through the north wall so the walk through the camp was illuminating. the structure of each camp was fairly obvious; a large tent in the middle, probably where all of the cooking and eating took place, four smaller tents on each corner of the apportioned space that Une could tell were sanitary facilities by the parts and equipment for collapsible showers and water purifiers lying just outside of them, then there were sixteen long house-like platforms with canvas walls and no roofs spaced at even intervals along the sides of the camps; four to a side. It was a remarkably organized and efficient layout. Lady Une was impressed.
On the very western edge of the... well, it wasn't quite a camp anymore, nor was it a single Haven but it didn't fit what Une would call a city either; she shrugged gather-haven perhaps? Anyway, there was an enormous capitol building standing right in front of the lake with all of the pompous officiousness of the Brussels presidential residency times ten. If a structure could exert a feeling this one would have been oozing self importance from every pore. The front doors were suddenly flung wide open and a small party of men dressed in the finery that the Romafeller aristocracy saved for special occasions strode out at a hurried pace. Once within hearing range the fellow in the lead boomed out with a voice that was a mixture of hearty welcome and harried relief.
"Preventor One!" the fellow greeted. "What a relief and a pleasure to see you arriving so quickly! I hadn't been expecting your agency to arrive with such alacrity, as I had just sent out the call an hour ago, otherwise I would have had a service prepared for your arrival."
Lady Une carefully schooled her blank expression from off her face; she had no idea what he was talking about and she didn't recall receiving a message from him or his colleagues but it wouldn't do for him to know that.
"Ah; hello. How may I help you gentlemen?" she asked. She didn't want to seem impatient even if she was; it wouldn't do to offend the "official" government of this country, she still had some few useful ties to Romafeller and she didn't want to jeopardize that.
"It is an outrage; an utter and complete outrage!" the tall skinny man burst out. "We woke up to see this... this... army camped out on our front lawn, our very lawn, this morning. Not only that but there was this insolent chit of a girl who didn't know he place acting as if they have every right to be here! She threatened us with her Mobile suits!"
What'sa matter? You can dish it out but you can't take it? Une thought a little sarcastically. She hated dealing with Romafeller, those self-important pompous assholes still thought they ruled the world. If Mister Trieze had been there he would have had those seven men wound round his fingers before they even knew what was coming.
Oh Mister Trieze, Lady Une thought a trifle longingly. She looked back with nostagia on the days when she had spent her life in his shadow. He would have handled the men with his natural ease, grace, style and skill and all she would have had to do was glare at them over his shoulder and attend to whatever matters he asked of her. They'd been a winning combination and Lady une missed him the most on occasions like this; she felt incomplete without him even after all of this time.
"I am sorry you feel this way mister..." she trailed off, trying to keep her expression neutral and helpful when she really wanted to grimice in dislike. The man's pompous attitude wasn't helpng matters any.
"DuLern," he supplied.
"DuLern then," she said. "I assure you, I am investigating the matter personally and will of course do what best suits the needs of the situation." There, it didn't commit her one way or the other, and it was all true, just probably not the ringing endorsement he was looking for.
"But madam I-" he started.
"If you'll excuse me, I have an investigation to run," she said and continued on her way without a backwards glance.
"With men like that in charge of the country, no wonder Homeguard and Miss Une is held in such high regard," Wufei muttered, not bothering to sieve his contempt for the man DuLern from his tone.
"And there she is now," Lady Une said pointing. A small group of about ten people in the midnight blue pilots coveralls that Homeguard favored and five people in regular civilian clothes hip-deep in the water constructing a floating dock out of various materials and actually doing a rather good job of it. These people were of necessity great improvisers. Midii and three others were hauling heavy water-filled barrels out of the water and tipping them over to scoop the wet earth out of them. Obviously somewhere along the way a plan or two had gone awry. They were soaked and involved in very heavy labor but Midii obviously wasn't one to stand aside and let others do all of the heavy work for her, she was right in the thick of things working just as hard as she asked them to work.
Someone blew a whistle and everyone clamored out of the water. once on shore they all caught hold of four or five mooring lines and began hauling, dragging the dock halfway on shore. From there most of the workers went to work securing the dock in position. Lady Une waited patiently for a lull in the work, and after a few minutes the weary team flopped onto the ground in exhaustion and opened up their canteens for a well-earned break. Sally strode over.
"Hey Midii!" she called with familiarity. "If you're not busy Lady Une's here for that meeting you asked for."
"Sally? What are y- Oh nevermind. I thought you guys wouldn't be able to make it for a few days yet."
"Well, we were in the area so we thought we'd drop by."
Midii shot Sally a look that clearly said "yeah right; pull the other one" and said to her
"In the area?"
Sally grinned. Midii rolled her eyes.
"I'm coming, just gimme a sec. I'm sorry I don't have the tent with me, I had to travel light. I'll have to kick everyone out of the public mess."
"Don't bother," Sally said. "We'll just commandeer one of the rooms inside the Capitol building. You can get warm and dry while you're at it."
Midii looked around her a little guiltily. "I'd love to say yes, but it wouldn't be right of me to. My people aren't warm and dry."
"Then let me put it to you this way; we agreed to meet with you," Sally said. "Last time you got to choose the location, now it's our turn. It would be rude of you to refuse your important guests the best hospitality you can offer; in fact it might even be considered by some to be a very grievous insult."
"I hadn't thought of it that way," Midii said. "But I'm afraid the hospitality isn't mine to offer. That building doesn't belong to Homeguard."
"It's the capitol of Belterre, and are we really going to stand out here on the front lawn arguing about it all day? It's cold out and you're beginning to shiver. You'll catch your death."
"But I-" she began to protest, gesturing to her people sitting nearby, indicating that she still had a problem with leaving them out there.
"Go on," the nearest one said. "You have important stuff to do. The building might as well be yours anyway, lord knows we now own the rest of the city and if we want to use the capitol building who the hell are they to tell us no?"
"So you're saying this is another attempt to prove who's master around here?" Midii said wryly to the man who'd spoken up.
"Yeah," the man said. "It might do them some good to see that they don't have complete control even inside their little castle. Call it an object lesson."
"Alright then, as long as you square it with everyone," Midii said. "Biggs, I leave it to you."
The conversation between the two women sharing the last name Une was all business on the way in, numbers of civilians, accommodations, schedules, estimated finishing times on the walls and on the camps as well as the defensive arrays were the main topics. Once inside Lady Une took charge of a comfortable sitting room and rang for tea and a healthy lunch. While they waited for it yet more business was discussed. Sally leaned in and took a closer look at Miss Une; her eyes were bloodshot, her uniform rumpled and her face nearly grey with exhaustion.
"You look like hell," Sally said bluntly.
"Hell would be an improvement," Midii said tiredly. "I feel exhausted and the fun's just started. My muscles are sore from hauling sandbags and I can't seem to get any decent sleep. I wish this were over with already."
"If wishes were horses, beggars would ride as my great-grandmother always said," Sally replied.
"I'd ride somewhere far away from here where nobody would ever call my name when they can't figure something out," she grumbled.
Sally chuckled and said
"I doubt it, you and I both know that your sense of responsibility is too great to allow that." Midii sighed and nodded wryly in agreement.
"So," Midii said after a long pause in which they waited for lunch to finish being set up by the butler before they got down to business. "Sally has mentioned that you were a military commander, who did you serve under?" The young woman was apparently making polite conversation, or what passed for it; it was a little too personal to be truly considered idle.
"I was under the direct command of Treize Kushrenada," Une said candidly. Midii raised her eyebrows, impressed. Une was a little gratified, even in this backwoods where news of anything didn't usually penetrate they had apparently heard of the name Treize Kushrenada.
"So all of this going on out here must be pretty familiar to you then," she said. Une couldn't be sure but it sounded like Midii was trying to lead her somewhere with this. "All of the people running around trying to mobilize and prepare to recieve a lot of civilians I mean."
Une nodded cautiously in reply and said
"Yes, somewhat. I have run a few operations on Mister Trieze's orders where a lot of people had to be moved in a very short amount of time, operation daybreak comes to mind but that was a military coup. The fact that you're attempting and succeeding with something like this when it involves a lot of civilians and very limited resources is something I must commend you on."
It's not just me," Midii protested immediately. "It's not even mostly just me. Most of the really tough organizing parts are being done by the coordinators and sub-coordinators. I'm only in charge of getting everyone there safely and setting up the defenses so that they have a safe place to arrive at."
"Only, she says," Sally said dryly. "As if that weren't enough. What you're doing here and what you've done and even the fact that you recognized that there would be a need for immediate action to counter a possible threat is extraordinary make no mistake. There are a lot of military commanders, and I mean a LOT of them, who would have simply waited until Sacred Omega began to move just to see if they really intended to attack them after all and only then would they have started doing something... when it was already too late."
"I'm not a military commander," she protested, pinkening a little in embarrassment at the praise. "I'm just someone who got stuck with all of this and I'm trying to do my best. If it were up to me I wouldn't even be here; but the fact is that there really isn't anyone else, or at least there wasn't until now... oh darn, I'm putting this badly."
Une waited patiently.
"You see, back when Homeguard was just the Belterre Resistance, I was only an ordinary soldier. Actually, I was the Red Fox's best spy; I'd been trained by the Alliance you see but when they left me out for dead after my mission I came back to the only place I could call home. The Resistance took me in. They never asked more of me than I was willing to give."
"And the Alliance did?" Sally surmised, compassion written on her face. "If it's any consolation you're not the only one who's been compromised or even screwed over by them. But that's all in the past."
"Yes, but in this case it has some bearing on the present, not much but it is my story."
"Then hurry up with it," Wufei huffed impatiently. Midii childishly stuck her tongue out at him and continued on.
"I joined up with them originally just to get back at the Alliance, but then after meeting and getting to know Tony I started believing in our cause, they made me feel like I was worth something again, like I was worth believing in too. I fought beside them, took their cause as my cause; I even played emissary to all the other little pocket resistances that had sprung up around the country. So when he died in a battle against the Alliance the Resistance would have disintegrated into nothing because of infighting from within so I took over by might or by right and finished up with the work he'd wanted done. That's when I discovered that merely getting rid of the Alliance didn't change anything, not really. Belterre was still a broken land, its people were scattered its leaders fled, its cities in ruin. If I was ever truly going to create the Belterre he'd so lovingly described to me all those times over a campfire I'd have to... at first I didn't know what I'd have to do, but after meeting with the other resistance members we agreed that the civilians of Belterre were the reason we were fighting, so we'd have to find a way to provide some measure of protection for them.
That's how Homeguard was started and how it got it's name. Now as you can see were a small force to be reckoned with but I worry that... I worry that..." Midii trailed off, unable to articulate what she wanted to say. She looked to Sally for help in figuring it out.
"You're worried about the future," Sally said. "You know that your Homeguard gets along fine now and always delivers in the face of a crisis but you worry that one day its force may become too great and it will follow the path of the ones it sought to defeat, as it historically so often does."
"Yes. I know we can't afford to disband our weapons now, not in the face of threat by Sacred Omega, but I would like to know that someday we will be able to. I don't want an army. I did not overthrow one form of dictator just to become another myself!"
Lady Une smiled slowly.
"SO what are you saying then?" she inquired gently.
"You have experience that I lack," Midii said slowly. "I more or less got stuck with this job, I didn't really want it and I don't think I'm qualified for it. I have a lot of passion, and some ideas but I don't know... I don't know the mechanics of it. I don't know the kinds of things that a leader should know how to do, I don't know what I'm doing. I'm just flailing about in the dark hoping that I manage to hit something."
"I think you've done very well so far," Lady Une said. "I don't know many people twice your age with three times your experience that have the kind of respect that you command. You've gotten thousands of people to pack their things and relocate in a massive stream solely on your say-so alone."
"But I don't know what I'm doing!" Midii said. She sounded a little on edge, and a little panicked. Obviously this had been building up for quite some time. Lady Une understood, a position like hers would be stressful for a fully grown adult and Midii was still by the legal definition a child even though she had ceased to be a child long ago.
"What am I supposed to do once everyone gets here? What if I can't be what they need? I'm not ready for this, I don't know how to do it. I'm not old enough or smart enough I can't..." Midii paused. "I have something else I need to do so i need to ask a big favor of you."
"What's the favor?" Une inquired.
"Share command of Homeguard with me," Midii said bluntly. "I know it's asking a lot of you and you're probably already very busy saving the world but I need... guidance. I can't do this alone."
Une was taken aback. There weren't a lot of teenagers out there who would admit to themselves much less anyone else that there was something they couldn't do. There were a lot more adults who, once put in a position of power and control, guarded that power jealously and obsessively and lashed out at anyone who might jeopardize that power. To find someone so young who was humble enough and wise enough to ask for help when she knew she needed it was... very rare indeed.
"If you like you don't even have to stay here, you can delegate it," Midii hurried on, trying to make it as palatable as possible so that Une would give her the help she wanted. "I trust Sally, ad she has a lot of the experience I need, so if you don't want to stay here-"
"It's alright," Lady Une said soothingly. "I accept your offer for joint command but understand that I will be bringing some of my own people in."
Midii nodded quickly. Une nearly closed her eyes. If such an offer had been made to anyone less scrupulous than she, it would certainly have led to disaster. With Lady Une able to move her own people and weapons into powerful positions she would have been poised to make an easy coup if she had so desired.
"Under one condition you may move your people in," Midii stipulated. "The weapons remain on the outside of Belterre's borders."
Or not, Une thought. The young Miss had probably experienced enough of that kind of treachery firsthand that she was wise enough to know what to watch out for.
"If we leave our weapons outside this country's borders we will not be able to retrieve them in time to mobilize against Sacred Omega," Lady Une countered.
"I would lend you my weapons and fighters on a temporary basis for this fight but unfortunately we have much here in the capitol that wil require our attention and resources. If you wish i will grant you permission to use the area outside of the city as your staging area. In fact, I will give you maps of terrain, secret resources and aid you in whatever way that I can. There are a few secrets that this country has kept that I believe will certainly come in handy. The fighting you will have to do yourselves but I will have my agents keep abreast of enemy progress and numbers as best we can and report them back to you. In addition to this if there is anything I can do for you with my limited resources and man-power I will do it."
Une paused, trying to think of something to say. Her gesture showed a lot of trust and a very real willingness to aid the Lady in all matters pertaining to defense. Such cooperation between Earth Sphere and local forces was almost unheard of; either the local forces acted like territorial dogs and resented the Preventors for stepping on their turf and meddling in their affairs or they were obsequiously, fawningly grateful for Preventors assistance but underhandedly conducting their own investigation so that they would be the ones to get all of the credit and the glory.
"I will... consult on this matter," Une said, pausing and then signaling Sally and Wufei that she wished to speak with them privately. They went outside the door and down the hall and then huddled in a three person group.
"What do you think?" Une inquired.
"I don't like it," Wufei said immediately. "She's entirely too eager and willing to accommodate us without our weapons and sole means of defending ourselves."
"She must know that we have more than enough resources and personnel to launch an offensive and free our people in the event she should attempt to take us hostage," Sally countered. "Besides, I've worked with her before a couple of times. I think I know her well enough to say with certainty that she's not interested in practicing something that underhanded."
"How can you be sure?" Wufei questioned.
"I can't be of course and neither can you. But this is what my instincts are telling me; she's scared deep down whether she'll admit it or not. She's tired of trying to do everything herself when she isn't sure what she's supposed to be doing. She just wants help. It's help that we can give her."
"What about DuLern and those others," Wufei argued. "They're supposed to be the leadership around here."
Sally shot him a scornful look. Wufei smiled a little then shook his head.
"Okay forget about them, they're about as useful as a second nose," he said. "More of a stumbling block than a stepping stone. What's our plan?" They looked to Lady Une.
"We'll take the girl up on her offer. It's simply too good to refuse. Since she evidently trusts Sally, I'll assign the two of you here as official liaisons along with myself because I think she might come to Sally with a problem that she would be hesitant to approach me on."
"Those old resistance ties and all," Sally said wryly.
"I'll be staying to ready a staging area to launch a preemptive strike on Sacred Omega as soon as possible. I'm sure mister DuLern and the others will be quite dismayed to find that we've sided with the problem that we were supposedly sent in her to get rid of," Une said looking amused.
"Screw 'em," Sally said bluntly. "Losers."
"I do believe you've been hanging around Wufei too long dear, you're becoming just as blunt as he is," Une said.
"What does that mean?" Wufei demanded. The two women just smiled and walked back in to the conference room to tell Midii the good news.
"I'm drowning in estrogen," Wufei said woefully.
Next time on Legacy: In which Trowa convinces himself to go through with his plan…..
Shut it, he told his conscience. She needed protection about as much as she needed a second head, wit his luck a twin head with a mind of its own would be just as stubborn, suspicious, second-guessing and annoying as the original was.
His conscience replied to that thought with a reminder of how ruthless Sacred Omega could be. The massacre just showed the thoughtless waste of life they were capable of; if they were capable of open butchery without remorse it stood to reason that they could do worse.
She looked like someone he'd fight to protect. Trowa closed his eyes. This was wrong, she didn't deserve this, no-one could possibly deserve this. Midii...
He leaned her against his shoulder and snapped the manacles around her wrists, then proceeded to methodically tie her ankles with cord. He'd already made his choice and he was going to follow through with it.
And makes a startling discovery about himself….
He wanted her to notice him. He wanted her to feel differently about him than she felt about anyone else, wanted her to feel that he was special.
Midii suddenly leads a tortured existence….
"I see," the man said, frowning. "Well in that case, I suppose we're truly enemies."
"You doubted?" Midii replied, with another obnoxious look.
"Tell me about this Spooky I've heard so much about."
"It doesn't exist, that's all I can tell you," "Perhaps there is a way to change your mind."
Bertha hauled out a long, wiry, flexible length of cordage. Midii's unswollen eye widened. A nerve-whip. I won't break, she thought urgently. I can't break. For everyone's sake I have to stay strong.
And makes a startling discovery.
"Come on Michael," she urged. "Help me get out of these cuffs. This isn't the time to be standing around, someone's going to notice you're here."
"Midii," he said seriously, walking closer to her. "I can get you out of here."