Chapter 15
U.C. 0094.2.4 1000 EOST
Conference Room, Calyx Military Port, Palau, L4
"Aten-chun! Supreme Commander on deck!" The gruff voice of the guards echoed around the metal walls of the conference room as they opened the door for me. There was a clatter of chairs and of boots on metal as the room's twenty-two occupants rose from their chairs and saluted me in the Zeon fashion.
"At ease." I said, quickly stretching a return salute and taking my own seat at the head of the oblong table that was used for the massed meetings. Although considering that this was the second meeting of such a nature then maybe it was better to say that . The varied ranking officers that made up the Neo Zeon High Command promptly retook their seats, waiting for me to give this meeting its formal start.
"Ladies and Gentlemen." I said, propping my forearms up on the table. "With this meeting and the return of the ships from Axis, I hereby announce the completion of Operation Aesop."
The people in the room launched into a cheer of "Sieg Zeon!" before quieting down. I graciously nodded my head in response, not knowing if this was a particular of Zeon military culture I hadn't been exposed to yet. Didn't want to risk exposing some of my yet to be closed gaps in military knowhow.
"Before we start with the results of Operation Aesop, I'd like to be brought up to speed on how matters at Palau have progressed in my absence." I began. "Major Silk, I've been told that recruitment has progressed nicely."
Major Rivia Silk, the woman in question and the remaining ranking officer of the Neo Zeon Earth Attack Force, was another Axis native who had joined up with Char in the years following the end of the First Neo Zeon War. Now in my ranks, she ended up being the one placed in charge of the the hodgepodge of marine contingents, Earth Attack Force remnants and military police that had been folded into the newly created Neo Zeon Marine Corps, and she had been given the job to straighten them out into a cohesive group.
I had also decided to give her the job of managing our Palau recruitment, on top of her preexisting duties. To my surprise, she didn't look any worse for wear despite the increased workload she would have been handling. Maybe I should put her on the shortlist to handle future critical assignments.
"Yes Supreme Commander. In total, Neo Zeon has recruited five hundred Palau locals into our ranks, with a further twelve hundred being employed in Calyx but only as workers. Of these five hundred, sixty have met the physical guidelines that qualify them to operate mobile suits with the remainder being put into the Navy. Basic Training for the first members of this cohort began two weeks ago, but we are being hampered by a lack of full time trainers." Major Silk quickly summarized, brown eyes flicking back and forth along her notes.
"Your progress is commendable Major, and I applaud your commitment to ensuring our new members don't receive subpar training." I complimented her. "Forward the list of MS candidates so I can review them, and you and I will have another meeting later to develop a full plan for training."
It wouldn't be good if I amassed a sizable army and its ranks ended up being filled with half trained, bumbling morons. But those were good initial numbers, with Neo Zeon currently being blessed with an excess of rear echelon soldiers, thanks to the joint Zinnerman-Minerva evacuation of Char's facilities on Sweetwater before the Feddies captured the colony, they could be funneled into combat roles.
Doing some quick math, the new recruits would be enough to fully reman the Rewloola once its refits were complete and hopefully there would be enough remaining to form four skeleton crews that would be able to operate the Musakas currently in Anaheim's possession back on Luna.
"One more thing Major, we're going to end our recruitment efforts in Palau." I said, deciding that it would be best to start to prepare to move on to more fertile grounds. "So I want you to start forming recruiting teams for when we start making our renewed presence known in the Earth Sphere, not to say that this is now your primary objective."
"I understand sir, a secondary task." The woman nodded.
"Perfect." I smiled. "Captain Dawson, report on the state of our fleet."
"Of course sir. Please turn your collective attention to the screen." Dawson said with his signature monotone voice, slicking back his dark silver hair as he stood. Two Musaka-class ships were projected for our viewing.
"With the Renewed and Claxon returning from their part in Operation Aesop, the engineers have submitted their reports on the status of their finished repairs and refits. These reports were ordered to make sure all the repairs have done their intended job and to make sure the ships' reactors have no irregularities in their power outputs. I am pleased to report that no issues have been reported in that case. Moving on."
A Zanzibar-II class replaced the two Musakas.
"The Mailmer has been judged to be not ready for frontline combat by the engineers, mainly due to warping that was discovered in the tubes that ran from the reactor to the mega particle cannon's energy condensers. Should there be an overload of particles in the tubes while preparing to use the mega particle cannons, engineers judge that a catastrophic cascade explosion could happen, causing the energy condensers of the cannons to detonate as well as the ship's main reactor. It is my recommendation that the Mailmer be placed on rear line duty as a training ship or repair ship until such a time when we have the resources to completely replace the tubes."
The Mailmer diagram blinked out of existence to be replaced by a variety of Musai Kai-class and Musaka-class cruisers. Dawson cleared his throat before continuing.
"Aside from the situation with the Mailmer, the rest of the fleet's warships have passed inspections. Reactors across the fleet have been tested to ensure that they meet the level of energy output necessary for combat operations. They have all met those thresholds. Main and secondary weapon systems have been tested for the usual issues: barrel warping, failure to feed, energy condenser malfunctions and targeting lock errors." The diagrams of ships zoomed in to highlight the weapons and systems that Dawson was talking about. "As it stands, the fleet is ready to embark on combat operations as soon as you give the orders Supreme Commander."
Other captains, but not all of them, nodded along with Dawson's words.
"What is the state of the fleet's helium-3 stores Dawson?" I asked, taking note of the captains who seemed most enthused by Dawson's final words. Those men would be the ones I would have to convince to buy into my plan of action later in the meeting. I mentally started to pick and choose what phrases to use in my rhetoric that they would like.
"If we were a collection of merchant vessels then our current store would last us the rest of the year. But as we are not, then I'd roughly estimate we have three months to fuel to use. Two if we engaged in regular combat missions."
"Thank you Dawson." I responded. Something else to worry about later.
"Now, Operation Aesop and it's gains for us." I moved on, bringing up my own hologram on the projector. "You should have a list of the complete findings in front of you, but I will limit this conversation to the major finds."
"The two major gains from Axis itself: we were able to successfully cut away an intact shipyard from Axis, which is currently in the process of being de-accelerated by our warships, and in one of the vaults of Axis a store of Gamma Gundarium. The exact numbers are quite meaningless to me, but rough estimates of the vault we pulled the Gundarium out of put it at the rough dimensional length of a Musaka-class."
I smiled openly now. "Safe to say gentlemen, we can put our resource worries to rest for the time being." I wasn't lying, the eggheads had estimated that there was enough Gamma Gundarium to allow the construction of five hundred mobile suits, with enough odd material left over for another fifty odd suits or maintenance to the theoretical five hundred suits.
A hush of awe briefly descended over the room before it was broken by a bout of cheering, started by Captain Bassein of the Kalt. The mood was happy all around, the captains taking solace in the first good news for Neo Zeon's future that they had received in a while.
"This is good news, as I'm sure you're all aware. So let me follow it up with some more: Our compatriots in Riah have begun to organize themselves into a fighting force that will be our staunch ally in the fight against the despots of Earth." I neglected to mention the recovered gold bullion to the captains, deciding that knowledge of it was beyond their paygrade. Not that I had gotten around to paying them, cash was hard enough to comeby without having to calculate back pay and overtime. No thanks.
"And as a sign of our new alliance, I have donated the entirety of our recovered Gaza series mobile suits." Expressions of discontent appeared. I raised a single hand to forestall any interruptions. "I know to some of you this is an unwelcome thing but my decision was predicated on increasing the goodwill of a valuable ally and the finalization of the second item of importance for this meeting."
I shuffled my assembled papers to reach the right on. "As of today, the directive designated the New United Maintenance Plan is now in effect."
A lower enlisted handed out sheets of paper to the group for them to follow along with.
"The New United Maintenance Plan, for those who remember the implementation of the original in the final days of the Principality, is designed to streamline the production of mobile suits and facilitate quick and efficient repairs and upkeep of mobile suits. After taking a detailed look into our own position, I came to the conclusion that implementing our own version of the UMP was a top priority, hence the creation of the NUMP protocols."
I bulldozed forward, not letting anyone with objections have the time to get something out. I was normally, I think, quite agreeable to hearing a variety of opinions on plans I was developing, not this time. I would not compromise on issues that would negatively affect Neo Zeon's ability to engage the Earth Federation and my will will be implemented, or God help those who defy me.
My voice was as hard as steel as I continued. "So to that effect, the New United Maintenance Plan is about designating which mobile suit designs will remain in combat service in Neo Zeon. A list of those mobile suits is present for your viewing but I will list them out now. The AMS-119, MSN-03, AMX-009, AMX-011, AMX-102, and the AMX-014 will remain in service."
"The decommissioning of those suits not listed in the NUMP protocols will be immediately and the pilots of those decommissioned mobile suits will be given priority in simulation time so they can quickly be retrained on the AMS-119 platform. An exception is being made for our Hizacks as the R&D Department believes they can all be converted to the EWAC platform and thereby serve as reconnaissance units. " I put away my notes on the NUMP and glanced at Captain Igovnich. A faint prickling sensation danced across my mental awareness, a sensation that I was pretty sure was my newtype abilities pointing something out to me.
"Captain Igovnich, you have a question. Ask it" I said, taking a stab in dark that the man did have a question he wanted to ask. Burgeoning Newtype powers, don't fail me now. Not that
"What will happen to the decommissioned suits, sir?" He asked, his Russian heritage showing itself in the hints of an accent seeping into his words. "It's just that my pilots, as well as other ships from the Belt, have sentimental value to those particular suits. They've served us well for a decade or more in some cases."
I stifled a grimace I felt coming on. My handling of the destruction of the Dra-C's probably hadn't done much for the Belters to give me the benefit of the doubt on if I would handle their venerable warmachines with respect.
"If you are asking if the decommissioned machines will be salvaged for part, no. Nor will they be destroyed." I made to reassure Igovnich, and thereby the rest of my Belter captains. It'd be poor form to piss off the second Zeon remnant to cleave to my rallying call. "They will be looked over by the technicians to see what insights for the development of future mobile suit designs we can gain from the various upgrades the machines in question have undergone over the years. After that, I'll leave the final fate of the units up to you and your fellow Belters. Selling them to military museums or shipping them back to your settlements in the asteroid belt would be my recommendations. Although the latter would be dependent on when our ships are heading there, as I'm sure you understand."
"Yes sir, I understand." Captain Igovnich replied and his statement was echoed in the nods that the other three Belter captains gave.
"Good." I replied. "Now in your case Captain, due to your ship being completely stripped of its mobile suit contingent, you will be receiving the first complement of replacement suits. Namely the four AMX-011 Zaku-IIIs that we already had in our possession, which can now be constructed, and a custom Zaku-III unit that was recovered in Axis. Other replacement suits will trickle into the affected ships as well but the Tsar's case was given priority due to the complete loss of its MS contingent."
Returning my attention to the rest of my audience, I maintained my hard tone. "To wrap things up, I'm sure you all have questions as to why this reshuffling is being pushed along so quickly." I paused for a second to allow my audience to grab onto my words. "The answer is simple, come March, we will be resuming the offensive against the Federation.
Immediately the silence was broken as bevy of questions was hurled at me by my subordinates, with only Zinnerman and Dawson remaining silent. My respective left and right hands had already been let in on the plan.
"Quiet!" I barked out and the captains quickly composed themselves. "Details will be sparse for the moment, as those are a matter for another briefing."
"In essence, this operation, codenamed Left Hook, will be the first stage in our renewed war with the Federation. While our allies in the Riah Independence Movement are busy establishing themselves as a viable organization, we will be drawing the attention of the EFSF away from Side 5. This will be accomplished by attacking and destroying the Federation patrols around Luna. This will force the EFSF to scramble their forces, including the Londo Bell Taskforce, to Luna to protect it from what will seem like an imminent assault. We will be long gone by then but they won't know that." I forced myself to smile at the end, giving the impression to the men that I was chomping at the bit to take the fight back to the Earth Federation.
I wasn't that eager. Faced with even the simplest of casualty estimates that my newest operation would inflict on the Federation brought about sobering clarity. Thousands were going to die when we, no I, kicked off the war again, potentially millions if the Neo AEUG coalition ended up not being able to force the Earth Federation to the negotiating table. But there was no other choice, not for me, knowing what I know. I felt a visceral commitment to this Neo Zeon I was forming and a near overwhelming sense of responsibility to shepherd humanity away from the dark path the Federation was slingshotting it towards. The rot of the Earth Federation needed to be excised from humanity, and the process of doing so will be painful. I just had to accept that and do my best to end this quickly once we began it in earnest.
"Which is why the Supreme Commander has implemented this protocol, we're going to need to be at our best when we next face the Feddies." Zinnerman interjected, a malicious gleam in his eyes. The need for revenge burned hot and steady in my subordinate. It was interesting, in a slightly morbid way, to consider what a Suberoa Zinnerman unbound by the staunch morality(and fists) of Banagher Links would accomplish when unleashed upon the Federation. Guess I would be finding out what that reality looked like soon.
Zinnerman had tied up the loose ends in my speech, so I made to close the meeting. "Impart onto you crews the urgency of their renewed training, but do not give away any details we have discussed here. I'm putting my trust in you for this matter." I decided to end with a bombastic note, noticing that my war rhetoric had sunk in well with the more aggressive captains, Dawson too.
"To the eternal war against the Earth Federation, to the freedom of the spacenoid peoples, to the victory of Neo Zeon. Sieg Zeon!"
"Sieg Zeon, Sieg Zeon!"
I swept out of the room, my entourage behind me. I waved them off, but stopped Zinnerman briefly.
"We'll discuss the findings of your ships that weren't attached to Aesop tomorrow Captain. You are in need of some rest." I told him bluntly, observing the bags beneath his brown eyes. That similar bags were present beneath my own blue eyes went uncommented.
Zinnerman opened his mouth to interject, but I cut him off with a friendly clap on the shoulder. "We can all use the rest, Captain, and I'm sure your ward will be eager to see you again. She's been testing that Jadg Doga Oshikawa pulled out of Rewloola if you need a conversation starter. Enjoy the off time, that's an order."
When it was put like that to him, Zinnerman had no choice but to nod in acceptance and bid me farewell. I was left with a body wracked with tiredness and a soul in desperate need of rejuvenation. I managed a chuckle at that inner thought. Bah, if I wasn't already aware that I needed to take a breather then that level of melodrama should have clued me in. Luckily for me, the perks of command came with a queen sized bed with real feather pillows and there was this Thai hole in the wall in Corolla A that does delivery. So things were starting to look up.
U.C. 0094.2.5 1330 EOST
Refurbished Neo Zeon Hospital, Calyx, Palau, L4
Up and down, up and down, up and down, up annnd down.
Angelo Sauper was starting to get real tired of these activities that had been described to him as "physical therapy" by the people in white coats, doctors they called themselves which he knew but wasn't going to give them the pleasure of properly addressing them. The routines varied day by day but they remained the same week after week. Whenever he would complain early on he, to his horror, would be treated to a lecture, with a minimum length of half an hour, about the importance of getting his body back into proper shape.
A strange notion to Angelo, he had been fit his entire life. His food intake and rare exercise were carefully limited to ensure that he had the most physically appealing body for his customers. His enforced low body fat had made it so that every muscle on him popped. When he had come to realize that he was finally free from those bastards on Von Braun(and didn't that thought still make him want to break out in cheers still), he had kinda expected to be free to eat whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted. A life similar to those he had glimpsed from the oh so rare snatches of commercial television.
His white clad friends had other ideas though, it was hearty meals loaded with things called carbs, protein, steroids, and vitamins for him. They said it was to help him put on useful muscle, something they said he would need if he was to ever achieve his goal. At first Angelo had been rather skeptical, but as the days stretched on, he started to see the benefits of their regime. His shoulders and torso had bulk they'd never had before. He could carry heavy things and run longer than he could ever remember being able to.
With a final rep, he put the weights he had been using down on the floor. Despite his appreciation of the benefits of his 'physical therapy', Angelo had gotten to the point of boredom where he just wanted his application to be accepted already just so he could have a new variety of physical activities to do.
Just as he was getting ready to do a set of the truly abominable 'burpees', the door to the room swished open. Angelo jerked to face the intruder, ready to chew out another staff who, somehow, hadn't gotten the message that he didn't need to be checked on constantly due to his "frail mental state". Even after he had gotten them to stop, the mere thought of those pitying words made his teeth clench!
Just as he opened his mouth to unleash a stream of vitriol, he was cut off.
"Hiya there!" In flounced, yes flounced, a girl. Pale pink hair flowed down to her lower back, part of it in a high ponytail with the rest being put into a pair of long bangs that went down the front to frame her face. Her skin was very pale, the kind of pale Angelo was coming to associate with life long spacers.
The girl took his stunned silence as an invitation instead of the get out he wanted to be. She practically floated over to a chair that had been placed along the wall closest to the door before abruptly sitting down and crossing her legs. The exaggerated motion drew Angelo's attention to the girl's white and red, with pink highlights, pilot suit.
Was this girl a part of Neo Zeon? The notion beggared belief to Angelo, whose exposure to Neo Zeon personnel so far had solely consisted of on duty personnel.
"Sorry about barging in on ya." The girl cheerfully said, continuing to ignore the taken aback expression on his face. She propped up an elbow on a knee and rested the right side of her face on the attached fist "Sorry about dropping in unannounced and all but I finally wrangled your name out of Worklach and just had to come down for a visit. It's pretty rare for one of us to join up these days, soo I hopped on down here to say hi and meet the newest newbie, ya hear me?"
Angelo mastered himself and looked the girl over again. She looked real enough, and the large facial scar that ran straight down her right eye, whatever had caused it had also ruined the color of her pupil, it was a scarlet red instead of the natural grey of its partner.
The detail in her face as she looked at him gave Angelo cause to not declare this to be a hallucination...yet. He had plenty of experience with hallucinations of all kinds from his life on Von Braun but he didn't presume to know every type of hallucination under the Sun's rays. Maybe you could hallucinate after working out too much?
"Oh sorry!" The girl blurted out, her face showing her emotions in a way Angelo was very unused to. "I forgot to introduce myself. The names Luger, Luger Lugh." She gave him a quick two fingered salute with her free hand.
"And you are Angelo Sauper. You're a newtype."
Now Angelo was very suspicious. Was this girl high? She talked like she was high, specifically like those girls who his 'employers' would dress up in tight button up shirts and short plaid skirts when they were given a speciality cocktail so that their attitude would match the look. No, her pupil's weren't dilated enough for her to be high.
Err, right. He better respond then. He had learned that normal people welcomed conversation when presented the opportunity.
"How did you know I was a newtype?" Angelo asked, thinking back to his first, and so far only, conversation with his savior. Was he broadcasting his thoughts and other newtypes where able to pick them up?
"Ohhh a direct man, I like that." Luger shrugged her shoulders. "We're a small group as it is, there were only three of us before you got in the system. Annnd Worklach has the horrible habit of not changing his password all too often."
"Okay. I guess Worklach should get out of that habit then." Angelo muttered, thinking hard. He had been told to form connections with other people by the white coats, specifically the one man who was a white coat yet didn't wear a white coat. He had a special addition to his job, and he had probably told Angelo what it meant at one point but Angelo wasn't in the habit of remembering unimportant things.
"Don't tell him that, if he manages the effort to change it, how else will I be able to meet new friends?" Luger jokingly said, giggling to herself in a way that implied to Angelo that she was remembering some similar piece of advice once said to her.
But the frequent demands for him to reach out to others, the reason for being something Angelo had also deemed as unimportant, did have its merits though. If he could get the lay of the land, he would go into his training with an upper hand, knowing the ongoing power struggles and who to integrate himself with in order to gain favor. Not that Angelo would ever think of aligning himself against Full Frontal but if he learned enough he would prove himself useful to his savoir, guaranteeing his continued place in the short term and proving his value for the long term. And this airhead before him was the perfect resource to tap, the pinkette's open behavior led him to believe that she didn't have a dishonest bone in her body. Good for her.
Angelo Sauper, on the other hand, had spent his entire life in various whorehouses as a high demand whore. The only life he ever knew was that of the constant jockeying among the whores for favor, a world of fast paced schemes and backstabbing. No one was on each other's side, those that thought otherwise quickly learned the errors of their ways. His entire skeleton consisted of dishonest bones.
So he put on his happy smile, the one used when 'customers' wanted the appearance of willingness and the flattery to go along with it, and responded.
"Well I am in need of a friend, would you like to be mine?" He asked, feigning shyness. The bright smile he got in response was all the answer he needed. She bought it.
The ensuing conversation was not so much a back and forth between them than an utter flood of words coming from Luger, with Angelo doing his best to follow along with what was being said. When the occasion arose where Luger would pause and look at him for a response, he would provide one to keep the talk flowing.
He had definitely overestimated this girl's capabilities, completely and utterly. Forget being high, she must be a robot to maintain this for close to a full hour. Nothing had distracted her, nothing. Not Angelo wiping away the sweat he had accrued during his workout. Not even Angelo changing his shirts, a sight that he knew would shut someone up for a few seconds at least. Maybe Luger was a lesbian.
Yet just as Angelo was about to meet the end of his rope, the door to his room swished open again, and for the second time today, someone entered Angelo's room without him approving it. However the person who entered was much more welcome than Luger Lugh had been.
"Ah Angelo, how good to see you again." Full Frontal had stopped by to visit.
Angelo and Luger stared at the man, shocked by his sudden appearance. This caused the blond man to frown slightly and his eyebrows to come together in thought.
"I hope I haven't interrupted anything, I can come back later if that works." He jabbed a thumb over his shoulder at the door he had just gone through.
His words snapped Angelo and Luger out of their shock. Luger's friendly and open manner vanished behind a blank mask as she leapt up from her seat, stood stock still and brought her hands back behind her back. Angelo believed that was the position called 'at attention' as military dramas had told him.
Angelo blurted out "No!", panicking at the idea of chasing off the first familiar face in a month. Realising the loudness of his remark, Angelo coughed and restated himself. "No need to trouble yourself for me, uh us. We had just finished talking."
"Very well then." Full Frontal said, turning to Luger. "At ease Ensign Lugh. I'm afraid you'll have to put off any other talk with your friend to a later date."
"Yes sir." Luger replied, moving out of her rigid stance to a, slightly, more relaxed one as she bid Angelo farewell.
"A moment Ensign." Full Frontal quickly stopped her. He withdrew a cube object from a pocket in his red jacket and handed it to Luger, Angelo watched the handover with disguised curiosity. "You'll find the exact details for this on your terminal, I'm sure you'll figure out the intricacies of this quickly. Commander Banham says you are a fast learner."
Luger saluted with her free hand, ignoring the rouge strand of pink hair that had fallen down her face. She obviously had some knowledge of what she had just been handed, knowledge that Angelo didn't have, because she didn't look surprised by being handed a cube. "Thank you for the trust in my abilities, Supreme Commander. I won't let you down."
"I'm sure you won't," Full Frontal said genially, moving away from the door. "And be sure to clear a space on your schedule for the meeting on Thursday."
"Of course sir." And just like that, Luger was away. Angelo set aside her, for the moment, absence and focused on the tall man in front of him.
'How are you Angelo?" A sensation that he hadn't felt since their last meeting prodded against Angelo. He likened it to being firmly tapped on the shoulder for your attention. You could firmly ignore the presence if you wanted to but you wouldn't be ignorant of its existence. The wondrous nature of newtype abilities.
Angelo thought back to how he had been conversing with his savior the first time and sent out a response, like pushing a toy boat across a pond.
"Good." It was short, sweet and unlikely to arouse any suspicion. Angelo's favorite kind of answer usually but in the current moment he felt the stirrings of frustration at being unable to say more. That one word had felt like he was speaking(or was it thinking?) through a mouthful of felt.
"Good to hear then," Full Frontal said, a humorous twist to his lips. "Forgive me if we don't have the entirety of our talk mentally, I still haven't attained full mastery of the ability. May I?"
He gestured at the chair Luger had just been occupying. It took Angelo a heartbeat to realize that it was a question and not a false pleasantry(who strange was it that he was being treated with such...respect?). Angelo was suddenly reminded of why he had been missing the presence of his savior, the...feeling of resoluteness that emanated off the blond man. It was hard to explain, even to himself, but Angelo felt that there was, to some degree, no misconceptions, no misunderstandings when he interacted with Full Frontal. It cut through the worries and paranoia that Angelo had cloaked himself in since childhood, and hammered home the fact that he had nothing to worry about, Full Frontal meant him no harm.
Was this the power of newtypes?
"Uhh, please." He jerkily nodded his ascent.
"Many thanks." Full Frontal said politely, taking the seat with a smooth economy of motion that Angelo found himself envying. Full Frontal then withdrew a packet of paper, along with another cube made of an unfamiliar dark grey metal, from inside his coat. Angelo figured that he had concealed pockets sewn into the coat, he remembered some of the enforcers at his 'workplace' have those. They looked handy.
Full Frontal softly coughed into his hand before starting to speak. "Let's get down to business then my friend. I have your signature on these recruitment papers, and I see that you've applied to be a mobile suit pilot. If you could confirm that these are your signatures please."
He handed two sheets over to Angelo, who flicked through them. Yes, he remembered these, they were his recruitment papers. He'd had to seek out of the hospital ward he was in, and then make his way to Corolla A, where the recruitment drives were happening but he had managed it. A sudden bout of nervousness reared its ugly head but Angelo tapped it down.
"Yes I signed these papers." He decided to make his play directly if he was about to be called out. "I want to join you, join Neo Zeon."
Suddenly Full Frontal broke out a smile. "So I've gathered, just to make sure. Nobody forced you to sign these papers and you did it of your own free will and volition?"
Angelo didn't know what volition was, but it probably had something to do with free will. "I did." Then he handed the papers back to Full Frontal, who accepted them then put them back inside his coat.
"Good to know Angelo, but I am curious as to why? I assume you don't know much about Zeonism or the nuances of the spacenoid independence movement. Unless the education at that place was better than I thought it was." A nearly indescribable amount of vitriol entered Full Frontal's voice when he referred to the place Angelo had been in on Von Braun.
Angelo, knowing from how often the doctors mentioned it that his savior was the ultimate authority in Neo Zeon, decided to tell the truth. "No but I already knew stuff about the Earth Federation even though I didn't know that those in charge were called that ya'know?. I know how they are supposed to stop the kind of places I was in from ever existing, but they never did. They did just about everything but that. They took bribes from the bosses to just ignore it all. All kinds of bribes too; money, drugs, drink, us. And they didn't just ignore us, they kept us in." Angelo's voice slowly grew louder as his anger grew. "It wasn't the bouncers that caught me in two of my escape attempts, it was cops who nabbed me and others and brought us back for punishment. I've learned that the 'officers of the law' aren't even supposed to take bribes or do what they did. I hate them! I hate all of them!"
Full Frontal just sat quietly in his chair, as stoic as a rock.
Angelo carried on. "But most of all I hate this Federation. They allowed my suffering to continue on and on. I've learned what else they do and allow to happen, how they're doing their best to squeeze every drop out of those of us in space. They're the worst kind of warmongers, everything they do is about self benefit and keeping their power. The Federation is going to ruin us all if they are allowed to continue!" He swallowed the urge to spit in disgust.
"I could never be at peace with myself if I allowed myself to live under their rule. Now I know that there are others who suffer under the Federation like I did. And now I know that you and those who follow you want to save the rest of the spacenoids from the Federation. To stop the corruption they endorse, to stop the evil they let flourish. I want to be a part of that. I want to fight for Neo Zeon." Angelo ended his rant heaving for breath, his inner thoughts in turmoil as he realized the amount of rambling he had done. He hoped that enough of it made sense for Full Frontal to understand what he meant.
Angelo felt that he did, but a part of him still wasn't, might never be, sure that there existed people who would listen to him when he spoke. A lifetime to experience spoke otherwise.
Full Frontal nodded, more to himself it looked like, before scratching down something on the papers he still held.
"You don't lack spirit Angelo Sauper, never let anyone tell you otherwise." He began. "If it's revenge against the Earth Federation you want, then I can give you that in spades. However I hope that in time you will come to honestly believe in our cause and the ideals that are enshrined in it."
Another silence fell over the room, the both of them looking at each other.
"Am I in?" Angelo finally asked, dreading the possibility of rejection.
"Oh you were already in, my friend. You met the reflex qualifications, with flying colors and then some, for the piloting course and I took the liberty of plugging in your latest physical in place of the one you skipped out on. While you are in the lower echelons for physical fitness, your doctors all agree that there is nothing that disqualifies you from service. And I have it on good authority that basic training will bring you up to the snuff in muscle mass." Full Frontal informed him, looking entirely unrepentant for the damage he had done to Angelo's nerves. "I apologize if I gave you the impression that you'd been rejected. I just wanted to make, due to your unique circumstances, sure that you were committed to this."
"Don't worry I understand." Which he did, Angelo was well aware that he was different from everyone else that was being recruited at Palau.
"Good, then here is your training itinerary." Another sheet of paper was handed over. "You've been slotted for the next training cadre, which begins next Monday. A MP will be sent over to escort you to the training grounds, on account of your unfamiliarity with Calyx."
Angelo nodded along, intently studying the itinerary in his hands.
"Finally, as a newtype in Neo Zeon, you are automatically a member of the Newtype Corps, which means you are entitled to this." The rounded cube that Full Frontal had been holding was handed over. "This is a psycommu training device. There is a psycommu chip in that cube that you can mentally control as a newtype, it'll glow red when you are controlling it, then you move it around the cube. It's meant to allow you to gain a familiarity with the fundamentals of funnel control." Full Frontal explained the function of the training cube to Angelo. "Here's the exact manual, it does a better job explaining how to start it up."
Angelo took custody of another sheet of paper, briefly looking it over. Full Frontal's next words made Angelo give the blond man his full attention once more.
"I'm afraid that's the end of our talk then, as enlightening as it was. I have yet another meeting to get to. It's basically all I do these days, attend meetings." Full Frontal laughed at that, making Angelo assume it was a joke that he wasn't in on.
"Of course, uhh sir. Thank you for talking to me." Angelo said, stumbling over what exactly to call his savior now.
"Full Frontal will do for now Angelo. You aren't commissioned yet." Full Frontal waved off the slip before offering an ungloved hand for Angelo to shake. An offer with Angelo accepted, shaking hands with the man who had changed his life.
"Welcome to Neo Zeon Angelo Sauper, I believe that we can expect great things from you." A warm smile was given to Angelo.
"Thank you." It was all that Angelo could really say.
Full Frontal then left Angelo's room, offering one last nod as he did. Whether it was one of encouragement or acknowledgement didn't really matter to Angelo at the moment.
He had done it. He was going to be a mobile suit pilot. He was going to be something. The knowledge gave him a great sense of satisfaction. Yet as he glanced over at the weights in his room, Angelo decided something else.
He still had a few days before his training started and he might as well be in the best shape possible for it. So the weights started to move once again, this time with a renewed eagerness to Angelo's efforts. The future was looking bright, for the first time in a long time.
"What's so important then, Zinnerman?"
"It's the report from the ship that you sent to check the safehouse network in the colonies."
"And? I don't see a surplus of new faces or Aznable's old COO, who we knew was at the Side 1 safehouse. So what happened?"
"That's it, we don't know. All we do know is that every single one of the safehouses that were reported to be occupied, aren't. Not a trance of them left at the safehouses."
"But a trace of who got them?"
"Bullet markings and scorch markets. No casings left over. The crew only examined one of the safehouses in depth, they confirmed that the others had been stormed but didn't go inside."
"Federation spec ops?"
"That's my bet."
"Was the ship followed back to Palau or followed at all?"
"No, the captain of that vessel knows his work. She was a submarine captain during the war, knows how to lose an unwanted tail."
"Regardless, this isn't good Zinnerman. Several hundred of us, at most, have been taken captive by the Federation. They could have helped with our manpower deficiency. Now they're in a Federation prison or worse, dead."
"I spent time in the prison camps in Africa after the war ended. Trust me, the Federation can do a lot worse than kill you in those kinds of camps, they were living hell when I was in them and that was after we had dropped one colony on the earth. I shudder to think what they could be like now, after two colony drops and an asteroid drop."
"You escaped from your camp Zinnerman, and with some outside help, maybe our people can as well. We just need to find them first."
A/N: Well it has once again been a hot minute since a chapter but regardless, here we are. The plot moves forward, chaff is cut from the Neo Zeon armory, a necessary moment of reflection for Full Frontal and Angelo appears once again, with a friend. Let me know if Angelo seems consistent with his previous appearance, accounting for the fact that time has passed and we're not seeing him right after his escape, I've never attempted to write a character with the kind of backstory Angelo Sauper has, so let me know if I've messed up somewhere. Comments and criticism are welcomed as always.
Next Chapter - A return to Von Braun.