Ben Fitzpatrick – Chapter 2
"Partners"
The staff assigned to the new ship were made to wait outside for some time, registration and sign-in's were done individually by a member of the ZAFT administration crew, and due to the time it took for each person to be written into the staff database a large queue began to form at the entrance to the gigantic ship. Abandoning his luggage for a while, Vega sat himself on a pile of old metal boxes on the second level of the ship loading bay, with a lit cigarette in his mouth, and an old metal pendant in his hand, he simply killed the time by staring at his feet. A man neatly dressed in a white ZAFT military uniform approached Vega; His hair was jet black, and went down to the center of his back, his emotionless face wore crimson eyes similar to Vega's, everything about this officer commanded fear and respect. "Vega De'Storrania! Smoking in the cargo bay is strictly prohibited!" Vega signed somewhat, his gaze stayed to the ground "Yes sir.." he said half-heartedly, and lifting his left foot, he put the cigarette out on the sole of his boot. "What are you doing up here anyway, soldier? Get back in line immediately!" Vega sighed, standing up slowly and casually re-adjusting his uniform, he lifted his head to look the officer in the eyes; "Sorry to have troubled you, Captain Zandarr Sebastian..." and wandering past the officer, Vega's shoulder brushed up against Sebastian's, red clashing with white for that swift moment, before casually passing him by and returning to his luggage.
Two hours passed since then, hauling his luggage through the hall, Vega kept his room number memorised, inspecting the iron plaques next to each doorway he passed, as he continued down the corridor. "203, 204, 205... Here we are." The plaque read "206", inserting his I.D. Card into the control panel next to the plaque, the doors shifted open. The lights in the room were already on, to his right and left were two beds, it seemed as if they were crafted into the walls, as they extended in some ways. At the end of the beds there were wardrobes, each to fit the personal belongings of the staff sleeping there, a door was off to his far left, leading to the bathing quarters, which had the bare essentials, a sink, toilet, and shower; A desk was positioned on the opposite side of the room at the center, several documents were neatly placed ontop. Within the quarters, another man was already loading his posessions into the wardrobe, the young man looked over his shoulder towards Vega, his eyes glimmered with silver hues, and his platinum hair was spiked up, stands sticking around in an incoherent pattern, and his uniform wore the same color as Vega's, red.. the sign of a skilled pilot; He stood just shorter than his new roommate. "Umm... Vega.. De'Storrania?" the man said softly, "I will be your room mate on this ship.. we've met before", "Yeah, Azrael, I think.. Well at least they didn't give me someone boring." a grin etched his face once again, as he made way towards his own Wardrobe, threw the smaller bag in lazily, and left the larger bag at the end of his bed. "Umm.." Azrael began; "One of the officers came by earlier.. the ships briefings are on the desk.." "Huh? Thanks" Vega replied. Not needing to tend to his luggage for now, he walked over towards the desk, and picked up the documents with his name written on them.
Going over the contents carefully for a few minutes, he generally summed it up to his partner standing in the room; "It seems, we are to join up with one of ZAFT's fleets to pursue the 'Legged Ship'.. we're also meant to capture this mobile suit called "Strike", said to be highly dangerous and should not be approached alone.." Vega shifted on his feet for a moment, he feeled a bit uneasy; "What the fuck is this bullshit? There's no way one of those bastard naturals can be better than a coordinator pilot! Doesn't matter if he's got a better suit!" and throwing the documents onto the table, the contents scattering about the desktop, Vega stormed out of the room, his eyes glaring angrily ahead.