Here is chapter 3 of the continuing Druggie saga. I decided to give the three Extended each a particular crime that caused them to be sent them to summary execution. You'll figure out what they are I'm sure as they are all mentioned in this chapter. Also, I came up with a good idea for why Shani hides his one eye and a past that matches it but the specifics of that won't be revealed until later. Also, I'd like to ask you all if there is any suggestions you may have for how I am portraying the druggies, if you see any problems with my depictions or have any ideas. They would really help me greatly, even if I don't directly include them. I'm still looking for a pairing with Crot. If your not careful I'll go with something really crazy and we don't want that now do we? Finally, keep in mind there WILL be a plot, which you will start seeing the stirrings of in the next chapter if all goes according to plan

A/N: Opinions expressed by Oruga are not those of the author. He is an arrogant bastard. But then thats why we like him.

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Oruga sighed as he sat down on the bench of the lunch table, tugging slightly at the collar of his new red uniform. The psuedo-stone surface of the table was cool to the touch and of a bland texture. The bench was lackadaisically attached to the table with metal pipes, their faint glimmer failing miserably to catch the eye. The surrounding room was of gray linoleum tiles and whitewashed stone walls. Oruga sighed again looking down at the equally ignorable food on his plate. It was some kind of noodle dish in a pale white sauce that made the whole meal look rather sickly. Prefabricated food, yum he thought ruefully as he grabbed his fork and began to lift some of the gruel into his mouth.

He glanced out of the corner of his eye at Shani and Crot who were sitting to his left in similar red garb, Crot adjacent and Shani on the far side. The three of them had class together at two and they were just now grabbing lunch at twelve thirty. Some of the other students seemed to be just waking up but Oruga had woken up at seven, shortly after Crot. Shani was the last to wake up, having been up late doing some paper work that his job as Sergeant entailed. While he was still somewhat annoyed that Shani had been chosen to be their leader he was in a way relieved that he wouldn't have to do the paper work. He hated doing that stuff.

Of course, it was a bit of a step down. He had been the "leader" back in the EAF, for whatever that meant. They had all acted independently and so his leadership role and been in title only. Well, he supposed it was better that Shani got the role. It meant that it wouldn't go to Crot and Oruga did not trust that idiot in a leadership position. Besides, Shani was a smart kid, even back in the EAF he had been the smartest. However, he also seemed to have to strongest reaction to the Gamma Glipheptin, and was normally too psychotic during battle to actually use his head. Now, that the drugs were no longer an issue, save for those permenantly imbedded in their systems, Shani had definitely shown some improvement. He was still, of course, no match Oruga, but then no one was.

Oruga went back to watching the annoying fools of the academy go about there lives. Each new person came into focus, different but oddly similar to the person who had come before. It was amazing how bland the human race could sometimes be, everyone complained and fought over how different someone else was but to him they were all weak and annoyingly similar. Sighing he continued to eat while contemplating the worms around him.

Suddenly, he saw a red headed girl sit down across from Shani on the table. Saying hello to Shani and nodding towards Oruga and Crot, she went on to ask Shani how he was liking the academy. Wait. This wasn't right. Why was a girl interested in Shani? Especially when he, Oruga Sabnak, was sitting not a meter down. Not only was it any girl this girl was beautiful, almost as gorgeous as the captain of the starship that had picked them up. Both women were of ample figure, though Ramius had a more mature femininity about here then this flitty young girl that was sitting across from Shani. Both indeed had their charms but Ramius definitely had the spirit too match. His cheek had been sore for hours.

He vaguely recalled the girls face from after their mock training battle. It was a mock battle simply because it was so easy it made a mockery of his talents. It hadn't even stressed him enough to get his large, swollen adrenal gland pumping, when that thing filled his head with all the different chemicals it had been altered to produce, he was truly going full bore. And once his adrenal had started pumping he truly fitted the name "Biological CPU". After such an annoying waste of time it was only natural that he wouldn't be paying attention to his surrounding and any women were going to get passed over by his normally keener eye. He had also still been thinking of all the different ways to maim that annoying boy with the black hair. Now though he took the time to look at her.

Her features were soft enough, feminine to be sure but she seemed have in her bearing more prerogative then the normal woman, not an unusual find in military girls. He had seen a few girls in the EAF and they had the same bearing. Her frame was definitely amply filled and her curves well placed. Lithe and flowing was the form of her arms and legs, almost seeming the float ephemerally on the air. The burgundy hue of her hair was off-set well with flashing sapphire eyes. Not bad by all accounts. However, was a bit too young for him, he had always preferred girls a year or two-older then him

"Fine…" Said Shani eating calmly but not seeming to be particularly interested in talking to the girl across the table from him. Oruga shook his slightly in pity for the younger man's foolishness.

It was at this time that a loud crash was heard through the hall and Oruga's head slid around on his shoulders to look towards it. Trays smashing against the ground had been the gong that signaled to the hall that there was a scuffle breaking out between two students. A brown haired boy of about 16 had another boy pinned to the table. Larger man grabbed the boy on top and pulled him off of the other.

It was at this point that he heard the girl talking to Shani call to someone, "Meyrin, Shinn, Rei! Over here!" Oruga ignored her preferring to continue watching the scuffle, unfortunately by this time it was dying down so he was not remiss in looking back over when he heard new arrivals sit at their table.

"YOU!" said three voices at once. Two of the voices belonged to Crot and Oruga who matched the black haired boy across from them in the speed at which they got to their feet. Both sides stared daggers at the other.

"What are you bastards doing here?" the punk snarled at them, his voice arrogant despite his earlier defeat.

"Were eating! You got a problem with that?" Crot replied with a vicious smirk.

"Besides, worm, you aren't in a position to be telling us what to do!" Oruga barked at the pathetic boy in front of him. So many annoying fools.

"Calm down Shinn." Said the blonde haired boy next to the one called Shinn. The boy spoke with ethereal calmness not of the hustle and bustle world around, but there was a slight under cut of viciousness to it that hovered with his voice forever out of reach.

Shinn shot a glare back at Rei, but sat back down digging into his food with vindictive intent, needing something to distract him from the vicious thoughts that were probably bouncing around his pathetic little skull. Oruga sneered but ultimately sat down and returned to his food without further incident. Annoying little weaklings.

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Lunamaria sighed with relief, she had been worried that the animosity between Shinn and Shani's two friends would break into a fight but Rei's voice of reason had prevented it. Rei had that effect, he always seemed smart and wise when he spoke. She wondered if it was just his voice or if he really was smarter. A matter for another time.

She turned back to Shani who was across from her. He had already finished his food- she had noticed in the corner of her eye that he had been eating straight through the argument between Shinn and the other two, completely uninterested- and was now lazily letting his eye pass across the room. Looking at it she noticed it was a bright shade of purple which, like his green hair, was incredibly unusual and made her wonder how he could have a feature like it.

It had hardly caused her any indecision to sit with Shani since she had taken on the responsibility of acclimating him to the new life of the ZAFT forces, though she had little conscious knowledge of the decision and whatever stray thoughts might have pierced her waking mind she felt no desire to contradict. So she drifted towards Shani in a vague cloud of responsibility and goodwill. Of course, it could not be said that she was ignoring the attractiveness of his features and the calm, cool, dependable manner with which he carried himself, it is only natural that such things would be taken into account by the mind of a teenage girl. However, it was not the primary reason that she consciously decided to aid him but only made her less adverse, if she had been loath to do it at all.

Shani, though, had not seemed to react much to her attempts to reach out to him and help him to adjust- as a matter of fact, it didn't look like he felt out of place at all. Calmly he would respond to whatever questions she had with a grunt or a terse reply when he bothered to use words. His face rarely bore a shadow emotion and his eye would either stare off into space or wander about in apathy. His laid back bearing coincided with the rest of him in its disinterest in the surrounding environment and people would often wonder whether he was aware as he would walk through clumps of people who were speaking rather than going around.

A pall of uncomfortable silence had descending over the table which was broken only by the gentle hum of the ambient chatter of more talkative groups of people. Lunamaria had taken to moving her food into different clumps and arranging it into patterns that only she could decipher, and would occasionally sigh as she combed her mind for subject matter. Her lips eventually started to move with hardly imput from her brain, "So… Shani…um… what class do you have today?"

"PLANT history." Shani replied in monotone.

Lunamaria blink in surprise at getting such an involved response out of him and was quite pleased with the effect the random mewlings of her voice had upon the awkward lull in the "conversation". She was also quite pleased to realize that she was taking this class as well and asked him what time he had it. His second response also gratified her since it was the same time as hers, 2:00, which meant she would be sharing the class with him.

"That's my class! Maybe I can show you where it is if you don't know." She said with a satisfied smile.

"Not necessary." Shani replied not looking at her and her smile slowly faded. Not to be so easily pushed aside she asked him why he didn't need help, " I already found it."

"oh…" she said looking down somewhat sadly.

"What?"

Shani's question struck Lunamaria in an odd way and for a moment she was at a loss for how to respond. His purple eye not seeming to take interest in her, despite the fact he had been moved enough to ask a question, unsettled her and chased away the fleeting ghosts of half-formed explanations for her behavior. The second seemed like nerve-racking eternities as she hovered there in the limbo of the awkward pause seeming in her mind to have long ago embarrassed herself, though if Shani noticed his face did not betray it.

"It's nothing!" she yelped with perhaps a bit more fervor than could bear believability so she decided to cover for her blunder by moving the conversation to a different but related subject she had managed to piece together during the delay, "But, more importantly don't you three need to get familiarized with the base?" This question she directed to the table with a wave of her voice and a small gesture of her left hand.

Crot was the first to respond, his tone indicated sharply his aversion to admitting weakness, "I suppose…"

"Well, then we'll each partner up and we'll show you around!" Lunamaria again said with a hair too much ardor though this time it was negligible.

Each reaction was different, Meyrin perked up with curiosity, Shinn looked wroth (but he didn't matter because Lunamaria wasn't so stupid as to include him in this), Rei had a mild pique of his interest which displayed itself in a small smile, Oruga looked at crosswise, Crot seemed to be working his brain in determining whether this was a good idea, and Shani, as always, let no interest mar his cold demeanor. Shinn threw his opinion in immediately, "I'm not going with one of these bastards!"

"You don't have to," Lunamaria said with a slight upturning of her knows, vindicated in having already prepared for Shinn's protests, "we only need three people so you can go rot in your room."

Shinn grumbled but said nothing. Meyrin, however, had her own misgivings about her sister's ulterior motives, "Why are we doing this, sis? It doesn't seem like you."

Lunamaria blushed slightly at her sister's distrust and brushed the question aside as best she could, "It's our responsibility to help the new recruits, rank not withstanding, to become more familiar with the base." Shinn sneered at hearing mention of the fact the three boys had gotten a higher rank then him without even doing anything. Meyrin did not seemed wholly satisfied with her sister's answer, knowing her penitent for brief infatuations but did not raise these questions in order to save her sister the embarrassment and merely nodded, her red pigtails bobbing slightly.

Rei agreed to the affair rather quickly, having always been the most responsible of the four students, however it took some doing to convince the three recruits. Shani actually agreed relatively quickly, however, it was obvious he didn't really care about anything but the pure functionality of learning his way about the base. Oruga, was resistant but he eventually agreed. Crot took forever but eventually Meyrin and Lunamaria were able to convince him.

"What time and place should we start this and who is with whom?" Rei asked in his practical manner.

"How about right after PLANT history?" Seeing know objections she move onto partners, barely able to hide a smirk of satisfaction, "As for partners… Meyrin you can go with… " she gestured towards the man with the come over who introduced himself as Crot, with a small undertone of bitterness. "…Crot. I'll go with Shani and that leaves Rei to go with…" again she paused letting Oruga introduce himself.

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Lunamaria walked beside Shani down one of the major streets, occasionally moving closer to him to avoid colliding with someone but always returning to a comfortable distance once the person had passed. Shani, if he even noticed, didn't seemed to care, making her wonder if he ever reacted to anything. They came to a cross roads with a roundabout in the center instead of a normal intersection. In the middle of the grassy circle there was a statue of the first Coordinator, George Glenn. She pointed it out to him but he grunted his usual apathetic response. Almost every one she knew loved to visit the statue of Glenn and then she realized why he wouldn't care.

"I'm sorry. This is probably meaningless to you since you're a Natural. I forgot."

"You know?" Shani asked with uncertainty vaguely tinting his words. His mouth then curved in a knowing smirk… "Figured it out, eh? I suppose Crot did blurt it out and our experience gave it away."

Lunamaria smiled at having her suspicion confirmed and the prospect that she might have earned a modicum of respect from Shani, who, if he was at all like his friends, did not give it freely. She looked around quickly to make sure no one was close and whispered in Shani's ear."Yeah, when Crot said we were… "greenhorns"?… I realized that meant he had fighting experience. Obviously he would have gotten that experience in war and that meant you were part of the EAF and thus Naturals. Don't worry though your secret is safe with me. But would you mind answering a question I have?"

Shani looked at her frostily, he sighed a small "tch…" and she could have sworn she saw his breath. "What is it?"

"How did you get so good? Naturals shouldn't be that skilled but you made mince meat out of us and from the rumors you all got perfect scores with you target training. What's the deal with that?" She had led Shani into a back alley as she spoke so that no one would overhear.

"…" For a moment Shani said nothing, his eye closed pensively and he looked to be debating whether or not to tell her. Just when she feared he would brush her off he responded with a curt, blunt answer, "Trained for a long time."

"How? If I knew it would probably be useful for graduating from this academy!"

Shani sighed slightly but Lunamaria was unable to determine what provoked him to do so. "You can't do it…"

"Why not?"

"Because you don't have the time nor the resources to do it" And with that Lunamaria was unable to get anymore information on the matter, Shani completely clamped himself shut. The two of them continued around the colony, Lunamaria occasionally pointing out a landmark or something that might be of interest, such as a particularly good place to get Pizza or some other food or item. By the time Lunamaria decided it was time to start heading back the synthetic sunlight had almost completely faded away and the darkness of night was upon them. She could feel the pangs of hunger that had been developing over the tour begin to coalesce into a full fledged starvation but she was somewhat hesitant to ask Shani if he wanted to get some food lest it seem like she was asking him on a date. No need to send the wrong impression. She glanced to her side at him wondering how he would respond but found that he was no longer there. Wha? She hadn't heard him leave and looked around, her head scanning in jerky motions. Fortunately his green hair made him easy to spot amidst the crowd of people, he was walking into a small hole-in-the-wall sandwich joint. It was called S.O.S. for Steven and Otto's Subs. Corny and pathetic as the name was she'd been in there a few times before and it had a decent meatball sub though she had been watching her weight recently and hadn't gone in. Not to mention it was cheaper to get food at the cafeteria.

She followed the Natural into the restaurant; it was a compact place with five tables for four. The décor was little more then stock colors for the food chain, a deep green and a neutral beige. On the far side was a glass-enclosed counter, which held the various ingredients that the staff would use to make the sandwich. Shani was standing in front of it giving his order to a college aged girl who seemed more interested in his lips themselves then the words they were forming. Shani ordered a very simple ham and lettuce on wheat.

"This is where you got off to!" she chastised as she walked up to him, "I thoughtI lost you!" Shani cast her a sidelong glance then grunted to acknowledge her existence but not much more than that, "Why'd you come here?"

"…I was hungry…" Shani replied like it was the most obvious thing in the world, which it was but it wasn't what she had been asking.

"I mean: why here? As in this specific place." She clarified with a groan at have been made to look like a complete idiot. The girl behind the counter had a slight smile on her face and seemed to be enjoying watching Shani make Lunamaria look like an moron.

"safe bet…" Shani replied curtly.

"What do you mean?" What he said hadn't made any sense and had left her completely confused.

"How do you screw up a sandwich?"

"oh…OH! I see… Didn't know any good places to eat so you figured a sandwich couldn't be that bad no matter where it was purchased at, is that right?" Shani nodded in response. The girl behind the counter fixed Shani's meal, occasionally casting a fleeting glance toward him but he didn't seem to be paying any attention to her. Protruding from his ears were a pair of rubber insolated wires trailing down behind his red ZAFT trench coat and into the pocket of a pair of pants he was wearing underneath it. A smirk floated onto Lunamaria's lips as she watched him listening to his music seemingly out of touch with the world around him. She wondered whether or not he would notice if she pushed him from behind or did some other brand of mischief but decided against actually determining the answer to that by test.

After Shani received his food and paid, students and recruits were given a small amount of spending money to live off of, he ambled over to a seat in the corner of the restaurant. He slipped into the seat with a measure of demonic grace and lean back into chair lazily as one of his hands pulled out the sandwich to begin eating. Lunamaria turned back to the girl behind the counter to order her own food, a turkey sandwich with lettuce and black olives on rye bread. She slipped into the seat across from Shani, who didn't react to hear and hardly seemed to even notice that he was eating, so completely had he zoned out of the real world. Every motion was mechanical and separate from his mind, slow and lazy without any prerogative or impulse.

"So…How was life in the EAF?" she asked in an attempt to make conversation with the boy in front of her, a boy not dissimilar from the zombies in bad horror movies. No response came from him as he continued to eat his sandwich and she sighed, realizing he couldn't hear her over the music he was listening to. Gently, she poked him on the forehead with her finger, flashing him a glare when he looked up. He slipped one of his headphones out of his ear and asked what she wanted. She repeated her question, making sure to keep her tone low so that it would not be overheard.

"It sucked" he answered curtly becoming intent on the sandwich in his hands, as though its contours were fascinating and beautiful. A certain sadness tinged his normally apathetic features but it receded from them like a shadow in a summer fog. Lunamaria wasn't complete sure it was there at all. But whether or not there had been emotion on Shani's face. Lunamaria, despite all her best efforts until they parted back at the base, she could not get him to elaborate on why it had sucked.

Finally, they were walking back towards the base, under the blazing street lights creating small islands of light amidst the darkened seas of darkness where lonely people drifted to their own trade winds, when Lunamaria thought up one last question for the taciturn pilot. "What are you hiding behind that bang of hair?" She said with a humorous smile and a playful town on her voice, "…is it a secret?" with this she dropped her voice slightly to give it a psuedo-menacing edge.

Shani put his hand over the eye and bang, as though to make sure that the bang wouldn't be blown out of the way even though the wind in the PLANT was not sufficient to do that.

He never answered.

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The blonde haired woman in the lab coat stood above him. She sneered at him and her tone was laden with dehumanizing contempt, "What are you seeking here in this world of peace?"

"I don't know… I hope to find salvation, I suppose."

"What are you seeking here in this world of peace?" she asked again.

"Hope. I wish to find the sin of hope."

"Why do you even bother?" She loomed over him seeming to grow in size until he was no larger then her small toe.

"Because my body doesn't wish to die so my soul must go along for the ride."

"You know you will just commit the sins that were to have you executed in the first place. Commit them all over again."

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Crot lay back in his chair, letting out a bored yawn that could be heard by everyone, causing the entire class to swivel their heads towards him and the teacher to cast him a disapproving glower. Smiling smugly was Crot's only response, he would never let it be said that he wasn't blatant about being rude.

Honestly, he couldn't understand how he was to be expected to pay attention to a boring instructor of a class in a subject he already knew. The class was on different communication encryption types and how to crack them, along with firewalls for computers and accessing protected data. All stuff he was familiar with. Hell, it was doing stuff like this that had gotten him court marshaled in the EAF and sentenced to execution. He only kept his head by making a bargain with a devil. A devil by the name of Muruta Azrael.

He supposed that this class was better then the other options he had for his elective class but it still bored him, only difference being this he was bored with an A as opposed to being bored with a D. A fiendish thought took hold of his mind. He immediately set his fingers to typing. If worst came to worst he could always blame the class for leaving him with idle hands. Besides, he needed to end this class quickly, his suit had just been returned to one of the base hangars after an inspection, and he wanted be back in the womb of his beloved Raider.

The Meyrin girl looked over at him suspiciously, not trusting his ardor to be dedicated to the lesson that the teacher was rambling on about. The girl was nice enough, as far as Crot was concerned, but nothing special. She had her hair in two pigtails of the same burgundy color that her sister, Lunamaria, had. Her youth had yet to be hammered upon by realities mace and she had a sort of innocent quality about her. It was one of those ephemeral things Oruga kept telling him about, certain qualities that "the mind could comprehend but not pin to words, only recognize the aura of it as it dripped in near tangible rivulets from the being that exuded it". It was the opinion of Crot that Oruga read to many of his crappy books. They were starting to affect his brain.

She had given him a fair tour of the area yesterday. Not that he had paid much attention to know but he could guess that it was a thorough circuit based off of how much she spoke and how sore his feet were by the time it was all over. Of course, since he hadn't learned anything it was moot. His Wonderswan was a far more enjoyable pasttime then listening to the girl.

He shrugged off her look and continued working on his little ploy. It was quite simple in theory. He was going to make the teacher's computer reroute the power from the fan to the other systems and make it over heat. The teacher would have to dismiss class early once her computer caught fire and Crot would get to see his Raider that much sooner.

It wasn't as easy as he thought it would be, after all he did have to change the computers programming but he had done harder things in his time. Hard things he regretted ever doing but still he had succeed at them. Finishing with a conceited flare he lay back and waited for his handiwork to unfold.

"What did you do?" a girl's voice whispered to him and Crot glanced at Meyrin. She was looking at him with a piercing gaze that seemed comical on her.

"What do you mean?" he replied with an innocent tone, barely succeeding in keeping the grin from his face and voice, he though he could already see the preliminary signs of overheating on the teachers computer. They were subtle so only those actively looking for them could see them.

"You typed something and I know you weren't typing notes. Also, you had a smug expression on your face and I don't trust it."

"Suspicious girl. Pay attention to your own problems or you'll fail!" That earned the young pilot two eyes filled with searing annoyance but he ignored it turning his attention back to watching the teacher's CPU overheat. For some odd reason it reminded him of his life in the EAF after he had been designated a "CPU". He shook of the memory.

A tendril of smoke began to come from the computer. It suddenly occurred to Crot that it would look somewhat suspect for him to being staring intently at the computer as it caught so he yawn again, much to everyone's chagrin, and lay back in his chair to wait for the pleasurable pandemonium to begin. He spent the idle time envisioning how it would unfold. Would the one of the students notice it, scream fire, and start a massive panic? Or would the teacher notice first and rush to fix as the class burst into chatter over what could be happening? Or maybe…

As it happened, it was one of the students that noticed first and he blurted out that there was smoke emanating from the computer. Crot was displeased when the teacher, a middle aged woman who Crot had thought would be more panicky then she turned out to be, was able to keep the class under control as she unplugged her computer and took a cursory look at it. She then stood up in front of the class, "It seems that my computer has broken down severely so I'd like you to do some extra reading in the textbook and run through practice lessons 5-7 in addition to your normal work." The class acknowledged her demand with a collective groan, except for Crot who wasn't bothered by it at all since he didn't plan to do the homework anyway.

Everyone filled out of the room, most doing it calmly but Crot dashed out, overjoyed to be seeing his Gundam again. Eventually though he slowed to walk but there was still has in his steps as he headed to the hangar. He wondered whether the mechanics here had screwed up his suit. The ones in the EAF were completely incompetent but the ones in ZAFT were Coordinators that meant they should be more skilled then their Natural counterparts. Crot, however, didn't trust that to be so. He would probably be in his cockpit for the next few hours making all sorts of minor adjustments that the technicians, in their obsession with "standards" and "default settings", had changed.

Finding himself at the hangar, located in the bustling warehouse district of the base, he entered into the chill of the emptiness under birght sterile lights. There was no movement except for the dreamy stirrings of a lone mechanic asleep on his watch. He was probably only here because he had to be and there was no work to be done. The peace treaty had left him idle but his hours hadn't been adjusted to compensate for that and he still had a watch set around being ready at any time for enemy attack. Now it just gave him time to sleep.

The recirculated air brought a slight shuffling to his ear from the catwalk leading to the three Gundams which loomed over the hangar. Raider was on the far left with its dull gray armor just begging to have its phase-shift mode activated so it could radiate its black and red power. Its wings were folded behind its back and it stood rigid, at attention, waiting for the order to kill which, if the current world had its say, would never come. Pity. He almost cried every time he saw his beloved Raider sitting unused, its power wasted because people were afraid of some killing. Fighting was what Crot and his Raider existed for. It was like the peace treaty was denying him a right to exist and Crot, when he let himself drift to such thoughts for any length of time, felt threatened by it.

As he walked up to his suit, he continued to listen to the sound and fortunately it wasn't coming from his suit. He would never forgive anyone fiddling with his suit without his permission, with the minor exception of mechanics who he still despised. Stepping on the catwalk he saw Shani step out of his mobile suit and glance his way before returning to his suit. Shani could be creepy with his seeming ambivalence to your very existence. It made Crot want to hit the bastard. He'd like to see him stay apathetic then!

Crot noticed that Shani was, as always, listening to his music. Did that mean the bastard had heard him over his music… nah. He had just heard him over a gap in the song.

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Thankfully, it was only Crot. He was worried that maybe one of the mechanics was coming to continue doing some checks on his GATX-252, which is not what Shani needed right now. What he needed was to be left alone. Fortunately, Crot would just head to his own Gundam leaving Shani to his own devices. Shani could afford to have his secret revealed if it hadn't been already.

He slipped back into the cockpit, music ringing from his headset, a cool dark tune that painted a bleak horizon in his skull, and the polished steel of the cockpit shimmering with the flashing colors of his OS monitor. He had turned the monitor on so that when he was finished he could run a diagnostic and see what sort of changes those goddamn mechanics had done to his 252. Right now he had more important matter to distract him.

First, he went to one of the metallic arm rests, the one on the pilots left, and unscrew the latch with a screw driver he had found laying on the catwalk. After detaching the top plate he lifted it up and set it out of the way, revealing a mass of wires of various bright colors. He could tell from the lack of dust that someone had inspected it early and he was immediately set on edge. What if they had found it? Breathing in, he calmed himself, though he hardly looked ruffled to anyone who might have been watching him. He had skill with making hidden compartments in these suits and had years of experience smuggling things in his mobile armor back when he had been a regulation soldier in the EAF. Before he had taken a stupid risk with a large payload and gotten caught smuggling weapons to enemy combatants. He was sentenced to death for treason but he had avoided the needle by trading his body to Blue Cosmos.

His hand went into the mass of wires, down to a little hidden area, and to his relief closed around a small vial. Lifting it out of its hidden compartment he let a shadow of a smile cross his face as he gazed at the capsule that contain the drug known as Gamma Glipheptin. It was one of exactly 22 vials he had stolen over the course of his career with the EAF as a "Biological CPU". Having been a thief for most of his life it was difficult to resist picking the locks and one by one stealing the vials of Gamma Glipheptin from their case. He had done it with the most agonizing slowness so as not to arouse suspicion and when suspicion had been raised it was blamed on one of the doctors whose responsibility it was to safe guard the drug storage cabinet. They hadn't thought that one of the Extendeds would have a use for a drug he already took on a regular basis. He had been planning to make a break for it one day and use his storage of the drug to beat off the withdraw symptoms while he put as much distance as possible between himself and Azrael. He would probably have ditched his Gundam somewhere or maybe sell it to ZAFT through one of the dealers he had known.

He returned the vial to its hiding place and proceeded to check the others. They were all still in their various hiding places. A prideful smirk captured his mouth as he praised himself for retaining his abilities after all the years in Rodnia without the opportunity to practice more then hiding an extra ration or two in the air duct to his cell.

Dropping down into his pilot seat he brought down the main screen and proceeded to run some checks on the Forbidden's systems. He would admit that OS's weren't his specialty but he was still well trained enough to provide the proper modifications to suit his fighting style. Something mechanics didn't understand, they were to focus on maximizing the theoretical output without concern to pilot's preference. Crot was the biggest bitch about that. In fact, he could hear the Raider Pilot complain about idiotic modification even over his music and at a fair distance from the anal-compulsive's cockpit. But then, Crot was quite skilled with operating systems, more so than Shani, though he hated to admit inferiority to that loud mouth in any skill no matter what. Shani could say he edged out Oruga who normally just accepted the default settings with only a slight change in them. But then Oruga was good with the default settings and didn't need to change them. Speaking of which he thought he heard Oruga walking up the catwalk now as the song on his headset switched over.

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Oruga looked over at the two younger Extendeds as he passed their suits towards his Calamity. It had been his responsibility, back in the EAF, to make sure the other two were ready for combat at all times and were not compromising the mission. Not that he had particularly cared but he had still decided to keep up the small habit of checking them every time he saw them, which was the limit that his leadership responsibilities had been taken. Crot was, as usual, hard at worker readjusting the parameters of his suit, the kid always needed twenty minutes to change everything to fit his exacting needs. Once, after repeatedly telling a certain mechanic in the EAF not to change any of his custom settings, he attacked after the mechanic had returned them to the default, breaking two of the mans ribs and both his arms. Of course, that was while under the effects of the Gamma Glipheptin but it was still completely unnecessary as far as Oruga was concerned. He had always felt that the default factors were just fine and needed only minor adjustment unlike Crot's complete reprogramming of the OS every time he got in.

Shani was sitting in his cockpit performing his own modifications and while he also normally changed the settings on his suit he was always to cold to raise a fuss about it. One of the few times when Shani's apathy to the world around him wasn't a complete annoyance. The green-haired pilots violent eye looked up at Oruga as he passed but that was the only sign that Shani had even noticed him.

Oruga came, at last, to his own Gundam which stood with a rigid stance, looking down arrogantly at the empty hangar in front of it like a god upon the realm of mortals. Its twin shoulder mounted cannons gleamed menacingly, along with the vicious main bazooka which hung idle in the leviathan's right hand. He wished vainly that he had an enemy to kill. Someone, anyone would be better then letting his suit sit idle and wasted.

Stepping into the cockpit the suit groaned slightly in the bindings that were holding it erect. "I know, I want to kill something to but there is no room in this world for you and me right now." Laying back in his seat he brought up the OS menu and began to look at the settings the mechanics had given him and for the most part they were just fine but he did have to do a little modification to right hand. They had made the suit compensate for the bazooka which would make it feel to him like both arms had the same weight, which made it easier to use. However, he preferred to keep the weight uncompensated for because it allowed him to move faster and use the weight of the arm as a pivoting point. Afterwards, he made a couple other minor modifications to the power distribution but that was all. He turned the monitor off and sat in his cockpit and read for a while. It was infinitely more comfortable in here as opposed to anywhere else. Currently, he was reading Catcher In the Rye and had been making decent progress through it over the past couple days since he didn't have much else to do and school rarely challenged him enough to make him bother.

He spent an hour reading in his cockpit. It seemed that both Shani and Crot had a similar notion to spend their freetime in their Gundams as he never heard either leave their mobile suits. However, he began to feel the on coming hunger and stood up to go to the cafeteria. Walking past his squadmates suits he again looked in on them. Shani was listening to music and had completely zoned out. Not even his eye acknowledged Oruga this time, so drawn in was Shani to the world inside his mind. Crot was playing his video game lying on the cockpit in an awkward sideways fashion, which if he slept like that would leave him with a backache in the morning. His head was resting on one of the arm rests and his back was arched across that seat with his feat resting against the wall of the cockpit.

Oruga descended from the catwalk and walked out of the empty hangar leaving the smell of oil for the exhaust scented air of the warehouse district that the hangar was located in. He head back towards the main academy building, which reared up from behind the park where the trees bowed toward it in the fake wind of the PLANT.

Pushing open the front entrance of the door with more force then was absolutely necessary and causing no small amount of attention to be drawn to him when the two door slammed against the clear glass panes to either side, he entered the building with a cocky strut. Which was when he saw the annoying punk he never wanted to see again and the punk saw him. The Shinn sneered visibly at Oruga and spat in his direction.

"Hey, bastard! You still sore over the fact we kicked your ass!" Oruga gloated, flashing a virulent smile.

Shinn stormed up to Oruga, the nerves on his forehead throbbing as he spat out his futile reprisal, "Shut it! You got lucky!"

This little worm thought that he had gotten lucky? If any one was lucky it was the twirp because Oruga had enough mercy inside him not to finish kill him afterwards,"Ah, go back and cry to your mom!"

The Coordinator seemed far more offended by this insult then Oruga had thought he would be and with a scream punched Oruga across the jaw, pushing even the larger Oruga back two steps with his Coordinator's strength. Oruga saw red as rage began to feed into him and for a moment it was held off only by the thought that he might accidentally repeat what had happened back when he was an EAF regular. When he had completely lost it and stained his hands. But that small bit of resistance didn't last against the ire pulsing through him. Students had begun to gather around the two pilots and many were taking a vested interest in the fight while Shinn stood tall with an arrogant thinking that he had felled his foe, blissfully unaware that his foe was merely standing on the cusp of attacking, a shadow of hesitation the only thing keeping him from attacking. And that shadow vanished.

Oruga brought a huge punch around and knocked Shinn in the stomach lifting him of the ground with the force to land on his backside a step behind. Oruga gripped the left side of his face in his hand, he could feel the swollen adrenal gland pumping and it was causing waves of pain to rush through him and his vision to haze, along with his reactions to slow. Normally, these effects were offset by the Gamma Glipheptin but he didn't have any. He would have to deal with the side effects of the surgeries himself. He did get the advantage though.

Calculations flooded his head. His minded was bombarded with pontential scenarios and the relative likely hood of their occurances. –sic- another person becomes involved and attacks from behind. Chance: 3 because Shinn doesn't seem like the type to make friends and Lunamaria, Rei, and Meyrin are not present. Reaction: avoid attacker and find better ground for engagement. Success Rate: 90 -sic- Shinn gets up and attacks from front with jump kick. Chance 8 because he has not shown any propensity for leg attacks. Reaction: catch foot and throw him Success Rate: 79 -sic- Shin gets up and… Again and again the numbers and images flooded his mind and disturbed his mind from focusing on Shinn, who was now getting himself off the floor. His mind noted this and factored that into determining the next likely course of action. This was the reason they called him a "Biological CPU"

All these numbers and he could barely comprehend a bit of it. He missed the Glipheptin which allowed him to select the most aggressive option instantly and the one with the least chance of getting him killed. It turned him into a berserk maverick but it wasn't nearly as painful. Until the withdraw started of course.

Shinn rushed him throwing a wide right punch. Fortunately, he had started reacting to it before the punch was initiated when the likelihood of a right hook was more then 50. However, even with being able to predict it his conscious reactions weren't able to react to his knowledge and perform then necessary motions to catch Shinn's fist until he barely avoided taking another blow on the jaw. It was far closer then he liked. Immediately he launched a punch of his own hoping to take advantage of the opening but his opponent was able to stop his punch with his hand. For a moment the two of them stared each other down. Oruga's eyes the color of razor leaves, which hook small animals and tear them with their sharp spikes so the blood and flesh of the creature fertilizes the nitrogen pure soil, and Shinn's eyes the color of blood when it but thinly coats a sword or knife, before it has coagulated and taken on the darker tone of heart-blood.

Shinn attempted to knee Oruga in the stomach but again Oruga was able to predict Shinn's move and knocked the Coordinators knee aside causing him to loose balance for a moment. It was at this moment that Oruga fully submitted to the rage boil inside him and bodily lifted Shinn into the air, the boy now too stun to make a concentrated struggle, and hurled him across the room.

Oruga started breathing heavy. His hand hung limp at his side. Suddenly, they were grabbed and pinned behind his back. A larger person pushed him to the floor with their superior weight, though Oruga would have been able to fight them if his head wasn't hurting so much from his pulsing adrenal gland. "Alright break it up you to! Your going to Captain Talia for detention!"

Not resisting, Oruga let himself be taken away. He could hear the idiot yelling behind him, "Come back here you coward! I can still kick your ass!" But Shinn couldn't and not just because Oruga would beat him up again. He was also pinned by an officer and was wreathing in the man's iron grip.

Oruga sighed. At least it didn't turn out as bad as last time. But then, he had been far angrier then. Far more.