On the hollowed ground of the Takezona Military Academy, thousands of eyes hardly dared to blink lest the movements of their eyelids disturb the almost supernatural silence stretching out over the multitude assembled on the parade ground.

Every individual fought their own battle to remain perfectly still, fighting itches, muscle cramps, and restlessness, as if anything less than perfect behaviour would spoil this sacred moment.

The gazes of the multitude tracked the movement of a single figure across the stage erected at the far end of the field to the pulpit in the middle. His poise conveyed purpose and pride, but above all, confidence. He wore no fancy robes to signify the importance of his position, but the standard uniform of a high-ranking officer. When he stood at the pulpit and swept his gaze over them, Hachiko felt electricity shoot up her back, as if his gaze alone carried energy.

"Octarians!" He boomed, "You stand here strong among comrades, all of you united in the goal of defending our beloved nation and the defeat of our enemy. You have completed your basic training and are now ready to become soldiers. Though you will go off to different specialties, remember that all of you, most of those who came before you, and all who come after you started here, the same place you did. Respect each other and remember what internal bickering and conflict cost us during the last war. This time must be different and only you can make that possible and remember that everyone who contributes contributes to victory, whether the enemy is a Federation cruiser or a stack of papers on their desk. Remember, an Octarian can do no wrong if they do their duty. Therefore; go forth, guardians of the Collective, and defeat our enemies, so that nobody may burn our homes again!"

The Lord Collective's tentacles flared out and he thrust a fist up into the air as he cried out, "For the Collective!"

"For the Collective!" The multitude roared back

Lord Octavio's serious expression broke into the smile of a proud father. "The war is going well for us now, but we must not be complacent. Keep pushing and doing your utmost and it will end in our victory! Now go complete your training and bring that victory home for us!"

He stepped back from the pulpit and marched off stage right. The Academy Commandant then took his place at the pulpit and began calling out orders to each individual training clutch, each one taking its turn to depart from the parade ground, but even now, nobody dared scratch any persistent itches or yawn until they were properly dismissed.

While they waited, Hachiko thought about the speech and about Lord Collective Octavio. He had been exactly as she expected, focused on the practical side of things rather than flowery, meaningless prose. He'd been encouraging but also warned them of the dangers of complacency. All of them had known this war was coming and didn't want to repeat the mistakes of the last one. Octavio was doing his duty as a survivor of that war to ensure those mistakes didn't happen again, and impressing that wisdom on every new officer.

As their unit dispersed, everyone clamoured to find someone they knew, a friend, a family member, anyone who had come to see them graduate. Unlike most of her peers, Hachiko knew exactly where to go.

A lamp post near the outer wall was slightly bent, the result of a vehicle backing into it at some point. Within the line of otherwise perfectly uniform posts it made the perfect understated landmark. There, she found her family already waiting for her.

Connko Turfer stepped ahead of the others and spread her arms out invitingly. Hachiko accepted wholeheartedly and ran into those wonderful, warm arms and let her mother's long, mauve tentacles intertwine with her own and caress her cheeks. Without any words at all, she received love, her mother's pride, and her worries.

"Your father's sorry he couldn't come," she said. "But he said to tell you that he is very proud of you and he hopes that one of the mobile suits he made will wind up in your hands."

Hachiko giggled. "I am sure one will eventually. If I find bolts or screws missing though, I'm going to write him a letter."

Her mother gave her a squeeze and Hachiko felt a slight tremor in her body. "I wish you didn't have to do this, Hachiko," she whispered very softly. "The inklings attacking us out of nowhere, forcing our children to fight just to keep their homes… I can't help but worry what will happen to you."

Hachiko patted her mother on the back. "I'll be fine, Mother. I'm your eighth child, remember? I'm lucky."

Her mother squeezed her tighter. "It not you dying that worries me, Hachiko, that would be a mercy. I'm worried about what this war might do to you, what it will turn you into. I know what happened to some people after the last war ended. I don't want that to happen to you."

Hachiko felt a tightness in the pit of her gut, apprehension she'd been keeping buried bubbling to the surface along with duty, obligation, and everyone's expectations.

"I don't want to kill anyone," she admitted with equal discretion. "I don't want to hurt anyone, I don't want to destroy anything, but I know I'll have to."

Her mother kissed her forehead, her tentacles brushing against her cheeks. "You've always been a gentle soul. I can't believe the exams recommended you for military service. Athleticism and reflexes can be used for other things, like sports."

Hachiko sighed. "Mother, we have spoken about this. I know I had other options but with war almost guaranteed it was the best for the collective as a whole. That is every Octarian's duty. At least I'll be in a position to protect you and you only have one child in the military."

She leaned in and kissed her mother's cheek. "I will make you proud and when I come back I'll still be your Hachiko."

She felt her mother shudder then gently push her away with a forced smile. They were done. She needed to greet all the siblings around her before she had to fulfill her orders.

Her three brothers and twelve sisters were either already working in some industry, in university, or too young to worry about any of those things. Though she worried that, if the war went on long enough, some of her younger siblings might be forced to serve as well.

Hachiko spent the better part of an hour with her family, suffering her brothers' teasing and the premature maternal advice of her older sisters. To her younger siblings she had to project a countenance of confidence and security she didn't possess. In truth, the anxiety buffeting her insides threatened to crush her internal organs.

Eventually, Hachiko couldn't delay her departure anymore and tore herself away, heading for the barracks, though it almost felt like leaving an arm behind. Even for the duty devoted Octarians, it was always hard leaving home.

Alone with her thoughts again, she lowered her mask and let the anxiety flow out of her in a shaky breath, silently congratulating herself for maintaining her facade throughout most of the reunion. It was important to look confident, for their sake. The last thing they needed was to be worried about her before she even finished training; she'd only just graduated from the Officer's Academy.

Hachiko found the eight-person room that had been her quarters for over a quarter of a year and retrieved her duffle bag. She'd enlisted just before the war began and been on her introduction to space survival course when the Federation fleet had attacked the colonies. She'd seen the distant explosions of battle as they evacuated the exercise. Now, theirs was probably going to be the last intake to receive full-length training until the war ended.

She began navigating to the front gate. She could actually see it from the barracks block, just downspin of them, rising with the curve of the colony's cylindrical hull. To reach it she needed to follow the brick path stretching out before her, lined on either side by tall maple trees, giving shade to anyone who needed a break from the sun reflecting off the colony's mirrors. In the shade of one of those trees, she found a familiar figure.

"Honah!"

The octoling turned her head to the left and regarded her with eyes that shone gold and reminded Hachiko of the twin moons. Her tentacles added to the illusion, dark-blue like the night sky on Terra, providing the perfect backdrop.

"What took you so long?" Honah asked casually.

Hachiko flushed slightly. "I was… with my family. They came to see me graduate."

For the briefest of moments, Hachiko thought she saw pain flash across Honah's eyes. They shimmered like deep, reflecting pools, as if reflecting memories back into her owner's head.

"Oh, right, I forgot. Well, that's good. You should appreciate your family while you have 'em. I'd be mad if you didn't take the time."

Eight put down her bag and gave Honah a quick hug. "You know your parents would be just as proud of you as mine are. Besides, I would never have made it this far if it weren't for you beating some confidence into me and I definitely wouldn't have qualified for mobile suits." She smiled and took her hand. "Now, we get to be together at least a little longer and this time I'll try not to hold you back."

Honah laughed. "Well, I haven't had to cut you off yet, Hahciko." She picked up her own duffle and gestured for her to do the same. "Now let's get to the harbour before they start sending MPs to look for us thinking we got drunk."

At the gate they both presented their ID discs and order papers to the guards who then let them go, advising them it was best to arrive early, as the mobile suit corps wasn't as lenient with new recruits as the other branches.

As they walked along the street to the tram terminal, Honah asked her, "what did you tell your family about your orders?"

"Just that I was recommended for mobile suits. Since Papa helps make them, I think that makes them all happy. Other than that… I didn't really know what else to say. What do you say to your family when they're seeing you off to war?"

Honah's eyes became distant and Hachiko wondered if she had said something insensitive.

Honah looked up at the transparent section of the colony's structure, wistfully at first, then her eyes hardened. "I know exactly what I'd tell them; I'd tell them I was going to kill every inkling I see."

A sudden chill came over Hachiko and she shivered. She had rarely heard Honah use that tone, but when she had it was always in reference to the inklings and her hatred of them.

Hachiko wanted to tell her that it was important not to let emotion cloud one's judgment, especially when it might interfere with one's duties but thought better of it. She knew she was in the minority when it came to that. Everyone was eager to go out and fight the enemy that had attacked their home. Eight was probably the only one in the entire Collective Armed Forces who didn't want to fight, but she wouldn't shirk her duty or her obligation. They were at war and they hadn't been the ones to start it. It was her duty to help finish it and she would do her best. That's what a proper Octarian would do. Duty was always there to guide one when emotions might otherwise take over.

Of course knowing all that and actually putting it into practice were two entirely different things and she still wasn't sure if she really could do it.

Probably be relying on Honah to get me over my hurdles again, like always.

Two months passed since Hachiko and Honah had begun training in mobile suits. They spent more than a month doing classroom work and theory before they even got to sit in the cockpit of one of the Collective's Zaku mobile suits. Now, they were about to sortie on their first solo combat exercise.

Honah finished tucking her tentacles into the helmet of her pilot suit and flashed her an eager smile. "One step closer."

Hachiko nodded, her brows knitted in a worried frown. "I've still been too worried about the tests we have coming up to think about this. It feels like it came out of nowhere."

Honah shook her head and floated towards the airlock. "Leave it to you, Hachiko, to be so busy worrying about the scary stuff far away that you forget the fun stuff right in front of you."

Hachiko floated after her, feeling slightly indignant. "I'm not as good at written things, you know that."

"But you still have some of the highest marks in our intake," Honah countered. "You're even better than me. You've never done that before."

Heat rose up the back of Hachiko's neck and lightly touched her cheeks. "I'm just trying to do my best."

The two floated into the airlock and waited for it to cycle. Beyond lay the hangar. The lights turned green, the exterior door slid open, and they floated excitedly into the cavernous space beyond.

Hachiko was well used to the hangars by now, but the sheer enormity of them still took her breath away. This was one of the external hangars, large enough to house a dozen mobile suits. Deeper in, a maintenance hangar could be accessed through an enormous airlock, and was even bigger than this one.

Honah and Hachiko drifted towards their particular units, separated by a single empty alcove. They would be piloting the MS-06 Zaku IIC, the very latest model at the start of the war. She'd heard rumours that an even better one would be arriving soon.

At nearly eighteen metres tall, and sixty tons empty, the broad-shouldered, humanoid machine was an imposing figure and made Hachiko think of a mythical war god in armour but armed with modern weaponry. It was painted the standard training colours: bright yellow with large orange squares over its shins, and on its back and chest. Most intimidating of all was the large cyclopian eye nestled within the slit of its armoured head, shaped like a soldier's helmet, with the power and coolant feed lines making it look like it wore a gas mask. Hachiko couldn't help but find the feature unsettling in a machine that otherwise so closely resembled the people who built it.

Hachiko briefly floated over to her unit's right shoulder to check how well fastened the rectangular shoulder shield was to the arm. The notation she got from the maintenance crew indicated it had just been fixed but pilots had been taught to check these things themselves if they could.

Finding the shield adequately secured, as best she could tell, she floated over to the lead tech who helped her climb inside and fastened in.

"It'll feel a little different today," she said. "We had to use thrusters from the new F model. We did our best but it's not quite balanced so you'll have to watch yourself."

"Shortages?" Hachiko asked as he began her pre-flight checks.

"Always," the tech replied. "But honestly I think they just stopped building the original ones for the C model. After all, these ones are supposedly better. 'Course, nobody thinks to ask what the people who have to actually fit the damn thing have to say about it."

Hachiko gave her an apologetic smile. "Sorry."

"Don't apologize to me, kid, you're the one who has to fly this damn thing. We followed the book and it should work but nobody's really flown it since we installed the new thrusters, but who knows, maybe they'll give you bonus marks."

"How lucky I am. Thank you, petty-officer."

The PO gave her a quick salute then backed out of the cockpit. Hachiko did a few more checks then closed the hatch.

One of the small monitors just above the main viewscreen winked to life, showing a live bust shot of Honah in the cockpit of her own machine.

"You finally online?"

"Yes. The tech was just telling me my machine will be a bit temperamental today."

"Personality, you mean," Honah joked, referencing what their chief instructor always called a particular machine's foibles. It was said that, because of their complexity, no two mobile suits were ever exactly alike.

"I'm heading out first. Control's already given me the go-ahead."

"Don't start without me."

"Depends how slow you are."

Hachiko activated her viewscreens just in time to see the monoeye sensor on Honah's machine glow into life. In atmosphere it made a kind of "veen" sound that was difficult to describe. 'If a hornet could growl', was the closest she'd come to so far.

She called control for permission to exit the hangar and proceed to their designated test range. Honah's machine floated past her, the techs having all scattered clear. Hachiko followed a minute later, her building-sized suit of armour and death coasting gently out of its alcove and then turning to the exit.

"I guess it's time to see how these new thrusters behave," she murmured to herself.

She cleared the hangar safety zone and found Honah already four kilometres away. She checked her surroundings and found nothing but a pair of shuttles just leaving one of the other hangars a few kilometres above her.

Hachiko ignited her main thrusters and was knocked back in her seat. The thrust was definitely improved, but she saw her view start to skew to the right and manually compensated. The balance was definitely off and she wasn't even at full power.

"You okay?" Honah asked.

"Just dealing with a personality."

After just a few minutes of flying, she could see the beacons ahead flashing and showing the location of the practice range. Starbase Cephalon still loomed in her rear monitor. The two shuttles she'd spotted before winking out of sight as the enormous asteroid base imposed itself between them and her.

As the first one to arrive, Honah radioed to ask if they were cleared to enter the range and received a prompt affirmative.

"Alright Red Seven, let's nail some targets. Targeting system off?"

"Targeting system off," Hachiko reported. "Red Seven ready."

Their exercise today was fairly simple and straightforward. They had to go through a predetermined course shown by strings of beacons while maintaining a minimum speed and hitting the designated targets as they passed. Simple enough and they'd done it before, but this time they had to do it without the help of their targeting system or the close scrutiny of an instructor.

They went through the course together, maintaining a close formation. Honah shot first and Hachiko would hit any targets she didn't. The targets were little more than clay disks painted bright colours so they could only be targeted visually, and with the targeting system off deflection shooting was much trickier.

In minutes, they reached the end of the course, having not missed a single target.

"Resetting range," came the controller. "Red Seven assume point this time."

Now it would be Hachiko's turn to go first and Honah would follow.

"A pretty good first run, I think," Honah said proudly, as she switched the magazine on her machine gun. "Think we can score better if we go through it faster?"

Hachiko smirked. "I don't think I can do much faster than we were going without missing more targets and missing targets means a much worse score then if we'd gone slower and hit them all."

"Whatever, I still think we could do it."

Hachiko just kept smiling to herself and settled into her seat to relax a bit before the next go through the course. She focused on the stars through her front screen and was pleasantly surprised to see Aspicio, the partner star to their own Fos, in their binary star system. It reminded her of spending long hours gazing up at the stars through the transparent canopy of the colony.

Suddenly, Aspicio was obscured by something causing her to frown. Then it happened again. Peering closely at her screen she searched the nearby stars and saw a few more of them become obscured and then appear again, as if clouds of utter blackness were passing in front of her. She supposed it might just be small asteroids or chunks of space debris, but this close her sensors should have been able to detect them.

"Honah, do you see anything directly in front of us?"

There was a pause before Honah responded. "No, nothing. Why?"

"There are some objects moving across my vision. I can't see them but I can see them blocking the starlight as they move across."

Another pause before Honah replied, "no, don't see anything. Maybe minovsky interference is getting in the way."

Hachiko frowned then called up control. "Range control this is Red Seven, are you seeing anything bearing one-nine-two by six-three from base."

Control responded hesitantly. "Negative, Red Seven. Why?"

"Because I have a visual on some objects moving past a short distance away but they're not coming up on sensors and if it's space debris this close it might hit the base or some of the surrounding infrastructure with the direction it's heading."

Hachiko waited in the relative silence of her cockpit for several moments before Control responded. "Very well, Red Seven, you and Red Six go investigate. We're still getting the course set up anyway."

"Copy control, will report back in a moment." She switched back to their flight comms. "Coming Honah?"

"Yeah, I'm coming, but if it's just a couple of rocks I'm going to be disappointed."

They ignited their thrusters and travelled on an intercept course. Hachiko could see at least one object obscuring stars as it travelled. It was difficult to tell how far away it was. Despite all her sensors being active she wasn't getting any returns.

"Hey, I think I see it too," Honah reported. "Nothing on sensors but… it's like black on black. Can't make out the shape."

Hachiko kept a close eye on the shape as it kept moving, then it passed in front of an asteroid tethered to Cephalon by large struts and a connecting transit tube. This allowed her to see it's basic outline, but also that it was not alone.

The Zaku screamed at her and she jolted back upright in her seat. That tone meant one thing.

"Getting spiked!" Honah cried.

Then there was a blast of flame from the the black shapes and Hachiko's body moved immediately, hitting full power on the thrusters.

"Missiles!"

At least a dozen streaks of fire burst from the black shapes and arced toward them. Hachiko and Honah both rocketed straight upwards, forcing the missiles to give chase in an extended arc.

"Control, control, we're under fire!"

The two Zakus' machine guns spat high explosive shells at the incoming warheads. They popped like firecrackers as the 120mm rounds hit them, but they kept coming closer and closer. And for one of the few times in Hachiko's life, she swore as two missiles slammed into her Zaku, one hitting the armoured skirt and the other blasting into the left side. Alarms screamed at her yet again, this time reporting damage on a paper doll schematic on one of her instrument panels.

"Red Seven is hit!"

"Red Six is hit," Honah reported, her tone less panicked and more angry. Then, she turned her Zaku and raced right back the way they'd come, chasing after the unidentified craft.

"Wait, Honah!"

Hachiko chased after her and Control called to her again. "Red Flight, Red Flight, report your situation!"

"Red flight in pursuit of hostile craft!" Honah replied, her voice overflowing with urgency. "They're heading towards the hangars."

Hachiko silently prayed that all the hangar doors were closed. If not, it was possible a lot of damage was about to occur, but the unknown craft, though their engines were burning brightly, were not outrunning the Zakus. They were gaining quickly, and they knew it.

"Honah, wait for me! We have to engage together!" But her call went unheeded.

Honah fired at long range with her machine gun, clipping one of them and sending it into a tumble before it exploded. Suddenly, the space between them was full of missiles, no less than twenty spiralling towards Honah.

It was in that moment Hachiko remembered she still had the targeting system turned off!

"Honah! The targeting system, the targeting system!"

Honah dodged left and right but refused to change her overall trajectory, dodging the missiles at the last minute or blasting them with her machine gun. While many of the missiles did seem to miss her as the increasing minovsky particle interference confused them, enough got through.

Hachiko's mouth fell open in horror as the missiles tore away at Honah's Zaku, gouging deep craters in the chest armour and tearing the shoulder pauldron over the left shoulder clean away. Two other missiles snuck in from the other direction and blew holes in the Zaku's thruster backpack, detonating some of the propellant and turning Honah's most powerful thrusters into melted slag. Somehow, the Zaku still remained.

"Honah! Are you okay?"

"Never mind me, get them!"

Hachiko wanted to stop and recover her friend, but she couldn't, not with a bunch of Federation stealth bombers, (at least that's what she assumed they were), running loose near the training base, so she passed Honah by and kept chasing.

"Control to Red Six and Seven, status report!"

"Red Six is down. Red Seven is still pursuing hostile craft. They seem to be Federation bombers, but stealthed."

Hachiko checked her distance. She was closer to them now than Honah was. Why weren't they shooting at her? In fact, the turrets weren't even turned in her direction.

A pair of Gattle fighter bombers streaked in from the base and fired missiles of their own into the enemy formation. The missiles didn't track and passed by uselessly but their four 30mm guns worked just fine, and they managed to knock out two of the bombers as they passed.

Hachiko used that time to strike as well and she was much closer now. She fired one burst then another. Both connected with their respective targets and they were torn apart, the second one burning like a shooting star for a second before it exploded in a bright ball of fire, but it managed to shoot off it's missiles first, and Hachiko was forced to evade, shifting her trajectory to the left, away from the base as she fired into the pursuing missiles, all while dodging and weaving until they were no more.

Hachiko found the bombers again, but frowned when she realized they weren't going for the hangars. Why? If not there what were they–. A lump formed in her throat as she realized where they were heading.

The two shuttles she'd seen leaving earlier when she'd left the hangar were accelerating away, but their small thrusters were not enough to overcome the velocity of the bombers.

"The shuttles! They're after the shuttles!" But it was too late.

Missiles leapt forth from the lead bombers like hellbent hornets. They crashed into the shuttle's interior and detonated inside, consuming the entire craft in fire and sending shards of it streaking away like flaming flower pedals.

As the bombers streaked through, banking away on an outbound vector, they targeted the second shuttle, but by the time they were able to fire, Hachiko and the two Gattles were in a position to do something about it.

Hachiko loaded her machine gun with her last magazine, determination flooding into her veins. She put herself between the shuttle and the missiles and shot for all she was worth.

The Gattles streaked in with their guns, managing to take out a handful of their number but that still left Hachiko and her battered Zaku as the only thing between the shuttle and two-dozen missiles.

Her gun fired on full automatic, hammering out scores of hot bullets to meet the incoming ordinance. One after another popped, but on they came, ever onward, ever closer, she took out a dozen of them, then more, but it was too late, they were just too close!

Hachiko turned to present her shoulder shield to the warheads and the Zaku clanged and shuddered under a pair of impacts that knocked her backwards. She flared her thrusters to stop her backwards motion and waited… but nothing happened.

She checked her sensors, checked her screens, her damage redoubts. Her Zaku had taken a pounding but it was still working and the shuttle also appeared intact.

She searched for the enemy bombers but couldn't find them, and at some point in the last few seconds the Gattles had been taken out. But where had the bombers gone?

"Red Seven, come in Red Seven."

Hachiko wet her lips and answered. "Red Seven here, Control."

"Status report? Do you have a tally on the hostile bombers?"

"Negative, Control. I lost track of them. The remaining shuttle appears intact, but I have substantial damage and I'm out of ammunition."

"Acknowledged, Red Seven. Retrieve Red Six if you can and head back to the hangar."

"Copy, Control."

Hachiko nursed her battered mobile suit back the way she'd come and found Honah's even more battered Zaku floating dangerously close to the surface of Cephalon. She grabbed the other Zaku by the arm and tried raising Honah on the comms. On the second attempt, she answered.

"I'm fine… just mad at being shot down," she said.

Hachiko breathed a sigh of relief. "I'm glad to hear you're okay."

"Did you get them?" Honah asked brusquely.

"Some of them, but we couldn't stop them from getting one of the shuttles. We did manage to save the other one though."

"But did you manage to kill the rest?"

"No. While we were busy trying to save the last shuttle they destroyed the fighters then somehow sneaked away. I imagine they're looking at sensor logs to see which way they went."

"You let them get away!"

Hachiko was stunned for a moment. The anger in Honah's voice, directed at her, caught her off guard.

"I couldn't get them and save the shuttle. I didn't have any choice."

Honah didn't respond.

As they neared the hangars, two Zakus clumsily exited one of them, both heavily armed and racing in the rough direction Hachiko guessed the enemy bombers had gone. Hopefully, they would get them. A little strange though. Why would they be sending pursuit forces from one of the training hangars? One of them was armed with a bazooka too, not an ideal weapon for hitting targets like that. Maybe it was just the loadout they had ready.

"I did my best," Hachiko whispered softly to herself. Unfortunately, it wasn't good enough to save the dozens of people on the first shuttle and it hadn't been enough to satisfy Honah either apparently. She would have to do better next time, she had to. If she couldn't satisfy her best friend, how could she satisfy the demands her duty placed on her?

Author's Notes:

Our first taste of real combat. I have never written mobile suits fighting each other before so this was a bit tough as I was in very new territory, and I was trying to portray it in a believable way. Feedback and critique are welcome.

Obviously, the Octaian Collective takes on the "role" of Zeon in this crossover story, but they are not at all the same. Their government works very differently and their war aims are also different. That and Zabis aren't around to screw everything up, so they actually have a chance at winning this war.