(Chapter 17: Repairing Things Big And Small)
"Thirty meters to the surface...twenty-five meters...twenty meters...fifteen meters...ten meters..." At this point, the bridge crew could see sunlight through the waves above the conning tower of the Archangel. "Five meters...surface."
They were not deceived by that appearance. It was a bright, sunny morning they had come upon, provided that on this world the sun rose in the east. Time would tell that much. Murrue was at the windows, watching the hangar bay drain out almost explosively of the water that had accumulated in it from their new location. Athrun had put a triple layer of cargo nets in place over the hole to prevent equipment and supplies from being swept out into the waves, as he had done over the hole that had become his quarters, and it did not take long for that net to bulge with tool carts and spare armor plating that was following the movement of the water.
"Captain, we appear to have lost all the ballast from seawater, or enough of it that I can resume normal levitator functions," Newman says as the ship begins lifting from the waves faster than it had been lifting underwater. "We're still down forty percent of the engines at this time, however."
"Thank you, mister Newman. Sai, contacts?"
"Negative, Captain, scope and sonar are clear," Sai replies.
"All right, activate the long-weave sensor mode, try and find us some land to park the ship on, Sai."
"Aye, Captain, beginning search now," Sai replies. Long-wave sensors would bounce off certain layers of the atmosphere and gave the ship beyond-visual-range sensor capability, at the expense of crystal-clear returns. "Conn, Sensors, I have a return, possible surface naval contact bearing 2-6-5, range minimum eighty-five kilometers."
"Designate contact Sierra-1, track steady while continuing your search."
"Aye," Sai locks that contact into the sensor controls as something to be tracked continually while expanding the land-search another five kilometers at a time. He continues expanding the contacts until there was no room left for sensors at his altitude. "Conn, Sensors, I show no land in sensor range at this time, my only contact is Sierra-one bearing 2-6-6, range eighty-seven kilometers, target ship's heading 0-4-5."
"Roger that, thank you, Sai. Newman, plot us a course to come up behind Sierra-1 and keep a respectable distance from her. If anyone in the area knows where they are going, it is likely to be that ship."
"Easy enough," Newman notes as he breaks out the laser pen on his console while Mina took over the task of keeping the ship steady in the increasing winds. "Here, we'll head course 2-2-5 for forty kilometers, then 3-1-5 until intersect his stern bearing, then on course 0-4-5 or whatever he would be running at that time. Sai, with the keel at sea level, how close to you have to be to get a direct-path sensor cut on him?"
"Uh, hold on a second," Sai says as he checks his reference info on his control panel. "Forty kilos, sir," Sai replies.
"Which puts us well out of visual range," Natarle notes.
"Excellent," Murrue notes. "Make it happen, Newman, Mina."
"Aye," both reply as Murrue resumes her seat, now through watching the hangar deck empty of seawater.
"Attention all hands, this is the Captain. Please begin all repairs possible to execute that do not require the ship to be landed. As soon as we find a good parking spot we shall begin the full court press for ship repairs. All pilots please report to the main briefing room for debrief at this time. Thank you."
- - - - -
"All right, people, we're back to square one again. No clue where we are and no clue what to do about it. Before we get caught in a situation that could be called bad or worse, I need to know who's up and on what at this time," Murrue requests.
"Aegis is up," Athrun replies.
"Strike is down, likely dead," Kira replies. "If I have to, I can use a Skygrasper with the Launcher pack."
"Buster is missing a leg, as soon as that is fixed I'm good to go," Tolle notes.
"Blitz doesn't exist any more except in memory," Nicol notes slightly sourly. It had been quite literally blitzed by an incoming shell of Naval Autocannon 40 as it blew through the armor on the side of the hangar and eliminated four of the deck crew at the same time.
"Duel is up, I took some minor damage from fighters but nothing crippling."
"Moebius Zero is down for repairs, not that it matters down here. I can go out in a Skygrasper as needed," Mu notes.
"Can the Buster use the Trikeros shield?" Tolle asks.
"I don't see why not," Nicol replies. "Any of the Gundams should be able to use it."
"Granted, Tolle," Murrue says. "And the Rune Gods?"
Hikaru, Fuu, and Umi look amongst themselves. "We can go out as needed," Umi notes.
"All right, people, I'm going to tell you first. As soon as we get the ship parked and critical repairs are completed, the whole crew is getting a 'steel beach' day. After the battle today...err, yesterday...whenever, I think we all could use a breather."
"Does the Earth Alliance issue vacation time?" Nicol asks.
"Not enough to talk about," Murrue replies drolly. "The Archangel Team, however, is a different story. Now, physically or equipment-wise aside, how are you doing?"
Surprisingly, it was Yzak with the most direct and rapid response: "Stressed out, 'cause unless we landed in the waters off Aube, we're in yet another dimension and another chance to get blown to hell by someone we probably can't even pronounce their names right."
"Strangely, he's right," Umi tacks on. "We're probably all gonna spend the next hours or days worrying until we figure out how bad it is around here."
"She's right," Athrun notes. "Since this started, we've been at each other's throats, we've faced down the next best thing to a goddess and her high priest, and rampaged across several worlds of the Inner Sphere fighting the Clans to a standstill. What's next?"
"So, do we park it here and give up?" Mu asks in rather sharp retort. "Not to make it sound like I am enjoying this, but half the fun is the unknown, never knowing what next you're going to walk into when you get there."
"And I still want to go home, even after all the battles we've been through, not that I have much of a home to go back to since someone blew it up," Kira notes with a rather sharp look at Yzak, Athrun, and Nicol.
"Hey Strike, just think of it as an opportunity to redecorate," Yzak notes, earning him a few 'disgusting attempt at a joke' groans from the others in the room.
"All right, 'Dearka'," and Athrun said this with such emphasis as to cause Yzak to flush bright red; "stop trying to embarrass yourself. Anyways, I'm going to keep on keepin' on, since I don't really see any value in stopping anywhere except home."
"Right," Hikaru and Nicol both reply.
"Aube or bust!" Tolle says as he slams the table lightly with his right fist.
"I would like to say I don't really care, because I am not looking forward to going back to the Earth Alliance, but I don't think It'd be right to park it for good if the rest of you want to go home," Mu says.
"Getting home is the big part; what we do after that is the great question," Kira notes with a bit of gravity.
"Yeah, I agree, let's just figure out how to get home first, then worry about what to do when we get there," Yzak accedes in a level voice.
"All right, that's what we're going to do. The ship moves on, regardless; it is possible that some of the crew may want off after that beating we just got from the Wolves," Murrue cautions to those of the command-rank in the room.
-x-x-x-
"Off the ship? Hell no! I don't want off the ship, I want vengeance!" Murdoch replies rather testily to the Captain's question as to whether he or any of the rest of the Deck Crew wanted off at the first possible civil location to do so. "And I don't think any of the rest of the deck crew want out either, we want some Wolf asses on pikes for grillin', if we ever get a chance to kick their asses again, that is. I lost nine of my best as well as four of the more promising Falcon bondsmen," he notes, putting an official number to what Murrue was silently dreading. "We may also have lost more down in engineering when that big sum-bitch corncobbed us."
"We did," Murrue replies, now understanding the totality of why people were complaining about Athrun's revised speech patterns. If Athrun ended up this bad... "Twelve down in Engineering, including another three of the Falcons."
"Want me to send some of the boys down that way to help shore up personnel count in the engine room?" Murdoch asks, quite stunned by the amount of personnel killed in that one barrage.
"Anyone you can spare, Murdoch. Now, what's the word on the Gundams and Skygraspers?"
"Well, we've got problems. Big problems."
"Machine by machine, if you have to."
"Well, Captain, first off, the Moebius Zero we're working on rebuilding now. The Commander took about four Medium Pulse hits, he's lucky he got enough of his machine home to repair. Second, Blitz got blitzed. All that's left worth mentioning of it is embedded in the port-side bulkhead with what's left of that half-meter ballistic slug that tore into us."
"Can you dig that thing out relatively intact, Murdoch? It'd make a rather interesting keepsake for the Stateroom." Not to mention, I want to present that thing as evidence to the board of inquiry that we aren't completely crazy here, if it ever comes down to that, Murrue thinks wryly.
"Well, yeah, I think I can get that thing out," Murdoch replies after thinking about it. "As for the rest of the Blitz, it got swept out to sea while we were unconscious from that last disappearing act. Aegis is actually relatively intact, Athrun didn't do anything crazy to get it banged up. Duel is intact but the Assault Shroud took a helluva beating. I'm going to have to patch it up and repaint the whole monster, unless Yzak has no objections to going into battle with blast marks and primer on his machine."
"No, I think it'd be better if you had it looking proper. At the least, we want to give any possible foes our Sunday best before we boot them upside the head," Murrue orders.
"Uh, right, can do Cap'n. And that brings us to the Strike. You can see what's left of it in berth four."
It only took Murrue five seconds to deliver her appraisal. "Might as well sign the BER (1) paperwork and the death certificate on it, I guess."
"I'd hate to chuck it, Cap'n, but in all fairness to what it took, it basically got blown in in half. Repairing it is going to cost us more parts than we have, period." By which he did not mean parts they had, per se, he meant parts that could be spared for a basic complete MS overhaul.
"Yeah, I know, the Strike is just too flexible to willingly give up, but in the end we have a choice between three functional Gundams for a long period or four for a shorter period." She sighs. "Break it down for spare parts, what's left of it."
"That's 'bout the size of it, Cap'n. I'll get it broke down."
"Skygraspers?"
"Ready to go any time, both of 'em. Thinking about putting Kira and Mu up in the sky if needed?"
"Mu for certain and either Kira or Nicol, whichever wants to use a dinky air-only fighter."
"No telling, if either," Murdoch replies.
"All right, Murdoch, what's the damage to the ship's hull?" Murrue asks, silently dreading the final number. His crew had had an hour to give the ship a good once-over for damage, and it went without saying that there would be a lot of it. After all, the only other time someone had put a notable hole in the ship had been on the starboard-side catapult doors, not in the actual heavy-armor side of the ship.
"Eh, it just needs a paint job and a shitload of screen doors." (2)
Murrue tried to not laugh at the fashion he had delivered that crass comment. Tried, and failed miserably. She ended up giggling for a few seconds after she managed to master most of the louder reaction.
After Murdoch figured he had rescued the captain from her self-imposed depression, he continued: "Seriously? We're going to have to expend most of our spare armor composite to repair the ship. Let's hope there is somewhere here that we can get replacement armor, or the locals can't damage us, or both. Both would be good."
"Both would be good, but I—" Murrue was interrupted by the intercom.
"Captain to the bridge, Captain to the bridge."
- - - - -
"Report, Natarle," Murrue orders.
"Captain, contact Sierra-1 is thirty-five kilometers off our port bow at this time, but in closing up we appear to have found some form of land mass that may be continental."
"Excellent," Murrue replies. "Now all we need is somewhere to put the ship down. Only question is, who do we send to check?"
"May I suggest we use Windam for the task?" Natarle requests.
"You may, and I'd like to know why not Aegis or Duel?" Murrue asks as she leans up against the arm of her chair.
"Hold them in reserve in case the residents of this planet really don't like us, for starters. Second, outside of Athrun, Fuu is both the most flexible of our personnel and the most tactful," Natarle notes.
How about she's the most tactful person in the crew hands down, Murrue thinks out loud...
...loud enough to broadcast, which elicited the inevitable comment: "She's right, Fuuis the nicest person I've met in a long time," Miriallia replies.
Natarle plows on: "I also request Windam because of Windam's speed, in case she has to break away from a battle, and due to Windam's defensive capabilities that are basically unmatched in the unit. This is recon, not recon-in-force, Captain."
"All right, message received." Some part of Murrue's soul still considered the Rune Gods not part of the Mobile Contingent of the ship, but she chided herself for that. After all was said and done they were still here and were active in every battle the ship took place in, and all that by choice, not military orders. She reaches onto her console and picks up the phone, then jabs the same hand's thumb into the 'all call' switch. "Fuu Hououji, please report to the bridge at first possible, Fuu Hououji to the bridge. Thank you."
It only took two minutes. "You called, Captain Ramius?" Fuu asked as soon as she entered the bridge.
"Thank you for coming so fast, Fuu," Murrue replies. "I have a request for Windam and yourself. We need someone to scout around for clear land to park the ship on to conduct repairs. Are you willing?"
"Readily, Captain," Fuu replies instantly.
"Thank you, Fuu. Also, there are two things you need to watch out for while conducting the search: towns, military forces or bases. Avoid all of the above if possible. And avoid fighting if possible; if you have to cut your way out of a situation, do it, but if you can run, do that first."
"So, basically I'm just doing a search, nothing violent, and I need to avoid people. Correct, Captain?"
"Correct." Murrue was still feeling a bit guilty about this, but...
"All right, I can do this. When do I go?" Fuu asks.
"Immediately. Miriallia will give you course instructions after you launch."
"Thank you, Captain," Fuu says.
"No, thank you, Fuu, for the help." Within moments, Fuu was off the bridge.
"You're still not thinking of them as part of the ship's pilot compliment," not a question, but a comment from Natarle.
"I still can't make that leap of imagination. I mean, the Gundam pilots are sixteen, seventeen, they're fourteen and not trained as soldiers."
"Not to sound cruel about it, but somewhere in Existence there's probably soldiers as young as twelve," strangely enough, the comment was from Miriallia. "And the Knights are doing a lot better at it than I know I would. I keep freezing up every time I have to kill someone."
"That means you are human first, soldier second, Crewman Haw," Natarle replies. "Probably the best way to be."
- - - - -
Fuu was fast to move out to the catapult on the starboard side; from the time she left the bridge to the time she was in position was about three minutes. "Windam requesting launch at this time," she requests on the main radio band.
"Roger that, Windam, opening catapult doors at this time for launch. After launch, head north-east for the nearest known land area and begin your recon. Be advised, Sensors sees only one ship in the area dead ahead of us at this time."
"Understood, Miriallia. Launch when ready," Fuu replies.
It was not the first time she had been cat-shot, nor would it be the last in her estimation. Even so, it was still unsettling to have your whole body pressed in weird fashions that was strangely stimulating, combined with the instant adrenaline rush as she went from standing still to hundreds of kilometers of speed in a matter of moments.
When Windam snapped his wings open, they were immediately in control and moving fast; moments later, they were headed in the requested direction. For Fuu, it was an incredible feeling each time she got it, not to mention the incredible view from inside Windam as they soared across the skies of yet another planet. "It's amazing..."
No two planets, no two dimensions are ever exactly alike, Fuu. It is the nature of dimensional travel.
"But, why do we keep slipping between dimensions like this, and not where we intend to go?"
There may be someone in Existence that understands the 'why' of this matter, Fuu. I do not, unfortunately; all I can guess to this is that something within our midst is causing the problems where we go from location to location at random.
"Is it possible for us to go through Dimensions how we want?" She asks after a pause of a minute.
There are others in Existence that have mastered travel between dimensions, by both technology and magic. It should be possible for us to do the same, should we acquire the necessary skills or devices. Windam was silent for a period of time, which was not grossly unsettling to Fuu; the Rune Gods were not the most talkative beings on the ship, for sure. What did have her worried was that he was slowing his airspeed down, to the point that he came to a hover over the ocean, with the land mass just barely in sight in the distance.
"Windam, Control, what is your status?" Miriallia asks about five seconds after Windam had come to a hover.
"I do not know, Control. Windam?"
Be wary, Magic Knight. I sense power, magical power, and a lot of it. This is a most unusual land, Windam notes telepathically. We are approaching a town. Best we double back for several miles and then head northwest.
"Control, Windam," Fuu begins, then hesitates. "Windam says we are approaching a town on this heading. He recommends we double back for several miles and then head northwest."
"Windam, Control, I roger your last. Will relay to the captain." Ten seconds passed as minutes in Fuu's perception, as her heart and mind raced on a heading of nowhere fast with a speed unmeasurable. In situations like this, the paranoia curve went sharply upwards and it affected everyone, even the most docile of persons on the ship. "Windam, Control, come due south until you intercept the ship, then northwest for continued scouting, over. Be advised we are deploying Selesce and Duel at this time for close-proximity guard in case something happens."
"Thank you, Control," Windam was all too happy to double back and head toward the ship. Something about that power appeared to be creeping Windam out, and what creeped a Rune God out was cause for concern for the whole ship, in Fuu's opinion.
When Windam arrived at the ship, Fuu gave it a fly-by before she headed off in the course perpendicular to what she had started on. The view was still spectacular, either direction she headed, and by increasing her altitude incrementally she was able to get a look at where she was heading.
A wall of mountains rested slightly to the right of dead ahead of her, crags that came literally up to the shoreline by her view. To the right and left were relatively low lands with beaches here and there, the rest was grassland against small cliff faces that an athletic person would have little issue climbing. A forest or something to that effect appeared to be farther south on that area, which gave Fuu an excellent idea. "Sir Windam, can we land the ship between those crags and the forest?"
The ship should have no issue with that, Magic Knight. There is a small town southwest of where you are looking, though they should be unable to see the ship as they are on the other side of the land mass. Windam meant that the land itself crested at a height of probably 800 meters ASL, compared to the beach Fuu intended being a mere five meters or less ASL (3). Any village in that direction would literally be on the other side of an otherwise impressive hill.
"Control, Windam, I have a landing spot."
"Roger that, Windam, lead us in," Miriallia replies.
Fuu continued onward, looking back and forth down the shoreline for human activity. "Junior High was so much simpler than this," she laments more to herself than to anyone else.
"But a lot more boring, you have to admit," Miriallia replies.
"Yes, though it is quite a bit more hazardous than Junior High," Fuu replies back in kind.
"I don't know, the Junior High schools in Aube weren't all that bad, but some of the Atlantic Federation schools, oi, not pleasant," Chandratta replies. "I'd as soon take detail on this ship on a cruise through hell before I go back to some of those schools," he tacks on for amplification.
"I'm not sure if I should laugh or cry," Murrue says in a droll tone.
"Oh, wow," Fuu says. "Control, on my present flight path, we're moving straight toward a flat plain next to an inland bay, with the mountains to our east and the hill toward the south. On the plains above, it's incredibly flat, very good area to rest the ship."
"Understood, move into the recommended area and verify no local presence," Natarle says.
"I will be there in two minutes," Fuu replies. As Windam glided effortlessly over the bay, she reveled in the beauty of the lands and seas, for such beauty was all too rare on her home planet to properly enjoy, especially when all she could really remember of nature was a few short nature hikes in grade school. She got more exposure to nature from her favorite role-playing games than she did in her backyard, such as it was.
I can sense no human presence in the area, Magic Knight. We shall go up now onto the plains. Within moments, Windam had ascended and was now cruising several hundred meters over the ground. They cleared the cliff edge and were sailing over a sea of green and white-green grasses with little effort, Fuu stunned by the beauty of the lands she had come to.
"This...is amazing...it's as if nobody lives on this planet except in a few small towns, I guess. Land this expansive would at least be farm fields on my world," Fuu says almost breathlessly.
"Windam, Control, Commander Badgiruel says you have moved far enough forward for the ship. Confirm no presence in the area, over,"
"Understood," Fuu brings Windam to a graceful landing in the middle of an almost completely flat expanse of grasses. "Windam reports no contact except...some form of yellow bird, maybe?" Fuu says as she squints at the said flock of birds. They were not moving, just staring at Windam, as Windam was staring at them. "Windam, do you know what form of bird they are?" Fuu asks, wondering why big yellow birds was ringing a bell in the back of her mind...
Never have I crossed paths with such, Magic Knight. I can sense they are no threat to the ship or crew unless riled; live and let live, in other parlance, Windam replies.
"Report, Fuu," Natarle requests in a level voice.
"Windam believes they are not a threat, Commander. They...look too cute to be a threat," Fuu replies, wondering again why a cute yellow bird was ringing some form of bell with her.
"Roger that," Natarle replies in a tired tone. "We will be up there in about five minutes," she tacks on.
-x-x-x-
"This is chicken shit. Literally."
"No shit, Yzak," Athrun replies testily.
The whole crew was operating at this time, even the second and third-shift personnel, as there was a lot of the ship that needed to be repaired. Athrun had set up a boom crane on the port side of the ship, almost parallel with the conning tower, using some of the components he had purchased on Twycross and some acquired from other venues. Thee crane was being used to remove damaged armor plate sections, so that they could be chopped down and used to fill in damage elsewhere. The Gundams were still undergoing repairs at the time, the pilots tasked to cleaning up a rather unexpected and rather disheartening mess:
The Chicken Coop.
First, the hangar had been vented to space, which had instantly killed all the chickens, as they could no better survive without air than could a human. If that was not bad enough, part of them had been further mutilated by shrapnel, spall kicked up from the transit of the Naval Autocannon slugs. Third, and probably the most grotesque happening of all, when the bay of the Archangel had flooded from being over one kilometer underwater, the inherent water pressure difference given from going from zero external pressure to over a hundred times the pressure of the atmosphere had literally crushed their forms into insanely gross and messy twists of bone and skin. The same instantaneous pressure differential was what necessitated the repairs to the Gundams that were being conducted as well, which meant the pilots were left cleaning up this mess.
The one saving grace of their death and further mutilation was that at least part of their remains had been swept out to sea. As to the remainder, they were still tangled in the cages and needed to be removed. Along with the remains of the remains, such as it was. And yes, this did include the remains of bird crap and other rather nasty matter.
"Ugh, I think I'm gonna be sick," Nicol says weakly.
"Don't think about it," Tolle cautions. "It'll all be over soon, it'll all be over soon, it'll—oh shit—" Tolle had even begun to look green at the utterance of his chant, but apparently he could no longer bear it. Tolle did have the courtesy to try to move away from the group, though it was a courtesy in vain as the whole group was within earshot of his wretching and it started a chain reaction of such magnitude that it even disgusted a few of the mechanics, who were smart enough to be at the far end of the bay from the rotting, stinking mess of chicken remains.
"God, this sucks major portions of ass," Athrun says after he was sure he was through puking his guts out.
"This ain't the first time this has happened to us on this road trip," Nicol says with a wearied, weak tone.
"Don't remind me, damnit," Yzak growls out between ragged breaths.
"Hey, it can be worse," Nicol says as he begins to lever himself up to standing.
"How? No, wait, don't answer that, I don't think my stomach could handle it," Tolle notes.
"That's it;" Yzak says as he pulls himself up to standing and grabs the radio he had set aside for himself. With a flick of the selector, he had it on the maintenance frequency. "Murdoch from Yzak, come back," he begins.
"Go for Murdoch," the senior mechanic replies after a moment.
"Are the fire suppression hoses in the hangar attached to the ship fire alarm system?"
"Yes, you turn one of those on and it'll activate the fire panel and the deluge system for that quadrant of the hangar. Don't do it," Murdoch cautions rather forcefully.
"Fuck this sideways!" Yzak shouts loud enough that Murdoch could hear it, even without having heard it through the radio.
WHAP.
"My only regret is I didn't have a video camera to record that," Nicol notes in the stunned silence following what had happened.
"Yeah, no shit," Athrun says, slightly awestruck at the conduct of the Magic Knight.
"You want one too?" Umi asks as her head whips around and centers on Athrun. Despite flexing her hand after the very loud face slap, Athrun immediately realizes that he had made the exact same mistake that Yzak had, only he did so even after being forewarned in a very direct fashion.
"Uhm, no, thank you," Athrun replies very meekly, despite the inner physical torment of the past few minutes.
Yzak took a moment to pop his jaw, which was not the most pleasant of sounds. "What the fuck was that—" WHAP.
"And still, no video camera," Nicol says dejectedly.
"Screw this, I'm outta here," Yzak says as he starts walking toward one of the access hatches to the inside.
"Oh hell no you ain't, Yzak," Athrun says sharply. "Get your sorry ass back here, apologize to Umi, and help us figure out a way to finish cleaning this shit up;" WHAP. After about three seconds, Athrun sighs as he rubs where Umi's hand had very speedily conflicted with his face. "That's an attention-getter. I gotta get out of this habit before she starts using nearby objects."
"Or what, Zala?" Yzak asks in clear defiance of Athrun's implicit order to remain. "What're you going to do if I walk out of here, huh?"
"You do that, you won't have to worry about Umi slapping your jaw off, I'll just kick your ass up between your shoulders," Athrun retorts very directly.
"You know, I don't think any local potential enemies have anything to worry about, all they have to do is wait a week and we'll be through killing each other off from plain frustration," Nicol says to Kira, who was just dragging himself up from the floor from an extended session of ralfing.
"No kidding," Kira replies weakly. "Hikaru, you all right?" He asks as he pokes at her shoulder.
"I'll...be all right..." she groans out between gasps for air.
"What's it going to be, Yzak?" Athrun asks coldly.
"This is bullshit! I am not cleaning any more of that crap manually!" Yzak shouts as he waves his arm at the cages.
"Nobody said anything about cleaning it manually, dumbass, we're all trying to think of a way to get rid of it without doing it the hard way!" Athrun shouted back and well past loud enough to be heard by the mechanics.
"Uh," Yzak begins, then looks around at the assembled crowd of pilots that were staring at him. The only one not present was Mu, who was overseeing repairs to the rear exterior of the ship. "All right, all right, I'll do it, I'll do it, just...stop staring at me like you're gonna tear me to shreds, all right?"
"Wimp out, and I may do that," Umi says, still very frustrated of tone.
Is there something else going on with her? Athrun asks himself, referencing her sudden outlash at Yzak. Umi was normally a lot more calm than this, in his judgment. "Yzak, you were asking about the hoses earlier, right?" Athrun asks.
"That's it!" Kira says, suddenly in a far better mood. "The power washer we use on the Gundams! That would be perfect!"
"No, I can think of one even better: Umi's Water Dragon spell," Yzak says as he approaches the group again. Athrun noted he was keeping his distance, but making it look like he was not necessarily keeping his distance from said Magic Knight.
"Would a spell like that damage the ship's bulkheads?" Fuu asks.
"No, not likely," Athrun replies. "This wall is almost a meter of laminated armor. It would take a lot more than water to cause serious damage to it." Athrun does some mental calculations as to what he figured would be needed. "Kira, go wrangle up the power washer, we're going to need it for finishing up. Hikaru, I need you to go over there by the hole in the wall and get those crew to pack up and move for five minutes while we clean this up. Fuu, Nicol, Yzak, we're going to need mops and buckets, load them up with the strongest cleaning agent the ship has. Umi, I intend on having you blast your spell aiming in this direction, so the pressure wave reflects off the rear wall and takes it downhill toward the hole in the wall."
"Got it," she replies in almost an amused tone.
"After we get most of the debris out, we go through and clean the remainder out with the power washer, then we mop the whole area thoroughly with disinfectant to prevent spreading any nasty crap around the ship." The last thing the ship needed was a disease wave, Athrun knew, or worse problems brought by such nasty remnants.
- - - - -
Murrue was standing at the front window, watching the crews on the front and side decks begin the laborious task of fitting new armor plate to the ship or patching up the minor dings caused by lesser weapons. Miriallia was standing up there as well, looking out the front-left windows, and Chandratta was looking front-right, as a combination observer and spotter for any visual contacts that the sensors would not pick up.
"Huh?" Miriallia begins, then apparently freezes up. "Oh, okay," Murrue looked down in time to see the crew moving away from the hole in the port forward of the ship.
"What is it, Miriallia?" Murrue asks.
"Umi is going to blast the remnants of the cages and birds out of the hangar with a water spell."
"Well, that is certainly creative," Natarle says as she steps up to the window.
"Did you feel that a few minutes ago?" Murrue asks.
"I did, Umi was pretty pissed off," Miriallia notes with a giggle. "And Yzak finally got what was coming to him, twice!"
"Finally," Natarle echoes.
"Should I take issue with that, or just let it be?" Murrue muses to herself, figuring that one crewmember slapping another should be dealt with, but in this case it only took her two seconds to receive an answer.
"Nah, better Umi than someone else," Natarle notes. "She's been foremost in complaining about Yzak's language, so..."
"Foremost and loudest," Miriallia amplifies Commander Badgiruel's comment.
"Best leave this one for them to sort out, I guess," Murrue says as the last of the port-side armor workers backs off from the hole and rappels herself up to the deck area behind the Gottfried. Even at range, Murrue could tell the person in question was Kristen Redmond, the highest-ranking of the Bondsmen on the ship.
"Wait for it..." Miriallia says. "Now," she says as the spell began in the confines of the hangar below; after three seconds, the remnant of the all-too-familiar chicken coops were rather explosively evacuated through the hole in the side of the ship, and continued to travel with the flow of the water for some distance away from the ship.
"Very efficient," Natarle notes with something of a tone of humor. "I wonder which one thought that up?"
"Actually, Yzak did," Miriallia notes, having paid attention to their conversation and thoughts after Umi's mind went bright from slapping Yzak's face.
"That?" Murrue points to where most of the cages had come to rest.
"Surprising, actually, that Yzak would give her the time of day after she just left a big red hand-print on his face," Natarle notes.
"Actually, I think his preference for not having to do it by hand overrode what was left of his pride at that point," Miriallia throws in to qualify Yzak's involvement in the fix. "They are going over the area with the power washer and mops right now."
"Well, looks like everything is stable right now, so I'm going to disappear for a few. Natarle has the conn."
"Aye, Captain, I have the conn," Natarle says as Murrue heads for the door.
Murrue's intended destination was the cafeteria, since she had nothing to eat prior to the battle with the Wolves and had nothing since that battle, on the premise that seeing to the ship was her first priority. The cafeteria had only a handful of personnel in there, mostly from the environmental techs (who were not overly concerned about their prospects right now, since the ship was in a friendly environment). All of them came to attention as Murrue entered; she gave them the obligatory salute and released them back to their prior devices.
"May I, Captain?"
"Please," Captain Ramius replies to the Helmswoman's gestured request to take a seat across from her. "If you don't mind my asking, how are you feeling?"
Mina's answer was immediate and decisive: "A lot better today than the day before the ship showed up on Twycross."
"I know it was bad, but..." The look in Mina's eyes was telling enough to Murrue.
"It's over. We're no longer on Twycross, my stalking ex is dead, and I can even put up with being on a ship that gets shot at frequently. All in all, I'd say it is far better here than there, ma'am, even if...well...where are we?" Mina asks plaintively.
"None of us know." Murrue begins cutting into the turkey that was served for lunch this day. "The closest we have to a clue is some creepy, fuzzy feeling that Fuu has about the yellow birds around the area. So far none of them are brave enough to approach the ship, but they seem to absolutely love Windam." Murrue had watched as the Rune God was literally flocked by dozens of the amazingly cute, large birds.
"Is this how it was like when you came from where you were before to the Inner Sphere?" Mina had learned that much of the ship's short and violent history already, just from talking with the bridge crew.
"Yes...and no. We seem to never get the forewarning when this happens, though when we came from Cephiro to Dustball we had the advantage of knowing something of where we were just by listening to radio and satellite transmissions." ComInt (4) was a good way to learn of your surroundings, and Murrue had no compunctions about playing dirty to get home. In fact, Sai was still on the ESM equipment at this time, though nobody was talking right now in the area and the Archangel wasn't hearing it for obvious reasons.
Or we are standing somewhere where there is no radio usage...which might make the task all that much easier, Murrue considers in the confines of her mind. Within three seconds she dismissed it; the Rune Gods were the blaring exception from Cephiro, the enemy had not used radio and the locals did not have the capability, but Murrue had little doubt that Zagato could have destroyed the ship if he unloaded on it the day they found the Rune God Selesce, he had it practically disabled and could have finished it if he tried, but he did not. Oops. Though it still tore at her heart, Murrue had come to the conclusion that battle was fated to them, for at least one reason, likely more.
"But nothing today, Captain?" Mina had mostly taken to the military decorum of addressing other personnel, but still had a ways to go. For her as much as else, this was a crash-course on-the-job training program in something other than busing and waiting tables. Newman had reported that the determination and the sharp wits were there, and so far she was capitalizing on all of the above. Murrue was thus far not regretting indoctrinating her into the crew.
"Nothing. That means one of two things: either the locals are not a technological group, or they rely entirely on land-line systems."
"Or the use of radio is restricted to military and special purpose, Captain," Sai says as he sits down with a lunch next to Mina. "Or they use some form of remote communication that our ESM systems cannot see. Any way you dial it they are not talking where we can hear it."
"Anything, Sai?" Murrue asks. "Anything at all?"
"Just this," and Sai presents her a computerized note tablet that had some readings on it. "At random intervals, we see these readings, a spike followed by a continuous energy reading that distorts out to unrecognizable. Athrun thinks this is analogous to a ICE car starter and the engine itself running, but on something that uses a lot more power than just a car. The bearing on these is scattered, but never more west than 0-1-5 and never farther south than 1-1-0, and none of them are close. Best guess, one hundred fifty kilometers minimum."
"Power spikes...can you tell anything else about them?"
"No, Captain, just this. Athrun's made a couple floor-figure guesses and came to the conclusion that whatever they are has as much power as a Battlemech medium laser, and we've seen them in action. He did admit, though, it was basically a WAG with very thin numeric evidence behind it, though I don't know what he meant by that." Sai had stopped trying to saw into the turkey long enough to remove his glasses and clean them.
"WAG, W-A-G, Wild Ass Guess. Another name for an intelligence estimate, basically," Murrue says with a dose of mirthless humor. "We Earth Alliance front-liners did not like pitching a battle on intelligence estimates, basically because it takes a few disparate facts and comes to a conclusion...usually the wrong conclusion. Wrong conclusions cost lives. Keep an eye on these spikes and trails, Sai, if any of them come close to us I want to know it well in advance."
"And that's what this is for," Sai says as he hauls out a medium-size device that was physically smaller than the computerized note tablet but not as small as most hand-held devices. "Athrun and Kira set this up weeks ago and then 'volunteered' me to test it out for them. God, how did you let a pair like them loose on the Ship?"
"Athrun and Kira? I doubt I could stop them from coming up with any form of conspiracy, Sai. Just be thankful it is not a bad conspiracy," Murrue notes sardonically. Murrue had seen time and time again where those two coming up with a plan had gotten things done—albeit things that did not necessarily need to be done, but were beneficial nonetheless. Like the holoprojector in the center of the cafeteria that was displaying some form of drama movie that Murrue was ignoring since it seemed incredibly sappy in the wrong direction for her tastes.
"Anyway, I just started playing with it today, it is pretty handy. I can use this to basically control my entire console from this device, audio headset and all. And with the modular framework that Kira set up and loaded on all the consoles, I have control of just about all the CIC functions except weapons, which requires the key to be in place."
"Could you use that to, say, control and fire the weapons if the key was locked in?" Murrue asks, now a bit intrigued about it.
"I guess, I have not tried yet. It's just the same as my console, which can change functions to the weapons console as well."
"Interesting. I think I need to discuss this with Kira and Athrun," Murrue notes. Such an advantage would be incredibly useful in cases where the bridge would best be evacuated, such as in the case of a hole knocked in the glass while out in space, the ship could still be fought without the necessity of wearing a bulky and very limiting encounter suit. Simply detach the remote modules, evacuate the bridge, and head further into the ship where there was far more armor to protect oneself from external abuse.
"Captain, I have something strange about the ship I think you should know," Kuzzey says as he stands to attention next to the table.
"Strange? What's going on, crewman Buskirk?" Murrue asks.
"I was wandering around the gravity deck a few minutes ago, when I realized that making one rotation was taking too many steps. So I counted it, and I think the gravity deck has about forty more personnel bunks than before."
"That...well, I should not say that is impossible, because it sure as hell is not after half of what has happened. Still, how would we get forty more personnel bunks?" Murrue asks nobody in particular. "Thank you, Kuzzey, I'll do an inspection on this issue after I've had my lunch. Report back here in fifteen minutes."
"Aye, ma'am."
"And now, for the turkey," Murrue says more to herself before anything else could interrupt her attempt to eat.
-x-x-x-
"It's over. It's finally over," Yzak laments as the group moves into the shower and hot springs room. All of them were intent on taking a fast shower, than a good, long soak for the various injuries and cleansing of the soul. Even after themselves cleaning up using a fairly powerful disinfectant, they still felt grimy.
"Oh hell no it ain't over, Yzak. After this, we still gotta fix the starboard-side anti-beam depth charges, the armor damage to the whole ship, the engines, and anything else that got busted when we screwed the Wolves up. This was just chicken shit compared to the real issues."
"Don't remind me," Kira replies to Athrun's reply as he heads into the shower assigned for his storage cubicle.
"Did they ever officially declare your Gundam as KIA, Kira?" Yzak asks.
"Yeah, it's toast. Last I saw, Murdoch was breaking it down for parts for the three surviving machines."
"Damn," Nicol, Athrun, and Yzak all say at once.
"Hey, cold hard logic here, fix the Strike and run out of parts for them all sooner, or break the Strike down and run out of parts later. It's that simple," Kira notes rather coldly. "Anyways, as I see it, I can always take on the Warhawk we have in storage and use that to stomp on some enemies for now, that is, if we have to actually fight."
"Don't bet on life turning all pink and fuzzy and frilly and roses and similar shit on us, Kira. We thought we had it made until you blew the arm off Le Creuset's CGUE. You guys probably thought you were clear of ZAFT after leaving the desert, until the Morassim Team caught up with you...then so did we," Yzak says. "And then there was the Crystal Palace in Cephiro, we thought we had it done when we wiped Zagato out, until...well, you get the picture. All I am saying is, don't trust the peace, because tomorrow definitely ain't going to be peaceful."
"Has the Doc checked his blood pressure lately?" Tolle asks.
"Not since the last time he was banged up and laid up in the hospital," Athrun says from the shower stall farthest away from the Hot Springs.
"You wusses don't worry enough," Yzak replies sarcastically.
"The...anger..." Nicol replies sarcastically, which was good enough for a few chuckles from Tolle and Athrun.
"Relationship frustration?" Athrun asks plaintively.
"This may be. It requires further investigation," Kira replies.
"Investigate what nonexistent personal life I have, and you'll be wearing what's left of your Gundam up your ass, Strike," Yzak cautions very forcefully.
"The prosecution rests, your honor," Nicol replies, which garnered a few more laughs from the assembled pilots.
"Now, how do we go about solving this problem, Kira?" Athrun asks.
"You two shouldn't be pilots, you need to be technicians," Yzak says crassly.
"It's what I was training to be before Heliopolis blew up," Kira said.
"It's a hobby for me, but I was thinking about becoming a mechanical engineer before Junius Seven," Athrun notes on the heels of Kira's comment.
"No. Really. You two really should be techs, well, that is if we ever get home."
Yzak's obvious comment was largely ignored by the others. "So, how would we solve this?" Kira asks.
"I keep coming back to the thought that Umi is at least part of the solution here. So far, I've not seen anyone stand up to him except her, and maybe Natarle, but I don't think she'd work out, y'know?"
"Yzak...and Natarle...I don't know whether to die laughing or run away screaming," Tolle says.
"If you died laughing, Miriallia would flay your dead hide for it," Athrun notes with mock gravity. "Run away screaming from where you are right now, and Natarle would flay your hide for streaking. Lose-lose situation, buddy."
"Oh, right," Tolle replies thoughtfully. "Either way, I'm screwed. Don't do that Yzak, I'd like to keep my hide intact."
"Piss me off much more and that won't be an option," Yzak says deadpan.
"Anger management course?" Kira opines.
"Nah, those things are engineered to piss the attendees off. Wrong result," Athrun notes. "I still say my original idea would be best."
"Don't think so," Yzak says.
"I agree, I don't think so, Yzak and Umi goes out on date, only Umi comes back. Yzak found later in bloody chunks. Umi professes no knowledge as to incident. End of story." Strangely enough, the clinically precise rundown on such a scenario came from Nicol. And not one person within thought it would be wrong.
"You know, I don't think I've ever looked forward to a run through the hot springs this much before," Commander La Flaga notes out loud, which was an instant attention-getter to everyone in the showers at the time. Athrun figured it a move to take the heat off Yzak.
"How goes it, Commander?" Athrun asks in a level tone, regardless of his inner conclusions about the Commander's prior statement.
"Good. We should have the damaged engines working again within the next three hours. Your side?"
"Murdoch's found enough duct tape for the hole in the ship, so that'll be fixed fast enough. It's going to take at least two days, though. The rest is small stuff when you boil it down."
"The Gundams?" Mu asks for verification.
"Should be done already," Athrun says as he steps out. "Shower clear," he notes as he trudges off toward the hot springs. It was not long before an engine Mechanic had taken up the cleared shower.
-x-x-x-
"This...is amazing," Murrue notes.
Kuzzey had been right: not only were there more crew bunks, but there were also more bunks for ship's passengers. Total, the amount of personnel and passengers on the ship had increased by fifty, which given that the rest of the ship was probably slowly evolving meant that those personnel would likely be needed to man the additional systems, panels, and weapons.
"How...why does the ship keep evolving like this, if we are not in Cephiro?" Murrue asks nobody in particular.
"Maybe...because we were once there?" Kuzzey replies to the Captain's question.
"You mean like some kind of leftover energy or something?" Murrue requests for clarification.
"I dunno, just a random thought, ma'am," Kuzzey replies. "Any way you cut it, though, it's probably saved our bacon more than once in the past, so I'm not complaining."
"That is an incredibly practical way to think about it, Crewman Buskirk." Kuzzey shrugs, having nothing really to say about it.
"Does this mean that there are also more officer's quarters?" Kuzzey asks.
"Haven't checked that?"
"No, ma'am," Kuzzey replies quickly.
"C'mon, then," she gestures for Kuzzey to follow as they head away from the gravity deck and toward the officer's individual quarters. Within a minute the two were at the officer's quarters area and took tally of the number there. When the final verdict was in, there was an extra five quarters in place, all empty and apparently awaiting the new personnel, wherever Murrue could scratch them up. If she could scratch them up.
"Captain, something from Murdoch. I think you need to see this," one of 'Murdoch's Madmen' (a mechanic) notes as he hands off a computerized note-tablet that they had purchased several hundred of them on Twycross to help with running the ship and maintaining records. "Also, I was digging around in Charlie-12 for parts for the Aegis when I noticed that the back wall has a three meter gap from the cargo, and when I stacked that room I know I had it all the way against the rear bulkhead."
"Charlie-12?" Murrue receives a nod in confirmation. "If you're saying that thing has another three meters in depth, and that hold is a wider one, then it probably means we've gained another two hundred tons capacity or so in that room. Check Alpha, Bravo, Delta-12 as well, see if they have expanded as well," she orders.
"Aye, ma'am," Murrue reads over the report she had been handed. After a few moments she grimaces at it.
"Something wrong, Captain?"
"No, just wondering why the ship's cooling grid would jump in size and dispersion like this lists," Murrue wonders aloud. "Our amount of heat dispersion plates (5) went up ten percent. Last I checked, after we added the Double Heat Sinks we've salvaged, we were doing good for armor and weapon heat dispersion. Wonder why the ship chose to make that modification."
"Captain from Maintenance Team Lima, come back," Her radio chirps.
"Go for Captain," Murrue replies into the radio.
"Captain, I'm out on the port-side deck below the conning tower, and, well, no easy way to say this. We have another Igelstellung turret on both the upper and lower broadside array on this sside, and it is probably safe to say the same thing about the other side of the ship as well."
"Check it. Whose team is on port-rear duty?"
Before the lead on Lima could reply, he was preempted by the lead on a team in that area: "Maint Team Oscar reporting, we have the same thing back here, Captain. Three turrets on both the upper and lower arrays, and I can see the lower array on the starboard side from where I am standing, with the same number of guns. By extrapolation, we should now have 24 Igelstellung guns."
"Thank you, Oscar, Lima. As you were," Murrue puts out on the radio.
"Oscar, out."
"Lima is clear."
"Part of me thinks this is something on the wrong side of a dream. The rest of me thinks this is some form of physical impossibility. Yet, there is just is no arguing with the evidence here. The ship is evolving. I just hope this doesn't mean we are going to end up in deeper and deeper troubles before the affair is done and we get home."
"Or is it that the ship is evolving because it knows that the threats will get more and more powerful as we go along?" Kuzzey asks. "I hope we don't get into major trouble if that's true..."
"We've survived this long, Kuzzey. We will make it home, hell, high water, and dimensional jumping included," Murrue says.
Wark. Murrue looked aft to where the strange sound had come from, and had bare moments to see as one of those yellow birds from the local area came running down the hall. As it passed her and Kuzzey, Murrue figured the bird was no taller than her hips and probably weighed less than she did when she was six. It was fast; within five seconds it had run over thirty meters and turned left, now headed port-side down one of the officer's quarters rows.
Five seconds later, four winded mechanics with cargo nets came down the hall and stopped, looking back and forth for the bird. "DAMNIT!" one of them shouted. "Little yellow shit-stain is gone again!"
"That way, Tech, turn left," Kuzzey replies, pointing at the intersection in question.
"Thanks, kid," one of their ranks replies as they sprint past, hoping against hope to catch it before it causes damage to the ship.
"I'd almost call that insanely random, too random for reality, but strangely enough I don't doubt it happened. Does that mean I am going crazy or something?"
Kuzzey squats down and picks up a lemon colored feather. "It happened. No comment on the latter, Captain."
-x-x-x-
"I don't know who declared our quarters to be 'toast' but they had to be smoking some serious shit."
"Yeah, right, this ain't all that bad," Athrun notes. "Check this thing out," Athrun says as he steps up to the Naval Autocannon slug that had been embedded in the far wall of their room from the door.
"This will be a helluva keepsake," Yzak says. "Give me a hand pulling it out, Athrun?"
"Keep your feet clear," Athrun cautions as he takes position on the side of the slug nearest him. It was one of a six-round burst, and this one had found a chink in the armor and followed it in, to punch through the door and into the room. When that happened, it began sucking air out, which had grabbed a blanket from Dearka's bunk and sucked it through the hole to the point that the blanket completely sealed the hole and was not coming out without the help of a blowtorch. That blanket had also prevented the room from flooding out because it had made such a powerful seal when the vacuum pressure had closed it up. All in all, Athrun was very thankful to that one blanket.
"On three, one, two, three," Though they tried, ti did not come loose. "Pry bars, looks like," Yzak notes after a few moments.
"I came prepared," Athrun says as he holds one up. "Don't put too much pressure on it, don't want to damage our memento."
"Right," Yzak replies as he places the pry bar and starts prying.
CLANG; the slug hit the ground and promptly rolled right, onto Athrun's steel-toed boot. "Agh, shit, it's on my foot, help me roll it off."
"Here," Yzak gives it one good kick away from Athrun, though it does not budge. "Jeez, how heavy is this thing?"
"Probably over two hundred kilos, Yzak." Like a more intelligent bunch, the two lever the slug off his foot. "Okay, let's set this monster up and scoot it into the corner over here," Athrun plots out.
"Right, sounds good," Yzak says. With a rope and serious pulling and grunting, the two pilots managed to get the slug up onto its explosively hollowed base. This done, they saw the totality of the metal-jacketed lead slug as it had literally flattened its nose on the walls it slammed through until it was mushroomed and rounded down above the body of the slug itself. "Man, this thing is going to be a helluva treasure someday," Yzak says.
"Yeah, tell me about it," Athrun notes. "Hey, where'd Nicol go?"
"I thought he was right behind you after the cafeteria," Yzak notes.
"He was," Athrun says, then shrugs. "C'mon, let's get this thing over to the corner."
- - - - -
Nicol had stopped off in the pilot's lounge, thoroughly dissuaded from trying to make sense of what was left of their quarters. He had taken a seat in the corner, whereby he was hidden from view of the room by the coffee vending machine, with a cup of mocha to calm his nerves. After a few minutes of sipping Mocha, he almost had attained a state whereby he had tuned out everything on the ship except the mocha and his inner feelings.
The mocha was standard mocha, not the military grade stuff that tasted slightly worse but had four times the normal caffeine amount in it. This was nothing unexpected to Nicol, since Murrue had personally overseen the restocking of the vending machine and had ensured copious resupply was available for it. That much was soothing to his soul, that he had mocha available and would not likely run out any time soon. Lunch had been better than average; one thing Nicol was not going to complain about was the ship's mess crew. He had to silently admit that the cook was better than the cook on the Gammow had been, and a whole helluva lot better than the cook on the Vosgulov-class they had been assigned to in the Pacific and Indian Oceans.
It was his inner feelings that had almost his complete attention. Feelings of dread, as they were once again in a new dimension, with new potential hazards, and if the curve was anything like their jump from Cephiro to Dustball, likely they would not survive. Feelings of despair and loss, as they had buried Dearka on Romulus, one of ZAFT's elite had been unable to stand against the Clans and walk away alive for it. Feelings of temerity, as his heart gravitated between matters that he would rather leave buried yet could never walk away from; namely, his feelings for the Archangel and her extended crew, and his feelings for one person in particular, against the fact that he was ZAFT and a Coordinator.
"May I?" Nicol jolts and almost drops his cup of Mocha at the sound of her voice. He had been so lost in throught that he had not noticed as she used the vending machine and then stood in front of him.
"Oh, sure," Nicol replies almost automatically to her.
"You were...lost in thought, were you not?" She asks after a few moments.
"Yeah, I was," Nicol replies.
"...talk about it?" Part of what she had said was almost mumbled; Nicol missed it.
"What did you ask?"
"Oh, I had always been told...it helps to talk about it with someone you can trust. I don't know if you trust me that much, but...do you want to talk about it?"
Nicol's heart did not so much as jolt as it did stop temporarily, or so it seemed. His answer was almost a minute in the coming: "I do. I do trust you, despite everything else that has gone on, where I came from, I do trust you."Probably more than I do trust Yzak, a quiet part of his mind added.
"Then, we'll do this: you tell me one thing that is bothering you, and I'll tell you one thing that is bothering me, and we'll come up with the answers together. How does that sound?"
Nicol had to admit, looking into her green eyes through her large-frame round glasses, that there was a sense of mystique to her that was absolutely lovely to him.
- - - - -
Tolle was just settling in to watch a holo-conversion of an older movie in his quarters when the door slid open again, accompanied by the alert chime that Kira had set up on his door panel that signaled Miriallia had just entered her code to enter the room.
"Hey Tolle, off duty finally?"
"Yeah, Buster's still down and Murdoch ran out of small crap for us pilots to fix, so..." his sentence trailed off deliberately. "You?"
"No sense having an operator on duty when there are no units active to control," Miriallia says by way of quoting Commander Badgiruel. "So, what're you watching?"
"Old movie, Akira, supposed to be a great flick. Care to join me, my dear?" Tolle says with a wink.
"Actually, dear, I had a different idea, if you're willing," the way she enunciated 'if' made it almost into a challenge to the fighter pilot-turned-Gundam pilot.
"Man, Mir, when you get an idea in your head, you don't let go, do you?" Tolle says as she pulls him closer to her.
"Definitely not," she replies before she initiates the first kiss of the day between them.
"I take it that since we're still doing this, either two things are happening here: one, you like it, or two, it really is helping with your hearing other people's minds."
They kiss again, this time more deeply and for a little over a minute. "Both, Tolle," Miriallia replies after a moment.
"Dang, I must be doing something right, then," Tolle replies. Not a full moment thereafter, Miriallia had him fiercely embraced.
"Tolle, I want to tell you something. I...I hate it when you...go out there," Miriallia says. "Every time, I'm afraid you'll not come back to me."
"We have to do it, Mir. We can't just hope for the best, we have to do the best, or we ain't getting home."
"But...what do I do if you don't come back?" Miriallia asks.
"I will come back, Mir. I will always come back." For that, Tolle got the longest and deepest kiss he had ever had from Miriallia.
They were not the only persons on the ship kissing at that time, either.
Author's Chapter Afterword:
If you will, consider this one a 'breather' or 'bridge' between the Battletech Ops and the next set of Ops for the ship. No fighting here, sorry, but not always is the ship arse-deep in combat, or its personnel.
Any fan of a certain series of games should have a fairly good guess as to what fain of Existence the Archangel is now camped in. Of course, I have been grossly ambiguous as to which game they are in, unless any of you are skilled at terrain analysis from the clues I have given already. As to the remainder, the full force of the nightmare they have just been inflicted on shall come to your attention in the next chapter, as they find out what the source of those electromagnetic readings are. My only request is that any of you who do know exactly where they are, please do not wreck it for anyone else by giving your thoughts away, clear? I have thrown curveballs before, so expect that while you may even be able to guess exactly where they are parked now, do not expect all to be as it seems, or all that one can estimate. I have dire, dire plans in store for this one: the words 'double-crossover' come to mind, literally.
The ship took a beating in the prior chapter; fixing it is going to cost a lot of spares and plating, and needless to say where they are now is not going to be a friendly environ either. You can expect they will take some beatings in coming chapters as their erstwhile foes take the measure of the Archangel and the ship's crew continues to try to enact repairs to the beating it received from the Wolves. The ship is still evolving, yes, but it cannot evolve itself to a repaired state and damage incurred remains even after the latest slew of upgrades. Not that such damage is insurmountable; on the contrary, the Archangel crew can have the ship painted, waxed, and ready to go in short order, that is if fate keeps the wolves at bay for a few days.
On clarification of the face slap incident above, Yzak was not retreating from Umi when he said he was leaving, he was leaving because he did not want to clean the cages out manually. And he did not slap back because at heart Yzak is a civil person, and he knew at a level that he had earned what he received. His continually foul mouth is not helping his standing with the remainder of the crew, but for the most part it is not hurting, either. Everyone is frustrated to the point of profanity, though most are not expressing it.
As to the rest, I leave it to your discretion.
And now, for the Review Replies!
FraserMage: Well, sometimes there just is no repairing something in the grand scheme of things.
Knives91: Yes, I do enjoy writing stories with lots of destruction. It is the least I can do to honor the Gundam Franchise, which has been blowing stuff up since before I was born.
Gonging Apples: No this is not crossed over to POTC or One Piece, sorry. Dropping out in the ocean was more or less incidental.
Etienne Of The West Wind: Well, that is an incredibly accurate way of looking at Yzak's combination misfortune and luck. As to the jump itself, I think I'll need to drop a vignette in the next chapter to explain what the hell happened to them; 'expert analysis' shall we say. Unfortunately none of the Wolf fighters were close enough to get dragged along for the ride, since the disturbance was limited to a handful of kilometers centered on the ship. Thanks for the detailed review, comrade.
The Green Knight / 63: Thank you for the review, Bien. When you get down to it, though, I have not been handing them anything on a platter, the Archangel has had to work for it, harder in some cases than else. This past chapter was the culmination of it, and actually I had it planned out like that for a while; the execution was all that remained, and that was grossly fun in and of itself. I think the next major battle of the Archangel is going to be just as much fun in its own way :P
CHM01: Call it a draw battle if you will. The Werewolf took a helluva beating, but was not destroyed, though the Cameron-class ended up chunked by the end of the battle. All heil antimatter weapons :P Fear not, if Athrun can scratch up some resources, he will be making some haros, though this may cause him serious angst in the long run.
Death Zealot: It is against my policy to reveal which Gundams will make an appearance down the road, sorry. That is just too big a plot bunny to let loose before its time is right, ne? As to the Elementals, know that the Archangel has two Points worth of the armor in storage and enough remaining Bondsmen to take advantage of them; the Elementals will ride again, rest assured. Stay tuned, comrade. The fun is not over yet.
Footnotes:
(1): BER means Beyond Economical Repair
(2): Props to Die Hard (movie) for this line. Murdoch is a classic action movie fan, as is the rest of the deck crew and some others on the ship.
(3): ASL means Above Sea Level
(4): ComInt roughly translates to COMmunications INTelligence. Basically, gathering intelligence (Spying) by way of listening to the other side's radio, phone, or other electronic transmissions.
(5): Heat Dispersion Plates are the ship's equivalent to Double Heat Sinks, and in fact the two systems are considered compatible (for Battletech purposes, they are the same thing).