Chapter 2 – Edy's Darlings

"Promoted?! That's great Miss Edy!"

Edy nodded at Homer as the two of them began walking away from the Officer's Building.

"That's not all! They're letting me put a team together to go do secret missions too. Doesn't that sound exciting?"

"It sure does, Miss Edy." Homer agreed as they began to walk toward the barracks. "I look forward to hearing about your adventures."

Edy suddenly stopped and pounded the top of Homer's head with her right fist.

"Oww, what was that for?!" Asked Homer, rubbing his head.

"You didn't think I've forgiven you for that slap you gave me when we were evacuating that village did you?" Demanded Edy with an angry stare. "You're going on these missions with me!"

"B-but you were freaking out! Who knows what would've happened if I didn't!" Pleaded Homer. "Please don't kill me Miss Edy I...wait, what?"

"Captain Varrot told me told pick five people to be my supporting cast, if you will; one of each class. I need an engineer and you're an engineer. So it settled, right?"

Homer scratched his head. "But surely there's better engineers in the Squad than me...I mean, what about Dallas?"

Edy laughed as they neared the barracks. "She may be a fan of mine, but you know she doesn't do well around guys. Besides you're the only engineer around that could walk straight through a mine field and not even worry about getting blown up. Or shot at for that matter."

Homer let out a nervous laugh. "Well you know me. I'm a sucker for pain; I guess that's why I stick around you so much."

Edy glared at Homer for a moment, debating to herself whether or not she should hit him again. A few seconds later she decided against it and instead stood still for a moment.

"You okay?" Homer shot Edy a worried glance. "I didn't make you mad did I?"

Edy responded by grabbing his arm and walking away from the barracks. "I'm hungry. Let's go to the mess hall."

"Ooo I hope Alicia made some bread today!" Agreed Homer. "She makes the best bread ever!"

Five minutes later the two of them were sitting inside the mess hall with a basket full of of bread and a pitcher of iced tea that they had purchased inside. The bread wasn't baked by Alicia, but rather by the lancer Walter Nash, an accomplished baker himself. Edy always thought it strange that such a tough-looking guy was into things like cooking and gardening, but she was too hungry to care about that now. Besides, his food was pretty good.

Breaking apart a loaf and taking a piece, Edy began reading the papers that were contained within the folder that Captain Varrot had given her. The top page was her certification of her promotion to Corporal. Putting the page aside the next page was revealed to be a checklist of every member of Squad 7. I didn't realize there were this many people in our squad. She thought. It's not going to be easy picking the other four members for my crew... Looking up from her papers she noticed that Homer had taken the seat directly across the table from her and that he was staring outside a nearby window as he ate a piece of bread.

"Hey snap out of it!" Said Edy.

Homer nearly dropped his bread as he shifted his focus back to Edy.

"What is it Miss Edy?"

"I need your help with something, so come sit next to me!" Edy pointed to the chair next to her.

A look of genuine surprise appeared on Homer's face.

"A-are you sure Miss Edy? If someone saw us, they might think that we're...you know..."

"Let them think whatever they want." Edy giggled. "If it gets people talking about me even more than before, that's okay."

Homer quickly occupied the seat that Edy had pointed to and looked at her with a confused expression.

"So what kind of help did you need me for?"

"I'm trying to figure out who else I should cast for other roles of my team." Edy showed Homer the paper with all of the Squad members' names on it. "I want you to help me!"

"But, um, isn't that something you do alone?" Asked Homer. "I mean you being the leader and all..."

"Don't be silly Homer." Said Edy as she grabbed another piece of bread. "I don't exactly know everyone in the squad so that's where I need your help, since you're involved with each class."

"I only pass out ammo mostly." Homer argued. "Often that's the only thing I have to do with a lot of the squad members...but I'll do my best to advise you."

"Well let's start with the easiest class then. Sniper." Edy looked over the short list of Squad 7's snipers.

"Cezary is a pretty good shot." Homer offered.

Edy shook her head, "He only cares about himself. I wouldn't be surprised if he threw one of us in front of a tank just to save his own skin."

"Well there's always Marina. She did pretty well in our standoff in the village."

Edy took another bite of bread as she contemplated adding Marina to the team. True, she was a bit of the anti-social type, but her skills were second to none, and as a sniper would most likely be by herself anyway.

"Sounds good." Edy circled Marina's name with the pen that had been included in the folder. "As for a lancer...It would be too mean to Jann to keep him away from Largo again so I'll choose someone else."

"Oohh I'm around the Lancers a lot since I'm always passing out Lancaar rounds to them." Said Homer. "There this one girl in the group...Elysse, I think. She was really nice to me every time I spoke to her and she never missed a shot that I've seen. Anyway I bet you she'd make a nice addition."

"That's it?" Asked Edy. "Not the most convincing endorsement there, Homer dear."

"Well all the the other Lancers are either so full of themselves they don't care about anything else, like Theold or, like Rosina, they're so completely biased against Darcsens it scares me..."

Edy sighed. She never understood why people hated Darcsens so much. She didn't care what race her fans, current or future, were. Sure she knew the stories about the Darcsen Calamity, but that wasn't enough of a reason to hate someone. Even after Welkin's sister, Isara, passed away at Marberry there were some squad members that weren't all that sorry she was gone.

"Miss Edy?"

"Oh. Right...Elysse...Sure." Edy's thoughts returned to her task. "Well we're almost done. This wasn't as hard as I thought."

"Yeah, but..." Homer pointed at the columns on the paper that contained the names of the Squad's scouts and shocktroopers. "We have a lot of scouts and troopers in our squad. Picking the right one might take a little longer."

Edy sighed as she took a drink from her glass. Homer was right; there were there were almost a dozen scouts and another dozen shocktroopers to choose from. So many...how can I be sure I'll choose correctly?

"Ah Edy there you are!" Said a voice nearby. Edy and Homer looked up and saw Welkin Gunther and Alicia Melchiott approaching their table.

"Oh, Welkin, Alicia, hi!" Edy flashed the pair a smile.

"Ah, hard at work I see." Said Welkin. "I take it you accepted the Captain's offer?"

Edy nodded. "Yep! I was just going over the list of squad members that the Captain gave me. I've managed to fill out most of the slots but now I'm stuck."

Alicia scratched her head. "Well that's good but...Homer, why are you here with her?"

"Oh uh, Miss Edy picked me to be the engineer." Homer felt his face turn red. "S-so I was just helping her out, that's all."

"Ooh 'advising~'" teased Alicia.

"Y-yeah that's all!"

"Leave him alone Alicia." Welkin laughed. "Anyway it's good that you're taking this so seriously, because being a leader isn't going to be easy."

"Ugh, don't remind me." Sighed Edy. "It's hard enough just trying to figure out which scout and trooper to pick out."

"Oh I can help you out with that!" offered Alicia. "I'm pretty familiar with all the scouts in our squad, so if you have a question about any of them, feel free to ask."

"Thanks Alicia!" Edy let out a sigh of relief. "It would be a big help."

"I'm somewhat familiar with most of the squad as well don't be afraid to ask me either." said Welkin.

"Well, grab a seat then you two." Said Edy. "This might take awhile though."

"Oh that's ok." said Alicia as she and Welkin each took a seat. "We don't have any plans for today."

"So who have you picked out so far Edy?" asked Welkin.

"Oh here's the list." Edy handed the Lieutenant the list of names. "I've circled the names of the ones I've chosen so far."

Welkin took the list and with Alicia looked over her selections. After a few minutes Welkin handed the list back to Edy.

"So far it looks good to me." he said.

Alicia nodded in agreement. "So how about we go over the scouts? Is there any in particular you'd like to know about?"

Edy and Homer looked over the list, trying to pick out a familiar name.

"Well Susie was with us in our last incident Edy." said Homer. "What about her?"

"She did an okay job, I'll give her that." agreed Edy. "What do you guys think?"

"To be honest I've had one major issue with her." sighed Alicia. "There's been a few occasions where she wouldn't fire at the enemy. I think it has to do with her pacifist beliefs..."

Welkin rubbed the back of his head and sighed. "Yeah I can't really recommend her for the type of work you'll be doing."

Edy sighed and looked back at the list. Her eyes stopped at a familiar name.

"Ted...Ustinov. I only know of him by reputation... I hear he's a bit of a goof but does a fairly decent job."

Alicia nodded. "He is a bit of a clown, I'll admit it. However he's always been reliable on the field, and gets along with just about everyone."

"I don't know..." objected Welkin. "I heard he's taken an interest in Marina. I'm kinda worried that she'd shoot him if they were in the same place for very long."

"Oh, you know she wouldn't do that Welkin." said Edy. "At the very least he'll keep things interesting. I'll use him as my scout then."

"That just leaves one more Miss Edy!" said Homer. "Almost done!"

Edy nodded. "Well I know the shocktroopers well enough at least so I think I'll choose..."

"Wendy!" exclaimed Alicia, trying to keep a straight face.

"Yeah she'd be perfect!" laughed Welkin, unable to contain himself.

"Are you guys crazy?!" gasped Homer. "She's so scary... I remember when we were at Barious Desert she charged straight into a group of of Imperials screaming 'run away Imps; I'ma firin my gun!'...so scary."

"They were joking Homer, dear." sighed Edy. "Anyway I was thinking about adding Lynn; she did a good job back at the village and at Marberry."

"Oh? I thought you were going to choose Salinas." Alicia said. "You two seemed to make a good team."

Edy's face turned red. "We did until he began to completely ignore me!" she growled. "Stupid Freesia..."

"Um Edy?" Welkin waved his hand in front of Edy's face but it remained unchanged.

"Uh it's best not to bring up Salinas' name in front of her..." trailed Homer. "She still hasn't gotten over him yet...even if he is almost a decade older than..."

His sentence was interrupted by the back of Edy's hand crashing into his face, sending him tumbling backward over his chair, his legs and feet dangling over the back of the chair.

"Are you okay Homer?" gasped Alicia.

"Ha. Ha...yeah." said Homer, still sprawled backwards on the floor. "I guess I asked for that one..."

Edy quickly stood up and picked up her folder. "I have some other things to do... Thanks for your help..."

Alicia and Welkin watched as Edy stormed away.

"Salinas has been a sore point with her for awhile." explained Homer as he brushed himself off. "I do apologize... She's not like that...usually..."

"Well I hope I didn't make a mistake recommending Edy for her new task..." said Welkin as he and Alicia stood up to leave.

"Don't worry sir." said Homer. "I trust Miss Edy completely. Even if she does beat me up every now and then."

"Well you always were a strange one..." said Alicia. "See you around."

Homer waved goodbye to Alicia and Welkin and watched as they left the mess hall. Miss Edy will prove to everyone that she has what it takes... he thought to himself. I must do my best to help her in anyway that I can!