Chapter 3 – Reflections and Encouragement
Angry and embarrassed, Edy found herself running toward the docks at the far end of the base. The sea breeze always had a calming effect on her and she definitely needed calming down now. Why did they have to bring up Salinas?! How could they not know he dumped me for Freesia over two weeks ago? Of course I never told anyone but...I've still got my pride dammit! Reaching the docks she stopped and sighed, looking for a suitable place to sit and clear her head. Spotting a grassy hill that overlooked the sea, she headed over to it. Ah the breeze sure is nice, she thought as she felt the cool wind blow across her face. Edy set the folder on the ground and removed her gloves and set them atop the folder to keep it from blowing away in the breeze. She then untied the blue and gray colored ribbons from her pigtails and stared down at them, letting her silver colored hair blow freely with the wind. The ribbons were a gift from her best friend Ramona Linton, a fashion model and a scout in the squad. When Edy had joined Squad 7 she had kept her pigtails tied with purple ribbons but Ramona had given her a pair of ribbons from her personal wardrobe, explaining that 'the blue of our uniform and purple just do not go together' and that 'a girl's always gotta be in style, even in a war.' Edy smiled to herself as she recalled the memories of the fun times she had with Ramona. Times before the Battle of Marberry Beach...
The sound of approaching footsteps snapped Edy's attention back to the present and she turned to see Homer walking nervously towards her.
"I see you found me Homer dear." she said with a sad smile.
"I thought you might be here." said Homer. "Um...Sorry about earlier. I shouldn't have told them about Salinas..."
Edy shook her head. "It's alright. I shouldn't have hit you like that anyway, even if you did enjoy it. Which I know you did."
Homer laughed and rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah you got me there."
Edy sat down on the grass and looked back out at the sea.
"I want to ask you something Homer. And I want you to be honest with me."
"Of course Miss Edy!" said Homer, quickly sitting next to her, carefully as not to get any grass stains on his uniform.
"Do you...think I'll be able to do this?" asked Edy as she gazed at the sparkling water. "Do you think I can really lead a team of my own?"
Homer took a deep breath exhaled slowly before giving his answer.
"Miss Edy, when I first met you I thought you were just some spacey, self-centered girl who only cared about being the most popular girl in the Squad. I honestly thought you didn't care about anyone but yourself for a long time. That all changed when I fought with you during the liberation of Fouzen."
"Fouzen huh?" said Edy. "That was the first battle we fought together in, right?"
Homer nodded. "I was assigned to clear the middle bridge of mines so the Edelweiss could cross and clear a path to the bomb that was going to topple that Imperial train. It was then we received the report that..."
"...That the Imperials had begun to set the Darcsen housing units on fire..." Edy closed her eyes as she began to recall the awful moments with Homer.
"Keep firing at those sandbags troopers!" shouted Welkin from atop the Edelweiss. "Keep that engineer covered; we can't afford to lose him!"
The sound of gunfire and ragnite shelling was deafening to Homer as he continued to disarm one land mine after another. He heard a bullet whistle past his head as he tossed another mine off the bridge. He didn't let it bother him, he had a job to do. Usually relegated to backup duty such a handing out ammunition, he was called to the front lines when the first engineer, Karl Landzaat, was struck in the shoulder by a sniper's bullet just as the squad had reached the bridge. As he disarmed another mine, he looked back to see Karl being treated by Fina, the medic assigned to Squad 7 on this operation.
"Hurry it up Peron! If that train fires off another shot from that cannon we're all dead!" shouted Rosie as she and Edy continued to lay suppressing fire on the Imperial troops that were pinned down on the other side of the bridge.
"Almost done!" Homer shouted back as he disarmed the final mine. "There! The way is clear!"
The Edelweiss began to roar forward in response and fired a short range mortar round at the cluster of Imperials that had been pinned down on the other side of the bridge. The resulting explosion sent the Imperials flying, clearing the way for the Edelweiss and the bomb detonation team to proceed forward.
"Alright." said Welkin. "All we have to do secure the final spot atop that hill and that should clear the way for Catherine to take the shot."
Suddenly Alicia ran up to the group with bad news.
"Welkin, the Imperials, they've...they've..."
"Spit it out girl, we ain't got all day!" growled Largo.
"They've set fire to the Darcsen encampments!" said Alicia.
Welkin and the others looked back to see black smoke rising from the ravine where the Darcsen labor camps were located at. Sure enough Alicia's report was correct.
"We have to do something!" shouted Edy.
"We don't have time for that!" Rosie countered. "If we don't hurry up, that train is gunna blast us all to bits!"
"Welkin?" asked Alicia. "What do we do?"
Welkin sighed and put his right hand on his forehead.
"I'm tellin ya, we gotta hurry up and shoot that bomb boss!" urged Rosie.
"Ugh.. Alright, let's get to the shooting site, quick!" said Welkin, clearly wanting to do the opposite.
"Are you saying we let those people burn to death, Sir?!" gasped Edy.
"We don't have a choice Edy." Welkin said. "We're all dead unless we take that train out now."
A shout from behind caught their attention.
"Lynn! No!" shouted Karl, who was unsuccessfully struggling with Fina. "Let me go dammit!"
Edy recalled that earlier Karl had requested to be included on the mission because his fiancée, a Darcsen woman named Lynn, was a captive at Fouzen. And now she and all the other prisoners are going to die unless you do something Edy...
"Where are you going Edy?!" Rosie demanded as she saw the silver haired shocktrooper turn to leave.
"You might hate Darcsens enough to stand by and let them die, but not me!" shouted Edy as she began to backtrack across the bridge.
"Private Nelson stop. That's an order!" yelled Rosie, her face becoming nearly as red as her hair.
"Screw you Brigitte." Edy purposely used Rosie's real name, knowing full well that doing so would most likely seal her fate when everything was said and done.
"..." The response was a bit of a shock to Rosie and the others, since Edy didn't seem like the type of person to blatantly refuse an order for her own beliefs or to say such a remark.
"You're coming with me!" said Edy as she grabbed Homer's arm and pulled him along.
"You're not going to stop her boss?" asked Largo.
Welkin shook his head. "There's no time; we need to keep pressing forward! I'll deal with her later."
Running full steam across the bridge with Homer in tow, Edy ran toward the elevator that lead to the Darcsen camp. It was only after she pulled the down switch did she allow herself a moment to catch her breath.
"Um Miss Nelson..." gasped Homer, trying to catch his breath. "You know you could be court-martialed for this..."
"Yes, I know," sighed Edy as the elevator began to slowly move down. "And don't call me by my last name...I hate it."
"My apologies Miss Edy," said Homer. "But...why are you doing this? You're risking a lot just to save a bunch of Darcsens..."
"Don't tell me you're a Darcsen hater too!" fumed Edy, her face turning completely red.
"Oh, no it's not that!" said Homer, backing up a step. "It's just that, well... I didn't think you were the kind of person to do something like this, that's all."
Edy walked over and out her right hand on top of Homer's head. As her brown eyes met his bright blue ones, she spoke a single sentence.
"I'm just following my heart."
A moment later the elevator creaked to a halt and the doors opened to reveal a horrific scene. Every single housing unit was fully ablaze and there were no signs of anyone having escaped. To complicate matters even more, a large barbed wire chain link fence surrounded the camp, making entry impossible for Edy.
"No! Is there no way through?" she despaired.
"Don't worry Miss Edy," replied Homer as he produced a pair of wire cutters. "I'll get us in there."
He knelt in front of the fence and began cutting open a section.
"Hurry! Hurry!" Edy urged. "You're taking too long!"
"But it's electrified Miss Edy," Homer said as he continued cutting away at the fence, unfazed by the sparks that were being emitted. "I won't be able to get us past this fence if I'm turned into fried bacon..."
One agonizing minute later, Homer had succeeded in creating an opening big enough for them to safely fit through.
Running to the nearest building, the two discovered exactly why there weren't any prisoners outside. The doors and been barred and nailed shut on the outside, and with the windows too high and too small, escape was impossible.
The screams of hundreds of prisoners began to fill the air and it fueled Edy's determination even more. There was no way for her and Homer to physically unbar the doors, but the doors themselves didn't seem particularly sturdy...
Producing a hand grenade, Edy ran up to the door and pulled the ripcord on the grenade's handle, activating the fuse. After shouting a quick warning to the occupants inside, she set the grenade next to the door and ran a safe distance away. The results were exactly as she had hoped for; the grenade blew the door open and no less than twenty Darcsen prisoners ran out of the makeshift exit.
"Good thinking Miss Edy!" Homer cheered as he began unpacking the spare grenades from the ammo box that he carried on his back.
"You get those two buildings over there open and I'll work on these!" ordered Edy as she headed over to free open the next building.
In a matter of minutes, the two had managed to free open half of the housing units, but that didn't satisfy Edy. The other half of the buildings were on a separate cliff, and the only way to them was a small access bridge that spanned between them. However before Edy and Homer could reach the it, a loud explosion blew the bridge apart. Stunned, the two could only look on as they watched an Imperial lancer appear on the other side and run away. The tactic was meant to secure his squad's retreat, but it also sealed the fate of the prisoners on that side as well.
Speechless, Edy dropped to her knees. Exhaustion and stress were beginning to catch up to her and a sick feeling had begun to creep up in the pit of her stomach.
"Miss Edy I..." Homer tried to comfort her but he could not find the words.
A second explosion caught the pair's attention but this time it was in the direction of the armored train. Edy and Homer watched as the bridge underneath the massive rail vehicle collapsed and the target of Squad 7 with it.
The mission was a success, but that didn't make Edy feel any better. A lot of innocent people died today and all she could do was watch...
"Let's get the prisoners to the top Miss Edy; get them some fresh air," said Homer, offering his hand. "We can do that much at least."
Edy nodded and took his hand. Wearied and tired, the pair led the prisoners to the elevator. It took ten elevator trips to get all of the prisoners to the top and Edy and Homer waited the twenty minutes it took to complete the task until they returned topside. As expected, Edy was detained upon returning to the Squad, but not before she witnessed a tearful reunion between Karl and one of the now-freed prisoners, whom Edy later found out to be the Lynn that Karl had told her about; the very same Lynn that enlisted just days after the battle.
Edy was never court-martialed; rather Welkin reported the incident as a 'misinterpretation of orders' with the punishment resulting in a week of KP duty. The punishment was more of a measure to keep her and Rosie separated than anything else. It wasn't until after the battle of Marberry Beach that the two finally reconciled.
"That was, without a doubt, the greatest thing I've ever seen anyone do Miss Edy," explained Homer. "Since that day I've decided to follow and support you no matter what."
"So that's why..." mused Edy as she watched the sun begin to set. "And all this time I thought you just enjoyed getting beat up by me!"
Homer laughed and stood up. "Well that too. Anyway, I believe you'll do just fine when the time comes, so don't worry! Anyway, I'm going to go see if the guys in R&D need me, so I'll catch you tomorrow maybe."
Edy waved goodbye and watched the younger engineer take his leave. I hope you're right, Homer dear...
Turning back to the now golden sea, Edy took in a deep breath and closed her eyes. I wish there were more peaceful days like these more often, she thought as she slowly breathed out. The taste of the sea air on her lips, the warm sun, the breeze; all of it reminded her of home, a small village near the northern coast of Gallia. For the first time since she left to enlist, she felt a little homesick. But just a little.
She slowly retied her hair back into her trademark pigtails and then retrieved her gloves and folder. I think I'll turn in early today, she thought as she took a final look at the glistening sea. She didn't know why, but she had a feeling that her future days in Squad 7 weren't going to be the same ever again...