Chapter 4: 'Get Ready for a Mission'
Gekko-Go was once a no-good group of criminals and murders. They were considered a threat to the world. Military on hearing their name, would take on an expression of 'shoot on sight' and 'take no prisoners'. They would have done anything to capture them, but now…
Now, the same group is a legend. If you ask any 2nd Grade kid; 'What is Gekko-State?' He will answer that; it is the legendary group that was lead by Holland, which actively participated in the 'Second Summer of Love', the same group that raised the hero 'Renton Thurston' and the Coralian, 'Eureka' and the first 'ship and crew' to ever receive the title 'Worlds Elite Fighters'. They indeed had become a legend among the people. A legend that existed!
Everyone now thinks that becoming a Gekko-State member could be the best thing to happen in the world! They really worship the crew and would do anything to be one among them. But, I can't blame them; this is because they obviously don't have any inside scoop on Gekko-Go.
Even though the Gekko-Go was a legend, the crew consisted only ordinary humans. The humans who had passion for waves like any other reffer has. They too would worry about each other, fight among each other, gossiped about each other and took care of each other. They were just like any other family although huge. But still, they were legend. This was only because they helped in saving the world.
If you asked me to comment on the crew, I would say they didn't change a bit. They were just as funny and as carefree as ever. But only one difference was, they were rich and stopped taking any missions. Now they concentrated only on following the world for riding the waves-The ideal Gekko State of Renton. And about new recruitments, there were only 2 new members, they were Dominic and Anemone and of course Helga, daughter of Holland and Talho.
Everyone was enjoying themselves and had gotten used to this carefree life. I mean, they deserved this much. After fighting for about 14 years against the world and winning against it, this was their reward. No one on the ship seemed to have regretted their life on Gekko-Go now, but still there was something that everyone wished to have beside them. It was Renton and Eureka.
They enjoyed as much as they could for the past 4 years, but they didn't had a single clue that there life was about to return to the way it was before becoming a legend…
Holland entered the cafeteria with a serious look on his face. It was a look he didn't had since the years. This made the rest gathered there, a little nervous.
"What's the matter leader? Why did you asked us to gather here in such early morning. It isn't even 3:00 yet" asked Matthieu
Without any reply he asked, "Is everyone present?"
"We will be late for practice at this rate" nodded Matthieu
"We are all here, but what is the reason you called all of us to gather here?" asked Stoner, "is it important?"
"Yes" answered Holland, "we have taken on a mission"
This made everyone feel greatly surprised
"What? A mission?" everyone started to talk among themselves.
This made Holland, irritated. He shouted, "Why are you guys acting so surprised? Is it rare of us going on a mission?"
"Yes", "Yes", "Yes", "Yes", "Yes", said everyone one after another like a progression.
Hearing the crew's response like this, made Holland angry, "You guys are acting like we haven't taken a mission in years. How long it has been since we last went on a blood boiling mission? Can anyone answer that?" he asked bursting with anger
The crew started to talk among themselves
"Do you remember?" asked Stoner
"No, idea!" replied Hap,
"Was it last year?" asked Gidget
"No, it seems more than that" replied Moondoggie
"I think it was before when we visited Tresor" said Jobs
"No, I remember a mission after we joined Gekko-Go" said Dominic
"Hasn't it been over three years?" asked Gidget
"May be we can find some info on our last mission on Ray=Out" suggested Hilda
"No, Ray=Out has turned into 'profiles of its members' since 2 years and I haven't reported anything but it" answered Stoner.
"It means that we haven't gone on any mission over 2 years!" sighed Ken-Goh.
"Should I check on our transmissions?" asked Woz
"Do we still have the transmission over 2 years?" asked Jobs
Holland started to lose his patience "Stop it, this is important" he shouted.
Silence was restored and everyone became serious.
"Is this from the military?" asked Hap slowly
"Yes, I received an encrypted transmission from the capital now," turning seriously, "it was from frequency 5-9-6!"
"5-9-6?! What is that?" asked Moondoggie
"5-9-6! isn't that…?" paused Anemone
"Yeah, 5-9-6 is the frequency used three steps below emergency level" exclaimed Dominic. As they had both worked on the Ageha squad, this frequency was familiar to them.
"Does this means we are going to attack with them on the base of those rebellions?" asked Talho.
"No", said Holland, "they have asked us to investigate a specific location and collect data on some Reffing couple."
"What? Military wants us to spy on reffers now? What do they think Gekko State is?" replied Matthieu with an irritated tone
"Yes, this goes below our prestige" added Gidget.
"Stop saying like that" shouted Dominic
"If they are using that frequency then it is the mission for elites" added Anemone
"Well then, do we have any lead on this couple?" asked Talho
"All they sent was this clip" he showed a VCR tape holding in his hand. He continued, "Yesterday, approximately 30,000km away from here, a Coralian appeared."
"Was it a cloudy Coralian?" asked Matthieu
"Yes it was" he continued "A federation ship was sent to investigate the Coralian, but it was attacked by a suicide rebellion L.F.O. They couldn't retaliate because they were taken by surprise and before they realized, they were damaged seriously…"
"Were they killed then?" asked Hilda
"No, they were saved by some mysterious Reffers who appeared at the disappearance point of Coralian!"
"What? Is that even possible?" exclaimed Stoner
"They seem to be highly skilled and equipped with unknown weapon system. They protected the suicide bomber and the federation ship without any effort at all."
"Holland, you do realize that the things you are saying are impossible. I mean how 2 reffers could have stopped an L.F.O.?" asked Ken-Goh.
"That's why I am going to show you this clip. It recorded the whole fight" saying that he put on the clip.
The quality of video was extremely poor. They could only see the L.F.O and waves that the mysterious reffers rode. It didn't show how exactly they defeated the L.F.O or saved the ship, the data was lost due to the failure of surveillance camera. When the picture came back, they could only see the L.F.O in shreds and the pilot amongst it.
"I didn't understand a thing" said Matthieu
"Neither did I" said Moondoggie and Gidget together
"What do you think about this?" asked Ken-Goh looking at Holland.
"This was recorded by the same federation ship that was attacked, although we don't know anything about our targets, we can only think that they are highly skilled elite professionals. We can't put our guard down on them. The Military has asked to collect data on them and if possible capture them."
There was a moment of silence there
"I have a question" asked Woz. When the crew looked at him, he continued "Didn't they detect the L.F.O.? I mean, the ship sent for observation should have best tracking devices on it right?"
"I asked them about that" said Holland, "they said that due to the irregular behavior of the Coralian, they couldn't get a single thing"
"What do you mean by the irregular behavior?" asked Matthieu. It was really complicated for him.
"Well," continued Holland "You know when we tried to break into the Coralian with Eureka and Renton…"
"Yeah, I remember"
"We had some information tapped from the Military and some figured out due to irregular Trapar flow. But this one…"
"Yeah, What about this?"
"This one appeared rather unexpectedly"
"I didn't quiet catch up!"
"To put it simply, the planet undergoes some changes before a Coralian is formed and we used to tap those changes, but this Coralian appeared suddenly without giving a single trace! Isn't that right Holland" replied Mischa without giving Holland a chance to speak.
"Oh that's what happened!" Matthieu finally understood.
"Not only that" continued Holland, "The damage done by the appearance of Coralian's before is nowhere comparable to this Coralian. But luckily, this appeared in the desert and No civilian damage occurred"
"I get it" exclaimed Moondoggie as he continued, "they want someone who has experience in dealing with Coralian's to do their dirty work"
"Well then, how much are they paying?" asked Hap
Holland said with a strange smile on his face, "Let's just say that we can buy another Gekko-State ship with the money!"
"That much!" exclaimed Gidget.
"Well then, get into your position. I don't want any excuses to fail this mission. This mission is out Top Priority as of this moment. Got it?"
"Yes sir!" answered everyone in a single voice.
When everybody got fired up and were about to live to prepare for mission, the door opened
"Holland!" came 3 voices from behind
"Maurice, Maeter, Linck? What are you guys doing so early at this time?" asked Holland.
"It's just that, we couldn't sleep" answered Maeter
"At your age, you need plenty of sleep" said Hilda, "Go back to your room now"
"It's just that, that…we just wanted to show you something. It's important!" said Maurice with an unstable voice. He was trembling. Holland didn't quite figure out whether he was trembling with happiness or of fear. He couldn't argue with him.
"Well then, show me" he said
The kids ran toward Holland. When near, Maurice opened a black box he hid in his shirt.
"This is?" exclaimed Holland. He didn't seemed to be believing what he was seeing
Hearing Holland exclaim, everyone gathered around him. They too froze at the look. Yes, if you guessed it, then you are right. It was the compac drive. The same compac drive that once had Eureka's and Renton's name on it. The same compac drive that had stopped functioning since 3 years. It had started to function again. It had started to show the names-'Renton' colored in Red at its right side and 'Eureka' colored in Blue at its left side within its green background.
"Does this mean…?" asked Talho with an unsure tone.
"When did this happen?" asked Holland ignoring Talho
"I don't know" answered Maurice, "I was sleeping and I started to hear this-beep sound for quite some time. I really didn't feel like getting up but the sound started to annoy me and…and when I got up this was…" paused Maurice
"What does this mean Holland? Are Mama and Renton going to come back? Tell me, have they finally decided to come back? Or something terrible …" stopped Linck
Holland couldn't answer. He was completely taken over by what that was front on him.
"I…I don't know either" said Holland in a transparent voice
"What are you going to do about this then?" asked Talho
There was a moment of silence
"Isn't it obvious?" replied Holland and continued in a commanding voice "We are changing our priority now. Instead of investigation, we will now engage in a full-scale search for 'Renton' and 'Eureka'. Does any one have any objections?"
"No sir" everyone answered in a single tone and ran toward the bridge.
Although happy, Holland thought to himself Renton, Eureka, if we find you this time, you will be in-charge of cleaning the ship till next month. That's what you will get for worrying your children and family like that.
Turning towards Maurice he said, "Don't worry. I promise you that we will find them this time."
"You better keep this promise" said Linck.
"You haven't kept any promises so far" added Maeter.
"Don't worry, I will this time" replied Holland.
For unknown reason, Maurice felt that he could depend on Holland. Because Holland's eye had a look that even he could trust