Chapter 17: Finders Keepers"Mam, give me a minute while..." a Federal private advised as he produced his lockpick kit. The clinic they had visited last night was now deserted and locked up, but the officer in charge... "Too slow..." Sylvie Greisser replied coldly as she took a deep breathe and stared at the door. Then, in one quick motion, she gave the door a vicious kick that caused one of its hinges to give way. Two more kicks ripped the door from the frame altogether, allowing her and her team to enter inside. "We'll begin the search," one of the MPs reported as he quickly scanned the clinic's interior, "But from the looks of it the place has been empty for a while. Are you sure those rebels could be around here?" "Positive," Sylvie replied quickly and quietly as she scanned the floor of the clinic, looking for any possible sign of that murderer who... "Captain!" one of the MPs declared as he pointed to the stairs leading to the basement, "I think I've found some blood!"
"Show me," Sylvie ordered on as another MP guided her towards the spot. It was just a fairly large puddle, but there was no other drops indicating a trail that might lead to the rebels. Damn bad luck, she thought. She then quickly bent down over the spot and touched the sticky red substance with her fingers. It was still warm, and HE was still nearby. "I wish we had a better plan than this..." Yun complained as he took a peek around the next corner they had to traverse. Thankfully, it was still empty. But with every corner the chances of being found were... "We have no choice," Ming Chow answered quietly as he signaled Yun to go forward. At least, he thought, they weren't carrying Picton. They had decided to split up into two groups once they had set out from the clinic to avoid being caught all at once, and surprisingly, Jake had volunteered to take the injured Picton with him along with Horton. Strange of the man, he reflected. He had been as meek as a mouse during his time in the Delaz Fleet, and now Ming could not understand what could have changed his demeanor. "****!" Yun suddenly muttered under his breath, "I see two Federal mobile suits around the next corner! We can't pass through here!" "Let me see..." Ming ordered as he took a peek around the corner himself. There were indeed two enemy mobile suits out there, one of them a new model. But there was something strange about those mobile suits... "Sir... there's something strange about that new mobile suit..." Yun said out loud as he also noticed what Ming had seen.
"The cockpit's empty," Ming finished for Yun. "I would like to remind you, MAJOR, that _I_ am still in command of this operation and..." an arrogant voice ranted on over the radio. "Dunderhead...." Natalie Dolvich thought as she listened to the excuses Nicolo Lander was making for his men, and largely dismissed them from her higher brain functions. It was because she knew that moron would just find a way to throw the blame back to her instead of taking it himself. That gutless... stupid... idiotic... piss poor excuse for a General officer that should have been summarily lynched, run over by a freight train, fried slowly over an open flame, castrated, and a thousand other extremely mean and violent ways of causing excruciating pain that she was now conjuring up in her head. And yes, she thought to herself, she didn't give a damn if she was being downright evil. A quick death just seemed to good for an a**hole like Nicolo. "With all due respect, Sir..." a new, cooler voice suddenly interjected before Nicolo could continue with his witch trial, "The Major is STILL the officer on the field, and the rules of logic and sound military strategy dictate that she, not you, is the best decision-maker as she is the one who is closest to the actual action taking place. Therefore, her orders to your troops were completely justifiable, if not already the correct course of action." It was the elder Dolvich. Natalie scowled at her father's remark. He was right, and he had the authority to say it to Nicolo as a fellow General officer, but she hated him for it. Mostly hated anyway, as part of her did find relief in somebody finally standing up against that rabble rousing Nicolo. But still... "General Dolvich, you may be a flag officer but I must remind you that..." Nicolo started. "Excuse me, Sir," yet another voice added, this one much younger than the first, "But the Major has been doing the right thing." Natalie turned her head and quickly saw who it was who had just said that last remark, and who she saw surprised her. It was Ivan Romanov, who had been monitoring the little argument since it had begun several minutes ago. "Ettu Brute?**" Nicolo muttered angrily at the Brevet Captain, "Damn it! What is this?! Some sort of sick joke you are all playing?! Or is it a an outright mutiny?! _I_ am still in command here and..." "Mutiny?" Natalie thought. Oh that's one VERY nice idea. Great, I'm a ****ing mutineer now for telling his idiotically trained and spoiled pilots how to get things done. A damn ****ing... "Excuse me, Sir," Ivan interrupted once again, keeping his voice remarkably calm compared to Nicolo's frantic accusations, "But according to the new rules governing Titans' operations, Titans field officers have complete authority over any scene of colonial rebellion, such as this incident, and could take command of any low-level Federal unit in the area as long as the operation is taking place. Moreover, Titans officers are subject only to the authority of Titans High Command, and are NOT subject to any regular Federal flag officers such as yourself." "Not subject to a flag officer such as myself?! SUCH AS MYSELF?!" Nicolo practically screamed into the radio, "Don't you know who is supposed to be the next field commander of the Titans?!" "Excuse me, Sir," Ivan continued on calmly, much to the amusement and respect of the surprised Natalie, "But according to my list, you are not yet a member of the Titans, Sir. Therefore any of your wishes must be forwarded to either the Federal or Titans High Command, who will evaluate your orders before passing them to us." "Actually, the Captain IS right, Sir," General Dolvich agreed in as playful a tone as he could manage. All three listeners smiled as Nicolo began to splutter out a series of curses before calming down. "Very well then..." Nicolo muttered, anger still clear in his voice, "I will contact General Corini, and we'll see who's right or wrong. And believe me, all of you had better prepare to be writing new resumes..." Oh... Scary... Natalie mocked in her head as Nicolo finally signed off. Beside her, she saw Ivan breathe a sigh of relief. "That ought to keep him out of our backs for a while..." Ivan managed to say outloud as he managed to gather his thoughts together. "Why the sudden change of heart, Captain?" Natalie asked as she deliberately faced away from Ivan, wanting to make sure she betrayed none of her emotions to him, "I never thought you'd stand up for me." "I'm sorry, mam," Ivan apologized, "I'm just trying to make up for being an enormous a** when we met. My arrogance was completely misplaced, and that had cost the lives of men better than me. I now know better, and I'll try not to disappoint you again." "Well, you most certainly haven't been disappointing me," Natalie replied as she turned to meet Ivan, a small smile now playing on her lips, "Keep it up, soldier." "Thank you, mam," Ivan replied solemnly, the memory of Kyle and the others still fresh in his mind. "Don't let it go to your head yet though," Natalie warned as she began to tap Ivan's forehead, "You STILL pilot a mobile suit like s***, and before you make your commission permanent I want you to prove to me that you can handle yourself in a GM, got it? I don't want to see Captains who get their a**es blown off easily." "IF we manage to keep our commissions..." Ivan reminded, though not really minding if he got sacked anymore.
"Don't worry," Natalie assured, "We won't."
EFSF Flagship Agincourt, "Any news, Sir?" Titans Captain Thomas Eaton Hawkins asked in his thick, British accent as he entered the bridge. He had been preparing his elite Titans mobile suit team for any possible combat upon their arrival at Bunch 7, and was as visibly annoyed as his tough demeanor would ever allow. "Yes, for your eyes only," Brigadier General Heinrich Pluskat replied as he handed the Captain an encoded datapad, "Captain, although I favored the formation of the Titans, I think that the autonomy you have been afforded has been a bit excessive, has it not?" "Such autonomy is essential to ensure security, sir," Hawkins replied as he coolly decrypted the message. The Captain's demeanor was serious as he read through the message, but the slightest hint of a smile could be detected after he had finished reading it. "Anything amusing?" the Prussian Pluskat asked as he noticed the smile, and feeling quite frustrated at being left out of any important details. "Don't worry, Sir, I believe this message contains nothing that would cause you any great concern," Hawkins replied in as a dignified manner as his Oxford schooling had taught him, "It may be of concern however, to another flag officer in Bunch 7." "Another flag officer?" Pluskat inquired, "Who?" "Oh, I'm very sorry, Sir, but I'm afraid I can't tell just yet," the Captain replied with a slight grin, "I wouldn't want to ruin the surprise, would I?" And with that, he turned to leave.
"Fine, don't tell me..." Pluskat muttered as he saw Hawkins walk out of earshot. But at least he knew that he himself wasn't on the chopping block. Annoying as that Brit was sometimes, he was still an honest and honorable man, and was extremely technically proficient. Qualities he knew he would be needing when they reached Bunch 7. "God damn it! You call this coffee?!" Captain Quentin, squad leader for the Warspite's MS complement, demanded after he had a taken a swig from the rations the Federal troops in the town had provided. He had complained about the food. He had complained about the town. He had complained at just about everything. "Ungrateful bugger..." one of the mess cooks muttered as he saw the idiotic Quentin rant on. it had just been bad luck that moron had parked his shiny new GM right in front of a temporary kitchen, and had immediately left his mobile suit totally unguarded to have a meal that he was readily calling as nothing more than "filth". *******. "You know... somebody really ought to guard that new gadget of his..." another mess cook suggested, wary that a Zeon rebel or two might still be out there.
"The camp's guarded," the first reminded, "It'll take a miracle for any of those rebels to get through the guards patrolling around here. Besides which, what makes you so sure they could pilot GMs anyway?" "Sir... this is crazy..." Yun warned as they climbed up the last flight of stairs. They were on an abandoned building standing right beside the empty mobile suit in an effort to find away to "liberate" them. By taking this route, they HAD avoided the numerous Federal patrols guarding the mobile suit, but the machine was still a good few meters away from the building, and unless Ming was planning to fly through the air... "Alright, I think we can do this from here..." Ming declared as they reached the roof of the building that directly faced the mobile suit's cockpit. The metallic ramp was still a few feet away, but if he could jump far enough... "Sir, it' too far..." Yun started, "If you jump, you'll probably..." "Get myself a mobile suit to fight with," Ming replied coldly, "Stay here if you want, but I'm taking a chance with that mobile suit!" "Sir! Think! Even if you DO get to that ****ing mobile suit there's scores of Federal troops out there and..."
"I can do it," Ming promised, "Trust me." "Alright... what now?" the mess cook muttered as he heard that idiot Quentin start wailing again. It was suddenly followed by the sound of gunshots, and the mess crew instinctively ducked for cover. "It's one of those rebels!" a Federal private screamed as he fired a volley at bullets at the rooftop of the abandoned building. More fire followed, as the enraged Quentin started to run towards his machine. But Ming paid no heed to the commotion happening on the ground now. All he cared for now was getting to that mobile suit and having a fighting chance as a soldier again. It was all he had. Anything else had proved painful as the previous night had shown, and now he had no more hesitations. He jumped even as a plethora of bullets whizzed through the air... And he was hit. Squarely on the shoulder, just as he jumped. And his jump fell short. But Ming didn't die. Not just yet. His jump had fallen short, but he had just barely managed to grab the edge of the ramp with both of his hands as he began to tumble towards the ground. The pain on his shoulder became unbearable, but he had to hold on to live. Unfortunately, hanging on the end of the ramp had also made him a perfect target for enemy marksmen. It was then Yun had decided to act. Picking out the lone grenade his group had left, he quickly pulled the pin and threw it to the ground below, before taking some cover once again. The resulting explosion didn't kill anything, but it did give Ming the shortest of respites as the Federal troops instinctively stopped firing and dropped for cover. And it was a respite that Ming was only too willing to exploit. Knowing that the fire would come back very shortly, he heaved his way up the ramp, even as his shoulder threatened to shear off as he did so. Finally, after a seemingly endless period of time to Ming but actually only lasting a few short but crucial seconds to his Federal assailants below, Ming managed to clamber himself up on top of the ramp of the mobile suit's cockpit. But by then the Federal troops began to open up again, and Ming found himself hit again, this time the bullet grazing his neck, just as he managed to jump into the pilot's seat. A few more shots nearly took his head off just before he managed to close the cockpit. "Oooooh ****!" one of the mess cooks exclaimed as he realized the rebel was in that brand new GM. All he could hope now was that that rebel didn't have a clue how to... And then the mobile suit began moving. Began moving straight towards him. And as he looked around, everybody had begun to flee, saved for Captain Quentin who was still firing madly at the mobile suit with his pistol. He didn't bother to try to save the Captain anymore. He simply turned and fled.
Meanwhile, the awe-struck Yun watched on from his position as Ming began to aim the GM's machine gun at his first target of the day. Below him, a battle-crazed Federal Captain defiantly but futily fired his pistol, oblivious to the giant machine gun now aimed at him. Ming then fired a single shot, and Quentin was killed instantly. "Damn it..." Sylvie thought. Where the hell is he? Where the hell is... Suddenly, a stream of 90mm shells passed over her head and headed for one of the GM Kais taking up positions at the end of the town. The GM Kai never saw the shells start coming, and never would. Ming had struck its ammunition compartment, caused a massive explosion that instantly took out the GM Kai and killed its pilot. But that was only half of it, as the rest of the ammo began to cook off and sent shrapnel flying all over the town, killing a dozen exposed men. Sylvie quickly turned her head where the fire had come from, in time to see the GM Quell fire another volley that exploded a second GM Kai. And in an instant, a flash of thought entered Sylvie's mind. There was no doubt about it. It was him.
Remarks: - ** "Even you? Brutus?" is a line taken from the play Julius Caesar. Oh, and much like (fellow Gundam fan) Redcomet's story, I've turned to books for the basis of some of the new names in this chapter. Most of the come from Cornelius' (fan fiction) The Longest Day. Probably most noticable is the surname Pluskat, who's the poor German Captain who finds himself right smack dab in the center of the combined allied naval bombardment on D-Day ^____^. Don't worry. He survived.
Notice: This story and all related material is copyrighted by Thomas E. "Zinegata" Ting, no part of this story may be taken by any other person. If you wish to use any material, please contact me first. Gundam and all related trademarks are owned by their respective companies. |
