Welcome to Gaia! ::

::Sato's comm crackled to life as she frantically tried to manuever her mech out of harms way temporarily. A terse, high voice called out, with a faint british accent::

Badger, Mosquito. I'm afraid the drones aren't responding to my controls. It seems the Zonoan forces have found some way to jam my signals. I'm preparing to cycle through the channels. Be at your back as soon as possible, Badger. Stay alive!

::Sato grimaced at the statement. DAMN IT! She should have known that the target was too open, too easy. But.. Mike had scanned the entire area beforehand. There wasn't a think in the area. She was going to have to have a word with him. Like magic, he's deep, full voice trumpeted through the comm::

Sato, this is Chameleon. I'm reading over a hundred enemy signals all over you! Get the ******** hell out of there! Forget the goddamn target!

::Sato groans, and pulls back on the control stick, blasting the boosters full throttle and screams back::

CHAMELEON! You said this ******** area was clear!! Would you like to explain to me what the ******** hell just happened?

::The comm sprang to life again::

I'd love to, Lieutenant, but I can't explain it, myself! I did a twenty one point scan of the area. Nothing. No bounced signals, no energy or power signatures... There wasn't a single there. Look, I'm picking up plasma field irregularities all over your area. They seem consistant with the enemy forces.

::Sato slammed on the controls to the howitzer cannon mounted on her mech's remaining arm. The depleted uranium shrapnel rounds tore through one of the enemy mechs and it lurched to the side, exploding in a massive and silent cloud of flame::

********! Chameleon! Use the ******** NAMES. Get me my cats, NOW! I'm not going to be able to survive much longer out here! This is Badger, got that Chameleon? BADGER. Out.!

::Sato jammed on her remaining thruster, hoping to shake her pursuers. Even after blowing away at least eight of the bastards the skies seemed clouded by them::

********! REPORT IN! EVERYONE!

Fzzzt... -adger. This is Tiger. ..ot going to *fzt* it. Bee is *fzzzzzzt* -ame ou- -where... Badge.. et the fu- *ffzt* I'm a goner! You hear me? I *fffffzzzzt*

::The comm went dead. Dead... They were all dead. That was it. There was no retreat. There was no escape. She was dead::

Okay you pricks. You got me. But if I'm going, you bitches are all coming with me.

::Sato flipped a large yellow switch on her command board and typed in a command code on the keyboard. She jammed the thrusters again, drawing into the center of the largest body of enemies. The cockpit shuttered violently as she plowed through the enemy forces, ducking and weaving the best her units unweildy bulky frame could manage::

Oh yeah.....

::Sato sneered derisively at the enemy closing in on her. They weren't bothering to fire on her. Conserving ammunition for later. Moving in for the close kill. That would be their fatal mistake::

::The silence was almost unbearable. Sato sat, motionless in the darkness, her ears pounding. As she watched, a small speck of light appeared. it grew larger, into a line. Then the line began to rise, growing thicker......::






.. crap.








::The hatch opened and in front of her stood an unfortunately familiar figure. The man in front of her was ancient, his wrinkled, leathery skin taught on his wirey body. He leaned heavily on his left leg. It was metal, a cybernetic replacement as was his left arm. Both were just as old and dented as he was. His face was drawn up into a permanent scowl his bushy white eyebrows furrowed into a sharp V over his eyes.... at least, over one. His right eye was gone, just an empty socket remaining. The right side of his face was also heavily scarred. Only stringy white tufts of hair remained on his head. However, there was nothing frail about him. It was obvious that he had been around a hundred years and was hellbent on being around for the next hundred. He locked Sato with an icy glare::


You ******** up, you moron. I should knock your b***h a** down to secretarial work right now.

*The old man's face twisted into a hideous snarl, made even more grotesque with his one gaping empty eye socket. He leaned into the man who had spoken, menacingly*

Oh, you have something to say Professor Syreen? If you're so smart, you should keep your trap shut and not interfere with the rest of this team. You're a civilian, so I can't beat the crap out of you, but you should ******** well know this: Every letter sent to division from your company asking for money or a continued contract for your research first comes to ME and no further unless I approve it.

*Syreen stepped back, his mouth gaping*

Perhaps that was a bit harsh. After all, your mosquito combat drones are quite the breakthrough... when they work. Perhaps I'll just pass on to your company that the problem doesn't seem to be with the drones but with their operator. What do you think, Syreen? You think they'd be more likely to fire the research... or the researcher? Well? You want to say something?

*Tucker cackled as the man before him slumped his shoulders and shook his head*

..... You're a real b*****d...

*Tucker turned to see Sato again. She was shaking from head to toe, her body tensed and her hand clenched into a fist. She looked ready to snap, her face twitching in rage. Tucker looked her up and down and let out a deep sigh. His demeanor softened as did his voice*

Ichiro.......

*Sato's eyes went wide at the unexpected gentleness and by then it was too late. The old man's face had curled up into a gramace and without warning his arm flung out and he punched Sato right in the nose with his cybernetic arm, sending her flying to the ground in a spray of blood. Another man lept from the group to her side, a taller handsome japanese man. He moved to help Sato up and yelled at General Tucker*

What the hell!

*The old man spat on the ground, sneering*

If you're going to hit someone, b***h, you HIT them. You don't pussyfoot around. You hit them hard and fast and you don't leave any openings. You're WEAK!

*The man who had moved to help Sato held out a hand to her to help her up, but she pushed him away and stood up herself, one hand on her nose to try and control the bleeding and locked the old man once more with a withering glare. The old man laughed*

Look at you. Why do I even waste my ******** time? I should shut this whole operation down right now. Not a single ONE of you is worth a piece of CORN out of my crap!

*Tucker turned his back to Sato, crossing his arms*

You look like s**t. Go get yourself cleaned up, "Team Leader". When you get back, I'll have a decision on who I want to replace you. Someone with a brain. Or at least if not someone with a brain, someone with a ******** c**k. I want you back here in 0200 hours to get your replacement coffee. Get used to it, because the only battle you'll see is the one in the cafeteria over the last packet of creamer.

*Sato turned and walked out. Just as she was leaving, another of the group, a large and mean looking caucasian mountain of muscle, snickered. He didn't bother to try to keep his voice down*

Serves her right.

*Tucker turned and walked back to the simulation controls. He smirked as he heard the team leave silently. They were decent, but decent simply wasn't good enough. each of them was flying an experimental unit. Anything less than perfect would result in tragedy. It was something he knew all too well. Tucker began setting up a time for another training simulation for tomorrow. This one would be a little easier, but not by much. He didn't have time to coddle children. There was a voice behind him*

Sir? Can I talk with you a moment?

*Tucker turned back around. Apparently not everyone had left. He glared at the woman in front of him. It was Tierro, the pilot of the Bee. She was soft spoken, and quite lovely. A few years older than Sato.

What the ******** do you want?

[Two hours later in the C Section Hallway]

*Sato kept kicking the paneling on the side of the wall. She was making a mess. Dented and broken paneling lay strewn on the floor around her. Sh kept kicking and punching the wall over and over and over again. Not that it was the WALL she wanted to be beating the s**t out of. The starship comm spang to life*

ATTENTION LIEUTENANT ICHIRO SATO. REPORT TO THE NEAREST MESSAGE CENTER. THAT IS ALL.

*Sato took a deep breath. Hopefully this wasn't more shitty news. She walked down the hallway for about three minutes until she reached a Message Center, a monitor embedded in the wall. There were many of these placed every so often down all the corridors. It was important for military personel to be in contact at all times, of course. As she approached the monitor, the computer picked the transponder embedded in her flight suit and sprang to life*

Ten minutes later, the hallway outside of the starboard library

*The sensor outside the door let out a low buzz as Sato approached. The door slid open and Sato stepped in. Jin was sitting at a table in the back, feet up on the table, waving at her like an idiot*

HEY! Yo! ICHI!!! OVER HERE!!!

*Not surprisingly, everyone ELSE in the room was now staring at her now. Sato stomped over to the table and sat down with a grunt*

Really subtle, ********. What's up?

*Jin grinned and flipped Sato the bird*

Quit being such a whore. I wanted to talk to you about the Holographic Simulation today. Look.. I was talking to Marie about it and... It's Crawford. He's been completely undermining us. I think that you should talk to General Ripper about having him re..

*Sato interrupted*

No. He's the best at what he does. He's not going anywhere. I don't give a s**t what he does. He's going to do his ******** job.

Yeah... but...

Don't want to ******** hear it, Jin. End of conversation. The team is what it is. Besides... You think Ripper is going to find someone else? I don't want to give that b*****d any more fuel.


*Jin shook his head and leaned forward*
Hey... you think its true? About what happened to his body?

*Sato grinned*

I got ahold of his mission file. Yeah. Its true. According to the report, he was ambushed on a routine patrol by three A-Class Zonoan Guard Mechs. He blew two of them away, but the last one breached the reactor to his unit. The man ejected in time to save his life, but the blast blew away part of his body. Arm and leg. Part of his lower torso. Anyway, the man comes to, floating in space, and sees the enemy mech trying to access the remains of his mech's onboard computer. Ripper turns his jets on and shoots himself at the enemy mech and grabs on. He crawls his way up its back and under its arm to the cockpit and BLOWS the emergency hatch. Before the Zonoan can react, he whips out his survival knife and slits the pilots throat open. THEN he climbs in the enemy mech and pilots the ******** thing PAST friendly fire into the eastboard docking bay. And after all that, he STILL survives.

*Jin let out a hearty laugh*

Holy ******** s**t. That's one TOUGH b*****d.

True. Hey.. Look. I've got s**t to do, okay? I gotta go.

*Jin gave her a grin and nodded*

Tad and I are gonna hit the bar in a few hours. Wouldn't mind having an ugly slut along to make us look better.

*Sato grinned back and turned to leave*

So very sad that I'll STILL get more fuzz than the rest of you horny cocksuckers combined. I'll be there, if just to watch you two losers crash and burn worse than you do in your ******** mechs.