Shiny Things

Four Seven Niner’s transport was currently filled to the brim, as everyone around Carolina began talking all at once given that the mission details had been thoroughly reviewed.  Everyone, that is, save Washington and the mech pilots.

Her former Freelancer teammate was joined at the hip to the mech pilot he had recently rescued.  The half-Strassian named Tucker apparently had a young son who, while not a mech pilot himself, had naturally wanted to see the mechs up close.  Wash had taken it upon himself to provide Junior and his father with a tour as the pilots got their mechs prepared for the upcoming fight.

That left pretty much everyone else who was not a mech pilot inside Niner’s transport to discuss their roles in the upcoming Rescue Stupid Tucker’s Mech Plan, a silly name which the mech pilot Caboose had come up with.

Carolina wanted to call it something not childish, but Church told her that was a battle she probably wouldn’t win once Andersmith and the other lieutenants started using the name when referring to the mission as well.  Even so, she still couldn’t resist the annoyed involuntary eye twitch every time she heard someone saying the ridiculous title.

The redhead risked a glance around her, hoping that she didn’t invite idle conversation by accidentally making eye contact.  Cramped in the tiny ship were all of the lieutenants, the robot Lopez, Doctor Grey, Kaikaina Grif, Church, the Elvari from the space station called Doc, and herself…not to mention Four Seven Niner, though the Arenian pilot was choosing to exclude herself from the proceedings in the guise of ship maintenance.

So long as no one tried to approach her, her sanity should be able to remain intact before the mission commenced.  Recalling how her brother always said she wasn’t much of a people person, Carolina even managed to resist the urge to yell at everyone to shut the hell up despite the headache the redhead felt beginning to linger.  The half-Veroni wondered if that was why she was so often not considered a “team player” by people who evaluated her interpersonal skills.

The plan was to set up a distraction on two fronts: one inside the space station proper and the other with the mechs outside of it.  While the Charon forces had their attention divided, Washington would get Tucker to the mech he had only recently become the pilot of.

Seeing as how they had just formulated their side of the plan, and Carolina really was beginning to fear for her sanity as she overheard Kaikaina Grif ask Doc where the best orgy spots on Sangheili were, the redhead walked away from the meeting room to clear her head a bit for the role she would have to play.

Carolina had always needed a few minutes to herself before missions.  York had often joked about it, calling those moments her “prep time.”

“Hey,” her brother’s voice asked not a second later, “You couldn’t get away quick enough either, huh?” Church was standing in the hallway, observing his sibling’s reaction to his joke.

She shrugged, shaking her head, “Just needed some time to myself.”

“Ah.” Church nodded as if her vague response had answered some other big question he’d been afraid to ask, the Veroni’s eyes twinkling knowingly against the glowing cobalt blue lines of his face.

He joined her in staring out the transport’s window, viewing the hustle and bustle of the space station’s workers.  After a few moments of silent contemplation, his blue-eyed gaze turned to the transport docked right next to Niner’s, where the mech pilots were no doubt preparing their part in the mission to come.

“Do you wish you were helping them instead of us?” Church asked her tentatively, as if scared of the former Freelancer’s answer.

To be fair, it was a loaded question, and one she doubted most people beyond maybe Wash or Kimball would have the guts to ask her.  She felt bitterness at the realization that that list was one name short, as she knew York would have asked too.  Had he still been living.  Carolina felt her gauntleted hands make fists at her sides at the sudden reminder.

Truthfully, only those closest to her, those she chose to let in her admittedly thick self-preservation barrier, would even know to ask Church’s question.  After all, it wasn’t exactly common knowledge that she had once been considered a shoe-in for Black’s pilot before Tex had come into the picture.

“No.” Carolina answered at length, surprising herself by the conviction in her voice, “I trust Wash and Simmons to make sure everything runs smoothly on their end.”

Church snorted doubtfully, but otherwise remained silent.  Carolina didn’t blame him.  The half-Veroni wasn’t known for handing control over to others easily.  In the past, she never would have.  Maybe living on Chorus was changing her.  If she was being honest with herself, the redhead wasn’t entirely sure if that was for the best or not.

“Besides,” she turned to fully face her brother, “This side of the mission is just as vital if we want to succeed.”

“Damn straight.” Church nodded his head emphatically at the determination in the half-Veroni’s statement.

Carolina smirked and headed back to the meeting room with her brother by her side.  The conversations going on came to a sudden stop at her presence, and Carolina ignored the “Gee, wonder who the mood killer is?” comment she heard muttered under Church’s breath as she turned to address all of the people in the transport.

“Is everyone ready?” Carolina asked them, green eyes narrowed in such a way that they informed there was only one acceptable answer at this point.

“Yes, ma’am!” Andersmith saluted, the Arenian’s black hair tossed messily in his enthusiasm.

“I’ll be here to patch people up when necessary!” Doctor Grey stated just a bit too happily, her purple Veroni lines glowing brightly against her dark skin.

“This is going to be so exciting!” Jensen exclaimed, the Strassian’s lisp becoming more pronounced thanks to her excitement.

“O—of course!” Matthews also gave a shaky salute, his small Elvari frame betraying his anxiety.

“…Yeah, I guess.” Bitters shrugged apathetically, his large Arenian frame leaning lazily against the wall Matthews was standing by.

“Well, if everyone else is in, then I guess I am too!” Kaikaina Grif’s reply was exuberant, “I don’t like not being part of a party, especially when someone’s about to get fucked.”

“Yes!” Volleyball and Palomo both said at once, although the half-Veroni Palomo also added in a “Who is getting fucked again?” question to no one in particular.

“I’m against violence, but I’ll try to help in any way I can.” Doc said politely as Church rolled his eyes in annoyance at the Elvari’s self-proclaimed pacifism.

“¿Por qué ni siquiera me preguntas a asistir a esta reunión si no se puede entender lo que estoy diciendo?”  {“Why did you even ask me to attend this meeting if you can’t understand what I’m saying?”}

Despite not understanding Lopez’s statement, Carolina’s smirk widened at the exuberance on display by the others from where she was standing in the doorway to the common area.  She smacked her hand onto a nearby comm channel, “How are things looking on the other transport, Niner?”

“Looks like they’re all ready to go on the space side of the mission as well.” The pilot informed her while not even bothering to look at the redhead, dark eyes instead focused on the monitors of the transport’s bridge and the mission details she was no doubt receiving from Washington’s group.

Carolina nodded even though she knew Four Seven Niner wouldn’t see it, turning to face the waiting troops: “Then let’s not keep our friends waiting.”

*****

Richard “Dick” Simmons was pacing back and forth, trying to calm his nerves before the battle went underway.  Most of the other pilots were giving him a wide berth, doing routine maintenance on their own mechs instead of worrying about the anxiety-riddled Strassian.

Trying to avoid a panic attack, the redhead thought back to being introduced to the new mech pilots.  Truthfully, he wasn’t sure what to make of the motley crew, though it wasn’t like he had much room to talk on that front.

There was something about Sarge he couldn’t help but look up to, even though he knew that the older Arenian was unorthodox at best in his methods.  Still, Simmons couldn’t help but find Sarge’s pep talk when Wash had been going over the Rescue Stupid Tucker’s Mech Plan truly inspiring.

The Elvari named Donut seemed dependable if more than just a little odd.  As for Caboose…well, he supposed it was probably for the best that the Arenian’s mech, Freckles, had some kind of active Virtual Intelligence controlling it.

The half-Strassian Tucker seemed like a handful, but he was taking the situation rather seriously due to the fact that both his son and his friend had become involved in it.  Considering that, at the moment, Tucker’s mech still needed to be retrieved from Charon there was no way to even gauge how good of a pilot he could possibly be.  …Despite Tucker’s assurance that he was obviously the mech pilot all the ladies would like to fuck the most.

“I can’t believe how nervous you are given that stunt you pulled in the hallway.”

Simmons froze at Dexter Grif’s voice.  His face took on a red hue at the reminder of his totally uncharacteristic display earlier.  The Strassian couldn’t help but think back to when he had kissed Grif and found out how surprisingly soft the human’s lips were, when he couldn’t help but take in the chubby man’s odd-but-appealing scent…

“Th—that was an entirely different situation!” Simmons managed to stammer out, hoping he could redirect Grif’s attention to the here and now.

The fucker actually had the nerve to smirk at him, “If you say so.” Grif stated teasingly.

“Be—besides, that was me strategizing in the heat of the moment!” Simmons responded lamely, shoulders sagging in defeat, “What’s coming up next is a legitimate battle.”

“So?  You’ve fought in those before.” Grif reasoned, shoulders shrugging in true lazy-ass fashion.

“Yeah, and nearly pissed myself both times.” Simmons practically yelped, the Strassian’s posture getting even worse at the reminder.

Simmons expected Grif to laugh his ass off at the admission.  Or, at the very least, find him so pathetic that Grif would leave in disgust.  The redhead was not expecting the slap on his back that nearly caused him to lose his footing.  When he glanced back to glare at the tan-skinned man, he found Grif looking uncharacteristically serious.

“Well, yeah, but there’s more of us now, so things should be fine.” Grif assured the Strassian, nodding towards where Orange stood next to Maroon, “Besides, I’ll have your back from the get-go this time.”

Simmons blinked green eyes.  It took him a few seconds to process the sincerity in the dark-haired human’s voice.  He smiled slightly, rather touched by the gesture.

“Thanks, Grif.”

Now the genuine gratitude in Simmons’ response seemed to catch Grif off-guard.  For some reason that Simmons couldn’t figure out, the chubby man’s face became very red and he coughed—turning to look over the mechs once more.

“Nerd.” Grif mumbled under his breath, dark eyes glancing over at Simmons quickly with a smirk on his face.

Simmons continued to smile back, his anxiety over the Rescue Stupid Tucker’s Mech Plan momentarily forgotten when he muttered the words “Fat-ass.” in reply, assuming the human wasn’t close enough to hear.

*****

There were a lot of things that Leonard Church would probably prefer to do than walk into a battlefield.  Skydiving without a parachute came to mind, for instance.  But, damn it!  The mood from Carolina and the other non-mech pilots was slightly infectious.  Not that he’d ever fucking admit it though.  After all, Church had a reputation to maintain.

Still, that moving moment in Four Seven Niner’s transport probably explained how the goateed Veroni found himself meandering through the Sangheili docking bay with the others, purposely going to help pick a fight.

Well, most of the others.  Four Seven Niner had wisely opted to stay behind to prep her transport ship for as quick a departure as possible, although Church suspected that was more because the pilot didn’t want to be bothered with what could very well be a suicide run.

Doctor Grey decided it would be best if she remained on the transport with Four Seven Niner as well, although Church tried to ignore the manic gleam in the Veroni’s eyes at the prospect of possibly being able to use the ship’s clinic.

That, of course, left the second transport, which Kaikaina Grif and Volleyball would pilot when it was time for the Chorus group to make their escape.  So, while the two humans were with Church and company for the mission, Andersmith had volunteered to stay behind to help guard the two ships and keep the second transport ready to go once the mission was over.

Church also assumed that the Arenian wanted to make sure that Junior was being watched during the mission, having seen the older lieutenant ask Junior for maintenance assistance as a distraction for the child.

The dark-haired man had no doubt that he was going to need a whole lot of fucking therapy to explain this later.  Selfish pricks like Church don’t normally go out of their way to help others, although his scary-as-fuck sister usually had ways of persuading even stubborn assholes like him.

As Church walked through Sangheili, he made some observations about his surroundings because why the fuck not?  Sure as fuck seemed like the right thing to do at the time.  That’s what people did in all of these military missions, right?  Observations and tactical strategies?

The one thing that really stood out to the Veroni was that Charon wasn’t exactly hiding their presence on the station.  The xenophobic group were going out of their way to make it known that they were on Sangheili so that they could avoid dealing with the space station staff and residents.

After all, nothing screams “Stay away!” to a space station filled with different alien species like a group of violent anti-alien, pro-human assholes.  Charon may as well have lit a “Here we are, fuckers!” sign over their ship and mechs’ heads with how garishly on display they were.

Speaking of Charon jerks, one of the mech pilots was standing out of his machine as Church and the rest of the non-mech pilots’ group approached.  The Charon pilot was some tall asshole with a shark motif on his armor’s helmet.  If the debriefing that Tucker had given them was accurate, his name actually was Sharkface.  So fucking original, this asshole.

“What the hell are—!?” Sharkface started at their obvious approach, clearly caught off guard by another group being so blatantly stupid and out in the open as Charon was.

Carolina didn’t let him finish, instead racing forward and slamming Sharkface into his mech’s leg with a series of well-placed kicks and hits.

Church provided her with cover, estimating when the other man would make a move and relaying that information to Carolina through a Veroni digital link.  It made it easier for her to counter Sharkface’s blows, which Church was sure was frustrating the crap out of the mercenary but was gleefully pleasing to him.

What could he say?  No one ever claimed Church wasn’t an asshole, and he found some great satisfaction out of using his and Carolina’s Veroni abilities to beat the piss out of an alien-hating human.

While Church and Carolina were engaged with the big guy, the other members of their group took up their positions.  Jensen went to the docking bay computer terminal, Palomo providing cover fire for her as the others began holding off the swarms of Charon guards that were starting to sweep towards them and the commotion.

Eventually, Jensen found what she had been looking for as a booming voice from the main Sangheili comm channel informed the residents of the space station that the gravity was about to be turned off for routine maintenance.  A few seconds later, the weightlessness of zero gravity enveloped everything.

Admirably, the Chorus group continued holding their own, although that may have been mostly because they had the assistance of gravity thrusters.  This was partially a Washington plan after all, and that dude sure as hell always came crazy prepared.  Church would normally have mocked the former Freelancer for it save for the fact that the Strassian’s paranoia actually helped them today.

So, yes, thanks to Washington’s over-preparedness, the Chorus group were all looking pretty good even as objects and unprepared people started floating through the air.  Unfortunately, the asshole Sharkface was not one of them.  He was clearly used to fighting without gravity.

Church wondered through the Veroni link if the Charon member was perhaps half-Arenian, as they were more adaptable to different gravity scenarios.  It sure as hell would explain why he was so huge too.

He was met with his sister’s “Does it look like I care right now?” through the link.  Church assumed she was probably a little preoccupied at the moment with not getting her ass kicked to consider the origins of the dude trying to kick it.

Carolina narrowly avoided a tackle through the air, placing a kick to Sharkface’s back as a counter just as explosions started going off outside the station.

Sangheili rocked somewhat as the mechs entered the fray.

*****

The general strategy for the Chorus mech pilots once the mission started was to attack the Charon mechs and transport with everything they had and not let up.  That way they wouldn’t lose the extremely important element of surprise.

It was chaotic and disorganized, as all mech battles seemed to be.  Truth be told, Simmons was doing fairly well and holding his own.  A quick glance at Maroon’s monitors showed the redhead that the others were doing the same.

Right as the Strassian was about to let out a quick sigh of relief, a steel and orange mech broke rank from the Charon forces and lunged right towards him.  From Tucker’s report, the mech’s color scheme indicated the pilot was named Felix.  Tucker had also described the Charon mercenary as a “total asshole,” but that was neither here nor there at the moment.

Even from just the little information Simmons had gleamed from the fight moments before, he recognized that a mech pilot like Felix was leagues and away better than himself.  The redhead felt his blood run cold.  No doubt his blue freckles were probably standing out even more against his paler-than-usual-even skin.

In that moment, he totally froze in fear despite hearing his voice, Jensen’s voice, Wash’s voice, and even Grif’s voice in his head yelling at him to “Move, damn it!”  Simmons closed his eyes as the energy sword the mech held loomed ever closer in his vision, heading straight towards the cockpit…

But, the final blow didn’t come.

“Simmons!  You all right?” Grif’s voice called out over his mech’s comm channel, uncharacteristically panicked.

Simmons opened his eyes, looking towards the monitor to see what had happened.  He could make out that Orange had blocked the enemy mech’s blow just in time, which had obviously saved his life.  While safe for the moment, the Strassian’s fear didn’t abate when he realized that the others were too far away and dealing with their own attacks to come to Grif and Simmons’ aid.

“Even two of you assholes don’t have enough combined experience to beat me.” Felix informed them mockingly, pulling his mech back and readying for another assault.

“We’re in trouble.” Grif muttered, all traces of apathy gone as the steel and orange mech rushed forward.

“You think?” Simmons called out to the other pilot sarcastically as Maroon blocked an attack meant for Orange, the redhead glancing at the damage output statistics that began displaying on his mech’s screen.

The Chorus mech pilots could only hope that this plan bought Tucker and Washington the time that they needed.

*****

Rescue Stupid Tucker’s Mech Plan was currently underway, although Lavernius Tucker wasn’t entirely sure why Caboose of all the people working for Chorus was allowed to name the missions.  Well, other than the fact that Arenian’s mech, Freckles, was pretty fucking persuasive.

The mission seemed to be going well, if the massive amount of chaotic frenzy was anything to go by.  Tucker couldn’t make out a lot of what was going on, but holy fuck!  The hot redhead in cyan had nearly broken a metal rod over someone’s head a second ago!  Tucker made a mental note to never piss off Carolina as he followed Washington towards where Charon kept the mechs in their transport.

Per the plan, while the others were keeping the Charon forces occupied Washington helped use the distraction to sneak Tucker over to the mech that Carolina had recently dubbed Aqua.  Personally, Tucker thought his mech should have been named Teal instead, but whatever the hot-as-hell-and-scary-as-fuck lady said worked for him too.

There were only two Charon guards present at the mech given all of the chaos currently going on in Sangheili, and Washington disposed of them with an efficiency that bordered on nearly unsettling.

After that, Tucker was racing to Aqua’s cockpit, his hand outstretched as the metal seemed to melt away to reveal the inner workings of the giant, humanoid-shaped robot.  Wash wasted no time in pulling the rather awestruck Tucker inside, throwing the other man into the pilot’s seat before the half-Strassian even had time to joke that he could at least buy him dinner first.

The cockpit wall suddenly came up again, revealing a whole lot of terminals and displays that Tucker had no fucking clue what to do with.  In the middle of a literal fucking firefight of all things!

Before the dark-skinned man’s panic could truly settle over him like a cold blanket, Tucker felt a reassuring hand squeeze his shoulder.  He looked over at the Strassian standing behind him, dark eyes questioning.

“You can do this, Tucker.” Washington told him calmly.

Tucker swallowed, the vote of confidence, however misplaced it might be, helping him to at least muster up his usual air of bravado.

“Hell yeah, I can!” Tucker told the blond before a serious matter crossed his thoughts and he frowned, “But, just in case this doesn’t go well, you still remember what you said about taking Junior with you to Chorus, right?”

It had been something he had made all of the Chorus people swear to.

His shoulder was given another squeeze, and Tucker tried to ignore the odd sense of butterflies he got in his stomach in response to the slightly older man’s touch.

“He’ll be taken care of.  I promise.” Washington reassured him again, pointing to a glowing control panel to his right, “Now go.”

“Shit!  You don’t have to tell me twice!” Tucker yelled, smacking his hand on said panel as hard as he could.

Seconds later, Aqua’s thrusters activated and the mech tore through its restraining bolts and out into space.

*****

Tucker’s explosive exit from the space station was the signal that they were waiting for to make their way back to the transports.  Green eyes narrowed at the sight.  Carolina decided it was time to wrap this up, punching her opponent and hoping he’d decide to give up.

Sharkface, however, seemed content to keep everyone behind schedule: “Not bad, and here I thought you’d be puny like that other redhead you Chorus shits brought with you.”

Carolina didn’t give in to his taunting, instead lunging forward and bodily shoving him through a nearby room.

Church grabbed the back of her armor with both his gauntleted hands as she let Sharkface go to float through the zero gravity of the area, pulling his sister back out as Doc and Lopez locked the door after her.

“That was quite the workout!” Doc said jovially, acting as if they hadn’t just witnessed Carolina in an almost literal fight to the death seconds before.

“Sí, los entrenamientos para evitar ser asesinados tienden a ser.”  {“Yes, workouts to avoid being killed tend to be.”}

The former Freelancer nodded her thanks to the three of them, motioning to their waiting transports.  No one had to be told twice as they sprinted back the way they came.

Out of the corner of her eye, the half-Veroni could see that Matthews was having some trouble with his gravity thrusters but, before she could turn around to assist, Bitters had beat her to it: the Arenian grabbing Matthews by the arm and forcibly dragging him onto the transport.

After being informed that Volleyball and Kaikaina were seeing to the second transport through an Elvari telepathic link courtesy of Doc and once everyone was on board both vessels, Carolina was hitting the comm channel to Four Seven Niner with her fist.

“Floor it!” The redhead shouted, hoping that the tone of her voice would create a much needed sense of urgency.

Luckily for all of them, the pilot did not need to be told twice either.

*****

In what was probably the biggest “Well, no shit!” moment of all time, Dexter Grif had decided that the battle against Felix wasn’t going too great.

That conclusion was more or less confirmed when the asshole mercenary knocked his mech downwards, Felix’s mech’s sword-knife-dagger-whatever the fuck they wanted to call it (Grif didn’t really give a shit at the moment what it was technically classified as, being more concerned with the whole “it will hurt no matter what the fuck it is” concept) was about to stab through Orange’s cockpit…

When suddenly Maroon (Simmons!) jumped in front of Grif’s mech as if attempting to shield Grif from the blow, placing the kiss-ass in the lethal position instead.

“You fucking idiot!” Grif shouted through the comm link at the suicidal nerd, just as an aqua blur came speeding onto the scene and Tucker’s mech knocked Felix to the side.

“What the f—!?“ Felix began but was cut off as Aqua’s blow evidently, and thankfully, knocked out the Charon mercenary’s comm channel.

“Take that, asshole!” Tucker called out over his own channel before turning to the two friendly mechs nearby, “You guys okay?”

Before either Grif or Simmons could respond, the Chorus transports were careening by and Church was yelling loudly over the comm channel, “Everyone, move your asses!  Now!”

None of the mech pilots needed a second notice to pull back.  Grif inwardly sighed in relief as he watched from Orange’s monitor the other mechs also following the transports towards safety: Donut’s Pink, Sarge’s Warthog, Caboose’s Freckles, Tucker’s Aqua, and finally Simmons’ Maroon.  It seemed that they all wanted nothing more by that point than to leave the Charon-infested space station behind, even though it appeared as if the Rescue Stupid Tucker’s Mech Plan was a success.