Shiny Things

Black’s cockpit was well-accommodated for two people.  Complete, even, with an extra seat behind the pilot’s chair for some reason.  Even with that fact firmly in mind, Carolina still felt as if the mech’s cockpit was oppressive.

Though, the half-Veroni noted as she turned her attention onto the cool-as-ice Tex, it was perhaps just her perception that had her feeling that way rather than the space itself.  In an attempt to reinforce the reality that Black’s walls weren’t actually about to crush her, Carolina let out a small breath to steady herself.

“We should be there soon.” Tex commented a short while later, the blonde’s voice like a knife piercing through the heavy silence.

“Right.” Carolina replied uncomfortably as she shifted in her seat, green eyes fixated on the inky blackness of space all around them.

The redhead could see the other mechs flying in what was as close to formation as they were liable to get, a sight which she was thankful for since it once again reminded the former Freelancer of their current mission.

This wasn’t the time to allow Carolina’s uncomfortableness towards the full-blooded Veroni pilot sitting in the front of Black to get the better of her.  After all, they were heading out to answer a distress signal from a colony that needed some assistance in dealing with Charon raiders.

Carolina’s gauntleted hand flew over the communications panel at her side, the entire console flaring to brilliant life as she thought of the office on Chorus that belonged to a certain woman that she wished to speak to now.

Instantaneously thanks to her Veroni abilities, a screen popped up in front of the redhead, though she was surprised at the two familiar faces that greeted her.

“Yo, sis.” Church said in as jovial a voice as he could muster (which wasn’t all that much), “What’s up?”

“Church?” In the mech, Carolina saw Tex’s back straighten somewhat at her brother’s voice, “What are you doing in Kimball’s office?”

“Being bored to fucking tears is what I’m doing.” The dark-haired Veroni replied briskly, grimacing as if to further reinforce his point.

The Elvari woman sitting next to Leonard Church raised a dark eyebrow in amusement, “We were just going over some paperwork.” Vanessa Kimball responded, gesturing to a stack of datapads on her desk.

“Didn’t I just fucking say that?” Church questioned, though he quickly changed his tune to smirk at his older sister, “Though I’ve gotta admit, I am rather curious about how you and Tex are doing as pilot buddies for this mission.”

“Watch it, Church.” Tex muttered to her boyfriend in warning, “Or I won’t get you any souvenirs.”

“Oh, like you ever do, bitch.” He shot back a bit more testily than her joke probably required.

Carolina couldn’t help but roll her eyes at their antics before addressing Church’s earlier comment, “It isn’t exactly ideal, but it is necessary.” She admitted, “The other mech pilots are still largely untested in actual combat situations.  They’ll need as much Freelancer expertise on this mission as they can get.”

“I take it that the mission is going to be commencing soon?” Kimball asked before Church could add in any more of his two cents.

Carolina nodded, “We’re approaching the colony.”

“Just try to come back in one piece, you hear?” Church remarked a moment later, sounding slightly more concerned than usual.

Naturally, Tex couldn’t wait to jump on that.  The blonde scoffed, her black facial markings glowing in the light from the numerous control panels all around her, “Naturally.  Why else would the two of us be coming along?”

Church became slightly red-faced, and Carolina decided to step into the conversation again to keep the two Veroni from entering yet another heated debate.

“We will, Church.” She promised her sibling.

“…And maybe we’ll come back with a souvenir for you.  If you behave.” Tex couldn’t help teasing.

Church was grumbling something under his breath just then about “being surrounded by jackasses and bitches” as Kimball cleared her throat.  Carolina turned her attention back to the dark-skinned woman on the screen.

“I know that you weren’t too keen on leaving Chorus defenseless with all of the mechs gone, Carolina.” She stated, bringing to mind the many debates that the two women had before this mission had begun in earnest, “But I believe this will be the perfect opportunity to see if the training of our regular military is also paying off.”

Carolina nodded her head slightly in agreement, “So long as no one really has need to use it.”

Kimball smiled bittersweetly, “That would be ideal.”  There were a few moments of comfortable silence following this exchange before Kimball shook her head and stated, “At any rate, be sure to keep me updated with daily reports.”

“Only if you do the same.” Carolina countered with a slight smile forming on her lips.

Kimball blinked in surprise for a moment before returning the smile, “Deal.”

That was the end of the communication.  Out of the corner of her eye as the screen faded out of existence, Carolina caught Tex smirking at her.

“What?” The redhead asked, suddenly feeling very defensive and exposed.

Tex shrugged, “Nothing.” She assured the half-Veroni before motioning to the image display of the other mechs flying around them, “Though you might want to tell the others that we’re approaching the colony.  Those idiots probably wouldn’t figure it out even if they crash landed on the damn thing.”

Carolina was still almost tempted to comment on Tex’s reaction just then, but ultimately decided that it wasn’t worth it.  Instead, she went to work on doing just what the other woman had suggested, inwardly fearing that Tex’s assumption about the other mech pilots was fairly accurate.

*****

“C’mon, man, you’ve gotta answer.” Dexter Grif’s voice matter-of-factly informed Richard “Dick” Simmons over their communication channel.

Simmons sighed, “We’re on a mission here, Grif.” He reminded Orange’s mech pilot, hoping that they could maintain at least a little bit of mission protocol for appearances’ sake.

After all, both Washington and Sarge were on this mission!  Not to mention so were Carolina and Tex, even if Simmons found both women terrifying.  Still, it was important to have a good working reputation!

“Doesn’t mean you can’t answer the question.”

The red-headed Strassian sighed once more, unsure if he should be more annoyed or impressed by the chubby human’s tenacity on this particular subject.  He shifted in his seat in Maroon’s cockpit, “Okay, so what about your answer?”

“Mine?” Grif seemed genuinely taken aback by the turn around.

“Yeah, yours.” Simmons stated smugly, happy to have finally turned the question away from himself, “You can’t ask someone a question like “what’s your ideal superpower?” and not have an answer of your own.”

That was fucking logic, man!  Score one point for Simmons.

“Fair point.” Grif sounded rather impressed, “Well, if you must know, I’d probably go with invisibility.”

“Invisibility?” Simmons furrowed his brows, somewhat taken aback by the response.

Truthfully, the Strassian was rather surprised that Grif’s answer was so normal.  The lanky man would have honestly guessed that Grif would want some kind of power that would involve an infinite supply of food, or possibly the ability to nap anywhere.  …Not that Grif didn’t already eat like he had an infinite supply of food, mind you.  Plus, he fucking slept wherever he pleased already.

“Yeah, invisibility.” Grif’s voice took on a comical stage whisper despite the fact that only he and Simmons were ever on this particular channel, “Think about it, Simmons!  You could take naps undetected anywhere, and you could sneak as much food as you wanted with no one being the wiser.”

Simmons couldn’t help but shudder, unsure of whether or not to be impressed or terrified that Grif had put so much thought into his answer, “No man should have that much power.” He finally muttered under his breath.

“Now it’s your turn, Simmons.” Grif informed him, sounding oddly eager to hear Simmons’ response to his question.

Simmons answered before he really had time to register just what it was he was saying, “I’d want to be able to make bad memories go away.”

There were a few awkward minutes of silence following that, during which Simmons winced and hoped that maybe Grif hadn’t heard him.

“Huh.” Grif’s oddly surprised voice dispelled that hope a second later, “That’s…an oddly specific one.”

Simmons laughed, high-pitched and nervous, “W—well, think about it!” He began, “I mean, everyone has bad memories they’d like to get rid of!  Am I right?”

He hoped Grif wasn’t looking too closely at the communication display screen, because he was fairly certain that he had started to sweat.  The pale-skinned Strassian could feel his blue-freckled face flush in embarrassment.

“I suppose that’s true enough.” Grif stated at length, though judging by the frown looming over his features it seemed as if he was about to ask more.

Thankfully (in Simmons’ opinion), before the orange-wearing mech pilot could speak up, a new comm channel opened up.  Of course, Simmons’ relief was short lived when he saw that it was a terrifyingly-as-always-serious Carolina on the display.

“We’re approaching the colony now.” The half-Veroni’s voice informed them, “Be ready for anything.”

*****

Standing before Kimball in her office along with Church wasn’t exactly the start of this particular day that Antoine Bitters had been expecting.  It also wasn’t something that he wanted any day of the year to begin with, if he was being honest with himself.  It sort of sucked.  A fucking lot.

Then again, getting into a fight with some of his fellow soldiers wasn’t how he wanted to start the day either.  Yep, this day was just full of awesome starts.  He sighed, wanting nothing more than to just get this over and done with.

“So, Lieutenant Bitters,” Kimball began at length, steepling her fingers together, “Do you care to explain what happened?”

The young Arenian with multi-colored hair huffed before looking anywhere but at his two superiors, “Don’t want to talk about it.”

From where he was standing by Kimball’s desk, Church snorted, “Yeah, well, I’d rather not be dealing with this bullshit either, but sometimes you have to deal with shit you don’t want to.” He informed the lieutenant testily, “So fucking spill it already!”

Bitters sighed, still not making direct eye contact with either Kimball or Church, “The others…” He finally stated, frowning, “They were harassing someone.”

“This someone wouldn’t happen to be Lieutenant Matthews, would it?” The Elvari woman inquired, dark eyes narrowed in understanding.

Bitters looked up at her, surprised, “H—how did you…?” He began, wondering if they had surveillance equipment he didn’t know about hidden all around Chorus.  Paranoid fucks.

The Chorus leader smiled slightly, “It was just a hunch.  Albeit, one brought on by the fact that a certain yellow-trimmed lieutenant has been waiting outside of this office for several minutes now.”

Bitters was shocked by the news, glancing over at the door before sighing and muttering out a further explanation of what had happened: “They’d been trying to figure out how to prank Matthews using training equipment.”

Kimball sighed, “I will deal with them, Lieutenant Bitters.  But, there are protocols you need to follow instead of dealing with such matters on your own.”

Bitters stood waiting, knowing that he wasn’t getting off that easy.  He tried to school his face back to its usual angry scowl.  Might as well stick with what he knew.

“I’ll give you a warning this time, as well as a round of extra duties.” Kimball finally told him, as if realizing that he was likely to slack off on any more than just one round of extra duties, “You’re dismissed.”

Church and Kimball went back to their datapads as if Bitters was no longer in the room.

The orange-trimmed lieutenant knew that was his cue to get the hell of there, so he wasted no time in making his escape.  Bitters headed outside, surprised to find that, sure enough, Matthews was in fact waiting in the hallway for him.

The young Elvari jumped a bit at the sound of the office door closing behind Bitters, “H—how did things go?” He asked nervously, playing with his fingers.

Bitters watched the auburn-haired lieutenant do that weird-as-fuck nervous habit of his for a moment before remembering that he’d been asked a question.

“Fine.” Bitters reluctantly informed him, “Though I have extra duties now.” As he saw Matthews visibly relax, the dark-skinned man couldn’t help but comment, “You’re an idiot for waiting out here like this.”

A sudden spark of defiance lit up Matthews’ face, “B—but you were only there because of me, and—!“

Bitters sighed, “Just forget about it, okay?” He said, waving dismissively as he began walking off.

Matthews looked taken aback for a second before he ran after the Arenian, “How about I help with your extra duties?” He asked, red-faced as he nervously looked at the ground through his glasses, “To—to make it up to you.”

Bitters regarded Matthews carefully for a moment before smirking down at the auburn-haired young man, “You’re on.” He stated and, though he wouldn’t admit it out loud, Bitters was secretly glad for the company.

*****

The colony was on a planet called Trocadero.  In a way, it reminded Grif a lot of Rat’s Nest.  Especially in that there was a whole lot of nothing around the settlement proper, which was a small one set up with scientific devices all around it and rural-type dwellings that appeared to have been hastily built.

There was one exception though: an incredibly large facility spotted on the very outskirts of the colony.  Grif figured that was probably where most of the actual colony work was done.

All around in the rocky landscape were sad, half-demolished structures crumbling into the air.  They appeared to be much, much older than the more recent ramshackle research colony was.

“Huh.” Frank “Doc” DuFresne stated over the comm channel from where he was flying in Pink with Donut, “I think those might be ancient Elvari ruins.”

The Elvari medic was brought along just in case medical attention was needed on the trip, though Grif would have felt better had it been Doctor Emily Grey who had come along with them for that reason instead. At least the Veroni seemed to have an actual medical degree even if she was scarily insane.  Doc just spouted nonsense about alternative natural health treatments like aloe vera and orange juice for gunshot wounds.

“You’re right, Doc!” Franklin Delano Donut’s cheerful voice added a moment later, “But what made them decide to stand them so erect back then?”

“Less talking, more landing.” Tex’s no-nonsense voice came through a second later, thankfully, although Grif did lament that it seemed like he might be forced to do actual work soon.

“Gracias por eso. Verdaderamente.”  {“Thank you for that.  Truly.”}

No one really paid attention to whatever it was that Lopez had said as they began the landing procedures for their mechs.  Sarge had insisted on bringing his Spanish-speaking robot along since Lopez was the best when it came to performing mech maintenance and, since no one spoke the robot’s language, it was best to just ignore him.  Or, that’s at least how Grif viewed it.  It was too much effort otherwise.

The second that Orange’s feet hit the ground, Grif was exiting the cockpit to feel some much needed open air on his tan skin.

Maroon had landed right next to his mech, so the chubby human nodded his dark-haired head in lazy greeting as Simmons poked his blue-freckled face out of its cockpit, “’Sup?”

Simmons just rolled his eyes at what the kiss-ass no doubt viewed as a far too casual and relaxed greeting, “We’re on a mission, remember?” The nerd reminded Grif for the umpteenth time.

“Yeah, but things are pretty quiet at the moment.  I am all for taking advantage of that.” The orange-wearing pilot stated matter-of-factly.

Grif ignored what sounded like “Fat-ass.” mumbled under the redhead’s breath as he turned his apathetic gaze towards the other mission party members.  Their motely little crew were all beginning to exit the other mechs now.  Doc and Donut seemed to even be spotting one another as they stretched sore and cramped limbs from the journey, so Grif quickly moved his gaze away.

“Then, that’s when I told him “That’s what she said!”  Bow-chicka-bow-wow!”  Tucker’s voice was still emanating from Teal’s cockpit, although Grif could make out his teal armor from the mech’s entrance.

…Poor Washington couldn’t seem to get out of Teal’s cockpit fast enough, his face turning incredibly red due to whatever conversation it was that the two had been having privately.  No doubt traveling with Lavernius Tucker for a long period of time in a cramped mech was a traumatic experience for the blond Strassian.

Lopez immediately walked away from Sarge the second that he exited the Warthog, the older Arenian staying close by his mech to pat its leg gratefully for the safe voyage.  Sarge was almost as fond of the red-colored machine as he was of the shotgun that he always carried.  Grif sarcastically wondered if Lopez got jealous.

Michael J. Caboose was chatting happily away with Freckles, the giant blue mech seemingly nodding his head at something that the younger blond Arenian said.  Grif honestly still wasn’t too used to the fact that Freckles seemed to be alive when the rest of their mechs weren’t nearly as sentient.

Sheila had stepped out of the Tank, head tilted upwards to gaze at the night sky and the towering ruins that peppered their view of it.  A second later Tex and Carolina both clambered out of Black together, nearly rubbing shoulders as they did so.  Both women were observing the scenery before them with careful eyes, notably avoiding direct eye contact with each other.

Given that this colony was built for scientific pursuits and other things that Grif found way too boring, but that nerds like Simmons would no doubt find fascinating, he was steadily losing any interest in this mission.

…Not that Grif had much interest in it to begin with.

That was, until his eyes caught onto something in the distance.  He knew what he spied right away too.  They were no doubt the telltale signs of Charon having been in the area: machines used for digging up large quantities of raw natural material along with armored transports.  However, they all appeared to have been abandoned some time ago.

“It seems as if Charon was interested in potential resources here.” Sheila surmised, her gaze having wandered over to the equipment as well, “Perhaps their lack of presence now means that they found whatever it was they were looking for.”

Sarge scoffed at the Veroni, “Or they found out that we were coming and pulled back to wait for reinforcements.”

Carolina stepped forward then, clearly viewing the current speculation to be useless, “We won’t be able to figure out what is going on until after we’ve talked to the colonists who placed the distress signal and investigate ourselves.”

“That is quite a good assessment based on the situation at hand, Agent Carolina.” An unnervingly calm and unfamiliar voice spoke up from behind them, “I am impressed.”

Tex, Washington, and Carolina all stiffened at the sound of the stranger’s voice, as though it were somehow familiar to them.

Grif turned around in a curious-but-lazy fashion.

He was surprised to find a helmeted man, who had no doubt come from the direction of the colony, standing there observing the group.  How the hell had he snuck up on all of them?  Was he some kind of space ninja?

“My name is Aiden Price.” The newcomer introduced himself with a slight bow, “I am the leader of the colony here.  I am also the one who requested Chorus’ aid.”