Fourteen years later…
January 6, U.C. 0079
Terra's Side Two space, New Lunar Republic Musai-class cruiser, Aries
“So,” I prompted, “what’s the plan?”
“Well, Sergeant Cheerilee,” my commander replied, “I see that you cut to the chase. I like that.”
He pointed to the holographic map. “This is Island Iffish. Our orders are to capture it.”
“Alright,” Cloverleaf, a friend of my sister’s and a fellow sergeant, said. “Sounds easy enough.”
“Your squadrons will cover the Zaku I Marine squadron that will capture the colony.”
“We can do that,” I said.
“You can count on us!”
“Very well, now hurry and launch.”
Cloverleaf and I bolted to the hangar. Our MS-06C Zaku IIs, the best mobile suit variant created thus far, stood ready to launch. Cloverleaf glanced at me. “So, you think the Feddies’ll make it easy for us to capture Island Iffish?”
I shook my head. “No. They’ll try, anyway. We’ve got Zakus, they don’t.”
Cloverleaf smiled, her confidence showing through her serious face.
I climbed into the pilot chair of my Zaku. Sliding back in the cockpit, I hit a button on my pilot’s console, closing the cockpit door.
I tapped the side of my helmet, sliding the visor down, and creating a tight seal.
Flipping a few switches on the pilot’s console, I murmured to myself, “This better be easy, we’ve trained for years for this battle.”
I sighed, gripped the control levers in preparation for launch, and reported, “Cheerilee, ready to go!”
The suit lurched forward, indicating that the catapult had been activated. I felt a small smile cross my face. Activating my suit’s thrusters, I launched off the catapult.
************
Flying through space, I felt at ease. I don’t know why I feel this way, but I do.
“Hey, boss, you there?”
As I snapped back to reality, I noticed that we had come up to Island Iffish. “Yes, Icewind,” I responded, “I’m here.”
“As I was saying,” he said, “why haven’t we seen any Feddies yet?”
“You’ve got a point,” I agreed, “usually, there would have been at least one Salamis that we’d have encountered by now.”
“Yeah. What are they doing?”
“Don’t tempt fate, Icewind,” Cloverleaf said, interrupting, “you never know when they’ll show up.”
“I agree,” I said. “They’re planning something. I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”
“Yeah. But what?”
“I don’t know,” I replied, “in any case, stay sharp. I don’t want to get caught off guard because we’re too busy being paranoid.”
“Roger that, boss.”
The rest of the squadron reported their affirmatives.
I scanned around for the Zaku IBs that we were supposed to cover. Upon spotting the Zaku Is, which had been keep a good distance away from us, I reported to them, “Hey, way’s clear. Get up here.”
“Of course, sergeant,” the squadron leader replied, “thank you for covering us.”
“Thank me later,” I retorted, “the mission’s still not over.”
“Of course.”
I glanced at the colony. Its windows meant that there weren’t as many people in the colony as were in the colonies at Side Three. Which, in turn, means that it should be easier to capture.
I watched as the Zaku Is entered the colony through its access doors. I smiled, softly.
Suddenly, I felt unease enter my heart. “What is this feeling?” I wondered, “Why am I getting this feeling of… uneasiness?”
I got my answer. Each Zaku I fired both of the missiles on the weapon they were equipped with. The missiles streaked toward Island Iffish’s major cities. However, instead of hitting the buildings or the colony wall, the missiles detonated in midair of the cities, releasing a green gas. It began spreading. G3 gas!
I cried out in horror, shaking my head, “No! I didn’t know! I didn’t know anything about the poison gas!”
I frantically scanned around for any Federal Forces vessels within visual range. Upon seeing nothing, I released a pent-up breath. “Mission’s done,” I said, shakily, to the rest of my squadron, “let’s get back to the Aries.”
“Roger that, boss,” Icewind replied, sounding dull.
I frowned, and keyed in the channel for Cloverleaf’s Suit. “Hey, Clover,” I prompted, “what do you think about this?”
Silence. Then she spoke, sounding as if she had been crying. “We’re bad ponies… We’re bad ponies… We’re bad ponies, Cheerilee!”
“I know,” I replied, monotonously, having realized that once the G3 appeared, “I know.”
“Zaku squadrons,” the commander shouted, unfazed by the gassing, “we’ve got an inbound Salamis-class heavy cruiser! Return now!”
“You heard him,” I said, addressing both my squadron and Cloverleaf, “we’ve got to go.”
I turned to face the Aries, and began accelerating through space toward the ship.
“The Salamis has launched Saberfish. Likely in an attempt to sink the Aries,” Icewind reported in that new dull tone of his.
“Well,” I said, “we can’t let the Aries get sunk. That’s our ride out of here.”
“Yep,” Cloverleaf said.
“Zaku I Marines,” I barked, “return to the Aries and prepare to shoot down any Saberfish that get by us!”
“Yes, sergeant!”
I snarled, out of anger toward the Marines than anything else.
“Faust dammit, Federation,” I growled, “why’d you show up now of all times? After we’d completed our mission? WHY?”
Turning to intercept the Saberfish squadrons, which, upon long-range visual inspection, were equipped with anti-ship missiles.
Aiming the machine gun my Zaku was equipped with, I fired a burst at the lead Saberfish of the formation. I was rewarded with the destruction of the Saberfish as its missile detonated beneath it.
I grinned, very subtly. While a Saberfish could kill, and was faster than, a Zaku II, the fighter wasn’t as agile or as quick to accelerate.
I shifted aim and fired another burst. Another Saberfish down.
I continued this systematic destruction of the fighters until I was interrupted by a purple beam lancing through space, drawing my attention to the Salamis. “Cheeky,” I observed, “but, that doesn’t matter. I’ll take you out!”
I accelerated toward the vessel, leaving the rest of the Zaku IIs to destroy the fighters. Because of the heavy armor on the Salamis’ beam turrets, my machine gun wasn’t going to damage them consistently. And I didn't have a bazooka or a Sturm Faust either. I did have one thing that could hurt the cruiser though, a heat hawk. Attaching my machine gun to its rack on my Zaku II’s waist armor, I drew my heat hawk.
Landing on the cruiser’s deck, I was greeted by fire from the vessel’s point defense turrets. However, they were more of an annoyance than anything, as they lacked the penetration value of a beam shot.
Running across the deck, I attacked the first beam turret. Slashing a large hole on the outer armor of the turret, I swapped my heat hawk to my Zaku’s left hand, and drew my machine gun. I fired a burst into the hole, shredding the internals of the turret, taking it offline. “That’s one down, and the only one that could pose a threat to me,” I said.
“Now, for the bridge.”
As I ran toward the twin machine gun turrets mounted on a large strut, I noticed Saberfish out of corners of my vision. “Trying to save yourself, eh? Well, too bad!”
Evading the missiles that the fighters fired at me, I leapt onto the strut, and began attacking them without fear of damage. Delivering a deep slash to one, unintentionally detonating its ammunition bins and singeing my suit’s exterior, I emptied the rest of my machine gun’s current ammo drum into the other turret, destroying it.
“Cheerilee,” a voice said, “watch out!”
“Cloverleaf,” I asked, confused, “what are you-?”
Cloverleaf’s Zaku slammed into mine, shoving it out of the way. A salvo of missiles from one of the Saberfish struck Cloverleaf’s Zaku. I watched as the Zaku’s reactor, whose I-Field had been disabled by the salvo, tore apart the Suit with its explosion. Pink smoke, caused by Minovsky Particles, occupied the space where the Suit had been. “No, no, no, no, NO!”
Tears began running down my face. I hung my head. An object floated lazily through space. Noticing it, I looked at it. A Sturm Faust, one of Cloverleaf’s. Shooting out an arm and grabbing it, I realized that I had somehow lost my Zaku’s machine gun. I aimed at the Salamis’ bridge. “This is for my friend, you Federal-issued scum!”
I fired the Sturm Faust, and watched the rocket strike the bridge and detonate. The resulting explosion tore the bridge apart, leaving only wreckage behind. I laughed at the sight.
“Cheerilee here,” I reported, “I’m returning now.”
************
My Zaku came up to its pilot’s catwalk. I tapped the side of my helmet, sliding the visor up. I opened the cockpit hatch, slid my pilot’s chair forward, and climbed out of my Zaku. “Hey, boss,” Icewind said, having regained a bit of his normal demeanor, “you alright?”
“Yeah,” I nodded, “I’ve had better days.”
Noticing that Cloverleaf hadn’t come up to hug me, Icewind asked, “Where’s Sergeant Cloverleaf?”
I turned away and began walking away from the hangar, shutting my eyes, in a desperate attempt to keep tears from running down my face. “Boss,” Icewind prompted again, “where is she?”
I said, as calmly as I could, “She’s not coming home.”
“‘Not coming home?’ What do you mean by that?”
“Cloverleaf is dead! Alright? She’s dead!”
My response, snarled at the corporal, shocked the stallion. “Boss, I-I…”
I sighed. “It’s fine,” I told him, “just leave me alone, alright?”
Icewind nodded.
************
I entered my room. Closing the door behind me, I pulled my helmet off. My twin-toned pink hair fell down around my head. Brushing it out of my face, I unzipped my pilot suit. I flopped onto my bed, letting my helmet fall to the floor.
For what seemed like an eternity, I stared at the ceiling. Eventually, I turned onto my side. I reached for the drawer of my bed stand and pulled it open. A bottle of whiskey sat in the drawer. “Well,” I mused, grabbing the bottle, “Clover said that I could drink from that bottle if there was a special occasion. I’ve got a special occasion right now. Heh.”