Gundam SEED Fan Fiction ❯ Mobile Suit Gundam SEED: Odyssey of Altair ❯ Sunken Treasure ( Chapter 3 )

Another shot from her machine gun finished off the Strike Dagger that had been pursueing her. Ellis Tarat took a moment to catch her breath, feeling combat fatigue threatening to overwhelm her. Despite her being a professional soldier, she had her limits, and these last few mobile suits were pushing it. The last eight pilots under Kenneth's command proved to be experts, true fighters, almost equal to that of the Altair's pilots. While they didn't do any damage to the Altair's mobile suit force, they weren't going down any time soon. Finally finishing her brief moment, she put her back thrusters into full power and made a beeline to another Strike Dagger, switching over to her missile units. The Strike Dagger noticed her approach and opened fire with a 360mm bazooka, which it had in place of the standard M703 57mm beam rifle. She dodged the shell, before the ever-familiar tone of a missile lock rung in her ears, then firing two missiles from her left leg. The Strike Dagger jetted away just as the missile approach, continuing to fire at her rockets. While dodging, Ellis noticed that the missiles weren't turning around to go after the Dagger, but continuing to fly into the emptiness of space. "Missiles are swerving off target!" Ellis complained, dodging another shell and quickly switching back over to her machine gun, and letting out a burst. She scored hits on the head, then trailing down into the torso until one of her 76mm shots hit the battery generator, vaporizing the Dagger.

"What do you expect from the cheap ones, Ellis?" Calvez responded, inbetween slashing at another mobile suit with his own Strike Dagger's beam saber, "I'm going to crush Merlinus with my Dagger's hand for giving me a cheapass beam rifle. Thing ran out of juice after a few minutes."

"Because you're a terrible shot, that's why!" Ellis quipped, ejecting the now empty clip from her machinegun and replacing it with a fresh one. "You wasted an entire charge in two minutes against one mobile suit! That's just..." she just closed the comm circuit between them. Now the adrenaline was kicking back in, just as she targetted her next Dagger. This time, the Dagger was distracted dodging the Theta Team's Astrays, giving Ellis the perfect oppurtunity to pull off a three shot burst into the side. All three, though, had only managed to knick the side and sever off a leg, just as the Strike Dagger accelerated upward to dodge a beam rifle shot. It didn't make it far though. Seemingly out of nowhere, a rather large yellow beam streaked across sky and nailed the Dagger square in the torso, blasting through the cockpit and vaporizing the pilot. The suit went into a loop, as if trying one last attempt to fly. It managed to perform a three loop spiral before its battery exploded, taking the remains with it. "Hey, who took my... What the-?" Ellis started to comlain when her sensors detected two very, very fast mobile suits flying right toward her. Even more frightening, her computer identified both targets as the Duel Gundam and Buster Gundam, displaying the ZAFT profiles on both units.

"Damn, Kenneth and his fucks are going to pay for shooting up my fighter." Vale growled, in a very sinister tone. He grinned a little, seeing that his intended target had been shot just as he had the Buster Gundam fly up and under the Red Rose. As much as he hated flying 'ground pounders', he had to thank his luck that he ran into such a damn good mobile suit. He now had both the M1022 "Sturmjaeger" 94mm high energy rifle and M1151 "Zerstorer" 350mm gun launcher armed, the Zerstorer in his right arm and the Sturmjaeger in his left, an 'Asuka' formation as some would call it. Aside from the beam cannon and projectile launcher, he had the 'Igelstellung' 75 mm multi-barrel CIWS, which he used to 'purge' the hangar, and the twin six-tube 220mm missile launchers on his shoulders, though he already used two of the missiles. More than enough to level the rest of Kenny's forces.

Then he remembered the radio, "This is Alpha One! Hold fire!" he called out on broadband, "Venom and I have taken a few 'very special' mobile suits from Kenneth's cache. Try and guess what I'm talking about." his tone remained, but the anger he once held disappeared, being replaced with amusement and a very sinister grin to go with. He pushed the Buster Gundam at full thrust, relishing in the g-forces generated as he was propelled forward. Behind him, Mayer was trailing in his Duel Gundam, a beam saber in his right hand and a beam rifle in his left, under the blue shield. "Hey, Vale, lets split the last Daggers, three and three." Mayer offered.

"Exactly what I was thinking." Vale said, engaging more thrust. Both Gundams seperated out of formation, charging at different targets, to the shock and awe of both their allies and adversaries. Vale targetted the Dagger that Calvez was swordfighting, watching as the Dagger immediatly darted away at the Buster Gundam's arrival. Vale shot past Calvez's own Strike Dagger in pursuit of the enemy, right until his target icon turned red. With that, he fired a single shot from his Sturmjaeger, watching as the shot flew through space and ripped through the Dagger's thruster unit and out the chest, detonating the battery generator and causing it to explode. He then performed an Immelman, targetting another Dagger, this one trying to retreat for the Red Rose, and shot after it. He laughed a little, like that would this guy any good. Naturally, he'd shoot the Rose down next after the battle was over, and then the vultures would pick the ship apart and Fargus would probably add the Rose to the Valentine graveyard. Before he could attack this dagger, though, a yellow icon appeared around it, and a second later, Mayer launched a beam rifle right through the cockpit. The Dagger continued to fly through space, but without its pilot, it flew right into the hull of the Rose and bounced off. A second beam rifle shot followed, Mayer delivering the coup de grace. Interesting. he thought, before shrugging it off, before his cockpit alarm came on.

One of the Daggers, seeing that it had no chance of survival, shot at him at full speed, with a beam saber in hand. The pilot must've figured out Buster wasn't a melee mobile suit, and that maybe, just maybe, it would have a chance at close-range. Vale merely sighed, barely sidestepping the first swipe, then jetting back from the following horizontal swipe. For the third swipe, the Dagger made a cut at the Buster's head, which Vale countered by side-stepping again. This time, he side stepped to the right, hitting the Dagger with his Zerstorer barrel on its back and propelling it past. In the following split second, Vale lined his sights and shot the Zerstorer at point-blank into its back. Unlike the Sturmjaeger, which fired a concentrated blast of energy over a small area, the Zerstorer had a much larger blast radius surrounding the projectile fired, making it ideal for taking down multiple targets or capital ships in one blow. Vale was so close, that the blast vaporized the entire upper torso, head, cockpit and all, of the Dagger, leaving only the bottom half to float harmlessly through space. "Leaves one more." he said, then hearing his proximity alarm go off. He side stepped again, letting a single rocket fly past. "There you are." he grinned, seeing the last Dagger flying back while firing another rocket at Vale, letting the Rose's remaining guns provide covering fire for its retreat.

The Buster Gundam jetted at the final Strike Dagger, now merely banking left and right, "barely" dodging the oncoming projectiles, but still coming at the Dagger. Eventually, the Dagger ran out of rockets, dumping its launcher and turning around in one last hope to fly back to the ship. As much as the enemy carrier pumped AA shots into space, Vale just dodged each bullet with minimal effort, keeping his course on the Dagger, and strangely enough, placed both cannons back in their storage points. He caught up to the enemy mobile suit and flew under its legs, only to ascend and spin so that Buster was face-to-face with the Dagger's head module. He reached out and grabbed the Dagger's chest, giving off an 'eye flash' to scare the pilot into pissing himself. With that done, Vale had the Buster spin around again, using its momentum to throw the Dagger against the hull of the Red Rose. During the spin, he opened one of the shoulder missile launchers and fired a homing missile off as he let go. The Dagger had barely bounced off the hull of its mothership, when it plunged head on into the warhead, exploding entirely. The Buster Gundam banked another round of 75mm fire, then engaged to full thrust and ascended, spinning like an angelic deity of sorts. Upon the third spin, Vale merged pulled both cannons back out and merged the Sturmjaeger into the Zerstorer launcher, adding onto beam rifle's energy into the gun launcher's. With this combined energy, he launched three bursts into the Red Rose, each one flying through the entire ship. All three had missed vital areas like the cargo bays or the generators, two striking non-essential areas while the third ripped through the engine room, immobilizing the Red Rose.

Adding onto the fire, Mayer's Duel Gundam flew up to join the Buster, firing its 175mm rocket grenade from its beam rifle carbine, and several bursts from the rifle itself and the railgun on Duel's right shoulder. More explosions followed across the bleeding Red Rose's hull, as fire and molten metal sprayed from its aft. A large chunk of its aft hull seperated from the ship, free floating through space, its inner parts incased in flames from the leaking oxygen. Then came a broadband communication. "This is Kenneth Spade to the Altair forces! Hold you fire, I surrender! I repeat, the Red Rose surrenders!" Came the hasty proclamation, "We're too heavily damaged to fight on and will accept terms for surrender."

"This is Captain William Fargus of the battleship Altair. We accept your surrender and will hold off any more hostilities. You are to drop your shields and prepare to accept boarders, failure to do so will result in your destruction." Fargus' grim monotoned voice spoke over broadband.

Both Gundam pilots knew Fargus would want Kenneth alive, so they held their fire, but left the guns trained on the hull of the Rose, as did the rest of the Altair's MS force. Vale punched in the comm frequency to the Altair and almost felt relieved to see Tilly's face appear on his Gundam's monitor. Keyword, almost. "Altair, this is Alpha One. Can we all go home now or what?"

Tilly looked to the side, seeing Lyn nod in confirmation. She then switched to broadband, "Confirmed, primary mission complete. All mobile suits return to the Altair. I repeat, all mobile suits return to the mothership. Kenny's not going anywhere now." She broadcasted, with some pity in her voice. She doubted any of these people had seen the darker side of the Altair's captain and former OMNI officer.

"Yo ho! Yo ho! A pirates life for me!" The mess hall was the size of any high school cafeteria, minus the elevated ceiling and the theater stage. A cafeteria, where the tables were bolted down, various OMNI and ZAFT posters lining the walls with darts through them, and instead of a hispanic lady with a hair net, the cook was an ex-tech Seargent from OMNI of extremely large stature, had a heart tattoo with "MOM" engraved on it and a cigar in his mouth. Then there was the fact that the "students" were all drinking alcohol in the open and even going so far as to wave guns over their heads. There were a few tied down to a seperate table, which everyone assumed were Kenneth Spade's officers and assistants. They generally ignored them, for the moment anyway. They had a better show to watch.

Vale Hunter, Mayer Ceremon and Ellis Tarat were all leaning against the wall, watching as the Altair's crew chanted in the infamous "pirate song" that was hundreds of years old. Although they knew better than to partake, since not only was the origin of the song questionable, but it seemed to make the crew look like stereotypes. Notably, none of the pilots showed any sign of enjoyment or emotion, and none had slipped out of their normal suits either, aside from taking off their individual helmets. Vale had his eyes closed and his hands against the wall with his head resting against them, his grin ever present. Ellis and Mayer just looked extremely bored. That's when Adlai came up to join them, taking a spot next to Ellis. "I know you guys took down one of your big time rivals, but isn't this a bit much for a victory party?" Adlai asked the blonde mobile suit pilot.

"Just watch and see." Ellis said. A few moments later, the door swung open, and four men, which Adlai I assumed were the security officers or "bouncers" as the crew called them, came through, each dragging a rope behind them. Adlai watched in both intrigue and a tinge of shock as Kenneth Spade was dragged into the room. A fat man with red hair, the kind you usually saw as perverted priests, used car salesman, fastfood resteraunt managers or as it was, alleyway businessman, Kenneth was a hallmark of his profession. All four ropes were tied to him, one around his neck, two around his bloated torso and the last around his legs. The shock Adlai felt came from the fact that the man looked like he fell into a janitory closet. He had a bucket over his head, a toilet cleaner shoved into his mouth and he looked drenched in some kind of liquid, which Adlai assumed was used cleaner fluids. It wasn't really out of the ordinary for a renegade crew to do this, it's just Adlai, being exposed to the crew for some time now, wasn't expecting this at all from them.

The four bouncers each grabbed either of Kenneth's arms and legs, hoisting him up. The crew booed wildly, some even throwing beer cans, random food and atleast one or two glass bottles at the tied man. This lasted for a minute though, until the door opened again. The excitement immediatly died down and all attention turned to the doorway, as William Fargus and Lynsie Schneider walked through. Fargus seemed to be holding a rather long black cane of average width, topped by a gold handle and handguard. Adlai knew it was a sword of some kind, probably a double edged saber judging by the width, but he wasn't sure what the Captain was going to do with it.

Unless...

His eyes widened a little, though out of interest rather than shock. He looked at his comrades for a reaction. Vale's eyes had opened, though barely, while Ellis and Mayer remained indifferent. With this in mind, Adlai continued to watch.

One of the bouncers had ripped the cleaning brush out of Kenneth's mouth, and he immediatly started yelling. His voice sounded, as Adlai could best describe it, like a deep gurgle or something. "Dammit, Fargus, what the hell are you doing to me!? I swear to God, let me go now, because a few of my associates..."

"Are dead." Lyn said coldly, "Fell victim to a ZAFT patrol no more than three days ago. And you know how ZAFT works, they go after everyone associated with the crime lord, putting the ones they deem innocent in a safehome and the others in prison."

Kenneth continued still, "I still have friends in OMNI!" he called out, "Where do you think I got my mobile suits from?"

"So do we." Fargus replied in his monotone, "Difference is, Kenneth, I held rank in OMNI at one point, and you didn't. Nobody will care what happens to you, because you're just a black market merchant in PLANT. OMNI loses an expendable contact, and ZAFT loses one more crime leader. And for us, one less adversary."

Kenneth's mouth dropped, but then it curled into a mischeaveous grin, "I get it, Fargus." he laughed a little, "It's about those crewman of yours, isn't it?" he continued, "I should have known you of all people had a soft spot for your own men. Are you now relieved that you caught me, or do you feel regret because you've been chasing after me for a long time? Old men like you are such a bother now a days, instead of wasting away in a nursing home, you have to ruin my business, and for what? Because I killed some of your crewmembers? Soft hearted son of..."

One of the bouncers punched Kenneth in the stomach, so hard Kenneth actually coughed up blood, while the crew exploded in fury, throwing even more random objects at the fatman. "Enough!" Lyn ordered over the booing, stopping them immediatly.

"It's alright." Fargus said, to everyone in the room, "To answer your question, I feel nothing Mr. Spade. Yes, I was quite upset when you killed those people. But I didn't feel the urge to go after you, since as you said, it's business. And taking lives of our rivals is a part of our business." through his glasses, Kenny could see some sort of flare emit from the man's eyes, "However, you made one mistake about that point. Instead of starting at the top and killing me at the beginning, you went after five of my crewmen." he took a moment for the information to sink into Spade, "Ruth Simms, Harman Wilson, Michael Babe, George Guervich and Ryan Baker. You killed off two tech workers, two gunner's mates and a chef, Spade. Tell me, what's the satisfaction in that? Where's the warning that was meant to scare me away?"

The fat man gulped, which barely made it through his tied neck, "I was upset you raided one of my convoys, that's all! I didn't want to kill a fellow working man like yourself, I just wanted you to stop picking on my ships..."

"By killing five of my crew. And not just any of my crew, but one's that I've served with since my days in OMNI, people that abandoned their home nations and careers because of they didn't want to abandon their me or their comrades following me." Fargus stated.

"C'mon, Fargus!" Kenneth almost cried out, "They were only little men as you said!"

In the back corner, Adlai could've sworn Vale licked his lips as Fargus drew his saber faster than Adlai's eyes could track and impaled the tied Spade through the gut. Kenneth tried to scream, but the air was forced out of him thanks to the cut, turning his cry into a mere yelp. Fargus looked into his eyes, still showing no expression, "I wouldn't kill you over little men." he said, no louder than a whisper.

The next moment, he ripped the saber out of Kenny's gut, but the bouncers didn't let him drop. As Fargus withdrew the saber blade, some of the fatman's internal organs were ripped out as well, followed by a spray of blood. Kenny screamed at twisted, while everyone watched as he tried to rip his body free of the bindings in a mad fit. Some of the newer crewmen were speechless and trembling, wondering their captain would do this. The one's that had been with Fargus longer knew better, though. They knew not to question their captain and in some cases, their "Admiral".

After what felt like hours, Kenny's head dripped down, his few screams turning into mere murmers. "Oh my God! He killed Kenny!" one of the crewmen joked in his best impression of Cartman.

One of Kenny's assistants attempted to bolt up, despite being tied down. His attempt was abruptly halted by the clicking sounds of drawn guns. The rest just stayed in their place.

Fargus simply walked onto the puddle of blood and gore, bending over to look at the face of Kenneth Spade. Even though he had a long and agonizing death, his face still sported utter conclusion, a face that defied his death to the last. He reeled back, and chopped off his head with the saber. Too everyone, the blade swipe was merely a silver wave cutting through Kenny's head, and letting it drop into the puddle formed by some of the leaked internal organs. Fargus picked up the head by the red hair, and showed it to the crew, as an example.

"I will be short." Fargus said, "I do not hold many personal grudges, even against people who want me dead. As this man put, such attempts are part of the careers we lead, and in business, one must eliminate his or her rivals in order to proceed. However..." he tossed the head in the air, and another slash wave was made, chopping it in halves. Everyone except the veteran crew members jumped back, cowering. "I will not tolerate attacks on my crew or my associates, just to get to me. Again, this man failed to kill me at the beginning, and because of that, he has inspired vengeance in my heart. Vengeance, for the deaths of my men, whom I hold responsibility for, because I was their commander."

His last statement was aimed at the Red Rose's crew, assuming the first wasn't, "Say what you will about me, but consider this a warning. No matter how long or what position each man and woman serve on this ship, they are apart of my crew. Everyone here is under my responsibility. I will not tolerate any attempts at my life by taking their's." he wiped the blood across Ken's white tunic, cleaning the blade off of the blood atleast. Fargus then seathed the sword, and began walking towards the doorway. He stopped, just as the door opened. "If anyone wants the same kind of vengeance for Kenneth Spade's death, then I will be waiting for them. For the rest of this voyage, however, you will be placed in the brig and dropped off. Whether on a PLANT, the open vacuum or Earth's atmosphere is entirely up to your actions." he then left the room.

Lyn signaled at the bouncers, "Get him out of here." she ordered, "And get someone to clean this mess up!"

It was later on in the day (relatively speaking, of course, to the current time) after all the "excitement" had died down. Fargus had come back with Lyn and Mayer all too quickly from the thorough lesson he gave Kenneth; but the only ones who payed any mind were the members of the bridge. Fargus came back without a word and immediately set course for elsewhere, ordering Tilly to get in contact with an old "friend" of his. The captain had disappeared to his quarters down the hall from the bridge for a while and came back with a new heading; they were going to go pay this friend of his a visit and he was going to sell off what he would of the Rose's contents. Without another word, he headed back to his quarters, leaving the crew about their business for the time being.

Soon, Lyn departed to take care of a personal matter, leaving Rouri half-asleep at the wheel while Marko went back to video games and Tilly picked her nails clean. After a little while, Adlai stepped in, looking around confusedly.

"I assume this is the bridge?" Adlai asked, looking completely lost.

"You bet!" Tilly replied cheerfully. Seeing the new face, she knew it had to be the new computer guru-guy that she had heard about. Unfortuneately, she couldn't get off her post to see him, but here we was! New people always excited Tilly, she just loved meeting "newbs".

"Quite a spirited reply," Adlai said, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, it's just kind of boring around here, so I wanted to liven it up!" Tilly said, standing up and hurrying up to Adlai. "I'm Tildred Edwards, but people just call me 'Tilly'," she said, grabbing and shaking his right hand while giggling.

"Adlai Dayso, charmed," Adlai replied, a little stand-off-ish in the face of Tilly's undying cheerfulness.

"So what 'cha doing up here, Mister Adlai?" Tilly asked, smiling up at him brightly.

"Lyn said the communications panel wasn't interfacing right or something and told me to have a look," Adlai explained, going back to looking completely lost.

"Oh my God!" Tilly screamed, then burst out with a long scream. "That's exactly the console that I work at!"

"Wonderful," Adlai said, indifferent.

"Well, come on, come on!" Tilly commanded, grabbing Adlai's arm and tugging him towards her seat and console.

Adlai followed like a dog on her leash and sat in her chair when she pointed to it. "Alright, this probably won't take too long. I just have to find out what comm port these fancy military machines use and I might get it fixed within a few minutes," he explained, starting to dig through a few lines of seeminly redundant programming as he opened up one window after another.

"Okay," Tilly replied simply, then stood off to the side, leaning on one leg.

Adlai went about his work, slowly pecking the keyboard in front of him as windows popped up and went away and selector bars moved across the menus. Tilly looked over his shoulder, cocked her head to the side, and scratched her head.

"What's that?" Tilly asked.

"What's what?" Adlai asked, keeping the majority of his attention on the screen.

"This...menu that you're in," Tilly replied.

"Simple I/O protocol set-up. Trying to see if this thing works through direct connection or if it's hubbed into the rest of the ship through quad-routers. It'll either prove to be simple or damn near impossible to trace. Then again, that depends on if this thing even uses quad-routers, they're rather antique nowadays," Adlai explained.

Tilly grimaced, unable to understand a word of what he was talking about. "So...what?"

Adlai sighed and stopped; he hated more than anything to be interrupted while working, after all, once focused, he preferred to keep at one thing until he was done with it minus any and all distractions. "Are you going to keep asking me questions like some...overly-inquizative little kid or something? I don't have time to explain, I have to work here."

"Alright, alright, sorry, just trying to make conversation," Tilly replied, standing upright.

"Sorry, I just can't really talk at the moment," Adlai said, going back to work.

Tilly took a few steps back and paced around. She looked across the bridge, seeing Rouri let the auto-pilot do the work for him while Marko kept loud rock music going through a pair of headphones he had plugged into a miniature MP3 player. Tilly could also see on his screen a small box with a red dot in it, moving through what looked like a mouse maze. She could instantly tell it must have been Martin's tracer system, which he had "borrowed" off a more recent pirating of a small technology company's freighter. Obviously he had let his brother borrow the system and if Tilly knew Marko best, it was a tracer he had put on Lyn in order to warn him that she was coming back. All-in-all, this meant one thing to Tilly: more boredom; so she stepped back towards Adlai.

"So where are you from?" she asked innocently.

Adlai paused momentarily to sigh and kept typing, deciding to humor her as best he could. "Atlantic Federation."

"Why are you in space then?"

"Because there's nothing for me back on Earth."

"How'd you end up back on that dingy old colony then?"

Adlai stopped again and rotated the seat to Tilly. "Alright, I'll stop for a few minutes to talk if that'll make you happy."

"Oh, no, keep working, don't let me stop you," Tilly replied, apologizing.

"But that's just it, you are stopping me by asking me stuff," Adlai explained. "I ended up there because I just got this urge to just wander around, you know? I kind of got sick of living on Earth when there was still space left to see within my lifetime. So I started just...wandering around out in space and ended up there. I'm a vagrant of sorts, like those guys in ancient times who'd hop train cars and live in and out of them."

"And that's why you jumped on our ship, huh?"

"Yes, that's why I forced my way on to this ship," Adlai said, nodding. "I planned to live here until I get to where I feel I want to go."

"Oh, I see."

With that, Adlai went back to his work, rotating the chair back to the console.

"But if you're just wandering around, then that means you have no home, right? Or you don't have anywhere to go?"

Adlai paused, but not out of frustration. He bit his bottom lip and looked over his shoulder at her. "I do have a home, I just don't want to go back right now. I'd rather find my own place in the world, that's all. You can understand that, right?"

"Well, what about this ship? We're all fairly nice people and you can easily get by. After all, you're an asset of sorts," Tilly said, smiling.

"There's a difference between a valued member of the crew and a valued friend. So far, I haven't exactly fit in with anyone just yet," Adlai said as he went back to typing.

"Well, that's just because you're so new. You haven't been around long enough to really fit in just yet. But even then, I can help!" Tilly said, patting Adlai's back.

"Then again, I'm not sure how long I'll be around. I elected to stay only so long as I have to, until something better comes around," Adlai added.

"Aww, but you haven't even seen what we have to offer yet. How do you know that we aren't the best?" Tilly said, looking pouty.

"I'll give it time, don't worry," Adlai said, slowly nodding, not taking his eyes off the screen.

"Well, that's good to hear. It'd be a shame to have any of the crew leave, actually, they're all such nice people. However, Vale's kind of weird, and Calvez is a real jerk sometimes...but they're both good people, really," Tilly rambled.

Adlai kept to himself, continuing his work of digging through seemingly random screens and menus.

"Well, I'll let you work. I'll go get something from the mess or something," Tilly said, seeming a little depressed. She then turned and shuffled out.

Adlai kept going for a few minutes, then looked over his shoulder at the closed door. "What an odd girl," he said, then went back to work.

"I got to hand it to you guys, this is the best damn salvage I have seen yet!" Bobbinem Garban said in congradulations to Vale, Ellis, Mayer and Martin. His hands waved around the hangar, which was now filled with various parts taken from the now vaporized Red Rose, curtosy of the Vultures before the Altair's Gottfried cannons finished off the freighter. Strike Dagger parts, computer and machine equipment, weapons of different types and origins, it was all there. But the one thing Garban seemed to be the happiest about were the three Gundam mobile suits, all standing in side racks along the port side, now swarming over with technicians and curious mobile suit pilots. "We haven't had this kind of an overhaul since this crate left ZAFT! Damn, that Kenny lugged around cool shit."

"Three mobile suits and a bunch of spare parts for Strike Daggers? That's not exactly a great haul." Ellis said cynically.

"But those three mobile suits are Gundams! " Bob practically roared in excitement.

"So we've read. General Unilateral Neuro-Link Dispersive Autonomic Maneuver." Vale quoted the line from his computer, being just as cynical and unimpressed as Ellis. "Let's cut to the chase, Bob. We're all here because we want to know what kind of Gundams these are."

"Yeah, they look like the three suits used by ZAFT, but they have modern equipment." Mayer spoke up.

Bob's excitement dropped down to aggrivation, at the thought of having to explain to these people stuff they wouldn't understand. He gestured everyone to follow him, like a tour guide at a mueseum. All four followed Bob to his personal station, which was set up at the foot of the Duel Gundam. The station was really just a laptop computer on a moving table, which Bob used to analyze mobile suit data. Currently, the computer was linked to all three mobile suits by three cables that were plugged into each of the Gundams' cockpit computers. After a few short keyboard strokes, Bob punched up the data on the first Gundam, the one with the assualt shroud.

"GAT-X102D Duel Gundam Kai." Bob began, "Height is 17.5 meters, weight is 69.1 metric tons empty, able to carry up to 103.47 metric tons worth of extra armor, weapons and equipment. It's designed as the general purpose model of the three, possessing enough power and mobility to be used in just about any mission profile. Originally, the Duel Gundam was designed as a test unit for the Phase Shift armor concept back in 70', so it wasn't given any real special equipment like the other four Gundams. ZAFT capitalized on this after they captured Duel by modifying it with an Assualt Shroud, basically the extra set of armor it has now. Besides durability, the armor has extra thrusters in it so it would match the mobility of the GAT-X105 Strike Gundam's Aile Mode. Same concept with this one, but the thrusters are a lot more powerful." Bob reached into his pocket and produced a laser pointer, to which he aimed at the Duel Gundam, "Duel's armed with two MMI-M61 'Igelstellung' 75mm vulcan cannons in its head." he pointed at the two guns on either side of the head, "Two MA-M08ES beam sabers in its back, a MMI-BR03 'Beowulf' 57 mm beam rifle with one 175mm grenade launcher and a single MMS-06AS reactive shield on its left arm. The assault shroud mounts an additional MA-RG90 'Shiva' 115mm railgun on the right shoulder and a MMA-MX018 220mm 5-barrel missile pod on the left."

"Certainly beats the Astray, eh Mayer?" Martin commented with a thumbs up. Mayer just shrugged, as if he had seen better.

"Next up is the GAT-X103D Buster Gundam Kai." Bob said, punching up the data on the two gun equipped model Vale had captured, "Head height is 18.86 meters, general weight is 84.2 metric tons, but its maximum load is unknown. As everyone has guessed from the two big guns on its back, this one is a medium-long range oriented model, designed for profiles like fire support or sniper duty. Unlike a lot of MS for the fire support role though, this one has the same kind of mobility as its brethren, so it's able to support itself rather than rely on escort MS like the ZuOOT. Its armed with a pair of MMA-MM83 'Sturm Faust' 220mm 6-barrel missile pod in its shoulders, a M1022 'Sturmjaeger' 94mm high energy rifle behind its left arm and a M1151 'Zerstorer' 350mm gun launcher. As Vale displayed in the Red Rose fight, the rifles can be docked with eachother to form a more powerful gun, either an anti-armor shotgun or a suped-up sniper rifle. Also, unlike the model ZAFT used, this one is equipped with the same Igelstellung vulcans that the Duel Gundam has probably, to make up for Buster-boy's lack of melee weapons with point defense."

"You know, I think I'll take that one. I always like mobile suits with big guns. And it'd be a nice switch from the Strike Dagger." Calvez announced as he came up, grinning.

Ellis glared, "I believe that's up to the Captain to decide, and seeing as Vale captured it, I think it's more or less his mobile suit now."

"Sorry to disappoint you, Ellis." Vale replied, in his usual brightness, "But as everybody knows, I'm an air jock. I either fly an airplane or a flight capable mobile suit, anything that can stay in the air."

Vale's cheerfulness dissipitated when he felt Calvez's hand fall on his right shoulder, "See, Ellis? This guy doesn't want Buster! Besides, he owes me for taking that Strike Dagger. My kill for his Gundam, I think that's an even...Yeow!" Calvez yelled, feeling the soft fabric of Vale's white glove enclose around his hand, applying pressure. One could hear the sound of bones cracking, but fortunately for Calvez, Vale didn't break his hand.

"Now, now, Calvez, I didn't say I would give it to you." Vale said, pointing his index finger up and waving it in a 'tsk tsk' fashion, bringing back his bright smile, "And as they say, all's fair in love and war, so it was your fault for not killing that guy before I showed up."

"Yeah, like he could anyway." Mayer rolled his eyes.

"Don't let this outsider influence you too, Mayer." Calvez shot back.

"Oh, now, now, Calvez, you shouldn't be afraid to admit you true thoughts of me. I'm certainly not afraid." Vale said.

"What? You don't mean... You and Calvez?" Martin gawked.

"WHAT-? No, it's not like that!" Calvez yelled, "Ellis, you know me, don't you? All those passes I made at you!"

"I don't know, Calvez, I think you and Vale make a perfect couple." Ellis winked.

"Stop it, Ellis, you're making me blush." Vale replied, covering his cheeks.

"Gah! I got better things to do than meander with wierdos who think I'm with this pretty boy!" Calvez stated.

"Nice comeback." Ellis rolled her eyes. Calvez chose not to respond to that and just storm away, saving face.

"Fool." Mayer muttered, then turning to Bob, "Now, before we're interrupted again, what's the third model? The one the Vultures took out."

Bob nodded and punched up the data on the angular model, "GAT-X207D Blitz Gundam Kai. Head height is 18.63 meters, general weight is 73.5 metric tons, while its maximum weight capacity is also unknown. As GAT fans like myself know, 200 series Gundams are the specialty mecha, while the 100s are general purpose types. In this case, the Blitz Gundam is a stealth specialty mobile suit, originally designed to infiltrate enemy lines and destroy their forces from within, or just attack from out of nowhere."

"An assassination type Gundam." Ellis contemplated, "Intrigueing."

"Yeah, the things equipped with a ZEK-47S Mirage Colloid, a device that bends the light around the Blitz's frame and makes it invisible to radar and the naked eye. Only downside is the phase shift armor can't be used when the colloid is active, because it uses alot of power to remain active. But even without the colloid, the things angular surface allows it to move undetected by radar for some period of time, either up to the point the Blitz Gundam reaches its target or some poor fool runs into it." Bob grinned as he waved his laser pointer around the Blitz Gundam's sharp surface, "Aside from that, the thing's geared for melee combat. It's armed with a MXI-SA93 'Trikeros' offense/defense system on its right arm, which is basically a 50mm beam rifle and a beam saber built into an anti-reactive shield, three MMI-M99L 'Freya' 340mm lancer darts that are mounted and launched from the Trikeros, a MX-MAX84 'Gleipnir' anchor on its left arm and just like the other two, Igelstellung vulcans for point defense."

"Anything else about these things we should know about?" Vale asked, "During the battle, the Buster's computer received data from Mayer's targetting systems when he locked onto a Strike Dagger. I don't know about what you think, but that's not a standard feature in mobile suits."

"I was just getting to that." Bob said, "All three of these Gundams are equipped with something called a C7 system, which links their computers together by a direct data stream, so they can send and receive data to/from eachother. Aside from that, and I know you'll like this one Vale, all three equipped with high powered thrusters and something called a 'vernier array', which is basically vernier thrusters mounted at key points around the mobile suit frame."

"And why should I like it?" Vale asked.

"You were griping about mobile suits not being able to fly." Bob waved his hand at the Buster Gundam, "I checked the output of the thrusters. They generate enough thrust that the suit can fly in a gravity environment without any special modifications. And thanks to the vernier array, you'll be able to manuever without the worry of the Gundam's aerodynamics getting in the way."

Vale laughed a little at that, "Bob, bob, bob." he said, "It's not the capabilities I'm into, I just prefer fighters." he then looked at everyone else, "And now that we've concluded this episode of 'Get to know Altair', I'm going to the lounge to play video games. Ciao." he waved at everyone as he walked off, leaving his comrades to stare at him in wonder.

"Sometimes, that guy worries me. Maybe he is gay after all." Martin said.

Ellis shook her head, "Can't be."

"How do you know?" Martin asked.

"That's not important right now. He just has arrogance to him, Martin." Ellis explained.

"And he's still a fool." Mayer said.

Once Vale made it to the lounge, he immediatly ripped off his red pilot scarf and his leather jacket, throwing them on the couch and relishing as the cool air touched his body. It was January on Earth right now, and since the Altair ran by the Atlantic Federation's climate system, the ship was generally cold. Not as cold as space, but still cold nonetheless. And despite how much Vale hated it, his body was too used to the cold that it needed it once in a while. He was sweating heavily, despite the atmosphere. They would never understand why I don't like mobile suits. he thought to himself, recalling his previous days in OMNI. This only lasted a few seconds though, as Vale decided he felt like an old man recalling his days of glory in the military. Shaking his head, he walked over to the TV set and turned on the Playstation.

The game was an old earth classic called Xenosaga, which Vale had heard was pretty good, scoring high sales on both Earth and PLANT. He wasn't really an RPG expert, atleast not as much as Martin or that new guy Adlai, but it was growing on him. Right now, he had just started the game, playing as a scientist named Shion Uzuki, the head of a weapons development project called KOS-MOS. Since this was the very beginning of the game, he didn't know shit on what was going on, so he didn't waste any brain power trying to think about it. Vale just sat back in the couch and enjoyed watching Shion and KOS-MOS take on some enemy drones.

That's when the door opened, and as Vale some how suspected, Lynsie Schneider was standing at the entry way, "Shouldn't you be in the mobile suit hangar looking over those new mobile suits?" she said abruptly.

"Shouldn't you be on the bridge shouting orders just to piss people off?" Vale replied without turning to face her. "If you're looking for Marko, he'll be in the mess hall, assuming the bouncers finished cleaning up Kenny's remains."

"No, I came to talk to you about that mobile suit you captured, in case you're curious." Lyn said, sitting on one of the chairs that was next to the couch.

"Go on." Vale said.

"I checked up on the Red Rose's log before it was destroyed. Apparently, those three mobile suits were supposed to be delivered to some arms syndicate in August."

"So Kenny stole them and was going to put them on the black market, nothing unusual there." Vale said.

"I thought so to, except I also looked up the OMNI database for mobile suit types. Those Gundams aren't listed." Lyn said, "I'd say that's a little strange, since they had the other GAT-X series there, including the three Gundams used in the latter part of the war."

"So, what does that mean?" Vale asked, as he commanded Shion to perform her Spell Ray attack.

"That means these mobile suits aren't supposed to exist." Lyn said. This gained Vale's attention, as he hit the pause button when the battle mode ended. "Either that, or they're so secret not even OMNI High Command knows about them. I doubt that's the case." Lyn continued.

"So these suits don't belong to OMNI." Vale said, contemplating, "But they're definately Earth made mobile suits, since they use the OMNI acronym and the GAT designation. What if some private corporation made these?"

"Possibly, but even if that were the case, I doubt OMNI would be interested in the Gundams." Lyn replied, "After all, these are just suped up variants from the original three."

"Still interesting, nonetheless." Vale said, "Other than that, why are you here?"

"Pardon?"

"C'mon Lyn." Vale smirked, "You didn't just come here to talk to me about your little mystery cases."

All of a sudden, Lyn found it a little hard to look at Vale. She turned her face away, fighting against herself not to blush. "This is a little embarassing, but you know I'm getting my own mobile suit in a few days, right?"

"Yeah, I know, that custom GINN you placed on back order. What about it?" Vale asked.

"Well, it's been a little while since I've piloted a mobile suit, so I was wondering if you could train me..." Lyn asked, reluctantly.

Vale couldn't help but laugh at this, "This is rich. After that tough-ass attitude you give to me and the other mobile suit pilots, you're rusty? Geez, Lyn, we all figured you to be some training seargent or something..."

"It's not funny." Lyn said in a low growl, "I didn't pilot alot of mobile suits while in OMNI, so I'm not as good as you or Ellis. But I can't just sit on this ship and watch you guys fight out there when I can be out there too. I feel like a coward." she explained, looking at the ground.

The blonde-haired pilot stopped laughing at that point and had adopted a more serious demeanor, knowing the situation called for it. "You shouldn't feel that way. Lacus Clein wasn't a mobile suit pilot, but she probably had more influence in the First Coordinator War as Kira Yamato."

Lyn laughed a little at that, "This isn't about ideals, Vale, I just don't feel comfortable on the bridge of a battleship. Not as comfortable as I did in a mobile suit cockpit anyway."

"I can understand that. A lot of former pilots feel that way..." Vale said, "Alright, I'll help you out, but this is under the assumption that you are an experienced pilot at least, not a newbie. I'm already having a hard time with Zack Jimmer, so I don't need to wetnecks to deal with."

"'Wetnecks'?" Lyn raised an eyebrow.

Vale shrugged, "What the drill seargent called the new guys."

Lyn nodded, "Thanks." she got up and made her way toward the door. Vale unpaused the game was continued to play. "Oh, and another thing." Lyn said, recalling something.

"What?" Vale said, a little aggrivated that he had to pause the game again.

"You may want to go down to the mobile suit hangar anyway. Ellis and Calvez are there right now helping Merlin with inventory. I don't think they're being that helpful." Lyn gave a smug grin, before the door closed.

"Ah, Verdammin sie holle..." Vale grumbled as he turned off the PS3K, just after he saved fortunately.

As Lynsie predicted, the blonde GINN pilot was indeed in the middle of a 'brawl' with her ex-OMNI comrade in arms. Calvez barely squinted, just as the toe of Ellis' boot swung up and hit him square in the chin, forcing him to stagger backwards, shouting curse words loudly.

"You've done enough complaining for one day! Just zip it, alright?" Ellis commanded loudly to her victim.

"You didn't have to kick me over it!" Calvez shouted back, furious.

"Would both of you please stop? You're going to give me a migraine eventually," the fellow sitting at a table in the middle of the hangar begged.

"Don't listen to him, Merl', he's just a bad shot. I honestly don't see how OMNI ever saw this guy as an asset. You might as well have just been cannon fodder," Ellis said, folding her arms.

"I could say the same for you and ZAFT!" Calvez instantly replied.

"I don't care who's side you're on or who did what, I'm not going to order or replace anything," Merlinus, the resident "merchant" of Altair said after a sigh. He was a fellow of average build and was in his mid-fifties. He had lost much of his hair and had a reflective bald spot on top of his head while a half-circle of blue hair was neatly put into a ponytail in back. He also had a small, curly mustache and a slightly large nose, which took attention away from his green eyes. His typical attire was simply a blue trenchcoat and brown boots. He had set up shop in the hangar in order to perform inventory on what the vultures had brought in. The repair crews were long since finished on the mobile suit repairs, so the hangar was empty except for Merlinus and the few pilots.

"Come on, Merl', just consider it before we get to the drop-off, alright? I'm sure there will be plenty of stock for you to have a look at and decide on something cheap, yet effective," Calvez asked, smiling sincerely, "That's why you're called Merlin, right? You can perform all sorts of magic tricks to find what you're looking for."

"'No' means 'no', Mister Menaba," Merlinus replied sternly, pointing the butt of his pen straight into Calvez's face. "It'll be recharged and you'll live with it."

"Ha! See?" Ellis said, smirking.

"Don't mistake me, Miss Tarat, it's not due to his skill, it's due to the fact that it's a waste of money," Merlinus corrected.

"Oh, well, whatever," Ellis said, rolling her eyes.

"Hey, guys, you have got to check this haul out. There is some really neat shit in here," Martin shouted from the far side of the hangar, where several of the Red Rose's stolen cargo was.

"Yeah, it's real...fantastic," Vale added with the same volume, but a marked half as much enthusiasm.

"Feh, pilots, so easily fascinated," Merlinus mumbled under his breath.

"Did you say something?" Calvez asked.

"Yeah, I thought I heard something too," Ellis chimed in.

"Oh, would you people leave me in peace?" Merlinus said, about to bite their heads off.

"Merlin, you have got to find out how much this thing is worth," Martin said, walking up to Merlinus's table with a random object in hand.

"What is it?" Ellis asked, an eyebrow raised.

"That's just it!" Martin exclaimed. "I have no fucking clue!" he said in a loud whisper, in a fashion more like he was fascinated by the fact than turned off to it.

"It looks like a blender, but with an extra tube on the side there," Calvez commented. "Maybe it's juicer?"

"What kind of juicer chops up the fruit to pure shit and then dumps it in your cup?" Martin asked, rolling his eyes. "That's more like a 'pulverizer' or 'obliterator' than a 'juicer'."

"He's got a point," Ellis said, smirking.

"I don't know, maybe it just molests the fruit to death," Calvez said, shrugging.

"'The Fruit Fucker'. Brilliant!" Martin shouted, then began laughing.

"I don't know him at all, I just work with him," Vale said with a sigh as he approached the group. He was carrying a seemingly normal suitcase with more effort than it seemed one would need and dropped it on the table with a loud thump.

"What 'cha got here?" Ellis asked, instantly more interested in Vale's find.

"Would you guys stop touching everything? I need to take all this down, you know," Merlinus interjected, looking up from his clipboard.

"Take it easy, Merl', we'll put it all back," Martin said with an irritated look.

"Besides, this one is particularly odd. What is luggage doing in the cargo?" Vale pointed out.

"Luggage isn't cargo?" Calvez asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Not on a transport that's carting around stuff like those," Vale said, pointing up to the stolen Duel, Buster and Blitz Gundams.

"Unless, of course, something was in there that isn't luggage," Ellis commented, catching on to the hint.

"Exactly," Vale said, nodding as he looked at the suitcase.

All four pilots then stared at Merlinus.

"What?" Merlinus said, like he really wasn't there beforehand.

"Open it," Vale said plainly.

"Why should I do it?" Merlinus demanded to know.

"Because the lock is heavily encoded. Whip out that fancy thing you use for breaking locks," Vale said, smirking.

"Just because I know a few ways of getting our items out of their 'original packaging' doesn't mean I can do it all the time," Merlinus replied, still reading over his clipboard and comparing it to a sheet of paper on the table. "Besides, I'm busy."

"Look, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out how to work your little gadget, does it? Just tell us where it is and we'll figure it out," Ellis chimed in. "Just hand it over and we'll leave you be."

"Top shelf of the second locker from the right," Merlinus said, pointing over his shoulder with the butt of his pen. "Don't break it and leave me alone, that's all I ask."

"You're a good man, Merlin, a good man!" Martin said, patting Merlinus on the back. "I'll get it!" he shouted as he pranced off for the hatch to the locker room.

"That wasn't so hard, now was it?" Vale asked, smirking.

"Pilots, feh," Merlinus mumbled once again.

"Oh? What was that? I think I hear a little detest in one's tone for our profession around here," Calvez said sarcastically.

"I thought I heard something too there for a second. Must just be the ship's engines or something," Ellis said, rolling her eyes and smiling.

"Alright, we're in business!" Martin shouted as he ran back with a small device that looked like a graphing calculator in hand.

"Yeah! Going to go crack open a mystery prize!" Calvez said as Vale took the handle of the suitcase and put it on the floor a little ways away from Merlinus' table.

"Cal', that was so lame....I'm not even going to comment on it," Ellis said, sighing.

"Oh, but you already are! Oh-oh!" Calvez quipped.

"Oh, but I'm going to break your nose if you keep saying that. Oh-oh!" Ellis replied sarcastically.

"Both of you pipe down, I'm trying to figure this thing out," Vale said, plugging in the decoder with a small white wire to the lock on the center of the suitcase.

"What's wrong with it? Maybe me and my superb abilities as a Coordinator can assist," Martin spoke up, peeking over Vale's shoulder as Vale squatted in front of the suitcase.

"It has nothing to do with that, it's just...I have no idea what this thing says. It's all a bunch of random gibberish, like someone mashed their keyboard a couple of times," Vale said, scratching his head. "Which isn't surprising, considering the level most people type at these days," he added with a note of cynicism.

"Call the tech-head, he's bound to know something," Ellis said, poking Martin in the shoulder.

"Who? Adlai?" Martin replied.

"Yeah, whoever, just call him in here," Ellis said, staring over Vale's shoulder in Martin's place as Vale pecked random keys on the device.

"Well, alright," Martin said, then hurried off out of the hangar.

"Why so determined just to open one suitcase?" Calvez just had to ask.

"If you found a treasure chest at the bottom of the ocean, wouldn't you want to see what's inside?" Vale asked simply.

Martin was gone for a good ten minutes, which gave enough time for Calvez to go take a leak while Vale and Ellis remained in the hangar. While Ellis went back to harrassing Merlinus, Vale took a long look up at the stolen mobile suits.

"That reminds me, Merlin, you have to look into getting me a new fighter," Vale suddenly announced as he stepped towards Merlinus again.

"I can look into, but I can't guarantee you anything," Merlinus replied, stopping whatever idle banter he and Ellis had going. "Besides, more than likely the captain is going to stick you with 'big guns' over there seeing as the Cosmograsper was turned into scrap last battle. But then again, there's no 'official' word yet on what he's going to do, so you might get lucky."

Vale kept quiet and simply thinned his eyes as he looked up at the Buster, forming into a distasteful glare. Despite what Garbin told him about the Buster Gundam's high powered verniers and what not, he still didn't like the idea of using a machine that didn't fit his style. Sure, the Buster Gundam worked for ZAFT, and this one could fly on its own, but... It just didn't have the same feeling that an airplane had. But, he kept it all in the back of his head, being thankful Fargus didn't just kick him off for losing his fighter.

"What about Duel and Blitz?" Ellis asked, looking up at the two other Gundams that stood at either side of the Buster Gundam, looking like three pissed off triplet giants in samurai armor rather than just mobile suits.

"I'm certain the captain will stick Mayer with Duel seeing as he proved he's competent with it. As for the third one, it's probably as good as sold, but like Merlin just said, there's no official word yet," Vale explained.

"I could pilot it," Ellis said, shrugging.

"So could Martin or any of the others. Fact is, it's just too tough of a call to make, so we'll probably see it gone sooner or later," Vale replied.

"What a waste. It's such an interesting design," Ellis said, sighing as she looked up at Blitz, the third in line of it, Duel, and Buster.

"Nobody can learn to share, so they're just going to get rid of it?" Adlai asked as he and Martin stepped into the hangar.

"Yep, that's how we run things around here, newbie, just like in first grade," Vale replied, smirking.

"Strange," Adlai replied as he approached the others. "So what's the problem?"

"We're having communication problems. Obviously a calculator is smarter than all of us combined," Ellis explained sarcastically.

"That 'blender', which is actually a fluid pump, is smarter than all of them combined," Merlinus joked to himself.

"I heard that." Vale thinned his eyes, making Merlin jump back.

Adlai approached the suitcase on the floor and took the decoder in hand. He tapped a few buttons and then began to chuckle to himself. "Guys, this is an easy one. It's in 'leet'."

While Calvez, Martin, and Ellis gave him a funny look, Vale simply sighed. "I figured as much. Merlin, you always were too weird for your own good."

"Weird, but effective!" Merlinus replied, laughing.

"You know, where the numerical four is for 'A' and a pipe, underscore, and another pipe are 'U' and....well, nevermind, this is an easy one. Just a second," Adlai began to explain, but decided against it and simply began decoding.

"What's 'leet'?" Calvez just had to know.

"I'll explain it to you when you're older," Adlai said, smirking.

Vale began laughing. "Hey, nice one. I'm liking this guy already."

"That one sucked! What are you talking about?" Calvez said, rolling his eyes.

"Any insult against you is a good one, Cal'," Ellis pointed out, smiling.

Martin and Vale snickered.

"And now, the infamous words: 'open sesame', bitch," Adlai said, tapping one final key before stepping back with the others.

Suddenly, there was a metallic clank and a loud hiss. The lock unhinged and the side of the suitcase facing the small crowd of crew members began to open slightly. It continued to open on its own, releasing cold vapor outward until a light fog of it was at their feet. The lid opened fully, revealing a human form within the case accompanied by two cylinders of liquid nitrogen and a small electronic panel displaying various numbers. The human was bunched up in a tight fit and looked no older than a few years old.

Next, the resident of the container reached up and slowly unbunched itself from the position it was in. Slowly, but awkwardly, it got to its feet and emerged from the friggid fog. There, standing in the suitcase now, was the figure of a young human female. She didn't look much older than six or seven and had long, white hair past her shoulders and pale skin; but the most peculiar part about her were her wide, empty black eyes. She looked up at the small crowd gathered around her and simply stared at each of them, paralyzed and unable to speak.

The crowd was equally shocked, staring in reply.

The girl began to move her lips and produced a whisper. Nobody could tell what she said, but she tried again and managed to say, "Hello?"

The others kept staring. Calvez scratched his head. Adlai raised an eyebrow. Ellis cocked her head to the side. Merlinus', who had been peeking over everyone's shoulders, eyes widened.

"Where am I?" she said in a distant tone.

Suddenly Ellis shook her head around, snapping out of the trance. "Hey! You all pedophiles or something? Stop staring!"

The others suddenly broke out of the stare and began looking in random directions.

"You come with me, alright? I'll take care of you," Ellis said, grabbing the girl's hand and leading her away. The pair then hurried out of the hangar, leaving everyone else rather speechless.

Everyone stood around, speechless.

"Was that a naked little girl that just came out of that case, or was I hallucinating?" Calvez finally asked, breaking the silence.

"We must have all been hallucinating then," Martin replied, scratching his butt.

"Judging by the case, I wouldn't doubt that this was some sort of...cryogenic hibernation?" Adlai said, kneeling in front of the case and looking at it.

"How can you tell that?" Calvez asked.

"Well, the bottle over here that says 'Liquid Nitrogen' on it was my first clue," Adlai replied sarcastically while pointing to a bottle within the case on the right side. "Plus my sunglasses here just fogged up from the steam coming out of it," he added, taking off his glasses and wiping them on his shirt.

"A cryogenic suitcase? What the fuck?" Vale said, baffled beyond belief as he looked over Adlai's shoulder.

Adlai just shrugged and shut the case. "Your guess is as good as mine. And more importantly, why was your buddy 'Kenny' carting her around?"

Vale looked at the others; Calvez pretended not to listen, Martin shrugged, and Merlinus was still staring at the door.

"A naked child among the crew? This will cause some problems," Merlinus said to himself.

"Shouldn't someone tell the captain what we found?" Martin asked.

"I'm not going it," Vale said, holding his hands behind his head.

"Seeing as I'm new, I'd rather not either," Adlai chimed in putting his sunglasses back on, pads at the end of his nose.

"Don't look at me," Calvez said, giving Martin an intimidating look.

"I'm too busy down here," Merlinus said, holding up and shaking his clipboard.

They all paused for a moment.

"Eh, we'll let Ellis do it," Martin finally said, shrugging and smiling.

"Works for me," Calvez said, then began to walk off.

"Whatever," Vale said and went on his way.

"Yeah, what they said," Adlai said, then headed for the door.

"Moron pilots," Merlinus said to himself as he sat back in his seat, ready to hit the inventory again.

"So what's your name?" Ellis asked the young girl as they sat in her room, Ellis on the floor and the girl on her bed. She gave the girl one of her old shirts that said "I love PLANT" with the word "love" replaced with a heart on the front. It was rather large on her and hung below her knees with the sleeves all the way to her elbows. Both of them had a mug of thai tea, Ellis' favorite drink in the world.

"My name is....is...." the girl said, staring into her cup. She was obviously struggling to remember.

"It's okay, take your time," Ellis said reassuringly.

"K-...Kanna. Yes, that's my name," the girl said, staring at her teacup without so much as blinking her eyes.

"Kanna, huh? What a nice name," Ellis said with a smile. "Mine's Ellis, by the way."

"Ellis...that's a nice name too," Kanna said, nodding a little.

"Can you remember anything else? Like where you came from or your parents or anything at all?" Ellis asked, taking a sip of her tea.

Kanna shook her head sadly. "No, I can't remember anything but my name," she said, her voice was without any real feeling or emotion, but one could tell she was sad.

"Hmm," Ellis said, then leaned back against the bed opposite to her's. "Well, do you know why you were in that suitcase?"

Kanna shook her head again.

"Do you know Kenneth Spade or why you were on his ship?" Ellis asked.

Kanna shook her head, then covered her face, about to cry.

"Don't cry, Kanna, it's okay, really. I don't mean to pry, I'm just trying to help jog your memory," Ellis said, suddenly sitting up with a worried look.

"It's okay, Ellis, it's not you. I just keep feeling like it's so obvious, but my mind just can't remember no matter how much I try to," Kanna said, then her sobs began to mutter softly.

Ellis sighed, then set her mug aside. "Well, don't worry, okay?" she said, then reached up and hugged Kanna's waist. "I'll take good care of you while you're here, okay? You can take as much time as you need to remember."

Kanna smiled a little. "Thank you," she replied, hugging Ellis' head with her free hand, the mug in the other.

"Now, is there anything you need to be comfortable? Do you want to go for a walk to stretch out some or something else?" Ellis asked as she let off the hug and sat back down on the floor.

"Well," Kanna began to say before taking a sip of her tea. "This is really good. I like it a lot." she said in the monotone.

"I know, it's my favorite drink," Ellis replied with a smile, taking a sip as well.

"I just want to sit down for a while, it helps me think," Kanna said, sighing. "Could I also have a blanket? It was really cold in that case and this whole ship is a bit cold as well."

"Oh, sure! Just a minute," Ellis replied, then got up and got an extra blanket from under one of the other beds. She came back and laid it in Kanna's lap. "Yeah, I have to admit that Lyn keeps this joint rather cold for some reason. It's quite, as Martin says, 'nippley'," she said, rolling her eyes.

"What's 'nippley'?" Kanna asked, curious.

"Oh, nothing, nothing," Ellis said with a laugh. "It's something for when you're older and have a pair of these," she said with a wink, putting her hands under her own breasts.

"If you say so," Kanna replied, still a little confused as she took another sip of her tea.

"Need anything else?" Ellis asked, picking up her own mug of tea.

"No, I'll be fine. I just want to be alone for a while," Kanna requested.

"Okay, I have a few things to do myself. You can sit in here, but I warn not to go around the ship unless I'm with you, okay? Stay right here until I get back, I'll be sure to check in when I can," Ellis explained, heading for the door.

"Okay," Kanna said with a nod.

"See 'ya later then," Ellis said over her shoulder as she stepped out the door.

"Bye," Kanna replied.

Ellis then took one last look at her and left.

Kanna was now alone. She stared at her mug again and took another sip. "What am I going to do?" she whispered to herself, about to tear up again. "Just who am I? No, what am I....?"

TO BE CONTINUED...