Chapter 4: Front 2; First Day

As Una sat awaiting what could only be an inevitable end at the convenience of the enemy machines, she thought back on just what a single day ago had been like. How very distant her last journal entry now seemed:

Once Daily Personal Audio Log - Entry No.300;
Ahem, ermm, aha, this is Una O' Conchabhair reporting, umm, oh right ya - Today was my first official day at my new posting aboard the 'Independent-Alliance-Of-Free-States Battleship Am-Fluchtig'.

Sorry if I sound stiff or something, I'd had so little to talk about in these logs recently, that now I'm struggling to remember it all, I hope no one ever listens to these, that'd be really embarrassing...

Anyway guess I should start to actually log my day now. I want to say it all went well but that would be a lie, how I wish it had. I arrived aboard a cargo transport that was bringing scheduled supplies to the ship which is heading somewhere on the far side of Abhailen space, for a meeting or something I think.
 Once I got off the shuttle was when it all started going wrong, you see there was this group of four hanging around a little ways in front of where I came in on. The Fluchtig, my new posting has these massive hanger rooms more then 20 metres tall and lined with metal walls and rivets, doors you could fit giants through ya know? - So small freighters can come right in and out to be unloaded like trams in an' out of a station back home.

Anyways, as I dismounted I didn't want to be rude but the 4 looked kind of weird, how was I meant to know any different?  They were all in miss-matched uniforms and just lounging around or leaning on crates, so I avoided looking too hard or making much eye-contact and attempted to walk right past.
 I really should of just looked, or maybe been properly polite and said 'Hello there' or 'Good evening'... Instead I did the opposite..... One of them laid a hand on my shoulder as I was passing, I tried to be, well, you know how it is in stories right?! I brushed the hand aside and said;
'"I'm a pilot" and "I don't have time for chatter with loiterers.'"
 That's when the laughing started.....

It wasn't cruel laughter, least I don't want to think it was. When I turned to face them, ready to try and give them both barrels, I-, ahhhhhhh I'm such an idiot.
 Once I actually looked at their laughing faces it came to me that I recognised two of them. Well I guess it's 'protocol' to state records of your comrades on here so I migth as well put that here.

The man who'd tapped me on the shoulder was the oldest of the 4, his name is Kolme Nilas, he's the teams XO - Err that means 'Executive Officer' - Like the second in command, though I guess anyone listening to this would also be military and already know that huh?
 I say he's oldest but it's actually kind of hard to tell, he looks old sure, greying hair, unnaturally tanned skin and stress lines all over like you wouldn't believe - But like he's still a pilot so I doubt he can be that old, and then there's his eyes....Anyway he laughed with a kind of kindness I think?
 I hope so anyway. He seems pretty nice, apparently he's been fighting since the very first day of the war, he was there on the 1st, backing up Commander Ceather's assault against the Union base to steal the new Casnels, the very thing that 'officially' started the war!

He served on the Flagship 'Tradech' too before coming here, Sabban as-well, in fact they're designated wingmen now - Which is kind of surprising, it's only been a little more then three months since the graduation ceremony.
  I guess them coming here from the Tradech was promotion or something--

Anyway after him is Miss.Scarlet. She's sort of famous - She was also the one who laughed the most...She's a middle aged woman and she's got a tone of hair to sort of match her name, thought it's closer to a deep crimson then any real 'scarlet-shade'.
 Scarlet isn't actually her name of-course, apparently she was going by the alias 'Bela Grimizan' but after that whole court martialling thing a ways back, she apparently decided to drop the fake name and now she just uses her aces title - 'Thee Scarlet Scourge'. Sounds kinda cool right?

 I was kind of intimated to know she'd be here on the same ship as me, there's all sorts of stories about her, they say she fought in the First War against the earliest Casnels and made it out alive!
 In the peace years she was said to be one of the greatest pirates of all time, constantly messing with Bhailien supply lines and they even say she was a Mech-Team Commander in the Remembrance Incident back in '18, those last two are why the TSU pilots who chased after her gave her that Aces' nickname.
 More recently there was a big controversy that got her imprisoned but before that she took out one of the brand new TSU Casnels all on her own!

So you can expect the expectations I had right? Well instead of being some legendary figure she sorta' seems...vulgar?
 I really hope she never hears this but like, sure her hairs as beautiful as they say, she's really pretty in general actually and she looks like a strong person, especially with that eye-patch of hers, a real pirate... - Maybe that's the problem actually.
 It's like she also acts like a pirate rather than as a soldier? She barely wears any of the uniform, instead she's in these plain scruffy clothes and even thought she only ranks as a Warrant Officer, she doesn't seem to take orders from anyone, or even talk to the others at all that much for that matter.
 Also she definitely was laughing at me the most.... And the hardest....

On the other hand someone who does know how to act with grace is Miss, or I should say, Ensign Hoki Bachika.
 Back at the academy she was one of our special instructors who'd handle our lessons and practical training for a couple of weeks every now and then. She's pretty famous in her own right, the daughter of thee 'Hokuai' dynasty on Bhaile - That's right - The very same family who helped form IAFS in the first place, that clan!

She inherited the family title back after her Dad was arrested for his involvement with the group's organisation but she doesn't seem to be going by it, then again she didn't back when she was an instructor either so I guess that's not that strange.
 She's actually less than 10 years older then me but you'd never know it to look at her, she's the image of a proper woman; Tall and elegant but also kind'a stern if you get my gist.
 I really admired her during training so it's an honour to get to be with her now and unlike a 'certain other ace', she lives up to her reputation way better.
 She barely laughed at me at all and it was far more lady-like to boot!

Finally there's Sabban Vint, well I say that but I'm not really sure what to call him. Ensign, Sir, Mr.Vint, orrrrr- Maybe just plain old Sabban? He's the one I really should of recognised immediately after getting off the transport, we were in the same year in the Academy, thought I took the fast track scheme so he is a little older then me - I definitely should of known it was him for sure!
 
Still it's kind of weird, once I looked properly I knew the face but even then he's changed alot. Like I'm not trying to make excuses, I know it was pretty dumb not to look first, speak second but it's like he holds himself differently.
 Like he's got the posture of an older man and the bags on his eyes don't look like they are from a lack of sleep but more so like they've got a permanent residence.
 Then there was his personality, we were in different cadets squads before but I still interacted with him a fair deal and he used to be the brotherly type - You know the sort who keep an eye out for others but equally are the one's who tease people the most and are always quickest with a joke?
 Not quite the class clown but not far off in a slightly smarter kind of way?

Well now he's like a totally different guy, he barely said a word and his laughter was more... Stilted - Like he was forcing it to blend in, it felt kind'a uncomfortable to listen to in a different way to me just being embarrassed, if you get my drift - Not that I know who 'you' are seeing as these are personal logs but anyway;
 When he did talk he seemed uninterested, like he had only come to greet me with the other's out of an obligation, also he just called me 'Rookie' so now I'm not sure what to call him back...He couldn't of forgotten my name maybe?!

Maybe he forgot me entirely and that's why?!
Uhhhhh I don't know, he just seemed weird, we both graduated at the same time but well, this is my first time being posted to a warship, while he's been out here over 3 months, a120 days!
Is that really all it takes for someone to change that much?

-Recording Suspended For 5 minutes, 22 seconds -

Sorry about that, Miss Cally just came in to pick up a file she'd left in the room.
 Oh-h maybe I should of had her introduce herself?
Well she's my bunkmate, she's a junior navigator who's handles night-shifts on the ship's-bridge.

She outranks me a bit but she seems really nice, she's always polite and not that much older then me. I haven't actually asked her age or surname yet but I think we're pretty similar, I just hope we can get along if we're going to be sharing this room for a while.

Anyway where was I? Oh right..... See it wasn't just that I walked past the members of my new team and then tried to act cool in front of them. After I realised who they were, well I tried to smooth things over...
 I started looking around for something to change the topic with and stop their laughing when I spotted a Vijaik in the opposite end of the hanger - A really old MBT 1 or 2 like the ones we used to 'ave for training in and....my mouth, it, ya know, just kinda moved on it's own.....

----

Arghhhhh!! I said something like; '"We're not meant to fight in something that old are we?'" in my best impression of a 'stoic voice' like the one I just put on - And before I knew it I'd set em all off laughing again even harder then before.
 Heck some passer-by's, engineers and mechanics or whatever, started giggling too.

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Turns out it's an old unit that's here for testing purposes and moving crates around, not fighting.
 Ya see the Fluchtig is an experimental ship with full on production facilities to create 'custom-Vijaik-Neo-Types', that means the ship has less capacity for the number of mechs it can carry, But that the one's it does are all raised in spec and stuff.
 With that spare MB-Type just their for the engineers to mess around with or move cargo about. And there I went getting all flustered like an idiot.

Well I guess it could of been worse, the only other mess up came when I asked about the team leader and I'm still not sure what I did wrong there.
 Miss.Emilia Van Suwen is listed as my new Commanding Officer. Apparently she was a TSU Special forces member but changed sides when she realised the war crimes TSU-s are committing and now she's not only in charge of the Fluchtig's Vijaik-team but she even pilots one of the new Casnels that the Tradech battle group stole - Who better to pilot it guess than its original owner I guess, right?.

Her being an ex-TSU-s member is a little off-putting but still alongside the others, having a Casnel Ace-Pilot-Boss sounds like a dream come through! - Yet when I asked where to report in to her the reaction changed.
 It was almost worse then the earlier embarrassments, Miss.Scarlet went deadly quiet and mumbled something under her breath before giving us all, atleast I don't think it was aimed at me, this death glare of pure disgust that could kill you at 10 paces, before just walking away.
 Mr.Nilas explained that Emilia is off the ship right now and that he's acting as leader in her place, which I guess I don't mind, he does seem nice after-all.

Thankfully in the end the rest of the day went a lot smoother, the ship I arrived on came in pretty late in the afternoon so it's only been a few hours. The three of them showed me around the hangers and then to my quarters, the break-room where the synthetic food machines are, with some...awkwardly long ques - And then lastly to the canteen.
 Apparently they'll show me the rest like the briefing rooms and things tomorrow. Once I got to my room I met Miss.Cally already on her way to the bridge for her shift and that was about it.

Yup that sounds about right, don't mind the rustling noise, I'm just checking back over my notes, don't want to leave anything out!
 Hmmmm-m, ya looks good! Well then this got pretty long haha, guess I better get some sleep, tomorrow there's a big shipment of supplies coming in and they said my new machine might be arriving tomorrow..........Apparently it's 'definitely not a MBT Mk2', not sure I'm gonna' live down that teasing any time soon.
 Not just that even, on the guided tour of the ship people I've never met before had started calling me 'Rookie', ughhhh what a lame-cliched nickname to get on my first day - Maybe it'll pass?
 Just newbie hazing right?

Well anyway I think that's plenty for today. This is Crewman 1st Class and Junior Pilot, Una O' Conchabhair signing off.

Recording ID; UC-PL-D300 - End.

****

Una sat quietly thinking about how pointless her worries of the prior day now seemed - As she waiting for the end to come, each second rolling endlessly into the next. On the screen before her, in what felt like some dramatic slow motion she watched as the Red-Mech closed the distance and launched it's glimmering blade inwards with an under arm thrust aimed at straight Sabban's cockpit, now only seconds from killing her ally.
 She would never know now if he did actually remember who she was;
'Thought I guess that doesn't really matter now...I-i...I'm going to die...'

She watched and waited, the blade seemed to hang in the air perfectly still.
 Though unseen she was sure a shot from the long range rifle was snaking it's way towards her too. She wondered who would go out first, wheather she would be forced to watch her school friend die before she too left.
 She wondered what Auntie would think back home when she got the news, would she open it on the porch where she always did her morning reading?
 She wondered....wondered just how slowly that blade was moving.

Una sat up straight and stared in disbelief at the main monitor, a pale translucent box had made itself known now, with simple letters written in block capitals across it;

"GROUP SIMULATION A-7 HAS CONCLUDED
PARTY A (1st LT.NILAS, ENSIGN.VINT, 1ST CREWMAN O' CONCHABHAIR) HAS ACHIEVED 95% SUCCESS LIKELYHOOD OVER PARTY B (ENSIGN.BACHIKA, WARRENT OFFICER 'SCARLET')"

It had ended.

She stared blankly, unbelievingly as the monitors all switched off one after the other but for the main one, which in turn began to display more and more information and cut from being her camera feed to a top down view of the Cyan Sniper-Vijaik - Which Una could now see from this angle had been compromised, as floating behind it was Lt.Nilas'es machine, both canon barrels aimed squarely at its back.
 A faint glow in each barrel revealing their imminent firing just seconds away.

The monitor delivered further data in a ream like fashion with graphs and crude representations of it's predictions for the following moments, showing Nilas'es Vijaik destroying the Cyan one and than using its rifle to finish off the Red machine from afar.
 The plan had in a fashion worked, Nilas had taken the long way around in order to avoid all the sensors, taking the sniper off-guard and then using its own weapon to hypothetically finish the battle.

'A-a simulation, right...right, but... but it felt so real, it looked so real... It felt real when I was going to di...to die...'
 She felt around herself as the monitor droned on in computerised text to voice messages about certain statistics and such like, with complicated performance graphs and pie charts she could barely hope to decipher at the best of times, not to mention in her current shaken state.
 She felt at the controls, still there, still real - As was her chair and the floor below and ceiling above - But the battle, that had seemed just as real, the winding to her mid-riff still so fresh in her memory, her body still shaking from the physical impact of the thing.

"Pilot Rank Statistics, Callsign Displayed;
- 'Rookie' +40, rank D-
- 'Scarlet Scourge' -75, rank C-
- 'Hoki Bachika' -125, rank C
- 'Sabban Vint' +100, rank B-
- 'Kolme Nilas' +75, rank C

A part of her did momentarily wonder as to who and when had someone changed her Vijaik's recognised name to 'Rookie', another part actually smiled a little at seeing her points increase, a further still contemplated the surprisingly low ranks of her compatriots despite their immaculate performances compared with her own - But most of all she simply sat there a-wash with relief, then immense embarrassment for somehow forgetting what was going on, and than maybe a small hint of indignation at the whole affair.

Finally and maybe most of all, Una felt very, very tired.

****

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