[Urgent Thread] A Lurking Threat (Vultures/MS Hunters)

After Insurrection War, 0025
PLANT Colony Vestaga
Seventh Day of the First Calendar Month

Not long ago, an emergency notice was posted on the Hunter’s Den board, a request from PLANT Colony Vestaga. Little was posted other than it being a request for defensive aid, paid for in credits on completion. Perhaps expecting to arrive to an ongoing battle, or a siege of some sort, the first picture was something far from the expectation.

A Distress signal rang out from the PLANT Colony located near the center of the Jovian Sphere. It was broadcast on an open channel, Vultures and MS Hunters alike would grab notice of its constant pinging, and should they be so inclined to investigate, only god knows what would be awaiting them. To their knowledge, the colony had been functioning normally up until the notice came up, yet should they dare approach the container of civilization, they would see that all was quiet. The light within the PLANT appeared dim, giving off an almost ominous atmosphere to the entire place.

Just what exactly had happened here?

“Is… an… we…. attack…”

A male voice could be heard through the static. It was a message on repeat, a broken and fractured audio recording that accompanied the constant pinging.

Aside from the colony, no detectable presences appeared on the radar, which raised one’s curiosity even more. Had they been too late? Was there even any reason to risk venturing to the Colony? What would one get out of it?

It was then that a red beam of energy shot out from within the colony itself, followed by the brief ejection of debris, before the colony’s self-sealing procedure took place. Glimmers of light flickered in the distance of what was ejected, namely one beam rifle. Perhaps fighting was still going on?

The only way to find out would be to enter and see for themselves.

After Insurrection War, 0025
PLANT Colony Vestaga
Seventh Day of the First Calendar Month
10 Minutes Later

The bridge of the Izumo-class battleship was engulfed in a flurry of activity, klaxons ringing as the ship prepared for the possibility of battle even in a place that most of its crew would consider as their own territory.

"Maintain heading and maximum speed!" A silver-haired woman yelled as she leaned forwards on her chair, looking straight at the colony getting larger on the viewport as they approached.

"Status on comms?!"

"Still no response, ma'am!" The crewman answered, panicked about the fact.

The woman on the chair grimaced, head bowed and gritting her teeth as she thought furiously.

Her silence slowly made the others go silent too. It was clear that the thought of one of the PLANTs getting attacked was something the bridge crew never thought of.

Finally, Monica Schrade looked up.

"Pilots?" She asked, voice steely as she returned her gaze forwards.

"T-They're ready, Captain." Came the nervous reply.

"Good. Send them in first, but we're following not far behind."

Her eyebrow rose at the sight of the people staring at her.

"Well? Get to it!"

They immediately scrambled to action. Only a rare few noticing the small pleased grin briefly appearing on their usually carefree and sarcastic Captain's face.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

It was no less busy down the hangar but the two pilots of the small operation weren't feeling any of it. Their mobile suits were already prepped and all they were waiting for was--

"Opening catapult gate!" Came the operator's voice and both pilots perked up inside their respective mobile suits.

Liza Castor's eyes sharpened. It was almost second nature for her to feel the Hekija come to life, hands immediately on the controls as she saw the circular gate in front of their ship open up.

"Tigris-1 clear to launch!"

"You remember the plan, right?" Her partner asked. She need not look to know that his machine was already prepared to be launched right after hers.

"Of course." She murmured back, then louder she announced; "Liza Castor, Hekija. Launching!"

The bronze and green colored mobile suit hurtled forwards the catapult ramp and out to the space between the ship and the PLANT ahead, bayonet rifle lowered but ready to snap up should an enemy shows itself.

"Tigris-1 is clear! Tigris-2 clear to launch!"

"Aye aye ..." Liza's partner murmured in response. He looked less stoic than his partner Tigris-1 as his Hizack's eye glowed in preparation.

"Ren Urza, Hizack. Launching!"

The monoeyed suit was launched but it didn't race towards the Hekija. Instead, it kept a reasonable distance between the Hekija and the ship, the stocky MS raising its sniper beam launcher and already scanning for targets.

“Vincent, we have some new arrivals. Their IDs are tagged as MS Hunters. Two mobile suits.”

“So the bait we laid out worked, eh?”

“It seems so.”

“How much more is left to sweep?”

“Shouldn’t take more than thirty minutes.”

“Have we found what we’re looking for?”

“Not yet.”

“And the citizens?”

“Still within the shelters, they seem to be under control.”

“Good, good. Once our men are done sweeping, have them return to the Dominator. And make sure the fireworks are prepped.”

“And you?”

“I shall buy time. It has been awhile since I’ve been able to enjoy the excitement of battle.”

“Just don’t get yourself killed.”

____

Perhaps their cautious approach would be rewarded, as not even five minutes after the two sortied, they would be greeted with a thick red and black beam that lanced out across the emptiness of space, lined up as to strike both the Hekija and the Hizack. As the particles from the beam began to dissipate and subside, appearing on the twos’ radar would be a single IFF marker, a singular mobile suit.


Was all that it read. An unknown mobile suit, though a potentially dangerous one, given the energy beam from before. Visually, it was a tall, yet slender red mobile suit. Red, dust-like particles continually emanated from the rear of the suit, as it floated menacingly in space. Affixed on its right shoulder was a fairly large cannon-like weapon, and on its left shoulder was a wing-oriented set of long, angular parts. In its right hand, a long, thick sword was brandished.

“I am honored you accepted our call for ‘aid’, MS Hunters.”

A male voice came up on their radio, a deep and thick slavic accent prevalent on every word.

“This show would be boring without an audience, you see.”

He gave a slight chuckle.

“And what’s better than audience participants?”

With those words he raised up the sword, which segmented down the middle, revealing an opening within the middle of the blade. Red energy began forming at the tip, before lancing out several thin beams at the Hekija.

Both the Hizack and the Hekija split apart from each other as the beam passed them, the nanolaminated MS probably didn't need to dodge the massive beam attack but it was an ingrained reaction born from caution. On the other hand, Ren quickly glimpsed the path of the beam just to make sure that it didn't hit their ship, even as unlikely as that idea seems.

After he did so, he quickly arrested the movement of the Hizack, already raising the beam sniper rifle it carried to snap a sh--

"What?"

The IFF came in and the young pilot was perplexed at what he read.

And then the mysterious suit's pilot spoke and ... greeted them. There was a confidence, an arrogance even, to his tone that didn't settle right with Ren. Men who speak like that tend to back up their words with deadly action and he already surmised that this old man in the mysterious particle-based suit was of the same ilk.

"Ren." Liza asked as the man finished speaking and started acting. Ren already had sights on the menacing suit as it started the attack on the closest target, the Hekija.

"I know."

And with that, they started to move as well.

The thrusters on the Hekija flared as she bursts forward, going straight for the thin beams, seemingly confident in her nanolaminate armor.

And then the Hizack attacked, a single but powerful beam was fired at the GN suit and the Hekija abruptly changed pattern, going under the beams as Liza raised her bayonet rifle and fired salvo after salvo at the GN suit from her new angle.

“Then let us dance.”

His voice was oddly soothing yet one that sent shivers down your spine with every single word he spoke. Perhaps a bizarre feeling to most, as if your father was the godfather of a mafia or some sort.

The GN mech greeted their charge in kind, quickly moving in to face the Hekija in melee. As the beams from the GN Buster Sword refracted and diffused off the armor of the machine, the revelation fell upon him as he remarked.

“Ah, Nanolaminate. In which case…”

The machine spiraled and barrel rolled, evading the incoming fire with a precision grace, a blessing of the GN verniers that comprised the propulsion of the machine. In close to the Hekija, would the Hizack risk shooting? The two seemed close, which made him wonder how the sniper would react. He held the Buster Sword up and brought it down diagonally on the Hekija. It was the one weapon in his arsenal that could deal with the Nanolaminate, which also made it by far the deadliest thing in his arsenal for the machine.

“Tell me, do you fear for your life when fighting?”

Whether the blade struck or not, he was in close enough proximity to speak directly to Liza. The red machine towered over Liza’s, standing eight meters taller than she. The presence of the suit combined with the voice made her feel small, as if but a baby minnow facing a great white shark. He kept the Hekija between him and the Hizack, while keeping pressure on the machine he was in melee with, attempting to keep her from moving around him.

As the taller machine got close, Liza buckled up in her seat and smiled briefly. It was a smile full of teeth, a showing of mirth for something that most people wouldn't consider ... fun. It was glee, something usually not seen from her usually stoic face, gone as abruptly as it had arrived.

Because despite the challenge he posed, this one is still dangerous enough for the both of them.

However, to answer said man's question ...

"I do not."

She deftly dodged the massive blade, closely dodging the huge weapon with a grace made possible by years of piloting with the AV system hooked to her spine. Liza repositioned herself to the winged side of the particle-based machine, firing her rifle wildly as she did so. Then, close as they are and with her on his flank, the rifle was raised and the wicked bayonet underslung on the ranged weapon was suddenly put to use as the Hekija all but slammed the pointed end towards the machine's side.

The Hekija wasn't the only thing that he should be worried about, though.

For as the Hekija attacked one sided of the machine in close-quarters combat, the other side was already targeted by Ren in the Hizack.

"Don't forget about me, bastard~" He murmured in a sing-song manner as a bright pink beam lanced towards their enemy, trusting his skill, his instincts, and the resistance of the nanolaminate armor to beams.

Upon hearing the girl’s reply, the man in the machine did little more than laugh at her statement. Perhaps he could imagine in his mind the kind of face she was making right now, and the vigorous movement she made with her mobile suit, it all was wrapped up in a nicely-tied package that ignited a spark within the man himself.

Excitement.

GN particles began accumulating around the red machine, the surrounding area coated in an almost red mist-like effect. He followed the movement of the machine to its side, the shots from the gun certainly striking the machine, though at a seemingly diminished effect. He took no efforts to avoid the shots, simply letting them hit him, though as the bayonet came in to strike him, he raised the GN Buster Sword to block it.

“Perhaps we are alike, you and I.”

He spoke once more to the girl.

“We do not fear for our lives when fighting, rather we revel in combat and are instead filled with excitement as we trade blows with our enemies.”

The incoming fire from the Hizack too would be met with resistance, as the particles that had filled the area actively worked to gradually dissipate the beam before it had the chance to strike the machine.

“--It’s rude to interrupt others when they are talking.”

He turned his head to the sniper unit and tapped several buttons in succession in the cockpit. The winged section of the machine’s left shoulder disengaged and segmented itself from the red machine, the now-revealed-to-be six large GN bits closing in on the Hizack. Once in range they would begin circling and maneuvering around the machine, each bit firing in succession at the green mobile suit.

“Vincent.”

“Now, where was I? Ah yes…”

He turned his attention back to Liza and the Hekija, continuing from before.

“An orphan perhaps… No, a child soldier. Your self-taught fighting style shows in your straightforward and… brutally efficient tactics.”

He had met many a kind like her before, and they were some of his favorite people to meet. Their simple mindset was simple to relate to, and their personality only helped build rapport between him and them.

“So let me ask you this, then. What do you seek in life? For what reason do you fight?”

“Vincent.”

The two mechs were equally matched in strength, bayonet clashing against sword, and such a position was little more than a stalemate between the two. However, he was in no rush to finish this fight nor kill his opponent.

"Fuck."

Ren cursed through gritted teeth as he fired a single yet very precise shot at one of the GN bits, its atypically large size making it an easy target for the sniper and then the remote weapons were upon him, firing from all angles as the Hizack scrambled around, Ren pushing the machine to its limits as he dodged and banked and jerked around to avoid the beams striking at him.

He was clearly losing against the onslaught, but not as fast as someone in his machine should be. A beam suddenly scored a hit, shearing the monoeyed suit's left foreleg.

"Won't be that easy!" He shouted, pulling a machinegun from his back and flipping the machine around in even more difficult angles, his eyes widening in focus as the thruster bells on the Hizack activated one after the other. As he spun and moved around erratically the machine gun's rounds started hitting where the GN bits should be.

Eventually, he stowed the sniper completely and pulled a beam saber. Judging the melee weapon a far more useful tool in engaging the GN bits.

"Ren!"

Liza shouted in worry, but then she focused her attention to the suit in front of her and their deadlock. She heard his words and her anger grew. In any other time, she would be glad to indulge him, to talk to him as she dismantled his unit with her Hekija, but his casual disregard for Ren's presence in the battlefield is making her more angry than she thought.

The Hekija's right leg abruptly came streaking towards the enemy, kicking on the side of the torso with brutal quickness even as she made sure that the humongous blade was kept in check with her bayonetted rifle.

"I fight to live."

The Hekija backed just a tad, quickly backing away from the deadlock and then the machine took its modified Tobiguchi blade out, the telltale orange glow of a heat blade clear on its edge as Liza slammed it to the opposite side from where she kicked.

"And I live for him!"

The kick came in and struck the machine’s side, pushing him in one direction while the heat blade came in the other. The red machine held up its free arm and blocked the blade directly, the edge finding purchase embedding itself in the arm, yet failing to cut through entirely.

“Vincent!”

“To fight for another. A noble cause. Is it out of respect? A debt? Or perhaps, love?”

He gave another chuckle, and with the two locked once again in melee, the red machine reeled its sword arm back and thrust forward directly into the Hekija’s shoulder.

“The human mind is quite the interesting subject, truly.”

He then kicked the Hekija backward, breaking off from melee and pulling the sword back out to reset his positioning.

“Hey, Vincent!”

The voice that had been calling out to him multiple times now finally seemed to have had enough and shouted through the comms. It was a feminine voice that now had quite the angry tone to it.

“We found what we were looking for. The men are pulling out now.”

“Ah, wonderful.”

“You need to refocus yourself. Quit getting caught up in your little squabbles.”

“I apologize, I apologize, I was simply enjoying myself.”

The GN Bits disengaged from the Hizack, returning and rebinding themselves to the red machine’s left shoulder, while the machine itself began moving backward towards the PLANT colony.

“Is everything ready?”

“Yes.”

“Magnificent.”

The machine looked towards the two machines he had been facing off moments before.

“It is quite thrilling, isn’t it? To hold another’s life in your hand. With but a mere pull of the trigger, with a single command, you have the power to end one’s life, or perhaps, save one’s life.”

The machine had disengaged its weapons, and furthermore gestured to Liza and Ren to follow him. Any hostility present before was gone, and he seemed intent on not fighting anymore.

“Power is quite the interesting thing, isn’t it? It is such a versatile thing that can be used in any situation, to bring about an infinite amount of outcomes. The man who pioneered space travel used his power to bring about the possibilities of space. Likewise, the Praetorians were the result of one man’s power.”

“Hey, Vincent…”

The feminine voice once again came to interject, now more exhausted than angry.

“The Praetorians. Ruthless machines designed to slaughter mankind with most brutal efficiency… What do you think their creator was thinking when he designed them? Was it to deliver a message? Perhaps some twisted revenge? Or maybe he simply took pleasure in the idea of sending mankind off to a complete and utter genocide?”

He gave a subtle chuckle.

“I asked your friend earlier, but her response was simple enough, so I’ll ask you, Mr. Sniper, if you possessed the power to do whatever you wanted, what would you use that power for?”

He now posed a question to Ren, curiously awaiting his reply.

Liza's eyes widened as the heat blade was blocked almost contemptuously by the bigger red machine and then she was reeling as it kicked the Hekija with far more strength than what her ahab powered machine was able to produce.

Still, she was undaunted. The Hekija stormed back into the melee once more, exchanging blows with the bigger blade with her faster yet amazingly durable tobiguchi blade and fighting fiercely, but the GN machine still came out on top jarring Liza as she barely parried the sudden thrust towards her shoulder, grunting as the Hekija was pushed back from the force of the attack.

Ren was panting, the dizzying and exhausting maneuvers he pulled just to stay alive in-between the deadly GN bits was taxing. He barely hit any of the Bits as well, and the few shots that did land only dented the remote weapons at most. It was more than a bit frustrating, really. Intimidating, too, if he was being honest.

Then the GN bits suddenly withdrew, returning to their main unit who was suddenly not fighting now.

Ren really didn't care much about the abrupt halt of hostilities, but it was the fact that Liza has stopped fighting that worried him. He has never seen her hesitant in battle, except perhaps this time.

This was a first.

Grimacing, he instead turned his attention to the question of the bastard in the enemy suit,

"Nothing." He spat decisively, then he closed his eyes and calmed himself. "I'm a very simple man, sorry to say. My dream is a working man's dream. That of family and a simple, quiet life."

“A simple man with humble desires, a respectable goal.”

He spoke truthfully.

“And if one threatened your quiet life, you would do whatever it’d take to protect it, no? Of course you would, your actions here today prove that justly. As I sought to take your lives moments ago, you stood up and fought back with all your might, a respectable decision.”

He praised the two for their efforts.

“Though if you desire a simple life, surely there are ‘safer’ alternatives to achieve what you desire, no? You could settle down on a farm, raise crops and live a peaceful life. There is no reason for you to so brazenly risk your life every day as a MS Hunter.”

The mech then turned to the now-still Hekija.

“Or perhaps you do it for her sake. The child soldier who knows little more than the battlefield. In the midst of combat, she thrives; war is part of her existence. For her sake, you take up arms and defend her with your life.”

In his cockpit, he clapped his hands.

“Admirable, truly admirable. To live, fight, and die for each other’s sake, you two are quite the pairing.”

“Vincent, how long are you going to be chatting? Everyone is itching to leave.”

Now irritated again, the female voice spoke on the comms once more.

“Of course, of course, Yeun.”

If but for that one line, its tone was softer and milder than his prior speaking.

“I-I told you not to call me that…”

The man chuckled once more and reverted his attention to the two pilots.

“I mentioned before, with sufficient power, you could command the lives of people before you. You could use your power to kill, or to save…”

By this point, they had come close enough to the colony to where it’s size was fully realized. The red machine held out the GN Buster Sword to its side, the bottom half sliding down and firing out a thin, precise lance of energy towards the central hub of the colony.

There was a long moment of silence, before vibrations began reverberating though space, and finally, explosions began erupting out from the hub, a chain reaction of explosives planted within detonating and shattering the center.

Through the comms, Ren and Liza could hear the pilot of the red machine take in a deep breath, and exhale slowly.


The chain of explosions continued, spreading through the hub, and finally to the tips of the two cones consisting of the PLANT Colony. The central shaft and supporting cables began to break and shatter, the two halves of the colony splitting from the center and separating ever-so slowly.

“Though I say, their lives aren’t in danger, yet. Before we had moved everyone into the shelters, so perhaps they are still living yet. But who knows how long they will last?”

Despite all that was happening, the man remained calm, his voice stayed relaxed.

“So, Mr. Slow-life, I ask you. Will you risk the lives of yourself and your partners to save who you can from the colony? Or shall you turn a blind eye to the happenings here today, forsake them all for you and your partners' safety? Hope that someone else will come to the rescue?”

He asked with a grin on his face.

“Though should you desire to save them, how will you decide who to save? A hundred thousand is quite the number, and the warship you brought with you today doubtfully has enough space to fit them all. Will you save some and forsake the rest? Only you may decide, and quickly you should, for time is running out.”

The boosters attached to the machine’s hips angled themselves forward and blasted out a gust of red particles, sending the red machine back and up over the colony at high speed.

“With this conundrum, I shall say my farewells. I look forward to reading about your heroic deed… or not.”

With a final, large blast of GN particles, the machine vanished from radar and took off into the darkness of space.

Ren could only watch in horror as the colony started to break apart, the utter silence of space only magnifying the dread that was violently blossoming in his gut. That bastard in the red GN machine was intimidating when they fought him, but now he could only feel fear. It was one thing to face a violent psychopath in combat, he and Liza have faced a good number of them in the past ... but a genocidal one?

It was new.

It was nothing short of terrifying.

"--n! Ren! Ren please respond!"

He dimly realized that Liza was talking to him over the comms. He startled, as if he was breaching the surface from being submerged in water, shivering from ... fear? Anger? Whatever it is, the thought of that bastard was causing him to shiver.

"I-I'm here Liza."

Ren opened another comm line.

"Monica what ... what are we going to do?" He asked, voice dripping with exhaustion and dread.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

As soon as she saw the explosions, Monica had ordered the ship forward, a wise move considering the ashen faces of the crew around her. She was troubled as face but she maintained a poker face as the ship accelerated. A Captain should not show weakness. She should be the rock that the rest of her crew could take heart in, a leader who they would follow by example.

"Liza, Ren."

The entire bridge quietened. Monica took a fortifying breath.

"Separate. I want each of you on one side. Be vigilant, we don't know if that bastard left a trap." She spoke in an even tone, her nervousness well hidden.

Then she turned to the bridge, each crewmember straightening their backs once her focused gaze focused on them.

"Bring up any schematics of that colony we have on database or anything close to it. And helm? Full speed ahead, push the ship to its limits I don't care."

A chorus of ayes and affirmatives rang out over the bridge.

"Aye aye, boss." Ren replied, a determined tone seeping into his voice.

"Understood." Liza intoned, growling.

Monica breathed out.

"We have to see this through."

As the two in their mobile suits went their own ways to check each end of the Colony, sure enough as they arrived, they would see from the outside labelings on the metal marking where the shelters were. There were scant any traps along the way, though one trouble came to surface as they arrived. There were at least fifty marked shelters on each end, with each shelter capable of being separated from the colony itself.

It was both a breath of relief that they seemed savable, but the real problem was figuring out which ones had people in them, and which didn’t. A full PLANT could hold roughly 300,000 people, though from Vincent’s words earlier it seemed like this colony only had around 100,000 people. This difference in numbers would lead to the largest question.

Which shelters had people in them and which didn’t?

Or perhaps they all did?

The numbers were spread out, and likely far from evenly spread out, mind you. Would they check all fifty for survivors?

According to the blueprints they pulled up on the ship’s database, it seemed like shelters 1 through 30 were mostly focused around the inner area of the PLANT, and 31 through 50 more spread out on the outer rim of the PLANT. With normal logic, the majority of people would be in the first thirty, and fewer on the outer edges. Though they could’ve shuffled the citizens to the first thirty, or perhaps as a dirty trick, moved everyone to the outer 20. There was likely a connector port somewhere on the flat of the cone that they could connect to to communicate with the shelters, which may aid them in that regard.

Then the issue of sheer numbers that still remained a problem, as a singular Izumo-class ship was far enough from transporting 100,000 people. The shelters could be jettisoned and function as shuttles, though guarding a fleet of one hundred of them was a logistical nightmare in itself.

Would they check all fifty? Or would they only check some? They needed to decide quickly, as with every moment that passed, the two halves of the colony split further and further from each other.

A fist all but slammed into the comms button.

"Monica I need your best people to calculate the fucking explosion!" Ren screamed. His mobile suit straining as it rushed forward, uncomfortable sounds of steel grinding and tensing echoing inside the cockpit.

The shelters loomed ahead, massive and daunting. He despaired as the sight of them confirmed his worst fears; they were way too massive for the Izumo-class to catch or manage safely.

But that was why he asked Monica and her people for calculations.

"Monica!"

"Shut it!" The captain of the ship screamed in reply, frazzled from what he could hear.

A distant yet urgent "Ma'am!" was heard. Ren finally realized that he contacted her private comms and not the bridge's after hearing that.

"We have it now, Ren!" She said to the comm, and then louder; "Transmit it to both pilots!"

His eyes read the transmitted information as fast as he could before he looked up as he neared. With one pull of a massive lever, the first shelter was released from the exploding colony.

He quickly pushed the colony as gently as he could outside of the blast zone. Then without a glance, he returned to his section and doing it all over again.

Seventh.

He had just pulled and pushed the seventh shelter out of the way when fire greeted his mobile suit from the empty space the shelter was before.

"No no no no!"

Ren Urza watched with trembling, horrified eyes as the shelters started exploding.

"Ren!"

The people ...

"Ren! Come in!"

They were ... they were dying.

"Liza what's going on?!"

Screaming.

"Ren please!"

They were all screaming.

"I'm getting him, Monica! No, he comes first!"

They were all screaming and ...

... and only he could hear.

An impact jostled his machine and automatic visual showed the green and gold Hekija pushing his machine.

Sixteen shelters were saved but Liza only worries for the unresponsive pilot inside the crippled Hizack.

It was an endless barrage of wave after wave of Torment for the young Newtype, as he witnessed firsthand the atrocities of seemingly blatant terrorism. It was a scene no person should be subject to, even more so for one who was so sensitive to the pain of others. They had done well in saving the few shelters they managed to pull out safely, but those who were left in the remaining 34 would be subject to little more than a slow, yet inevitable demise. Those who survived the explosions would only be met with the cold vacuum of space, and those few pods that weren’t able to be ejected in time would have little more to do than to wait for their own death. Or finish it themselves early.

Once the explosions had settled down and ceased, The members of Tigris would be met with little more than the silent emptiness of space.

It was cold.

Lonely.

Harsh.

Reality was far from pretty, and this incident was but a reminder of the fragility of life, and perhaps the fragility of peace in the Jovian Sphere. Even though the Insurrection War had ended and the Praetorians were put mostly to sleep, there were still those out there who sought to bring harm to others, in numerous ways.

On the brightside, there were sixteen pods worth of people that were still living. Those people would be able to wake up the next day and continue their pursuit of happiness, of liberty. The trauma of today would take time to heal, but they were still alive. It was a time for them to count their blessings and stride onwards to the next day.

All said, Tigris still had a daunting task ahead of them; escorting the sixteen shuttles to the nearest colony. Ren would need to get himself back in shape or Liza would have to carry him back to the Izumo, as the sooner they got moving, the better.

“...This is Qu Xian Lang, Captain of the Musaka-class Seifnir, of the “Schwarze” MS Hunters, Izumo-class do you read me?”

A radio request and a woman’s voice came up on the Comms of the Izumo, coming from the direction opposite of the Colony.

“We came in response to a distress signal from the Vest-”

The woman went silent.

“-Christ.”

The single word was heard as she too, caught sight of the scene before them, the PLANT that was seemingly bisected and drifting apart from each other.

“...What the hell happened, explain yourselves!”

Perhaps it was rational thinking that the ones’ present at the scene of the crime were the first suspects, even if it was far from the truth.

“Vea, Gray, Nera, sortie at once, don’t open fire yet but be on your guard.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

The three were already in the cockpits of their mobile suits, as they slotted themselves into the catapults of the Musaka-class. There were only two so Nera waited behind Gray to be launched, but it wasn’t more than a couple of minutes before the three mobile suits took up positions in front of the Seifnir waiting for their commander’s order.


It was a tight situation for Tigris, but from one frying pan to another, it seemed their day was long from being over.