Episode 16

"If I remember correctly they have two installations in the X31233 area." Sheder highlighted the area on the conference room’s main screen. "Either of these facilities could be used to house prisoners."

"But the question is, would they hold Rowan in a normal facility?" Alex asked from his seat at the back of the room.

It had been a month since Sheder had told her story in his hospital room. Since then the team had split, he and Sheder had gone into research mode, while Lu, Jade and Solo had worked to repair Heavyarms II. The suit now completed, the team was ready to, as Solo so eloquently put it, "Kick some Fury ass."

Sheder shook her head in reply to his question. "I don’t know. I honestly don’t know where they would hold her."

"Then we will just have to hit every Dark Wave base until we find her." Lu growled.

Alex glanced at the captain. His friend, who was once professionalism personified, was now haggard in appearance. His uniform was wrinkled, and his eyes dull. He hadn’t had more than a few hours sleep in the past two weeks, spending almost all of his time either on patrol or working on the mobile suits. While the possibility that Rowan was alive had given Lu some hope, it had also given him a new obsession. Fighting the Dark Wave was no longer a mission to him, it was now a personal vendetta.

"That will take time, and if we just start hitting bases they’re liable to catch on to the fact that we’re lookin for Ro." Solo replied.

"Maxwell has a point. I suggest that we send in surveillance teams first to ascertain whether or not these installations could hold Rowan and if it is a possibility then and only then should we attack." Jade added.

Lu mumbled something under his breath but nodded in agreement.

The room’s com began to buzz. "Y’ello," Solo said answering it. "Hey, pop…yeah, Sheder’s in here. A delivery…a big delivery. Okay, I’ll tell her. Later Pop."

"Sheder, Pop says that there’s a delivery for you in the hangar. Hmmm…someone sending you gifts. Does this mean that Al’s got some competition? Al man, you gotta learn how to satisfy your lady or somebody’s gonna take her away from ya!"

The blonde’s eyes widened at the statement. Alex made a choking noise. "Maxwell baka, you have no honor!" Jade snapped, giving the pair time to regain their composure.

"It not a gift Solo. In fact, I do believe that it’s an old friend. If you’ll excuse me." Sheder said and left the room.

"How can a delivery be a friend?" Solo asked no one in particular scratching his head.

"We don’t have time for you to jumpstart that microscopic brain of yours and try to figure it out…we have to go on patrol." Lu snapped and left the room himself.

"Hey, that’s cool…I can think and fly at the same time." Solo replied and left quickly once Jade burst into a fit of laughter.

***

Sheder smiled as she walked into the hangar, her ‘delivery’ had already been unloaded. "Lady Une is a remarkable woman." She said walking towards it. "She seems to have followed my instructions to the letter."

At that moment the base’s alarms sounded, meaning that mobile dolls had been sighted near the colony. She licked her lips in anticipation. "Now to try this baby out."

***

Solo sliced another mobile doll in half. He and Lu had been jumped a few minutes after they had left base. "Damn these guys are getting persistent." He chuckled as another wave of dolls came into view.

"Cowards, always sending mobile dolls to do their dirty work." Lu snorted, as Tallgeese swept by a crowd of dolls slashing at them with its heat rod.

"Don’t let it get to ya, man…we’ll make sure you get a piece of that Megeare punk and then we’ll find Ro and the two of you can start your own support group for people with screwed up family trees. " Solo joked.

"Sometimes I wonder if we’ll find her, or if I’m just hoping for too much." He replied while taking out his frustration on the mobile dolls nearest to him with his suit’s beam saber.

"Course we’ll find her. That broad’s too crazy to die that easy."

Lu chuckled into the com. "Thanks Solo."

***

They had finished off most of the mobile dolls around them when Lu noticed explosions in the space to their right. "What the…Solo do you see that?"

"Yeah… what’s goin on over there?"

"Don’t know, but what do you say we find out?"

Solo didn’t answer. Instead he simply launched Hades in the direction of the explosions.

***

They stopped once they came to a mass of scattered mobile doll parts. "Whoa…" Solo whispered.

Suddenly, his suit’s alarms began to sound. "Where are they?"

"I don’t know…I don’t see anything." Lu answered, shifting the Tallgeese into a defensive stance.

"Hey guys, calm down it’s just me." A voice called.

"Sheder…girl, is that you?" Solo asked.

A large, winged mobile suit came into his field of view. Its body was a pale blue with purple and white accents on the wings and torso. What appeared to be impact missile launchers jutted out from each shoulder, and it held a long pole in its hands. Solo chuckled as he noticed a long heat rod trailing from the suit’s right arm.

"What is it with you broads and heat rods?"

"It’s a Fury thing." Sheder answered. "Well, boys, say hello to Valkyrie. Lady Une had her constructed at a separate facility while you worked on Heavyarms."

"Impressive." Lu said.

"Thanks." She replied turning Valkyrie away from the other two suits.

"What is it?" Solo asked.

Before he could receive an answer Valkyrie began to twirl the pole in it’s hands. A mobile doll appeared from out of no where and charged. Faster than Solo thought even humanly possible, Valkyrie swung at it with the pole. Mid swing a long beam of energy flared up from its tip, which cut through the doll. "Beam pike." She sighed answering her companion’s unanswered question. "Crude, but effective."

"Sneaky Sheder. What else does that suit of yours do?"

"You’ll just have to wait and see." She replied.

***

"See how much these people care for their own. Their pilot is dead for a month and they already replace her." Megaere said gesturing towards the vid screen. He had taken to programming the mobile dolls to record their battles with Preventer. After all one had to know his enemy.

His companion grunted in response.

Not letting her lack of enthusiasm bother him, Megaere pointed towards Preventer’s latest mobile suit. "Well, in the very least this new one should be fun to play with. Pilot seems to be pretty good. Finished off the dolls rather quickly." He scratched his chin, thinking. "I must say that I’ve been disappointed in Preventer’s choice in pilots."

Then Tallgeese III appeared on screen. Megaere’s companion sat up. "Ah yes, that one. He is a little better than the others, it will be a joy to cut his heart out."

The other growled in response.

"Ah…come now my friend. The team has replaced you already, you don’t actually believe that you haven’t been replaced in his bed yet. From what I’ve gathered from our spies in Preventer, the new pilot is quite attractive. Blonde hair, long legs, just the thing to cheer your boy up." Megaere laughed, enjoying the look of pain that rolled over his companion’s face. "Don’t worry Alecto, I’ll kill the both of them for you, and then we can play just like we used too."

A small choking sound was the only reply he received as he stood and exited the room, leaving his companion alone in the darkness.