With a continued inner unrest after departing with Jiro, Teta finally arrived at her Chimaera in the hangar. Her goal was to go over the checklist again and again until it was time to launch. Though she found herself unable to concentrate on this task. While looking at the lists on her pad, she drifted off into thoughts repeatedly, just standing there to stare right through it.
Jiro was silently leaning against his chimaera, with his arms closed together, looking down in between his quick scans of Teta while she tried to busy herself.
He let out a loud sigh and shook his head, then turned his back and faced his ship. Close to the cockpit, the marks of his earlier battles were obvious on its armor. He pulled on its wing, where a piece burnt on its edges and turned black.
A young voice he heard, as he was checking on his ship; "It looks like you two have been together in some tough times, sir."
Jiro turned to him with an eyebrow raised.
"I mean the ship, sir," the young engineer said. "quite a lot of battle scars on this babe..." he nodded with a smile. "Well, it should be good to go... the wing was a bit loose after yesterday's patrol, but should be as good as new now... try to be careful out there, sir."
Jiro nodded back, "Ah... yeah..." he said, with no spirit in his words at all.
He glanced back at his ship. It indeed looked like the oldest, ugliest chimaera among all the others in the neat line of the formation.
His attention then turned on to the newcomer vessel, which was docked pretty close to their formation. He remembered the ship and flying with its captain before; especially the time Shimizu went missing in the Taus and when they had to search for him everywhere with Teta.
There was an air of nervousness with that ship's crew, he observed. They had their brows frowned, whispered among themselves, and when looked at their way, they made sure to not look back.
A woman among them left their group, wandered among the formation of the chimaeras. Her cap was well put on her head, hiding most of her face. It was as though she was observing the ships ready for launch.
Though Jiro had more problems in his mind to deal with, and could not be bothered with her suspicious act right then.
His attention would be taken by his wingleader, Commander Mitsuki, appearing with her hurried steps among the pilots to give them their last briefing before their flight. She called them all out into a circle, and started to inform them in her usual, strict way.
As the leader took their attention, Teta's eyes wandered off towards Jiro. Wondering about what he might be thinking, what he might be feeling now. Which just concerned her even more than before.
Jiro could barely catch a glance of hers as she quickly looked back to the leader and the written instructions to avoid any future possible eye contact.
The squadron leader spoke, "As you know, we have 12 chimaeras patrolling around the station. And as always, we'll separate into four wings, with three patrolling in these... waypoints" she showed three routes on the board, surrounding the base, "while the fourth wing will stay home as a reserve... every two hours to be replaced by the next wing,".
Jiro was not listening much, with the speech being the same as everyday's. When his name was called up, it surprised him and nearly made him jump.
"Jiro, Teta... you're in the Alpha wing, with me..." and then she continued on to count the rest of the wings. "Besides the usual, today we'll have a destroyer accompanying us... Captain Shin Takeru with KDS-Takao will be around..." she nodded, her movements as strong and sharp as a blade, "that's it. To your ships now."
All the pilots let out a loud "Hai!" then rushed off towards their ships, about to finish their last preparations. Some opened their cockpits already, climbing in, waiting for the hangar doors to slide open any time for them now.
"Waiting for your signal, daddy," Junko whispered in her microphone hiding inside the collar of her uniform.
Hoping that she'd not be recognized, hiding her face with her well placed cap, approached to Teta who was just about to hop in her cockpit.
She took a peek towards another of the rebels, who was closing towards Jiro, trying to act 'natural' as Junko does.
With a fake tone she'd never use, she spoke, "Excuse me, officer, but there is a problem with that ship. you will have to wait 'till we check it again,".
Teta had just stepped on the ladder that was attached to her cockpit. She turned to Junko with a raised eyebrow and took her step back before she replied.
"Excuse me, but I was not informed of any maintenance, nor did I request any. Instead, everything seemed... well..." but stopped a second in her words, realizing that she did not concentrate on the checklist all too well, after all.
With that doubt, she nodded. "Oh, I see,". Trying to figure out what actually she overlooked, she continued after a second: "So, what are you going to do about 'it' now?"
"Erhhh..." Junko paused, forcing a little bit of bit of creativeness now. "You know. Check the two engines, the onboard optronics, weapons..." She shrugged. "Things like that. Probably won't take long."
"W-what?" Sure about that there could not possibly that much problems just now, and that Teta could not have overlooked so much, she asked Junko: "Wait, this must be a misunderstanding. You surely got the wrong ship."
As the wingleader was nearby, Nakamura called her name loudly "Commander Mitsuki~! There seems to be a problem here!", hoping that she could solve that misunderstanding. Her ship was right next to Teta's, inbetween hers and Jiro's.
"Are you going to argue with me now?" Junko sounded angry now behind her cap. "It's serious. I can't let you go out there with that ship. Want to die today? Would be a shame to ruin that cute little face of yours, uh?" she said while hitting the top of Nakamura's nose with a finger. The confused look on Teta's face was something to behold.
Junko then whispered to her mic, "Come on, what are you waiting for, already,".
The wing leader's cockpit opened up. "What's the problem, Nakamura?" she then looked at Junko with a frown. As if Junko is now disturbing her unchallenged authority. "Explain..." she said more to Junko than to Teta.
Trying to figure out Junko's rank by studying her uniform, Teta responded shortly: "This dock officer claims that there are severe malfunctions with my ship out of a sudden!"
Junko rammed her cap on her face even more. She recognized the woman's horrible face. Commander Mitsuki. Had an argument with her more than once. She'd be more than happy to punch her unconscious later.
But with a voice that becomes even faker by second, to the point it starts to crack up with pure dishonesty, Junko answered, "Yes there is ma'am. I was trying to explain to this officer there is a problem with those ships. I was just informed about it. We must check them again... So please leave those cockpits."
"Ishikawa...." she nearly begged to her mic afterwards, "Move your goddamn ass..."
Commander Mitsuki raised up a brow so high, and frowned the other so low as she scanned this suspicious person. She wondered why this woman reminded her some annoying memories, instinctively wanting to berate her now.
"Oh, and you tell us about it just now? As we are heating our engines, and are about to fly off? What's your name?" she frowned with both her brows pushed down harshly. "I swear, you and your kind get more and more useless everyday... Do you know how much your half assed checks threaten my pilots, hm?... Of course you don't... You are not risking your own lives and piloting the ships you are tending to."
She shook her head afterwards, after letting out that steam. "Get off your ship Nakamura... we'll be on stand by until they are finally able to do their jobs properly..."
"Gomen nasai, Commander. As I said I was just informed of it," Junko repressed a grimace of anger.
Resigning to Mitsuki's order, Teta gave a salute and stepped back from the ship to make way for Junko, "Understood, Commander,".
Shin was in the guards office, informing the station about the presence of the Takao while reading some reports gathered for him on a holoscreen in front of his face.
He took out his PDA then hailed the Takao over commlinks: "XO, I want the Takao to be ready for anything. We have reports about some incidents in the Taus. As to clear my order: CONDITION YELLOW. Activate the shields and all important systems."
He then turned to the Guard Officer "So the KDS Hiuchi is here? I know the captain... I will pay him a visit. So I get an escort or not?" Shin laughs as he stands up and moves to the door.
A decorative escort was assigned to Shin as he walks through the corridors, watching around him closely and following a few steps behind.
As Shin was passing by the hangar supervision office, a man wearing a cap shading his face, walked past him. His uniform was showing the insignia of the Huichi. The man asks the directions for the supervisor's office, and the guards just give him barely the attention to give a lazy answer.
Shin getting angry at the scene, "YOU ARE HERE TO PROTECT THE STATION NOT TO SLEEP! GET TO WORK!"
All the men, numbering about half a dozen, spread around all over the corridors, immediately straighten themselves and let out a loud shout, "Hai!".
However, as Shin walks further down, they smirk and look at each others, shaking their heads, and returning back to slacking off as usual.
Jiro opened his ship's cockpit as well, which was on the other side of commander Mitsuki's.
"What's the prob, commander?" he asked casually, as he was taking off his helmet, now wondering why the rest of his wing stopped heating their engines all of a sudden.
"We are on stand by, Taiyouji. Nakamura's ship needs some work still..." snorted the Commander before asking to Junko :
"How long will this take? And what exactly is the problem?"
"Erhh.", emited the woman.
After a momentum she added :
"Our teams couldn't locate exactly the root of the problem. That's why we need to check everything."
~~~
Ishikawa handed him the data pad he was carrying.
"Here, see for yourself. Everything's in order."
The man took the pad and started to look over it, seemingly not satisfied. Meanwhile, Ishikawa grabbed the smaller pistol he was hiding under his clothes.
"This doesn't even say anything ab-" Before the supervisor could turn around Ishikawa put the pistol to his neck and pulled the trigger.
The paralyzer did it's work immediately and then man slumped back into his chair.
Ishikawa then quickly worked on the computer panel in the office and overruled the safety regulations before finally sealing all access to the hangar. The door closed shut and an alarm started to alert everybody on the station.
~~~
"And how long will it take?" asked again Mitsuki, obviously not satisfied by the evasive answer of that technician.
"You know, I have to direct the rest of the squad to a halt... and we can't leave the station defenceless for long-..."
That's when the alarm sounded. At first nobody could give a meaning to this. Jiro wondered if there was some fire somewhere, or something...
"What's going on?" asked the Commander as she was giving a look around, to only see the people surrounding her displaying the same surprise as her.
Taking advantage of this moment of inattention, Junko quickly grabbed Nakamura, and, putting an arm around her neck, began to press on her throat.
With her other hand she took her pistol and aimed carefully at Mitsuki.
"Aha. Too bad it's not a lasgun."
All around them, the others rebels were now grabbing their weapons and doing their best to neutralize as many people as they could in the docks.
"Don't move an inch, Mitsuki." said coldly Junko.
She then whispered to Nakamura in her ear : "And you, girl. Be quiet."
There was a loud crash in the hangar, and a few screams of surprise and terror. A few shots went off, and a white smoke appeared somewhere behind them among the formation of chimaeras, and an ugly stench filled their noses.
Baffled by the alert and all the commotion, Teta was taken completely by surprisen. At the time she was trying to remember her basic close up combat training, but the time to react was already over and she was now unable to break free from Junko's grasp.
"Wh-"... Mitsuki was baffled at first, and then enraged, looking at Junko angrily, trying to make sense of things... "What is the meaning of this? Who are you?! Leave her now!" she shouted. She was still in her cockpit, and her gun was really close to her, but she didn't want to make a sudden move...
Meanwhile, the whole station was in alarm, along with the sirens annoying their ears, and with the lights turning into a red tint on their ceiling. The security was taken aback, with most of the personnel being kept on the other side when the Hangar doors locked up suddenly. A few remaining in the hangar rushed there and fro, before being picked off by the rebels, who had already planned for them.
Junko raised her head a little, so that the commander could see the smile that just appeared on her lips.
"Well well well, Mitsuki. Long time no see. Still having trouble to get laid?" she then added coldly, "get out of this cockpit."
"It's you... Sanada..." Mitsuki frowned. She looked directly into her eyes, showed Junko her hands as if she gave up and was about to come off her ship like she was ordered to.
Then Mitsuki's eyes flashed; suddenly reached to her gun, not able to keep her anger in check.
But Junko was a lot faster. She pulled Teta at just the right time and used her as a shield. Mitsuki did hit, but not the one she wanted to. Teta's shoulder let out a red haze of blood, just as the bullet passed through.
"Stupid idiot!" Junko yelled before shooting several times. Mitsuki helplessly fell, half her body hanging down the cockpit. Her fingers loosened as her arm elongated to the floor. The gun in her hand fell down, skipping under her chimaera.
Shin heard the alarm and ran back to the security office. He hailed the Takao "Red alert! I want the whole ship on red alert! Activate all weapons and get me backup on the station... And hail the Hiuchi, they should leave that hangar open. Send me all the marines we have on board. I want to know what the hell is going on!" He ran into the security office and yelled, "What the hell is going on!?"
After ordering the Station Commander to get all his men to the hangar and try to open the doors, he hails the Takao "The marines shall get their weapons and get ready. We will storm the hangar. I'm there in some minutes."
With this said he rushed towards the airlock and straight into the small storm shuttle bay of the Takao.
-
Ishikawa force opened the docking bays to open the escape route for once they were in their chimaeras. Content, he turned around to leave the supervision again and check on the progress his team had made so far. He gave the unconscious supervisor a last look before stepping through the door.
At this very moment the security officer Ishikawa passed earlier entered the office to see if the supervisor had any information on all of this.
He stopped abruptly as he faced Ishikawa who just stepped through the door.
For a moment they just looked at each other, perplexed. "You..." Realizing that he was found out, Ishikawa grabbed his other gun. Then they both drew their weapons and fired without hesitation.
One body collapsed backwards into the hangar whereas the other one slumped against the wall.
Junko gazed around. "Everyone on the ground! Now!" For good measure, she started to paralyze a few of them who were left standing up still.
Teta could not help falling to the ground after Junko let go of her as Junko had to deal with the other pilots as well... She instinctively started to hold her shoulder, writhing in agony.
Ishikawa stumbled back into the hangar, clenching his abdomen. He groaned from the pain and tried to assess the situation. The chimaera's seemed to be under their control and the guards taken out. Some pilots and hangar staff were taken hostage, so far so good.
However it was clear that Ishikawa couldn't fly in his condition, surviving alone would be hard enough.
He slowly made his way to the nearest chimaera where Junko was keeping the situation under control.
"What happened to you?" Junko asked to Ishikawa, her attention was turned on to Teta now, thinking everything is under control. She asked to the girl "You're alright?"
Trying to at least get into a sitting position, Teta looked at the woman, only answering: "Please do not shoot me!"
All seemed as though it was under control, but a little further, all hell broke loose. A few security personnel could barricade themselves behind the crates by the transport that was unloading cargo earlier. They had already wounded a rebel in his knee, who had barely hid behind a chimaera, and with the pain it didn't look like he'd be much use anymore. He was trying hard not to scream, holding his leg, with a friend by him, trying to help the bleeding stop.
With the attention of the rebels taken momentarily by the security's brave hustle, Jiro found the chance to strike. Taking advantage of this confusion, he jumped on Junko, and wrestled her gun off her, kicking it under the chimaeras. He had his own gun, pushed harshly to Junko's head, while holding her down.
"Do not make a move, or I'll blast her head open..." Jiro said with a growl, to whoever may be around him. His attention was more on Teta, both angered and worried because she's wounded, with her blood dripping on the floor...
"Teta... are you okay...?" he said, he could only look her in the eyes for a second, but his concern was obvious with just that, before moving his eyes to the rebels around him, threatening them with a push of Junko harsher on to the floor.
Taking the chance, Teta wobbly hushed over in the direction of Jiro to take cover behind the closest chimaera. While not entirely able to endure the pain, she pushed an "I... am still alive," out to give Jiro an answer, but she would have preferred to point out that nothing was okay at all.
Shin used an airlock to enter the Hiuchi and rushed through the ship not waiting for his marines.
In one hand his Katana, in the other his gun he arrived at the point where the Security troops barricaded and yelled into the hangar :
"The hangar is surrounded surrender and you will keep your honour you cant flee and you are running out of time"
He took cover and talked to the leading Security officer in the hangar :
"Support will arrive soon i hope they wont get any of our men did they kill anybody?"
Ishikawa had just arrived as he witnessed junko getting overwhelmed. He quickly pulled out his gun again, still clenching his abdomen with one hand. He cowered with one knee on the floor and aimed at jiro at first. "Leave her."
In the meantime another rebel group was hiding behind a chimaera and trying to paralyse the security forces on the other end of the hangar.
"Seriously, Jiro. Remember me? We're the good guys, for fruit sake. Throw that gun away, do yourself a favor"
Jiro was in no mood to listen. He was searching for a way out in his mind, an opening for himself and Teta to get away from this before he could think of anything else. He didn't really remember Junko anyway, so he shouted to Ishikawa :
"Lower your friggin' weapon, whatever the frakin' nuts you are... You heard the guy... you're surrounded... I have your mate... You're out of time... step away... slowly..." then he added softly, "Teta, can you walk?"
In response to Jiros earlier question, Teta tried to get up, and after some wobbly movements managed to do so. She felt pretty dizzy now due to the blood loss that had already dyed the whole left arm of her uniform in red. "I... can manage it..." she replied to Jiro, who saw that she was referring to being able to walk, if not very well right now though.
From her view on things, she believed to realize Jiros plan : with the rampant terrorist all over the place, their only chance was to head for an exit, hoping there would not be more of them waiting on the other side. Not sure if Jiro intended to take that woman as an hostage or shield with them, she slightly raised her towards Jiro, signalling she could need help with dashing out of the terrorists cross fire.
As Teta got up, Ishikawa turned his gun to her. It was hard to stay concentrated while trying to suppress the pain from his gunshot wound.
He looked to jiro again. "Let her go and we'll be gone without harming you or her." He turned his head to Teta again.
"All we want to do now, is leave."
Jiro looked at Teta in a worried way. He didn't see Mitsuki's whole body, but her head was hanging from her cockpit, unconscious. Jiro just assumed that she died, and that these people were not screwing around one bit.
Junko then spoke quietly in a sweet tone.
"If you don't throw that gun away... Right now... Things will turn in a horrible and insufferable way. People will start to die."
She then moved her head as to point Nakamura. "How long do you think that girl can hold with this wound? Ten minutes? Thirty minutes? We're not going to give up because we have nothing to lose."
She tried to take an even more reasonable and sweet tone to add :
"So. You put down that gun and you let Ishikawa grab some medicpacs in the Chimaera's hold. He will patch her up and she will maybe stay alive to see the next day."
Jiro pressed the gun harder on her head, then shook his head, "friggin' hell... stop making such long sentences, got no time for that. Some people become really talkative with a gun on their heads..."
"Fine. Keep pressing that gun on my head for all i care." She said in an angry tone.
"Give it more time for the girl's blood to paint in red the ground. No worries. I told you we have nothing to lose. Ishikawa won't lower his weapon. you won't lower your weapon. All fine. Let's all die here."
Jiro attempted to think it over, not left with many choices. It was difficult to concentrate, because of that unbearable worry he had about the woman he loved. He began to understand what the Rebels were here for.
Easing his push on Junko and stepping away from her slowly, he pointed his gun to Ishikawa.
"Let her go..." he said slowly, meaning Teta. "Keep me as your prisoner until you're done... as long as you wish..."
He raised his hand, hoping Takeru would see it. All he was wishing now was them to hold their fire so that Teta could be transferred without problems.
Junko got slowly on her feet and turned around to face Jiro, her body's expression revealing she was about to beat him in retaliation.
"Give me a minute to deal with this assh..."
"Junko!" shouted Ishikawa, trying to keep a hold on the situation. It was getting worse and worse, and she wasn't making it any better.
The woman oscillated during a moment between rage and reason. Eventually she sighed and moved to get back her gun, under the chimaera while saying.
"Your time will come soon enough, little boy..."
Still raising her unhurt arm as a sign of defencelessness, Teta staggered backwards into the direction Jiro pointed out, the position of Takeru-san.
Seeing that he offered himself as hostage made her believe his motives were more than just exchanging a badly wounded hostage for a fit one with a chance to survive. Still not knowing what the rebels were about to do, she alternately looked at Ishikawa and Sanada, waiting.
Shin left the cover as he noticed her, and yelled : "C'mon Teta move it get here NOW!"
Being yelled at, she looked a last time at Jiro before turning around and running behind the fearless Takeru-san towards the position of the loyal KNF personnel.
Since the two rebels already had focused their attention to the Chimearas, Nakamura-san was eventually able to reach the position of Takerus men, and was quickly taken into cover to be treated by one officer proficient in first aid procedures.
Hideaki exhaled and kept the gun pointed at Jiro. Then he gazed over to Junko for a moment, apparently she was unhurt. He slowly moved closer to the chimaera. "We'll get going as soon as possible.."
After taking a look at the remaining security, he signalled his team to stop firing, making sure they are in cover.
Ishikawa leaned against the chimaera, still watching Jiro closely. "Junko, we'll take this one. You fly."
She was assessing the situation, ensuring all the rebels were safe. Eventually, she asked :
"The heck happened to you. You're injured. In the hold!" while pointing her head towards the Chimaera he asked her to pilot.
Jiro held his gun from its barrel, and pointed the handle to Ishikawa, to finish his surrender.
"Takeru-san... It's... going to be over soon... please... get Nakamura-san bandaged, if you can... she's losing blood..."
After Ishikawa took his gun, he nodded to him, and took another step to the chimaera they were closest to : the one that belonged to their Wingleader, who was shot by Junko. She was still hanging down from the cockpit, with half her body.
Jiro touched her wrist to check her pulse, hoping she would still be alive. She looked dead to him all that time. He pulled her from the chimaera, and took her in his cradle. The chimaera was now ready for the rebel personnel to board.
"Is she alive...?" Asked quietly the woman with a tint of... Was it amusement or remorse?
"Her pulse is weak, but she's still alive..." Jiro simply said without displaying any emotion.
Junko nodded.
"Then carry her like the charming prince you are. And run to your -friends-, before i feel the need to break you an arm or a leg."
"You'd better run along now before I just decide to get you all killed here..." Jiro said, as a matter of fact.
She considered him for a short while and eventually smiled warmly.
Then she directed to Ishikawa :
"What are you waiting for? Plan to repaint red all the docks' floor? Show some empathy to the people who will have to clean said floor, damnit"
Ishikawa gave the signal to leave and nodded at Junko. "I'll be careful with the bleeding."
Assuring himself that everybody could get out he then turned to the hold of the chimaera and crawled into it. Finally, he allowed himself to rest, now that he was in relative safety.
Without the adrenaline holding him together, he collapsed onto the floor, grunting because of the pain and hoping that Junko would be able to bring them home.
She was herself making a sign to tell others to 'get in the choppa'. She eventually said before climbing to enter in the cockpit :
"Well... It's been nice to meet you all, but now we must go..."