[center][color=FFFFFF]???[/color][/center] [center][color=ed1c24]Annona Colony - Planetside Approach - Outer Perimeter[/color][/center] [hr] He scanned the area again, sweeping the Tommy’s sensors across an 180-degree sector of space. But for the yellow-tan face of Venus filling up most of the field there was nothing there, just as it had been for the last four hours. With a drawn-out sigh of boredom he pressed the button that would finish logging the “all clear” entry in his duty record. Over a hundred similar entries populated the rest of the list, stretching all the way back to the beginning of his shift. Such was the occupation of the novice pilot. Hours upon hours of boredom, and then you’d go home and let the next poor sod take his shot at fighting the siren song of sleep. Missions in the simulators would be the highlights of your week, and if you were [i]really[/i] lucky you’d be able to see some action in a mock battle. Though lately he’d heard that was starting to change — something about the guys down in the Habitats and spacelanes running into more terrorists and pirates lately. But that didn’t really affect them at Annona. You’d have to be an idiot of the highest caliber to try to attack the well-defended seat of the local Zern government, especially now that two of the Princesses and an entire fleet had come to visit. He opened a channel to his partner. “Yo, Paste. I’ve got nothing over here. How about you?” It wasn’t the proper phrase to use, but it was just the two of them right now and the higher-ups weren’t going to check over the hours and hours of audio logs without a good reason. [i]“Same over here, Toast.”[/i] They fell into a comfortable silence for a few seconds. Six hours was a long time to stand around doing almost nothing, but having a friend there made it much more bearable. He cast around for a new conversational topic. “Yo. Did you watch the Adders game last weekend?” [i]“Man, you know I don’t watch that Venusian shit.”[/i] “C’mon, dude! Just see Salas play [i]once[/i] and I’ll swear you’ll be hooked! He’s, like, the Ed Gallagan of handling balls and scoring goals.” [i]“You know that sounded pretty gay, yeah?”[/i] “Fuck off, I know you’ve got a pinup of Wellesley in your locker!” [i]“It’s an autographed poster, nothing wrong with that.”[/i] “He’s [i]shirtless[/i], it doesn’t get more — what’s that?” His eyes shot back to the monitor. He could’ve sworn he had just seen something moving that wasn’t the clouds of the planet below. [i]“What’s what?”[/i] A few button-taps had the optical sensors zoom in Venus. His tired eyes haven’t tricked him, right? He slowly panned the camera, looking for that . . . there! A small dot in the distance, silhouetted against the planet — that’s something that shouldn’t be there, right? “You see that, right? I’ll highlight it for you . . .” he looked away from the screen to press a few more buttons. But when he looked back, he almost jumped and shouted in his seat — the dot’s grown [i]much[/i] larger! “Oh [i]shit![/i]” he exclaimed as the IFF flagged it as an unknown, and his finger slammed onto a big red button with an exclamation point on it. [i]“I see it!”[/i] The next of his partner’s words came across an open comms channel. [i]“Halt! I order you to halt and — FUCK!”[/i] Whatever it was, it moved far too quickly for them to even [i]see[/i]. There was only a blur of red-and-white and the glare of thruster wash as it zoomed between them. The severed hand and ruined Heckler rifle of Paste’s Tommy spun away into the darkness, while sparks and suppressant foam spilled out of the gash in its right flank. “Paaaaaste!” He screamed, turning and pointing his own rifle at the receding thruster-glow. But the cylinder of the colony was behind the intruder, and even a rookie like himself knew not to shoot a Screwdriver in the general direction of any inhabited station. Even if he didn’t think he’d miss . . . better safe than sorry. His heart was hammering in his chest, but his partner’s voice coming over the radio was like a bucket of refreshing water dumped over his head. [i]“I’m fine, don’t worry about me! Throw a flare!”[/i] Right. Just in case the patrol vessels didn’t get their signal . . . he flipped a switch and pulled the trigger. The topmost tube in his Tommy’s waist launcher launched its payload, which burst two seconds later into a brilliant star of blue-white light that would have seared his eyeballs if not for the filtering of the mobile suit’s cameras. There was nothing more he could do about the intruder. But he could at least help his friend . . . [hr] [center][img]https://txt-dynamic.static.1001fonts.net/txt/dHRmLjg4LjE5NTdiOC5SMmxzWW1WeWRDQkJibVJ5WldGeklFdkR0bTVwWncsLC4x/scriptina.regular.png[/img][/center] [center][color=ed1c24]Annona Colony - Grand Dock[/color][/center] [hr] Gilbert held his breath as the [i]Venue[/i] connected to the colony’s transfer bridge. They couldn’t feel or hear it from here — even as massive as the flagship was, its mass was still dwarfed when put next to a colony — but the announcement had been relayed from the operators and the honor guard in the extension. The Princesses were almost here. Everyone in the docks stood at rapt attention. Only unified perfection, the disciplined might of the Zern Empire, could be permitted to greet royalty. There were almost none gathered here who could tolerate the slightest cough or misstep tarnishing the majesty of this day. Gilbert suspected that neither Asallia nor Sheena would have actually [i]cared[/i] about having a flawless reception — of all the royal siblings that he’d been acquainted with, most of them seemed to care less for the games and pretense of the nobility than those puffins might have hoped — but, again, this was as much about satisfying the pride of the Annonan nobles as it was about the Princesses. But these next few minutes would still be a hell for himself. The transfer bridge was the most dangerous part of this maneuver, being a fixed and poorly-armored structure that could be taken out with a few well-placed projectiles. He’d wanted to transfer the Princesses and their entourage into a smaller vessel or shuttle, but that had offended some of the other nobles’ delicate sensibilities . . . His earpiece chirped, and he found that his fears were about to be realized. [color=a187be]“Commander, there’s an alert from sector ee-oh-eight-twenty-five. Outer perimeter has been breached by a rapidly-moving object.”[/color] Victoria’s voice paused for a moment, and Gilbert bit down a violent swear that would have greatly offended the Marquess in front of him. [color=a187be]“Schwartzschild group is already moving to intercept.”[/color] Right. Lady Freya had arrived with the [i]Venue[/i]’s escort. He knew that she was as reliable as they came, and her Axes were a force to be feared, but with the Princesses’ lives at stake there was no such thing as being too safe. [color=00aeef]“Have the fourth line prepare to engage as needed. Focus on suppressive fire.”[/color] He did a quick calculation in his head, figuring out which other assets he could move in time. [color=00aeef]“Tell Lorenz to take his squad in as well. Offer to back up whomever Schwartschild has sent out.”[/color] He didn’t care if any of those around him were giving him the stink-eye. If they couldn’t figure out what was going on from the words he’d said, they weren’t worth considering anyway.