Gundam Fire Still

"And the way that answered, it was unusual."

"Even more unusual was the way they told me to call them back, just order them to come back."

"You're telling me this directly...?" The wingman hesitated a bit.

"Of course they don't want me to say this, but you always know," Carl laughed, "Besides we're already out of communications range of the base aren't we?"

.........

"Murphy, is that a robot in that body? Obeying orders." After a long silence, Thomas said.

"Nice idea, but it's a little worse than that." Carl shook his head, he sighed as he looked down to reconfirm the map, "Looks like we have a ways to go, see that village in the ditch on the satellite map? That's it."

"..............."

"I know what you're going to ask, Ensign, about who exactly is in that body, and I can tell you that it's the Combat Adjuster, an experiment that the Combined Forces made up, and has undergone some sort of treatment so it will obey orders, provided everything is in order."

"That's not what they told you, is it? Instead, it's that guy from the Intelligence Unification Department."

"That's right, that's what the Intelligence Unity is here for, you should be able to guess that."

"Captain, don't forget, they didn't have a man on us because they had hostages, transporters and them all still on base, tell me that..."

"No problem, Ensign," Carl relaxed and smiled, "although they specifically warned me last night."

Traveling in the mountains of Eastern Europe was different than in Alaska, less rock slightly extended the body's course of action, but more trees and shrubs affected the grounding parameters of the ms foot again. As the sky darkened, the two avoided dangerous night marches out of caution, choosing instead to stop the airframe in a slightly higher clearing and turn the night into an operation to modify procedures and rest.

Compared to the quick programming of the adjuster boy that Carl remembered, it did take the two naturals most of the night to adjust their walking program to the parameters of the woodland, even with the aid of a computer with a learning program. Fortunately, this was deep in Europe, quite tightly controlled by the Eurasian Union, so there were no enemies. There had been Zaft teams that had infiltrated this point at the beginning of the war, but they were quickly pushed out of the area, and the operation to expel the Zaft scout team had driven the inhabitants of the area, both human and animal, out of the mountains with crossfire and explosions. The village that was targeted by the combined squad was abandoned after that series of skirmishes.

=====This is the divider for the next day ====.

After the programming adjustments, the two ms's travel speed through the forest was indeed sped up slightly, the village and town on the map coming into view once they rounded the hills ahead, but suddenly, "Stop." Carl said over the channel, while on the lower screen panel an orange warning sign lit up and his ms raised a hand in a stop sign.

"What's going on?"

"There's ms nearby, coming in this direction."

After a few minutes, what had been a fuzzy mechanical sound had become distinct enough that it belonged to the walking footsteps of the ms.

"There's only one, but the pilot is an expert."

Karl had the body remove the beam rifle from his waist, raised his shield to block the side fuselage, and touched forward at a slow speed, already moving as stealthily as possible for the ms, but the heavy fuselage and the roar of the engines driving it still made controlling the volume a challenge.

The giant of steel slowly rounded the hills and came face to face with the muzzle of another beam rifle.

.....

"Federals?"

"Mercenaries?"

After the momentary silence, such a conversation erupted in the international universal channel that there was no need to ask the identity of the other party, but merely to say the result that was subconsciously interpreted in the other party's body recognition features in that instant. Not firing rashly but just raising the shield slightly and then observing to make an accurate judgment was also proof to the other party in the communication channel that their own side was an old pilot who needed to deal with it seriously. The reaction of the blue-white machine on the other side was equally seasoned, the limbs of the machine having made a fine adjustment in position to attack or evade at any time, but without causing unnecessary irritation with a sudden movement.

"Why are you here?"

The same question was thrown to the other by both sides at the same time, and then the communication channel fell silent again.

"Murphy, is it socius?" came an almost identical question from the other side at the same time as Karl asked it.

Still with the overlapping question, it seemed as if the brains of both sides were following the same pattern, so there was a chuckle in the comm channel.

"It seems we have somewhat similar goals, did someone hire you to find them? A mercenary with a serpent's tail."

"No, it's just my own will." A cold, emotionless male voice came through the headphones, seemingly familiar, "I remember your voice, at the Moonface."

"Were you one of those adjusters who left the military? Had to be the right choice, no, shouldn't have pulled that, what are you here for?"

"A challenge, theirs." The reply was short, "And then it's your turn to talk, Union Army."

"Easy to guess, bring them back."

"No, that's not right, yours is an Atlantic Federation body, this is Eurasia, and they...."

"So your intelligence support officer can give you an answer, if my intelligence data here is correct, he's very familiar with the Combine."

"................." Presumably, he didn't answer to avoid divulging information on his own side.

"I will do my best to prevent the destruction of Union property, and I hope you understand that. The rest, the order doesn't have the item to stop mercenaries in it."

The blue and white body with an X-series-like face turned slightly and made a forward gesture.

"Surely it's still under the army's stupid regulations, old Blake."

"Apparently, mercenary life suits you well, Cluster Cloud Impeachment."

Not familiar, but having worked together in the Combine, the two men gave a perfunctory greeting, with the wingman's ms following a few hundred meters behind, and a small power armor following the blue and white ms, which was presumably a battlefield support for the Snake Tail mercenaries.

A few paces later, it was the village clearing, and the unexpected current of communications opening came over the public channel.

"That, is that the Clump Cloud Impeachment...?" A young and equally emotionless male voice appeared, "Is that, Union Army, over there?"

"Stand back," Carl explained to his wingman on the classified channel, then switched the microphone back to the public channel, "Yes, Union Army, Atlantic Federation affiliated."

"Unable to fight you, as well as, any missions?" It was still a flat male voice, but it was mixed with a certain, seemingly squeezed out of his teeth tone.

According to their mission, all they had to do was to get them to stop fighting and then follow them back to the base, both the Intelligence Unity and the Perestroika in the base were just expecting that result. Since they were both naturals so socius couldn't do anything, the next step was just theirs, the job of suppressing the Perestroika in the base. But Karl was curious about the performance of the socius airframe, and the blue and white ms on his side. The body used by the mercenary had some of the Plan X characteristics, but other parts reminded him of what he had seen at the oRB, the body piloted by the exceptionally gifted teenager, and he remembered that the oRB's code name for the body was called AstRAY.

How an oRB-produced airframe ended up in the hands of mercenaries wasn't something he could find out as a pilot, but wanting to know the performance of that airframe that was for sure. Of course, if that was done, there was also the risk of a large number of uncontrollable events in combat.

"The mission doesn't include stopping your fight, but don't screw up your own mechanics or take out this guy, do it?"

Saying such an order at the risk of giving away information that the socius had been subjected to psychological interference crossed the edge of intelligence regulations, but Karl could expect that even if he didn't say so himself, they'd be giving away that kind of information in their conversations with the mercenaries.

"Yes." Still answered with a sense of otherness.

On the other side of the headset, apparently Impeachment was snorting, apparently thinking he didn't need to be treated with mercy.

"Besides, impeachment, if you're still working on the joint, I can't engage you in battle."

"It's over."

"Very well."

As expected, socius made no secret of the mental adjustment he was receiving. Carl drove the plane two steps back, leaving room to maneuver for the mercenary mobile fighter in front of him.

"There is one more thing I would like to confirm before we enter combat." The remaining two were still having a conversation on the channel.

"What is it?"