Bloodstained Rose

Chapter 2

The Deck Hall had already transformed into its flight mode. It had resembled something more like a floating battleship; its front deck alone stretched around 250 yards—scraping through the clouds while the massive engines below kept it suspended. Deeper inside and away from the bridge was an engine room big enough to house over a hundred people.

Separating it and the bridge were the brigs, crew quarters, and the bomb bay. The Unit Hall, as well as the other structures had been folded into the ship—a process that takes over a day to complete. Deployments had always done their toll, and everybody on board had dreaded the setup and breakdown procedures.

Mizumi wanted to just sail the skies instead of being stuck on the ground. At this point, she had been in this battle for nearly two decades. Before this, she could barely remember the old lands or what she may have once called home.

These twenty years have not quite set in yet, she thought to herself.

She had since reached the age where days had begun to pass just like minutes. In recent days, she had finally taken some solace in hearing that the Nippon Front had seen headway. At any moment now, Paxton would be entering a teleconference from the Kerrigan. The ship started to ascend above the clouds, diminishing the chances of being intercepted. As the vehicle started to level out, the intercom began to light up over the bridge.

“We’re finally at the Mogul point.” A voice buzzed through.

The Mogul point was another piece of ancient technology for use in the field. The Deck Hall travelled so far up that it would be able to send signals undisturbed for thousands of miles, which would be key to each the crew in the Nippon front.

“Thank you, please patch me into the Major.” Mizumi replied.

The screen on her desk started to light up with a spinning pinwheel of pixels, thousands bouncing violently between the borders of the monitor. Shortly after, Paxton’s silky, gray hair started to form through the static, finally revealing his crooked grin. He sunk his teeth into a large cigar and continued puffing away.

“Good morning, ma’am.” he declared before taking a massive drag from the stogie.

“It’s good to see your face, Paxton. What is the status of the reconnaissance operation?” Mizumi asked him.

“The G.E.I. forces are diminishing in the area, and we are expecting to move into a norther town called Aiga within the next,” Paxton stared down to the watch around his left wrist for a moment. “Eighteen hours. We’re expecting to recover an enemy drop ship to take the remains of Delta back your way.”

“Do we have any data from the research facility?”

“From what intel we’ve gathered,” he looked down towards his notebook this time, leafing his way through the pages to find the most recent entries. “The Alferov Research Facility is currently researching this local thing. Well, I don’t actually know all the specifics. There’s this thing the locals called the Cosmos or somethin’.”

“The Cosmos Cradle,” she muttered. It had been a long time since Hideo had mentioned its existence to her. The many nights staring up towards the stars after Kashmir’s mandatory blackouts had been filled with him telling stories of it. “It doesn’t make sense that they would try and move all of this secret weaponry out there like that.”

“Seems more like a Weapons Administration move than something from the G.E.I. high command. I reckon we’ve ruined some poor bastard’s day havin’ get up and tell the brass they lost their secret weapon.”

“What happened to their secret weapon?”

“I blew it the fuck up.” Paxton laughed and took another puff of his cigar.

“Of course you did,” she said after a long-winded sigh. “How many casualties are there?”

“We have lost fourteen troops and the Dunham.”

\ “It’s a miracle you even made it this far. How did you survive with the heavy losses?”

“Well, we found somebody from the village.”

“The village you’re at now?”

“No, the one that got blown up before we showed up.”

Her heart started to race at the thought of somebody surviving the massacre but had not rushed to conclusions.

“How can you be sure?” she quickly inquired.

“She had one of those battle robes and some weapon that belong to, well, you.”

“Impossible,” she whispered under breath. “Were there any other survivors?”

“Negative, just one, miraculously,” he looked back up towards her, slowly pushing the coke through his teeth. Once again, he paused to take one final drag, this time creating a missive smoke ring that danced in front of him. He continued, “Her name is Rei.”

From that point on, his words had become completely muddled by the ever-strengthening beat of her heart. A small fleeting sense of joy had started to fill her chest.

She’s alive, she is still out there. She continued to think of what Rei would have looked like now. It had been years since—she must be eighteen, nineteen by now. Her hands trembled while her face slowly started becoming pale.

“Major,” she said as calmly as possible. “Make sure that you bring her with you.”

“That’s part of the plan. I plan on using her during the upcoming mission to finally level the Alferov so our new troops can recover that ship and bring everybody back home.”

“Any intelligence you can recover from it would be critical.”

“That shouldn’t be a problem, we got some people. There’s a girl we have that’s supposedly the General’s daughter. She can get us inside while we get somebody else to plant the explosives.”

“Get it done major and get ready to meet us at the rally point.”

He acknowledged the order before waving his cigar to her. Mizumi had started to trail away from the screen, thinking of her time spent up to this point. In a few weeks, she would be turning forty-four, and she found each day shorter and much more precious. This proxy war did not have any signs of slowing down. However, she could feel something deeper within telling her the end was approaching.

The screen started to fade out while the ship descended from the Mogul point. The clouds started to pillow upward and across the empty flight deck, obscuring the sun as it burned overhead. She didn’t imagine having to fight this long. Now, she had realized that over on the Nippon front, her daughter was still out there. Her heart yearned for just one more look at her face. She hoped that the war would be over and that she would be able to reunite. The possibility seemed to escape her, but with it in her grasp, she had to push on.

The forest outside of Nojiri, dense and teeming with life, the thick air and scent of pine. The sunlight slowly began to filter through the clouds, casting shadows on the encampment below. Amidst the trees were several tents pitched in rows, uniformity a stark contrast to the natural surroundings.

Less than a dozen troops streamed through the encampment to prepare for the next stage. The sound of muted conversations, the clinking of tools, and the hum of generators created a constant background noise. Dominating the scene were the two ships, the Kerrigan and Munger. The Kerrigan’s sleek, battle-worn hull was surrounded with a few engineers scrambling to complete the repairs.

In the midst of this organized chaos, Paxton sat puffing his fourth smoke of the morning while he hunched over a makeshift table. In the center, a large topographical map of Aiga stretched over it. He began to place several small rocks over the top, deep in thought while he ensured every detail was no less than perfect. Judai began to approach the ten with a small plastic sleeve in his hands.

“Good morning, sir,” Judai said after stepping inside and assuming the position of attention. “Corporal Watkins, reporting as ordered.”

“At ease,” Paxton replied. “What have you got for me?”

He reached forward, retrieving the small plastic sleeve from Judai. As soon as he opened it, he began to thumb through the laminated pages on the inside. There were dozens of photographs ranging from landmarks to structures.

“Our reconnaissance team was able to retrieve two UAZs,” Judai said while reaching over towards the pictures. “There has been less activity in Aiga.”

“How’d ya’ figure that?” Paxton asked.

“The Litvyak including General Kawaguchi were confirmed to have withdrawn from the area.”

“That don’t seem normal,” Paxton added. He continued to flip through the pages, not letting his eyes drift away as he continued calculating the next move. “Why do you think they’re doing that? Doesn’t make no sense for them to flip the script and abandon that reactor and lab.”

“We have confirmed that there are still belligerents. There is an auxiliary force still present and from our intel, they’ve armed some of the locals.”

“Selling out their own people.” Paxton muttered, disgust lingered from his face while he winced.

He flicked the cigarette off towards the grass, still not taking his eyes from the photos. Judai stood anxiously, fighting to keep himself from being distracted by the clamor of the engineers behind him.

“What did General Hoshikaze order?” Judai asked.

“Something quick, and deadly” he replied. Before continuing, he pointed towards an empty chair across from him and prompted Judai to sit. “We’re going to need to get a small team together, which is also why I called you here specifically.”

He finally laid the folder on the table and began to reach for another cigarette. After lighting it, he began to address Judai again, “We have a stinger operation which is going to require you, those G.E.I. recruits, and especially them. You said ya’ were in Kashmir with Nomad and Rei as a kid, correct?”

“They were, but I don’t think they remember me.”

“Don’t matter,” he let out a large cloud towards Judai and turned back down towards the folder. “There’s a connection there. We know they’re doing there little training out in the woods, so you need to go out there after this and talk to them.”

Judai’s silence was reflection of his anxiety. As Paxton’s gaze remained fixed on him, Judai lifted his hands to him, breaking his bearing as he asked, “How do I do that?”

“Just talk to them and make it sound really urgent. This is the type of stuff you need to learn, Corporal. You’re going to go with them on this one, so act accordingly.”

“Ah, shit,” Judai muttered, almost laughing as he processed the order. “This looks very dangerous considering our numbers.”

Paxton’s face filled with cracks. He raised the cigarette to his mouth, causing the embers to light up his face as he took another long-winded drag.

“It’s dangerous,” he began again. “That’s why I want you to talk to Rei specifically. We need her. I don’t want to have to tell her to come, I want her invested in this. She is a key component to this mission’s success.”

Judai nodded again, asking, “What’s the mission?”

Megumi felt a growing frustration inside while trying to balance the many tasks in her life. In the mornings, her routine with Rei and the others would leave her softened for the rest of the day. As soon as the sessions came to an end, she would find herself immediately in the presence of Paxton and the other members of Liberation. What always followed were long and grueling days of helping with the repairs of the Kerrigan.

On this day, she instead was pulled aside to aid with Mezrich aboard the Mobile Carrier. What started as a promised short shift ended up turning into an all-night extravaganza leaving the two fighting with the cryptic G.E.I. technology. Megumi continued toiling at the control panel, causing the metallic dwellings of the massive vehicle to light up with a symphony of clicks.

Mezrich sat to her right, continuing to assist as he gently bobbed his legs up in down in the chair. The sight of his legs in the corner of her eyes continuously reminded her of the encounter a week prior. Seeing him struggling to cling on to life to being able to pull all night shifts with her fueled her determination.

“I think I cracked this table over here,” Mezrich spoke, barely managing to get Megumi’s attention. “We should be able to set up an administrative profile now, right?”

Megumi remained stuck in a trance, furiously typing away at her keyboard before finally replying, “I’m sorry, what did you say?”

“The admin profiles.”

“I got it,” she stopped to press her hands to her face, softly groaning as the many hours spent on the project set in. At last, she glanced over towards his monitor and said, “This should work. We can download all the data from Weapons Admin servers and take that back to the fleet.”

“Want to try a dry run?”

She raised her hand up to him and replied, “Let’s get Control back online.”

Excitement danced on Mezrich’s face. He started to turn his wheelchair towards the center of the room, waiting in anticipation as Megumi began to type away. After a moment of silence, there was a whirring sound coming from inside the panel that only caused the two to light up. Behind them, a small translucent cube began to expand from out of the Aether, releasing a cloud of vapor as the moist air ignited across its surface.

Just on cue, Control had finally appeared with her regular pink flesh and blue hair to give the standard greeting. Seeing her beyond photo realistic appearance had nearly brought Mezrich to tears.

“You are something else,” he remarked, quickly taking notice of her disheveled appearance. “I really can’t tell you how thankful I am for this. When we get back to the fleet, we have all kinds of technology we can take a crack at.”

Megumi stared up towards Control, feeling something unsettling about the appearance. She looked over to Mezrich once more to see his mouth watering at the sight of the hologram.

“So, what’s the deal with Control’s looks?” she asked.

“Control is very beautiful, but I wanted her to look,” Mezrich started to stumble for a second, squinting his face before finally saying, “sexy.”

“Sexy?”

“I don’t think you would get it,” he began to wave his hands through the air, trying to remain confident as he hid his embarrassment from her. “Not because you’re a woman, it’s because of your previous political affiliations.”

“I don’t know why that would matter. You said she was beautiful, why pick something else?”

“Because beauty is subjective, in the eye of the beholder they say, or whatever,” he started to become ever more focused, finally staring back to her with a smile on his face. “Sexy isn’t subjective. It’s sexy, or it isn’t.”

“Yeah, I got you,” she quickly dismissed him, rolling her eyes. She turned her focus back to the monitor behind her, once again drawing a blank as text streamed across the screen. It started to cause her to light up inside, forcing her to finally ask, “What do they have planned for us?”

“It’s not going to be anything like it was. The Major can be a little rambunctious to say the least, but he isn’t going to stab anybody in the back. That’s not him.”

“That sounds reassuring, I guess.”

“I don’t know what else you want me to say.”

She looked back at him again, shrugging before finally saying, “I’m sorry, I’m very tired right now.”

“You’ve been up all night. You’re a trooper. You don’t even talk that much,” he continued, giving her a quick push with his hand to hype her up once more. “You dealt with that crazy lady at the Weapons Administration, helped develop some terrifying technology—which includes Delta, which crushed my legs.”

Alarm quickly swept across her features, causing her focus to snap to Mezrich again. He shook his head, feeling some embarrassment with his delivery.

He corrected himself, “I didn’t mean anything by that, I was trying to talk about the stuff you have done for referential purposes. The stuff you’ve done is fantastic and I think you and I should be best friends. I’m a tech geek myself.”

“You do seem like the geeky type.”

She could not help but to smile back at him as he nervously laughed to himself. However, he remained confident with his appearance.

Not wanting to lose ground, he continued, “Well, hello pot, I’m kettle. You can ease up around me. Does the loss of my legs disqualify me from the cool click?”

“The cool click,” she laughed. The simple delivery opened her up, causing her to finally slouch back in her chair for the first time all night. “You are something else, that’s for sure.”

“What I would give to be able to work in one of those labs in Kashmir,” Mezrich only raising Megumi’s intrigue as he asked, “I can only wonder what knowledge they have.”

The remark, as off putting as it was, served as another reminder of what was behind her. She quickly replied, “The trauma of that life against the knowledge is not worth it.”

The two went silent, quickly taken off guard as the outside hatch of the Mobile Carrier began to open. A cold breeze slowly crept through the inside of the ship, seemingly carrying Paxton with it. He stepped over towards them, giving Megumi a chill while he stood over her with his faded camouflage uniform.

“At ease,” Paxton said, struggling to get the words out. His eyes had since formed dark rings and multiple blood shot veins from the deployment—a direct result of several nights of no sleep. The normal southern drawl had barely lingered at this hour. “What have you got for me?”

“Yes, sir,” Mezrich quickly spoke up.

“Not you,” Paxton said before turning over to Megumi. Out of panic, she reached up towards her face, towards where her spectacles normally would be, only to realize they had since been lost. Somewhere between Paxton unloading on her and Nomad as they made a getaway in the UAZ to getting thrown in a jail cell, she had lost track of them.

Paxton gave her a nudge with his fist, asking again, “What do you have for me?”

“I have finally managed to create an administrative profile for Mezrich and the other crew members, sir.” Megumi said firmly before resting her hands in her lap.

“Thank you, ma’am,” he turned back up towards Control, somewhat relieved to hear Megumi’s formalities. “Control, can you create me an administrative profile?”

“Yes, please state your first name.” Control said back.

Paxton continued to stare off towards the hologram, face stern while his eyes remained in the thousand-yard glare. After a quick shrug, he turned his attention to Megumi.

“Looks good enough, I guess.” he drawled.

Megumi continued to watch him as he started to begin a cautious scan of the bridge once more.

“What do you have planned next?” she asked.

“That’s need-to-know basis, unfortunately.” Paxton returned.

He turned to Mezrich, giving him a quick wave. Without hesitation, Mezrich began to turn his wheelchair towards the corridor. While he began to wheel himself away, Paxton sat down next to Megumi.

“I know I’ve been barking orders at you and your crew for a week. You’re far from home, and a little anxious I imagine,” he said while unconsciously reached towards the metal carton of cigarettes in his breast pocket. He popped the lid off with his thumb before asking, “do you mind?”

“No.”

“Excellent,” he was quick to place a cigarette between his lips and light up. The smoke began to swirl through the air, quickly filling the room as he took a long-winded drag. “As I was saying, I know you have a lot of questions, but unfortunately we don’t have a lot of time.”

Her nervousness was soon replaced with concern while she watched Paxton continued to puff away at his cigarette. She gently waved her hand in front of her face while Control began to light up.

“Carcinogen detected.” Control blared.

“Control, shut down,” Megumi interrupted her before leaning back into Paxton. “What do you mean?”

“I just wanted to say you’ve been very useful, and I like useful. However, there is something I really need you to do for me that would be extremely useful to everyone,” he said. He began to smack the butt of the cigarette with his thumb, scattering embers and ash across the floor. "I know you have an access badge when you worked up at that lab. We took it from ya’ when we were tearin’ this place apart. Does it still work?”

“I’m certain. What do you want me for?”

He dopped the cigarette to the floor, stamping it into the metal surface with boots before replying, “I need a driver.”

“A driver?”

“We’re planning on leaving this area in the next forty-eight hours and we have a critical mission,” he continued. “I will go over the details in nine hours. Your assistance is invaluable and a key part of this mission.”

“I’m not a fighter.”

“I don’t need a fighter; I need a driver. This is not going to be anything like what ripped through this town last week.”

The pressure from the request with her previous anxiety became overwhelming, causing her to lift her hands towards him. She calmly took a breath and firmly asked, “What happens to us?”

“We’ve been over this, you’re one of us. I know you’re all shook up about leaving the Eurasianoids and doing your own thing, but things are different now,” Paxton assured her before leaning in. “You’re not going to be in any danger. If you’re getting second doubts, then I very regretfully inform you that we can’t let you go.”

She calmly began to nod. Once again, she was taking notice of the extended shift and starting to feel unnecessarily paranoid. Deep down, she was longing to be back in the L-District in her own domicile for that security, but she was slowly beginning to accept that her days in Kashmir were over.

“I know you’ve done some terrible things in the G.E.I.,” Paxton began to speak again. “This is another chance to redeem yourself. You owe it to the others, especially Rei.”

Megumi thought of Vic again and the village. She was unable to reply as Paxton continued, “She doesn’t know your connection to General Kawaguchi. With what your father did to her, you would be offering a very gracious gesture to her to ensure this mission is done.”

“I can’t be blamed for that. You don’t know how powerful he is.”

“I know,” Paxton nodded in agreement. Once more, he started to turn his focus towards the inside of the ship as his thoughts wandered. He finally turned his head towards his watch, letting out a quick sigh before squaring up once more. “My time is brief, and I need your help. Rei, Tetsu, and even Nomad need you for this job. I have to know right now, are you in?”