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Operation: Harvest #01 Ordinary Decent Aliens Three days after the broadcast of the stranger craft took place, Lt. Noin of the Space Colony of Earth signed a One-Month Pax Treaty between their forces and the alien visitors. Both parties have agreed to a temporary truce in order to exchange classified information about the enemy that the strangers told about. In actuality, the peace treaty is just an excuse of civility to ensure that both parties will not automatically smother each others’ forces into ashes, since they haven’t tested the capabilities of their armaments. Both female leaders thought it imperative to delay such hostilities. Women are very much practical sometimes. It was exactly three years after the last war between the alliance and Oz ended, and the whole of earth and the colonies as well are experiencing the much-awaited peace that many lives lost over. Now, that very same peace is about to be thwarted, by very well the same people who instituted peace in the first place. Noin paced about the monitors pensively, thinking about her position in this matter. She had had talked about this with the pilots, but most of them said the same thing: crush ‘em. They had the indifference of a rock, but she couldn’t really blame them. If you were brought up thinking that you’re the strongest being in the entire universe, and that you could control a machine so indestructible and powerful, you’d probably say the same thing. The quarters and hallways are now filled with scuttling men, hurrying to and fro, shouting orders and issuing commands in sharp, hoarse voices. They were preparing for the docking of the alien craft—amidst all the assorted comments, suggestions, objections, and violent reactions among her crew and co-workers, Lt. Noin decided mostly on her part to be at least partially civil and let the strangers dock on their base. If the pilots are indifferent about the woman’s story, she’s not. She wanted to know what the hell those people were trying to say. “If that huge thing takes over my room, I’m sleeping in your quarters,” threatened Duo. “Relax,” Noin smiled. “They conceded that an advance party dock instead, so they’re sending two smaller crafts instead of the huge one.” Her face became rueful. “I think they’ll negotiate to swindle some supplies for their ship.” “I don’t care even if they plan to take over the entire universe,” said the boy with the long brown braids. ”Just don’t—mess—with—my—room… and my partner, of course.” He added, leaning over the hangar glass windows to take a better view of his Deathscythe. “So you don’t care if total strangers would bark orders at you and tell you to go out and massacre all your kinsmen?” her look was amused. “No. You do that to me twenty-four seven.” Noin raised an eyebrow. “Don’t push it, Maxwell,” “Hey, I need my personal sleeping space.” He said, shrugging. “Besides, you started it.” Duo made a face and walked away. Noin let out a sigh. Sometimes she never understood what that boy was thinking… wait, most of the time she never understood what that boy was thinking. She shrugged and shook her head a bit at the thought. She trusted her men, and she liked them in a sort, but whatever she did, boys will always be boys. Finally, her reverie was cut up short when the radar operator announced that the advance party is arriving. “Please guide them safely to the hangar,” she paused. “I’m sure that they have ships for battle as well, but their docking procedure might be different from ours.” Noin instructed. They watched as two objects flew out of the alien craft towards their colony. The woman in the broadcast told Noin that they will send over two ships, one for the advance party, and one for the escort. “We don’t mean to look so uncivilized,” Noin remembered her say. “But this is our first attempt to make an Earth’s colony our ally. This is just a precaution, and it’s fairly SOP.” She apologized. “I fully understand,” Noin replied. Besides, she thought, if I were in her shoes, I’d have probably done the same thing. The two ships that the strangers sent appeared on the security monitors. One of them—the escort, from the looks of it—looked like a futuristic fighter jet with a blue paint job. The other ship was a bizarre craft with a rounded shield made with a strong, metallic material. The rounded one was larger than the escort craft, so Noin was sure that that was the advance committee. As the men guided the strangers towards their docks, the pilots entered the monitor room to have a closer look. “Pathetic,” Heero muttered. “I couldn’t imagine that the earth’s forces would be beaten by a mere fighter jet.” “Then these guys must have superior fighting skills,” replied Trowa. “That or earth’s pilots are even cheesier than we thought.” “But that craft, the rounded one,” Quatre squinted, pointing to the rounded ship. “I’ve never seen a carrier craft like that.” “How did you know that that’s a carrier craft?” Noin asked. Duo shrugged. “It’s big. And it’s shielded. It’s logical that it goes out there to protect something. Plus, it’s stupid if their fighters have to return to that humongous base of theirs to restock their ammo, so that silver ladybug out there’s the one that brings it to them.” Quatre nodded. “See those tubes underneath it?” he pointed still. “I think that’s where they connect with their ships. They stock their ammo since their crafts don’t use swords or thermal blades like our Gundams, and their missiles run out,” he paused. “The shield is for protection from the enemies when restocking occurs in the midst of battle.” They watched the carrier craft in silence, as if looking at it in a different view from before. Quatre and Duo’s account seemed logical, plus, it’d be the safest ship to carry them in a place that’s a territory of earth itself. “The mechanism is simple, but it’s impressive nonetheless,” Trowa mused. “Definitely not earth material. I wonder if they’d allow me to see it up close.” “Let’s not keep our hopes up.” Noin said. “The peace grounds are shaky as it is, let’s not do anything to offend them.” They walked towards the hangar to wait for the aliens to disembark. The docking sequence was rudimentary, but everything went smoothly. Everyone was able to breathe a little bit easier when the carrier craft landed on the platforms safely. The carrier craft’s doors were already opening when Noin looked around. “Where’s Relena?” she asked, more to Heero than to anyone. Heero, indifferent as ever, acted as though he didn’t hear a thing. It was Quatre who answered. “She says that she’s feeling a bit dizzy, and she wants to be excused to her room.” When the carrier doors were opened, the woman from the broadcast stepped forward. She wore a green halter top which accentuated her smooth, chocolate skin. “Greetings. My name is BC, and like I said from before, we hail from Mejer.” Noin nodded in salute, and four other people started their way out of the carrier craft. A pair of them came out first, both women. The taller one was a pale-skinned lady with long, flowing wavy blond hair, and she wore a slinky black dress which showed her generously-proportioned bosoms and had high slits on each side of her legs and thighs. The other one, not in the least bit unattractive, was a fair-skinned woman with short black hair, scantily clad with a purple swimsuit and boots. Wu Fei noticed that she was carrying a gun with her. Then, a girl went out, with long, straight black hair divided in two high ponytails. Although she had a frog sling bag, her clothes suggest that she was a nurse. Noin, the men and the pilots were as if mesmerized by the company they were seeing. They were obviously beautiful creatures! They had fair, flawless skin, delicate shapely bodies, and clothes that left very little to the imagination. Most of them were almost laughing at the thought that three days before, they were scared as hell about these beautiful strangers that claimed that earth is their enemy. Now, most of Noin’s men would follow fire to get to them. Then the escort’s craft opened, just as another middle-aged woman with medium-length ebony hair in a ponytail came strutting out, grinning as a piece of wire stuck out in between her clenched teeth. She was slightly muscular, and she had an air of roguishness about her that seemed to captivate the older engineers. From the blue escort craft then emerged a fierce-looking woman with short blue hair, and a curious eyepiece attached to her left eye. She had pale skin, and she wore a skin-tight silver and blue jumpsuit. Her expression was just like that of a warrior in enemy territory, vigilant and cautious. She was holding a shiny metal toy of some kind—a round, silver object with robotic hands and rounded feet, and a black shiny monitor for a face. “They’re all women!” exclaimed Quatre. He was surprised and impressed at the fact. Imagine women, fighting against Earth’s forces—if the story was true, of course—and managing to stay alive. He might have considered the conceptualization and actual construction of those bizarre, astounding ships a merit to these women’s talents, but fighting against earth, from which are mostly dominated by males, and actually winning? He never knew that many women who were strong of will. But then he realized, he shouldn’t have to look any farther—one of the most determined women were standing by their side leaning against the railing and talking to the visitors. “Welcome to Earth,” Noin began. “I’m sure that most of your followers are probably gnashing their teeth and are itching to obliterate us right now, but I’m hoping that the things at hand are enough to keep our one-month peace going on at a stately pace.” BC smiled. “More than enough,” she gestured towards her comrades. “I’m afraid the burden of proof falls among us, and that the one-month pax might turn into two. Maybe three.” Noin smiled back. “Isn’t that dreadful? Why don’t we adjourn to more suitable quarters and let’s take a crack at what you have. Perhaps within a week’s time, we’d resolve all this, and then we can go butcher each other.” Joking was a human response in stiff situations, after all. The blue-haired woman stepped beside BC. “Vice-commander,” she softly murmured. “I’d like to patrol the whole station and the environs of Nirvana. When we’re short-handed like this, I don’t want any of Earth’s fleet creeping up on us.” BC turned her body slightly towards her. “Meia, be careful. I know your capabilities, and I understand what you’re implying, but remember that we are on uncharted territory. Always keep your visuals open for contact.” Meia nodded. She now turned towards the muscular woman with the piece of wire. “Gasco-san,” Meia began. “Pyoro’s been out lately. Even Parfait’s puzzled by this. Perhaps you could…” she trailed off, nodding her head slightly towards Noin’s engineers. “I’ll take care of it.” Said the woman, grinning. Her voice was slightly masculine, with a slight guttural brogue. Meia handed her the silly-looking child’s toy called Pyoro, and Gasco tucked it under one arm. “And by the way, Meia…” her grin slowly dissolved. “It’s not Gasco, it’s Gascognne.” Emphasized Gasco… gnne. Meia started to make her way towards the cockpit of her ship when she called to one of the other women, the blond one. “Jura, keep your phone open. I’ll radio you for back-up if necessary. As of now, you and Barnette keep an eye on things here. I’ll take care of the rest outside.” The doors slammed shut, and she went off leaving along a trail of blue sparks behind her as she disappeared into the cold darkness. Wu Fei decided that he had enough idiocy for a day. He turned and started to walk back. “I can’t believe we went through all this trouble for such weak creatures.” Although he said that, he never meant it. From the first moment he saw how the escort ship flew on the radar monitors, he felt an unexplainable surge through his veins. He wanted to test the limits of these female pilots. If what they said were true, that they really did battle earth’s forces, then perhaps they aren’t as “weak” as he thought. “Hey, the one in the suit looks cute,” Duo grinned. “I’ll tell Hilde about that,” Noin remarked. “What’s that supposed to mean?” Duo quickly asked with an animated face. Noin just smiled at him and went down the stairs. She felt a little bit more at ease now. These are women much like her. Women have a common bond among them that men don’t have, much less understand. As she approached the group of beautiful women with an honest, welcoming smile, she felt reassured. War will never come, she would say. Earth is incapable of such atrocities, and perhaps you have mistaken your enemy for someone else. Yes, she would say those words directly unto the aliens’ faces. Earth was free from war. She and Zechs and the Gundams fought hard for that peace to finally be realized. Surely Earth wouldn’t be stupid once again to try to dig her own grave. Yes… Noin firmly believed that these people were civilized, but they were hugely mistaken. She may have been hospitable due to recent circumstances, but when the time comes when they ask for provisions and reinforcements, she will have none of it. Keeping the Earth peaceful is more than enough of a job. As she approached BC, however, the smile on her lips gradually faded. She suddenly felt unsure. Her heart knocked back on her ribs, her pulse rose as she saw the unwavering smile and steady gaze from BC’s face. When she stopped a few feet in front of her, she noticed that her mouth was dry, and her throat held back from sound. All the defenses she had wanted to say lost all meaning, and somehow, in the back of her mind, she knew that something was wrong. And she didn’t like it. “My name is Lt. Lucrezia Noin,” was all she could muster to say. “Welcome to Earth’s space colony.” BC’s smile widened but her steady, penetrating gaze remained as hard as ever. “Well, Lieutenant,” BC said, her voice resonating across the room. “Are you ready to turn against your homeland?” In the midst of all her crew, and the Gundam pilots still present a few feet above, all she could give for an answer was a soundless, uncertain shiver. [To be continued…] |
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