42nd Brigade - New York

Aurem held his GM's machinegun still pointed at the smoking remains of a now inoperative Zaku. Arieta held her beam spray gun in a similar manner toward a different downed Zaku. Destroying the Gaw had given away their position, A trio of Zakus ambushing Aurem almost immediately. Aurem had only been saved because Arieta had been covering for him from a different hiding spot, but he'd still lost his sniper rifle and his suit's right arm in the process. Pieces of a third Zaku were scattered everywhere after Arieta had hit him with a short range shot with her railgun.

As Aurem and Arieta surveyed the area, making sure there were no immediate threats, a green flare lit up the sky, signaling the remaining EF forces to regroup at that location. Aurem sighed with relief and signaled Arieta with his suits remaining arm to follow. Cautiously, they made their way toward the rally point.

When they arrived at the Medea, they saw a large number of the forces that had already gathered, including Lieutenant Ferdinand's Medea and Corporal Siggurdson's GM Blue Destiny, the latter of which looked like it had taken an especially good beating. As they got closer, Aurem watched through his monitors as medic's began trying to pull Corporal Siggurdson out of his cockpit. He looked wounded.

"Is that the jock-strap-fish-man you were talking about?" Aurem asked, unable to recall the Corporal's name.

Arieta sighed, doing her best not to recall mental images of the crew meeting from before. Aurem hadn't actually met him, but had heard the story from her later.

"His name is Corporal Siggurdson," She stated in a matter of fact tone of voice. "Aren't you supposed to be good at remembering things?"

"I'm sure it would come to me when it was important," Aurem replied casually, obviously happy to be able to drop his focus to a more normal level now that he was off the battlefield proper.

"Besides, I have you to help with that anyway," he added.

Arieta only rolled her eyes and smiled in response before the video comm link was cut as they both parked their respective mobile suits, disembarked, and went to find Lieutenant Ferdinand.

Amidst the confusion of the post-battle base, a team of nurses rushed a gurney from the nearly demolished Blue Destiny to the makeshift hospital ward. In the chaos, they charged into the middle of a squad of marines co-opted into hauling oil drums.

"Hey, what's the emergency?" one of them scowled.

"We've got Siggurdson here and he's wounded badly!"

One of the soldiers pulled the sheets off the lump on the gurney, revealing several pillows and a large, brown paper bag filled with kipper skeletons.

"Seems he's given you girls the slip."

And so Thorvald had--his injuries limited to some nasty bruises and cuts, he slipped out of the nurses' clutches and hung behind to take a look at the Blue Destiny.

"You alright there, lass?" he whispered, partially to the machine, but mostly to Marion. He got no answer--she was exhausted; he knew this instinctively, but he felt a warm wash over his shoulders.

"There's my girl," he said with a smile. "You get some sleep, love... Or whatever it is you do."

With this, Thorvald turned his back on the Blue Destiny, as mechanics began to swarm over it. He adjusted his kilt and strode away.

"Hullo, comrades!" Thorvald called out, recognizing Arieta and Aurem from before. The awkward situation with Ferdinand notwithstanding, Thorvald was delighted with how the battle had turned out--the GM pilot, whom he sincerely believed to be the doppelganger of poor Perry Wong, was missing in action and thus could no longer haunt him.

Thorvald bounded up to the two. A drop of blood began to seep out of the bandaged wrapped around his head. He wiped it away absentmindedly.

"Whaddya' say we find a pub o' canteen o' somethin' and have us a pint to celebrate?"

Thorvald's face fell at the flurry of orders. In a daze, he saluted.

"Er, sir, what kind of training exercises? Our mobile suits are trashed, sir. I s'ppose we can do press ups..."

Thorvald gave a loud sigh. He produced clothing item RT8-09, turned around out of modesty, and hiked up his kilt. Several mechanics, also of Scottish origin, cheered him on:

"There you are, Siggurdson! Showin' yer' backside to the L'tenant!"

"Here's up Siggurdson!"

"Lads, they just want me to put on this bleedin' wee thing!" Thorvald yelled back. The mechanics cackled and Thorvald scowled, making one final adjustment. Stiffly, he turned back around to face Nigel.

"Sir, I believe I am, now, properly attired, sir. As for a catchy name... Christ if I know."

He glanced at Aurem and Arieta. "Any ideas, you two?"

The smile hiding behind Thorvald's face dropped away completely.

"Listen, L'tenant, tell me what I'm here for. I never wanted to be in yer' bleedin' army but the trail of torched Zakus behind me s'ggests I'm doing a good job, so ye' jes' don't question it, yeah? As for all the poor blokes killed with me, I..."

Thorvald paused, words suddenly difficult.

"She's never killed one of our own. She's come close but she's gotten better--we've had none of that for a while. The problem, Lieutenant, is that you send me to do dangerous things. I do what I can to make sure my people come home alive but we all know it ain't always roses and daisies on the battle field. If you don't want to lose people, let's surrender right now, yeah? Maybe we gotta pay taxes to Side 3 but that's not so bad, is it?"

Through the course of the conversation, Aurem and Arieta both cycled through a variety of silent expressions. Par for the course for Aurem, but Arieta had been stunned into silence, blushed, and turn away when Thorvald donned his required clothing item. As the conversation grew more serious, so too did their expressions.

Aurem and Arieta had both heard the stories about Thorvald's strange mobile suit, but neither had ever really seen it in action. The problem, or benefit some might say, of being a sniper was that you were always in the back, on the edges of a fight, shooting inward. Usually at something significantly larger than a mobile suit. But as far as they knew, they were only stories, or at worst fish stories - grossly exaggerated.

"I don't think there's much to worry about, sir. I'm usually not in the middle of the fight, and if I should happen to find myself there, I think Arieta and I would be able to manage." Aurem said in his most confident voice, trying his best to reassure Lieutenant Ferdinand.

Arieta was a little more skeptical, but mostly agreed with Aurem. Snipers may sit on the edges of the battlefield and shoot inward, and if all went well, after one shot, the battle was over and she and Aurem could leave. But that hadn't been the case lately. Once his sniper's shot was expended, Aurem might as well have been piloting a standard GM Ground. Arieta knew Aurem could handle himself in non-sniper combat just as well as any other in his situation. She also knew he always carried a backup weapon for just such a reason.

Turning to Thorvald Aurem continued, "I don't think we've properly met yet. I'm Private Aurem Senaiha." Aurem said extending his hand. "And not to worry, friend, I have your back."

"And I have his back." Arieta added cheerfully, indicating she meant Aurem.

"So as long as you have her back, we have nothing to worry about. Just make sure it's her back you're watching and nothing lower." Aurem finished jokingly.

Arieta only blushed in response.