Duty and Honor

The memories that entered Veronica's dreams are not from the recent battles against the EFSF. Rather they began much earlier than that. From even before the start of the One Year War...

UC 0072, Side 2 Hatte Province
18th Block Colony
Commercial District

Seven years before the eruption of the war between the Earth Federation and the Duchy of Zeon, life the space colonies was pretty much like life in any of the great cities on Earth. Society continued much like it had for the first half of the 21st century and the colonies are no different. Like miniature versions of Earth, they rotate lazily while their occupants went about their everyday lives as if they're still on the planet below their feet.

There are even weather patterns in the colonies and light drizzle cooled the air over the city inside the 18th Block Colony.

A small shadowy figured stood perched on the edge of a towering building. A hand smoothly operates the filter control on a headset.

"Kkkkksssshhhh... actions against the Federation.... kKKKkkkksSSsshhh... your service is greatly appreciated.... hsssssssss... will be safe when we get you to Side 7, Doctor.."

"Did you hear that?"

"Indeed I did. This confirms what our informant told us. Are you ready Veronica?"

Lieutenant Veronica Chan reeled back in her wire microphone and camera. The special operative of the newly formed Duchy of Zeon snaps off her surveillance goggles and replaced them with her combat face shield.

"Five targets inside the room aside from our suspect. Four males and one female."

"You can tell that from the amplification cameras, Sun?"

Across the street in an inconspicuous room, Captain Sun Wu took a sip of tea he poured from a thermos. Portable surveillance equipment is set up near the window. "This is our twentieth mission together. You taught me alot about women since the first."

"I would kill you if you've been spying on me in the shower with that intelligence gear."

"Who do you think I am? Your brother?"

"Disgusting."

"Jinyuan would do it. Then sell the tape."

"I know, that's what is so disgusting about it."

Back on the rooftop, Veronica fastens the hook of a rappelling rope to a steel bar. She then began checking her weapons.

"Do we go ahead with the mission?" she asks.

"This is a clear intention to transport one of our scientists out of the country which is a violation of multiple international treaties. If this happens, the best possible outcome is if the scientist sought asylum in the Federation but this looks like a defection of the highest order."

Sun tapped his laptop as the programs cross referenced the data they collected. "Voice print and biometrics confirmed the identity of the suspect. All anomalies are within acceptable margins of error."

"Plain english please.

"It is the good doctor and he is defecting. In order to preserve national security we have to retrieve him and bring him back to Side 3."

"And the others?"

"Collateral damage."

The P90 in her hands gave a satisfying sound as she ratchets a cartridge into the chamber. The suppressor elongated the short weapon a bit but Veronica can still work with it. She gave a tug to test her rappelling gear before getting into position.

"Standing by."

"Suspect is sitting on couch at colonial northwest corner of the room facing the television which is off. Across from him is our female target in a chair facing him. Two guards at the door on the west side of the room. One guard is by the windows facing south by second window from the left he is looking to his right... the last target is moving..."

The lieutenant adjusts the flap on the holsters holding her pistol (with its own suppressor) and her combat knife.

"Last target is entering the bathroom on the east side. Remember, there are three lights in the room: the ceiling, kitchenette, and a desk lamp. The counter in the kitchenette is twenty feet from the windows."

Veronica pulls the pin on a flashbang while keeping her hand on the safety handle.

"Target is in the bathroom. Go."

It all happen in the blink of an eye. To the 29-year old Veronica Chan, that was slow enough already.

Her feet crashed through the delicate glass windows and venetian blinds behind the guard standing by the window. By the time the three gunmen in the room start to turn to face the commotion, she is already rolling behind the countertop in the kitchenette. The flashbang went off just as Veronica braced herself in the relative safety behind the counter.

Rising to her feet, the P90 in her hands shot out the three lights in the room, plunging them all into darkness. Veronica however, had the luxury of seeing her targets silhouetted against the bright lights from the buildings outside the exposed windows.

Her weapon went PUFF PUFF PUFF four times as the suppressor dulls the sound of the gunshots. Three gunmen and one female lay dead in the room. Her suspect is clutching his ears in pain. Veronica runs up to him and slams the butt of her P90 into the back of his head. The doctor falls over unconscious.

At that moment, a crack of light appears as the bathroom door opens. The gunman who went to take a piss now came back to find the room full of corpses. He started to reach for his gun but stopped when the full length of Veronica's combat knife entered his skull from above.

Veronica lowered herself from the ceiling. "Room cleared."

"Confirmed, all targets down. How is the good doctor?"

"Sleeping," replied Veronica as she starts to bond the suspect's arms and ankles with zip ties," I think- huh."

"Huh what?" Sun Wu suddenly became worried.

"Doctor Minvosky here has black feet."

"Repeat that last?" Sun zoomed in his cameras to where Veronica was kneeling on the flow.

"The doctor in the photos has light-colored skin. I'm looking at his feet and I took the gloves off his hands. He's black."

"Check his-."

"Face, yeah. The blood from the wound from where I hit him is flowing under his skin and not out of it."

Veronica began checking the rest of the impostor. Finding nothing, she checked out the dead woman's body.

"I found something that looks like a digital playback system."

Sun Wu jumped up and ran his fingers across another set of controls. The monitors changed to reveal security camera feeds. The captain grabbed his headset.

"Veronica! Get out of there now! Incoming from the doorway!"

There are just some instructions you don't need from superior officers. Avoiding a trap is one of them.

The door bursts open as several Federal soldiers kicks down the door. Veronica is already leaping out the broken window when the first soldier opened fire. The sudden clatter of automatic weapons hid the heavy thuds of fragmentation grenades landing on the floor of the apartment.

The explosion nearly made Veronica lose her grip on the rappelling rope. Clenching her teeth, she pushed off the side of the building with both of her feet. As debris rain down from the destroyed apartment, the Zeon operative swung onto the roof of an adjacent building. Veronica landed hard, rolling a few meters before coming to a stop. She gasps for a few moments before she got up and ran to the other side of the roof.

There is a fire escape which she can scale down into the alley-

-But no, a pair of Federal marines just ran down the alley. She waits for them to pass before beginning her descent. Her feet land in a wet puddle in the alley as Veronica glanced back and forth. The sound of sirens are growing louder. Quickly she runs deeper into the alley.

Veronica looked at her digital watch. Sun Wu would no doubt be reading their escape vehicle. All she needs to do is meet him at the-

-And a Federal marine turns around the corner and nearly runs into her. Too close to raise her gun and with her knife still buried in that gunman back in the apartment, Veronica did the first thing that came to mind.

She headbutts the Federal marine as hard as she could. The startled soldier flinches from the attack, long enough for Veronica to grab some steel wire from her pouch and wrap it around the soldier's neck.

It took several long seconds before the soldier choked to death as a nervous Veronica glanced up and down the alleyway intersection. Last thing she wants is to attract more attention. Veronica then ditches the body and continues running.

There it is. A major highway in the 18th Brunch colony. Veronica crouched down by the side railing, hidden from the passing vehicles in her black operative uniform.

A luxury car with diplomatic tags approaches. It slows as it rounds the corner and the door opens. With a leap, Veronica dashes inside the vehicle before it sped back up and the door slams shut.

She laid there on the floor of the limousine for a good minute as she caught her breath. A hand offers her a towel.

Veronica grabs it eagerly and wipes her face as she continues to gasp.

"There.... goes.... the mission..." she said between breathes.

Sun Wu looked away from the tinted windows. He is now wearing his full dress uniform complete with white gloves. "It means the informant was a plant to decoy us."

"Which means?" asked Veronica as she helped herself to some of the ice water in the car's mini-bar.

"Doctor Minovsky is already in Federal hands. They found a person of similar stature and size then gave him a wax face. They then played back a digital recording of Doctor Minovsky's voice to fool our voice print equipment. Take a few moments to rest, I told the driver to give us a tour of the colony before we head to the reception. Your clothes are in the duffel bag."

Veronica yanked off her headgear. "You expect me to change in front of you like this?"

"I'm out of safehouses where you can change. The spacedock is a bit far too. Besides, this isn't the first time."

"Don't get too full of yourself," says Veronica as she pulls of her fatigues. A small pile of clothes forms in the center of the car. Her small armor chestplate hits the floor of the limousine hard. Sun picked it up.

"Looks like you had a close call," he said as he examined a bullet impact.

"It's not like I can do these missions with the new Panzergrenadier armor."

"As if anyone but the SS could use them. Wearing those things puts you one step closer to being an automaton."

"Some men like it that way. Easier to control."

"Some of us don't."

"Is that why you picked me?"

An air of silence descends as Veronica holds up a small mirror as she did her makeup. She waited for the witty responses she grew to like but is baffled by the sudden silence.

Veronica looks over at Sun Wu while buttoning her blouse. The captain is looking at her but not making eye contact. Nor is he staying into her cleavage like what Veronica expected all men to do. He is just... looking at her.

"Why did you pick me?" Veronica asked again," all those years ago at the Zeon Elite Force Academy?"

"Well... you scored high on your exams..."

"I placed 23rd out of a class of 60."

"... You fit the physical requirements for missions..."

"Only after undergoing an accelerated six month training program after you recruited me."

"... But most of all you hit your combat instructor in the face with an encyclopedia volume because he said you didn't pull off one of Napoleon's maneuvers correctly and thus disqualified you."

"Are you sure that's all?" asked Veronica suspiciously as she leaned in towards Sun. "If there is one thing I've learned about you all these years is that getting the truth out of you is tougher than unjamming an assault rifle."

Sun made eye contact with her and for the first time, Veronica saw nervousness in his eyes. Not the nervousness of a liar but one of an adolescent schoolboy.

"Have you thought about what you are going to do," he asks quietly," after you've done all these missions?"

"Huh?" Now she is confused.

"After all of this is done," he said as he gestured in the general direction of the earlier battle," when you fulfilled your duty to your country... what do you plan to do?"

"I... guess I'll go home?" To be honest, Veronica hadn't planned that far ahead. Joining the military was an rebellious impulse against the female stereotype for her.

Sun Wu shifted in his seat a little. "I want to go home too... but I want to take you with me."

Now in the years which Veronica Chan had endured as an active duty special operative for the Duchy of Zeon, she had to instantly digest and react to a number of life threatening situations. Bombs, ambushes, accidents, assassinations, and that's just to name a few. She didn't catch on that Sun was proposing to her until he fumbled in his pockets and took out a small box.

He opened it and inside was a beautiful diamond ring. A wave of horror and surprise washed over Veronica's face as it all sank in.

"Sun... I..." she said. He just looked at her, his heart obviously pounding to the point of a heart attack. The same goes for Veronica.

"I... just can't," Veronica finally said," I have to say no. Marrying my superior officer is against regulations."

A wave of resignation and rejection washes over Sun Wu's face. He thought this might happen... now he has to suffer the repercussions of-

Suddenly Veronica laughed in his face. For the first time all these years, Sun finally got to see Veronica laugh gleefully.

"Oh wow," she sniffed," you can actually be gullible. Finally, I've got you." She placed a finger on his chest. "This is how I felt the first time you lectured me during our first debriefing together."

She snatches the ring box from Sun and crawls into the seat next to him. "Still, I rather do things my way."

"Huh?"

Veronica placed her head on his shoulder as her mind went through all those missions and all those trials they've been through together. She opens the ring box and fingers the diamond ring. Now she can somewhat understand why he kept her as his agent... and why she kept him as her commanding officer.

"Sun..."

"Yes?"

"Would you marry me?"

".... Yes."

Veronica leaned over and kissed him. They linger like that for a moment as they are driven in a limousine around the 18th Bunch colony highway. With a sigh, they broke their kiss and leaned back against the plush seating.

"A shame we have to be at a diplomatic reception tonight."

"Well, the colony is pretty big and it is rush hour..."

"Sun?"

"Yes honey?"

"If you cheat on me, I will castrate you to the point where you won't even have a pelvis anymore."

"Yes dear... may you please move your gun away from my crotch?"

"Fine."