Post by pinksoyuz on Sept 12, 2010 1:30:45 GMT -5
An eerie sight presided over the battlefield-- an unnatural one at that. Hulks and carcasses of twisted metal could be seen all up to a certain point, and poof it all dropped off. It was large swath of open space flanked by areas littered with the wastes of combat. However unlike, perhaps, the edges of the Asteroid Belt, it was as if someone ran a putty knife through the area and wiped it clean. Haifa tried to make sense of what she witnessed a few minutes prior, but seeing solid, tangible objects seemingly atomize into thin "air" wasn't exactly an easy thing to believe. Along with hundreds of other pilots, DeGrau, her savior, was no more.
Vigorously shaking from the aftereffects of an adrenaline surged few minutes, she tried to calm herself down with long, extended breaths while staring blankly at her center screen. Her fingers ached from squeezing on the control sticks for what seemed like a millennium, and her legs burned as if she recently completed a marathon. Short of great willpower, there was no way that she could continue fighting right now.
So when she saw the sight of a couple of suviving Zaku II's converge on her position, she was absolutely elated to find signs of life amongst the Zeon forces in the sector, but then it dawned on her that the level of Minovsky particle saturation would most likely have the Zaku pilots think of her as the enemy; the fact that most of the pilots were greenhorns elevated her worry even further. Haifa immediately sent out a light pattern that she desperately wished would be recognized by the inexperienced pilots, and to her relief they seemed to acknowledge the message.
Coming in for touch communications, one of the Zaku II pilots then asked, "Are you the GM Command we were told to look out for?"
"I'm glad you guys didn't shoot me on sight," replied the woman somewhat elated. Taking off her helmet, she noticed the low rank of the pilot and asked, "You holding up okay?"
He immediately took off his helmet and it was obvious that the man, no, boy was shaken up. "Yeah, I think we're fine. Stokes and I are all that's left of our squad-- hell, probably our entire company. I think we lost all our NCOs in the last attack. That and we're bingo fuel and guns"
Haifa couldn't help but smile at the private's little remark, and she found it nothing short of amazing that such a soldier could even be thinking about continuing the fight. "I think search and rescue should be our main worry now," she said while nodding at the man. "Establish a search pattern and look for survivors; I doubt the Federation is going to return any time soon."
The man agreed with Haifa's assessment and the three of them began to comb the debris field for survivors. One by one, the group slowly found pilots, and for each one they saved, their minds managed to regain a bit of lost sanity.
Vigorously shaking from the aftereffects of an adrenaline surged few minutes, she tried to calm herself down with long, extended breaths while staring blankly at her center screen. Her fingers ached from squeezing on the control sticks for what seemed like a millennium, and her legs burned as if she recently completed a marathon. Short of great willpower, there was no way that she could continue fighting right now.
So when she saw the sight of a couple of suviving Zaku II's converge on her position, she was absolutely elated to find signs of life amongst the Zeon forces in the sector, but then it dawned on her that the level of Minovsky particle saturation would most likely have the Zaku pilots think of her as the enemy; the fact that most of the pilots were greenhorns elevated her worry even further. Haifa immediately sent out a light pattern that she desperately wished would be recognized by the inexperienced pilots, and to her relief they seemed to acknowledge the message.
Coming in for touch communications, one of the Zaku II pilots then asked, "Are you the GM Command we were told to look out for?"
"I'm glad you guys didn't shoot me on sight," replied the woman somewhat elated. Taking off her helmet, she noticed the low rank of the pilot and asked, "You holding up okay?"
He immediately took off his helmet and it was obvious that the man, no, boy was shaken up. "Yeah, I think we're fine. Stokes and I are all that's left of our squad-- hell, probably our entire company. I think we lost all our NCOs in the last attack. That and we're bingo fuel and guns"
Haifa couldn't help but smile at the private's little remark, and she found it nothing short of amazing that such a soldier could even be thinking about continuing the fight. "I think search and rescue should be our main worry now," she said while nodding at the man. "Establish a search pattern and look for survivors; I doubt the Federation is going to return any time soon."
The man agreed with Haifa's assessment and the three of them began to comb the debris field for survivors. One by one, the group slowly found pilots, and for each one they saved, their minds managed to regain a bit of lost sanity.