"If you keep pussy-footing, Nelson, we're gonna be late," Gypsy said admonishingly.

Nelson took his Aries through a slow loop as Team SOL cruised towards New Constantine for their new assignment. He'd spent months with this particular mobile suit, ever since he'd completed basic training, but the machine had been brand new. Aside from some automated testing program, Nelson Robinson had been the first person to pilot the machine. Now he was giving it up for a supposedly-cushier position piloting a prototype mobile suit.

"Alright, alright, let's go," Nelson conceded.

"Good thing too," Crow said. "I think the control tower's tired of me telling jokes to stall for you."

"Go ahead and check us in, Crow," Nelson ordered. "I'm just gonna do a barrel roll real quick."

~

The suit's legs unfurled as the squad landed amongst the base's defense squads. A pair of Realdos gave the unfamiliar squad a second glance, briefly not-aiming their linear rifles until credentials were transmitted.

"Sheesh, we haven't had mobile suits long enough for the Japs to capture some," Nelson complained, fidgeting under the increased scrutiny of the security personnel.

"Just buck it up until we've reported in," Gypsy consoled. "They'll get used to us eventually."

"Alive, I hope!" Crow said, taking off his helmet.

They endured the long march, finally arriving at a hangar they had been directed to, one covered with assorted pieces of machinery not found on the standard American hangar. They entered slowly, looking to and fro at various projects being worked on, including a strange, wheeled tank and a gleaming white Leo.

"Excuse me," Nelson said to the nearest worker. "Can you tell me where to find Dr. Forrester?"

The short man with the curly hair looked up from a clipboard.

"Yeah, he's over in his office waiting for his new test pilot to show up," the man said with a high-pitched voice. "You Robinson?"

"Sure am," Nelson said. "Just got here and I'm ready to get started."

"Oh good," the squeaky voice chirped. "I'm his assistant, Larry. I'll lead you there."

~

Nelson strode into the office, expecting a wizened, old-looking scientist in a bland white coat who would ramble about his great work for hours. Instead, the scientist wore green, running his fingers through his unkempt hair as he scribbled notes and calculations on a blueprint.

"Here's the new test pilot, Doctor Forrester," Larry said proudly.

"Good, good," Doctor Forrester said without looking. "He's been trained on the Leo, right?"

"Negative, sir," Nelson answered. "I'm an Aries pilot."

"Hmm...well, this isn't the first time procurement's screwed up my requests," Forrester muttered. "Last time they sent me a janitor in a red jump suit by mistake. He didn't last a minute in the Tallgeese."

The scientist stood up and motioned for Nelson and his squad to follow him into the main room of the hangar, towards the bright white Leo.

"This is the Tallgeese," Forrester explained. "It's based on the Leo or the Leo's based on it. I'm not totally sure, but we've taken it out of storage to see what we can learn from it to improve the next generation of mobile suits."

Nelson listened intently, expecting a long-winded speech, but the scientist simply shoved a manual toward the pilot.

"This is the instruction manual," Forrest explained. "Well, it's a Leo manual, but it's the best we've got until you write one for yourself. I'll be monitoring you from the control room and....you've got a good, healthy heart, right?"

"Um...yes, I-" Nelson began to answer.

"Good, good," Forrester interrupted. "Larry, get him the special flight suit and a waiver form. Good luck."

~

"Damn, what a weirdo," Nelson muttered as he began starting up the Tallgeese.

He had only been given ten minutes to familiarize himself with the controls. Fortunately, the controls weren't totally dissimilar from the Aries; he felt confident he wouldn't crash into the ground at least. To either side, his squadmates were mounting their Aries, ready to jump in in case Nelson lost control of the suit.

"At least he's not strapping a rocket to you and shooting you into space," Crow clucked, hovering his Aries above the tarmac.

"I wonder why he asked about my heart though," Nelson wondered aloud as the Tallgeese slowly lifted into the air.

He found out a moment later as he pushed up on the throttle, rocketing him into the air faster than the Aries could keep up. His vision blurred as he was pushed into the pilot's seat, slowing clearing as he adjusted to the g-forces.

"GOD DAMMIIIIIIIIIIIIIT!" he shouted as the suit jerked about wildly.

The white suit performed maneuvers no Aries could reasonably have been expected to perform at speeds no Aries could reach without exploding. Crow and Gypsy watched and followed as quickly as their suits would go, watching their squad leader zip about like a mosquito.

"You think he's doing that stuff on purpose?" Crow asked.

"Not a chance in hell," Gypsy answered.

Later...

When Nelson came to, he quickly realized he wasn't in the Tallgeese's cockpit and he wasn't wearing his pilot suit. Several wires were connected to him, leading to machines with blinking lights that made beeping noises. Someone with a clipboard stood by his feet, making marks whenever the machines beeped at him.

"Oh good, he's awake," the medic said, setting his clipboard aside. "Three hours...much quicker than the last of Forrester's pilots."

"Vitals are stabilizing at normal levels," someone said outside of Nelson's vision.

The pilot tried sitting up, but the medic stopped him with a grab of his shoulder, gently keeping Nelson down.

"Relax, pilot," the medic said soothingly. "We just need to monitor you for a few more minutes."

"What happened?" Nelson asked, looking around.

"Oh, the sudden acceleration stopped for your heart for a few minutes," the medic answered. "How you managed to land the suit without killing yourself is a miracle; the last guy, Mike something, is still recovering from HIS test flight and Joel Hodgson, the first test pilot, died doing the thing you did. I say his heart burst, but the overpaid quacks at HQ's hospital say that's 'medically impossible.'"

Nelson's eye began to twitch after hearing about his predecessors. He'd been told the machine was quirky and hard-to-master, but nobody had told him the damn thing was a killer when he'd asked for this posting.

"You'll be fine though," the medic quickly continued. "Joel had some heart condition and Mike typically lit up before each flight."

"Very reassuring," Nelson deadpanned. "Can I go now?"

"Yeah, sure," the medic said, nodding. "I'll just get you an escort back to your bunk. Get some rest and you'll be ready for more tests."

The medic waved to someone outside the examination room and in walked Crow and Gypsy with a wheelchair in tow.

"I haven't seen you crash a mobile suit that badly since you somehow got Major Tom's Tieren after we graduated," Crow remarked. "Gypsy figured we'd better do the driving until you're back in your bunk."

"And then it'll be the same thing tomorrow, right?" Nelson asked, getting in the wheelchair.

"Damn right," Gypsy answered. "Doctor Forrester was so pleased to hear one of his test subjects survived that he looked up from his work for five seconds."

"And the Goose?" Nelson asked.

"The mechamen say it'll only take a day to reattach all the loose bolts and such," Gypsy answered. "You two will be ready to go at about the same time."

"It can only get better from here," Nelson asked himself as he was wheeled away. "Right?"

"Not bad this time, Nelson," Crow congratulated as Nelson received a check-up. "You managed not to pass out until the end of the flight."

"Every day I'm going a little further," Nelson chuckled. "Soon I'll be able to go a whole flight!"

"That's good news," Gypsy said, walking in. "We just got some deployment orders."

The female pilot handed over an envelope to Nelson, who immediately opened it and read the orders.

"Good, we're getting out of here!" Nelson said. "I'm gonna miss the Tallgeese though. We just started bonding."

"Read further," Gypsy suggested.

Nelson looked down through the note until he saw the part Gypsy had indicated: he was to remain the pilot of the Tallgeese and get some real combat experience using the machine.

"Not a bad deal, but my insurance premiums will skyrocket after all the shit I've gone through," Nelson muttered.

"Sweet deal indeed," Crow agreed. "When do we board the ship?"

"What ship?" Nelson and Gypsy asked in unison.

"The ship that takes us to our new post?" Crow asked nervously.

"There isn't one," Gypsy said before Nelson could. "We're flying on our own."

Crow and Nelson groaned at the same time. They'd had many long patrols in their mobile suits before, traveling along the East Coast looking for trouble. Those patrols had usually covered the length of several American states, sometimes half the coast and once in a while going all the way from Maine to Florida in a single trip. The idea of another long trip was unappealing.

"So be it," Nelson muttered. "I'll put in a request for transport before we go though; maybe someone will decide they want to send scientists and need a place to put them."

"Keep an eye out for that carrier," Nelson ordered.

The SOL Squad had received orders that, to Nelson's relief, ordered them to rendezvous with the Prometheus, a Catamaran-class carrier under the command of Max Bogart. What the orders had failed to mention was the ship's location, only that it was headed South from California.

"A real helpful bunch, those Californians," Crow sniggered.

Nelson winced as he leaned back on his sunburn. If he never returned to the region it would be all too soon. The staff back in Canada had sent him several messages, nagging him to send back data on how the Tallgeese was operating, but so far all he had for them was how well it flew in straight lines. Hopefully Bogart wouldn't be some horny cougar in disguise.

"There we go," Gypsy said. "Just heard from a group of fighters assigned to the Prometheus. They're sending a heading."

"Not a moment too soon," Nelson said, checking the fuel gauges. Was there a leak in his fuel lines or did the Tallgeese really burn through fuel this quickly? "Set course for Prometheus."

The squad formed up and headed Southeast towards the Mexican coast.

"Ya know, this reminds me of a joke about a battleships," Crow remarked upon seeing the carrier.

"If you tell it I promise you'll be flying your next mission with a hang glider," Gypsy promised.

"Save it for the enemy," Nelson suggested. "Requesting docking clearance now..."

Minutes later, the three mobile suits touched down on the ship's deck, looking back and forth for the rest of the ship's complement.

"We don't have any other mobile suits right now," a hangar crewman said. "We're picking a few up at Panama."

"Oh, so can we park wherever?" Nelson asked.

"Sure," the crewman answered. "We've got one sectioned cordoned off for the planes, but the rest is alright."

The Tallgeese turned back and forth, examining the flight deck. It was a little eerie how empty the ship seemed without a complement, but he shook the feeling off. He would just have to be honored to be a third of the entire MS team for a day.

"Let's settle in, team," he ordered, heading for a berth close to the flight deck. "Stow your stuff, kick back for a few hours, then we're meeting back here for some takeout and landing drills."