Howard Daimler a five star general with an almost impeccable record fancied himself as the sole savior of the TA. He now stared out the forward view port in the bridge of the battle cruiser Iron Fist. At either side of the bridge about 1000 meters away the glow of a heavy escort frigates engine could be clearly seen. Ahead as well as behind the Iron fist there was also another heavy escort frigate. The first thing after being place in command of the 181st, Daimler ordered the restructuring of the unit and added an additional 5 heavy escort frigates as well as a brand new MF unit. He organized the fleet into a frigate at either side of the Iron fist, two at the rear and one in the front, all the frigates would maintain a minimum 1km perimeter around the larger ship.

This wasn't the only changes however, the small crew of the Iron fist had now been filed to capacity, much to the protest of Arturo, the now acting ships captain and pilot ever since the disappearance of the 181st commander Marcus Falden.

The added heavy escort frigates known by their code name HPDF-003 (Heavy Perimeter Defense Frigate) came equipped with 10, 78mm particle guns, three at each side of the hull, one at the front upper deck, and one on the bottom and two at the rear one on the top and another again at the bottom. It also came equipped with two forward facing anti ship missile launchers. Unlike the Iron Fist cruising speed of 2750 meters per second the frigates could only achieve a maximum 2123 meters a second. This meant that in order to maintain its escort the Iron Fist was forced to a maximum cruising speed of 2000 meters a second. This could be improved if the entire fleet made an orbital sling shot or used 1 time propellant boosters.

Currently the Iron Fist was on course to intercept the NZ-900 unit almost 320 million kilometers away from Mars. As Daimler rechecked the course being displayed on his personal screen in the captain’s chair, Arturo found himself extremely annoyed at the hustle and bustle of the bridge. He would usually if not always pilot the entire ship by himself, having rigged all the crucial ship functions into slave circuits directly into his pilots chair their was no need for 45% of the ships entire crew and the bridge could be under his direct control.

However ever since Admiral Von Schuler appointed Daimler as the new acting commander of the 181st he had set about placing the full crew requirements in the ship. From what used to be 67 people the Iron Fist now housed a crew of 543 beings. Everything from radar officers, weapons crew to dedicated chefs for the ships cafeteria.

Natasha sat in her usual desk in the ships Chief Medical Officers office, since Daimler had taken command she had been switched to permanent post as the ships head medical officer, and was no longer allowed to sort out in MF missions. Her only true entertainment and enjoyment while aboard the Iron Fist was being able to sortie out in scout and recognizance missions in her custom Shade, well that and exploring anatomy with the original captain of the 181st.

            My god this is worst then being stuck at California base. 6 months of this *****, what the hell is going on Throwing her arms on the desk she lays her head on them. “Ah great I’m getting bloated again, what day is it?” she asks in a small voice to no one in particular as she is alone in the room. With a turn of her wrist she checked the day displayer on her diamond Rolex. “The 15th that means in 3 to 2 days, ah great.”

Then, lifting herself of the desk and leaning back against the leather arm chair with arms crossed behind her head she places both feet on top of her desk. Her knee length navy uniform skirt is slightly pulled back towards her hips revealing even more of her shapely legs.

Closing her eyes she drifts back to the memories of the only lover to ever leave her. Natasha thought long and hard before realizing that her relation with Marcus was the only one to end not because of her dumping him, like she would every other man in her life, but for the fact he had been killed. Just like the many times before, the thoughts of her last lover always brought back that sharp pain in her chest. The pain that no amount of drugs sleep agents or even powerful pain killers could ever alleviate.

For the past 12 months the only way sleep ever came to her was by using a mixture of morphine, dizapene, and tranquillex. Without the heavy drugs she found herself crying, and screaming throughout the night. All though the therapist had said grief is part of the healing process; she could not deal with it. Deep down she admitted she was being a bigger coward then even Marcus ever was, but she didn’t care, stopping the pain was worth any cost.

Within several seconds the tears began to appear, quickly getting up from the chair she reaches over and grabs her hand bag, digging into it she pulls out a small white medicine bottle. Popping the lid open Natasha throws two white pills into her mouth, and then pulling open a small drawer in her desk she takes hold of a small metal cantina. Taking one swing from the flask she again settles back into a conferrable position in her leather armchair. Clicking a button on her arm rest her 17 inch LCD flat screen activates, another click locks her office door, and with a third switch of a button the entire office goes dark.

On the screen a multimedia menu appears, display several thumbnail images. Scrolling throughout the selection the curser stops on a thumbnail that’s almost entirely black. Within a second of her making the selection a video begins to play taking up the entire screen. At first it is completely dark until low light of what seems like a candle being lit illuminates what appears to be a room. Then the camera turns and focuses on Natasha herself. “..Are you sure this is a good idea, I don’t want to end up on “Celebrity Sex Tapes.” The voice of a man, apparently the one holding the camera asked as he zoomed in on the nude figure of Natasha who laid on the bed smiling at the camera, her long blond hair loose and draping across her shoulders. “relax and get over here, we are too poor and not cool enough to have someone put this on tv.” Natasha spoke as she picked up a glass of wine from a night stand next to the king size bed. “Fine fine, if this ever gets out I will make sure to blame you.” The camera man spoke as he moved about the room making the image shake as he walked. “Get over here already” she demanded as she placed the empty glass back on the stand. “hold on…let me put this on the tripod ...ok there we go” the camera man the jumped onto the bed and came into the cameras field of vision revealing Marcus with his long wavy hair wearing only a pair of black army shorts. He kisses her on the cheek, and then turns to the camera.

“Ok for all the people that will be watching this, us only, we are here to celebrate this beautiful girl’s 22 birthdays, and it happens to be our 7month anniversary, sense we officially started dating, of course only us and well Vladimir, Ortega, Drake, and Roberto know or at least suspect anything.” Making a serious face and using a serious mocking tone Marcus then says “It would be improper and against Navy personal conduct and regulations for a superior officer to engage in a relationship with a subordinate.” He then laughed as he leaned against Natasha’s body, who mockingly hit him across the head, saying “Who you calling a subordinate, I am chief medical officer you know”
“Oh my apologies doctor, well in that case I have a pain here” Marcus points to his lips with a finger “that only you can cure.”

“Really let’s see here…” Natasha then grabs his head with both hands and pulls him close and kisses him on the lips. They hold the kiss for almost 30 seconds before pulling away. Then Natasha flips Marcus onto his stomach and she sits on top of his back with her back to the camera. “Out of all the people I have known, you the only one who’s ever done so much for my birthday” She spoke as she began to massage his shoulders and neck. Her gluteus rested on his lower back with her bent legs at either side of him. Her white lightly tanned skin gleamed in the candle light. Her hair seemed to almost glow.

“What really, a woman as beautiful as you, no way I be doing stuff like this more often but I, hell we just, don’t have the time. Good thing I lied to the old man about that shotgun wound else we still be deployed. Hey tomorrow I got reservations to some fancy restaurant or something here in LA, its like 500 just to get in, so can you come with me tomorrow to buy some clothes cause I definitely have nothing to wear.” Marcus spoke as he lay still on the bed hands under his head enjoying her massage.

Natasha then laid her nude body entirely on his and hugged him, she began to kiss his neck and shoulders before she gently moved herself next to him, and he turned to face her, they began to passionately kiss and not wanting to wait anymore she grabs with one hand his shorts yanks them off throwing them to the air, where they happen to land on the camera, the image goes dark and only the slight sounds from the bed and a soft classical music can be heard from the otherwise dark screen.

By now the effects of the drugs and the alcohol had fully kicked in and she just laid motionless in a deep almost comma like sleep in her office chair. Outside her office Drake happen to be walking by when he heard what sounded like someone was watching a porn video, he stopped for a moment looking around however the only room in the area was the medical chiefs office and across that the med lab. He then walked up to the med lab, but as the door opened he found the place empty. Then as he continues to slowly try to pinpoint the sound he saw the darkened office. As he stepped up to the door and was about to tell Natasha to stop being such a pervert on duty, he retracted and took a step back away from the door. “Out of all of us she is probably suffering the most, let me get out of here, she has enough grief to deal with” He then proceeded down the hall and took a left at the next junction in direction to the MF hanger bay.

“Now this is what I call firepower, two I mean two, what the hell man talk about overkill.” Vladimir spoke as he sat in the pilot’s chair of the EX-0 Mobile Frame, kneeling on the catwalk in front of the open cockpit Roberto couldn’t help but grin. “You lucky *****, why can’t I ever get assigned a customer prototype MF. I am sick of these *****ty Shades man.”

“Oh stop your bitching, you now you don’t have the kills or the rank” Vladimir spoke as he manipulated both control throttles in the pilot’s chair, checking the MF’s response time.

“Well don’t worry from what I hear we picking up an even better Frame. All though I hear the pilot is some rookie with no actual combat experience. So skills or rank my ***** Vladimir, anyway I am going to go cry inside my Shade be back later” Robert the laughing stands and walks away and down the catwalk towards the hanger exit.

Vladimir chuckled as he continued running simulations and diagnostics of all the frames systems.

As Robert neared the exit door Drake appeared, “Yo if it isn’t the Colombian cartel boss himself, how you doing JEFE”

“Listen you asshole gringo, just because I am Columbian don’t make me no Mob boss, and last time I checked you the one with all those ties to the Russian mob.” Robert spoke as he crossed his arm across his chest, his pilot’s suit stretching a bit at the shoulders.

“Well that may be but I didn’t play the Cartel boss during a certain South American picnic.” Drake spoke as he began to laugh.

Robert also joined in the laughter. The last black ops mission they had done together along with Marcus was in Chile about 4 years ago where because of being the most Hispanic looking of the group Roberto played the part of Colombian cartel boss in order to infiltrate a know EAP terrorist unit working in the country.

“Hey listen I came to get you and Vladimir so we can go crush the idiots from maintenance who think they can beat us at poker.” Drake spoke as he leaned against the metal wall of the hanger. Around him the hanger floor was busy with movement, mechanics and repair crews moved about shifting large crates of equipment, ammo, weapons or spare parts. At the far end a Shade was being refitted with a heavy Bazooka while on another side several crew members worked on tuning the engines of the EX orbital weapons.

“Well I am definitely in, but Vladi boy is too busy jerking off to his new unit, I doubt his left the cockpit in the past 24 hours.” Both Drake and Roberto laughed as they exited the hanger deck.

“Natasha wake up, Natasha come on wake up you lazy bum!” The words were almost a wisper yet Natasha could swear he was right next to her. Quickly opening her eyes she scanned the dark office at first she couldn’t see anything, her eyes where still groggy from the drugs.
“You jerk why you not contact me for the past year, where the hell you been.” She was furious, the nerve of him not telling her anything, not a phone call, not a letter, not even a secret coded transmission nothing, all this time she thought he was dead, only to come wake her up. She spinned around but all she saw was pitch darkness. Then again his voice telling her to wake up, this made her almost extatic and as she tried to get up she lost her balance and fell.

“I am up, I am up just get over here and help me already.” Deep inside she thanked god for ending her year long suffering to have Marcus back in her life. Everything would be as it always was, Natasha thought to herself. Yet he never came to help her. Annoyed she stood up and inched herway across the wall to the light switch.

Upon flipping the switch she had to imidiately cover her face, the bright light was to instance for her dialated pupils. Across the room near her desk she thought she saw the figure of Marcus standing there arms to the side.

Yet as her eyes adjusted to the light the vision of Marcus disappeared and was replaced by the clear view of her tall dark office plant. Unable to move and almost unable to breathe her body just stood there, her brain desperately trying to make sense of what just happened then as she slowly walked back to her desk she saw the paused image of the video.

Something within her snapped, she ran out of the office down the corridor, almost knocking over several crew members on her way. After running through several hallways and stairs, she arrive at a door labeled “shooting range”. Running inside Natasha pulls out a fully automatic assault rifle, from the weapons locker. Then almost leaping for the shooting gallery she gravs a magazine from the magazine rack and pops it into the rifle. Throwing down the bolt of the rifle she then hits the target activation switch. Instantly several holographic targets appear at several distances. Some move back and forth close and away from her while others move from side to side.

She just held the rifle to her shoulder, her eyes where fully dialated and almost frenzied. Her hair was wild and loose, sweat poured down her face, her armpits where becoming clearly wet with perspiration. An eternity seemed to pass with her just holding the rifle battle ready.

Then like an explosion she opened fire, without the standard silencer the noise of the fully automatic weapon drowned out all other sounds in the room. Even her almost nonstop wails and screams where silent against the thunder coming from the barrel. The fire came as a constant stream, bullets flew in every direction some hit targets other missed and impacted against the back wall or the floor. Within 20 seconds she emptied an entire clip.

Even though the rifle mag was empty she still held the trigger. Then like a flash of lightnign she unloads the empty mag throwing it to the floor and pops in a fresh one, throwing back the rifles bolt, and loading the round into the chamber, again she began to fire.

Golden almost white beams of light seemed to streak past the capsule as if it was in the middle of a meteor shower. Sharon could only hold her breath in desperation and fear as the beams of energy surged past her small emergency capsule. One hit from any of the stray energy shots and she would become one with the universe.
Off in the distance she could see the familiar blue engine trails of Blue Dragon. It streaked sideways then traces intricate patterns through the dark canvas of space as multiple golden beams of light chased him like a pack of hungry wolves.

“Hahahah...this is to fucking easy, my god, is this guy for real. Pathetic!” exclaimed Hector as continued his relentless attack on Blue Dragon. The NZ-900 MF rocketed past Adam firing its energy rifle continuously. With 10 boosters all working simultaneously the NZ proved itself a superior Mobile Frame when it came to maneuverability, however trials where yet to be created to test its performance in earth atmosphere.
“No choice left these guys are too damn fast. Angel System engages.” Instantly all 8 wing binders spread out forming the shape of wings, 4 at each side. All 8 orbital weapons flew out like a pack of angry wasps vent on killing the enemy that dared disturbed their nest.

“Ah how cute orbital weapons.” Hector quickly pulled both throttles back and twisted the feet control petals making the NZ perform a series of Ariel maneuvers.

Inside the pod Sharon could only pray as she watched the flashing beams of light off in the distance. Then almost without warning the sound of heavy breathing from Adam came through her suits communication system.

“Sharon listen up, I am remotely activating your planetary landing sequence. There is no way I can get close to you. I will try to meet you where we agreed. Good luck and I love you!” saying this, the radio went silent again. Then she felt her whole body be pressed against the seat as the pods retro rockets began to fire and rocketed her away from the battle and towards the red planet.