Beginnings

Our story began with our 4 protagonists meeting by their mobile suits which were having various wires and cables attached to them. Looking from left to right we have the tall and imposing figure of Hazuma Yuri. Next to him is the comparatively diminutive figure of Maya Mclain looking over all of the suits with a curious gaze and casting worried glances at the seemingly excitable individual beside her. This particular individual is Makoto Allenby and he was trying hard not to bounce up and down in excitement at the prospect of "punching something in a giant robot". Finally beside him we see the figure of Bruce Broheim who one could tell was the ranking officer judging by the ranking on his epaulettes. He had a look of exhaustion about him but whether it was from Makoto antics or something else was a mystery.

As they all stand milling about a main neatly dressed in an officers uniform approached them. All of them bar Makoto salute smartly knowing that this was the bases command Stanley Hawkins. Ignoring this, Hawking informed them of why they were here. Their mission was to capture a high ranking member of the Zeon Remnants, one Jack Rein, who has information regarding the whereabouts of the Midnight Fenrir corps who had been acting as the main command point for the resistance movement since the end of the war. Before all that though, they were ordered to do a quick training simulation as they didn't know each other and this would hopefully help ease them into their new team. The results of the training simulation were........ mixed. While most of the team managed to score several kills and assists and survive the encounter, they were also introduced to Makotos rather reckless streak that involved him charging head on into the enemy and engaging in close quarters even going so far as to overclock his suit to the point that it tore itself apart. Needless to say, the squad realised they would have their hands full with him, especially Maya who was the teams support specialist.

Regardless of the result of the training they had little time. They were ordered to load up onto a Medea transport and head straight to Jack Reins location. So with their suits loaded and having met their pilot, David Geld, they were flown to the crashed gallop transprot in the side of a hill that served as Reins operation based. To avoid them detecting the Medea, the pilots were told they would be parachuting out of the Medea in their mobile suits and so they all jumped out one at a time. First went Makoto, ever eager to fight, in the grey form of his mobile suit the Suzaka. Next went Bruce, already irritated by Makotos antics and complete disregard for the chain of command, in the menacing scythe wielding form of the Palerider Thanatos. After him went Hazuma carefully descending in the armored mobile suit Susano. Last came Maya in her ranged support suit known as the Raphael. Due to Makoto's haste, both he and Bruce landed away from their comrades, closer to the base, the Suzaka being slightly damaged in the process. Once they dropped, they saw several seemingly old mobile suits ranging from Zakus to a few Goufs. At the back was a unique Mobile suit. A purple Efreet unit wielding a machine gun and halberd. This was obvioulsy Jack Rein and Bruce opened comms hoping to force a surrender and avoid a fight. Jack refused stating that he was not going to give up without a fight. And thus began the battle.

While the Zakus provided cover fire, the Goufs covered ground to get into close combat with Bruce and Makoto. They were met with explosive resistance from the Raphaels Bazooka and the experiment long range beam sabers afforded to the Susano. This coupled with Core Fighter support from the Medea allowed the Thanatos and Suzaka to push forward eliminating the Goufs which allowed the others to catch up. The Thanatos sustained some damage but was patched up by a specially modified sealant launcher the on the Raphael allowing it to continue the fight until it could be properly repaired. Unfortunately while they were doing this, Suzaka had charged Jack Rein who had started charging with his Halberd raised. Attempting the same trick he utilised in the simulator, Makoto overclocked his unit to breaking point. Sadly this time it did not pay off and the suzakas limbs were sliced apart by the Effreets halberd. What was worse was in an attemp to get to Makoto, Maya stumbled into a trap of Zakus who had been lying in wait and was instantly swarmed kept alive only by support from Hazuma and the Medea which had now descended. The battle came to an end when Bruce literally threw what was left of the Suzaka out of the combat zone, confronted Rein one on one. After a fierce battle between Sycthe and Halberd, Bruce held Reins life in his hands and once again asked him to surrender guaranteeing the lives of those under Reins command. Realising prolong combat would only get his men killed, Rein surrendered and was escorted back to the Medea his men dropping their weapons and following.

On the way back Makoto was chewed out by pretty much everyone ranging from the chief engineer to Bruce himself for being so reckless and getting his suit destroy. After this though the rest of the hour or so journey was spent getting to know each other. They learned of Hazumas past of defecting from Zeon which was met with....mixed reactions ranging from not caring to distrust. On their arrival back at the base Jack and his cohorts were taken into custody and the team were given the rest of the day off. Hazuma and Bruce used this time to interrogate Jack into getting the location of the Midnight Fenrir. It turned out that Hazuma and Jack knew each other through a mutual commander. One Ramba Ral. It took some convincing and many philosophical debates about war, but eventually they got Jack to give up the information in exchange for a guarantee that the Federation forces wouldn't go on a murder spree but take prisoners should they surrender.

The next day, Bruce was called over by the lead mechanic for their squad, a man by the name of Edward Gill. Having been in charge of repairing the mobile suits he and his team had to get into the insides of the Palerider. As a result of this they came across an unknown program. The HADES system. Having not heard of it before, Ed confronted Bruce about it but found Bruce remained tight lipped. Unknown to the two of them Maya had overheard this conversation and enlisting the help of Hazuma, who had skills with computers, attempted to find out what HADES was. He fared a little better than the engineers but not by much. All he could glean from the systems source code was something about multiple limiters and one word that cropped up several times. EXAM. They brought their findings to Ed who promised he would keep looking into it having heard of EXAM before but not what it actually was. He also sent this information to Hawkins.

Meanwhile Bruce had decided to contact his friend in the Augusta Newtype Labs who had helped him become an enhanced human. He was concerned about the fact that they found out about HADES and the fact he hadn't been able to use it yet despite needing that power. His friend, one Lucas Avery, told him that it was inevitable but shouldn't be a problem considering despite all Bruce had been through, it still hadn't activated so it was unlikely to do so. They would have talked more, but Bruce was summoned by Hawkins to his office. The meeting consisted of Hawkins again grilling Bruce about HADES and revealing to him information about the EXAM, a system used to enhance a pilot and his suit at the risk of going beserk, but Bruce said he didn't truly know what Hades was. Satisfied, Hawkins proceeded to inform Bruce about the out,line for the operation against the Midnight Fenrir. The operation would take place the next day and would be led by one Noct Gadis and Bruce could hear the utter disdain that Hawkins held for the man. It was at this point that Bruce got a feeling and decided to peer outside the office. Looking down, he noticed a cardboard box and picking it up, he found Makoto. Makoto upon realising his.....disguise had been compromised bolted back to the hanger. Bruce after a few moments went back into the office and told Hawkins what happened. He declared he would submit Makoto for corporal punishment after the operation and Hawkins agreed.

After the meeting ended, Bruce to the hanger where Maya and Hazuma were. On finding them the immediately asked him questions about EXAM and HADES. He ignored them and stated that the operation against Midnight Fenrir would occur the next day. Makoto was to be court marshalled afterwards and if he attempts to flee they should shoot him. Hazuma being somewhat of a veteran on one side or another agreed but Maya was more troubled with the idea. Bruce explained this was part of being a solider. Hearing that they were talking about him, Makoto revealed himself from the cockpit of his mobile suit and joined the conversation. Bruce asked him what he had heard and Makot admitted he only heard bits. Bruce then told him that he still expects his best in the next operation and, because he could see potential, he would consider rescinding his order for a court marshall. Our episode ends with Bruce telling his team to prepare themselves for tomorrow. They had no idea that nothing they could do would have prepared them for what was to come.