The Pilot and The Werewolf

Chapter 2

The pilot slowly made his was through the foliage, it seemed a lot less dense from the cockpit, but he could barely see a few yards in front of him. It wasn't particularly hot out, but the pilot was sweating anyways. He wouldn't admit it but he was nervous, he always gets antsy when the terrain is difficult because he fears he wouldn't be able to retreat if necessary, but that wasn't it. No, he felt like he was being watched. At one point he could've sworn he saw a pair of large blue eyes bearing down on him. He stopped and realized he was breathing extremely heavily, almost to the point of hyperventilating. He looked around and found an overturned tree to rest on. The pilot removed his dark gray helmet, his smoked out visor did little to help him in the dark anyways. His brown hair and finally blew in the gentle wind as the cool breeze helped the pilot calm his breathing. It was nothing, this is far from my first mission, he thought to himself, But it still feels like I'm being watched. At that exact moment the wind stopped. I guess that's my cue to get moving. he thought as he put his helmet back on and rose to his feet. As the pilot resumed walking, he couldn't help but give one last look over his shoulder.

The pilot continued on his way, but the forest only seemed to get more dense the further he walked. You'd think the closer I got to civilization the more you'd be able to move.. he caught himself thinking, at this point now having to resort to his knife to cut through some of the underbrush. Finally, after another hour or two of trudging through the woods and hacking at everything that stood in his way, the pilot could finally see the Zeon compound in front of him, however at first he was unsure if he was at the right place. There was no activity, no infantry, tanks, Zakus, nothing. He reached to his hip and pulled out a small pair of binoculars, they were no bigger than they had to be for the pilot to see through them. He switched the binoculars to the infrared setting, and immediately it was clear the pilot had found his destination. There was a series of heavily camouflaged mobile suits laying dormant inside the compound, and a heavy concentration of heat lay over what appeared to be a tunnel. The pilot adjusted his binoculars to the highest zoom setting, when suddenly a bright pink light appeared right in the middle of his vision, staring right at him. He did his best to remain calm, remembering that his dark clothing was designed to keep him as invisible as possible, but couldn't help but throw himself backwards at the sight of a Zaku I standing right in front of him. How the hell did I miss that one!? he screamed to himself in his own head. The Zeon mobile suit remained motionless, then the pink orb in the middle of its gas mask shaped head rotated from side to side slowly, it's 120mm machine gun sweeping right over the pilot's head. Slowly, the pilot placed his assault rifle on the ground and reached for the handheld rocket launcher on his back. He thought If I hit his gun, even if he sees me I can get out of here. He paused before placing the launcher back on his back. No, if I fire the mission's over. I've got to hope he goes away.

After what seemed like hours of staring down the building-sized green cyclops, the Zaku I finally looked away and began walking towards the line of inactive mechs, and the pilot retreated. He moved to a different, more hidden position and recorded everything he saw. Although he could only see a small line of Zaku II's, every one of them had a large protrusion coming from their forehead signifying their ranks as squad leaders. This was a high profile base alright, but why so little activity? A place with this many MS squads should be packed. The pilot finally decided he had seen enough, he understood why command was so insistent on eliminating this plot of land, but didn't understand why command immediately wanted to respond with siege weapons before knowing what the enemy presence was. He decided he'd figure that out later, and stared down the path back to his mobile suit. It's a long way back. he thought, before starting off. The pilot didn't notice that the Zaku that had nearly spotted him not long ago had swiveled its sensor to look directly at him and the path.

The pilot walked casually, he usually did when returning from deep recon. That immediately changed when the tree he was walking past suddenly exploded as a massive blast cut through. The pilot was thrown to the ground and only saw a pink light and a muzzle flash from a Zaku's massive rifle. He rebounding pretty well, and broke into a dead sprint. As he did, he reached for his rocket launcher and turned to fire as another 120mm round struck the ground near his feet and through him into the air again, throwing his aim off and sending the rocket over the Zaku's head. A bush broke his fall and he scrambled back to his feet, a shot wizzing past his head and nearly bursting his eardrums.

"AH! Shit! Almost there, c'mon just a little more. Derricho for the love of fuck you better not be asleep!" the pilot screamed as if his comrade could hear him. He turned to fire a burst from his rifle, only to barely dodge yet another blast from the hulking cyclops. "DERRICHO!!"