U.N.E. Book Two: Precipice (ON HOLD)

Chapter Six

Chapter Six

Angela sat next to Sarah on the small, yet plush couch in the squadron ready room in silence. Lisa sat across from them with her face buried in an old magazine, neither looking up at them or speaking the entire time they had been there. This wasn't uncommon for the girl anymore, and Angela really didn't know what to do about her now. She withdrew into herself more and more with each day that passed, and it had been almost three days since the last time Angela could remember hearing her talk.

It had been a little over three weeks since Thomas had joined the squadron, and not once had they been allowed to go out on missions. It was starting to get on all their nerves, but it was hard to blame the new comer for the problem when he was always so upbeat. Besides, it wasn't his fault that he needed to be trained on a Rogue. Apparently the entire time he had been in the military—which was apparently more then fifteen years—he had been piloting an old Mark II, and had never been trained on anything else. However he was making good progress

Hell, it had taken the girls close to a year to be able to get proficient enough on the Rogues that they were seen as combat ready. Thomas, on the other hand, had only been training on one for a little over a month, and already he was getting close to being ready for combat. It was an impressive feat and Angela was glad he was doing so well, but she couldn't help but wonder how well Alexander would do in his place. That boy had once managed to get into the cockpit of an untested Canadian Mech with no further experience, and pilot the thing like it was just an extension of his own body.

With nothing to do but sit there and wait for Thomas to get certified on the Rogue, their days were mostly spent sitting in the ready room while on duty. While not on the active duty roster, the squadron was still a quick response force in the event of an emergency, so that meant they really couldn't just do whatever they wanted. They were expected to be prepared to get sent out at any moment, and as such they had to keep their machines in peak performance, make sure everything in the ready room was in order, and that their gear was good to go. Most of that stuff really didn't take much time to get done, so it left the girls with a lot of down time.

This meant just sitting there, being bored out of their minds while waiting for something to happen. It wasn't even that the waiting was the worst part; it was the fact that those idiots known as Havoc Squadron were getting all of their missions while they waited around for Thomas! Never in her life had Angela seen a group of people so high on themselves like that before, and their commanding officer was the worst one of them all. The stupid and proud grin he always seemed to wear around the base was really getting on her nerves, and he honestly seemed to think of himself as some kind of god. She could not wait for Alexander got back to the squadron and show that man what a real pilot looked like.

“Ugh, this is so boring,” Angela now groaned, breaking up the silence that filled the small room. “There is absolutely nothing to do! We've cleaned our service pistols, tidied up the room, and even filled out those god awful requisition forms from new helmets! They should at least put some board games in here for when we have down time like this!”

Sarah chuckled softly next to her and flipped a few strands of her raven black hair out of her eyes. “We could always go and steal some, if you really wanted.”

“Don't tempt me. I just need to do something to break up all this waiting! There has to be something around here we could do.”

Sarah now regarded Angela for a moment, a mischievous glint in her eyes. Angela had an idea of what she was about to say, but before she could stop her, she said it anyways. “Have you heard from your boyfriend lately?”

Angela blanched and coughed in surprise, now turning to stare at her friend with wide eyes and an open mouth. However, her eyes then turned to the redheaded girl who sat across from them and saw just the tiniest hint of green as she peeked her eyes out over the top of her magazine. It happened in a flash, but Angela had definitely seen it before she once more pretended to be more interested in what she was reading.