Crossed Fate

Chapter 4

"Come on guys, it's already 0745 already. You guys need to deploy at 0800."

In the mess hall, everyone is seemingly enjoying breakfast. Whilst some tension were still looming in the air, the cheerfulness of those who are unaffected by yesterday's quarrels lighten up the mood, although by a slight margin. Even if he's not fit to be deploy today, Najmi ate with them to ensure a smooth deployment for the captain's sake.

"Shut up Naj. You aren't even going out there today." Aiman said grumpily

"We ain't like the captain. He's up hours before us and went to the hangar every morning."

"Even the old mechanic is getting sick of seeing his face every morning."

Bleep.

"Good morning everyone." A familiar bell like voice chimes in

"Morning handler one." Najmi greets her. "The guys are still having breakfast, but I'm sure the captain is getting everyone's rigs ready ahead of time."

"Eh, like he cares." Muhindra bites into his sandwich

"I do in fact cared, Rebound."

"Ah there's the man of the show." Faris chimes in. "Are you done playing around?"

"Your rigs are now bare and ready for their units to pilot."

"Oh? You aren't gonna utilise them like yesterday?" She was curious

"No because he's just gonna run tests while we fight for our lives."

"This is for your own good."

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While the whole squad were doing their usual morning squabble, the handler couldn't do anything but silently laughs at their interactions. It's quite amusing seeing how a bunch of teenage pilots interacts with each other albeit with some death threat tone being thrown every now and then. But also ever since the captain had came back, he's a lot more responsive. Once again the captain had changed to the point she even doubt her image of him.

'Unpredictable yet predictable huh?' She thought to herself

"Alright hustle up guys! 0800 in five!" The voice of Naj startled her a bit

"Yes."

'The vice captain kept everyone under control whilst the captain deals with other matters. It seemed like no matter what, the captain doesn't like to mix with everyone else that much.' She recalled yesterday. 'Except for arguments I supposed.'

'Then again, Naj told me he's gentle in nature. I guess this might be the gentle side of him. Caring for others.' She smiled at the thought

Staring at the screen, her black screen one by one were lit up with blue dots. A total of twelve units are under her commands, but it should be eleven dots for the day since one of them couldn't fight yet. Alas she were quite surprised to see all twelve units are up and running.

"Black Hawk units, ready for deployment." The captain announced

"Copy that Huntsman." She acknowledged. "A simple patrol route for today. I assumed your teams to be as per usual. Huntsman could be part of Theodore's team. You may deploy when you're ready."

"Roger that. Moving out."

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