7Disclaimer: YES, I do own all of these characters! No one steal them. This story plot is MINE!
Thinking is /./
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Chapter Two ~Target (Ending)
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"Commander, do you copy? Commander Satara?" Dustin waited. static. "Nothing but static!" Dustin shouted angrily as he slammed down the speaker. Dustin sat in front of the radio switching signals and trying to find the right frequency. He had been at it for a while now and he was more then frustrated. After he had left Jason he had gone straight to his tent to try to contact Satara. So far he had failed miserably.
He leaned back and ran his hands through his short brown hair. His head hurt from staring at the radio for so long. The lighting in his tent wasn't the best and he was straining his purple eyes. He couldn't keep at it much longer or else he'd be risking disobeying orders. Come to think of it, his was probably the last tent standing. That would explain all the offers he had gotten to help him take down. Just as he thought this the tent door opened and one of his comrades entered.
"Speak of the devil." He mumbled. As he turned around he winced. The sunlight was SO bright. "Oww."
"Dustin, do you need help taking down? I could help you if you do." Mike felt kinda bad for Dustin. The younger man was obviously stressed. His hair was a mess and his uniform was rumpled to the point that it was unrecognizable. The outer tunic green outer tunic that identified him as one of Satara's was tangled around his camo pants and his shirt hung loosely with the sash poorly tied.
As the silence stretched out Mike bent down. "Dustin, we have to leave soon, but we'll give you ten more minutes to finish whatever it is you're doing. Then all of the air units are going to help you pack up. Okay?"
"Thanks Mike. Man, I'm sorry I spacing out on you guys. It's just. well, I don't know."
"I understand." Mike got up and left the tent.
Dustin turned back to the radio. "Ten minutes."
. Where was that buzzing coming from? " .Sat.. .. .me?" A message! Someone was sending her a message. Satara's tan skin creased into a smile.
/I've been gone for all of an hour and they're already having problems. I wonder who it is?/ Then she grinned evilly. /Wonder what they'll do if I don't answer! Hope it's not important./
"Sata..a..ans.r. .you' . ..t..ant."
/Now I really have to answer. Man, I hate it when things like this happen to me. Why can't my life be simple for once?/
Satara's communicator was blown back in her hair. /How inconvenient./ Satara realized that she had a problem. The thing with jet boards is the in using them your dominate hand is looked in the control glove, making it so you only have one hand. Satara reached across her face to grab the communicator but all she accomplished was getting it in a more precarious position in her hair. It was completely off her ear now and the wind was proving itself a stubborn component of a number of problems Satara didn't want to face but had to.
All of a sudden the communicator fell of and by an automatic impulse, Satara move to catch it with her right hand. With that three things happened in the next instant. As her hand came to catch the communicator the jet board's control sensors were disrupted, sending the board into a set of backward 360's (as opposed to forward 360's. that is weird. how do you do a backward 360? Anyway.) At the exact moment that Satara had spun out of control she missed being killed but a perfectly calculated bullet that had been shot By Leon seconds before.
Leon lowered his gun in shock.
/Did she dodge my bullet knowingly, or was it some very lucky coincidence? Coincidence, defiantly. If she knew I was here she wouldn't be standing there like an idiot./
As Leon thought this, Satara carefully adjusted her communicator. Her mind completely unaware that, by almost destroying her only means of transportation in an attempt to save her only means of communication, she involuntarily saved her own life. Satara played around with the frequency for a second until she could hear Dustin clearly. "Are you there commander? This is Dustin. Answer, damn it!"
"Yo! I'm here Dustin, and watch the language! What is it you want?" As she said this she pulled the control glove back on her hand and took off again. She could hear Dustin sigh with relief at her answer but she could tell something was wrong. She listened to Dustin breath. It was drawn in quick, sharp, almost uneasy intervals. When he spoke his voice was shaky, she could almost hear the beating of his heart. Satara realized that she was holding her own breath in anticipation. What was Dustin going to say?
Her slender fingers were fiddling with her commander sash when Dustin spoke. "Something's different in Jecht. He's. he's not acting. normal." Satara exhaled loudly. "What?"
"Oh, it's nothing. I just thought this was going to be something really bad. like. another change of battle dates or something of that nature. Not Jecht having a bad day. Sarcasm rang through her voice and she forced back a laugh.
"But, surely you've noticed something different. something more. sinister about Jecht. It's like he's blind to everything around. He isn't himself. He acts as if someone dies. He moves as though a traitor would move, secretive and cunning."
"Dustin. He's the commander-in-chief. His JOB is to be cunning."
Leon began to change the type of bullets in his gun. He took his time. There was no way Satara would get away. There was no way he would miss again. Satara would die.
"Damn it Satara! You just don't want to look at the possibly that Jecht is a traitor. Ever since three years ago you've secluded yourself to your own little world." Dustin knew he was hitting a touchy subject with Satara but if his plan worked she would at least put a little thought towards Jecht. Dustin waited for an answer.
"Shut up." Came the cold reply after a moment's silence.
"No, I won't. Satara, We.I know how you feel, but you have to understand that they got what they deserved. Those soldiers were traitors and they suffered the consequences of their actions." Satara was aghast at the tone of voice that Dustin had said "Those soldiers were traitors.". He was so confident of what he was saying that she found it almost impossible to suppress her rage, but somehow she managed.
"You're wrong." This was said so quietly that Dustin almost didn't hear it.
"I'm right. I swear I'm right. About Jecht and about the traitors."
"You say they were traitors, but you speak of what you do not know." Satara's voice contained all the rage she felt, but Dustin could hear a tone of sadness that he had never heard her reveal before. "I trained all five of them; Dale, Jordan, Chris, Carman, and Adair. I would have trusted them with my life. They saved everyone on Quindas and their reward was death. They should've received the Toda Maris, the Honor of the Queen. Such is what they deserved."
"You would give traitors such an honor? You would pay them so great a compensation?" Dustin answered in disbelief.
"I would pay them compensation many times over. And before you ask me why, I'll tell you this. They were framed. I don't know by whom, but definably by someone with influence." Satara felt the pain of old wounds reopen and return. She hated when she got all emotional, it just made all her thoughts more clouded then they already were.
As Satara silently brooded over painful memories, Dustin had his own shocking discoveries clouding his thoughts.
/Framed? Framed. By who? By someone with a lot of authority. Well. That's what Satara meant. Great authority. Could it be Jecht?/
"Well that would explain his strange behavior."
"What was that?"
"Oh, nothing. Hey, I was thinking. What if Jecht framed them?"
"Oh, so now we're back on Jecht's case. Look, will you just cool it with all the treason stu." Satara paused for a moment and then said in a low voice, "What do we have here?"
"What?"
"I think. I think I see an enemy camp. I think, mind you. All I see are camp fire, but they're coming from the mountain pass leading out of Quindas. I. WHOA!" Satara's voice was cut off by a crash and then a power surge through her headset's crystal core. "Bloody hell! Dustin, energy wall. near boarders. tell Jason. need backup."
Dustin heard no more from Satara.
Okay! Hope you liked the ending of chapter two. From here on in things should prove to get very interesting.
Thanks to those of you who take the time to review. Any comment you might have is greatly appreciated.
I'll be visiting friends for the next five weeks, so it will be a while before I update again. (Unless I can whip something up between now and the time I leave). Sorry, but you'll have to deal with this.
^_^