It was now 10 days since their previous battle, an entire week - A week isn't a particularly long period of time of course - But for Scarlet and just about everyone else in the Tristain flotilla, it had been a particularly long week.
Alot could happen in ten days, she had watched her comrades hit rock bottom, then thought by her own hands she could lift them back up, only to have them fall to entirely new depths of sadness and burnout.
But despite that here they all still were, worse for wear maybe, but still standing in one piece.
'One week huh?'
Scarlet had been aboard alot of warships, quite a few civilian transports too - But she would have to admit that the hanger-bay of the Am-Fluchtig was by far the best of them all.
IAFS didn't have the finances to build armadas, at best they had around 100 ships total hidden in all corners of the solar system, and most of those were former TSU or Abhailen vessels - So to their credit, what few original ships they did produce were made to order.
The Celtic-Class Battleships were designed as heavy all rounders, good weapons, strong defences - State of the art communications equipment to allow them to act as fleet-command-units and of course a massive hanger-bay.
A space so large smaller freighters and supply ships could fly straight inside the ship to unload, rather than having to dock alongside.
The Fluchtig's for example was divided in three, to the East lay the massive workshop run by Chief Pel - Some would say having more space for mechs was better then a workshop and Scarlet could definitely see merit in that, but these last 10 days had truly gone to prove the workshop's value - Without it there was no way they could of repaired the 9 still functional Neos, and moreover tune and service even the mostly undamaged units like Scarlets, to an absolute peak condition.
To the centre, in front of the massive roller-doors, large enough for Vijaiks to easily step through - Lay the magnetic lines, thin strips that shot out the mechs at an accelerated speed to give them a little head start in battle - Behind those, the large elevators leading down to the under-hanger and even deeper into the ship's extensive storage areas.
Finally to the West was rows of what to the common eye looked like railway sidings, raised platforms packed with crates and other deliveries - A place for shuttles to land beside and be unloaded.
It was here where they she had first met Una, and it was here where she now stood, a couple feet behind Kolme who himself stood in front of an impromptu podium made of wooden boxes.
He was giving a long and rambling speech to three rows of people before him - In the back row were the five pilots of the Rinie, Tomo and Erfu, the man who had lost both legs in the previous battle and two others she didn't know the names of.
In the middle row stood just three people - HQ had not sent replacements for the Valliere's fallen pilots, in fact no one had even been prompted to squad leader of that ship - Most people knew that really the Valliere-Vijaik-Squad was no more, its survivors were really being merged with Tomo's squad and taking their day to day orders from him - She looked to the squad's surviving officer, a tall blockheaded man with bulging muscles - He was the type of pilot she normally disliked but right now she felt alot of sympathy for the man.
Finally in the front row stood Sabban, next to the wheelchair bound Una and lastly Hoki. Una hadn't spoken once after her breakfast outburst two days prior- That was until Scarlet had suggested not bringing her to this meeting, suddenly Una had sprung to life, insisting she had to come - So here she was, face staring blankly at the floor.
Scarlet allowed herself a little smirk as Kolme was forced to stop speaking mid-sentence when the loud rumbling of the hanger's MBT-Mk2 trundled by nosily.
The Vijaik MBT was a sort of predecessor to the Neo and looked somewhat similar in design, well normally it did.
The Fluchtig's wasn't a combat unit, rather it was littered in weird adjustments, prototype customizations, seemingly random pipes and cabling visible here and there. Most of all was the simulator prototype - Unlike the detachable ones their squad used, the MBT's was permanently fixed, giving the old machine a sort of plus-shape when looked at from a side profile.
Even its life as a test machine was clearly coming to an end, the machine had been abused a little too much at this point - Most saw it now as simply a very big forklift - But Scarlet couldn't help feeling a little endeared to it, on it kept working as hard as anyone around it - Even if all it did now was move boxes about.
Finally Kolme finished his speech, stepped off the platform and took a place next to Hoki in the front row.
Scarlet stepped up to the podium.
Confused faces looked up at her, even Sabban seemed lost - They had intended to tell him, but in the end it had been a struggle just to get him to eat something and go to bed ahead of today's fight - Scarlet and Kolme had literally had to drag the young man out of his mech's cockpit - Ultamitely they had forgotten to inform him, not that it mattered much.
She grinned, it was a little forced, but still unmissably her wolfish grin - She had hated her teeth as a child, it was a memory buried deep in her, of other kids mocking her for having oddly pronounced Canines - In highschool she had gained something of a... delinquent reputations, those same teeth earning her the nickname 'bloodsucker' - Now she was glad of them, for her grin was part of the image, part of what made people see her as the Scourge.
He grin was the smile that could kill Casnels all by itself, or so they exaggerated - And right now it brought all those in-front of her to silence, it created a tension of expectation.
And not just to those before her, like Kolme's speech, this one too would be broadcast to every handheld in the flotilla, video and microphone footage to every crewmember - 'Quite the audience.'
"Yo, I won't keep y'all as long as old man Nilas did." That comment gained her a few nervous laughs, though it was far from ice-breaking.
"I don't know all your names, heck about half of you in-front of me are strangers - But I bet you all know me, the Scarlet Scourge, or to some of you, Mad Dog Scarlet.
See that's the thing, aside from my Lover in the front row--"
She paused as some engineers passing in the background jeered boisterously at this comment, she waved them off with a laugh;
"--Aside from him and Tomo glaring at me from the backrow, all of you are what? In your first year of soldiering? Maybe a couple of you have been out here as long as three, four years?
Heh, you're all at that stage where you believe the rumours amma' right? You hear the hype, the legends of the First War, of the Cheval the Troy, the arrowhead that lead TSU from the brink of defeat, to total victory - Of the First Casnel, the God that could fight entire armies without a scratch - And maybe even of the Scarlet Scourge, the woman who slays Casnels."
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She paused to take in their expressions, a mix of nervousness and concern - She had them hooked and though speeches weren't her forte, she knew a little build-up was called for.
She grinned again, for real this time;
"Well I won't lie to you all, the rumours, the legends - It's all true. The Cheval the Troy, the older sister of our target, the Curadh, really was unbelievably powerful - And the First Casnel, ha!!
You lot don't even understand what it was like, it shone brighter than the sun, it crushed and slashed and hacked hundreds of enemies all by itself, it was the definition of legendary, it was a God!"
Concern was rising now, a couple hushed whispers about the grim direction this seemed to be heading.
"And ya known what?! They sunk, both of them, I saw it happen, at the battle of Fortress Moon Ghealach, the day the Last King of Abhaile's head rolled - Sure the crew of Cheval mostly evacuated but the ship indisputably sunk and the First Casnel, beaten by a Vijaik class fortress - By a name you all know, by IAFS's very own Commander Ceathair! Who not only sunk that God of a machine, but lived to tell the story, to later join us here in IAFS - I know him, trust me he brags about it, alot."
She laughed.
"And he isn't the only one, I have too - And not just that test unit I killed earlier this year, pah!
That was a child nothing more - No I've fought with real Casnels - You all remember Major Moncha, the enemy leader our higher up's in their infinite wisdom decided to hand back? Well I seized him up a little before he left, had a chat ya know?
He reminded me of just a couple of my Casnel encounters over the years.
I once fought this gaint, all gold plated Casnel, the size of two if not three Nemos."
She stopped and locked her eyes on someone in the middle row, "You don't believe me do you, you want to stand there and roll your eyes huh?!"
She flipped up her eyepatch.
There was of course nothing to see, no hidden power, no secret - Just a space where a second eye had once been long ago.
She didn't wear an eyepatch because of shame or pride - She simply kept her scars to herself, they were a part of her she had long accepted, she didn't want people to see her differently for them, they were what they were.
She had known some who saw battle wounds pridefully, a display of battles won - Others the opposite, a sign of lost comrades, a battle barely survived.
There were very few who bragged of old wounds - Maybe to a grandchild or maybe half-drunk in a bar - But to Scarlet that was something different, more nuanced then bragging - She knew for a fact what she did now was no boast, rather the best way she could think of to make them, all of them, believe.
Rolling up her shirt sleeve, a plethora of deep burns and poorly treated scars - She picked a particularly nasty one and held it to out toward the crowd;
"This is the one I got fighting that gold Casnel - But here's one better--"
She rolled up her trouser leg, to show her prosthetic, "This one I got fighting none other then the Curadh - Ya that same Curadh we're chasing now - It was years back, during my Remembrance days - I faced a different Casnel, launched from the Curadh - And I crushed it, lost this leg in the process, but I won."
That was actually a lie, she had lost this leg before that - But it hardly mattered, she really had faced off with a Casnel from the Curadh 5 years ago - Even if the Bane of Konpei had been the one to actually defeat it.
She looked to the backrow, to the pilot like Una, in a wheelchair - The one who had barely survived and lost both his legs in the process; "I beat it at a price of my leg, I wouldn't recommend doing that mind you - That said? Anyone who loses their legs and is still brave enough to attend a meeting like this, is a hell of man in my book."
She finished nodding in his direction.
The man looked as though he might well into tears, but he held them back, made eye contact with her and nodded - He like Una wouldn't be piloting today, but he stood proud with his comrades no less.
It was time Scarlet knew, she had strung them along far enough, now she could hammer it home.
"Casnels are not invisible, Troy class ships are not invincible - In my life I know I've assisted in the downfall of atleast 6 of the bastards - Yes the rumours that they are God-like in ability and strength is true, yes they all have ridiculous Magi pilots that can see the friggin future!
But one other legend is true too - I am thee Scarlet Scourge, the woman who slay Casnels, who slay Gods!!
So what if they have a good swordsmen on their side, have you seen my sword?!"
She beckoned in the direction of her Red-Neo-C deliberately left in view, its massive Calabar blade on its back.
"So what if they have a single G-Type Casnel - They've been sunk before and they will be sunk again - We will show them all, all those in headquarters who won't give us proper reinforcements, all those in TSU who think we're just playing soldier - We'll show the world we can do with 15 Nemos, what the Tradech barely does with its three Casnels!
And to those you who think you're going into battle with the mad dog today, I say no!!"
She withdrew a plastic bag from her bomber-jacket, inside a syringe - Most of the flotilla had no idea about her drug abuse, for most they'd be learning about this for the first time - But that was exactly the point - 'Change the state of play' Scarlet thought to herself - Make them think that today's battle is different, today's battle is with someone stronger then before.
She smashed the syringe against the podium, the shattering sound echoing deliciously into the microphone;
"The Mad Dog is gone, Today you fly with thee Scarlet Scourge - You understand that right?!
It doesn't matter whether I know all your names or not, your life stories, your simulators scores - No, you are the brave ass people, mad and brilliant enough to fly alongside me - You are trained, you are skilled and you can damn well succeed - Everyone of you has flied and is choosing to once again take flight into that endless sky!
Well today you fly with the God-Slayer! And today is the day we end Operation Deadlight once and for all!!!"
A moment of hesitation, of consideration - And then a roar of applause, not just from the pilots in front of her, but all around the hanger - A booming review.
But she knew who too look to most of all - Kolme and Hoki were obviously going to clap no matter what, it was the likes of Tomo and Sabban, both more resistant to a speech like this, but both clapping, looking begrudgingly enthused.
And most of all Scarlet looked to Una - All the way through her head had been downcast, almost unconscious looking - But now it was staring right up at her, hanging on every-word, even if she didn't clap it was more then enough - Scarlet knew she had got through to them, given them 'hope' as Kolme had put it - Convinced them the Casnels weren't all that, made them see her as the Scourge once more.
She allowed herself to smile, panting a little as she caught her breath, basking in the applause, the cheers of motivation - She had finally done what only she could do.