Nadesico Fan Fiction ❯ A Day in the Life . . . ❯ Afternoon . . . ( Chapter 4 )

Lesse here, I'm not sure what this one will be about, but there'll probably be an Aesti battle in here somewhere!
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4: Afternoon . . .

I went to Sickbay to get some Advil for a slight headache about a half-hour after lunch, and was rather surprised at the sight that greeted me. A couple of survivors of the food fight were waiting to be seen by Fressange; I guess a couple of them got smacked too hard by flying trays.

Ruri was walking past Sickbay for some reason, and she looked in the room. Spying the semi-food-covered people in the waiting room, she muttered, "Idiots . . ." before continuing on her way.

It wasn't too long after that when the Nadesico had the misfortune of being detected by one of the fleets of Jovian Grasshoppers that's taken up wandering around Earth and it's orbit. I groaned when I saw the red alert lights flashing; by the time the battle was over, some major Aesti repairs might need to be done. Cursing slightly, I ran to the hangar to help prep the Aestis for launch.

Getting to the hangar, I spotted Seiya barking orders to the other techs through his bullhorn. He saw me coming and yelled, "What took you? Get over there and help the rest of the team getting Akatsuki and Subaru ready for launch!"

"Whatever you say, boss!" I replied even as I was running across the hangar towards the two Aestis. I wound up running final safety check on both of them, with Akatsuki's getting the okay for launch, but Ryoko's had a slight problem in it's energy system.

"Oh, come on, let me launch! It doesn't seem like anything's wrong from in here!" Ryoko yelled through a comm window that popped up beside me.

I glared at her, knowing the dangers of an Aesti with a screwed up energy system. "If you try taking off with an energy imbalance, you might blow up before you even clear the damned catapult! Now settle down, this'll only take a second to fix!" I looked up at the other tech analyzing the energy system, a very competent guy by the name of Shiro. "Hey Shiro, did you get it yet?"

"Just about, Luna!" he replied as poked around the Aesti's internals with a probe. "There's a short circuit in here and I almost have it pinned down-- there, got it!" Shiro withdrew the probe and shut the access panel. "Okay, try testing it now!"

I ran the test again and everything was showing green, as it should be. "There. Okay, Ryoko, you're clear for takeoff!"

"Took long enough. Okay then, I got a date with some Jovians, so clear outta the way!!" Ryoko exclaimed

I went for cover along with the other techs, and Ryoko's Aesti went stomping towards the gravity catapult. The mecha went flying down the energized corridor and out into the battle.

Seiya accessed the Nadesico's external cameras so we could watch the battle down there in the Aesti hangar. Supposedly it was so we could see how badly the mechas got damaged and be prepared to fix them, but more so we could just watch. Cheers went up as Hikaru disposed of about 10 Grasshoppers in a single pass, and everybody booed when Akatsuki went flying past the active camera!

"Get outta the way, you long-haired showoff! We want to see the real pilots!" I yelled at the screen. The other techs cheered in agreement. Akatsuki's Aesti went out of the camera's range and a few seconds later we spotted Akito vaporizing about 20 Jovian mechas, and he was probably yelling 'Gekigan Flare!!!' as he went. Yes, still more Gekigangar references . . . this place is just full of 'em!

Izumi destroyed a few Grasshoppers, probably spouting off those puns of hers as she blasted the bugs to kingdom come. I don't know about the rest of the crew, but I think some of those puns of Izumi's are actually funny. It's a very rare occurrence, mind you, but still . . .

And while I mused on that for a moment, Ryoko proceeded to rack up the highest kill count of the bunch, finishing off most of the attackers while the few remaining headed for parts unknown. A resounding cheer went up through the ranks of my fellow techs, and through the rest of the ship as well, I'd imagine. We had reason to celebrate, since none of the Aestis were seriously damaged during the battle.

They all came back into the ship, and left their Aestis and whatever repairs were needed to us. It wasn't much, just the usual reloading of ammo and replacing or painting over damaged armor. We managed to fix everything by the time evening shift rolled around, and I headed to my quarters for a well deserved break . . .