"Chuhan Jwi, put her on…" Queen Manyeo Kwin demanded with an expression that made her appear to be moments from bursting.
"Yes my Queen…" Jwi said as she bowed to the Queen and waved for Princess Bang-Gwi to come over to the holo video call. Jwi stepped out of the call before the Princess stepped in and immediately covered her ears.
"WHAT WERE YOU THINKING BANG-GWI?!!?" a very angry Queen Manyeo screamed through the holo video at Princess Bang-gwi who was still wearing Jwi's overcoat while looking pitiful down at the floor. Queen Manyeo's scream could probably shatter glass Jwi thought as she was once again reminded where Princess Bang-gwi inherited her loud clear voice from. This was not the first time the Queen had yelled like this at the Princess and probably would not be the last.
"I-I'm sorry Mother... That's not how it was supposed to go! I saw Miss Maven do it and wanted to do it too!" the Princess tried to explain.
"You are not allowed to go see anymore of her concerts especially now that I now she gets nude on stage! On top of that she will not be allowed to enter this empire if she puts on those kinds of concerts!" the Queen said angrily.
"Nooo! She doesn't get nude! Her clothes would burn away to another outfit under the one burning away!" the Princess quickly explained.
"I'll allow her to continue then, but you young lady are not allowed to go anymore still! Even if it had worked properly we can't have the Royal Princess setting herself on fire, what if our citizens try to imitate this?" said the Queen with an expression of worry.
"But… but Mom…" the Princess started to cry as she idolized Miss Maven.
The Queen softened a little bit since she was still her mother she could recognize the real cry from the fake cry. "Listen, it's for your own good, but I know my mom used to say the same thing to me and even to this day I disagree about some of the things she said that were for my own good. I think she would just use that excuse whenever she didn't want to deal with something." The Queen smiled affectionately as she seemed to be recalling some fond memories.
The Princess stopped crying as she also started to recall the few memories she had of her grandmother, the first Queen of the Terran Hegemony. "Grandma was never meant to be a Queen…" the Princess said with a giggle as she remembered her being loud and a bit of a bully.
"…and that is why she made such a great Queen… She was a lot like you, not interested in Politics or ruling but genuinely loved the people. I'm not as kind…" The Queen said, then she thought to herself "nor am I as naïve…" as she remembered everything it took to bring the Terran Hegemony under a single stable leader after her mother died before naming a successor.
"Leave it to Grandma to not take responsibility at the last minute." The Princess said jokingly.
"Indeed, now let's make a deal… complete Officer training and I will have you be an assistant to Lord General Viktor Neudachnik. Having you in the army even as just a figurehead will motivate the soldiers! I will let you continue to have your 'secret' outings in that case." Queen Manyeo said.
Chuhan Jwi felt a cold sweat run down her back as it seems she wasn't careful enough and the Queen caught on that she was helping the Princess go out to have fun.
"Now do you agree Bang-gwi?" asked the Queen
"Ummm… how long do I have to stay in the military?" asked Princess Bang-gwi
"Half a year, we mustn't drag out this coming war before they re" The Queen stopped herself suddenly then added "Before the people get hurt."
The Princess agreed with her that the coming war should end quickly, but she figured half a year of a cushy officer's role would be worth being able to see her idol again.
"I have two conditions to add as well Mother… First, if Miss Maven happens to be near where I'm stationed I'd like to be able to see her. Second, I want to hide that I'm the Princess."
"I agree with the first condition, but the second one I cannot!"
"Why not?!?" the Princess whined.
"For two reasons. First, knowing you are the Princess would boost morale, and second, have you ever seen it NOT come back to bite someone in the ass that they hid their status from everyone else?" Queen Manyeo questioned
"Ummm… fair point on both of those then… Ok, I agree, and if I do have to Pilot a mech, I want one without any guns otherwise I'll refuse to pilot it."
"Just no 'Guns' right? Then we have a deal!" the Queen said triumphantly.
The Princess got worried when she saw her Mother's smile, but she really couldn't see any flaws in what she asked for.
__________
Back in the simulation match, Giacobbe's group had rushed the main gate after melting it open with a plasma ball.
Geoff saw that Gray was starting to slide down towards the base and hopped down behind Gray and grabbed Gray's mech's hand. Unfortunately it didn't go as planned so instead they both started sliding down the mountain.
"Crap, sorry Gray! Thought I could help." Geoff lamented
"No worries, might as well just enjoy the ride." Gray said.
From higher up, Gray could see the layout of the base and that the enemy mechs were gathering at the entrance and trying to encircle the hole that was melted away from the main gate. Gray felt like he was missing something very important. He noticed that in his HUD was three small flag symbols with a timer next to each one. The flag at the top was lit up and had a 3 minute timer counting down.
"Whoops, I forgot that the objective is to capture those points and not just destroy the enemy. Tiara, what are the capture points?"
"The front gate, the mech bay, and the command facility." Tiara replied to Gray.
"Thanks. Caleb and Alice, I don't care what you shoot but make that mech hanger unusable!" Gray commanded.
"Got it!" Caleb switched his view back to the mech hanger and started analyzing the building.
"Gray, that's a waste of time! We need to kill more mechs!" Alice complained as she continued trying to pick off limbs of the defenders.
"Alice!"
Gray was about to ask why she questioned his orders but Caleb chimed in "Alice can do that, I've found a way to take care of the mech hangar alone."
"That's fine then. Yurika, Paul, you might as well follow Geoff and I down! We're going to take the Headquarters if we survive the trip down!"
"On the way!" Paul and Yurika hopped down and started to slide down the mountain as well.
Gray hopped in to Team 2's chat channel and said "We're clearing out the hangar, can you make your way through the side door and hold it?"
"We'll do our best" was the unenthusiastic reply from the leader of Team 2 as he was a little bummed out that he keeps being ordered around instead of getting to lead by himself.
__________
The side door was left virtually unguarded as Team 1 was making their way through the main gate since the side gate leaving just 2 defenders. The 2 defenders were anxiously watching the side door while stealing glances towards the main door. Suddenly a loud boom sounded and sparks shot out like fireworks near the hangar and the 2 defenders turned towards the noise to see that the transformer leading to the hangar had been blown apart by a few sniper rounds.
"Power blown, hangar is useless now, that should clear it out of any working mechs." Caleb declared.
The few working mechs left in the hangar that were waiting for a rearm could only pick up ammunition clips since the ammunition loaders for heavier ammunition were disabled and the mechs waiting for a repair could only hope for the best. As the defenders were anxious to get back in to the fight as well, they quickly emptied out the hangar leaving it dark and empty except for the 8 mechs that were either stuck in the gantries or disabled.
Team 2 was down to 5 of the original 8 members, and those 5 were fairly beat up when trying to cross the bridge that led to the side door. After they had reached the door, they pressed against the base's walls and went silent as one of them used their peepers (think camera on a stick used to peek around corners) on the fore arm of their mech through a crack at the edge of the side door to see what the defenders were doing. Seeing that there was only 2 watching the door, Team 2 knew they could bust in but they would lose one of their own most definitely without any forced entry equipment. After 3 rounds of the 5 playing Rock, Paper, Scissors, the 'Winner' was nominated to be the mech shield.
"Thanks Billy, we will remember you!" said the Team 2's leader trying to encourage the teammate that 'won' rock paper scissors.
"Bastards, I'm not going to die forever, just in this simulated match!" Billy exclaimed angrily.
Two other members of Team 2 each grabbed a side of the door while Billy stood in front of it with his mech's arms folded over his chest. "Ready!" Billy yelled.
The two mechs ripped the doors off of the side and Billy immediately charged in straight at the defending mechs, his teammates doing their best to follow behind him despite the limited space. The 2 defenders saw this and immediately opened fire with their assault rifles on Billy's mech. They had panicked slightly from seeing a mech charging straight at them so were only aiming at his head and torso.
The head on Billy's mech was blown to pieces, both of the mech's arms went limp, and finally his engine was damaged in his torso bringing the mech to a stop a mere 5 meters from the enemy mechs.
"For Billy!" cried out from the rest of Team 2 that had taken the time he gave them to get through the door and started to fire their assault rifles at the 2 defenders. From the concentrated fire they were able to disable the two mechs and the 4 remaining members of Team 2 headed towards the empty mech hangar.