Ren and the others were all behind an asteroid, waiting for the perfect moment to sneak into the enemy base. They had sat there for about twenty minutes and noticed three patrols rotate around that area. Each patrol had four enemy mechs that seemed to have been poorly made or shoddily repaired. Ren even noticed a few Sentinels that the UNS uses among their numbers.
Ren wondered just how this rebel group managed to get their hands on the UNS sentinels.
"Maybe through scrap guys who go across battlefields...maybe even black market dealings...just how?" Ren thought to himself.
Ren put it in the back of his mind and decided to focus solely on the mission.
It was then that Ren saw another patrol of guards leave.
"Six minutes and thirty-four seconds." Ren said out loud.
"What?" Scarlet asked.
"Every six and a half minutes, a new patrol loops through that access hatch. Meaning in the next cycle, that's our entrance window." Ren explained.
He had been counting every patrol he saw to try and get as close to the exact time for each patrol. He managed to get it to almost an exact time, give or take a few seconds, but he knew it was always roughly six and a half minutes.
"You really counted each of those patrols?" Scarlet asked.
"Of course, I'm leading a rescue mission here; I'm doing everything I can to avoid mistakes." Ren said.
"You know half the time you can be dense as hell and the other half you can be a perfectionist, right?" Scarlet said, sighing.
"You know what they say: the smartest people don't have the slightest clue when it comes to common sense." Ren said with a smile on his face.
"Your lucky I love you..." Scarlet said, facepalming.
"No, I'm the lucky one." Ren said, looking at her in the eyes.
Scarlet blushed immediately, to which Ren cupped her cheek and gave her a kiss on the lips.
Scarlet turned away with a bright blush on her face "You better come back."
Ren grabbed her hand and said "Of course, I'll always find my way back to you."
"If you two are done flirting, it's almost mission time." Rumia said on the comms.
"Rumia? Shouldn't we be keeping the radio silent just in case they are listening in?" Ren asked.
"We're on our own private channel. They would need to know exactly who is about to attack them to tune in, and according to our stations, it's just us. But we will lose contact once you enter the enemy ship, understood?" Rumia stated.
"You know, I remember when you were just a semi-kind maid, and now you are acting like Captain Aurora." Ren said.
"Who is Captain Aurora?" Rumia asked.
"Our old UNS Ship Captain." Scarlet said. "You two act kind of alike."
Rumia couldn't tell if that was a good thing or a bad thing, but she rolled with it anyway.
"Ren, Eleonora, Laelli, Serenity. In about thirty seconds, exit the knights, hide behind the asteroid, and wait for your next window. Knight pilots, once they leave, return to base immediately, enter your own knights, and prepare for the battle." Rumia said.
"Who's our evac team?" Serenity asked.
"We have a small shuttle at the ready; it can carry up to eight people, so all of you will be able to fit in as long as you stick to the plan." Rumia said.
"Alright, game faces on everyone." Ren said, preparing to exit the knight.
"You know it's weird taking orders from you, Ren; wasn't long ago I was the squad leader." Eleonora said with a tease.
"Things changed quickly, didn't they?" Ren said with a slight smile, but Scarlet could almost see it was as if he were holding something back.
Ren and the other members of the infiltration team exited their knights. Ren, however, before leaving, gave another kiss to Scarlet, which Lily heard before saying on the private comms channel that she expects the same treatment after the mission, which Lucilia and Ashastha seconded.
Once the infiltration team exited, they each hid behind the same asteroid as the knights, then took off and headed back to Lucilia's ship to switch knights.
"Ren, are you okay?" Serenity asked, seeing Ren trying to say something.
Ren made sure all of his comms were off and asked the team to do the same, which they did, with Laelli needing some help from Eleonora.
Ren sighed before saying "Eleonora, if things go bad and something happens to me, you take charge of the mission." Ren said.
"Ren, don't say that" Serenity said, angry at Ren for bringing that up.
However, unexpectedly, Eleonora didn't hesitate to say "I understand."
Serenity was shocked hearing this "How can you just say that so casually?"
"Serenity." Ren spoke a little loudly, struggling to find the words to finish what he wanted to say. Serenity, Eleonora, and Laelli all noticed him struggling with something; however, only one of them truly knew what he was feeling.
Eleonora decided to finish what Ren wanted to say "Every commander has to accept the fact that they may or may not return from a mission. So it's best to have someone you trust ready to take command should something happen."
Serenity didn't want to hear it, but once again, surprising everyone, Eleonora then said "But Ren, it's our job as your squadmates to make sure you come back home. Which I sure as hell will."
Ren was shocked hearing that but couldn't help but smile "Thanks Eleonora."
Ren, while confident in his abilities, also knew no plan survives first contact with the enemy. Which made him nervous; after all, according to Murphy's Law "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong." He had to be prepared for the worst-case scenario, losing either a squadmate or if something would happen to him. This is what really worried him. He asked everyone to turn off their comms because he didn't want Lily, Scarlet, Lucilia, and Asha to overhear this thought of his.
Eleonora quickly hovered over to Ren before placing her hand on his shoulder "You have my upmost confidence, Ren; I believe in you."
Ren took Eleonora's words to heart and refocused his attention onto the hatch. "Okay, we should have about a minute or so until the next patrol rotation."
And almost on queue about a minute later, the next patrol of four knights left the hatch, and once they disappeared from sight, Ren and the others started to move towards the access hatch.
"Woah..." Laelli said, losing control of her pack.
Ren turned his head and saw Serenity was the closest to her, so he said on the comms for Serenity to assist her, which Serenity did, and after that, they got to the hatch with no problem.
Ren looked at the hatch and turned the handle on it, opening the hatch.
Ren dropped down first into the hatch and looked around at the surroundings, noticing a guard nearby who was asleep while sitting against the wall on the outside of the room where the hatch was located. Ren signaled for the others to come down, and while they did, Ren signaled them to line up against a wall, out of sight of the guard. Ren knocked on the door, which made the guard wake up.
"Im up! I'm up!" the guard said with some annoyance "What did you forget your access key?" He said before opening the door. Ren immediately punched the guard in the throat taking away his breath before putting him in a chokehold.
After a few seconds, the guard passed out cold.
"Where do we put him?" Serenity asked.
Eleonora looked at her surroundings before pointing at what looked like an open locker. "There!"
Ren picked up the guard and placed him in the tight locker before closing it shut and making sure it was locked.
"Making me feel like I'm playing one of those hitman games..." Ren said with a slight smile.
Ren and the others walked down the corridor, making sure there weren't any other guards around. Once confirming this, Ren brought out a holographic device.
The device contained rough schematics for a ship of this class, which were given to them by Mae.
"So according to this, the prison should be down two levels from where we are at now; once we get there, we break out Tsukiko's daughters, and after that, we return here and send out the signal." Ren said.
"We will have to be careful of the guards...after all, while we know roughly the schematics of the ship, we don't know what could've been repurposed." Eleonora warned everyone.
"So really, our only option is to go directly to the prison but also to watch out for every corner." Serenity said.
"Yeah, remember, going loud is the last resort; take any hostiles out as quietly as possible." Ren said.
"Laelli, you're going to be relied on for your strength for that." Serenity said.
"Understood." Laelli said without complaining.
Ren looked at everyone before saying "Alright everyone, it's showtime."
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