Legacy 5/14 (TBMU)

[Nightheart]

Midii awoke the next morning feeling heavy and thick. It was cloudy outside again, and cold, the combination of the two had always made her reluctant to rise out of bed; part of her always felt like it was asleep on days like this. The thin watery sunlight combined with the chill and the damp that seeped into her blanket, and into her clothes, and into her very bones, made rising and moving about feel like slogging through hip-deep mud. It was going to be one of those days where she never felt fully awake, not matter how much terrible coffee she drank. Just thinking about all she had to get accomplished in that day made her want to snuggle back down into her damp little pallet and close her eyes again.



<Up!> she ordered herself, tossing off her nice warm (if thick, heavy and scratchy) military blanket. The air was too cold with the nip of the coming winter as she hurriedly donned the midnight blue cover-all that was her Homeguards official unofficial uniform. Stuffing her besocked feet into her boots she rose and zipped the front of her uniform; she liked the fact that it was so easy to dress and undress and she could wear what she had that passed for sleeping clothes under it and no one could notice. She brushed her thick wavy hair hurriedly and tucked it into a secure french twist out of her way. The hair style was severe and made the features of her face look positively sharp, but if she was going to be in a battle later on that day (and with the way things had been going lately she didn't want to rule out the possibility) she didn't want to have to worry about her beautiful hair swinging into her face when she needed to see what was on her tac screens.



She stepped out of her tent and over to the mess tent for the Homeguard. Usually, when her mobile command post wasn't in the area, the Homeguard mess tent was only occupied by the cell of Homeguard that was assigned to that particular sector. The way she had things set up that had worked so well in the past was that there was one cell of Homeguard assigned to patrol and protect each of the thirty-three sectors of Belterre. On average the cells consisted of seven opperational mobile suits, twenty-two fighters, three mechanics, two medics, and one comm person. The ratio of pilot to ground fighters within any given cell of Homeguard varied but the numbers were roughly even. All totaled, Homeguard consisted of two hundred support team personnel, two hundred fifty mobile suits, and seven hundred and fifty fighters not counting her own mobile team that traveled with her.



She looked down at the updated list that her com-man had brought to her the previous evening. It was a depressing list and she didn't want to look at it. The tally had been updated after Sacred Omega got another drop of supplies and fighters late in that night. The total number of fighters came to one thousand and seven hundred combat personel and three hundred support personnel. Her scouts said that an even thousand of the new arrivals were wearing pilot suits and the remaining seven hundred fighters wore the livery of ground forces. Oh, and the mobile doll unit they had set up... preliminary estimates based on supplies and raw materials suggested that they had the capacity to assemble five hundred mobile dolls, provided that another shipment didn't arrive and increase the number.



She had stayed up all night doing the ratios in her head, and the numbers looked bleak no matter which way she cut it. She had a total of seven hundred fifty fighters in Homeguard if she assembled them all together, but Homeguard only had two hundred suits to fight with; aside of that only four hundred of her fighters were trained to pilot mobile suits, the rest were ground fighters specializing in munitions, demolitions, etcetera. By the end of the month Sacred Omega would likely be done with their production of mobile suits, her scouts estimated they wanted a suit for every pilot bringing the number to one thousand mobile suits. Her scouts reported that they had two hundred suits already completed; by the end of the week in five more days they would have reached half strength, two weeks after that, they'd be at full strength and ready to move out. At full strength Sacred Omega would outnumber Homeguard four times over mobile suit to mobile suit, and outnumber her ground fighters by four hundred heads. Trying to fight them would be suicide.



"Shit," she muttered. "That's over twice the number of ground fighters Homeguard has, even their support teams outnumber us. There's no way we can take them on in a head-on fight. Hell, my people aren't even trained in head on fighting. No; retreat and consolidate is the only option we have."



Belterre was a small country, but beautiful despite it's size; it's name "Belle-terre" meant "beautiful land" just as the Sanc Kingdom came from the word "Sanctuary." They had foothills mostly traveling along their western border leading to larger mountains toward the north. They had two, well actually three rivers that flowed west from the foothills to the east which held the sea, one of the rivers was a tributary to the southern-border-river and met it a hundred or so miles before it reached the sea. Unlike the Sanc Kingdom which had flat, wide open beaches and harbors, Belterre had rocky, craggy granite cliffs which rose at zero slope for about four stories above sea-level. To make matters worse, the seaside in front of those cliffs was dotted by rocky granite reefs with pointed spires jutting up at irregular intervals like the teeth of some enormous undersea dragon. No harbors in this neck of the woods. There was one small speck of pebbly, flat, forgiving beach way to the south along the border river there but one had to be a very good sailor to navigate past the reef and the dragons maw to reach the beach and land there; and the river that flowed out from the land near that point made the current tricky. So, sandwiched between the mountains and the sea-clifs was all of Belterre's farmland; wide beautiful feilds with rich soil, and its forests green as an emerald with tall sturdy trees.



Of them all, Midii favored a tiny speck of land near the north and far to the east in sector four; it was at the summit of a steep granite cliff that overlooked the grey-blue sea for miles. With the waves crashing against the teeth in a froth of lacy white foam that roared like a lion, it was surrounded up to only a few feet away from the lands-end by the tallest most beautiful trees in the forest. She'd spent hours in the woods as a very young girl, following game trails and playing hide and seek with her brothers. She'd been forbidden to venture near the cliffs unsupervised as a child, but she'd often snuck out and done it anyway; she'd never been able to get enough of the stiff salty ocean wind on her face and the roar of the sea in her ears. That was her home, a place called Lyon's Peak. It was still the most beautiful place in the world to her. She dismissed her longing thoughts and settled back down to the urgent matter at hand.



She'd thought about it all night long and had come up with a time-table she thought might be able to work. Sector Twenty-nine was just on the western side of her country, a smidgen south of the middle. It was also the sector that played host to the "capitol" where the Provisional Government had settled in and built that useless city of theirs. The capitol was nestled quaintly near the hills that ran near the western edge of Belterre from the mountains in the far north to the Sanc Kindgom (or what was leftof it) in the south. It was also as close to the center of Beleterre as she could ask for. Despite that, there were sectors that were located quite a distance away from it that would have a harder time reaching the place in the time alloted. She tried to allow for that, but it was going to be close... if she could manage it at all.



The havens of the north and east-most corner of Belterre would have farther to travel of course but they could probably go down the sea routes a bit south then cut across to the west and save time. Sectors one through three were on the northern border near or in the mountains and of them, sector three was adjacent to water. There were two Havens along the clifside that could likely pull off a lift and dock manuver (using lines and balances to transport people down the vertical cliffside a few at a time to a floating dock and into boats for a southward trip between the reef and the cliff). The only matter that worried her about that was the fact that Sector twelve was also along that cliffside (soutward towards the middle), in a part of the land that jutted out like an enourmous flattened finger four stories tall; they were bound to notice all of the sudden sea travel in the area and wonder what was going on. She didn't want them catching wind of her plans and allowing for them. Well, perhaps the Coordinators could think of something.



As for the south of Belterre, there was a tributary to the river that formed the southern border of the country that ended only a few miles away from the capitol and would offer faster and easier transport over land for sectors thirteen through nineteen in the south east but the Southwest was hill country. Sectors thirty, thirty-one, thirty-two, and thirty three were going to have difficulty in travel...



She looked again at her map, then went over to her travel chest in which she kept her other maps and looked around, leafing through documents and uncapping hollow plastic tubes full of plas-film over-maps. At last she found the one she was looking for. There had been a system of underground bunkers connected by tunnels built during the times when this country had been underseige by the one of the military groups that came before the Alliance. Most of those bunkers and tunnels had been built underneath the Hills traveling noth to south from sector twenty-two in the north west to sector thiry one in the south east. Even beter than that was the fact that there was a tunnel that traveled east-west. It went from the clifside of sector eight (which was sandwiched between sector sour in the north and the edge of sector twelve) west through sector four, five, seven, twenty three and twenty-two where it met up with the tunnel leading south to sector twenty-nine.



<That's a lot of tunnel! I wonder how they kept all of that a secret,> she wondered. <And why... well, I guess I already know why; no point in having a secret escape route if eveyone knows it exists. Still, the monumental task of building that however many years ago must have been mind-boggling.>



The notes on the maps said the tunnels were around a hundred years old or so, at anyone's guess. She wouldn't have thought that something that old could possibly be much of a secret; then again, she didn't have to worry about whether it was a historical tourist attration in its day, she only had to worry about whether or not Sacred Omega knew about it and anticipated her using it (provided they somehow got wind of her plans). She was hoping to move fast enough to where Sacred Omega would be at least one step behind her, the tunnels would help conceal her peoples activities hopefully until it was too late.



That only left the Havens in sector nine, ten, eleven, twenty-four and twenty-five to worry about. Sectors ten and eleven bordered sector twelve, and even though the base of Sacred Omega was out past the edge of the forest on its jutting clifftop she didn't want to arouse their suspicions and tip her hand. The people in the Havens of that sector all lived near the eastern border inside the cover of th foresets. She was going to have to ask them all to start out travelling over land by night until they were well away.



Well, five days to transport roughly two-thousand people per sector overland, underland and by sea seven hundred miles at the maximum in secret? No problem.



<Yeah right,> she thought. <Who am I kidding?>



At least all of the people were gathered in a somewhat central location. There were three hundred people in each Haven, but there wasn't anyone outside of those Havens which meant she didn't have to worry about hunting down every last person in any villages or solitary settlements. That was one blessing. Another blessing was that the Havens were accustomed to working together; times of tragedy and difficulty had made them interdependant on one another to get by. The Havens were also mobile. Most of the structures were military tents or flimsy cabins that were easily broken down. Because the Havens were never intended to be permanent structures it should be easy to disassemble them and move.



<Well, maybe not easy,> she corrected herself. One didn't live in a single place for at least four years and not have some more permanent un-movable structures after all. <But doable.>



She met with the Coordinators tomorrow, so they'd all start arriving later today. That "Heero Yuy" fellow had told her that Lady Une would be arriving via helicopter at five o clock to meet with Midii. Well, she could hack this. She had more than enough to keep her mind occupied and not dwelling on the way things had gone between herself and Nanashi/Trowa late the previous evening.



"And where is Bryson?" she muttered to herself. She hadn't seen him at all last night after he left following her second meeting with the Preventors. Where could he have been disappearing to so much lately? Usually he was right there, at her side, helping her out and cheering her up and pissing her off all at the same time.



"Probably out chasing some skirt somewhere," she answered herself. Much as she loved her second and replacement older brother, she thought he could do with a little less womanizing. Then again, he couldn't hang around his little sister all the time; so maybe it was good thing he was getting out and getting to know new people (some of them better than others). Still, it would be nice if he'd find one single girl to settle on already; she really wanted to see her brother happy and in love. He seemd kinda sad. He accused Midii of being sad all the time, but to her mind being celibate was not the same as being sad. She just had very high standards... besides, who had time for a relationship when they were bouncing around this tiny country all the time in a mobile suit trying to solve everyone's problems? She'd find someone for her to settle down with after everything was over with and she was able to give up Homeguard and go home.





She was going to be holding that big meeting with two hundred twenty Coordinators plust two hundred twenty cell leaders of Homeguard. She had sent for them along with the Coordinators because she wanted everybody on the same page and doing the job they were supposed to be doing. She wanted each sectors cell of Homeguard running a guard watch on their one thousant eight hundred (give or take) civilians as they traveled to the capitol they were about to comandeer.



The five day time table wouldn't be easy, but she felt it could be done. The plan went something like this. She sends the Coordinators home with her marching orders that everyone needs to pack it up and ship it out. It takes a day to get organized; the Coordintators give thier sub-Coordinators the orders they need to get the basic supply caravans loaded and sent on ahead of them with provisions. Meanwhile the fighters for Homeguard are going to each of the Havens and dismantling their ground to air defense systems and packing that up to be sent ahead. Half of each cell would be going along to guard the transport leaving that night, and the other half would be left behind to guard the transports carrying the civilians on day three. That would take up Day One.



Day Two is spent getting the refugee civilians butts in gear; they get one day to pack all of their essentials and dismantle their tents for ship-out. She'd be lucky if the case was that it would only take a day. She didn't want a massive panic, she wanted an orderly migration; unfortunately with human nature she was more likley to get the massive panic. She'd be counting on the Coordinators to keep the panic to a minimum by providing calm, firm, discipline. These were refugees accustomed to being able to move at a moments notice to escape the shifting tides of war so perhaps, despite them having been somewhat settled for so long, things wouldn't be as bad as they could be.



Day Three was the first big day of transport. Each of the Havens would be sending in their first wave, or their first one hundred civilians, but most of the room on the transports was going to be taken up by sundries; shelters and supplies and things that they were going to need when they reached the capitol. Those traveling by sea and over open land would actually begin the night before. It was risky to ask someone to sail at night or in predawn, especially sanwiched between the reef-teeth and the stone cliffs, but she didn't want to risk Sacred Omega catching wind of thier plans. Most of Belterre was reachable within a five-hundred mile radius of the capitol city (except for nine of the sectors on the north-most border) so with any luck the motorized transports would be able to make the trip, drop of their civilians with the equipment, and come back for the rest.



Day Four was a two pronged attack. She wanted to return for the last of the civilians; without having to carry as many supplies in the cargo holds of the transports they should be able to fit the final two hundred from each Haven. Meanwhile at the capitol she wanted the civilians who had already arrived to begin working on setting up for the next wave. The Coordinators from each Haven would get so much space to begin pitching shelters along the same lines that they have in the Havens she was about to ask them to leave. The Homeguard teams she'd sent ahead with the first shipment would be responsible for beginning work on the city's defense; building sand-walls, hooking up the ground to air defense system and so forth. She didn't expect it to get done over night, but it was imperative that they start digging in and building those defenses.



Day Five... provided everything went according to plan and there were no majot set backs, was a day of rest. Everyone sleep in and party! Then it was back to work the next day to begin setting up the haven-camps in earnest and building the defenses.



<Ambitious, but doable,> she thought, her stomach clenching. <The numbers are right, we have enough equipment... I hope; the load capacity is within acceptable levels for the equipment we'll be using. It should be fine.>



She must be out of her mind.



* * *



Lady Une sat in the small helicopter piloted by Wufei Chang, one of her finest agents, and Sally Po her most trusted agent. She looked out and down at the green carpet sprawled before her. She'd gone over her maps the night before and Belterre was a small, rather insignificant little country just north of the former Sanc Kingdom (now called the Republic of Sanc, since it no longer had a monarchy). It was about ten hundred fifty miles through the center top to bottom; eleven hundred thirty miles side to side and eighteen hundred or so miles measured diagonally. Not a very big place, but lke the Sanc Kingdom it was strategically located. The Alliance had had an interest in it... that was until the populace started fighting back. The alliance, being petty, had destroyed all of its cities in retribution before pulling out. Or had the cities been destroyed beforehand? Une couldn't remember, she'd had a lot bigger things to worry about at the time than the fate of one tiny country.



The report from Heero had been worrying. So Sacred Omega had decided to make this little backwoods its main base before taking on the Preventors and the Earth Sphere Unified Nation eh? Well, they'd have to do a lot worse than a handful of disgruntled farmers with pitchforks if they wanted to take her on. Une had access to the cache of weapons left undestroyed by her Preventors. Granted, the cache wasn't nearly the amount of armaments that she'd had access to as the commander of OZ, but it was nothing to sneeze at either. Most of the armaments were missiles and explosives for destroying weapons bunkers and such (which was what Preventors feild agent spent most of their time doing; rooting those bunkers out to destroy them and tracking down arms smugglers) but Une wasn't entirely without offensive forces either. There was the Tallgeese, which Zechs had left with her (seing as he'd only been borrowing it for the fight). She also had a hanger of mobile suits; Tauruses mostly, Aries suits, a few Leos and some Virgos. Her space patrolling forces had plenty of armed shuttles and a few suits outfitted for space combat. Oh, and the Gundam pilots but they had destroyed their Gundams.



<If a Gundam pilot destroys the thing for which he is known, do you still call him a Gundam pilot?> she wondered idly. Perhaps it was one of those questions that would never have an answer, like "if you lined the Tallgeeses up one two and three would you call them a gaggle or a flock?". Perhaps it was better that way.



With the growing scarcity of mobile suit parts and manufactories to make them, the cases of hidden stockpiles of armaments were growing fewer and fewer. In fact, for the last six months Une had only been getting the smallest of the small fry. Former arms smugglers were having trouble finding arms to smuggle and had resorted to switching venues; most of them were smuggling drugs or alcohol or other illegal substances and that was a matter for local law enforcement to worry about. She was beginning to think that there were no major weapons bunkers left in the Earth Sphere that weren't under Preventors control. There hadn't been a single major incident or even a fairly minor one for well over a year. That didn't mean she'd let her guard down, or let her Agent's training slip (oh no... she was Lady Une!) but that did mean she was feeling optimistic. Now with this overture for peaceful negotiation and possible future disarmament from the "Homeguard" there in Belterre things were really looking up. Une could understand them feeling tired of fending off bandits and appealing to a more powerful force to get rid of them for them so the poor civilians could get on with their lives. Sacred Omega was the icing on the cake.



Yes, Une anticipated a very successful day ahead of her.



"We've arrived," Wufei announced blandly as he expertly brough the chopper down for a smooth landing.



"This is the place?" Lady Une inquired looking out of her window at the sight of a steel reinforced sandbag wall with metal siding planted on it for extra sheilding. Manned watchtowers rose above the walls, giving the place more the look of a fortified fortress than a meeting place for peacful negotations.



"These are coordinates Heero gave us," Wufei replied, his voice stiff with dignity.



"Its certainly very..." Une trailed off. Heero and Trowa were emerging from the fort (with Relena in civilian disguise) to meet them.



She cautiously emerged from the helicopter, the fact that she was in unfamiliar territory with an unknown ally who might or might not decide to shoot her made her a little nervous... but Une was good with negotiations. She's convinced the colonies to accept OZ against their own better interests in 195, and she'd negotiated with the ESUN council many times to get extra supplies and funds for her Preventors lots of times. When Wufei and Sally joined her at her side the Lady felt better, however.



Heero and Trowa walked up and greeted her with all due respect and shared familiar and friendly nods (or at least as familiar and friendly as those two quiet ones ever got) with Wufei and then Sally.



"This way," Heero said, gesturing to the fort.



"We'll be surrounded by them," Wufei pointed out.



"The point of coming into the territory of the person you're trying to negotiate with is so that you demonstrate trust in them and their intentions Wufei," Une replied.



"I still don't like it," he rebutted.



"That's okay, no one's asking you to," Sally said agreeably. "Just keep an eye out."



Une walked under the gate-tower beneath the stares of curios on-lookers, many of which were dressed in some dark blue pilots/mechanics coverall. Those must be the Homeguard. When she entered the "Haven" proper she was brought face to face with a welcoming committee. A quick glance around brought into sharp clarity the state of things in this country. Everyone slept in tents, like in that story the Grapes of Wrath. Similar situation she'd bet, only they had a war in addition to just starving. The place was drab and very depressing. It was probably all of the military gear they were using.



The welcoming comittee was headed by a young blonde girl... she couldn't have been any older than Wufei and Wufei was her youngest agent. She met Une's gaze first and squarely, assessing her (Une was already returning the favor). The leader of Homeguard, for that's who she had to be because she matched the description, was petite with delicate features. wide cerulean blue eyes, a stubborn chin and an unconscious bearing of command. Her clothes, like everything else around the place were well-worn (nearly worn through), and she didn't decorate herself with any special signatures of rank. Une had observed that real leaders never needed them. There was a flicker of recognition in her eyes as they lit upon Sally Po. Her face suddenly split into a wide welcoming smile.



"Well blow up my mobile suit and call me a pacifist!" she called. "Sally Po."



An aswering smile stretched across Sally's face as she said



"Well, well, well, look at what the cat dragged in. Midii Une. How long's it been?"



"Long enough let me tell you," she replied. "Who are your friends?"



"Lady Une, directer of the Preventors," Sally said gesturing to her.



Midii stepped forward and presented her hand for a shake. Une took it. Number One had a very firm handshake, with callused palms that said she did her share of maual labor. So Lady Une would have said that she was a very hands on commander.



"And this is my partner Wufei Chang," Sally said. Wufei for his part assesed her with a very cool look and gave a dismissive snort. Sally and Midii looked amused.



"I can see why you like him," Midii replied. "He must be fun to mess with." Sally chuckled. Then Agent Water turned to Lady Une and explained



"We had fair dealings with each other in 195, having similar purposes and all of that."



Lady Une nodded in understanding. Sally Po had resigned from the Alliance and become a rebel freedom fighter. Heero had said that the Homeguard of this country had also made it their business to fight against the Alliance once upon a time.



Standing to the right of Number One was a taller young man maybe a year or two older than "Number One" with dark red hair; so dark that the red was little more than a highligh in the sun. He had measuring grey eyes that took Une and her company in with ease, she had the feeling that she was not only being physically assessed but that he was looking for all of her valuables with the eyes of a seasoned pickpocket. She'd have to watch her poketbook, she was glad she decided against wearing jewelry that was easily removable or very valuable. His gaze was also slightly unwelcoming. So, not everyone was happy with the leader decision to invite the Preventors in for tea and conversation. Une filed that away for later conversation.



"This is my second in command Michael Bryson," Midii said, gesturing to the young man on her right. he gave them a cool nod and remained where he was, arms crossed.



"These two gentlemen on my left are Coordinator Meitchel; he's the Coordinator here at Highground Haven. And this is his assistant, sub-Coordinator Mira Rillian. They run things in this particular Haven so if there's any question of accomodations or anything you need they've said they'll be happy to help you."



"Thank-you," Lady Une said. The two coordinators gave her welcomig smiles and shook her hand in turn.



"Now that we're introduced, please, right this way to the command tent," Midii said, politely gesturing Une to walk beside her as she and her second proceeded to the meeting place.



The command tent was another standard military issue command tent, Une was unsurprised to find. The interior was lit by several lanterns and there was a rickety folding table in the main room with a large map of Belterre pinned to it. On top of the map were several hanwritten papers and at first glance Une saw that it was filled with mostly numbers. After seating them all in folding stools that had seen better days she offered them tea and then said



"I'm not really one for small talk so I'll get right to the point," she said, clasping her hands in front of her and meeting Une's gaze directly. "I have some bad news for you all; well, actually it's bad news for us too but I'm betting you'll find it very bad news indeed."



"And what's that?" Lady Une inquired.



"When I met with your emissaries the first time I had said that the Sacred Omega base in sector twelve was mostly empty but for about thirty people, and that it had no weapons anywhere it it. Well, that's changed just recently."



Une raised her brows silently and inquired



"By how much?"



"By a lot. The most recent report I got from Com from my people in the feild have come up with numbers even more depressing than the last report. Now, I really don't want to offend anyone here but your emissaries told me that the Preventors are supposed to prevent fights by getting rid of illegal weapons caches."



"That is the Preventors main mission, correct," Une said. This was not what she'd expected at all.



"Then how is it that Sacred Omega was able to sneak as many weapons as they did into my country undetected?"



"What do you mean?" Une inquired.



"I mean this," she said pushing several night vision photographs at Une. Une looked down at the glossies for a moment, her eyes trying to make sense of the shifting shades of grey and shadows. When she did make sense of it, she really didn't like what she saw.



Armaments dropped by plane... a lot of them. Mobile suit parts and construction units, guns and munitions of all types, soldiers. This was not good.



"My Homeguard has been watching them carefully and we have some estimates... we don't know if they're exact but they should be pretty darned close," Midii said.



"How many?" Une asked, a little faintly.



Midii opened her mouth to reply, but was suddenly grabbed by the arm by her partner and hustled out of the tent with a half formed protest on her lips and confusion on her face. Her second was apparently very much against the idea of Midii cooperating with the Preventors.



There was a hissed conversation between the two of them just outside the tent, Une couldn't catch most of it but she got the gist. Bryson thought that giving all of thier information to outsiders they'd just met was a very very bad idea. Midii thought it was their only hope. Une would have continued to listen but her cell phone rang. It was her emergency phone.



"Une," she said crisply.



"Lady Une!" said a frantic voice from the other line. Une's first thought was that there was something wrong with Mariemaia. That conclusion was swiftly blown out of the water when the voice said.



"We're being attacked!"



"Attacked?!" Une said in alarm. "By who?"



"Sacred Omega. They've found the weapons cache. We're fighting them off but they've already destroyed half of out munitions and suits!"



Lady Une nearly swore then and there but that would have been inelegant. Her mind quickly put some peices together. Not all of Sacred Omega had pulled back to their base camp, there were still some Agents left on the outside and they had been observing the Preventors for some time now. She knew they'd gotten too quiet. And now that Lady Une was away from the nest they attacked and destroyed all of her eggs.



"How many left?" she demanded.



"It depends on how quickly we can get them out of the cache. Maybe three hundred suits and five lockers if we're lucky," was the reply. "We'll handle things here, but the President will be wanting to speak with you shortly."



"I'll bet," she muttered. "thank-you. I'll be there directly after my meeting."



Normally she would have dropped everything and returned to the barn but the information she was likely to get out of Homeguard was going to be invaluable. She couldn't aford to leave righ then.



Midii returned to the inside of the tent... but she was alone.



"Bryson found something he needed to take care of right away," she said. It was obviously a lie, bryson didn't want Midii dealing with the Preventors so he'd probably stormed off in a huff.



"As I was saying," Midii said, re-seating herself. "The numbers we have so far are a little depressing, even for Homeguard. I'm sure you Preventors won't have a problem with them, Mister Yuy said your organization has enough personel to patrol both earth and outer space."



"That is true," Une temporized. All of this bad news all of a sudden had really rattled her. She took a long sip of her tea. Midii continued.



"We estimate that they have one thousand seven hundred combat personnel," Midii said, sounding as if she was talking about the weather. Lady Une nearly blanched.



"One thousand seven hundred? You're sure it's that many?" Sally inquired. Une was glad that she hadn't had to ask the question herself because her voice would surely have come out as a squeak.



"Roughly. That's the consensus anyway," she replied with a small shrug and went on. "Judging by their uniforms Sacred Omega has seven hundred ground fighters and ten hundred pilots."



"Pilots? As in mobile suit or as in planes and carriers?" Wufei questioned next, speaking for the first time at all during the meeting. His eyes had sharpened with interest; of course they would, he was anticipating a big fight on his hands.



"Mobile suit," Midii replied. "Now, as for their armaments... they have too much artlliery that landed before we could get an accurate account but it's more than enough to keep thier seven hundred ground fighters in bullets and explosives thoughout the worst fighting."



"Heavy artillery?" Sally inquired.



"Yes, and light too, with long range explosives thrown in for good measure," she replied readily. Midii was certainly being very helpful, Une wondered what she was after.



"And their mobile suits?" Wufei inquired.



"There's the interesting part. They landed in peices so we're not one hundred percent sure of the numbers. Sacred Omega has an assembly line going to put them all together in their base and judging by the amount, we estimate that there's a thousand suits to match a thousand pilots, or there will be once they're done putting them together. That's if they don't get another shipment of parts in."



"A thousand suits is a pretty steep number in these times," Sally said. "The Preventors have already wiped out most of the old Alliance and OZ weapons caches and whats left is just stuff that fell into the hands of the black market or the occasional rebel group that wasn't very careful."



"Oh, I almost forgot the mobile dolls," she said holding up a finger. "We don't know the exact number of those either, but we estimate roughly five hundred."



"Any more bad news?" Une said a little sourly.



"Homeguard likely won't be able to assist you should you decide to engage," Midii said apologetically.



"Why's that?" Heero asked, speaking for the first time during the meeting. "I've seen you fight off Raiders and your suits are in good repair if outdated, even if the numbers against us are greater, acting as back up for the Preventors on a fight like this should be well within your group's capabilities."



"It's been judged that Sacred Omega will not make a very friendly neighbor. Homeguards one and only objective is to protect the citizens of Belterre," she said. "To that end it has been judged wise that we should gather all of the civilians in one place and consolidate for a solid defense. Right now all of the Havens are small, spread out and a little isolated; Sacred Omega will be able to overcome each single Havens and Homeguard cells defenses easily and we'd fall like dominoes, sector after sector."



"So you're gong to tuck your tails between your legs and run away," this, predictably from Trowa, who had been needling at Midii in every meeting he had attended, or so Heero had reported to her. He'd taken it upon himself to be the bad cop, but Midii usually ignored him unless he had something useful to contribute. She could understand the young man carrying a bit of a grudge for something like that (Une had been dismayed when she'd heard of it) but carrying it into a discussion of tactics in such a manner was a trifle unprofessional. It wasn't at all like Trowa to be unprofessional. He must really not like this girl.



Midii ignored him without sparing him a glance and said



"Belterre has limited resources; allowing ourselves to become overrun serves nothing. I will be meeting with all of Belterre's Coordinators tomorrow to go over the plans for the massive migration of over seven thousand people within a space of five days. It should be interesting; if it can be done at all. What you decide to do about Sacred Omega and their base is up to you. They're only at half strength right now despite their extensive base defenses so if you intend to launch some sort of preemptive strike I suggest you do it quickly; they're finishing one mobile suit an hour in there or so my scouts report to me. It won't be long before they reach full strength."



"Thank-you Miss Une, your assistance and information has proved invaluable," Lady Une said.



"I'll say," Trowa agreed. "You want us to risk ourselves by going in there and getting rid of Sacred Omega for you while you and your forces and civilians pull back to a safer location so that you can build up your defenses enough to hold them off should we be destroyed by them."



"Sounds like a plan to me," Midii said, too brightly.



Lady Une shot a repressing glance at her part-time agent. Trowa had the unfortunate habit of being too observant and then taunting people with it. He'd done it to her once, when he'd been undercover in OZ as her little golden boy pilot.



"Miss Une is correct in her choice of actions," Lady Une replied. "If Homeguard's sole mission is, as she says, the protection and defense of the civilians of this nation then the situation with Sacred Omega is, by nature not their fight nor should they get involved in it. She was right to request help from the agency that is set up to handle problems like this. It was also wise of her to plan to move her people out of the way of the prospective battle; and if their Provisional Government has no part in it, then I would imagine that her people have got their work cut out for them. it would be a waste of their valuable and limited resources to try to fight a battle on two fronts.



Midii flushed a little and looked down.



"I'm just trying to do what I think is best," she said demurely. But there was a triumphant gleam in her eyes and a repressed smug smile tugging at her lips. Trowa obviously caught it too, for his expression darkened.



"Do you have any additional questions?"



"Yes actually," Une said. "What is the size of Homeguards forces as they stand, and do you plan on pursuing disarmament once the crisis is over with?"



"Homeguard consists of a total of nine hundred fifty people all totaled; two hundred support personnel, seven hundred and fifty combat personnel, three hundred of which are ground fighter and four hundred are mobile suit pilot trained. Plus there's two hundred fifty opperational mobile suits. As for disarming after the crisis is over with, well I guess that would depend on which crisis you mean. Sacred Omega is certainly a big worry to us, but the Raiders are also a very persistant nuisance. It wouldn't be wise of us to disarm after we get rid of one pest only so the wolves can descend to pick us off. But if the Raiders were to be brought down to manageable levels I would be more than happy to pursue disarmament."



"That's encouraging. Mister Yuy has reported that you've repeatedly sought help from the Provisional Government provided by the Romafeller Foundation and received no aid, is that correct?"



"Yes," she said, her voice was leaning more toward a growl; by her posture Lady Une could tell that it was a touchy subject for her.



"You are aware that as your government they have a duty and resposibility to assist the civilian populace in times of crisis are you not?"



"Oh they'll be assisting," Midii said with an almost predatory smile, like a shark with a whiff of blood in its nostrils. "Whether they want to or not."



"oh?" Sally said.



"Well, I need some place to put my people and they just built that nice city over in sector twenty nine. I think it's time they got to know thier people, up close and personal."



Sally shook her had in amusement.



"It's been... well I'd like to say it's been a pleasure but you did give us an awful lot of bad news," said Lady Une. "But it was certainly very helpful meeting with you. I look forward to congenial negotiations in the future."



"As do I, drop by at any time," she said, rising to shake the Lady's hand once more across the desk. Lady Une turned with Sally and Wufei to leave. Heero would be comming with them since he had requested that they pick up the woman under his guard, but Une had the undeniable feeling that all of them would be seeing a lot more of this place in a very short while.



* * *



Midii paused and wiped her brow then picked back up her sledge hammer and began her great circular swings again to pount the enomous metal tent peg into the ground. She had been lamenting the fact that she was soon going to be recieving four hundred plus guests the next day for an enormous meeting and she had no place to put them all. The manager of the circus, a middle-aged bearded man with a bright red coat, had overheard her and had generously offered to loan the use of his circus tent to her for the duration of his meeting.



She had insisted on helping them to assemble it, and most of the young strapping lads in the circus had been surprised when she'd simply picked up the five-pound sledge-hammer and started pounding away at the stakes as if she did that sort of thing all the time. Actually she did, being the leader of Homeguard didn't excuse her from doing her share of the heavy manual labor; at any given time she was hauling sandbags in a picket line, chopping wood, hauling water, digging latrine pits and helping with the building on any number of projects right along with everyone else. She looked delicate but she was wiry and tough with toned muscles due to a lot of hard work.



Some of the other members of Homeguard had offered to help her set up the tent along with a few of the circus people who were going to be directing them. The circus tent was a lot larger and constructed differently than the usual Haven's tents.



"That's in far enough," called one of the circus performers to Midii. She nodded and went to work on the next tent peg. This was no little five foot pup-tent so the stakes to secure the massive tent were as long as her arm and nearly as thick around as her leg. Of course, she had thin legs so perhaps it wasn't all that bad, but they certainly looked big to her. She picked up the sledgehammer and started pounding away, it was hot sweaty work but Midii actually preffered it that way; she felt warm for the first time all day! In nasty, mizzling weather like that with the constant chill and the damp seeping into everything it never seemed like she ever got warm enough. Standing in front of the fire-pit only warmed one side of her and the other was cold and creaky. Strenuous excersize however generated it's own heat, and with the need to concentrate on placing her blows exactly she didn't have the exrta time or concentration to worry about all the other details in her life like the upcoming meeting, or the big migration, or the raiders or the preventors, or sacred omega or... him.



<I have so much stress right now, and all I really want to do is go home!> she thought desperately. She wasn't sure she was up to the challenge of what she was about to do, she wasn't sure it could be done... but the likely result of inaction was a far greater price to pay than at least making the attempt. If she didn't move everyone out of the way then they'd all get killed or captured or maybe enslaved. The thought of all those bodies littering the ground...



<No!> she swore to herself. <Never again! I won't be responsible for something like that ever again!>



She just wanted to climb into a nice soft warm bed somewhere and sleep until her next lifetime came around. She didn't want to have to wake up in the morning and face all of those responsiblilites she'd never even asked for.



"You look a little small for heavy work like this," an emotionless quiet voice from behind her said. "I think that hammer's almost as big as you are."



She gritted her teeth, just the person she didn't want to see right then. Despite the lack of any tone or expression whatsoever in his voice Midii just knew he was taunting her. She could feel it. She wasn't going to rise to it either. Instead she ignored him and kept swinging.



"You're going to hurt yourself," he pursued. His voice sounded closer.



"If I were it would have happened by now," she replied, not sparing him a single glance. "This isn't anything I'm not accustomed to. I may pilot a mobile suit when the need calls for it, but that doesn't mean pushing buttons and pulling joysticks are my most strenuous activities."



There was another long pause as she concentrated on her work. The peg was going in, slowly but surely. Heh, that should show him. A few seconds later, instead of leaving, he said



"Here, why don't you find something else to do and I'll take care of this? I'm sure there's lighter work around, you can help assemble the stands if you like."



"I'm not going to assemble the stands," she said taking another strong swing. "I'm working here quite well."



"Stop that before you hurt yourself," he said, reaching for her. Stupidly enough he came at her from the side and reached to take the handle of her hammer and nearly broke her swing as she clumsily changed the objects trajectory to one side to avoid hitting them both. She swerved out and away nearly falling over beore twisting like a cat and righting herself.



"Hey!" she cried, startled. "Watch it! You're going to get hurt if you do that. Or I'm going to get hurt. I can't afford to get put out of commission by someone else's foolishness at this time."



"It won't be a problem, just give me the hammer and go find lighter work to do," he insisted, sounding like *she* was the one being stupid. The nerve!



She paused for a moment, resting against the hammer, and glared at him.



"I will not," she said clearly. "And I'm certainly not asking for your help. I can do fine on my own."



"Don't be stubborn," he replied. "You're lucky if you reach five two, and you look like a high wind would pick you up and carry you off. You're not suited to work like this, you'll hurt yourself."



Midii was beginning to feel insulted. There might be some truth to what he said but that had never stopped her before; and here he was stating her capabilities based on her physical appearance like it was mathematical law! How dare he tell her she couldn't do something she knew darned well she could. To prove him wrong she pointedly picked up the sledgehammer and got back to work.



She was allowed to land a few blows before her hammer caught on something in mid air. She tugged and it didn't budge. She pulled again and it still didn't move an inch. Finally she turned around to see what the problem was and he was holding the heavy metal sledgehammer in midair with only one hand. It took her two hands just to lift the thing, and she relied mostly on centrifugal force to get it high enough in the air to make a good strike on the pike. His face was as stoic as it ever was but Midii could have sworn there was an aura of smugness about him that didn't show. She could sense it. That smug little bastard.



"Let go," she gritted.



"No," he replied.



"I have neither the time nor the desire to play around with you dammit, now let go so I can get back to work!" she ordered.



"Work on something that won't possibly cause spinal injury," he replied.



"Me and my spinal injuries are none of your business, now bugger off!" she shot back heatedly. He was really begining to get on her nerves.



"No," he said.



Midii simmered, and glared to no effect. Funny, most people who saw her fixing them with that gimlet look she had perfected would have been checking their insurance policies to see if their funerals were covered. he looked spectacularly unaffected by it. That only made her temper worse. Her hands clenched and she was about half a heartbeat from losing her temper and belting him one across the jaw. With an effort worthy of a saint she held onto the last ragged edge of her cool and said with barely contained anger



"Look you, I don't have time for this. Let go dammit." Her voice was that sort of deadly growl a predator makes when an unwanted interloper is tromping around in their territory uninvited and making an nuisance of itself.



"Why are you angry?" he questioned. He didn't sound confused, (that would have bordered on having an emotion and as far as she knew, he still didn't have any) merely mildly curious.



That did it. If he was going to ask a question after he had taken the time to put her in stomping mood, she was going to ram the answer right down his throat.



"You want to know why? I'll tell you why," she said letting go of the hammer and turning to face him full on, keeping her voice low and her tone at growl level to avoid screaming at him and everyone else overhearing. "I have a meeting here tomorrow in which I'm going to try to organize the impossible; and do you know why I need to do what can't be done? Because there's a deadly enemy with twice my number of mobile suits at only half strength gathering within my borders and I can't simply evict them because my own government would as soon see me hanged as they would possibly getting off their fat lazy self-contented asses to actually try to help my people. I have to find a way to smuggle over seven thousand people plus supplies, plus shelters overland, underground, by sea and upriver to an undefended central location without you know who learning about it. Once there I have to get them all organized so that we can begin building shelters and defenses around the city so that we actually stand a chance of not getting over-run just in case you know who does decide to attack. And do you know what else? I have Raiders nibbling away at my forces as well. Raiders that are impossible to entirely wipe out because they travel in individual bands and don't really keep to one main hide-out so you have to hunt them down one by one. Yet another impossible task dumped into the lap of yours truly. Oh and guess what else I get to worry about, you Preventors that's what! I can't be entirely certain you all are anything like what you say you are; if you're in fact another Earth Sphere Alliance Military then I have three forces to try to protect my people against."



"You worked for the Alliance," he pointed out, like it was all her fault.



"Yes I did! Very good. You win the fraggin' stuffed purple monkey doll!" she said, her voice laced with exasperation. Heavens above, why didn't he just let it go already!?



"So I know better than anyone else around here the kind of tricks and shenanigans that a well trained and unscrupulous military is capable of. Did it ever once occur to you that maybe I had gotten screwed over by them too?! Did that thought ever once cross your mind?!"



Nanashi/Trowa just stared at her blankly. She growled



"I didn't ask for any of this. I didn't ask to be leader of Homeguard, I didn't ask for the Raiders or Sacred Omega, or for two hundred and twenty seven Havens full of defenseless civilians. I just got stuck with it, and I really don't need assholes like you coming around trying to tell me what to do because I've got enough things to worry about without figuring out a new place to hide what will be left of your body once I'm done with you if you piss me off more than you already have. Now do I make myself absolutely, perfectly, crystal clear about this?"



All of that got an astounding amout of no reaction from him. Geeze! What was with this guy?!



Midii shoved the handle of the hammer that had started their little tiff at him and threw her hands up in disgust. She stalked off calling over her shoulder



"If you want to pound away, fine, knock yourself out. I've got fifty billion things to do right now anyway."



Midii Une, exit with fanfare, stage left.



* * *



Trowa was left in the feild staring after the retreating haunched tense shoulders of Midii Une. What was her problem? It was obvious to him that she was too small and slight to make swinging a heavy sledgehammer around a good idea. He could have just left her there to hurt herself but no, he trys to help and she gets mad at him.



<Hn. Maybe she and Lady Une are related after all, they certainly have similar temperments,> he thought to himself, picking up the sledgehammer and pounding the tent peg in easily. Really, she would have been here all day if she'd tried to continue working on it alone. She wasn't physically built for this kind of labor. Trowa probably wieghed twice as much as she did in muscle mass alone. Oh look, he had onlookers again. He couldn't imagine why those women were so facinated with watching him work, maybe it was the closest thing they had to entertainment in this place.



Accustomed to the heavy work in the circus, Trowa was finnished in no time at all and barely broke a sweat. As he pounded the last of the pegs into the ground at the appropriate hieght he looked over to see his sister Catherine directing the setting up of the stands.



"Hey Trowa," she called once she noted that he had finished. "Come here for a moment, we've got a request for a small demonstration. This guy throws knives too." Trowa smiled inwardly to himself. Catherine loved her work, and loved any chance to display her prodigious talent to an appcreciative audience.



Trowa dutifully lined himself up in front of the target board and Cathy carefully lined up her shot. She was as perfect as ever (aside of the one time he'd freaked her out into nearly hitting him). All ten knives landed within milimeters of his torso arms and head. A small crowd had gathered and in the end there was a small round of applause. Trowa was not gratified however to hear Midii Une's voice ring out over the rest.



"Cathy, Cathy, Cathy what are you doing?!" she sounded exasperated with his sister, but the lttle blonde was grinning. Cathy looked at Midii in inoscent confusion.



"What do you mean?" Cathy asked.



"You keep *missing!*" she said as if it should be obvious. "Really, you tell me you have this wonderful aim and you keep missing him, he's only ten feet away from you."



"Oh you!" Cathy said smacking her on the shoulder. Midii grinned and gave Cathy a sly look.



"Here, why don't you give me a crack at it? I'll get 'im for ya! It's no trouble at all."



Trowa felt alarmed, for due to their recent row (entirely the fault of her bad mood he was sure) he couldn't be certain she wasn't entirely joking. Midii grinned at Cathy paying no attention to him. Cathy shooed her off, still smiling.



What was with Midii today? In fact the entire time he'd been here she'd barely acknowledged his presence, it was like she was ashamed to know him or something. The only time she'd approach him was if there was no one else around, and even at that it took her nearly five minutes to make up her mind. Then when he speaks to her outside of a professional capacity where others might see she blew up at him. Then she turns around and makes jokes with his sister as if nothing is bothering her. Didn't he matter to her at all?



His poker face remained the same but inwardly he was frowning in her direction. She was asking around for that Bryson idiot again. Apparently the two of them had a bit of a falling out over the Preventors issue and she couldn't find him to kiss and make up. Maybe that was what had her in such a bad mood, she was upset because her lover wasn't helping her keep her bed warm. Well she shouldn't take it out on him.



<Obnoxious,> he grumbled to himself. He wasn't so certain he was reffering to Midii with that one either, he didn't like her second in command at all. What was so great about that guy that she trusted him so implicitly? For all Trowa could tell, he was a swaggering peacock with a propensity for womanizing and little to no real morals. Was that the kind of person she liked?



<On second thought maybe those two deserve each ther,> he grumbled to himself, his mood souring further. <He's a doormat and she can boss him around as much as she likes. Hmph, bet he enjoys it too.>



Trowa hadn't even really talked with the guy face to face and he already had very intense dislike for him. The fact that Midii paid all kinds of attention and spent all of her time with Bryson and not Trowa was just fuel for the fire.



Why was he even worrying about it? It wasn't his concern what she did with her time or who she spent it with; it was just that Midii was Cathy's friend and he didn't want her setting a bad example.



The two girls made an unusual pair when put beside one another he had to admit... in build they were nearly polar opposites. Catherine was tall, curvy, dark, and feminine; and Midii was small, slight, pale and... dressed like a man. What was that saying about opposites attracting? Trowa was beginning to suspect that it was pure bunk, *he* wasn't attracted to her. She wasn't his type... not that he actually had a type but if he did, he was pretty sure she wasn't it.



He paused to ruminate on that for a moment, and decided that it wasn't entirely true. Midii wasn't unattractive, in an obsinate stubborn and utterly bolshie kind of way. Her features were fair, and her frame was as slight as a rapier, but she had a kittenish softness to her that was appealing. The softness however was ruined by the steel-like will reflected in her eyes, the aura of command in her carriage and the occasinally scary hot temper he'd just been an unwilling witness to. After all, she wasn't just another pretty face. She had intelligence to match that tenacity that showed through in every line of her body from the set of her thin shoulders to the curve of her spine to the firm strength in her obdurate little chin. She was more like a weed than a flower however, growing back again out of pure willfull intransigence no matter how one thought to pull it out. No gardener had ever tended to her with care and mercy that was for sure; perhaps half of her bad-ass attitude was simple defiance.



<Maybe that's why these people have so much faith in her, she doesn't know anything other than how to keep on in her mulish adamant way until she finally gets whatever it is she wants,> he thought.



She wasn't unattractive to him. He even found her looks slightly appealing; but only slightly he assured himself. She was just a little too... a little too... he couldn't put his finger on it, but whatever it was she had a little too much of it. Aside of that, the way he saw it they weren't supposed to get along anyway. If she wanted to get along with someone let her go find someone whom she could bend to her will, Trowa might be an acrobat but his will bent for nobody. Well, maybe Catherine but she was his sister and the only family he had so obviously there was an exception there but she was the only exception. Midii was obviously very accustomed to getting her own way around this place, she said jump and the forces under her command and the Haven's they all protected hauled out the tarpaulin. Perhaps she got her way too much and it had made her even more obstinate. Well, she wasn't getting her way with him, whatever it was she was after she'd only get it if *he* felt she deserved it. There was no way he was going to conform to be like everyone else around here who treated her like she hung the moon. The thought satisfied him well enough to lighten his mood as he left to feed his lions.



* * *



<Aw jeeze, why did I say that to him?> she thought in remorse as she rechecked the outline for the mirgration in preparation for her meeting that day.



<It was stupid of me. I'm trying to make amends with him and I end up blowing up at him over nothing. I'm such an idiot!>



She was an idiot with a lot of stress. Maybe him and everything he brought with him was just the proverbial straw that broke the camels back. There was no real reason why she should suddenly get so angry with him, unless of course she was angry with herself first. She felt remorseful, but her stubborn pride was repulsed by the idea of humbling herself to apologize to him again. She'd tried that and he hadn't seemed amenable to her first attempt so she doubted that he'd welcome a second attempt.



The Coordinators were all gathered, and thoughtfully, they had all brought their own food and sleeping gear so as not to put too great a burden on this Have's already straining resources. The meeting would take place at dusk that night, after the tent the circus was loaning her was finished being built. She wasn't certain she was ready for the meeting. She knew she couldn't possibly have thought of everything herself. The East-West tunnel had several access points above ground, each with a coded blast-door sealing it shut. She had the codes but getting everyone through in a timely manner was going to be tricky; they's all be traveling westward, but the people in sector eight would have farther to travel than the people in sector seven so obviously to keep things running smoothly access to the tunnel would have to be coordinated in waves. That was only one of the many many complications she had come up with and tried to schedule a way to solve. Mostly she'd be relying onthe Coordinators to see a complication in the feilds in react to it and solve it together in a timely manner. She was glad that the Havens were accustomed to working together for the most part already, that should help smooth the way a bit.



She knew she couldn't put this off, and she knew it had to be done... but just the thought of dealing with all of it made her want to retreat to her little cot, pull her scratchy wool blanket over her head, and try to sleep through it.



She sighed and gathered up the enormous map, the backing and the stand she had to go with it so everone could see, then she picked up the plassies she had prepared and the beat-up miniature projector she had found in one of the military raids she'd been on and used many times since. Despite Midii's abhorrance of doing anything remotely resembling the way and actual military was run this was something very like a large scale military opperation; and if it worked, why mess with a good system?



There, she was ready as she was ever likely to be. But where in the hell was Bryson?



* * * * *



Next time on Legacy (a.n. possibly my favorite chapter) Things heat up in this action-packed chapter when the Raiders decide to pay Homeguars and unannounced visit.



She shoved her feet into her boots and groped blindly for her hairtie. No time for a brush, good thing she usually slept in her uniform!



A minute later she was off for her suit at a dead run.



Trowa decides to leap into the fray?.



"Stay here Cathy," he said decisively rising to exi

[WingZero2118]

very nice work. im really loving this story. ive been hooked since reading the first chapter long ago. please keep up the good work and post the next chapter soon