Chapter 51 - And the Beat Goes On
By Cille
When Mustang arrived in the command room the next morning, he found Cille and Eric studying some monitors that each showed a view of the woods.
"Good morning, General," Eric greeted him.
"Captain," Mustang answered with a nod. Then he turned to Cille. "Did you call me here to show me something?"
"I have a couple of things to discuss with you," Cille replied. "What we're seeing here is one of them."
"You got the surveillance systems running, I take it?"
"Yeah. It took most of the night but Aoi finally broke through their jamming."
Aoi gave them a tired but satisfied smile.
"External communications are still blocked, though," Cille continued. "But at least we can see what's going on out there."
Mustang leaned over and took a closer look. "There's a group of soldiers in the brush there." He pointed to another monitor. "There, too."
"Yeah," Cille said somberly. "We've got feeds from all of our entrances." She switched the monitors to different views. "Bad news is, we've got visitors at all of them."
"All of them?" Mustang exclaimed. "Already?"
"All of the main base entry points, yes," Cille said. "The only thing we've got left is an escape tunnel that leads about two miles away. There aren't even any cameras out that far. We'll need to send somebody to check, but there's a chance they haven't spread to that area yet, or if they have, they might pass right over it. If you remember, we had Bruce Herman do some landscaping work on that area to clear it and camouflage it before we moved in."
"Mmm..." Mustang considered the situation. "We need some visuals. Let's have Elian show us what's out there." He looked around. "...Where is Elian?"
"He's resting," Cille answered.
"Still? I thought he was out yesterday," Mustang said.
"He was in pretty bad shape," Cille said. "I talked to Scheris a little while ago and she said he'd probably need a few more days to get his strength back."
"We may not have a few days to let him sit around," Mustang pointed out. "If we can't get some recon out there -"
"I'm not going to endanger his health any further until Scheris tells me he's okay," Cille said firmly. "We'll find another way to get our recon."
Mustang sighed and relented. "All right. Just get whatever you can from these cameras and be ready with a report this afternoon. We'll meet at 13:00 to discuss the situation."
"Understood. The other thing I wanted to ask you about was seeing if you'd be willing to cremate some bodies."
"Cremate? You mean the bodies in the morgue?"
"Yeah. Roxie came up with the idea so we don't have to worry about them going bad while we're stuck here."
Mustang sighed. "That doesn't sound like very much fun. But yeah, I can handle it."
Cille nodded. "Thanks. Roxie will be able to coordinate things with you when you have a chance to talk to her."
"I'll try to fit that in later today. Is that all?"
"All for now. Thanks for stopping by," Cille said.
"See you at 13:00 then," Mustang said, heading for the door.
**********
The mech lab staff had assembled in the underground training room, where Cid and Proof had insisted on taking their tentacled mech "to go for a walk" after missing it terribly the previous day. Lloyd, Matrix, Winry, and a reluctant Larry had taken the opportunity to accompany the mech on its outing, to gather data and discuss the outlook for what remained of their mech program.
"Well at least we still have one functional machine," Matrix said, watching it careening around the cavern.
"Yes, now if only we had a reason to use it," Lloyd replied. "Now that combat has ended, one lone mech isn't going to salvage the rebellion."
"Hey has anybody thought about how we're going to get out of here?" Larry asked. "What if we used the mechs for evacuation?"
"They could be used for armored transport," Winry said. "They can't fit very many people inside, but with speed boosts they could make multiple trips pretty fast. I think it's something worth considering."
Larry looked appreciative that someone was agreeing with him. But Lloyd just threw a hand in the air and started pacing around.
"If only my Knightmare frames weren't in such insufferably poor condition, we might actually have a chance of putting them to good use," he complained. "I don't see how these people can treat my work so carelessly and then expect me to magically produce 'armored transports' or whatever."
"It's not about magic, it's about science," Matrix retorted, rolling his eyes. "And would you shut up about your 'work' getting wrecked already? You weren't the only one who worked on these. And if you had any idea what it was actually like out there on the battlefield, you wouldn't be on such a high horse about them getting damaged."
Lloyd snorted. "Please, do tell me all about your extensive battlefield experience."
"Hey, I got a shot or two off out there," Matrix said (perhaps failing to mention the nature of his one actual shot). "More importantly, I saw what people looked like coming back in. It was rough out there. And if you want to go down to the infirmary and tell those guys they should have tried harder or something, don't be surprised if they have to haul you away in a body bag."
"Hrm, threats are all well and good," Lloyd sniffed. "But we're still left with only one functioning mech and a lot of scrap."
"I wouldn't call it scrap," Larry said. "Winry and I have done some pretty thorough assessments and there's a lot on those units that could still be functional with the proper repairs. We might even be able to combine parts from two or three different machines to get one fully functional unit."
"Oh joy, we can call it the Frankenframe," Lloyd said sarcastically.
"It sounds like fun to me," Matrix said. "I've already started brainstorming other ways to incorporate tentacles into the designs."
"Hrrrnnnnggg..." Larry tried to restrain his disgust, but did edge a little bit behind Winry.
"Well fine, I suppose we haven't got anything else to do here," Lloyd conceded. "Might as well spend our time trying to rehabilitate our work. And you'll need my oversight, especially if you're considering any more... extreme modifications."
Matrix just gave him a mischievous smile.
The mech ran toward them and slowed to a halt. Larry finally gave up his tough guy act and dove behind a big rock.
"Professor Matrix, Professor Matrix!" Proof called as the two pilots popped out of the mech cockpit and clambered down to the ground.
"Is something wrong?" Matrix asked.
"No, Kraky's doing great. He's just tired for now," Cid said.
"Kraky?" Matrix asked, raising an eyebrow.
"That's the name of our mech!" Cid said happily.
"His full name is Kraken T. Pwnington the First," Proof pointed out. "But silly Ciddy can't remember the whole name."
"I can too!" Cid insisted. "It's just too long to say! And Kraky is much cuter."
"That is kind of cute," Winry agreed. "I mean... for a mech... with tentacles..."
"I know, right?" Cid beamed at the other girl.
"Are you done with your exercising, then?" Lloyd asked. "Can we get back up to the lab?"
"Yes we're done, but we wanted to ask you something, Professor Matrix," Proof said.
"Yeah, it's very important," Cid added, suddenly looking serious.
"What is it?" Matrix asked.
The pilots exchanged looks and nodded at each other purposefully.
"We want to help take care of Kraky and play with him every day and make sure he doesn't get lonely," Proof said. "We want you to promise you won't take him apart or send him away or shut him down or anything like that."
"He's our friend," Cid added. "We want to take care of him."
Matrix smiled at them indulgently. "Well if that's all you want, that'll be perfectly fine."
"YAAAAY!" the twins cheered in unison. They both ran and hugged Matrix, to his surprise, and then went and each hugged one of the mech's tentacles. The mech seemed to respond to them, wiggling its tentacles happily.
"Well isn't that a match made in heaven," Lloyd commented drily.
"At least somebody besides me appreciates the appeal of lovely tentacles," Matrix retorted. Then he turned back to the pilots. "Okay guys, we're going to go back up to the lab now."
"Okay, should we drive him back up there?" Cid asked.
Matrix thought for a moment. "You know, I think Kraky can live down here so he has plenty of room to roam around whenever you want to play with him."
"Okay, cool!" Proof said.
"Just make sure he doesn't get out into the rest of the base," Larry added quickly.
"We will!" Cid assured him. "We'll take good care of him and be very responsible!"
"I sure hope so," Larry muttered under his breath.
As the scientists headed up to the workshop, Matrix remembered something. "Oh don't forget, General Bigpants wants someone from the lab to report in at his big meeting at 13:00."
"Fine, you take care of it," Lloyd said languidly.
"I've got a, uh, personal project that needs my attention," Matrix said evasively. "I thought you'd handle this one."
"I certainly don't have time for some boring administrative meeting," Lloyd said.
"Why don't you go, Larry?" Winry suggested. "You can tell them what we came up with yesterday."
"Yes, that sounds like an excellent idea," Lloyd said, mostly seeing an excuse to not have to deal with the whole thing.
"Good then, it's settled," Matrix agreed before Larry could protest. "Have fun!" he called as both he and Lloyd quickened their pace to get away.
Larry just stopped walking and slumped his shoulders with a sigh.
Winry chuckled and patted him on the shoulder encouragingly. "You'll be fine," she assured him. "Let's go over our list again before you have to go up there."
"Okay," Larry agreed, feeling slightly better about being stuck with the meeting.
**********
At 13:00 the control room was packed with people. Mustang was pacing back and forth waiting for everyone to get settled. Cille, Eric, Cougar, and Raef sat together as part of the command crew. Clarice had wheeled Hikki up from the infirmary, where Samson was still recovering from his surgery and being emo. Kamina and Solomon were there as the respective leaders of the GAR Streeters and the Order of Glass. And Larry was fiddling with his papers, mentally going over his report from the mech lab.
"All right, people, let's get going," Mustang said authoritatively. "We've all had a day to get our business figured out, so it's time to decide where we go from here."
The others nodded and murmured amongst themselves.
"Why don't you go first, Raef?" Cille suggested.
Raef repeated the reports he had given Cille the previous day, and presented Foley's accounting of the base's supplies.
"So three months at the most?" Mustang asked when he was done.
Raef nodded. "It'll depend on rationing, but yeah, that's pretty much our best-case scenario."
"I'd get working on those rations, then. Maybe you and Foley and..." He scanned the others. "...Clarice can work that out."
Clarice seemed surprised to be singled out but nodded to accept the task.
"Our next priority is obviously going to be escape," Mustang continued. "If I know the army, they'll be content to camp out there as long as it takes to smoke us out or let us wither away in here. We need to open up as many options for escape as possible."
"Well as you know, we don't have very many options left," Cille said. She turned to Hikki and the others. "They've cut off all of our exits around the main base."
Hikki cringed as the others groaned.
"Wait, you mean we're stuck in here?" Clarice exclaimed.
"No, not exactly," Cille said, holding up a hand to try to keep them from overreacting.
"There's an escape tunnel," Mustang said. "But we need to make sure we can use it."
"Already checked it out," Cougar said quickly. "It looks clear. The opening was covered over with brush so it's not visible unless you know exactly where to look. And there wasn't even anybody out there, so the coast was pretty well clear."
"That's great!" Kamina said eagerly. "Then let's just get everybody out through there and head for the border or something. If we go now, we can be gone before the army even notices us, and no casualties."
"I wouldn't get too excited," Solomon said. "You haven't heard my report yet."
"What do you have for us?" Mustang asked.
"Roxie gave me a list of the personnel in the infirmary," Solomon said, holding up some papers. "You probably already realize this, but it's a long list."
The others looked around at each other grimly. Hikki in particular knew what was coming.
"I won't depress you with the percentages, but suffice it to say that while a slim majority of our people survived the war, the vast majority of the survivors were injured," Solomon continued. "The infirmary is just overflowing with people. Many of them are still in critical condition. Some are still unconscious, and many of them won't be able to walk on their own for weeks if not months."
"So it's what I was saying yesterday," Cille said, glancing at Eric and Raef. "We won't be able to mobilize them to get out."
"That's right," Solomon confirmed. "I asked Roxie what she thought about trying to carry them out and she kind of gave me the business." He looked a little sheepish remembering his wife's reaction. "She was adamant that the people in that kind of condition not be moved until it's safe for them. Unless we have some kind of evacuation helicopter, which seems unlikely."
"That would be a good way to get the army's attention, that's for sure," Mustang said drily.
"Um... we're kind of working on evacuation... things," Larry spoke up tentatively.
Everyone looked at him expectantly.
"I mean I don't know if we can really use them, and it won't be a helicopter..." he added quickly.
"What do you have in mind?" Mustang asked.
"Well..." Larry took a deep breath and figured he'd just go ahead and give his report. "Our mechs got pretty banged up, right? We only have one that's fully operational, and that one..." He shuddered. "But we came up with the idea of using parts of the other mechs to try to get another one up and running. And maybe if we can do that, we can use it to evacuate people, like as an armored transport."
"Hmm, that's an intriguing idea," Mustang said thoughtfully. "You really think you can do that?"
"We're going to get working on it right away," Larry answered. "It'll take some time and I don't know exactly how it will turn out... but it's a possibility."
"Good enough for now," Mustang said. "Make that your top priority in the mech lab and keep us informed of progress."
"Roger," Larry said, then looked kind of uncertain. "Um, I have the whole equipment list here if you'd like to hear it..."
Mustang held up a hand. "That won't be necessary."
Larry looked kind of relieved that he wouldn't have to give his whole report, but kind of sad that he'd gone to all that trouble for nothing.
"All right then, I'd say we've got a pretty good picture of how things are," Mustang said. "For now we're grounded while our injured comrades recover. In the meantime we'll work on escape plans and see what the guys in the workshop can come up with. Does that sound acceptable, leader?"
He looked expectantly at Hikki, and the Frenchman suddenly remembered that he was supposed to be the one in charge.
"Um... oui, zat sounds reasonable," he said.
"Any other thoughts or orders?" Mustang asked him.
"Um..." Hikki thought for a moment. "We must all try to keep going as best we can. All must help each ozzer and keep our fameely strong during zees deefeecult time." He looked around at the others. "Eef zere are any ways to make zees place feel more like home... zat ees what I would tell pepole to do."
Mustang raised an eyebrow, thinking that those were awfully unspecific orders.
Clarice saw where he was coming from. "That's a good point. People are going to be freaking out if we tell them we can't leave. We'll just have to tell them to stay calm and keep things going in here for as long as it takes us to get out."
The others nodded and murmured in agreement.
"All right then," Mustang said. "Spreading the word can be your job. If that's all for now, let's get to work. I've got a lot of bodies to burn and I'd like to get it over with."
As everyone dispersed, Kamina pulled Cille and Hikki aside and spoke to them in a low voice.
"You know, I know it's a risky thing to say after what happened yesterday, but if you wanted and we had a clear way out we could probably launch some sneak attacks and take a few more of those bastards out while we're sitting around here waiting."
Cille considered the idea, but Hikki already knew his answer.
"No," he said firmly. "Zere would be no point to furzer bloodshed. Eet has been too much already."
Hearing it put that way, Kamina almost felt bad about asking. "Understood. Forget I mentioned it."
As Kamina walked away, Cille looked at Hikki. She knew he was right, especially since allowing their fighters to leave the base just to take potshots at the army would just put them - and their precious escape route - at risk too.
Like it or not, they all had to get used to the idea of not going anywhere for a while.
Chapter 51 author's notes:
Recurring characters:
Lucille "Cille" Compton - Cille
Eric Ominae - OMNI-Enforcer
Bruce Herman - bherman
Roxie Goldsmith - anime_goddess05
Cid - cidthekittyisfun
Proof - NoProof91
Professor M. Matrix - matrixman124
Larry Zorin - LAZY17
Raef Compton - Maenos
Clarice Rowe - QueenoftheDorks
Hikki Follet - Kohikki
Samson Monroe - MasterSamson
*Foley S. Goode - Foley_is_Good_149
Roy Mustang - Fullmetal Alchemist
Aoi - Ghost in the Shell
Elian - s-CRY-ed
Scheris Adjani - s-CRY-ed
Lloyd Asplund - Code Geass
Winry Rockbell - Fullmetal Alchemist
Straight Cougar - s-CRY-ed
Kamina - Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann
Solomon Goldsmith - Blood+
* Characters marked with an asterisk are mentioned but do not take an active part in the story.
When Mustang arrived in the command room the next morning, he found Cille and Eric studying some monitors that each showed a view of the woods.
"Good morning, General," Eric greeted him.
"Captain," Mustang answered with a nod. Then he turned to Cille. "Did you call me here to show me something?"
"I have a couple of things to discuss with you," Cille replied. "What we're seeing here is one of them."
"You got the surveillance systems running, I take it?"
"Yeah. It took most of the night but Aoi finally broke through their jamming."
Aoi gave them a tired but satisfied smile.
"External communications are still blocked, though," Cille continued. "But at least we can see what's going on out there."
Mustang leaned over and took a closer look. "There's a group of soldiers in the brush there." He pointed to another monitor. "There, too."
"Yeah," Cille said somberly. "We've got feeds from all of our entrances." She switched the monitors to different views. "Bad news is, we've got visitors at all of them."
"All of them?" Mustang exclaimed. "Already?"
"All of the main base entry points, yes," Cille said. "The only thing we've got left is an escape tunnel that leads about two miles away. There aren't even any cameras out that far. We'll need to send somebody to check, but there's a chance they haven't spread to that area yet, or if they have, they might pass right over it. If you remember, we had Bruce Herman do some landscaping work on that area to clear it and camouflage it before we moved in."
"Mmm..." Mustang considered the situation. "We need some visuals. Let's have Elian show us what's out there." He looked around. "...Where is Elian?"
"He's resting," Cille answered.
"Still? I thought he was out yesterday," Mustang said.
"He was in pretty bad shape," Cille said. "I talked to Scheris a little while ago and she said he'd probably need a few more days to get his strength back."
"We may not have a few days to let him sit around," Mustang pointed out. "If we can't get some recon out there -"
"I'm not going to endanger his health any further until Scheris tells me he's okay," Cille said firmly. "We'll find another way to get our recon."
Mustang sighed and relented. "All right. Just get whatever you can from these cameras and be ready with a report this afternoon. We'll meet at 13:00 to discuss the situation."
"Understood. The other thing I wanted to ask you about was seeing if you'd be willing to cremate some bodies."
"Cremate? You mean the bodies in the morgue?"
"Yeah. Roxie came up with the idea so we don't have to worry about them going bad while we're stuck here."
Mustang sighed. "That doesn't sound like very much fun. But yeah, I can handle it."
Cille nodded. "Thanks. Roxie will be able to coordinate things with you when you have a chance to talk to her."
"I'll try to fit that in later today. Is that all?"
"All for now. Thanks for stopping by," Cille said.
"See you at 13:00 then," Mustang said, heading for the door.
**********
The mech lab staff had assembled in the underground training room, where Cid and Proof had insisted on taking their tentacled mech "to go for a walk" after missing it terribly the previous day. Lloyd, Matrix, Winry, and a reluctant Larry had taken the opportunity to accompany the mech on its outing, to gather data and discuss the outlook for what remained of their mech program.
"Well at least we still have one functional machine," Matrix said, watching it careening around the cavern.
"Yes, now if only we had a reason to use it," Lloyd replied. "Now that combat has ended, one lone mech isn't going to salvage the rebellion."
"Hey has anybody thought about how we're going to get out of here?" Larry asked. "What if we used the mechs for evacuation?"
"They could be used for armored transport," Winry said. "They can't fit very many people inside, but with speed boosts they could make multiple trips pretty fast. I think it's something worth considering."
Larry looked appreciative that someone was agreeing with him. But Lloyd just threw a hand in the air and started pacing around.
"If only my Knightmare frames weren't in such insufferably poor condition, we might actually have a chance of putting them to good use," he complained. "I don't see how these people can treat my work so carelessly and then expect me to magically produce 'armored transports' or whatever."
"It's not about magic, it's about science," Matrix retorted, rolling his eyes. "And would you shut up about your 'work' getting wrecked already? You weren't the only one who worked on these. And if you had any idea what it was actually like out there on the battlefield, you wouldn't be on such a high horse about them getting damaged."
Lloyd snorted. "Please, do tell me all about your extensive battlefield experience."
"Hey, I got a shot or two off out there," Matrix said (perhaps failing to mention the nature of his one actual shot). "More importantly, I saw what people looked like coming back in. It was rough out there. And if you want to go down to the infirmary and tell those guys they should have tried harder or something, don't be surprised if they have to haul you away in a body bag."
"Hrm, threats are all well and good," Lloyd sniffed. "But we're still left with only one functioning mech and a lot of scrap."
"I wouldn't call it scrap," Larry said. "Winry and I have done some pretty thorough assessments and there's a lot on those units that could still be functional with the proper repairs. We might even be able to combine parts from two or three different machines to get one fully functional unit."
"Oh joy, we can call it the Frankenframe," Lloyd said sarcastically.
"It sounds like fun to me," Matrix said. "I've already started brainstorming other ways to incorporate tentacles into the designs."
"Hrrrnnnnggg..." Larry tried to restrain his disgust, but did edge a little bit behind Winry.
"Well fine, I suppose we haven't got anything else to do here," Lloyd conceded. "Might as well spend our time trying to rehabilitate our work. And you'll need my oversight, especially if you're considering any more... extreme modifications."
Matrix just gave him a mischievous smile.
The mech ran toward them and slowed to a halt. Larry finally gave up his tough guy act and dove behind a big rock.
"Professor Matrix, Professor Matrix!" Proof called as the two pilots popped out of the mech cockpit and clambered down to the ground.
"Is something wrong?" Matrix asked.
"No, Kraky's doing great. He's just tired for now," Cid said.
"Kraky?" Matrix asked, raising an eyebrow.
"That's the name of our mech!" Cid said happily.
"His full name is Kraken T. Pwnington the First," Proof pointed out. "But silly Ciddy can't remember the whole name."
"I can too!" Cid insisted. "It's just too long to say! And Kraky is much cuter."
"That is kind of cute," Winry agreed. "I mean... for a mech... with tentacles..."
"I know, right?" Cid beamed at the other girl.
"Are you done with your exercising, then?" Lloyd asked. "Can we get back up to the lab?"
"Yes we're done, but we wanted to ask you something, Professor Matrix," Proof said.
"Yeah, it's very important," Cid added, suddenly looking serious.
"What is it?" Matrix asked.
The pilots exchanged looks and nodded at each other purposefully.
"We want to help take care of Kraky and play with him every day and make sure he doesn't get lonely," Proof said. "We want you to promise you won't take him apart or send him away or shut him down or anything like that."
"He's our friend," Cid added. "We want to take care of him."
Matrix smiled at them indulgently. "Well if that's all you want, that'll be perfectly fine."
"YAAAAY!" the twins cheered in unison. They both ran and hugged Matrix, to his surprise, and then went and each hugged one of the mech's tentacles. The mech seemed to respond to them, wiggling its tentacles happily.
"Well isn't that a match made in heaven," Lloyd commented drily.
"At least somebody besides me appreciates the appeal of lovely tentacles," Matrix retorted. Then he turned back to the pilots. "Okay guys, we're going to go back up to the lab now."
"Okay, should we drive him back up there?" Cid asked.
Matrix thought for a moment. "You know, I think Kraky can live down here so he has plenty of room to roam around whenever you want to play with him."
"Okay, cool!" Proof said.
"Just make sure he doesn't get out into the rest of the base," Larry added quickly.
"We will!" Cid assured him. "We'll take good care of him and be very responsible!"
"I sure hope so," Larry muttered under his breath.
As the scientists headed up to the workshop, Matrix remembered something. "Oh don't forget, General Bigpants wants someone from the lab to report in at his big meeting at 13:00."
"Fine, you take care of it," Lloyd said languidly.
"I've got a, uh, personal project that needs my attention," Matrix said evasively. "I thought you'd handle this one."
"I certainly don't have time for some boring administrative meeting," Lloyd said.
"Why don't you go, Larry?" Winry suggested. "You can tell them what we came up with yesterday."
"Yes, that sounds like an excellent idea," Lloyd said, mostly seeing an excuse to not have to deal with the whole thing.
"Good then, it's settled," Matrix agreed before Larry could protest. "Have fun!" he called as both he and Lloyd quickened their pace to get away.
Larry just stopped walking and slumped his shoulders with a sigh.
Winry chuckled and patted him on the shoulder encouragingly. "You'll be fine," she assured him. "Let's go over our list again before you have to go up there."
"Okay," Larry agreed, feeling slightly better about being stuck with the meeting.
**********
At 13:00 the control room was packed with people. Mustang was pacing back and forth waiting for everyone to get settled. Cille, Eric, Cougar, and Raef sat together as part of the command crew. Clarice had wheeled Hikki up from the infirmary, where Samson was still recovering from his surgery and being emo. Kamina and Solomon were there as the respective leaders of the GAR Streeters and the Order of Glass. And Larry was fiddling with his papers, mentally going over his report from the mech lab.
"All right, people, let's get going," Mustang said authoritatively. "We've all had a day to get our business figured out, so it's time to decide where we go from here."
The others nodded and murmured amongst themselves.
"Why don't you go first, Raef?" Cille suggested.
Raef repeated the reports he had given Cille the previous day, and presented Foley's accounting of the base's supplies.
"So three months at the most?" Mustang asked when he was done.
Raef nodded. "It'll depend on rationing, but yeah, that's pretty much our best-case scenario."
"I'd get working on those rations, then. Maybe you and Foley and..." He scanned the others. "...Clarice can work that out."
Clarice seemed surprised to be singled out but nodded to accept the task.
"Our next priority is obviously going to be escape," Mustang continued. "If I know the army, they'll be content to camp out there as long as it takes to smoke us out or let us wither away in here. We need to open up as many options for escape as possible."
"Well as you know, we don't have very many options left," Cille said. She turned to Hikki and the others. "They've cut off all of our exits around the main base."
Hikki cringed as the others groaned.
"Wait, you mean we're stuck in here?" Clarice exclaimed.
"No, not exactly," Cille said, holding up a hand to try to keep them from overreacting.
"There's an escape tunnel," Mustang said. "But we need to make sure we can use it."
"Already checked it out," Cougar said quickly. "It looks clear. The opening was covered over with brush so it's not visible unless you know exactly where to look. And there wasn't even anybody out there, so the coast was pretty well clear."
"That's great!" Kamina said eagerly. "Then let's just get everybody out through there and head for the border or something. If we go now, we can be gone before the army even notices us, and no casualties."
"I wouldn't get too excited," Solomon said. "You haven't heard my report yet."
"What do you have for us?" Mustang asked.
"Roxie gave me a list of the personnel in the infirmary," Solomon said, holding up some papers. "You probably already realize this, but it's a long list."
The others looked around at each other grimly. Hikki in particular knew what was coming.
"I won't depress you with the percentages, but suffice it to say that while a slim majority of our people survived the war, the vast majority of the survivors were injured," Solomon continued. "The infirmary is just overflowing with people. Many of them are still in critical condition. Some are still unconscious, and many of them won't be able to walk on their own for weeks if not months."
"So it's what I was saying yesterday," Cille said, glancing at Eric and Raef. "We won't be able to mobilize them to get out."
"That's right," Solomon confirmed. "I asked Roxie what she thought about trying to carry them out and she kind of gave me the business." He looked a little sheepish remembering his wife's reaction. "She was adamant that the people in that kind of condition not be moved until it's safe for them. Unless we have some kind of evacuation helicopter, which seems unlikely."
"That would be a good way to get the army's attention, that's for sure," Mustang said drily.
"Um... we're kind of working on evacuation... things," Larry spoke up tentatively.
Everyone looked at him expectantly.
"I mean I don't know if we can really use them, and it won't be a helicopter..." he added quickly.
"What do you have in mind?" Mustang asked.
"Well..." Larry took a deep breath and figured he'd just go ahead and give his report. "Our mechs got pretty banged up, right? We only have one that's fully operational, and that one..." He shuddered. "But we came up with the idea of using parts of the other mechs to try to get another one up and running. And maybe if we can do that, we can use it to evacuate people, like as an armored transport."
"Hmm, that's an intriguing idea," Mustang said thoughtfully. "You really think you can do that?"
"We're going to get working on it right away," Larry answered. "It'll take some time and I don't know exactly how it will turn out... but it's a possibility."
"Good enough for now," Mustang said. "Make that your top priority in the mech lab and keep us informed of progress."
"Roger," Larry said, then looked kind of uncertain. "Um, I have the whole equipment list here if you'd like to hear it..."
Mustang held up a hand. "That won't be necessary."
Larry looked kind of relieved that he wouldn't have to give his whole report, but kind of sad that he'd gone to all that trouble for nothing.
"All right then, I'd say we've got a pretty good picture of how things are," Mustang said. "For now we're grounded while our injured comrades recover. In the meantime we'll work on escape plans and see what the guys in the workshop can come up with. Does that sound acceptable, leader?"
He looked expectantly at Hikki, and the Frenchman suddenly remembered that he was supposed to be the one in charge.
"Um... oui, zat sounds reasonable," he said.
"Any other thoughts or orders?" Mustang asked him.
"Um..." Hikki thought for a moment. "We must all try to keep going as best we can. All must help each ozzer and keep our fameely strong during zees deefeecult time." He looked around at the others. "Eef zere are any ways to make zees place feel more like home... zat ees what I would tell pepole to do."
Mustang raised an eyebrow, thinking that those were awfully unspecific orders.
Clarice saw where he was coming from. "That's a good point. People are going to be freaking out if we tell them we can't leave. We'll just have to tell them to stay calm and keep things going in here for as long as it takes us to get out."
The others nodded and murmured in agreement.
"All right then," Mustang said. "Spreading the word can be your job. If that's all for now, let's get to work. I've got a lot of bodies to burn and I'd like to get it over with."
As everyone dispersed, Kamina pulled Cille and Hikki aside and spoke to them in a low voice.
"You know, I know it's a risky thing to say after what happened yesterday, but if you wanted and we had a clear way out we could probably launch some sneak attacks and take a few more of those bastards out while we're sitting around here waiting."
Cille considered the idea, but Hikki already knew his answer.
"No," he said firmly. "Zere would be no point to furzer bloodshed. Eet has been too much already."
Hearing it put that way, Kamina almost felt bad about asking. "Understood. Forget I mentioned it."
As Kamina walked away, Cille looked at Hikki. She knew he was right, especially since allowing their fighters to leave the base just to take potshots at the army would just put them - and their precious escape route - at risk too.
Like it or not, they all had to get used to the idea of not going anywhere for a while.
Chapter 51 author's notes:
Recurring characters:
Lucille "Cille" Compton - Cille
Eric Ominae - OMNI-Enforcer
Bruce Herman - bherman
Roxie Goldsmith - anime_goddess05
Cid - cidthekittyisfun
Proof - NoProof91
Professor M. Matrix - matrixman124
Larry Zorin - LAZY17
Raef Compton - Maenos
Clarice Rowe - QueenoftheDorks
Hikki Follet - Kohikki
Samson Monroe - MasterSamson
*Foley S. Goode - Foley_is_Good_149
Roy Mustang - Fullmetal Alchemist
Aoi - Ghost in the Shell
Elian - s-CRY-ed
Scheris Adjani - s-CRY-ed
Lloyd Asplund - Code Geass
Winry Rockbell - Fullmetal Alchemist
Straight Cougar - s-CRY-ed
Kamina - Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann
Solomon Goldsmith - Blood+
* Characters marked with an asterisk are mentioned but do not take an active part in the story.