“You’ll be ok, hun?”
“Of course, you know me!”
Eva laughed, giving Rikko one final hug. It surprised them both they were so relaxed, with the final confrontation coming so close.
“Ok, I’m off!”
Rikko got on the Gunship that was waiting for him. They were currently standing on a Declipse aircraft carrier, close to what was believed to be the final enemy base. The Gunship would fly him to another vehicle, which he would drive himself to the base. He would get in using a fake identity and plant controller chips in every camera and turret in the base. Not an easy task, but it was too dangerous to join him.
Eva waved. The smile Rikko held was saying a lot. He was having a good feeling about the mission. And when Rikko had a good feeling about a mission, it would end up well. It always did.

“Ok… He’s started the vehicle! Firing EMP!”
It was invisible, and nothing noteworthy happened on the battleship. After waving Rikko off, Eva had gone towards the Declipse flagship of the assault force. It was still en route to the rendez vous point, but it was already within EMP range. This particular blast would keep the base defenses down for 20 hours. More or less.
Eva was currently standing in the controll room. She had insisted that, as Rikko’s squadmate, she was able to see everything untill communication was lost. They were already in full radio silence with Rikko, he just had his communicator with him in case there was trouble.
“Eva, get yourself some sleep, 20 hours is a long time and you’re already up for 18 hours.”
Behind her was the CO of the assault force. He was a tall, dark man with a heavy voice. He was also one of the CO’s who earned his place on the field. He knew what was better for you.
“Yes, sir. That might be better to do.”

Eva almost never slept long, but this time she was out for much longer then expected.
“Oh geez, 16 hours! I must’ve overslept!”
She hastily pulled on some clothing as she got up, but called herself to peace as she was halfway her top.
“Relax, Eva, 16 hours. Rikko won’t have any news for at least 2 more hours…”
She took a couple of deep breaths before she went towards the mess hall. Ships this large always had their own food accomodations. It allowed them to stay out much longer.
In the mess she met the CO, who offered here a cup of coffee. She thankfully accepted the cup.
“You were asleep longer then I thought…” He said, taking a gulp of his coffee
“Yes,” Eva agreed “I guess it was needed… Any news on…?”
“No, we lost communications about 40 minutes after we fired the EMP. We assume he entered the base, where he fell into jamming range.”
Eva nodded. She had expected this, but needed some time to fully understand it. Of course the base would have jammers, even terrorists weren’t stupid.

3 and a half hour later, Eva was in the controll room again, reading something. She had been offered a seat, just to stop her from constantly pacing around. But then, finally.
“The communication with G-Lead is restoring!”
Eva looked up.
“G-Lead to base, do you read me?”
“Loud and clear, G-Lead.”
“Mission accomplished, but I lost my cover. I’m under assault.”
“Understood, G-Lead, we’re sending a gunship to pick you up. ETA 20 minutes.”

“20 minutes is going to be too long!”
Eva had jumped up, but the CO already had his heavy hand on her shoulder, softly excersising pressure on it.
“There isn’t anything faster we can send, we will just ha…”
“There is.”
Eva looked him in the eyes.
“And I know how to controll it.”
The CO stared back at Eva for what seemed like an eternity. It were this kind of looks that made Eva feel like she was being disected, washed and scanned.
“Very well…” The CO finally said, closing his eyes “They are in launch bay 1. You have permission to take one.”
Eva didn’t even thank him, but just sprinted out of the controll room. Her book was left behind on the seat, and a lot of puzzled people were staring at the closed door.

“This one will be fine, thank you.”
Eva had gone straight for launch bay 1, where she had ordered the man there to give her a small Jetpack. Seeing Eva was a captain, she didn’t get any resistance from the man.
When she had gotten her Jetpack, Eva jumped through the opening in the forcefield that was designed for this. The battleship was flying at almost a mile height. If it wasn’t for her training and her closed visor, which supplied her with fresh oxygen, she would have blacked out. But she didn’t, and made a gracefull dive during which she activated her Jetpack and went horizontal. The Gunship was already 2 minutes away, but it took Eva only that long to get with it, and an aditional 4 minutes to reach the shores.
She was wise enough to evade the base. It housed ground to air defence systems which would eat her for breakfast. This detour made something that would only take 1 minute take 4, but finally she reached the area where Rikko was pinpointed to be. And he was there, pressed against a rock wall. Her visor registered three laser shots coming from Rikko, but those didn’t do much. As she saw Rikko aim for a second time with a different weapon, she hurled a grenade down.

A perfect throw, with the small explosion taking almost three terrorists down. Rikko looked puzzled, but Eva didn’t have time to be amused. She used her rifle to perform strafing runs on the terrorists untill they broke off the attack. Finally she landed next to Rikko. She turned her visor back to the normal mode and looked at Rikko.
“Just in time, eh?”
“Nothing new…” Was the answer “So… Twenty minutes?”
They started walking, the landing zone was still quite some distance away.
“I flew ahead,” Eva answered, pointing with her thumb to the Jetpack that was hanging on her back
“I owe you for that.”
Eva’s eye fell on the three wounds in Rikko’s left arm. She stopped and searched for her Rev-Up.
“Stand still… You weren’t too hard to follow…”
With her free hand, she pointed to the blood splatters which originated from Rikko’s arm. As soon as she got her Rev-Up free, she aimed for Rikko’s arm and released a short beam. Three small holes didn’t need much concentrated energy.