Asteroid Blues

Lt. An-Wen had awoken to see a white room framing the figure of Hsien Yu-Wen. Since the shot form the Tartary sniper had ripped through her shoulder she had drifted off as she hung in a sea of stars.

It was only later that she learnt she had been pushed off the ledge she has been on with the force of the blast and had fallen slowly to the floor below as if feet first thanks to the 0-G weighted boots. She had seen the footage of her descending like the victim of a Triad drowning. Sinking through clear water with concrete boots on.

During her days of bed rest as Nanobots grafted lab grown tissue and skin over her wound she had had time to think. Think about lee, about life, about giving up. She had failed a second time to keep others safe. Who was she to keep cheating death while others fell to rise no more.

And here she was healed and ready for duty.

She noticed Yu-wen was fiddling with the little ShiShi toy he always had. Why he liked the poorly painted mess she did not know.

She must have frowned to long and to disdainfully.

“It was my daughters.” Yu-Wen informed her. “The last thing she ever gave me”

A pang of guilt flowed through her.

“Oh, that`s,” started An-Wen before she thought of something. “The last sir? You have had that as long as I have known you. Your daughter is..”

“Arr yes. She is alive” interupted Yu-Wen.

The explanation had not helped her understanding.

So she doesn't speak to you?

“She does. But I can see your missing the point.”

Yu-Wen continued, “And it's point is why I am here. I have read your psychiatric evaluation. The new one that is.”

An-Wen started to glaze over as anxiety and depression rolled in.

“My Daughter was on paridiso with me when the first wave of CA hit. I can still remember the feel of her hand in mine as we walked to school. She was only five at the time. Of all the things I can remember those hands are what I can see, can feel most clearly. She loved to put her palm on mine and be amazed that my fingers could fold over her own.”

An-Wen was being drawn in. there was a warmth on the Hsien`s face she had never seen before or believed was there at all.

“When the fighting started I was elsewhere. I was called upon to lead and I had to trust in others to keep my family safe."

He looked up and directly into her eyes “they failed.”

“But I am high ranking enough to expect certain privileges.
her cube was intact and my wife and I longed for our little one to be home and safe. For fear and pain to not be the last thing in life to short."

“We did not wait more than a month for them to grow her a new body and when the day came to have her back my heart was a battleground of fear and joy.”

“She ran to us like she always had. Same smile, same eyes, same expression.”

“ We held each other for a long time and we were all so happy.”

“Then after some final observations we were free to take her home.”

“I offered my hand and she took it with that huge smile like holding my hand was the greatest gift in the world.”

An-Wen could not help but smile.

“But they were not the same,” added Yu-Wen. “From that first moment our skin touched I felt it. They were not my daughters hands. I tried to hide the doubt and the pain, but I could not change the fact that I could not love this new thing like I had loved her.”

“I drifted into my new task. The less I saw my new Daughter the better it was. Not happier. Just not as painful.”

“You will not no guilt until you look into the eyes of a child who never did anything to wrong you. You loves you. And all you can do is resent them for the memories that haunt you.”

“Eventually I could not stand to touch my new daughter. It felt like a betrayal”

“I have not seen her since I left paradiso.”

And this is the only thing I have that was made by those tiny hands i remember.

“This,” he said holding up the shishi, “represents both my guilt for not protecting those I love, and what I fight for. I fight to stop children from dying at the hands of the CA. to stop others feeling the pain I do”

“Death is not easy, and if it does not weigh heavy on you, you are not right.” But in these times to give up is to let others suffer the same.

“How you deal with it now, will change your path. I can see a leader in you. But only if you can channel your pain into duty.”

Yu-Wen stood and left An-Wen in silence. She hardly noticed. She had too much to digest.

A few days later and she was back in the field. She was leading a team that was abusing forces as the approached the mine and right now she was on the trail of a CA force for the first time.

She tapped her breast pocket to feel the die inside as the drop ship landed. It had been Lee`s. She had almost forgotten taking it in a huff when he had kept her awake by rolling the fucking thing over and over again in the dorm rooms.

She smiled as she recalled the smug grin he has used to respond to her anger. Now his memory gave her strength not weakness.

An Wen dashed form the drop ship and made for the cover of some mining facility building.

To the left the Kuang-Shi team pushed forward at her direction and laid smoke before falling in behind a Ruishi that advanced around the far east of the battle field and opened up on the morat team they had taken by surprise.

Before the REM could over extend she pulled it back and go ready for a counter attack.

An Oznat dashed forward to attack the Ruishi as the Sogarat laid down fire wounding a Warcor who was following the team.

The Oznat failed to take down the Ruishi.

(in the video I said the Su-Jian had a spitfire. That was the previous game, in this one it had a boarding shotgun)

An-Wen sent the Su-Jian forward up the middle of the battle to make sure nothing could get to the wounded Warcor. It found a target by failed to wound it before it ducked into of cover.

The last vanguard moved over the the far east of the battle field while the Sogarat moved west to try and flank the Yu-jing,

An-Wen sent the ruishi forward once more and it was able to take down the last Vanguard.

The Sogarat was the last Morat left standing and it soon realized it was out numbered and would be unable to hold the ground it was hope to take.

With here first operation leading a team against the CA a success, An-Wen prepared to move onto the next target with a growing confidence in her ability and in the good she was doing for the Sphere and for Yu-Jing.