A Bloodless Coup

Val literally rolled out of bed when, falling to the floor was what actually woke him up. Sitting up and rubbing his head he looked at the clock with blurry eyes.

"Six o'clock? Time to get up, no longer on off duty sleep time."

Val grabbed his towel from the standing coat rack where he kept it and strolled to the bathroom. On the way out of his room he saw that James' room, where Takimi was staying was already empty.

"Man, that girl sure is on top of things. Wonder what she's doing up so early. This base isn't fully operational, and epically not before six in the morning."

With a shrug, Val entered the bathroom, which had an usual flowery smell to it. Looking around he saw that the bottle of woman's shampoo had been opened. Val laughed as he remembered the day James brought that in.

'You never know when we'll have a lady over Val, doesn't hurt to be prepared' James had said, and it turned out he was right.

Val quickly undressed and showered, after getting out he wrapped the towel around his waist and headed back to his room, holding the cloths from yesterday in his arms. Dumping them a hamper, he opened his closet and yanked a pair of green camouflage cargo pants from their hanger and tosses them on the bed. After pulling on boxers and the pants he grabbed a random shirt, out of the second hamper where he just dumped all his clean shirts, which turned out to be a red sleeveless with a small cut on the left side and a slight stain, probably from oil, on the front. Shrugging, Val pulled it out, grabbed his trench coat and headed downstairs. When he reached the first floor he put a hand on the inside pocket to make sure the disk was still there, it was. Taking a deep breath he smelt something, food. Had she made them breakfast? Val strolled into the kitchen and saw two plates stacked with bacon, eggs and friend vegetables. He smiled as he took one plate and put it in the microwave to heat it up. After finishing the first full breakfast he had eaten in years, Val placed the plate in the sink and headed towards the base. Reaching into his pocket he pulled out his pack of cigarettes, which was empty. Sighing he continued to the base. It was good to have Takimi around. 'Maybe she wasn't here on any sort of mission.' With that thought, Val smiled. Today felt like it was going to be a good day. He reached the base around six thirty and say that a majority of the people were up and doing whatever they were supposed to be.

Val watched Takimi go about her dusting with interest. 'She's dusting a military base?' Val thought as he and James both watched in interest. After she was finished and the door was closed again, Val turned back to James, who was staring at the closed door with his mouth open and his eyes wide.

"So that's who.........."

"Is staying in our house"

"And she....."

"Took a shower and or bath in our tub. Yes. Beautiful isn't she? Jyotika treats her like a slave, well I guess she is his slave. So I thought we'd best show her a good time while she was here. But it appears that she's hellbent on doing here whatever she does at Jyotika's."

James stared off at the door for a few more seconds then turned around to face Val once more. It was clear to Val that James wasn't going to be thinking straight for the next few minuets. Val sighed and shook his head.

"Why don't you go check on the status of the MS factory. What we were discussing can wait for a bit, beside, you're not thinking about that right now anyways."

With that Val hurried James out of his office and stood at the door for a bit, watching Takimi push a broom until she rounded a corner. He let out a sigh and shook his head. Val waited, leaning against the wall for a few minuets then shrugged and headed of in the direction where Takimi had headed. He rounded the corner to she her bending over to grab a trash can and empty it. Instantly, two words flashed through his mind 'Nice....Ass' He shook his head again and walked over to her as she stood up.

"Ya know, you don't have to do any of that while you're here. Just relax and enjoy yourself. In fact, I think I'll have to insist on that."

He smiled as he gently took the broom away from her.

"Come on, there's plenty to do here besides work. What do you do in your free time anyway?"

Val watched as she bowed her head slightly and looked at the ground. It was apparent that she didn't have any free time. It was also apparent that she wasn't used to being treated like a lady. 'Well, nothing I can do about that when she returns to Jytokia. But at least I can try to let her have fun while she's here.' He thought.

Val watched with intent as the battle began. Standard moves, standard formation, so far everything looked good, but nothing special. It was a simple simulation, supply like of Leo's, single guardian suit and a team of three enemy suits. Not sure what to expect, Val had the programmed load the simulation. Seeing as the suit and the program weren't completely up to date, it took a few minuets to load, in which Val watched as Takimi did a few maneuvers, barrel rolls, loops, and Himmelmans were the warm up with tootsie rolls and tumblers. Impressive, advanced aerial dodging maneuvers. Once the program was loaded and running, he continued, watching as Takimi passed by, sending a barrage of fire, canceling on of the Targos'. As was programmed, the other two enemy suits finished off the supply Leo's and began a more advanced assault against the pilot. Takimi took out the second suit by destroying the ammunition container, a bit unorthodox, but still effective. This is where it got interesting, once the seconds suit was taken out, the final suit was loaded with battle data that had been taken from Lord Treize, making the suit more accurate, deadly and persistent. Val smiled as a shot hit home on Takimi's suit. That was it, mission over, or so he thought, instead of leaving, she turned the failing suit towards the final Targos and began firing wildly, she only stopped after ramming her burning suit into the final enemy, destroying them both. Val grinned and laughed and the simulation ended. He walked over to the ladder as she began her descent.

"Very impressive. Honestly I didn't think you'd do that well, especially not against Lord Treize's battle data, which was uploaded into the third suit. Looks like Jyotika was right about you. You are a woman of many different talents, and I think I'm just beginning to see and enjoy the most basic of them. And thank you for breakfast this morning. It was very appreciated and good, though you really didn't need to do that."

Val looked over to the group that had gathered to watch Takimi run the simulation. Half of them were making mock kissing or cooing noises, the other half was looking at him with jealousy, they obviously believed that Takimi was here for him, not because of whatever reason Jyotika might have for sending her here. Once the simulation suit had been booted up again, it was time for the men to begin their training, so Val led Takimi away.

"So, what else can you do? Any other impressive talents that you’ve got hidden away that you’d like to share?"

Val smiled as they walked back into the base. He stopped about fifty some odd meters from the door and looked down a hall to his right, which ended in a massive black and yellow striped caution door.

"Come on, I’ve got something I want to show you. I think you’ll like this."

He led her down the hall and to the door, which was locked with a security hand scanner. After scanning his hand, the door opened to reveal a freight elevator, one that was used for moving ammunition from the storage area to the base. Going down the elevator, the reached another door, this one locked with a digital combination lock. Val entered the pass code, a series of thirteen numbers and the doors opened, revealing a Mobile Suit crouching on one knee. Even though the lights had not come on yet, it could easily be seen that the suit wasn’t finished, or just in desperate need of repair. After a few seconds the lights switched on, row by row from the door they were standing at, to reveal an unfinished Gundam.

"Say hello to my baby, once she’s finished she’ll be an almost exact copy of Duo Maxwell’s Deathscyth Hell. Though it’s still very far from being complete. This is just the body that we’re building, we’ll get the weapons when we’re near finished or completely finished building it. Actually I’m hoping Jyotika will be able to assist us with that."

Val continued to look at what one day he hoped would be a suit at least close to as powerful as Duo Maxwell’s was. After a few silent minuets, Val looked over to Takimi, she seemed to be glowing in the bright lights of the hanger, the light accenting her beautiful Japanese features even more. After looking at her, Val couldn’t look away, he was just stunned by her beauty, and he wasn’t even sure what he was going to do next.

After a few minuets Val shook his head and returned his gaze to the unfinished Deathscyth Hell. He let out a sigh and softly put his hand on Takimi's shoulder.

"Come Takimi. I thought that my baby might impress you, but like I said, she's farm from finished."

Val led her back to the door and hit the lights, he looked back over his shoulder as the lights went out one by one, putting the Gundam back into its shadowy slumber.

"You're probably wondering why I'm showing you this. And probably wondering why I didn't tell Jyotika about this. Well I promised him he'd get all the information he required, and so he shall, I just wanted to keep this from him for a bit. Besides, if you bring this information back to him, he'll be please, especially if he doesn't know that I showed you this of my own free will. Because, lets be honest here, you're not here as just a show of good faith on the part of Jyotika are you? You're here for another reason, and well I don't know exactly what that reason is, I do know that I have nothing to hide, that's why you've been given full access to the base and my personal living quarters."

With those words, Val closed the hanger and walked with Takimi back to the elevator, which they took back up to the main floor. Once there, Val closed the elevator door.

"I'm going to ask you a question, and I'd like an honest response. You have nothing to fear form me or any of my men. You will not be harmed in anyway. So feel free to speak as you will. Why exactly are you here?"

Val stood there, looking into her eyes, hoping for an honest response, but not really expecting it. Despite the lack of light, she still looked beautiful. Val found it hard to believe that someone could keep something like this, someone like her as a slave.

Val stood there with his arms crossed as she answered. "I was sent to collect computer records. We were going to cross-check the data on them with your claims to see if you were worth what you promised." His eyes widened a bit as Takimi spoke. And she spoke the truth, or at least he truly believed her. Val followed her hand as she reached towards her belt, and he uncrossed his arms and his right hand slowly moved down to his right side, until he saw her grab a Zip Disk, and his hand stopped. "Please don't interpret this as mistrust. My master only wished to see if you were a man of your word. Val smiled, so was that all?

"What have you learned so far? Aside from what I've shown you."

"I haven't dumped the drives that I loaded, so I have no data. I do know that you recently destroyed a computer."

"Yes. I did destroy a computer, a laptop to be exact. So that's why you dusted my office? Impressive, well I have to say you did a very good job, I had no idea what you were up to. I thought that you were just dusting. Very impressive. Well, if you must know, follow me."

Val led Takimi back to his office and opened the top drawer and pulled out a single floppy disk.

"This is the file I pulled off the computer, when I destroyed the computer, I didn't want the information to get out. But you have already seen the actual suit. This is the construction data that we've been able to collect on the Deathscyth Hell. Everything is here."

Val paused and let out a sigh and looked over to Takimi.

"You are welcome to use my computer to look over the files that you have collected so far. I am a man of my word, and if this is what it takes to prove it to Jyotika, then so be it."

Val fully stood up and closed the drawer. He walked over towards her and stopped almost next to her, but so that he was still about half a step in front of her. He leaned towards her slightly with looking at her and whispered in her ear.

"Do what you need to do. I'll be around the base. But it truly is a shame that the most beautiful woman that this soldiers eyes have ever seen is treated the way she is. No matter what Jyotika decides from this data, you will always be welcome within The Caligo Umbra."

With those words Val left the office, not looking back to see if she had moved or not, but suspecting that she hadn’t. He was willing to bet his life on the fact that nobody has said words like that to her, especially not Jyotika.

Val was alone in the private training room reserved for officers. He had been there since he last spoke to Takimi and was working off both frustration and pent up aggression. His trench coat, shirt, boots and socks lay in a cluttered pile in a bench. Several Wing Su training dummies were piled in the corner with their arms missing. Val was dripping sweat from just about everywhere. Currently he was standing in front of a hanging punching bad throwing all his power into punches and kicks. James almost broke down the door as he came running in.

"Val, Takimi's helicopter just blew up on its way back to Jyotkia's base. You don't think that he had something to do with it did you?"

"Of course he did. Who else would do it. Apparently he doesn’t like having any competition over his personal servants. And, from this action of cowardice, we can assume that he has something major to hide. There's no other reason why he'd kill someone so completely loyal to him. Despite whatever feelings may have come over here her, she was still loyal to him."

With those words Val turned to James, his body almost glistening in the light, his eyes, which were usually so full of life and joy, were cold and hard as stone, as they had been during the battle at Space Station Libra. James took a deep breath and nodded then turned and left. Val took a deep breath of his own and closed his eyes. Slowly he let his breath out.

"Nan Shin Shadow Style. Heart break palm!"

Val quickly spun around, bending at the knees slightly and struck the bag in the middle with an almost completely open palm. A visible wave extended on the bag from where he hit it. Time seemed to slow as the bag was pushed away from him when he hit it, as it reached the point where it would normally stop and come back, the metal chains strained and snapped, launching the bag several yards away where it crashed to the floor and rolled against the wall. Standing up fully Val cracked his knuckles followed by his neck. It was clear to him that Jyotika would do anything to make sure that his power was never lost. Val smiled at this thought, maybe this Jyotika character was worthy for Val to serve, it was certainly beginning to look that way.

Val stood in the training room for what seemed like an eternity, but in actuality it had only been somewhere around twenty minuets. Finally he allowed his eyes to come back into focus and return to reality. He glared down at the punching bag which was stuck in the corner with a dent in it where Val had hit with the Heart Break Palm. He smiled, as he remembered what that move, if done correctly, could do to a human being. Though it was called the Heart Break Palm, it actually didn't affect the heart at all. The direct hit caused the diaphragm to contract as the air is knocked out of the opponent’s lungs, and the "shock wave" of kinetic energy that is transferred directly after the initial blow caused the diaphragm to expand well beyond its normal size, not allowing the lungs to expand to bring in more air. Effectively, it cut of their air supply and suffocated them to death.

After gathering his stuff and taking a quick shower in the locker room, Val headed back to his office. He was in there for about an hour when a red light on his telephone began flash, the secure line. It was Jyotika, probably calling to say something about Takimi's death, which Val was still convinced that Jyotika was responsible for. He picked up the phone, he was right.

"Lord Jyotika. What a surprise."

"Yes, Val, I just received word that dear Takami's helicopter was destroyed over a jungle area known to harbor terrorists. It really is sad. I'm sure you had grown fond of her."

"She was a good person and an astounding young woman."

"Yes, I was particularly fond of her cooking. Pity she didn't spend more time in pilot training. Given time, I believe she could have avoided anything those upstarts could have thrown at her.[/ic]

She could more than handle some backwater terrorists, Val knew this, he had seen her pilot in the simulator. Though still not as good as himself or the Caligo Umbra Elite, Takimi had still edged out over half of the MS pilots that were under Val's command. Val wanted to say something, tell Jyotika that he wasn't fooling anyone, but he decided against it.

"Ah well, as people in your society say... 'dust to dust and ash to ash.' we really must move on. The colonies are building their forces. Even now, there is a congregation between a large independent battleship in the L3 area and an envoy from L4 meeting right over us. We must keep an eye on these people, and "Defenders", those terrorists who claim to be of Earth, but stay in space. We must also find a weakness in the Warrius' armor and try to take South America. We have so much to do all at once. Look at me, jabbering on about objectives like a politician. I really must get back to work. Feel free to ask if you or your men require anything, and I'll send who or what I can to help you."

With that, Jyotika hung up the phone. Val stood there for a few seconds, listening to the dial tone then hung up the phone himself.

"It's 'ashes to ashes, and dust to dust' you bastard. You'll learn that sooner or later, everyone that comes into power does, no matter how they achieve it."

Val picked up the phone again and dialed a number.

"James, there was someone else in the base. Find out who it was, how they got in here and fix it so it can't happen again. And check our inventory for this base again, I don't know why, but I get the feeling that there might be something important missing."

He hung up the phone and looked at the wall where he had a map of Asia posted. Looking over it, he grabbed it by the corner and lifted it up, to reveal a map of just China. This wasn't a current map however. It was a map that was accurate as of somewhere around 200 C.E. back before Mobile Suits, space travel, guns, cars, back when the world was beginning. China was split into three different sections, each one lightly colored a different color. In the north it was blue, the south was read and the west was green. Val smiled as he looked at the red section, recalling which family had ruled that section. The Sun family, decedents of Sun Tzu.

"Taken Sun Tzu's teachings to heart, that I have Jyotika, that I have."

Val left his office after looking at the map of ancient China for about twenty minuets. He left his trench coat in the office along with the disk still in the inside pocket, since the death of Takimi, there was no need for him to carry the disk with him at all times. He went into the main room where he found James comparing a list of their current supplies and a list of supplies as of yesterday.

"We do have a few things missing, nothing that seems to important, but if combined correctly they could be extremely explosive."

"So that's what happened huh? Took some of our parts and blew up his own helicopter, in case there was some investigation, we'd be a fault. Well he's thorough. Any idea who or how the person or people got in?"

"No idea on that, nothing showed up on the cameras or motion trackers or anything"

Val nodded then turned and left. Whoever Jyotika had sent was good, really good. Maybe Val and some of his men could learn something from this.

Val waited for night fall to make his move. The streets of "Home" were almost completely black. There was a full moon in the air, but it was covered by a thick cover of clouds. He had been crouched in the same location for going on two hours now, not daring to make a move. As of twenty minuets ago James was still with him, but he had gone out to scout the area, chances are he was gone, leaving Val alone against four men, at least that's how many there were, James could have taken one down with him, but Val didn't get his hopes up. James was a mechanic, not a fighter, but he enjoyed being on the field, Val told him that lust for adrenalin would get him killed one day, and tonight seemed to be that night. Val looked down at his weapons and went over what he had in his mind. One round left for the shotgun, full ammo for both Desert Eagles and the katana hidden away in his trench coat, though that wouldn't help him here because he couldn't use it. Val closed his eyes and took a deep breath, listening for any sounds. There, a crunch, someone stepped on a twig or something, not even 5 yards away, this is it, time to go for broke. Using the wall he was leaning against to help stand up right he let out the breath he hand been holding and rolled against the wall and into view. There were three of them there, and they all looked surprised to see him. Val pointed in the general direction and pulled the trigger of the shotgun while running across the gap between the house he had been hiding behind and the one nest to it. 'The fools came down an ally just wide enough for them to fit. They're asking for it.' Val though as he dropped the shotgun and make a grab for the Desert Eagles. The second and the third person rounded the corner before he could fully get his weapons out of the holsters and opened fire. They were both wielding assault rifles, so their chances of hitting were good, but Val didn't play on chances, he played on skill. He pushed both his feet out in front of him so he fell backwards. He could feel the shots flying over his body as he fell, seemingly in slow motion. Before he hit the ground he had both guns out and one pointed at each of his opponents. Pulling each trigger three times, Val sent all three rounds into the chest of one of them, and only two into the final opponents. He coughed as he hit the ground; it was harder than he had hopped. That was three of them, which left one. Before he could move, the final enemy stepped over him, dressed in a ski mask and full camouflage, and pointed the assault rifle at his chest and pulled the trigger. It felt like an eternity as the shots pounded into his chest, twenty in all. Once the clip ran dry, a siren sounded off in the distance. It was over. Flood lights lit up an illuminated the area. Smiling the person standing over him offered a hand to help Val up. Before he took it, Val looked at his chest; there was one massive red paint splotch on his chest. He took the hand and climbed to his feet, looking around, Val saw that the other three members of the team that he clipped were up and milling around.

"Very good. You guys are getting better and better, you actually beat up this time. When you first started, we took you down in less than twenty minuets. Now look at you, you dragged the battle on for over three hours and came out with the win. Now, who's the one that got me?"

Val turned to the person that would have cleared his chest had this been a real battle. With a smile the victor pulled off the ski mask. Expecting to see one of the people that had been training with them from day one, Val got a shock when long flowing red hair feel out from the ski mask. With a shake of her head, the girl pushed the hair away from her face and pointed the empty gun at Val and pulled the trigger, making the empty chamber clicking sound. She then smiled and blew him a kiss before she turned and left. James walked up beside Val, he had gotten it badly. James was covered in red paint on the front and side. It looked like they had each emptied a full clip into him.

"They thought I was you. They had a beautiful ambush set up, and I walked right into, literally. Don't know if you would have though, but they certainly were hoping you would."

"So who's she? And why haven't I seen her around before?"

"That's Lina, a last minuet addition to the team, one of the regulars was sick. She's one of mine, a damn good MS mechanic, I think you've seen her around, she usually has oil and or grease all over her face, and maybe that's why you didn't recognize her. And from the looks of it, she’s damn good on the battle field as well, she only fired one of these shot that hit me, this one."

James lifted his head and pointed to a single red paint mark that was smack dab in the middle of his neck. With a slightly depressed look on his face, James rubbed his neck, which must have hurt.

"How old is she and........ya know what, just have her come to my office in an hour alright?"

With that Val turned and began to walk away but he hadn't even gotten three steps when a shot was fired, a live shot, not a practice one like they had been using. Val's eyes widened as he felt the shot dig into his side and his breath escape from his lungs. The shot had come from the alley to the left, where he had clipped the first of the group in the exercise. Falling to his right slightly, Val dug his right foot into the ground and pushed off in the direction of the shot and reached inside his trench. His hand clenched around the handle of the katana and he drew it from the scabbard that was tucked away in the lining of the trench coat. Spinning around to his right he extended his arm fully and lashed the blade around at the assailant's chest, making a gash across it. Val stopped with his back to the assailant and spun the sword around so he was holding it backwards and thrust the sword behind him, pushing the bald into the chest of the assailant. Pulling the sword out, he stepped forwards and spun the swords around to he was holding it normally and listened for the assailant’s knees to hit the ground, as soon as he heard that sound, Val whirled around as fast as he could, bringing the blade into the side of the assailant’s neck, slicing clean through it and toppling the head off.

It was all over in a matter of seconds, half the people in the area hadn’t even realized what happened. Only the four members of the opposite team had reacted. Each of them had ejected the paint clips from their guns and entered live clips and had taken aim. The lowered their weapons once the final blow had been struck. James hurried over to Val, who had dropped to one knee and was breathing deeply.

"Now you see why I have everyone wear vests during combat practice?" Val said with a smile and a slight chuckle.

A few people let out soft laughs, not sure if they should have or not. Val shook it off and walked over to the body and pulled a flag out of a pocket which read "Free Asia!" Great, loyalists, just what every military leader loved dealing with. Leaving the others to tend with the body and cleaning up the combat area, Val hopped into a waiting Jeep and headed to his office. He draped his trench coat, which now had a hole under the left armpit, over a chair and grabbed the phone off the hook and dialed a number.

"This is Val. I need to talk with Lord Jyotika immediately. I don't care what he's doing, this can't wait, it's a matter of security."

After a few seconds there was a click and Val heard Jyotika's voice on the line, he didn't sound too pleased about being interrupted.

"We've got a band on nationalists on our hands. And they've got fairly good weapons. And they know where this base is and I'm assuming they know where you are. Just thought you'd like to know."