"They all sound so awesome!" Eve clasped her hands together, smiling softly at the policeman. At his question, she nodded, her stark white braids flicked by the movement. She didn't appear to be the sixteen years she actually was; both her small physique and childish manners made her look thirteen or fourteen at the very best. "I'm Eve. I live..." she got stuck mid-sentence with her mouth open, staring above herself blankly. She didn't remember her way home, really... No, where was it, really? She didn't know at all.<br/>And in fact, she didn't want to go home at all. To be closed in that room again, with no one to talk to-<br/><br/>At his question, her eyes widened with horror, and she shook her head vigorously. "No, not home. I don't want to go home. It's too far, I don't want to be alone anymore. I'm not going home." she spoke, clenching her fists, and backing up as she kept shaking her head. No, she wasn't going home, there was no way she was returning!<br/>Worries crept into her mind, and the thought of this man forcing her to go back home was just getting more and more prevalent. The ground underneath her bare feet started to crumble a little bit, and by then, the sleeves of her dress were all but gone, tattered at the ends.<br/>"No. I'm not going home." she exclaimed.<br/><br/>And twisting on her heel, she bolted forth with a surprising speed, leaving soft imprints of broken-down ground, like grains of sand, in her footprints. No. Not going home! Not going home! She isn't going to be alone again!<br/><br/>Running straight across traffic, the horns of cars sounded in an off cacophony as she crossed the wide road, several vehicles almost crashing into her. She was going far, as far as it gets, just as far as she could only get!<br/><br/>---<br/><br/>"Company A-3, you are to land from orbit via landing pads. Victory conditions, establish a beachhead and hold it by the end of the time limit or eliminate company R-3 from the battlefield at any one time. Defeat conditions, no surviving team members on the battlefield at any one time or beachhead not established and held by the end of the time limit." The voice, it was a plain, stern voice, commanded him to. Shimada narrowed his eyes, taking a deep breath.<br/>"A-3, Shimada Jaeger. B7593. Ready." he exclaimed calmly.<br/><br/>The ground opened up beneath them, and he could feel his body being pushed upwards as the landing pod plummeted towards the ground. Were he not buckled tightly inside the mech, he would have surely hit the top of it with his head. But this was second nature to him, routine he has gotten used to already after a thousand practices. He was calm.<br/>Shimada was always calm.<br/><br/>The air resistance grew, and the landing pod was turning up into a heated fireball would someone look at it from the ground; that was, however, still better than the situation of someone nearby, forced to exit it prematurely. A malfunction, most likely. The ground was growing closer and closer, before the familiar force of impact warned him of his landing, the pod opened up, and Shimada, wasting no time, exited it.<br/>"Keep moving, once we land, we spread outwards and get positions, face towards the north west. I want C3619, F3231, and C2136 to guard the landing pads. No one is to act on their own decisions. If you see the enemy once we're on the ground, fire at will." the voice of their company's leader spoke. His lips pursed even tighter than usually.<br/>"Understood." he spoke back, shortly and sternly, and begun moving northwest.<br/>If he did well today, he could get promoted. If he showed his skill, he could potentially get a better mecha... Maybe even one of the experimental series. That meant that he had to do well; there was no 'trying' or 'effort', just a simple win or lose mechanics. And he was determined he wouldn't lose. He deserved that raise.<br/><br/>Something ahead of him moved. The thin line of his lips curved upwards, a smile nigh impossible to notice as his eyes glinted coldly. He could recognize the enemy once he saw it.<br/><br/>The mech before him collapsed all of a sudden, its circuits fried into utter oblivion by a sudden increase and reversal of the electric current, cruising through. Beads of cold sweat ran down Shimada's temples, and he gasped for breath; a mech was a big target for something like this, but not the biggest he could manage.<br/><br/>"One enemy down." he spoke.