GATE: The United Nations of Earth

Chapter 34: "Priority: Grey's Trial"

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"What do you mean you need a lawyer?" general Nguyen is surprised when he heard Ava's request "And on whose authority did they arrest knight Grey?"

"Well, sir the elder, which is the equivalent of a governor, ordered it herself. Technically speaking, Himmar was acting under the government's consent. So, unless we ignore Terra Sphere's regulation, we're gonna have to fight them in court, sir" Ava replies.

General Nguyen sighs "I'll request a lawyer, I'm not sure if any lawyer would be up for this task" he pauses for a short moment and continues "You'll have your lawyer at 0600"

"Copy that, sir" Ava replies then hang up. She walks back towards Grey "tell me what happened, why did you murder that kid's father?".

Grey looks up at Ava with sorrow and regret in his eyes "When Molt started a campaign of conquest across the unconquered regions of Falmart he needed men, a lot of men. Generals sent their officers to all villages in the empire to force male villagers to fight for the Empire, these men were not trained properly and only equipped with light gears. Their purpose was to charge in first, and wear the enemy down for the legionnaires to go in and finish the job. Most of them would not return".

"Back then I was an officer but a low ranking one, I was chosen by a high ranking officer to come to this village to recruit more men. It wasn't the first time, so every time we came here the villagers often run and hide. That time, we brought a cohort with us, rounded up all the villagers and I was ordered to kill 1 villager to make an example" Grey says.

"What happened?" Ava asks.

"I knew that these people fled in groups and they won't leave one of theirs behind, so they were as fast as the slowest one in the group. Himmar father's leg was disfigured, he could not walk normally and most certainly would not be able to run fast" Grey says.

"So, he was a liability and by killing him you were helping the rest of the villagers" Ava comments.

"Yes" Grey simply replies.

From the beginning Ava knew that Grey did kill that man, but from the few days doing missions in Rondel with Grey, she also knew that he did what he did for a good reason. Grey is a wise and a loyal soldier, a good one at that, he's also very honorable and straightforward. She is glad that she was right and this is going to help his case.

"Very well, I'll inform your attorney of this when they get here. For now, get some rest" Ava says then turns to Rob and deactivates the suit speaker so anyone not on comms can't hear her "Rob, leave a drone here. I want to keep an eye on Grey just in case" she orders.

By now, Ashley had already fallen back to a tree line and dig a defensive position. Foxholes for sentries and SAT8s are placed around the small camp, the APC is placed in the center in a trench so that its weapons are still above ground and its shield deployed. The IFV is in a similar trench that faces the village. Ava decided that they will spend the night outside of the village where they could defend themselves better.

Although the SAT8s and the sentries are keeping constant observation of the surrounding area and the recon drones are swiping a wider zone, it is protocol to always keep soldiers up on watch duty from 1730 to 0630 during camping outside of base, how many would depend on the size of the unit and the camp area. Given the small size of a SIF platoon, only 16, the commanding officers also have to carry out watch duty. The 13 hours are divided into 8 shifts, the first and the last shifts are 2 hours each and the rest are 1 hour and a half. The 5th SIF usually draw lots to determine their shift and this time Ava gets the 5th shift (0000 to 0130) with David.