The target audience for these summmaries are those people who haven't seen it all, but are so hooked they have-to-have-it-all-NOW. You know who you are. Don't mind my dry sarcasm, and I'll try to keep my personal comments separate.
Please note that more often than not, all 'quotes' are paraphrases- not exact quotes.
On Mithril's South Pacific Island base-
The Daanan is docked for maintance and check-up.
Tessa listens to Marducas giving her the report- and he starts off with 'hopes are always being destroyed'
The Daanan has suffered some wear and tear, and some damage, which makes Tessa sad, but the sub is performing very well, regardless.
Tessa stares at the drink machine. (there appears to be only one selection)
She sighs, and hits the selection.
title
Tessa loosens her uniform tie.
Her door slides open, but she stops suddenly...
On her couch lounges Melissa (in very casual clothing)
Melissa welcomes Tessa back, and says she just thought she'd stop by for a visit.
Tessa notes that she had thought she smelled cigarette smoke...
Tessa pops open her can (coffee I think, if not likely tea)
Melissa pops open a can of beer....
Tessa sees an awful mess of many many empty beer cans and a filthy ashtray on her coffee table. Her face shakes as she sits across from Melissa.
Melissa, without a single concern or fear, gulps down her drink, and Tessa asks 'what about the gossipy cleaning lady?' Her voice is almost harsh when she says she doesn't want the sort of reputation junk like this creates.
Melissa finally sees Tessa's anger, and asks her if she thinks women who smoke and drink are slutty.
Tessa complains of Melissa's bad language, comaparing it to a bad B-grade gang movie.
Melissa replies that Tessa is practically the head of such a gang!
Tessa gets even angrier, slams down her can, and shrieks about how hard she works to keep them from getting a reputation like that, and how much harder it is because of the irresponsible behavior of some low-ranking members!
'Low-rank' Melissa asks, with a dangerous tone.
Melissa tells Tessa she is really bold saying such a thing...
For a moment the tense, angry women glare at each other.
Tessa breaks the still, telling Melissa that her sort of pride is cheap, and that she needs to show some common decency.
Melissa retorts calling Tessa an elitist who can't do anything except issuing orders while hiding beneath the sea.
Tessa counters with her brain not being just pure (stupid) muscle like Melissa's...
Melissa demands that Tessa then come out and stand with her in front of some bullets.
Tessa answers that Melissa just hides behind the technology of the M9...
Melissa 'humph's and says that at least she can pilot an Arm-Slave....
Tessa 'humph's and says that she can pilot an AS, she just chooses not to.
'Really?' is Melissa's doubtful reply.
Tessa primly and firmly says 'Yep. I can even pilot better.'
Melissa curses, then grins wickedly. 'Prove it. Let's duel...if I lose, I'll go around the base naked.'
Tessa's suddenly shocked
Melissa goes on- 'Someone like you could just wear your underwear, if you lose.'
Tessa glares...Melissa's wearing panties on her head, grinning very wickedly.
'Alright, we'll do this' Tessa declares.
'I'll show you, and walk around naked' she says.
Tessa's typing furiously on her computer.
Melissa, in the mess hall, slams her booted feet on a table, throwing cans and cigarettes all over, as the room gasps.
Tessa, typing, shrieks 'I hate her!'
The letter she is typing is the declaration of duel, for Melissa.
Tessa's chosen the time and place (hour 18.00, the 21st, in the #1 training area's Twin Rock)
Melissa then gets to choose the weapon...
-GEC-E Assault Rifle
-Boxer Shot Cannon
-ASG P6 Smoothbore Gun
The scene fades from what she's typing, to Kurtz and Sousuke reading the letter aloud together.
They reach the end and read Tessa's postscript- telling Melissa not to run away from the duel, and to remember the loser must walk around naked.
The mess hall crowd gasps.
Kurtz seems distressed....Tessa!! Big Sister!!
Melissa comes up behind him, in a hard manner, and asks him what's wrong with it.
Sousuke seems shocked, wondering aloud about how the mild-mannered captian is doing something like this. He asks Melissa is she's going to accept...
Of course, Melissa will accept it. After all, Tessa has already gone through so much trouble for this.
Kurtz tells Melissa to knock it off, and to stop bullying Tessa.
Sousuke agrees, saying the whole thing is a waste of time.
Melissa shrugs, and says she'll just harass Tessa until she cries and apologizes.
The boys both think Melissa is being way too cheerful about the whole thing.
Melissa mutters about 'what a kid' Tessa is.
'who's just a kid?' Tessa, who suddenly comes up behind Melissa asks. Melissa shrieks in surprise, but quickly calms down into her angry manner.
Tessa tells her that although she thinks she can defeat Tessa, she won't.
Melissa tells Tessa that she (Tessa) couldn't really walk around naked, could she?
'And you could??' Tessa retorts, and asks Sousuke to accompany her.
He jumps up with a 'yes sir!' and follows her out.
Kurtz is musing about a naked Tessa- and he seems entirely too too happy!
There's a shot of a notebook paper- a scribble of a naked, blushing Tessa with the words 'afternoon off!' repeated over it, and the notation 'Be Ready!'.
The beach-
A hazy image of Kaname running foward.
She's calling Sousuke's name...
THen she says 'Oh. you have to work.' She gives a halfhearted laugh- her face shifts from cheerful to hesitant, then to demonically angry.
'Well, it's alright, since it's your JOB!!' and the sound of a phone slamming down.
Sousuke frowns (still holding up the cell phone), and looks really irritated.
Behind him, on the sand is an M9, and Tessa (in exercise wear) doing some stretches.
She smiles hugely.
He nervously asks her if she's ready to begin.
With tons of enthausam she raises her hand and shouts 'Yes, coach!'
(she says it like 'coachie' which makes it even funnier)
He frowns even more, and says 'um..about that coach thing...'
She interrupts him and says 'But you are! I guess I could just stick with Sagara-san...'
He looks relieved as he says he'd prefer that.
'Yes coach! I mean, Sagara-san!' Tessa exclaims.
The AS cockpit hatch pops open, and a rope ladder falls out.
He explains that pilot trainees use the ladder to get up, and as they get experience, pilots end up figuring their own ways to get up without it.
He advises her to be careful climbing up, since, even with the AS kneeling, it's still 4 meters high.
He turns his back on the AS, and asks her to go ahead and climb up, in a nervous voice.
She does, or at least tries....she gets partway up and then starts having trouble. She says it's alot harder than she though...Sousuke sees that she's about to slip, and that's exactly what she does...
He tries to break her fall, and she ends up landing right on him. They both go down.
He falls flat on his back, and she's right on top of him, his arm around her...
She looks into his face, surprised- he asks her if she's alright. She says she is, and she begins to blush as she says she feels a little bit lucky.
He tries to get up, but she doesn't let him. She just lays on him, and has apparently decide d she likes where she is. He really starts to sweat, and thinks this isn't a good situation. He tries to squirm out from under her, but she just giggles and hangs on, preventing him from getting up.
Later-
The sun has moved quite a bit.
Finally Tessa is in place- no longer kneeling, the AS is flat on its back.
Sousuke sighs...and asks her to step the AS foward.
She starts it up, as the bold music starts up in anticipation of greatness...
The AS stands...
Tessa lifts a foot, and the AS promptly falls on its back.
Sousuke yells, asking if she's alright, and she tries to get the M9 back up.
She keeps trying to move, and it isnt working right, so Sousuke yells, telling her to stop moving.
She can't, its out of control, and the AS goes sliding on the sand right past Sousuke.
It lands in the water, feet straight up, and slowly sinks beneath the waves, as Sousuke watches.
Kurtz finds Melissa in a bar.
She's totally drunk, and cheerfully, blushingly so.
They both order beer...
Melissa giggles.
Kurtz tells her that Tessa seems to really be practicing hard...
Melissa brushes it off, saying she feels bad for Sousuke.
He says she should know better, that anything Tessa is told she can't do, she will do anything in order to do. She's had to be that way always...
Melissa slams down her mug and says she knows...
In fact, she knows everything about Tessa that there is to know.
Her favorite sweets, her most feared bugs, even her bra size.
Melissa doesn't like Tessa's snobby, stuck-up attitude.
She thinks Tessa's ideals are silly, as if she believes they could change the world.
Melissa curses kids...
Kurtz asks her if she was like Tessa at that age.
Melissa agrees, and says she was stupider. Kurtz grins at winning a point, and Melissa sighs, getting how she fell right into it.
But then she agrees, and admits she may feel inferior to Tessa.
The beach is a messy tabgle of AS foorprints in the sand- and the M9 is again flat on its back.
A mess of scribbles on a paper- arrows, lines, and circles cover the page.
Sousuke looks sidelong at Tessa...
She returns the look, and says he doesn't believe she could win.
He promptly agrees, then tries to correct the statement...
She tells him it's alright. She thinks she knows the basics of fighting...
His eyes widen and he asks her if she really plans on winning.
She smiles, and says she just needs his opinions.
She has a plan, which she explains. She wants to use the terrain to her advantage...
He watches her as she talks, and seems to see her in a whole new way.
After the explaination...they are both pretty positive.
He tells her he thinks her plan is a good one, and that she could win with it.
He's even smiling, and suggests a small change based on the placement of the sun...
He tells her that she only has one chance, this way.
She says she will try it, and will give up if it doesn't work.
She gloats over surprising Melissa...at which Sousuke seems uncertian.
Tessa says that if she can just surprise Melissa, then she wouldn't mind walking around naked.
At Twin Rock- the appointed time.
Melissa is angry- Tessa is late.
Kurtz yawns lazily, and asks her if she's familiar with Miyamoto Musashi.
She doesn't know....
Kurtz shrugs...oh well.
(Kurtz is referring to an old samurai story of a duel- one was late, the other was so angry that it affected his fight. the late one won easily)
Suddenly a loud noise approaching-
Both are surprised to see an M6, with Tessa riding in one hand.
She wears a challenging expression.
Melissa grins, so Tessa chose the easy-to-use older model, instead of the technologically advanced M9.
Tessa apologizes for being late, and happily says she was hungry.
Both pilots are ready to go, awaiting the start...
Tessa tells Melissa that she doesn't need to hold back.
Sousuke raises the starter gun..>
Melissa says she doesn't plan on holding back.
The starter gun goes off...
Melissa's M9 takes off.
Tessa's M6 is walking through the woods, and Melissa spots it quickly.
She shoots her weapon...
Watching, Kurtz grins widely at Tessa's impending loss...
Red paint splatters the trees before hitting the M6- Sousuke calls a miss.
(he's refree, watching with binoculars)
Kurtz isn't grinning anymore.
Melissa demands to know why a miss and not a direct hit-
Sousuke explains her shots it the trees first.
She complains that if her shots were real, both the tree and the M6 would be gone.
He tells her they're using paint, not real ammo.
Melissa gives in, and shoots some more, but none are direct hits.
Suddenly Tessa fires back and hits the cliffside at the M9's feet with blue paint- also missing. Sousuke tells Melissa she had been lucky- if the ammo had been real her sensors would have been damaged.
Kurtz says Tessa is doing well and tells Melissa good luck.
Melissa is angry, and resolves to just go for her needed direct hit.
Tessa is running, breathing hard and sweating.
She thinks how she can't fail, while barely dodging attacks.
She's running and running through the trees...
She's realizing that battle isn't as easy as she had assumed.
She finally realizes that fighters deserve respect, and is amazed at Melissa's ability to always be in situations like this.
She feels that, although they are both women, Melissa is far superior, and unable to be defeated.
Sousuke suddenly calls to her, telling her that she's slowing down.
He tells her to calm down and to get back to moving, and that she'll do alright.
He believes she'll win, and promises it.
She looks up to where Sousuke and Kurtz are watching, and with new energy she agrees.
Melissa concedes that Tessa is faster than she had expected, but finally can target a direct hit.
But before she can fire her screen fuzzes out, and when it clears, the M6 is gone.
Melissa wonders what happened- and then realizes 'ECS!'
She initates hers, but it doesn't help- she doesn't know where the M6 is. She is suspicious of something strange going on, but can't figure out what.
Out loud she praises Tessa, but not really, since it's all over now....she's found Tessa.
The M9 jumps toward the M6 in attack, but suddenly the M6 flashes a bright light- its' the sun reflecting off of it, and it blinds Melissa for a moment. The M9 lands akwardly, and off its target. Now its Tessa with the clear advantage- she's got a clear, direct shot at Melissa, who's sitting somewhat dazed.
Tessa prays for a hit, and begins to fire...and keeps firing and firing and firing.
When she finally stops the M9 sits in a cloud of blue smoke- the hit is direct.
Tessa breathes rapidly, catching her breath- Melissa sits silently.
Tessa's breathing slows, and she appears about to cry.
Melissa's with the two guys, lounging against the rock.
Her manner is casually laid back, and she explains she doesn't have any excuses for her loss.
Nothing like about how she was set up, or that the refree was biased, or that everyone was rooting for Tessa, and how she (melissa) was all alone...no worthless excuses like that.
She goes on to say, she won't even say that if it had been a real battle she would have won...
Kurtz tells her she's a sore loser.
Sousuke tells her it's her own fault for being careless.
She agrees and mutters some more.
The sound of the approaching M6...
Tessa walks up, looking defeated.
She walks to Melissa head down.
Melissa apologizes, and Tessa suddenly begins to seriously cry, and she throws herself at Melissa apologizing too.
Marducas sits next to Kalanin's bedside- they've both apparently watched the whole thing on monitor.
Marducas comments that they'll have to be appreciative to the subordinates...
Tessa cries on Melissa, and exclaims how sorry she is...
Melissa says she's glad she lost.
Tessa confesses she never wants to pilot an AS ever again.
Kurtz asks what about the loser walking around naked...
Both girls turn with identical expressions (guess which kind...)
They both say 'you're the worst' and kick him in tandem
Sousuke watches, amazed, as Kurtz goes down, and both women laugh together.
End
Marducas is glad for the event because Tessa needed to learn a few lessons, the sort that a person can only learn with experiences. (such as to appreciate the lower-ranking fighters, as their commander.)