DISCLAIMER: I don't own Vandread. But then of course you know that…

Author's note: Please review this! I don't mind flames as long as they're honest. I'm working on improving my writing style, and I can't do that without any criticism… even if you just want to do it anonymously, it's fine by me.

Broken Fragments

Chapter 1: Frustration

"What the hell are you all doing!?" Hibiki Tokai felt like tearing his hair out. "YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE WORKING TOGETHER!"

A sea of blank faces stared back at him, both men and women alike. Hibiki hung his head.

"This is useless…"

As part of the reintegration of the populations of Mejele and Tarak, a series of exercises were being conducted between the military of both planets. Unfortunately, things were not going well at all. Filled with nervousness and misgivings about each other, both sides steadfastly refused to interact. Each group kept to its own side of the room, and for over 20 minutes, the strategy session had been going nowhere, except for various heated arguments that broke out between officers.

Growling angrily, Hibiki dropped into a chair.

"Fine, do what you want then! I don't have the patience to be fooling with you…"

One of the Tarak officers glared back at him.

"It's not our fault! It's these blasted women! They don't know anything about soldiering!"

Instantly, a female officer sprang to her feet.

"What! How dare you barbaric males blame us for your own ineptitude. You're the ones who make all the mistakes! You're too stupid to be able to work with us!"

A violent shouting match immediately ensued, causing Hibiki to spring into the middle of the two sides, pushing them apart.

"Hold it! Hold it! Damn it, stop pushing!"

Another Tarak soldier sneered at him.

"Don't talk like you're such a big shot! So what if you were able to help beat the enemy fleet! You think you're better than the rest of us just because you worked with these… women?"

"What!" Hibiki spun on him. "What are you talking about?"

He felt he was about to lose control. The Tarak pilot matched his glare, refusing to back down. He was about a head taller than Hibiki and about half again as broad. The Vanguard pilot knew he'd get mauled if he got into a fight, but knew if nothing happened, everything would fall apart. He struggled to find something to say.

Too late. The soldier sensed the mood had changed, and turned back to the crowd of his comrades.

"What the hell do we need this runt, or these women for? We're Tarak soldiers! We're the best there is! These women don't belong here!"

A cheer of support went up. The Mejelans bristled, and the men turned to meet them. It looked like the 'meeting' would disintegrate into a vicious brawl when a strong, clear male voice rang out.

"Enough! Stand down!"

A senior Tarak officer stepped in, forcing his men back.

"I said stand down!" he pushed another man away before turning to the burly soldier who'd started the mess.

"Who told you to speak up?" He struck the man across the face, sending him reeling, before dropping him to the ground with a well-placed right into his solar plexus.

"You don't do anything here without orders, soldier!" He turned to the other Tarak soldiers. "No one told you to start a brawl! All of you will stand in for punishment!"

There was a slight shift among the men, but none of them spoke up. Hibiki sighed in relief.

"Thanks."

The hard-nosed officer turned to glare at him.

"Who did it for you? I stepped in to make sure my men maintain discipline." He turned to the Mejele contingent. "All you women get the hell out of here! This is a Tarak installation, and that's the way it'll stay, no matter what ANYBODY says!"

He turned again to Hibiki. "And that includes you! We don't want you here! The last thing I need is to have my soldiers corrupted by your blasted woman-hugging ways! You call yourself a man?"

"Grrr…" Hibiki glanced back to see the Mejelans all filing out, muttering to each other and throwing dirty looks at the men. He looked back to see the Tarak soldiers all glaring at him also. With nothing left to do, he left as well, feeling decidedly very miserable.

His bad mood carried on over to lunch. He sat with Dita at a table, which was conspicuously shunned by everyone else. Hibiki looked around.

"Where are all the women?"

Dita shifted nervously. "Well… Dita heard them saying that they didn't want to eat with the men…"

All anger expended, Hibiki simply glared at his food. Duero chose that moment to walk up, carrying a tray. He set it down and began eating without a word. Dita brightened momentarily.

"How's everything, Doctor?"

Duero paused as if considering how much to say.

"Not very well. The medical staff on both sides keep bickering about anatomical points, and the Mejelans are showing off their superior technology at every opportunity. Trying to reason with them, much less have a scientific discussion, is very difficult."

"Oh…" Dita looked down at the table, obviously downcast.

Duero saw that both his eating companions were not in the best of moods. He tried fishing for something to talk about.

"So, Hibiki, how did your strategy meeting go?"

"Don't even ask…" the Vanguard pilot muttered.

Duero turned to Dita.

"You were teaching a cooking class, right? How was it?"

"Um… everyone wanted to fight, so Dita left…"

"I see."

They ate in silence for a while, until Bart arrived.

"Hey, what's with the long faces? I bet your meetings didn't go so well, huh?"  Bart seemed the same as usual.

Duero looked up at him. "Why, did yours go well?"

"Uh… ha ha! Of course it did!" His laughter seemed a little forced, though.

Just then, a small group of swaggering Tarak soldiers wandered past. One of them stopped and pointed at Bart.

"Hey hey! It's Baldy!"

One of the man's cohorts snatched the cap off Bart's head, then the whole group started rubbing his bald scalp, laughing and joking among themselves.

"Whoah, it's so shiny!"

"Rub it for good luck!"

Bart endured it all with an awful, forced smile and fake laughter. Dita took pity on his plight.

"Stop being so mean to Mr. Navigator!"

Slowly, the laughing stopped.

"Well, look who's standing up for him!"

"Some Mejelan bitch."

"So you think you're gonna save 'Mr. Navigator'?"

"Whoo hoo! Enter the hero!"

One of them grabbed Dita by the hair.

"You think you're so tough, eh?"

"Aaaiiee! Let go!"

They laughed at the spectacle as she tried to release herself. Hibiki began to get to his feet, along with Duero and even Bart, before a laser beam burned through the room, passing less than an inch away from the nose of the man holding Dita. He staggered backwards, clearly shocked. Dita stumbled as he let go of her hair, then turned to look at her rescuer.

"Leader!"

Dita's cry of relief echoed through the now stone-quiet room as every Tarak soldier there also turned to look at the blue-haired figure standing in the doorway. The forms of Barnette and Jura stepped in behind her.

"Dita. Get over here." Meia continued to track the man who'd grabbed her subordinate with her deadly ring. Dita obeyed, scampering over to the Dread leader with the other three right behind. Beyond them, the other Tarak soldiers slowly began to get up, some moving out of the laser's arc, others glancing at each other. The hostility in the air was almost palpable.

"All right. We're leaving." Meia's voice was as cold as the grave. "If anyone tries to follow or attack, you'll regret it. A lot."

She backed out, letting the others out of the room first before turning and following them.

"Move quickly. I don't want to give them time to decide to follow us."

Hibiki glanced back at the three Dread pilots.

"When did you three get here?"

Jura sniffed. "When did we get here? How about thanking Jura for saving you from those barbaric soldiers?"

Meia spoke immediately after. "Without Bart, the Nirvana can't get along very well, so the Boss decided to dock for a while. We heard you were at this station- you're lucky we decided to come look for you."

Barnette stretched as they walked. "Jeez, those men are so uptight. I should have brought my guns along…"

The thought of possibly getting something to shoot at made her grin. Hibiki glanced at her, but thought better of saying anything. Barnette brightened again.

"Come on! While we're here, you can visit back on the Nirvana!"

That brought a little more spring to their step, and they hurried on along the corridors.

A shadowy figure had been carefully observing every scene from a series of remote cameras. Now he turned back to several aides who were standing behind him.

"Damn it! Those women are screwing up everything. I don't want all the work I put into making Tarak the perfect military wasted by a bunch of meddling kids."

One of the others cleared his throat.

"Err… begging your pardon, General, but Grandpa and the rest of the 1st generation elders are making their decision about this clear."

"So what? I always knew that those old farts would go off the deep end soon. It's time they gave over command to the new generation!" the man's eyes shone fervently as he spoke. "I'll carry on the original dream of our forefathers when they founded Tarak… I'll get rid of those cursed meddlers, and those damn women, too!"

He grinned evilly.

"And I know just the way to do it…" he turned to another aide, nonchalantly tossing him a card. "Streck, ready the assassin."