Author's Notes: This is an idea that's been floating around in my head. And just so everyone knows, the starship trooper part of this story is from the original novel, not the movies. The novel is way better than that piece of crap trilogy.
Rodger Aston/ Terran Mobile Infantry/ 01400 hours standard time
It was quiet, almost disturbingly so as the five of us sat in the loading bay of the TFCT (Terran Federation Corvette Transport) Leo Clarke. All of us were wearing the Mobile Infantry standard issue powered armor, though only three of the five of us were actual MI, the other two were scientists involved in the Federal Service. Beside me was my buddy from boot camp, Lance Corporal Harry Graholski; and on my other side was Federal Xenobiologist Dr. Rudolph Benson. The Doctor looked quite nervous, understandable considering he that it was his first drop. Us cap troopers were put through extensive training to prepare us for orbital drops; the good doctor however had only a single safety course under his belt.
I turned my head as our CO, Major Andrew Septin stood up in his bulky armor and began making his rounds; it looked like we were almost at our destination. He was pressing the buttons on the belts of everybody's suits that checked the wearer's vitals. The buttons continuously lit up green as he pressed them, indicating good health. Then he made it to me; he pressed the button on my belt and while I didn't see the green flash, I did hear the encouraging "bing" noise. The Major nodded at me before taking his place at the head of the bay.
"Alright you apes!" the Major bellowed, "the mission today is standard ecological survey of an unexplored planet which appears to be Earth-like". Now that was interesting; in the entirety of the Terran Federation, there were only six planets (including the Earth) that required no Terraforming in order to be habitable for humans. Finding these was like buying a house that was already furnished and painted how you wanted.
"Dr. Benson of Xenobiology and Dr. Carlin of Geology will be doing the actual surveying, you two," he pointed at Harry and I, "along with me, are to provide protection for the two from hostile lifeforms".
I had to supress the urge to groan in disappointment, lest Septin verbally crucify me; but I just couldn't be enthused about this mission. I'd signed up to fight Bugs, not to babysit a bunch of scientists as they took plant and rock samples. I could tell that Harry felt the same, and maybe even Septin, but there wouldn't be any belly-aching in this unit.
"We'll be dropping on a northern continent within the planet's eastern hemisphere". A hologram of the planet was brought up and Septin pointed towards a large Europe-looking landmass.
"We'll begin our survey there for the first week before moving on; if everything goes to plan, then we'll be finished the survey within two months. Any questions?" I raised my hand and Septin gestured for me to say my piece.
"Major, is it necessary for there to be three of us MI to guard the survey?" Septin adopted a rather hostile glare as he glowered at me.
"Private Rodger Aston" he growled out my name; following this, I noticed that the scientists were starting to look quite uncomfortable, while Harry was trying to supress a smile. I made a mental note to put some alien bug into his sleeping bag; superior officer be damned.
"Would you mind explaining to me why you think that?"
I gulped, this would end with me receiving a severe tongue lashing.
I began my explanation "Well sir, both Dr. Benson and Dr. Carlin are wearing powered armor, so they're adequately defended; and a single MI can decimate whole enemy regiments. It wouldn't be unreasonable to assume that three fully trained, fully armed MI are unnecessary to defend against a little local wild-life".
Septin grinned and slowly strolled over to me until our faces were inches apart. He smiled warmly at me, and then his expression morphed into one of anger.
He hollered into my face "Private, if this was boot camp I'd make you run laps until you were half-dead! And then maybe some, considering your stupid ass wouldn't be of any use to anyone!" Only through months of mental disciplining at Basic was I able to avoid flinching.
"You see this?" he pointed at his scarred face, "When I was a Sergeant, I was on the survey to Haven. Before then, I'd been in over twenty-seven "incidents" with the Bugs and made about thirteen drops in enemy territory". He backed up a bit.
"Not. A. Scratch". He paused, most likely to let that sink into my brain; and I do have to admit, it was kind of impressive.
"First day on Haven", he gestured at his face once more, "and this happens to me, plus I lose my arm three weeks later and have to replace it with a prosthetic". He was now looking at me with an intense stare, which a lesser man would have cowered from.
"I saw things that would make the Bugs look like caterpillars in comparison, and that's why we're here". He turned away from me and walked back to the head of the bay.
"Now then, we'll be dropping around this area", the map zoomed in on an area on the continent parallel to a large island. "Once we land, we'll get our bearings and you'll all form up on me. The Leo Clarke will be on standby with the Sixteenth Battle-fleet until we contact them for pick-up". The map disappeared and Septin walked back to his seat.
"We MI will be armed with light rockets, grenades, and wrist flamethrowers; as well as a sidearm pistol. Our Y-Racks will each be loaded with a single low-yield hydrogen bomb, but that will be a last resort only", he emphasized the word "only" pretty heavily, indicating that if we fired one without a good enough reason, our asses were grass.
"This is prime real-estate you apes, we can't go irradiating it before we've even started setting up shop".
He flipped a switch next to him, and a loud hissing was heard as mechanical arms lowered the armor helmets onto our heads. There was another hissing noise as the helmet began pressurising itself. The hissing stopped once the suit was airtight, and there was nothing but silent darkness. But then, the whole thing lit up and I was hit by the sight of the main monitor within the helmet, coming alive. There were a couple of counters on my HUD indicating ammo count and armor integrity as well.
Immediately, I started to get the shakes. I was still pretty fresh out of boot camp and I'd only done one drop during the assault on Planet P. That had been a rocky introduction to the dangers of dropping in the middle of enemy territory, especially Bug territory. My squad was completely overrun and we had run out of ammo after an hour of fighting, forcing us to resort to using our bare hands to dismember the Bugs.
Me, Harry, and two others had been the only survivors in our platoon after that; our Lieutenant and Platoon Sergeant had both bought the farm during the scuffle. And Harry and I had been reassigned to this survey unit.
So of course I was nervous; an experienced MI had once told me that you got used to it after a while. The more unnerving part had been when I asked him if he meant I stopped shaking. His answer?
No, you just stopped noticing.
I turned my head towards Dr. Benson. He looked more nervous than I was, he wouldn't stop fidgeting. I decided that I needed someone to talk to; I bit down on the communicator once and opened a private channel.
"Sooooo", I slowly drawled; Benson jumped at the sudden conversation and rotated his gaze behind the helmet to me when he realized I was talking.
"I assume that this is your first drop?"
He chuckled, "How did you know".
"Well you're shaking like you just overdosed on caffeine, so yeah"
The two of us were silent for a while before the stillness was broken by Benson.
"You seem quite young" he stated.
I told him "I'm about nineteen now".
"That so, you must have signed up as soon as you were legally allowed to"
"Yeah, I went to the recruiter's office on my birthday" remembering that day brought a bit of emotional pain. Not because I'd signed up, but because of what had happened before.
"If, you don't mind me asking Private Aston, why did you choose to join the MI of all things? If you wanted citizenship you could have just enlisted in any other branch of Federal service".
I thought back to that day, wondering if I should open up and tell him all about it. The images of a shattered vase and a violent exchange of words deterred me though, and I decided to give him just the short answer.
"I wanted to spite my dad".
Benson looked at me for a few short seconds before chuckling and replying.
"You know… I'm quite surprised you managed to survive Basic training with such shallow motivation". He chuckled again and this time I joined in.
I pointed at him and said "Your turn, why did you enlist as a Xenobiologist in the Federal Service? You could have gotten a much higher paying job in a cushy civilian university or research center".
He nodded at my observation; "you're right of course, and for a while, I actually was doing that. I wasn't in good shape at the time though; my wife left me, I had a drinking problem, and my job security was in serious danger; it was looking like a bullet breakfast was coming up soon. But then, I saw an advertisement for Federal Service on the television; it got me thinking, maybe I could do something with my life and my skills, maybe I wouldn't have to waste my life like this".
He paused and the shaking stopped; most likely calming drugs administered to him by his suit. "So, I went to the Recruiting station, and a few weeks later I was on my way to Pluto. It's done me a lot of good; I kicked my drinking problem, and I finally found purpose in my life". He looked around the Clarke's bay, "though I never expected to be dropping in powered armor to a planet's surface".
"Don't worry" I reassured him, "We'll make a cap trooper out of you yet".
"ASTON!" shouted Major Septin over the comms, "No private conversations before a drop!"
"Sorry sir" I said as I wondered how he could have possibly known we were talking. Then of course, I remembered the helmets weren't soundproofed.
He growled "Don't worry Private; because you just volunteered for the first night watch; much obliged".
I had to struggle not to let my annoyance show, or else Septin would probably make it four watches.
"Alright Ladies!" Septin hollered throughout the bay, five drop capsules opening as he spoke.
"I want you all to make it into your respective capsules and just sit tight while the pilot does the rest of the work for us".
We all stood up and moved towards the capsules. Septin entered the first capsule, as was a rule for commanding officers, while Harry took up position in the second capsule. I walked towards, and entered the third capsule; the door closed before I could see Benson and Carlin enter, and I was alone in the dark. The capsule was soundproof to everything but the loudest of noises also, so it was dead silent as well.
A few minutes passed, and I heard a muffled bang as Septin's capsule was fired from the Clarke; I jerked to the side slightly as my capsule slid forward, like ammunition fed into the gun. Another bang as Harry's capsule was fired and my capsule slid forward again. What seemed like an eternity passed, then I felt a huge force as my capsule was fired.
Then there was nothing as I entered freefall, not a single sound. It was as if I had entered a void and there was no world outside my capsule. I suddenly found myself with the shakes again, not because of the drop, but because of what Septin had told me.
Was there actually something down there worse than the Bugs? I hoped not.
Saito Des Ornieres Hiraga/ Tristainian Nobility/ Late Noon day
It was a quiet day on the Des Ornieres lands as I rode atop my favourite horse, Kyoko. I had been doing my daily rounds, which involved overseeing the work done in the fields, and inspecting the crops. It had been a good season; the wine grape yield this year would be so high that we would turn a serious profit.
I had definitely gotten better at managing my land. When I first started, I had to have Louise do everything since I had no idea what it took to running an estate and all the surrounding land. Now though, I could manage our finances and handle the daily administrative duties just fine without any help.
I gazed out over a large vine field for a short while before deciding that everything was running satisfactorily. I pulled Kyoko's reins to turn her around and have her walk towards the stables; she huffed and we were trotting down the path. A few of the laborers waved and smiled as I rode by; a gesture which I happily returned. Then, a refreshing breeze blew through, which cooled me in the warm weather, and almost seemed to waft within my soul and cleanse me of my negative feelings.
Life was good. It had been a year since the defeat of the Ancient Dragon, and everything seemed to be going well; I had married the love of my life, reunited with my parents, the blood feud between Elves and Humans was starting to lessen in intensity, and all of my friends were doing as well as I was. Of course, there were still a few problems; the Germanian Empire was becoming more hostile as of late with the death of the previous Emperor and the coronation of his son, Frederick the IV; and there was increased instability within Albion as the Reconquista regime fell apart (the withdrawal of Gallia's secret aid was most likely the cause). There were numerous factions now fighting for power, from nobles who were also wannabe kings, to even commoner revolutionaries.
But, I was sure that everything would work itself out for the best. Right now I was more concerned with getting back to the manor in time for dinner. From the looks of it the sun was already starting to set, and Louise absolutely hated it whenever I was late. I gently pushed my feet against Kyoko's sides, pushing her to go a little faster. Her trot became a slow gallop, and the gates to my estate were soon in sight.
I pulled the reins slightly, and Kyoko gradually slowed down. The two guards at the gate saw me approaching and quickly opened the gate, letting me through before closing it once more. I gazed around at the gardens and the forests of the grounds before steering Kyoko down the path towards the stables.
When I had arrived, I dismounted as the stable hand, a thirteen year old boy named Ramon, came to take Kyoko's reins and guide her towards her pen. I gave her a sugar cube and stroked her neck before letting Ramon lead her away. Normally I handled the duty myself, but as I said before, I might've been running late.
Before I could open the large double doors that led into the manor I called home, they swung open seemingly on their own. Well… not on their own; at the entrance stood the head butler, Degualle, looking as dignified as ever with his fine suit, well groomed balding hair, and dry expression.
"Welcome back Master Des Ornieres" he greeted in a dreary tone of voice.
I returned his gesture, "good day Degualle; is Louise waiting for me?"
He answered "actually my lord, the Mistress has been waiting for you in the study for quite some time. She is a bit annoyed".
I swallowed nervously as a I broke out into a light sweat. Let's hope that this didn't end too messily.
Degualle asked "Shall I secure the Master's escape if necessary?" as I wallowed in my own fear
Louise and I never ate in the large dining room unless we had guests; it was simply too large and too empty for either of us to feel comfortable in. That's why we always ate in the study; it was a nice, small room with a decent sized table, fit for dining for two. The large window also gave us a beautiful view of sprawling trees, a sunset (if the time of day was right), or the twin moons of this world. With my hand filled with a few roses I had quickly pulled from the flower bed in front of the manor, I reluctantly pulled open the door to the study.
There sitting at the table, was a rather cranky-looking petite, pink haired woman wearing a nice green frilly dress, a silver ring on her left hand, and a scowl upon her face. While she certainly didn't look happy, it was more an expression of annoyance then anger.
I silently gulped, and opened my mouth to greet her. The fear was making it difficult to form coherent words.
"Louise, my love whom I hold dearer than anything else. Is something bothering you by chance?" Damn, was I laying the brown-nosing on a little too thick?
"You're late" Louise told me rather coldly.
"S-sorry" I stuttered, "I was doing my daily inspection and lost track of time".
Louise sighed tiredly and her expression morphed from annoyance to simple exasperation. "Well I suppose that this means you're taking your duties as a Noble far more seriously then you used to, I'll excuse your tardiness this one time but not again".
I felt extremely relieved. I quickly leaned out the doorway and gave the thumbs-up to Degualle, who was watching a short distance away, to indicate that the escape route would not be necessary, before closing the doors behind me and taking my seat at the table with my wife.
Siesta had outdone herself this time; using the advice I had given her, as well as some cookbooks that I had brought back from my Earth, she had created a traditional Japanese dinner. I was getting excited just thinking about how good this would taste.
"S-Saito, How do you use these things again?" Louise asked as she fumbled with her chopsticks. I had to resist the urge to laugh at her attempts to handle the wooden utensils. I reached out at took her hand, proceeding to fix her grip on the chopsticks. The door opened, and Degualle walked in with a bottle of nice wine in his hands.
"By the way, where is the maid" she asked me as I had to fix her grip for the fifth time. It was a good question, Siesta usually tried to eat with us (as well as spoon feed me much to Louise's anger); her disappearance was quite odd.
"If I may interject sir?" Degualle asked as he poured the wine into our glasses.
"Miss Siesta left shortly after she finished preparing dinner. Apparently, she received a message indicating a family emergency in her hometown".
I nodded and dismissed Degualle, who quickly exited the room, before returning to dinner. It must have been pretty sudden, or else Siesta would've told us about it. She did say that her father's health had been failing recently, maybe that was it
"So…" I asked, not sure how to proceed, "how long do you think she'll be gone for?"
"Not long enough" Louise grumbled; I sighed tiredly, I know that Louise was getting tired of Siesta's attempts to seduce me, but she was still our friend, she could show a little bit of concern. Louise raised her head and glared at me with narrow eyes.
"Why are you so worried?" she asked. Uh-oh, Louise had entered her jealous clingy mode, and not the one where she had a cute flustered look on her face. I would have to tiptoe around this sensitive situation very carefully. If I wasn't cautious, I would be on the receiving end of a violent explosion.
"W-well you know" I stuttered nervously, "It's a long journey from here to Tarbes, and it's night as well, it could be dangerous".
Louise replied, "don't worry, she has her own personal horse and it's a good quality steed, she can outrun anything that tries to catch her".
"I guess you're right; but still, she is our friend, it's only natural that we should be worried for her".
Louise sighed; she had given up on the chopsticks and now was eating with a fork. "I know" she grumbled, "but I get so tired of her attempts to become your "second", it just feels nice to have her out of my hair". She was starting to get that sulking look now.
It seemed as though this conversation should probably be steered in a completely different direction; so I began working my brain beyond its limits, trying to find the right thing to say so I could get the cute, smiling Louise back. It would take a line quite original and charming to accomplish this.
"You look very beautiful today Louise". Was that the best I could do?
Luckily, it looked like that had done the trick; a bright red blush covered her face and she looked away, trying to hide it.
"T-thank you… Let's just finish eating".
We both returned to our meal while I tried to hide a triumphant smile from Louise's view. Looks like I still had my signature charm.
The cool night air wafted into the bedroom through the open balcony window (or door, it seemed to be both and I had no idea what the real name was), I was laying on the bed in my nightwear with a short novel that Tabitha had lent me in my hand, it was an interesting story about a man named Ivaldi, and his quest to save the princess from a dragon. She had told me about it when we had saved her from her insane uncle Joseph, but only now had I found the time to actually read it.
Louise was standing on the balcony in her lacy nightgown, brushing her hair. Her bright pink locks flowed in the breeze, looking like something out of a cheesy romance movie. I stood up and walked over beside her. She looked at me and smiled, I smiled back.
We stood there for a short while, simply gazing out at the two moons, before a single idea entered my mind.
"Hey, Louise, do you want to take a vacation across my world?" a puzzled look came upon her face.
"But Saito, we took a trip to visit your parents a month ago?" she replied
I laughed, "No, I mean in the winter, when we don't have anything to do, we should take a vacation and see the rest of the world. With your world door, we could go anywhere; France, England, Egypt, America, Canada, Brazil; the possibilities are endless".
She seemed to ponder this for a while before smiling. "You know what Saito, I quite like that idea. By the way, didn't you say that the so called "city of love" was in this France place?"
I smirked "Why yes it is, and on a related note" I gently took cupped Louise's chin in my hand and pulled her in for a kiss. It was a soft and tender kiss, and when we broke apart I looked her in those big beautiful eyes and smiled softly.
"I love you Louise" I told her.
Her expression melted and she replied in kind, "I love you Saito".
We became lost in each other's gazes; and knowing us, it probably would have continued like that if Louise hadn't pointed at something off in the distance.
"Saito, look!" Louise was directing her attention behind me; I turned, and saw the something pretty weird, even by Halkeginia's standards.
In the starry night sky, I saw what looked to be about four shooting stars, flying through the heavens. It was unbelievable; shooting stars were pretty rare, was it actually possible for there to be even more than one at a time? Either way, it was kind of a majestic sight to see.
"That's pretty amazing" I said as they streaked out of view; Louise looked absolutely star struck (pun not intended). Then, a thought struck me.
"Hey Louise", she turned to me; "on my world, they have a superstition, where if you make a wish after seeing a shooting star, it might come true".
She beamed at me, then closed her eyes and clasped her hands like she was praying. She even scrunched her face up; it was actually pretty cute.
"There, I'm done" she stated.
"What did you wish for?"
She giggled and walked back into the bedroom; I followed and closed the balcony doors. Louise curled up under the bed covers and with a melodious voice, told me…
"I asked Brimir if our house could be blessed with the sound of an infant's cries".
Wait… did Louise want children? I had never thought about the possibility of having kids; Louise was seventeen and I was eighteen, so I didn't think we would be considering children until a few years later. Then again, it was probably normal in this world for people to have babies at such a young age.
Age aside however, children were a huge responsibility. There was no doubt that Louise and I could handle the financial struggles involved with raising a kid, us being Nobles and all; the question was whether we could deal with the emotional struggles. Would I be a good father who was looked up to by his son/daughter? Would our child grow up to be a responsible, upstanding member of society? The questions kept pouring in.
Would I have to ask my parents for advice? Would he/she make lots of friends? Would he/she do well in school? Would I have to learn how to change a diaper? Would there even be diapers since this was a medieval age world? Thinking about it was causing me to tense up.
A new notion occurred to me; if Louise wanted children, did that mean she intended to do "that" tonight?
The idea excited me; I was finally going to lose my virginity. Louise always got nervous and pushed me away if I tried to make a move on her, so this was pretty awesome. The blood started rushing to my face.
I probably was making a perverted face without realizing; because Louise's cute, blissful face soured up almost immediately and her face turned beet red with what I assumed was embarrassment.
"Y-you perverted dog! I talk about something as wonderful as bringing a new life into the world and that's the first thing that comes to your mind!"
She grabbed one of the pillows beside her head and threw it at me with all her might. I narrowly dodged the soft projectile and saw another one fly towards me and promptly hit me in the face.
I decided to get out of the room while she was just throwing pillows and not explosions and quickly exited through the doorway. I could still hear her yelling at me as I closed the door, and I decided that it would be best if I waited to see whether or not she'd have cooled off in the morning.
And so here I was, standing alone in the hallway; no bed, half-naked, and no warm body to curl up with. Pretty sad really.
"Shall I prepare the sofa within the study for sleeping Master?" I jumped as I realized that Degualle was standing right beside me.
"I'll take your brief panic as a yes my lord" Degualle dipped his head at me, and then left to fetch bedding, leaving me to stew in my own frustration.
What a night this had been.
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