Vandread: Unsung Hero

Disclaimer: I do not own Vandread or Gradius.

Chapter I: The Opening

In a distant sector of space, there is a large space colony in orbit with ships docking and taking off.

Inside the colony is a large number of people going on with their lives as the station bustled with activity. Some people were buying stuff from the trading shops, some were just having a walk around, some were at home, at work, some were standing on guard duty with weaponry in hands and some were preparing for trips to other planets.

One of the people is a man with the height of 5'9" and athletically built and looked to be in his early twenties. He has pale skin, black hair in a durag and soul piercing black eyes that made people give him a clear path as he walked with a purpose to his destination. He is wearing a black Kevlar weave flight suit, gloves and boots and a pair of dog tags around his neck.

As he walked through the crowded but uplifting path he reflected over his past, his decisions and what led to his current life.

Flashback Start

Operation Solar Assault was a success.

The core of the mysterious enemy fortress that was on a course for planet Gradius was destroyed and with that the fortress was no more and once more Gradius was saved, and it was all due to the efforts of the three pilots that did the job and escaped on time before the explosion.

Naomi Veron, the pilot of the BP-592A Vic Viper, leader of the three-pilot team and second oldest child of the Veron family, well known for their piloting skills and being cousins of the legendary James Burton or Emperor Lars the 18th; Cecilia Daley, the pilot of the LS-379G Lord British and the only daughter of a humble civilian family from Latis, Gradius' ally; and finally there was Seth Reager, formally named Seth Veron, eldest child, only son and former black sheep of the Veron family, adopted child of the Reager family, a just as famous family of pilots, an ex-con, and the pilot of the WC-672H Alpinia.

After the trio's return, the citizens of Gradius congratulated them for their success. However for Naomi, she was now at peace with herself. Her best friend Cecilia and her estranged older brother Seth had fought alongside her to defend their home.

She and her parents had been truly devastated when they discovered that Seth had been locked up on trumped up charges of endangering the safety of planet Gradius upon their return home and more so with his adoption into the Reager family after he had been acquitted of such charges. The family had fought tooth and nail to get Seth back but he and the Reagers would have none of it.

Naomi had made efforts to set things right between her and her older brother while they were in the Gradius Academy and while they were pilots but had made little progress as Seth had made it clear to her that he wanted nothing to do with her at all.

When the threat of the mysterious enemy fortress that was on a course for their home arrived Naomi, Cecilia and Seth were the three pilots assigned with the mission of taking out the enemy fortress and the trio launched off to deal with the enemy. Seth rarely communicated with them during the mission but he worked with them to complete the mission. With their mission now a success thanks to their teamwork, Naomi expected that everyone would be happy afterwards, including Seth.

Seth however wanted no part of them after suffering extensively at the hands of Gradius' justice system and his family's neglect. He had worked himself to the ground to be a pilot when his family gave his sister everything while leaving him to rot. When he was falsely accused of endangering the safety of his home and locked up for it and worse his family had left for some training trip for Naomi and didn't even come home to help him after their friends the Reagers had sent a message to them about his situation, Seth simply snapped inside. Worse the real culprit of the crime was still free that is until Seth found the man and beat him within an inch of his life and found out why it all happened before he killed the bastard. Then the death of his adoptive parents during a diplomatic mission tipped him over the edge.

He may have fought alongside his sister to save their home but it was because it was his job as a Gradius pilot and nothing more. Truthfully, he had lost all loyalty to Gradius after their injustice towards him and their inability to catch the true culprit of the crime they locked him up for, which he did for them instead. Not only that he could tell that many of the higher ups at command were not happy to see that he had survived Operation Solar Assault. All that convinced him that there was no point working for such ungrateful, arrogant bastards. So he decided to cut his ties with everyone.

As everyone celebrated the successful mission, Seth silently left the party, packed up his few belongings and left a note. He was going to meet an old friend of his that had also been a victim of injustice before she too snapped and left.When he was finished he entered the Alpinia and left planet Gradius with no one being the wiser until it was too late, and by the then he'd be long gone.

Flashback End

Seth had no regrets about making his decision to leave everyone behind the way he did. There wasn't anyone he left behind that he was fond of. The only reason why he didn't leave earlier was because of the Reagers that he loved even more than his original family. Besides he wouldn't have it any other way.

He liked his new life. He enjoyed his freedom to operate as he wanted.

Seth Reager had made a name for himself as a freelance mercenary and he was well known in this colony as well as this sector. He was either your best friend who had your back for life, or your worst enemy and there was nowhere in the galaxy you could hide from him. It was that simple with him. And while he interacted with others he was mostly apathetic and kept to himself.

Going through a pair of sliding doors brought Seth out of his thoughts as he saw that he'd arrived at his destination. He walked into a reception room and went straight to the blonde woman at the front desk who was wearing a white dress with orange stripes. The woman looked up and smiled in recognition of the man in front of her.

"Welcome back Mr. Reager. How are you today?"

"I'm good...Thank you for asking, Hana." Seth replied, "By the way, is she in?"

"Yes she is. And she's been expecting you too." Hana answered.

"She's always expecting me…" Seth smirked, "…Anyways thank you Hana."

Seth walked past the front desk and through another set of sliding doors into the next room. It is a wide circular office with multiple chairs, tables, a flat screen TV, couches and even a bar and a view screen at the end that showed the calm void of space. At the center of the room is a table with two chairs at opposite ends. In one of the chairs is a woman with her back turned to Seth and viewing the calm void of space.

"Losing yourself in space Miranda?" Seth asked.

"Well it calms me down, helping me forget things that should be forgotten." The woman now known as Miranda replied.

"Just like drinking calms you down and make you forget things." Seth said, "But I digress, it does the same for me since I've got things I never want to remember either."

Miranda turned around to face Seth, giving him a clear view of her. Miranda wore a red tank top, red skirt and black boots. She had tanned skin, long brown hair, blue eyes that showed discipline and years of experience ahead of her age and appeared to be in her late twenties. She also had a nice hour glass figure and D cup breasts and carried herself with confidence. Miranda Locke was Seth's only friend in Gradius before his false imprisonment that had left after suffering injustice at the hands of Gradius' military. She was a veteran pilot in their military and the test pilot of the Alpinia before Seth became the assigned pilot. When she heard of his predicament through the Reagers, she used her resources to get to the bottom of things and found evidence to exonerate him. After that she offered him a chance at a new life away from Gradius whenever he wanted, a chance Seth had taken three years ago.

She looked at Seth briefly before smiling and walking towards him.

"Good to see you again Seth." Miranda said as she hugged Seth, which he returned.

"Feelings mutual." Seth replied before both separated, "You're expecting me as usual."

"Yes I am. Even though we're friends you're more like the younger brother I wish I had." Miranda said before her expression turned serious, "And I'm glad you're back here. Something came up that demands your utmost attention."

Seth too became serious, "And what would that be?"

Miranda went over to the couch and sat in it while motioning to Seth to sit in the other one on the other side of the table in front of her. The young man obliged as he went over to the other couch and sit in it.

"It's supposed to be big." Miranda began as she took out a folder and tossed it across to Seth, who caught it easily, "The client's an unknown but he's offering a huge reward for this job. It's a simple locating mission and with what he's offering it's got to be important."

"How much are we talking about?" Seth asked.

"Billions of credits. Look in the folder and see for yourself." Natalia informed.

"That's a lot of money." Seth opened the folder and looked at the pictures and Intel about the target and had a confused expression. "The Paksis Pragma? The client wants me to find some energy source?"

"Yes he does. All I've been able to find out is that it's apparently a very powerful energy source." Miranda stated, "Fortunately I've nailed down where it is located but there's a problem...it's in the Gemini System."

"Where those two moronic planets are; Tarak and Mejere." Seth said with venom.

It was no secret that many planets had no love for Tarak and Mejere, especially Gradius. The two planets had been at war with each other due to their sexist views of each other. Many planets had seen them as bigotry filled dumb asses that fail to realize that they are from the same race known as human beings. Too bad those two didn't. And that's before mentioning the bad blood between Gradius and Mejere.

"Yes and unfortunately enough it's in Tarak of all places." Miranda said.

"Seriously?"

"Yes. I have a very good source there that confirmed it. The question is…will you take the job? I know that you'd rather not be caught dead on that planet or Mejere."

Seth stayed quiet for a moment and he didn't take long to think about the job.

"I will take the job, make sure to let the client know that." He said sternly as he put down the folder, "And the split will be 50-50 since you managed to pinpoint the location. I'll handle the rest and maybe even get it for our client."

"You sure about that?" Miranda asked in concern.

"Yes, I'm sure. In fact I'll be going now." Seth said and got up from the couch and made his way for the door.

"Wait! Before you go there's something else you should know." Miranda said.

"What is it?" Seth asked.

"It's Gradius. They've raised your bounty to over a hundred billion. Not only that, they've created a task force to bring you in." Miranda informed him, "It consists of Naomi, Cecilia and one other unnamed person."

"Really? And I'm supposed to care?! Because as far as I'm concerned I see no reason to be bothered." Seth blankly responded, 'Not like it should be surprising considering that most of the fuckers back there are mad that they've been unable to get rid of me ever since I left.' "No matter. I'll cross that bridge when it happens. I'm off. Anything else?"

"Yes, be sure to meet up with my contact there. I've told him what you look like and he'll be expecting you and able to set you up on Tarak. Also be careful. For some reason I have a very bad feeling about this mission. The client obviously hasn't been so frank with their request, so watch yourself out there...Please." Miranda said with worry.

"I know that and thanks for the warning Miranda. I'll look for whatever the client wants. Keep me posted if something comes up." Seth said. As he was about to leave he remembered something else. "Oh another thing. Any sightings of that piece of dog shit?"

"None so far Seth. The bastard's very slippery, but I have a hunch that he'll be in the Gemini system." Miranda stated.

"I'll take that. Your hunches have turned out to be right in the past concerning the bastard. Too bad he's as slippery as you said he is. Although this time I WILL find him and end him." With that said, Seth walked out of the office leaving a sighing Miranda behind.

'That's not all I'm worried about…I know that you're still mad about what happened all those years ago Seth...but you need to let go...before it turns you into something monstrous. Just like how I almost ended up...'

...

Getting into his ship, the Gradius fighter ship, Alpinia, Seth Reager looked on ahead into the void with a frown.

'So Gradius decided to send those two after me? What are they expecting? Me to hesitate to kill them?' Seth thought, 'It doesn't matter. What's done is done and I have no intention of looking back.'

The Alpinia disembarked from the docks before zooming off into the void of space, off to handle his newest assignment.

…

It took Seth a few weeks to get to the Gemini System, and a few days to get to his destination which was Tarak. One of the two bigotry-filled planets, the other being Mejere.

It had been six months since the Gradian had arrived at the desert planet. He'd met Miranda's contact who was actually a Gradius Intelligence Operative who'd been posted there to keep tabs on the planet. Ever since Tarak attempted their BS with Gradius which nearly resulted in a losing war for the all-male planet Gradius had decided to keep tabs on them just in case the fools try another stupid stunt. So far Tarak has behaved. The contact had been able to help set Seth up as a Second Class Citizen and with a job as a security guard.

Seth had known a bit about Tarak from academy lectures and reports and he couldn't give an iota of a damn. Tarak was a world comprised entirely of men. A desert planet with barely any water down on the surface. Despite the harsh conditions, the men had been able to colonize this desert planet. Their society is divided into a caste system with three different classes.

The First Class Citizens are the upper class people who have high paying jobs, the best living conditions and health care and are held in the highest regard. The Second Class Citizens are the middle class people who have average to decent enough conditions, not too bad and not too good either. Then Third Class Citizens are the lowest class with the poorest conditions and are treated like dirt but they are also the hardest working group. While the men of Tarak are impressive to be able to live and thrive on this harsh planet for three generations, they seemed to be more bothered with their military than anything else and they have a very disturbing bias against women calling them monsters who enslave men and eat their innards and the Tarak men are currently at war with them.

Absolute bullshit!

The Mejerians were no better but Seth didn't want to even go there as they were just as bad, if not worse than their male counterparts, plus it would bring back memories he wants to stay forgotten.

For the past few months on Tarak, Seth had been doing his best to stay as sane as possible considering how jaded he already is. He had been living on his personal rations instead of the disgusting food pills the men eat. He tried it once and nearly went on a killing spree. Then there was the issue of avoiding men who wanted to have a kid with him! Hell to the fucking no!

There was some good side to it. Thanks to Miranda's insider he was able to find out about Tarak's new weapon, the Vanguards, giant human shaped war machines that the men prided on making for their war with the women in the future when they would one day take the battle with them in space. The Vanguards were also armed with the ability to carry various weapons, and have strong armor, could operate in both the surface of worlds and in deep space, could take utility and military roles with ease. They were impressive even to the Gradian, but they were not that impressive compared to the things and beings he had seen and battled in his career as a Gradius pilot and as a mercenary.

Also Seth had been able to locate the Paksis, finding out that it was inside the vessel known as the Ikazuchi, which was an Old Colonization ship that had left Earth many years ago. He had also gotten word that the Ikazuchi was already going to be taking off in three days, which is also when he'd decided to get photographic proof of the Paksis and maybe leave with the item itself.

However Seth had been secretly informed by Miranda that female pirates from Mejere had gotten wind of the men's operation, and were all getting ready to make their move on the Ikazuchi, hoping for a good haul in their latest raid on the men. Seth thanked her for the warning and told her that by the time they'd show up he'd be long gone. Unfortunately he had no idea how wrong he'd be about that.

Chapter 1 End.