As Shiro gathered his few personal effects from his bunk the entire barracks had crowded around him, giving him their goodbyes.

With each goodbye he felt his soul shred more and more.

These were the people he had been through hell and back with, the ones he sat with as they all huddled within the barracks shivering and wet from the freezing rain.

The ones that kicked each other in the ass when one of them started to slack.

His brothers and sisters.

With the final goodbye spoken, Shiro stood at the doorway and did just that, stood there.

He was unable to take that step.

He glanced out the window at the sun and knew it was almost time for his new CO to arrive and pick him and Yuki up.

With a huge breath he slowly twisted the doorknob and walked out the door.

. . . .

As Shiro walked stiffly through the halls with his rucksack slung over his shoulder he couldn't help but reminisce upon all his time spent here.

Suddenly out of the corner of his eye he barely saw a flash of the three bars which showed someone to be a Sergeant.

Thoughtlessly he snapped to attention with a firm salute as he stared straight ahead.

"Good afternoon sir!" He yelled, holding the salute.

As he stood there he noticed it was his Drill Sergeant.

After his DS gave him a nod Shiro went at ease, spreading his legs shoulder width apart and clasping his hands behind his back.

"Afternoon Hatsumora, I was hoping to catch you before you left." His DS replied as he held out his hand to Shiro

Shiro hesitated for a split second simply out of sheer shock before he reached out and firmly grabbed his DS' hand and shook it.

"I just wanted to say congratulations Hatsumora. Before you're transferred out of here I'm still your Commanding Officer and as such I've filed for you to receive a promotion. Congratulations you are no longer a recruit you are now Private Hatsumora. A proud active member of the greatest Army in this universe. Stand proud soldier and remember your training." As DS spoke he handed him a single gold bar patch for his uniform and snapped a crisp salute.

As Shiro grabbed the patch he jumped to attention and gave the stiffest salute possible.

"Thank you Drill Sergeant!" He yelled, earning a smile from his DS.

As the two finished the salute his DS cleared his throat a moment before looking around ten back to him.

"Listen Private, I know your post is confidential so that means you're gonna see some shit that you won't know how to handle. Taking down a hostile ain't like shooting a paper target. When you're lying in your bunk curled into a ball sobbing because the world's collapsed around you and you're a step away from swallowing your rifle remember this, it's kill or you will be killed. There is no safety in the world and there is no rest. Even as you're in your bunk under the covers there will be no rest. At any moment you can be dispatched. So remember Private, you kill them…or you die. There is no grey area here." His DS took a moment after delivering his advice and gave a small nod to Shiro.

"Now go report to your new CO Private." Without waiting for a reply Shiro's DS turned and walked off the other way.

Leaving Shiro alone in the hall clutching the patch like it was his only anchor to this frightening new world.

. . . .

When Shiro walked into the waiting room he saw Yuki was sitting in place staring straight ahead at the wall with headphones over her head.

As he walked across the room and leaned against the wall she made no sign of noticing him.

I wonder what she's listening to. He thought to himself as he stared out the glass doors into the open world he hadn't seen in two months.

A world without any Drill or target practice.

His thoughts were interrupted by a black car pulling up to the door.

In a snap he straightened and looked over to Yuki, ready to tell her the CO was here.

Before he had a chance, however, he saw she was already standing up with her headphones around her neck and facing the door.

A medium sized man stepped out of the car and headed towards the doors.

He had a shaved head and a black trimmed beard covering his mouth and chin.

He wore the black uniform with a black beret on his head and his sleeves rolled up to his elbows and tan pants with black shined dress shoes.

Upon his collar was two sets of two bars that showed him to be a Captain.

The moment the Captain grabbed the handle of the front door the muscles on his arm suddenly bulged revealing that though he looked to be of medium height he was huge underneath his uniform.

As he stepped inside Shiro jumped to attention and saluted.

"Good afternoon sir!" He barked as Yuki stood in place and stared at the Captain.

The Captain looked to him and returned the salute and looked to Yuki.

"My name is Captain Reynolds. Anything else will have to wait until we're in the car. Anything and everything we can discuss is confidential." He announced with his hands clasped behind him.

His voice was deep and growly but not mean, more experienced.

The two nodded and followed him out to the car.

Shiro threw his rucksack into the trunk before holding the back right side door open, nodding to Yuki.

She stood in place a moment, the same tiny corner of her eye twitched before giving a small nod and crawling inside.

Shiro closed the door and went around, crawling inside the other side of the car.

Once they were strapped in the car took off, driven by one of the base personnel.

Captain Reynolds turned in his seat and faced the two of them.

"You," He looked over to Yuki "must be Yuki, correct?"

She gave him a stiff small nod.

"Pleasure to meet you," He replied with his own nod before turning to Shiro "and you're Private Shiro Hatsumora then?"

"Yes sir." Shiro replied nodding.

"Pleasure to meet you. Now we're currently on route to your new posting, the Daedalus. Our driver is a member of the base has been handpicked by the Lieutenant-General and sworn to secrecy on all information I'm about to disclose. If it is revealed his has disclosed any piece of information at all no matter who insignificant from your names to your ranking then he will be hunted down and executed." Captain Reynolds explained to them.

Shiro looked at the driver but he'd not reacted at all, instead he simply continued to drive.

"The Daedalus is a super powered prototype Dreadnought loaded with the most firepower of any ship the Federation has created. It's been equipped with the strongest reactor ever manufactured to carry around all that weight and also uses thrusters as just Trapar Waves aren't enough to carry it. Due to the massive size of the ship it's rather difficult to find any appropriate landing fields as such the reactor provides a limitless supply of power, also a prototype. The entire crew has been handpicked by the Lieutenant-General and I, including the LFO's aboard the Daedalus. It's my understanding you've been handpicked by Yuki to come along is that correct Private Hatsumora?" Captain Reynolds asked looking to Shiro.

Shiro opened his mouth to speak but his words were caught in his throat at the thought of Yuki traveling the continent just to find him.

"Y…Yes sir." He managed to force it.

Captain Reynolds was silent a moment, staring at him before he nodded.

"And it is also my understanding that your post is to personally guard her 24/7?" Captain Reynolds continued to ask.

"Yes sir." Shiro replied once more.

Yuki simply stared straight ahead, apparently having no interest in the conversation.

"Then as such you'll share Yuki's room, instead of bunking with the other soldiers, if that's alright with Yuki?" Captain Reynolds looked to Yuki who looked to him then Shiro.

"Yes, sir." She replied before staring out the window, gone again.

"There we go. Our current assignment, once we get to the Daedalus, is to get Yuki's LFO. Understood?" He asked as his voice got louder.

"Yes sir!" Shiro loudly replied as he saluted.

. . . .

The car pulled into the land based airfield which was barren except for one hanger which was larger than any building Shiro'd ever even seen.

The car pulled over in front of the massive doors and they all got out.

Once Shiro pulled out his rucksack and closed the trunk the car took off back to base.

Captain Reynolds went up to the door and pounded on it with his fist before stepping back.

All was silent a moment before there was an earth shaking groaning as the doors lowly began to slide separate and grind apart revealing the darkness inside the hanger.

Suddenly the lights inside began hissing to life as row by row they began to light up the hanger.

Shiro's stomach dropped as his mouth fell open.

The Daedalus was it least triple the size of a normal military warship, Shiro could only imagine how many more weapons it had.

The ship was so large that the entire bottom of it was covered with landing gear and it had multiple loading ramps for soldiers and gear.

As the doors finally opened fully the sun filled the hanger, shining brightly on the dark burgundy colored hull causing it to sparkle.

Captain Reynolds stood before the Daedalus with a wide grin and his arms crossed.

The way his eyes sparkled Shiro couldn't help but allow a small smile to escape.

Out of the corner of his eye Shiro saw Yuki staring at his face, she looked angry or…confused?

Before he could even think about it Captain Reynolds nodded and announced, "Alright you two let's get on board and get the hell out of here. We've got shit to do."

"Yes sir!" Shiro yelled before stepping aside and motioning for Yuki to go first.

Once again she had that same look of anger or confusion.

After a moment she nodded and followed the Captain, followed by Shiro.

As they climbed up the ramp Shiro immediately felt the air was cooler and tasted…artificial.

The two hadn't made any reaction to it so Shiro simply decided to ignore it.

As they walked through the grey steel hallways Shiro noticed he didn't see anybody walking around.

If there was as many as they'd said there was then they'd be out and about wouldn't they?

"They're all in the mess hall. While we're on the ground there's no rotation except for vital crewman." Captain Reynolds suddenly announced looking back at Shiro.

As Shiro blinked in surprise looking at him Captain Reynolds explained, "You were looking around wondering right? That's where they are."

"Y…Yes sir thank you sir." Shiro replied giving a nod.

He suddenly felt the exhaustion hit him from all of today's events on top of Drill.

. . . .

After walking what could have easily been a mile the trio stood before a door.

Captain Reynolds turned and faced the other two.

"This will be both of your quarters. From this very second onwards you will not go another place without the other in tow. You will not separate to eat, sleep, or shit am I known?" Shiro straightened and went to attention as he gave a nod and replied, "Yes sir!"

He looked to Yuki who nodded and replied, "Yes sir."

Captain Reynolds, seemingly satisfied, turned and began to walk off.

"Excellent get some rest and report to the bridge once you're awake."

Yuki wordlessly opened the door and stepped inside, followed by Shiro.

The room was a little larger than the regular soldier's bunk room but where there would normally be four to six beds there was only two.

One at thigh level off the ground on the left wall and then one above that at eye level with a ladder on the end of it.

The rest of the room was barren except for a light in the ceiling and a window straight ahead from the doorway.

The only other thing in the room was a door at the far right corner that led to the bathroom the two of them shared.

"Wow, our very own bathroom. That's how you know you're special." Shiro observed with a chuckle as he stood there holding his ruck sack.

The room was filled in silence as they both stood there.

After a minute of silence Shiro flushed with embarrassment at his lame joke.

Yuki wordlessly walked over and sat down on the edge of the bottom bunk and looked at Shiro.

"Do other soldiers not use bathrooms?" She asked catching Shiro so off guard he was speechless for a moment.

"A…Ah no I just mean that soldiers normally share a bathroom amongst the whole platoon." She still stared at him, not understanding.

"W…Whereas we have our very own." He explained further.

She took another moment before nodding.

"I see. I understand." She replied.

Shiro's body was on fire, ripe with embarrassment from how poorly he was doing with this and it had only been a few hours.

With a silent sigh he threw his ruck sack onto the top bunk and unzipped it, reaching in for his new uniform he was given.

As he pulled it out he also grabbed his gold bar and the needle and standard issue thread given for sewing rank to your uniform.

"What are you going to do?" Yuki asked from below, her eyes locked on the needle.

"I'm just gonna sew my gold bar onto my uniform." He answered as he carefully fed the thread through the needle on the fifth attempt.

"Why?" She asked finally breaking free of the needle and looking at Shiro.

He frowned slightly as he looked down to her.

He only now noticed she had no bars on her uniform.

"What kind of training do you have exactly?" He asked as he set down his uniform, carefully setting the needle on top of it.

"Confidential training." Was her only response.

Shiro stood there a moment, unsure of how to even proceed.

"You said you were going to sew it?" She asked suddenly.

"Oh yeah I was, have you ever sewed before?" He asked as he picked up the uniform and needle once more.

She shook her head and sat expectantly.

"I can show you, is it okay if I sit down next to you? It's hard to do it while standing." He explained with a light chuckle.

She scooted to her right and made room for him.

As he sat down he slowly began to show her how to start and give her a few pointers on what to do and not do.

As he explained it she stared intently at his hands, the way he carefully weaved it through the gold bar then the uniform then the bar and back again.

Then without realizing it she looked up at him and saw the concentration on his face as he worked.

The determination.

And she couldn't help but smile.

It felt so strange…something she'd never experienced before.

But it felt good, it felt better than any expression she'd made before.

All she wanted to do was sit here and smile all day.

She'd never done anything like this before or felt this way, the only thing comparable was when she first laid eyes on Shiro.

As Shiro finished the last section he tied it off and cut the thread, then looked over at Yuki.

"And that's all there is to-" His words were gone as he was frozen in time and space.

She sat there looking at him with a wide smile.

A smile!

In that exact moment Shiro knew what he would devote his life to.

He would dedicate himself to making her smile again.

He didn't care if it took his whole life the only thing he wanted and the only thing he would remember for the rest of his life, was her smile.

Though he would never forget this moment, right now, he could never fully convey it to anyone.

That's why he knew this would be his memory.

Their memory.

And no one else's.

Shiro cleared his throat as he stood up.

"I…I'll go ahead and get changed now." He announced as he began walking to the bathroom.

"My training…" Her quiet voice stopped him in his tracks.

"My training was to fight. They never taught me much except that. But I can't really say much else…" She trailed off as she looked down at the floor.

"Then…Then I'll teach you." He managed to say as he turned to look at her.

She looked up with that look he now knew was confusion.

"If you ever are uncertain about something just ask me and I'll teach you…or try." He said with a light chuckle.

She was silent for a long while, so long he feared she'd reject the offer, before finally nodding.

"Yes…thank you Shiro. Thank you very much." As she spoke with a softness he' never heard his heart skipped a beat he nodded and quickly went into the bathroom before his knees gave way.

The moment he'd gotten undressed from his sweats from Basic his eyes went wide when he glanced at himself in the mirror.

He'd never noticed in basic because there was no time but over the course of two month there was no longer any squishy part of him.

He was now only muscle.

He was so much bigger now that he didn't even recognize himself, nor his lean sharp face.

Taking a deep breath he ran his hand across the stubbles on his face and looked down at the counter.

They'd even given them razors and shaving cream.

After covering his face with cream and shaving he stripped down, showered, and got dressed in his black uniform with black pants and black combat boots.

After admiring how slim it fit him and how comfy it was he reached into one of the pockets and found a pair of the white standard issue gloves as well.

Then in the other was the standard black beret.

Once he slipped them on he truly felt like a soldier.

When he walked back into the room, still admiring how good he felt, He looked to Yuki's bunk and saw she laid there with her eyes closed and headphones on.

Must be trying to get some sleep. He thought to himself with a smile. Though he wanted to parade around in his new clothes he took off his gloves, beret, and boots.

After setting the boots to the end of his bunk and putting his gloves and beret back into the pockets of his jacket he took it off and hung it from the end of his bunk.

Now wearing nothing but his white undershirt he climbed up into his bunk and laid there, resting his head on his hands, and stared at the ceiling.

And there he laid, suddenly feeling claustrophobic in the now stuffy air.

This is home. He thought to himself and continued to repeat it until he believed it.

After hundreds of repeats he simply gave up.

Suddenly there was a ping as the loud speaker was activated.

"Attention crew this is Captain Reynolds of the Daedalus. This isn't just any ship this is your new home. ALL of you. We'll be taking off shortly so brace yourselves for liftoff and await further orders. All those currently off duty report to your stations. Brace for liftoff." Captain Reynolds announced to the whole ship shortly before Shiro felt the ship slowly start to vibrate.

Suddenly his heart began to pound as he realized he'd never been off the ground before.

There was a quiet whirring that slowly began to increase in volume as the ship began to vibrate more and more intensely.

Suddenly the whirring became deafening as the ship jumped forward at a speed so fast Shiro was launched from his bunk and slammed into the wall across the room.

They were ascending so fast Shiro was glued up to the wall lying flat against it, unable to so much as blink.

Then just like that they evened out and Shiro fell face first onto the floor.

He groaned quietly as he laid there.

"Shiro? What are you doing down there?" Yuki asked as she sat upright, putting her headphones around her neck.

"Oh you know, enjoying the sights." He groaned as he stared at the floor.

Focusing only on not throwing up all over.

Especially not in front of her.

She was silent for a long moment, obviously confused, before nodding and laying back down and returning her headphones to her ears.

Before Shiro even realized it he fell asleep right there.

The last time he'd fallen asleep on the floor was the first week of basic after their 72 hour drill when they were allowed to fall asleep for the first time.

The only thing within Shiro's dreams, was Yuki's smile.