Storm
A fanfiction by Alamandorious.
Chapter 1: Graduation
Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach.
Oured, Osea, 2031
Bright morning sunlight peeked in through the blinds, shining down upon a mass of sheets in the centre of a bunk. Various bottles of alcohol, all empty, lay scattered over the floor. Another bunk, on the other side of the room, was made to perfection...the person who slept in it obviously having gotten up awhile ago. On the nightstand next to the messier bunk, an alarm clock was buzzing intently, trying to rouse the sole occupant of the room with all its might.
A faint, feminine groan escaped from underneath the mass of sheets and a firm, smooth arm snaked its way out and grasped the alarm. It switched off the buzzer and pulled the little device back under the sheets with it. For a few moments, all ways silent...the sound of birds in the tree right outside the window faintly making their presence known, indicating that it was a little less than soundproof.
"HOLY SHIT! I'M GONNA BE LATE!" came the startled scream as a figure bolted upright in the bunk, dislodging the sheets that had formerly been covering her body. This was followed immediately by the young woman clutching her head and moaning,"Oh, my head...I'm going to get Ronda for this...damn party girl..."
The female swung her shapely legs out over the bed and planted them firmly on the ground, running a hand through her moderate-length blonde hair before staggering to her feet. She glanced over at the closet, tempted to simply dress in the clothes she had thankfully set aside last night, but another glance at the clock indicated she had just enough time for a quick shower to rinse away the stench of alcohol...at least, she hoped she did.
"At least she could've woken me up, dumb bitch," she snarled, half-heartedly, as she swiftly grabbed a white towel hanging from a hook on the rooms' door and a bottle of shampoo from the drawer of her nightstand before heading out to the communal shower. The young woman was tempted to simply run, but one thing her mother HAD managed to drive into her skull was that most accidents happened when you rushed. Instead, she settled for a swift walk to her destination.
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"Well Miss Nagase, I starting to wonder if you'd honour us with your presence today," said the stately looking middle-age man as the somewhat out of breath young woman made her way to the fitting room, or rather a small classroom converted into an impromptu fitting room,"Don't worry, you arrived with a few moments to spare; you can get to the end of your procession before they head out."
"I'm sorry Mr. Schnare. I overslept," she replied, somewhat meekly with an embarrassed smile on her lips.
The man looked at her through his glasses, raising an eyebrow,"You seem to be a little bit pale...I certainly hope you weren't consuming alcohol in the dorms last night..." he said, a hint of mirth in his eyes as he stepped back and indicated one of the curtained booths,"Your gown is ready...your roomate, Miss. Coleman said you might be a bit late."
"Thank you!" she said, quickly stepping by and entering the booth to avoid any further embarrassing questions. She knew he knew about the party...it was hard not to, what with most of the dorm rooms on her end of the building temporarily becoming public property and co-ed for a good part of the night.
It didn't take long for her to put the gown on...it was a simple matter of throwing the dark blue material on over her normal clothes, and putting the graduation cap on her head. Once it was all on, she practically flew out of the dressing booth, going against her earlier calm and rushing out the door. Mr. Schnare stopped her, however, stepping in front of her path and holding up a hand.
"Now now, this won't do at all. You're an honour student here...you can't step out looking as if you simply threw your gown on," he said, patiently, as he reached out and made a few minor adjustments to her garb,"There...much better. Now you look presentable, as if you had a little bit of pride in your accomplishments," he said, raising his head slightly and smiling in genuine warmth,"Miss. Nagase...Blaze...your mother must be so proud of you."
"Thank you, Mr. Schnare," she replied, smiling slightly,"I'm going to miss learning under you. You made the lessons so easy for us to learn..."
He raised his index finger, waggling it slightly,"Ah ah ah...I don't take flattery very well," he said, before stepping out of the way,"Go now. Your friends are waiting for you."
Nodding once and flashing a bit of a grin, Nagase Blaze left the fitting room. The teacher, Mr. Schnare, watched her go with a slight shake of his head. Heading back into the room he walked over to the window and looked up into the blue sky, a distant look on his face.
"I'm sure your father is proud of you, too...if only he were here to see you graduate," he murmured, before sighing and turning his back to the window,"You have his talent...it wasn't that I made the lessons easy...you just took to them swiftly, far more swiftly than anyone else in the class."
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Nagase, walking swiftly down the tiled floors of the hall, barely took note of her surroundings. The building she was in was old, older than some of the other buildings in the Academy. Most of the students dreaded getting stuck in the worn old building, preferring some of the newer, modern dorms that -weren't- directly attached to some of the main class areas. The building was sometimes drafty, and had many areas where the paint was faded or chipped...but the young woman didn't care. She was one of the few to select it; she felt it had more character than the others, and hoped that some of the energy from the past classes of pilots would rub off on her. It was also the same dorm her mother had stayed in, back when it was purely a military institution.
As she got closer and closer to her objective, she could hear the crowd outside, the rich sounds of the orchestra hired to play for the event barely audiable over the noise. She slowed her pace somewhat, taking note of her location. The hall was lined with pictures from classes past...all the way back to the first Belkan war. Many of the pictures had small purple marks underneath...graduates lost to war. She paused for a moment, spotting her mother's portrait. Many people thought her mother had been trained at Sand Island...the truth was, that was the final place for military pilots to receive polishing on the theory and skills they had acquired here. It was where the good pilots got weeded out from the bad in a final process. But here...here was where the training had started.
Shaking her head, she quickened her pace once more, spotting the end of the procession up ahead, most of the way down the hall. Nagase was glad that there was no more war...although a part of her yearned for the joy of flying a single-person jet, soaring faster and higher than any civilian jet would ever let her. The military, or what could be considered the military now, had approached her several times in an attempt to bring her into their ranks.
The airforce was mostly used for studying the weather, or helping out with the occasional forest fire. The army handled natural disasters, and did peacekeeping in some of the smaller countries that had yet to fully stabalize. The navy was all but combined with the coast guard for search and rescue operations. All the big warships had been mothballed gradually over the years, and all the small ones like frigates and gunboats had been disarmed and regulated to search and rescue.
And, of course, the airforce still did airshows, and they were always looking for stunt pilots. That interested her, but there was more money to be made in civilian careers. Add to the fact that her mother kept pushing her towards something civilian related, and away from the airforce...she kept wondering why her mother would push her away from the same career she had had...maybe it had something to do with the Osea/Yuktobania war that ended a little while before she was born.
Her musings were interupted by her friend, Ronda, poking her in the forehead,"You were zoned out again, you nearly ran into me," she said with a smirk, before crossing her arms underneath her chest,"We were wondering if you were going to join us; Jerry and Garett are further up the line."
"And why the hell didn't you wake me up? I nearly overslept!" Nagase replied, crossing her arms and mock-scowling at her jokester friend.
"Because I knew you'd wake up on time...doesn't matter how much you drink, girl, your internal clock always wakes you up at the same time."
Nagase sniffed, looking away with partly closed eyes,"I wanted to really primp myself up for this; now I look like I'm just heading to an every-day class..."
Ronda shook her head, giggling a bit,"It's just your graduation ceremony, it's not like you're going to meet up with a cute guy..."
"Hey! What's that supposed to mean!?"
Before the conversation could go any further, a single chime rang out down the hallway, indicating it was time for the procession to start moving out. As the line of graduates made their way out into the sunlight beyond the door, Nagase turned to her friend,"We'll talk about that last comment, later...right now, let's just enjoy this day, right?"
"Right!"
Blaze was nearly blinded by the light, the after-effects of the alcohol causing her to groan slightly because of the brightness. The desire to look proper, and the excitement about the event kept her from embarrassing herself. She smiled when she saw just how many people were at the event, cheering her and her classmates on...parents, friends, family, even staff from some of the local airfirms. As her vision swept over the large courtyard, she spotted her mother standing next to Professor Grimm, Jack, and Marcus. She refrained from waving to them as the procession filed into the seats pre-arranged for them, set somewhat apart from everyone else in the middle of the courtyard. Nagase just smiled, the euphoria of success washing over her body. It was a good day indeed...
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Nagase, Snow, Grimm, and Bartlett all stood on a balcony, watching the procession take place below. The three men were dressed in formal suits; Bartlett and Snow in dark blue, Grimm in a dark brown. Nagase herself wore a yellow sun dress and a white, wide-brimmed hat. When questioned by her three friends earlier, she had simply said it was too hot a day to wear a stuffy formal dress, to which there was much good-natured grumbling. All of them had aged over the years; Bartlett and Snow had many grey streaks in their hair and their skin had taken on a slightly weathered quality. Grimm had aged as well, but had a much younger appearance than the other men...being at least 15 years younger than Marcus, and 23 years younger than Jack. And Nagase...
Nagase had hardly changed since the end of the war, so many years ago. Only a few tiny rinkles at the outermost corners of her eyes showed she wasn't still in her late twenties. Not even a hint of grey marred her beautiful black hair, kept as short as she had always kept it while being a pilot.
"She looks pretty excited about this, doesn't she Kei?"
Nagase Kei didn't take her eyes off of her daughter, but nodded to Grimm's question,"She should be...aviation is one of the hardest thing in this world to learn properly."
"She did learn it, and learned it well. At least she won't have to learn the same skills we did at Sand Island," Hans added, tugging slightly at the suit he wore,"I really hate wearing this thing, it feels worse than our old uniform did."
Jack chuckled, shaking his head slightly,"We all spent so much time in uniform that I'm surprised you guys even remember how uncomfortable they were when you first put 'em on."
Marcus grinned at the other three,"I guess carrier pilots had it easy then. My uniform was -always- comfortable."
Nagase crossed her arms and smirked,"Oh really? Last time we were all at that former-airforce gettogether, I remember hearing you telling your wife that for the first few days you had to wear the uniform you had a bad rash on the back of your neck because of the tags..."
The other two men laughed while Marcus looked embarrassed,"You don't miss much Kei, do you?"
The woman nodded, smiling widely,"Nope."
The four friends fell silent as the Dean of the Academy took his place at the podium and began his speech. Nagase noted that it was almost identical to the one used at her graduation so many years ago. For a moment, she was swept up by her memories...she saw herself in her daughters place, listening intently to the Deans' speech, her friends and classmates surrounding her. On the opposite side of the aisle from her class sat another class, each student listening as intently to the speech as her...one in particular caught her eye and she almost choked, her eyes welling up for a moment.
"Nagase? Kei! Are you alright?" came a voice, and suddenly she snapped back to reality as a hand fell gently on her shoulder.
"I'm...I'm alright...I was just remembering...from when I was here," she replied to Grimm as she wiped away the unshed tears from her eyes.
As she looked back over the crowd, she saw the classes as they were...she fixated on the spot she had looked at before, and saw a female student in place of the male one she had remembered...for a brief moment, she had seen...him.
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Kei, Hans, Marcus and Jack weren't the only ones with their eyes on Blaze. Standing on the opposite side of the courtyard upon the balcony of one of the newer buildings were two men, one dressed in an Osean airforce major's uniform, the other in a black suit. The man in the suit removed his thin-framed glasses and gently rubbed the lenses with a cloth. The Major looked over at the man, his expression almost unreadable.
"You're certain she's got what it takes, Manfred?" he asked, briefly removing his cap to run a hand through his sweat-soaked blonde hair,"She's got the marks, sure, but the desire? She's turned down every attempt we've made to recruit her."
The other man replaced his spectacles on his face, his own bald head glistening slightly in the sunlight,"Mmm. We're sure. Her pedigree," he nodded across to Kei,"aside, you just haven't been allowed to tempt her with the right bait. I'm here because you need the clearance, and I'm one of the few people that can give it."
The Major turned his attention back to the crowd, focusing completely on the young woman in question,"The project needs pilots. Good ones, ones we can be sure won't waste the money we've put into it. Her mother...and most importantly, her father seem to have passed down their latent talent for aviation to her...if such a thing exists. Maybe when you give her all the details..."
"Come now, Johnathan," laughed Manfred lightly, turning his full attention to the man beside him,"Do you honestly think she'll trust someone like me? Her mother was Airforce, so she's more likely to trust you. I'm just going to be sitting back and let you do all the talking...your face is much more honest than mine."
"I suppose that's true," Johnathan replied, his lips cracking into a grin,"I only trust you because I know you...you don't lie, you just dodge questions you can't answer."
"Ahhh, my secret is discovered. Just don't tell anyone in my office; they'd eat me alive."
The two men briefly shared a chuckle, before falling silent for a few minutes. As the Dean finished his speech, and the classes stood in in preparation to ascend to the stage to receive their diploma's, Manfred turned towards the doorway.
"Well, I'll be down in the room waiting. Bring her along when you can."
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Nagase stepped down from the stage, her face flushed slightly with triumph as she clutched her diploma to her chest. She quickly joined her friends and classmates, who were mostly milling about and quietly talking to one another as they waited for the presentations to finish. She joined her friend Ronda, who was already talking with Jerry and Garett in excited whispers. When they noticed Blaze's approach, Garett grinned slightly and clapped her on the back.
"Congrats sleeping beauty! You managed to wake up in time for the grad!"
Nagase grinned punched him in the shoulder, causing him to take a step back,"You're certainly no Prince Charming, so a girl has to wake herself up," she retorted, before looking over at the grinning Jerry,"Don't laugh at him, 'cause you're even worse."
"Oh, my wounded pride! Surely there must be a fair maiden that can sooth my shattered soul!" Jerry replied, clutched his chest dramatically and leaning against Ronda, who promptly stepped back a step and let the poor man nearly fall.
"Don't look at me! I agree with Blaze on that one," she snickered, before glancing over at her friend,"So hun, how does it feel to be top in the class, if not the whole school?"
Blaze paused for a moment, her expression one of deep thought...the illusion of serious consideration was shattered by her constantly up-twitching lip corners. Finally, she succumbed to the smile trying to burst out and did so broadly,"Good...really good. I'll have my pick of jobs," she then raised her head slightly, taking on a mock-snobbish look,"I suppose I'll have to find friends that can keep up with me now."
The other three were about to retort when they were shushed by a few of their classmates. They realized they must've started getting too loud...fortunately, they hadn't been loud enough yet to attract the attention of the crowd. The four fell silent, looking slightly sheepish. A few moments later, Nagase felt a tap on her shoulder. Turning around, she came face to face with an airforce Major, one whom she recognized almost instantly.
"You're not going to try again, are you Major?" she sighed, tiredly, as her three friends and a few of her classmates stared on quizzically.
The man smiled,"How'd you guess? I've got to try at least one more time before you get snapped up by some civilian firm."
Blaze rolled her eyes,"Do you really have to do this here? I'm kind've in the middle of something right now," she murmured, indicating the other graduates around her.
Johnathan shook his head, stepping aside and indicating the dorm building behind him,"No, not here. I wouldn't want to disrupt this event. I've got a room set aside for recruiting inside...and I promise, one way or the other, you'll be back out in time for the last hurrah."
The young woman nodded,"Fine...because if I miss this, I'll never let you live it down," she replied, striding towards the doorway of the indicated building.
The Major nodded to the rest and stepped into place behind Blaze, following her into the building with a measured pace.
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She was surprised to see someone else in the room. A thin, well-dressed, but balding man with glasses was sitting in a chair directly in front of the dry-erase board. He smiled in a friendly manner towards her, tipping his head politely to her as she entered. Johnathan stepped into the room a moment later, closing the door behind him, further sealing away the noise from outside.
"What's going on? I thought this was another recruitment attempt..."
"It is, Miss. Nagase, it is," said the main in the chair, nodding his head once again,"But this time, my good friend Major Thompson will be allowed to tell you -exactly- what you're being recruited for," he added, before raising an eyebrow,"I should also tell you that, at least for another month, what you're about to hear is a secret held by the highest levels of government worldwide. This is not something for civilian ears...not yet. Johnathan, if you would...?"
The Major cleared his throat,"As you know, an asteroid struck the Usea continent thirty two years ago, causing massive devastation to that land. It has only recently returned back to its pre-impact levels in commerce and industry. At first, the project 'Stonehenge' was envisioned and made a reality to protect the world from further impacts. As you know, this triggered a war that swept the Usea continent for over a year, causing even more devastation and loss of life. It has since been determined that no one country should have control over a weapons platform of that scale, hence the creation of the International Space Station. As you know, this station is crewed by a crew divided equally amongst the countries of this world, hence precluding any chance of one country gaining control of it," he paused to take a breath, before continuing,"However, this one station isn't enough to completely erase the chance of further impacts...and building the other two stations will take a great deal of time due to the resources involved."
Blaze raised an eyebrow,"This is all very interesting, but what does this have to do with me?"
Manfred leaned forward, staring the young woman in the eyes,"I think, Johnathan, I will continue from that point," he said, his voice completely serious,"Osea, along with every other country in the world, has developed a stop-gap...a measure that we as an international community intend to field against any future threats from space. It's called 'Project Shield'...a new fighter aircraft built completely with new technology researched and produced by every country on Earth. It is a strato-fighter, meaning it can climb far beyond what conventional aircraft can. These fighters attack an incoming asteroid at high altitude in a flight of thirty-two, chipping away at the invader until it is cut down to a safer size. We intend to reveal it to the public in a months time, at the celebration marking the end of the Osea/Yuktobania war of 2010."
"We want you to be one of the first pilots of this craft."
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A feeling had been bothering Nagase Kei for several minutes now. A nagging, worrisome feeling as if something...something dramatic were about to occur. Her gut instinct told her to seek out her daughter, and so she had left her three friends on the dorm balcony to head down to the courtyard proper. When she arrived, she spotted her daughters' closest friends and swiftly made her way through the congregation of students to their location. Ronda spotted her arrival and waved, drawing the attention of the two males beside her.
"Hi Ms. Nagase!" she said once Kei was within earshot.
"Hello Ronda. Didn't I tell you you could call me Kei?"
"Sorry..."
"Don't worry about it," Nagase said, before growing a bit serious,"Where's Blaze? I haven't seen her since she left the stage...this spot was blocked a bit by another balcony."
"Oh, some airforce major came to try and recruit her again," she pointed back at the other dorm with her thumb,"They went in there so they wouldn't disturb everyone. He'd better get her back out here soon, the end is almost here and she promised to make his life a living hell if he made her miss it."
"Thanks Ronda," replied Nagase as she hurried towards the building, alarm bells ringing in her head now,'Surely she wouldn't...she's already refused so many times...' she thought, trying to calm herself down. Even though the risk was minimal, she didn't want even a small chance that her daughter would have to go through the same experiences as she had.
She practically burst through the doors, only to spot Blaze and the Major down the hall, shaking hands. She could hear the Major's voice as he smiled and spoke to her daughter, echoing down the well-polished corridor.
"Glad we finally managed to pursuade you. Report to the Oured International Airport for 0800 hours in two days. Someone will meet you there and take you to the charter flight to the training facility."
"Oh...and welcome to the Airforce, Miss. Nagase."
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Somewhere under the Razgriz straits, at roughly the same time...
The four old men sat in the darkened room, looking over reports from the previous year, ranging from production to astrological, in absolute silence. The fine Belkan oak table they sat around showed signs of age, and there were several empty seats...but they paid little attention to such details. Finally, one by one they placed the papers on the table.
"It is nearly time...another month and a half..."
"Yes, when asteroid 034:217, otherwise known as 'Hades', will pass within 300,000 kilometres of our planet."
"The international space station has been successfully sabotaged...it will explode brilliantly, a bright flash in the sky to signal the start of our plans..."
"We will keep their resources tied up in the coming war, while we direct Hades down to Earth...down to the nation of Osea."
"But...this will be our last chance at revenge, and at taking over the planet," said the first one, looking at the other three,"We can't afford to fail this time around. For the future of Belka, we cannot fail a third time."
"Don't worry...the military might of Osea and Yuktobania, and indeed of every country in the world, has waned considerably these last twenty years...they will be fully incapable of handling a real military force...the force we have been building in secret these last few years."
One of the men stood and walked over to a large, highly-detailed globe that sat at the rear-centre of the room. Pulling a dagger out from a hidden sheeth within the sleeve of his coat, he stabbed the continent marked as 'Osea',"They will be the first to feel the wrath of the Grey Men. South Belka will be liberated from them once and for all," he muttered, turning to regard his fellows once more,"In a month and a half, we will commence our operations. It will take at least 6 months for the asteroid to fall to Earth...we have to hold out until that happens, no matter what."
