*~Chapter 1~*

Platoon


"Corporal Giroro! Sergeant Major Kururu! Private Second Class Tamama! Lance Corporal Dororo! Report to the base immediately!"

It was unusual for Keroro to hold a meeting so late in the day. Around this time he would be too busy trying to catch up on missed Admiral Geroro episodes to really care about an invasion plan. But when the message went out for all platoon members, even Dororo, to head to the base, it was obvious something serious was going on. Giroro was the first of the frogs to arrive, followed shortly by Tamama, and then Kururu. Dororo was nowhere to be found.

"Jeez, the one time I actually need him and he doesn't even show up..." Keroro crossed his arms and paced back and forth in front of the other three. "Not cool. Can't he see this is an emergency."

"He'll get here when he needs to." Giroro reassured him, aggravated at the fact that he was pulled out of his tent just as he was beginning to relax for the day. "An assassin always arrives when he's needed, remember?"

"But I need him noooooowwwwww." Keroro childishly whined, "I got a letter from headquarters about an inspection, and if he's not here when the inspection starts they could dock my pay!"

Kururu interrupted him "Or they could fire you and put me in charge, Kuku~"

"You're not helping!" Keroro started to inwardly panic. If he failed this inspection they would take him off of Pekopon for sure. Which meant he'd never be able to see Fuyuki again. He'd never be able to build his gunplas at his leisure again! "What am I going to dooooooo!"

"You could calm the hell down for starters..." Giroro shot out "What time is the inspection anyway."

"Ah...that's uh..." Keroro looked at the clock on his wall. It was almost four o clock. "It's in ten minutes."

"WHAT?! WHY WOULD YOU CALL US HERE ON SUCH SUCH SHORT NOTICE?!"

"Gunso-san that's not enough time for us to get ready!"

"Ku-"

"SILENCE." Keroro yelled. The three frogs stiffened. "I understand that the amount of time we have is short...but that doesn't mean we can't at least pretend we've made progress! All we have to do is make whoever's inspecting us think that we've been productive in our invasion and we'll be home free!"

There was a small silence as Giroro and Tamama exchanged worried glances. Tamama was the first to speak "So...how do we do that?"

"By doing exactly what we have done this whole time!"

Giroro nearly dropped to the floor at the response. He was about to yell at him again but stopped when he spoke first.

"Giroro. You're a weapons expert, so you just have to show them our weaponry and machines and explain them in detail!"

Giroro took a second to think about the idea "...That...might work...possibly."

"Kururu! You can show them your inventions and impress them with all the cool stuff you've made in the past few years!"

"Ku, of course I'll impress them. I am amazing after all."

Finally he turned to Tamama. "And you, private Tamama, can display your amazing martial arts skills and tell them that's the training we've done!"

He lit up at the idea "Gunso-san you're a genius!"

"But what are you going to do?" Kururu interrupted, saccharine sarcasm dripping from his voice. "What amazing skills are you going to display, oh wonderful leader~"

"Easy! I'm going to-"

Before he could finish his sentence a beam of light came down from the ceiling, leaving an irate looking caramel coloured keronian with a clipboard standing in front of the near-complete platoon.

Odd, was the first thing that came to mind the second she set her eyes on the Keroro platoon. The assignment screens had said it was an all male platoon made up of five members, but it seemed as though they were missing one. She looked down at her holographic clipboard, making mental notes that transitioned into real notes as her thoughts typed out on the screen. Hopefully this inspection would go over quickly.

"Atten-TION"

The four frogs snapped into a line, holding their salutes. Well at least they're still disciplined, even though they don't look the slightest bit prepared for an inspection. She raised an eyebrow at them.

"I thought there was supposed to be five of you. Where's your fifth man?"

No sooner had the question escaped her mouth that the light blue lance corporal dropped from the ceiling, bringing down one of the tiles with him as it fell with a rattle. He stepped back into the line and joined their salutes.

"Lance Corporal Dororo, reporting for duty!"

"At ease" She started "I'm aware that one a the codes of an assassin is 'An assassin always appears as he is needed', but if ya don't mind me asking, why were you late?"

He dropped his salute but looked downwards "I was...uninformed that there would be any type of inspection today."

She made a note. Poor Group Communication. "You don't live here? Or closeby?"

"Unfortunately not." He answered.

She nodded once and made another mental note, the small rectangles in her eyes dancing as different boxes and screens lit up her clipboard. Widespread platoon placement, tactical. She let go of the clipboard and put her hands behind her back, the clipboard hovering in place as she released it.

"I'm going to make this short and sweet, since I don't wanna be here, so pay attention. I'm Lieutenant Merere and I'll be conducting your inspection today." She started. "I was originally on a separate mission that had to do with this planet, but your platoon's stationing was 'convenient' enough for me to get an inspection notice on you. To be honest, if it wasn't for one of my men recognizing your platoon on the roster I wouldn't've bothered dragging my ass down here in the first place. But I'm here now and I'm not really in a good mood, so let's get this over with."

The platoon exchanged nervous glances. It already seemed like this wasn't going to go well. Giroro was the first to speak.

"Who was it in your platoon that recognized us?"

"Doesn't matter." She coolly shot back "What matters right now is that I'm here, and I gotta job to do. So, if you don't mind taking me down to where the rest of your base is, that would be great. I'm on a tight schedule."


Informal.

Informal and running an inspection.

Well that wasn't professional at all~

Kururu chuckled to himself. This new woman dropping in and going off on how she didn't want to be here was interesting, to say the least. She seemed angry and controlling. The worst kind of woman, he mentally noted.

But the other mission she was supposed to be on was even more interesting. Within five minutes she had already given away too much information. She had a platoon, she was the leader of said platoon, and she was on a mission related to Pekopon.

He pulled out one of his handheld computing devices, pretending to distract himself as he looked this new keronian over.

The first thing he noticed about her was her eyes. He'd never seen moving glowing anythings in anyone's eyes before. There were the occasional moving sparkles in Keroro and Tamama's eyes when they got childishly excited over something, but not like hers. Not like the odd blue rectangles that seemed to be in constant motion in her irises. Interesting.

The next thing he noticed was her posture. Sharp stance, annoyed, skeptic looks a his platoon. He smirked. She really didn't want to be here.

The floating clipboard wasn't impressive. He'd used those before, he'd done that before. Normally he'd have to press a button for something to autonomously move itself, but she seemed more fluid. More directly controlled.

He watched as Keroro ushered her to the entrance of their actual base, letting her through first before turning to the rest of them.

"Remember the plan. Stick to your strengths! I'm sure we can impress her!"

Kururu chuckled. Whatever you say chief.