A/N: It's hard to love your sensei's son much when he semi-regularly, for years on end, pranks you with horrible things like catnip in your gear (you're a famed dog-lover), gifts of dog crap in said gear, drawing clothes into Icha-Icha… Honestly, Minato should just be proud of his student for never trying to throttle the brat.

The Elite Four use customized ACUs with additional blueprint slots fitted onboard, hence they can field the standard selection, plus a few regular personal choices, as well as field-test ALL the actually experimental units that are either designed by them (astonishingly many given how complex unit design can be) or have been forwarded from the actual design crews for testing. However, please note that field-testing takes a bit more time than standard roster building, to extract the schematics each time. So, after initial simulations, there are field-tests, units are tested AGAIN in a virtual environment in simulator matches before being fielded in actual ACU battles as standard construction databanks.

I originally wanted to put off revealing Fran's kill count to talking to Naruto after Wave and make most of this chapter into a data dump on alternative and prototype units. However, I thought this chapter needed a little more actual meat and development than to be 100% data dump like Ch 4.

Then I removed the data dump.

Chapter 10: Male Maturity Issues

Contact Day +4, March 29, 12 Years A9, 75 PWC (Post-Warring Clans)

Earth Calendar: November 4, 3849 AD

While her avatar was trundling along after the locals, Hannah was also, for lack of better terms, otherwise occupied, with a very particular group of formerly three but now (ugh…) four pains in the ass.

"No, Seth, most of what the locals call Wind Country being uninhabited desert is no reason to test out your firepower improvements to the Vulthuum and Vishuum, Vishthuum, whatever you call it…" It actually went by both since half the Seraphim commanders couldn't be bothered to remember the designers had mashed the two sounds together and thus became one of the first Coalition designs that had multiple nicknames "designs… even if the Republics really want a competitive Heavy Gunship design as soon as possible and a Tier 3 Air Transport competitive with the Continental… Steven, what the hell are you and David doing over there with those Longswords?" The venerable Broadsword design had been changed enough over the years that they—literally they, as Hackett and David had worked together on the redesign, with feedback from a few other notable UEF names—felt a name change was in order… along with a major redesign. Unfortunately it wasn't quite good enough for standardized use yet, so a less ambitiously updated Broadsword was still the standard, though Hackett and David were obviously still trying to improve it.

… Hannah listened to Steven's grumbling response to her question.

…"Just because I probably scared Kakashi into talking to Hinata's family about what we do on Trash Duty by mentioning some of the tamer means we use doesn't mean you can troll around like that! At least my stunts are less obvious than huge expanses of melted glass!"

"Ah come on, it's not like we can't reclaim them and replace the sand… though it wouldn't be good for the local ecology, which is why we're only using certain areas our scans determine to be relatively devoid of local life, and avoid killing off uncommon varieties of life too." Steven dismissed.

The real and tragic reason why the Elite Four was half male and half female (before Fran and later David came in) was to make sure there was always one woman on duty who could babysit the shenanigans of the boys. David Anderson was considered one of the steadiest UEF SCU pilots available, and had been present at Operation Overlord, the surprise assault on the Quantum Arch, so he had been assigned as Hackett's Support Commander to try to calm the wild-child of a man. Unfortunately, boys and their tendency to play with their toys meant that they really needed more females to be assigned, as soon as possible, to Hannah and Seth's retinues. After all, Hannah could only do it part-time as she had her own base to manage, and Ariel keeping the other boys in line while Xav managed the Aeon units on the field (and Hannah slept) was…

…Actually, it was a good thing, because this was the guy who'd created the Restorer AA Gunship after all. It was often bemoaned as overpowered for its price tag (less than the other factions) and abilities, particularly the durability which had most of the UEF and Cybran commanders enraged. You can probably see where this was going in terms of a pissing contest in the form of the Longsword and the… Harpoon Heavy Gunships. The Vulthuum was a matter of necessity for the role, not dissatisfaction with an existing design. Hannah had been the one to suggest that name for the Wailer Mk 2 Prototype after hearing of the Longsword project. Though thoroughly unimpressed, the design team involved in the project had still taken it into account because it was just lame enough to be funny.

Meanwhile the Cybran prodigy's dear husband, renowned for being one of the best-performing Aeon commanders but also one of the most eccentric by far, was also doing something less than smart-looking. In fact, he was almost as eccentric as Dostya had been before she fully finished stabilizing her mind from partial frontal lobe reconstruction. Said long-term project, which hadn't affected Dostya's piloting talents in the least, had been made necessary by the fact that the port on her forehead had originally been drilled there by her owner for survivable skull-fucking of his self-maintaining sex doll… Fran shook his head, dispelling the mental image of his wife being abused in such a fashion before he did something regrettable against the young UEF commanders currently working with them.

"Fran!" He cringed, but kept going, paying careful attention to what he was choreographing despite his wife usually using his last name only when severely annoyed "How the hell did water ballet with Shredders and Shards ever seem like a good idea to you?"

"It's good PR!" He protested while recording his work. Eccentric hobbies were a vital part of an ACU pilot's arsenal to keep them from going completely nuts after anywhere from the tenth megadeath to the first gigadeath on their record. It was too bad the woman who was the reason he kept living didn't understand that, probably too concerned about her title as one of the current century's elite pilots and associated reputation. Then again, she didn't have nearly the amount of blood on her hands that he had.

He thought back to the early days of their relationship, the first time he'd woken up next to a sleeping, naked and vulnerable Cybran, glowing lines tracing over her cheeks, and got the tar beaten out of him for panicking. His mind had registered her being a Cybran before he could quite get over the nightmares that came with the three gigadeaths he'd directly inflicted on the Cybran Nation in his three centuries of service (obscenely low in kills per year for an Aeon pilot of his calibre). The primitive pinned strangulation he tried was thankfully relatively less dangerous, or she'd have (she really should have) probably broken up with him after having her soul re-anchored in a repaired body. Fortunately, thanks to maternal health genetic modifications, modern human females tended to be somewhat larger and heavier than males. Of course, the way he'd been positioned a woman who wasn't too much smaller than the males of the era really should have been able to wrench his hands off her throat even in the pre-Quantum Age. But, given he had used internal Psi boosting… he was very thankful that it hadn't gone too far.

He'd been (given the roiling in his gut, he supposed it was almost literally) scared shitless when he'd finally snapped fully awake and registered who was under him, her eyes rolled up and hands limp. He'd been exceedingly thankful when she sat up and stuck her tongue out at him, instead of what she could have done, namely break his wrists as she wrenched his arms away… or jammed her thumbs into his eyes, or any number of exceedingly painful crippling moves. Come to think of it, she could probably have bucked her hips up and rammed his head into the wall repeatedly… However, it didn't mean she didn't go full-out domestic violence on his very deserving ass after dragging him to the sparring arenas.

She commented that "I shouldn't be too surprised you'd think to defend yourself from a Cybran taking you by surprise given your track record, especially as you'd be thought to be vulnerable given your moral reservations compared to most Aeon pilots… hell, most pilots in general. But I'm surprised you actually attacked, because you've always been very defensive in battle…" just before he stuck his foot in his mouth during breakfast saying they should break up because he was a danger to people around him. Therefore, he had a feeling the domestic violence—AHEM, sparring session—was to educate him on his painfully misplaced concerns. Then he got slapped again the next morning for being a dumbass when she woke up and discovered he'd stayed awake all night out of paranoia.

Still, their relationship proceeded, despite occasional bouts of cultural misunderstanding even beyond PTSD problems, such as when she broke three of his fingers (he used Psionic healing to remedy this) for surprising her by resting his hand on her butt at a party. Cybran women were on average extremely touchy about non-consensual displays of sexual attention of any type, thanks to the large and loud minority of them who were liberated sex slaves.

Despite problems such as Hannah laughing at (and then, after realizing he was serious, lecturing him thoroughly) his claim of her keeping him alive, Fran was very thankful she stuck with him. Otherwise, he would probably have ended his bloodbath of a career by his own hand, in whatever place he could find surrounded by enough Psi Disruptors that his soul would be annihilated beyond all hope of plaguing the universe again, right after the Seraphim War ended. Such was the psychological effect of many gigadeaths on a sociopath who tried too hard to hang onto some modicum of a moral compass. Rhiza, in company with Dostya (who Hannah had been trailing after) had hunted her old friend down as he moped at a bar after reaching his fifteenth gigadeath.

After well over (there was always some uncertainty because scans through evacuation vehicle hulls were less than reliable as the people inside were vaporized) 5 gigadeaths against the UEF and 3 against the Cybrans, Rhiza noticed he'd been cracking. The rather sudden end of the Infinite War had worn him down further in spirit, and the previous mission had been one of the few times he had to put down rogue Aeon elements. He'd topped off his first gigadeath against the people of the Illuminate on the same mission where he finally hit 10 directly inflicted gigadeaths in total. This, and his overall score (including assists calculated as a fraction of a kill) of 23 gigadeaths was very little compared to other pilots with comparably long careers, such as Rhiza, but he'd still buckled under the strain.

AHEM, TO EVADE EMO-NESS, I REALLY SHOULD STOP THINKING ABOUT HOW MUCH SHE MEANS TO ME AND HOW SHE PULLED—read: dragged, one word at a time, complete with Dostya and Rhiza's blessing to improve inter-factional relations. Thank goodness too, because if Rhiza had taken it onto herself to pull my head out of my ass she'd probably do so by pulling my head out through my mouth first to demonstrate why I should never have my head up my ass. Hannah was a lot less painful…—ME OUT OF DEPRESSION… So… where were we…?

Ah well, maybe his new wife wasn't old enough to split off any attention from piloting, eating, spending time with him, and intellectual hobbies (which they overlapped a lot in) like designing things yet. After all, she didn't even have half a direct gigadeath to her name, due to usually being sent on missions that didn't involve encountering many civilians, and the few she did meet often needed to be captured alive. Assists, killed by other pilots while he covered or front-lined for them, counted for anywhere from a quarter to half a kill depending on performance metrics during the operations. Even counting those Hannah fell just short of one gigadeath in score. On the other hand, his official score currently stood at a little over 23 gigadeaths, counting a bit over 11 direct. The precise number was something he didn't want to remember.

His first daughter, back in the day, had schooled him horribly on remembering and almost obsessing over a number that only hurt him… but then that first family of his died during a UEF incursion. His second wife had schooled him in being preoccupied too much with the past in general. Contrary to popular belief among the UEF and Cybrans, ACU pilots were not in fact as well-loved by the Aeon populace as in the other factions. It was disturbing to even speak to people who would kill many millions as easily as breathing, hence why Fran had been astounded when his second wife had made advances toward him. On the other hand it may have been a matter of spending a hundred years focused on his job after his first set of grandchildren died with the rest of his first family, instead of actually looking around and noticing life passing him by. Then there was another UEF incursion, and that was when he began to think that Massani, the same man who exterminated Fran's first attempt to settle down and start a family, was after him specifically.

Fortunately for factional tensions, Zaeed Massani was known to have retired after the Seraphim War ended, howling in laughter at any mention of Fran's third and newest marriage, to a Cybran this time. Of course, Massani's repeatedly and publicly labelling Fran a pedophile thanks to the age difference really was irritating… though admittedly given Fran's lookup (read: asking General Hall) of Massani's personal history he could understand why the man hated him so. Massani had been orphaned and lost three out of five siblings during an Aeon incursion, in a battle where Fran had been the vanguard. Fran had been exploited in that assault by the other Aeon commanders to cover for them (and himself) as he engaged five UEF pilots at the same time. He'd held them all off long enough for the other Aeon pilots to finish massacring the civilians before he withdrew his forces in disgust, as soon as he was permitted by High Command, and merely defended himself and built up, while letting the other three morons on his side fight the UEF for a while. However, neither man had any desire to be arrested for murdering the other on sight, so Fran had noted down in his record that he never wanted to visit the UEF colony where Massani lived with his family.

Actually, Massani might have been laughing himself halfway to death as he retired because when General Hall stepped down and began his campaign for the presidency of the UEF, he'd been the next in line to be appointed to the position. He'd filed his retirement and gotten it approved just barely in time to dodge the electronic and physical avalanche of paperwork involved. That actually was an issue for Fran, because if Rhiza decided to retire as Avatar of War within the next fifty or so years he would more than likely have to deal with an equal avalanche of homework.

A/N: There is much to be said about Fran's typical attitude toward "cleansing" operations given the kill scores. His Cybran wife had only been in wartime service from 3840 to 3848 and had almost one gigadeath score, while he had served actively as an Aeon pilot for a bit over 300 years and only has 23 gigadeaths score. You can do the math here given the Cybrans are the "fight for freedom" faction while the Aeon are "purge the unbelievers"… Can you say "Mr. Nice Guy" (by Aeon ACU pilot standards)? Rhiza's total score (direct plus assist) is over 100 gigadeaths by the way. She and Fran were enlisted for the same amount of time, and she's actually considered reasonably moderate by Aeon pilot standards. The more zealous and aggressive on each faction tend to have shorter careers with much higher kills per day, usually at least five megadeaths or so personally inflicted per day during any of the numerous Incursions.

There was no war crimes prosecution post-Seraphim War, simply because they'd have to get rid of the entire military hierarchy in every human faction if they even thought to try, and none of the human factions would have tolerated that.

Back on topic… For the record, the Shredder was the Shard variant with only surface-to-surface armament. It was not part of the standard baseline Aeon roster, but did have some popularity thanks to Fran's fame and general reputation… and occasional bouts of off-the-wall tomfoolery like this…

Hannah sighed, smiling and shaking her head in amusement as she let her husband be. Maybe it was time to choose a Support Commander from the list that had thus far made themselves available. Hmm, this Sanders girl looked promising… liberated in 3843 from a UEF settlement, joined up during the Black Sun Campaign timeframe… ah, yes, that operation had been one of Hannah's many Liberation-type missions, before the Black Sun fiasco. She was genetically engineered to be a tiny, slender blonde, so there wouldn't be any breast envy hang-ups there between them with their similar size (to scale, of course, as Sanders was a measly 165 centimeters, almost 30 shorter than Hannah's more robust build)… Well, maybe Kahlee Sanders would get a test drive as Hannah's Support Commander. Although… she'd probably be less than friendly toward the UEF males. That might be a problem…

Then again, given even Dostya had managed to work with the UEF more or less—though being friendlier with Avatar of War Rhiza than the not nearly so bloodstained General Hall said something rude—Sanders should be fine. At the very least she should be saner than many of the inhabitants of this planet if what Steven was talking about, about Kakashi's team, was true. "Hey, Steven, when'd you get time to stalk them?"

A/N: Oh hey there Zaeed!

If Dostya had any more reason whatsoever to loathe the UEF I doubt even as a Cybran and therefore mostly rational she would have been able to keep from going on a total rampage despite the fact that the UEF ACU pilots took care of most (the rest were killed by the Order, Seraphim or Cybrans, with General Hall pointedly looking the other way in the latter cases) of their problem citizens personally. I re-evaluated the horror potential of a hole in the head there while writing this chapter.

Who thinks Rhiza and Dostya should pretend (a little too realistically) to hook up just to troll the people going nuts over Fran and Hannah's marriage? The majority of Cybrans are at least mildly bisexual, with Dostya being rather an exception, not due to physiological sexual alignment, but due to psychological bias.

Speaking of non-standard designs, we should be obligated when recording history to describe some of the ones that are still considered useful in year 3849 to you readers. Due to feedback about talking over the tour of the standard roster with Hinata being unpopular, we have chosen to present the units in another format, with one section divider per unit or structure.

…

…

…

…Uh, those plans are cancelled, based on reader feedback. Apparently someone high up in the command hierarchy thinks—AHEM, ORDERS—that we shouldn't "bore" you. Now, where were we?

A/N: Please be advised that not only Japanophile fringe colonies exist in either deep space or clusters untouched by the Infinite War (because they need not be touched) and Seraphim War (they weren't in the way of the Seraphim). So don't be too surprised if Battlestar Galactica shows up eventually within this continuity featuring Greek history fetishists.

Don't be too surprised if the Cybran Nation becomes the litmus test for First Contact scenarios as a pretty good predictor of short to mid-term Coalition relations with the other side. Expect stuff like, once we get to BSG (BEFORE Second Cylon War), human-form Cylons to have the opinion "What the frak do you mean you aren't Cylons like us? You even look less human than we do!" Once the Centurions are switched back from the mass production models to the original sentient types (the originals all downloaded to flesh bodies… and were unwilling to leave for sensory reasons), well, meeting the Geth will be a lot of fun after. And of course if the Cyrannus Colonials ever visit Earth they wouldn't even see the habitations on their sensors due to Coalition stealth systems being standard… and all the non-stealthed cities having been levelled by the Seraphim. The problem then would be how to not have the Colonials stupid themselves to death.

I always put up the pilot chapter for the future Stargate crossover while agonizing over the assorted non-standard-roster units, before finally deciding to put their documentation elsewhere for my own reference.

Maybe the Stargate folks can have their own version of BSG in their universe, with more canonical BSG characters' personalities. The two universes' versions of Helena Cain would likely try to rip each other's faces off, one for continuing to frak a Cylon, and the other for seeing in person the obsessed pirate that a certain ancient TV show told her she could potentially have been born as.

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