This Chapter will be kind of like filler, but it does have an important role in showing the reactions of Halkeginia to the more civilized parts of Earth societies. However I made a few changes to the story, one that better reflects a normal interaction between to vastly different societies and make the characters less anime like. For example, Saito and Louise get together early on, no back and forth cock tease crap. Siesta, although still Saito's personal Maid, does have a crush on him but keeps it hidden. After all, if this was real than even attempting to out stage Louise like she does in the show can get her arrested or executed (Although Saito would stop that she still lives with the fear). Basically I'm making it less Anime like, getting rid of the fan service, the harem aspect, the out of place character traits etc. As I said before, Siesta is going to be how she was in Season 1. Kind but would never back talk a Noble. Even Saito is of Noble status and she would always show him respect as a "Superior" in social status.
Chapter 26: The Lighter Side of Society
Saito began visiting on a daily basis, just kind of talking with me. I can understand why, I'm one of the few people who he could really talk to since I understand a lot of the jokes and references that he makes. Louise was always with him, apparently they finally confessed their love and got together. Saito even said they were planning a wedding in the near future but couldn't find the time with so many problems to deal with right now.
Siesta, the shy little black haired girl was now Saito's and Louise's personal servant and Maid. Saito assured me that even though she was assigned the position by the queen herself Saito always gave her the choice and treated her more as an employee than a slave.
Currently the 4 of us were walking to the NATO embassy or more specifically the Military barracks that is right next to it. Even though we were given special treatment much of the MP and high ranking Albion officers used this in conjunction with NATO officers to stay. Right now we were heading there in order to relax and take the day off from politics and other such troubles. I even sent one of the servants to invite Henrietta. Tristian citizens and figures however are only allowed in certain areas such as the mess hall and main lobby. Other areas are off limits.
What I was planning was letting Saito get a little taste of home by playing the XBOX that we always bring with us on deployment. Well, by we I mean the guys that set up the embassies and stuff. It has a good selection of games and very fun to play, although I personally prefer Playstation. Saito also prefers Playstation seeing as how it's bigger in Japan but he's not complaining at all. It would also be interesting to see the Nobles and Halkeginian folks react to modern entertainment from Earth.
"Ready to play?" I asked Saito.
"Yea, so what do you guys have?" He asked as he inspected the game library. There were about 20 games, mostly sports and FPS games.
"How about some Call of Duty?" I asked, picking out the latest COD game.
"Wait... You guys actually play that?" He asked.
"Why not?" I said. "Just because we do that for a living doesn't mean we can't enjoy a good game." Well, good being relative. Call of Duty is just an average game to me, nothing new or innovative but still fun to call in airstrikes on your friends. Just then someone else entered the mess hall.
"Good to see you buddy." Rob said as he entered the mess hall. between training the troops and speaking with Albion and Tristian Officers he likes to come up here and just rest.
"Got bored with the new guys?" I asked. Every now and again I would go down there and see how the Scouts had been improving. Nothing really amazing but it's new in this world.
"It was a nightmare at first but they're getting better." He said. "That the new COD game?" He asked.
"Yea, apparently. What do you say to a little split screen action." I asked the 2 Earthlings. From what Saito told me, he was an avid gamer back home. He had a very expensive gaming laptop for PC and a Playstation system. Rob was an XBOX fanboy and didn't like either Playstation or PC. He hated PC because he broke his PC trying to install a new graphics card and swore never to try it again. Me though, I never cared much. I played casually, only when new games came out that I liked or a few multiplayer matches. Without any more delay I turned on the TV and game system.
"Oh My!" After that yell from Louise the TV blew up from a spell of some kind. Soot covered the area around where the TV was but somehow the XBOX was far enough away to not have been damaged aside from a few scorch marks on the body. The 3 of us just stood dumbfounded and Siesta just coward away from the frightened Louise.
"What the..." I started to say, now finally being able to process what just happened. The 3 of us glared at Louise who looked at us innocently.
"What?" She asked, not knowing why we were like that.
"You blew up the TV." Rob said casually, his anger held back only by his confusion.
"The what?" She asked. "I thought that was some kind of spirit or spell that was going to attack." She said. "It glowed and things don't normally do that without magic."
"Darn it Louise!" Saito yelled. "After all this time I was finally going to play a game again but you ruined it!" Louise looked down at the ground in shame.
"But I thought it was dangerous." She tried to defend.
"It's alright, we have a spare." I said as I opened the supply closet and got a new one.
"Why do you have a spare?" Saito asked.
"Ever seen a platoon of drunk Marines?" I asked and all non-Military members shook their heads.
"Damn Jar heads." Rob said, since he's from the Army he has a very big rivalry with anyone from the Marines. In the thick of it we're all brothers and would die for one another but we all have our rivalries between branches. Kind of a tradition really.
"Nothing tends to stay working when you put a bunch of Marines in one spot." I said and hooked up the knew TV as well as replacing the wires for the XBOX that was melted in the explosion.
Before starting it up though we all wrestled Louise's wand out of her hand and Saito put it in his pocket. He kept smiling nervously every time he looked at Louise who gave him a death glare the promised nothing but pain and death but his desire to play games overruled his desire of self preservation. We picked split screen and Saito smiled triumphantly at getting the bottom screen, which was the biggest.
We all started arguing at the map and rules in the settings menu. Saito wanted everyone to have high health while Rob wanted it low. Louise and Siesta just looked at us like we were a bunch of kids, arguing about who would be the leader. Finally we found out what we wanted and pushed start, anxiously waiting for the load screen to finish.
"Alright!" Saito said with confidence. "Time to put you Americans in your place!"
"Banzai." I mocked in a bored tone.
"Racist!" Saito yelled. As soon as we picked our load-outs Saito threw a grenade right when it started, which bounced off of a car and rolled at his feet. Seconds later he blew up and it read on all our screens that "Guest" committed suicide.
"Hehehe... Hahahahahahaha!" I laughed and fell back, laying on my back and struggling to breathe in fits of laughter. Rob rolled forward, putting his forehead on the floor, laughing almost as hard as I was. Saito just sat there in horror and embarrassment.
"What!" He exclaimed. "I pushed the shoot button!" He yelled.
"You idiot!" I finally said through the laughing. "The XBOX controller is reversed, R2 is shoot and R1 is throw grenade." I said, intentionally calling the Right Bumper and Right Trigger their Playstation counterpart names to not confuse Saito. It's said the best kind of humor is when someone with so much confidence and power is knocked down a few pegs. Whoever said that was a comedic genius.
"Ready for round 2?" Rob asked Saito, even though we didn't die yet.
"Bastards!" He reloaded his character and started sprinting through the map. Siesta and Louise just looked at each other, unsure of how to react. The didn't know what had happened but they're guessing that Saito probably lost.
"Suicide Bomber!" Rob yelled, pulling a grenade and cooking it in his hand while running at me. When he reached me we both blew up.
"Racist Asshole!" I yelled at him. "Only I can do that!" Saito shot me from across the map with a sniper rifle.
"You know, even though you're a Sniper in real life you just got pwned by a little Japanese nerd." If Saito looked at me he would have seen me flipping him off.
Louise and Siesta kept commenting on a lot of things, like how barbaric it was to force people to fight to the death like this (Apparently to them the "Realistic" COD graphics looked real enough to fool them) and how disgusting it was that we found this kind of sport enjoyable. None of us really payed attention though, we all had to out do the others.
"Sir Riptide." Had I not been so focused I would have recognized that voice to belong to the young Queen. Said Queen ruined my kill streak.
"No! Henrietta!" I yelled half jokingly and half serious. "1 more kill and I would have had an AC130." I said in a depressed tone, too destrought to reply to the smart ass remarks from Saito and Rob.
"My apologies." She recoiled in fear, only picking up the seriousness in my tone and stepped back, afraid that she may have insulted me. Had I not been so absorbed by the game I would have noticed that her fear didn't come from a possible diplomatic incident (Though is possible if me or anyone from NATO were actually offended, not that I would make a big deal of) but more from legitimately caring about my opinion of her. The young Queen quickly got over the shock of my yell and was amazed at what we were doing. "What are they doing?" She looked over to Siesta and Louise.
"Some kind of slavery gladiator thing." Louise said in disgust.
"It's a game." I said, barely paying attention to their conversation. "It uses a combination of computer and mathematical coding and communications with electrical signals to the TV to make a constantly changing image that looks very realistic and is interactive. In other words a video game." I explained. Ok, I have very little understanding of how games work but that's the best way I could sum it up.
"Think of it like an illusion." Rob joined in.
"So that's not real?" Louise asked in amazement.
"Nope, all fake. No one is actually dying. They're kind of like scientific Golems." That made some sense to them.
"Can they come out of the screen?" Henrietta asked.
"Nope." I said. "They're about as dangerous as a photo." Rob said.
"A what?" Siesta wondered.
"Painting, he meant painting." I clarified then turned to Rob. "They don't have cameras yet."
"Got ya." He said, a bit distracted because of the game.
Finally, when the score limit was reached it was Saito the winner, Rob in second and me in last.
"Yea, you guys may be soldiers but you're no match for me in this." He exclaimed victoriously.
"Great job, now try and make some money doing that." I mocked.
"I did." Saito said. "2 years ago I won 1,000 dollars from a gaming competition, over 50 contestants and I beat them all." I just flipped him off.
"This is very interesting." Henrietta said while inspecting the controller. "You can control a Golem with this?" She pointed to the controller.
"Sort of." I said. "It's complicated by basically... yea I can control it."
"Can anyone do it?" Henrietta asked.
"Want to give it a try?" I asked with a smirk at the possibilities of watching all 3 girls play the game. "How about you all play." I said to Louise and Siesta. They eagerly took a controller and we began teaching them the basics.
After 5 minutes of teaching them how to play we started up a little game for them. This was going to be interesting.
I focused on Henrietta's screen and she instantly started running down a path in one of the snowy maps. She had an LMG and tried to keep the crosshairs level. Siesta picked a shotgun and Louise an SMG. For a while they just slowly moved around the map, admittedly playing more like actual soldiers with their slow pace than the fast sprinting of avid gamers. Ironic, isn't it.
"Got you!" Louise screamed and pushed the right trigger, holding it down until she had to reload.
"Great job, you got a shadow." Saito laughed because Louise wasted all that ammo on nothing.
"Shut up." She bit her lip in embarrassment. "What's this?" She asked as a countdown appeared on her screen.
"You're leaving the map, get back into bounds." I said. "Look at the mini-map."
"What's a mini-map?" Louise asked.
"That thing on the bottom of the screen." I pointed but it was too late. She was the first to die because she left the battle. She glared at Saito who was laughing.
"AHHH!" Henrietta screamed as he character got shot by Siesta. Siesta just got 1 lucky shot in at close range and killed the princess.
"Looks like Siesta... Maid the first kill." Rob nudged me with his elbow. "Get it?" He laughed at his own horrible joke.
"God damn it." I muttered at how horrible it was.
"I don't get it." Siesta said.
"He said "Maid"." I pointed out. "You "Made" a kill, because you're a "Maid"." She nodded her head in understanding.
"How is that funny?" She asked.
"It's not." I said.
"Screw all you guys, I'm a comedic genius." He said proudly.
"I see you Siesta." Henrietta said happily, aiming (From the hip BTW) at Siesta from a pretty far distance.
"Well don't tell her." Saito told the Queen.
The speakers began sending out the sounds of an LMG from the game as Henrietta began firing at Siesta, not bothering to look down the sights or pause the fire. The recoil, though very minimal in the game, pushed her crosshairs way above Siesta, who by then ran away. Once Henrietta unloaded all her bullets the reload animation started.
"You missed every shot." I said in amazement. "Not even 1 hit." Even the worst player on Earth could have gotten at least 1 hit on a still target with a 200 round belt. Then again she's not from Earth.
"Did I get her?" She asked.
"I think I'm ok." Siesta commented.
For the next few hours we all just took turns playing. The girls were still completely horrible at it but they had a lot of fun. We even had team battles, 2 vs 2 with 1 of the inexperienced girls with one of the guys. Basically whoever was paired up with Saito won.
After we got tired of the games we decided to head back. Saito, Louise and Siesta had to go back to the academy and Henrietta had work to do. Rob had to finish up preparations for the simulated mission for the Scouts and I had to get my daily workout. As we all started to leave Henrietta just remembered something.
"Sir Riptide, I almost forgot the reason I came here to begin with." She said.
"What's up?" I asked. Suddenly I rephrased that knowing she would think the question was literal. "I mean... What's the issue?" She understood that clearly.
"My generals are holding a war meeting soon and being the highest Ranking NATO officer here I was hoping that you would consider acting as a consultant or give us some tips to better defend ourselves." She said.
"Actually, I'm a Captain. You could talk to Army Colonel Few, he's more experienced with large battalion movements, I'm just a scout." I said, continuing the Scout lie that we've been telling the Halkeginians about our activities.
"NATO and Albion have been a great help to us, but my generals are getting restless with the Commoners ordering them around and personally I don't really trust them very much. You are really the only person from Earth, besides Saito, who I trust." She pleaded.
"I'll have to speak with my embassy, I'm not sure I can garentee it but I will give you my answer at the meeting." She nodded and walked off. I turned around and headed up to the highest ranking officers to discuss this next move.
The next day I headed up to the war room to prepare for the political argument I knew was going to happen. Because of Racial Bigotry and distrust, Tristain Generals have refused any NATO officer to come in for the past few meetings. Henrietta has been trying to over rule them but the majority has been speaking out. Even though she is queen there are laws that state when all generals are in agreement they can over rule the Queen in certain topics. I am only allowed because of my history with Tristain and also saving the, then, Princess. There are also laws of honor that say that I must be treated with respect for my services. Of course there is also a lot of technicalities to those laws such as my Commoner status but it's kept the debates going long enough to allow me to keep those privileges. Like I said, politics is all about technicalities.
I managed to get permission to attend the war meeting and divulge certain things since I was the only one capable of entering. I would have to go behind Henrietta's back though and write a full report on what happens today. I felt very bad about it but I couldn't let my feelings get in the way of my duty. I'm a soldier, and it's my job to follow orders. Seeing as how the secrets the Tristain Generals are keeping can get our men killed because of lack of information, I did see how necessary it was. Secrets get men on the battlefield killed, I don't like the cold shoulder they've been giving us lately. Most didn't want us here to begin with, they felt that honorable defeat was better than dishonorable victory. Only the Queen actively supported a friendship, and other politicians and Generals supported her choice, cancelling out the unanimous over-rule laws.
Taking my seat next to the table with a large map of the Gallia and Tristain border we began. The border was separated by large mountains, which provided excellent protection from invasion for both sides. The defending side would always have the advantage. There was only 1 large path through the mountains that an advancing army could move through easily. As long as you keep that position wedged than there is almost no way to win. However Tristain is vulnerable to a flanking move if Gallia could go through Germania's lands.
"We have reliable information from our scouts that Gallia is moving a force of 100 thousand through the southern pass. We are currently moving 1/4th of our forces to meet them and block the advancements at the pass. We will drive out this force and prepare for another attack." General Gramond said.
"How do we know this isn't a baiting tactic? They could be using that as bait to divide our forces and flank through Gallia." Karin, Louise's mother and a high ranking Military official asked the older blonde haired General.
"Germania has given us their word that they would take no side in this war and as such not allow Gallia to pass through their lands." He retorted.
"Germania has never been known to be very trustworthy." Karin countered.
"If I may general." I stepped in politely. "1/4th of your Army is a bit much don't you think? You have the aid of the Albion soldiers who specialize in long distance engagements." The General raised his brow.
"What do you propose?" He asked.
"I agree with Karin, the odds of Germania breaking it's promise is too great. If Gallia flanks you then you'll want a powerful and fast response to counter them. Set up a majority of your troops to cover the border of Germania to prevent a flanking move. Only use 1/10th of your forces to block the entrance and have Albion marksman in the high ground of the path to rain down lead. Have cannon and artillery fire behind the front lines, sending a high volume of fire down range. Have your musket men form up the front lines in volley fire with melee troops right behind in case the enemy gets close. They will not be to advance with such a small Army and it no doubt is just a decoy." I reasoned. "Not to mention since they are the advancing Army they will not be able to use their heavier cannons and artillery against you."
"Is it not dangerous to trust a Commoner?" Asked one of the generals to Henrietta.
"Captain Riptide has shown to be a valuable ally to Tristain and I would trust his judgment with my life." She said with conviction and flashed me a small smile.
"At the same time have a force of 50,000 troops in reserved 10 miles from the pass in case you need an extra amount of troops. As long as we don't over extend our men and don't concentrate too much resources in 1 place we should be able to repel just about any invasion. We should also send the newly formed Albion Scouts to investigate the Germania and Gallia border to ensure they aren't attempting a flanking move." Karin voiced her agreement.
"Normally I would not trust a Commoner but in light of the power and efficiency of the NATO forces and the Queens trust in him I say we follow with the plan."
"I agree." A familiar voice said to my right. I saw the Griffin Captain, Napoleon who voiced his opinion. "Had it not been for this man then we may have been overwhelmed by Albion in the invasion a year ago. Thanks to his genius we were able to hold back the invasion and defeat the traitor Wardes." He praised.
"It's official then." Henrietta said. "We will follow the Captains plan, General Gramont you will be in charge of the force at the Southern pass. Karin, you will oversee the Eastern forts along the border as a Military adviser, no doubt your experience from the previous war will be of excellent help. Captain Napoleon, you will be in charge of the Griffin squad at the pass in order to give information of enemy movements. Finally we will speak with Albion about putting their marksman on the ridge over looking the pass." Though some Nobles disagreed they were over ruled by the Queens will. "Captain Riptide, I would be honored if you act as an Adviser for the Army at the southern pass." She turned to me.
"I'm honored, truly I am but I have a job of my own to do." I said respectfully.
"I understand." She said with a sad expression. She immediately got her best general face and stood up with her head held high. "We have a duty to our Honor as Nobles to defend this country with all of our might. We will not falter or fail. We are bound by sacred law as the protectors and leaders to defend the sanctity of Tristain." Nice speech, it raised everyone's moral, though I doubt they would ever step foot on the battlefield.
After the meeting I prepared for the worst part of any Military job... paperwork. I had to right up a full report on what just transpired here, against Henrietta's trust but I reasoned with myself that secrets get people killed. As much as I respect and care for her, lives are more important than the trust of a good friend.
End Chapter: 26