"Gentleman, thank you all for coming on such short notice." The words were welcoming, but the atmosphere in the room was thick with tension, and no one seemed to care much for the speaker's polite tone either. The speaker was a gruff looking military man, with the gold of a general on his shoulders. A single red star decorated his black eyepatch, which alongside the grey streaks in his hair gave him a proud military bearing.
Around him was a collection of much younger men, all with hard, drawn faces and scars of their own. The tent was crowded, but outside they all could hear the sounds of heavy vehicles moving, along with work crews desperately setting up barricades. Looking out the window of the tent they could all see the massive weapon emplacements being brought forward alongside rifleman, artillery, and machine gun nests all pointed directly at the front entrance of a large concrete bunker.
The general resumed his briefing. "Thirty one hours ago, as you're all aware, the famous hero Tailpink revealed her true colours for all, and launched an attack on a military base just south of the Capital." From a briefcase in his hands, he took out a large photo and laid it on a table in front of him for them all to see. The image was of the renowned Tailsuit Warrior, Tailpink, but for whatever reason on that day she had opted to wear a cravat that looked like it was made from flower petals. "During this attack she claimed allegiance to aliens from another planet, that she identified as Earth, as well as the South, before our brave forces were able to drive her off. She retreated via some form of as yet unexplained teleportation."
Immediately, a sharp looking young Catian put up his hand.
"Yes?" The general looked to him.
"How were they able to do that?"
"We're still not sure." The General frowned, not liking his own answer. " But it appears the extreme fire power used against her had an effect of some kind, though there was nothing in the footage or on the ground reports to identify just how damaged she was."
The man nodded in understanding, lips pursing with thought.
"This is all known to the public, as was announced on our national broadcasting station just yesterday morning. Yet to be announced is that there was a second attack on one of our outposts on the parallel, this time from a new alien, currently tentatively named 'Tailred'." The general placed another photo on the table, this one of what looked like a young girl in a red leotard with armoured gauntlets, wielding a flaming sword as she rushed at some unseen opponent. "She too retreated after enough firepower was brought to bear against her. This attack took place at zero-twelve."
The assembled men all examined the photo. They were all professionals and military men of the highest calibre so they wouldn't say it out loud, but many of them thought she was rather cute.
"Finally, yesterday at zero-twenty, our glorious leader gave the order send a nuclear device towards the imperialists in the south in retaliation for sponsoring aliens to attack us. A new alien, currently tentatively identified as Tailflat, intercepted our missile mid flight and detonated it."
They had all heard about the explosion from last night, but this was the first time they'd heard the real reason for its existence. The official story was that it was another successful weapon test, although that 'test' had resulted in radiation raining down upon valuable farming land, meaning there would be a hard year to come for many.
"An armoured battalion was near the crash sight of where the alien came down, and was able to recover its body and bring it here for examination." The general added a new photo to the pile, this of a twisted and blackened corpse. "Our experts were about to begin a dissection, when the creature revived and escaped containment procedures."
This drew murmurs and gasps of disbelief from the assembled soldiers. "Where is it now?" The team leader asked.
"Currently, it fully controls the below ground sections of the bunker you see behind me."
"And the personel?"
The general turned to a tv screen just behind him, and turned it on. "I was just getting to that. The first thing Tailflat did was try to escape above ground, but was blocked when we sealed the elevator shaft via explosives, which trapped everyone caught below ground down there with it."
He stepped to the side, revealing what looked like live footage of a pile of people. Many of them were dead or possibly unconscious, with broken limbs and bruised faces, though others were still alive, shivering with pain and fear, praying to the Supreme Leader for deliverance. They were together in the middle of a concrete room, and all the tables had been pushed against one wall to make room for them.
"Is that from the base?" One soldier asked.
"Yes. It's the only camera from below ground that's still broadcasting." The general explained. "She's found and destroyed every other one. We believe Tailflat is using them as hostages."
"Has she made any demands?"
"As of right now, no, but when she does, no doubt freedom will be first on her list of priorities." The general turned to face the soldiers. "This is where you come in gentleman. There is a hidden set of stairs that can take you to the bottom of the facility, which is currently sealed at its entrance by a row of lockers. Your mission is to enter the facility, subdue the alien, and get our people back."
"Why us?" One of them asked. "We were stationed on the Southern Border before this."
"Because you're the best of the best, soldier." The general informed him. "All of you represent the greatest our country has to offer with a unique specialisation." He indicated each of them one by one. "Assault, demolitions, close combat, tactical leadership, and marksmanship. You may not play by the book, but I'll be damned if you don't get the job done."
The last man to be pointed to raised his hand up.
"What is it?"
"A sniper isn't going to be very useful down there." He very reasonably pointed out. "Maybe I should just sit this one out?"
"...No." The general groused. "Anyway, even in the face of this alien menace, I have no doubt that you will triumph."
The briefing went for a little longer than that, with a careful plan of entry established, and special state of the art equipment delivered to each soldiers along with blueprints of the base. Showcasing their status as one elite unit, they entered the building together, covering each other's blindspots in sinuous movements, moving in sync down the stairs towards the basement.
"We're at the blast door." The sergeant announced over the radio. "Opening it now."
The operations centre watched the video feed with bated breath as the men moved steadily down the dozens of flights of stairs, before coming to its secret exit on the bottom floor. With barely a creak, the metal cabinet that concealed the door was rolled aside, and the five men entered the lair of the beast.
Five minutes later, the general watched on the camera feed as the door to the hostage room was opened once again, and all five of the People's Republic of North Nekorea greatest soldiers were unceremoniously tossed onto the pile, sans their equipment and weapons. The close combat specialist in particular seemed to have had all four limbs broken.
"Uh, oh." The General winced at the sight.
Tailflat, no longer nude, but now wearing an oversized shirt and lab coat that were too large for her, stepped into the frame and began rifling through the pockets of the men. Her bare legs were visible, her modesty only protected by the way the hem fell nearly to her knees.
"Oh, nooooo." The General gasped in horror, as the alien withdrew from one of their pockets a blueprint of the facility. "Noooooo…" He covered his mouth and groaned into both hands. The alien soon walked off screen, slamming the door shut behind her. Standing up, he ran out the tent towards the base as fast as his aged legs would carry him. "Close the blast door! Close the blast door!"
The man sitting just inside the entrance was a radio operator, who just happened to have a large pair of headphones covering over his ears. He didn't hear the general yelling until he was within ten metres. "Hm?" He pulled off the pair of headphones, to see the wheezing commander standing next to him.
"The blast doors! The general gasped. "Close them now!"
"Right away, sir!" The man put his headphones back on and relayed the orders.
A hundred metres away, and down a flight of stairs another soldier heard the command and gave a hand signal to another standing by a panel on the wall. That soldier reached across and immediately flipped a switch. Behind him two, ten metre tall, armour plated doors began to close as a red light flashed repeatedly. The massive slabs of reinforced metal slowly rumbled closer to each other, their interlocking metal teeth waiting to come together and snap shut, like the jaws of a hungry beast. The doors were only a few centimetres apart, when a hand slipped between them and halted their progress.
The watching soldiers gaped as what looked like a teenage girl wedged herself between the closing doors, brought her leg up to press against the doors. With a grunt of exertion she pushed them apart, before stepping out from between them. They were so stunned by the sight that it took them a few seconds to remember they had guns and they should use them. By then it was far too late.
It had been a few hours since the lights on the lower floors were shut down, forcing Aika to scrounge up a flashlight in order to navigate the darkness. She didn't know where she was, she didn't speak the language of her captors and the translator on her tailsuit bracer seemed to be broken too, so there was no choice for her but to subdue all the soldiers she came across. There hadn't even been a pair of pants down their that fit her, all of them falling off her slim hips without a belt to secure them. Eventually she'd stumbled across a more heavily armed team of soldiers in the darkness, who just happened to be carrying a map she could use to find a way out of here.
The jerks had almost shut the door on her by the time she rushed up all those flights of stairs, and it had been a heavy door too. She'd had to put almost her entire body weight into forcing it open, and on the other side of it were more soldiers who tried to shoot her!
"Seriously, what is even going on?" Aika grumbled to herself as she searched through their pockets. There was more useless guns and ammunition, and a large radio that she couldn't use if no one on the other end could speak her language. Aside from those, all she found were pictures of women and children, which she could only assume were the soldier's family. Feeling a little guilty, she left those there. The only things she recovered that she could imagine any kind of use for was a pair of grenades that she stuffed into the front pockets of her coat.
At the end of the tunnel she could just make out sunlight, which forced her to squint her eyes against the harsh brightness as she approached. After hours spent underground, she finally emerged into the sunshine and smiled at the feeling of its warmth on her skin. A smile that stayed in place, though quite brittle, as her eyes adapted and she found of hundreds of soldiers arrayed in front of her, all aiming rifles in her direction. She could also see a number of what looked like humvees with much larger machine guns aimed at her too. There was even an attack helicopter and a tank!
"Okay, this is just getting silly." She growled, before reaching for her grenades.
Immediately, they all opened fire. The ground around her was torn and shredded by thousands of bullets and rockets. Great clouds of dust were thrown into the air, fully obscuring their targets for long seconds, until they cleared away to reveal a shriveled and blackened corpse, wearing fragments of armour.
A blue light washed over that body, transforming it back into Aika Tsube, who immediately pitched a grenade at the helicopter with such force that it shattered the windscreen and embedded itself in the cockpit wall. The soldiers could only hurry to reload, as the teenager charged forward and leapt to land on the roof of one of the humvees. The man operating its turret only had time to scream before he was lifted bodily out of the turret port and thrown away over Aika's shoulder. She dropped another grenade into the hole, before leaping again to land on top of the tank just as the helicopter above exploded and went spinning to the earth in a rain of fire and fragments.
There was the sound of rending metal and Aika's strained grunting as she ripped up the hatch, before hopping inside to shelter from the hail of bullets that followed. Inside, the three man crew screamed and went for their service pistols, but were no match for Aika in such close confines. She forcibly ejected them all from the top of the vehicle, before climbing out after them and selecting the next vehicle as her target. She proceeded like that, targeting the enemies heavy weapons and destroying them all by hand, or climbing inside to take care of the crew.
With the last Humvee dealt with, she looked down to find only soldiers remained, though there were hundreds of them. Sighing to herself, she climbed down from the wreckage of the last vehicle and got to work there as well. Whenever she found herself surrounded and without protection, she would transform back to the ruined form of Tailblue to wait out the bullets, before transforming back into herself and rushing back into the midst of the soldiers to slowly deal with them one by one.
By the time all the soldiers were dealt with and thrown into a groaning pile, Aika was only breathing a little harder. She wiped an arm over her damp forehead before stretching out her back. "Not a bad workout." She murmured to herself, before finally taking the time to examine the device on her wrist in the light of day. Compared to her other form, it looked relatively intact. It still had its coating of blue paint, and there wasn't any visible evidence of damage, but when she pushed the button or tried to contact any of the others nothing happened.
Oh well, she'd just have to figure this out for herself. All the soldiers she fought were Catians, which meant she was still on Catyu, and if the red stars on their uniforms were anything to go by, that meant she was still in North Nekorea. Damn it, that meant it would take forever to walk and swim back to Nyapon, and she had no idea how to drive a car, let alone a boat or a plane. Maybe she could find a phone and call Isabella? Although, Aika wasn't sure she remembered her number...
Looking around, the only place that seemed a little bit promising was a large nearby tent. She flipped open the canvas door, and found a group of Catian men and women inside. They were all wearing officer's uniforms, though they were all only armed with pistols on their hips. One of them pulled his gun with a shaking hand, and tried to point it at Aika, only for her to immediately cross the distance between them and break his arm in three places. He fell to the ground screaming, and another woman went for her gun, only to freeze in terror as Aika put her hand over the woman's and firmly shook her head.
"Don't try it." She growled, looking at the others in the room and pointed a finger at the ground. "Put them down."
They all looked at each other nervously, before complying and undoing their holsters.
After collecting their weapons, Aika threw them away out the front door of the tent, before turning back to her new hostages. "Phone?" She asked them, miming the motion with a thumb and forefinger.
None of them seemed to understand her, only growing more terrified and confused.
"Great." She grumbled, before stepping past them and into a sectioned off part of the tent. Inside she found a much older Catian with an eyepatch, wearing a uniform with numerous red stars pinned to each shoulder. He was seated and pointing a gun at her in his shaking hand.
"Oh, enough already." Aika slapped it away from him before surveying the rest of the room. There was a desk, and documents in a language she couldn't read, as well as a mobile phone on the desk. It was password protected, so she handed it to the general. "Open it."
He stared at her for a long moment, before he defiantly smashed it on the corner of the desk.
She stared at the ruined device, gritting her teeth, and thought of all the ways she could punish him, before deciding against it given his obvious frailty. "Whatever." She ground out, before stalking back into the other room. "Phones! Give me your phones!"
After hours of searching again and again for the Blue Suit's unique Elemera and not finding it, Twoearle had all but given up. There was only so many times she could see the words 'zero results' appear on screen, before she couldn't handle it anymore and took a break. With nothing better to do, and no courage to return to Earth, she'd dragged herself into the kitchen and actually got around to cleaning the dishes. After that she hadn't quite felt like going back to the console again, so she went ahead and broke out a cloth to clean the stovetop, and that turned into a desire to clean up the kitchen more generally. By the time she was done, the whole kitchen sparkled, and she wanted the rest of the ship to match.
Four hours later, the floors had been cleaned and waxed, the walls were sparkling, and all her laundry was done, too. The ship looked and smelled a lot better if she said so herself. It was as fine a job as any Aika had ever done. The only room Twoearle hadn't touched was the training room, because she couldn't step foot in their without collapsing from the high gravity.
Despite all that she'd accomplished, Twoearle knew she still couldn't face Souji. Aika was still dead because of her. And she'd still led her entire homeworld face first down the path to destruction. That second thought came unbidden, and she hurriedly suppressed it.
It's never going to end. The unwanted thought echoed through her head. How many more people would suffer from her failure? Sometimes her mistakes even followed her around, and hurt more people. Like Aisana…
Nope, now was not the time to think of that. Twoearle had important things to do like clean the training room! But first she had to turn down the gravity.
Hurrying out to the bridge, she went to minimise the search function on the console, before hesitating. "Just check." She told herself, and hit the enter key.
Searching…
One result found.
"See?" She told herself. "It was worth just searching, even if nothing-" She blinked and stared at the screen. "Oh! Oh, yes!" Pulse raising, she quickly sat up in her chair, and brought up the result. She'd found the blue suit and Aika's signature! They were deep in the north of the Nekorean peninsula. "Yes! Oh, my god, she's alive!" Without hesitating, she swapped over to the ship's controls and hurried directly to the location.
It was only as she was coming in to land that she noticed something was wrong. Columns of smoke rose into the air, and her atmospheric sensors picked up massive amounts of recent gunfire in the form of cordite lingering in the air. As she crested a hill, Twoearle found the strange sight of a large pile of groaning, twitching people piled on top of eachother, a ruined helicopter, several flipped over vehicles, and even a tank that looked like it had seen better days.
"What the hell?" Twoearle brought her ship down to land, just as Aika walked out of a large tent and waved at her happily. Twoearle hit the button for the loading ramp, and the teenager disappeared from sight, running around to enter the ship from the rear. It didn't take her long to piece together what happened, going by the broken limbs and blackened eyes of many in the pile. She winced in memory of a similar pain. "A monster. I've made a monster…"