Chapter 20: Rivalries
The next morning...
"Damn my head!" said Nana as she woke up yawning with the sunshine landing on her face, the gentle breeze blowing through the open sliding windows made the curtains dance.
"That is what happens when you take such a huge amount of alcohol at once." Said Hachi as he brought a glass of orange juice with a plate of scrambled eggs and bacon.
"Yeah, I shouldn't ha-" she said as she soon realized that she wasn't in the clothes she wore last night, "W-What happened to my clothes?!" she said as she crawled a bit away from Hachi.
"Don't you remember?" asked Hachi.
"W-What?" asked Nana shocked and embarrassed at the same time, "D-did we do something?"
"We?" asked Hachi confused, "No, it was 'you' who did it. You puked all over the floor! Even the housekeeping staff was complaining to me! They had to wear gloves and masks just to change your clothing!"
"Ah, sorry!" she said with a sweat-drop smile, "I'll be careful next time…"
"Anyways," said Hachi with a sigh as he passed her the breakfast, "have these and get some sleep."
"Sure!" replied Nana happy from the pampering, Hachi was on the door and was about to open it when he remembered something.
"Oi, Nana…" he said with a deep breath, "What do you think about our m-" he said as the intercom turned on.
"This is a special announcement for all squadrons, please assemble at the conference room in 1 hour." It spoke.
"Well, looks like you won't get any rest," said Hachi after listening to the announcement, "Get into your uniform. We will need to go."
"Yeah," said Nana with a sigh, "I'm on it…" Hachi soon left with a nod.
"I wonder what he was about to ask me though…" she thought cluelessly as she had her breakfast and got out of bed still massaging her head and got into her new uniform, the uniform could be considered a futuristic version of the uniform worn by sailors with red and blue diagonal stripes strips running across the front, "Holidays are over…" she said with a sigh looking at herself in the mirror, "But again, I get to be with him all the time." She said as that sad face soon turned into a smile.
"Nana!" shouted Hachi from the hall, "You done yet? We are all waiting for you!"
"Y-Yeah I'll be right there!" she replied. Soon enough, everyone got into a transport ship and reached the federation conference hall. It was a huge gathering, every important commander, squad leader, and district administrator was present there.
"Will our next mission be this huge?" asked Hiro shocked at the gathering.
"It is a pretty big one," said Hatake, "even I had to consider the plan twice before approving it."
"Looks like we got trouble ahead then." Said Ichigo.
"Well, well," said Miranda from behind, "if it isn't squad thirte- sorry I mean the reckless squad."
"It really isn't necessary to correct our squad's actual name with a mistake." Said Goro.
"Heh," said Ichigo with smirk, "its fine, that's what you expect from the showoffs."
"Says the one who danced like a chicken at the bar!" said Miranda with a laugh.
"I-I know how to dance at least!" said Ichigo hesitating: "It's just that we didn't knew much about that one!"
"I really have a doubt though." Said Miranda with a notorious smirk, "Only if you'd show this enthusiasm in other places, you may become someone funnier too!"
"Why you little-" said Ichigo as the lights turned off and the screens turned on.
"The conference shall now begin; everyone is requested to please take their seats." Said the mic.
Everyone did so and soon enough, Orion appeared in the central stage and said: "Morning everyone. I hope that the 101st Expeditionary Force has enjoyed their well-deserved break after giving us a tactical victory after the Battle of Milstinteinn, because now they will do their role again as a vanguard for an assault, these time in a more ambitious plan that not only will cripple more our enemies but will also put them under constant surveillance at all times."
He then activated the hologram projector, this time showing a satellite view of the Federation territory and continued: "Ever since their defeat in the last battle, the OASIS checkpoints at the West had reported numerous VIRM activities in the borders of the Western Wasteland. Such activities indicate that they're regrouping their forces to form a new assault force for the third time. Even though the OASIS forces had since then performed continuous skirmishes against them to delay and intercept their forces, the enemy is still pulling units out of nowhere into the desert. As such, we need, let's say, a more "global" view to find their origins..."
He then clicked into the hologram which them zoomed in into a structure that had a similar look to that one of the Space Elevator IF it was constructed from space. He then said, "This is APE's old abandoned headquarters, the space station Cosmos. In his rush to abandon the Earth, Papa made the mistake of just locking down the facility rather than destroy it. Not only does this place has unparalleled amounts of valuable intel that we can use, but it also has a great position to be used as an Early Warning system and spotting outpost. Unfortunately, VIRM has also realized about the strategical advantage this station has and is sending a force to reclaim. As such, operation "Sky Eye" has been created for this reason. In this operation, there will be three main forces. One will be the vanguard force, formed by the 101st Expeditionary Force and their mission will be to open a path through the station's defenses that consists mainly of defensive turrets and drones and keep it safe for the second force which be composed by the 5th Engineer Regiment and the 3rd Assault Company. Their job will consist on entering the station, disable all of the stations defensive systems so they can reset them with the Federation configurations and link them with our satellite network. The third's force will be compromised of the 1st, 4th and 7th Cruiser Fleet and their job will be to hold the enemy force as long as they can. Now listen here, the complicated part of the operation will be once the station's defenses are deactivated. The enemy for sure will detect the change and kamikaze themselves into the structure in an effort to destroy it. As such, the vanguard and the blockaders will proceed to protect the station until it manages to reactivate the defenses and sets a link with the Defense Network. If we manage to pull this off, it will enhance the capabilities of our radars and detectors to spot the enemy and also allow the use of IB's (Interception Ballistics) outside Federation grounds meaning we will be able to hit our enemies without the need of sending units for skirmishes.
Now, in case that the pressure becomes too much to handle, orders are to destroy the station after extracting as much Intel as possible and evacuating all of the second force. The main objective is to negate the use of the station to the enemy either one way or the other. Now, because the operation will be taking place outside of the atmosphere, the forces will be sent towards Cape Canaveral for retrofitting for space combat. Good luck and god speed people! Dismissed!"
After that, the hologram shut off and the lights went on again. Orion was about to leave the stage and everyone was about to go back into their own chatter but he then turned back towards the crowd and grabbed the mic again, "I'm going to be honest with you…" he said wait serious face, "this mission is in no ways going to be easy at all. I know that you all might be cursing me in your own minds. 'Why do we have to fight?', 'Why is this person always sending us to fight?' Let me clear this out to you, you all aren't fighting for me, you all are fighting for yourselves, for your family, for your friends and of course for the ones who died serving… Therefore, I ask you: can we do this not out of obligation but out of our passion? For the people, for our children, for our very own existence?! Can we?!" he asked with a scream.
"YES SIR!" shouted the everyone gathered there all together with a salute.
"Good, let's show them then. Dismissed!" he said as he walked away.
"Nice patriotism!" said Hatake standing on a balcony where Orion had just entered.
"They are scared, I can tell." He said as Hatake passed him a cigarette.
"Is it wrong to be scared though?" asked Hatake.
"It isn't," replied Orion as both of them blew the smoke off the cigarettes, "although now, even I have started to doubt… I'm not doing anything wrong am I?"
"Well, this is a do or die situation here," replied Hatake, "if we don't fight now, then whatever VIRM is planning will come in effect, and without a doubt it won't be even in the slightest 'beneficial' to us. Everyone will be dead." He said as both of them blew the smoke again in silence.
"Ah there are you guys!" said Nana as she came in and snatched a cigarette out of Hatake's pocket, "The meeting's almost over, all administrators have agreed to the plan too, we are all ready to go back to quarters."
"You are just going to skip over the cigarette stealing part, aren't you?" asked Hatake.
"Duh?" asked Nana as she took a smoke.
"Nana!" said Hachi standing behind her, "What did I tell you about the cigarettes?"
"Hey, come on!" she replied annoyed, "It's just one!"
"Well," said Orion, "We will have to get going then I guess."
"You are coming to the quarters too?" asked Hatake.
"Yeah, I need to explain your role in this mission too," said Orion, "I don't feel like telling you all anything in the open since the federation was compromised."
"We still haven't found the spy, have we?" asked Hatake.
"We will, soon." Replied Orion as they all walked back to their transport vehicle. They all went back, then Orion spent a few more hours at the Jian's quarters explaining them their detailed roles in the plan they had to follow. Time spent by; the squad trained hard the whole day. This time more seriously knowing what was coming ahead.
"Another war…" thought Hiro gazing into the empty sky from his room's window, "I getting more impatient day after day. I just want to finish all of this… I just want to finally be at peace with Zero Two and my friends. I just want everything to be back to how it was…"
"Darling!" said Zero Two as she entered the room, Hiro then realized that it was midnight already and he had left the room's door open, "Unable to sleep?" she asked as she entered with a smile, she was in her pajamas looking the cutest she can.
"Zero Two," said Hiro, "do you really want to do this?" he asked with a sad look.
"Do what?" asked Zero Two confused.
"Do you really want to fight again?" asked Hiro again.
"Well," said Zero Two, "no, I don't really want to fight anymore, but-"
"Then let's not do this!" said Hiro desperately, "I'll convince Orion, we can live a bit faraway, of course it would be a hard for us but…" he said as his voice started to break as tears dropped down his cheeks, "At least we will be happy in the end-" He said as Zero Two pulled him closer and hugged him.
"It would be great if that was possible." she said patting his head, "But, you see darling, I don't think we can live happy in a world which will be destroyed in a few days if we don't fight. Don't worry, we will outlive this and then finally fly all over the land."
"Thank you, Zero Two" whispered Hiro. The moonlight fell upon those two, as they stood hugging each other in silence.
The next morning...
"The sun looks good only from this distance, doesn't it?" asked Hatake standing outside the quarters with Orion, the transport ship had arrived and everyone was almost ready to depart. The children were standing together outside with tears in their eyes.
"Every star looks pretty from faraway." Said Orion, "When you get too close though, you get nothing but turned into ashes."
"That is probably what happened when we dreamed of achieving Immortality…." Said Hatake with a sigh.
"I… I hate this!" said Nozomu sobbing, "Why do you always come and go back so fast? I… I didn't even get much time to play…"
"There, there." Said Ichigo patting her head with a kind smile, "We will be back soon, don't worry."
"Hey," said Hiro as he walked towards Orion, "while we are away, who is going to take care of the children?"
"Yeah," said Orion as he looked into his watch again, "damn she is late."
"Who?" asked Hatake.
"Ah," said Orion, "the one who I appointed to take care of the children."
"Did you appoint a babysitter or something?" asked Hiro.
"Well," said Orion with a sweat-drop expression, "I wasn't able to find one so-"
"General!" said a voice as a jeep stopped in front of them.
"Ecchino?" asked Ichigo looking at her while she was getting off the jeep, "Where were you all these days?" she asked.
"Well, you know patrolling all the other districts," she replied with a smile, "but yeah I missed this place a lot."
"Before you say anything," said Orion as he sensed Hatake was about to say something, "I really didn't have any choice."
Hatake just replied with a sigh.
"Well, I guess we will have to leave now, everyone." Orion said looking at his watch. Soon, everyone gave their children one last hug and waved at them as they walked inside the transport ship.
"They will be fine, right?" asked Kokoro with a sad look on her face.
"Of course, they will be." Replied Mitsuru as the ship took its flight and after a few minutes they were at they were at the station waiting for their mothership to be ready for flight.
"How long will this trip take?" asked Hatake.
"Around 24 hours," replied Elise, "Even more if we get in a sandstorm."
"Ah please!" said Oniria thinking back at what happened the last time Zero Two had the honey overdose and everyone had to hide behind a table, "My back already starts hurting just by remembering what happened on the ship last time."
"Yeah, about that," said Hatake, "I personally checked the food supplies this time. They are just as they should be."
"Not going to take any risks, are you?" asked Orion as they both laughed.
"Fueling for Mothership 3301 has been completed." Said the intercom, "All passengers are requested to take their seats." Soon, everyone walked in with a smile.
"And here we go again," said Hatake putting on his seat belt, "off to another adventure, no idea what lies beyond and what is going to happen."
"Don't say it like that at least," said Elise, "every battle is won but with determination and power."
"Yeah," said Orion, "nothing to worry about, we will come back, together!"
"Yeah," said Hatake with a serious look on his face, "we will…"
"Minimum safe altitude reached, seatbelts can now be detached." Said the intercom as Nana got up from her seat still massaging her head.
"Your head's still aching?" asked Hachi.
"Yeah," replied Nana, "just a little bit though."
"Get some rest," said Hachi as he held shoulder as to give her some support, "come on."
"Damn," said Kokoro with a laugh, "you two really are acting are husband and wife."
"W-Well," said Hachi, "we have been together for this long, it completely natural for us to care for each other. Come on Nana let's just go!" he said as both of them quickly walked away from there. Those words however, brought a little smile over Nana's face.
"Kokoro," said Hatake confused, "are they not, uh… married?" he asked.
"No," said Ichigo with a sigh, "we tried to convince them a lot of times, but Nana never wanted to force Hachi into it so she didn't seem to care when we talked about it."
"Yeah," said Futoshi, "I still remember the day when we shouted towards them altogether saying 'please marry each other!' and damn the embarrassment on their face." He said as everyone started laughing.
"And then the next day they avoided us," said Ikuno cleaning her glasses, "they said that they need a 'bit more time' and went away and then lived alone forever."
"More complicated that it sounds, isn't it?" asked Hatake.
"Yeah…" said Kofuku.
Meanwhile...
"If he would have ever asked me to marry him," thought Nana as she lied on the bed staring the celling with a red blush on her face, "I would have said yes at that very instant but… I'm sure that he doesn't want to do it yet."
At the same moment...
"I'm sure she doesn't want to do it yet but," thought Hachi staring at the sky outside through the window in his room, "if she would have asked me, I would have carried her in my arms to our wedding place at that very instant."
The day passed by as the two stayed oblivious to their own misunderstandings.
The next day...
"Damn, the weather's pretty good!" said Zorome as everyone woke up and got back in their passenger seats. The landing zone was just a few miles away.
"Yeah, and you know what's even better?" asked Orion, "That!" he said pointing far away as, at first something twinkling could be seen from that distance, but then Zero Two realized what it was...
"The ocean! That means there's beaches!" said Zero Two excited all of a sudden.
"Yeah," said Elise, "it's a waste how there won't be time for us to enjoy."
"Aw…." Said Zero Two and pouted.
"Don't worry," said Orion unable to deny the childish face she made, "I'll book a trip for you all one day after all of this is over."
"I just hope that the kids will be safe with Ecchino…" said Hatake with a sigh.
"Why do you guys always creep out and become extra careful when it comes to Ecchino?" asked Ichigo, "She isn't that bad."
"Not bad when it comes to girls and kids." said Orion correcting her as she just looked at him confused.
"Commencing altitude change, please make sure your seatbelts are intact." Said the intercom as the ship started to descend. The salty breeze blew in as Orion looked at the view with a smile while everyone got down from the mothership.
"President Orion!" Said a person as he walked towards Orion, "It's been a while, sir."
"Niles!" said Orion, "How have you been?"
"Never better!" replied Niles.
"Good to hear that." said Orion as he turned towards the Jian Squad.
"Who is he?" asked Ichigo.
"Niles Jaeger, leader of the Jaeger unit!" Niles said as both him and Ichigo shook hands.
"Ichigo, leader of Squad Jian" replied Ichigo.
"So, you guys are the ones from that legendary unit!" said Niles impressed.
"Well, the word 'legendary' would be too much to call it I would say." Said Hatake as he walked towards Niles with Seraphime.
"I'm sorry," said Niles, "You look familiar, have we met?" he asked confused.
"Hatake Frank," replied Hatake, "being a capsule, you would better know me by my father's name Dr. Werner Franxx."
"I see." Niles said as his kind expression turned into an angry one, "Well, I guess calling the squad 'Legendary' really was a mistake, especially where there are people like you."
"Excuse me?!" asked Hatake triggered by the words.
"Yeah," replied Niles, "that is what the old man did and that is probably every 'Frank' would ever do, make things that would only cause destruction and kill people."
"Are you questioning my Father's inventions?" asked Hatake with a smirk, "Kind of ironic considering everyone is using them. Then how can you even question it?"
"At least we know how to use them unlike many of those APE parasites." Replied Niles with a smirk.
"Oh really?" asked Hatake as everyone noticed a spark between the two boys and the atmosphere grew more intense.
"N-Now, now." Said Orion as he separated them, "Keep that for later times. Niles, you're speaking very rudely with the King of the Klapiens. I will let this slide for now but next time there will be disciplinary punishment."
Niles was shocked at this statement but then said reluctantly: "Apologies sir."
This was enough for Orion for now and said: "Now, let's head to the Cape Canaveral and get a shower before the preparations, damn this salty air is just gonna kill me."
"Fine…" replied Niles with a sigh as everyone got inside a truck, Niles sat on the front seat with a driver and everyone else on the back seats.
"What's the matter with him?" Hatake asked looking at Orion whispering annoyed by what Niles said earlier.
"Well," said Orion, "Niles is actually an ex-parasite. He was a good one too but had a hard fall of grace. When he was still in APE, serving the front lines, he and his partner had discovered a secret of APE and it costed him his partner's life while he was arrested and forcefully implemented with a bomb chip meaning that he was forced now to follow orders or die. He was later sent on a mission with the Nines with a prototype Franxx that would let him pilot it solo in a test run. However, the mission turned out to be too dangerous because of a Klaxosaur that was way too out of their capability to defeat. He somehow managed to defeat it but the battle caused a landslide in which he fell into a deep fall underground. The Nines declared him dead without even trying to search and rescue him. Fortunately for him and for us, we found him later. Since his rescue, he has been here serving on the side of the Federation in a new experimental unit called the Jaegers which basically is trying to succeed in the project that APE failed to accomplish."
"And what does that have to do with Hatake?" asked Seraphime.
"Dr. Frannx was the one who caught him and his partner." Orion replied in a serious voice, "He even helped with the implant and that is probably the reason why he started hating APE and your father at the same time."
"Why am I not surprised?" asked Hatake with a sigh as he stood up, "Oi, Niles!" he shouted, Niles just turned towards him with a cold look, "I am not like my father. Mark my words, I WILL make you take those words back, at least the things you said on my name because my father deserves it but I don't.'"
"Oh really?" asked Niles, "Prove it to me then in the battlefield. The only real equalizer between a royal and a soldier."
"We will see." Said Hatake as the truck stopped at the main door of the place. It was very different to what was they had seen in normal training camps and APE's plantations. The whole place was well defended with air defense missile launchers alongside stationed old-fashioned turbine jets. The installations all looked very technological and professional and at the center of the station was a tremendously huge Mothership with workers all around it.
"We are going for the battle in that thing?!" asked Hiro shocked.
"Damn that's just so cool!" said Zorome excited just by looking at it.
"Yeah," replied Orion, "let's get to your assigned quarters and take some showers for now, we will get back on field after the Franxxs have finished unloading and retrofitting."
"Yes, sir!" said everyone as they moved towards their quarters.
Some moments later...
"The battle is this near," thought Hatake as lied down on the bed in his room, "another one of the times when I can just hope that I don't lose anyone this time… I feel like I'm going to do the same mistakes again but…"
"Hatake?" asked Serphime outside the room.
"Yeah," replied Hatake, "come on in."
"Oniria said you wanted to talk to me. What the matter?" She asked confused.
"Of all the things that I have lost…"
"Seraphime," he said with a serious look on his face, "please don't pilot Meteorix with me in this battle."
"I definitely can't lose her."
OC Niles created and owned by CmdrGamera40 on Deviant art.
RN: Yeah I know the delay for each chapter just keeps increasing, that's completely my fault for being a procrastinator (and a masochist too maybe because of the school work I have piled up) so yeah my apologies again. I try to do it on time but sometimes the circumstances just don't meet right, I'm sorry please bear with it ^^'.
And of course reviews are welcome as always!