The Knights of Earth

Chapter 1

A Single Spark

Disclaimer: I do not own Aldnoah. Zero but I do own the characters and Kataphrakts that I have created for this fanfic.

.

-Apartment Complex, Shinagawara, Japan-

.

An orange sun had risen over the horizon to shine on the bustling metropolis known as Shinagawara located in the island country of Japan. For many people this meant that they needed to get up and start the day. Some willingly got out of bed and went to go perform whatever job was required of them while others simply tried to postpone the inevitable and rest for at least a short while longer.

Inside a large apartment complex near the heart of the city there was a man of roughly thirty five years of age who was doing his best to try and sleep in for as long as possible. The man's name was Marcus Graves.

On the nightstand next to his bed there was an alarm clock that had just turned to 6:00am. A high pitched whistling noise blared from the offending machine causing Marcus to groan pathetically from underneath the covers and reach out with his left hand in an attempt to hit the "snooze" button "Shut up, shut up, shut up. Please for the love of god, all I want is a few more minutes of sleep," he mumbled in a barely coherent fashion. Unfortunately though he was only successful in prodding the side of it for the first couple of attempts before finally managing to hit the button that would silence that irritating device.

Realizing that he had to start the day Marcus sat up and ran a hand through his unkempt dark brown hair. Pushing some of his bangs away from the front of his face, Marcus let out a tired yawn and stretched out his arms. With no small amount of reluctance on his part, Marcus managed to pull himself out of bed and onto the hardwood floor.

Marcus quickly put on some clothes and made his way into the small kitchen to get some breakfast. There was only a twenty minute window of opportunity to get some food in his stomach before Marcus needed to get ready to go to his job at the local highschool.

Roughly ten years ago Marcus had been a normal pilot in the United Forces of Earth (UFE) which was the armed forces of United Earth the government that controlled humanity's home world. During the time of the war Marcus had lost many of his friends and family to the Vers military and soon after the war ended he stepped down from active duty and became a piloting instructor for the UE military. He specialized in teaching others how to pilot Kataphrakts such as the training unit KG-6 Sleipnir and the more recently introduced KG-7 Areion, KA-4 Dyaus and KMR-3 Embarr*.

Marcus pushed the thoughts of the past out of his head for the moment and instead readied himself a cup of coffee and some toasted bread. It wasn't exactly a perfect breakfast but then again Marcus had never been much of a cook. Hell after he had moved into his first apartment he had practically lived off of takeout and easy-to-cook meals.

This was due in part to whenever he so much as attempted to use a stove or oven of any kind the food he had been cooking would somehow inexplicably end up catching fire no matter how careful he was during the attempt. Lieutenant Marito had once remarked that they should have the fire department or the military's EOD (Explosive Ordinance Disposal) teams on standby whenever he started cooking just in case. Just a few minutes later Marcus finally managed to finish off his breakfast and clean off the dishes before he headed out of his apartment.

As he walked outside of his modest living quarters Marcus felt the crisp late-autumn air brush up against his body. Most of the leaves had long since fallen to the ground and he knew that within a few weeks the air would probably end up getting even colder than it was now. After climbing down a set of stairs he finally got to the parking lot where his car was waiting for him.

The car Marcus used wasn't the most impressive thing to look at, it was an older model that he had purchased a couple of years back. Sure it was only three or four years old but it still ran okay and it was good if one wasn't planning on making long distance trips, so it worked just fine for him. Marcus entered the car and put his key into the ignition all the while hoping that the traffic wouldn't be too bad while he made his way to the high-school.

After Marcus finished exiting the parking lot he turned on the radio as he started to drive down the road "-less than a few hours from the arrival of Princess Asseylum of the Vers Empire who is coming to Earth for a goodwill visit. Although there are many believe that this will help to improve relations between the United Earth and the Vers Empire, tensions are still high. An anti-Martian group: The Earth First Party have been making daily protests outside of the Vers Embassy ever since the visit was first announced. The Earth First Party was formed shortly after the founding of the Vers Empire and has gained a massive following ever since the-"

Marcus shut off the radio before the station's host could finish his sentence 'Can't I go anywhere without hearing about those Martian fuckers anymore?' he wondered irritably to himself. For the past several weeks the only thing that people seemed capable of thinking about was the 'goodwill visit' from the spoiled brat of Vers.

Sure there were a lot of people out there who liked her due to her preaching of peace between Vers and the UE, but it was pretty obvious to Marcus that it was just her granddad using her as a mouthpiece. After all for the past few years he'd been trying to convince the UE to lift the trade embargo they had on a lot of goods that Vers had wanted to get their grubby little paws on. This whole 'goodwill visit' was probably just an attempt to try to at least partially smooth relations before that old fuck decided to try and open up negotiations again.

Marcus found himself gripping the steering wheel of his vehicle so hard that his knuckles turned completely white, while he clenched his jaw tightly as he thought about that bastard. That scumbag had the audacity to claim that just because he and everyone lived on Mars that that somehow made them a new evolved race and were now superior to the people who lived on Earth in every way. If that were true then why did they need anything from Eearth to begin with?

To Marcus the so-called "Vers Empire" was just a Third Reich rip-off just waiting to happen.

The Kataphrakt instructor put those thoughts out of his head as he continued down along road and instead turned his thoughts towards the lesson plans for the day when the students used the Kataphrakts.

.

-Count Cruhteo's Landing Castle, currently in high orbit above Earth-

.

The bridge of Count Cruhteo's Landing Castle was completely abuzz with activity. Well over a dozen men and women worked at their duty stations while their commanding officer, Count Cruhteo sat on his command throne located directly above his subordinates. The very sight could be reminiscent to that of a monarch looking over his subjects in a medieval court. Of course that wasn't too far from the truth.

As a member of the nobility of Vers and being a high ranking Orbital Knight, Cruhteo effectively ruled over a relatively decently sized plot of land back on Mars. However given that he was an Orbital Knight that meant that he had to stay orbiting Earth along with thirty-seven others in the event that war broke out between the UE and the Vers Empire. If such a thing did indeed occur then it was the Orbital Knight's duty to launch the first strike against the inferior Terrans.

However such a thing probably wasn't going to happen today as he was simply there to house Princess Asseylum while she undertook her goodwill visit to the people of Earth to try and improve relations. Cruhteo, like many members of the Martian nobility found it disgusting that she would lower herself to the point of interacting with the people of Earth. Still he supposed that it probably shouldn't have come as too much of a surprise considering the ridiculous views her mother had managed to place on her when she was young.

For the past month and a half, Cruhteo had attempted to talk the princess out of going down to that nest of inferior beings but to no avail. The girl was determined to try and form a bridge of 'friendship' between Earth and Mars so that there would be a lasting peace between both nations. Cruhteo hated to admit it but he did have to admire the girl's unwavering determination however misguided it was. The fact remained that the girl was probably making a very idiotic mistake in visiting those that were inferior and they probably still held a grudge against those of the Vers Empire for the war ten years ago.

Still despite Cruhteo's many misgivings on Princess Asseylum's plans to improve relations, he would still do as she asked as he was duty bound to obey her commands as the heir of Vers. At least she wasn't heading down with that manservant of hers, Slaine Troyard. Why the Princess kept that little upstart around was beyond him as he; like the people Princess Asseylum was going down to visit was a Terran and therefore beneath everyone that lived in the Vers Empire.

It was a point that Cruhteo frequently made to the lowly Terran with every opportunity he was given, violently in most cases. The little upstart acted far too casually around the princess for his tastes, as though he were her equal when that couldn't have been farther from the truth. They may have known each other for quite some time but there was a very large gap in social standing, it was improper for the boy to act that way around her highness and Cruhteo was more than willing to educate the Terran on how improper it was.

Cruhteo was brought out of his thoughts when he glanced over at one of the consoles that one of his subordinates was currently manning. It showed the security camera footage the primary hanger for the Landing Castle where the princess and most of her entourage were already boarding a shuttle that would take them down to the Earth's surface.

The only one that didn't seem to be joining the group was Slaine for some reason. For a second Cruhteo wondered why that was but soon decided that such a thing didn't really matter. If the princess decided not to bring along that vermin then that was her choice.

Another concern that the Count had was that there were a lot of Terrans out there that could quite possibly harm the princess but he had long since dismissed it. Even though it was pretty much an established fact that Terrans were inferior in almost every way to Martians, they weren't completely stupid. They knew that if any harm were to come to Princess Asseylum then they would face the might of the Vers Empire and the Orbital Knights would be the vanguard of their emperor's wrath!

.

-Shinagawara Academy, Kataphrakt Training Grounds-

.

Marcus Graves sat down at the observation building to the side of the live fire range watching as several orange painted training Sleipnir models fired their weapons down range at various targets. As they did Marcus continued to jot down their accuracy scores. Some of the students managed to do moderately well while there were a number of others who weren't even able to scratch the outermost portions of their targets.

In the fifteen years since the Heaven's Fall incident most middle and high-schools throughout the world had to set up a Kataphrakt training facility on their grounds. Given how the military was still struggling to get its numbers back up to before the war, new laws were created so that all high school students had to get military training before graduation. After graduating all students would be drafted into the reserves for no less than a three year tour. Once the three years were up they could choose to remain in the military's regular forces or they could leave and live as civilians.

There was a lot of criticism to this new system and there were a relatively small number of political activist groups that had been lobbying to have this system revoked but they had made very little progress thus far. Although many didn't like it, most people knew that they had to be ready in the event of renewed hostilities from the Vers Empire. Although there was a peace treaty established after the war fifteen years ago there were many who believed that Rayregalia would simply start another war if he didn't get whatever he wanted in the near future.

Marcus broke himself out of those kinds of thoughts and decided that it would probably be better for him to focus more on the task at hand. He continued to watch as each and every one of the students take their turns up at the firing lanes for a few minutes longer. Eventually after several of the students got some relatively average results in; one of the more highly graded students was given a turn in one of the Sleipnirs. Inaho Kaizuka.

For reasons unknown to Marcus the boy was a natural Kataphrakt pilot and a brilliant strategist/tactician. Ever since the boy first started training, it showed that he was quite possibly one of the most gifted combat pilots in the entire academy aside from a handful of others. At first, a handful of the other instructors thought that the boy had probably been playing a lot of Kataphrakt sim games in his spare time or something as a couple of the gaming developers seemed to try and go out of their way to make the games as realistic as possible.

That theory was promptly thrown out the window the very second they saw just how poorly one of Inaho's friends, a boy by the name of Calm Craftman was performing when piloting a Kataphrakt. Apparently the boy and several of his friends played those kinds of games whenever they were given the chance to do so but despite this it turned out that his skills were average at best. Before he climbed into the cockpit for the first time Calm liked to brag to his friends and even a couple of teachers on how he'd probably end up with the best grade due to his gaming experience.

However that wouldn't prove to be the case. Calm could barely even make his Kataphrakt walk in a straight line making some of the instructors wonder if he was actually trying to make it walk around like a hammered drunk and his best accuracy rating was a "C" when it came to the shooting range.

Marcus watched the boy took out the standard issue assault rifle and fire several short controlled bursts at the targets downrange. Most of the shots being fired hit their marks with a substantial amount of accuracy. Once Inaho's magazine was completely out of ammunition and immediately went for a fresh one. Before the new magazine could be fully loaded into the weapon however Marcus spoke over his communications headset "Inaho Kaizuka sling the rifle for now, I want you to use your pistol."

The response he got was an "Affirmative sir," that came from that exact same stoic voice that Inaho always used when addressing others. It was weird, and even a little bit unnerving, hearing a tone you'd under most circumstances hear from a battle hardened veteran coming from a fifteen year old kid.

Inaho's Sleipnir drew its pistol and aimed it at the nearest target downrange. Less than a second later oversized bullets fired from the weapon soared through the air and struck the target achieving a well above average score on the boy's start. When it came to the targets that were much farther downrange though the . The shooting continued for a few minutes longer before Marcus once again spoke into to microphone "Kaizuka stand down and return to the waiting area, Inko Amifumi you're up next, take the sniper rifle from the gun rack and hit the long range targets."

While Inaho piloted the orange Sleipnir back to the nearby hanger Inko's Sleipnir slowly and rather unsurely walked up to the shooting range and grabbed a sniper rifle from one of the racks nearby before loading it and taking aim downrange. The movements she took were rather hesitant.

It seemed to Marcus that it was as if she was constantly nervous that she'd end up doing something wrong. Marcus made a mental note to have a little talk with her about that but at the moment he needed to have everyone continue the exercise. "Inko don't hesitate, you won't hurt anyone if you're careful," Marcus suggested calmly.

With that having been said the hesitation in the Sleipnir's movements lessoned considerably. upon seeing this Marcus once again spoke into the microphone, "Okay Inko, hit all the targets starting with the ones farthest from your current position," he ordered before the girl lined her first target up with her sniper rifle's scope. As Inko began to open fire on the targets Marcus heard the door leading into the observation booth slam open and a female voice call "I'm sorry I'm late!"

Without even turning around Marcus already knew who was behind him, Inaho's older sister, Yuki Kaizuka. Marcus turned around to look at the young woman whose face had taken on the expression of someone who was both exhausted and embarrassed at the same time. And she should have been at least slightly embarrassed, she was very close to being thirty minutes late.

Marcus gave the woman a deadpan expression "You're late instructor Kaizuka, again." Yuki flinched in embarrassment and appeared as though she was about to try and explain why she had run so late when someone tapped her on the top of her head with a small flask that was undoubtedly filled with alcohol "Hey there Warrant Officer Sleepyhead. There was a man behind her who, like Marcus, appeared to be in his early to mid-thirties. This man was Lieutenant Koichiro Marito, a former tank officer who had been reassigned to Shinagawa as a combat instructor after Heaven's Fall.

Yuki turned to look at Marito but when she did a foul stench assaulted her nose. The stink itself came from the man's breath and took a few steps away from him "Lieutenant Marito, you know full well that you aren't supposed to be drinking before you go on duty, especially when there's a colonel is coming all the way from headquarters for a visit any day now!" she exclaimed.

Marito cocked a brow in confusion, "I haven't heard anything about a colonel visiting from HQ. When did this happen?" he asked knowing that if nothing else he would probably get chewed out for this anyways. Both Yuki and Marcus looked at their comrade in arms with bewildered expressions.

"I know you didn't bother to attend the meeting two weeks ago but surely you must have read the email we both sent you after the meeting was over!" Marcus exclaimed while he face-palmed.

They were so screwed if Marito was caught drinking while on duty by one of the bigwigs back at HQ. Given that Marcus was the same rank as Marito it wasn't' like he could have him sent to the brig or put him on a slightly different schedule that would keep him at home (or more likely a bar) while the colonel came to visit.

What Marito said next didn't help matters all that much either "I don't check my emails anymore, not after I got about a hundred asking me if I'd like to make my manhood bigger, amongst other things" he shrugged. Neither Marcus nor Yuki had any idea as to how they could possibly respond to that one. Marito sheepishly scratched the back of his head and wondered idly if he shouldn't have mentioned that.

For a few seconds no one said anything but just when it looked as though Yuki was about to respond the door opened up again only not as quickly as it had before and someone stepped in. The three combat instructors turned around and saw a sight that they didn't expect would show itself until roughly twenty-four hours had passed. The colonel from headquarters was here for the inspection a day early. The colonel was a man that looked like he was in his mid-forties with kind looking blue eyes and short graying dark blond hair that was covered by a military beret.

The instant that they saw the colonel walk in, all three snapped to attention just causing the man in front of them to give a small friendly chuckle and smiled kindly at the three instructors. "At ease people at ease, I'm not here for the inspection, that's tomorrow, right now I'm just here as a tourist," he explained much to the relief of the group.

The colonel then looked directly over at Marcus and for a moment or two and then seemed to recognize him "Marcus Graves, it's been too long old friend, how have you been these past few years?" he asked with a smile. At first Marcus was curious as to who in the hell this man was but then he took a good long look at the man and finally managed to realize where he'd seen the man before.

The reaction that Marcus had was priceless. It almost seemed as though his eyes were about to pop right out of his head and his mouth would probably end up hitting the floor if it went any lower. "Maxwell Braddock, is that you? My god it's been what, eight years since we last saw each other?" he said smiling as he finally realized that he had just met an old friend after a very long time.

Braddock chuckled "Just about, I can honestly say that that when I volunteered to take this gig to get out of the literal mountain of paperwork I had back at headquarters, I didn't think that I'd be meeting you here until I looked at the files of the instructors who worked at this academy."

As the exchange between two long separated friends continued, Marito and Yuki looked increasingly confused as to how their colleague Marcus personally knew a high ranking colonel that worked back at Headquarters. Seeing the confusion on their faces, Braddock decided to explain how the two knew one another.

"Marcus and I went through training together and even served in the same Division until after the war started, we've been good friends for several years, although this is the first time we've ever had a face to face meeting in quite some time." Braddock then turned and looked right at the other two instructors "Now it seems you all know who I am but I don't believe that I've met you as of yet."

Marito and Yuki both simultaneously gave sharp salutes and introduced themselves in standard military fashion. They gave the colonel their names and ranks. In response the colonel let out a small chuckle that soon turned into full-blown laughter.

The two instructors wondered to themselves if they had done something stupid when at last colonel Braddock's laughter had managed to die down "There's no need for any of you to act so formal, I'm not here as a colonel, despite my current attire, after all I couldn't get in this part of the school unless I was in uniform. Lord knows the guards would probably end up thinking I was some sort of trespasser and would probably lock me up until they finally confirmed who I was and in spite of what most people think I'm not a very big fan of handcuffs."

The colonel's explanation for his appearance made a lot of sense, those that patrolled the school's Kataphrakt training area took their jobs very seriously. Each one carried a remote kill switch for the Kataphrakt's power supply in the event that someone snapped and decided to go on a rampage using a Kataphrakt. True there were no school shootings that involved the training Kataphrakts but considering how devastating they could be in the wrong hands, everyone believed that it would be best to not tempt fate in the matter.

The two instructors stopped saluting and once again both Marito and Yuki gave one another strange looks. They honestly hadn't expected that the visiting colonel from headquarters to be so, laid-back. The colonel then looked down at the range where the other students were currently training and watched the orange colored Sleipnirs continue to fire rounds downrange. Braddock continued to watch the training session for a few moments longer before he looked back at the instructors with a curious expression "That orange Sleipnir, number zero-seven I believe it's called, who was the one that was piloting that machine?"

Braddock noticed that Warrant Officer Kaizuka's body had stiffened once she heard him ask that question and she looked rather apprehensive about something. The colonel raised a brow at the woman and asked "Is there some sort of problem warrant officer?" Although he already had some idea as to why she was acting the way she was.

Yuki bit her lip for a second, unsure of how she should respond to the colonel's question but she was saved from doing so by Marito "The pilot of zero-seven is Inaho Kaizuka sir."

That explained quite a bit. The good warrant officer was probably concerned that Braddock would consider using the Conscription Act on a family member. The Conscription Act was created shortly after the events of Heaven's Fall and the war between the UFE and Vers. Because casualties were so high that it was difficult to find new recruits to replace the soldiers that had been killed, the Conscription Act was put into effect by the UFE.

This declaration allowed high ranking officers to recruit almost anyone over the age of fifteen into the military which most certainly included the sixteen year old Inaho Kaizuka. Of course there were limits to who could be conscripted; convicted criminals and anyone under the age of fifteen were out of bounds, period.

Braddock gave Yuki what he hoped would prove to be a reassuring look "Don't worry I don't have any intention of invoking the Conscription Act on any of the students here, I'm just curious is all." Yuki looked relieved to hear that and let out the breath she had unconsciously been holding in "Thank you sir, that means a lot to me."

With that having been done the colonel turned to look over at Marcus who said "I can get you the boy's file on your desk by tomorrow Colonel Braddock," to which the colonel gave a curt nod before he started grinning once again.

"Excellent. However at the moment I think that we should catch up, preferably over a few drinks. Are there any good bars in the city?" Graves and Marito grinned at the idea while Yuki just face palmed, wondering if there were any male officers in the UFE who didn't enjoy going to the local bars once their shift was over.

.

.

Shortly after Inko Amifumi had finished up on the shooting range, classes for the day were over and the students that were in attendance for the Kataphrakt training got set to leave for home. Once the training with the Kataphrakts was over, Inaho went over to check the scoreboards and saw that once again he had made the top score on the shooting range while Inko came close to beating his score but not quite. His other friends were all over the place, Nina Klein was a few places behind Inko while Calm Craftman and Okisuke Mikuni did only moderately well at best.

As Inaho headed for the bus station to catch a ride back home so that he could continue on with his studies he soon found himself being approached by Okisuke and Clam the former of which was clearly excited about something. It didn't take long for Inaho to figure out why that was. For the past couple of weeks the only thing that anyone really seemed capable of talking about was the upcoming goodwill visit by Princess Asseylum of Vers. Okisuke was in fact one of the people who almost constantly reminded Inaho and his other friends of this detail.

"Hey Inaho, you want to come with us to see the start of the goodwill visit?" asked Okisuke, who was barely able to contain his excitement about the visit. Inaho shrugged not nearly as enthusiastic about the visit as his friends were "Sure I guess. But all that's really happening is just the motorcade driving down the road right?"

Okisuke just shrugged "That's not really the point we'll be watching history unfold, that's more than reason enough to go and see the arrival for ourselves!"

"Not to mention that we'll probably get at least one good look at her royal highness, after all the net says she's supposed to be really hot," mentioned Okisuke with a sly look on his face. Calm rolled his eyes at the display and had already knew the reason as to why Okisuke had been so excited about the visit ever since it had been announced. The blonde haired boy rolled his eyes at Okisuke. Sure he had heard the same thing about Princess Asseylum and Calm loved looking at cute girls but he was more into girls that were from this planet and not from what was essentially an enemy country.

"You do realize that it's pretty damn unlikely that you'll even end up getting anywhere near Asseylum right?" Calm asked giving his friend an incredulous expression before "The secret service badasses that are guarding her will probably gun you down if you so much as looked at her funny."

Inaho pondered on whether or not he should go with his two friends, he didn't usually get started on his homework until around six or seven o'clock anyways and it was only three. He could probably go with them to at least try to catch a glimpse of the visiting royal if only to kill some time before he went home.

.

-Shinagawara, Subway Train, en-route to the center of town-

.

The many subway trains that ran underneath most of Shinagawara were practically filled to the brim with passengers, each one attempting to get to one part of the city or another. Most o the passengers though were trying to get to one specific spot however. The area where Princess Asseylum's motorcade would be passing through during her initial visit to the city.

The young royal was very popular with just about everyone on the planet due to her stance on building better relations between the UFE and Vers. However there were a few groups of people who didn't like her due to her being the grandchild of the current Emperor of Vers. A man whose family had declared war on Earth and caused the moon to explode killing untold millions of innocent people. Most of those people were already making their protests known at the Vers Embassy as well as other important UFE government centers.

However there were a group of individuals that had far more sinister intentions for the young royal than a simple protest.

One of their number was sitting down on one of the many occupied seats on the train was clutching a small leather bag close to his chest in the fear that he'd lose it and what it contained. Inside the bag were a few seemingly trivial things such as a cell phone a camera and a pair of binoculars. If someone from security was to try and investigate the contents of his bag when he arrived at the site where Princess Asseylum was making her visit then their curiosity would probably be sated when they saw that he only carried items that an ordinary tourist would have on him.

Just a few minutes later the subway train's breaks screeched along the rails as it started to come to a halt as it finally arrived at its destination. Once the screeching subsided and the train halted in its tracks, the people who had been sitting throughout the ride got up out of their seats and made their way out of the train and onto the platform where they headed towards wherever it was they were heading for.

The man walked out of the train and onto the platform and the instant that his feet hit the concrete floor of the train platform his cell phone started ringing. He hastily took the phone from inside the bag and pressed the answer button. "Yeah?" he asked somehow knowing that the person on the other end of the line was going to start yelling at him.

Sure enough the person on the other end of the line yelled "Where the hell are you? Her highness is going to show up in less than an hour and you know we only get one chance at this Viero!" The man now known as Viero barely managed to keep calm and not yell back at his comrade on the other end of the phone line as he really couldn't afford to draw too much attention to himself.

"Don't worry Wolf I just got off the subway and I'm making my way to the site now, I should be there within fifteen minutes." There was a sigh of deep irritation coming from Wolf's end "Just make sure you get to where you need to be in time or there'll be hell to pay!" there was then a click as Wolf hung up on Viero.

Viero put his cell phone back in his bag and started to make his way through the crowd at a much faster pace than the one he was going at a few moments before. The one that he and Wolf Areash served was not the kind to reward failure, especially when it came to something as important as this.

.

-Shinagawara, City Entrance, a few minutes later-

.

The bus that Inaho and his friends had taken, took almost thirty minutes to arrive at the area where Princess Asseylum's motorcade would be making driving down. Hundreds if not thousands of people were gathering to see if they could catch even the slightest glimpse of the visiting royal. Behind the many police cordons people had out cameras, cell phones and similar items that could be used to take pictures as the limo and its escort vehicles passed by.

Currently Inaho, Okisuke and Calm were on an overpass with a perfect view of the advancing vehicles. Calm had his hands crossed and was looking at the approaching vehicles with a bored expression while Inaho was off in his own little world and fiddled with his phone. Okisuke had out a cell phone with a built in camera and was trying to get a few decent snapshots of the motorcade. However he was incredibly disappointed that the type of limo that the princess was riding in wasn't one that would allow him to catch a glimpse of the occupant inside as the windows were completely blanked out.

When Okisuke noticed this he looked dejectedly at his camera as he'd been hoping to get at least one or two snapshots of the princess. Calm cocked an eyebrow at his friend "As I said numerous times earlier, we're probably not going to even see her here right?" he asked before continuing "The limo she's in is equipped reinforced armor plating that can stop just about anything short of an artillery strike and the windows are blanked out bullet proof glass."

"Ah man I really wanted to at least catch a glimpse, I mean it's supposed to be a parade you'd think that she'd at least wave to us." Calm just rolled his eyes at his friend "Yes, we know that. You've been making your weird delusions very clear for quite a while now. Personally I don't see why we couldn't have just watched this on TV back home."

At this Okisuke turned and gave his friend an incredulous look "Calm this is a goodwill visit so we need to be here to add to the noise, make her feel at least a little bit welcome you know." Calm rolled his eyes and muttered "Since when did you decide to start sympathizing with the enemy?"

"Ah don't be like that Calm, just try and enjoy yourself." Okisuke then turned to Inaho who hadn't taken his eyes off of his phone the entire time they'd been there and was hoping to at least get one of his friends on his side. "You agree with me right Inaho?" Upon closer inspection Okisuke saw that he was checking an online price guide for egg cartons.

"Half off, huh, may need to purchase those for tonight," Inaho muttered to himself.

Okisuke and Calm shouldn't have been surprised, Inaho was almost always off in his own little world.

A new voice interrupted the three friends "Hey guys!" the three teenagers turned to see one of their friends, Inko, running towards them. Calm cocked a brow, he'd thought that she'd be back at school taking part in one of the student council meetings.

Out of curiosity Calm asked "So did you decide to come and see the princess make an appearance too?" he asked. she simply shook her head at her friend "The student council was asked by the guys providing security to help redirect traffic but we're pretty shorthanded to say the least. You mind giving us a hand?"

Calm and Okisuke both glanced at each other wondering how to break the news that they weren't interested while Inaho continued to fool around with his cell phone without a care in the world.

.

.

A short walk from the motorcade's route was a large parking structure that was connected to an office complex. The parking complex was largely deserted aside from a few cars belonging to employees who needed to arrive at their shift. However there was one vehicle that was out of place, a medium sized delivery truck that was parked on the fourth floor in a manner that its back was facing the parade that the princess was in. The driver who had just finished driving into the spot, put on the parking brake and ran out of the vehicle as fast as his legs could carry him.

As he ran he pulled out a small cell phone and called up one of his comrades "The delivery system is in position and waiting on you." The man didn't even wait to hear the response as he continued to run for the nearest exit. It wouldn't be good if he was caught before their plan was put into action.

.

.

Viero looked through his binoculars out at the approaching motorcade. Just a few moments ago he'd gotten a call from Wolf who informed him that everything was in position and the rest was up to him. Other than Viero and the driver the rest of the group had specific instructions when it came to the plan. Wolf and the rest of the group were acting as spotters, letting the next person down the line where their target was currently located.

As the motorcade continued to approach Viero tapped a small, almost unnoticeable button on the top of his binoculars and a tiny laser built into the binoculars turned on and a red dot appeared on the lead limo. Then a loud boom filled the air signaling the launch of one of the guided missiles that Viero and his comrades had acquired through the black market. Viero knew that in these next few moments were critical for the success of their mission and for their own future.

.

.

Okisuke and Calm were already trying to convince their friend Inko that they weren't interested in helping them redirect traffic around the area but she refused to back down on them. "C'mon it's not that hard all you have to do is wear this arm band and stand around looking pretty," she explained.

Inaho meanwhile just continued to fiddle with his phone, checking the prices on eggs and various other ingredients at the local grocery stores for dinner later that night. As he continued to look through the online price guides Inaho noticed something out of place in the corner of his eye. Inaho turned and looked in the direction of whatever it was that he'd seen in the corner of his eye and saw an exhaust plume that was heading from relatively high up in the air heading towards the princess' motorcade. Curious he activated his phones camera function and zoomed in on it and for less than a second Inaho's eyes widened but then they went back to their normal dull look.

Knowing that he'd have to get his friends somewhere safe from the missile Inaho turned around to face the arguing trio and said in a calm even tone "We need to get out of here."

''Calm, Inko and Okisuke gave their friend strange looks and Inaho decided to elaborate further "There's a missile heading this way." The three looked at each other for a second before said missile streaked right passed them and struck the motorcade.

The missile impacted one of the guard vehicles and narrowly missing the limo that the princess was inside of. Unfortunately this wasn't the last attack on the motorcade as more missiles came towards the vehicles. Within seconds most of the motorcade was destroyed save for the vehicle carrying Princess Asseylum. it even looked as though that she was going to make it out alive before one of the remaining missiles hit the pavement right next to the limousine.

The explosion wasn't enough to destroy the limo outright but the sheer force of the impact overturned the car sending it crashing upside down onto the pavement. For a few seconds there was nothing but silence as the crowds who had gathered to see the princess' arrival stood in place, shocked at what had just happened in front of them. But then something amazing happened. One of the doors leading into the back of the limo slowly opened up and a girl in a regal looking outfit and had long blond hair done into a complicated bun crawled out of the wreck.

Once she finished crawling out of the damaged vehicle she pulled herself up, using the wrecked vehicle as support. Unfortunately there was one last missile that was headed straight for the princess. There was absolutely nothing anyone could do as the missile struck its target and exploded destroying both the limo and the visiting royal from Vers.

to be continued.

*I decided to add two new Kataphrakts to the side of the Terrans to add a bit more variety to their forces. Their appearance and capabilities will be revealed sometime during next chapter.