DISCLAIMER: Now time for a piece of completely useless and stupidly obvious information: Japanese people come from Japan! For a real disclaimer, refer to chapters 1-7.

Author's note: Please review! Be warned, though, this is not going to have a happy ending- lots of people are going to die before it's over. One reader already found it too gloomy.

Seravy: Sorry if I made it too confusing. I'll try to stop that.

Chapter 10

Dita, Paiway, and Gascogne were still in the infirmary, brooding over what had happened. Hibiki had gone out for one reason or another, and Gascogne had convinced Dita not to follow. Kroeger was also off in a meeting with the mercenaries' senior staff, leaving Kyra alone with the three women. She was randomly shuffling Gascogne's cards, whistling abstractedly. Paiway watched until she couldn't stand it any longer.

"Hey! Could you stop whistling and acting like nothing's wrong?!"

Kyra blinked at her.

"What's your problem? Jeez, all of you are so uptight…"

"What's my problem?  My home just vanished, and then you're whistling there like nothing's happened! You don't understand what my problem is, because you can't!"

The mercenary's face hardened angrily.

"Don't talk to me like that. Do you know how many soldiers this ship originally carried? The regiment was composed of ten thousand men. Ten thousand! Now guess how many are left, girl. Fifteen hundred, out of those ten thousand. Don't tell me that I don't know what it's like to lose people I care about. At the very least, there's still a chance that your crewmates are still alive. Do you know how to bring people back from the dead?"

The nurse lowered her eyes, unable to meet Kyra's fierce gaze. The volatile mercenary heaved the cards at her, making Paiway flinch as they scattered all over her head.

"Damn it, I don't have to stay cooped up in here with you."

She sprang off the bench and stormed out.

The door to Kurtz's office hissed open and Renard walked in, coming to a halt in front of the commander's desk. Kurtz quietly put a picture frame he'd been holding back into a drawer and closed it gently. The Captain looked at his superior quietly, waiting for him to compose himself. He knew who was in that picture; the Colonel had displayed it proudly before they had been forced to leave Valkoris.

"Sometimes," the Old Man began, "it gets harder to forget."

"Ana never blamed you for your choices in life. She understood you were a soldier. You did raise her as well as you knew how…"

Renard's words prompted a bitter chuckle.

"It was a rude shock, bringing those women onboard- Jura bears more than a slight resemblance to her, in appearance and temperament. I suppose it's the way that whoever runs the universe chose to taunt me."

Renard said nothing more. Ana, Kurtz's granddaughter, had been left behind during the evacuation. The Old Man had raised her ever since both her parents had died in an accident, and from what he'd gleaned from occasional conversations, Ana had been a very spoiled girl. The Stone Soldier assumed that putting her under the same roof as the strict, disciplinarian Kurtz had started a titanic struggle of wills that could have had only one possible outcome. It was not easy getting a psychological edge over a veteran of half a dozen major wars.

The Colonel shook off his memories.

"Enough about that. Thanks for humoring an old man. You need something?"

"Two of the pri-…guests want to talk with you."

"Alright then." The Old Man scowled suspiciously at Renard. "Why didn't you handle them? You've certainly been seizing the initiative quite often these days."

"You are still the leader after all. I disobeyed the last set of orders only because there was a chance of capturing them instead of killing them, and I would prefer taking enemies alive."

Kurtz sighed quietly. "You know I gave those orders for the good of the unit. I just didn't want to risk losing any more men."

"I know. That's why you're still in charge."

That got Renard a raised eyebrow, but the older man couldn't tell whether he was serious or not. He shook his head.

"Alright, send them in then. What's our ETA to the system?"

"Four hours."

Kurtz nodded, and Renard walked out. A moment later, Jura and Meia came in.

"Have a seat. So, ladies, what can I help you with?"

Jura glanced at Meia, who spoke first.

"I know that you're going to go after whoever is behind this."

The Old Man nodded grudgingly.

"Defense Minister Haakon of Meranos. He's got a secondary facility prepped for storage of your stolen craft, and that's where we're going. What's it mean to you?"

Meia seemed reluctant to speak, so Jura took over.

"Since you're going to be there anyway, we need you to help us recover the Dreads and the Nirvana, if it's there."

"That would complicate matters. I'd rather just do things as easily as possible and blow anything I see to rubble."

The two women exchanged glances. Jura licked her lips and leaned forward.

"Listen…you're mercenaries, right? We could probably work out some sort of deal. Magno can pay you for your trouble, and if Tarak and Mejele are made aware of the fact that you could have stopped another invasion, I'm sure that they'll reward you as well…"

She was cut off as the mercenary leader roared with laughter.

"Very good! You may not be half bad at diplomacy…there's only one problem."

Both women leaned forwards slightly. He could easily see the tension in them.

"Surety. After what happened the last time we tried to collect our pay, I'm not inclined to take chances again. So, obviously, we need something as insurance, to make sure you deliver."

Jura relaxed a little.

"If you can recover the Dreads, you can keep them until you get paid."

Meia shot Jura a deadly glare, but the blonde shrugged. Kurtz raised his eyebrows.

"Done, then. I'm pretty sure that those things are very important to you."

Outside, Meia faced off with her sub leader.

"What are you doing? Offering up the Dreads as surety?"

"Relax, Meia- they've got no use for them. None of them can pilot them, so they'd be more than happy to give them up. I think we can trust the old man. It's that other fellow I'm not too sure about…"

She trailed off as she saw Meia looking daggers at her. Jura slowly turned to see Renard standing at the rear wall, watching with polite interest. She groaned inwardly.

"I…I meant the technician guy. Yeah, him. Well… see you!"

She wandered out of sight. The mercenary captain watched her go, before turning back to Meia.

"Is there anything else you need?"

She shook her head and started off, not wanting to rely on any help. She just hoped she remembered the way back. He watched her go, then walked back into the office.

Hibiki was wandering aimlessly, too distracted wondering what had happened to the Nirvana to notice he was hopelessly lost. He came to a halt as someone planted a hand on his shoulder, yanking him back. He glared up, to see Varius the tech glaring right back at him.

"Hey, what the hell are you doing here? You're not supposed to be in the drop bays."

He paused for a minute as a comm.-bead in his ear came to life, relaying a message to him.

"Well, that changes things… so you guys are our employers now, eh? I guess you can stay then."

Hibiki blinked.

"Huh?"

Later, the Vanguard pilot was watching curiously as Varius directed the preparations for the assault the mercenaries were going to unleash when they arrived.

His natural curiosity overcame his worries and he looked at the technician's notepad.

"What are you loading?"

"Eh? You wouldn't understand, kid." Varius reached into his pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. He put one in his mouth, then began to put it away before pausing and offering it to Hibiki. The pilot blinked at it, then cautiously reached inside and pulled one out. The technician lit his own, then lit Hibiki's. The young pilot tried taking a drag, but choked while Varius looked on in amusement.

Hibiki dropped the burning cigarette on the ground and stamped it out. The tech looked back at him.

"Hey, be careful with that, make sure it's totally out. It could ignite the ammo.'

The Vanguard pilot stared at him, boggling. "You SMOKE near ammunition?"

He shrugged in reply.

"So long as you take care, nothing bad happens. Now stay there and keep quiet, I've got work."

"Hey, I understand this stuff! I used to be a tech myself, you know!"

"Really now? Why don't you show me then?"

Hibiki found himself down with the other men, busily operating mechanized cranes and moving cartons to and from the area. Varius stood beside him, keeping up a running commentary.

"That thing is an assault pod. It's an unmanned drop pod used to land before normal troops and blow everything away or at least get their heads down- it's basically a flying gun nest. We use 'em to cover orbital drops."

Hibiki watched the oblong object move past on the crane. The mercenary technician continued talking.

"You can see the configuration by the markings. That one means it's equipped with pulse lasers- scatters a hell of a lot of las shots everywhere when it's deployed."

"That thing coming in now is a mobile shield. Unfolds into cover so tough it can take hits from just about any anti-infantry weapon, while remaining so light around half a dozen men can use it."

"That crate over there is full of Hunter drones. Small, fast, maneuverable, all packing an interior explosive and assorted combat blades. Hard to kill and very damaging. That over there is-"

"Wait a second! What do you need all this stuff for?"

Varius looked at him almost pityingly.

"What do we need it all for? We use it to blow the crap out of anything in the way, that's what we need it for. Never seen a real war before, kid? You will soon."