Disclaimer: I honestly don't know why I type this. In the first place everyone ought to know that I don't own the rights to Vandread or I'd be busy making a sequel…or perhaps a prequel. I'm not sure exactly why I'm busy wasting time and space with this pointless deliberation either. Oh well, just showing everyone that I'm…imbalanced, I guess. Or perhaps eccentric. No matter.

Author's Notes: Well, it's been a while, and I apologize to anyone who was impatient for an update (perhaps I'm just flattering myself, though) but I was off on vacation for a VERY long time. Well, without further ado, on with the story…

Chapter 13

Meia grunted briefly as she pulled the torso armor down over her head, settling it as snugly as possible. The fit was good, a bit loose perhaps, but it would do. She carefully fixed the joints and pushed a control on the forearm, sealing it against her body. The last thing she had to put on was the helmet, but she decided to put it on later, to allow others to recognize her more easily. Somewhere behind her, Jura grumbled something under her breath.

"These things are tight."

The blue-haired pilot didn't bother answering, focusing her mind on the task ahead. It seemed simple enough- Renard had said that they wouldn't be in the battle itself and would only be brought into the compound when it was secured. Still, she knew that battle plans had a way of changing very rapidly, and often in a way that the commander didn't like. Well, at least it wasn't her problem.

"Are you ready?"

She looked up to see a bulky figure standing in the doorway of the squad room, his silhouette outlined by the brighter lights streaming in behind him. Jura scowled at the interruption.

"We're changing here."

The heavily armored man's shoulders rose in a brief shrug. "There'd be no problems if you actually changed fast. We've got no time to be waiting for slackers. We need to be in the drop pods before we engage the enemy ship, and that'll be in under two minutes."

Meia glanced back at her two subordinates, seeing Dita only half-dressed and Jura involved in trying to tighten an armor seal that refused to cooperate. She sighed and turned back to the waiting man.

"We'll be done soon."

"You'd better." The outline turned around and strode away, letting the door slide closed behind it.

"Why do all of these mercenaries have to be so impatient? They're either ice-cold like that guy or Renard, or they're brainless jokers like that Varius fellow." Jura threw up her hands in disgust. "Did you know that that brainless technician tried to make a move on me?"

Meia glanced back expressionlessly, making a brief motion to spur the other two women into dressing faster.

"How would you know? Maybe he was only joking. These are different people from you're used to, after all. Besides…he's a man."

"Don't you think I would know?"

"Whatever. Hurry up."

Up on the command deck, everyone was in a frenzy of activity. Coordinators called out the status of various units and equipment while other operators continuously updated intelligence data from their unmanned scouts or projected information on the orbiting enemy craft onto the holo-projector that rose from the center of the bridge. One man turned towards Conrad Kurtz, listening to a voice coming through an earpiece.

"All participating squads report they're ready. The only one that isn't is…Nefzen's squad."

The Old Man nodded.

"Makes sense. That's the squad the pilots are attached to…it's only natural they won't be able to suit up quite as fast."

"Orders, sir?"

"We can delay a little longer, but have Sergeant Nefzen hurry them up."

"I understand he's been trying…"

Kurtz shrugged, a brief smile flitting over his face.

"Women."

Renard Gilchrist, meanwhile, was standing outside his squad's drop pod entrance, frowning at the girl standing in front of him.

"What do you mean, he can't make it?"

"Well, he got pretty sick all of a sudden and now he's crammed in the bathroom. Kroeger says that he can flush his stomach and give him a few drugs, but otherwise he won't be combat-ready."

"This is awfully convenient timing." He glowered at Kyra.

"I know. Just imagine, one of your snipers comes down with stomach trouble just before a major op." She was pretending to have misunderstood his meaning. He folded his arms.

"And just what do you think I should do about this?"

She stiffened her back professionally, staring straight ahead of her like a model soldier.

"Sir! I don't know, sir!"

"Cut the crap." He let her know by his tone that he meant it. She relaxed and gave him a pleading look.

"Look, I know I screwed up the last job, but I can do this one! I'm not even going to be in position to screw anything up here! I'll be miles away from the combat zone carrying a sniper rifle! I don't want to be Mop Girl for life."

He regarded her for a long time, then turned, waving a hand in dismissal.

"Get suited up."

As he reentered the pod, he listened to her footsteps flying off, hoping he hadn't made a mistake.

"Nefzen, what's your status?"

"Not yet ready, commander. Those women couldn't move at the speed of a snail if I set them on fire."

The Stone Soldier shook his head briefly. He'd assigned the pilots of the Nirvana to Sergeant Nefzen's squad for the mission. The big NCO was experienced and would know to take care of his charges instead of running off into the battle, but he wasn't the most patient man in the regiment- far from it, in fact.

"Report when you're ready for launch."

"Of course." The other man's tone indicated he did not need or appreciate the reminder. Renard ignored it, instead glancing down at the rest of his command unit.

This plan is already running into difficulties and we haven't even started yet. What's going to happen when I launch that bunch into a war zone?

The Meranos patrol cruiser was busy doing its regular sensor sweep when one of the crewmen noticed an anomaly.

"Captain! We've got an energy signature closing fast. Readings indicate it's a ship of an unknown design."

"How big is it?"

"Sir…it's as large as a carrier."

"Damn it!"

Meia, Jura, Dita and Hibiki finally appeared at the launch bay, catching the attention of Sergeant Nefzen, the leader of the squad assigned to accompany them. The big man strode over, running a hand through his close-cropped hair while scowling heavily.

"Finally! I was wondering if I had to go back and drag you out." He looked between Hibiki, Jura, and Dita. "How the hell do the three of you expect to get your helmets on?"

All three blinked and looked down at the headgear. It did seem too small to hold their long hair…Jura tried pulling it on and pushing her blonde locks under it, but it was far too thick to fit. Hibiki and Dita met similar results when they tried the same thing. The Valkoris armor was different from the space suits they wore as pirates; the helmet was totally separated from the rest of the armor and locked onto the seals at their throats. There was no way to get long hair in under it.

"Damn it, get over here." The sergeant drew a combat knife from his belt and grabbed a fistful of Jura's hair, dragging her back while she squealed in surprise. Before she could react further, he sliced the wickedly sharp edge through her hair, chopping most of it off. While the pilot goggled wordlessly at him, he strode past and repeated the process on Dita, who was also too stunned to react. When he turned to Hibiki, though, the male pilot scrambled backwards.

"No way! Stay away from me."

He stopped when a hand came in from behind, shoving him into the sergeant. The soldier who'd pushed him grinned at him while Nefzen hacked Hibiki's hair short as well.

"Sorry kid, but you don't have a choice."

The sergeant discarded his handful of Hibiki's black hair and turned back to the three Dread pilots, sheathing his knife again.

"You're late enough as it is! Get in the drop pod!"

Jura stepped forward, her face turning crimson.

"Not so fast, you barbaric-"

"NOW!"

She hopped backwards from the hulking sergeant, then stumbled back another few steps as he shoved her roughly.

"No more back talking! Get in there before I REALLY get angry!"

Dita squeaked and backed away from the frightening visage of the big soldier, then obediently turned and climbed into the pod. Meia followed her in, dragging Hibiki after. The sergeant tossed Jura in as if she were only a sack of grain before climbing in himself. He pressed a switch beside the door and the portal hissed shut. He activated his ear bead.

"This is Nefzen. They're here and we're ready to go."

"Acknowledged, sergeant. You were the only ones we were waiting for."

Meia settled herself into an empty seat, mimicking the other soldiers and yanking a pair straps over herself and securing them. Jura sat on her other side, quite obviously fuming but silent for the moment. Dita was on the opposite wall, fingering her shortened hair while Hibiki tried to adjust the seat straps to accommodate his size beside her. Renard's face blinked onto the pod's single monitor.

"Just checking on you four. Make sure you follow Sergeant Nefzen's instructions all the time, understand? You're not supposed to be involved in the fighting."

Jura sat forward.

"Hey! Cutting my hair wasn't part of the deal! You didn't say anything about hair cutting!"

He looked mystified, then his remaining eye lit up when Nefzen waved a helmet in the background.

"Blame your leader. She's the one who volunteered you."

The blonde glanced at her seatmate, but decided not to say anything when Meia simply looked at her. The Dread leader turned back to the screen.

"So what now?"

"We're going in hard and fast. We'll get in, land boarders on the enemy ship, then begin an orbital drop. Just sit tight until you hit the ground."

"You're going to just charge in at their ship? Isn't that dangerous?"

"Hardly. A patrol ship like that won't have a single weapon that can even scratch our hull. This is a close support ship- our armor's thicker than most capital ships are because it's designed to take the brunt of any enemy fire while landing or boarding other craft. Leave the naval combat to us."

The Meranos patrol ship had standing orders to hold orbit over the planet; the captain couldn't countermand his orders and so was forced to make a stand against a vessel roughly one and a half times as large as his own. True to Renard's word, the lighter craft's small batteries proved totally incapable of even shaking the thick-hulled mercenary transport, allowing their ship to get in close while sustaining very little damage.

At close range, the Valkoris transport's batteries were used to devastating effect in a savage broadside, the ranks of heavy guns and short-ranged torpedo tubes covering the opposing vessel's hull with a storm of explosions with salvoes of unrelenting fire. The first few volleys all but crippled the overmatched scout, leaving it almost helpless as the larger ship carefully maneuvered closer and launched a slew of boarding craft.

At almost the same time, the drop pod launching bays on the transport's opposite side also opened, deploying the first wave of drop pods- unmanned assault platforms.

The attack had begun.